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# Chandra estimate of the magnetic field strength near the cold front in A3667

## 1 Introduction

Magnetic fields can profoundly affect the properties of the intergalactic medium in clusters. Examples include suppression of heat conduction, which is required to maintain the cluster cooling flows (see the review by Fabian 1994), and a possibility of a dynamically significant magnetic pressure to explain the difference between the X-ray and strong lensing cluster mass estimates (Loeb & Mao 1994, Miralda-Escudé & Babul 1995). So far, intracluster magnetic fields were measured by Faraday rotation in radio sources seen through the IGM (e.g., Kim, Kronberg & Tribble 1991), or by combining radio and hard X-ray data on cluster radio halos under the assumption that the X-rays ares produced by inverse Compton scattering of the microwave background (e.g., Fusco-Femiano et al. 2000). Both these methods indicate the magnetic field strength on the microgauss level, with considerable uncertainty. In this Paper, we apply a completely new approach that uses the effect of the magnetic field on the dynamics of the intracluster plasma.

*Chandra* recently revealed that in at least two clusters,A2142 (Markevitch et al. 2000) and A3667 (Vikhlinin, Markevitch & Murray 2000, Paper I hereafter), the dense cool cores are moving with high velocity through the hotter, less dense surrounding gas. In both cases, the cool gas is separated from the hotter ambient gas by a sharp density discontinuity, or a “cold front”. A similar structure appears to be observed in RXJ1720.1+2638 (Mazzotta et al. 2000), although the temperature data for that cluster are less accurate. In Paper I, we have shown that the cool gas cloud in A3667 moves with a near-sonic velocity in the ambient hot gas. While the speed of the cloud in A2142 cannot be measured accurately, its value is consistent with velocities up to the velocity of sound.

A strong suppression of the transport processes, most probably by magnetic fields, is required to prevent the observed sharp density and temperature gradients from dissipating. Ettori & Fabin (2000) argue that the sharp change of gas temperature in A2142 requires a very significant suppression of heat conduction relative to the classical value. In A3667, the suppression of diffusion is observed directly, because the width of the density discontinuity is smaller than the Coulomb mean free path (Paper I).

In both A3667 and A2142, the cold front appears to be dynamically stable because it has a smooth shape and shows no visible perturbations within a certain sector in the apparent direction of the cloud motion. In this Paper, we use this fact to infer the strength of the intracluster magnetic field that could naturally provide surface tension stabilizing the front against the development of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.

We use $`H_0=50`$ km s-1 Mpc-1. The derived magnetic field strength scales as $`h^{1/4}`$, while the derived ratio of magnetic and thermal pressures does not depend on $`H_0`$.

## 2 Overview of CHANDRA results

The full account of the *Chandra* observation of A3667 is given in Paper I, and here we briefly review the relevant details. The most prominent feature in the *Chandra* image is the sharp 0.5 Mpc-long discontinuity in the surface brightness distribution located approximately 550 kpc South-East of the cluster center (Fig. 2). The gas temperature distribution shows unambiguously that this structure is a boundary between the large dense body of cool ($`T_c=4.1\pm 0.2`$ keV, 68% confidence) gas moving through the hotter ($`T_h=7.7\pm 0.8`$ keV) ambient gas. We call this structure the “cold front”. The front shape in projection is very accurately described by a circle with $`R=410\pm 15`$ kpc.

The gas pressure profile across the front shows that the cloud moves at a speed close to the velocity of sound in the ambient hot gas (with the Mach number $`M=1\pm 0.2`$). The measured high velocity of the cloud is substantiated by the observed compression of the ambient gas near the front, and a possible bow shock seen in the *Chandra* image further ahead of the front. This moving cloud probably is a remnant of one of the large subclusters that have merged recently to form the A3667 cluster.

## 3 Magnetic field and the structure of the front

The observed width of the front is very small. Even with the *Chandra* resolution, the surface brightness profile across the front is consistent with projection of an infinitely narrow gas density discontinuity. The upper limit on its width, $`3.5^{\prime \prime }`$ or $`5`$ kpc, is 2–3 times smaller than the Coulomb mean free path (Paper I). This requires suppression of the diffusion by a magnetic field. A magnetic configuration which can stop the diffusion should indeed arise in a narrow boundary region between the two tangentially moving gas layers, through a process schematically shown in Fig. 2. As the ambient gas flows around the dense cloud and the cool gas is stripped from the surface of the cloud, magnetic field lines, which are frozen into the gas and initially tangled, should stretch along the front. When a layer with the parallel magnetic field forms, it would prevent further stripping of the cool gas and also stop microscopic transport processes across the boundary, explaining the observed small width of the front.

Such a layer with the parallel magnetic field also would support the dynamical stability of the front. At some distance from the leading edge of the cloud, the gas exterior to the front should develop a high tangential velocity. The interface between the tangentially moving gas layers normally is unstable due to the Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instability. We show below that in the absence of any stabilizing factors, the K-H instability should disturb the front surface outside $`10\mathrm{°}`$ of the direction of the cloud motion. Figure 2 shows that the front has a smooth circular shape and remains sharp within the sector $`\phi _{\mathrm{cr}}30\mathrm{°}`$ in the direction of motion, and hence should be dynamically stable. We suggest that the K-H instability is suppressed by surface tension of the frozen-in magnetic field, provided that it is parallel to the front. At larger angles ($`\phi >30\mathrm{°}`$) from the direction of motion, the front becomes less sharp and gradually vanishes. We interpret this as the onset of the K-H instability, when the tangential velocity of the ambient gas exceeds a critical value beyond which the instability cannot be suppressed by the magnetic field (cf. Fig. 2b). Assuming that the interface between two gases is barely unstable at $`\phi =30\mathrm{°}`$, we can estimate the required magnetic field strength.

Our further discussion is organized as follows. In § 4, we estimate the distribution of the tangential velocity of the ambient gas near the leading edge of the cloud. In § 5, we demonstrate that if the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is not suppressed, its growth time is smaller than the cluster core passage time for angles $`\phi >10\mathrm{°}`$, and therefore the instability already should have disturbed the front. In § 6, we estimate the magnetic field strength from the condition that the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is suppressed within the sector $`\phi <\phi _{\mathrm{cr}}`$, but develops at larger angles.

For simplicity, we assume that the front moves through the ambient gas with the Mach number $`M=1`$ exactly (while the measured value is $`M=1\pm 0.2`$).

## 4 Tangential Velocity Along the Front Surface

For our purposes, the 3D shape of the cloud can be approximated by a cylinder with a $`250`$ kpc radius that has a rounded head with the curvature radius $`R=410`$ kpc seen as a front in projection. The radius of the region of interest (an area on the front within $`\phi 30\mathrm{°}`$) is smaller than the radius of the cylinder. Therefore, we can adequately approximate the gas flow in this region by that around a ($`R=410`$ kpc) sphere, for which there are published laboratory measurements and numerical simulations for a range of Mach numbers of the inflowing gas.

It is instructive to consider first the analytic solution for the flow of an incompressible fluid (e.g., Lamb 1945, see also Fig. 2b). The inflowing gas slows down near the stagnation point at the leading edge of the sphere but then reaccelerates to high velocities as it is squeezed to the sides by new portions of the inflowing gas. The velocity at the surface of the sphere has only a tangential component, $`V_t=3/2V_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{sin}\phi `$, where $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the velocity of the inflowing gas at infinity. Already at $`\phi =30\mathrm{°}`$, the incompressible gas has $`V_t=3/4V_{\mathrm{}}`$.

There is no known analytic solutions for the flow of compressible gas around a sphere at $`M1`$, but the qualitative picture is similar. We use the results of numerical simulations of the $`M_{\mathrm{}}=1.05`$ flow by Rizzi (1980), whose results are in good agreement with the published laboratory measurements at slightly higher $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ (e.g., Gooderman & Wood 1950). The velocity field of a compressible gas flow is parameterized by the spatial distribution of the local Mach number. The distribution of the Mach number on the surface of the sphere derived from Rizzi’s simulation can be approximated as

$$M1.1\mathrm{sin}\phi .$$
(1)
At $`\phi =30\mathrm{°}`$, the local Mach number is $`M=0.55`$. In absolute units, the gas velocity at this point is $`V=0.61V_{\mathrm{}}`$, i.e. only 20% lower than that in the incompressible solution.

