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# Galaxy Formation and Chemical Evolution in Hierarchical Hydrodynamical Simulations

## 1. Introduction

Recent observational data of the deep surveys (Canada-France Redshift Survey, Lyman-break galaxy surveys, the Hubble Deep Field) have provided information on the astrophysical properties of galactic objects at different stages of evolution of the Universe, making possible to carry out a suitable confrontation of different scenarios of structure formation and galaxy chemical evolution. Analytical models of chemical evolution are a very powerful tool to study galaxy formation (e.g., Chiappini et al. 1997 and references therein). However, they are restricted by several hypothesis (no inflows or outflows, instantaneous recycling, etc.), and cannot include dynamical and kinematical evolution of the matter according to its nature (dark matter, baryons) in consistency with a cosmological model. Steinmetz & Muller (1994) have implemented chemical enrichment in a code based on SPH for the first time (see also Raiteri, Villata & Navarro 1996). These works run prepared-cosmological initial conditions where the formation and evolution of one single object is studied.

Fully-consistent cosmological simulations have the advantage of providing a coherent well-described environment for all objects and a complete record of their formation and evolution. We report here results of a chemical model implemented in a fully cosmological SPH code in hierarchical clustering scenarios.

## 2. Chemical Implementation and Results

We have developed a model to implement metal enrichment in a cosmological context based on the AP3MSPH code described by Tissera et al. (1997).

A star formation (SF) algorithm has been included based on the Smidth law. Cold and dense gas particles that satisfy the Jean’s instability criterium are eligible to form stars. Each star cluster formed in a given baryonic particle at a SF episode is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{star}}=C\rho _{\mathrm{gas}}^{3/2}\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is the integration time-step, $`\rho _{\mathrm{gas}}`$ the gas density of the particle and $`C`$ the SF efficiency parameter. Baryonic particles carry out the information of the different stellar populations formed and the remanent gas mass (hybrid particles). When the gas reservoir of a particle is depleted, it is transformed in a star particle.

Particles are initially formed by Hydrogen and Helium in primordial abundances ($`\mathrm{H}=0.75`$, $`\mathrm{He}=0.25`$). Metals are produced and ejected to the interstellar medium at the end of the life of stars. Most of the elements are produced by Type II supernovae (SNIIe), except for the iron that is mainly produced by Type I supernovae (SNIe). Each $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{star}}`$ formed can be followed up in time and the number of stars of a given mass estimated by assuming an Initial Mass Function (IMF). We adopted a Salpeter IMF with a lower and upper mass cut-off of $`0.1`$ and $`120`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, respectively. We resort to Woosley & Weaver (1995) metal ejecta tables for SNeII. The adopted nucleosynthesis prescriptions for Type Ia SNe are taken from Thielemann, Nomoto & Hashimoto (1993). Type Ib SNe are assumed to be half the total number of SNeI and to produce only iron ($`0.3\mathrm{M}_{}`$ per explosion). We assume that the life time of binary stars that finish their lives as SNI ($`t_{\mathrm{SNI}}`$) is $`0.51`$ Gyr. Ejected metals are distributed within the neighboring sphere of the particle where a $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{star}}`$ is formed according to the SPH technique. Hydrogen and Helium are proportionally decreased according to the metal mass received by the particle (see for details Mosconi et al. 2000).

Given an IMF, the free parameters of our chemical model are $`C`$, the relative rate of different types of supernovae ($`\mathrm{\Theta }_{\mathrm{SN}}`$=SNRII/SNRI) and $`t_{\mathrm{SNI}}`$. The effects of thermal or kinetic energy injection into the ISM due to SN explosions are not included in this work.

We performed SPH simulations consistent with a Cold Dark Matter (CDM) spectrum with $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{b}=0.1`$, and $`\sigma _8=0.67`$. We used $`N=262144`$ particles ($`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{part}}=2.6\times 10^8\mathrm{M}_{}`$) in a comoving box of length $`L=5h^1`$ Mpc ($`H_0=100h^1\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$, $`h=0.5`$). The simulations performed (S1, S2, S3, S4) share the same initial conditions but have different SF and SN parameters (see Figure 1 for values of these parameters).

We identify galaxy-like objects (GLOs) at $`z=0`$ at their virial radius ($`\delta \rho /\rho 200`$) and consider only those with more than 250 baryonic particles within their virial radius.

In hierarchical clustering scenarios, the SF process in GLOs is affected by mergers and interactions (Tissera 2000, see also observational evidence in Barton et al. 1999). In our simulations, we found that SF rate histories can be described as series of starbursts supperposed to a continuous component.

For each GLO we can also follow the evolution of the metallicity of the stellar component and calculate the age-metallicity relation (AMR; e.g. Rocha-Pinto et al. 2000). The mean AMRs estimated for our GLOs show the expected trend with high metallicity stars forming at more recent times in agreement with observations. The dispersion found in the simulations indicates the existence of coeval SF sites of different metallicities at a given time. The values and trend of these relations depend on the particular evolutionary history of each GLO, and the SF and SN model parameters (see Tissera et al. 2000 for details).

The \[O/Fe\] versus \[Fe/H\] is an important observational constrain for chemical models and may give information on the chemical history of our Galaxy. We estimated this relation for our GLOs.

Figure 1 shows a typical example where we can see how the SN and SF parameters affect the distributions. These abundance relations also depend on the the evolutionary history of each GLO.

The chemical abundances in the ISM in gas-rich galaxies allows to trace the evolution of individual galaxies, being HII regions and early B-type main sequence objects the most accesible probes of interstellar abundances. Fairly steep negative gradients are found: $`0.07\pm 0.01`$ dex Kpc-1 within $`6<R_\mathrm{G}<18`$ Kpc for oxygen (Smartt & Rolleston 1997). Figure 2 shows abundance gradients of the oxygen for GLOs 596 and 325 as examples. The curves represent the mass-weighted averages of the metal abundances at each particle position: they clearly show negative abundance gradients.

The slopes of the calculated gradients range from $`0.01`$ to $`0.4`$ dex kpc-1, in agreement with observations. The differences in the abundance gradient slopes for a given GLO are due to the SF mechanism and SN parameters, and the fact that we are only including gas in hybrid particles.

The slopes of GLO 325 are less pronounced than those of GLO 596. The different behaviour may be due to the fact that the gas in GLO 596 forms a well-defined disk, while GLO 325 is a clear spheroid, indicating that their histories of formation and evolution have been very different.

To sum up, in our simulations, GLOs have different evolutionary history in consistency with a hierarchical clustering scenario that affect their SF rates and chemical evolution. This chemical model can take all these physical processes into account, resulting in a powerful tool to study galaxy formation.

## References

Barton, E. J., Geller, M. J., & Kenyon, S. J. 1999, A&AS, 195, 2104

Chiappini, C., Matteucci F., & Gratton, R. 1997, ApJ, 477, 765

Gratton, R., Cannetta, E., Matteucci, F., & Sneden, C. 1996, in Formation of the Galactic Halo, Inside Out, ed. H. Morrison & A. Sanajedini, 92, 307

Mosconi, M. B., Tissera, P. B., Lambas, D. G., & Cora, S. A. 2000, MNRAS, submitted

Raiteri, C. M., Villata, M., & Navarro, J. F. 1996, A&AS, 315, 105

Rocha-Pinto, H. J., Maciel, W. J., & Flynn, C. 2000, A&A, submitted (astro-ph/0001383)

Smartt, S. J., & Rolleston, W. R. 1997, ApJ, 481, L47

Steinmetz, M., & Müller, E. 1994, A&A, 281, L97

Thielemann, F. K., Nomoto, K., & Hashimoto, M. 1993, in Origin and Evolution of the Elements, ed. N. Prantzos, E. Vangoni-Flam, & M. Cassé (Cambridge University Press), 299

Tissera, P. B., Lambas, D. G., & Abadi, M. G. 1997, MNRAS, 286, 384

Tissera, P. B. 2000, ApJ, 534, 636

Tissera, P. B., Mosconi, M. B., Cora, S. A., & Lambas, D. G. 2000, in preparation

Woosley, S. E., & Weaver, T. A., 1995, ApJS, 101, 181


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# Many-body theory of pump-probe spectra for highly excited semiconductors

## I Introduction

The many-body effects of electron–hole systems in semiconductors generated by the intense laser field have long been attractive subjects . One of the most outstanding characteristics of the system is that the electron-hole density and the macroscopic quantum state can easily be controlled by changing the frequency and the intensity of excitation light. Recent developments in the experimental techniques make it possible to observe the remarkable phenomena suggesting the optically induced macroscopic quantum states. In particular, the anomalous exciton transport observed in Cu2O (Ref. ) and BiI3 (Ref. ) are the typical examples of them. These phenomena become more significant with increasing the electron-hole densities, and are in a marked contrast to the simple ballistic exciton propagation or the conventional diffusive exciton transport.

In order to understand the nature of the macroscopic quantum state of electron-hole systems, conventional approaches based either on the weak interacting Boson model  or on the BCS-like mean-field theory  are inappropriate. This is because the mean interparticle distance in the highly photoexcited system is often of the same order as the radius of the bound electron-hole pairs, and the system is in the intermediate state between the excitonic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and the electron-hole BCS state. The nature of the system is characterized by two kinds of order: the $`^4`$He-like order associated with the center-of mass motion of electron-hole pairs and the BCS-like order associated with the electron-hole pair formation. In order to investigate the physical properties of the system, we have to incorporate the state-filling effect, which reflects the Pauli principle, and the center-of-mass motion of electron-hole pairs on the same footing.

In our previous work, we have presented a theory of luminescence spectra for electron-hole systems in highly excited semiconductors; this theory gives the correct description of the luminescence spectra in the crossover regime between the low-density excitonic BEC states and the high-density electron-hole BCS states. The analysis is based on the generalized random-phase approximation  combined with the Bethe-Salpeter (BS) equation . This approach enables us to incorporate the strong electron-hole pair correlation and the quantum fluctuation effect associated with the center-of-mass motion of electron-hole pairs. We have shown that the crossover from the excitonic BEC state to the electron-hole BCS state manifests itself in the luminescence spectra. In particular, it is found that the broad emission band, arising from the pair recombination in the electron-hole BCS state, splits into the P and P$`_2`$ emission bands  with decreasing the electron-hole density. These results are closely related to the recent noteworthy experiment for ZnO, in which the room temperature ultraviolet laser emission is observed .

The purpose of the present work is to clarify the properties of the high-density electron-hole systems subject to the intense light by analyzing the pump-probe spectrum. To our knowledge, a many-body theory for absorption spectrum of semiconductors was first presented by Löwenau et al.; their analysis can be applied both to the low- and high-density states. They solved the BS equation for the interband dielectric function by a numerical matrix inversion , and reproduces a series of excitonic sharp spectral components in the low particle densities. However, the electron-hole pair correlation in the high-density regime is not taken into account, so that the many exciton effect and the BCS-like macroscopic quantum state cannot be incorporated.

In Ref. , the effect of pair correlation is taken into account for the pump-probe spectrum by the simple BCS-like mean-field theory at zero temperature. By solving the BCS-like gap equation for electron-hole systems, they found that the electron-hole pair correlations are considerably enhanced by the pump-light intensity (“light enhanced excitons”). Their calculated spectra exhibit the transparent region between the stimulated emission and the absorption components, which is the manifestation of the BCS-like gap formation. Whereas their theory takes into account the pair correlation in a self-consistent manner, they neglected the screening effct of the Coulomb interaction and the multiple Coulomb interaction between electron-hole pairs. As a result, the excitonic sharp spectral components do not reproduce in the low electron-hole densities.

The discussion was further extended to take into account the screening effect of the Coulomb interaction and the finite temperature effect by Iida et al.  They considered the screening effect by the quasi-static RPA due to Haug and Schmitt-Rink , and found that the bistable behavior arises from the band-gap renormalization. However, their analysis is based on the simple BCS-like mean field theory, so it cannot properly describe the excitonic structure in the low particle densities.

