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# From mesoscopic magnetism to the anomalous 0.7 conductance plateau

## Abstract

We present a simple phenomenological model which offers a unifying interpretation of the experimental observations on the 0.7 conductance anomaly of quantum point contacts. The model utilizes the Landauer-Büttiker formalism and involves enhanced spin correlations and thermal depopulation of spin subbands. In particular our model can account for the plateau value 0.7 and the unusual temperature and magnetic field dependence. Furthermore it predicts an anomalous suppression of shot noise at the 0.7 plateau.

It has been known and well understood since 1988 that the dc-conductance $`G`$ of narrow quantum point contacts and quantum wires (both referred to as QPCs below) is quantized in units of $`G_2=2e^2/h`$. During the past five years an increasing part of the experimental and theoretical work on QPCs has been devoted to studies of deviations from this integer quantization. In particular the discovery of the 0.7 conductance anomaly in 1996 posed one of the most intriguing and challenging puzzles in the field. This anomaly is a narrow plateau, or in some cases just a plateau-like feature appearing in scans of $`G`$ versus gate voltage $`V_g`$ at a value of $`G`$ which is reduced by a factor 0.7 relative to the ideal value $`G_2`$. The 0.7 conductance anomaly has been recorded in in numerous QPC transport experiments (even before it was noted in 1996, see e.g. Ref. ) involving many different materials, geometries and measurement techniques. It can therefore be regarded as a universal effect.

Due to its universal character and the absence of a theoretical understanding the 0.7 anomaly has been subject to intensive experimental studies. In this paper we show that many of the experimental findings can in fact be consistently interpreted by invoking a model of enhanced spin correlations, both spatially and temporally, of the charge carriers in the QPC interaction. Due to the low density the exchange interaction between electrons in the QPC is strong and hence there is a tendency to lign up the electron spins there. Based on this physical picture, we formulate a simple phenomenological model of tendency to form partially polarized states, which together with the Landauer-Büttiker (LB) formalism naturally explains many experimental features of the 0.7 anomaly.

At this point it is important to mention that under very general conditions truly 1d systems cannot exhibit ferromagnetic ordering at all. Therefore we emphasize that the model we are presenting does not rely on having a static magnetic moment, but only of having a dynamical mesoscopic polarization, where the correlation length is longer than the size of the QPC, and where the correlation time is longer than the passage time through the constriction.

Summary of experimental facts. Although the 0.7 anomaly has been observed in many other experiments we refer mainly to the work of the Cambridge group  and the Copenhagen group  presenting detailed studies of the magnetic field and temperature dependence of the anomaly. We emphasize that we are not dealing with the overall suppression of the conductance plateaus which has been seen in some samples, and which has been attributed to effects exterior to the contact region.

The main experimental features of the 0.7 anomaly are:

(e1) The anomalous plateau is observed in a large variety of QPCs at a value $`G=\gamma G_2`$, where the suppression factor $`\gamma `$ is close to 0.7 . A typical semiconductor QPC has a width less than 0.1 $`\mu `$m and a length in the range 0.1 to 10 $`\mu `$m.

(e2) The temperature dependence is qualitatively the same for all samples: the anomalous plateau is fully developed in some (device dependent) temperature range typically above 2 K. With increasing temperature both the anomalous and the integer plateaus vanish by thermal smearing, while with decreasing temperature the width of the anomalous plateau shrinks and the value of the suppression factor $`\gamma `$ approaches 1 .

(e3) A detailed study of the temperature dependence of $`\gamma `$ in QPCs with a particularly large subband separation shows that in the low temperature regime the conductance suppression has an activated behavior: $`1\gamma (T)\mathrm{exp}(T_a/T)`$ .

(e4) The activation temperature $`T_a`$ is a function of $`V_g`$ vanishing at some critical gate voltage $`V_g^0`$. Close to $`V_g^0`$ the dependence of $`T_a`$ on $`V_g`$ is well approximated by a power law, $`T_a(V_gV_g^0)^\alpha `$, with $`\alpha 2`$.

(e5) At a fixed temperature corresponding to a well developed 0.7 plateau, $`\gamma `$ shows a strong dependence on an in-plane magnetic field. With increasing magnetic field $`\gamma `$ smoothly decreases from 0.7 at $`B=0`$ T to 0.5 at $`B=13`$ T. The latter value corresponds to the expected LB conductance of one spin split subband.

(e6) Under the same temperature conditions as in (e5) the 0.7 anomaly depends on the source-drain bias. The suppression factor $`\gamma `$ increases smoothly from $`0.7`$ at zero bias to $`0.9`$ at large bias ($`2`$ mV) .

Alternative explanations for the 0.7 anomaly. First we can rule out impurity backscattering for two reasons (1) it would lead to a non-universal suppression of conductance with a strong sample dependent dependence on $`V_g`$ and (2) the temperature dependence expected from thermal smearing of the LB conductance is found to be much weaker than the observed dependence of the 0.7 anomaly . Thus a single particle picture cannot explain the effect. With inclusion of electron-electron interactions, a strong temperature dependence of conductance suppression has been shown to arise due to an interaction induced renormalization of backscattering, but the temperature dependence is opposite to the observed one. We also note that in the framework of Luttinger liquid theory interaction effects alone has no effect on the dc-conductance. Mechanism based on activated backscattering, has also been suggested, but like for the impurity backscattering suggestion, such a model cannot possibly offer an explanation neither for the existence of the plateau nor for its value.

Already in the first paper it was pointed out that due to its magnetic field dependence the 0.7 anomaly is related to spin polarization. This idea has been elaborated on in theoretical papers, however, none of these approaches have explained all of the experimental facts, and most strikingly they predict plateaus at $`G=G_2`$ or $`0.5G_2`$ instead of as the observed $`0.7G_2`$.

The phenomenological model. In our model we assume that the transmission coefficient of electrons can be calculated in a “frozen” configuration of spin in the mesoscopic constriction. The dynamics of collective degrees of freedom describing fluctuations of spin, are assumed to happen on larger time-scales. Also the distribution of spin is assumed to be smooth such that an adiabatic approximation is valid. In the “frozen spin configuration” the transmission coefficient $`𝒯_\sigma ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ for a spin-$`\sigma `$ electron going through the QPC can thus be calculated as $`𝒯_\sigma ^{\mathrm{tot}}=𝒯_\sigma (E)P_\sigma +𝒯_{\overline{\sigma }}(E)P_{\overline{\sigma }}`$. Here $`P_\sigma `$ ($`P_{\overline{\sigma }}`$) is the probability of finding the incoming spin parallel (antiparallel) to the instantaneous polarization. In the isotropic case with $`P_\sigma =P_{\overline{\sigma }}`$ this leads to the same results as a static situation where two spin subbands are formed as shown in Fig. 1a, and therefore for simplicity we adopt this picture in the following modeling. Let the energy dispersion laws be given as

$$\epsilon _\sigma (k)=\epsilon _\sigma ^0(k)+\epsilon _\sigma ^s,\sigma =,,$$
(1)
where $`\epsilon _\sigma ^0(k)0`$ for $`k0`$ and $`\epsilon _\sigma ^s`$ is the subband edge. The system is partially polarized if the chemical potential $`\mu `$ and the subband edges satisfy $`\epsilon _{}^s(\mu )<\epsilon _{}^s(\mu )<\mu `$, where we have explicitly indicated the $`\mu `$-dependence of the subband edges. Given this model, at finite temperature $`T`$ using an idealized step-function transmission coefficient the LB conductance $`G(T)`$ of this system is

$$G(T)=\frac{1}{2}G_2\underset{\sigma =,}{}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\epsilon \mathrm{\Theta }(\epsilon \epsilon _\sigma ^s)f^{}[\epsilon \mu ],$$
(2)
where $`f^{}`$ is the derivative of the Fermi-Dirac distribution $`f[x]=[\mathrm{exp}(x/k_BT)+1]^1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Theta }(x)`$ is the step function. By integration we obtain

$$G(T)=\frac{1}{2}G_2(f[\epsilon _{}^s(\mu )\mu ]+f[\epsilon _{}^s(\mu )\mu ]).$$
(3)
The important parameter is the spin down Fermi energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }(\mu )`$ given by the energy difference between $`\mu `$ and the minority spin subband edge (see Fig. 1):

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(\mu )=\mu \epsilon _{}^s(\mu ).$$
(4)
Consider now the situation where the spin polarization is nearly complete, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Delta }(\mu )\epsilon _{}^s(\mu )\epsilon _{}^s(\mu )`$. In this case three distinct temperature regimes exist. In the high temperature regime, $`k_BT\epsilon _{}^s(\mu )\epsilon _{}^s(\mu )`$, both terms in Eq. (3) are 0.5 so that $`G=0.5G_2`$. At low temperatures, $`k_BT\mathrm{\Delta }(\mu )`$, both terms in Eq. (3) are 1 and the conductance is the usual $`G_2`$. Remarkably, in the entire temperature range

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(\mu )k_BT\epsilon _{}^s(\mu )\epsilon _{}^s(\mu ),$$
(5)
the contribution of the first term is 0.5 while the second term remains 1 yielding $`G=0.75G_2`$, and the magic number $`0.7`$ emerges. Thus a 0.7 quasi-plateau appears if the condition (5) is fulfilled for a sufficiently broad range of $`\mu `$ (in experiments $`\mu V_g`$). In fact, below we argue that it follows from general considerations that the functional form of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(\mu )`$, also shown in Fig. 1(b), is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(\mu )=\{\begin{array}{cc}C(\mu \mu _c)^2,\hfill & \mathrm{for}\mu >\mu _c\hfill \\ D(\mu \mu _c),\hfill & \mathrm{for}\mu <\mu _c\hfill \end{array}$$
(6)
which exactly expresses the tendency for $`\epsilon _{}^b(\mu )`$ to lock onto the value of $`\mu `$ by keeping $`\mathrm{\Delta }(\mu )`$ small. We derive Eq. (6) starting from a local spin density functional: $`F=E[n_{},n_{}]\mu (n_{}+n_{})`$. (We neglect non-conservation of spin due to surface terms.) In the spirit of the Landau theory of critical phenomena we minimize this functional in the vicinity of the “critical” point $`\mu _c`$, where the cross-over from full to partial polarization occurs. Near this point we have $`n_{}n_{}`$ and the condition for the minimum of the free energy becomes

$$\begin{array}{ccccc}\frac{F}{n_{}}\hfill & =& \alpha +\alpha ^{}\delta n_{}+\gamma n_{}\mu \hfill & =& 0\hfill \\ \frac{F}{n_{}}\hfill & =& \beta +\beta ^{}n_{}+\gamma \delta n_{}\mu \hfill & =& 0,\hfill \end{array}$$
(7)
where we have made the linearization $`n_{}=n_{}^0+\delta n_{}`$ for the majority spins and assumed that the leading terms are linear in $`\delta n_{}`$ and $`n_{}`$. The solution for the minority spin density in the case of $`\mu >\mu _c`$ is $`n_{}(\mu \mu _c)`$ which combined with the 1d property that $`n_{}^2\epsilon _F^{}=\mathrm{\Delta }`$ leads to Eq. (6). In the other case, $`\mu <\mu _c`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the energy gap for adding a minority spin and it is caused by the interaction energy. Thus again within the same simplified approach, we expect $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ to be proportional to the density of majority spins, and hence $`\mathrm{\Delta }=D(\mu \mu _c)`$.