## 5 Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability Without Magnetic Field

Consider the flat interface between cold gas at rest and a hotter gas flowing at the local Mach number $`M`$. The velocity of the flow can be sufficiently large so that the compressibility of the gas is important. In the absence of stabilizing factors such as gravity or surface tension, the interface is unstable due to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (see, e.g., Gerwin 1968 for a review). The wave vector of the fastest-growing mode is in the direction of the flow. The growth time of this mode can be found from the dispersion equation (cf. eq. 5.5 in Miles 1958):

$$\frac{1}{\omega ^2}-\frac{c_h^2/c_c^2}{(\omega -Mc_hk)^2}+\frac{1}{k^2c_c^2}=0,$$
(2)
where $`c_c`$ and $`c_h`$ are the velocities of sound in the cold and hot gas, respectively, and $`k`$ and $`\omega `$ is the wave number and frequency. In solving this equation, we should take into account the adiabatic compression of the hot gas as it arrives at the surface of the cold cloud from infinity, where it flows at our measured Mach number $`M_{\mathrm{}}1`$. The velocity of sound as a function of the local Mach number is (e.g., Landau & Lifshitz 1959)

$$\frac{c_h^2}{c_{\mathrm{}}^2}=\frac{T_h}{T_{\mathrm{}}}=\frac{1+1/2(\gamma -1)M_{\mathrm{}}^2}{1+1/2(\gamma -1)M^2},$$
(3)
where $`c_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the velocity of sound in the inflowing gas at infinity, $`c_{\mathrm{}}=(1.37\pm 0.07)c_c`$ for the actual temperatures inside and outside our cloud (§ 2), and $`\gamma =5/3`$ is the adiabatic index. For plausible values of $`M`$, equation (2) has two complex roots, one of which corresponds to the growing mode. The instability growth time is $`\tau =(\mathrm{Im}\omega )^1`$. Perturbations of all scales are unstable, but for some scales, the instability may develop slowly compared to the lifetime of the front. The relevant time scale with which $`\tau `$ should be compared is the cluster core passage time, $`t_{\mathrm{cross}}=L/M_{\mathrm{}}c_{\mathrm{}}`$, where $`L`$ is the cluster size. The value of $`\mathrm{exp}(t_{\mathrm{cross}}/\tau )`$ is the perturbation growth factor over the period of time it takes the cool gas cloud to travel the distance $`L`$; if $`t_{\mathrm{cross}}/\tau >1`$, the perturbation is effectively unstable.

For the observed gas temperatures and $`M_{\mathrm{}}=1`$, the numerical solution of eq. (2) for $`M<1`$, the regime relevant for our region of interest, gives the approximate relation $`t_{\mathrm{cross}}/\tau =0.075ML/l`$, where $`l=2\pi /k`$ is the perturbation wavelength. Combining this with the distribution of the Mach number on the surface of the sphere (eq. 1), we have

$$\frac{t_{\mathrm{cross}}}{\tau }0.083\frac{L}{l}\mathrm{sin}\phi .$$
(4)
For a cluster-scale length of $`L=1`$ Mpc, we find that a 10 kpc perturbation becomes effectively unstable already for $`\phi =7\mathrm{°}`$. At $`\phi =30\mathrm{°}`$, perturbations with $`l<45`$ kpc are unstable. However, the front appears undisturbed within at least 30° around the direction of motion. Recall that the observed width of the front is smaller than 5 kpc, and a 45 kpc widening would be easily observable. Therefore, the K-H instability of the cold front must be suppressed.

Long-wavelength K-H perturbations can be stabilized by a gravitational field perpendicular to the interface (e.g., Lamb 1945). However, we find that for the gravitational acceleration estimated from the gas pressure gradient outside the cloud, only $`l>4500M^2`$ kpc modes are stable, and therefore gravity is unimportant for the wavelengths of interest.

## 6 Suppression of the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability by Magnetic Field

The K-H instability can be suppressed by the surface tension of a magnetic field, if the magnetic field is parallel to the interface and to the direction of the flow. Our considerations can be greatly simplified by the fact that the gas can be treated as incompressible on both sides of the cold front in the region of interest, $`\phi 30\mathrm{°}`$. The outer gas can be considered incompressible because it flows with a relatively low local Mach number $`M0.5`$. The cool gas can be considered incompressible because the growing modes of the K-H instability generally have low phase speed. Indeed, the solution of eq. (2) obtained above is very close to the solution in the incompressible limit $`c_h,c_c\mathrm{}`$ for the gas velocities of interest. The interface between the two incompressible magnetized fluids is stable if

$$B_h^2+B_c^2>4\pi \frac{\rho _h\rho _c}{\rho _h+\rho _c}V^2,$$
(5)
where $`B_h`$ and $`B_c`$ is the magnetic field strength in the hot and cool gas, $`\rho _h`$ and $`\rho _c`$ are the gas densities, and $`V`$ is tangential velocity of the hot gas (e.g., Landau & Lifshitz 1960, § 53). If the magnetic pressure is small compared to the thermal pressure, $`p`$ (as it turns out to be the case), or is the same fraction of $`p`$ on both sides of the interface, the stability condition (5) can be rewritten in terms of the thermal pressure and temperature of the gas:

$$\frac{B_h^2}{8\pi }+\frac{B_c^2}{8\pi }>\frac{1}{2}\frac{\gamma M^2}{1+T_c/T_h}p.$$
(6)
The stability of the cold front within $`\phi <30\mathrm{°}`$ of the direction of the cloud motion, where $`M0.55`$, requires $`(B_h^2+B_c^2)/8\pi >0.17p`$ for the observed ratio of $`T_c/T_h`$. If smearing of the surface brightness edge at angles $`\phi 30\mathrm{°}`$ is interpreted as the development of the K-H instability, this lower limit becomes a measurement of the magnetic pressure.

If magnetic field is too weak to suppress the K-H instabilty completely, it still increases the instability growth time, which is then

$$(\mathrm{Im}\omega )^1=k^1\left[V^2\frac{\rho _c\rho _h}{(\rho _c+\rho _h)^2}-\frac{B_h^2+B_c^2}{4\pi (\rho _c+\rho _h)}\right]^{1/2}.$$
(7)
Thus, even with a weaker magnetic field, the interface can be effectively stable on the time scale of the cluster core passage. However, eq. (7) shows that this quickly becomes unimportant as the magnetic field strength decreases below the stability limit. For example, for $`B`$ of only 0.7–0.8 of the stability limit, the growth time is 1.1–1.4 of its value for $`B=0`$.

The measurement uncertainty in the derived value of the magnetic field strength is mostly due to uncertainty in the angle, $`\phi _{\mathrm{cr}}`$, where the interface becomes unstable, and hence in the local Mach number of the hot gas. For $`\phi _{\mathrm{cr}}`$ in the range $`30\mathrm{°}\pm 10\mathrm{°}`$ (which appears to be a conservative interval, see Fig. 2), we find from eq. (5) and (1) that the magnetic field strengths are in the interval

$$0.09p<(B_h^2+B_c^2)/8\pi <0.23p.$$
(8)
Our method directly constrains only the sum of magnetic pressures on the two sides of the interface. The maximum of the magnetic field strengths in the cold and hot gases, $`B=\mathrm{max}(B_h,B_c)`$, is in the interval $`(4\pi p_{\mathrm{mag}})^{1/2}<B<(8\pi p_{\mathrm{mag}})^{1/2}`$, where $`p_{\mathrm{mag}}=(B_h^2+B_c^2)/8\pi `$ is constrained by (8). Using the value of gas pressure inside the dense cloud derived in Paper I, we find the corresponding uncertainty interval $`7\mu \text{G}<B<16\mu \text{G}`$.

## 7 Discussion

We showed that the sharpness of the front at small angles from the direction of the cloud motion and its smearing at larger angles can be explained by the existence of a layer in which the magnetic field is roughly parallel to the front and has a strength of order $`10`$$`\mu `$G. As we discussed above, such a layer may form by stretching the magnetic field lines near the front by tangential gas motions. As a result, the magnetic field strength in this layer is probably higher than in the rest of the intracluster gas. The magnetic field amplification on the surface of the plasma cloud is discussed, for example, in Jones, Ryu & Tregillis (1996). An important conclusion is that the magnetic pressure is only a small fraction of the thermal pressure: $`p_m/p0.1-0.2`$ in the magnetic layer and still lower in the rest of the cluster. If the magnetic pressure were of order of the thermal pressure, the front would be stable for Mach numbers up to $`M2(1+T_c/T_h)^{1/2}\gamma ^{1/2}=1.9`$, i.e. over the entire surface of the cool gas cloud.

Faraday rotation measurements of the magnetic field outside the cluster cooling flows usually give the values of $`1`$ $`\mu `$G (Kim et al. 1991). Since Faraday rotation gives the integral of the magnetic field along the line of sight, there is a considerable uncertainty of the absolute field strength due to unknown degree of entanglement. Near the cold front, the field is straightened and amplified, so our measurement provides a likely upper limit on the absolute field strength in the cluster core.