In the present article, we give a unified theory of the pump-probe spectra for highly excited semiconductors, which can be applied throughout the whole density range including the high-density electron-hole BCS state and the low-density excitonic BEC states. We consistently solve the combined equations of the BCS-like gap equation and the BS equation for retarded electron-hole pair Green function, which first enables us to consider the state-filling effect, the band-gap renormalization, and the weak/strong pair correlation in a unified manner. This analysis is closely related to that in Ref. , where the absorption-gain spectra for condensed exciton systems are calculated for various electron-hole densities and temperatures by properly taking into account the ladder diagram for vertex function. In the present article, we calculate the pump-probe spectra for various excitation conditions and systematically analyze the dependence of the spectra on the pump-light intensity and on the pump-light frequency.

As a result, we find that the electron-hole BCS state is noticeably enhanced by the intense pump-light; this result strongly suggests that the macroscopic quantum state can be observed under the strong photoexcitations. Moreover, in the high-density state generated by the small off-resonant excitation, the calculated spectrum shows a pair of sharp peaked structures at the edge of the broad absorption and stimulated emission bands. In contrast to this, we find a series of sharp exciton lines in the low density regime generated by the large off-resonant excitation. In the intermediate density generated by the strong photoexcitation, the calculated spectra considerably deviate from results obtained by the BCS-like mean-field analysis and those by the simple BS equation without pair correlation. In particular, we find the sharp spectral components originating from the excitation of the collective phase fluctuation mode of electron-hole BCS state (similar to the Anderson mode in superconductivity), which change to the exciton series with decreasing carrier density.

The article is organized as follows. In Sec. II, we derive the BS equation for the retarded Green function of electron-hole pairs within the quasi-statically screened ladder approximation. In order to incorporate the pairing effect to the pump-probe spectra, we express the electron-hole pair Green function with respect to the field operators of Bogolons, that are the elementary excitation of electron-hole BCS state. We numerically calculate the pump-probe spectra by solving the BS equation in Sec. III. Finally, discussions and conclusion are given in Sec. IV.

## II Formulation

### A Model Hamiltonian

We consider an electron-hole system in a direct-gap semiconductor, which consists of the isotropic, nondegenerate parabolic conduction and valence bands. The repulsive interactions between electrons and between holes as well as the electron-hole attractive interaction are taken into account. The spin degrees of freedom are neglected to avoid the unnecessary complication due to the biexciton state. We consider that the system is in a stationary state generated by an intense monochromatic pump light with frequency $`\omega _\mathrm{L}`$; the pump light is treated as a classical field while the probe light is quantized. The model Hamiltonian is expressed as

$$H_{\mathrm{tot}}=H_\mathrm{r}+H_{\mathrm{eh}}+H_{\mathrm{pump}}+H_{\mathrm{probe}},$$
(2)
where $`H_\mathrm{r}`$, $`H_{\mathrm{eh}}`$, $`H_{\mathrm{pump}}`$ and $`H_{\mathrm{probe}}`$ are the Hamiltonian of the probe photon, the electron-hole Hamiltonian, the interaction Hamiltonian between particles and pump light, and the interaction Hamiltonian between particles and probe light, respectively. These Hamiltonians are expressed in terms of the field operators of electrons ($`c_𝒑`$), holes ($`d_𝒑`$) and photons ($`b`$) as follows,

$`H_\mathrm{r}`$ $`=`$ $`\omega b^{}b,`$ (3)
$`H_{\mathrm{eh}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{𝒌}{}}\left\{\epsilon _𝒌^ec_𝒌^{}c_𝒌+\epsilon _𝒌^hd_𝒌^{}d_𝒌\right\}`$ (5)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝒌,𝒑,𝒒}{}}V_𝒒\left\{c_{𝒌+𝒒}^{}c_{𝒑𝒒}^{}c_𝒑c_𝒌+d_{𝒌+𝒒}^{}d_{𝒑𝒒}^{}d_𝒑d_𝒌2c_{𝒌+𝒒}^{}c_𝒌d_{𝒑𝒒}^{}d_𝒑\right\},`$
$`H_{\mathrm{pump}}`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda {\displaystyle \underset{𝒌}{}}\left\{c_𝒌d_𝒌\mathrm{exp}(i\omega _\mathrm{L}t)+d_𝒌^{}c_𝒌^{}\mathrm{exp}(i\omega _\mathrm{L}t)\right\},`$ (6)
$`H_{\mathrm{probe}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{𝒌}{}}\left\{g_𝒌b^{}c_𝒌d_𝒌+g_𝒌^{}d_𝒌^{}c_𝒌^{}b\right\},`$ (7)
where $`\omega `$ is the frequency of probe photon. Here $`g_𝒌`$ is the coupling constant between particles and the probe light; $`\lambda `$ is the interaction energy between particles and the pump light. The single-particle energies of electrons and holes are given by $`\epsilon _𝒌^e=k^2/(2m_e)+E_g`$, and $`\epsilon _𝒌^h=k^2/(2m_h)`$, respectively, where $`m_e`$ ($`m_h`$) and $`E_g`$ are the electron (hole) effective mass and band-gap energy, respectively. The Coulomb interaction is written as $`V_𝒒=4\pi e^2/(ϵ_0q^2)`$, where $`ϵ_0`$ is the background dielectric constant of the unexcited crystal.

When we analyze a matter which is driven by a coherent light, it is convenient to convert the matter Hamiltonian to the time independent form in the so-called rotating frame. For this purpose, we use the unitary transformation given by the unitary operator ,

$`T(t)=\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{i\omega _\mathrm{L}t}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝒌}{}}\left(c_𝒌^{}c_𝒌+d_𝒌^{}d_𝒌\right)\right].`$ (8)
The transformed Hamiltonian is written as follows,

$`\stackrel{~}{H}_{\mathrm{eh}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{𝒌}{}}\left\{\xi _𝒌^ec_𝒌^{}c_𝒌+\xi _𝒌^hd_𝒌^{}d_𝒌\right\}`$ (10)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝒌,𝒑,𝒒}{}}V_𝒒\left\{c_{𝒌+𝒒}^{}c_{𝒑𝒒}^{}c_𝒑c_𝒌+d_{𝒌+𝒒}^{}d_{𝒑𝒒}^{}d_𝒑d_𝒌2c_{𝒌+𝒒}^{}c_𝒌d_{𝒑𝒒}^{}d_𝒑\right\},`$
$`\stackrel{~}{H}_{\mathrm{pump}}`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda {\displaystyle \underset{𝒌}{}}\left\{c_𝒌d_𝒌+d_𝒌^{}c_𝒌^{}\right\},`$ (11)
$`\stackrel{~}{H}_{\mathrm{probe}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{𝒌}{}}\left\{g_𝒌b^{}c_𝒌d_𝒌\mathrm{exp}(i\omega _\mathrm{L}t)+g_𝒌^{}d_𝒌^{}c_𝒌^{}b\mathrm{exp}(i\omega _\mathrm{L}t)\right\},`$ (12)
where $`\xi _𝒌^{e,h}=\epsilon _𝒌^{e,h}\omega _\mathrm{L}/2`$. The resulting stationary state of driven electron-hole system is controlled by the frequency of pump light $`\omega _\mathrm{L}`$, and the interaction energy $`\lambda `$ between pump light and carriers. The Hamiltonian $`\stackrel{~}{H}_{\mathrm{eh}}`$ is formally regarded as a grand-canonical Hamiltonian of the electron-hole system, in which the chemical potential of electron-hole pairs is given by $`\mu =\omega _LE_g`$.

### B Optical response of probe light

In order to evaluate the optical spectra, let us consider the equation-of-motion for expectation value of the number operator for a probe photon, $`N(t)=b^{}(t)b(t)`$. A perturbative calculation with respect to $`\stackrel{~}{H}_{\mathrm{probe}}`$ gives

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}N(t)=\mathrm{\Pi }^<(\omega )N(t)+1\mathrm{\Pi }^>(\omega )N(t)`$ (13)
where $`\mathrm{}`$ indicates the expectation value with respect to the ground state of $`H_{\mathrm{tot}}`$. The quantities $`\mathrm{\Pi }^<(\omega )`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }^>(\omega )`$ are the emission and the absorption rate of probe photon, respectively. The pump-probe spectrum is then given by $`\mathrm{\Pi }^>(\omega )\mathrm{\Pi }^<(\omega )`$. The quantities $`\mathrm{\Pi }^<(\omega )`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }^>(\omega )`$ are expressed in terms of electron and hole operators as following,

$`\mathrm{\Pi }^>(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{𝒌,𝒑}{}}g_𝒌^{}g_𝒑{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑td_𝒑(t)c_𝒑(t)c_𝒌^{}(0)d_𝒌^{}(0)_0\mathrm{e}^{i(\omega \omega _\mathrm{L})t}+c.c.`$ (14)
$`=`$ $`2\mathrm{I}\mathrm{m}G^>(\omega \omega _\mathrm{L}+i\gamma ),`$ (15)
$`\mathrm{\Pi }^<(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{𝒌,𝒑}{}}g_𝒌^{}g_𝒑{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑tc_𝒌^{}(0)d_𝒌^{}(0)d_𝒑(t)c_𝒑(t)_0\mathrm{e}^{i(\omega \omega _\mathrm{L})t}+c.c.`$ (16)
$`=`$ $`2\mathrm{I}\mathrm{m}G^<(\omega \omega _\mathrm{L}+i\gamma ),`$ (17)
where $`\gamma `$ is the exciton decay constant and $`\mathrm{}_0`$ stands for the expectation value with respect to the ground state of $`H=\stackrel{~}{H}_{\mathrm{eh}}+\stackrel{~}{H}_{\mathrm{pump}}`$. Here $`G^>(\omega )`$ and $`G^<(\omega )`$ are the Fourier transform of the correlation functions defined by

$`G^>(t)`$ $`=`$ $`i\mathrm{\Theta }(t){\displaystyle \underset{𝒌,𝒑}{}}g_𝒌^{}g_𝒑d_𝒑(t)c_𝒑(t)c_𝒌^{}(0)d_𝒌^{}(0)_0,`$ (18)
$`G^<(t)`$ $`=`$ $`i\mathrm{\Theta }(t){\displaystyle \underset{𝒌,𝒑}{}}g_𝒌^{}g_𝒑c_𝒌^{}(0)d_𝒌^{}(0)d_𝒑(t)c_𝒑(t)_0.`$ (19)
The pump-probe spectrum is given by

$$A(\omega )=2\mathrm{I}\mathrm{m}G_\mathrm{R}(\omega \omega _\mathrm{L}+i\gamma ),$$
(20)
where $`G_\mathrm{R}(\omega )`$ is the Fourier transform of the retarded Green function for electron-hole pairs given by

$$G_\mathrm{R}(t)G^>(t)G^<(t).$$
(21)
In the following analysis, we calculate $`G_\mathrm{R}(t)`$ by solving the BS equation.

### C BCS-like gap equation for electron-hole systems

In order to incorporate the electron-hole pair correlation, let us introduce the Bogoliubov transformation given by,

$`c_𝒌=u_𝒌\alpha _𝒌+v_𝒌\beta _𝒌^{},`$ (22)
$`d_𝒌=u_𝒌\beta _𝒌v_𝒌\alpha _𝒌^{},`$ (23)
where $`\alpha _𝒌`$ and $`\beta _𝒌`$ are the annihilation operators for new quasiparticles (Bogolons). The Bogoliubov parameters $`u_𝒌`$ and $`v_𝒌`$ are subject to the condition, $`u_𝒌^2+v_𝒌^2=1`$.

