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# Time-reversal symmetry in nonlinear optics

## Abstract

The applicability of time-reversal symmetry to nonlinear optics is discussed, both from macroscopic (Maxwell equations) and microscopic (quantum theoretical) point of view. We find that only spatial operations can be applied for the symmetry classification of nonlinear optical processes in magnetic, in particular antiferromagnetic, materials. An example is given where both operations (time reversal and a spatial operation) can yield different results.

Symmetries determine several important properties of a crystal, in particular its optical response. In magnetic materials, time-reversal is believed to be of fundamental importance since this operation reverses all magnetic moments . However, the consequences of applying time-reversal are more profound than a simple inversion of localized magnetic moments. As it will turn out in this paper there is a deep interrelation between the absence of conventional dissipation in even-order (e.g. second) harmonic generation and the influence of time-reversal on spin ordering. This brings about a subtle difference between time-reversal and spatial symmetries in nonlinear optics. The benefit of this difference makes optical second harmonic generation (SHG) a rather unique probe of antiferromagnetism, while linear optics (where dissipation in the conventional sense is possible) is blind for such balanced spin structures. The recent discussion about the influence of micro-irreversibility on macro-reversibility and reciprocity () shows that the issue of time-reversal, although extensively discussed, is far from being understood.

The theory of nonlinear optics has been developed since the 60s. The pioneering work of Armstrong et al.  describes the propagation of a light wave through a nonlinear medium, where the energy may be converted from the fundamental frequency to higher harmonics (or vice versa). An exhaustive description of nonlinear optical phenomena is contained in the fundamental books by Bloembergen  and Shen . In these works (), a unique flow of time is tacitly assumed, while magnetism is entirely absent. Consequently the issue of time reversal is not essential for these authors. The discussion of magnetism has been brought to nonlinear optics by Pan et al.  and Hübner et al. . In these papers, time-reversal was applied to reverse the localized magnetic moments, since the discussion was focused on ferromagnetism. However, the experimental observation of antiferromagnetic (AF) domains in Cr2O3 by Fiebig et al.  and the subsequent theoretical analyses by Muthukumar et al.  and by Dähn et al.  challenged the validity of time-reversal for the symmetry analysis of optical processes. Since the inclusion or absence of time-reversal in the theoretical analysis of SHG from antiferromagnets yields different predictions of the experimental results, the issue is shifted from academic interest to practical relevance. The importance of the theoretical analysis of SHG from antiferromagnets is tremendously growing due to the unique capabilities of this method in probing buried AF layers, which in turn is important for the characterization of recently upcoming magnetoelectronic devices such as tunneling magnetoresistive junctions.

In considering the time-reversibility of an experimental situation, three approaches are possible: (i) time-reversal is applied to the sample, but all the processes resulting from the experiment are unchanged. In particular, the magnetic moments in the sample are reversed, but the direction of the light propagation through the sample is not affected. This approach is presented e.g. in . We consider this approach as incomplete, since it does not equally treat the sample and the light propagating through it. (ii) The second approach, usually encountered in the so-called Sagnac-interferometry, addresses time-reversal by reversing the propagation of the light through the sample (see, e.g. ). Clearly, such procedure probes the reciprocity of the sample rather than its time-reversal symmetry. It can also be proven that the second approach is equivalent to the first one. (iii) According to the third approach, presented e.g. in , time reversal acts on both: the sample and the experimental setup. In this letter, we will follow approach (iii).

In the processes of even-order harmonic generation, dissipation in the conventional sense, converting radiation into heat, does not exist, since the energy loss of the electromagnetic field is the time average

$$\frac{dP(t)}{dt}E(t),$$
(1)
which vanishes for SHG (and all even-order harmonics), since

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill P(t)& P_0e^{i\omega t}\hfill \\ \hfill E(t)& E_0e^{i2\omega t}\hfill \end{array}$$
(2)
Here, $`P`$ and $`E`$ denote the polarization of the medium and the electric field, respectively . The lack of dissipation in the conventional sense does not mean that the process of SHG is reversible. Already the analysis by Armstrong et al.  assumes a unique time direction. There, the nonlinear polarization $`𝐏^{NL}`$ and the electric field E3 of a light beam resulting from Sum Frequency Generation at a point $`r_0`$ is given by:

$$𝐏^{NL}(\omega _3)\frac{1}{2}\text{Re}\left[e^{i(𝚫𝐤𝐫_\mathrm{𝟎}+\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )}e^{i(𝐤_\mathrm{𝟑}𝐫_\mathrm{𝟎}\omega _3t+\varphi _3)}\right]$$
(3)
$$𝐄_3\text{Re}\left[e^{i(𝐤_\mathrm{𝟑}𝐫_\mathrm{𝟎}\omega _3t+\varphi _3)}\right],$$
(4)
see eqs. (3.1) and (3.2) of Ref. . Here, $`\omega _3`$ and $`k_3`$ describe the frequency and wave vector of the generated light ($`\omega _3=\omega _1+\omega _2`$ and $`𝐤_\mathrm{𝟑}𝐤_\mathrm{𝟏}+𝐤_\mathrm{𝟐}`$). The authors introduce the idea of “work done on this wave” by the nonlinear polarization of the medium, equal to

$$\begin{array}{c}W_3=\frac{\omega _3}{2\pi }_{cycle}𝐄_3\frac{d𝐏^{NL}(\omega _3)}{dt}𝑑t\hfill \\ \hfill =\frac{1}{2}\omega _3𝐄_3𝐏^{NL}(\omega _3,\text{out-of-phase}),\end{array}$$
(5)
if the polarization is exactly 90 out of phase with the electric field (which requires that $`\mathrm{\Delta }k_zz+\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =\pi /2`$). The work done on the generated wave determines the direction of time. This presents a new kind of dissipation, namely “dissipation in the frequency space”, which invalidates time-reversal symmetry.

This fact becomes even more obvious if one takes the global picture of SHG. Radiation acting on an ensemble of atoms may excite and deexcite them in many ways simultaneously. Thus contributions of many frequencies are always present (see Fig. 1(a)). One has a unique source of $`\omega `$ light but several detectors for beams of different frequencies: $`2\omega `$, $`3\omega `$, etc, resulting from sum frequency generation (in particular SHG); linearly propagating $`\omega `$ light; and a DC current resulting from difference frequency generation. This is due to the expansion of the source term (polarization $``$) in terms of the electric field:

$$\begin{array}{c}=𝐏_\mathrm{𝟏}+𝐏_\mathrm{𝟐}+\mathrm{}=\hfill \\ \hfill =\chi ^{(1)}(\omega )𝐄^{(\omega )}+\chi ^{(2)}(\omega ):𝐄^{(\omega )}𝐄^{(\omega )}+\mathrm{}\end{array}$$
(6)
Imposing time reversal, the detectors become sources and vice versa. Thus, in the time reversed process, one ends up with a single detector, the one which receives the light of frequency $`\omega `$ (Fig. 1(b)). In order to obtain this single frequency one has to redirect all these (previously generated) beams back to the sample, conserving their phases. The source term now becomes:

$$\begin{array}{c}=\chi ^{(1)}(\omega )𝐄^{(\omega )}+\chi ^{(1)}(2\omega )𝐄^{(2\omega )}+\mathrm{}+\hfill \\ \hfill +\chi ^{(2)}(\omega ):𝐄^{(\omega )}𝐄^{(\omega )}+\chi ^{(2)}(2\omega ):𝐄^{(2\omega )}𝐄^{(2\omega )}+\mathrm{}\end{array}$$
(7)
Since the phases of the now incident electric fields are the same as for the previously outgoing electric fields, all the terms but those with $`\chi ^{(1)}`$ cancel (which means that in the outgoing light one now has only the contribution at the frequency $`\omega `$) and the original situation at the input of the process is restored. This description, though mathematically correct, is physically invalid, since there is no practical way to detect an infinite array of frequencies along with the phases and to revert it with arbitrary accuracy (Fig. 1(c)). Tracing out the “bath” degrees of freedom (frequencies other than $`\omega `$ and 2$`\omega `$) causes a transition from a pure to a mixed state of the system, which means that some memory is lost. This happens because the traced subsystem and the bath are not statistically independent . Thus, in any practical situation, there is no possibility to generate only the frequency $`\omega `$ out of a whole array of frequencies. The process of SHG looks different in (-t) than in (t). Such a process is called dynamical.

As stated before, there is no dissipation in the process of SHG in the usual meaning, i.e. the amount of energy in the radiative form is constant. However, there is a transfer of energy between the frequencies, in particular energy flows from the frequency $`\omega `$ to other frequencies (see Fig. 2). We call this dissipation in frequency space, in contrast to the more usual dissipation in real time. Dissipation in frequency space can mix real and imaginary parts of the nonlinear susceptibility tensor. The distinction between these two types of dissipation is often encountered in the literature. We consider them here on an equal footing stating that the presence of any of them (in our case it is the dissipation in frequency space) causes the system to have dynamical and thus irreversible properties. In this case, time-reversal does not apply to the symmetry analysis .

So far we have reasoned that the time-reversal operation has to be excluded from the symmetry analysis of SHG. However, magnetism may bring an additional complication, since the magnetic spin structure is an additional aspect the symmetry analysis must account for, and it is the time-reversal which is conveniently applied to flip the local magnetic moments. This is, however, not correct: it is the classical covering symmetry  of the magnetic crystal which should be addressed in a symmetry analysis rather than the quantum-mechanical symmetry of the wavefunctions . This means that the operation applied to reverse the localized magnetic moments should be performed in real space rather than Hilbert spin space. Consequently, time-reversal cannot be used for the symmetry classification of magnetic moments.

Taking into account that time-reversal is not suitable for the description of dynamical phenomena, one needs an operation which merely flips the localized magnetic moments without inverting the time-flow. This can be accomplished by purely spatial point-group operations. In many antiferromagnetic crystals a simple translation by a lattice vector reverses the magnetic moments. In many ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic systems this may be accomplished by a mirror operation. The spatial operation, which reverses the localized magnetic moments, is called by us “moment-reversal”. This operation is obviously unitary, in contrast to the time-reversal operation. Consequently, one does not need to invoke the time-reversal operation to describe the full symmetry of magnetic crystals.

