text:
# Intrasubband and Intersubband Electron Relaxation in Semiconductor Quantum Wire Structures

## I Introduction

Semiconductor quantum wire structures, based mostly on GaAs-AlGaAs systems, have been studied intensively for the last ten years as systems of potential technological interest (e.g. quantum wire lasers), and also because of their fundamental significance as examples of quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) electron liquids. Among the important research milestones in semiconductor quantum wires are the observation  of one dimensional plasmons via the inelastic light scattering spectroscopy and the verification of the predicted acoustic linear plasma dispersion relation  in one dimension, the observation of pronounced one dimensional Fermi edge singularities in the optical spectra , the quantum wire excitonic laser operation  and its theoretical understanding . With improving materials growth and nano-fabrication techniques one expects a wide range of one dimensional experimental phenomena and projected applications in semiconductor quantum wire systems. Many of the projected applications such as ballistic electron transistors, quantum wire-based infrared photo-detectors and lasers, quantum wire THZ oscillators and modulators, will utilize fast carriers (injected or excited) in doped quantum wires as the active device element. Effective control and manipulation of these fast electrons in doped quantum wire systems are therefore essential in the projected quantum wire opto-electronic applications. One of the most crucial physical processes that will limit the quantum wire opto-electronic applications is the relaxation of these fast electrons. The main ultrafast mechanism controlling the relaxation process is the electron-electron interaction, which is also a many-body process of fundamental importance in electronic systems. In this paper, we develop a many-body theory for the electron-electron interaction induced ultrafast relaxation in semiconductor quantum wires with more than one quantized subband occupied. We consider only the ultrafast electron-electron interaction induced relaxation in this article, neglecting the weaker electron-phonon Fröhlich coupling. The electron-phonon coupling may be considered to be approximately included in our theory by taking the effective mass entering the theory to be the polaronic band mass (including the electron-LO phonon interaction) and the background dielectric constant to be the static low frequency lattice dielectric constant (rather than the dynamic high frequency dielectric constant). We restrict ourselves to Coulomb scattering because the fastest relaxation time scales are controlled by the inter-electron Coulomb interaction.

We mention that semiconductor quantum wires in the strict one dimensional limit with only one occupied subband are extremely difficult to fabricate. Thus the typical experimental quantum wires would have a few occupied subbands and scattering between these subbands effectively destroys their strict one dimensionality. The work presented in this article takes a first step toward developing a full many-body theory for quantum wires with many occupied subbands by considering carefully the situation with two occupied subbands and by analyzing the resultant relaxation rates in terms of intrasubband (one dimensional) and intersubband (non-one dimensional) scattering contributions. In addition, we calculate single-particle and collective mode contributions to the relaxation rates separately. Our calculations can be directly compared with experimentally measured linewidths (e.g. the spectral width in tunneling measurements  or in the femtosecond spectroscopy  ) or band broadenings and with various relaxation rates entering device modelling considerations.

Intra- and intersubband relaxation of electrons in Q1D doped semiconductor quantum wires are determined by their inelastic lifetime which is inversely proportional to the inelastic Coulomb scattering rate. Due to the Coulomb interaction, electrons in the quantum wires may be scattered and, as a result, collective (’plasmons’) and single-particle excitations are emitted. Such lifetime calculations have earlier been carried out in 2D electrons systems , and have been interpreted in terms of plasmon emission processes. In contrast to 2D electrons gases, a gap shows up in the intersubband single-particle excitation continuum in Q1D quantum wires with two occupied subbands.  Furthermore, an extra intersubband plasmon mode appears within such a gap. It was also shown previously that, for a two-subband quantum wire,  the intersubband inelastic-scattering rates due to plasmon modes and single-particle excitations do not exist if the intersubband coupling is neglected. But the intrasubband inelastic-scattering rates were found consist of three contributions: that coming from the emission of plasmon modes in the (i) first and (ii) second subband; and the emission of a (iii) single-particle excitation in the second subband. So far in the literature the intersubband coupling in quantum wires has been considered irrelevant for electron relaxation in the conduction band. However, as the second subband becomes occupied, electrons in different subbands may interact strongly with each other, and as a consequence, intersubband coupling should in general be taken into account. In this paper we calculate the intra- and intersubband inelastic-scattering rates of electrons in a two-subband quantum wires with a small energy separation between the two subbands. We neglect the higher lying subbands to reduce computational complications. A generalization of our theory to many subbands is, in principle, possible. Currently there are no direct experimental observations of intersubband lifetimes in multisubband quantum wires, but our calculations should be relevant to a large number of projected applications.

We develop our theory for the inelastic Coulomb scattering treating the dynamical screening of the Q1D electron system within the framework of the random-phase approximation (RPA). The RPA has been shown to be an excellent approximation in studying charge-density excitations in Q1D doped semiconductors by virtue of the approximate vanishing of all vertex corrections to the one-dimensional irreducible polarizability.  In addition to the 1D intrasubband plasmons, the intersubband collective and single-particle excitations in the Q1D system also provide relaxation channels through which the hot electrons in the conduction band relax. We show that the inelastic-scattering rate from the second to the first subband can only occur through the emission of an intersubband plasmon with single-particle excitations not participating at all in this intersubband relaxation process, whereas emission of both collective and single-particle excitations contributes to the inelastic scattering from the first to the second subband.

This paper is organized as follows. In Sec. II we describe our theoretical approach. In Sec. III we present our numerical results for the inelastic scattering rates in a two-subband quantum wire. We conclude with a summary in Sec. IV.

## II Model and Equations

The single electronic states in our theory are calculated by considering a two-dimensional system in the $`xy`$ plane subjected to an additional confinement in the $`y`$-direction creating a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wire in the $`x`$-direction. The confinement potential in the $`y`$-direction is taken to be of a finite square well type of barrier height $`V_0`$ and well width $`W`$. We assume the confinement potential creating the 2D confinement to be sufficiently strong compared with the 1D confinement potential and assume the 2D system to be ideal, i.e. of zero thickness in the third (z) direction. The 1D subband energies $`E_n`$ and the wave functions $`\varphi _n(y)`$ are obtained from the numerical solution of the one-dimensional Schrödinger equation in the $`y`$-direction (the value of the electron effective mass throughout this paper is $`m^{}=0.07m_e`$). We restrict ourselves to the case where $`n=1,2`$ and define $`\omega _0=E_2E_1`$ as being the intersubband energy gap between the two subbands. For a symmetric confinement potential, the two lowest wave functions $`\varphi _1(y)`$ and $`\varphi _2(y)`$ are the usual symmetric and antisymmetric levels, respectively. We consider throughout this paper the confinement potential being of a barrier height $`V_0`$ = 100 meV and well width $`W=500`$ Å, which leads to $`\omega _0`$5.37 meV. Then, the second subband becomes populated at 1D electron density $`N_e=6.3\times 10^5`$ cm-1. As mentioned in the introduction, we neglect inelastic scattering due to emission of phonons. Such a procedure is reasonable since the emission of an LO phonon, for example in GaAs, requires the electron energy to be at least $`\mathrm{}\omega _{LO}36`$ meV which is much larger than the characteristic inter-subband energy $`\omega _0`$ of our quantum wire. We will restrict ourselves to situations where phonon emission processes are not important. We take $`\mathrm{}=1`$ throughout this paper unless stated otherwise.

As we mentioned in the introduction, intra- and intersubband relaxation of fast electrons in two-subband quantum wire structures can be studied in determining their inelastic Coulomb scattering rate $`\sigma _{nn^{}}(k)`$, where $`n,n^{}=1,2`$. Due to Coulomb interaction, these electrons, initially in a subband $`n`$ with momentum $`k`$, can be scattered to a subband $`n^{}`$ with momentum $`k^{}`$ through emission of both plasmons and single-particle excitations. Within the so-called GW approximation, Vinter  originally showed that, at zero temperature, the inelastic Coulomb scattering rate $`\sigma _{nn^{}}(k)`$ of electrons in multisubband structures can be obtained from the imaginary part of the retarded electron self-energy neglecting higher order vertex corrections. This approximation is extensively employed in calculating electronic many-body effects and, in particular, has been used in studying injected electron lifetimes in semiconductor quantum wire structures in the strict one-dimensional limit (or equivalently in determining the intrasubband inelastic scattering rate of electrons in the first quantized subband),  as well as in coupled parallel quantum wires. Within the GW approximation, the multisubband inelastic scattering rate $`\sigma _{nn^{}}(k)`$ of fast electrons in quasi-one-dimensional quantum wires at zero temperature is given by

$`\sigma _{nn^{}}(k)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi }}{\displaystyle 𝑑qIm\left\{V_{nn^{}n^{}n}^s[q,\xi _n^{}(k+q)\xi _n(k)]\right\}}`$

$$\times \left\{\theta \left(\xi _n(k)\xi _n^{}(k+q)\right)\theta \left(\xi _n^{}(k+q)\right)\right\},$$
(1)
where $`\theta \left(x\right)`$ is the standard step function, $`V_{nn^{}n^{}n}^s(q,\omega )`$ the dynamically screened electron-electron Coulomb potential with $`q`$ being the 1D wavevector and $`\omega `$ the mode frequency, and $`\xi _n\left(k\right)=\mathrm{}^2k^2/2m^{}+E_nE_F`$ the electron energy with respect to the Fermi energy $`E_F`$. The screened Coulomb potential in Eq. (1) is related to the multisubband dielectric function $`\epsilon _{nn^{}mm^{}}(q,\omega )`$ and the bare electron-electron interaction potential $`V_{nn^{}mm^{}}(q)`$ through the generalized RPA equation

$$\underset{ll^{}=1,2}{}ϵ_{ll^{}nn^{}}(q,\omega )V_{ll^{}mm^{}}^s(q,\omega )=V_{nn^{}mm^{}}(q),$$
(2)
with $`m,m^{}=1,2`$. The bare electron-electron potential $`V_{nn^{}mm^{}}(q)`$, which is the 2-particle matrix element of 1D Coulomb interaction in the $`\varphi _n(y)`$ basis, is calculated by using the numerical solution of the electron wavefunction $`\varphi _n(y)`$. The dielectric function

$$\epsilon _{nn^{}mm^{}}(q,\omega )=\delta _{nm}\delta _{n^{}m^{}}\mathrm{\Pi }_{nn^{}}(q,\omega )V_{nn^{}mm^{}}(q)$$
(3)
is calculated within the RPA, where

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_{nn^{}}(q,\omega )=\frac{1}{\pi }𝑑k\frac{n_F\left[\xi _n(k)\right]n_F\left[\xi _n^{}(k+q)\right]}{\xi _n(k)\xi _n^{}(k+q)+\omega }$$
(4)
is the noninteracting irreducible polarizability function. Here, $`n_F(E)`$ is the Fermi distribution function. The polarizability $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{nn^{}}(q,\omega )`$ characterizes the bare electron-hole bubble polarization diagram and is written for the system free from any impurity scattering. The impurity scattering effects can be introduced diagrammatically by including impurity ladder diagrams in the electron Green’s function. These diagrams are responsible for level broadening, or equivalently, for a phenomenological damping constant $`\gamma =e^2/2m^{}\mu `$ mainly induced by scattering of electrons due to impurity centers, with $`\mu `$ being the carrier mobility in the sample. The exact expression for the polarizability within this diagrammatic approach can be obtained by using a particle-conserving approximation for arbitrary values of $`q`$ and $`\omega `$, given by Mermin.  In the limit $`\gamma 0`$, the Mermin’s polarizability is found to be identical to Eq. (4) with the frequency $`\omega ^2\omega (\omega +i\gamma )`$. In this paper, we take the impurity scattering induced broadening $`\gamma `$ as being a very small phenomenological damping parameter which allows us working in the limit $`\gamma 0`$. We are therefore restricting ourselves to high mobility quantum wires with small level broadening.