An in-plane magnetic field B is readily taken into account by adding Zeeman energy terms and substituting

$$\epsilon _{}^s\epsilon _{}^sg\mu _B|𝐁|,\epsilon _{}^s\epsilon _{}^s+g\mu _B|𝐁|.$$
(8)
Experimental implications of the model. In the following we discuss how the model can explain the experimental observations (e1)-(e6) summarized above. To facilitate comparison with experiment we have added a spin-degenerate subband with $`\epsilon _2^s=\epsilon _{}^s+E`$, where $`E`$ is a constant transverse-mode subband-spacing. In Fig. 2 observations (e1) and (e2) are clearly seen in the model calculation. The plateau-like feature in the figure is due to the specific functional form of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(\mu )`$ in Eq. (6) which as mentioned before ensures the fulfilment of condition Eq. (5). In this idealized case with a step-function transmission coefficient the plateau appears at $`0.75`$ as discussed above.

Observation (e3) follows trivially from Eq. (2) with the activation temperature $`T_a=\mathrm{\Delta }(\mu )`$. Assuming that in the vicinity of $`\mu _c`$ the chemical potential depends linearly on the gate voltage $`V_g`$ Eq. (6) immediately predicts (e4) with the exponent $`\alpha =2`$. We now turn to the characteristic magnetic field dependence (e5) of the 0.7 plateau at a fixed temperature. The result of the model calculation using Eqs. (3), (6) and (8) is shown in Fig. 3. In accordance with observation the 0.7 anomaly develops smoothly into an ordinary Zeeman split 0.5 plateau. The last experimental observation (e6) concerns finite bias. This brings us into a strong non-equilibrium situation which is outside the scope of the present work. However, considering a small finite bias not too far from the equilibrium case, we do find that the 0.75 plateau rises, which gives additional support for the picture presented here.

Non-ideal transmission. Our idealized model with a step-function transmission coefficient predicts an anomaly around 0.75 rather than around 0.6 - 0.7 as usually observed in the experiments (see Figs. 2 and 3). When we include more realistic transmission coefficients, $`𝒯_\sigma (\epsilon )`$, allowing for resonances to occur this discrepancy in fact finds a natural explanation. In accordance with the LB formalism we replace Eq. (2) by

$$G(T)=\frac{1}{2}G_2\underset{\sigma =,}{}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\epsilon 𝒯_\sigma (\epsilon )f^{}[\epsilon \mu ].$$
(9)
In contrast to the idealized model this expression is not universal, but two general features can be expected. First of all, due to the conditions Eqs. (5) and (6) the quasi-plateau persists. Secondly, mainly the transmission coefficient of minority spin band will be affected which results in a suppression of the anomalous plateau while the integer plateau remains close to 1. In Fig. 4 this is illustrated by using the transmission coefficient for a rectangular potential barrier. This choice of $`𝒯_\sigma (\epsilon )`$ might be particularly relevant to the recent experiments on long quantum wires.

Suppression of shot noise. Deeper insight in the nature of the 0.7 anomaly may be obtained from shot noise measurements. Below we contrast the standard LB treatment  with our model. In the standard spin degenerate case the conductance is interpreted in terms of an overall reduction of the transmission coefficient $`𝒯_0`$ and the noise spectrum at the 0.7 anomaly is

$$I_\omega I_\omega _{\omega 0}=e(1𝒯_0)I=G_2𝒯_0(1𝒯_0)\mathrm{\Delta }\mu $$
(10)
with $`𝒯_0=0.7`$. In our model the 0.7 anomaly comes from thermal depopulation of spin subbands and not from a reduced transmission, and the noise spectrum is

$$I_\omega I_\omega _{\omega 0}=\frac{1}{2}G_2[(1𝒯_{})𝒯_{}+(1𝒯_{})𝒯_{}]\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ,$$
(11)
which in the simple version with $`𝒯_\sigma (\epsilon )=\mathrm{\Theta }(\epsilon \epsilon _\sigma ^s)`$ leads to a vanishing shot noise. When non-ideal transmission is included, our model does not predict a universal noise contribution for the minority spins. We can, however, see that while the 0.7 quasi-plateau may be strongly reduced by additional backscattering ($`𝒯_{}1`$), the transmission in the majority spin subband remains large ($`𝒯_{}1`$), and Eq. (11) yields

$$I_\omega I_\omega _{\omega 0}G_2𝒯_0(1𝒯_0)\mathrm{\Delta }\mu .$$
(12)
Thus in general our model predicts a strong suppression of shot noise as compared to the standard result Eq. (10). This effect may already have been observed (see Fig. 3 in Ref. ).

In summary, we have presented a phenomenological model which can account for the experimental observations of the anomalous 0.7 conductance plateau in mesoscopic QPCs. The model is built on an assumption of an effective instantaneous partial polarization seen by the transversing electrons, while the ground state itself needs not have a finite magnetic moment. We hope that the present picture can inspire future work on microscopic theories of enhanced spin correlations in open mesoscopic systems.

Acknowledgements. We are grateful for the experimental data provided by Anders Kristensen and James Nicholls. H.B. and V.V.C. both acknowledge support from the Danish Natural Science Research Council through Ole Rømer Grant No. 9600548.


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# Optically dim counterparts of hard X-ray selected AGNsBased on observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) operated on the island of La Palma by the Centro Galileo Galilei of the CNAA (Consorzio Nazionale per l’Astronomia e l’Astrofisica) at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias.

## 1 Introduction

X-ray background (XRB) synthesis models ascribe most of the high energy flux to radio quiet, absorbed Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) at intermediate and high redshifts (e.g. Comastri et al. 1995, Gilli et al. 1999, Pompilio et al. 2000). Observationally the available information on AGNs at these redshifts refers mostly to unabsorbed nuclei, since the current samples of radio quiet AGNs have been selected mostly with color techniques, or in the soft X rays. Only recently have selection criteria less sensitive to absorption been used. Examples are the radio quiet red QSOs (Kim & Elvis 1999), analogous to the ones already found in radio loud samples (eg. Webster et al. 1995), and the spectroscopic identifications in the ELAIS field (Rowan–Robinson et al. 1999). Yet, most of our knowledge about absorbed, radio quiet AGNs is limited to low redshifts and low luminosities, where spectroscopic surveys of bright galaxies have been performed.

The High Energy LLarge Area Survey \[HELLAS, Comastri et al. 2000, Fiore et al. 2000 (paper II)\] aims at providing a useful sample of hard X-ray selected (5–10 keV), optically identified AGNs while waiting for the Chandra and XMM results. The survey instrument is the BeppoSAX MECS. The sky coverage is 1–50 square degrees at $`F_{510keV}=`$ 5–30 $`\times 10^{14}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$, respectively, and is 84 deg2 at fluxes higher than $`9\times 10^{13}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$. The cataloged sources amount to 147, and at the fainter limit the source density is $`16.9\pm 6.4`$ deg-2, implying that about 20–30% of the XRB at these energies has been resolved. A program of optical identification is underway, which includes optical/near-IR broad band photometry and near-IR imaging, beside optical spectroscopy of all candidates down to R = 20. So far, 63 optical counterparts have been identified, in about two thirds of the examined errorboxes. About half of the spectra are typical of QSOs, with a blue continuum and broad lines, about half are of intermediate type (1.8–1.9), generally with red continua, and a few of them contain only narrow lines \[Fiore et al. 1999 (paper I), La Franca et al. 2000 (paper III)\].

In this paper we present and discuss preliminary results of the near-IR photometry and imaging observations of the spectroscopically identified counterparts. Combined with the optical information presented in papers I and III these data give a broad-band view of the properties of the HELLAS sources and allow a preliminary census of the hard XRB contributors.

## 2 The observations

Most of the near-IR images were obtained with the ARNICA camera (Lisi et al. 1996) at the Italian National Telescope Galileo (TNG). Only one (#2) out of a total of 10 objects was observed with NIRC (Matthews & Soifer 1994) at Keck I. We observed these 10 objects at K-short ($`2.16\mu `$m) and 8 of them at J ($`1.25\mu `$m). Tab. 1 gives the observation log along with the limiting magnitudes reached in the exposures. The items are sorted according to the B–R color, which is a measure of the AGN dominance, as will be discussed in the following. The first column gives an identification number that, for sake of clarity, will be used in place of the full SAX name reported in column 2. Objects #1 and #4 are actually two QSOs that have been identified within the same errorbox of one of the HELLAS sources (paper I).

The observations were performed by mosaicing the field every minute, with offsets of 10-20′′ around the source, both to sample the background and to minimize the effects of artifacts in the array. The data reduction pipeline was similar to that described in Hunt et al. (1994). Each image was divided by a differential flat field made out of sky twilight images. Images of each mosaic were aligned by means of field stars and, then, coadded with a sigma clipping rejection to exclude hot and dead temporary pixels, not accounted for by the bad pixel mask.

In this paper we also take advantage of the optical spectra used to identify the sources (papers I and III). In particular we will use the information on the continuum shape and the equivalent width of the broad lines. Optical photometry of these objects was taken from various sources: Palomar sky survey, UKST sky survey and some new observations obtained at various telescopes in connection with the spectroscopic program. Each of these optical data set was obtained with slightly different filters, however we homogenized the data to the Johnson system by normalizing the observed spectra to the observed photometric points and then resampling in the Johnson bands.

## 3 Results and discussion

Tab. 2 gives the main results of our near-IR observations. Columns 2 to 4 give the X-ray properties, while columns 5 and 6 give properties inferred from the optical spectra and, in particular, spectral classification and redshift. Our subsample of HELLAS sources was not selected with a specific criterion, it consists of all the early HELLAS identifications known and accessible at the time of the observations. This subsample includes intermediate type (1.9) AGNs, “classical” broad line QSOs with blue continuum, “red” broad line QSOs, characterized by a red underlying continuum, and one LINER, i.e. all the HELLAS identified types. Our sample also covers the whole range of redshift of the parent sample. Thus, even if it is not statistically solid because of the small size, it still contains information on the general properties of the HELLAS sources. Column 10 gives the full-width at half-maximum of the near-IR image measured along the major axis. The source is labelled as resolved/extended in column 9 if it is at least two times wider than the seeing.

