text:
# Determination of Scanning Efficiencies in Experiments Using Nuclear Emulsion Sheets

## 1 Introduction

Nuclear emulsion sheets are composed of two thin layers of nuclear emulsion deposited on both sides of a transparent plastic base. They offer track position resolution of about 1 $`\mu m`$ and angular resolution around 1 milliradian.

Various present  and future neutrino  experiments have used, or plan to use, the excellent resolution offered by nuclear emulsion sheets to unambiguously detect the production of a tau lepton.

These experiments typically use an electronic detector for calorimetry, particle identification and moderate precision tracking. The tracking detectors are used to reconstruct the points where particles left the emulsions. Tracks compatible with the “prediction” are then searched for with microscopes, in an area proportional in size to the impact point prediction uncertainty. If found, the tracks can be followed from emulsion sheet to emulsion sheet until the interaction vertex is located, or they are lost.

During exposure, which typically lasts for months, these emulsion sheets accumulate significant quantities of background, mainly due to cosmic muons. While most of this background is perpendicular to the beam direction, a small fraction can be mistakenly identified as corresponding to one of the particles the experiment has reconstructed. This generally leads to a wrong estimation of the track finding efficiency in the emulsion sheets. A method has been developed to determine the real track finding efficiency from the effective observed efficiency directly from the available data. The method does not involve any simulation.

In section 2 the real and effective track finding efficiencies are defined. Then, in section 3, a few assumptions are made which are usually true in neutrino experiments. The method to extract the real track finding efficiency is described in section 4, followed by a summary of the possible sources of uncertainties in section 5. Conclusions are drawn in section 6.

## 2 Definition of Real and Effective Track Finding Efficiencies

The real track finding efficiency is defined by

$$ϵ_r=\frac{Numberoftimestherighttrackisfound}{Numberoftrackssearchedfor},$$
(1)
and the observed track finding efficiency by

$$ϵ_o=\frac{Numberoftimesamatchingtrackisfound}{Numberoftrackssearchedfor}.$$
(2)
It is clear that at first sight the real track finding efficiency is unknown: the observed efficiency results from a convolution of signal and background, so that an unfolding procedure seems to be necessary to extract the real efficiency.

## 3 Assumptions

The following assumptions are made:

* The random background can be assumed to be evenly distributed for all the tracks searched for in the emulsion sheets. This assumption holds for emulsion sheets of uniform quality which have been exposed during the same period.
* The real track finding efficiency can have only two results: found or not found. This is true if the density of events is low enough, and if particles from one event are sufficiently separated in phase space. This condition is satisfied in the experiments considered here.
* For each track, an area of identical size (proportional to the prediction accuracy) is scanned. In other words, when a track candidate is found, the rest of the area must still be scanned for possible additional candidates.
* The maximal number of candidates for a single track exit point prediction is finite. This is an assumption on the emulsion quality and the experiment’s ability to see tracks in the emulsion.

An important consequence of the first and third assumptions is that the number of tracks that migrate from 0 candidates to $`n`$ candidates due to the background is equal (within statistics) to the number of tracks that migrate from 1 to $`n+1`$ candidates. This relies on the even distribution of background and the scanning of the entire area.

## 4 The Method

The idea is simple: the real result can be only zero (not found) or one (found), while in the data the number of good candidates in a given surface can be much larger due to background.

Consider the distribution of the number of candidate tracks found for tracks that were searched for in an emulsion sheet. In a healthy experiment, this distribution has a few entries at zero, a large peak at 1, and has a small tail extending to larger values.

Call $`N^{}(i)`$ the number of entries in bin $`i`$, corresponding to the number of tracks for which $`i`$ candidates were found. And call $`N(i)`$ the number of entries that would be observed in each bin for the real track finding efficiency. Under the second assumption $`N(i)=0`$ for $`i>1`$.

Then let $`X(ij)`$ be the number of entries that have migrated from one bin to another due to the background. Here $`i`$ is necessarily 0 or 1 due to the second assumption, $`j>0`$ and $`j>i`$.

Since $`X(0j)=0`$ for some arbitrarily large $`j`$ (last assumption),

$`X(1j)=X(0(j1))`$ $`=`$ $`N^{}(j),`$
$`X(1(j1))=X(0(j2))`$ $`=`$ $`N^{}(j1)N^{}(j),`$
$`\mathrm{}and`$
$`X(12)=X(01)`$ $`=`$ $`N^{}(2)N^{}(3)+N^{}(4)\mathrm{}`$ (3)
But, by construction,

$$N(0)=N^{}(0)+\underset{k}{}X(0k),$$
(4)
which, using (3), is equivalent to

$$N(0)=\underset{l=0}{\overset{j/2}{}}N^{}(2l).$$
(5)
Therefore the real track finding efficiency is

$$ϵ_r=\frac{N_{tot}N(0)}{N_{tot}}=\frac{N_{tot}_{l=0}^{j/2}N^{}(2l)}{N_{tot}},$$
(6)
where $`N_{tot}`$ is the total number of tracks searched for.

## 5 Uncertainties

The statistical uncertainty on the contents of each bin quantifies the error on

$$X(1n)=X(0(n1)),$$
(7)
leading to a statistical uncertainty equal to the quadratic sum of the individual statistical uncertainties of the even bins.

Systematic uncertainties can be induced by the scanning method and individual emulsion sheet properties, so that it is recommended to treat sheets one by one.

## 6 Conclusion

A method to extract the real track finding efficiency from the observed track finding efficiency in emulsion sheets has been described in detail. It relies on assumptions which are not stringent and usually satisfied in any experiment using these types of sheets.

The author acknowledges the financial support of the Institut Interuniversitaire des Sciences Nucléaires (Belgium).


format: text

text:
# 10²⁰ eV cosmic-ray and particle physics with kilometer-scale neutrino telelscopes

## I Introduction

It has been realized for some time that topological defects are unlikely to be the origin of the structure in the present Universe . Therefore the observation of their decay products, in the form of cosmic rays or high energy neutrinos, becomes the most straightforward way to search for these remnant structures from grand unified phase transitions . Such search represents an example of fundamental particle physics that can only be done with cosmic beams. We here point out that a kilometer-scale neutrino observatory , such as IceCube, has excellent discovery potential for topological defects. The instrument can identify the characteristic signatures in the energy and zenith angle distribution of the signal events. It is a common misconception that different instruments, optimized to EeV signals, are required to do this important science, although this is not their primary motivation. Our conclusions for topological defects extend to other physics associated with $`10^{20}10^{24}`$ eV energies.

We will illustrate our claims by demonstrating IceCube sensitivity to:

* generic topological defects with grand-unified mass scale $`M_X`$ of order $`10^{14}10^{15}`$ GeV and a particle decay spectrum consistent with all present observational constraints,
* superheavy relics, normalized to the Z-burst scenario where the observed ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) of $`10^{20}`$ eV energy and above are locally produced by the interaction of superheavy relic neutrinos with the cosmic neutrino background radiation ,
* neutrinos produced by superheavy relics which themselves decay into the UHECRs , and
* the flux of neutrinos produced in the interactions of UHECR cosmic rays with the microwave background , the so called Greisen neutrinos. This flux, which originally inspired the concept of a kilometer-scale neutrino detector, is mostly shown for comparison.

The basic reasons for our more optimistic conclusions about the sensitivity of a detector such as IceCube are simple. Unlike first-generation neutrino telescopes, IceCube can measure energy and can therefore separate very high energy signals from the low energy atmospheric neutrino background by energy measurement  (see below). The instrument can therefore isolate high energy events over $`4\pi `$ solid angle, and not just in the hemisphere where the neutrinos are identified by their penetration of the Earth. This is of primary importance here because neutrinos from topological defects have energies high enough so that they are efficiently absorbed by the Earth . The signal from above and near the horizon typically dominates the up-going neutrino fluxes by an order of magnitude. We will show that the zenith angle distribution of neutrinos associated with topological defects form a characteristic signature for their extremely high energy origin.

## II Neutrino events

We calculate the neutrino event rates by convoluting the $`\nu _\mu +\overline{\nu }_\mu `$ flux from the different sources considered in this paper, with the probability of detecting a muon produced in a muon-neutrino interaction in the Earth or atmosphere:

$$N_{\mathrm{events}}=2\pi A_{\mathrm{eff}}T\frac{dN_\nu }{dE_\nu }(E_\nu )P_{\nu \mu }(E_\nu ,E_\mu (\mathrm{thresh}),\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{zenith}})𝑑E_\nu d\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{zenith}}$$
(1)
where $`T`$ is the observation time and $`\theta _{\mathrm{zenith}}`$ the zenith angle. We assume an effective telescope area of $`A_{\mathrm{eff}}=1\mathrm{km}^2`$, a conservative assumption for the very high energy neutrinos considered here. It is important to notice that the probability ($`P_{\nu \mu }`$) of detecting a muon with energy above a certain energy threshold $`E_\mu `$(threshold), produced in a muon-neutrino interaction, depends on the angle of incidence of the neutrinos. This is because the distance traveled by a muon cannot exceed the column density of matter available for neutrino interaction, a condition not satisfied by very high energy neutrinos produced in the atmosphere. They are absorbed by the Earth and only produce neutrinos in the ice above, or in the atmosphere or Earth near the horizon. The event rates in which the muon arrives at the detector with an energy above $`E_\mu `$(threshold)=1 PeV, where the atmospheric neutrino background is negligible, are shown in Table I.

Fig. 1 shows the $`\nu _\mu +\overline{\nu }_\mu `$ fluxes used in the calculations. We first calculate the event rates corresponding to the largest flux from topological defects  allowed by constraints imposed by the measured diffuse $`\gamma `$-ray background in the vicinity of 100 MeV. The corresponding proton flux has been normalized to the observed cosmic ray spectrum at $`3\times 10^{20}`$ eV; see Fig. 2 of reference . Models with p$`<`$1 appear to be ruled out  and hence they are not considered in the calculation. As an example of neutrino production by superheavy relic particles, we consider the model of Gelmini and Kusenko . In Figs. 2 and 3 we show the event rates as a function of neutrino energy. We assume a muon energy threshold of 1 PeV. We also show in both plots the event rate due to the Waxman and Bahcall bound . This bound represents the maximal flux from astrophysical, optically thin sources, in which neutrinos are produced in p-p or p-$`\gamma `$ collisions. The atmospheric neutrino events are not shown since they are negligible above the muon energy threshold we are using. The area under the curves in both Figs. is equal to the number of events for each source. In Fig. 4 we plot the event rates in which the produced muon arrives at the detector with an energy greater than $`E_\mu `$(threshold). In Fig. 5 we finally present the angular distribution of the neutrino events for the different very high energy neutrino sources. The characteristic shape of the distribution reflects the opacity of the Earth to high energy neutrinos, typically above $``$100 TeV. The limited column density of matter in the atmosphere essentially reduces the rate of downgoing neutrinos to interactions in the 1.5 km of ice above the detector. The events are therefore concentrated near the horizontal direction corresponding to zenith angles close to $`90^\mathrm{o}`$. The neutrinos predicted by the model of Gelmini and Kusenko are so energetic that they are even absorbed in the horizontal direction as can be seen in Fig. 5.