According to Eq. (1), the integral in $`\sigma _{nn^{}}(k)`$ is performed only over the segment of the curve

$$\omega _k^{nn^{}}(q)=\xi _n^{}(k+q)\xi _n(k)$$
(5)
which lies inside those regions where

$$\theta \left[\omega _k^{nn^{}}(q)\right]\theta \left[\xi _n^{}(k+q)\right]0.$$
(6)
We need to consider, therefore, just that segment of $`\omega _k^{nn^{}}(q)`$ which lies in the region where the condition defined in Eq. (6) is satisfied. The inelastic scattering rates vanish outside these regions which means that the momentum and energy conservation cannot be simultaneously obeyed for those values of ($`k,n,n^{},k+q`$). The inelastic scattering rate $`\sigma _{nn^{}}(k)`$ is a non-vanishing term if the segment $`\omega _k^{nn^{}}(q)`$ either lies in the continuum representing single-particle excitations or intercepts the lines representing collective excitations (plasmons) in the $`q`$-$`\omega `$ plane.

## III Numerical results and discussions

### A Collective and single-particle excitation modes

In our quantum wires we consider a symmetric square well potential characterizing the $`y`$-direction confinement. Due to this symmetry, the two lowest wave functions $`\varphi _1(y)`$ and $`\varphi _2(y)`$ are symmetric and antisymmetric functions of $`y`$, respectively. As a result, the bare electron-electron Coulomb potential $`V_{nn^{}mm^{}}(q)`$ vanishes if $`n+n^{}+m+m^{}`$ is an odd number. Moreover

$$V_{nn^{}mm^{}}(q)=V_{n^{}nmm^{}}(q)=V_{nn^{}m^{}m}(q)=V_{n^{}nm^{}m}(q).$$
(7)
On the other hand, the dispersion of the collective plasmon modes is given by the zeros of the determinant of the dielectric tensor defined by Eq. (3), i.e., $`det\left|\epsilon _{nn^{}mm^{}}(q,\omega )\right|=0`$. By using the symmetry properties of $`V_{nn^{}mm^{}}(q)`$ into this determinant, one can show that the intersubband plasmon modes are given by the roots of

$$\epsilon _{inter}=1V_{1212}\left[\mathrm{\Pi }_{12}+\mathrm{\Pi }_{21}\right]=0,$$
(8)
whereas the intrasubband plasmon modes are obtained by the roots of

$$\epsilon _{intra}=\left[1V_{1111}\mathrm{\Pi }_{11}\right]\left[1V_{2222}\mathrm{\Pi }_{22}\right]V_{1122}^2\mathrm{\Pi }_{11}\mathrm{\Pi }_{22}=0.$$
(9)
It is apparent that the intrasubband plasmon modes do not couple with the intersubband ones. This is, of course, a direct result of our symmetric confinement model which remains a reasonable model even in the presence of small asymmetries in the 1D confinement.

First, we consider a high electron density ($`N_e=N_1=10^6`$ cm-1) in which case both the subbands are populated. The Fermi wavevectors in the first and second subbands are $`k_{F1}=1.09\times 10^6`$ cm-1 and $`k_{F2}=0.47\times 10^6`$cm-1, respectively. In this case, two intrasubband and two intersubband plasmon modes exist corresponding to the two subbands. Fig. 1(a) shows the dispersion relations of the two intersubband plasmon modes $`(1,2)`$ and $`(1,2)^{}`$ obtained from Eq. (8). The shadow areas indicate the intersubband single-particle excitation (SPE12) continua where $`Im\left\{\mathrm{\Pi }_{12}(q,\omega )\right\}0`$. The intersubband SPE12 is of a finite frequency ($`\omega =\omega _0`$) at $`q=0`$. The occupation of the second subband opens up a gap in the SPE12 continuum where the low-frequency intersubband plasmon mode $`(1,2)^{}`$ appears. We also see a large depolarization shift of the high-frequency intersubband plasmon mode $`(1,2)`$. In Fig. 1(b) we show the dispersion relation of the intrasubband plasmon modes $`(1,1)`$ and $`(2,2)`$ obtained from the Eq. (9). The intrasubband single-particle excitation SPE11 (SPE22) continuum where, $`Im\left\{\mathrm{\Pi }_{11}(q,\omega )\right\}0`$ ($`Im\left\{\mathrm{\Pi }_{22}(q,\omega )\right\}0`$), is also presented in the figure. The undamped second subband intrasubband plasmon mode $`(2,2),`$ lying in the gap between the SPE11 and SPE22 continua, has a linear energy dispersion as $`q0`$. When this plasmon mode enters the SPE11 continuum, it is Landau damped because it can decay by emitting SPE11 excitations in the lowest subband. The plasmon mode $`(1,1)`$ representing the collective charge-density excitation in the first subband has an energy proportional to $`q\left|\mathrm{ln}(qW)\right|^{1/2}`$. Notice that, due to the symmetry of the system, the intersubband single-particle excitations do not damp the intrasubband plasmon modes and vice versa. In Fig. 2 we show the plasmon dispersion relations for a lower total electron density $`N_e=N_2=0.40\times 10^6`$ cm-1. In this case, only the first subband is occupied. The corresponding 1D Fermi wavevector is $`k_{F1}=0.63\times 10^6`$ cm-1. Obviously, the plasmon mode $`(2,2)`$ as well as the continuum SPE22 do not exist since the second subband is empty. By analyzing the collective and single-particle excitation spectra in Figs. 1 and 2 and comparing them with $`\omega _k^{nn^{}}(q)`$ defined in Eq. (5) we are able to figure out the contributions of different scattering mechanisms to the total inelastic-scattering rate.

### B Intrasubband scattering rate

According to Eq. (1), the intrasubband inelastic scattering rates $`\sigma _{11}(k)`$ and $`\sigma _{22}(k)`$ are defined in terms of the imaginary part of the dynamically screened Coulomb potentials

$$V_{1111}^s=\frac{V_{1111}\left(1+V_{2222}\mathrm{\Pi }_{22}\right)V_{1122}^2\mathrm{\Pi }_{22}}{\epsilon _{intra}}$$
(10)
and

$$V_{2222}^s=\frac{V_{2222}\left(1+V_{1111}\mathrm{\Pi }_{11}\right)V_{1122}^2\mathrm{\Pi }_{11}}{\epsilon _{intra}},$$
(11)
respectively. These expressions are obtained from Eq. (2) and demonstrate that the contributions to $`\sigma _{11}(k)`$ and $`\sigma _{22}(k)`$ come from three sources. The first one is the emission of the intrasubband single-particle excitations. We numerically evaluate the integral in Eq. (1) only in those regions where $`Im\mathrm{\Pi }_{22}0`$ ($`Im\mathrm{\Pi }_{11}0`$). In Fig. 3(a) the thick-solid (thick-dashed) line shows the intrasubband inelastic-scattering rate $`\sigma _{11}(k)`$ $`\left(\sigma _{22}(k)\right)`$ due only to the emission of the single-particle excitations in the SPE22 (SPE11) continuum. We take the impurity broadening or the phenomenological damping constant $`\gamma =10^3`$ meV corresponding to samples with very high electron mobility. All other parameters are the same as in the beginning of Sec. II. Our results show that the intrasubband inelastic scattering in one subband takes place through the emission of a single-particle excitation in the other subband. In fact, we verified that $`\omega _k^{nn}(q)`$ defined in Eq. (5) never crosses the SPEnn continuum in the $`q`$-$`\omega `$ plane for $`n=1`$ and $`2`$ independent of the value of $`k`$. This is the reason why the SPE11 and SPE22 continua do not contribute to $`\sigma _{11}(k)`$and $`\sigma _{22}(k)`$, respectively. We also verified that the curve $`\omega _k^{11}(q)`$ is completely out of the SPE22 continuum for $`kk_{F2}`$ and, consequently, the contribution of the SPE$`_{22}`$to $`\sigma _{11}(k)`$ vanishes. On the other hand, the contribution of the SPE$`_{11}`$to $`\sigma _{22}(k)`$ starts at $`k=k_{F1}`$ where the curve $`\omega _{k_{F1}}^{22}(q)`$ lies exactly on the lower edge of the SPE11 continuum, entering the continuum for momentum $`k>k_{F1}`$. Thus, the SPE22 contributes to $`\sigma _{11}(k)`$ from $`k=0`$ up to $`k=k_{F2}`$, while the onset of the scattering $`\sigma _{22}(k)`$ via emission of a single-particle excitation inside the continuum SPE11 occurs at the threshold $`k=k_{F1}`$. The thin-dashed line in Fig. 3(a) indicates the SPE11 contribution to the scattering rate $`\sigma _{22}(k)`$ for an electron in a quantum wire of a density $`N_e=N_2`$. At this density the second subband is empty and as a consequence the SPE22 contribution to $`\sigma _{11}(k)`$ does not exist.