Finally, we note that our arguments would become invalid if the shape of the front were non-stationary, for example, if the cool gas cloud expands into the low-density medium (as opposed to moving as a whole). However, the front velocity relative to the ambient gas exceeds the velocity of sound within the cloud. Since the *in situ* acceleration of a gas cloud to the supersonic velocity is impossible, the cool gas cloud must have arrived from outside the main cluster. In this case, the fact that the shape of the front remains smooth and circular after traveling a large distance, suggests that the front is in fact close to stationary, and therefore our arguments regarding the magnetic field are valid.

We thank P. Nulsen, W. Forman, and C. Jones for helpful comments. This study was supported by NASA grant NAG5-9217 and contract NAS8-39073.


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# Hole distribution for (Sr,Ca,Y,La)14Cu24O41 ladder compounds studied by x-ray absorption spectroscopy

## I Introduction

Spin-$`1/2`$ Heisenberg ladder compounds have been the subject of extensive investigations over the last few years, first and foremost due to their magnetic peculiarities. These are caused by the magnetic interactions within the legs and the rungs which, in principle, may be very different for the various sublattice units. Assuming, e. g., a coupling across the rungs that is much larger than that along the legs leads to the formation of a spin gap for compounds with even numbers of legs and to a tendency for “hole pairing”. Both features turn out to persist even for fairly similar coupling constants as in fact found for many actual ladder compounds. Early on, superconductivity was predicted for even-leg ladders and was eventually found for Sr0.4Ca13.6Cu24O41.8. This compound is a member of the more complex family (Sr,Ca)14(CuO2)10(Cu2O3)7, which contains layers of Cu2O3 two-leg ladders extending along the crystallographic $`c`$ axis (see Fig. 1); the ladder layers are stacked along the $`b`$ axis and alternate with layers of edge-sharing CuO2 chains. The observation of superconductivity is highly remarkable as this compound is a cuprate but does not contain the CuO2 planes so characteristic for high-temperature superconductors (HTSCs). It is, therefore, not surprising that these findings initiated a flurry of experimental and theoretical investigations on these compounds, their electronic structure, and its relationship to the magnetic properties.

Due to its composition, Sr14Cu24O41 is doped by 6 holes, which are generally believed to reside essentially in the chain. Perhaps the simplest indication for this is

provided by bond-valence-sum (BVS) calculations, giving higher BVS values for holes in the chains. Similar to the HTSCs, the holes are expected to be mainly of O $`2p`$ character as the large Hubbard $`U`$ for Cu $`3d`$ states prevents them from having much Cu character. On the experimental side, resistivity and magnetic measurements on “undoped” La6Ca8Cu24O41, with purely a Cu2+ valence and thus no holes, as well as on compounds with increasing Sr content for La and a corresponding number of doped holes led to the conclusion that all doped holes reside on the chains of Sr14Cu24O41, giving a Cu2.6+ valence there. Neutron scattering, however, points to a spin dimerization along the chain, which in turn was interpreted as a signature for a CDW-like arrangement of one hole for every other Cu(c) site of the chain. This means that in total only 5 out of the 6 doped holes reside in the (CuO2)10 chain subunit of Sr14Cu24O41, leaving one hole for the (Cu2O3)7 ladder unit. Optical investigations are also consistent with a hole count of one in the ladder unit of Sr14Cu24O41; upon Ca substitution this was found to increase to up to 2.8 holes. A recent Cu NMR study relates measured spin correlation lenghts to the average distance between holes and determine a hole occupation on the ladder sites up to 1.75 holes for Sr2.5Ca11.5Cu24O41. The formation of dimers was supported by further NMR and NQR experiments, and the underlying charge ordering was observed by x-ray diffraction. Also, NMR measurements suggest that the spin gap of the ladder unit decreases continuously over the whole substitutional range from zero holes to the fully doped and heavily Ca-substituted compounds until it almost reaches zero, while the spin gap of the chain remains essentially constant, lending support to the notion that it is indeed the ladders that carry the

superconductivity. On the other hand, other NMR experiments and neutron scattering find a constant spin gap upon Ca substitution for the ladders as well. Chemical pressure by Ca substitution for Sr as well as physical pressure reduces the interlayer distances and increases the twisting of the CuO2 chain. As a consequence, about 30 - 50% of the O(c) atoms reduce their distance to the nearest Cu(l) atom to a value comparable with the typical Cu-Oapex distance for HTSCs. A transfer of holes from the chains to the ladder sites concurrent with Ca substitution was predicted theoretically and was also inferred from various experiments.

Despite all this wealth of information on the ladder compounds, however, there remains a considerable amount of controversy, and a more direct determination of the site-specific hole distribution is still missing. Both the evolution of hole distributions with increasing number of holes and with increasing Ca content with its structural implications is important to know. In the present study, polarization-dependent x-ray absorption spectroscopy is applied, which is a proven method to obtain such information. The results, in turn, may help to better understand the electronic structure and possibly the onset of the insulator-metal transition as well as the appearance of superconductivity in these systems.

## II Experiment and results

Single crystalline samples (typically about 60 mm3 in size) were cut from several cm long crystals grown by the traveling solvent floating zone (TSFZ) method; their compositions are shown in Table I. The formal valence of Cu in the samples was determined by a precision volumetric method, where an overall accuracy of $`<5\times 10^4`$ can be achieved. An average Cu valence +2+$`\epsilon `$ determined in this way gives a total hole count $`n_{\mathrm{Cu}}`$=24$`\epsilon `$, and any deviation from the nominal number of holes expected from stoichiometry, $`n_h`$, is accounted for by simply taking the O content, which could not be determined indepen-

dently, as 41+$`\delta `$ atoms per formula unit with $`\delta `$=($`n_{\mathrm{Cu}}`$-$`n_h`$)/2. The largest $`\delta `$ observed in the present study occurred for the La6Ca8Cu24O41.43 samples and corresponds to 0.86 extra holes. An investigation by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and microspot Auger analysis revealed that a few percent of La in these samples is segregated as La-rich precipitates, illustrating the fact that a high La content leads to phase instability in these compounds. The $`\delta `$=0.14 found for La5Ca9Cu24O41.14 may result from the same effect. For none of the other compositions traces of such phases could be detected by SEM or x-ray diffraction; also, much smaller values for $`\delta `$ were observed (Table I).

Polarization-dependent near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) measurements were performed at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at the NRL/NSLS beamline U4B. The energy resolution in the range of the O 1$`s`$ NEXAFS was set to 210 meV. To ensure a flat and shiny surface, several slices ($``$200 nm each) were cut off from the samples using the diamond blade of an ultramicrotome, and the samples were then transferred to ultrahigh vacuum. The data were recorded at room temperature and in fluorescence detection mode probing a depth of about 100 nm. The spectra were corrected for incident flux variations and for self-absorption effects, and were normalized to tabulated cross sections at about 70 eV above the edge where the absorption is atomic-like and structureless. For energy calibration of the O $`1s`$ spectra, total electron yield data of NiO were taken simultaneously and referred to a NiO standard from electron energy-loss spectroscopy with a reproducibility significantly better than the experimental energy resolution.

The aim of this experiment is to investigate the hole distribution in the three inequivalent O sites of (Sr,Ca,Y,La)14Cu24O41. With each of the inequivalent sites, a different Cu-O bond configuration is associated (cf. Fig. 1): a Cu-O-Cu interaction geometry with about 90 for the O(c) sites of the chains, similar to the situation in Li2CuO2; straight bonds (180) connecting the Cu(l) sites in the two legs of a single ladder via the rung O(2) sites; and the situation for the O(1) sites of the legs, which form bonds to each of the three neighboring Cu(l) atoms. Assuming that, analogous to the situation in HTSCs, only $`\sigma `$ bonds formed between Cu $`3d`$ and O $`2p`$ states contribute spectral weight near the Fermi level, $`E_F`$, there are only five different O $`2p`$ orbitals in the $`a`$,$`c`$ plane (see Fig. 1) which may contribute spectral weight in O $`1s`$ NEXAFS. The excitation process in NEXAFS involves the highly localized O $`1s`$ core level; moreover, dipole selection rules apply. As a consequence, orienting the electric field vector of the incident radiation, E, parallel to the crystallographic axes allows one to investigate specifically the O $`2p`$ orbitals oriented likewise, and thus gain site-specific information on the hole distribution.

Fig. 2 depicts the O $`1s`$ absorption and its polarization dependence over the full measured energy range for Sr14Cu24O41 as a representative example for the whole set of compositions. The two large peaks observed near threshold for the in-plane, E$``$$`a,c`$ spectra are due to Cu-O hybridization and are strongly suppressed for the out-of-plane, E$``$$`b`$ spectrum. The latter exhibits right at the main absorption edge a strong feature which is most likely associated with Sr-O hybrids connecting the chain and ladder layers. In the extended (EXAFS) range the variation of the absorption coefficient $`\sigma `$ is very different from that for the in-plane geometry, illustrating that the spatial environment of O in the direction perpendicular to the planes is very different from that within the planes.