In the following analysis, it is convenient to introduce the two-component operator $`\varphi _𝒌=(\alpha _𝒌,\beta _𝒌^{})`$ and the $`2\times 2`$ unit matrix $`𝝉_0`$ and Pauli matrices $`𝝉_j`$ $`(j=1,2,3)`$. The Hamiltonian $`H=\stackrel{~}{H}_{\mathrm{eh}}+\stackrel{~}{H}_{\mathrm{pump}}`$ is expressed in terms of $`\varphi _𝒌`$ as follows,

$`H={\displaystyle \underset{𝒌}{}}_𝒌^\mu \left(\varphi _𝒌^{}𝝉_\mu \varphi _𝒌\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝒌,𝒑,𝒒}{}}W_{𝒌,𝒑}^{\mu ,\nu }(𝒒)\left(\varphi _{𝒌+𝒒}^{}𝝉_\mu \varphi _𝒌\right)\left(\varphi _{𝒑𝒒}^{}𝝉_\nu \varphi _𝒑\right),`$ (24)
where the summation convention with respect to the indices $`\mu ,\nu =0,1,\mathrm{},3`$ is employed. Introducing the coherence factors, $`C_{𝒌,𝒑}^{(\mu )}`$ ($`\mu =0,1,\mathrm{},3`$), given by

$`C_{𝒌,𝒑}^{(0)}`$ $`=`$ $`u_𝒌u_𝒑+v_𝒌v_𝒑,`$ (25)
$`C_{𝒌,𝒑}^{(1)}`$ $`=`$ $`u_𝒌v_𝒑+v_𝒌u_𝒑,`$ (26)
$`C_{𝒌,𝒑}^{(2)}`$ $`=`$ $`u_𝒌u_𝒑v_𝒌v_𝒑,`$ (27)
$`C_{𝒌,𝒑}^{(3)}`$ $`=`$ $`u_𝒌v_𝒑v_𝒌u_𝒑,`$ (28)
and $`_𝒌^\mu `$ can be expressed as follows,

$`_𝒌^0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\xi _𝒌^{(e)}\xi _𝒌^{(h)}),`$ (29)
$`_𝒌^1`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda C_{𝒌,𝒌}^{(2)}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\xi _𝒌^{(e)}+\xi _𝒌^{(h)}{\displaystyle \underset{𝒒}{}}V_𝒒)C_{𝒌,𝒌}^{(1)},`$ (30)
$`_𝒌^2`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (31)
$`_𝒌^3`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\xi _𝒌^{(e)}+\xi _𝒌^{(h)}{\displaystyle \underset{𝒒}{}}V_𝒒)C_{𝒌,𝒌}^{(2)}\lambda C_{𝒌,𝒌}^{(1)}.`$ (32)
The quantity $`W_{𝒌,𝒑}^{\mu ,\nu }(𝒒)`$ is written as follows,

$`W_{𝒌,𝒑}^{\mu ,\nu }(𝒒)=V_𝒒\left(\begin{array}{cccc}C_{𝒌+𝒒,𝒌}^{(0)}C_{𝒑𝒒,𝒑}^{(0)}& 0& iC_{𝒌+𝒒,𝒌}^{(0)}C_{𝒑𝒒,𝒑}^{(3)}& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0\\ iC_{𝒌+𝒒,𝒌}^{(3)}C_{𝒑𝒒,𝒑}^{(0)}& 0& C_{𝒌+𝒒,𝒌}^{(3)}C_{𝒑𝒒,𝒑}^{(3)}& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0\end{array}\right)_{\mu ,\nu }.`$ (37)
The Bogoliubov parameters are determined by the variational method. We minimize the expectation value of the Hamiltonian, $`H_0`$, under the charge neutrality condition, $`_𝒌\{c_𝒌^{}c_𝒌_0+d_𝒌^{}d_𝒌_0\}=0`$, which gives

$`u_𝒌^2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _𝒌}{E_𝒌}}\right),v_𝒌^2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _𝒌}{E_𝒌}}\right).`$ (38)
Since $`c_𝒌^{}c_𝒌_0=d_𝒌^{}d_𝒌_0=v_𝒌^2`$, the physical meaning of $`v_𝒌^2`$ is the distribution function of electrons and holes. In the above equation, $`\zeta _𝒌`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒌`$, and $`E_𝒌\sqrt{\zeta _𝒌^2+\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒌^2}`$ are the renormalized energy of electron-hole pair, the BCS-like energy gap, and the single particle excitation energy of Bogolon, respectively. The quantities $`\zeta _𝒌`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒌`$ satisfy the following self-consistent equations

$`\zeta _𝒌`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{k^2}{2m^{}}}\omega _\mathrm{L}+E_g\right)2{\displaystyle \underset{𝒑}{}}V_{𝒌𝒑}v_𝒑^2`$ (40)
$`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{k^2}{2m^{}}}\omega _\mathrm{L}+E_g\right){\displaystyle \underset{𝒑}{}}V_{𝒌𝒑}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _𝒑}{E_𝒑}}\right),`$ (41)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒌`$ $`=`$ $`2\lambda 4{\displaystyle \underset{𝒑}{}}V_{𝒌𝒑}u_𝒑v_𝒑`$ (42)
$`=`$ $`2\lambda 2{\displaystyle \underset{𝒑}{}}V_{𝒌𝒑}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒑}{E_𝒑}},`$ (43)
where $`m^{}=m_em_h/(m_e+m_h)`$ is the reduced mass of electron-hole pairs. The second term of the right-hand side of Eq. (40) expresses the band renormalization effect arising from the electron (hole) exchange interaction. The Eq. (42) is the BCS-like gap equation where the BCS-like energy gap formation induced by the pump-light is taken into account.

In order to obtain the physical insight into the BCS-like gap equation, we express the BCS-like gap equation, Eq. (II C), in terms of the electron-hole pair wave function with zero center-of-mass momentum , $`\psi _𝒌=c_𝒌d_𝒌=\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒌/(2E_𝒌).`$ Making use of Eq. (38), the BCS-like gap equation can be rewritten as

$`\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{k^2}{2m^{}}}(\omega _\mathrm{L}E_g)2{\displaystyle \underset{𝒑}{}}V_{𝒌𝒑}v_𝒑^2\right\}\psi _𝒌(12v_𝒌^2){\displaystyle \underset{𝒑}{}}V_{𝒌𝒑}\psi _𝒑=(12v_𝒌^2)\lambda .`$ (44)
This equation is reduced to the Wannier equation in the limit of low electron-hole densities and $`\lambda 0`$, because $`v_𝒌^2`$ is the pair distribution function . Therefore the BCS-like pair theory is able to properly describe the relative wave-function of excitons in the low density case as well as the BCS-like pair states in the high-density case.

### D The Bethe-Salpeter equation for electron-hole pair Green function

As described above, the optical spectrum is obtained by the evaluation of the electron-hole retarded Green function $`G_\mathrm{R}(t)`$, which can be rewritten in terms of Bogoliubov parameters as,

$`G_\mathrm{R}(t)={\displaystyle \underset{𝒌,𝒑}{}}g_𝒌^{}g_𝒑𝑲_𝒌𝓖_{𝒌,𝒑}(t)𝑲_𝒑,`$ (45)
where $`𝑲_𝒌(u_𝒌^2v_𝒌^2,i)`$ is the two-component vector. $`𝓖_{𝒌,𝒑}(t)`$ is the $`2\times 2`$ matrix retarded Green function whose $`(\mu ,\nu )`$ component is given by

$`\left(𝓖_{𝒌,𝒑}(t)\right)_{\mu ,\nu }=i\mathrm{\Theta }(t)[(\varphi _𝒌^{}(t)𝝉_\mu \varphi _𝒌(t)),(\varphi _𝒑^{}(0)𝝉_\nu \varphi _𝒑(0))],`$ (46)
where $`\mu ,\nu =1,2`$. The function $`𝓖_{𝒌,𝒑}(\omega )`$ satisfies the following BS equation,

$`(\omega 𝝉_0+E_𝒌𝝉_2)𝓖_{𝒌,𝒑}(\omega ){\displaystyle \underset{𝒌^{}}{}}V_{𝒌𝒌^{}}\left(C_{𝒌,𝒌^{}}^{(0)2}𝝉_2+iC_{𝒌,𝒌^{}}^{(3)2}𝝉_1\right)𝓖_{𝒌^{},𝒑}(\omega )=𝝉_2\delta _{𝒌,𝒑}.`$ (47)
This BS equation is obtained by linearizing the equation-of-motion for $`𝓖_{𝒌,𝒑}(t)`$. The second term on the left-hand side of Eq. (47) describes the effect of multiple Coulomb interaction between Bogolons, which is attractive in the low electron-hole density limit.

The vertex part proportional to $`C_{𝒌,𝒑}^{(0)2}`$ reflects the state-filling effect and the part proportional to $`C_{𝒌,𝒑}^{(3)2}`$ arises because of the electron-hole pair correlation. It should be emphasized that this term describes the deviation from the BCS-like mean-field theory, and give rise to the sharp excitonic structures in the pump-probe spectrum.

### E Screening effect

We consider the screening effect within the quasi-static RPA following the work by Haug and Schmitt-Rink . The BCS-like gap equation, Eq. (II C), is rewritten as follows,

$$\zeta _𝒌=\left(\frac{k^2}{2m^{}}\omega _\mathrm{L}+E_g\right)2\underset{𝒑}{}V_{𝒌𝒑}^\mathrm{s}v_𝒑^2+\underset{𝒒}{}\left\{V_𝒒^\mathrm{s}V_𝒒\right\},$$
(49)
$$\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒌=2\lambda 4\underset{𝒑}{}V_{𝒌𝒑}^\mathrm{s}u_𝒑v_𝒑,$$
(50)
where $`V_𝒒^\mathrm{s}`$ is the quasi-statically screened Coulomb potential. Here the second term on the right-hand side of Eq. (49) represent the screened exchange effect and the third term being the Coulomb-hole effect. The BS equation, Eq. (47), is rewritten as

$`(\omega 𝝉_0+E_𝒌𝝉_2)𝓖_{𝒌,𝒑}(\omega ){\displaystyle \underset{𝒌^{}}{}}V_{𝒌𝒌^{}}^\mathrm{s}\left(C_{𝒌,𝒌^{}}^{(0)2}𝝉_2+iC_{𝒌,𝒌^{}}^{(3)2}𝝉_1\right)𝓖_{𝒌^{},𝒑}(\omega )=𝝉_2\delta _{𝒌,𝒑}.`$ (51)
We employ the tractable expression for the dielectric function given by the single-plasmon-pole approximation, which is known to produce the relatively good self-energy corrections  The explicit expression for the screened potential is given by,

$`V_𝒒^\mathrm{s}={\displaystyle \frac{4\pi e^2}{ϵ_𝒒q^2}},ϵ_𝒒^1=ϵ_0^1\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{\omega _{\mathrm{pl}}^2}{\omega _𝒒^2}}\right),`$ (52)
where $`\omega _{\mathrm{pl}}=4\pi ne^2/(ϵ_0m^{})`$ is the plasma frequency, and $`n`$ is the electron-hole pair density. The dispersion of the effective plasmon mode is given by

$`\omega _𝒒^2=\omega _{\mathrm{pl}}^2\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{q^2}{k_{\mathrm{TF}}^2}}\right)+\left({\displaystyle \frac{q^2}{4m^{}}}\right)^2+G_{\mathrm{eff}}^2,`$ (53)
where $`k_{\mathrm{TF}}=\{16m^{}e^2/(\pi ϵ_0)\}(6\pi ^2n)^{1/3}`$ is the Thomas-Fermi wave number, and the effective gap $`G_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is set to the minimum energy of the Bogolon pair excitation.

## III Numerical Analysis

### A Solution of the BCS-like gap equation and the resonatorless optical bistability

In the following analysis, we use the units where the exciton binding energy and the exciton Bohr radius being unity. For simplicity, we assume that the electron and hole masses are identical, i.e., $`m_e=m_h`$.

As a first step in our numerical calculations, we iteratively solve the BCS-like gap equation, Eq. (II E). Here we note that the quasi-stationary state of this optically driven electron-hole system is controlled by changing $`\omega _\mathrm{L}`$ and $`\lambda `$.