According to Eqs. (10) and (11), the other two sources contributing to $`\sigma _{11}(k)`$ and $`\sigma _{22}(k)`$ are the two zeros of $`\epsilon _{intra}`$, i.e. the emission of intrasubband plasmon modes $`(1,1)`$ and $`(2,2)`$. In Fig. 3(b) we show the intrasubband inelastic-scattering rate $`\sigma _{nn}(k)`$ due only to the intrasubband plasmon modes $`(n,n)`$ with $`n=1`$ and $`2.`$ These results are obtained by excluding the single particle excitation regions in the $`q`$-$`\omega `$ plane where $`Im\left[\mathrm{\Pi }_{22}\right]0`$ and $`Im\left[\mathrm{\Pi }_{11}\right]0`$ from the numerical integration characterizing $`\sigma _{11}(k)`$ and $`\sigma _{22}(k)`$, respectively. For $`N_e=N_1`$, the onset of both intrasubband scattering via emission of the plasmon mode $`(1,1)`$occurs at the threshold $`k=k_c^{11}2.07\times 10^6`$ cm-1 corresponding to an interception of the curve $`\omega _k^{11}(q)`$, as well as $`\omega _k^{22}(q),`$ with the mode $`(1,1)`$ at $`q=q_c^{11}0.55\times 10^6`$ cm-1. Indeed, the emission of the plasmon mode $`(1,1)`$ is the most important contribution to the intrasubband scattering rates due to its significant spectral weight at $`q=q_c^{11}`$ leading to a huge divergence at $`k=k_c^{11}`$. The onset of scattering due to the plasmon mode $`(2,2)`$ occurs at the threshold $`k=k_{F2}`$ ($`k_c^{22}0.8\times 10^6`$ cm-1) for an electron in the first (second) subband. Furthermore, the inelastic-scattering rate $`\sigma _{22}(k)`$ at $`k=k_{F1}`$ is non-zero since $`\omega _{k_{F1}}^{22}(q)`$ lies just on the lower edge of the SPE11continuum where the plasmon $`(2,2)`$ contributes to scattering. But it no longer contributes to $`\sigma _{22}(k)`$ for $`k>k_{F1}`$ due to the Landau damping. The fact that $`\sigma _{22}(k)`$ at $`k=k_{F1}`$ is finite means that a plasmon mode $`(2,2)`$ may be emitted when the electron has an energy $`\xi _2(k_{F1})`$. Finally, the thin-solid (thin-dashed) line shows the contribution of the plasmon mode $`(1,1)`$ to $`\sigma _{11}(k)`$ ($`\sigma _{22}(k)`$) for $`N_e=N_2`$ where the second subband is empty. As expected, the contribution coming from the plasmon mode $`(2,2)`$ is absent in this case.

### C Intersubband scattering rates

The definition in Eq. (1) tells us that the intersubband inelastic scattering rates $`\sigma _{12}(k)`$ and $`\sigma _{21}(k)`$ are obtained in terms of the imaginary part of the screened Coulomb potential

$$V_{1221}^s=\frac{V_{1212}}{\epsilon _{inter}}.$$
(12)
Notice that, according to Eq. (2), $`V_{2112}^s=V_{1221}^s`$. Therefore the contributions to $`\sigma _{12}(k),`$ as well as $`\sigma _{21}(k),`$ come from three sources: (i) the intersubband SPE12 continuum; the intersubband plasmon modes (ii) $`(1,2)`$ and (iii) $`(1,2)^{}`$. In Fig. 4(a) we show $`\sigma _{12}(k)`$ due only to the SPE12 continuum. The thick and thin lines indicate the SPE12 contributions to $`\sigma _{12}(k)`$ in the quantum wire of total charge density $`N_e=N_1`$ and $`N_2`$, respectively. As discussed before, the SPE12 continuum splits into two parts when the second subband is populated. For $`N_e=N_1`$, the onset of scattering $`\sigma _{12}(k)`$ via emission of an intersubband single-particle excitation in the lower (higher) energy part of the SPE$`_{12}`$continuum occurs at $`k0.50\times 10^6`$ cm-1 ($`k1.46\times 10^6`$ cm-1). The most important contribution of the lower part of the SPE12 is shown in the inset of Fig. 4(a) below the onset of the scattering the higher part. For $`\sigma _{21}(k)`$ we find no contribution of the single-particle excitations due to restriction of the energy-momentum conservation defined by $`\omega _k^{21}(q)`$. Therefore, electrons cannot transfer from the higher subband to the lower one by emitting a single-particle excitation in the Fermi sea.

In Fig. 4(b), the thick-solid (thick-dashed) line shows the contributions to the inelastic-scattering rate $`\sigma _{12}(k)`$ $`\left(\sigma _{21}(k)\right)`$ coming from the intersubband plasmon modes $`(1,2)`$ and $`(1,2)^{}`$. Again, the thick and thin lines correspond to the results for $`N_e=N_1`$ and $`N_2`$, respectively. Notice that the intersubband plasmon modes do not contribute to $`\sigma _{21}(k)`$ for $`kk_c^{21}`$, where $`k_c^{21}1.8\times 10^6`$ cm-1 and $`1.31\times 10^6`$ cm-1 for electron density $`N_e=N_1`$ and $`N_2`$, respectively. Because the curve $`\omega _k^{21}(q)`$ for $`k`$ $`=`$ $`k_c^{21}`$ never intercepts the mode $`(1,2)^{}`$, the plasmon contribution to the $`\sigma _{21}(k)`$ comes from the mode $`(1,2)`$. But both the intersubband plasmon modes contribute to $`\sigma _{12}(k)`$. The onset of scattering $`\sigma _{12}(k)`$ due to the emission of the plasmon mode $`(1,2)`$ occurs at the threshold $`k_c^{12}3.1\times 10^6`$ cm-1 ($`2.61\times 10^6`$ cm-1) for $`N_e=N_1`$($`N_2`$). Indeed, we verified that the curve $`\omega _k^{12}(q)`$ intercepts the plasmon mode $`(1,2)`$ for $`kk_c^{12}`$ and the mode $`(1,2)^{}`$ for all values of $`k`$ except $`k=k_{F1}`$. As a matter of fact, we see the scattering rate $`\sigma _{12}(k)`$ vanishing at $`k=k_{F1}`$ due to restrictions of the momentum-energy conservation dictated by the step functions in Eq. (1). In the inset, we show the most relevant contribution to $`\sigma _{12}(k)`$ coming from the plasmon mode $`(1,2)^{}`$.

We summarize the above results by plotting the total inelastic-scattering rate

$`\sigma _n(k)={\displaystyle \underset{n^{}=1,2}{}}\sigma _{nn^{}}(k)`$

in Figs. 5 and 6, respectively, for an electron in the subband $`n=1`$ and $`2`$ in the quantum wire of total charge density $`N_e=N_1`$. The scale in the right-hand side of Fig. 5 (Fig. 6) is enlarged 15 (5) times as compared to that in the left. The symbols indicate the contributions from the different scattering mechanisms. The circles stand for the contribution coming from the emission of a plasmon mode $`(2,2)`$, while the squares represent the contribution coming from the emission of the plasmon mode $`(1,1)`$. The filled (open) triangles-left stand for the contribution coming from the emission of a intersubband plasmon mode $`(1,2)`$ $`\left((1,2)^{}\right).`$ The open (filled) diamonds represent the contribution coming from single-particle excitations inside the SPE22 $`\left(\text{SPE}_{11}\right)`$ continuum. Finally, open (filled) triangles-up in Fig. 5 represent the contribution coming from the single-particle excitations in the lower (higher) part of the SPE12 continuum. These symbols show the complexity of various intra- and inter-subband single particle and collective mode contributions to the scattering rate of an electron which might be scattered either to unoccupied states in its original subband or to those in a different subband. In contrast to $`\sigma _2(k)`$, we see $`\sigma _1(k)`$ being finite at $`k=0`$ due to the possibility of emission of a single-particle excitation within the SPE22 continuum. As $`k`$ increases, the plasmon mode $`(1,2)^{}`$ starts to contribute to $`\sigma _1(k)`$ and then, as we discussed above, all excitations in the phase space contribute to scattering. In Fig. 5, the open triangles-up indicate the contribution coming from the single-particle excitations inside the lower energy part of the SPE12 continuum. Notice that we neglected such a contribution in the right-hand side since it is irrelevant at that scale. When the second subband is empty for $`N_e=`$ $`N_2`$, we should see neither the contributions coming from the plasmon modes $`(1,2)^{}`$ and $`(2,2)`$ nor those from the SPE22 continuum.

### D Hot electron lifetimes

We now discuss the hot electron lifetime

$$\tau _{E,n}=\frac{2}{\sigma _n(k)}$$
(13)
of an energetic hot electron injected in a subband $`n`$ with a kinetic energy $`E=\mathrm{}^2k^2/2m^{}`$ above the Fermi energy $`E_{Fn}=\mathrm{}^2k_n^2/2m^{}`$ in the subband. It is well-known that this lifetime ($`\mathrm{}=1`$) can be written as Eq. (13) since $`\sigma _n(k)`$ is the absolute value of the imaginary part of the self-energy of an electron in the subband $`n`$.  In Figs. 7(a) and 7(b) we show the lifetimes $`\tau _{E,1}`$ and $`\tau _{E,2}`$ of hot electrons injected in the first and the second subband, respectively, as a function of the total electron density $`N_e`$ in the quantum wire. The vertical thin line at $`N_e=0.63\times 10^6`$cm-1 indicates the onset of the population of the second subband for our quantum wire parameters. The thick-solid (thick-dashed) lines indicates the lifetime of an injected ”hot electron” in the conduction band with total energy $`E_{T1}=E_2+\omega _0`$ $`\left(E_{T2}=E_2+3\omega _0\right)`$, where $`E_2`$ is the bottom of the second subband. The symbols stand for the same meaning as in Figs. 5 and 6, and show the contributions of the different charge-density excitations to the total lifetime. We see the plasmon mode $`(1,1)`$ making the most important contribution (solid squares) to $`\tau _{E,1}`$ for $`E=E_{T1}`$ (thick solid lines) at low densities. The decreasing of $`\tau _{E_{T1},1}`$ as $`N_e`$ increases indicates the hot-electron relaxation via emission of a plasmon mode $`(1,1)`$. The single-particle excitations inside the SPE12 continuum (filled triangles-up) start to contribute to $`\tau _{E_{T1},1}`$ as the onset of the scattering via emission of the plasmon mode $`(1,1)`$ vanishes at $`N_e0.35\times 10^6`$cm-1. For $`E=E_{T2}`$, however, the SPE12 is the main contribution to $`\tau _{E,1}`$ at very low densities. With increasing density, scattering due to the plasmon mode $`(1,1)`$becomes dominant until $`N_e0.83\times 10^6`$ cm-1. The occupation of the second subband only leads to a small contribution by the intersubband plasmon $`(1,2)^{}`$ (triangles-left) to $`\tau _{E,1}`$. Although the onset of the scattering by the plasmon mode $`(1,2)`$ is achieved at low density $`N_e`$, its contribution to $`\tau _{E,1}`$ is so small that we cannot observe it in the figure. The contribution coming from the SPE22 is also irrelevant in this situation. As discussed before, this excitation exists as the second subband is occupied but its contribution to scattering vanishes for momentum $`k`$ $`k_{F2}.`$ Here, we are dealing with a hot-electron of energy $`E\left(\mathrm{}k_{F2}\right)^2/2m^{}`$ for which relaxation via the emission of single-particle excitations inside the SPE22 continuum is not allowed.