Narrow line AGNs, intermediate type AGNs and red QSOs all show extended emission indicative of a significant (near-IR) contribution of the host galaxy. Furthermore, the B–K colors are not clustered around the value of $`2`$, typical of color–selected QSOs at high redshift, but extend to very red values up to B–K$``$6, in analogy with the radio selected AGNs (Webster et al. 1995). Therefore, our red AGNs can be considered the radio quiet counterpart of those found in the radio surveys. Instead, all and only blue QSOs are unresolved; as we shall see, this is a consequence of the dominance of the AGN component and, possibly, of their higher redshift. These findings are summarized in Fig. 1, where we plot R–K versus B–R and where point-like and extended sources are marked with circles and squares respectively. The solid oblique line is the locus of a single powerlaw, and the big cross marks the point where a powerlaw would give B–K = 2.1. The dotted line is the reddening curve for a QSO spectrum111We used the standard Galactic extinction curve and a QSO template derived from a combination of the average spectra given in Elvis et al. (1994) and Francis et al. (1991). at $`z=0.26`$ (the average of the three reddest objects, #8, #9, and #10), starting from AV=0.5 for sake of clarity. The star gives the colors of an old stellar population222The galaxy templates were taken from Bruzual & Charlot (1993), with solar abundances and a Salpeter IMF., again at $`z=0.26`$. The dashed line gives mixed QSO-galaxy contribution models in steps of 10% relative contribution (black dots) to the rest-frame V band, down to a minimum galactic contribution of 50%. We see that even the blue QSOs are redder than usual, and the sources with bent, non–powerlaw spectra are all and only those with extended images. Also, a QSO template cannot explain all our data, irrespective of the amount of reddening. Instead, the reddest objects have colors similar to those expected from an evolved stellar population.

As an additional check, we compared the observed optical to near-IR photometry and optical spectra of each single object with those expected from (reddened) QSOs and from evolved stellar populations. An example of this method for a specific object is given in Vignali et al. (2000). The combination of the (reddened) AGN and of the galactic component should give an acceptable fit of the observed photometric points. We also request that the model matches the shape of the observed optical spectrum (paper III) with a maximum tolerance of about 30% (to allow for uncertainties introduced by the non-parallactic angle of the slit). Finally we also tried to fit the equivalent width of the observed broad hydrogen lines, or to meet their upper limits, within a factor of two (given the EW spread observed in optical samples of QSOs). QSO and stellar population templates are the same as for Fig. 1 (notes 1 and 2). The free parameters of the model are the reddening of the QSO, the age of the stellar population and the relative contribution of these two components.

Fig. 2 shows examples of our spectral fits. They refer to three representative sources, i.e. the bluest QSO (#1), a “transition” source (#6), located around the bend in Fig. 1, and the reddest object of our sample (#10). The thin solid line in the upper panels is the best fit QSO+galaxy model, the two thick lines indicate the shape (and spread) of the line-free continuum observed in the optical spectra, while points with errorbars are the photometric fluxes normalized to R. One sees clearly the 4000 Å break in the red, spatially resolved sources, with a discernible progression from the “transition” sources to the very red ones. Along the progression, the B–R color increases from $``$1 to $``$2.8 and the preferred age for the model population increases from 109 to 1010 years. The fractional contribution of the reddened AGN (to the rest frame V-band) decreases from 100% in the bluest objects to a few percent in the red ones. Although the small contribution from a reddened AGN is required even in the reddest objects, this cannot dominate their red colors. This is clearly shown by the dotted lines in the lower panels of Fig. 2, which give the best fit to the photometric points using only a (reddened) QSO template: either the continuum shape or the photometric points, or both, are poorly fitted. The best model fitting to the photometry and spectral shape is in perfect agreement with the imaging results, in the sense that the contribution of the host galaxy is dominant in those sources which appear extended. Finally, it is interesting to note that the best fitting stellar populations are generally old/evolved. However, one should bear in mind that in certain cases different models such as a reddened 109 year old population or a reddened continuous burst provide also an acceptable fit to the data, indicating some degree of degeneracy.

Red, absorbed AGNs are about half of the identified sources in the HELLAS sample, which in turn are about two thirds of the examined errorboxes. The fraction of these obscured AGNs is expected to increase significantly at fainter X-ray fluxes, where the remaining 70–80% of the hard X-ray background is produced (eg. Gilli et al. 1999). As a consequence, our result suggests that a large fraction of the hard XRB contributors have optical/near-IR counterparts which appear as “normal” galaxies (possibly with narrow AGN–like emission lines). A population of red AGNs similar to that analyzed in this paper but at z$`>`$1 would probably remain undetected at R=20. These might be the counterparts of the HELLAS sources for which no optical identification was found.

Ours are among the first red QSOs selected in hard X-rays, while previous samples have been selected in the radio (e.g. Webster et al. 1995) or in the soft X-rays (Kim & Elvis 1999). The prevalent interpretation in the latter cases is that the continuum of the red QSOs comes from the QSOs themselves, seen through an appropriate amount of reddening material (eg. Masci et al. 1998, Kim & Elvis 1999). In the case of our objects most of the continuum is instead due to the host galaxy, and absorption is needed only to make the galaxy’s the dominant contribution. Both Figs. 1 and 2 show that the reddened QSOs interpretation is untenable, since reddened QSO models fail to fit colors and spectral shapes. Also, all of them have extended IR images. The discrepancy with Masci et al. (1998) and Kim & Elvis’ (1999) results is probably to ascribe to the tendency of their selection criteria to find QSO that are on average less absorbed than ours (hence the QSO, although reddened, still dominates over the galaxy): Kim & Elvis select their red QSOs among bright soft X-ray sources, while Masci et al. select flat-spectrum radio sources that, according to the unified model, should be preferentially seen pole-on. Other studies, which use selection criteria less sensitive to absorption, as in our case, find red QSOs whose continuum is dominated by their host galaxies, in agreement with what found by us. Among these studies, Benn et al. (1998) find host galaxy-dominated red QSOs in radio sources which have steep radio spectra (hence preferentially edge-on according to the unified model). Hasinger et al. (1999) and Lehmann et al. (2000) find several red-AGNs among faint ROSAT sources whose red colors are ascribed to the contribution from their hosts; in some of these sources the redshift moves the rest frame hard-X band into the soft band, while in low-z objects the depth of the X-ray observation could detect the soft excess of obscured systems. Finally, Kruper & Canizares (1989) also found a large fraction of red-AGNs that are probably dominated by their host galaxies by selecting sources at X-ray energies (0.5–4.5 keV) higher than ROSAT. Our finding on red QSOs is in line with the results of Benn et al. (1998), Lehmann et al. (2000) and Kruper & Canizares (1989),

## 4 Conclusions

We presented new near-IR (J and Ks band) observations of a sample of 10 objects selected in the hard X-rays (5–10 keV). These sources were discovered in a large survey (HELLAS) performed by the BeppoSAX satellite, which resolves $`2030`$% of the hard X-ray background. The sample includes 4 blue broad line QSOs and 6 AGNs with redder continua whose optical emission line spectra range from broad line objects (red QSOs), to intermediate type 1.9 AGNs, to LINER.

The B–K color ranges from the standard value of $`2`$ (typical of U–B color selected QSOs) up to $``$6, similar to the color of red QSOs found in radio surveys.

The red AGNs show extended near-IR images. Model fitting of the photometry and spectral data shows that all and only the red AGNs are dominated by the emission of the host galaxy (with an age of 109–1010 yr). Red AGNs amount to about a third of the total HELLAS sources, and their fraction is expected to increase significantly at fainter X-ray fluxes, where most of the hard X-ray background is produced. Therefore, our result suggests that a significant fraction of the counterparts of the sources making the hard X-ray background appear as “normal” galaxies at optical and near-IR wavelengths. Chandra and XMM are expected to discover a large number of this class of objects.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the TNG staff and C. Baffa for technical assistance during the observations. We are grateful to P. Giommi, G. Matt, S. Molendi and G.C. Perola, who are involved in the HELLAS project. This work was partially supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) through the grant ARS-99-75 and by the Italian Ministry for University and Research (MURST) through the grant Cofin-98-02-32.


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# Acoustics of early universe. — Flat versus open universe models

## 1 Introduction

Discovering the wave nature of scalar perturbations in the early universe has a long history. Watchful reader of Harrison’s classical paper  can guess the wave equations out of formulae given there (Section 5.5). Trigonometric or Bessel solutions together with $`\omega \eta `$-dependence characteristic for flat perturbed universes appear in both classical  and gauge-invariant theories . In the case of flat universe the gauge-specific wave equations are explicitly given by Sachs and Wolfe ( see theorem pp. 76–77). The comprehensive phonon description of perturbations in the flat radiation-filled universe, together with the attempt to quantize them, has been formulated by Lukash  and continued in its quantum aspect by others . The wave character is confirmed  in the original Lifshitz-Khalatnikov  formalism. Acoustic motions of the baryon-electron system after recombination have been noticed by Yamamoto at al. . Some parallels between scalar perturbation dynamics and gravitational waves can be found in .

Controversies, however arise over the gravitational instability criteria, the gauge problems and the role of the space curvature.

(1) In the $`\eta 0`$ limit one can formally construct the growing and decaying solutions. Since these solutions are typically considered as the large scale approximation ($`\omega 0`$) the structure formation is expected in scales greater than the sound horizon. Consequently the Jeans criterion is understood as the dispersion relation dividing perturbations into two classes: acoustic waves and gravitationally bound structures. No dispersion relations like that can be inferred from the exact solutions -, .

(2) As long as the results depend on the coordinate system (the gauge-specific solutions  differ one from another) their physical meaning is a subject of dispute. Acoustic field deserves complete gauge-invariant treatment.

(3) The problem of acoustic field does not seem to be solved properly in open universes, where most authors traditionally employ the flat space Fourier analysis, instead of Fourier expansions in the Lobachevski space.

In attempt to clear those points, we propose a simple perturbation description, which is unique for all signs of curvature, and based on the gauge-invariant perturbation formalisms (Sakai , Bardeen , Kodama and Sasaki , Lyth and Mukherjee , Padmanabhan , Brandenberger, Kahn and Press , Ellis, Bruni and Hwang , Olson , see also ).

Section 2 contains a brief recipe of how to reduce equations obtained in these theories to a single, second order partial differential equation (3). Differences between the formalisms occur to be of no importance here, and we obtain exactly the same propagation equation for all of them. We show how to transform this equation to the wave equation in its normal form.