| Model | $`N_{\nu _\mu +\overline{\nu }_\mu }`$ (downgoing) | $`N_{\nu _\mu +\overline{\nu }_\mu }`$ (upgoing) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| TD, $`M_X=10^{14}`$ GeV, $`Q_0=6.31\times 10^{35}`$, p=1 | 11 | 1 |
| TD, $`M_X=10^{14}`$ GeV, $`Q_0=6.31\times 10^{35}`$, p=2 | 3 | 0.3 |
| TD, $`M_X=10^{15}`$ GeV, $`Q_0=1.58\times 10^{34}`$, p=1 | 9 | 1 |
| TD, $`M_X=10^{15}`$ GeV, $`Q_0=1.12\times 10^{34}`$, p=2 | 2 | 0.2 |
| Superheavy Relics Gelmini et al.  | 30 | $`1.5\times 10^7`$ |
| Superheavy Relics Berezinsky et al.  | 2 | 0.2 |
| Superheavy Relics Birkel et al.  | 1.5 | 0.3 |
| p-$`\gamma _{\mathrm{CMB}}`$ $`(z_{\mathrm{max}}=2.2)`$  | 1.5 | $`1.2\times 10^2`$ |
| W-B limit $`2\times 10^8E^2(\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}\mathrm{sr}\mathrm{GeV})^1`$ | 8.5 | 2 |
| Atmospheric background | $`2.4\times 10^2`$ | $`1.3\times 10^2`$ |

Table I: Neutrino event rates (per year per $`\mathrm{km}^2`$ in $`2\pi `$ sr) in which the produced muon arrives at the detector with an energy above $`E_\mu `$(threshold)=1 PeV. Different neutrino sources have been considered. The topological defect models (TD) correspond to highest injection rates $`Q_0(\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^3\mathrm{s}^1)`$ allowed in Fig. 2 of . Also shown is the number of events from p-$`\gamma _{\mathrm{CMB}}`$ interactions in which protons are propagated up to a maximum redshift $`z_{\mathrm{max}}=2.2`$  and the number of neutrinos from the Waxman and Bahcall limit on the diffuse flux from optically thin sources . The number of atmospheric background events above 1 PeV is also shown. The second column corresponds to downward going neutrinos (in $`2\pi `$ sr). The third column gives the number of upward going events (in $`2\pi `$ sr). We have taken into account absorption in the Earth according to reference . IceCube will detect the sum of the event rates given in the last two columns.

Energy measurement is critical for achieving the sensitivity of the detector claimed. For muons, the energy resolution of IceCube is anticipated to be $`25\%`$ in the logarithm of the energy, possibly better. The detector is able to determine energy to better than an order of magnitude, sufficient for the separation of EeV signals from atmospheric neutrinos with energies below 100 TeV. Notice that one should also be able to identify electromagnetic showers initiated by electron and tau-neutrinos. Their energy measurement is linear and expected to be better than $`20\%`$. Such EeV events will be gold-plated, unfortunately their fluxes are expected to be even lower. For instance for the first TD model in Table I (p=1, $`M_X=10^{14}`$ GeV and $`Q_0=6.31\times 10^{35}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^3\mathrm{s}^1`$), we expect $`1`$ contained shower per year per $`\mathrm{km}^2`$ above 1 PeV initiated in charged current interactions of $`\nu _e+\overline{\nu }_e`$. The corresponding number for the Gelmini and Kusenko flux is $`4\mathrm{yr}^1\mathrm{km}^2`$.

One should also worry about the fact that a very high energy muon may enter the detector with reduced energy because of energy losses. It could become indistinguishable from atmospheric background . We have accounted for the ionization as well as catastrophic muon energy losses which are incorporated in the calculation of the range of the muon. In the PeV regime region this energy reduction is roughly one order of magnitude, it should be less for the higher energies considered here.

In conclusion, if the fluxes predicted by our sample of models for neutrino production in the super-EeV region are representative, they should be revealed by the IceCube observatory operated over several years.

## Acknowledgements

We thank J.J. Blanco-Pillado for making available to us his code to obtain the neutrino fluxes from topological defects and E. Zas for helpful discussions. This research was supported in part by the US Department of Energy under grant DE-FG02-95ER40896 and in part by the University of Wisconsin Research Committee with funds granted by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. J.A. thanks the Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison and the Fundación Caixa Galicia for financial support.


text:
# Polydisperse star polymer solutions

## I Introduction

A star polymer consists of linear polymer chains tethered to one common central core. The number of polymer chains $`f`$ is usually referred to as arm number or functionality. If the degree of polymerization, i.e., the number of monomers per chain, $`N`$, is the same for all chains, the star polymer is called monodisperse with respect to $`N`$ or “regular”. For large $`N`$, the size of the central core particle is much smaller than the overall extension of the whole star. For a single star, the density of monomers around the central particle, $`\varphi (r)`$, is radially symmetric, and from this density profile the so-called corona diameter $`\sigma `$, which measures the extension of the star, can be defined as the diameter of a sphere around the star center where all $`Nf`$ monomers are found “inside” .

In the last years, star-shaped polymer aggregates have attracted a considerable amount of interest from both the experimental and the theoretical point of view . The reason for that is threefold. First, from a technical point of view, star polymers are important for several industrial applications . One example are hydrogenated polyisoprene star polymers, which are used as viscosity index modifiers in oil industry applications due to their excellent shear stability. Further, commercial star polymers are brought into action in coating materials, as binders in toners for copying machines, and in several pharmaceutical and medical applications . Second, from an experimental point of view, the recent synthesis of regular star polymers with various possible numbers of arms by Roovers and coworkers  made it possible to explore the physics of well-defined model systems, which are monodisperse in both the number of arms and the degree of polymerization. Important examples are polyisoprene stars with $`f=8,18`$  and polybutadiene stars with $`f=32,64,128`$ , both synthesized by anionic polymerization. Third, star polymers constitute an important soft-condensed matter system, linking the fields of polymer physics and colloid physics, thus attracting also interest from a purely theoretical point of view. Star polymers with small arm numbers ($`f=1,2`$) resemble linear polymers. Thus, their configurations show a considerable asphericity , although their chain-averaged number density of monomers, $`\varphi (r)`$, is spherically symmetric around the center of mass of the polymer. With increasing arm number $`f`$, the asphericity of the stars has been shown to decrease considerably , leading to “stiff” spherical particles in the limit of high $`f`$. It is essentially this limit that a description of star polymers as sterically stabilized colloidal particles holds. This polymer-colloid hybrid character of star polymers has been explored in a number of publications dealing with the structural  and dynamical  properties of star polymers.

In the usual theoretical description, star polymers in dense solution are considered as an effective one-component (monodisperse) system, i.e., all the stars have the same arm number $`f`$ and all the linear polymer chains attached to the center have the same molecular weight. While the latter can be realized by a careful preparation method, the former is in general not true in actual samples. The preparation of star polymers proceeds by adding linear polymer chains to a dendrimer-like core with reactions centers placed at the end of the dendrimer and the polymer chains. The chemical reaction is typically incomplete such that few of the reaction centers at the dendrimer are not linked to a linear chain. Hence an intrinsic polydispersity in the arm number arises. By ultracentrifugation one can estimate the relative polydispersity in the arm number to be around 5-15 percent in carefully and slowly prepared samples. It can, however, also be much larger for fast reactions . In a comparison between experimental data and theory, in almost all previous studies the assumptions of a monodisperse sample was implicitly made such that a natural question concerns the influence of polydispersity on the statistical properties of star polymer solutions. As far as theory is concerned, the situation resembles much the case of colloidal suspensions where the effect of charge and size polydispersity has been a topic of intense recent research, see Refs.  for recent reviews.

In this paper, we investigate the effect of arm number polydispersity on the effective interaction, the structural correlations and the phase diagram for star polymer solutions in a good solvent. Our work is based on a theoretical analysis using scaling theory and computer simulations. We first derive the effective interaction between two star polymers of different arm numbers $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$ from scaling assumptions. Basically the interaction is logarithmic with the core-core distance $`r`$ between the two stars but the prefactor depends explicitly on $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$ and differs from that of a monodisperse sample. The resulting pair potential is tested against molecular simulations and good agreement is found even when $`f_1`$ is very different from $`f_2`$ while earlier descriptions  are found to hold for small polydispersities but to be too simplistic for large polydispersities. In a further step towards a full description of dense star polymer solutions, we then perform computer simulations of a classical many-body systems interacting by means of this effective pair interaction. We find that a polydispersity in the arm number reduces the structural correlations but this effect is less drastic than for size polydispersity in sterically stabilized colloidal suspensions. Further, we present evidence that the reentrant melting behavior predicted from the theoretical treatment of a monodisperse description  does not change drastically in a polydisperse solution of star polymers.

The paper is organized as follows: In section II we present the scaling ideas and derive the effective interaction potential between two stars of different arm numbers. A test of this result against molecular computer simulation is performed in section III. Results for the structure and phase diagram from a simulation of a many-body system are given in section IV. Finally, we conclude in section V.

## II Scaling theory for an effective potential

The effective interaction between two star polymers results from the steric interaction of all monomers that constitute the polymer chains on each of the stars. It is obviously a formidable task to derive the effective potential from first principles. Luckily we are in the position to give a rigorous result for the limiting case of short distance between the two star cores, while good arguments exist for the description of the long range part of the interaction. We have found in the treatment of the interaction of monodisperse star polymers that the combination of these two approaches leads to good agreement with simulation results as well as with scattering experiments on real star polymer systems .

We first derive the short distance interaction using scaling arguments. Many details of the behavior of polymer solutions may be derived using the renormalization group (RG) analysis . Here, we use only the more basic results of power law scaling: the radius of gyration $`R_1(N)`$ of a single linear polymer chain with $`N`$ monomers and its partition function $`𝒵_1(N)`$ are found to obey the power laws:

$$R_1(N)N^\nu \text{ and }𝒵_1(N)z^NN^{\nu \eta _2}.$$
(1)
The fugacity $`z`$ measures the mean number of possibilities to add one monomer to the chain. It is microscopic in nature and will depend on the details of the theoretical model or the experimental system. The two exponents $`\nu `$ and $`\eta _2`$ on the contrary are universal to all polymer systems in a good solvent, i.e., excluding high concentration of polymers or systems in which the polymers are collapsed or are near the collapse transition. A family of additional exponents $`\eta _f`$ governs the scaling of the partition functions $`𝒵_f(N)`$ of polymer stars of $`f`$ chains each with $`N`$ monomers while the power law for the radius of gyration remains unchanged:

$$R_f(N)N^\nu \text{ and }𝒵_f(N)z^{fN}N^{\nu (\eta _ff\eta _2)}.$$
(2)
The exponents of any other power law for more general polymer networks are given by scaling relations in terms of $`\eta _f`$ and $`\nu `$ . Note that eqs. (1) and (2) imply $`\eta _1=0`$. The values of these exponents are known from RG and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations . In the limiting case of many arms, $`f1`$, the leading behavior of $`\eta _f`$ is given by

$$\eta _ff^{3/2},$$
(3)
a result that has been found also from of geometrical considerations using the blob model of a star polymer . The scaling law for the partition sum of two star polymers may be derived from a short distance expansion . The partition sum of the two stars $`𝒵_{f_1f_2}(N,r)`$ at small center-to-center distances $`r`$ factorizes into a function $`C_{f_1f_2}(r)`$ and the partition function $`𝒵_{f_1+f_2}(N)`$ of the star with $`f_1+f_2`$ arms that is formed when the cores of the two stars coincide:

$$𝒵_{f_1f_2}(N,r)C_{f_1f_2}(r)𝒵_{f_1+f_2}(N).$$
(4)
Such a behavior is generally assumed in scaling arguments . At large star-star separation $`𝒵_{f_1f_2}(N,r)`$ is the product of the single star partition functions. Again we may argue that the ratio of the partition function of two stars at finite separation $`r`$ to that at infinite separation can only be a function $`B`$ of $`r/R_1`$ noting that $`R_1`$ is the only relevant length scale in this problem ($`R_{f_1}`$ and $`R_{f_2}`$ differ from $`R_1`$ only in an $`f`$-dependent prefactor):

$$𝒵_{f_1f_2}(N,r)B_{f_1f_2}(r/R_1)𝒵_{f_1}𝒵_{f_2}.$$
(5)
Taking this into account and inserting the power law scaling according to Eqs. (1) and (2) we find that Eqs. (4) and (5) are only compatible if also $`C(r)`$ follows a power law