In Fig. 7(b), we see that the emission of the plasmon mode $`(1,2)`$ (filled triangles-left), at very low densities, is the main contribution to the total lifetime $`\tau _{E,2}`$for both values of $`E`$. As $`N_e`$ increases, the hot-electron scattering via emission of the plasmon mode $`(1,1),`$ as well as the emission of single-particle excitations inside SPE$`_{11}`$continuum (filled diamonds), start to contribute to $`\tau _{E,2}`$. For densities greater than $`N_e0.36\times 10^6`$ cm-1 ($`N_e0.44\times 10^6`$ cm-1) the onset of scattering via the emission of the plasmon mode $`(1,1)`$ $`\left((1,2)\right)`$ vanishes, so that only single-particle excitations inside the SPE11 continuum (filled diamonds) are responsible for the hot-electron relaxation in the second subband. For $`E=E_{T2}`$, the onset of scattering via the emission of the plasmon mode $`(1,2)`$ occurs at densities $`N_e>10^6`$ cm-1. As a result, this mode contributes to $`\tau _{E,2}`$ for all values of $`N_e`$shown in the figure.

At this point, we should briefly comment on the role of the phenomenological damping constant $`\gamma `$ on our numerical results since we have used $`\gamma =10^3`$ meV throughout this paper. In contrast to Figs. 5 and 6, where effects of $`\gamma `$ ($`=10^3`$) are vanishingly small, a finite $`\gamma `$ has some effect in Fig. 7. Notice that, for extremely clean systems ($`\gamma =0`$), the contributions to both $`\tau _{E,n},`$ coming from the plasmon mode $`(1,1)`$ (square lines), should go to infinity threshold due to the singular nature of 1D density of states. Impurity scattering through a finite $`\gamma `$ suppresses this divergence by smoothing the 1D density of states. Similar behavior should occur for the contribution to $`\tau _{E,2}`$ coming from the emission of the mode $`(1,2)`$ (filled triangles-left) in Fig. 7(b). In fact, effects due to finite values of $`\gamma `$ on both hot-electron lifetimes can be identified in the lines indicating the contribution of the plasmon modes $`(1,1)`$ and $`(1,2)`$. They do not go to infinity since we are using $`\gamma =10^3`$ meV, which is enough to suppress the 1D density of states singularity on the scales of these figures. We see, however, that these effects are irrelevant for the total hot-electron lifetime when the emission of single-particle excitations are taken into account. For the value of $`\gamma `$ assumed in this paper, the relaxation of hot electrons is mainly due to emission of charge-density excitations in the Q1D Fermi sea.

## IV Summary

Within the GW approximation, we have calculated the inelastic Coulomb scattering rates and lifetimes of an injected electron in a symmetric confinement two-subband quantum wire at zero temperature. These rates are directly related to the dynamically screened Coulomb potential which has been calculated within the RPA. We chose a quantum wire with symmetric confinement potential in which the intra- and intersubband excitations do not interact with each other. We obtain the effects of the population of second subband on the inelastic Coulomb scattering rate. We separately identified the contributions to the intrasubband and intersubband inelastic-scattering rates due to different intrasubband and intersubband excitations in the individual subbands of the Q1D electron system. We find the emission of an intrasubband plasmon in the first subband to be the most important contribution to the inelastic-scattering rate, although the single-particle excitations as well as plasmon modes in the second subband also contribute to the intrasubband and intersubband scattering of an electron in the two-subband quantum wire. We found that the inelastic scattering from the first to the second subband occurs through the emission of either intersubband plasmon modes or intersubband single-particle excitations, whereas the scattering from second to first subband only occurs via the emission of the higher energy intersubband plasmon mode. We also calculate the lifetime of hot electrons as a function of the total charge density in the two-subband quantum wire, identifying the contributions of plasmons and single particle excitations in each subband to the hot electron lifetime.

## Acknowledgments

We would like to thank E.H. Hwang for very useful discussions. The work of MRST is supported by FAPESP, Brazil. The work at Maryland is supported by the US-ARO and US-ONR. G-QH acknowledgs CNPq from Brazil for partial support.


format: text

text:
# IC3328: a “dwarf elliptical galaxy” with spiral structure

## 1 Introduction

In this paper we report on the serendipitous discovery of a spiral structure in the Virgo cluster dwarf elliptical IC3328. The presence of spiral structure provides compelling evidence for the disk nature of that particular dwarf galaxy. The observations are described and the light distribution is analysed in Sect.2. In Sect.3 we estimate the kinematical properties of the dwarf galaxy from the observed light distribution, assuming a likely value for the mass-to-light ratio and distance. We speculate on the origin of the spiral pattern in Sect.4. The concluding section deals with the ramifications for the dwarf elliptical taxonomy arising from IC3328.

## 2 Photometric Evidence for a Spiral Structure

IC3328 is known as an early-type dwarf galaxy in the Virgo cluster, morphologically classified as dE1,N (Virgo Cluster Catalog 856, Binggeli et al. 1985). The redshift of $`v_{}=972\pm 32`$ km s-1 made this galaxy a probable cluster member and a good candidate for a more refined distance determination based on the Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) method. Candidates for the SBF method should have smooth and symmetric light distributions, and show no obvious dust or star-forming regions.

The first step in applying the SBF method is to determine the mean 2-D surface brightness distribution by suitable averaging and then subtracting it from the galaxy image, leaving just the fluctuating part which arises from the Poisson distribution of the stellar sources, ie. the fluctuations due to unresolved stars in the galaxy. However in the case of IC3328 the residuals were most surprising. The composite of three 400 sec $`R`$-band images of IC3328 obtained at the VLT with the FORS1 multi-mode instrument in Service Mode on July 13, 1999 under excellent seeing conditions ($`0.6\mathrm{}`$) is shown in the left panel of Fig.1. The surface brightness “fluctuations” obtained after subtracting the mean is shown in the right panel.

Clearly “fluctuations” is not the right word to describe the exceptionally regular spiral whose amplitude is so low that it remained invisible in the original exposure. The spiral structure is confined to the inner $`30\mathrm{}`$ of the galaxy which has an isophotal radius of $`r_{R,27}`$=80″. It appears that we have discovered the real nature of IC3328: a seemingly dust-free disk galaxy with unusually faint spiral structure.

The initial analysis of the light distribution in IC3328 followed the traditional route, based on standard IRAF procedures. The nuclear offsets determined by fitting ellipses to the light distribution were perfectly normal (top panels of Fig.2). The first signs of unusual behaviour came from the ellipticity and position angle variations of the ellipse fits. The coherent wiggles at smaller radii ($`r<30\mathrm{}`$) suggested interesting, but low level structure, which could be seen as a spiral pattern in the contour maps.

Contour maps, and in particular the smoothed contour maps reconstructed from the ellipse fits are powerful tools for revealing faint structure, but are not immediately suitable for quantitative analysis of the light distribution. The presence of a smooth spiral indicates that we are dealing with a disk or a disk embedded in a spheroidal mass distribution. The most straight-forward analysis consists of guessing the orientation of the disk and expanding the deprojected light distribution in a Fourier series in the azimuthal angle $`\theta `$:

$`I(r,\theta )=I_0(r)+I_1(r)\mathrm{cos}[\theta \theta _1(r)]`$
$`+I_2(r)\mathrm{cos}2[\theta \theta _2(r)]+\mathrm{}.`$
The amplitude of the two-armed spiral, $`I_2(r)`$, is quite sensitive to changes in inclination, and less so to the position angle; a wrong inclination will produce modulations in the amplitude. An inclination of $`25\stackrel{}{.}2`$ (which corresponds to the ellipticity $`e=0.095`$), and the position angle of $`82\stackrel{}{.}5`$ produced the smoothest two-armed component. The amplitude and phase of this spiral is shown in Fig. 3. The fractional amplitude of $`34\%`$ is extremely low.

The one-armed, or $`\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ terms become important close to the center ($`<5\mathrm{}`$).

In the interval $`5\mathrm{}<r<30\mathrm{}`$ the phase $`\theta _2(r)`$ is well approximated by a straight line. Such a phase variation corresponds to a two-armed logarithmic spiral inclined at $`12\stackrel{}{.}1`$ to a circle. The angular winding of the arms is $`430^{}`$. In these respects IC3328 resembles a Sb or Sbc galaxy very similar to M51 (Danver 1942; Kennicutt 1981), but without obvious gas, dust or bright H ii regions.

The surface brightness profile derived from $`I_0(r)`$ is shown in Fig. 4. It can be approximated by two straight lines (exponentials), with the cross-over occuring at $`r30\mathrm{}`$, which is also the place where the spiral pattern ends. The end of the spiral can be seen in the flattening of the phase in Fig. 3. The $`R`$ surface brightness profile has the same characteristics as the $`B`$ profile, which has been classified as type IIIb by Binggeli & Cameron (1991, hereafter BC91).

The total apparent magnitude, $`R_T`$, computed from $`I_0(r)`$ is $`13.17`$. The half light radius $`r_{\mathrm{eff}}=15\stackrel{}{.}9`$, and the mean surface brightness within the effective radius $`\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}=21.17`$ mag arcsec-2. The best-fitting line (exponential) of the inner part has a central surface brightness of $`\mu ^{\mathrm{exp}}=19.95`$ mag arcsec-2 and a scale length $`r^{\mathrm{exp}}=8\stackrel{}{.}7`$.

## 3 Dynamics

In order to estimate the dynamical time scales associated with the spiral pattern we need to know the distance to and the velocities within IC3328.

There are two distance estimates for IC3328. The first comes from the radial velocity which coincides with the mean velocity of the Virgo cluster. It agrees well with the preliminary SBF distance of 15.5 Mpc (Jerjen et al. in preparation). At this distance $`1\mathrm{}`$ corresponds to $`77.5`$ pc.

The only kinematic data available for IC3328 to date is a measurement of the central velocity dispersion of $`\sigma _\mathrm{c}=27`$ km s-1 (Peterson & Caldwell 1993). In the absence of a proper velocity field determination we have to resort to the light distribution and estimates of the mass-to-light ratio, $`M/L`$.

The square of the rotational velocity, $`V_\mathrm{c}^2`$, can be determined from $`2\pi G\mu r`$, where $`\mu (r)`$ is the projected surface mass density. On a logarithmic scale these two quantities are related by a convolution (Kalnajs 1999). Fig.5 shows the relation between the two quantities in the case when $`M/L=1`$. The two $`V_\mathrm{c}^2`$ curves correspond to the limiting cases where the projected surface density comes from a flat or a spherical mass distribution. Fig.5 also makes it clear that the value of $`M/L`$ around the peak $`2\pi G\mu r`$ is what really matters.

Assuming $`M/L=1`$ gives a maximum disk rotation velocity, $`V_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}=44`$ km s-1 . A better estimate of $`55`$ km s-1 comes from the average mass-to-light ratio for globular clusters $`(M/L)_R=1.6`$, based on the quantities $`(M/L)_V=2.5`$ (Pryor & Meylan 1993) and $`(VR)_0=0.47`$ (Peterson 1993). Such a value does not clash with $`\sigma _\mathrm{c}=27`$ km s-1 .

The best option would be to measure the rotation curve. Then one could use the above arguments to obtain the actual $`M/L`$ ratio of IC3328.