O $`1s`$ NEXAFS spectra for (Sr,Ca,Y,La)14Cu24O41 are shown in Fig. 3 for all three orientations E$``$$`a`$, E$``$$`b`$, and E$``$$`c`$ in the energy range of interest below the main edge. Concentrating first on the “planar” E$``$$`a`$,$`c`$ spectra one observes considerable spectral weight near threshold. The first feature above threshold, around 528 eV and called H in the spectra, appears near the O 1$`s`$ binding energy as determined by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (not shown). Feature H, therefore, represents hole states; its spectral weight is related to the number of holes per unit cell. Analogous to the situation for HTSC materials, a second maximum is observed in the spectra which represents the upper Hubbard band (UHB) and is denoted by U. It appears in the O $`1s`$ spectra due to the Cu $`3d`$ – O $`2p`$ hybridization the strength of which is described by the hopping integral $`t_{pd}`$. The spectral weight of feature H is smallest for La6Ca8Cu24O41.43 and grows with the Sr and/or Ca content, i. e., with the number of doped holes. At the same time, the spectral weight of feature U is seen to decrease. Particularly noteworthy is that the NEXAFS spectra of Y3Sr11Cu24O41 and La3Sr3Ca8Cu24O41, both doped with three holes per formula unit, are identical within the experimental precision despite their very different Ca content; furthermore, they show equivalent spectral weight in H for E$``$$`a`$ and E$``$$`c`$. While for these two compounds, moreover, feature H is almost symmet- \[

\]

ric in energy (and nearly Gaussian-shaped), one finds for the fully doped samples Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 a pronounced, shoulder-like asymmetry of H towards higher energy. An immediate conclusion that could be drawn from observing that these symmetries of H are present at low doping levels but absent at full doping is that for low doping (up to 4 holes per f.u.) all holes reside on the chain sites: only there spectral weight for E$``$$`a`$ and E$``$$`c`$ is naturally the same as both orientations measure equal projections of the same O $`2p`$ orbitals (cf. Fig. 1). This is in agreement with previous work (cf. Refs.  and ). For E$``$$`b`$, a similar double-peak structure in the energy range shown is observed; the corresponding spectral weights are, however, smaller by an order of magnitude compared to the total in-plane weight for E$``$$`a`$,$`c`$. This is a nice illustration of the predominantly planar character of the electronic structure near $`E_F`$ for both the chain and the ladder units.

These qualitative observations can be put on a somewhat firmer footing by a more refined data analysis based on the following ideas: Systematic changes in H and U upon hole doping and upon Ca substitution can clearly be observed in Fig. 3, like the developing asymmetries in H described above, although individual O $`2p`$ contributions are not well-separated from each other. With the present study, on the other hand, a large number of spectra for different compositions is available, and a promising way to extract as much site-specific information as possible is to perform a least-square fit to all measured spectra simultaneously. With the assumption that for all compositions the individual, site-specific spectral distributions are identical in shape, and that only their amplitudes and energy positions may change with composition, one can even construct these spectral distributions corresponding to various O orbitals in the fitting procedure, and thus avoid introducing artifacts through a possibly imperfect choice of spectral shapes for the fitting functions. Of course, the spectral weight and energy shifts for each composition are also obtained in the same fit. The spectra for La6Ca8Cu24O41.43 and La5Ca9Cu24O41.14 were not included in the fitting procedure for construction of the spectral distributions since their strong off-stoichiometry might possibly lead to artifacts in the results. Their partial weight, however, was calculated as well, using the distributions determined from all the other spectra.

In practice one is, of course, limited in the number of spectral distributions that can reasonably be constructed in the fitting procedure; it must be much smaller than the number of independent spectra measured (generally the two in-plane spectra per sample are used). With two distributions each to fit H and U for each polarization the resulting spectral distributions for E$``$$`a`$ and E$``$$`c`$ turn out to be almost identical, allowing the use of the same distributions for both polarizations. Unlike the situation for H, where two distributions are required to properly approximate the experimental curve and its doping dependence, a decomposition of U into two parts is far less justified: the improvement in rms deviation is only marginal, and the variation of relative intensities does not exhibit much connection with doping. It is thus possible to determine only three spectral weights: H1, H2, and U. The energies of peaks H1 and H2 associated with the doped holes remain constant to within 30 meV and are well within the limits of our energy calibration ($`<100`$ meV); such slight energy shifts could be due to changes in the O $`1s`$ binding energy. In the case of U, a single fitting function had to be used (as mentioned above) despite U being a compos- \[

\]

ed feature, and the slightly larger shifts ($`<200`$ meV) observed for this fitting function may result from this simplification. The spectral weights fitted are discussed in the following.

In Fig. 4 NEXAFS spectra with these three fitted partial distributions are shown for Y3Sr11Cu24O41, Sr14Cu24O41, and Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 for E$``$$`a`$ and E$``$$`c`$ as representative examples for the full data set. The partial weights extracted from such fits, corresponding to hole counts and the weight in the UHB, as well as their evolution as a function of the hole count as derived from volumetry and of the Ca substitution level are shown in Fig. 5: part (a) depicts the individual contributions H1 and H2 for E$``$$`a`$ and E$``$$`c`$, while part (b) plots the total weight of H (i. e., H1+H2 summed over both in-plane polarizations) and the analogously determined total weight for U. The left-hand side of both panels in Fig. 5 corresponds to increasing total doping levels, while the right-hand side depicts fully doped (6 holes) samples Sr14-xCaxCu24O41.

Concentrating first on part (b) in Fig. 5, we observe the total weight H to increase linearly with doping level as derived by the chemical analysis up to the fully doped compound Sr14Cu24O41. At the same time, the weight U of the UHB decreases. This trend in U is seen to continue smoothly into the range of the Ca-substituted compounds – unlike the behavior of H, which stays constant for Ca contents greater than 4. Turning now to the polarization-dependent decomposition of H into H1 and H2 (Fig. 5 (a)), it is evident that up to and including the compound La2Ca12Cu24O41 with its four doped holes, almost all the weight is found in the lower-energy part H1, and that it is almost the same for E$``$$`a`$ and E$``$$`c`$ absorption. The straight line shown describes this behavior for H1 well. (H2 remains below 2 Mb$``$eV per formula unit, and this value may be taken as the “threshold of significance” for the spectral decomposition procedure described above; the absence of significant spectral weight other than that for H1 again illustrates that the latter represents doped holes in the chain.) For Sr14Cu24O41, the situation changes considerably: H1 for E$``$$`c`$ lies substantially below its E$``$$`a`$ counterpart (which itself remains close to the straight line extrapolated from the lower doping levels); and for the first time, there is a significant contribution from H2, amounting to almost 1/3 of H1. The corresponding H2 for E$``$$`a`$, on the other hand, is still almost zero. In the total weight (Fig. 5 (b)) the decrease of H1 is thus compensated. For the partially Ca-substituted compound Sr9Ca5Cu24O41, H1 for E$``$$`c`$ is substantially larger than for Sr14Cu24O41; further increasing the Ca content then leaves both H1 parts almost constant, similar to the behavior of the total H. H2 for E$``$$`c`$, on the other hand, remains constant for all Ca-substitution levels, while H2 for E$``$$`a`$ exhibits a slight increase over the whole range of Ca fractions, until it reaches, for Sr2Ca12Cu24O41, about 1/6 of the value for H1.

## III Interpretation and Discussion

The observation that for La3Sr3Ca8Cu24O41,
Y3Sr11Cu24O41, and La2Ca12Cu24O41, H consists of only one component, H1, which is furthermore almost symmetric within the $`a`$$`c`$ plane, is readily understood if the holes at these doping levels almost exclusively occupy sites in the chains. In the fully doped compound Sr14Cu24O41, however, this symmetry is obviously broken (see above). Most significant is the appearance of H2, which for E$``$$`c`$ exhibits considerable weight but for E$``$$`a`$ still barely exceeds the “threshold of significance”.

These observations unambiguously show that H2 must be spectral weight corresponding to holes on the O(1) sites of the legs: only there, O $`2p_\sigma `$ orbitals exist which can contribute strongly to E$``$$`c`$ weight while not at the same time leading to similarly strong E$``$$`a`$ weight, cf. Fig. 1. Energetically, H2 is observed at $`0.6`$ eV above H1, consistent with the interpretation that the corresponding holes reside on O sites in different atomic environments. On the other hand, the E$``$$`a`$ from the O(1) leg site should appear at an energy very similar to that for the E$``$$`c`$ contributions, as both involve the same core level energy. While possible holes on the rung O(2) sites would appear for E$``$$`a`$ only it is not so clear, however, where in energy this contribution would show up in the spectrum.