$`C_{f_1f_2}(r)`$ $``$ $`r^{\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}^{(\mathrm{s})}},`$ (6)
and the so-called contact exponent $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}^{(\mathrm{s})}`$ obeys the scaling relation

$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}^{(\mathrm{s})}`$ $`=`$ $`\eta _{f_1}+\eta _{f_2}\eta _{f_1+f_2}.`$ (7)
Note that in terms of the RG of polymer field theory the exponents $`\eta _f`$ correspond to dimensions of operators associated with the partition functions of single stars  and relation (7) is a direct consequence of the short distance expansion. The mean force $`F_{f_1f_2}(r)`$ acting on the centers of two star polymers with $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$ arms is now derived as the gradient of the effective potential $`V^{\mathrm{eff}}(r)=k_\mathrm{B}T\mathrm{log}[𝒵_{f_1f_2}(r)/(𝒵_{f_1}𝒵_{f_2})]`$ with $`k_\mathrm{B}T`$ denoting the thermal energy. For the force at short distances $`r`$ this evidently results in

$$F_{f_1f_2}(r)=k_\mathrm{B}T\frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}^{(\mathrm{s})}}{r}.$$
(8)
Using the above many arm limit for $`\eta _f`$ one may match the contact exponents $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{ff}^{(\mathrm{s})}`$ to the known values for $`f=1,2`$  fixing the otherwise unknown prefactor in eq. (3). Assuming that the behavior of the $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{ff}^{(\mathrm{s})}`$ may be described by this approximation for all $`f`$ one finds:

$$F_{ff}(r)k_\mathrm{B}T\frac{5}{18}\frac{f^{3/2}}{r}.$$
(9)
This matching in turn suggests an approximate value for the $`\eta _f`$ exponents, taking into account $`\eta _1=0`$ and $`\eta _25/18`$:

$$\eta _f\frac{5}{36}\frac{f^{3/2}f}{\sqrt{2}1}.$$
(10)
Inserting this into the general formula for the interaction of two different star polymers the contact exponent reads for large $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$

$$\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}^{(\mathrm{s})}=\frac{5}{36}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}1}\left[\left(f_1+f_2\right)^{3/2}\left(f_1^{3/2}+f_2^{3/2}\right)\right].$$
(11)
We note that on a phenomenological level there are other possibilities to describe the interaction in a polydisperse system of star polymers. In colloidal systems two other approaches to the interaction of polydisperse particles are commonly used: in a steric stabilized system with a polydispersity in the radii of the particles one expects to find an interaction radius that is the arithmetic mean of the radii of the two interacting particles . In a charge stabilized solution the other hand, the interaction of two particles is proportional to the product of the two charges and the effective charge is calculated as the geometric mean of the two charges. The latter description was used in an earlier investigation of star polymers treating $`f`$ as an “effective charge” parameter . For comparison with these other possible approaches we define:

$$\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}^{(\mathrm{a})}(r)=\frac{5}{18}\left(\frac{f_1+f_2}{2}\right)^{3/2},$$
(12)
$$\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}^{(\mathrm{g})}(r)=\frac{5}{18}\left(\sqrt{f_1f_2}\right)^{3/2}.$$
(13)
We now turn to the interaction at larger separation. It has been recently shown that a Yukawa like tail for the potential between star polymers reproduces the results of both simulation and scattering experiments for monodisperse solutions . The natural scale for a star polymer is the corona diameter $`\sigma _f=2\lambda R_f`$ with $`\lambda 2/3`$ . For the potential between two $`f`$-arm star polymers at distance $`r>\sigma _f`$ one has

$$V_{ff}(r)\frac{1}{r}\mathrm{exp}(r\kappa _f).$$
(14)
The decay length $`1/\kappa _f=2\sigma _f/\sqrt{f}`$ is the diameter of the outermost blobs of the star polymer in the Daoud-Cotton model .

In a simple but successful approach the full potential for the interaction between two $`f`$-arm star polymers was constructed by concatenating the long range and short range potentials. In this model the crossover from short to long range behavior takes place when the distance of the two cores is $`\sigma _f`$. It is natural to generalize this to two star polymers with $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$ arms in such a way that the crossover point is at distance $`\sigma =(\sigma _{f_1}+\sigma _{f_2})/2`$. It is less obvious how to choose the decay length of the long range part. Our choice $`1/\kappa =1/\kappa _{f_1}+1/\kappa _{f_2}`$ is in accordance to the simulation results presented below. Note that although we have omitted the subscripts on $`\sigma `$ and $`\kappa `$, the latter are functions of $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$.

The full potential then reads

$$\frac{1}{k_\mathrm{B}T}V_{f_1f_2}(r)=\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}^{(\mathrm{s})}\{\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{ln}(\frac{r}{\sigma })+\frac{1}{1+\sigma \kappa }\hfill & \mathrm{for}r\sigma ;\hfill \\ \frac{1}{1+\sigma \kappa }\frac{\sigma }{r}\mathrm{exp}(\sigma \kappa r\kappa )\hfill & \mathrm{for}r>\sigma .\hfill \end{array}$$
(15)
In the monodisperse case $`f_1=f_2`$ this potential reduces to the one between two identical star polymers that has been successfully tested in extensive simulations.

## III Comparison with simulation results

We have performed Molecular Dynamics (MD) computer simulations of two star polymers with different arm numbers $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$ by resolving the monomers as classical beads along the chains. We use the same simulation model as in previous studies of star polymer solutions in a good solvent . The arm length, i.e., the number $`N`$ of beads along each chain, was kept fixed to $`N=50,100`$ which was shown in previous work to be large enough to guarantee a sufficient scaling behavior. The main features of the simulation model can be summarized as follows:

1. A purely repulsive truncated Lennard-Jones interaction between all $`N(f_1+f_2)`$ monomers is assumed.
2. An attractive FENE-potential is added for the interaction between neighboring monomers along a chain.
3. To accommodate the polymer arms, a hard core with radius $`R^{(d)}`$ is introduced at the center of the stars. The cores interact with the monomers according to the above mentioned potentials with a separation shift of $`R^{(d)}`$.

Two stars with arm numbers $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$ were fixed at core separation $`r`$. After a long equilibration period, the total force $`F_{f_1f_2}`$ acting onto the cores is averaged. The temperature $`T`$ is kept constant. Both the equilibration time and the time during which averages were performed was about $`1000\tau `$ where $`\tau =\sqrt{m\sigma ^2/ϵ}`$ is the Lennard-Jones time unit with $`\sigma `$, $`ϵ`$ and $`m`$ denoting the Lennard-Jones length, energy scale and the monomer mass. A simulation snapshot is shown in Fig. 1. When comparing the mean force to the derivative of the theoretical effective potential, two technical problems arise: (i) In contrast to the theory, we have a finite core size $`R^{(d)}`$ which is the same for both stars. (ii) The two corona diameters, $`\sigma _f`$, ($`f=f_1,f_2`$) which enter in the potential of eq. (15), are not directly accessible in a simulation.

As in the monodisperse case , the first difficulty (i) is overcome by plotting the inverse force $`1/F_{f_1f_2}`$ versus distance $`r`$. The divergence in the force occurs already at core separations $`r2R^{(d)}`$ which leads to a zero in the $`1/F_{f_1f_2}`$ plot. The inverse slope of the $`1/F_{f_1f_2}`$-plot then corresponds to the prefactor $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}^{(s)}`$ of the logarithmic term in the effective pair potential. It is this slope which can directly be compared to our theoretical prediction eq. (15). Furthermore, a linear function in the $`1/F_{f_1f_2}`$ plot is a direct check for the validity of the $`\mathrm{ln}r`$-term in the effective interaction potential, eq. (15).

To handle the second difficulty (ii) we consider the radius of gyration $`R_f`$ of each star which is readily accessible in a simulation of a single star. We assume a proportionality between the $`R_f`$ and $`\sigma _f`$,

$$\sigma _f=2\lambda R_f$$
(16)
and use $`\lambda `$ as a fit parameter to fit the full force versus distance curve for given arm numbers $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$. The results for the optimal fit parameter are shown in Table I. We obtain an averaged value of $`\lambda 0.66`$, which is nearly independent of $`f_1,f_2`$. Thus, the results found here are consistent with those from the previously investigated monodisperse case . We further remark that this value coincides with that used in Ref.  to fit experimental data for $`f=18`$ and that $`\lambda `$ is independent of $`N`$, consistent with scaling theory.

Results for the comparison between theory and simulation are shown in Figure 2 where the reduced inverse mean force $`1/F_{f_1f_2}`$ between the star centers is plotted versus intercore distance $`r`$ for two arm numbers $`f_1=10`$ and $`f_2=50`$. We observe two important facts: first, the data indeed fall on a straight line proving the logarithmic behavior of the potential inside the mean corona. The straight line hits the origin at $`r=2R^{(d)}`$ showing the relevance of the finite core in the simulations. Second, the inverse slope $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}`$ agrees very well with the theoretical prediction also shown in Figure 2. A similar behavior was observed for all other combinations of arm numbers contained in Table I.

In Fig. 3, the prefactor $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}`$ is plotted versus $`f_2`$, at a fixed value $`f_1=10`$, and compared to the different theoretical predictions in eqs. (11)-(13). Of course, in the monodisperse case $`f_1=f_2=10`$, all the different theoretical expressions for $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}`$ coincide and agree well with the simulation, consistently with our earlier work . For increasing asymmetry between $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$, significant deviations between the predictions of (a) an arithmetic or (g) a geometric mean and the simulation results become visible. While the expression $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}^{(\mathrm{s})}`$ gained from scaling theory is able to describe the slope even for large asymmetries, $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}^{(\mathrm{g})}`$ is worse at large asymmetries while $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{f_1f_2}^{(\mathrm{a})}`$ even possesses the wrong curvature as a function of $`f_2`$. Similar conclusions hold for other combinations of $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$.