We first show the calculated mean interparticle distance, $`r_\mathrm{s}=(4\pi n/3)^{1/3}`$, as a function of pump-frequency in Fig. 1, where $`n`$ is the electron-hole density. We find the resonatorless optical bistability in which the two stable states exist for the same pump-frequency, as shown in Ref. . With increasing the interaction energy $`\lambda `$ between carriers and pump-light, the bistability region of $`\omega _\mathrm{L}`$ becomes narrow and, the bistable behavior disappears for $`\lambda 0.3`$.

For convenience in the following discussion, we show in Fig. 2 the pump-frequency $`\omega _\mathrm{L}`$ dependence of the effective-gap $`G_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, which is defined by the minimum value of the single-particle excitation energy $`E_𝒌`$. In the high electron-hole density generated by the resonant excitations ($`\omega _\mathrm{L}E_g>0`$), the weak electron-hole pair correlation predominates, in which the BCS-like energy gap is formed at the quasi-Fermi level. With decreasing the pump-frequency, the BCS-like gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒌`$ continues to exist even for the off-resonance cases especially in the higher density side of the bistable region. This is because the system undergoes the resonance condition because of the band-gap renormalization effect. We should remind that the BCS-like gap for degenerate electron-hole systems is much smaller than the exciton binding energy. The special attention should be paid to the fact that the magnitude of the BCS-like gap becomes very large with increasing $`\lambda `$, which is shown in Fig. 2. This behavior arises because the electron-hole pair correlation is strongly enhanced by the coherent pump-light, which was pointed out in Ref.  as the “light enhanced electron-hole correlation”. On the contrary, in the low electron-hole density generated by the large off-resonant excitations ($`\omega _\mathrm{L}E_g0`$), the contribution of the Coulomb interaction to $`G_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is disregarded, and $`G_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is approximated to $`E_g\omega _\mathrm{L}`$.

### B Pump-probe spectra under weak photoexcitations

Now, let us consider the pump-probe spectrum $`A(\omega )`$ given by Eq. (20). The positive and negative values of $`A(\omega )`$ imply the absorption and the stimulated emission of the probe light, respectively. When we numerically solve the BS equation, Eq. (51), the usual singularity-removal method  is inappropriate because the singularity of the retarded Green function considerably depends on the electron-hole density. This fact forces us to deal with a giant matrix (about $`3000\times 3000`$ in dimension) to obtain good overall accuracy. In the present analysis we numerically evaluate the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the stability matrix  of the BS kernel in Eq. (51).

In Figs. 3-5, we show the calculated spectra for several values of $`\omega _\mathrm{L}`$ and $`\lambda =0.001`$, in which the bistability region exists. Figure 3 is the spectrum for a higher density state ($`\omega _\mathrm{L}E_g=0.5`$, $`r_\mathrm{s}=0.87`$) outside the bistability region, and Fig. 4 is that for a lower density state ($`\omega _\mathrm{L}E_g=4.0`$, $`r_\mathrm{s}=140`$) outside the bistability region. The spectra inside the bistability region ($`\omega _\mathrm{L}E_g=2.5`$) in higher ($`r_\mathrm{s}=1.0`$) and lower ($`r_\mathrm{s}=86`$) density states are shown in Fig. 5.

In the high-density state (Fig. 3) outside the bistability region, the strong stimulated emission, and the large red-shift of the band-edge due to the band renormalization effect is found. The transparent region arising from the BCS-like energy gap formation  is almost vanishing in this choice of parameters, because the BCS-like gap is extremely small as shown in Fig. 2. However, this does not imply that the BCS-like gap is not formed; actually, around $`\omega \omega _\mathrm{L}`$, we find a pair of sharp peaked structures in the pump-probe spectrum, which originates from the singular behavior of the density-of-states accompanied by the BCS-like energy gap formation due to the many-body effect. It should be noted that this anomaly is weak in the BCS-like mean-field calculation as shown by the dashed line in Fig. 3, and the BS equation, Eq. (51), properly describes the strong electron-hole pair correlation.

In contrast to Fig. 3, the pump-probe spectrum in the low-density state outside the bistability region exhibits the qualitatively different profile. We find, in Fig. 4, a series of sharp absorption lines corresponding to the 1S, 2S $`\mathrm{}`$ exciton states, and the calculated spectrum is reduced to the one given by the Elliott formula  in the low density limit. However, it should be noted that the present analysis is based on the electron-hole many-body theory including the strong electron-hole pair correlation, and the large deviations from the square-root dependence of $`A(\omega )`$ is observed close to the band-edge. In addition, it should be stressed that the BCS-like decoupling approximation for electron-hole pair Green function cannot reproduce the excitonic structure, even though the BCS-like gap equation properly describes the internal motion of excitons both in the high and low density limits.

Inside the bistability region, the high- and the low-density behavior appears for the same pump frequency $`\omega _\mathrm{L}`$, as shown in Fig. 5. We should recall that this bistability arises from the instability due to the positive feedback between the optical pumping and the band-gap renormalization.

### C The dependence of the pump-probe spectra on the pump-light intensity

In the following, let us discuss the dependence of the pump-probe spectrum on the interaction energy between carriers and pump-light $`\lambda `$. We show in Fig. 6 the calculated spectra for three states: $`\lambda =0.1,0.2`$ and $`0.3`$. Here the pump-light frequency is chosen as $`\omega _\mathrm{L}E_g=0.5`$.

As in the case of Fig. 3, we find the stimulated emission in $`\omega <\omega _\mathrm{L}`$, and the absorption components in $`\omega >\omega _\mathrm{L}`$. As shown in Fig. 1, the mean interparticle distance is $`r_\mathrm{s}0.87`$, irrespective of the magnitude of $`\lambda `$, because the electron-hole recombination rate is assumed to be much smaller than the Rabi frequency. Between the absorption and the emission parts, we find the transparent region originating from the BCS-like gap formation, which is extremely enhanced by the pump-light excitation. Conversely, the Rabi splitting of the dressed semiconductor states by the strong pump light is combined with the electron-hole Coulomb interaction to form extremely large BCS-like gap. In the large off-resonance case (and the low-density state in the bistability region), the energy gap becomes insensitive to $`\lambda `$, as shown in Fig. 2.

With increasing $`\lambda `$, the broad absorption (emission) component splits into a sharp absorption (emission) line and the broad absorption (emission) band. In the following discussion, we call these sharp stimulated emission and the absorption lines as $`A_\mathrm{e}`$-line and $`A_\mathrm{a}`$-line, respectively. The $`A_\mathrm{e}`$\- and $`A_\mathrm{a}`$-lines appear inside the transparent region given by the BCS-like mean field calculation which is shown by the dashed curves in Figs. 3-5 and Figs. 7-10. The $`A_\mathrm{e}`$\- and $`A_\mathrm{a}`$-lines are manifestation of the optical transition accompanied by the excitation of the collective phase fluctuation mode in the electron-hole BCS state, which corresponds to the Anderson mode in superconductivity . The attention should be paid to the fact that this mode is induced by the strong pump-light, which is reduced to the band edge singularity for the weak pump-light as discussed above. That is to say, these lines do not simply arise from the conventional excitonic processes, because the exciton picture breaks down in this density regime and their spectral positions are not located in the semiconductor band gap but in the BCS-like gap. Since the collective phase fluctuation mode is stabilized under the intense pump-light, the splitting between the $`A_{\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{a})}`$-line and the broad stimulated emission (absorption) component becomes larger with increasing $`\lambda `$.

### D Pump-probe spectra under strong photoexcitations

In the following, we discuss the dependence of the pump-probe spectra on the pump-light frequency $`\omega _\mathrm{L}`$ in the high-density states under the strong photoexcitations. Figures 7-10 depict the spectra for $`\lambda =0.3`$, where the interaction energy between the pump-light and carriers is sufficiently strong as to suppress the resonatorless optical bistability .

We show in Fig. 7 the calculated spectrum for $`\omega _\mathrm{L}E_g=1.8`$, in which the mean interparticle distance is $`r_\mathrm{s}=1.0`$. In spite of the relatively large off-resonance, we find the $`A_\mathrm{e}`$-line ($`A_\mathrm{a}`$-line) in the higher (lower) frequency side of the broad emission (absorption) component as shown in Fig. 6; this is because the large band renormalization preserves the system in the resonance condition.

We next show the spectra for $`\omega _\mathrm{L}E_g=2.75`$ (Fig. 8), $`\omega _\mathrm{L}E_g=2.9`$ (Fig. 9) and $`\omega _\mathrm{L}E_g=3.2`$ (Fig. 10), where the mean interparticle distances are $`r_\mathrm{s}=1.4`$, $`r_\mathrm{s}=1.8`$ and $`r_\mathrm{s}=2.3`$, respectively. Making a comparison between Figs. 7-9, we find that the broad emission (absorption) component splits into a series of sharp emission (absorption) lines and a broad emission (absorption) band with decreasing the pump-light frequency $`\omega _\mathrm{L}`$. The spectral positions of the new series of sharp emission lines and the $`A_\mathrm{e}`$-line slightly shift towards longer wavelength with decreasing the pump-light frequency, because the effective gap $`G_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ increases as shown in Fig. 2. We find, in Figs. 9-10 that the intensities of this series of sharp emission lines and the broad emission band become weak as the pump-light frequency decreases. It is pointed out that neither this series nor the $`A_{\mathrm{e}/\mathrm{a}}`$-line is obtained by the BCS-like pairing theory even with the RPA correction.

We should be noted that those series of sharp emission/absorption components reflect the crossover behavior from the optically induced collective fluctuation to the exciton real-space pairing with multiple bound states (Wannier series).

In the large off-resonant excitation (Figs. 9-10), a series of sharp absorption components including the $`A_\mathrm{a}`$-line can be regarded as the exciton lines, where the excitonic real-space pairing in the many exciton system play the major role. Moreover, the spectral positions for emission components are well described by the nonlinear optical processes in many exciton systems (the exciton transition by the combination of the two pump-photon absorption and one probe-photon emission) rather than the pair recombination processes accompanied by the excitation of the collective phase fluctuation mode in the electron-hole BCS state. In fact, we find in Figs. 9-10 that the magnitude of the effective gap $`G_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is approximately equal to $`E_g\omega _\mathrm{L}`$, and the frequency ($`\omega `$) of the $`A_\mathrm{e}`$-line and the series of sharp emission lines are given by $`2\omega _\mathrm{L}\omega =E_gE_{n,x}`$, where $`E_{n,x}`$ with $`n=1,2,\mathrm{}`$ is the binding energy of the $`n`$S exciton and $`n=1`$ ($`n=2,3,\mathrm{}`$) corresponds to $`A_\mathrm{e}`$-line (the series of sharp emission lines).

On the contrary, Fig. 8 can be regarded as the intermediate state between the light-enhanced electron-hole BCS state and the many exciton system. This is because the broad band and the sharp lines coexist in the stimulated emission spectrum, and the $`A_\mathrm{e}`$-line has the intermediate character between the collective phase fluctuation and the above-mentioned nonlinear optical process for the 1S exciton.

We next compare the calculated spectra given by the present theory and by the BCS-like mean-field theory. Figures 8-9 indicate that the spectral positions of the series of sharp emission and absorption lines appear inside the transparent region given by the BCS-like mean-field calculation. It should be noted here that the origin of those series of sharp emission and absorption lines including $`A_\mathrm{e}`$\- and $`A_\mathrm{a}`$-lines are different from that of pair of peaked structures in the BCS-like mean-field calculation, which originate from the singularity of the density-of-states for the Bogolon excitation. In addition, we find, in Fig. 8, that the intensity of the broad stimulated emission component given by the present theory is much weaker than that of the corresponding spectral component predicted by the BCS-like mean-field calculation, and the intensity of the broad emission band is almost vanishing in Figs. 9-10.

## IV Conclusion

We present a many-body theory for pump-probe spectra in highly excited semiconductors which is applicable throughout the whole electron-hole density states; the high-density electron-hole BCS state and the low density excitonic BEC state are contained as the limits. The present theory is based on the BCS-like pairing theory combined with the BS equation for electron-hole pair propagator, which first enables us to consider the state-filling effect, the band-gap renormalization and the strong/weak pair correlation in a unified manner.