We obtain a general, “profile-independent” solution for the flat universe (Section 3), without appealing to the Fourier transform. We demonstrate that the gauge-invariant density perturbation propagate in radiation-dominated universe in the same way as electromagnetic or gravitational waves propagate in the epoch of the matter domination. Eventually, we expand perturbations into planar waves, in order to discuss some basic features of the spectrum and the spectrum transfer function.

In section 4 we describe the sound propagation in open universes. We analyse the dispersive role of the curvature. The space curvature prevents perturbations of frequencies smaller than some critical $`\omega _\mathrm{c}`$ from propagating in space, and systematically reduces the group velocity for others, when $`\omega `$ goes down to $`\omega _\mathrm{c}`$.

Section 5 is devoted to Gaussian acoustic fields. We derive the spectrum transfer function in the form suitable to estimate the role of the space curvature in the microwave background.

## 2 Scalar perturbations in the early universe

In the universe filled with highly relativistic matter the energy momentum tensor is trace-free. The dynamics of the scale factor $`a(\eta )`$ expressed as a function of the conformal time $`\eta `$ is governed by

$$T_\mu ^\mu =\frac{6}{a^3(\eta )}\left(a^{\prime \prime }(\eta )+Ka(\eta )\right)=0$$
(1)
and yields

$$a(\eta )=\sqrt{\frac{}{3}}\frac{\mathrm{sin}\left(\sqrt{K}\eta \right)}{\sqrt{K}}.$$
(2)
We treat the curvature index $`K`$ as continuous quantity and keep $`K`$ explicitly in both the equations and solution, as far as possible. Traditional formulae can be recovered by setting $`K=\pm 1`$ or by the limit procedure $`K0`$. Normalization $`\sqrt{/3}`$ recalls the constant of motion $`=\rho (\eta )a^4(\eta )`$.

The perturbation equation expressed in the orthogonal gauge111or the gauge-invariant differential measures of inhomogeneity  and parameterized by the conformal time222In the orthogonal gauge the conformal time is defined as the integral $`\eta =\frac{1}{a(t)}dt`$, where time $`t`$ means the orthogonal time — the time parameter constant on orthogonal hypersurfaces. $`\eta `$ takes the canonical form (free of first derivatives)

$$\frac{^2}{\eta ^2}X(\eta ,𝐱)\frac{2}{3a^2(\eta )}X(\eta ,𝐱)\frac{1}{3}{}_{}{}^{(3)}\mathrm{\Delta }X(\eta ,𝐱)=0$$
(3)
where $`{}_{}{}^{(3)}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ denotes the Laplace-Beltrami operator acting on orthogonal hypersurfaces.

Equation (3) can be easily derived from the Raychaudhuri and the continuity equations (see the procedure in  or ). It also can be recovered from the Sakai equation  (formula (5.1), $`KX`$), the equation for density perturbations in orthogonal gauge (Bardeen’s  formula (4.9), $`\rho _\mathrm{m}X`$, Kodama and Sasaki  chap. IV, formula (1.5), $`\mathrm{\Delta }X`$, Lyth and Mukherjee  formulae (16–17), $`\delta X`$, Padmanabhan  Eq. (4.88), $`\delta X`$), the equation for gauge invariant metric potentials (Brandenberger, Kahn and Press  formula (3.35), $`\mathrm{\Phi }_H/\rho a^2X`$), the equation for gauge invariant density gradients (Ellis, Bruni and Hwang  formula (38), $`𝒟X`$) or Laplacians (Olson  formulae (8–9), as well as its extension to open universes  formula (22)) after transforming these equations to conformal time (if parameterized differently) and employing the Helmholtz equation to restore partial form of the perturbation equation. Suitable changes of the variable names as indicated above ($`\text{original}X`$) are necessary.

We introduce a new perturbation variable $`\widehat{X}`$

$$\widehat{X}(\eta ,𝐱)=\frac{1}{a(\eta )}\frac{}{\eta }(a(\eta )X(\eta ,𝐱)).$$
(4)
While $`X(\eta ,𝐱)`$ satisfies (3) and $`a(\eta )`$ is given by (2) the perturbation variable $`\widehat{X}`$ obey the wave equation in its normal form

$$\frac{^2}{\eta ^2}\widehat{X}(\eta ,𝐱)\frac{1}{3}{}_{}{}^{(3)}\mathrm{\Delta }\widehat{X}(\eta ,𝐱)=0.$$
(5)
The time derivatives of the gauge-invariant inhomogeneity measures also form gauge-invariant variables. In this sense variable $`\widehat{X}`$ is equally good as $`X`$. However, time derivatives may be difficult to observe at the last scattering surface, and hardly represent physically meaningful aspects of the cosmic structure. The equation (5) plays only an auxiliary role, nevertheless is very useful. Formally, it describes the wave (massless field) propagating in the static space-time of constant space-curvature. The specific case of positive curvature (Einstein static universe) has been considered  in the context of quantum field theory on curved background. In our case spaces of zero or negative curvature are of particular importance. We will discuss both cases individually.

## 3 Sound waves on the flat background

When the space curvature vanishes the equation (3) reads as

$$\frac{^2}{\eta ^2}X(\eta ,𝐱)\frac{2}{\eta ^2}X(\eta ,𝐱)\frac{1}{3}{}_{}{}^{(3)}\mathrm{\Delta }X(\eta ,𝐱)=0$$
(6)
and is essentially the same as the propagation equation for gravitational  or electromagnetic333See formula (5.2.6) in  after substituting $`g=\eta ^6`$. waves in the dust-filled universe

$$\frac{^2}{\eta ^2}X(\eta ,𝐱)\frac{2}{\eta ^2}X(\eta ,𝐱){}_{}{}^{(3)}\mathrm{\Delta }X(\eta ,𝐱)=0.$$
(7)
The only differences are that gravitational and electromagnetic waves are expressed by the tensor $`h_{\mu \nu }`$ and vector $`A_\mu `$ respectively, and they propagate with the speed of light ($`c=1`$), while the solutions to equation (6), represent scalar waves travelling with the velocity $`v=1/\sqrt{3}`$.

Now, the Laplacian $`{}_{}{}^{(3)}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ operates in Euclidean space. Equation (5) when expressed in Cartesian coordinates $`\{𝐱\}`$ is solved by an arbitrary function $`\widehat{X}=\widehat{X}(𝐧𝐱v\eta )`$  with $`v=1/\sqrt{3}`$ and $`𝐧𝐧=1`$. However, to keep the linear approximation valid we require that $`\widehat{X}(𝐧𝐱v\eta )`$ to be limited throughout the space444$`\eta ϵ\text{IR}:𝐱ϵ<\widehat{X}(𝐧𝐱v\eta )<ϵ`$..

Knowing the general solutions of the equation (5) we can return to observables $`X`$. We look for the general form of $`X(\eta ,𝐱)`$ among the solutions of the equation (4)

$$X(\eta ,𝐱)=\frac{1}{\eta }(_0^\eta \eta ^{}\widehat{X}(𝐧𝐱v\eta ^{})d\eta ^{}+F(𝐱)).$$
(8)
On the strength of (6) $`F(𝐱)`$ is harmonic $`{}_{}{}^{(3)}\mathrm{\Delta }F(𝐱)=0`$ and must be constant if limited throughout the space of constant curvature . With no loss of generality555The freedom to choose this constant is not different from ambiguity in the indefinite integral in (8). Appropriate integration constants are traditionally tuned to give the perturbation spatial average equal to zero., we put $`F(𝐱)=0`$. Eventually, the general, spatially limited solution to the equation (6) is expressed by the integral

$$X(\eta ,𝐱)=\frac{1}{\eta }_0^\eta \eta ^{}\widehat{X}(𝐧𝐱v\eta ^{})d\eta ^{}$$
(9)
of an arbitrary, but also spatially limited function $`\widehat{X}(𝐧𝐱v\eta )`$. The solution describes a wave having the time-dependent profile and travelling with the constant velocity $`v=1/\sqrt{3}`$.

This can be easily confirmed by the Fourier expansion analysis. Indeed, for any real function $`\widehat{X}(𝐧𝐱v\eta )`$ expressed as

$$\widehat{X}(\eta ,𝐱)=(𝙰_k𝚞_k(\eta ,𝐱)+𝙰_k^{}𝚞_k^{}(\eta ,𝐱))d𝐤$$
(10)
with

$$𝚞_k(\eta ,𝐱)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\omega }}\mathrm{e}^{i(𝐤𝐱\omega \eta )}$$
(11)
corresponds $`X(\eta ,𝐱)`$

$$X(\eta ,𝐱)=(𝒜_ku_k(\eta ,𝐱)+𝒜_k^{}u_k^{}(\eta ,𝐱))d𝐤$$
(12)
expanded into modes $`u_k(\eta ,𝐱)`$

$$u_k(\eta ,𝐱)=\mu _\omega (\eta )\mathrm{e}^{i𝐤𝐱}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\omega }}\left(1+\frac{1}{i\omega \eta }\right)\mathrm{e}^{i(𝐤𝐱\omega \eta )}$$
(13)
The frequency $`\omega `$ obeys the dispersion relation $`\omega ^2=k^2/3`$, the Fourier coefficient $`𝒜_k=\frac{1}{i\omega }𝙰_k`$ is an arbitrary complex function of the wave number $`k`$, and $`u_k`$ is obtained from (9) after substituting $`\widehat{X}=𝚞_k`$. Modes $`u_k`$ like $`𝚞_k`$ form an orthonormal base in the function space with the Klein-Gordon scalar product . Both $`𝚞_k`$ and $`u_k`$ form travelling waves, but only $`𝚞_k`$ have their absolute value constant in time. Therefore, the generic perturbation $`X(\eta ,𝐱)`$ is composed of plane waves $`u_k`$ of decaying amplitude, which perfectly agrees with Sachs and Wolfe results ( pp. 76–77) obtained in alternative perturbation approach. Waves move with constant velocity $`v=1/\sqrt{3}`$ independently of their length-scale. Short-scale and long-scale perturbations do not form different classes of solutions.

In the theory appealing to stochastic processes the initial perturbation is given at random at the end of the quantum epoch $`\eta _i>0`$, and develops gravitationally according to (6) in the interval $`\eta >\eta _i`$. Therefore, solution’s singularity at $`\eta =0`$ is purely mathematical fact with no physical consequences.

## 4 Sound waves in the curved space

While decomposing perturbations into Fourier series in flat or opened universes we should respect some specific effects caused by the curvature. This particularly refers to open universes (the Lobachevski space), where the orthogonal expansions exist only for a class of perturbations with sufficiently short-scale autocorrelation . To expand the others one needs supplementary series (supercurvature modes ) of non-orthogonal666In the sense of the Klein-Gordon scalar product. solutions to the Helmholtz equation, which are numbered by imaginary wave numbers $`k[i,i]`$.