Next, we support our reasoning by an example where the application of time-reversal and “moment-reversal” in the symmetry analysis yields different results (see Fig. 3). Let us assume a spin structure with two domains, A and B, related to each other by spin-reversal . A symmetry analysis, similar to the one in , provides us with the set of nonvanishing elements of the nonlinear susceptibility tensor (i.e. $`\chi ^{(2)}`$ tensor) along with the parities of these elements. Let us assume that for a certain experimental geometry only two tensor elements, called $`\chi _o^{(2)}`$ and $`\chi _e^{(2)}`$, contribute to the resulting SHG light, and that $`\chi _o^{(2)}`$ is odd while $`\chi _e^{(2)}`$ is even in the domain operation. The intensity of SHG light at a fixed polarization is given by:

$$I_p|(\chi _e^{(2)})^2+(\chi _o^{(2)})^2\pm 2\chi _e^{(2)}\chi _o^{(2)}|$$
(8)
where “+” stands for domain A, “-” for domain B. In the conventional approach, where time-reversal is the operation mapping domains into each other, $`\chi _o^{(2)}`$ must be purely imaginary and $`\chi _e^{(2)}`$ purely real (Fig. 3(a)), since the operation of time-reversal is anti-unitary . In this traditional approach, the first two components of the sum in eq. (8) are real, while the last one is imaginary. Because it is the modulus of the whole sum that determines the output intensity, the domain contrast is lost since

$$|\text{a+ib}|=|\text{a-ib}|.$$
(9)
This is not the case if one uses the spatial operation of “moment-reversal” for the symmetry classification, since then both tensor elements $`\chi _o^{(2)}`$ and $`\chi _e^{(2)}`$ are just complex numbers without any constraints on their relative phase, see Fig. 3b, and domain imaging is possible, as described in . Consequently, the symmetry analysis yields very different predictions if one uses time- or spin-reversal. In the limit far from resonances, however, the phase difference between $`\chi _o^{(2)}`$ and $`\chi _e^{(2)}`$ approaches $`90^{}`$, and the domain contrast is lost also in the “moment-reversal” description (in agreement with experiment ).

Finally we would like to remark on the validity of previous work on the group-theoretical classification of (magneto-)optical tensors. According to Pan et. al. , the time-reversal operation, because of its anti-unitarity, forces the tensor elements to decouple into mutually exclusive sets of purely real and imaginary ones (if all kinds of dissipation are neglected). In addition, the crystal symmetry forces the tensor elements to decouple into mutually exclusive sets of elements odd and even in magnetization-reversal, these two divisions are equivalent in the absence of conventional dissipation, i.e. real (imaginary) elements are even (odd) in the magnetization. These are the results of a purely quantum-mechanical approach, where the Hamiltonian is Hermitian (non-dissipative). However, the nonlinear susceptibility tensor describes the observed process of SHG, and thus one should not apply uniquely microscopic conclusions to the analysis of these tensor elements. Consequently, taking into account the dissipation in frequency space (i.e. redistribution of the response frequencies), will prevent the classification of tensor elements as purely real or imaginary ones, although for systems with higher symmetry the classification of tensor elements as odd and even ones in the magnetization (or in the antiferromagnetic order parameter L) can still apply .

In summary, we have shown that the time-reversal operation, often used for the symmetry classification of magneto-optical phenomena, in general cannot be applied to nonlinear optics. It should rather be replaced by spatial operations, resulting then in a proper description of the phenomena.

The authors wish to thank Prof. P. Weinberger for pointing them to the concept of classical covering symmetries. We are also very grateful for interesting discussions with Dr. R. Vollmer. We acknowledge financial support by TMR Network NOMOKE contract no. FMRX-CT96-0015.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The HERA accelerator at DESY brings into collision electrons (or positrons) with energy $`27.5`$GeV and protons with energy $`920`$GeV ($`820`$GeV prior to 1998). A large proportion of the resulting interactions can be considered to occur between protons and essentially real photons, that is, photons for which $`Q^20`$, where $`Q^2=q^2`$ and $`q`$ is the four-momentum of the photon exchanged between the electron and the proton. The energy, $`E_\gamma `$, of the photons in these photoproduction interactions can be related to the energies $`E_e`$ and $`E_e^{}`$ of the electron in the initial and final states through the expression

$$y=1\frac{E_e^{}}{E_e}+\frac{Q^2}{4E_e^2}1\frac{E_e^{}}{E_e}=\frac{E_\gamma }{E_e}.$$

Here $`y`$ is defined by $`y=pq/pk`$, $`p`$ and $`k`$ being the four-vectors of the initial proton and electron, respectively. Measuring the energy of the outgoing electron enables the deduction of the photon’s energy; the photon is then said to have been “tagged”. In order to study the highest energy photon-proton collisons possible, a new electromagnetic calorimeter has been added to the H1 detector at HERA. This extends the range over which photons can be tagged from $`0.3<y<0.8`$ and $`0.08<y<0.15`$, using the electron taggers ET and ET44, respectively, to include the region $`0.85<y<0.95`$. In terms of the accessible photon-proton centre-of-mass energies, these regions correspond to $`170<W_{\gamma p}<280`$GeV, $`90<W_{\gamma p}<120`$GeV and $`290<W_{\gamma p}<310`$GeV, respectively.

The electron taggers ET (or ET33) and ET44 are electromagnetic calorimeters located $`33.4`$m and $`44`$m from the interaction point (IP) in the electron direction, the negative $`z`$ direction in the H1 co-ordinate system. The new calorimeter, the ET-8, is located at $`z8`$m from the IP to enable the measurement of electrons scattered with low energies while satisfying the constraints arising from the HERA machine: the space available for the ET-8 is limited and the environment hostile. This paper describes how the design of the ET-8 allows the triggering on and the measurement of low energy electrons with the necessary accuracy and ensures that it is sufficently radiation hard to survive operation at HERA. Test results are presented, as are the results of first physics studies using the ET-8.

## 2 Realization

### 2.1 Layout of H1 Lumi system

This technically challenging project requires the detection and accurate measurement of low energy electrons, down to 1.5 GeV, in a high radiation environment. The ET-8 must thus be radiation hard and have good energy resolution. In addition, its response to hadrons must be well understood to facilitate the separation of the signals due to electrons from those due to hadrons. Large hadronic background is expected due to the proton beam halo.

A plan view of the H1 luminosity system is shown in figure 1. Visible are the abovementioned electron taggers, the ET and ET44, and the photon detector (PD). Electrons and photons originating from bremsstrahlung processes at the interaction point (IP) are emitted at very small angles and have to be detected in the luminosity system. The axis of the photon beam coincides with the axis of the incident electron beam which, under nominal operation conditions, coincides with the $`z`$-axis of H1. The bremsstrahlung photons propagating inside the proton beampipe leave it through an exit window at $`z=92`$m and hit the photon arm of the luminosity system, of which the main part is the PD. The lead filter (F) and a water Čerenkov counter (VC) are located in front of the PD. The filter, of $`2X_0`$ thickness, absorbs most of the synchrotron radiation flux and protects the PD against radiation damage. At nominal luminosity, the direct synchrotron radiation flux carries a power of about $`0.45`$kW. The water VC acts as an additional $`1X_0`$ long active filter and can reject events in which a photon has converted between the exit window and the photon detector. It also provides an energy measurement for the absorped part of electromagnetic showers.

Accurate determinations of the luminosity are made using measurements of the e-$`\gamma `$ coincidence rate within the acceptance of the luminosity system. Rapid luminosity monitoring during HERA running is provided by measurements of the rate of photons striking the PD, the so-called “single photon” method. The scattered electrons are detected in the electron taggers ET-33 and ET-44. These are total absorbtion Čerenkov calorimeters made of KRS-15 crystals . The new detector was incorporated into the H1 trigger system and operated during all HERA luminosity running to allow the tagging of photoproduction events close to the HERA kinematical limit. The location with respect to the electron and proton beams and the dimensions of the detector must be accurately known in order to determine its acceptance with sufficient precision. An additional difficulty is that the space available for the ET-8 between the HERA beamline elements is very restricted.

### 2.2 Acceptance

Monte Carlo simulations for acceptance studies were performed using a fast simulation package H1LUMI . This models the current HERA electron ring optics (the proposed spin rotators have yet to be included) as is described e.g. in  . Several possible positions for the new tagger were considered.

After taking into account the apparatus currently present in the HERA tunnel, the space needed for the calorimeter itself and the access requirements for installation and maintenence, it was decided to install the new tagger at the position $`z8`$m. Small possible variations of the beam parameters at the IP, horizontal and vertical tilts of $`\pm 0.15`$mrad and offsets of $`\pm 1`$mm, were taken into account in the simulation. These typically lead to $`15`$ to $`25\%`$ changes in the ET-8 acceptance. Precise knowledge of the tagger position with respect to the electron beam is thus very important. The acceptance can be defined with high precision from the data using $`epe\gamma p`$ events, as is done for the present ET and ET44 calorimeters. This reduces uncertainties related to the precision with which real beam conditions can be simulated.

Figure 2 shows the acceptances of the ET, ET44 and ET-8 for photoproduction with nominal beam conditions (zero tilt and offset). The ET-8 can be seen to extend the measurable $`y`$ range to the high $`y`$ interval $`0.85<y<0.95`$. The acceptance of the calorimeter depends on its position with respect to the electron beam axis, being most sensitive to the distance between the beam and the edge of the active calorimeter volume. The ET-8 acceptance shown here was calculated using the nominal separation of 4.5 cm.

The energy distributions of the electrons accepted by the ET-8 at various distances from the electron beam axis are shown in figure 3(a). The distributions are those for photoproduction with $`Q^2<10^2`$GeV2.