We calculate the pump-probe spectra under the weak photoexcitations. In the high density state generated by a small off-resonant pumping, we first show that a pair of sharp peaked structure near the pump-light frequency is considerably enhanced by the strong pair correlation. On the other hand, in the low density state given by a large off-resonant pumping, we find the excitonic absorption structures near the band-edge, which is missing in the BCS-like mean-field theory even with the RPA correction .

We next analyze the dependence of the spectra on the pump-light intensities. It is shown that the electron-hole BCS state is stabilized and the BCS-like gap is distinctly enhanced by the intense pump-light. This result strongly suggests that the macroscopic quantum phenomena, such as excitonic superfluidity, can be observed under the strong photoexcitation.

With increasing the pump-light intensity, we find that those new sharp emission and absorption lines ($`A_\mathrm{e}`$\- and $`A_\mathrm{a}`$-lines) split from the broad emission and absorption components, respectively. These new lines originate from the optical transition accompanied by the collective phase fluctuation mode in the electron-hole BCS state, which corresponds to the Anderson mode in superconductivity .

Finally, we analyze the dependence of the calculated spectra on the pump-light frequency under the strong photoexcitation, and show that the collective phase fluctuation mode continuously changes to the exciton mode as the pump-light frequency decreases.

## Acknowledgment

This work is partially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on priority areas, “Photo-induced Phase Transition and Their Dynamics” from the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Japan.


text:
# Star operation in Quantum Mechanics *footnote **footnote *This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant PHY-9870101

## Abstract

We outline the description of Quantum Mechanics with noncommuting coordinates within the framework of star operation. We discuss simple cases of integrability.

preprint:  July 2000 UMTG - 233

Recently, in connection with developments in string theory  there has been a large interest in the study of noncommutative field theory (for a survey of noncommutative field theory and relevant references see ). In noncommutative field theory one deals with fields whose base manifold is noncommutative (This reminds one of superfield theories where the fermionic coordinates of the superfields are operators). It has been shown that with the help of the noncommutative, associative star operation the study of noncommutative field theories can be mapped into that of ordinary field theories where ordinary product is replaced by the star product. In this way generalizations of the Maxwell, Yang-Mills systems and their interactions have been produced .

Now with respect to the base manifold we can usually formulate a Quantum Mechanics, for example for supersymmetric theories we have supersymmetric quantum mechanics , not to speak of quantum mechanics itself for bosonic coordinates. The fact that the noncommutativity of the base manifold can be bypassed with the help of the star operation suggests that one can construct a ”noncommutative” quantum mechanics with the same trick.

In this paper we will apply the star operation to Quantum Mechanics. We will start with the one particle system situation in two dimensions under the influence of a potential $`V(𝐱)`$. The Schrödinger equation is:

$$\mathrm{i}\frac{\mathrm{\Psi }(𝒙,t)}{t}=\left[\frac{𝒑^2}{2m}+V(𝒙)\right]\mathrm{\Psi }(𝒙,t)$$
(1)
and can be obtained from the action:

$$S=dt\mathrm{d}^2x\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\left[\mathrm{i}\frac{}{t}\frac{𝒑^2}{2m}V(𝒙)\right]\mathrm{\Psi }(𝒙,t)$$
(2)
We will formulate this linear Schrödinger field theory on a base manifold with noncommutative coordinates:

$$[x^i,x^j]=i\theta ^{ij}$$
(3)
where $`\theta ^{ij}`$ is a c-number antisymmetric matrix:

$$\theta ^{ij}=\theta ϵ^{ij}$$
(4)
and $`ϵ^{12}=1`$ is the totally antisymmetric tensor of rank 2.

As announced, we replace the products above by the star operation:

$$AB(𝒙)=e^{\frac{\mathrm{i}}{2}\theta ^{ij}_i^{(1)}_j^{(2)}}A(𝒙_1)B(𝒙_2)|_{𝒙_1=𝒙_2=𝒙}$$
(5)
As is well known, under the star operation the terms containing $`\frac{}{t}`$ and $`𝒑^2`$ are unchanged, however the potential term will change. We are going to have:

$$V(𝒙)\mathrm{\Psi }(𝒙)=V(𝒙)+\underset{i=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{1}{n!}\left(\frac{\mathrm{i}}{2}\right)^n_{i_1}\mathrm{}_{i_n}V(𝒙)\theta ^{i_1j_1}\mathrm{}.\theta ^{i_nj_n}_{j_1}\mathrm{}_{j_n}\mathrm{\Psi }(𝒙)$$
(6)
Now, replace $`_{jk}`$ by $`\mathrm{i}p_{jk}=\frac{}{x^{jk}}`$ and introduce:

$$\stackrel{~}{p}_{i_k}=\theta ^{i_kj_k}p_{j_k}$$
(7)
Take the Fourier transform of $`V(𝒙)`$, then

$$_{i_1}\mathrm{}_{i_n}V(𝒙)\stackrel{~}{p}_{i_1}\mathrm{}\stackrel{~}{p}_{i_n}\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{i}^n\mathrm{d}^2k\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}𝒌𝒙}V(𝒌)\left(𝒌\stackrel{~}{𝒑}\right)^n\mathrm{\Psi }(𝒙)$$
(8)
Summing over $`n`$ in (6) we obtain:

$$V(𝒙)\mathrm{\Psi }(𝒙)=\mathrm{d}^2k\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}𝒌𝒙}e^{\frac{\mathrm{i}}{2}\stackrel{~}{𝒑}𝒌}V(𝒌)\mathrm{\Psi }(𝒙)$$
(9)
Now using $`𝒌\stackrel{~}{𝒌}=0`$ and $`[p_i,x_j]=\mathrm{i}\delta _{ij}`$ we obtain:

$$V(𝒙)\mathrm{\Psi }(𝒙)=V\left(𝒙\frac{\stackrel{~}{𝒑}}{2}\right)\mathrm{\Psi }(𝒙)$$
(10)
This formula had been inferred before in , which was basically our starting point. The star products are evaluated systematically in .

Introducing the new coordinates $`𝒙^{}`$:

$$𝒙^{}=𝒙\frac{\stackrel{~}{𝒑}}{2}$$
(11)
we have (3), and the new Hamiltonian is the one in (1) with $`𝒙`$ replaced by $`𝒙^{}`$. Therefore, from the point of view of star operation, quantum mechanics is being redefined by a rearrangement of the phase space variables $`𝒙,𝒑`$ into $`𝒙^{},𝒑`$. It is not hard to realize however that the combination $`𝒙\frac{\stackrel{~}{𝒑}}{2}`$ is nothing less than the covariant derivative in the symmetric gauge

$$𝑨=\frac{1}{2}\left(𝒓\times 𝑩\right)$$
(12)
with proper rescalings, corresponding to a constant magnetic field along the $`z`$-axis. It is therefore straightforward to ask whether c-noncommutativity of the coordinates, and the presence of a magnetic field in the problem are equivalent. We are however not aware of a corresponding $``$ operation which would generate noncommuting coordinates in general gauges, even if there exists some freedom in its definition. Until this question is settled, these are just very intuitive and beautiful analogies within this framework of redefining quantum mechanics.

We will now study a few examples in order to get a clue about the effects of star operation. It is manifest that for any potential containing inverse powers of $`|𝒙|`$, the redefinition (10) is a horrendous one. Therefore, one remains with polynomial interactions, which should be more or less tractable and some special situations. The case of an arbitrary potential, which looks doable, is the generalization of the Landau electron. We will consider here the very asymmetric situation, when one direction is free from interactions, while in the other one there is a potential:

$$H=\frac{𝒑^2}{2m}+V(x)$$
(13)
Then, the noncommutative situation is:

$$H=\frac{p_x^2}{2m}+\frac{p_y^2}{2m}+V(x\theta \frac{p_y}{2})$$
(14)
and it separates by the choice of wave functions:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }=e^{\mathrm{i}ky}\mathrm{\Psi }(x)$$
(15)
One gets a well defined one dimensional problem with the potential $`V(x\frac{\theta k}{2})`$.

We remark that the general case with the potential (10) is well suited for scattering problems within the perturbative approach, provided they make sense, and the $`\stackrel{~}{p}/2`$ factor generates phases  when sandwiched between eigenstates of the free Hamiltonian, similar to the situation in field theory. In the rest we will restrict to quadratic problems which are fully tractable.

Consider the harmonic oscillator in one dimension. Embedding it in a two dimensional noncommutative space:

$$[x,y]=i\theta $$
(16)
we get by our dynamical principle:

$$H=\frac{p_x^2}{2m}+\frac{k}{2}\left(x\theta \frac{p_y}{2}\right)^2.$$
(17)
Setting

$$\frac{k\theta ^2}{4}=\frac{1}{m}$$
(18)
we get the hamiltonian of a charged particle interacting with a constant magnetic field with $`qB=2/\theta `$. As before, it should be stressed that a particular gauge has been chosen for us.

One can also consider an isotropic 2-dimensional oscillator. Then, the interaction term produces:

$$\frac{k}{2}\left(𝒙\frac{\stackrel{~}{𝒑}}{2}\right)^2$$
(19)
which will be related to the symmetric gauge (12). The isotropic noncommutative harmonic oscillator (19) has been considered in , in the framework of a study of theories involving higher derivatives Chern-Simmons like terms.

Therefore, the purely elastic force is again endowed with a specific electromagnetic interaction. The mass of the new system is:

$$\frac{1}{m_R}=\frac{1}{m}+\frac{1}{m^{}},m^{}=\frac{k}{\omega _\tau ^2},\omega _\tau =\frac{k\theta }{2}$$
(20)
with the product $`qB`$ and renormalized $`k`$:

$$qB=m_R\omega _\tau ,k^{}=km_R\omega _\tau ^2$$
(21)
Consider now the two particle system. The wave vector is $`\mathrm{\Psi }(𝒙_1,𝒙_2)`$. Obviously, with two particles we associate the tensor product of the two spaces. Therefore we will take $`[x_1^i,x_2^j]=0`$, otherwise it will be more like one particle in a higher dimensional space. (That is, before imposing symmetry properties for the wave vector). It is natural to take within each set $`𝒙_{(i)}`$ the same commutation relations, even if it is possible to choose them otherwise. Corresponding to $`N`$ one dimensional harmonic oscillators we get a system of $`N`$ charged particles interacting with a constant magnetic field. Replacing $`\theta `$ with $`\theta `$ in the commutation relation for some of them, one gets opposite charges. Therefore the deformation of a system of such oscillators does not produce other forces.

If however one considers the deformation of a two particle system interacting through an arbitrary $`V(𝒙_1𝒙_2)`$

$$H=\frac{𝒑_1^2}{2m}+\frac{𝒑_1^2}{2m}+V(𝒙_1𝒙_2)$$
(22)
the interaction term becomes $`V\left(𝒙_1𝒙_2\frac{\stackrel{~}{𝒑}_1}{2}+\frac{\stackrel{~}{𝒑}_2}{2}\right)^2`$ (we took identical masses for simplicity). Introducing the center of mass and relative coordinates:

$$𝑿=\frac{(𝒙_1+𝒙_2)}{2}𝚫=\frac{(𝒙_1𝒙_2)}{2}$$
(23)
the Hamiltonian becomes:

$$H=\frac{1}{2(2m)}𝑷^2+\frac{1}{2(2m)}𝑷_\mathrm{\Delta }^2+V\left(2𝚫\frac{\stackrel{~}{𝑷}_\mathrm{\Delta }}{2}\right)$$
(24)
Therefore, in the new coordinates the motion of the center of mass is free. Taking now $`V(𝒙_1𝒙_2)=k/2(𝒙_1𝒙_2)^2`$, we see that the forces introduced by the substitution $`𝒙𝒙\stackrel{~}{𝒑}/2`$ cannot be only of magnetic type in this case, because the center of mass of two charges of like sign accelerates when they are in a constant field. This is not the case in (24). Taking now different signs of $`\theta `$ in the commutation relation of the corresponding coordinates for the above system, the potential $`V(𝒙_1𝒙_2)`$ becomes $`V(2𝚫\frac{\stackrel{~}{𝑷}}{2})`$ in the center of mass frame. In the case of a harmonic force, corresponding to the potential $`\frac{1}{2}k(𝒙_1𝒙_2)^2`$, the system obtained is like the one discussed in . The size of the system is proportional to the momentum of its center of mass. We mention that non-relativistic noncommutative field theories corresponding to a $`\delta `$-function interaction between the particles have been analyzed within the perturbative approach in .

