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# The Quest for Quantum Gravity: Testing Times for Theories?

## 1 Introduction

The suggestion made by J.A. Wheeler  that space time may acquire a discrete foamy structure at sub-Planckian scales has received considerable attention. The relevant works span a wide range of research fields, from phenomenological approaches  to theoretical modelling of quantum gravity  and/or string theory . The purpose of this talk is to focus on a recent scenario on the emergence of a foamy space-time structure in the context of string theory , and to discuss briefly its possible phenomenological consequences, especially in an astrophysical context using gamma-ray-bursters (GRB) as the relevant probes .

An important feature of most models of quantum space time foam is the breaking of Lorentz Invariance (LI) by quantum gravity effects. In such an approach LI is only an approximate symmetry of the low-energy world. In the context of the specific model of (stringy) space time foam proposed in , the basic idea may be summarised as follows: consider a closed-string state propagating in a $`(D+1)`$-dimensional space-time, which impacts a very massive $`D`$(irichlet) particle embedded in this space-time. In the modern view of string theory, $`D`$ particles must be included in the consistent formulation of the ground-state vacuum configuration. We argue that the scattering of the closed-string state on the $`D`$ particle induces recoil of the latter, which distorts the surrounding space-time in a stochastic manner.

From a string-theory point of view, the essential feature is the deviation from conformal invariance of the relevant world-sheet $`\sigma `$ model that describes the recoil. This is compensated by the introduction of a Liouville field , which in turn is identified with the target time in the approach  adopted here.

## 2 Non-Trivial Optical Properties of Space-Time Foam

It has been pointed out in , based on some models of space-time foam in the context of Liouville strings, that the quantum-gravity ‘medium’ may affect the optical properties of the vacuum by inducing, among others, effects associated with a non-trivial refractive index.

Similar phenomena have also been found  within the so-called ‘loop gravity’ approach to the dynamics of quantum space-time . In what follows we shall describe briefly the phenomenon by restricting ourselves, for definiteness, to a specific stringy model of quantum space time foam, in which one encounters massive $`D`$-brane defects .

In such a picture, the recoil of the massive space-time defect, during the scattering with the low-energy probe (e.g. photon or neutrino), curves the surrounding space time, giving rise to a gravitational field of the form $`G_{ij}\eta _{ij}+𝒪\left(\frac{E}{M_Dc^2}\right)`$, where $`c`$ is the velocity of light in empty space, $`E<<M_D`$ is the photon energy, and $`M_D`$ the gravitational scale of the defect. In string theory, $`M_D=M_s/g_s`$, where $`M_s`$ is the string scale, and $`g_s<<1`$ is the string coupling (assumed weak). One may identify $`M_D`$ with the Planck scale $`10^{19}`$ GeV in four space-time dimensions, or keep the $`M_D`$ as a phenomenological parameter to be constrained by observations .

An important effect of such a distortion of space time is the appearance of an induced index of refraction: the effective (group) velocity $`v`$ of photons in the quantum-gravitational ‘medium’ depends in a way proportional to the energy of the particle probe:

$$v=c\left(1𝒪\left(\frac{E}{M_Dc^2}\right)\right)$$
(1)
where the minus sign reflects the fact that there are no superluminal propagation in the $`D`$-brane recoil approach to space time foam. This latter property has to be contrasted with some models in the loop gravity approach , where superluminal effects are present, leading to a dependence on the helicity of the photon state and thus characteristic birefringence effects. Notice that, since the space-time foam effects (1) are proportional to the energy of the particle probe, the phenomenon is quite distinct from conventional electromagnetic plasma effects, which attenuate with increasing energy. As emphasised in , the effect (1) appears as a mean-field effect. Such an effect may be either severely constrained  by ultra-high-energy ($`10^{20}`$ eV) cosmic-ray (UHECR) data  or be viewed as implying that the standard assumptions on the maximum distance travelled by very-high-energy radiation have to be revised .

In addition to the above mean-field effects, there are stochastic fluctuations about this mean value, which manifest themselves as light-cone fluctuations, leading to a stochastic spread in the arrival times of photons from a source at distance $`L`$ of the form :

$$\mathrm{\Delta }t=\frac{\sqrt{<\sigma ^2><\sigma _0>^2}}{L}$$
(2)
where $`\sigma =_{n=0}^{\mathrm{}}\sigma _n`$, with $`\sigma _n`$ denoting the $`nth`$ order term, with respect to an expansion in powers of the gravitational fluctuations $`h_{\mu \nu }`$ about flat space time, of the squared geodesic separation $`2\sigma (x,x^{})`$ between two space-time points $`x`$ and $`x^{}`$. The calculation for the recoil case, then, yields : $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=𝒪\left(g_s\frac{EL}{M_Dc^3}\right)`$, where the suppression by the extra power of $`g_s`$, as compared with the mean-field effect (1), is due to the fact that the effect (2) represents quantum fluctuations about the mean value.

Notice that the effect (2) is not associated with any modification of the dispersion relation of the particle probes, but pertains strictly to fluctuations in the arrival times of photons . In fact, from its construction, the effect is associated with the quantum uncertainties (notably probe-energy dependent ) about the mean value of the recoil velocity along the incident direction, say $`U_x`$. These are non zero even in the case of a vanishing mean-field $`U_x`$ that may characterize models of isotropic space time foam. In such isotropic scenaria one averages $`U_x`$ over all possible directions, which leads to a vanishing refractive index effect (1). This in fact provides a possible counterargument on recent claims  that violations of Lorentz symmetry which grow linearly with the particle energy may be incompatible with UHECR data. Incidentally, if one adopts the point of view that UHECR may come from sources within a 50 Mpc radius from us, as seems to have been suggested by the photon-pion production off the cosmic-background radiation , then one would obtain a temporal dispersion of UHECR due to such effects over a period of $`10^8`$ sec.

## 3 Astro-particle Physics Phenomenology of Stringy Space-Time Foam

Although the effects (1) and (2) are tiny, however they are enhanced the further the photon travels. Hence, data from distant cosmological sources, such as GRB, should provide a stringent constraint on these effects.

We presented in  a detailed analysis of the astrophysical data for a sample of GRB whose redshifts $`z`$ are known (see fig. 1 for the data of a typical burst: GRB 970508). We looked (without success) for a correlation with the redshift, calculating a regression measure for the stochastic effect (2) (c.f. figure (2)), but also for the refractive index effect (1).

We determined limits on the quantum gravity scale $`M_D`$ by constraining the possible magnitudes of the slopes in linear-regression analyses of the differences between the widths and arrival times of pulses in different energy ranges from five GRBs with measured redshifts, as functions of the cosmically expanded redshift $`\stackrel{~}{z}`$. Using the current value for the Hubble expansion parameter, $`H_0=100h_0`$ km/s/Mpc, where $`0.6<h_0<0.8`$, we obtained $`M_D𝒪\left(10^{15}\right)\mathrm{GeV}`$ on the possible quantum-gravity effects.

## 4 Conclusions

We have discussed here some possible low-energy astrophysical probes of quantum gravity, concentrating on the possibility that the velocity of light might depend on its frequency, i.e., the corresponding photon energy. This idea is very speculative, and the model calculations that we have reviewed require justification and refinement. However, we feel that the suggestion is well motivated by the basic fact that gravity abhors rigid bodies, and the related intuition that the vacuum should exhibit back-reaction effects and act as a non-trivial medium. These features have appeared in several approaches to quantum gravity, including the canonical approach and ideas based on extra dimensions.

As could be expected, we have found no significant effect in the data available on GRBs , either in the possible delay times of photons of higher energies, or in the possible stochastic spreads of velocities of photons with the same energy. However, it has been established that such probes may be sensitive to scales approaching the Planck mass, if these effects are linear in the photon energy. We expect that the redshifts of many more GRBs will become known in the near future.

Future observations of higher-energy photons from GRBs  would be very valuable, since they would provide a longer lever arm in the search for energy-dependent effects on photon propagation. As emphasised in the text, such observations are essential for the stochastic quantum gravity effect (2), and hence should be considered complementary to cosmic ray or other astrophysical data, which may not be relevant for constraining this effect.

## Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the organisers of the 2000 Lake Louise Winter Institute for the warm hospitality and for providing a thought stimulating atmosphere during the conference.


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# The Fractal Universe

## 1 Introduction

It was thought that a subject like Celestial Mechanics belonged to the domain of deterministic Mechanics. However studies by Laskar subsequently confirmed, that the inner planetary system is chaotic with a small inverse Lyapunov exponent sheds new light on the topic. This need not be surprising because the solar system is really a many body system. Further, it is possible to treat a system with time varying constant of gravitation as a dynamical system. Indeed in certain cosmological schemes the universal constant of gravitation $`G`$ varies, with time.
On the other hand there has been an ongoing debate whether the Universe is homogeneous at the largest scales or if space time is indeed a differentiable manifold at the smallest scales.
It must be observed that from one point of view, the universe is not a ”continuum” but rather, displays a fractal character. Thus within an atom, the nucleus occupies a very tiny fraction of the volume, roughly $`10^{15}`$. Then there is a wide gap till we reach the orbiting electrons. Similarly there are intermolecular distances, interplanetary, interstellar, intergalactic…. distances which provide relatively huge gaps. This is not in the spirit of a uniform continuum.
We will now argue that this is because, for example the nucleons are bound together, so also the electrons and the nucleons are bound together, the atoms in the molecules are bound together… and so on with subsequent gaps, which leads to some interesting scale dependent consequences, all this in the context of a Brownian underpinning.