In the following, we present a more detailed picture of the hole distribution and the upper Hubbard bands, trying to account for all observations made so far, and check it against further experimental results as we proceed:

(i) As discussed above, H1 is ascribed to the spectral weight of holes residing on the chain O(c) sites, giving a highly symmetric in-plane contribution in NEXAFS. The asymmetry between E$``$$`a`$ and E$``$$`c`$ at high doping levels, most prominently displayed by Sr14Cu24O41, may have its origin in certain lattice distortions of the chains along $`c`$, as observed by x-ray diffraction for temperatures below room temperature. These distortions appear simultaneously with spin dimerisation and lead to deviations from the otherwise 90 Cu-O-Cu bond symmetry. NEXAFS as a local probe is still sensitive to the asymmetry induced in this way to the hole distribution of the chain, even though at room temperature long-range order is already lost.

(ii) H2 is observed experimentally for E$``$$`c`$ and to a smaller extent for E$``$$`a`$ as well and is thus ascribed mainly to the spectral weight of holes residing on the leg O(1) sites of the ladder. Increasing the Ca content $`x`$ for the fully doped compounds Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 (right-hand side of Fig. 5 (b)) does not change H2 appreciably for E$``$$`c`$, indicating that no more holes are transferred to the O(1) $`2p_z`$ orbitals; the increase of H2 observed for E$``$$`a`$ points to a small but increasing number of holes that are transferred to ladder orbitals oriented along the $`a`$ axis; the data does not allow to unambiguously decide if to leg O(1) sites and/or rung O(2) sites.

(iii) U consists of the spectral weight of both the chain UHB and the ladder UHB, and the fact that the fitting procedure described above was not able to separate these two contributions may indicate that the energetic positions and spectral distributions are too similar for all compositions. The in-plane Cu-O coordination and the Cu-O bond lengths in both the chain and the ladder units are almost identical and hence $`t_{pd}`$ will be to a good approximation the same for chains and ladders. In the undoped compound La6Ca8Cu24O41.4 there are 10 Cu $`3d`$ holes per f.u. in the chain and 14 Cu $`3d`$ holes per f.u. in the ladder unit. Hence one can expect the respective spectral weights in the UHB as observed in O $`1s`$ NEXAFS to be distributed accordingly: about 47:65 Mb$``$eV for the chain vs. the ladder UHB. Hole doping of the chain by about 5 holes for Sr14Cu24O41 (see above) results in a formal Cu(c) valence of +2.5, which in most cuprates would result in an almost complete transfer of spectral weight from the UHB to the hole states H. Experimentally, we observe a reduction in the total U by $`<20`$ Mb$``$eV when going from $`n_h`$=0 to $`n_h`$=6 in the left-hand part of Fig. 5 (b). Doping of just a single hole per f.u. into the ladder unit of Sr14Cu24O41 will raise the formal Cu(l) valence only to +2.07, and the associated reduction of the ladder UHB will be far smaller than for the chain unit with Cu(c)+2.50. We may thus assign the full reduction observed for U to the chain UHB and find that for Sr14Cu24O41, at most 45% of the spectral weight for the fully developed chain UHB is transferred to H. This is considerably less than observed for doped CuO2 planes in high-$`T_c`$ cuprates, and even for the closely related doped chain structure of Sr0.73CuO2 with a formal Cu valence of 2.54 the UHB has almost vanished. One does find for edge-sharing chains like the ones in the present study a Cu-O-Cu hopping that is strongly hampered as it is not only governed by $`t_{pd}`$ but is mediated by two different in-plane O $`2p`$ orbitals that are mutually orthogonal, which should result in a relatively slow transfer of spectral weight from the UHB to H upon hole doping. The difference to Sr0.73CuO2 which consists of edge-sharing chains as well may be that there the Cu-O-Cu bond angles are in fact not as close to 90 as in

the chains of the Sr14Cu24O41 family.

(iv) The spectral weight for E$``$$`b`$ is too small to be interpreted individually, especially against the backdrop of the large contributions for E$``$$`a`$,$`c`$. Thus, even small factors like the only 95% degree of linear polarization or possible small misalignments, both mixing small fractions of the planar spectral weight to the E$``$$`b`$ spectra, may affect the results for E$``$$`b`$ and their relationship to the hole counts for the ladder sites which are also small. It may still be allowed to note that the spectral weight in the hole peak for E$``$$`b`$ tracks, in general, the nominal hole doping level; yet one also notes that for Sr14Cu24O41 and Sr2Ca12Cu24O41, the E$``$$`b`$ component is unusually high.

(v) The observation made in the previous section that the total spectral weight H, which in turn is dominated by the chain H1, is significantly larger for the Ca-substituted compound Sr9Ca5Cu24O41 than for Sr14Cu24O41 is highly intriguing: stoichiometry requires the total number of holes to be the same! A possible solution for this puzzle is suggested by looking at the Cu $`2p_{3/2}`$ NEXAFS spectra for Sr14Cu24O41 and Sr2.5Ca11.5Cu24O41 shown in Fig. 6. They are recorded in fluorescence yield mode but as self-absorption effects are exceedingly strong at this edge, corrections like the ones applied to the O $`1s`$ edge (see above) are problematic here and thus were not performed. Total electron yield spectra, on the other hand, would not be reliable as the sample surfaces could not be cleaved in situ. As the large Hubbard $`U`$ enforces a Cu $`3d^9`$ ground state with one intrinsic hole per Cu site, it is still possible to at least qualitatively compare different samples by normalizing the amplitudes of the excitonic peak (or “white line”) around 932.5 eV. Observing a significantly lower ligand-hole peak at about 934 eV for the highly Ca-substituted compound – while the corresponding weight H1 for O $`1s`$ NEXAFS is clearly higher – may thus be interpreted as a signature for a reduced $`t_{pd}`$ hopping parameter in the chains, with the immediate consequence that the doped holes have increased O $`2p`$ character for heavy Ca substitution. This apparent decrease in the chain $`t_{pd}`$ is likely to be induced by strong distortions of the chain on incorporation of much smaller Ca atoms, leading to highly inequivalent O sites in the chain with Cu(c)-O(c) distances now varying from 1.71 Å to 2.02 Å, and presumably to a quite inhomogeneous redistribution of holes. Thus the observation of a reduced $`t_{pd}`$ in NEXAFS does not stand in contrast to the structural observation of a reduced average Cu(c)-O(c) bond length but may be taken as an indication that the doped holes in the chain may be located preferably on O sites associated with a smaller effective $`t_{pd}`$.

(vi) The fact that the spectral weight of U for the fully doped compounds Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 seems to decrease with increasing $`x`$ is qualitatively consistent with the slight increase observed for H2 in this substitutional regime: if holes are redistributed from chain sites to ladder sites, the “slow” transfer of spectral weight between H and the UHB for the chains (see (iii) above) would lead to a concurrent increase in the chain UHB that is smaller than and thus overcompensated by the decrease in the ladder UHB. The slope of U appears larger than that of H2 and thus at first glance suggests possible inconsistencies. It should be noted, however, that upon Ca substitution the chain $`t_{pd}`$ is reduced (see (v) above) and lattice distortions increase, presumably resulting in deviations from the 90 Cu-O-Cu bond geometry. Both effects directly lead to a reduction of the spectral weight of the chain UHB in O $`1s`$ NEXAFS and help to explain the decrease in U observed in the right-hand part of Fig. 5 (b).

It is interesting to estimate the absolute hole counts $`n_{i,𝐄}`$ related to the various O orbitals, where $`i`$ denotes spectral weight corresponding to H1 or H2, and E denotes the polarization. For each sample, the total spectral weight of H, summed over the in-plane polarizations, is directly equated to the corresponding total hole count as determined by the precision chemical analysis described above. The individual contributions $`n_{i,𝐄}`$ directly follow from this “normalization”. In this way, the problems associated to possible changes in parameters like $`t_{pd}`$, for which an indication has been presented in (v) above, are reduced in their effect on the individual hole occupation numbers determined. The results are shown in Fig. 7. The hole count most obviously associated with the ladders, $`n_{2,a}`$+$`n_{2,c}`$, increases slightly from 0.8 holes for Sr14Cu24O41 to 1.1 holes for Sr2Ca12Cu24O41; considering the individual contributions one observes that the increase is due to $`n_{2,a}`$ only while $`n_{2,c}`$ stays virtually constant, in effect rendering the hole distribution in ladders more two-dimensional for the heavily Ca-substituted compounds.