The estimated peak rotation velocity of $`55`$ km s-1 occurs around $`1.4`$ kpc, which means that the angular rotation rate there is $`39`$ km s-1 kpc-1, a value comparable to the $`25`$ km s-1 kpc-1measured near the Sun. Thus IC3328 has had ample time to settle into an equilibrium.

## 4 Spiral Structure

The presence of the spiral implies the presence of a disk. If what we see is a nearly face-on disk then the small spiral amplitude is quite unusual. We can estimate the mean displacements and velocities that are needed to produce the observed density contrast.

A density wave is created by coherent oscillations of stars around their equilibrium orbits. Because the spiral is tightly wrapped, the largest contribution comes from the radial displacements, $`\delta r`$, whose phases are rapidly varying functions of the equilibrium position $`r`$. If we write the phase as $`\mathrm{exp}\{i[\alpha \mathrm{ln}(r)2\theta ]\}`$, then a little bit of algebra shows that the change in surface density, $`\delta \mu `$ satisfies the relation

$$|\frac{\delta \mu }{\mu }||\alpha \frac{\delta r}{r}|$$

when $`\alpha 1`$. For our spiral $`\alpha =\frac{2}{\mathrm{sin}12\stackrel{}{.}1}=9.5`$, which means that when $`\frac{\delta \mu }{\mu }0.03`$, $`\frac{\delta r}{r}0.003`$, a very small number indeed!

In a similar spirit we can estimate the velocities, $`\delta V`$, associated with such displacements. The radial displacements will oscillate with a frequency typically less than the natural radial frequency $`\kappa `$, which in turn is roughly $`\sqrt{2}`$ times the mean angular rotation rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Hence $`\frac{\delta V}{V_\mathrm{c}}0.005`$, or $`0.3`$ km s-1 .

These small numbers can be increased by reducing the disk light contribution and attributing it to a spheroid. Even a ten-fold reduction would produce fractional displacements of $`3\%`$, and velocities of only $`3`$ km s-1 . Such low velocities are unlikely to lead to shocks in any neutral gas that may be present in the disk, and therefore to any star formation that would signal the presence of gas.

By reducing the disk light contribution we also reduce the importance of the spiral’s self-gravity and increase the likelihood of a tidal origin. Fig.6 shows several possible perturbers. When the self-gravity becomes negligible, one can rule out even a distant passage of a big perturber like NGC4380, since the tidal distortions will not propagate to the center. That leaves close passages by the fainter objects, such as the two VCC dwarf galaxies, as possible cause of the spiral seen in IC3328.

The other plausible scenario is that most of the light does come from the disk and we are seeing swing amplified noise (Toomre & Kalnajs 1991). The gain of the swing amplifier is not large enough to amplify the $`\sqrt{N}`$ stellar density fluctuations to the observed $`3\%`$ level, but a small amount lumpy gas could provide the necessary leading perturbations which then are amplified by a factor of $`1030`$ as the shear transforms them into a trailing spirals (Toomre 1981). Huchtmeier & Richter’s (1986) upper limit of $`610^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for the H i content of IC3328 does not rule out this possibility.

## 5 On the Taxonomy of Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies

Dwarf galaxies come in two basic brands: dwarf ellipticals (dEs) and dwarf irregulars (dIrrs). The common view is that dEs are spheroids and dIrrs are disks. In the case of irregulars, the disk nature is clearly indicated by the typical rotation pattern found in HI radio data (at least for dIrrs more luminous than $`M_B=12`$). Owing to the absence of gas and hence the lack of an easily accessible kinematic tracer, the situation is less clear for dEs. The basic evidence for their spheroidal nature is purely statistical: the flattening distribution of this dwarf type is very similar to the one shown by normal ellipticals, which is distinctly different from disk galaxies (Ryden & Terndrup 1994; Binggeli & Popescu 1995). Supporting evidence for the spheroidal nature of dEs comes from spectroscopy. The measurements so far clearly show a lack of rotation (Paltoglou & Freeman 1987; Bender & Nieto 1990; Bender at al. 1991).

However, there are strong indications suggesting that at least part of the dwarf galaxies classified “dE” might be genuine disk galaxies:

(1) There is a general photometric kinship between dEs and low-luminosity late-type galaxies (dIrrs and spirals of type Sd and Sm); e.g. both have roughly exponential surface brightness profiles (e.g. Lin & Faber 1983; Binggeli & Cameron 1993). Coupled with the general morphology-density relation of dwarf galaxies (Einasto et al. 1974; Binggeli et al. 1987), this has fostered the idea that a significant fraction of the dwarf ellipticals might be the dead ends of evolved irregulars and low-luminosity spirals (Lin & Faber 1983; Kormendy 1985; Ferguson & Sandage 1989; see Ferguson & Binggeli 1994 for a broader discussion). In case of a sufficiently soft evolutionary mechanism such as ram pressure stripping, a dwarf galaxy could indeed have preserved its disk structure while loosing its gas.

(2) Sandage & Binggeli (1984), in their morphological work on Virgo cluster dwarfs, introduced the class of dwarf S0 galaxies. Objects classified dS0, while being much rarer than dEs and confined to a bright magnitude range, are characterized either by a hint of a two-component (S0-like) structure, or some other peculiar feature like boxyness, bar-like feature, or extreme flattening (see also BC91). The flattening distribution of dS0s is typical for disk galaxies (Binggeli & Popescu 1995).

(3) More evidence for the structural diversity of dEs is provided by Ryden et al. (1999). From an isophotal analysis of a sample of Virgo cluster dEs and dS0s these authors found the same range and frequency of “boxy” versus “disky” distortions from ellipticity as in normal ellipticals (e.g. Bender et al. 1989). Clearly, some of these early-type dwarf galaxies will be disk galaxies, or at least have a disk component embedded.

The fourth and latest indication for a disk in a dE of course is the spiral in IC3328. Despite its classification as dE, this galaxy clearly is a mis-classified dS0. We would like to emphasize that IC3328 does not resemble a “dwarf spiral”, a new galaxy type proposed by Schombert et al. (1995), as it lacks a bulge and shows no obvious signs of gas and dust.

It is very likely that more dS0s will be identified among the bright round dEs in the future by means of a careful study of the 2-D light distribution.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors thank the anonymous ESO service observer at the VLT UT1 (ANTU) for providing excellent quality images and Ken Freeman for interesting discussions. The anonymous referee made helpful comments and suggestions. H.J. and B.B. are grateful to the Swiss National Science Foundation for financial support.


text:
# Untitled Document

April 2000 INFNCA-TH0007

A note on the infinite-dimensional symmetries

of classical hamiltonian systems

S. Mignemi e-mail:MIGNEMI@CA.INFN.IT

Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Cagliari

viale Merello 92, 09123 Cagliari, Italy

and INFN, Sezione di Cagliari

We show that any Hamiltonian system with one degree of freedom is invariant under a $`w_{\mathrm{}}`$ algebra of symmetries.

Consider a hamiltonian system with one degree of freedom and time-independent hamiltonian

$$H=H(p,q).$$

It is well known that $`H(p,q)`$ is a constant of motion, $`H=\alpha `$. Another constant of motion $`\beta `$ can be obtained by solving the Hamilton-Jacobi equation

$$H(q,\frac{dW}{dq})=\alpha ,$$

from which one can define a new coordinate $`Q=\frac{W}{\alpha }=t+\beta `$. One has

$$\beta =Q(q,\alpha )tG(p,q),$$

and Poisson brackets

$$\{G(p,q),H(p,q)\}=1.$$

Moreover,

$$\frac{dG}{dt}=\frac{G}{t}+\{G,H\}=0.$$

Consider now the quantities

$$w_{m,n}=H^{m+1}G^n.$$
$`(1)`$
Being algebraic functions of conserved quantities they are of course conserved, $`\frac{dw}{dt}=0`$. Moreover, their Poisson brackets obey the $`w_{\mathrm{}}`$ algebra

$$\{w_{m,n},w_{m^{},n^{}}\}=[m(n^{}+1)m^{}(n+1)]w_{m+m^{},n+n^{}}.$$
$`(2)`$
By construction, the constants of motion $`w_{m,n}`$ are functionally dependent on $`H`$ and $`G`$. Nevertheless, they generate a non-trivial algebra of symmetries. Of course, this unusual situation is due to the explicit dependence of $`G`$ on time.

The simplest example is given by the harmonic oscillator, with hamiltonian

$$H=\frac{1}{2}\left(p^2+q^2\right),$$

in which case,

$$G=t\mathrm{arccos}\frac{q}{\sqrt{2H}}.$$

A less trivial example is given by conformal mechanics  and is discussed in detail in . In this case,

$$H=\frac{1}{2}\frac{p^2}{f(pq)},G=t+\frac{pq}{\sqrt{2H}}.$$

The existence of infinite-dimensional symmetries in systems with one degree of freedom was first noticed in the case of the inverted harmonic oscillator  and of conformal mechanics  as an invariance of the volume of the phase space, but no detailed account of the realization of the symmetry in terms of conserved charges or of its physical significance was given. Only in ref.  the special case of conformal mechanics was discussed from this point of view.

The $`w_{\mathrm{}}`$ symmetries discussed above can be easily generalized to the case of integrable systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom. While in classical mechanics this invariance acts at a formal level, its extension to quantum systems may yield non-trivial consequences, because of the possible appearance of central extensions of the algebra. This fact would be especially interesting in the case of conformal quantum mechanics, for its implications on the $`AdS_2/CFT_1`$ duality .

References

 V. de Alfaro, S. Fubini and G. Furlan, Nuovo Cimento 34A, 569 (1976).  S. Cacciatori, D. Klemm and D. Zanon, Class. Quantum Grav. 17, 1731 (2000).  M. Cadoni, P. Carta and S. Mignemi, ”A realization of the infinite-dimensional symmetries of conformal mechanics”, hep-th/0004107.  E. Witten, Nucl. Phys. B373, 187 (1982).  M. Cadoni and S. Mignemi, Phys. Rev. D59, 081501 (1999); Nucl. Phys. B557, 165 (1999).


text: # A note on a question of R. Pol concerning light maps


text:
# Vortex lattices in a stirred Bose-Einstein condensate

## 1 Introduction

The discovery of Bose-Einstein condensation of atomic gases  has led to a new impulse in the physics of quantum gases. Among the several questions that can be studied in these systems, superfluidity is one of the most intriguing and fascinating. A first hint to the superfluid behaviour of these systems was provided by the study of the oscillation frequencies of the normal modes of these systems . A more direct evidence has been found by recent experiments aiming to study the energy deposited in the condensate by a moving “object” (i.e. the hole created by a blue detuned laser) and the rotational properties of the gas .