## 2 The Fractal Universe

In  it was argued that we could introduce a ”Scaled” Planck Constant given by

$$h_110^{93}$$
(1)
for super clusters;

$$h_210^{74}$$
(2)
for galaxies and

$$h_310^{54}$$
(3)
for stars.
This was directly related to the fact that we have the following Random Walk relations:

$$Rl_1\sqrt{N_1}$$
(4)
$$Rl_2\sqrt{N_2}$$
(5)
$$l_2l_3\sqrt{N_3}$$
(6)
$$Rl\sqrt{N}$$
(7)
where $`N_110^6`$ is the number of superclusters in the universe, $`l_110^{25}cms`$ is a typical supercluster size $`N_210^{11}`$ is the number of galaxies in the universe and $`l_210^{23}cms`$ is the typical size of a galaxy, $`l_31`$ light year is a typical distance between stars and $`N_310^{11}`$ is the number of stars in a galaxy, $`R`$ being the radius of the universe $`10^{28}cms,N10^{80}`$ is the number of elementary particles, typically pions in the universe and $`l`$ is the pion Compton wavelength.
The relation (7) was observed nearly a century ago by Weyl and Heddington. It was shown (Cf.ref.) that far from being empirical this relation can be deduced on the basis of the fluctuational creation of particles from a background Zero Point Field or Quantum Vacuum, in a scheme which leads to a cosmology consistent also with Dirac’s large number coincidences and in which the gravitational constant $`G`$ varies with time,

$$GT^1.$$

From this point of view the Random Walk character of equation (7) is not accidental, and this reasoning could be extended to equations (4),(5) and (6), in the light of equations (1), (2) and (3). This is against the spirit of deterministic mechanics and it may be mentioned that it leads to a fractal character.
It may be observed that in all these cases we have a length, the Compton wavelength or its analogue which defines regions of matter separating relatively empty spaces.
Infact it was also argued in that these scaled ”Compton wavelengths” and scaled ”Planck Constants” arise due to the well known equation of gravitational orbits,

$$\frac{GM}{L}v^2$$
(8)
On the other hand equation (8) can be viewed as resulting from the Virial Theorem, where the velocity is replaced by the velocity dispersion.
This velocity $`v`$ would be different at different scales. For example for a black hole it would be the velocity of light, while for galaxies it is $`10^7cms`$ per second. It is this circumstance that produces the above scales leading to fractality.
We could go one step further, because we expect that the same effect would apply to solar type systems: The planets and other objects are bound quite close to the sun compared to the interstellar distances. Infact we can verify that this is so for Kuiper Belt objects which have been studied in the recent past. In this case a typical size is $`5km`$, the distances are $`10^{15}cm`$, masses are $`10^{19}gms`$ their number is $`10^{10}`$ while an application of equation (8) shows that the velocities are $`10^5cms`$ per second. It can now be shown quite easily that this defines a scaled Planck Constant $`h_410^{34}`$.
Incidentally from (8) we could easily deduce that the angular momentum $`J`$ is given by

$$JM^2$$
(9)
It is quite remarkable that the equation (9) also applies to elementary particles and Regge trajectories. This is a further substantiation of the rationale for the fractal structure given above in the light of bound systems separated by relatively large and relatively empty spaces and applies right upto the level of galaxies.


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# Definition 1

S.P.Novikov, A.S.Schwarz111S.Novikov, Math Department and IPST, University of Maryland at College Park, MD, 20742-2431, USA and Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Moscow 117940, novikov@ipst.umd.edu, fax (USA)-301-3149363; A.Schwarz, Math Department, University of California, Davis, USA. Research of the first author is supported in part by the NSF Grant DMS9704613

Discrete Lagrangian Systems on Graphs. Symplecto-Topological Properties222This work already appeared in the Russia Math Surveys, 1999, v 54 n 1

Symplecto–Topological Properties

This work extends the results of  where the Symplectic Wronskian was constructed for the linear systems on Graphs and applied in the Scattering Theory for the Graphs with tails.

Let us consider any one-dimensional locally finite simplicial complex (Graph) $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ without ends (i.e. every vertex $`P`$ belongs to at least two but to the finite number of edges $`R_i`$ only). All set of vertices is numerated by the index $`j,Pj(P)`$. The following set of data should be given:

1.Family $`S`$ of finite subsets $`\alpha S`$ in the set of all vertices.

2.Differentiable manifolds $`N_P`$ associated with every vertex $`P`$ of our Graph $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Let $`x_P`$ be a local ccordinate in the manifold $`N_P`$.

3.Smooth real-valued functions $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^\alpha `$ for every set $`\alpha `$; These functions are defined on the product of all manifolds $`N_{j_q}`$ associated with vertices belonging to the set $`\alpha `$

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }^\alpha (x_{j_1},\mathrm{},x_{j_{|\alpha |}}):N_{j_1}\times \mathrm{}\times N_{j_{|\alpha |}}R`$ (1)
Here $`|\alpha |`$ means the number of vertices belonging to $`\alpha `$.

Using this data, we introduce a Nonlinear Discrete Lagrangian Problem:

The Total Lagrangian of the system is by definition a functional $`L`$ below defined on the functions (fields) $`\mathrm{\Psi }(P)=x_PN_P`$; The Euler–Lagrange equation is defined by this Lagrangian. So we have

$`L\{\mathrm{\Psi }\}={\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}\mathrm{\Lambda }^\alpha (x_{j_1},\mathrm{},x_{j_{|\alpha |}})`$ (2)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\delta Ł}{\delta \mathrm{\Psi }(P)}}={\displaystyle \frac{L}{x_P}}`$ (3)
We consider the Graph $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ as a geodesic metric space with length of all edges equal to 1. The Diameter $`d(\alpha )`$ of any finite set $`\alpha `$ is equal to the maximal distance between the points of this set.

###### Definition 1

The Lagrangian Problem is called Local if there exists a number $`M`$ such that $`d(\alpha )<M`$ for all subsets $`\alpha S`$. We say that this problem is presented in the tree-like form if every set of vertices $`\alpha `$ is realized as a full set of vertices of the simply-connected subgraph (tree) $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

###### Lemma 1

Every Local Lagrangian Problem can be presented in the local tree-like form.

Proof of this lemma is easy. First of all, we add to the set $`\alpha `$ the shortest paths in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ transforming every set $`\alpha `$ into the set of all vertices of the connected subgraph. This step does not increase the diameter of our set. We extend our function $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^\alpha `$ to the new variables (vertices) trivially. If the new subgraph is nonsimply-connected, we start to remove edges (not vertices) from its cycles one by one, destroying all cycles. Finally we are coming to the connected trees. Lemma is proved.

###### Remark 1

As far as we know only nonlinear discrete time-independent Lagrangian Systems on the discretized line have been considered before where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=Z,N_P=N,\mathrm{\Lambda }^\alpha =\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ (see ).

We consider now only local tree-like presented Lagrangian Systems. For every pair of vertices $`P,Q\alpha `$ with indices $`j,k`$ we choose a unique oriented path $`l_{jk}^\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$ joining these vertices. We have $`[l_{jk}^\alpha ]=QP`$ for the corresponding chains. Let us introduce now a $`C_1(\mathrm{\Gamma };P)`$–valued 2-form on the infinite product of all manifolds $`N_P`$ associated with vertices

$$N^{\mathrm{}}=\underset{j}{}N_j$$

with local coordinats $`(_jx_j)`$. Here $`C_1`$ means a linear space of all $`R`$-valued 1-chains on the Graph.

$`\mathrm{\Omega }={\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}\mathrm{\Omega }^\alpha ={\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2\mathrm{\Lambda }^\alpha }{x_jx_k}}[l_{jk}^\alpha ]dx_jdx_k`$ (4)
###### Theorem 1

1.The form $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is well-defined, i.e. for every edge $`R\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ its coefficient is a well-defined $`R`$-valued 2-form on the finite-dimensional manifold; 2. This form is closed $`d\mathrm{\Omega }=0`$; 3.After restriction on the submanifold of the solutions of Euler-Lagrange equation this form is a 1-cycle on the Graph $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$

$$\delta L=0\mathrm{\Omega }=0$$

Therefore this form takes values in the group $`H_1^{open}(\mathrm{\Gamma };R)`$.

Proof. The first part of this theorem follows immediately from the construction of the form and locality. For the proof of the part 2 we need to use the properties of the tree-like representation calculating the coefficient of the edge $`R\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$ in the form $`d\mathrm{\Omega }^\alpha `$. Let $`R=QP`$ with indices $`j,k`$. The subgraph $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$ minus $`R`$ is a union of 2 disconnected parts $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_P`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_Q`$ containing separately the vertices $`P`$ and $`Q`$. Let $`T\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$ be any third vertex with index $`i`$ and $`T\mathrm{\Gamma }_P`$. The unique path $`l_{ij}^\alpha `$ joining $`T`$ and $`P`$, does not contain the edge $`R`$. The unique path $`l_{ik}^\alpha `$ joining $`T`$ and $`Q`$ contains the edge $`R`$.There are exactly two terms containing \[R\] in the 3-vertex configuration $`P,Q,T`$. Consider the coefficient of the edge \[R\] coming from the third derivatives in the calculation of $`d\mathrm{\Omega }^\alpha `$:

$$(\mathrm{})[R]\frac{^3\mathrm{\Lambda }^\alpha }{x_ix_jx_k}=_i(\mathrm{})=_k(\mathrm{})$$

We can see that this term in the coefficient appears exactly twice with opposite signs. Therefore $`d\mathrm{\Omega }^\alpha =0`$. Let us point out that we did not used the Euler-Lagrange equation until now. For the proof of the statement 3, we observe that

$$\mathrm{\Omega }|_P=\underset{\alpha }{}\underset{k}{}\frac{^2\mathrm{\Lambda }^\alpha }{x_jx_k}dx_jdx_k$$

where $`P,Q\alpha `$ and $`j,k`$ are the corresponding indices. Therefore we have

$$\mathrm{\Omega }|_P=\underset{k}{}x_k\{\underset{\alpha }{}d_{x_j}\mathrm{\Lambda }^\alpha \}dx_k$$

However, the Euler-Lagrange equation implies:

$$\underset{\alpha }{}d_{x_j}\mathrm{\Lambda }^\alpha =0$$

Our theorem is proved.