These values for fully doped compounds with high Ca content remain considerably smaller than the up to 2.8 holes found in optical measurements. The interpretation of the optical data rests on assuming zero mobility

for holes on the chains, allowing one to distinguish between holes on the chains (localized) and holes on the ladders (mobile). This may be less valid if heavy Ca substitution leads to mobility in the chain as well, and the hole count for the ladders might thus be overestimated to some extent; but even in this case the difference between the optical and NEXAFS results appears too large. A point raised in Ref.  concerns the role of an effective mass greater than one which would reduce the apparent ladder hole count deduced from the optical data; however, the assumption of $`n_{chain}`$=5 and $`n_{ladder}`$=1 made in Ref.  to “normalize” their data already takes care of this. On the other hand, NEXAFS suffers to some extent from changes in parameters like $`t_{pd}`$ as pointed out above. A further effect could be that the holes on the rung O(2) sites might appear in NEXAFS at about the same energy as holes on the chain O(c) sites and thus would, in the evaluation used here, be counted not as a ladder contribution but instead as a chain contribution. If present at all, however, this effect is also expected to be small. The differing results of optical and x-ray determinations of the hole count are thus noted but remain unexplained at this time.

A further remark should be made on the fact that in the original work reporting on superconductivity in these ladder compounds, the very compound studied (Sr0.4Ca13.6Cu24O41.84) exhibited an excess oxygen content $`\delta `$ amounting to as much as 0.84. Although it is difficult to estimate the effect of up to 1.7 extra holes, it seems clear that such additional O atoms may lead to further substantial deformations in the crystal structure, and one could thus speculate that the hole concentration on the ladder sites may be increased considerably by the extra oxygen. Excess oxygen, on the other hand, may not even be necessary for superconductivity, as later reports are much less specific on excess oxygen content, and we note that crystals from the same growth rods as our Sr2.5Ca11.5Cu24O40.93 and Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 samples do exhibit superconductivity under high pressure. It may thus well be just the increased “2D” character of the electronic structure of the ladders, detected in NEXAFS as the increasingly similar H2 weight along $`a`$ and $`c`$, as well as the increased number of “pseudo-apical” O sites induced by the distortions, that in the end work together to support superconductivity in the highly Ca-substituted compounds under high pressure.

## IV Conclusion

Polarization-dependent NEXAFS has been performed on a large number of single-crystalline members of the Sr14Cu24O41 family of layered compounds containing two-leg Cu2O3 ladders and CuO2 chains. Studying different substitution levels of Y or La for Sr to change the total number of holes has shown in a direct and straightforward manner that for low and intermediate hole counts, all holes reside on the chain sites, and that this is independent of whether a further fraction of Sr is replaced by isoelectronic Ca as well. For the fully doped compound Sr14Cu24O41, on the other hand, approximately one hole per formula unit is observed on the ladder unit, specifically in O $`2p`$ orbitals oriented along the $`c`$ axis on the legs. Studying the fully doped substitution series Sr14-xCaxCu24O41, we find the total hole count in the ladders to increase only marginally; however, a larger fraction of O $`2p`$ orbitals oriented along the $`a`$ axis (on the legs and possibly on the rungs of the ladder) is now contributing to the spectral weight.

### Acknowledgements

We greatly appreciate generous and valuable experimental help by J.-H. Park, S. L. Hulbert, P. Schweiss, T. Ivanova, E. Sohmen, D.-H. Lu and C. S. Gopinath. For illuminating discussions we are grateful to S.-L. Drechsler and M. Knupfer. Research was carried out in part at the National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is supported by the U. S. Department of Energy, Division of Material Sciences and Division of Chemical Sciences, under contract number DE-AC02-98CH10886. V. C. was supported by the Office of Naval Research.


text:
# THE STRONG COUPLING AND THE GLUON DENSITY FROM JETS IN DIS

## 1 Introduction

The observation of the hadronic final state in lepton hadron interactions is an essential tool for tests of QCD. A general feature of the events is the non-isotropic energy flow, i.e. large fractions of the particles created in the interactions are concentrated in small regions in space. Jet algorithms are used to measure the number and properties of the energy clusters.

Theoretical calculations for the cross sections of these processes are done by folding perturbative calculable partonic cross sections with parton density functions that describe the structure of the hadrons as given by the factorization theorem. The universality of the parton density functions and the size of the expansion variable, the strong coupling strength, $`\alpha _s`$ provide the basic parameters. A comparison of these parameters for different processes and with other experiments provides a basic means in testing QCD.

## 2 Determination of the strong coupling strength

The ZEUS collaboration has measured the inclusive and the dijet cross section in bins of the virtuality $`Q^2`$ using the inclusive $`k_t`$ algorithm  in the data taken in 1996 and 1997. After correcting for detector and hadronization effects, NLO pQCD calculations allow to extract the strong coupling strength $`\alpha _s`$ from the dijet cross section or the dijet rate. This is shown in figure 1.

A special emphasis was put on estimating the error induced by the parton density functions (pdfs) of the proton that are taken from other experiments. Recently, a global fit by M. Botje  was published including information on the errors on the pdfs and their full correlation.

A fit of all $`\alpha _s(Q^2)`$ values is performed and the result for the strong coupling at the mass of the $`Z`$ boson extracted from the dijet cross section is

$`\alpha _s(M_Z)`$ $`=`$ $`0.1186\pm 0.0019(\text{stat}){\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+0.0020}{0.0007}}(\text{exp}){\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+0.0035}{0.0033}}(\text{e.scale})`$
$`{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+0.0048}{0.0038}}(\text{ren.scale})\pm \mathbf{0.0031}(\text{pdf})\pm 0.0005(\text{hadr})`$
and the one from the dijet rate is

$`\alpha _s(M_Z)`$ $`=`$ $`0.1166\pm 0.0019(\text{stat}){\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+0.0023}{0.0005}}(\text{exp}){\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+0.0036}{0.0034}}(\text{e.scale})`$
$`{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+0.0050}{0.0042}}(\text{ren.scale}){\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+\mathbf{0.0012}}{\mathbf{0.0011}}}(\text{pdf})\pm 0.0005(\text{hadr})`$
It can be seen that the pdf uncertainties cancel partially for the rate.

## 3 Determination of the gluon density

Information on the gluon density in the proton can be extracted from two sources: the scaling violations of the inclusive cross section and the contribution of the boson gluon fusion process to the dijet cross section. The H1 collaboration has measured both cross sections and extracted the gluon density.

A combined fit of both, the inclusive cross section $`\sigma (x,Q^2)`$ in the region $`20\text{GeV}^2Q^25000\text{GeV}^2`$ and the dijet data $`{\displaystyle \frac{d^2\sigma _2}{dQ^2dx}}`$ ($`200\text{GeV}^2Q^25000\text{GeV}^2`$) is performed. While the inclusive data dominate the low $`x`$ region, the dijet data contribute at medium $`x`$ ($`0.01x0.1`$) where data from other processes are sparse.

Figure 2 shows the gluon density in the medium $`x`$ region, evolved in Mellin space to a scale of $`200\text{GeV}^2`$ corresponding to the average scale of the data included. The density extracted using the information coming from the BGF process only has significantly larger errors than the one extracted from scaling violations. In the combined fit, both data sets are well described and the result is consistent with the individual fits. This shows the independence of the pdfs of the processes. However, adding the dijet information mainly influences the fit stability and only a minor reduction in the uncertainty on the gluon density is found.

## 4 Conclusions

The strong coupling strength has been extracted from dijet cross section and dijet rate at HERA. In this analysis, the parton density functions are taken from other measurements as determined in a global fit. The values extracted from the dijet cross section and the dijet rate are consistent with each other and with the current world average. The determination has a precision that allows to have an impact on the world average. For the first time, the uncertainty of the strong coupling due to the uncertainty in the parton densities is estimated including the full correlation between the different pdfs. It is demonstrated that this uncertainty partially cancels when using the rate instead of the cross section.

The gluon density is extracted for the first time using both, the size of the scaling violations of the inclusive cross section and the direct information from the dijet cross section. Both data sets, taken from measurements of the H1 experiment only, are well described and the resulting gluon density agrees with other extractions using a single source of information only. The inclusion of the direct information from the dijet cross section improves the fit stability compared to an extraction using the inclusive cross section only.

The developments in the understanding of jet cross sections at the HERA collider experiments demonstrate the importance of the lepton proton scattering processes for testing QCD. The accuracy of the results is comparable to those at other colliders and further precision tests can expected for the new and upcoming data taking periods.

## Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the organizers of the DIS2000 conference for the hospitality provided in Liverpool and the convenors of the WG 2 who provided an interesting mix of talks on the different analysis testing QCD.