In Fig. 4, we show the force $`F_{f_1f_2}`$ versus distance $`rR^{(d)}`$, scaled by $`R_{12}=(R_{f_1}+R_{f_2})/2`$, comparing the theoretical force with simulation results for three cases: $`f_1=10,18,30;f_2=50;N=50`$. Note that formally the core size $`R^{(d)}`$ vanishes in the theory. There is a good overall agreement inside the corona region between theory and simulation even for large asymmetries of $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$. Results for distances $`r`$ outside the corona, $`r>\sigma `$, are presented in Figure 5. Here, we test the exponential decay of the force $`F_{f_1f_2}`$ with distance $`r`$ by plotting the logarithm of the force versus distance. The crossover of the inner-core data to a straight line outside the core is clearly visible. Within the simulation error bars, the slope is consistent with the theoretical prediction eq. (15).

## IV Polydispersity effects in dense star polymer solutions

To explore the effects of arm number polydispersity on the structure and phase behavior of dense solutions of star polymers, we further performed large scale Monte Carlo simulations using the pair potential approach as given by the potential in eq. (15). Thus, on the one hand, this approach closely corresponds to our recent work on the structural and phase behavior of monodisperse star polymer solutions , and, on the other side, is quite similar to investigations of polydispersity effects in solutions of hard spheres  and charged colloidal particles  available in the literature.

In our MC simulations, representative particle configurations of approximately 2000 star polymers in a cubic simulation box were created in the following manner. First, a starting particle configuration was built up by placing the particles on random positions in the box, each particle assigned with an arm number $`f`$ chosen from a Gaussian distribution $`g(f)`$ of mean $`\overline{f}`$ and variance $`p=\sqrt{\overline{f^2}\overline{f}^2}`$:

$$g(f)=\frac{2}{p\sqrt{2\pi }}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{2p^2}\left(f\overline{f}\right)^2\right].$$
(17)
We use eq. (17) above to define the polydispersity $`p`$ in what follows. The Gaussian distribution chosen to describe arm number polydispersity agrees well with experimentally-determined arm number distributions of star polymers synthesized by anionic polymerization . Note that nonphysical, negative arm numbers, which are in principle not prohibited by a Gaussian arm number distribution, did not occur in the simulations for the values of $`\overline{f}`$ and $`p`$ chosen here. Second, an equilibration phase of approximately $`\mathrm{50\hspace{0.17em}000}`$ MC cycles was performed by allowing both translational particle moves according to the standard Metropolis scheme, and particle exchanges of randomly chosen particle pairs, again using the Metropolis rule to decide an exchange to happen or not. For the calculation of pair potential energies, eq. (15) was used, together with the scaling relation :

$$\frac{\sigma _{f_1}}{\sigma _{f_2}}=\left(\frac{f_1}{f_2}\right)^{1/5}.$$
(18)
After the equilibration phase, approximately $`\mathrm{100\hspace{0.17em}000}`$ MC cycles were simulated to gather statistics for both the radial center-to-center distribution function $`g(r)`$ and the center-to-center structure factor $`S(k)`$ . In what follows, we will use $`\overline{\sigma }=\sigma _{\overline{f}}`$ as the basic length scale, and the mean packing fraction $`\overline{\eta }=\rho \overline{\sigma }^3\pi /6`$ ($`\rho `$ being the number density of the stars) as a measure of the density.

In order to investigate the polydispersity effects on the liquid structure of dense star polymer solutions, simulations with varying polydispersities $`p`$ were performed at (average) arm numbers $`\overline{f}`$ and mean packing fractions $`\overline{\eta }`$, known to correspond to the liquid state in the monodisperse case $`p=0`$ . We show typical results for $`g(r)`$ and $`S(k)`$ in fig. 6. As can be seen, increasing the polydispersity leads to decreasing spatial correlations in the fluid, indicated by a decreasing principal peak height of both $`g(r)`$ and $`S(k)`$. Thus, as expected, the effect of arm number polydispersity in star polymer solutions is quite similar to the effect of charge polydispersity in solutions of charged colloids . Note that the anomalous behavior of $`S(k)`$ reported for monodisperse star polymer solutions in Ref.  also holds for polydisperse star polymer solution for all polydispersities $`p14`$ simulated.

In order to explore the evolution of the freezing and reentrant melting phase transitions found for monodisperse star polymer solutions  with increasing polydispersity, we employed the following strategy. We performed a number of simulations at state points corresponding to the solid phase in the monodisperse case, gradually increasing the parameter $`p`$. In particular, we chose $`\overline{f}=40`$ and $`\overline{\eta }=0.5`$ in a first set of simulations. Our results for $`g(r)`$ and $`S(k)`$ are given in Fig. 7. Let us begin with the discussion of the $`g(r)`$-data. As the monodisperse case $`p=0`$ corresponds to an solid state of bcc-symmetry , the shown $`g(r)`$ is, in fact, the radially-averaged pair correlation function of the stars in the crystal state.In fact, from the typical particle-particle distances read off from the pair correlation function, it can be concluded that the crystal structure is bcc, a result which is in agreement with calculations of bond order correlation functions . Again, increasing $`p`$ leads to decreasing structural correlations between the particles indicated by a decreasing principal peak height and a “smearing-out” of the sub peak-structure of $`g(r)`$ seen for $`p=0`$. This scenario also manifests itself in the structure factors shown in fig. 7(b). Notice that the corresponding structure factor for $`p=0`$ exhibits strong Bragg peaks, again indicating the monodisperse system to be in the crystal state for $`\overline{f}=f=40`$, $`\overline{\eta }=\eta =0.5`$, and is not depicted for that reason. For nonzero polydispersities the simulated structure factors do not show Bragg peaks and the value of the principal peak heights $`S_{\mathrm{max}}`$ decreases. Thus, increasing the polydispersity in a sample of star polymers at $`\overline{f}=f=40`$, $`\overline{\eta }=\eta =0.5`$ leads to a melting transition from a $`bcc`$ crystal to a fluid phase. We therefore expect polydisperse star polymer solutions to show an enlarged fluid phase region as compared to the phase diagram of monodisperse star polymers in Refs. . Furthermore, the stability range of the fluid phase is expected to increase with increasing the polydispersity $`p`$. To corroborate this expectation in more detail, we have performed further MC simulations of polydisperse star polymers for various state points ($`\overline{f}`$, $`\overline{\eta }`$), all corresponding to state points close to the freezing or reentrant melting line in the monodisperse case . For the ranges of polydispersity examined here, ($`p14`$), no change in the topology of the phase diagram and no new crystalline phases were found as a result of polydispersity. A quantitative calculation of the full phase diagram by more sophisticated simulation methods  is beyond the scope of this paper and will be left for future studies.

## V Conclusions

In conclusion, we have analyzed the effect of arm number polydispersity on the effective interaction and the structural correlations between star polymers in a good solvent. An analytical expression for an effective pair potential, given by eq. (15), was put forward and its validity was confirmed by Molecular Dynamics computer simulation. This pair potential was subsequently used to simulate the structural correlations between many stars. As expected, correlations decrease with increasing polydispersity. At the same time, though, the effect is much less pronounced than for size-polydisperse hard spheres. This can be seen in analogy to colloidal suspensions where size polydispersity of sterically-stabilized suspensions is known to lead to much more pronounced effects than charge-polydispersity in charged suspension. The microscopic reason for that is that the effective interaction is much softer for charged colloids which is similar to our case of star polymers.

We finish with a couple of remarks: first it would be interesting to compare, both qualitatively and quantitatively, our theoretical predictions to experimental data. In fact, the intrinsic polydispersity in the arm number can be measured and structural correlations are accessible, e.g., by neutron scattering of a star polymer solution with marked cores. Second, it would be interesting to map out, for a given polydispersity, the full phase diagram including freezing into different solid structures. Also, it would be interesting to develop and apply a liquid integral equation theory to predict structural correlations in a polydisperse star polymer solutions. The output of such a theory could be checked against our computer simulation data of section IV. Third, we have not considered a polydispersity in the length of the linear polymer chains attached to the centers. It would be interesting to study this theoretically and compare the results to samples prepared in such a way that different linear chains are brought to the reaction centers of the dendrimers. Work along these lines is left for future studies.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work has been supported in part by the SFB 237 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.


text:
# Ferromagnetic Film on a Superconducting Substrate

## Abstract

We study the equilibrium domain structure and magnetic flux around a ferromagnetic (FM) film with perpendicular magnetization $`M_0`$ on a superconducting (SC) substrate. At $`4\pi M_0<H_{c1}`$ the SC is in the Meissner state and the equilibrium domain width in the film, $`l`$, scales as $`(l/4\pi \lambda _L)=(l_N/4\pi \lambda _L)^{2/3}`$ with the domain width on a normal (non-superconducting) substrate, $`l_N/4\pi \lambda _L1`$. Here $`\lambda _L`$ is the London penetration length. For $`4\pi M_0>H_{c1}`$ and $`l_N`$ in excess of about 35$`\lambda _L`$, the domains are connected by SC vortices. We argue that pinning of vortices by magnetic domains in FM/SC multilayers can provide high critical currents.

The interaction between magnetism and superconductivity has been intensively studied in the past, see, e.g., the review . The discovery of high-temperature superconductors and advances in manufacturing of nanoscale multilayered systems have added new dimensions to these studies. In this paper we investigate equilibrium magnetic and superconducting phases in a system consisting of a ferromagnetic (FM) film with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy  on the surface of a superconductor (SC). The interest to such systems is two-fold. Firstly, the needs of magneto-optic technology have produced a large variety of magnetic films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Some are synthesized on metallic substrates (e.g., Nb) and are well-characterized at room temperature, including their domain structure . We will show that, as the temperature of such a system is lowered, its magnetic state must be affected, in a non-trivial manner, by the superconducting transition. Secondly, in a multilayered SC/FM system, the domain structure in the FM layers should produce the pinning of superconducting vortices which may be significantly stronger than the pinning by magnetic dots .

The system under consideration is shown in Fig.1. We are assuming no exchange of electrons between the FM film and the superconductor. This will be true either when the ferromagnet is an insulator or when it is separated from the superconductor by a thin insulating buffer layer. Then the FM film and the superconductor are coupled only by the magnetic field. (The systems with the exchange of electrons between the FM and SC layers have been discussed in Ref. .) In this case the superconductivity makes a profound effect on the domain structure in the FM layer, which must be easy to detect in experiment. The physics behind this effect is explained below. Consider a FM film of thickness $`d_M`$, with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. In the absence of the superconductor adjacent to the film, its domain structure is determined by the balance of the energy of the magnetic field surrounding the film and the energy of domain walls. The positive energy of the magnetic field favors small domains, so that the field does not spread too far from the film. On the contrary, the positive energy of domain walls favors less walls, that is, large domains. The minimization of the total magnetic energy gives a well-known result  for the equilibrium domain width, $`l\sqrt{\delta d_M}`$, with $`\delta `$ being the domain wall thickness. Domains typically observed in magneto-optic films have thickness of a few micron. In the presence of a superconductor adjacent to the FM film, the balance of the magnetic energy changes drastically. This is because the magnetic field must be either expelled from the superconductor due to the Meissner effect or it should penetrate into the superconductor in the form of vortices. In the first case, the superconductor favors FM domains of width below the London penetration depth, $`\lambda _L`$. If the room temperature domains are significantly greater then $`\lambda _L`$, the effect of the SC phase transition on the domain structure will be dramatic. As we shall see, the new equilibrium will be achieved at $`l(\delta d_M\lambda _L)^{1/3}`$. Consequently, on lowering the temperature below the SC critical temperature, the domains in the FM film can shrink by an appreciable factor.