###### Remark 2

For the paiwise interactions where all sets $`\alpha S`$ contain 2 points only, we construct a tree-like representation trivially: Add to every set $`\alpha =(P,Q)`$ any simple path $`l_{PQ}`$ joining these points. Extend the potentials $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^\alpha (P,Q)`$ trivially. In this case the second statement of our theorem is obvious because all third derivatives of the Lagrangian $`L`$ along the variables of any triple of distinct points are equal to zero.

###### Remark 3

In the Appendix to the work  written by the present authors, the $`H_1^{open}(\mathrm{\Gamma };R)`$-valued 2-form $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ on the space of the classical solutions $`\delta L=0`$ has been constructed already. We considered a real selfadjoint operator $`L_\psi `$ which is a linearization of our problem near the solution $`\psi `$. Following , we have a Symplectic Scalar Product–”The Symplectic Wronskian– on the tangent space to the space of solutions in the point $`\psi `$:

$$W(\delta \psi _2,\delta \psi _1)=W(\delta _1\psi ,\delta _2\psi ),L_\psi \delta _q\psi =0,q=1,2$$

This construction determines a $`H_1^{open}(\mathrm{\Gamma };R)`$-valued 2-form on the space of solutions for the Lagrangian Problem $`\delta L=0`$. However, this construction is unique and canonical for the special cases only: for the case of nearest neighbors and for the case of trees. Our proof that this construction leeds to the closed form, is based on identification of this form with one obtained from the present construction. After this identification (which is easy) we see that we need to invent the tree-like representation of the local variational problem as it was done in the present work. Otherwise our construction of the form $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ can leed to the nonclosed form.

Following Partial Cases have been considered already:

1.The case of discretized line $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=Z`$– see . The symplectic form $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ in this case has been considered as an ordinary $`R`$-valued form. It agrees with our theorem because $`H_1^{open}(R;R)=R`$. In this case our 2-form coinsides with the one constructed by Veselov. However, even that is not obvious immediately.

2.The cases of linear operators on Simplicial Complex $`K`$ acting in the spaces of chains of different dimensions–see . We proved in  that all these cases can be reduced to the operators acting on 0-cochains of the Graph $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$–the one–dimensional skeleton in the first baricentrical subdivision $`K^{}`$ of the complex $`K`$. In these works beginning from  the properties of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ as a symplectic $`H_1^{open}(\mathrm{\Gamma },R)`$-valued form have been applied to the Scattering Theory for the Graphs with Tails. In particular, all unitarity properties of scattering follow from Elementary Topology and Symplectic Algebra.

Problem: Investigate the form $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ for the pairwise nonlocal interaction $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^\alpha (P,Q),\alpha =(P,Q)`$. Let all manifolds $`N_P`$ are equal to the sphere $`S^m`$ or to the same compact Lie Group group $`G`$, and the interaction potentials are also translationally invariant. Especially interesting cases are following:

1.The Graph $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is equal to $`Z^n`$. How to make an optimal choice of the minimal paths $`l_{P,Q}`$? Which power of decay is necessary for the good properties of the form $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ on the space of classical solutions? Is it always of the order below?

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }(P,Q)n^{n2ϵ},n=d(P,Q)$$

2.The Graph $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is a homogeneous tree with $`f`$ number of edges meeting each other in every vertex. It looks like the decay should be exponential like

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }(P,Q)\mathrm{exp}\{ad(P,Q)\}$$

with $`a>a_0(m)`$ where $`a_0`$ can be found easily. However, we do not know what is going to happen with our form after the restriction on the space of exact solutions.


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# Evidence for a null entropy of extremal black holes

## I introduction

Extremal black holes have an important and controversial status in black-hole physics. It had been traditionally believed that an extremal black hole is the limiting case of its nonextremal counterpart; when the inner Cauchy horizon and the outer event horizon coincide, the nonextremal black hole becomes an extremal one . However, this traditional point of view has been recently challenged by Hawking et al. , who based their arguments on the qualitative differences between the topologies of extremal and nonextremal black holes, differences which raise doubts about limiting arguments.

While it is well established that a nonextremal black hole bears an entropy which is proportional to its surface area $`S_{BH}=A/4\mathrm{}`$  (we use gravitational units in which $`G=c=1`$), there is no general agreement on the entropy of extremal black holes. Based on the different topologies of extremal and nonextremal Reissner-Nordström black holes, Hawking et al.  and Teitelboim  argued that extremal black holes have zero entropy even though their event horizon has nonzero area. For further reading see e.g.,  and references therein.

In this paper we examine the consistency of the Bekenstein-Hawking area-entropy relation $`S_{BH}=A/4\mathrm{}`$ with the properties of extremal black holes. To this end, we shall use a combination of both quantum, thermodynamic, and statistical physics arguments: In Sec. II we construct a gedanken experiment in which the (quantum) generalized second law of thermodynamics is shown to be incompatible with the area-entropy relation as applied to extremal black holes. In Sec. III we show that the standard quantization of angular momentum and electric charge in nature, when applied to extremal black holes, are incompatible with the area-entropy relation. The same argument leads to a zero-entropy conjecture for extremal black holes.

## II Gedanken experiments with extremal black holes

We consider a neutral object which is lowered towards an extremal Kerr-Newman black hole. We challenge the validity of accepted physical laws in the most ‘dangerous’ situation, i.e., when the energy delivered to the black hole is as small as possible. We therefore bring the object as close to the horizon as possible, and then drop it in. The descent of the body, if sufficiently slow, is known to be an adiabatic process which causes no change in the black-hole horizon area .

To zeroth order in particle-hole interaction the energy (energy-at-infinity) $`^{(0)}`$ of the object in the black-hole spacetime is given by Carter’s  integrals (constants of motions). As first shown by Christodoulou  (see also ), $`^{(0)}(r=r_+)=\mathrm{\Omega }^{(0)}L_z`$ at the point of capture, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(0)}=a/(r_+^2+a^2)`$ is the angular velocity of the black hole, $`L_z`$ is the conserved angular momentum of the particle, and $`r_+=M`$ is the location of the black-hole horizon.

One should also consider first-order interactions between the black hole and the object’s angular momentum: As the particle spirals into the black hole (in the case $`L_z^20`$) it interacts with the black hole, so the horizon generators start to rotate, such that at the point of assimilation the black-hole angular velocity $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ has changed from $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(0)}`$ to $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(0)}+\mathrm{\Omega }_c^{(1)}`$. The corresponding first-order energy correction is $`^{(1)}=\mathrm{\Omega }_c^{(1)}L_z`$. On dimensional analysis we expect $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c^{(1)}`$ to be of the order of $`O(L_z/M^3)`$. In fact, Will  has performed a perturbation analysis for the problem of a ring of particles rotating around a slowly rotating (neutral) black hole, and found $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c^{(1)}=L_z/4M^3`$. As would be expected from a perturbative approach, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c^{(1)}`$ is proportional to $`L_z`$. To our best knowledge, no exact calculation of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c^{(1)}`$ has been performed for generic Kerr-Newman black holes. We therefore write $`^{(1)}=\omega L_z^2`$, and obtain

$$=^{(0)}+^{(1)}=\frac{aL_z}{M^2+a^2}+\omega L_z^2,$$
(1)
for the particle’s energy at the point of capture.

The assimilation of the object results with a change $`\mathrm{\Delta }M=`$ in the black-hole mass, and a change $`\mathrm{\Delta }J=L_z`$ in its angular momentum. With the plausible assumption of cosmic censorship  one may argue from Hawking’s area theorem  ($`\mathrm{\Delta }A0`$) to find

$$\omega \frac{M}{2(M^2+a^2)^2}.$$
(2)
For the analysis to be self-consistent, the black-hole condition $`M^2a^2Q^20`$ should be satisfied after the assimilation of the object. This requires

$$\omega \frac{M(M^23a^2)}{2(M^2+a^2)^3},$$
(3)
which is always a weaker condition than the condition Eq. (2). We therefore conclude, that provided cosmic censorship is respected, the final black hole (in the case $`L_z^20`$) is not extremal \[the two expressions Eq. (2) and Eq. (3) coincide for the unique case $`a=0`$ (first considered in ), in which case second-order interactions between the black hole and the object’s angular momentum should be considered\].

The increase in black-hole surface area due to the assimilation of the object is of the order of $`O(|L_z|)`$. Evidently, this can be minimized for $`L_z=0`$, in which case one finds $`\mathrm{\Delta }A=0`$. This result is consistent with Hawking’s (classical) area theorem .

We next examine the gedanken experiment from the point of view of a quantum theory of gravity. A complete quantum theory of gravity is, of course, beyond our present reach. We do have, however, an important fingerprint of the elusive theory. The Bekenstein-Hawking area-entropy relation $`S_{BH}=A/4(\mathrm{}G/c^3)^{1/2}`$ involves the universal constants $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`G`$ of quantum theory and gravitation, respectively. It therefore allows a glance into the realm of quantum gravity. The concept of black-hole entropy is intimately related to the generalized second law (GSL) of thermodynamics  “The sum of the black-hole entropy and the common (ordinary) entropy in the black-hole exterior never decreases”.