## References


text:
# Paper 1, 2 and 3

## Abstract

This paper has been withdrawn by the author(s).


text:
# Toroidal Optical Dipole Traps for Atomic Bose-Einstein Condensates using Laguerre-Gaussian Beams

## I Introduction

Recent work has seen unprecedented advances in the preparation of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) of dilute alkali vapors . These quantum degenerate systems have paved the way for numerous innovative studies of weakly interacting Bose gases. An important area within this field is the generation and study of quantized vortices on atomic mesoscopic rings and the potential to study effects due to persistent currents and Josephson effects . Central to such studies is investigation of geometries for generation of a BEC in a toroidal trap . Typically BEC is created in a magnetic trap that confines atoms in weak-field seeking states and is thus dependent on the atomic hyperfine states. A toroidal trap can then be formed by piercing a magnetic trap with a blue-detuned laser at its center . However, the state dependence of the trapping is a limitation for advanced studies including multi-component spinor condensates. Further, the magnetic field is primarily dictated by the trapping requirements setting limitations on its spatial form and amplitude. Optical dipole traps can potentially circumvent these problems being state independent . Importantly, the spatial form of the optical trap is dictated by the light beams used. This allows one to potentially generate arbitrary shapes of condensate . Experimental work has shown the ability to transfer a condensate from a magnetic trap to an optical dipole trap created from a tightly focused Gaussian light beam .

The circularly symmetric Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) laser modes have generated substantial interest in recent years. This stems from the identification that they possess an orbital angular momentum of $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{}`$ per photon . This is in addition to the spin angular momentum associated with the polarization state of the beam. The azimuthal index $`\mathrm{}`$ refers to the number of $`2\pi `$ phase cycles around the mode circumference. A given mode has $`p+1`$ radial nodes in the mode profile where $`p`$ is the other index used in the LG mode description. One finds that LG beams with radial index $`p=0`$ are in the form of an annulus . There are several techniques for production of LG modes including the use of a cylindrical lens mode converter  and holographic methods . The latter technique allows generation of LG modes from the fundamental output of a laser beam. The annulus becomes thinner as one increases the azimuthal index $`\mathrm{}`$ of the mode .

In this work we present a technique for generating a toroidal BEC employing a Laguerre-Gaussian light beam. Single-ringed forms of such beams offer for the first time a direct possibility of generating ring-shaped condensates in an optical potential. We study the operation of this dipole trap as a function of azimuthal mode index and discuss the loading of condensates into such optical traps from a variety of initial conditions.

## II Basic Model and Equations

### A Gross-Pitaevskii equation

The basic model we consider is shown in Fig. 1 and comprises a two-dimensional (2D) BEC whose normalized mode profile is frozen by tight confinement along the $`z`$-direction, and which is placed at the focus of an off-resonant LG laser beam of frequency $`\omega _L`$ incident along the $`z`$-axis that provides a two-dimensional optical potential . The tight confinement may be provided, for example, by an independent sheet potential using a scanned optical dipole potential . Then the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) describing the macroscopic wavefunction $`\psi (𝐫_{},t)`$ for the quasi-2D motion can be written as

$$i\mathrm{}\frac{\psi }{t}=\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2M}_{}^2\psi +U(𝐫_{})\psi +gN|\psi |^2\psi ,$$
(1)
where $`𝐫_{}`$ is the two-dimensional position vector in the plane perpendicular to $`z`$, $`_{}^2`$ the corresponding two-dimensional Laplacian, $`M`$ is the atomic mass, and $`g`$ is the effective short-range interaction strength. The potential term on the right-hand-side

$$U(𝐫_{})=\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }^2}{8\mathrm{\Delta }}\left(\frac{I(𝐫_{})}{I_{\text{Sat}}}\right)$$
(2)
describes the 2D optical dipole potential with $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\omega _L\omega _A`$ the laser detuning from the optical transition frequency $`\omega _A`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ the natural linewidth of the optical transition, $`I_{\text{Sat}}`$ is the resonant saturation intensity, and $`I(𝐫_{})=\frac{1}{2}ϵ_0cn|E(𝐫_{},0)|^2`$, assuming the BEC is centered at $`z=0`$ and has a thickness less than the Rayleigh range of the focused beam. In addition, we assume that the intensity profile of the LG beam is undistorted upon propagation through the 2D BEC, which is reasonable for a thin BEC. We remark, however, that the LG beam becomes spatially phase-modulated upon transiting the BEC, resulting in a changed far field profile of the beam that could prove a useful diagnostic of the BEC density profile.

For later purposes we point out the GPE conserves both the wave function norm

$$n(t)=d^2𝐫_{}|\psi (𝐫_{},t)|^2,$$
(3)
and also the effective single-particle Hamiltonian

$$H(t)=d^2𝐫_{}\left[\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2M}|\psi |^2+U(𝐫_{})|\psi |^2+\frac{gN}{2}|\psi |^4\right].$$
(4)
### B Toroidal optical dipole potential

Our goal in this work is to explore theoretically the use of LG beams for producing toroidal optical dipole traps, the dipole potential being proportional to the laser intensity in the limit of large detunings considered here. The intensity profile of an LG beam at its focus ($`z=0`$) in cylindrical coordinates ($`𝐫_{}=(r,\theta )`$) takes the form

$$I_{p,\mathrm{}}(r)=\frac{2p!}{(p+|\mathrm{}|)!}\frac{P_0}{\pi w_{p,\mathrm{}}^2}\left(\frac{2r^2}{w_{p,\mathrm{}}^2}\right)^{|\mathrm{}|}e^{2r^2/w_{p,\mathrm{}}^2}\left[L_p^{|\mathrm{}|}\left(\frac{2r^2}{w_{p,\mathrm{}}^2}\right)\right]^2,$$
(5)
where $`P_0`$ is the beam power, $`\mathrm{}`$ is the azimuthal mode index, the field having a variation $`\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{}\theta )`$, $`p`$ is the radial mode index which is the number of radial intensity maxima, $`w_{p,\mathrm{}}`$ is the mode spot size, and $`L_p^{|\mathrm{}|}`$ is a generalized Laguerre polynomial. Here we create a single-ringed toroidal trap using a red-detuned laser field ($`\mathrm{\Delta }<0`$), so the atoms are light-seeking, using an LG beam with $`p=0`$, in which case $`L_0^{|\mathrm{}|}=1`$, and we hereafter drop the $`p`$ index and take $`\mathrm{}>0`$. Then for each value of $`\mathrm{}`$ the intensity profile has a single maximum at $`r_{\mathrm{}}=w_{\mathrm{}}\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{}}{2}}`$ . Thus, in order to produce a toroid of a fixed radius $`r_{\mathrm{}}=r_T`$, we need to choose the spot size $`w_{\mathrm{}}`$ for each azimuthal mode such that

$$w_{\mathrm{}}=r_T\sqrt{\frac{2}{\mathrm{}}}.$$
(6)
Furthermore, for a given $`\mathrm{}`$ the peak intensity at the toroid center $`r=r_T`$ may be written as

$$I_{\mathrm{}}=\frac{2P_0}{\pi w_{\mathrm{}}^2}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}^{\mathrm{}}e^{\mathrm{}}}{\mathrm{}!}\right)=I_1\left(\frac{\mathrm{}^{\mathrm{}+1}e^{(\mathrm{}1)}}{\mathrm{}!}\right)I_1\sqrt{\mathrm{}},$$
(7)
with $`I_1=e^1P_0/\pi r_T^2`$ the peak intensity for $`\mathrm{}=1`$ . Here in the expression for $`I_{\mathrm{}}`$ we have used Stirling’s formula $`\mathrm{}!\sqrt{2\pi \mathrm{}}\mathrm{}^{\mathrm{}}/e^{\mathrm{}}`$, and we see that the peak intensity scales as $`\sqrt{\mathrm{}}`$.

Gathering the above results together, for a fixed laser power $`P_0`$ we may write the optical dipole potential (eq. (2)) in the following form which is useful for comparison between different values of $`\mathrm{}`$

$$U_{\mathrm{}}(r)=U_{\mathrm{}}\left(\frac{r}{r_T}\right)^2\mathrm{}e^{\mathrm{}(r^2/r_T^21)},$$
(8)
where

$$U_1=\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }^2}{8\mathrm{\Delta }}\left(\frac{e^1P_0}{\pi r_T^2I_{\text{Sat}}}\right),U_{\mathrm{}}=U_1\left(\frac{\mathrm{}^{\mathrm{}+1}e^{(\mathrm{}1)}}{\mathrm{}!}\right)U_1\sqrt{\mathrm{}},$$
(9)
$`U_1`$ being the optical dipole potential well depth for $`\mathrm{}=1`$ at the toroid radius $`r_T`$. Note that $`U_{\mathrm{}}`$ is negative for a laser red detuned from resonance. Figure 2 shows the normalized optical dipole potential $`U_{\mathrm{}}(r)/|U_1|`$ versus $`r/r_T`$ for various azimuthal mode indices $`\mathrm{}`$, a red-detuned laser, and fixed laser power and toroid radius, i.e. fixed $`U_1`$. Here we see that as $`\mathrm{}`$ increases the toroidal trap becomes deeper and tighter, meaning that higher-order LG beams present advantages for making tight toroidal dipole traps.