The lateral size of the calorimeter was chosen on the basis of the transverse distribution of the accepted electrons at the front plane of the detector. This distribution is shown in figure 3(b). It is seen that the majority of events have entry points near the detector boundary close to the electron beampipe. Figure 3 illustrates that precise co-ordinate measurement is necessary for good reconstruction of the electron energy, allowing correction for those parts of the electromagnetic shower which leak out of the detector.

### 2.3 Detector design

Various technical solutions were investigated before a final decision was made on the calorimeter type. Possible choices included, total absorption calorimeters using KRS, NBW or PWO crystals, a lead-scintillator sampling calorimeter and a spaghetti type calorimeter. Although the combination of the total absorption crystal calorimeters and lead-scintillator calorimeters used in the existing H1 luminosity system, developed by the LPI group , has proved to be very successful, it was decided that a spaghetti calorimeter, as developed by H1 at DESY  was more suitable for the ET-8 detector. The SPACAL type calorimeters are built from arrays of scintillating fibres embedded in a heavy material, usually lead. The fibres inside these calorimeters transmit an amount of light which is proportional to the absorbed electromagnetic shower energy to a photo-sensitive readout device, for instance a photomultiplier (PM). If the transverse dimensions of the shower are considerably larger than the individual calorimeter cells, reasonably accurate determination of the shower position is possible.

BICRON BCF-12 fibres of $`0.5`$mm diameter, which emit blue light with an emission peak near 430 nm, were used with a lead to fibre ratio of 2.3/1 by volume, giving a Moliere radius of $`25.5`$mm. This spaghetti type calorimeter has $`1.5`$ times better energy resolution than the total absorption crystal calorimeters mentioned above and the combination with a scintillator hodoscope provides the necessary spatial resolution.

A prototype of the ET-8 calorimeter, called the ET-7 as it was positioned about $`7`$m from the interaction point, was successfully tested during the July-October 1996 HERA running. Following these tests, the decision was taken to leave the ET-7 in place and it is now a permanent part of the H1 detector. Its design is shown in figure 4. The active volume of the ET-7 is $`85`$mm deep, corresponding to $`10X_0`$. The necessary horizontal spatial resolution is provided by the scintillator hodoscope placed in front of the calorimeter which allows measurement of the co-ordinate of the entry position of the electron with an accuracy of $`1`$mm using scintillator plates of thickness $`2`$mm. The vertical co-ordinate is determinated from the ratio of energies deposited in the two ET-7 modules.

Two scintillator veto plates placed in front of and behind the scintillator fibres are used to provide background rejection. The amount of Čerenkov light from background particles in the light transmitters is orders of magnitude smaller than the signal from electromagnetic showers in the calorimeter due to the small lateral size of the light transmitters. Hence it is not necessary to shield these with additional veto plates. The detector was installed on a fixed support and stays permanently in the HERA median plane.

A schematic view of the ET-8 fibre detector, is shown in figure 5. The total longitudinal dimension of the active calorimeter volume is $`92`$mm. The calorimeter consists of three parts, the front tagging counter made as a spacal plate of $`1.2X_0`$ thickness, a central part and a rear co-ordinate plane. The central part, with cross section $`40\times 40`$cm2 and of $`70`$mm length, corresponding to $`9X_0`$, consists of 4 modules. As in the majority of accepted events the electron hits the ET-8 close to the electron beam, the $`3`$ modules closest to the beamline have a thickness of $`6.7`$mm, the module furthest away is thicker, thus optimising the accuracy with which the horizontal co-ordinate of the electron’s entry point may be found. This is done by by comparing the energy deposited in the modules in the central part of the detector. The vertical co-ordinate is determined from the ratio of output responses of the upper and lower modules at the rear of the ET-8. Showers caused by particles which did not enter through the front of the detector are vetoed by requiring coincidences with signals from the front counter.

The level 1 trigger element for the new tagger requires the condition $`E_{dep}^{tot}>E_{thr}`$, where $`E_{dep}^{tot}`$ is the total deposited energy in the calorimeter and $`E_{thr}`$ the threshold energy which must have a low value, $`E_{thr}0.51.0`$ GeV. For comparison purposes, a minimum ionizing particle deposits 50 MeV in the ET-8. An additional $`\gamma `$-veto condition from the photon arm of the luminosity system, no signal in the PD, suppresses the background from the high rate Bethe-Heitler process, $`epe\gamma p`$, with an efficiency of $`98\%`$.

### 2.4 Radiation hardness of materials

The PD in the luminosity system is irradiated by the bremsstrahlung beam from electron-proton collisions and received a dose of $`10`$Mrad during the 1995 HERA running period and other elements of the luminosity system also receive large radiation doses. The study of the radiation hardness of the materials used in the construction of the ET-8, the scintillators, fibres and plexiglass, is thus an important task. These studies were carried out at the $`1`$GeV electron synchrotron of the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow, Russia.

The samples under study and several dosimeters were placed on the collimator of the bremsstrahlung beam arising from the collision of the accelerated electrons with an internal target. After the exposure, the dosimeters were used to determine the dose delivered. The most important property studied was the change of the fibre attenuation length; the mean free path of photons in the fibre. Using the procedure described in , investigations were performed with BICRON fibres which had suffered a dose of $`1`$Mrad. The measurements show that the photon mean free path in the fibre decreased from $`130`$cm to $`60`$cm after irradiation. As the expected yearly doses resulting from luminosity running at the position of the ET-8 are about a factor of ten less than this, this effect is not large.

The scintillator and the plexiglass used in the light guides of the ET-8 were also studied. These were irradiated for about 40 hours and received a total dose of $`2`$Mrad. The scintillator sample then apppeared yellow in colour and the plexiglas brown, an effect which decreased with time after irradiation. The optical transparency of the samples before and after irradiation was measured using a spectrophotometer in the wavelength range $`300`$ to $`800`$nm. The results are shown in figure 6. The changes due to the irradiation occur essentially in the short wavelength region. A slow recovery of transparency with time is also visible. Several days after the irradiation the optical properties were partly restored.

It should be noted that the total decrease in light yield due to the radiation damage of the active elements of the ET-8, the fibres, scintillators and plexiglass, does not influence the detector response or resolution significantly since the detector is continuously calibrated, as are all the detectors comprising the H1 luminosity system.

## 3 Test results

### 3.1 Event selection and event rates

The 1996 HERA running schedule originally foresaw a long shutdown in which it was planned to install a section of beampipe with an exit window in front of the ET-8. This schedule was modified, the long shutdown did not take place, so the new beampipe could not be inserted. The prototype ET-8 calorimeter was thus put into the HERA tunnel at a position as close to that foreseen for the ET-8 as possible. This was at about $`z=7`$m, so the prototype was dubbed the ET-7. Test results obtained using the ET-7 operation were presented in . The installation of the new beam pipe and the ET-8 was performed in 1997.

Figure 7 shows, as a function of time $`t`$, the rates observed in the ET-8 during a luminosity run and the beam studies performed before and after that run. During the first 2 hours, HERA contained only a stable $`920`$GeV proton beam and the observed ET-8 rate is a consequence of the proton beam halo particles hitting the detector. At $`t=2`$hours, a low current electron beam was injected at an energy of $`12`$GeV and kept at this energy until $`t=5`$hours. A large part of the electron beam was lost at $`t=5`$hours during attempts to inject a higher electron current. At $`t=7`$hours, a high current electron beam was successfully injected at an energy of $`12`$GeV and then ramped up to $`27.6`$GeV. During this period the ET-8 rate contains the abovementioned proton beam induced component, but also a component resulting from the presence of the electron beam in HERA. Both electrons scattered off the residual gas in the HERA beam pipe and “off-momentum” electrons contribute to this component. Luminosity running was established at $`t=9`$ hours. Soon after this the proton beam was lost, but the electron beam was kept for a further two hours. Hence, the final part of figure 7 shows the rate induced by the full energy electron beam alone. The measurements during luminosity running show clear evidence of an increased electron beam gated rate, whereas the proton beam induced component of the rate remains approximately constant. This figure illustrates graphically the problem that must be solved by the ET-8 and other luminosity system triggers. These must identify with high efficiency the events from electron-proton interactions while discarding as much as possible of the large background.

The time structure of the ET-8 signals was measured using flash analogue to digital converters. The averaged FADC pulse shape of the ET-8 response for the events triggered by the ET-8 trigger is shown in figure 8. Two spikes are visible in curve (a) on the figure. The first corresponds to proton halo particles hitting the ET-8, the second to the impact of electrons. The time between the two is $`54`$nsecs, as expected given the distance betwen the interaction point and the ET-8. This interpretation is confirmed by the results shown in curve (b) which was obtained when signals from other detectors were used to subtract events caused by proton halo particles. The timing information visible in figure 8 was used in the ET-8 trigger, described in more detail below.

In order to produce the level one trigger output for the ET-8 detector two independent conditions were combined. The first, the electron time window condition, was formed by requiring that the ET-8 signal occur within the time interval expected for electron-proton interactions. The second, the threshold condition, required that the energy in the ET-8 detector be more than $`E_{thr}`$. During the first stage of ET-8 operation, $`E_{thr}1.0`$GeV.

### 3.2 Detector calibration

The calibration of the ET-8, and of all the detectors forming the luminosity system, is peformed using the Bethe-Heitler process $`epe\gamma p`$. Since the energy transfer to the proton is negligible, the relation

$$E_{Tagger}+E_\gamma =E_e$$

must hold.

The ET-8 calibration procedure relies on the fact that the PD has already been calibrated, together with the main electron tagger (ET). In addition, the absolute energy scale of the PD can be determined using the high energy edge of the bremsstrahlung spectrum .