We realize that the result $`\mathrm{\Delta }S_{BH}=0`$ (this is a direct consequence of the result $`\mathrm{\Delta }A=0`$ provided the relation $`S_{BH}=A/4\mathrm{}`$ holds true for extremal black holes) does not respect the GSL; the object’s entropy disappears with no obvious physical mechanism to compensate for its loss. We recall, however, that the essence of a quantum theory is the Heisenberg quantum uncertainty principle. It implies that $`\delta L_z^2`$ cannot vanish identically for a fairly localized object, since according to the uncertainty principle this would give rise to a large uncertainty in its canonically conjugate variable, the azimuthal angle $`\varphi `$. \[Recall for example, that the stationary states of the hydrogen atom, which are also eigenstates of the $`L_z`$ operator (and hence have a definite value of $`L_z`$, and a vanishing $`\delta L_z^2`$), have a probability distribution which is $`\varphi `$-independent, i.e., the corresponding wave function is completely unlocalized in the $`\varphi `$ direction, whereas the semiclassical analysis requires the descending object to be fairly localized.\] Specifically, we have the uncertainty relation

$$\sqrt{\delta L_z^2}\frac{\mathrm{}}{2\delta \varphi }\mathrm{},$$
(4)
where $`\delta \varphi 1`$ if the particle is in the equatorial plane, and $`\delta \varphi `$ can be made of the order of unity if the particle is near the black-hole poles (note that the particle cannot be localized at the pole itself, since this would violate the uncertainty relation between the angle variable $`\theta `$, and the corresponding canonically conjugate angular momentum).

Taking cognizance of Eq. (4) we obtain $`(\mathrm{\Delta }A)_{min}=O(\mathrm{})`$ within the quantum framework. According to the standard area-entropy relation, the corresponding increase in black-hole entropy is of the order of $`O(1)`$. However, this increase in black-hole entropy cannot guarantee the GSL’s validity; the disappeared entropy (the object’s entropy) is generically larger than $`O(1)`$. Thus, assuming the validity of the area-entropy relation for extremal black holes one finds $`\mathrm{\Delta }S_{tot}=\mathrm{\Delta }S_{BH}S_{object}<0`$ in our gedanken experiment, in contradiction with the GSL . This motivates the conjecture that the area-entropy relation is not applicable for extremal black holes.

The important point to be emphasized is, that within the quantum theory the final black hole (obtained after the capture of the object) is not extremal any more \[see the discussion after Eqs. (2) and (3)\]. The final black-hole entropy is therefore given by the standard Bekenstein-Hawking relation $`S_{BH}^{fin}=A^{fin}/4\mathrm{}`$. Assuming that the initial black-hole entropy is zero (for an extremal black hole), one obtains $`\mathrm{\Delta }S_{tot}=\mathrm{\Delta }S_{BH}S_{object}=A^{fin}/4\mathrm{}S_{object}>0`$ (for black holes much larger than the test object, as required by the semiclassical analysis), in agreement with the GSL.

The argument presented in this section supports the idea that the area-entropy relation is not valid for extremal black holes. On the other hand, the zero-entropy conjecture for extremal black holes was shown to be compatible with the GSL. \[Of course, this is not to say that a zero entropy is the only resolution; an entropy of the form (say) $`S=\mathrm{ln}(A/\mathrm{})`$ for extremal black holes would also be compatible with the GSL. However, the gedanken experiment reveals that the standard proportionality between black-hole surface area and entropy, if applied to extremal black holes would contradict the GSL.\] In the next section we give further evidence in support of the conjecture that extremal black holes have zero entropy.

## III Angular-momentum and charge quantization vs. the area-entropy relation

The quantization of extremal black holes was discussed by Mazur  and Bekenstein (see, e.g., ): The extremal Kerr black hole is defined by the relation $`M^4=J^2`$, which implies $`A=8\pi M^2`$. One enforces the quantization by replacing the total angular-momentum by the well-known eigenvalues of the corresponding quantum operator, namely $`J^2j(j+1)\mathrm{}^2`$, where $`j`$ is a non-negative integer or half-integer. One therefore obtains

$$A_j=8\pi \sqrt{j(j+1)}\mathrm{},$$
(5)
for the area eigenvalues of the extremal Kerr black hole.

In the spirit of Boltzmann-Einstein formula in statistical physics one relates $`exp(S_{BH})`$ to the number of microstates of the black hole that correspond to a particular external macrostate. Thus, the thermodynamic relation $`S_{BH}=A/(4\mathrm{})`$ between black-hole surface area and entropy implies that the degeneracy corresponding to the $`j`$th area level is

$$g_j=exp[2\pi \sqrt{j(j+1)}].$$
(6)
This quantity is, however, not an integer. We therefore conclude that the area-entropy thermodynamic relation, if applied to extremal black holes, is not compatible with a combination of quantum and standard statistical physics arguments (namely, the Boltzmann-Einstein formula). \[This state of affairs should be contrasted with the corresponding situation for non extremal black holes , where area quantization, statistical physics arguments, and the Bekenstein-Hawking thermodynamic relation all agree !\]

The corresponding discussion for the extreme Reissner-Nordström black hole is very similar to the one presented for extremal Kerr black holes. The extreme Reissner-Nordström black hole is defined by the relation $`|Q|=M`$, which implies $`A=4\pi Q^2`$ for the black-hole surface area. The quantization of its area eigenvalues was discussed by Mazur  and Bekenstein (see, e.g., ); one enforces the quantization by replacing $`Qqe`$, where $`q`$ is an integer and $`e`$ is the elementary charge. One thus obtains

$$A_q=4\pi \alpha q^2\mathrm{},$$
(7)
for the area eigenvalues of the extremal Reissner-Nordström black hole, where $`\alpha =e^2/\mathrm{}`$ is the fine-structure constant. The area spectrum Eq. (7), togather with the thermodynamic relation $`S_{BH}=A/(4\mathrm{})`$, imply that the degeneracy corresponding to the $`q`$th area eigenstate is

$$g_q=exp(\pi \alpha q^2),$$
(8)
which is, again, not an integer. We therefore recover our previous conclusion, that for extremal black holes quantum and statistical physics arguments are not compatible with the area-entropy thermodynamic relation.

Similar analysis reveals the fact, that for an extreme Kerr-Newman black hole (a synthesis of the former two extreme black holes) with or without a magnetic monopole, the area-entropy thermodynamic relation is inconsistent with quantum and statistical physics arguments. This supports the idea that extremal black holes do not comply with the standard area-entropy relation. Moreover, taking cognizance of Eqs. (5) and (7) one finds that the entropy of extremal black holes should equal a constant (the logarithm of an integer) in order to be compatible with the standard statistical physics interpretation of entropy.

We should comment, however, that the entropy of an extremal black hole could agree with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, provided it is not interpreted as a statistical (Boltzmann) entropy.

## IV Summary

We have shown that the Bekenstein-Hawking thermodynamic relation, if applied to extremal black holes, leads to violation of the generalized second law of thermodynamics. This motivates the conjecture that the standard area-entropy relation is not valid for extremal black holes, as first suggested (from a completely different point of view) by Hawking et al. , and by Teitelboim .

Moreover, we have shown that in a quantum framework, the assimilation of a particle by an extremal black hole always results with a final non extremal black hole (under the plausible assumption of cosmic censorship). This final result, togather with a null entropy for extremal black holes restore the validity of the GSL to our gedanken experiment because the huge increase in black-hole entropy (from zero to $`A/4\mathrm{}`$) compensate for the loss of the object’s entropy.

We have further shown that for extremal black holes the area-entropy thermodynamic relation is inconsistent with quantum and statistical physics arguments. The later imply that the entropy of extremal black holes should equal a constant. This should be contrasted with the corresponding situation in the physics of non extremal black holes, where area quantization, statistical physics arguments, and the Bekenstein-Hawking area-entropy thermodynamic relation are all compatible .

We finally note that a zero entropy for extremal black holes is in agreement with the interpretation of black-hole entropy as the logarithm of the number of quantum mechanically distinct ways in which the particular black hole could have been made through successive excitations , because it is has been shown that a non extremal black hole cannot be transformed into an extremal one  (and the present paper also reveals, that within a quantum framework an extremal black hole cannot be transformed into another extremal black hole). These results therefore imply $`S_{ext}=\mathrm{ln}1=0`$ for the entropy of extremal black holes.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank Jacob D. Bekenstein and Avraham E. Mayo for discussions. This research was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation.


text:
# Pattern Formation in the Early Universe

## I Introduction

footnotetext: ats@camelot.mssm.edu§§footnotetext: mparry@ic.ac.uk

Much recent work has been devoted to the topic of preheating in inflationary cosmology. Preheating is a stage of explosive particle production which results from the resonant driving of particle modes by an inflaton oscillating in its potential at the end of inflation .

In regions of parameter space where parametric resonance is effective, much of the energy of the inflaton is transferred to bands of resonant wave modes. This energy transfer is non-thermal and can lead to interesting non-equilibrium behavior. Two examples of the non-equilibrium effects that can be produced are non-thermal phase transitions  and baryogenesis . The non-thermal phase transitions induced during preheating can sometimes lead to topological defect formation , even at energies above the eventual final thermal temperature. Furthermore, non-linear evolution of the field when quantum decay of the resonantly produced particles is negligible leads to a chaotic power-law spectrum of density fluctuations .