The relation between the rotational and superfluid properties of a gas or a liquid is illustrated by the famous “rotating bucket” experiment (see Fig. 1). When an ordinary fluid is placed in a rotating container, the steady state corresponds to a rotation of the fluid as a whole together with the vessel. The velocity field for a normal fluid is the same for a rigid rotating body:

$$𝒗=𝛀\times 𝒓.$$
(1)
Superfluidity, first observed in liquid HeII, changes dramatically this behaviour . Indeed, for a low enough rotation frequency, the superfluid is not entrained at all by the walls of the rotating bucket, and it stays at rest in the laboratory frame.

For a more quantitative description of the superfluid phenomenon, consider a Bose-Einstein condensate with weak, repulsive interactions (see e.g. ). This model is relevant for the 87Rb gas that we investigate experimentally since (i) the scattering length $`a`$ characterizing the two-body interactions is positive, (ii) the “gaseous” parameter $`(\overline{\rho }a^3)^{1/2}`$ is much smaller than 1 ($`\overline{\rho }`$ is the average spatial density of the condensate). When cooled well below the condensation temperature, nearly all the atoms occupy the same state, and we can write the condensate wave function as $`\psi (𝒓)=\sqrt{\rho (𝒓)}e^{iS(𝒓)}`$, where $`\rho (𝒓)`$ is the spatial density. The velocity field is given by $`m𝒗=\mathrm{}\mathbf{}S`$, which is manifestly irrotational. This fact forbids, in particular, the rigid-body velocity field given in (1). An energy analysis, which is outlined in the next section of this paper for the particular case of harmonic confinement, leads to the following conclusions. For a low enough angular rotation frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, the ground state is the same as that when the bucket is at rest. In this state, the phase of the condensate is constant over the whole volume and no rotational motion occurs. However above a critical frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$, a line of singularity, i.e. a vortex line, appears. The condensate density drops to zero on axis, and the phase of the condensate wave function is now given by $`S(𝒓)=\theta `$, where $`\theta `$ is the azimuthal angle around the vortex axis (oriented along $`z`$). The corresponding velocity field varies as $`r^1`$, where $`r`$ is the distance to the vortex center. Moreover, the velocity field has a quantized circulation around the axis:

$$𝒗𝑑𝒓=\frac{2\pi \mathrm{}}{m},$$
(2)
where $`m`$ is the mass of the particles in the fluid. For frequencies notably higher than $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$, one might expect that a single vortex line with a quantum number $`n`$ larger than 1 would appear ($`S(𝒓)=n\theta `$). However this state is unstable  and fragments into $`n`$ vortices each with a unit circulation quantum.

These phenomenon have been observed in experiments with superfluid liquid helium; however, the model of a dilute Bose gas presented in the previous paragraph is not applicable to this dense system. Let us quote here two milestones in this very rich field of research. In 1958 Vinen performed an experiment in which he detected the presence of a single vortex filament by observing the induced frequency shift of the vibrational modes of a wire at the center of a rotating liquid helium bath . In 1982 Yarmchuk and Packard obtained images of a vortex lattices in the superfluid by imaging electrons initially trapped at the cores of the vortex lines .

## 2 Vortices in trapped gaseous condensates

The generation of quantized vortices in trapped atomic gases has been the subject of numerous theoretical studies in the recent years. Two schemes have been considered. The first one uses laser beams to engineer the phase of the condensate wave function and produce the desired velocity field . Recently this scheme  has been successfully applied to a binary mixture of condensates, resulting in a quantized rotation of one of the two components around the second one . Phase imprinting has also been used for the generation of solitons inside a condensate .

The second scheme, which is explored in the present work, is directly analogous to the rotating bucket experiment . The atoms are confined in a static, cylindrically-symmetric Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap upon which we superimpose a non-axisymmetric, attractive dipole potential created by a stirring laser beam (see figure 2). The combined potential leads to a cigar-shaped harmonic trap with a slightly anisotropic transverse profile. The transverse anisotropy is rotated at angular frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ as the gas is evaporatively cooled to Bose-Einstein condensation, and it plays the role of the bucket wall roughness.

In this scheme, the formation of vortices is a consequence of thermal equilibrium. In the frame rotating at the same frequency as the anisotropy, the Hamiltonian is time-independent and one can use a standard thermodynamics approach to determine the steady-state of the system. In this frame, the Hamiltonian can be written $`\stackrel{~}{H}=H\mathrm{\Omega }L_z`$, where $`H`$ is the Hamiltonian in the absence of rotation, and $`L_z`$ is the total orbital angular momentum along the rotation axis. For a gas with repulsive interactions, the term $`\mathrm{\Omega }L_z`$ may favor the creation of a state where the condensate wave function has an angular momentum $`\mathrm{}`$ along the $`z`$ axis and therefore contains a vortex filament .

This is illustrated in figure 3, which displays the lowest eigenenergies for the Gross-Pitaevski equation describing a gas with $`N`$ atoms confined in a two-dimensional isotropic harmonic potential of frequency $`\omega _t`$:

$$\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}\mathrm{\Delta }\psi +\frac{1}{2}m\omega _t^2(x^2+y^2)\psi +\frac{4\pi \mathrm{}^2Na}{m}|\psi |^2\psi =E\psi .$$
(3)
Here $`a`$ is the scattering length characterizing the 2-body interaction. In figure 3a, we consider an ideal gas ($`a=0`$). The ground state found for $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0`$, which has zero angular momentum, remains the ground state of the system until the stirring frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ reaches $`\omega _t`$. Above this value, the gas is no longer stable since the centrifugal force $`m\mathrm{\Omega }^2𝒓`$ exceeds the restoring force of the confining potential $`m\omega _t^2𝒓`$. For a gas with repulsive interactions (figure 3b), the energy of the state with angular momentum $`\mathrm{}=1`$ crosses the energy of the $`\mathrm{}=0`$ state at a critical value $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c<\omega _{}`$. Indeed one can infer that for $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\omega _{}`$ the energy of the state $`\mathrm{}=1`$ is strictly below the energy of the state $`\mathrm{}=0`$: (i) these two states have the same energy in absence of interactions for $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\omega _t`$; (ii) repulsive interactions increase the energy of these states, by an amount which is larger for the $`\mathrm{}=0`$ state, since it has a smaller volume than the state with $`\mathrm{}=1`$.

When the interactions are large enough to reach the Thomas-Fermi limit, for which the kinetic energy is negligibly small compared to the potential and interaction energies, the solution of (3) for $`\mathrm{}=1`$ leads to a radius for the vortex core of the order of the healing length $`\xi =(8\pi a\rho )^{1/2}`$, where $`\rho `$ is the density of the condensate at the center of the trap in the absence of a vortex .

## 3 Experimental setup and determination of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$

Our set-up has been described in detail previously , and we only briefly outline the main elements. The atoms are confined in an Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap. The slow oscillation frequency of the elongated magnetic trap is $`\omega _z/(2\pi )=11.7`$ Hz ($`z`$ is horizontal in our setup), while the transverse oscillation frequency is $`\omega _{}/(2\pi )=219`$ Hz. Bose-Einstein condensation is reached using evaporative cooling produced by a chirped radio-frequency source. For the data presented here, the final frequency of the evaporation ramp is chosen only a few kHz above the value which completely empties the trap. This garantees that the temperature of the atomic gas is below 80 nK, the uncondensed cloud being only marginally visible. The number of atoms in the condensate is of the order of 140 000.

The stirring laser beam is switched on approximately at the time when the cloud reaches the condensation point. It propagates along the slow axis of the magnetic trap. The beam waist is $`w_s=20.0(\pm \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1})`$ $`\mu `$m and the laser power $`P`$ is 0.4 mW. The recoil heating induced by this far-detuned beam (wavelength $`852`$ nm) is negligible. Two crossed acousto-optic modulators, combined with a proper imaging system, allow for an arbitrary translation of the laser beam axis with respect to the symmetry axis of the condensate.

The motion of the stirring beam consists in the superposition of a fast and a slow component. The optical spoon’s axis is toggled at a high frequency (100 kHz) between two symmetric positions about the long trap axis $`z`$. The intersections of the stirring beam axis and the $`z=0`$ plane are $`\pm a(\mathrm{cos}\theta 𝐮_x+\mathrm{sin}\theta 𝐮_y)`$, where the distance $`a`$ is $`8\mu `$m. The fast toggle frequency is chosen to be much larger than the magnetic trap frequencies so that the atoms experience an effective two-beam, time-averaged potential. The slow component of the motion is a uniform rotation of the angle $`\theta =\mathrm{\Omega }t`$. The value of the angular frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is maintained fixed during the evaporation at a value chosen between 0 and $`2\pi \times 220`$ rad $`\mathrm{s}^1`$.

The dipole potential, proportional to the power of the stirring beam, is well approximated by $`m\omega _{}^2(ϵ_XX^2+ϵ_YY^2)/2`$. The ($`X,Y`$) basis is rotated with respect to the fixed axes ($`x,y`$) by the angle $`\theta (t)`$, and $`ϵ_X=0.03`$ and $`ϵ_Y=0.09`$ for the parameters given above . The action of this beam is essentially a slight modification of the transverse frequencies of the magnetic trap while the longitudinal frequency is nearly unchanged. The overall stability of the stirring beam on the condensate appears to be a crucial element for the success of the experiment, and we estimate that our stirring beam axis is fixed to and stable on the condensate axis to within 2 $`\mu `$m.

After the end of the evaporation ramp, we let the system reach thermal equilibrium in this “rotating bucket” for a duration $`t_\mathrm{r}=500`$ ms. The vortices induced in the condensate by the optical spoon are then studied using a time-of-flight analysis (27 ms) after the atoms have been released from the magnetic trap. Due to the atomic mean field energy, the initial cigar shape of the atomic cloud transforms into a pancake shape during the free fall. The transverse $`xy`$ and longitudinal $`z`$ sizes grow by a factor of $`40`$ and $`1.2`$ respectively . In addition, the core size of the vortex should expand at least as fast as the transverse size of the condensate . Therefore a vortex with an initial diameter $`2\xi =0.4\mu `$m for our experimental parameters is expected to grow to a size of 16 $`\mu `$m.

At the end of the time-of-flight period, we illuminate the atomic sample with a resonant probe laser for 20 $`\mu `$s. The shadow of the atomic cloud in the probe beam is imaged onto a CCD camera with an optical resolution $`7\mu `$m. The probe laser propagates along the $`z`$-axis so that the image reveals the column density of the cloud after expansion along the stirring axis.

For the trap parameters given above, we have found that no singularity appears in the cloud image as long as the stirring frequency is smaller than $`149`$ Hz. However, for a stirring frequency equal to or above 150 Hz (but smaller than 160 Hz, see next section) a density dip systematically appears at the center of the cloud. Figure 4 illustrates this transition by showing two pictures of the condensate after expansion; the first with a stirring frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }=145`$ Hz (Fig.4a) below and the second $`\mathrm{\Omega }=152`$ Hz (Fig.4b) above the critical frequency.