Let us adopt spherical coordinates $`\{r,\theta ,\varphi \}`$ as more appropriate for curved maximally symmetric spaces. In the same manner like in the scalar field theories  the density perturbation expands as

$$X(\eta ,r,\theta ,\varphi )=\underset{lm}{}(A_{klm}u_{klm}(\eta ,r,\theta ,\varphi )+A_{klm}^{}u_{klm}^{}(\eta ,r,\theta ,\varphi ))dk$$
(14)
where modes $`u_{klm}(\eta ,r,\theta ,\varphi )=\mu _{\omega ,K}(\eta )Y_{klm}(r,\theta ,\varphi )`$ are expressed by hyperspherical harmonics $`Y_{klm}(r,\theta ,\varphi )`$ and time-dependent amplitude $`\mu _{\omega ,K}(\eta )`$ fulfilling the time-equation (obtained by separation from (3)):

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}^2}{\mathrm{d}\eta ^2}\mu _{\omega ,K}(\eta )+\left(\frac{k^2K}{3}\frac{2K}{\mathrm{sin}^2(\sqrt{K}\eta )}\right)\mu _{\omega ,K}(\eta )=0.$$
(15)
We find solutions to (15) in the exact form as

$$\mu _{\omega ,K}(\eta )=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\sqrt{\frac{\omega }{\omega ^2K}}\left(1+\sqrt{K}\frac{\mathrm{cot}(\sqrt{K}\eta )}{i\omega }\right)\mathrm{e}^{i\omega \eta }.$$
(16)
and their complex conjugates. Solutions $`\mu _{\omega ,K}(\eta )`$ approach $`\mu _\omega (\eta )`$ (eq. 13) in the $`K0`$ limit. The frequency $`\omega `$ and the wave number are related to each other by the dispersion relation

$$\omega (k)=\frac{\sqrt{k^2K}}{\sqrt{3}}.$$
(17)
which can be obtained by simple substitution of (16) into (15) and perfectly agrees with the dispersion relation obtained for the variable $`Y`$ on the strength of equation (5) (compare  chapter 5.2).

Functions $`Y_{klm}(r,\theta ,\varphi )`$ solve the Helmholtz equation

$${}_{}{}^{(3)}\mathrm{\Delta }Y_{klm}(r,\theta ,\varphi )=(k^2K)Y_{klm}(r,\vartheta ,\varphi )$$
(18)
and can be split into the radial part $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{kl}`$ and the two dimensional spherical functions $`Y_{lm}(\vartheta ,\phi )`$

$$Y_{klm}(\chi ,\vartheta ,\phi )=\mathrm{\Pi }_{kl}(\chi )Y_{lm}(\vartheta ,\phi )$$
(19)
Solutions to radial equation

$$\frac{^2}{\chi ^2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{kl}(\chi )+2\mathrm{coth}\chi \frac{}{\chi }\mathrm{\Pi }_{kl}(\chi )\left(\lambda +\frac{l(l+1)}{\mathrm{sinh}^2\chi }\right)\mathrm{\Pi }_{kl}(\chi )=0$$
(20)
are given by

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_{kl}`$ $`=`$ $`N_{kl}\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{kl}`$
$`N_{kl}`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}}k^2\left[{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{l}{}}}(n^2+k^2)\right]^{1/2}`$
$`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{kl}`$ $`=`$ $`(k^2\mathrm{sinh}\chi )^l\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{k\mathrm{sinh}\chi }}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}(k\chi )}}\right)^{l+1}\mathrm{cos}(k\chi )`$
The lowest multipole solutions

$`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{k0}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{sinh}\chi }}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}k\chi }{k}}\right)`$
$`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{k1}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{sinh}\chi }}\left(\mathrm{cos}k\chi +\mathrm{coth}\chi {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}k\chi }{k}}\right)`$
$`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{k2}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{sinh}\chi }}\left(3\mathrm{coth}\chi \mathrm{cos}k\chi +(3\mathrm{coth}^2\chi k^21){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}k\chi }{k}}\right)`$
are enough to demonstrate properties of both two series of hyperspherical harmonics. For real wave numbers ($`k^2>0`$) the $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{k1}`$ (consequently also $`Y_{klm}(r,\theta ,\varphi )`$) functions oscillate in space. They form an orthonormal basis in the sense of the scalar product $`(f_1|f_2)=f_1f_2^{}\sqrt{g}\mathrm{d}^3x.`$ As proved by Gelfand and Naimark they are complete to expand square integrable functions in the Lobachevski space . For imaginary wave numbers contained in the interval $`1k^2<0`$, the $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{k1}`$ (and $`Y_{klm}(r,\theta ,\varphi )`$) functions build supplementary series. These functions are regular, limited but strictly positive throughout space, so they are not orthogonal777Modes with $`k=\pm i`$ are constant throughout space. One can subtract them by suitable changes in the background metric. Other modes with $`k(i,i)`$, although positive everywhere, decrease with distance strong enough to keep zero mean value. For instance, for the spherically symetric perturbation with the density excess given by $`\rho (\chi )=\mathrm{\Pi }_{\frac{i}{2}0}(\chi )=2csch(\chi )\mathrm{sinh}\left(\frac{\chi }{2}\right)`$ the mass-to-volume ratio $`\overline{\rho }(r)=\frac{4\pi _0^r\rho (\chi )\mathrm{sinh}^2(\chi )d\chi }{4\pi _0^r\mathrm{sinh}^2(\chi )d\chi }`$ tends to zero with volume tending to infinity: $`\overline{\rho }(r)\frac{\rho (r)\mathrm{sinh}^2(r)}{\mathrm{sinh}^2(r)}2csch(r)\mathrm{sinh}\left(\frac{r}{2}\right)0.`$ No redefinition of the background can absorb perturbations like that.. The supplementary series is redundant for expansion of square integrable functions. Nevertheless, this series is necessary to expand weakly homogeneous stochastic processes in the Lobachevski space .

In this way in the open universe one obtains two types of hyperspherical harmonics $`Y_{klm}(r,\theta ,\varphi )`$ and consequently two types of modes $`u_{klm}(\eta ,r,\theta ,\varphi )`$. Modes $`u_{klm}(\eta ,r,\theta ,\varphi )`$ with real $`k`$ are orthogonal by means of Klein-Gordon scalar product  and expand waves of square integrable profile. Modes $`u_{klm}(\eta ,r,\theta ,\varphi )`$ with $`1k^2<0`$ form “waves of infinite length-scale”. Both types of modes may contribute to the spectrum of randomly (or quantum) originated inhomogeneities .

The density perturbations propagate in the open universe in different manner than the scalar fields or gravitational waves do. Acoustic waves of different length-scales propagate with different velocities. Indeed from relation (17) we can infer both the phase and group velocity of sound in the form

$$v_\mathrm{f}(k)=\frac{\omega (k)}{k}=\frac{\sqrt{1+k^2}}{\sqrt{3}k}$$
(21)
and

$$v_\mathrm{g}(k)=\frac{}{k}\omega (k)=\frac{k}{\sqrt{3}\sqrt{1+k^2}}.$$
(22)
The group velocity decreases with the wave number $`k`$, to vanish completely at the $`k0`$ limit. The condition $`k=0`$ determines the critical frequency $`\omega (0)=1/\sqrt{3}`$, below which the wave propagation is forbidden. Therefore, the acoustic travelling waves are composed of the principal series modes. The supplementary series build ‘global’ standing waves of supercurvature scale.

## 5 Gaussian acoustic field

The generic acoustic field described by (5) is composed of waves travelling in different directions. Clearly, this property also refers to solutions of the equation (3). The mechanism, which creates initial small perturbations is expected to be of probabilistic nature (thermodynamic or quantum fluctuations), therefore the evolution of linear structure is usually expressed in the language of stochastic processes. The homogeneity of this stochastic process reflects the universe homogeneity. Weakly homogeneous processes have their Fourier expansions

$$\widehat{X}(\eta ,𝐱)=(𝙰_k𝚞_k(\eta ,𝐱)+𝙰_k^{}𝚞_k^{}(\eta ,𝐱))d𝐤$$
(23)
and consequently

$$X(\eta ,𝐱)=(𝒜_ku_k(\eta ,𝐱)+𝒜_k^{}u_k^{}(\eta ,𝐱))d𝐤$$
(24)
where the coefficient $`𝒜_k`$ are random variables of $`k`$ and the integral has a stochastic sense . In a generic Gaussian field888Allen and collaborators  distinguish between stationary random fields fulfilling (25-26) and the squeezed random fields, which violates (26). Stationary processes have their precise meaning in the framework of the stochastic theory not equivalent to (25-26). We prefer to name these random fields generic to stress analogy to generic classical fields. the expectation values for $`𝒜_k`$ fulfill

$`E[𝒜_k𝒜_k^{}^{}]`$ $`=`$ $`𝒫_k\delta _{kk^{}},`$ (25)
$`E[𝒜_k𝒜_k^{}]`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (26)
$`𝒫_k`$ is defined as the field spectrum. The first relation guarantees the statistical independence of waves of different wave numbers, the second — says that no particular phase is preferred. Waves moving in different directions are statistically independent.

The temperature fluctuations at the last scattering surface draw our attention to spatial correlations of $`\delta \rho /\rho `$ measured at the instant $`\eta =\eta _\mathrm{r}`$. In the flat universe the two-point spatial autocorrelation $`R(h)`$  of the field $`X`$ given by (16) can be expressed as:

$`R(h)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi }}{\displaystyle E[X(𝐱,\eta )X[𝐱+𝐡,\eta )]\delta (𝐡𝐡1)d𝐡}`$ (27)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi }}{\displaystyle 2u_ku_k^{}𝒫_k\mathrm{exp}(i𝐤𝐡)\delta (𝐡𝐡1)d𝐤d𝐡}`$ (28)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}4\pi k^2j_0(hk)2\mu _\omega \mu _\omega ^{}𝒫_kdk`$ (29)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}4\pi k^2{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}(hk)}{hk}}p_k(\eta )dk`$ (30)
where $`j_0`$ is the spherical Bessel function, and $`p_k`$ stands for the space spectrum of the density perturbation at a given moment $`\eta `$. Following Peebles  we define the transfer function $`T_\omega (\eta )=2\mu _\omega \mu _\omega ^{}`$, which converts the time-invariant field spectrum $`𝒫_k`$ into the space spectrum $`p_k(\eta )`$.

$$p_k(\eta )=T_\omega (\eta )𝒫_k=2\mu _\omega \mu _\omega ^{}𝒫_k.$$
(31)
The formula for the space spectrum $`p_k(\eta )`$ splits into two factors: 1) $`T(\eta )`$ — describing the role of gravity, and 2) $`𝒫_k`$ coming from other interactions and rendering their probabilistic nature prior or during radiational era. We do not discus any specific form of $`𝒜_k`$ or $`𝒫_k`$ in this paper. We assume, however, that $`𝒜_k`$ enables one to construct small perturbations, and in particular does not cause divergences in Fourier integrals. Employing (13) one easily founds

$$T_\omega (\eta )=\frac{1}{\omega }(1+\frac{1}{(\omega \eta )^2}).$$
(32)
As seen from (32) the evolution of each mode depends on the product $`(\omega \eta )^2`$. The contribution from modes much larger than the horizon scale $`\omega \eta 1`$ strongly decreases with time, while the perturbation well inside the horizon $`\omega \eta 1`$ keep constant amplitude. This property confirms the stability of Robertson-Walker symmetry against the generic (both classical and stochastic) large-scale density perturbations.