In a previous letter , we presented evidence for a new phenomenon that can arise from preheating: pattern formation. It has long been known that many condensed matter systems exhibit pattern formationFor an extensive review of pattern formation in condensed matter systems, see .. Examples of pattern forming systems which have been studied are ripples on sand dunes, cloud streets and a variety of other convective systems, chemical reaction-diffusion systems, stellar atmospheres and vibrated granular materials. All of these physical systems have two features in common. They are all driven in some manner, i.e. energy is input to the system, and they are all dissipative, usually being governed by diffusive equations of motion. Typically, patterns are formed in these systems in the weakly non-linear regime before the energy introduced into the system overwhelms the dissipative mechanism. Sometimes, patterns persist beyond the weakly non-linear regime as well.

At the end of inflation, the inflaton $`\varphi `$ is homogeneous and, in most commonly studied models, oscillating about the minimum of its potential. This oscillation gives an effectively time-dependent mass to fields which are coupled to the inflaton, including fluctuations of the inflaton itself. The time-dependent mass drives exponential growth in particle number in certain bands of wave modes. However the fields into which the inflaton can decay resonantly are also unstable to quantum decay. For these reasons, at the end of inflation, we are considering fields which are driven, due to resonant particle creation, and also dissipative, due to quantum decay. In , we were able to show that pattern formation occurs in a chaotic inflationary model with a self-coupled inflaton in the weakly non-linear regime.

In this paper, we primarily consider a $`\lambda \varphi ^4`$ theory with the addition of a phenomenological decay term to mimic the inflaton’s quantum decay. This model without the decay term has been studied extensively in the literature, and a similar model including the decay term has also been studied .

In , we used restricted initial conditions. We only seeded the resonant band with small fluctuations of order $`10^3`$ of $`\varphi `$, then simulated the field’s evolution. We found that the resonant modes interacted and formed patterns. Here we use initial conditions appropriate to the vacuum at the end of chaotic inflation. We also extend our study to a 3-dimensional volume. In , we did not point out the spatio-temporal nature of the patterns, which was not evident at the time due to an unfortunate coincidence in the form of the pattern at the timesteps at which we viewed the data. Here we note the spatio-temporal behavior. We also discuss resonance giving rise to patterns on cosmological scales.

The paper is ordered as follows: In section II, we present the model we are investigating. In section III, we discuss the initial conditions appropriate for the end of inflation. In sections IV, we present the results of our simulations in two and three spatial dimensions. In section V, we extend our analysis to the two-field case and discuss the possible implications of our results. This is followed by the conclusions.

## II The $`\lambda \varphi ^4`$ Model with Phenomenological Damping

Our field equation in comoving coordinates is

$$\ddot{\varphi }+3H\dot{\varphi }+\gamma \dot{\varphi }\frac{1}{a^2}^2\varphi +\lambda \varphi ^3=0$$
(1)
where $`\gamma `$ is a decay constant, $`\lambda `$ is the self-coupling of the field and $`H\dot{a}/a`$. We convert to conformal time $`dt=a(\tau )d\tau `$ and introduce the field $`\phi =a\varphi `$. Upon rescaling: $`\tau \tau /\sqrt{\lambda }\phi _R`$, $`xx/\sqrt{\lambda }\phi _R`$ and $`\phi \phi \phi _R`$, where subscript $`R`$ denotes “at the start of reheating”, we obtain a new equation

$$\phi ^{\prime \prime }+a\mathrm{\Gamma }\phi ^{}^2\phi (a^{}\mathrm{\Gamma }+\frac{a^{\prime \prime }}{a})\phi +\phi ^3=0,$$
(2)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\gamma /\sqrt{\lambda }\phi _R`$. Further simplification is possible if we note that in $`\lambda \varphi ^4`$ theory, the averaged equation of state during preheating is that of radiation, therefore $`a^{\prime \prime }0`$. We use $`a=1+H_R\tau `$.

It should be noted that pattern formation in the inflaton system is conceptually distinct from condensed matter systems for at least two reasons. First, the equations we study are wave equations with damping, not diffusive equations. Secondly, we expect wave patterns to be formed while the homogeneous mode decays, therefore pattern formation will be a temporary phenomenon, at least in the model above in which gravity is neglected. The driving in $`\lambda \varphi ^4`$ preheating comes from the large initial value of the inflaton at the end of inflation, causing the field to roll and oscillate in its potential. This should be considered in contrast to the typical condensed matter system, in which energy is introduced via boundary conditions (in a convective system) or by a vibrating bed (in a granular material system), and the energy input is essentially constant.

At the end of inflation, we may expand $`\phi `$ about a homogeneous piece and then linearize Eq. (2). Let $`\phi (\tau ,𝐱)=\mathrm{\Phi }(\tau )+\psi (\tau ,𝐱)`$, where $`\psi d^3x=0`$. We obtain

$`\mathrm{\Phi }^{\prime \prime }+\mathrm{\Phi }^3`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (3)
$`\psi _𝐤^{\prime \prime }+a\mathrm{\Gamma }\psi _𝐤^{}+\left(k^2a^{}\mathrm{\Gamma }+3\mathrm{\Phi }^2(\tau )\right)\psi _𝐤`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (4)
where we have taken the Fourier transform in the latter equation. The solution to Eq. (3) is $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\tau )=\text{cn}(\tau ;1/\sqrt{2})`$, and therefore, for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0`$, Eq. (4) becomes a Lamé equation.

For $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0`$, the resonant modes lie in the interval

$$\frac{3}{2}<k^2<\sqrt{3},$$
(5)
and have an amplitude of the form $`\mathrm{exp}(\mu _k\tau )`$, where $`\mu _k`$ is the characteristic exponent or Floquet index. It should be noted that the wavelengths of the resonant modes are of order the Hubble radius immediately after inflation.

For $`\mathrm{\Gamma }0`$, we can introduce $`\overline{\psi }=\psi \mathrm{exp}(\frac{1}{2}a\mathrm{\Gamma }𝑑\tau )`$ giving

$$\overline{\psi }_𝐤^{\prime \prime }+\left(k^2\frac{3}{2}a^{}\mathrm{\Gamma }\frac{1}{4}a^2\mathrm{\Gamma }^2+3\mathrm{\Phi }^2(\tau )\right)\overline{\psi }_𝐤=0.$$
(6)
Now the resonance band becomes time-varying. The modes which can be in resonance at any moment in time satisfy $`\frac{3}{2}<k_{\text{eff}}^2<\sqrt{3}`$, where

$$k_{\text{eff}}^2=k^2\frac{3}{2}a^{}\mathrm{\Gamma }\frac{1}{4}a^2\mathrm{\Gamma }^2.$$
(7)
However the modes we are actually interested in are $`\psi _𝐤/a`$, and these will only grow for times $`\tau 4|\mu _k|/H_R\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. This is because we typically have $`\mathrm{\Gamma }|\mu _k|<H_R1`$ (in rescaled units). Thus, even in the absence of backreactionIt should be noted that backreaction profoundly alters the picture that emerges from a perturbative treatment; see e.g. . In our case backreaction is necessary but also necessarily small., a combination of the expansion of the universe and quantum mechanical decay of the inflaton serves to take the system out of resonance. During this time the values of $`k^2`$ in resonance go from being shifted upwards by an amount $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ to an amount $`4\mu _k^2`$. Effectively this means the resonance band is smeared out in $`k`$-space.

While the above perturbative analysis is helpful it is suitable only for early times as resonance will soon take us away from the linear regime. The effect that we are trying to isolate is intrinsically non-linear so we now resort to numerical simulation of the field equation (2).

## III Initial Conditions

The initial conditions for $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ are those of the end of slow-roll, which is normally supposed to be when $`\ddot{a}=0`$. It is sufficient for our purposes to set $`\mathrm{\Phi }(0)=1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}(0)=0`$.

The fluctuations in the inflaton are quantum in origin. Super-Hubble modes exist which were generated during inflation and have remained fixed in amplitude after leaving the Hubble volume. However these modes do not undergo amplification in this model, so it is not important to quantify them precisely. Of more significance for us are the sub-Hubble modes at the end of inflation. At this time $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is in fact zero and it is appropriate to consider any field to be in the vacuum state. Then the initial conditions for the $`\psi _𝐤`$ are given by the usual results:

$$\psi _𝐤=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\omega _k}}|A_𝐤|e^{2\pi ir_𝐤}\psi _𝐤^{}=i\omega _k\psi _𝐤,$$
(8)
where $`\omega _k^2=k^2+3\mathrm{\Phi }(0)^2`$, $`A_𝐤`$ is a number randomly taken from a Gaussian distribution with zero mean and unit variance, and $`r_𝐤`$ is a random number taken from the interval $`[0,1]`$.

## IV Simulation Results

### A Two dimensions

To simulate the evolution of the field, we discretize the spatial derivatives to fourth-order in $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$, and we use a leapfrog integrator which is accurate to second order in $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$.

Setting the box size to $`256`$ gridpoints per dimension and such that the resonant wave number in the box is $`16`$ is enough to give many different resonant modes in the box, but still have good resolution of the wave, so this is the box size we used. We use periodic boundary conditions.

We set out to identify the weakly non-linear regime. Khlebnikov and Tkachev  showed that, without the decay terms, the self-coupled inflaton system’s non-linear time evolution proceeds as follows: First, the resonant band amplitude grows. Next, when the amplitude in the resonant band is high enough for non-linear effects to become important, period doubling occurs and subsidiary peaks develop in the power spectrum. Further peaks then develop and the spectrum broadens and approaches an exponential spectrum. We tuned $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ such that the amplitude of the resonant band grew, but little period doubling occurred. In this regime, only resonant mode wavelengths exist in the box and they interact with each other non-linearly.