The first step of the calibration procedure is to select events with an impact point in the front plane of the ET-8 which is well separated from the detector edges. The second step, described in detail in , determines the calibration coefficients $`C(n)`$ by minimizing the following sum:

$$\underset{i}{}\left(\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}C(n)A_i(n)E_e\right)^2,$$

where $`N`$ is the total number of channels, $`A_i(n)`$ is the amplitude of the signal detected in the $`n^{\mathrm{th}}`$ channel in the $`i^{\mathrm{th}}`$ event and $`C(n)`$ is the calibration coefficient for the $`n^{\mathrm{th}}`$ ET-8 channel. Using these calibration constants, the absolute energy spectrum shown in figure 9(a) was obtained. The shaded area represents the energy distribution of the scattered electrons in the ET-8 in events in which ET-8 trigger was set. It has a maximum around $`1.5`$GeV. The influence of the threshold $`E_{thr}1.0`$GeV is clearly visible. The open histogram in the same figure contains all events taken by a random trigger. The background contribution peaks strongly at small energies.

This background arises from off-momentum electrons in random coincidence with a signal from the main H1 detector. Comparing these two histograms allows the determination of the efficiency of the ET-8 trigger as a function of the energy detected in the tagger. This is shown in figure 9(b).

Figure 10 shows the measured energy spectrum of Bethe-Heitler photons in the PD.

The solid line shows all measured events with significant energy in the PD. The shaded areas show the result of demanding coincidences with trigger signals from the ET-7 or the ET-8.

The mean energies of these latter distributions are about $`26.2`$GeV for the ET-7 and $`25.8`$GeV for the ET-8, in agreement with the results of MC simulations for the average energy of bremsstrahlung photons inside the corresponding tagger acceptance.

The agreement between data and simulations is further demonstrated in figure 11, in which the measured energy spectrum in the ET-8 tagger and the PD-detector for Bethe-Heitler events in which the electron was detected in the ET-8 are shown with the Monte Carlo predictions. The simulation includes the effects of detector resolution, trigger efficiency and pile-up.

The horizontal and vertical coordinates of the points at which electrons hit the front plane of the tagger are determined by comparing the energies deposited in the various modules of the ET-8. The reconstructed $`x`$ and $`y`$ co-ordinate distributions for a sample of data are presented in figure 12.

Figure 13 illustrates the correlation between the reconstructed electron energies $`E_{Tagger}`$ and photon energies $`E_\gamma `$ for bremsstrahlung events. These were selected by requiring a coincidence between the PD trigger and any of the electron tagger triggers. Due to the large difference in the trigger rates of the different taggers (ET44 $`280`$kHz, ET $`170`$kHz and ET-8 $`15`$kHz at a luminosity of $`5\times 10^{30}`$cm-2s-1) these data were taken with differing pre-scale factors for the various tagger triggers. The distributions of $`E_{Tagger}`$ \+ $`E_\gamma `$ are well described by a Gaussian function with the expected mean value of $`27.6`$GeV, the electron beam energy, and a standard deviation of $`1.3`$GeV.

The event rates recorded by the different taggers within one electron fill (one luminosity run) are presented in figure 14.

The observed rates in the various taggers are in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations of bremsstrahlung events, taking into account the acceptance of the taggers. Note the sharp rise in the ET44 rate at the time the detector was moved into its working position close to the electron beam axis.

### 3.3 Physics results

The incorporation of the ET-8 into the H1 detector enables the identification of photoproduction events at high $`W_{\gamma p}`$ and allows the accurate reconstruction of the interacting photon’s energy. The energy distribution of the scattered electrons for candidate photoproduction events is shown in figure 15. The MC prediction for this distribution is shown in the same figure. The Monte Carlo describes the data well. The data obtained using the ET-8 provide the basis for the study of many physics topics.

As an illustration of the potential of the device, a preliminary measurement of the charged particle multiplicity in photon-proton interactions is presented here. This was made using minimum bias data collected by H1 in the autumn of 1997.

To study the energy dependence of the charged particle multiplicity in $`\gamma p`$ interactions, three data samples triggered by the three electron taggers were used. This provides a measurement in three $`W_{\gamma p}`$ regions, determined by the acceptance of the taggers, with average values of $`W=100,200`$ and $`290`$GeV.

The acceptances of all the taggers were determined from the data, using events from the Bethe-Heitler reaction $`epe\gamma p`$ and the method described in . The average charged particle multiplicity as a function of $`W_{\gamma p}`$ is shown in figure 16. Only statistical errors are given as the data are not corrected for the H1 tracker acceptance and efficiency.

The following criteria were applied in the analysis:

* Good quality runs were selected in which all the main components of H1 were fully operational, the central and forward trackers, the LAr and Spacal calorimeters, the electron taggers and the ToF system.
* The reconstructed event $`z`$-vertex was required to be within $`30`$cm of the nominal interaction point.
* A cut on $`y_{JB}`$, measured using the main H1 detector, was used to remove proton beam gas events as described in .

The level of electron beam gas contamination ($`2`$ to $`6\%`$) was determined from pilot bunch studies and statistically subtracted.

To determine the event multiplicity, all vertex fitted charged tracks with $`p_T>0.15GeV/c`$ lying in the polar angular interval $`15^{}<\theta <155^{}`$ in the laboratory system were used.

## 4 Conclusions

Following the investigation of various possible technical solutions, an extremely compact spaghetti type electromagnetic calorimeter, the ET-8, was built and installed within the H1 detector. This calorimeter makes possible the detection of electrons scattered in photoproduction interactions in which the photon takes a large proportion of the initial electron energy. Acceptance studies showed that the optimum position for the calorimeter, given the constraints imposed by the HERA machine, was at about $`8`$m from the interaction point in the electron direction. Studies of the materials used showed that they were able to withstand the high radiation doses to which they are subjected in their position close to the HERA beams. Tests of both a prototype calorimeter, the ET-8 and the associated trigger, reconstruction and calibration schemes have revealed that they function as desired. First preliminary physics results have been obtained.

## 5 Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the DESY directorate and the machine group of the LPI synchrotron (Troitsk). Those of us from outside DESY wish to thank the DESY directorate for the kind hospitality extended to us. It is also a pleasure to thank P. Biddulph and R. Eichler for active support and helpful discussions. We would like to thank INTAS, RFBR (grant INTAS-RFBR 95-0679) and the UK’s PPARC for financial support.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Since flavor composition, in particular strangeness enhancement had been suggested as a possible signature of quark matter formation in heavy-ion collisions, there is a continuing attention to the question of hadronic and quark level equilibrium in these reactions . Recent claims of describing data at AGS as well as at CERN SPS by hadronic equilibrium (i.e. using a common volume, temperature and only chemical potentials of conserved quantities for the computation of hadron numbers) satisfactorily  led to some discrepancy: the total reaction time at SPS energy is too short for achieving hadronic equilibrium by hadronic conversion processes alone. Experimental data are well described, but poorly understood. After the “go and find it” period now we are at the “sit down and think” stage.

There are also several non-equilibrium approaches to this problem ranging from the use of phenomenological parameters on the hadronic level (fugacities)  through linear  and nonlinear (constrained) coalescence models , and mixed quark-hadron chemistry  up to very detailed microscopic simulations of the hadronization (parton cascades  VENUS , HIJING , RQMD , UrQMD , string model , chromodielectric model ). The basic physical concepts of these approaches do not include hadronic equilibrium; it might only be reached in course of time.

The purpose of this talk is to understand the near-equilibrium hadronic result in terms of quark number evolution. We consider the simplest possible process on the constituent level: $`A+BC.`$

In such a process the energy-impulse balance is assumed to be satisfied by the surrounding medium, we are interested in the time evolution of the number of final state products $`N_C(t)`$. The equilibrium number of precursors $`N_{A,eq}`$ and $`N_{B,eq}`$ \- in a quark matter scenario - will be taken as zero. The initial state is assumed to be far from this equilibrium, it is oversaturated by $`A`$ and $`B`$ with no $`C`$ particles at all in the beginning. As the reaction proceeds there will be $`C`$ type particles (hadrons) produced. The cross section for such a reaction at a first glance can be taken as constant, but temperature and reaction volume must be considered as time dependent quantities. We shall point out, however, that the assumption of constant cross sections actually contradicts to the confinement principle in quark matter scenarios with transverse flow, so in that case the hadronization cross section has to be quark density dependent. This extra dependency, not derivable from perturbative or lattice QCD so far, will be referred as “dynamical confinement” in this paper.

## 2 Chemistry

In the chemical approach to hadronization all particle numbers are time dependent. A general reaction can be characterized by stochiometric coefficients $`\alpha _i^{(r)}`$ describing particle number changes in a given reaction $`(r)`$ in a fashion arranged to zero:

$$\underset{i}{}\alpha _i^{(r)}A_i=0,$$
(1)
where $`A_i`$ symolically denotes one particle of type $`i`$. In this arrangement the $`\alpha _i^{(r)}`$-s can be negative as well as positive integers. (For the simple quark fusion process $`A+BC`$ one applies $`\alpha _A=\alpha _B=1,\alpha _C=1`$.)

The decisive quantity with respect to approaching chemical equilibrium is the activity of a reaction,

$$x^{(r)}=\underset{i}{}\alpha _i^{(r)}\frac{\mu _i}{T}.$$
(2)
It describes the (un)balance of gain and loss terms. Rate equations add up contributions from several reaction channels,

$$\dot{N}_i=\underset{(r)}{}\alpha _i^{(r)}R^{(r)}\left(1e^{x^{(r)}}\right).$$
(3)
Here the factors $`R^{(r)}`$ depend on numbers of other particles, cross sections and volume. Due to known (e.g. adiabatic) expansion a relation between volume $`V`$ and temperature $`T`$ is given. In chemical equilibrium $`x^{(r)}=0`$ for each reaction,

$$\underset{i}{}\alpha _i^{(r)}\mu _i=0,$$
(4)
so there are linear constraints for the chemical potentials $`\mu _i`$ as many as reaction channels. If this is less than the number of particle sorts, the equilibrium state is undetermined. If this is greater than the number of particle sorts, the reactions cannot be all independent: there are conserved quantities. In this latter case all $`\mu _i`$ can be expressed by a few numbers corresponding to these conserved quantities. This is the constrained equilibrium.