Consider now a quadratic Hamiltonian involving a constant magnetic field, i.e:

$$H=\frac{1}{2m}\left(𝒑q𝑨\right)^2$$
(25)
Employing the star operation means going to a $`U(1)`$ noncommutative Maxwell Yang-Mills system with the field strength:

$$F_{\mu \nu }=_\mu A_\nu _\nu A_\mu \mathrm{i}q(A_\mu A_\nu A_\nu A_\mu )$$
(26)
and equation of motion,

$$D_\mu F_{\mu \nu }=_\mu F_{\mu \nu }\mathrm{i}q(A_\mu F_{\mu \nu }F_{\mu \nu }A_\mu )=0,$$
(27)
and the gauge transformations,

$$\delta \mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{i}q\lambda \mathrm{\Psi }$$
(28)
and

$$\delta A_\mu =_\mu \lambda +\mathrm{i}q(\lambda A_\mu A_\mu \lambda ).$$
(29)
The value of $`q`$ is fixed. In order to consider the coupling to a ”constant magnetic field” $`F_{12}`$, one must check whether the symmetric gauge (12) satisfies the equation (27). This is indeed the case. However,

$$F_{12}=B\left(1+\frac{q\theta }{4}B\right)$$
(30)
Therefore, using

$$x_j\mathrm{\Psi }=\left(x_j\frac{\stackrel{~}{p}_j}{2}\right)\mathrm{\Psi }$$
(31)
one gets

$$\left(p_i\frac{qB}{2}ϵ_{ij}x_j\right)\mathrm{\Psi }=\left(1\frac{qB\theta }{4}\right)\left(p_i\frac{qB/2}{1qB\theta /4}ϵ_{ij}x_j\right)\mathrm{\Psi }$$
(32)
Now, the deformed Hamiltonian is:

$$H=\frac{\left(1\frac{qB\theta }{4}\right)^2}{2m}\left(𝒑\frac{q}{1\frac{qB\theta }{4}}𝑨\right)^2$$
(33)
Therefore, the effective couplings and mass change. However, the ratio $`q^2B^2/m`$ remains unchanged. Even if this result is obtained in a certain gauge, the magic of the symmetric gauges within this approach makes one hope that it may be a true result for the above model. We feel that it is certainly worth of further understanding, which we lack for the moment.

We have outlined here some of the features of the noncommutative Schrödinger quantum mechanics, which is just the nonrelativistic one particle sector of a quantum field theory. Of course, is not yet clear whether the toys presented here have a deeper meaning. However, even at this level the connection between the noncommutativity of coordinates and problems containing constant magnetic fields seems fascinating.

The material presented here, come out of discussions with L. Susskind, to whom I am indebted for encouragement and help. I also benefitted from a discussion with E. Witten and many discussions with G.A. Mezincescu and V. Rittenberg.


text:
# Untitled Document

NONCOMMUTATIVE GEOMETRY, NEGATIVE PROBABILITIES

AND CANTORIAN-FRACTAL SPACETIME

Carlos Castro

Center for Theoretical Studies of Physical Systems

Clark Atlanta University

Atlanta, Georgia 30314

July, 2000

ABSTRACT

A straightforward explanation of the Young’s two-slit experiment of a quantum particle is obtained within the framework of the Noncommutative Geometric associated with El Naschie’s Cantorian-Fractal transfinite Spacetime continuum.

1. Introduction

One of the most paradoxical conclusions of QM is related to an indivisible quantum particle traversing the Young’s two-slit experiment; i.e the coexistence of a point particle at two separate spatial locations and the origins of the wave-particle duality in QM  . It was argued in  that provided spacetime is effectively a four-dimensional random manifold and the path of a quantum particle is fractal then any question about the exact spatial location of a microscopic point is fundamentable undecidable due to the inherent uncertainty and fuzziness of the geometrical structure of such space . This uncertainty is caused by an intrinsic indistinguishability between $`intersections`$ and $`unions`$ within the subsets of the random effectively four-dim manifold, $`_c^{(4)}`$ . Such space is just one representative element of the infinite-dimensional Cantorian-Fractal spacetime transfinite continuum, $`_c^{(\mathrm{})}`$ . The latter continuum is just a representative of von Neumann’s Noncommutative Geometry. Therefore a “ point “ within $`_c^{(\mathrm{})}`$ can in a sense occupy $`two`$ different locations at the same time.

El Naschie considered from the start the backbone random Cantor set $`S_c^{(0)}`$ , whose dimensionality with probability one equals the Golden Mean, $`\varphi =(\sqrt{5}1)/2,`$ as was shown by the Mauldin-Williams theorem  and extended to all of $`_c^{(\mathrm{})}`$ by . In essence, these randomly constructed spaces are related to the random homeomorphisms which furnish a natural probability measure on the spaces of $`all`$ the probability distributions. For a crucial role that the “ probability on the space of all probability distributions “ has in the construction of Bell’s inequalities and in von Mises frecuency approach to probablity theory, versus the standard Kolmogorov approach, see .

The dimension of the $`dual`$ or complementary set to $`S_c^{(0)}`$, relative to the normal set given by the space $`_c^{(1)}`$, of dimension $`1`$, is : $`\stackrel{~}{d}_c^{(0)}=1d_c^{(0)}=1\varphi =\varphi ^2`$. Using the well-known relation between the Hausdorff dimension of a fractal path and the Hurst exponent $`H`$ one finds  :

$$d_{path}=\frac{1}{H}=d_c^{(2)}=\frac{1}{\varphi }=1+\varphi .\stackrel{~}{d}_{path}=\stackrel{~}{d}_c^{(2)}=\frac{1}{1\varphi }=\frac{1}{\varphi ^2}=(1+\varphi )^2.$$
$`(1)`$
El Naschie finally showed that if, and only if, there is an equivalence between $`unions`$ and $`intersections`$ in the concerned space then we must have :

$$d_{critical}=d_c^{(2)}+\stackrel{~}{d}_c^{(2)}=\frac{1}{\varphi }+\frac{1}{\varphi ^2}=\frac{\varphi (1+\varphi )}{\varphi ^3}=\frac{1}{\varphi ^3}=\frac{1}{\varphi }\frac{1}{\varphi ^2}=d_c^{(2)}\stackrel{~}{d}_c^{(2)}=4+\varphi ^3.1+\varphi =\frac{1}{\varphi }.$$
$`(2)`$
Where $`4+\varphi ^3=d_{critical}=dim_c^{(4)}=4.236067\mathrm{}`$. The critical dimension coincides exactly with the Hausdorff dimension of the random set $`_c^{(4)}`$ which is embedded densely onto a smooth set of topological dimension equal to four. The backbone random set of dimension $`d_c^{(0)}=\varphi `$, a randomly constructed Cantor set, is embedded densely onto a set of topological dimension zero : a “ point “ . This justifies the notation : $`d_c^{(n)}`$ is the Hausdorff dimension of a randomly constructed space embedded onto a smooth manifold of integer topological dimension equal to $`n`$.

In the next section we shall provide a probabilistic argument to El Naschie’s results by firstly following in detail the particular Peano-Hilbert path traversing the two-slits in a fashion to be described below. This provides a very natural explanation of $`negative`$ probabilities within the framework of Noncommutative Geometry. And furthermore why there is an asymmetry of the randomly constructed Cantor Set $`_c^{(4)}`$ used by El Naschie in the Young’s two-slit experiment.

Negative dimensions and Negative Entropies  were of crucial importance in the explicit numerical proof why the average spacetime dimension, over an infinity of dimensions ranging from $`2`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$, is of the order of $`4+\varphi ^3`$ . This lends further creedence that there is must be a deeper resaon why we live in four domensions than the one provided by the compactification schemes of string, $`M`$ theory : these attempts are no explanation as to why we live in four dimensions. For a discussion of the history of negative probabilities, and for that matter complex probability in QM, see the report article by Muckenheim . For their role in $`p`$-Adic Quantum Mechanics see  . A detailed discussion of why there is no EPR paradoxes within the framework of the New Relativity Theory , linked to Cantorian-Fractal spacetimes , see  .

2. Negative Probabilities and Noncommutative Geometry

The probabilistic extension of El Naschie’s dimensional arguments to explain the Young’s two-slit experiment within the framework of Cantorian-Fractal spacetime requires choosing the Peano-Hilbert path from the source to the detector traversing the two slits in a particular fashion. The source of particles ( say and electron gun) is located far to the left of the partition with the two slits $`B,A`$. The slit $`B`$ lies above the slit $`A`$. The detector lies far to the right of the partition. Region I is the one to the left of the partition. Region II is to the right.

Imagine the electron’s path ( from the souce to the partition) impinging on the upper portion of slit $`B`$ at an angle $`\alpha `$ ( which for simplicity we may take to be $`45`$ degrees ) . Once it crosses slit $`B`$ it experiences a zig-zag typical of a Peano-Hilbert geodesic fractal path in a $`clockwise`$ fashion : the zig-zagging in region II, begins at point $`1`$ with a sharp $`90^o`$ turn to the left reaching the vertex $`2`$, where another $`90^o`$ turn to the right takes the electron to the vertex $`3`$. Another two consecutive $`90^o`$ turns will take the particle from $`3`$ back to the beginning $`5`$, where the curve $`12345`$ almost “ closes “ at points $`1,5`$ inside the slit $`B`$.

To sum up : The traversal of the first iteration of the Peano-Hilbert geodesic curve in region II to the right of the slit $`B`$ is performed $`clockwise`$.

Once back in slit $`B`$ the path zig-zags towards the point $`6`$ in region I in a south-west bound fashion, at an angle perpendicular to the initial impinging direction to the partition ( south-east). At vertex $`6`$, in region I, it zig-zags in a $`counterclockwise`$ fashion beginning the second iteration of a Peano-Hilbert fractal geodesic path moving towards the lower edge of slit $`A`$. It crosses the lower edge of slit $`A`$ and reaches vertex $`7`$ when it performs a $`90^o`$ turn to the left reaching the vertex $`8`$. Another counterclockwise turn from $`8`$ back to the lower edge of slit $`B`$. It crosses slit $`B`$ again at vertex $`9`$ towards region I. A futher $`90^o`$ turn at vertex $`9`$ , south-west bound towards vertex $`6`$, and another $`90^o`$ turn, to cross finally the upper edge of the slit $`A`$ , reaching the detector in region II at an angle $`\alpha =45^o`$.

To sum up : The traversal of the second iteration of the Peano-Hilbert geodesic curve in regions I and II surrounding slits $`A`$ and $`B`$ is perfomed $`counterclockwise`$.

Notice the crucial difference between the two Peano-Hilbert geodesic paths. In the first case it exists to the right of the slit $`B`$ while in the second case it exists in both regions I, II of the partition and it winds around both slits $`A,B`$. This essential difference will account for the numerical results that follow.

We will assign probablity magnitudes to the regions at $`A,B`$ respectively :

$$|p_A|=|p(A)|=\frac{1}{d_A}=\varphi .|p_B|=|p(B)|=\frac{1}{d_B}=\varphi ^2.$$
$`(3)`$
The physical explanation of this goes as follows : The region around slit $`B`$ is comprised of $`3`$ lines. One line is right-flowing and two lines are left flowing. The region around slit $`A`$ is comprised of only two right-flowing lines. It is natural to assign a $`higher`$ dimensionality to the region around slit $`B`$ than the one around $`A`$. The right flowing line in slit $`B`$ could correspond to an $`upper`$ bridge connecting regions I, II. And the two left-moving lines flow along a $`lower`$ bridge connecting regions II, I ( like a knot). In slit $`A`$ there is only one bridge ( where the two right-moving lines flow from I to II ).