In the expanding case, the increase of the effective damping coefficient $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\text{eff}}=a\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ with increasing scale factor $`a`$ makes it easier to keep the system in the weakly non-linear regime compared to the non-expanding case.

We found the smallest value for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ such that the system remained weakly non-linear was of order $`10^5`$. This is two orders of magnitude smaller than that in the non-expanding case.

In Figure 1 we plot a superposition of the power spectrum at various times during a simulation with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=5\times 10^5`$. It is possible to see that the system stays in the weakly non-linear regime for the entire simulation.

When wave patterns form, the specific pattern which arises is due to the non-linear interaction of the wave modes. The amplitude of wave modes separated by different angles grows at different rates. Modes separated by angles with the fastest growing amplitudes dominate the solution and form the wave pattern.

It is also possible that patterns vary temporally. This is the situation we find in the $`\lambda \varphi ^4`$ model. What we see in both the expanding and non-expanding cases is that a pattern emerges from the fluctuation background, then the peaks and valleys begin to move relative to each other.

The temporal dependence is almost periodic. Peaks and troughs in the field energy align along one direction in a ripple-like pattern, then the pattern flips to align in a direction orthogonal to the original direction. We say the dependence is ‘almost’ periodic because the field flips back and forth, but the timing of the flips varies as the field evolves. This leads us to believe that, for instance, if there were a background driving field that gave constant energy input (as opposed to the decaying background in chaotic inflation) the flipping would be truly periodic.

In Figures 2, 3 and 4 we present snapshots of the evolution of the Fourier transform of the inflaton in two dimensions in an expanding universe. And in plots 5, 6 and 7 we present snapshots of the evolution of $`\varphi (x,y)`$ in configuration space in two dimensions in an expanding universe. Notice the change in direction between the ripples in Figure 6 and 7.

In the expanding case (in contrast to the non-expanding case), the patterns are more clearly delineated and look less noisy. This is due to the fact that the field equation has an effective symmetry breaking potential and this leads to a restoring force on the fluctuations in $`\phi `$. From Eq. (2) we deduce

$$V_{\text{eff}}(\phi )=\frac{1}{4}(\phi ^2a^{}\mathrm{\Gamma })^2$$
(9)
in a radiation dominated universe. The barrier height is $`(a^{}\mathrm{\Gamma }/2)^2`$ which is constant in time. Thus dissipation not only leads to an overall damping of the field, but also leads to degeneracy in the minima of the effective potential. This suggests a novel interpretation of pattern formation in this model: the pattern is actually a network of domain walls separated by the characteristic wavelength of the resonance. If $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ increases then the barrier height increases, reflecting the fact that the non-linear coupling of the modes necessary for pattern formation is suppressed. On the other hand, for small $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, the barrier is not high enough to prevent the field from probing both minima, and again patterns do not form. This is because the system has become strongly non-linear.

### B Three dimensions

Using the same simulation techniques described above, we also find spatio-temporal pattern formation in three dimensions. We plot the field in configuration space in Figures 8, 9 and 10, again with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=5\times 10^5`$. The behavior of these patterns is similar to those found in two dimensions: the pattern forms at the resonant wavelength, then the peaks and valleys begin to move with respect to each other. In these simulations, we set the physical box size such that there were eight resonant wavelengths per dimension in the box. Overall there were 64 gridpoints per dimension and we neglected expansion in these simulations.

## V Discussion

### A Gravitational waves

Since the patterns that we see vary in time, we expect there to be a peak in the gravitational wave spectrum at the resonant frequency for preheating in the weakly non-linear regime. Similar peaks in the gravitational wave spectrum have been seen  in simulations of undamped preheating. These peaks correspond to the resonant and period doubled frequencies. In the pattern forming regime, we expect to see similar peaks of lower amplitude, since the dissipative terms keep the resonant peak in our simulation at lower amplitude than the undamped system. The peak in the gravitational wave spectrum from pattern formation will be of smaller amplitude than that of the fully chaotic system but since the pattern has directionality, this might help in extracting a signal.

### B Large scale structure formation

We would also like to discuss the possibility of patterns occurring on cosmological scales, since, if we could put resonant power at $`100h^1`$Mpc, we would have an explanation for the observed excess power found at these scales . Although such a scale is outside the Hubble radius at the end of inflation, recently a number of authors  have investigated the question of whether resonance can amplify modes with wavelength larger than the Hubble radius. It turns out that this is possible because of the large-scale (many Hubble volumes) coherence of the inflaton at the end of inflation; super-Hubble mode amplification can be thought of as down-scattering from the oscillating zero mode. However in the usual parameter region of some models , this amplification does not seriously affect the post-inflationary power spectrum. This is due to the fact that during inflation in these models, fluctuations in matter fields are suppressed by a factor of $`a^{3/2}`$ compared to fluctuations in the inflaton. Therefore, during preheating, although super-Hubble modes are amplified, they cannot be amplified enough to be significant.

However consider the following model for preheating:

$$V=\frac{1}{4}\lambda \varphi ^4+\frac{1}{2}g^2\varphi ^2\chi ^2.$$
(10)
For $`qg^2/\lambda 1`$, fluctuations in $`\chi `$ are not suppressed during inflation . This is because the effective mass of $`\chi `$ is $`g\varphi `$, and this is much less than $`H`$ during slow roll.

If we now suppose $`\chi `$ decays quantum mechanically into other particles, then we are led to a phenomenological equation of motion akin to Eq. (1)

$$\ddot{\chi }+3H\dot{\chi }+\gamma _\chi \dot{\chi }\frac{1}{a^2}^2\chi +g^2\varphi ^2\chi =0.$$
(11)
With the same simplifications used earlier, and introducing $`X=\chi a\mathrm{exp}(\frac{1}{2}𝑑\tau a\mathrm{\Gamma }_\chi )`$, we obtain the the following equation for the Fourier modes of $`X`$

$$X_𝐤^{\prime \prime }+\left(k_{\text{eff}}^2+q\mathrm{\Phi }^2(\tau )\right)X_𝐤=0,$$
(12)
where now $`k_{\text{eff}}^2=k^23a^{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_\chi /2a^2\mathrm{\Gamma }_\chi ^2/4`$. This differs essentially from Eq. (6) because of the appearance of $`q`$. A partial plot of the instability bands in the $`(k_{\text{eff}}^2,q)`$-plane is shown in Figure 11. When $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\chi 0`$ we have a new feature: for modes with $`k`$ small enough, we can have $`k_{\text{eff}}^2<0`$, i.e. the system can probe the lower half of instability plot.

If $`k_0^{\text{phy}}`$ is the physical scale today on which we want to have a feature in the power spectrum, then this corresponds to a co-moving mode $`k_R`$ at reheating such that

$$\frac{k_R}{_R}=\frac{k_0^{\text{phy}}}{H_0}\frac{a_0}{a_R}\frac{H_0}{H_R},$$
(13)
where $`a^{}/a=aH`$. For a bump at $`100h^1`$Mpc, we find we need $`k_R/_R10^{24}`$. In terms of our dimensionless quantities this becomes $`k_R10^{24}`$ which we want to be the principal wavelength in resonance. It follows that we have either $`k_{\text{eff}}^2<0`$ or $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\chi 10^{48}`$, but from our simulations the latter is ruled out because it will be too small to damp resonance and lead to pattern formation.

If we consider Figure 11 it is readily apparent that it will be difficult to introduce a feature at the required scale. For $`q1`$ we can have resonance at $`k^2=10^{24}`$ but also, ruinously, at all scales down to $`k=0`$. Indeed the characteristic exponent becomes larger as $`k`$ gets smaller\**\**\**It follows that, for $`q1`$, the quantum mechanical decay of the inflaton leads to a red tilt in the power spectrum.. We can avoid this problem for $`q1`$ but only if $`q`$ is fine tuned to an unacceptable degree. In any case the resonance band is broad here (this problem is further exacerbated in our situation by the fact that quantum mechanical decay tends to smear the resonance bands) and peaks for modes with $`k_{\text{eff}}^2>0`$. Thus it is unlikely that super-Hubble mode amplification in this model can lead to a feature at $`100h^1`$Mpc.

However we now mention that it may not be necessary to require such amplification in order to have an effect on large scale structure. It is possible that a post-preheating period of inflation occurs (or even several) and this may bring sub-Hubble modes, previously amplified in narrow band resonance, up to scales appropriate for structure formation. The growth in the scale factor will also be larger if we imagine the inflaton decays into a large number of fields $`\chi _i`$, though we have not considered pattern formation in such models.

It should be noted that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\chi `$ is not constrained in the same way $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\varphi `$ is. The latter has to be small so that radiative corrections do not spoil the required flatness of the inflaton potential. In the rescaled units used here, it is not hard to show that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\varphi 10^{13}`$, where we have taken $`\lambda 10^{13}`$ which leads to the correct magnitude of density perturbations from inflation. Thus our earlier results were obtained with a $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ which was too large to be physical. However the results should go through for the two-field model considered above.

### C Patterns in heavy ion collisions

As a final comment, we would like to point out that the system of equations which we have investigated is similar to that for heavy ion collisions. It is hoped that in coming experiments at RHIC and LHC energies will be obtained which are in excess of the critical temperature for the QCD chiral phase transition. The situation may be modelled by an $`O(4)`$-symmetric theory for the scalar fields $`\mathrm{\Phi }=(\sigma ,\stackrel{}{\pi })`$, where one initially has $`\sigma =\stackrel{}{\pi }=0`$. Due to the expansion of the plasma, the temperature quickly falls below the critical temperature, the $`O(4)`$-symmetry is broken, and the system evolves to new equilibrium values $`\sigma 0,\stackrel{}{\pi }=0`$. It is during this time that “disoriented chiral condensates” (DCCs), domains in which the pion field develops a non-zero expectation value in a certain direction, may be produced. The subsequent decay of a DCC gives rise to a characteristic signal in the detectors.