In the same manner one can express random acoustic fields in the open universe

$$X(\eta ,r,\theta ,\varphi )=\underset{lm}{}(A_{klm}u_{klm}(\eta ,r,\theta ,\varphi )+A_{klm}^{}u_{klm}^{}(\eta ,r,\theta ,\varphi ))dk.$$
(33)
According to Yaglom’s theorem, for weakly homogeneous processes integration runs over both series principal and supplementary. The autocorrelation function now reads :

$$R(h)=\underset{R_+[0,i]}{}4\pi k^2\frac{\mathrm{sin}(hk)}{k\mathrm{sin}(h)}p_k(\eta )dk$$
(34)
and the transfer function determined from formula (16) and (31) takes the form

$$T_\omega (\eta )=\frac{1}{\omega }\left(1+\frac{1}{\omega ^2K}\frac{K}{\mathrm{sinh}^2(\sqrt{K}\eta )}\right)$$
(35)
We rewrite $`T_\omega (\eta )`$ as a function of the energy density

$$T_\omega (\rho )=\frac{1}{\omega }\left(1+\frac{\sqrt{\rho }}{3(\omega ^2K)}\right)$$
(36)
to demonstrate that the curvature modifies substantially the space spectrum $`p_k`$ only in the low frequency limit (supercurvature modes). Therefore, one may expect to find the curvature signature mostly in low multipoles (dipole, quadruple) . To extract this geometrical effect the knowledge of the field spectrum $`𝒫_k`$ is indispensable.

Expansions (12) are typically employed in the gravitational waves theory , and in the scalar field theory , while the density perturbations theories traditionally solve, basically the same, propagation equation in terms of the Bessel $`J_{3/2}`$ and Neumann $`N_{3/2}`$ functions. The $`J_{3/2}`$ and $`N_{3/2}`$ are identified with “growing” and “decaying” modes respectively, according to their limit behaviour at $`\eta =0`$. Since the transition from $`\{u,u^{}\}`$ basis to $`\{J_{3/2},N_{3/2}\}`$ is the unitary transformation, both representations are equivalent. When the “decaying” mode is rejected  (a “standard practice” in cosmology — see comments in ) the unitarity is broken down and solution space is truncated to the space of standing waves. Then the acoustic field is in a highly “squeezed state” and consequently the characteristic peaks in the transfer function appears .

## 6 Remarks on scales and observables

There is a substantial difference between the dispersion on curvature, we described above, and “the curvature imprint” in CMBR spectrum, anticipated by the acoustic peaks hypothesis. The last hypothesis claims that the early perturbed universe was overdominated by stationary waves . One may justify this assumption by appealing to squeezing phenomena at the transition from deSitter phase to the radiation dominated epoch. (In a transitions like that the large-scale stationary gravitational waves are generated (see ). The same refers to massless scalar field.) The dominance of standing waves with specifically correlated phases should exhibit a series of peaks in the CMBR spectrum. Positions of these peaks are sensitive to details of the universe dynamics ($`\mathrm{\Omega },\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, etc.).

On the contrary, the dispersion effect described in the section 4 has strictly geometrical character. It comes directly from the wave equation in the radiational epoch and does not depend on universe’s past (evolution prior to radiational era is irrelevant here). The radiation-filled universe become “opaque” to sound waves greater than the curvature radius, whatever is the sound origin. In particular, no additional mechanism preferring standing waves at the beginning of the radiational era is needed. On that account the dispersion might form a reliable curvature tracer, provided it is observable at all, i.e.
1) the space scales of supercurvature perturbations must be “small enough” to fit well in the observable part of our universe, and
2) observational data should be complete enough to distinguish between standing and travelling waves at the last scattering.

Answer to the first question is relatively easy and it was already formulated in the literature in terms of multipole decomposition . We repeat the same result below by use of simple geometrical consideration. Let us assume we live in the open ($`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.2`$) universe which is presently dominated by matter ($`p=0`$) . We see the last scattering surface at some $`\eta _r`$ with the redshift $`z_r=1000`$. For sake of simplicity (following ) we assume an instant transition from radiational epoch ($`p=\rho /3`$) to the galactic era ($`p=0`$), which occur just at the last scattering moment $`\eta =\eta _r`$. In such a universe model the scale factor evolves as

$$a(\eta )=\sqrt{\frac{}{3}}\frac{\mathrm{sinh}^2\left(\frac{\eta +\eta _r}{2}\right)}{\mathrm{sinh}(\eta _r)}$$

and the radius of the visible universe $`\chi _r`$ can be easily expressed as a function of redshift $`z_r`$ and the cosmological parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$

$$\chi (\mathrm{\Omega },z_r)=2arccoth\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{1\mathrm{\Omega }}}\right)2arcsinh\left(\sqrt{\frac{1\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }(1+z_r)}}\right)$$

Setting typical values $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.2`$ and $`z_r=1000`$ one obtains $`\chi _r=2.76`$. The equator plane “draws” on the last scattering surface a circle of the perimeter $`l=2\pi \mathrm{sinh}(\chi _r)=49.5`$, consequently, the curvature radius (in this units equal to one) takes $`\alpha =360/l=7.28`$ degrees on the sky. Let us consider now a spherically symmetric density perturbation (on the last scattering surface) described by the $`k=0`$ hyperspherical function $`Y_{000}=\chi csch(\chi )`$. The $`Y_{0lm}`$ functions, with arbitrary $`l`$ and $`m`$, form a boundary between the principal and supplementary series, and can be understood as the “shortest” supercurvature modes. Since these functions are positive everywhere, we express the perturbation length-scale as the half-magnitude width $`l_{1/2}`$. For spherically symmetric mode $`Y_{000}`$ it is roughly $`l_{1/2}=2.2`$. This corresponds to $`32^{}`$ on the sky. Equator intersects about 10 patches of that size. The supercurvature perturbations contribute mainly to the lowest multipoles in the CMBR spectrum (roughly $`l<5`$), but the visible part of the universe is large enough to produce the curvature effects. Another problem is how to determine from the CMBR data, which waves are stationary and which of them are travelling ones. The oscillation time scale for waves close to the critical frequency $`\omega _\mathrm{c}=\sqrt{1/3}`$ is of the order of the universe age, thus no direct observation of their temporal behaviour can be done. The same refers to gravitational squeezed waves (see ). On the other hand, the information we need is “hidden” on the last scattering surface, and the “only task” is to read it properly. For standing perturbations the density and the velocity fields are strongly correlated . Density extrema coincide with the expansion extrema throughout the entire space999Considerably more complex coincidences may be expected when multifluid models are taken into account. These cases need independent investigations.. This means that even in random acoustic fields the density and the velocity perturbations loose their statistical independence in scales comparable with the space curvature and consequently would gradually correlate on the sky when the angle scales outgrow ten degrees. The key to solve this problem is to find a second independent observable, which would help us to separate the potential and Doppler contributions to the CMBR temperature fluctuations. We can hardly propose a definite candidate at the present stage of observations, but both the polarization measurements and the large scale flows analysis seems to be steps in the right direction.

## 7 Summary

The gauge-invariant analysis confirms that density perturbations in the radiation dominated universe form a field of acoustic waves. In the flat universe the density perturbations of all length-scales move with the same sound speed $`v=1/\sqrt{3}`$. Short and long perturbations do not form different classes of solutions. Perturbations’ velocity is independent of the wave number, and in particular is the same for subhorizon and superhorizon inhomogeneities. Although the gauge-invariant theory confirms the fundamental properties of acoustic field, which have been known from gauge-specific descriptions , the propagation equations are not the same. An outstanding property of the gauge-invariant description is that propagation equation for sound in radiational era are identical with the propagation equations for gravitational or electromagnetic waves in the matter dominated universe.

In the open universe perturbations evolve in a more complex manner. The negative space curvature causes the dispersion of acoustic waves. The universe geometry determines the minimal frequency for traveling acoustic waves in the similar way as the geometry of the wave conductor determines the minimal frequency for waves propagating inside. The critical frequency is related solely to the space curvature (not to the Jeans length-scale). Below this frequency perturbations form standing waves of supercurvature scale. In the radiation dominated universe the distinction between travelling and standing acoustic waves strictly coincides with the division into subcurvature and supercurvature inhomogeneities. Supercurvature standing waves are generic solutions.

As commonly expected, the spectrum transfer function depends on the universe geometry, but differences are essential only in the large scale limit. In the subcurvature regime generic Gaussian acoustic field evolve like the acoustic field in the flat universe. Significant curvature effects may appear in supercurvature scales — lowest multipoles in the MBR temperature map.

## Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Andrzej Staruszkiewicz for helpful remarks concerning the harmonic analysis in the Lobachevski space. This work was partially supported by State Committee for Scientific Research, project No 2 P03D 014 17.


text:
# Hyperon polarization in Kaon Photoproduction from the deuteron.

## 1 Introduction

Since hyperon-nucleon scattering experiments are difficult to perform, hyperon production processes such as $`\gamma +dK^++Y+N`$ and $`e+de^{}+K^++Y+N`$ appear as natural candidates that allow exploring the $`YN`$ interaction. One can obtain the information of the $`YN`$ interaction by analyzing the correlated $`YN`$ final states. An inclusive $`d(e,e^{}K^+)YN`$ experiment has already been performed in Hall C at TJNAF, while the data for $`d(\gamma ,K^+Y)N`$ are being analyzed in Hall B.

Recently, we found that various meson-theoretical $`YN`$ interactions generate $`S`$-matrix poles around the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }N`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }N`$ thresholds. The pole near the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }N`$ threshold is related to the strength and the property of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }N\mathrm{\Sigma }N`$ coupling and causes enhancements in the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }N`$ elastic total cross sections. The hope is that the pole structure of the $`YN`$ $`t`$ matrix will have visible effects in such production processes mention above.