We are assuming the stripe domain structure in the FM film. The width of the FM domain, $`l`$, is presumed large compared with the domain wall thickness $`\delta `$. The latter is the smallest length in our consideration. Two other characteristic length are the thickness of the FM film, $`d_M`$, and the London penetration depth, $`\lambda _L`$, of the SC. In the case of $`l<\lambda _L`$ the magnetic flux penetrates into the SC as it would penetrate into a normal non-magnetic metal, making superconductivity irrelevant. The case of interest is, therefore, $`l>\lambda _L`$. We shall begin with the study of the Meissner state, that is, the state where equilibrium vortices are absent.

The free energy functional for the magnetic field, $`𝐁=[B_x(x,z),0,B_z(x,z)]`$, is

$$(𝐁,𝐌)=_S(𝐁,𝐌)+_M(𝐁,𝐌),$$
(1)
where

$`_S(𝐁)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8\pi }}{\displaystyle 𝑑V[\lambda _L^2(\times 𝐁)^2+𝐁^2]}`$ (2)
$`_M(𝐁,𝐌)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑V\left[\frac{𝐁^2}{8\pi }𝐁𝐌\right]}+_D.`$ (3)
Here $`_S`$ is the free energy due to the magnetic field in the superconductor, $`_M`$ is the free energy of the magnetic film and the empty space above the film, $`𝐌(x)`$ is the magnetization inside the magnetic film, and $`_D`$ is the energy of domain walls. At $`l>>\delta `$, a good approximation for $`M(x)`$ (see Fig.1) is the step-like function along the $`X`$-axis, $`M(x)=\pm M_0`$ inside the domains. Its Fourier expansion is

$$M(x)=\frac{4M_0}{\pi }\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{\mathrm{sin}[(2k+1)Qx]}{2k+1},$$
(4)
where $`M_0`$ is the magnetization and $`Q=2\pi /l`$. For this domain structure $`_D(l)=\sigma d_M/l`$. Here $`\sigma =\sqrt{2}\beta M_0^2\delta /\pi `$ is the energy of the unit area of the domain wall and $`\beta M_0^2`$ is the energy density of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.

The equilibrium distribution of the magnetic field should be obtained by the minimization of $`(𝐁,𝐌)`$ at a given configurations of magnetic domains $`𝐌(x)`$. Introducing $`𝐇=𝐁4\pi 𝐌`$, one obtains in terms of $`𝐇`$:

$$_M(𝐇,𝐌)=𝑑V\left[\frac{𝐇^2}{8\pi }2\pi M^2\right]+_D,_S(𝐇)=_S(𝐁=𝐇).$$
(5)
The field $`𝐇`$ is induced by alternating magnetic charges, $`𝐌`$, on the two surfaces of the magnetic film . With account of the Maxwell equation, $`𝐁=0`$, it satisfies

$$𝐇=4\pi 𝐌=4\pi [\delta (z)\delta (z+d_M)]M(x),\times 𝐇=0$$
(6)
outside the superconductor, that is, inside the magnetic film, in the buffer layer, and in the empty space above the film. Here $`\delta (z)`$ is the delta-function, $`z=0`$ and $`z=d_M`$ are coordinates of the film surfaces. Inside the superconductor $`𝐇`$ satisfies the London equation,

$$^2𝐇\lambda _{L}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}𝐇=0,$$
(7)
and the boundary condition that $`𝐇`$ is continuous across the interface between the buffer layer and the superconductor. Equation (6) is valid if the magnetic field changes on the scale greater than the correlation length $`\xi `$. In our case the smallest relevant scale of spatial variations of the field is the width of FM domains $`l`$. We shall assume that $`l>>\xi `$, which is relevant to most situations of practical interest.

Solving the above equations we obtain that, due to the domain structure, $`𝐇(x,z)`$ decays exponentially away from the surfaces. Taking into account that $`d_Ml`$ and neglecting exponentially small terms of order $`\mathrm{exp}[d_M(4\pi ^2l^2+\lambda _L^2)^{1/2}]`$, we get

$$𝐇(x,z)=\underset{q}{}𝐇_q\mathrm{exp}(q_z|\stackrel{~}{z}|+iqx)$$
(8)
for the magnetic field inside the superconductor, the film, and in the empty space. Here $`\stackrel{~}{z}`$ is the distance along the $`z`$-axis from the nearest film surface. This gives the Fourier components

$`H_{z,q}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{4M_0}{2k+1}}\delta [qQ(2k+1)]`$ (9)
$`H_{z,q}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{4M_0}{2k+1}}\delta [q+Q(2k+1)],`$ (10)
and $`H_{x,q}=iq_zH_{z,q}/q`$ with $`q_z^2=q^2+\lambda _L^2`$ inside the superconductor and $`q_z=q`$ elsewhere. Substituting this equilibrium magnetic field $`𝐇`$ at a given $`l`$ into the free energy functional, Eq. (5), we obtain the following expressions for $`_S(l)`$ and $`_M(l)`$ per unit area:

$`_S(l)={\displaystyle \frac{4M_0^2}{\pi Q^2\lambda _L}}{\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{[1+(2k+1)^2Q^2\lambda _{L}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}]^{1/2}}{(2k+1)^4}},`$ (11)
$`_M(l)=3_S(l,\lambda _L^1=0)+_D(l).`$ (12)
Above $`T_c`$ the free energy of the system as a function of $`l`$ is given by

$$_N(l)=4_S(l,\lambda _L^1=0)+_D.$$
(13)
The minimization of (11) gives the well known result for the equilibrium width of the domains when the superconductor is in the normal state ,

$$l_N=\left[\frac{\sqrt{2}\pi }{7\zeta (3)}\right]^{1/2}(\beta \delta d_M)^{1/2}.$$
(14)
For the superconducting state of the substrate it is convenient to introduce $`\overline{l}=l/4\pi \lambda _L`$ and $`\overline{l}_N=l_N/4\pi \lambda _L`$. Then

$$(\overline{l})=\frac{8M_0^2\lambda _L}{\pi }\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{\overline{l}}{(2k+1)^3}\left\{3+\left[1+\frac{4\overline{l}^2}{(2k+1)^2}\right]^{1/2}+\frac{4\overline{l}_N^2}{\overline{l}^2}\right\}.$$
(15)
The minimization of $``$ with respect to $`\overline{l}`$ produces the dependence of $`\overline{l}`$ on $`\overline{l}_N`$ shown in Fig. 2. At $`\overline{l}_N1`$ the field penetrates into the SC same way as it penetrates into the normal metal and $`\overline{l}\overline{l}_N`$ (see insert to Fig. 2). In the opposite case of $`\overline{l}_N1`$, a rather accurate approximation is

$$\overline{l}\overline{l}_N^{2/3}.$$
(16)
We, therefore, conclude that the SC phase transition in the substrate can result in a significant shrinkage of the equilibrium domain width in the FM film if the substrate is in the Meissner state.

The Meissner state studied above should always be the case when $`4\pi M_0<H_{c1}`$. At $`4\pi M_0>H_{c1}`$ the equilibrium energy of the Meissner state, $`_M`$, should be compared with the energy of the vortex state. Vortex lines connecting domains with opposite magnetization can form only if $`\overline{l}_N1`$. The energy of the SC in the vortex state may be easily estimated in the limit of $`M_04\pi H_{c1}`$. In that case the average distance between vortices is small compared to their magnetic radius $`\lambda _L`$ and the average field in the SC is close to that in a normal metal. The corresponding total free energy of the system is then close to $`_N`$. Some small corrections to that energy arise from the vortex line tension and from the repulsion of vortices, which is of order $`kl(\mathrm{\Phi }_0M_0/8\pi \lambda _L^2)\mathrm{ln}(H_{c2}/4\pi M_0)`$ ($`k1`$ accounting for the curvature of vortex lines and for their additional energy near the FM surface). These corrections are small in the limit of large magnetization. Consequently, for the vortex state of the SC substrate, the equilibrium domain width in the FM film should be close to that on the normal substrate. For the ratio of the equilibrium free energies one obtains $`/_N=[6/7\zeta (3)]\overline{l}_N^{1/3}0.713\overline{l}_N^{1/3}`$, where $``$ is computed at $`\overline{l}=\overline{l}_N^{2/3}`$ and $`_N`$ is computed at $`\overline{l}=\overline{l}_N`$. Thus, at $`4\pi M_0>H_{c1}`$ and $`\overline{l}_N2.8`$ (that is for $`l_N`$ in excess of about 35$`\lambda _L`$) the vortex state should be energetically more favorable than the Meissner state.

It should be emphasized that all conditions, obtained in this paper, depend on temperature through the temperature dependence of $`\lambda _L`$ and $`l_N`$. Nevertheless, the factor that determines the maximum shrinkage of equilibrium FM domains in the Meissner phase is a universal number, max$`(l_N/l)`$=max$`(\overline{l}_N^{1/3})`$=$`7\zeta (3)/61.4`$. This should be easy to detect in experiment.

The effects described above fall within common experimental range of parameters. They will be noticeable if the room-temperature domains in the FM film are wider than $`l_N`$0.5 micron for the Nb substrate ($`\lambda _L40`$ nm) or wider than $`l_N`$1.6 micron for a high-temperature SC ($`\lambda _L130`$ nm). Because equilibrium $`l_N`$ depends on the thickness of the FM film, $`d_M`$, the above condition on $`l_N`$ translates, through Eq. (12), into the lower bound on $`d_M`$. For, e.g., a TbFe film  ($`\beta 10^2`$ and $`\delta `$15 nm) the equilibrium domain width should decrease below $`T_c`$ in films of thickness greater than 0.3 micron on a Nb substrate or in films thicker than 3 micron on a high-$`T_c`$ substrate. For TbFe film on a Nb substrate the Meissner state should occur for $`l_N<`$1.4 micron ($`d_M<`$2.4 micron) and the vortex state should occur at $`l_N>`$1.4 micron ($`d_M>`$2.4 micron). In the case of a high-$`T_c`$ substrate the Meissner state should occur for $`l_N<`$4.5 micron ($`d_M<`$25 micron), while at $`l_N>`$4.5 micron ($`d_M>`$25 micron) the vortex state should occur.

In a real FM film the stripe domains are curved due to thermal fluctuations  and due to the pinning of domain walls. This, however, should not affect our conclusions as long as the corresponding radius of curvature of domains is large compared with other characteristic lengths. Since we are interested in the equilibrium magnetic structure due to the FM-SC interactions, it is important to acknowledge that strong pinning of domain walls by the imperfections may prevent the system from reaching that equilibrium. Possible ways to study the equilibrium magnetic structures include choosing systems with low coercivity (that is, weak pinning of domain walls), or low Curie temperature (below the critical temperature of the SC), or rotating the system in a slowly decaying magnetic field. It should be also possible to extract changes in the magnetic equilibrium from the study of the magnetic hysteresis in the FM film above and below $`T_c`$. A large variety of magnetic materials should allow experiments in all interesting ranges of temperature and coercivity.