The important point for us is that during DCC decay, long-wavelength pion modes are resonantly amplified when $`\sigma `$ oscillates about the minimum of its effective potential. Furthermore $`\sigma `$ decays via $`\sigma 2\pi `$ and it has been argued that this process can be modelled phenomenologically by the addition of a time-dependent friction term. Although some questions remain concerning the applicability of such a term, it is intriguing that a driven-dissipative system exists for DCC decay. This suggests that patterns might turn up at RHIC and LHC. We are currently working on the experimental signatures of such events.

## VI Conclusions

In this paper, we have presented new evidence that there is a pattern forming regime in a $`\lambda \varphi ^4`$ theory during preheating at the end of inflation. We have used vacuum initial conditions appropriate to sub-Hubble modes at the end of inflation. We have shown that patterns arise in both two- and three-dimensions, and that, in the one-field case, they may be thought of as a network of domain walls. Furthermore since the patterns vary spatio-temporally, gravitational waves will be produced. However, relative to the gravitational waves produced in an undamped model, their amplitude will be small, and therefore, unless the directionality of the pattern can aid in detection, extremely difficult to detect.

We have speculated on the possibility, in the context of a two-field model, of putting a resonant band at cosmological scales, in particular at $`100h^1`$Mpc. We conclude that this is not feasible because it is impossible to amplify only the required modes. However this conclusion may change in a model which allows a subsequent period of inflation.

Finally, we point out that heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC may be another physical system which exhibits pattern forming behavior.

Acknowledgements

It is a pleasure to thank Ewan Stewart, Rocky Kolb, Robert Brandenberger, Bruce Bassett and Dan Boyanovsky for a number of useful discussions. We would also like to thank Bob Rosner and the Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flash Group at the University of Chicago for the use of their computational facilities. Much of this work was completed at Fermilab, supported by the DOE and the NASA grant NAG 5-7092, and at Brown under DOE contract DE-FG0291ER40688, Task A. A portion of the computational work in support of this research was performed at the Theoretical Physics Computing Facility at Brown University.


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# Search for radio recombination lines towards the gravitational lens PKS 1830-211

## 1. Introduction

There is evidence that the gravitational lens system PKS 1830-211 has two absorbers at two different redshifts of 0.886 and 0.193. The main lens, a normal galaxy at z=0.886, has been studied in HI, OH and a host of molecular lines (Chengalur, de Bruyn, & Narasimha 1999 and references therein). The only evidence for an additional absorber at z=0.193 is from HI absorption (Lovell et al. 1996; Verheijen et al. 1999) studies. Searches for molecular lines at this redshift have been unsuccessful.

## 2. Observations

Taking advantage of the strong radio continuum of the background source (S$`_{1.4GHz}`$ =10 Jy), we searched for stimulated emission recombination lines at both redshifts, using the VLA111The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. at 20 cm ; the H158$`\alpha `$ line from the z=0.193 system ($`\nu _{rest}`$=1.65 GHz) using a bandwidth of 1.56 MHz and a velocity resolution of 5.3 km s-1 and the H136$`\alpha `$ line from the z=0.886 system ($`\nu _{rest}`$=2.59 GHz) using a bandwidth of 3.125 MHz and a resolution of 21 km s-1. Neither line was detected with 5$`\sigma `$ upper limits to $`|\tau _L|`$ of 5 $`\times `$ 10-5 and 5 $`\times `$ 10-4 corresponding to z=0.193 and z=0.886 respectively.

Since this source is highly variable, we used the VLA to measure the continuum flux density at a single epoch over the frequency range 327 MHz to 45 GHz, to determine the intrinsic spectrum of the background source. The observations were made on 27 Oct, 1997 with 3C 286 as the primary calibrator. Figure 1 (right) shows the continuum flux density as a function of frequency. Assuming that the core radiation at low frequencies has a flat spectrum, we derive upper limits to the free-free optical depth of $`\tau _c`$ $``$ 0.13 at 330 MHz. For Te=7500 K, the corresponding upper limit to the beam averaged emission measure is EM $``$ 4 $`\times `$ 104 pc cm-6 if the gas is at z=0.193 and EM $``$ 105 pc cm-6 if the gas is at z=0.886.

## 3. Constraints on the ionized gas at z=0.193

Since the HI optical depth in the z=0.193 system is the same against both the lensed images of the quasar (Verheijen et al. 1999), we assume that the line emitting gas is uniformly distributed in a slab against the entire continuum source. Figure 1 (left) shows the maximum allowable emission measure of the gas as a function of density that is consistent with the upper limits to the line strength and the continuum optical depth, assuming a line width of 80 km s-1.

Fig 1 shows that our experiment is most sensitive to low density gas (ne = 1$``$10 cm-3) and indicates an upper limit to the beam averaged emission measure of 100 pc cm-6 for this gas in the z=0.193 system. If the line emitting gas is predominantly of density 5$``$10 cm-3, then the size of such a region located anywhere in the observed beam is constrained to be less than 200$``$300 pc in size, assuming a homogenous gas distribution. On the other hand, if the gas is in compact structures with density $``$103 cm-3, then its beam filling factor is constrained to be less than 6 $`\times `$ 10-4. Higher resolution observations of the line at comparable sensitivities and the knowledge of the system’s inclination angle will greatly improve the constraints on the ISM in the z=0.193 absorber. The limits for the z=0.886 system are about ten times higher.

### Acknowledgments.

We thank S. Nair for useful discussions.

## References

Chengalur, J.N., de Bruyn, A.G., & Narasimha, D. 1999, A&A, 343. L79

Lovell, J.E.J. et al 1996, ApJ, 472, L5

Verheijen, M.A.W, Carilli, C., Yun, M.S., & Menten, K. 1999, private comm.


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# Coherent X-Ray Generation with Laser Driven Ions

## Abstract

Small parts of the electronic wavepacket of a multiple charged ion may still tunnel through the high Coulomb barrier for a sufficiently intense laser field of $`10^{15}W/cm^2`$ and higher. Solving numerically the corresponding Schrödinger equation we find that the periodic recollisions of such a wavepacket in the oscillating high power laser field will give rise to coherent X-ray radiation in the multiple keV regime, i.e. substantially higher than predicted or observed before.

preprint:

Since the invention of the laser, scientists have tried to generate coherent light also far below the optical wavelength . The striking advantages in high resolution measurements and imaging are doubtless. All X-ray lasers up to date however still lack the efficiency, size, price and in particular coherence properties of optical laser schemes. In one of the most promising mechanisms for coherent high frequency generation, high power near optical laser fields were imposed on atomic systems. Parts of the electron wavepackets are then oscillating through the ionic core and due to the nonlinear interaction with the nucleus give rise to multiples of the applied laser frequency, i.e. harmonics . In the so called tunneling regime only very small parts of the wavepackets tunnel through the laser modified Coulomb barrier but when returning the so far highest orders of harmonics were observed . The highest possible achievable photon energy has been determined theoretically to give the so called cut-off law

$$n_{max}\mathrm{}\omega =I_p+3.2U_p$$
(1)
with the ionisation potential $`I_p`$, the ponderomotive energy $`U_p=E^2/4\omega ^2`$, $`\mathrm{}`$ the Planck constant, $`n_{max}`$ the maximal order of harmonics and $`E`$ and $`\omega `$ being the maximal amplitude and angular frequency of the applied laser field.
The above simple formular was then explained in a simple three step model : (i) parts from the bound electron wavepacket tunnel through the Coulomb barrier at the time when the laser field is close to its maximum and is sufficiently narrow for a substantial tunnel rate (ii) the born wavepackets oscillates freely and classically in the laser field and when returning has picked up the kinetic or ponderomotive energy 3.2 $`U_p`$ and (iii) at the return with the nucleus may at best drop back to the ground state of energy $`I_p`$ and release in form of radiation the ionisation energy $`I_p`$ and all the gained kinetic energy 3.2 $`U_p`$. If this process is repeated several times, interference among those processes leads to coherence of the generated light .

Many attempts have been made to enhance the above cut-off rule for the benefit of even higher coherent high frequency generation. By preparing the atomic ensemble appropriately prior the interaction with the laser field or turning to more complex systems as molecules, the factor 3.2 could be enhanced to at best the order of 10 . In principle the $`U_p`$ could be strongly increased by several orders of magnitude with present laser technology by increasing the driving laser field strength up to the relativistic regime . However, the Coulomb barrier of neutral atoms is then modified so strongly that the above described three step model does not apply anymore and instead often only Bremsstrahlung harmonics arise.

A large experimental enhancement was recently achieved independently by the groups of Krausz  and by that of Murnane and Kapteyn  where ultra short pulses were employed. With at about 500 eV they have generated the shorted coherent wavelength so far and have entered the so called water window where optical imaging of living species in water is possible. The break through was possible essentially because of the use of very short pulses which allowed to move quickly to the highest intensity of the laser pulse before too much of the ground state wavepacket was lost. In spite of this dramatic improvement a draw back of the short pulses is that only few recollisions of born wavepackets with the atomic core are possible and thus the coherence properties of the generated light are limited.