The dip in the optical density can reach up to 50 % of the maximal column density and it constitutes an unambiguous signature of the presence of a vortex filament. In particular it cannot be induced by a mechanical action of the stirring laser, which in fact creates a restoring force towards the center of the magnetic trap since it is detuned red of resonance. The fact that the density does not vanish in the dip may be due to several reasons: (i) The vortex filament may not be perfectly straight but rather an oscillating line (the so-called Thomson mode ). (ii) Some non-condensed atoms may be trapped in the core of the vortex. (iii) The core diameter after expansion of $`18\mu `$m at the half max of the dip is not much larger than the resolution limit of the imaging optics.

Finally, we note that the critical frequency is notably larger than the predicted value of 91 Hz  (see also ). This deviation may be due to the marginality of the Thomas-Fermi approximation for our relatively low condensate number.

## 4 Dynamics of a vortex array

When the stirring frequency is increased notably above the value $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$, multiple dips appear in the absorption image of the cloud. Each of these dips has approximately the same spatial width as the single dip of Fig. 4. For the trap parameters given above, the threshold frequency for the appearance for such multi-vortex patterns is 160 Hz, and condensates with up to 4 vortices have been observed .

We have found that we can generate patterns with more than 4 vortices if we reduce the transverse trapping frequency. This can easily be done by adjusting the value of the bias magnetic field at the center of the trap. The data that we give now have been obtained with a transverse frequency of $`\omega _t/\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}\pi =169`$ Hz and a longitudinal frequency of $`\omega _z/\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}\pi =11.7`$ Hz, the same as before.

For an atom number similar to the previous data ($`\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}150\hspace{0.17em}000}`$), the critical frequency is now $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c/\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}\pi =119`$ Hz. This still corresponds to a ratio $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c/\omega _t0.7`$. When we increase the stirring frequency above 130 Hz, arrays of several vortices can be observed. For instance, Fig.5 shows images of condensates with 7, 8 and 11 vortices. These three images have all been obtained with the same experimental conditions ($`\mathrm{\Omega }/\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}\pi =135`$ Hz), apart from residual shot-to-shot fluctuations. In the pictures with 7 and 8 vortices (Fig.5a and Fig.5b), one vortex is found at the center of the trap, and the remaining ones form a regular hexagon or heptagon. The 11-vortex pattern (Fig.5c) has 3 vortices forming an equilateral triangle surrounded by a regular octogon. Some of the dips of the octogon are hardly visible, since they are located at the border of the condensate cloud.

In  we studied the lifetime of the one vortex pattern of Fig.4b when the stirring laser is removed. We found that this structure may survive for up to $``$ 1 s before decaying, proving the metastability of the current associated with the vortex . We now present similar data obtained for a multiple vortex structure. For this experiment we chose a rotation frequency of $`\mathrm{\Omega }=135`$ Hz and adjusted the number of atoms in the condensation to maximize the probability that a 5-vortex pattern form. For each point in the decay study, a vortex lattice is formed, then the stirring beam is turned off, and the condensate is allowed to evolve in the pure magnetic trap for an adjustable time. A time-of-flight analysis is performed to determine the number of vortices still present.

The results are displayed in Fig.6 which presents the decay of the average number of vortices as a function of time, each point representing the average of 10 shots. The characteristic time for the reduction by a factor 2 of this average number is 750 ms. A more detailed representation is shown in Fig.6b which displays the fraction of pictures showing $`n`$ vortices ($`n=0,\mathrm{},6`$) as a function of time. It seems apparent that the vortex pattern decays by losing one vortex at a time. For instance, at time $`t=100`$ ms, 9 patterns out of 10 exhibit 5 vortices; 400 ms later, 7 patterns out of 10 exhibit 4 vortices. It is remarkable that the vortex pattern readjusts itself shortly after the loss of a vortex. For instance, the 3-vortex patterns are found most often as a quasi-centered and quasi-equilateral triangle, while the 4-vortex patterns have essentially a square shape.

## 5 Conclusion

We have reported the formation of single and multiple-vortex structures in a gaseous Bose-Einstein condensate when it is stirred by a laser beam which produces a slight rotating anisotropy. We have also presented measurements of the lifetime of the pattern of vortices when the rotating anisotropy is removed.

Several extensions of this work can be considered. Direct evidence for the quantized circulation of the velocity field (Eq.2) could be obtained either from an interferometric measurement similar to the one performed in  (see e.g.  or ), or from a study of the elementary excitations of the vortex filament . Also the role of the thermal component in the nucleation and decay of the vortex pattern remains to be elucidated . The rotational properties of the gas before the condensation point, where the collisional dynamics can be described by the classical or quantum Boltzmann equation, constitute other very interesting questions . Finally, the scattering of quasi-resonant light by this medium may lead to spectacular phenomena, such as a “black hole” type behaviour when the speed of sound or mass flow in the condensate exceeds that of light .

We wish to dedicate this paper to the memory of Dan Walls who has had a seminal influence on the field of quantum optics in general, and in the understanding of the physics of gaseous Bose Einstein condensates in particular.

Acknowledgments: we thank V. Bretin, Y. Castin, C. Cohen-Tannoudji, C. Deroulers, D. Guéry-Odelin, C. Salomon, G. Shlyapnikov, S. Stringari, and the ENS Laser cooling group for several helpful discussions and comments. This work was partially supported by CNRS, Collège de France, DRET, DRED and EC (TMR network ERB FMRX-CT96-0002). This material is based upon work supported by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization under an NSF-NATO grant awarded to K.M. in 1999.

permanent address: Max Planck Institute für KernPhysik, Heidelberg, Germany.

Unité de Recherche de l’Ecole normale supérieure et de l’Université Pierre et Marie Curie, associée au CNRS.


text:
# Microscopic description of d-wave superconductivity by Van Hove nesting in the Hubbard model

\[

## Abstract

We devise a computational approach to the Hubbard model that captures the strong coupling dynamics arising when the Fermi level is at a Van Hove singularity in the density of states. We rely on an approximate degeneracy among the many-body states accounting for the main instabilities of the system (antiferromagnetism, $`d`$-wave superconductivity). The Fermi line turns out to be deformed in a manner consistent with the pinning of the Fermi level to the Van Hove singularity. For a doping rate $`\delta 0.2`$, the ground state is characterized by $`d`$-wave symmetry, quasiparticles gapped only at the saddle-points of the band, and a large peak at zero momentum in the $`d`$-wave pairing correlations.

\]

Nowadays it is widely accepted that the single-band Hubbard model is an appropriate starting point to describe the electron correlations in the copper-oxide materials. In spite of the efforts to show that the model has a phase of $`d`$-wave superconductivity, however, there is no conclusive proof at present of its existence. There have been different theoretical approaches to understand the symmetry of the order parameter, among which we may quote the proposals based on the effect of antiferromagnetic fluctuations and the Kohn-Luttinger mechanism due to Van Hove nesting of the Fermi surface. Numerical methods have also provided some evidence of enhanced pairing correlations in the 2D Hubbard model. Recent progress has been achieved by the use of dynamical mean-field approximations and improved quantum Monte Carlo methods.

We focus our discussion on the proposal of superconducting pairing by the influence of a Van Hove singularity near the Fermi level. Recently, some understanding of the problem has been attained by the use of refined renormalization group methods for interacting electrons in two dimensions. This approach suffers, though, from the same shortcoming of any attempt to deal with the origin of high-$`T_c`$ superconductivity. The system is likely to develop strong antiferromagnetic or superconducting correlations but, as long as the effective interaction grows large as more high-energy electron modes are integrated out, it is not possible to discern rigorously the ground state of the model. A related problem concerns the fact that the superconducting correlations are enhanced like $`\mathrm{log}^2\epsilon `$, when the electron modes are integrated out down to energy $`\epsilon `$ near the Fermi surface. This reflects in another fashion that the model does not lead to a conventional scale-invariant theory at arbitrarily low energies —unless the Fermi energy is promoted to a dynamical quantity susceptible itself of renormalization.

In this paper we address the characterization of the ground state of the Hubbard model, when the Fermi level is at a Van Hove singularity in the density of states. For this purpose we will formally make use of the scaling properties of the model, which ensure that upon integration of the high-energy modes the electron quasiparticles remain in correspondence with the original one-particle states, up to the energy in which the effective interaction starts to grow large. To elucidate the behavior of the system at lower energies we undertake a numerical diagonalization of the Hubbard hamiltonian, in the Hilbert space truncated to include the states left after integration of the high-energy modes.

We implement the above strategy in the Hubbard model on a $`8\times 8`$ lattice, which has the set of one-particle states in momentum space represented in Fig. 1. In order to study the effects of the enhanced scattering at the saddle-points, we start from a Fermi sea of occupied states below the shell $`\epsilon =0`$, whose particle content corresponds to a doping rate $`\delta 0.22`$. We suppose that at a previous renormalization group stage the high-energy electron modes have been integrated out down to the region between energies $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ about the Fermi level shown in Fig. 1. The modes integrated out have approximately isotropic patterns about the top and the bottom of the band, and we may safely assume that their effect is encoded in a soft renormalization of the effective coupling for the low-energy modes, that we call $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. Furthermore, we will deal with a situation in which $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is in the weak-coupling regime, so that the low-energy physics can be described by building the many-body Hilbert space out of the one-particle states within $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. One has to bear in mind, however, that the interaction of the states at the Fermi level shell $`\epsilon =0`$ is always strong and essentially nonperturbative. In fact, we know from theoretical arguments that the main physical features have to come from the enhanced scattering with momentum transfer $`(\pi ,\pi )`$. This effect is properly captured in our construction, given the high degeneracy of states at the $`\epsilon =0`$ shell.

We proceed then to the numerical diagonalization in the many-body space of states of the low-energy theory, for different contents of particles at the Fermi level shell $`\epsilon =0`$. We keep in all cases a Fermi sea of 24 particles filling the levels below $`\epsilon =0`$. The instances with an even number of particles at the Fermi level are particularly interesting, since these are situations that allow to test the tendency to pairing in the model. Actually, there is a correspondence between the states with broken symmetry in a macroscopic system and the sectors labelled by different quantum numbers in the finite cluster. The antiferromagnetic phase is characterized by a ground state in the sector A of spin singlets with total momentum $`𝐏=(\pi ,\pi )`$ and all the quantum numbers equal to 1 for the rest of discrete symmetries of the lattice. The $`d`$-wave superconducting phase may be characterized by a ground state in the sector D of states with total momentum $`𝐏=(0,0)`$ and odd parity under the exchange of the two axes in momentum space (the rest of quantum numbers remaining equal to 1). A ground state belonging to the sector P of spin singlets with total momentum $`𝐏=(0,0)`$ and even parity for the rest of the symmetry operations implies a phase without symmetry breaking at the macroscopic level.