Furthermore, in slit $`B`$ the net flux is $`negative`$ while in slit $`A`$ is $`positive`$. In slit $`B`$ there are two negative units of flux ( left moving) and one positive unit of flux ( right moving) giving a net flux of $`12=1`$ ( left moving). In region $`A`$ there are two positive units of right moving flux so net flux is $`2`$ ( positive).

For these reasons we will assign $`different`$ magnitudes and signs to $`p_B`$ w.r.t $`p_A`$ :

$$p_A=p(A)=\frac{1}{d_A}=\varphi .p_B=p(B)=\frac{1}{d_B}=\varphi ^2.$$
$`(4)`$
The Noncommutative nature of Cantorian-Fractal spacetime  is expressed explicitly as :

$$p(AB)=p(BA)=(\varphi )(\varphi ^2)=\varphi ^3.$$
$`(5)`$
Using the standard definitions of conditional probabilities :

$$p(A|B)=\frac{p(AB)}{p(B)}=\frac{(\varphi ^3)}{(\varphi ^2)}=\varphi .$$
$`(6a)`$
$$p(B|A)=\frac{p(BA)}{p(A)}=\frac{(\varphi ^3)}{(\varphi )}=\varphi ^2.$$
$`(6b)`$
$`p(A|B)`$ is the conditional probability for $`A`$ provided $`B`$ has occured. $`p(B|A)`$ is the conditional probability for $`B`$ provided $`A`$ has occured. $`p(A|B)`$ is associated with the first iteration of the Peano-Hilbert geodesics . It is the probability that the Peano-Hilbert geodesic which left slit $`B`$ will zig-zag around point $`6`$ and enter the slit $`A`$ below. And vice versa, $`p(B|A)`$ is associated with the probability that the second iteration of the Peano-Hilbert geodesic, around slit $`A`$, will wind around slit $`B`$ after having gone through slit $`A`$.

However, $`p(AB)=p(BA)=\varphi ^3`$ is the joint probability associated with both events $`A,B`$ to take place and coexist simultaneously. This is possible in a cantorian-Fractal spacetime which is in essence a “ Noncommutative Pointless” geometry. The Noncommutative nature of the Cantorian-Fractal spacetime $`_c^{(\mathrm{})}`$ is the one responsible for the fact that $`p(AB)=p(BA)`$.

To check that negative probabilities do not violate $`unitarity`$ we must verfy that the sums of all probablities does not exceed unity. In fact the net sum equals unity exactly ! :

$$p(A)+p(B)+p(AB)+p(A|B)+p(B|A)=[\varphi \varphi ^2\varphi ^3]+[\varphi +\varphi ^2]=1.$$
$`(7a)`$
Since

$$[\varphi \varphi ^2\varphi ^3]=\varphi \varphi ^2(1+\varphi )=\varphi \frac{\varphi ^2}{\varphi }=0.[\varphi +\varphi ^2]=\varphi (1+\varphi )=1.$$
$`(7b)`$
Is this all nothing but a numerical coincidence or design that we live in $`4+\varphi ^3`$  ? And that $`4+\varphi ^3`$ is also the average dimension of the Cantorian-Fractal spacetime $`_c^{(\mathrm{})}`$ : $`<dim_c^{(i)}>=dim_c^{(4)}=4+\varphi ^3=4.236067\mathrm{}`$  ? .Where $`i`$ ranges from $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$.

Concluding, the Noncommutative nature of Cantorian-Fractal spacetime  combined with the notion of the inherent $`negative`$ probability assigned to a Peano-Hilbert “ loop “ around the region of slit $`B`$, because its orientation is $`opposite`$ to the Peano-Hilbert “ loop” located in the region around slit $`A`$, explains in a very straightforward ( but non-classical) fashion the wave-particle duality of an indivisible quantum-particle. The Noncommutative Cantorian-Fractal spacetime is not  a classical space. This supports further the interpretation of the Schroedinger equation by Nagasawa as $`twodual`$ diffusion equations  , one forward and the other backwards in time , which also agrees with Nottale’s  fractal geodesics behaviour of the Young’s two-slit experiment and El Naschie complex time and G. Ord’s spiral gravity models .

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to M.S. El Naschie for numerous conversations which led to this work and for his hospitality in Garmisch, Germany and Laggo Maggiore, Switzerland. We thank also A. Granik and D. Chakalov for many discussions and to A. Schoeller and family for a warm Austrian hospitality.

REFERENCES

1- M. S. El Naschie : “ On the Uncertainty of Cantorian Geometry and the Two-slit Experiment “

Jour. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 9 (3) (1998) 517-529.

M. S. El Naschie :” Remarks on Superstrings, Fractal Gravity, Nagaswa’s Diffusion and Cantorian Spacetime “

Jour. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 8 (11) (1997) 1873.

M. S. El Naschie :” Young’s double-slit experiment , Heisenberg uncertainty principle and correlations in Cantorian Spacetime “ . In Quantum Mechanics, Diffusion and Chaotic Fractals, eds M.S. El Naschie, O.E. Rossler and I. Prigogine. Elsevier, Oxford, 1995.

2-. D. Mauldin , S. C Williams : “ Random Recursive Constructions.

Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 295 ( 1986) 325-346.

3-M. S. El Naschie : “ Nuclear spacetime theories, superstrings, monster group and applications “

Jour. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 10 (2-3) (1999) 567-580.

G. Ord : “ The spiral gravity models “. Jour. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 10 (2-3) (1999) 567-580.

4-A. Khrennikov : “ Einstein, Bell, von Mises and Kolgomorov….” quant-ph/0006016.

5-M. Conrad : Special issue of Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 8 (5) (1997) on : “ Nonlinear Dynamics, General Relativity,

and the Quantum ( Uneven Flow of Fractal Time ).” eds by G. Ord, M. Conrad, O. Rossler, and M. S El Naschie.

6- C. Castro, A. Granik and M.S El Naschie : “ Why we live in $`3+1`$ dimesnions “ hep-th/0004152 v4.

7-W. Muckenheim : Phys. Reports 133 (1986) 338-401

8- A. Khrennikov : “ $`p`$-Adic valued distributions in Mathematical Physics

“ Kluwer Acad. Publishers , Dordrecht (1994)

V. Vladimorov, I. Volovich and E. Zelenov : “ p-Adics Analysis in Mathematical Physics “ World Scientific .

9- C. Castro : “ Hints of a New Relativity principle from $`p`$-brane Quantum Mechanics “

to appear in J. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals.

C. Castro : “ The String Uncertainty Relations follow from the New Relativity Principle “

to appear in Foundations of Physics.

10- C. Castro, A. Granik : “ How the New Scale Relativity resolves some Quantum paradoxes “ .

to appear in J. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals

11- L.Nottale : “ The Scale Relativity Program “ J. Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 10 ( 2-3) (1999).

“ La Relativite dans Tous ses Etats “ Hachette eds. Paris.


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# Level density and thermal properties in rare earth nuclei

## 1 Introduction

Investigation of nuclear level density is an old problem in nuclear physics. The first theoretical attempt to describe nuclear level density was done by Bethe in 1936 . In order to do so, he introduced thermodynamical quantities like temperature and entropy, showing how closely related nuclear level density and thermodynamics in nuclei are. With the discovery of pairing correlations, their effect on nuclear level density, temperature and heat capacity has been explored early in schematic calculations . Today, the Monte-Carlo shell model technique  can estimate nuclear level density  reliably for heavy mid-shell nuclei like dysprosium .

On the experimental side, the main sources of information on nuclear level density have been counting of discrete levels in the vicinity the ground state (see e.g. ) and neutron resonance spacing data (see e.g. ). Recently, the Oslo group has reported on a new method to extract level density and $`\gamma `$-ray strength function from primary $`\gamma `$-ray spectra .

Important applications of nuclear level densities are Hauser-Feshbach type of calculations  of nuclear reaction cross-sections. These reaction cross-sections are important input parameters in large network calculations of stellar evolution . The reaction cross-sections can also be used to estimate the efficiency of accelerator-driven transmutation of nuclear waste.

Also radiative strength functions have been examined since long time. The first estimate of $`\gamma `$-ray strength functions within the single-particle shell model was done by Weisskopf in 1951 . However, this model of energy-independent strength functions failed particularly badly with E1 transitions. First some ten years later , experimental data on electric dipole transitions over a large energy range could be explained consistently within one model. Today, refined schematic models of the giant dipole resonance, taking into account temperature dependence, are available , while low-lying dipole strength can be reliably estimated within microscopic random-phase approximation calculations for rare earth nuclei .

Experimentally, the total radiative strength function can be measured by absorption methods . At energies below the neutron separation energy it can be estimated from radiative neutron capture, usually assuming a model for the nuclear level density. These experiments involve either the total $`\gamma `$-ray spectrum  or two-step $`\gamma `$ cascades  (see also the talk of A. M. Sukhovoj in this Volume). Our newly developed method  gives now for the first time the opportunity to extract level density and radiative strength function simultaneously without assuming any model for either of them.

Applications of radiative strength functions can again be found in nuclear astrophysics. Especially the existence of a soft dipole mode in neutron rich nuclei can have a large impact on the $`(n,\gamma )`$ reaction rates of r-process nuclei .

In Sect. 2, we discuss the experimental details and the main assumptions of our data analysis method. In Sect. 3, results for the level density and thermodynamical quantities are shown. In Sect. 4, the radiative strength function is discussed, and we conclude the talk in Sect. 5.

## 2 Experimental details and data analysis

The experiments were carried out at the Oslo Cyclotron Laboratory at the University of Oslo, using an MC35 Scanditronix cyclotron with a 3He beam energy of 45 MeV and a beam intensity of typically 1 nA. The experiments were usually running for two weeks. The targets consist of self-supporting, isotopically enriched ($``$95%) metal foils of $``$2.0 mg/cm2 thickness, glued on an aluminum frame. Particle identification and energy measurements were performed by a ring of 8 Si(Li) particle telescopes mounted at 45 with respect to the beam axis. The telescopes consist of a front and end detector with thicknesses of some 150 and 3000 $`\mu `$m respectively and can effectively stop $`\alpha `$ particles with energies up to 60 MeV. The $`\gamma `$ rays were detected by an array of 28 5”$`\times `$5” NaI(Tl) detectors (CACTUS)  covering a solid angle of $``$15% of $`4\pi `$. Three 60% Ge(HP) detectors were used to monitor the selectivity of the reaction and the entrance spin distribution of the product nuclei. During one experimental run, data can be recorded and sorted out simultaneously for the (3He,3He’) and the (3He,$`\alpha `$) reaction on the same target.

In the data analysis, the ejectile energy can be transformed into excitation energy of the product nucleus, since the reaction kinematic is uniquely determined. In the next step, the $`\gamma `$-ray spectra are unfolded , using measured response functions of the CACTUS detector array. Afterwards, the primary $`\gamma `$-ray spectra can be extracted, using the subtraction technique of Ref. . In order to be able to apply this technique, the entrance point in excitation energy of the product nucleus has to be known and all excitation energies up to a certain limit have to be scanned in the experiment. The basic assumption behind the first-generation method is that the $`\gamma `$-ray spectrum of any excitation energy bin is independent of the way how states in this bin are populated (e.g. direct population by a nuclear reaction, or population by the same nuclear reaction at some higher entrance energy and followed by one or several subsequent $`\gamma `$ rays). This assumption is not completely valid at low excitation energies where $`\gamma `$ decay competes effectively with thermalization processes and the nuclear reactions applied exhibit a more direct than compound character. Also possibly different spin and parity distributions of levels populated at different excitation energies by the same nuclear reaction can violate this assumption. However, in a recent investigation of this matter, we could not find any severe problems with the first-generation method .