In this Letter we present a way to enhance high harmonic generation towards the hard X-ray regime, maintaining still high coherence properties. For this purpose we propose to use multiply charged ions  rather than atoms because they possess a considerably larger ionization potential $`I_p`$ and according to the cut-off rule Eq.(1) promise a far larger maximal harmonic order. Since relativistic corrections turned out negligible for the low ion charges of interest here, we solve numerically the corresponding Schrödinger equation. For each effective ion charge we evaluate the appropriate laser electric field strength to allow for tunneling and recollision harmonic generation. For a charge of $`Z`$ = 3 of the ionic core as sensed by the active electron, harmonics up to the order 2500 arise, i.e. with a photon energy of more than 4 keV.

The parameter that has been employed so far to estimate if the laser and atomic parameters are such that the three step tunnel mechanism takes place is the Keldysh parameter $`\gamma _K`$

$$\gamma _K=\sqrt{\frac{Z^2I_p^{(1)}}{2U_p}}=\frac{Z\omega }{E}\sqrt{2I_p^{(1)}}=\frac{Z\omega }{E}$$
(2)
with $`I_p=Z^2I_p^{(1)}`$ being the ionization potential of the ion of interest with effective charge Z and $`I_p^{(1)}`$ the ionization potential for hydrogen. If this parameter is well below unity, one is in the tunneling regime. To have significant tunneling and thus harmonic intensity, we need a small $`\gamma `$. However to avoid substantial ionization this parameter should not be too small. Following ref.  tunneling decreases exponentially with $`Z^3`$ and a $`U_p`$ increasing with $`Z^6`$ is necessary to compensate for this. As this is only an estimation for our model potential we have considered and optimized the tunneling dynamics also via numerical studies prior calculating the spectrum. We show in fact that we have to decrease the $`\gamma `$ parameter with increasing charge of the ion strongly to ensure a sufficiently large tunneling rate and thus high harmonic output.

The laser field strength employed do not exceed the order of $`210^{16}W/cm^2`$ so that due the laser field we do not enter the relativistic regime. Concerning the interaction of the electronic wavepacket with the ionic core we employ a net charge of up to $`Z=3`$. This can also be assumed as non relativistic; a corresponding calculation via the Dirac equation will thus give essentially equal results. For more highly charged ions the velocities close to the nucleus can be significant as compared to the speed of light $`c`$ so that the laser Lorentz force term can be nonnegligible as compared to the laser electric field . This term would then give rise to complex modifications to the recollision dynamics and thus to the harmonic spectrum but is not of interest to the nonrelativistic regime of interest here .

With those assumptions in mind we consider the following dynamical equation for the electronic wavefunction $`\mathrm{\Psi }(x,t)`$ as a function of the spatial coordinate $`x`$ in the direction of the linearly polarized laser light and the time $`t`$:

$$i_t\mathrm{\Psi }(x,t)=H_S\mathrm{\Psi }(x,t)$$
(3)
where $`H_S`$ stands for the Schrödinger Hamiltonian with:

$`H_S`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(p{\displaystyle \frac{A(t)}{c}}\right)^2+V(x,Z)`$ (4)
where the vector potential of the laser pulse is defined via $`A(t)=Eh(t)\mathrm{sin}(\omega t)`$. The electric field $`Eh(t)`$ involves a pulse shape $`h(t)`$ with turn-on phase and a phase with constant amplitude during which we evaluate the radiation spectrum.

We use the regularized nuclear potential,

$$V(x,Z)=\frac{k}{\sqrt{x^2+s}}$$
(5)
where $`s=2`$ is a smoothing parameter of the nucleus to compensate for the neglect of the second and third dimension . $`k`$ is a direct function of the net charge $`Z`$ of the ion and can be adjusted to recover the experimental values for the binding energies.

In our numerical analysis for hydrogen (H) and hydrogen like ions (He+, Li2+) interacting with short intense laser pulses, we employed a laser wave length of $`\lambda =800`$nm (TiSapphire), an electric field amplitude with intensity $`I10^{14}10^{16}`$W/cm2 and pulse lengths between 20 and 200 cycles with a turn-on phase of 5 to 20 cycles. In fig. 1 we displayed the effective potentials for H, He+ and Li2+ in the laser pulse at the time of maximal electric field and as a horizontal line the corresponding ground state energy. For the case of hydrogen we have chosen the laser parameters ($`\gamma _K=0.89`$) such that we are well in the tunneling regime but simultaneously such that ionization is still small. When moving to $`He^+`$ we first increased the electric field strength by a factor of two only to obtain the same Keldysh parameter and note from the corresponding dashed line for the effective potential in Fig. 1 that the tunneling barrier is then very large and that we appear to be in the intermediate regime to the multiphoton regime. While the ionization potential scales with $`Z^2`$, the tunneling rate reduces expotenially with $`Z^3/E`$ . In the solid line for $`He^+`$ we have further increased the electric field strength such that we have similar ionization as for $`H`$ above, however though with a smaller $`\gamma _K`$.

Before addressing $`Li^{2+}`$, we discuss Fig. 2 where we have displayed the radiation spectrum corresponding to the situations in H (a) and the two cases for $`He^+`$ displayed in Fig. 1. For H we are in the tunneling regime and thus find as well known a plateau and cut-off following Eq. (1). In Fig 2(b) for increasing $`I_p`$ and $`U_p`$ by a factor of two we find a spectrum with the expected cut-off enhanced by a factor of $`Z^2=4`$. However, even though $`\gamma _K`$ is unchanged we have clearly moved towards the multi photon regime. The harmonic structure has detoriated and we find even resonance structures in the low frequency part of the spectrum. The enhancement of about the 12th harmonic corresponds to the transition from the first excited to the ground state. Also we note a beginning of a tilting of the spectrum in the plateau area. To reenter the tunneling regime, we have increased the E field further, such that the ionization rate becomes comparable to that for $`H`$ in Fig. 1 a) and found an up-conversion of the cut-off frequency by a factor of 10.

We continue the procedure for $`Li^{2+}`$ as depicted in the lowest entry of Fig. 1. We have increased the electric field with respect to $`H`$ not only by a factor 3 but substantially more to secure sufficient tunneling. However, for such high harmonics as expected here and the corresponding low efficiency we chose a long pulse for a clear resolution of the very high harmonics. This requires us to maintain a sufficiently wide ionization barrier somewhat larger than in the two previous cases and thus accept a spectrum with a less pronounced cut-off frequency. Still we achieve at about 2500 harmonics as visible in Fig. 3, i.e. hard X-ray harmonics with an energy of at about 4 keV. We note that sometimes in the literature those energies are still counted to the upper end of soft X-rays. However, proceeding to higher charged ions, even higher harmonics are achievable, though with an increasingly small efficiency. Given the available parameters we note a scaling law of at about $`Z^3`$ for the energy of the cut-off harmonics as a function of the ion charge and the correspondingly chosen laser field intensity. We note that for practical reasons we have increased the intensity with rising charge $`Z`$ rather than modifying the frequency which is less controllable experimentally. A constant wavelength of the applied laser field may however be problematic, since relative to the modified characteristic length of the ionic core due to the variable $`Z`$, one may need adapt the time available for tunneling.

Moving towards the relativistic regime  with higher laser intensities and ionic charges, higher harmonics are possible. However, the harmonic spectrum deviates further from the traditional structure in the tunneling regime including a horizontal plateau and a well pronounced cut-off. The magnetic component of the laser field induces a significant momentum transfer in the propagation direction of the laser field. This makes recollisions more difficult, especially involving long return times after many free oscillations in the laser field. As a consequence we find a reduction of harmonics between the perturbative and the cut-off regime. This goes beyond the scope of this letter and will be discussed in detail in future work .

In conclusion multiply charged ions still allow for tunneling and recollisions of electron wave packets with the parent ionic core with laser field intensities well above those employed before for high harmonic generation with atoms. Consequently coherent X-rays become feasible in the multiple keV regime. The efficiency is below that for coherent high harmonic generation via laser driven atoms.

This work has been funded by the German Science Foundation (Nachwuchsgruppe within SFB 276). CS and SXH acknowledge present funding from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation.

Figure Captions

* The effective potentials for $`Z=1`$ (H, k=1), $`Z=2`$ (He+, k=3.48) and $`Z=3`$ (Li2+, k=7.35) interacting with electric fields corresponding to the intensities $`1.410^{14}`$W/cm2 ($`\gamma _K=0.89`$ for H), $`2.1910^{15}`$W/cm2 ($`\gamma _K=0.456`$ for He+) and $`210^{16}`$W/cm2 ($`\gamma _K=0.255`$ for Li2+). The corresponding ground state energies are indicated by the horizontal lines. The laser wavelength is $`800`$nm, which corresponds to an atomic frequency $`\omega =`$0.057au. He+ with the same $`\gamma _K`$ as $`H`$ is represented by the dashed line.
* The harmonic spectrum for H (a) and He+ (b/c) in appropriately intense laser fields as given in Fig. 1. The pulses consist of 20 cycles full intensity and 5 cycles turn-on. With Eq. 1 the cut-off is placed at $`n_{max,H}=27`$ for H, $`n_{max,He^+}=Z^2n_{max,H}=108`$ for He+ with the same $`\gamma _K`$ as for H and $`n_{max,He^+}=305`$ with the enhanced $`U_p`$ (the ionisation rate here is comparable to that of H and is about 20%).
* a) The harmonic spectrum for Li2+ for the laser parameters given in Fig. 1. b) is an enlargement of the high frequenct range of figure a). The full intensity was applied here for 150 cycles with an 18 cycle turn-on. After 100 cycles we have $`60\%`$ ionised and just after 150 cycles essentially 100$`\%`$ is ionised.