An important observation is that, for any even number of particles, the lowest-energy states found in the A, D and P sectors by considering the scattering of the one-particle states in the $`\epsilon =0`$ shell (and no particle-hole excitations from the Fermi sea) are always degenerate. Let us call $`𝐩_A=(\pi ,0)`$, $`𝐩_B=(0,\pi )`$, $`𝐩_C=(3\pi /4,\pi /4)`$, $`𝐩_D=(\pi /4,3\pi /4)`$. For two particles at the Fermi level, for instance, the following states have the same energy

$`|A`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(c_{}^+(𝐩_A)c_{}^+(𝐩_B)c_{}^+(𝐩_A)c_{}^+(𝐩_B)\right)|FS`$ (1)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\sqrt{8}}}{\displaystyle \underset{}{}}\left(c_{}^+(𝐩_C)c_{}^+(𝐩_D)c_{}^+(𝐩_C)c_{}^+(𝐩_D)\right)|FS`$ (2)
$`|D`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(c_{}^+(𝐩_A)c_{}^+(𝐩_A)c_{}^+(𝐩_B)c_{}^+(𝐩_B)\right)|FS`$ (3)
$`|D^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{8}}}{\displaystyle \underset{}{}}\left(c_{}^+(𝐩_C)c_{}^+(𝐩_C)c_{}^+(𝐩_D)c_{}^+(𝐩_D)\right)|FS`$ (4)
$`|P`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(c_{}^+(𝐩_A)c_{}^+(𝐩_A)+c_{}^+(𝐩_B)c_{}^+(𝐩_B)\right)|FS`$ (5)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\sqrt{8}}}{\displaystyle \underset{}{}}\left(c_{}^+(𝐩_C)c_{}^+(𝐩_C)+c_{}^+(𝐩_D)c_{}^+(𝐩_D)\right)|FS`$ (6)
where $``$ stands for all possible reflections about the axes and $`|FS`$ represents the Fermi sea below the $`\epsilon =0`$ shell. It can be checked that this degeneracy among the lowest-energy states in the three different sectors holds for any even number of particles in the Fermi level $`\epsilon =0`$, when particle-hole excitations from the Fermi sea are frozen out.

Thus, in order to find to which sector belongs the ground state of the system, it suffices to make perturbations around the zeroth-order degenerate states. Wigner theorem establishes that no generic level crossings are found when just one parameter is varied in a quantum system. In our problem, we may switch adiabatically by means of an energy cutoff the number of particle-hole processes that are allowed in the space of states, in order to resolve the above degeneracy. The theorem guarantees that the ground state obtained in this evolution has to be adiabatically connected to the ground state of the full many-body space. In practice, it is enough to perturb the many-body states with up to two particle-hole excitations from the Fermi sea comprising 24 particles below $`\epsilon =0`$. At this level, we may consider our computational method as accurate as the coupled-cluster-double approximation, in which the relative errors estimated for the ground state energy of the Hubbard model are as small as $`10^4`$, for a $`8\times 8`$ lattice and $`U=t`$. As long as we are going to obtain our main results from the energy balance between different states in the model, we may expect them to be affected by smaller relative errors at that value of the interaction.

We have computed the lowest-energy states in the sectors with different quantum numbers, within the above approximation to the space of states, for a number $`N`$ of particles in the $`\epsilon =0`$ shell ranging from zero to 4. These values are about a doping rate $`\delta 0.2`$. Otherwise, the case $`N=4`$ already sets the computational limit in the number of particles that can be afforded with our Fermi sea. The ground state with all the closed shells at $`N=0`$ is a spin singlet with momentum $`𝐏=(0,0)`$ and even parity for the rest of discrete symmetries. Its energy for $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}=t`$ turns out to be $`25.1713t`$. The competition between the lowest energies in the different sectors for $`N=2`$ and $`N=4`$ is illustrated in Table I, for $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}=t`$ and $`2t`$. We have found that the ground state is always in the D sector of odd parity under the exchange of $`p_x`$ and $`p_y`$. This conclusion for $`N=2`$ can be considered a confirmation of the significance of similar results obtained by the full numerical diagonalization of the Hubbard model in a $`4\times 4`$ cluster. In the present approach, the Fermi level at $`\epsilon =0`$ admits a larger number of particles, and it allows us to check the trend towards $`d`$-wave symmetry by filling the shell.

To get insight about the nature of the ground states at $`N=2`$ and $`N=4`$, we have looked at the quasiparticle excitations supported by them. These correspond in our cluster to states with an odd number of particles ($`N=1`$ and $`N=3`$). States with $`N=1`$ can be considered quasiparticle excitations over the fully symmetric state with $`N=0`$, and their dispersion may be obtained by looking at different momenta above the Fermi sea. We have plotted in Fig. 2 the lowest energies found for $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}=t`$ among the many-body states with different momenta on the shell $`\epsilon =0`$ (including again up to two particle-hole excitations from the Fermi sea).

The Fermi energy for $`N=1`$ can be estimated by taking the mean value between the ground state energies at $`N=0`$ and $`N=2`$, which turns out to be $`24.9856t`$ for $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}=t`$. The lowest energy found at $`𝐏=(\pi ,0)`$ is slightly above this value, by an amount of order $`10^4t`$. The quasiparticle excitations at $`𝐏=(\frac{3\pi }{4},\frac{\pi }{4})`$ and $`𝐏=(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$ are found at higher energies. Results pointing in the same direction have been obtained in the diagonalization of small clusters. We find a clear indication that the Fermi line is deformed by the interaction, in such a way that it is shifted inwards at the momenta $`(\frac{3\pi }{4},\frac{\pi }{4})`$ and $`(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$. This deformation is in agreement with the effect of pinning of the Fermi energy near a Van Hove singularity that has been discussed on theoretical grounds. According to this effect, the particles take advantage of the strong screening of the interaction at the singularity to place themselves preferently near the saddle points of the dispersion relation, as observed in our computation. A similar phenomenon has been advocated recently in Ref. .

It is also of great interest the study of the lowest-energy states for $`N=3`$ particles on the $`\epsilon =0`$ shell. These may be considered as the quasiparticle excitations of the ground states for $`N=2`$ and $`N=4`$, and they are essential to characterize the pairing of particles at even filling levels. The energies for the momenta on the $`\epsilon =0`$ shell, obtained in the same approximation as before, are plotted in Fig. 2 for $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}=t`$.

The position of the Fermi energy at $`N=3`$ can be estimated from the ground state energies at $`N=2`$ and $`N=4`$, and it becomes $`24.6136t`$ for $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}=t`$. The deviation from this value of the lowest-energy states for the odd-filled shell may signal the momenta at which a gap opens up for the quasiparticle excitations. Given the above mentioned shift of the Fermi line, though, one has to bear in mind that the Fermi level is not reached precisely at the points $`𝐏=(\frac{3\pi }{4},\frac{\pi }{4})`$ and $`𝐏=(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$. This effect can be corrected by subtracting from the respective energies the shift from the Fermi level as measured for the $`N=1`$ quasiparticles. The final result can be seen in Fig. 2. The energy of the quasiparticles near $`𝐏=(\frac{3\pi }{4},\frac{\pi }{4})`$ and $`𝐏=(\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{\pi }{2})`$ turns out to be the same, within the precision of our computation, and slightly below the estimate from the mean value of the ground state energies for $`N=2`$ and $`N=4`$. On the contrary, the quasiparticle at $`𝐏=(\pi ,0)`$ has an energy well above the Fermi energy estimate. It is clear that a gap opens up for quasiparticle excitations, but only at the position of the saddle points. The value $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of the gap for $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}=t`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }0.0017t`$, is sensibly greater than the energy difference between the lowest-energy states with $`s`$-wave and $`d`$-wave symmetry for $`N=4`$.

The conclusive evidence that the $`d`$-wave ground state at $`N=4`$ is built out of pairing of particles is given by the measure of pairing correlations with $`d`$-wave symmetry. We have computed the correlations of the operator

$$O_{SCD}(𝐪)=\underset{𝐤}{}\left(\frac{g(𝐤+𝐪)+g(𝐤)}{2}\right)c_{}^+(𝐤+𝐪)c_{}^+(𝐤)$$
(7)
with $`g(𝐩)=\mathrm{cos}(p_x)\mathrm{cos}(p_y)`$, in the ground state for $`N=4`$ at $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}=t`$. The results are shown in Table II. The momenta that can be measured are enough to discern a high peak at $`𝐪=0`$ of the pairing correlations, together with a sharp decrease away from the origin. To establish some comparison, we may quote that the peak of the $`s`$-wave pairing correlations in the lowest-energy state of the P sector is $`6.9`$. Taking into account that the $`d`$-wave correlations decay by one order of magnitude across two lattice units in momentum space, the translation of the results to real space is that the binding of particles is correlated on the whole dimension of the cluster.

Although our results refer to a $`8\times 8`$ cluster, they are robust enough to survive the extrapolation to larger lattices. The reason for that is the high degree of symmetry of the model before switching on the interaction with the Fermi sea. We have seen that, by focusing on the scattering processes at the Fermi level shell $`\epsilon =0`$, the lowest-energy state with momentum $`𝐏=(\pi ,\pi )`$ and those with $`d`$-wave and $`s`$-wave symmetry turn out to be degenerate. This is a universal feature of the interaction of states on the nested Fermi line, irrespective of lattice size. Our approach to the many-body problem starts by solving first the strong interaction in the highly degenerate Fermi level. While the interaction with the rest of excitations from the Fermi sea is relevant, as it resolves the mentioned degeneracy, its effect may be assessed within our weak-coupling renormalization group scheme.

The existence of the $`d`$-wave ground state with remarkable pairing correlations provides a microscopic basis for a long-standing conjecture. There has been much hope that a mechanism based on antiferromagnetic fluctuations may be the source of superconductivity in the copper-oxide materials. A different approach —though similar in essence— has put forward the idea that the Hubbard model should bear a form of Kohn-Luttinger superconductivity near half-filling. By stressing the relevance of the modes near the Fermi level shell at $`\epsilon =0`$, our explicit construction of the $`d`$-wave ground state points at the processes with momentum transfer $`𝐐=(\pi ,\pi )`$ as the source of an attractive channel in the Hubbard model with bare repulsive interaction. Nesting of the saddle points at the Fermi level is at the origin of the relevance of such processes, which single out $`d`$-wave superconductivity as the dominant instability of the system.

I thank F. Guinea for useful comments on the manuscript. This work has been partially supported by the spanish Ministerio de Educación y Cultura Grant PB96-0875.


text:
# Critical exponents of plane meanders

## E-mail or WWW retrieval of series

The series for the various generating functions studied in this paper can be obtained via e-mail by sending a request to I.Jensen@ms.unimelb.edu.au or via the world wide web on the URL http://www.ms.unimelb.edu.au/~iwan/ by following the instructions.

## Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Di Francesco et al. for sending us their papers prior to publication. Financial support from the Australian Research Council is gratefully acknowledged.