Denoting the conserved quantities by $`Q_a`$ and the corresponding charge of the i-th particle sort by $`q_{i,a}`$, we obtain

$$\underset{i}{}q_{i,a}\dot{N}_i=0.$$
(5)
Substituting the rate equations (3) we get

$$\underset{i}{}\underset{r}{}\alpha _i^{(r)}q_{i,a}R^{(r)}\left(1e^{x^{(r)}}\right)=0.$$
(6)
Since this holds at any instant of an out of equilibrium evolution, the double sum vanishes for arbitrary values of reaction activities $`x^{(r)}`$. Exchanging the order of summation over particle types $`i`$ and reaction channels $`r`$, and taking into account that all $`R^{(r)}`$ factors are positive, we conclude that the considered charges are conserved in each reaction:

$$\underset{i}{}\alpha _i^{(r)}q_{i,a}=Q_a^{(r)}=0.$$
(7)
In this case we can redefine the chemical potentials as

$$\mu _i=\underset{a}{}q_{i,a}\mu _a+\stackrel{~}{\mu }_i,$$
(8)
without changing the activities:

$$x^{(r)}=\underset{i}{}\underset{a}{}\alpha _i^{(r)}\frac{q_{i,a}\mu _a}{T}+\underset{i}{}\alpha _i^{(r)}\frac{\stackrel{~}{\mu }_i}{T}.$$
(9)
Since the first sum vanishes due to eq.(7), chemical equilibrium is equivalent to

$$\underset{i}{}\alpha _i^{(r)}\frac{\stackrel{~}{\mu }_i}{T}=0.$$
(10)
For a well-determined or overdetermined system the only equilibrium solution is given by $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }_i=0.`$ In this (constrained) equilibrium state the original chemical potentials are a linear combination of a few $`\mu _a`$-s, associated to conserved charges, (cf. eq.(8))

$$\mu _{i,eq}=\underset{a}{}q_{i,a}\mu _a.$$
(11)
Whether this chemical equilibrium state can be reached in a finite time depends on the rates $`R^{(r)}`$ and activities $`x^{(r)}`$.

## 3 A simple model: A + B $``$ C

In the case of only one reaction channel, $`A+BC,`$ we denote the equilibrium ratio by

$$R_{\mathrm{eq}}=\frac{N_{A,\mathrm{eq}}N_{B,\mathrm{eq}}}{N_{C,\mathrm{eq}}}.$$
(12)
Since $`\alpha _A=\alpha _B=1`$ and $`\alpha _C=1`$ for this very reaction, we have $`\dot{N}_A=\dot{N}_B=\dot{N}_C`$. From this two conservation laws follow,

$$N_A+N_C=N_A(0)=N_0,$$
(13)
$$N_B+N_C=N_B(0)=N_0.$$
(14)
For considering an evolution towards equilibrium the specific rate, $`\nu =\sigma v/V,`$ is a useful quantity. It occurs in the rate equation

$$\dot{N}_C=\nu \left(N_AN_BR_{eq}N_C\right).$$
(15)
Substituting the conservation laws (13,14) we arrive at

$$\dot{N}_C=\nu \left((N_0N_C)(N_0N_C)R_{eq}N_C\right).$$
(16)
This rate is vanishing for the particle numbers $`N_C=N_\pm `$ with

$$N_\pm =R_{eq}/2+N_0\pm \sqrt{R_{eq}^2/4+R_{eq}N_0}.$$
(17)
Here $`N_{}`$ is a stable, $`N_+`$ is an unstable equilibrium point. For an adiabatic expansion $`R_{eq}=const.`$ for constituent hadrons (those with mass $`m_C=m_A+m_B`$). The simple rate equation (16) can be solved analytically with the result

$$_{N_C(0)}^{N_C(\mathrm{})}\frac{dN_C}{(N_CN_+)(N_CN_{})}=_{t_0}^{t_{br}}\nu 𝑑t=r.$$
(18)
Here $`t_0`$ is the initial time, when the fireball contains no hadrons, $`N_C(0)=0`$. $`t_{br}`$ is the break-up time, beyond which no chemical reactions (even no particle collisions) occur. In some cases it is large compared to characteristic times and can be approximated by infinity. The solution can be written as

$$N_C(\mathrm{})=N_+N_{}\frac{1K}{N_+KN_{}}$$
(19)
with

$$K=\mathrm{exp}\left((N_+N_{})r\right).$$
(20)
Here $`N_{}`$ is the constrained equilibrium value, achieved for $`K=0`$. There are two alternative forms of this relation derived by using $`N_+N_{}=N_0^2`$. The first one is the coalescence form,

$$N_C(\mathrm{})=N_0^2\frac{1K}{N_+KN_{}}=C(K,N_0)N_A(0)N_B(0),$$
(21)
the second one is the equilibrium form,

$$N_C(\mathrm{})=N_{}\frac{1K}{1K(N_{}/N_0)^2}=\gamma _CN_{C,\mathrm{eq}}.$$
(22)
In particular $`N_C(\mathrm{})=N_{}`$ in the $`K=0`$ (infinite rate) case. On the other hand in the case of confinement $`R_{eq}=0`$, from which $`N_+=N_{}=N_0`$ and $`K=1`$ follow.

For $`(N_+N_{})`$ small ($`𝒪(R_{eq})`$), but non-zero the precursors are already hadronic, but suppressed in the equilibrium state. Then we expect, that in the $`R_{\mathrm{eq}}0`$ limit the precursors $`A`$ and $`B`$ are no more present in the final mixture. This is, however, insufficient for the quark matter hadronization scenario, because the above limit does not automatically lead to an absence of $`A`$ and $`B`$ particles in the final state, if the expansion is dramatic enough. We describe this phenomenon in the followings.

Let us expand $`K`$ in terms of $`(N_+N_{})`$ which is in the same order of magnitude as $`R_{\mathrm{eq}}0`$. We get

$$K=\mathrm{exp}((N_+N_{})r)1r(N_+N_{}),$$
(23)
and the final hadron number becomes

$$N_C(\mathrm{})=N_0\frac{rN_0}{1+rN_0},$$
(24)
leaving us with a non-vanishing precursor number

$$N_A(\mathrm{})=N_B(\mathrm{})=N_0\frac{1}{1+rN_0}.$$
(25)
Eq. (24) has different readings. For small $`r`$ it is close to the result of linear coalescence models

$$N_C(\mathrm{})=rN_0^2.$$
(26)
(Note that $`N_A(0)=N_B(0)=N_0`$.) ALCOR uses extra modification factors $`b_A`$ and $`b_B`$ in the coalescence rate

$$N_C(\mathrm{})=rb_Ab_BN_0^2.$$
(27)
To start with it seems to be rather similar to the coalescence picture. Due to conservation of quark number during an – supposedly rapid – hadronization, however, ALCOR obtains

$$N_C(\mathrm{})=rb_Ab_BN_0^2=\frac{r}{1+rN_0}N_0^2$$
(28)
and determines the factors $`b_i`$ accordingly

$$b_A=b_B=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1+rN_0}}.$$
(29)
It leads exactly to the constrained equilibrium result in the infinite integrated specific rate limit $`rN_0\mathrm{}`$ (then $`b_A=b_B1/\sqrt{rN_0}`$):

$$N_C(\mathrm{})=N_0,N_A(\mathrm{})=N_B(\mathrm{})=0.$$
(30)
In this limit the precursor numbers approach zero, and the above discussion can be applied for quark matter hadronization. Or, reversing the argument, we conclude that for quark matter hadronization $`r`$ has to diverge in order to agree with confinement in the end stage. (This fact is nonetheless hidden in the thermodynamical limit with infinite quark number $`N_0\mathrm{}`$.)

Finally the chemistry approach gives the interpretation of the fugacity due to

$$N_C(\mathrm{})=N_0^2\frac{r}{1+rN_0}=\gamma _CN_0.$$
(31)
In fact the relationship between these approaches is more pronounced by inspecting chemical potentials instead of final numbers. In the discussed simple case the chemical potential of the (final state) hadron is given by

$$\frac{\mu _C}{T}=\mathrm{log}\frac{N_C(\mathrm{})}{N_{C,eq}}.$$
(32)
Substituting our result for $`N_C(\mathrm{})`$ it splits to contributions with different physical meanings:

$$\frac{\mu _C}{T}=\mathrm{log}\frac{N_{}}{N_{C,eq}}+\mathrm{log}\frac{N_C(\mathrm{})}{N_{}}=\frac{q_{C,1}\mu _1+q_{C,2}\mu _2}{T}+\mathrm{log}\gamma _C.$$
(33)
The conserved quantities (charges) carried by the hadron $`C`$ are those involved in the identities respected by the rate equations, $`N_A(t)+N_C(t)=N_A(0)=N_0`$ and $`N_B(t)+N_C(t)=N_B(0)=N_0`$. In this case $`q_{C,1}=1`$ and $`q_{C,2}=1`$, respectively. The fugacity parameter (as used by Rafelski et al.) is the remaining part of the formula, in equilibrium it approaches one: $`\gamma _C=1`$.

We note here that the ALCOR approach (constrained coalescence) leads to the equilibrium result only if a single reaction channel is considered, like in the case discussed in the present paper. For several, competing channels the relative hadron ratios are different for ALCOR and constrained equilibrium. This best can be seen by inspecting the corresponding $`\mu _i`$ chemical potentials to the pre resonance decay hadron numbers as a function of strangeness in the ALCOR simulation. Slight deviations from the perfect straight lines, which would mark the constrained equilibrium in the ideal case, can be observed in particular for multiply strange anti-baryons (cf. Fig.1).

## 4 Expansion effects

We continue by obtaining the integrated specific rate, $`r,`$ for different expansion scenarios. This quantity depends not only on cross section(s) – first assumed to be constant and later density dependent – but also on the expansion and cooling of the reaction zone. We consider here two cases: one dimensional expansion with a rather relativistic equation of state and three dimensional expansion of a massive, non-relativistic ideal Boltzmann gas. The first case is intended to be characteristic for RHIC and LHC, the latter rather for $`SPS`$ and $`AGS`$ energies.