Finally, we would like to comment on the magnetic pinning of vortices in SC/FM multilayers. In the past the enhancement of pinning in conventional superconductors was done through manufacturing samples with microscopic defects. Several new approaches have been developed in recent years. They include manufacturing films with micrometer-size holes  and depositing magnetic particles  or magnetic dots  onto SC films. For high temperature superconductors a remarkable effect has been achieved in samples with columnar defects produced by heavy ion irradiation . All the above methods are based upon introducing defects that suppress superconductivity. The pinning then arises from the tendency of the vortex normal core to match with the region where the superconductivity is suppressed. The maximal energy per unit length of the vortex, available for such pinning, is the condensation energy of Cooper pairs in the volume of the vortex core, $`(H_c^2/8\pi )\pi \xi ^2(\mathrm{\Phi }_0/8\pi \lambda _L)^2`$. It is easy to see that the pinning of the magnetic flux of vortices in SC/FM multilayers can be significantly stronger than the pinning of vortex cores. As the problem of statistical mechanics it will be reported elsewhere . Here we shall just estimate the amplitude of the one-vortex pinning potential due to magnetic domains. This estimate can be obtained by considering the energy of an extra vortex, created by an external magnetic field in the presence of the domain structure in FM layers. The upper bound on the magnetic pinning energy is $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0M_0`$ per unit length of the vortex. For $`M_0`$=500 emu/cm3 it is one hundred times the energy of the pinning by columnar defects. The magnetic pinning of SC vortices will be effective if the field in the FM layers does not exceed the coercive field. Above that field the pinning of domain walls disappears and FM domains, together with SC vortices, become mobile. Thus, strong pinning of vortices favors large coercivity of the FM film, the condition opposite to the one required to observe the shrinkage of FM domains in the Meissner phase. Some evidence that magnetic dots produce more pronounced pinning than non-magnetic dots has been recently demonstrated in Nb films . Another study  indicated that the irreversibility line of an YBCO film is pushed up when a barium ferrite film is deposited on the surface of the SC film. Thus, the study of SC/FM multilayers, besides being a fascinating ”multidimensional” problem, can also be promising in developing SC systems with high critical currents.

This work has been supported by the U.S. Department of Energy through Grant No. DE-FG02-93ER45487.

FIGURE CAPTIONS
Fig. 1.
FM film with stripe domains on a SC substrate.
Fig. 2.
Dependence of $`\overline{l}`$ (normalized equilibrium domain width on the SC substrate) on $`\overline{l}_N`$ (normalized domain width on the normal substrate).


text:
# Saddles in the energy landscape probed by supercooled liquids

\[

## Abstract

We numerically investigate the supercooled dynamics of two simple model liquids exploiting the partition of the multi-dimension configuration space in basins of attraction of the stationary points (inherent saddles) of the potential energy surface. We find that the inherent saddles order and potential energy are well defined functions of the temperature $`T`$. Moreover, decreasing $`T`$, the saddle order vanishes at the same temperature ($`T_{_{MCT}}`$) where the inverse diffusivity appears to diverge as a power law. This allows a topological interpretation of $`T_{_{MCT}}`$: it marks the transition from a dynamics between basins of saddles ($`T>T_{_{MCT}}`$) to a dynamics between basins of minima ($`T<T_{_{MCT}}`$).

\]

The study of the properties of the free energy landscape or/and of the potential energy surface (PES) in disordered systems is a topic of current research. The universality in the dynamic of systems as different as disordered spin-glasses and structural-glasses  supports the possibility that some universal features at the landscape level control the slow-dynamics in these systems. Along this line, several recent works have attempted to connect both dynamics and thermodynamics of glass-forming liquids to landscape properties.

Numerical investigations of the sampled configuration space have been performed for several models of liquids. An important outcome of these studies is the demonstration that on cooling the system populates basins of the PES associated to local minima (the so-called inherent structure $`IS`$) of deeper and deeper depth. The number of distinct basins with the same depth in bulk systems has also been evaluated. These information have been incorporated in a detailed description of the thermodynamics of supercooled liquids.

In the landscape framework, the dynamics of the system in configuration space is conceptually decomposed in a ”fast” oscillatory motion (dynamics within a basin) and a slow diffusive motion (dynamics among different PES basins). Quantitative calculation of the diffusion coefficient $`D`$ based on landscape properties have been formulated within the Instantaneous Normal Mode (INM) theory. The INM approach focus on the properties of the local curvature of the PES sampled by the liquid, calculated diagonalizing the Hessian ($``$) matrix of the potential energy $`V`$. Analysis of the resulting eigenvalues and eigenvectors allows to evaluate the number of independent directions in configuration space associated to basin changes, i.e. to diffusion. For the cases where such analysis has been performed, strong evidence has been presented for existence of proportionality between $`D`$ and the number of diffusive directions. It has also been shown that the number of diffusive directions decreases with $`T`$ and appears to vanish at the so-called Mode-Coupling transition temperature $`T_{_{MCT}}`$, i.e. at the $`T`$ where an apparent divergence of the inverse diffusivity is observed.

A major difficulty in quantitatively pursuing the idea of a connection between diffusivity and topology of configuration space is that no transparent mapping has been yet proposed to associate equilibrium configurations to the “closest” configuration on the border between different basins.

In this Letter we propose such a mapping and present an analysis of the properties of the closest stationary points (saddles) of the potential energy. The proposed mapping, which can be considered as an extension of the Stillinger-Weber mapping, partitions the configuration space $`𝐑^{3N}`$ of a 3-dimensional $`N`$ particle system in basins of attraction of the saddles, characterizing the saddle with their order and their potential energy. The dynamics of the system is then described as dynamics between different saddles’ basins. We apply the proposed mapping to two different models of simple liquids and find that: (i) the order of the sampled saddle is a well defined function of $`T`$; (ii) on cooling the liquid populates basins associated to saddles of lower and lower order; (iii) the location in potential energy of the saddles is much smaller than the system potential energy, providing evidence that the diffusion process is entropy driven, even below $`T_{_{MCT}}`$; (iv) at $`T_{_{MCT}}`$, the saddle order appears to vanish, indicating that, at this $`T`$, the system populates the basins of potential energy minima, confirming that $`T_{_{MCT}}`$ marks the crossover between two different dynamical processes.

To partition $`𝐑^{3N}`$ in basins of saddles we search for the basins of attraction of an auxiliary potential function, namely $`W=\frac{1}{2}|\stackrel{}{}V|^2`$  (for a similar approach see also ). The function $`W`$ is never negative and it is zero at all saddle points, i.e. at all points where all forces are zero (stationary point configurations). The saddle points are classified according to their order $`n_s`$ (the number of negative eigenvalues of $``$ ) and their potential energy $`e_s`$. Saddles of order zero coincides with local minima of the PES (i.e. with IS). The complete description of the energy landscape would require the calculation of the densities of states for each $`n`$. However, by investigating two model systems we find that similarly to the case of minima, the saddle’s energy and order are well defined function of $`T`$. Hence, all relevant information are contained in the functions $`e_s(T)`$ and $`n_s(T)`$.

We investigate numerically two simple model liquids: (a) the monatomic Modified-Lennard-Jones (MLJ) , and, (b) the standard Lennard-Jones 80/20 binary mixture (BMLJ) . Both models are able to support strong supercooling without the occurrence of crystallization. Standard LJ units are used hereafter. Equilibrium configurations are prepared by standard microcanonical molecular dynamics simulations at constant density ($`\rho =1`$ for MLJ and $`\rho =1.2`$ for BMLJ) and at $`T`$s ranging from the normal liquid phase ($`T1.6`$), down to $`T_{_{MCT}}`$. ($`T_{_{MCT}}=0.475`$ for MLJ and 0.435 for BMLJ). The systems are composed of $`N`$=256 (MLJ) and $`N`$=1000 (BMLJ) particles enclosed in a cubic box with periodic boundary condition. Truncated ($`R_c=2.6`$ and $`2.5`$ respectively) and shifted LJ potentials are used. We analyze 20 independent equilibrium configuration for each $`T`$. For each configuration we calculate the associated IS and inherent saddle implementing a steepest descent algorithm which moves in the direction of $`\stackrel{}{}V\stackrel{}{F}`$ and $`\stackrel{}{}W=\stackrel{}{F}`$ respectively (the arrows indicates 3$`N`$-d vectors). Finally, the $``$ of the starting equilibrium configuration (to evaluate the INM) and of the inherent saddle (to evaluate $`n_s`$) is calculated and diagonalised.

Fig. 1a shows the average order of the inherent saddle (i.e. the number $`n_s`$ of negative eigenvalues of $``$) as a function of the equilibrium $`T`$. The average order $`n_s(T)`$ is a well defined function of $`T`$ , indicating that the trajectory of the system in the configuration space samples statistically the subspace set up by basins of saddles of a given order $`n_s(T)`$. Fig. 1a shows also that, decreasing $`T`$, $`n_s(T)`$ vanishes at $`T_{_{MCT}}`$.

This finding gives support to the following scenario: $`T_{_{MCT}}`$ is the $`T`$ above which the system explores basins of saddles of order $`n_s>0`$ and below which the system is mostly confined in a local minimum ($`n_s=0`$). The existence of a quantity, $`n_s(T)`$, that vanishes at $`T_{_{MCT}}`$ is remarkable. Indeed, this makes $`n_s(T)`$ a good candidate for the description of supercooled dynamics, for instance the computation of $`n_s(T)`$ is an alternative way of determining $`T_{_{MCT}}`$.

For comparison with the previous INM studies, Fig. 1b also shows the number of directions characterized by negative eigenvalues $`n_i`$ as a function of $`T`$. As discussed in Ref. , a non zero value of $`n_i`$ is found at $`T_{_{MCT}}`$, when the system is trapped in basins of minima, a clear signature of the presence of non-diffusive unstable modes. Hence, the introduction of the inherent saddle concept offers a way to overcome the difficulties associated to the presence of non-diffusive modes in the standard INM approach. The order of the saddle $`n_s`$ appears to be a well defined indicator of the number of diffusive directions.

Next we discuss the location in energy of the inherent saddles as a function of the equilibrium $`T`$. Fig. 2 reports the average instantaneous potential energy $`e_i`$, the average potential energy of the saddle $`e_s`$ and the average potential energy of the IS $`e_o`$, as a function of $`T`$ for the MLJ potential model. Similar results holds for the BMLJ case. The quantity $`e_o`$(T) shows a rapid increase between $`T_{_{MCT}}`$ and $`T0.8`$ reaching a constant value for higher $`T`$ (see inset of Fig. 2 where $`e_o`$ is reported in an expanded scale). We notice that the overall variation of $`e_o`$ is very small on the scale of the variation of $`e_s`$ and $`e_i`$. The quantity $`e_s(T)`$ shows an intermediate behavior between $`e_i`$ and $`e_o`$. In agreement with the observation that around $`T_{_{MCT}}`$ the system explores basin of attraction of saddles of order zero, we find that at $`TT_{_{MCT}}`$ the inherent saddle energy curve merges on the IS curve. The data reported in Fig.s 1 and 2 allow to conclude in an unambiguous way that $`T_{_{MCT}}`$ marks the cross-over between two dynamic regimes: at $`T<T_{_{MCT}}`$ the system spend most of the time trapped in a local minima, while at $`T>T_{_{MCT}}`$ the system explores basins pertaining to saddle points of increasingly higher -but well defined- energy and order. This conclusion is consistent with the INM finding that at $`T_{_{MCT}}`$ the fraction of diffusive directions explored by the liquid goes to zero. It is also consistent with the interpretation of the transition between different dynamical regimes at $`T_{_{MCT}}`$ proposed in Ref. and based on the analysis of the decay of the density-density correlation functions evaluated along an inherent structure trajectory.