In this paper, we study the inclusive $`d(\gamma ,K^+)YN`$ and exclusive $`d(\gamma ,K^+Y)N`$ processes for $`\theta _K=0^{}`$ and predict various observables including polarization observables.

## 2 Formalism

The reaction processes $`\gamma +dK^++\mathrm{\Lambda }(\mathrm{\Sigma })+N`$ are expressed by the operator $`T_i`$ as

$$T_i|\mathrm{\Psi }_d>=\underset{j}{}U_{ij}t_{\gamma K}^{(j)}|\mathrm{\Psi }_d>i,j=\mathrm{\Lambda }N,\mathrm{\Sigma }N,$$
(1)
where the operator $`t_{\gamma K}^{(i)}`$ describes the elementary processes $`\gamma +NK^++\mathrm{\Lambda }(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$, and $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_d>`$ represents the deuteron state which is generated by the Nijmegen 93 $`NN`$ interaction . The operator $`U_{ij}`$ corresponds to the $`YN`$ final state interaction processes, and is represented as

$`U_{ij}`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _{ij}+V_{ij}G_0^{(j)}+{\displaystyle \underset{j^{}}{}}V_{ij^{}}G_0^{(j^{})}V_{j^{}j}G_0^{(j)}+\mathrm{}`$ (2)
$`=`$ $`\delta _{ij}+{\displaystyle \underset{j^{}}{}}V_{ij^{}}G_0^{(j^{})}U_{j^{}j},`$
where $`V_{ij}`$ is $`YN`$ interaction including $`\mathrm{\Lambda }N\mathrm{\Sigma }N`$ coupling. We ignore the $`K^+`$ meson interaction with the nucleon and hyperon in the final states. From Eqs.(1) and (2), one can deduce the coupled set of integral equations for $`T_i`$,

$$T_i|\mathrm{\Psi }_d>=t_{\gamma K}^{(i)}|\mathrm{\Psi }_d>+\underset{j^{}}{}V_{ij^{}}G_0^{(j^{})}T_j^{}|\mathrm{\Psi }_d>.$$
(3)
We solve this set (3) after partial-wave decomposition in momentum space. The three elementary process $`\gamma +pK^++\mathrm{\Lambda }(\mathrm{\Sigma }^0)`$ and $`\gamma +nK^++\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ are properly incorporated in the driving term in Eq.(3). Equation (3) is solved on isospin bases $`\mathrm{\Lambda }N`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }N`$, but the resulting amplitudes are transformed into those on the particle bases $`\mathrm{\Lambda }n`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^0n`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}p`$ by which the inclusive $`d(\gamma ,K^+)`$, exclusive $`d(\gamma ,K^+Y)`$ cross sections and hyperon polarizations are calculated. For details, we refer the reader to ref..

## 3 Results

At present, we calculate the observables only for the $`K^+`$ meson scattered to 0 degree $`(\theta _{K^+}=0^{})`$. The Nijmegen soft-core $`YN`$ interactions NSC97f and NSC89 and a recently updated production operator for the $`\gamma +NK^++\mathrm{\Lambda }(\mathrm{\Sigma })+N`$ processes are used.

Figure 1(a) shows the inclusive cross sections which sum up the contributions of the $`K^+\mathrm{\Lambda }n`$, $`K^+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0n`$ and $`K^+\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}p`$ final states. The solid and dashed lines are the predictions of the NSC97f and NSC89 $`YN`$ interactions, respectively. The dotted line shows the results of the plane wave impulse approximation (PWIA). The arrows indicate the two thresholds $`K^+\mathrm{\Lambda }N`$ ($`p_K=977.30`$ MeV/c) and $`K^+\mathrm{\Sigma }N`$ ($`p_K=869.14`$ MeV/c).

The two pronounced peaks around $`p_K=`$945 and 809 MeV/c are due to the quasi-free processes of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, where one of the nucleon in the deuteron is spectator and has zero momentum in the laboratory system. Significant FSI effects are found around the $`K^+\mathrm{\Lambda }N`$ and $`K^+\mathrm{\Sigma }N`$ thresholds. The cross section is increased up to 86% by FSI near the $`K^+\mathrm{\Lambda }N`$ threshold. Around the $`K^+\mathrm{\Sigma }N`$ threshold, as shown Fig.1(b), the strengths and shapes of the enhancements by the NSC97f and NSC89 are quite different.

Figure 2(a) illustrates the exclusive $`d(\gamma ,K^+\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ cross sections just below the $`K^+\mathrm{\Sigma }N`$ threshold ($`p_K=870`$ MeV/c). The FSI effects are seen both at very forward and at large angles. The PWIA cross sections are basically zero at backward angles, while the FSI calculations still show some strength. Figure 2(b) demonstrates the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ recoil polarizations with incoming polarized photon. The $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ recoil polarizations in PWIA are almost one. This is because the incoming photon is polarized along the $`z`$ axis, but the target deuteron is unpolarized and the outgoing $`K^+`$ meson carries no spin and angular momentum in this case ($`\theta _K=0^{}`$). However, the final state interactions cause the large deviations from one, and the prediction by NSC97f is quite different from that of NSC89.

The exclusive results to the $`K^+\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}p`$ final states just above this threshold ($`p_K=`$865 MeV/c) are shown in Fig.3. The prominent FSI effects are seen both in the cross sections and in the double polarization observable.

Finally, we briefly discuss the production operator for $`\gamma +NK^++\mathrm{\Lambda }(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ processes. In Fig.4, the inclusive cross sections in PWIA in which an old version of the operator is used are compared to those with the present version. The latter has been improved in the fitting to the data of $`\gamma +NK^++\mathrm{\Lambda }(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ including the new SAPHIR data. The difference between the predictions by the two versions are quite large as in Fig.4, which suggests this reaction $`d(\gamma ,K^+)YN`$ is another promising candidate for investigating the operator.


text:
# Strange nonchaotic attractor in a dynamical system under periodic forcing

## I INTRODUCTION

The strange nonchaotic attractor (SNA) is an object that has chaotic attractor features like fractal dimension and nondifferentiability (strangeness) but no exponential sensitivity to initial conditions, i.e., its largest Lyapunov exponent is nonpositive . It has some analogies with trajectories that have been found in a study of the Frenkel-Kontorova model  and of the Chirikov-Taylor map . Aubry has shown  that the incommensurate ground-states of the Frenkel-Kontorova model can undergo a breaking of analiticity transition, between a smooth and a fractal set. Shenker and Kadanoff  calculated the fractal power spectrum of the fractal trajectory that appears in the Chirikov-Taylor map after the breakup of a KAM-like surface a fractal power spectrum. This map can be related to an incommensurate driving of a nonlinear oscillator. Another example is the accumulation point of the period-doubling cascade of the logistic map . However, this attractor occurs in a zero measure set in the parameter space. SNA as a typical behavior, a finite measure set in the parameter space of a model, has been found in the context of nonlinear quasiperiodic external forcing (i.e., the forcing of a signal with two incommensurate frequencies) . The study of the SNA has also been recently connected with the localization problem .

A lot of work has been done in order to characterize the features of a SNA; its route of formation, autocorrelation function and power spectrum. Besides a period-doubling cascade, many different routes for the formation of an SNA have been proposed: (1) the collision between a period-doubled torus and its unstable parent torus ; (2) the progressive fractalization of a two-dimensional ergodic torus  and, (3) for systems with quasiperiodic tori in symmetric invariant subspaces, the loss of the transverse stability of a torus . Another particular feature of the SNA is that its autocorrelation function does not decay with the time delay like that of the chaotic attrator. It can either be fractal or similar to the quasiperiodic case . The power spectrum of a SNA can be singular continuous and in this case has fractal features as discussed in many papers

The aim of this paper is to answer the question: are SNAs restricted to quasiperiodically driven nonlinear systems? We believe that the answer is no. We studied a map (hereafter called YOS map) that has been proposed in the magnetic context to describe the behavior of an analog of the ANNNI model on the Bethe lattice  and which shows, for external periodic forcing, the occurrence of a SNA . The same map exhibits typical features of a neuron (like activation threshold, nerve blocking and rebound behavior) and has been coined as a dynamical perceptron of second order (related to the dimension two of the map), because it corresponds to a two-layer recurrent neural network . Independently, Kanter et al.  proposed a recurrence relation scheme known as a sequence generator, which is essentially the same map, generalized for any number of dimensions. This map can also be viewed as a discrete-time, nonlinear oscillator, for some values of the parameters.

Anishchenko et al.  have claimed that they found a SNA through periodic driving of a map, but Pikovsky et al.  have shown that it was a chaotic attractor with a tiny Lyapunov exponent. We show that Anishchenko et al.’s attractor is indeed strange chaotic, but ours is strange nonchaotic and related to quasiperiodic attractors.

This paper is organized as follows. Section II is dedicated to describing the map and its attractors, mainly the strange nonchaotic one. In section III we characterize this attractor through its Lyapunov exponents, fractal dimension, autocorrelation function and power spectrum. The conclusions are addressed to section IV.

## II THE MAP AND ITS ATTRACTORS

The two-dimensional YOS map which this paper is concerned with is given by

$`x_{n+1}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{tanh}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{x_n\kappa y_n+H(n)}{T}}\right]`$ (1)
$`y_{n+1}`$ $`=`$ $`x_n`$ (2)
The YOS map was initially proposed  to model the mean magnetizations $`(x_n,y_n)`$ of the $`(n^{th};(n1)^{th})`$-shells of a Bethe lattice, for an analog of the ANNNI model  in a constant magnetic field (H was independent of n). Here, we extend it for a nonuniform field. T is the temperature and $`\kappa =J_2/J_1`$ where $`J_1(J_2)`$ is the exchange coupling between nearest (next-nearest) neighbor spins on a Bethe lattice. Yokoi et al. obtained the phase diagram of this model at zero field . Tragtenberg and Yokoi studied the effect of finite uniform field . A sinusoidal wave $`H(n)=H_0\mathrm{cos}(2\pi \omega n)`$ is the particular form of $`H(n)`$ we will adopt throughout this paper, representing a shell-dependent external field/input.

Kinouchi and Tragtenberg  studied the properties of the map as a neuron model, where $`x_n`$ is the action potential of the neuron at time $`n`$. $`1/T`$ and $`\kappa /T`$ are the weight factors for the two previous states of the neuron. $`H(n)/T`$ is naturally defined as the external current as a function of the discrete time $`n`$. They showed that the map exhibits many neural features.

Kanter et al. proposed the following real number sequence generator:

$$s_l=\mathrm{tanh}\left[\beta \underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}W_ns_{ln}\right]$$
(3)
and studied this map in the context of time-series and neural networks. $`H(n)`$ could be introduced for representing a time dependent input signal.