During a one-dimensional expansion the volume grows linearly in time, $`V=\pi R_0^2t`$, and the (thermal) average of relative velocities is near to the light speed $`v=1`$. In this case we obtain

$$r=_{t_0}^{t_{br}}\frac{\sigma }{\pi R_0^2}\frac{dt}{t}=\frac{\sigma v_0}{V_0}t_0\mathrm{log}\frac{t_{br}}{t_0}.$$
(34)
The time-integrated specific rate grows with the break-up time $`t_{br}`$ monotonically, it can eventually be infinite, if there is no thermal break-up of the expanding system. In that case $`\gamma _C=1`$, equilibrium is achieved. For a three-dimensional expansion one gets $`V=V_0(t/t_0)^3`$. Furthermore a massive, non-relativistic ideal gas satisfies $`VT^{3/2}=V_0T_0^{3/2}`$ during an adiabatic expansion. The average relative velocity is temperature dependent like $`v\sqrt{T/m}1/t`$, with some reduced mass of the fusing pair $`m`$. This together leads to the estimate

$$r=\frac{\sigma v_0}{V_0}_{t_0}^{t_{br}}t_0^4\frac{dt}{t^4}.$$
(35)
Evaluating the integral we arrive at

$$r=\frac{1}{3}\frac{\sigma v_0}{V_0}t_0\left(1\left(\frac{t_0}{t_{br}}\right)^3\right).$$
(36)
It is important to note that $`r`$ is finite even without break-up, in the $`t_{br}\mathrm{}`$ limit. This means that the non-relativistic, 3-dimensional spherical expansion scenario with constant hadronization cross section cannot comply with quark confinement. This result is valid in the presence of any, however mild, transverse flow, since the one-dimensional expansion scenario showed a logarithmic dependence on the break-up time.

Let us now consider a quark density dependent hadronization cross section which is at least inversely proportional to the density of quarks ($`n1/Vt^3`$). Exactly this assumption was made in transchemistry . Introducing the initial collison time,

$$t_c=\frac{1}{\sigma v_0\rho _0},$$
(37)
with density $`\rho _0=2N_0/V_0`$ we arrive at

$$\frac{\sigma v_0}{V_0}=\frac{1}{2N_0t_c}.$$
(38)
The quantity $`rN_0`$ describing the deviation from equilibrium for hadrons then simplifies to

$$rN_0=\frac{t_0}{2t_c}\mathrm{log}\frac{t_{br}}{t_0}$$
(39)
for one-dimensional relativistic flow and

$$rN_0=\frac{t_0}{6t_c}\left(1\left(\frac{t_0}{t_{br}}\right)^3\right)$$
(40)
for three-dimesional non-relativistic flow of massive constituents. From these formulae one realizes that for $`t_{br}=t_0`$, i.e. in case of immediate break-up the chemical equilibrium cannot be approached, no hadron $`C`$ will be formed and $`\gamma _C`$ remains zero. The opposite limit, $`t_{br}\mathrm{}`$ is less uniform: while in the relativistic one-dimensional scenario equilibrium is always reached if enough time is given ($`\gamma _C(\mathrm{})=1`$), this is not so for a stronger, more spherical expansion or in the presence of a transverse expansion. In the case of three-dimensional spherical expansion $`\gamma _C`$ tends to a finite value,

$$\gamma _C(\mathrm{})=\frac{1}{1+6t_c/t_0},$$
(41)
which is in general less than one. It means that chemical equilibrium cannot be really reached even in infinite time. (An analysis of proton – deuteron mixture with a similar conclusion was given in Ref..) For early break-up, $`t_{\mathrm{br}}t_0t_0`$, both scenarios lead to

$$\gamma _C\frac{t_{br}t_0}{2t_c}1.$$
(42)
In quark matter hadronization scenarios eq.(41) contradicts to the quark confinement principle. In order to reach $`\gamma _C(\mathrm{})=1`$ a dynamical confinement mechanism, causing the quark fusion cross section in medium to be (at least) inversely proportional to the quark density, has to be taken into account besides the equilibrium suppression of quark number (referred in this paper as “static confinement”).

Let us assume that $`A`$ and $`B`$ are colored objects, and the in-medium quark fusion cross section scales as

$$\sigma =\sigma _0\left(\frac{V}{V_0}\frac{2N_0}{N_A+N_B}\right)^{1+ϵ}$$
(43)
with some positive $`ϵ`$. The solution of the rate equation in the $`R_{\mathrm{eq}}=0`$ case (both static and dynamic confinement) becomes

$$N_C=N_0\left(1(1\delta )^{1/ϵ}\right),$$
(44)
with

$$\delta =\frac{t_0}{6t_c}\left(\left(\frac{t}{t_0}\right)^{3ϵ}1\right)$$
(45)
in the 3-dimensional flow (SPS) scenario. For $`ϵ=1`$ (without dynamical confinement) one gets back the result discussed so far. In the limiting case $`ϵ=0`$ (minimal dynamical confinement) one obtains

$$N_C=N_0\left(1\left(\frac{t_0}{t}\right)^{\frac{t_0}{2t_c}}\right).$$
(46)
For a 1-dimensional flow (RHIC) scenario we arrive at

$$N_C=N_0\left(1e^{(tt_0)/2t_c}\right)$$
(47)
in the $`ϵ=0`$ case.

Fig.2 plots the dependence of the non-equilibrium ratio $`N_C/N_0`$ on the scaled break-up time $`t_{br}/t_0`$ for these scenarii.

## 5 Conclusion

In conclusion 1) the results of the statistical model can be interpreted not only by assuming hadronic equilibrium, but as well by quark – hadron mixture chemistry with quarks eventually suppressed due to confinement. This interpretation avoids the collision time problem: the hadrons need not transmutate into each other directly. 2) The ALCOR and constrained hadronic equilibrium leads to the same result in the simple scenario presented here due to the constraints on conserved quantities. Quark coalescence, which takes conservation into account, closely mimics hadronic statistics in chemical equilibrium. This feature does not generalize for several competing reaction channels, but the overall picture is still similar. 3) $`\gamma _C0.3`$ is typical for spherical expansion (CERN SPS) without considering dynamical confinement, even for an arbitrary long hadronization process. The experimental evidence, reaching at least 70-80% of equilibrium ratios for almost all hadrons in a short time in the order of several fm/c, excludes this possibility. It also underlines the quark matter hadronization scenario with dynamical confinement effect, as transchemistry utilizes it. 4) A purely longitudinal expansion scenario, perhaps typical for RHIC and LHC energies, in principle allows for reaching the equilibrium even with static confinement only, but the process is rather slow and an early break-up may prevent some quarks from hadronizing. Dynamical confinement has to be in work for near one-dimensional expansion scenarios with a minor transverse flow, too. 5) We pointed out that total elimination of free quarks in an expanding quark matter scenario in the presence of any transverse flow requires a quark density dependence of the hadronization cross section, which is at least $`1/n`$. We call this effect “dynamical” confinement, it evidently cannot be of perturbative origin.

One is tempted to speculate about the dynamical confinement, looking for a cause of the density dependence of the hadronization cross section. Since this dependence makes the cross section stronger and even diverging with diminishing quark density, it cannot have perturbative origin. In our view it has to do with the formation of strings or color ropes, which become longer and hence more efficiently bind quarks into hadronic (color neutral) clusters as the color charge density drops.

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the US-Hungarian Joint Fund TéT 649 and by the Hungarian National Research Fund OTKA T029158.


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# RECENT RESULTS IN THE CENTER VORTEX MODEL FOR THE INFRARED SECTOR OF YANG-MILLS THEORY11footnote 1Talk presented by M. Engelhardt.

## Acknowledgments

M.E. and H.R. acknowledge DFG financial support under grants En 415/1-1 and Re 856/4-1, respectively. M.F. is supported by Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung under P11387-PHY.

## References


text:
# Plasticity and memory effects in the vortex solid phase of twinned YBa2Cu3O7 single crystals

## Abstract

We report on marked memory effects in the vortex system of twinned YBa2Cu3O7 single crystals observed in ac susceptibility measurements. We show that the vortex system can be trapped in different metastable states with variable degree of order arising in response to different system histories. The pressure exerted by the oscillating ac field assists the vortex system in ordering, locally reducing the critical current density in the penetrated outer zone of the sample. The robustness of the ordered and disordered states together with the spatial profile of the critical current density lead to the observed memory effects.

Continuous efforts have been made to understand the remarkably rich variety of liquid and solid phases in high temperature superconductors . A subject that has recently attracted much interest is the connection between these thermodynamic phases and the driven motion of vortices, in particular concerning the presence of topological defects (like dislocations) and the evolution of the spatial order of the vortex structure (VS) at different driving forces . In systems containing random pinning, theoretical  and experimental  results have shown that, at the depinning transition, the VS undergoes plastic flow in which neighboring parts of the flux lattice move at different velocities thereby disordering the VS.

Changes in the volume in which vortices remain correlated may modify the critical current density $`J_\mathrm{c}`$ and lead to a thermomagnetic history dependence in the transport and magnetic properties of the superconductor in a way reminiscent of other disordered systems such as spin glasses . History effects recently observed in conventional low-$`T_\mathrm{c}`$ superconductors  were attributed to plastic deformations of the VS, however, little is known about the exact mechanism involved in these phenomena. In YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO), the importance of plasticity has been revealed through magnetic  and transport  measurements below the melting transition, though detailed history effects studies have not been performed up to now.

In this work we report on thermomagnetic history effects in the solid vortex phase of pure twinned YBCO single crystals by measuring the ac susceptibility with the ac field parallel to the c axis of the sample. ac susceptibility is a sensitive tool to detect changes in $`J_\mathrm{c}`$ and therefore, in the translational correlation length of the VS. Our results show that the VS may be trapped in different metastable states depending on its thermomagnetic history. For example, if the sample is cooled from above $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ with no applied ac field, the VS is trapped in a more disordered state than when the ac field is turned on during the cooling process. In addition, we find evidence that the cyclic pressure exerted by the ac field induces a dynamical reordering of the VS in the penetrated outer zone of the sample that persists when the ac field is turned off and, as a result, different parts of the sample may be in different pinning regimes. The resulting spatial variation of $`J_\mathrm{c}`$ leads to a strong history dependence of the ac response and accounts for the observed memory effects. The character of the reordering induced by the ac field seems to be related to the flow of dislocations in a similar way as in ordinary solids under cyclic stress .