An important observation stems from the data reported in Fig.s 1 and 2: the saddles energies are located well below the instantaneous values. This finding clearly shows that the system trajectory is never close to a saddle point and dynamics should not be described as saddle-to-saddle motion, but, more correctly as dynamics between basins of attractions of the corresponding saddles. In this respect, one should not discuss the dynamics of the system for $`T>T_{_{MCT}}`$ as activated dynamics . It is worth to note that the value $`e_i`$ at $`T_{_{MCT}}`$ is larger than $`e_s(T)`$ for a wide $`T`$ range. In other words, even at $`T_{_{MCT}}`$, the instantaneous potential energy is much larger than the energy value at which saddles are located. Nevertheless at $`T_{_{MCT}}`$ the system spends a very large fraction of time in a local minimum and only rarely performs jumps between minima. Hence, the diffusion events at low $`T`$ are not limited by the presence of energy barrier that must be overcome by thermal activated processes; they are rather controlled by the limited number of directions leading from a basin of a minimum to another basin at (almost) constant potential energy.

Fig. 3a shows the relation between $`n_s`$ and the elevation (in potential energy) respect to the corresponding local minima ($`e_se_o`$). We discover a remarkable linear relationship between these two quantities. This indicates that -given a minimum- the energy landscape above it is organized in families of equally spaced energy saddle points (to rise one step in the saddle order, the requested energy is $`3N\mathrm{\Delta }(e_se_o)/\mathrm{\Delta }n_s11`$ for both systems. Moreover, this simply linear dependence suggests that the aspects of the landscape above a local minimum is independent from the energy of the minimum itself. We also find a linear relation between the mean square distance $`d_n^2`$ between minima that have been reached by quenching the inherent saddles’s of order $`n_s`$ and the order of the corresponding saddle, as shown in Fig. 3b This linear relation suggests that the descent path from a saddle of order $`n_s`$ towards the surrounding minima can be interpreted as a sequence of independent random steps, each of them decreasing the order of the saddle by one and increasing the (squared) distance between the associated local minima by a fixed amount (random walk among saddle points). It is worth to note that these properties of the energy landscape (i.e. the linear dependence between $`e_se_o`$, $`d_n^2`$, and $`n_s`$) are ingredients of a model for the landscape introduced by Madan and Keyes  and recently revisited . This similarity deserves further investigation.

In conclusion, by the numerical investigation of two different systems, we have pointed out the relevance of the concept of inherent saddle in describing the dynamics of supercooled liquids and we have highlighted same important characteristics of the energy landscape. In particular we have: i) shown that the inherent saddles’ properties, energies and orders, are well defined function of $`T`$; ii) demonstrated the validity of the conjecture that $`T_{_{MCT}}`$ marks the transition between a dynamic among minima ($`T<T_{_{MCT}}`$) and a dynamics where the systems spend time nearby high order stationary points; iii) found that $`n_s(T)`$ is a quantity that can be efficiently used to measure numerically $`T_{_{MCT}}`$; iv) provided evidence that the diffusion processes are entropy driven; and v) shown that the aspect of the energy landscape “seen” by a given local minimum is highly regular (as demonstrated by the linear dependence of $`e_se_o`$ and of $`d_n^2`$ from $`n_s`$) and independent from the specific minimum.

We acknowledge partial support from MURST-PRIN-98. FS acknowledges partial supports also from INFM-PRA-HOP.


text:
# References

July 17, 2000 BI-TP 2000/25

Deconfinement through Chiral Symmetry

Restoration in Two-Flavour QCD

S. Digal, E. Laermann and H. Satz

Fakultät für Physik, Universität Bielefeld

D-33501 Bielefeld, Germany

Abstract:

We propose that in QCD with dynamical quarks, colour deconfinement occurs when an external field induced by the chiral condensate strongly aligns the Polyakov loop. This effect sets in at the chiral symmetry restoration temperature $`T_\chi `$ and thus makes deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration coincide. The predicted singular behaviour of Polyakov loop susceptibilities at $`T_\chi `$ is shown to be supported by finite temperature lattice calculations.

Finite temperature QCD at vanishing overall baryon density leads to two well-defined phase transitions. In the limit of infinite bare quark mass, for $`m_q\mathrm{}`$, one obtains pure $`SU(N)`$ gauge theory; here deconfinement occurs when the global center $`Z_NSU(N)`$ symmetry of the Lagrangian is spontaneously broken. The expectation value $`L(T)`$ of the Polyakov loop constitutes the order parameter for this transition, analogous to the magnetization $`m(T)`$ in $`Z_N`$ spin theories. There exists a critical temperature $`T_d`$, with $`L(T)=0TT_d`$ and $`L(T)>0T>T_d`$. The introduction of dynamical quarks ($`m_q<\mathrm{}`$) breaks this symmetry explicitly, and now $`L(T)>0T>0`$.

For $`m_q=0`$, the chiral symmetry of the Lagrangian is spontaneously broken at low temperatures and restored for $`TT_\chi `$. The chiral condensate $`K(T)\overline{\psi }\psi `$ is the order parameter for this transition, with $`K(T)>0T<T_\chi `$ and $`K(T)=0TT_\chi `$. A non-vanishing quark mass breaks chiral symmetry explicitly, and for large $`m_q`$, the temperature variation of the chiral condensate becomes completely smooth.

One might consider the inverse bare quark mass to play such a symmetry breaking role for deconfinement, which would imply that for $`m_q0`$, the temperature variation of the Polyakov loop expectation value would also become smooth . In lattice studies it is found, however, that this is not the case : even for $`m_q0`$, the Polyakov loop varies sharply with temperature and the corresponding susceptibility ($`L^2L^2`$) peaks sharply at the chiral restoration temperature $`T_\chi `$, which is considerably lower than $`T_d`$. In somewhat loose terminology, one describes this situation by saying that in QCD for $`m_q0`$, deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration coincide. The aim of this paper is to elucidate the underlying reasons for such behaviour and to show that chiral symmetry restoration in fact drives the observed Polyakov loop variation; in particular, it leads to singular behaviour for specific Polyakov susceptibilities.

Conceptually, our starting point is the idea that it is the inverse of the constituent quark mass $`m_Q`$, rather than the bare mass $`m_q`$, which acts as an external field for the $`Z_N`$ symmetry . Evidently there does not exist a clear definition of $`m_Q`$; for the present discussion, we take it to be determined by the (non-Goldstone) hadron masses. For our actual conclusions, however, we shall avoid the intermediate step of constituent quarks altogether. In the limit $`m_q0`$, $`m_Q`$ remains finite in the temperature region in which chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken, since the hadron masses do. If the hadron masses are related to the chiral condensate, e.g., if the nucleon mass is given by

$$M_n3m_Q\overline{\psi }\psi ^{1/3},$$
(1)
then chiral symmetry restoration with $`\overline{\psi }\psi 0`$ will lead to a sudden increase of the external field $`H1/m_Q`$, forcing a large explicit breaking of $`Z_N`$ and hence a corresponding alignment of the Polyakov loop. We want to argue that it is this effect which causes a sharp variation of the Polyakov loop at $`T_\chi <T_d`$, with the functional form of the variation determined by chiral symmetry restoration, which is in general different from that obtained in pure gauge theory at $`T_d`$.

We begin by summarizing the main features of the critical behaviour for the two transitions, based on QCD with two species of dynamical quarks and colour $`SU(3)`$. The order parameter for chiral symmetry restoration, $`K\overline{\psi }\psi `$, vanishes for $`m_q=0`$ as $`TT_\chi `$ from below,

$$K(T,m_q=0)(T_\chi T)^\beta ,T<T_\chi $$
(2)
while at $`T=T_\chi `$, it vanishes as

$$K(T_\chi =0,m_q)m_q^{1/\delta }$$
(3)
when $`m_q0`$. The chiral quark mass susceptibility

$$\chi _m^K(T,m_q)=\left(\frac{K}{m_q}\right)_T(\psi \overline{\psi })^2\psi \overline{\psi }^2|TT_\chi |^\gamma $$
(4)
diverges at $`T=T_\chi `$ for $`m_q0`$. The critical behaviour at the chiral symmetry restoration point is thus specified in terms of critical exponents $`\beta ,\delta ,\gamma ,\mathrm{}`$. For two massless quark flavours, the transition is conjectured to belong to the $`O(4)`$ universality class , which would determine the exponents. Present lattice calculations cannot yet determine if this conjecture is correct .

In the limit $`m_q\mathrm{}`$, we recover pure $`SU(3)`$ gauge theory, for which the deconfinement transition is of first order, as it is for the corresponding $`Z_3`$ spin theory . The resulting discontinuity at $`T=T_d`$ persists in $`L(T,m_q)`$ for sufficiently large $`m_q`$; but below some quark mass value $`0<m_q^d<\mathrm{}`$, $`L(T,m_q)`$ and all its derivatives presumably vary smoothly with temperature. We want to argue, however, that for $`m_q0`$, certain derivatives of $`L(T,m_q)`$ will become singular.

As indicated above, we now take the $`Z_N`$ structure of QCD to be that of $`Z_N`$ spin theory in an external field $`H`$, determined by the constituent quark mass. From Eq. (1), $`H`$ and hence also the Polyakov loop thus become functions of $`K`$: the quark mass dependence of $`L`$ enters through $`K(T,m_q)`$, with $`L(T,K)`$. In spin systems with external field, the magnetization $`m(T,H)`$ is for $`H0`$ an analytic function of $`T`$ and $`H`$. We therefore assume that $`L(T,K)`$ is for $`\mathrm{}>K>0`$ an analytic function of $`T`$ and $`K`$, with the quark mass dependence of $`L`$ entering through $`K(T,m_q)`$.

As a consequence, the critical behaviour of the chiral condensate will be reflected in the behaviour of the Polyakov loop at $`T=T_\chi `$. A first hint that this is the case is seen in -. For four flavours of light quarks, the chiral transition becomes first order, with a discontinuity in $`K(T,m)`$ at $`T_\chi `$ for $`m_q<m_q^\chi `$ smaller than some ‘endpoint value’ $`m_q^\chi `$. The corresponding Polyakov loop $`L(T)`$ also shows a discontinuity at this temperature, as expected from our considerations. Note that here we have a first order transition at $`T=T_\chi `$ for $`0m_q<m_q^\chi `$, induced by chiral symmetry restoration, and another first order transition at $`T=T_d>T_\chi `$ for $`m_q>m_q^d`$, induced by spontaneous $`Z_N`$ symmetry breaking. For $`m_q^\chi <m_q<m_q^d`$, $`L(T,K)`$ varies smoothly with $`T`$.