From the purely dynamical system point of view, the YOS map represents a nonlinear oscillator for the range of the parameters considered in this paper, and $`H(n)`$ represents a time-dependent external input. The attractors of map YOS can be fixed points, Q-cycles (cycles of period Q), quasiperiodic, chaotic or strange nonchaotic . For the parameters $`\kappa =1,T=0.5,H_0=0`$ the system oscillates with period 6 (see Fig. 1). But, for different values of $`H_0`$ and $`\omega `$, keeping the same $`\kappa `$ and $`T`$, the attractor becomes richer (see Fig. 2).

This kind of attractor can also be obtained for other values of $`\omega `$, and is therefore characteristic of this periodically driven nonlinear map. For others examples of SNA of this map see .

## III CHARACTERIZATION OF THE SNA

A SNA is a fractal object with no exponential sensitivity to initial conditions (the SNA at the accumulation point of the period-doubling bifurcations of the logistic map has null Lyapunov exponent but has polynomial sensitivity to initial conditions ). In order to characterize this attractor, we investigated the largest Lyapunov exponent, fractal dimension, autocorrelation function and power spectrum.

### A Lyapunov exponents: naïve and more accurate calculation

Before calculating the Lyapunov exponent of the attractor of Fig. 2, let us briefly discuss the sensitivity to initial conditions of one of the attractors studied by Anishchenko et al. .

They proposed a four-dimensional map made up by two asymmetrically coupled circle maps, with two coupling parameters (A and $`\gamma _2`$). They argued that the for $`\gamma _2=0`$ the system (1) can be a circle map with quasiperiodic forcing. A small value of $`\gamma _2`$ will make it an autonomous four-dimensional map that could show a SNA.

This four-dimensional map is given by

$`x_{n+1}`$ $`=`$ $`x_n+\mathrm{\Omega }_1{\displaystyle \frac{K_1}{2\pi }}\mathrm{sin}(2\pi x_n)+\gamma _1y_n`$ (5)
$`+A\mathrm{cos}(2\pi u_n)mod\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1},`$
$`y_{n+1}`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma _1y_n{\displaystyle \frac{K_1}{2\pi }}\mathrm{sin}(2\pi x_n),`$ (6)
$`u_{n+1}`$ $`=`$ $`u_n+\mathrm{\Omega }_2{\displaystyle \frac{K_2}{2\pi }}\mathrm{sin}(2\pi u_n)+\gamma _2(y_n+v_n)mod1,`$ (7)
$`v_{n+1}`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma _2(y_n+v_n){\displaystyle \frac{K_2}{2\pi }}sin(2\pi u_n).`$ (8)
For the set of parameters $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1=0.5,\mathrm{\Omega }_2=(\sqrt{5}1)/2,K_2=0.03,A=0.4,\gamma _1=\gamma _2=0.01`$ and $`K_1=0.8784`$, Anishchenko et al. claimed the attractor is strange nonchaotic. They found a null largest Lyapunov exponent within the numerical accuracy of the method they used.

A positive definite largest Lyapunov exponent corresponds to an exponential expansion of an hypercube of initial conditions in at least one of the directions of the phase space. In other terms, we can study the sign of the largest Lyapunov exponent of a map by studying the stretching and contraction of a hypercube of initial conditions. Here we present a simpler version of this procedure, studying only the evolution of the distance between trajectories generated by only two initial conditions.

We take two different sets of initial values of (x,y,u,v) and calculate the distance $`d(n)`$ between the trajectories generated by each set, as the number of iterations is increased. That is perhaps the naïvest way to investigate the largest Lyapunov exponent of a map. The first set we take as $`x_0=y_0=u_0=v_0=0.7`$ and the second as $`x_0^{}=y_0^{}=u_0^{}=v_0^{}=(0.710^{12})`$. Figure 3 represents the first 30 000 iterations of the evolution of d(n).

We can see at first sight that the system is chaotic, since the distance between the trajectories with different initial conditions grows exponentially. A simple estimation of the slope of the rugged curve leads to $`(0.8\pm 0.3)10^3`$ for the largest Lyapunov exponent $`\lambda _+`$, where we have assumed that the behavior of the distance is governed by this exponent and given by

$$d(n)d(0)\mathrm{exp}(\lambda _+n).$$
(9)
This result agrees with surprising accuracy with that obtained by Pikovsky and Feudel , using the Wolf-Swift-Swinney-Vastano algorithm .

Then, this naïve method of checking the sensitivity of initial conditions seems to be powerful and we will use it as well as the more accurate method due to Eckmann-Kamphorst-Ruelle-Ciliberto (EKRC)  to calculate the largest Lyapunov exponent of the attractor of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4a exhibits some self-similarity in the behavior of $`d(n)`$ as a function of $`n`$. We took many pairs of initial conditions such that the distances between the initial conditions from each pair were $`10^2,10^6,10^{10}and10^{14}`$. Then we calculated how $`d(n)`$ vary for each pair as a function of the iterations, for the SNA of the Fig. 2. The result is represented in Fig. 4b. The various curves d(n) x n have a scale invariant like behavior, i.e., for various values of the difference in initial conditions the evolution with the iterations is rather similar, preserving the form for different scales of distance. Moreover, none of the curves show exponential divergence, although they may vary within few orders of magnitude. It suggests a null largest Lyapunov exponent. We confirmed this using calculations based on the EKRC method shown below. This behavior (scale invariance in distance and zero largest Lyapunov exponent) is similar to that of a typical quasiperiodic attractor.

Fig. 5 shows the behavior of the absolute value of the largest Lyapunov exponent approximants as a function of the number of iterations (neglecting the first 10,000), for the attractor of the Fig. 2. This attractor has the same shape for many initial conditions: we took ($`x_0,y_0`$) = ($`\pm 1,\pm 0.5,0;\pm 1,\pm 0.5,0`$). The calculations were performed using the Eckmann-Kamphorst-Ruelle-Ciliberto method. They do indicate that the largest Lyapunov exponent is zero, since the absolute values of its approximants scale with the number of iterations $`n`$ as $`|\lambda _+|n^1`$. Using the same method, we found $`\lambda _{}=0.709971\pm 0.000001`$, for the smallest Lyapunov exponent.

### B Fractal dimension

The SNA of the Fig. 2 is a complex geometrical object with a fractal Hausdorff dimension ($`D_F`$). In order to find out this dimension we have used the box counting method . The diagram with the number of boxes $`N(a)`$ visited by the SNA of Fig. 2 as a function of the edge length $`a`$ is shown in Fig.6. The initial condition is $`(x_0,y_0)=(1,1)`$, and the first $`10^4`$ iterations were discarded. We considered the next $`10^9`$ iterations, and box edges between $`a=10^1`$ and $`a=10^3`$. Even with this number of iterations, we can see that box edges smaller than $`10^{2.6}`$ lead to artificially small values of the fractal dimension. However, a larger number of iterations were computationally prohibitive. The same behavior was observed in .

Fig. 7 has been constructed by taking ordered sets of four consecutive points of Fig. 6 and calculating the linear coefficient of the best straight line determined by them. Error bars follow from least squares fitting. The leftmost point of this figure represents the fitting of the four smallest values of log(1/a). The point of order 2 represents the fitting of the second to fifth point of Fig. 6, counting from the left to the right, and so on. Then, we conclude that the fractal dimension is $`D_F=1.80\pm 0.09`$. This is the same value found in Ref.  for the attractor of Grebogi et al. , but they considered this value quite uncertain (since it was obtained from just three points). In the same reference, Ding et al. used heuristic arguments to conjecture that $`D_F=2`$ and found no contradiction with the result they numerically found. But this value is definitely far from the value we obtained for the attractor of the Fig. 2. The evidence points to the fractal character of this object.

### C Autocorrelation function

The normalized autocorrelation function of an attractor { $`x_n`$} can be defined as

$$C(\tau )=\frac{_{n=1}^Nx(n)x(n+\tau )}{_{n=1}^Nx^2(n)}.$$
(10)
The calculation of the autocorrelation function can give clues about the nature of the attractor in question. Its fractal character can indicate the fractality of the attractor. However, when we are in the presence of a SNA we can observe at least two kinds of autocorrelation function: fractal or quasiperiodic .

Fig. 8 represents the autocorrelation function of the attractor of the Fig. 2, and is very similar to those related to quasiperiodic attractors, like that found in Ref.  for the strange nonchaotic attractor of the model C defined therein. We neglected the first $`10^4`$iterations and considered averages over the next $`10^5`$ iterations.

### D Power spectrum

The first step in investigating the power spectrum of an attractor given by a sequence {$`x_n`$} is defining its discrete Fourier transform

$$s(w,N)=N^{1/2}\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}x_ne^{i2\pi wn}.$$
(11)
Then,we can define the power spectrum of the attractor as:

$$P(w)=\underset{N\mathrm{}}{lim}<|s(w,N)|^2>.$$
(12)
The power spectrum of periodic attractors consists of $`\delta `$-peaks at the harmonics of the fundamental frequency, whilst in the chaotic case the spectrum is continous. For a quasiperiodic case characterized by two incommensurate frequencies $`\omega _1`$ and $`\omega _2`$, the spectrum contains all the frequencies of the form $`n\omega _1+m\omega _2`$.

Many works report power spectra of a SNA with singular continuous  character, like those found in some models of quasiperiodic lattices and quasiperiodically forced quantum systems . This spectrum has a fractal appearance, where there are peaks weaker than $`\delta `$-functions distributed along a self-similar landscape.

Fig. 9 shows the power spectrum of the SNA of the Fig. 2. It has many scales of peaks, exhibiting a fractal appearance. We neglected the transient of the first $`10^4`$ iterations and took the next $`10^4`$. The detailed study of the fractal character of this power spectrum as well as a renormalization group approach for it is the subject of a forthcoming publication.

## IV Conclusions

We are able to show that a strange nonchaotic attrator can result from the dynamics of a periodically driven nonlinear oscillator, the YOS map. We have shown that a fractal object with zero largest Lyapunov exponent can emerge from this dynamics in a finite range of the parameters space. The Hausdorff dimension of this object is $`D_F=1.80\pm 0.09`$. Its correlation function oscillates like those of quasiperiodic attractors and its power spectrum has a fractal (or multifractal) appearance.

## V acknowledgements

MT acknowledges O. Kinouchi by suggesting that this attractor could be strange nonchaotic, is grateful to N.N.Oiwa for valuable discussions, mainly for his criticism against the character of the attractor reported here, thanks C. Denniston for bringing to our attention Ref. , and acknowledges FINEP/Brazil for the partial financial support. We acknowledge J.M. Yeomans for the careful reading of the manuscript. A.S. Cassol and F.L.S. Veiga acknowledge CAPES/CNPq and CNPq, respectively, for partial financial support.