Magnetic field orientation relative to the twin boundaries (TB) is another ingredient that determines the overall ac response. The effective strength of pinning at the TB’s can be tuned by rotating the applied dc field out of the twin planes. At small angles, where pinning by TB’s is expected to be more effective, history effects are weak. At larger angles, however, the influence of TB’s diminishes and then pronounced history effects are observed.

Global ac susceptibility measurements with the mutual inductance technique were carried out in two twinned single crystals of YBCO. We present the data obtained with one of them (dimensions $`0.56\times 0.6\times 0.02\mathrm{mm}^3`$). The crystal has a $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ of 92 K at zero dc field ($`h_{\mathrm{ac}}`$=1 Oe) and a transition width of 0.3 K (10-90% criterion). Polarized light microscopy revealed that the crystal has three definite groups of twins oriented $`45^{}`$ from the crystal edge as shown in the inset of Fig. 1. Susceptibility data were recorded under different angles $`\theta `$ between the applied field and the c axis. The axis of rotation is shown in the inset of Fig. 1 and it was chosen so that the field can be rotated out of all twin boundary planes simultaneously.

We begin by describing briefly the angular dependence of the ac susceptibility and then we will focus our discussion on the memory effects. Fig. 1 shows the real component of the ac susceptibility, $`\chi ^{}`$, for four values of $`\theta `$. The data were obtained while decreasing the temperature in the usual field cooled procedure at a rate of 0.2 K/min, with $`H_{\mathrm{dc}}`$ = 3 kOe, and a superimposed ac field of amplitude $`h_{\mathrm{ac}}`$ = 2 Oe and frequency $`f`$ = 10.22 kHz.

The diamagnetic screening, $`\chi ^{}`$, presents a dramatic evolution as $`\theta `$ is increased from $`\theta `$ = 0 ($`H_{\mathrm{dc}}c`$). The pronounced changes are a consequence of the effective pinning strength of the TB’s. Fig. 1 shows that, when the dc field is tilted from the TB’s direction, a sharp onset in the susceptibility develops. A sharp onset in the susceptibility was observed in untwinned YBCO single crystals  and was demonstrated to coincide closely  with a sharp resistivity drop that is generally accepted as a fingerprint of a melting transition between a vortex liquid phase and a vortex solid phase with long-range order . We identify the step-like onset of $`\chi `$’ as the melting temperature, $`T_\mathrm{m}`$. The absence at small angles of the sharp onset in $`\chi `$’ (Fig. 1) suggests that the first order melting transition is suppressed by the TB’s. The nature of the transition for $`H_{\mathrm{dc}}c`$ is generally accepted to be a second order phase transition to a Bose-Glass state . A peak at $`\theta =0^{}`$ in the angular dependence of $`T_\mathrm{m}`$, as seen in the inset of Fig. 1, has been related to this transition .

The angular dependence of the ac susceptibility in twinned samples is still a matter of debate. The observed minimum in the shielding at low temperatures and $`\theta =0^{}`$ has been recently explained by vortex channeling along TB’s . According to Ref. , as the field is rotated out of the TB’s, the channeling is partially suppressed. This would explain the initial increase in $`\chi `$’ at small angles (see Fig. 1). However, above a threshold angle, $`\theta _\mathrm{k}14^{}`$, a new reduction in $`\chi `$’ is observed (Fig. 1, $`\theta =25^{}`$). One reason may be that, for these angles, the influence of TB’s vanishes and a more ordered VS can form  leading to a reduction in $`J_\mathrm{c}`$.

We turn now to the memory effects. The main results of our investigation are summarized in Fig. 2 and 3. The measurements in Fig. 2 were performed by varying $`T`$ at fixed $`H_{\mathrm{dc}}`$, $`h_{\mathrm{ac}}`$ and $`\theta `$. Dotted curves were obtained on cooling (C) as the ones in Fig. 1, while solid and dashed curves were obtained on warming (W). The difference between solid and dashed curves is the way the sample was cooled prior to the measurements. Dashed curves were performed after cooling from $`T>T_\mathrm{c}`$ with applied ac field (FacCW), e.g. after measuring the dotted curves. Solid curves were also obtained after cooling from $`T>T_\mathrm{c}`$ but with $`h_{\mathrm{ac}}`$ = 0 (ZFacCW). It is apparent that when cooling the sample with no applied ac field the vortex system solidifies in a more strongly disordered and pinned state (with a higher effective critical current density $`J_\mathrm{c}^{\mathrm{dis}}`$), as can be inferred from the enhanced shielding and the reduced dissipation.

The angular dependence of the thermomagnetic history exhibits interesting features. At small $`\theta `$, the three curves are very similar, though a closer look shows that the maximum shielding (and minimum dissipation) corresponds to the ZFacCW case. As $`\theta `$ is increased, but kept below $`\theta _\mathrm{k}`$, the thermomagnetic history becomes more and more relevant. For angles near $`\theta _\mathrm{k}`$, the importance of the history rapidly increases and the ZFacCW case strongly separates from the other two curves (see Fig. 2). The relative variation between the measured $`\chi `$’ for different sample histories is seen to be as high as 20%. The magnitude of the history dependence at angles beyond $`\theta _\mathrm{k}`$ suggests that the first order melting transition and the translational order of the VS are key factors to explain this behavior.

The results presented above can be understood in terms of a dynamical reordering of the VS caused by the shaking movement induced by the applied ac field during the cooling process in the FacCC and the FacCW cases. Due to this dynamical ordering the correlation length of the VS grows and $`J_\mathrm{c}`$ diminishes ($`J_\mathrm{c}=J_\mathrm{c}^{\mathrm{ord}}<J_\mathrm{c}^{\mathrm{dis}}`$). Note that when $`H_{\mathrm{dc}}c`$ a long range ordered structure is unlikely to form as TB’s prevent vortices from occupying positions favored by their mutual interaction. This seems to be the case even when the ac field is applied manifesting in the faint history effects shown in Fig. 2. However, when the field is tilted from the twins their influence weakens and history effects become more evident suggesting the dynamical ordering of the VS by the ac field.

This reordering or annealing of the VS occurs in the penetrated outer zone of the sample which depends on the ac field amplitude and the temperature (as $`J_\mathrm{c}`$ is temperature dependent). If the VS is initially disordered (e.g. ZFacC), an increase in $`T`$ or $`h_{\mathrm{ac}}`$ will order the VS as the ac field front progresses towards the center of the sample. The VS at the inner region will remain disordered if the condition $`J<J_\mathrm{c}^{\mathrm{dis}}`$ is satisfied at all times and an elastic Campbell-like regime applies with most of the vortices pinned . From this follows that the spatial profile of $`J_\mathrm{c}`$ is determined by the history of the sample. If the sample is cooled from $`T>T_\mathrm{c}`$, it will be measured the smallest shielding for the applied ac field (FacCC and FacCW cases), as observed in Fig. 2.

If the above reasoning is correct, memory effects both in $`T`$ and $`h_{\mathrm{ac}}`$ should be observed because the inner disordered state is able to sustain a higher current without vortex movement, thereby enhancing the shielding $`|\chi ^{}|`$ and reducing the dissipation $`\chi ^{\prime \prime }`$ in the sample. Moreover, the existence of the disordered region should become more evident in $`\chi `$ when the ac flux front is near its boundary. These memory effects are clearly depicted in Fig. 3. Starting at $`T80`$ K with a disordered state (ZFacC) we measured the susceptibility while increasing temperature (ZFacCW). As $`T`$ increases, $`J_\mathrm{c}`$ decreases and the ac field front penetrates further into the sample ordering the VS. If warming is stopped and the temperature is lowered (point $`A`$) the measured susceptibility shows a hysteretic behavior as the outer part of the sample is now ordered. Furthermore, when the sample is driven to low enough temperatures the measured susceptibility tends to that obtained in the FacCC procedure because the ac field is unable to sense the inner disordered region that was never reached by the ac field front. If now the temperature is increased once again, the susceptibility closely follows the last cooling curve because the order-disorder profile was not changed during the cooling process. As expected, beyond point $`A`$ the ac response matches the ZFacCW case. The procedure was repeated at point $`B`$ where an equivalent description can be made. It is worth noting that the long term memory (our experiments take more than 1 h) indicates that both the disordered and the ordered metastable states are very robust.

Analogous cycles in $`h_{\mathrm{ac}}`$ that corroborate the above explanation can be performed starting with $`h_{\mathrm{ac}}`$ = 0 after ZFacC (top inset of Fig. 3). Note that for ac field amplitudes higher than 5.5 Oe no hysteretic behavior is observed in neither $`\chi ^{}`$ nor $`\chi ^{\prime \prime }`$. In this case, the ac field has penetrated in the whole sample suppressing the disordered region. As the VS has been fully annealed, the system loses memory of the highest ac field that was applied.

We also studied what happens when the sample is zero field cooled (both ac and dc)(ZFC). The dc field rate was 50 Oe/s. In these measurements, the ac field is turned on after the dc field has reached its final value. The warm up curves obtained after preparing the system at $`T80`$ K are also contained in Fig. 3 (solid line). The results are close to the disordered ZFacCW ones. We interpret this in terms of disorder yielded by plastic motion of vortices. It is well established from Bitter decoration , SANS , noise  and transport experiments  that when a current near $`J_\mathrm{c}`$ drives the flux lattice a disordered plastic motion occurs. On the other hand, there is experimental  and theoretical  evidence suggesting the existence of a dislocation mediated plastic creep of the vortex structure that would be analogous to the diffusive motion of dislocations in solids . In our experiment, when the magnetic field is applied, vortices can start penetrating only when the induced current $`J`$ is of the same order of $`J_\mathrm{c}`$. In this situation, a small dispersion in the pinning strength will destroy the long range order generating a high density of defects. As this plastic motion proceeds, the screening current decreases and the lattice will be unable to reorder as detected when we apply the ac field .