The primary $`\gamma `$-ray spectra (see Fig. 1) are the starting point of the discussion in this talk. According to the Brink-Axel hypothesis , the primary $`\gamma `$-ray matrix can be factorized into two functions of one variables using

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(E,E_\gamma )\rho (EE_\gamma )F(E_\gamma ),$$
(1)
where $`\rho `$ is the level density and $`F`$ is a $`\gamma `$-ray energy-dependent factor, proportional to the total radiative strength function i.e.

$$F(E_\gamma )\underset{XL}{}E_\gamma ^{(2L+1)}f_{XL}(E_\gamma ).$$
(2)
In Eq. (1), a temperature-independent radiative strength function $`f`$ is assumed. Today, we know that at least the E1 strength function is temperature dependent, a fact which has already been incorporated in several models . However, we found for our data that the factorization according to Eq. (1) works remarkably well (see Fig. 1) which indicates that for low and slowly varying temperatures as in our case, the Brink-Axel hypothesis is approximately valid.

The details of the method to extract level density and radiative strength function from primary $`\gamma `$-ray spectra can be found in . An extension of this method to temperature-dependent radiative strength function is discussed in Sect. 4. One detail of the method should be mentioned here. The method does not yield absolute values of the level density and the radiative strength function. Also the slope of these two functions is undetermined. Actually, all functions $`\stackrel{~}{\rho }`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{F}`$ obtained by the transformation

$`\stackrel{~}{\rho }(EE_\gamma )`$ $`=`$ $`A\mathrm{exp}(\alpha [EE_\gamma ])\rho (EE_\gamma )`$ (3)
$`\stackrel{~}{F}(E_\gamma )`$ $`=`$ $`B\mathrm{exp}(\alpha E_\gamma )F(E_\gamma )`$ (4)
of any particular solution $`(\rho ,F)`$ will fit our primary $`\gamma `$-ray matrix equally, since the area of the first-generation spectrum are normalized to unity for every excitation energy bin $`E`$, i.e.

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(E,E_\gamma )=\frac{\rho (EE_\gamma )F(E_\gamma )}{_{E_\gamma }\rho (EE_\gamma )F(E_\gamma )}.$$
(5)
In order to determine the parameters $`A`$ and $`\alpha `$, i.e. the absolute value and the slope of the level density, we fit our extracted level density curve to the known number of discrete levels in the vicinity of the ground state  and to the level density estimate obtained from neutron resonance spacing data  at the neutron binding energy. The only remaining free parameter then is the absolute value of the $`\gamma `$-ray energy-dependent factor $`F`$, which can be determined from the average total radiative widths of neutron capture resonances  by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma (E,I,\mathrm{\Pi })=\frac{1}{\rho (E,I,\mathrm{\Pi })}\underset{XL}{}\underset{I_f,\mathrm{\Pi }_f}{}_{E_\gamma =0}^EdE_\gamma E_\gamma ^{2L+1}f_{XL}(E_\gamma )\rho (EE_\gamma ,I_f,\mathrm{\Pi }_f)$$
(6)
(see e.g. ).

In this talk, we will discuss level density and radiative strength function of 161,162Dy and 171,172Yb obtained from (3He,$`\alpha `$) reaction data and radiative strength function of 162Dy obtained from (3He,3He’) reaction data.

## 3 Level density and thermodynamical quantities

In Fig. 2, the nuclear level density and the $`\gamma `$-ray energy-dependent factor $`F(E_\gamma )`$ for the nuclei 161,162Dy and 171,172Yb are shown. In this section, we will mainly discuss the physics of the nuclear level density. First of all, the experimental curves can be compared to popular parameterizations of the nuclear level density, like those of Gilbert and Cameron  or of von Egidy et al. . This has been done in  and the conclusion is that neither of the two parameterizations can describe our data well. However, the data favor the concept of a composite level density formula as proposed in  with a constant-temperature level density part from above 1–2 MeV and up to approximately the neutron binding energy $`B_n`$. Another important aspect is that the experimental data of the odd and even nuclei show a relative shift in the order of the effective pairing energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{\mathrm{𝑒𝑓𝑓}}(N,Z)=\mathrm{\Delta }_p(N,Z)+\mathrm{\Delta }_n(N,Z)\mathrm{\Delta }_p(N1,Z)`$ , thus the data support the concept of shifted level density formulas.

From level densities, one can easily calculate thermodynamical quantities like entropy $`S`$, temperature $`T`$, heat capacity $`C_V`$, the canonical partition function $`Z`$ and the average excitation energy in the canonical ensemble $`E`$. Within the microcanonical ensemble, one obtains (in this work $`k_B`$=1)

$`S(E)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{ln}\rho (E)+S_0`$ (7)
$`T(E)`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{S(E)}{E}}\right)_V^1`$ (8)
$`C_V(E)`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{T(E)}{E}}\right)_V^1`$ (9)
and in the canonical ensemble, one gets

$`Z(T)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}N\rho (E)\mathrm{exp}(E/T)dE`$ (10)
$`S(T)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{T}}[T\mathrm{ln}Z(T)]`$ (11)
$`E(T)`$ $`=`$ $`T^2{\displaystyle \frac{}{T}}\mathrm{ln}Z(T)`$ (12)
$`C_V(T)`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{E(T)}{T}}\right)_V.`$ (13)
The quantities $`S_0`$ and $`N`$ are necessary, since the level density is only proportional to the energy surface in the phase space $`W`$.

In principle, one should only consider the microcanonical ensemble, since the nucleus is a closed system. However, the canonical and even the grand-canonical ensemble have often been used  to describe thermodynamical properties of nuclei. In , the microcanonical and canonical entropy is discussed and compared to a simple model. One result of this discussion is that the small bumps in the experimental level density curves (see Fig. 2) can be interpreted in terms of breaking of Cooper pairs. These bumps can even be enhanced by derivating, see Eq. (8), yielding the experimental caloric curve in the microcanonical ensemble (see data points in Fig. 3 and discussion in ). Another important result is that the entropy excess of the odd nuclei relative to the even nuclei can be used to calculate the entropy of one quasiparticle. It is surprising that the quasiparticle entropy is constant $`1.70(15)k_B`$ over the whole excitation energy region investigated in .

When calculating the partition function in the canonical ensemble (see Eq. (10)), a strong smoothing is introduced due to the Laplace transformation involved. It is also worth noting that in order to calculate thermodynamical quantities reliably up to $`T1`$ MeV, one has to know the level density up to $`40`$ MeV. Since the experimental level density curves are only known up close to the neutron binding energy, they had to be extrapolated by a model. We have chosen the shifted Fermi-gas parameterization of von Egidy et al.  multiplied by a constant factor in order to match the neutron resonance spacing data.

Due to this strong smoothing over a huge range of excitation energies, one does not expect to see fine structures in the canonical ensemble. This is clearly demonstrated in Fig. 3, where the canonical caloric curve is smooth and the breaking of individual Cooper pairs is completely washed out. However, the quenching of pairing correlations is manifested in the canonical heat-capacity curves (see Fig. 4). Deviating from a Fermi-gas estimate, the heat-capacity curves show pronounced S-shapes with local maxima relative to the smooth Fermi-gas estimate. This behavior can be explained by the fact that the level density exhibits a constant-temperature part at low excitation energies. Therefore the canonical heat capacity curve $`C_V=(1T/\tau )^2`$ for a constant-temperature level density $`\rho =C\mathrm{exp}(E/\tau )`$ has been fitted to the data at low temperatures, and the parameter $`\tau `$ is interpreted as the critical temperature for the quenching of pairing correlations . The resulting critical temperatures are given as horizontal and vertical lines in Figs. 3 and 4 respectively. We interpret the S-shape of the heat capacity as a fingerprint of a second-order phase-transition-like phenomenon in finite systems, where the transition goes from a phase with strong pairing correlations (usually referred to as a superfluid phase) to a phase with weak pairing correlations (normal fluid phase). This phase-transition-like phenomenon has been anticipated by many theoretical works .

## 4 Radiative strength function

Fig. 5 shows the radiative strength functions of 161,162Dy and 171,172Yb compared to model calculations. For the theoretical calculation, we have used the E1 model of Sirotkin , where we take the expression for the temperature-dependent width of Kadmenskiĭ et al. . The parameters are taken from an interpolation of the experimental systematics of . The temperature has been assumed as constant with $`T500`$ keV. For the M1 model we simply take a Lorentzian, where the parameters for the centroids and widths are taken from  and the parameters for the resonance strengths are taken from $`f_{M1}/f_{E1}`$ systematics , evaluated at $`E_\gamma =B_n1`$ MeV. For the pygmy resonance, we use again a Lorentzian with parameters from an interpolation based on the experimental systematics . It is amazing that the model calculation can fit our data so well. Both, the absolute value as well as the slope of the experimental strength functions could be reproduced without fitting any parameter from the models except $`k\sigma _p`$. Here we had to reduce the parameters for the pygmy resonance strength $`k\sigma _p`$ by 30–70% as the only compromise to our data.

In the following, we want to investigate the strength of the pygmy resonance, which is the only parameter we had to fit in order to describe our data. For this reason, we divide our primary $`\gamma `$-ray matrix into four subsets of distinct excitation energy bins. Each excitation energy bin is 1 MeV broad, thus we can assume that the nuclear temperature within every excitation energy bin is constant and the Brink-Axel hypothesis remains valid. However, for the different excitation energy bins the nuclear temperature is in general different. We extract radiative strength functions from those four excitation energy bins. In that way we obtain radiative strength functions for four different nuclear temperatures. This provides an easy way to investigate the temperature dependence of the radiative strength function.

In Fig. 6, the relative radiative strength functions from the different excitation energy bins are plotted. One can see immediately that the pygmy resonance strength is highly temperature dependent. On the other hand, the general slope of the radiative strength function is constant, thus the gross features of the strength function are rather independent of nuclear temperature, justifying the use of the Brink-Axel hypothesis for our data analysis. The fit parameters of the pygmy resonance for the different excitation energy bins are shown in Fig. 7. Obviously, only the resonance strength of the pygmy resonance shows a pronounced temperature dependence, whereas the centroid and the width are nearly independent of temperature. The temperature dependence becomes even much more obvious when we actually translate the excitation energy bins into nuclear temperature using the canonical caloric curve of Fig. 3. The result is given in Fig. 8, where the temperature dependence of the pygmy resonance strength is shown. A clear quenching of the pygmy resonance strength as function of temperature is observed.

We have to speculate on the physical origin of the observed quenching. In the first place, it is not at all clear if the pygmy resonance is a phenomenon in the electric or magnetic dipole strength function. Igashira et al.  favor electric dipole strength without measuring the parity of the transition, whereas in other works, spin-flip  or orbital  (scissors mode) M1 strength has been proposed. Anyhow, we might assume a strong dependence of the pygmy resonance strength on the deformation parameter $`\delta `$ (like it is observed for the scissors mode ). A quenching of the pygmy resonance strength would then correspond to a shape transition of the nucleus from deformed to spherical. This temperature-induced shape transition was indeed anticipated for 170Dy in  at temperatures around 500 keV. Therefore, we speculatively interpret the quenching of the pygmy resonance strength as a fingerprint for a temperature-induced shape transition.

## 5 Conclusion

A method to extract simultaneously level density and radiative strength function from primary $`\gamma `$-ray spectra without assuming any model for either of them has been presented. Thermodynamical quantities have been deduced within the microcanonical and the canonical ensemble. We observe structures in these quantities which can be interpreted as breaking of Cooper pairs and quenching of pairing correlations and we observe a fingerprint of the phase-transition-like phenomenon from a superfluid-like phase to a normal-fluid-like phase. Further on, the critical temperature of this transition has been determined. We are able to reproduce our experimental strength functions by the use of models, where all parameters except the pygmy resonance strength are taken from other experimental systematics. The temperature dependence of the pygmy resonance strength has been investigated and a significant quenching around $`T500`$ keV has been observed, which we interpret tentatively as the result of a temperature-induced shape transition.

## 6 Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to E. A. Olsen and J. Wikne for providing the excellent experimental conditions. We thank A. Voinov for many interesting discussions. We wish to acknowledge the support from the Norwegian Research Council (NFR).