In the case of two dynamical quark flavours, the chiral transition is presumably continuous. From the $`L`$-variation

$$dL=\left(\frac{L}{T}\right)_KdT+\left(\frac{L}{K}\right)_TdK$$
(5)
we then find that the Polyakov loop susceptibilities

$$\chi _m^L=\left(\frac{L}{m_q}\right)_T=\left(\frac{L}{K}\right)_T\left(\frac{K}{m_q}\right)_T$$
(6)
and

$$\chi _T^L=\left(\frac{L}{T}\right)_{m_q}=\left(\frac{L}{T}\right)_K+\left(\frac{L}{K}\right)_T\left(\frac{K}{T}\right)_{m_q},$$
(7)
must diverge at $`T=T_\chi `$ in the chiral limit $`m_q=0`$, since the chiral susceptibilities $`\chi _m^K=(K/m_q)_T`$ and $`\chi _T^K=(K/T)_{m_q}`$ diverge in this limit.

In , the chiral susceptibilities $`\chi _m^K`$ and $`\chi _T^K`$ were studied on an $`8^3\times 4`$ lattice for quark masses $`m_qa=0.075,0.0375`$ and 0.02. In Figs. 1 and 2, the results are shown as functions of the effective temperature variable $`\kappa =6/g^2`$, where $`g`$ denotes the coupling in the QCD Lagrangian. The increase of the peak height for decreasing quark mass indicates the divergence in the chiral limit $`m_q0`$. In Figs. 3 and 4, we show the corresponding results for the Polyakov loop susceptibilities. They also peak sharply, the peak positions coincide with those for the chiral susceptibilities, and here as well the peak height increases with decreasing quark mass. The observed behaviour therefore provides clear support for the divergence of the temperature and quark mass derivatives of the Polyakov loop at $`T_\chi `$ in the chiral limit.

A direct comparison of the functional behaviour, ideally of the relevant critical exponents, for the two cases becomes difficult for two reasons. The chiral susceptibilities do not at present lead to the predicted $`O(4)`$ exponents; this may indicate that the quark masses are still too large for pure critical behaviour. The Polyakov loop susceptibilities contain in addition unknown non-singular factors $`(L/T)_K`$ and $`(L/K)_T`$, which will modify the non-singular $`m_q`$-dependence relative to that of the chiral susceptibilities. Lattice studies for smaller quark masses would therefore be very helpful.

The ‘temperature’ susceptibilities $`\chi _\kappa ^K`$ and $`\chi _\kappa ^L`$ have also been studied on larger lattices $`12^3\times 4`$ and $`16^3\times 4`$, for the same three quark mass values . In Figs. 5 and 6 we show the dependence of the peak height on the spatial volume. The two susceptibilities show a very similar peak increase in going from $`8^3`$ to $`12^3`$, but then saturation, indicating that there are no further finite size effects for the given quark mass value.

In summary, we have shown that chiral symmetry restoration, with the resulting sudden change in an effective constituent quark mass, leads to a suddenly increasing external field which aligns the Polyakov loops at $`T=T_\chi <T_d`$ and thus produces a strong explicit breaking of the $`Z_N`$ symmetry of the gauge field part of the Lagrangian. This effect makes chiral symmetry restoration ‘coincide’ with deconfinement. The resulting predictions for diverging Polyakov loop susceptibilities are found to be well supported by finite temperature lattice calculations for full QCD with two flavours of light quarks.

Acknowledgements

It is a pleasure to thank F. Karsch, P. Petreczky and A. M. Srivastava for helpful discussions, and we are grateful for the financial support by the German Science Ministry BMBF under contract 06BI902.


text:
# A Dwarf Galaxy Survey in the Local Volume

## 1. Introduction

The “Local Volume” describes our extragalactic neighborhood out to $`5`$ Mpc and includes galaxies with velocities $`500`$ km s<sup>-1</sup>. Apart from the Local Group, this volume contains several nearby galaxy groups as well as isolated field galaxies. The galaxy census becomes increasingly incomplete for smaller galaxies with low surface brightness, particularly for dwarf galaxies. Furthermore, while most dwarf galaxies in the Local Group have been studied in great detail, very little is known about the properties of dwarf galaxies beyond its boundaries.

For these reasons our group began a comprehensive study of dwarf galaxies in the Local Volume. Karachentseva & Karachentsev carried out careful searches of photographic plates (POSS, ESO-SERC) of 97% of the sky for new dwarf galaxy candidates and more than doubled the previously known census (e.g., Karachentseva & Karachentsev 1998; 2000; Karachentseva et al. 1999; 2000).

Ground-based verification and follow-up observations are currently being carried out involving southern and northern hemisphere telescopes at APO, BTA, CTIO, Keck, and MDM. The imaging observations allow us to determine the degree of resolution of the dwarf galaxies as a first measure of distance, to estimate their morphological type, and to determine structural parameters and integrated properties. Radio observations (Huchtmeier et al. 2000) tell us about their H i content and radial velocity. Ongoing optical spectroscopy is used to measure velocities and abundances.

## 2. Our HST snapshot survey

Detailed optical follow-up of our dwarf candidates is being pursued with WFPC2 aboard HST. We were awarded a total of 200 orbits for a snapshot survey of nearby dwarf galaxy candidates; one galaxy per orbit. Our targets include known and possible dwarfs in nearby galaxy groups and in the field, but also a few spirals and other massive galaxies to establish distances and relative positions within galaxy groups. Most of these galaxies are being studied for the first time.

While we could in principle obtain data for 200 galaxies, in practice the number will be lower due to the constraints in scheduling snapshot observations. At the time of the present workshop in March 2000 we had already obtained data for 37 galaxies, while 8 orbits were lost due to guide star acquisition failures and due to the gyro failure in late 1999.

We observe each target in two filters ($`F606W`$ and $`F814W`$) corresponding to $`V`$ and $`I`$. The non-standard $`F606W`$ filter was chosen over $`F555W`$ due to its greater sensitivity. The exposure time in each filter is 600 s, which allows us to reach $`I25`$ mag. Our data are automatically processed and reduced with the photometry package HSTphot developed by Dolphin (2000).

### 2.1. Resolved stellar populations

Due to the short exposure times our data typically reach only the upper portion of the red giant branch for galaxies beyond the Local Group. Owing to the superior resolution of HST, however, these 10 min exposures with a 2.4-m space telescope are about 1 mag deeper than our 15 min exposures obtained with the 10-m Keck II telescope (Grebel & Guhathakurta 1999).

In dwarf galaxies with young populations our color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) show clearly the young main sequence and supergiants. The locus of red supergiants and young asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars can be strongly contaminated by Galactic foreground stars. The blue main sequence and blue He-burning stars allow us to trace ages ranging from a few million years to several 100 Myr. Where present, the horizontally tilted region of intermediate-age AGB stars just above the red giant branch (RGB) indicates populations older than $`1`$ Gyr. The RGB itself may comprise both intermediate-age and old ($`>10`$ Gyr) stars. The foreground reddening can be derived from the extinction maps of Schlegel et al. (1998).

While we obtain detailed age information for young populations, our age resolution is poor for intermediate-age populations. We cannot unambiguously detect old populations due to the age degeneracy along the RGB and lack of deeper data that reach at least the horizontal branch. Nonetheless the data on stellar content are invaluable for constraining the star formation history and far supersede the information previously available from ground-based imaging.

### 2.2. Distances and metallicities

The tip of the RGB (TRGB) allows us to derive distances for our dwarfs. For the dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies in our sample the location of the TRGB can be determined to $`\pm 0.1`$ mag. The main sources of uncertainty are photometric blends, crowding, or, in some cases, sparsely populated RGBs. In dwarf irregulars (dIrrs) the determination of the TRGB magnitude is complicated by the contamination of the RGB stars with younger populations such as AGB stars. We estimate the distance uncertainty to be of the order of $`\pm 0.2`$ mag.

In heavily extincted galaxies of any type the apparent magnitude of the TRGB may be too close to the detection limit to allow us to derive anything else but a lower limit for the distance. This is the case for many of the members of the obscured IC342/Maffei group, while we are getting well-defined TRGBs for galaxies in groups such as Sculptor, Centaurus A, and M81.

Despite their drawbacks TRGB distances are the best available distance indicator in galaxies where Cepheids may be absent and RR Lyrae or the horizontal branch are close to or beyond the detection limit of most present-day telescopes. They provide an efficient means to derive distances for a large sample of targets. An interesting additional benefit is that these distances are helpful in calibrating the density fluctuation method recently developed for dSphs and dwarf ellipticals by Jerjen et al. (2000) since we have several dwarfs in common.

For those of our targets that suffer little foreground extinction and that are closer than $`3`$ Mpc the slope and mean color of the upper RGB can be used to estimate mean metallicities and to constrain the metallicity spread.

The mean metallicities derived this way, together with central surface brightness and absolute magnitude, follow the same trend defined by dwarf galaxies in the Local Group (Grebel & Guhathakurta 1999, Karachentsev et al. 2000).

### 2.3. Star clusters

Our survey shows a few extended, spherical objects that resemble globular clusters. Applying color selections and comparison with the known colors of Galactic globular clusters allows us to identify potential globular cluster candidates and to estimate the specific globular cluster frequency.

Some of our targets appear to be nucleated. In other cases compact objects are being identified as background galaxies based on their morphological appearance and/or colors. Concentrations of blue stars are seen in several of the dIrrs in our sample and may represent young open clusters or OB associations.

## 3. Summary

Our Local Volume survey helps to improve the census of dwarf galaxies and to augment the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function. Our ground-based follow-up studies in optical and radio wavelengths yield structural parameters, integrated properties, morphological types, kinematic information, and an assessment of the gas content of the dwarf galaxy candidates. Our HST snapshot survey yields, for the first time, detailed information on the resolved stellar populations and a crude assessment of their star formation histories.

The TRGB distances allow us to derive probable group membership and the location of galaxies within galaxy groups. We thus obtain the three-dimensional structure of nearby groups. This together with our partial knowledge of the star formation episodes as well as the kinematic information helps us to understand the impact of environment on dwarf galaxy evolution, allowing a three-dimensional study of the morphology-density relation.

#### Acknowledgments.

Support for this work was provided by NASA through grant GO–08192.97A from STScI, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5–26555. EKG gratefully acknowledges support by NASA through grant HF–01108.01–98A from the Space Telescope Science Institute. EKG, IDK, and VEK were also supported through an Henri Chrétien International Research Grant administered by the American Astronomical Society.

## References

Dolphin, A.E., 2000, PASP, in press (astro-ph/0006217)

Grebel, E.K., & Guhathakurta, P. 1999, ApJ, 511, L101

Huchtmeier, W.K., Karachentsev, I.D., Karachentseva, V.E., & Ehle, M. 2000, A&AS, 141, 469

Jerjen, H., Freeman, K.C., & Binggeli, B. 2000, AJ, 119, 166

Karachentsev, I.D., Karachentseva, V.E., Dolphin, A.E., Geisler, D., Grebel, E.K., Guhathakurta, P., Hodge, P.W., Sarajedini, A., Seitzer, P., Sharina, M.E. 2000, A&A, submitted

Karachentseva, V.E. & Karachentsev, I.D. 1998, A&AS, 127, 409

Karachentseva, V.E. & Karachentsev, I.D. 2000, A&AS, in press

Karachentseva, V.E., Karachentsev, I.D., Richter, G.M. 1999, A&AS, 135, 221

Karachentseva, V.E., Karachentsev, I.D., Suchkov, A.A., & Grebel, E.K. 2000, A&AS, submitted

Schlegel, D.J., Finkbeiner, D.P., Davis, M. 1998, ApJ, 500, 525