While from the above discussion it is clear that the ZFC case will correspond to a disordered state, one can then ask on the character of the VS annealing when an ac field is applied. The mechanism involved in this phenomenon may be analogous to the flow and rearrangement of dislocations that leads to the softening of hard atomic solids under cyclic stress . The bottom inset of Fig. 3 shows evidence of this cycle-dependent softening in the VS. Starting from a ZFacC disordered state, the sample is cycled with a large ac field to anneal the VS. After $`N`$ cycles the ac field is turned off and the state of the VS is sensed by measuring the ac susceptibility with a smaller probe ac field at 10 kHz. This procedure is repeated for each point in the figure. As discussed above, the degree of exclusion of the probe and therefore the susceptibility are a function of the critical current of the sample at the moment the probe is applied ($`J_\mathrm{c}(N)`$). The cycle-dependent behavior of the susceptibility nicely demonstrates that $`J_\mathrm{c}`$ is also cycle-dependent.

In conclusion, we have presented susceptibility measurements on twinned YBCO single crystals. We find that the vortex system can be trapped in different metastable states as a consequence of different thermomagnetic histories. When measuring susceptibility, the oscillating applied field assists the vortex structure in ordering, locally reducing the critical current density. As a result, different parts of the sample can be in different pinning regimes. The robustness of these states and the associated spatial variation of the critical current density manifest in strong memory effects both in temperature and ac field. The angular dependence of these effects is consistent with an increase of the correlation length of the VS when the dc field is rotated out of the twin planes.

We expect that similar effects will be present in transport measurements because, in most cases, the applied (ac) current will not flow homogeneously inside the sample and will force a field redistribution in a similar manner as when applying an external ac field.

We acknowledge E. Rodríguez and H. Safar for a critical reading of the manuscript. This research was supported by UBACyT TX-90, CONICET PID N 4634 and Fundación Sauberán.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

It is well known that some field theories (including QCD and Weinberg-Salam model) have the degenerated vacuum structure on the classical level . Unequivalent classical vacua are characterized by different Chern-Simons numbers $`N`$ and separated by the energy barriers. Amplitude of the tunneling through these barriers is nonzero if the theory admits instantons  (classical finite-action Euclidean solutions). Thus classical degeneration disappears due to the instantons. The correct vacuum state is approximately linear combination of the naive classical vacua with different $`N`$.

Ordinary perturbative theory corresponds to the $`N=0`$. It is quite naturally that taking into account of the another vacua with $`N0`$ leads to the essential consequences. Let us remind the most important of them.

1. Instantons lead to the charge confinement in the 2-dimensional Abelian Higgs model  and 3-dimensional non-Abelian Higgs model .

2.In the electroweak theory instantons induce baryon and lepton numbers violation  which can be connected with the matter and antimatter asymmetry of the Universe .

3.In QCD instantons lead to the quark and gluon condensates formation, spontaneously break chiral symmetry, solve $`U(1)`$-problem . It was suggested that QCD-instantons can be produced in deep-inelastic scattering  and identified by means of the analysis of the final states at HERA(DESY) .

We would like to attract an attention to the once more consequence of the instantons. It is known that in the Weinberg-Salam theory  $`W^\pm `$ and $`Z^0`$ bosons get the masses due to the interaction with Higgs fields, which have nonzero vacuum expectation value and spontaneously break local $`SU(2)`$ symmetry . However Higgs mechanism of the masses generating is perturbative phenomenon and it is violated, for example, at a temperature higher than about $`10^3GeV`$  what could occur at the early Universe. At high temperature local $`SU(2)`$ symmetry is restored and $`W^\pm `$ and $`Z^0`$ bosons become massless. In this letter we demonstrate that Higgs mechanism is broken down even at zero temperature if we take into account instanton tunneling transitions. In sections 2 and 3 the example of 2-dimensional Abelian Higgs model is considered. Section 4 is devoted to the possibility of Higgs mechanism violation in Weinberg-salam theory.

## 2 Local gauge symmetry restoration owing to the existence of the instantons

Abelian Higgs model describes the interactions of the real vector fields $`A_\mu (t,x)`$ and self-interacting complex scalar fields $`\varphi (t,x)`$:

$$L=\frac{1}{4}F_{\mu \nu }F_{\mu \nu }+\frac{1}{2}(D_\mu \varphi )^{}D_\mu \varphi \lambda (\varphi ^{}\varphi \rho ^2)^2,$$
(1)
$$D_\mu =_\mu ieA_\mu ,F_{\mu \nu }=_\mu A_\nu _\nu A_\mu ,\mu ,\nu =0,1;\lambda >0,\rho >0.$$

There are the following classical vacua:

$$A_\mu (t,x)=\frac{1}{e}_\mu \alpha (t,x),\varphi (t,x)=e^{i\alpha (t,x)}\rho .$$
(2)
In the perturbative approach vacuum $`A_\mu (t,x)=0,\varphi (t,x)=\rho `$ is chosen. Lagrangian for the small perturbations near this vacuum

$$L=\frac{1}{4}F_{\mu \nu }F_{\mu \nu }+\frac{e^2\rho ^2}{2}A_\mu A_\mu +\frac{1}{2}e^2A_\mu A_\mu (2\eta \rho +\eta ^2)+$$

$$+\frac{1}{2}_\mu \eta _\mu \eta 4\lambda \eta ^2\rho ^24\lambda \eta ^3\rho \lambda \eta ^4,\eta (t,x)=|\varphi (t,x)|\rho $$
(3)
describes the massive gauge field and 1-component scalar field. It is said that the second component of Higgs field is ”eaten” by the gauge field, which gets the mass $`e\rho `$.

It should be noted that nonzero value of the gauge bosons masses is a consequence of the spontaneously symmetry breaking characterized by the perturbative vacuum expectation value $`<\varphi >=\rho `$. If the symmetry is unbroken ($`\rho =0`$) there are massless bosons and 2-component scalar field.

As it was mentioned above all classical vacua (2) fall into distinct classes, which are characterized by an integer parameter $`N`$ (Chern-Simons number) . Nielsen-Olesen vortices  play role of the instanton solutions in this theory. Therefore different vacuum states $`|N>`$ can be connected to each other by means of tunneling transitions. Thus the correct vacuum is

$$|\mathrm{\Theta }>\underset{N=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}e^{iN\mathrm{\Theta }}|N>.$$
(4)
Nonzero value $`<\varphi >=\rho `$ characterizes naive perturbative vacuum with $`N=0`$ only. At the same time for the correct vacuum $`|\mathrm{\Theta }>`$ the scalar field expectation value is zero :

$$<\mathrm{\Theta }|\varphi |\mathrm{\Theta }>\underset{N,M=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}e^{i(NM)\mathrm{\Theta }}<M|\varphi |N>=$$

$$=\underset{N=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}<N|\varphi |N>+O(e^{S_{inst}})\rho \underset{N=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}e^{i\alpha _N(x)}=0.$$
(5)
where $`S_{inst}\rho `$ is Euclidean instanton action, $`\alpha _N(x)`$ is a set of the static configurations which characterizes unequivalent vacua if $`A_0(t,x)=0`$ and $`e^{\alpha _N(\pm \mathrm{})}=1`$.

The result (5) means that effective potential for Higgs field has only one minimum unlike classical potential. This situation corresponds to the effective theory with zero mass gauge field and 2-component scalar field.

## 3 Screening of the confinement by the unlike-charged particles production

It is well known that confinement phenomenon exists in the 2-dimensional Abelian Higgs model . Let one introduce two static external charges by means of Wilson procedure . We suppose that the interaction between external charges and gauge field is described by the adding to the Lagrangian the term $`j_\mu A_\mu `$. The energy of the attraction between external charges is given by the following formula (see for review ):

$$E_\mathrm{\Theta }(R)e^{S_{inst}}R\left[cos\mathrm{\Theta }cos\left(\mathrm{\Theta }+\frac{2\pi q}{e}\right)\right],$$
(6)
where $`R`$ is a distance between two external particles with the charges $`+q`$ and $`q`$.

If $`q=Ne`$ the attraction disappears. It can be interpreted as a screening of the external charges by means of the unlike-charged scalar particle pairs production. However description of such charged particles requires two-component field. Because of the total number of the independent field components is conserved the theory possesses massless gauge field only. This statement contradicts with perturbative Higgs mechanism. Thus possibility of the screening of the confinement confirms the result of the previous section.

## 4 Conclusion

As it is well known Higgs mechanism are used in Weinberg-Salam theory for the $`W^\pm `$ and $`Z^0`$ bosons masses generating. However there are not any experimental confirmation of Higgs bosons existing. Let us suppose that our results can be generalized into Weinberg-Salam theory. If instantons are not gauge and lattice artifacts that standard model of electroweak interactions contains massless gauge bosons and charged scalar (Higgs) particles instead of the experimentally observed massive gauge bosons. This argument leads to the necessity of the using of an alternative mechanism of the $`W^\pm `$ and $`Z^0`$ bosons masses generating without additional Higgs fields.

It should be noted, that in Weinberg-Salam theory instanton transitions are strongly suppressed by the ’t Hooft factor :

$$e^{2S_{inst}}=e^{\frac{4\pi }{\alpha _w}}10^{160}.$$
(7)
However for the enough long time intervals the instanton processes probability can increase

$$Pe^{\frac{4\pi }{\alpha _w}}𝑑t_0𝑑x_0$$
(8)
if we take into account the integration on the centre of the instanton $`t_0,x_0`$ which is arbitrary space-time point. For $`t>e^{\frac{4\pi }{\alpha _w}}`$ the probability of the instanton transitions is not negligible. Thus instantons can restore gauge symmetry and violate Higgs mechanism.

It is interesting that instantons can dynamically break the gauge symmetry and thus provide an alternative to the Higgs mechanism .