## III Ground state toroidal solutions

In this section we elucidate the ground state properties of toroidal traps using the harmonic oscillator and Thomas-Fermi approximations. These approximate solutions amply illustrate the key features of the problem.

### A Thomas-Fermi solution

Setting $`\psi (r,\theta ,t)=\varphi (r)\mathrm{exp}(i\mu t/\mathrm{})`$ for the cylindrically symmetric ground state we obtain

$$\mu \varphi =\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2M}_{}^2\varphi +U_{\mathrm{}}(r)\varphi +gN|\varphi |^2\varphi ,$$
(10)
with $`\mu `$ the chemical potential. To obtain insight into the solutions of this equation we consider the harmonic oscillator approximation to the toroidal dipole potential (eq. (8)) trap around $`r=r_T`$,

$$U_{\mathrm{}}(r_T+\delta r)U_{\mathrm{}}\left(12\mathrm{}\frac{\delta r^2}{r_T^2}+\mathrm{}\right),$$
(11)
where $`U_{\mathrm{}}`$ is negative for a red detuned laser, as assumed throughout the paper. If we furthermore employ the Thomas-Fermi approximation , in which the kinetic energy term is neglected in comparison to the mean field energy, then we obtain the approximate GPE

$$(\mu U_{\mathrm{}})\varphi \frac{1}{2}M\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{}}^2\delta r^2\varphi +gN|\varphi |^2\varphi $$
(12)
where the effective harmonic oscillator frequencies are

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{}}=2\sqrt{\frac{|U_1|}{Mr_T^2}}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}^{\mathrm{}+2}e^{(\mathrm{}1)}}{\mathrm{}!}\right)^{1/2}2\sqrt{\frac{|U_1|}{Mr_T^2}}\mathrm{}^{3/4},$$
(13)
where Stirling’s formula was used in the last expression. Equation (12) has the approximate ring solution $`(r_T\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{}}rr_T+\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{}})`$

$$\mu =U_{\mathrm{}}+\frac{gN}{2\pi r_T\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{}}},|\varphi (r)|^2=\frac{1}{2\pi r_T\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{}}}\left(1\frac{(rr_T)^2}{\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{}}^2}\right),$$
(14)
where the ring width is given by

$$\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{}}}{r_T}\right)=\left(\frac{gN}{4\pi |U_1|r_T^2}\right)^{1/3}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}!}{\mathrm{}^{\mathrm{}+2}e^{(\mathrm{}1)}}\right)^{1/3}\left(\frac{gN}{4\pi |U_1|r_T^2}\right)^{1/3}\mathrm{}^{1/2}.$$
(15)
These solutions correspond to ring-shaped BEC density profiles which are peaked at $`r=r_T`$ and have a width $`2\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{}}`$. We see that as the azimuthal mode index $`\mathrm{}`$ is increased with all other parameters fixed the radial harmonic oscillator frequency increases $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{}^{3/4}`$, and the ring width decreases $`\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{}^{1/2}`$. Thus, using higher-order LG beams provides an advantage for making tight bound toroidal rings as commented earlier.

The 2D Thomas-Fermi solution above should be applicable under the combined conditions $`gN>>\mathrm{}^2/2M`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{}}/r_T<<1`$, which ensure that the mean-field energy is greater than the kinetic energy, and the ring width is less than the toroid radius. The latter condition is also required for the validity of the harmonic oscillator approximation.

### B Scaling

To explore the parameter space for the toroidal trap it is useful to introduce appropriately scaled units. For a trap of radius $`r_T`$ we scale all lengths as $`\rho _{}=𝐫_{}/r_T`$, all energies are scaled to $`\mathrm{}\omega _T=\mathrm{}^2/Mr_T^2`$, and we introduce a dimensionless time $`\tau =\omega _Tt`$. In these units the GPE becomes

$$i\frac{\phi }{\tau }=\frac{1}{2}_{}^2\phi +u_{\mathrm{}}(\rho )\phi +\pi \eta N|\phi |^2\phi ,$$
(16)
where $`\phi =r_T\psi `$, $`u_{\mathrm{}}=U_{\mathrm{}}/\mathrm{}\omega _T`$, and $`\eta =Mg/\pi \mathrm{}^2`$ is a dimensionless measure of the repulsive many-body interactions . We shall use the above scaled GPE in our numerical simulations of loading toroidal optical dipole traps.

Turning to the Thomas-Fermi solution, in dimensionless units the radial harmonic oscillator frequency and the ring width become

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{}}}{\omega _T}2\sqrt{|u_1|}\mathrm{}^{3/4}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{}}}{r_T}\left(\frac{\eta N}{4|u_1|}\right)^{1/3}\mathrm{}^{1/2}$$
(17)
and the chemical potential is given by

$$\frac{\mu }{\mathrm{}\omega _T}u_1\mathrm{}^{1/2}\left[1+2\text{sgn}(u_1)\left(\frac{\eta N}{4|u_1|}\right)^{2/3}\right]$$
(18)
where Stirling’s formula has been used. These solutions depend on the dimensionless well depth $`u_1`$ for $`\mathrm{}=1`$ which is given explicitly by

$$u_1=\frac{U_1}{\mathrm{}\omega _T}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2}{8\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }}\left(\frac{e^1MP_0}{\pi I_{\text{Sat}}}\right),$$
(19)
and is independent of the toroid radius.

In dimensionless form the condition $`gN>>\mathrm{}^2/2M`$ for applicability of the Thomas-Fermi approximation becomes $`\eta N>>1/(2\pi )`$. Combining this with the condition $`\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{}}/r_T<1`$ yields the constraint on the number of particles

$$\frac{1}{2\pi }<\eta N<4|u_1|\sqrt{\mathrm{}},$$
(20)
which shows that traps using higher azimuthal mode index can hold more atoms, all other parameters being equal.

### C Parameter values

To illustrate the basic scales involved in toroidal traps we consider the case of the $`\lambda _A=589`$ nm transition of Na using a laser wavelength of $`\lambda _L=985\text{nm}`$ and a toroid radius of $`r_T=10\mu \text{m}`$, these values being used throughout this paper. Then using the parameter values $`I_{\text{Sat}}=63`$ W/m2, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2\pi \times 9.89\text{MHz}`$, we obtain $`u_{\mathrm{}}=u_1\sqrt{\mathrm{}}=253\times P_0\sqrt{\mathrm{}}`$, with $`P_0`$ in milli-Watts. Using $`\mathrm{}\omega _T2.1\times 10^{10}`$ K, with corresponding time scale $`1/\omega _T=36`$ ms, for a given azimuthal mode index $`\mathrm{}`$ this potential depth translates to $`u_{\mathrm{}}=53\times P_0\sqrt{\mathrm{}}\text{nK}`$. The corresponding effective oscillator frequencies in the toroidal trap are then $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{}}=2\pi \times 0.14P_0^{1/2}\mathrm{}^{3/4}\text{kHz}`$. Consider therefore the case of $`P_0=1\text{mW}`$ so that $`u_1=253`$. For two-dimensional BECs a characteristic value for the many-body parameter is $`\eta 10^3`$ . Then for $`N=10^5`$ and $`\mathrm{}=6`$ we have $`\mathrm{\Delta }r_6=1.9\mu \text{m}`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_6=2\pi \times 0.54\text{kHz}`$. This is not a particularly tight ring but tighter confinement can be achieved by increasing the azimuthal mode index. Figure 3 shows the variation of the oscillator frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{}}/2\pi `$ in kHz (solid line), and $`\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{}}`$ in microns (dashed line) both versus $`\mathrm{}`$ for $`u_1=253,\eta N=100`$, and displays the advantage of using high azimuthal mode index. We note that it is difficult to produce LG modes with very high azimuthal index ($`\mathrm{}>6`$) due to decreasing mode purity from holographic generation. However, other techniques exist for generating narrow annular beams, e.g. using an axicon . Typically the radial spread of such beams is very small, thus they would allow one to explore the region of tight radial confinement seen for LG beams with $`\mathrm{}20`$ (see Fig. 3).

## IV Loading a toroidal optical dipole trap

Having established that LG beams can provide toroidal traps for 2D BECs the issue arises of how to load atoms into the ground state of the trap. It does not seem feasible to condense directly in the toroidal trap as it does not lend itself to evaporative cooling and the laser field could lead to heating. The solution is then to load into the toroidal trap from an existing BEC, e.g. a magnetic trap or sheet dipole potential trap . Here we consider loading of a toroidal trap from an initial 2D ring BEC, for example using a magnetic trap with a blue-detuned laser piercing its center , and also from a centrally peaked BEC as is the case for conventional harmonic traps. The calculations presented here demonstrate that it is in principle possible to load toroidal traps and we use illustrative examples which highlight the issues involved.

### A Types of initial condition

We have numerically solved the GPE (16) for a variety of initial conditions with the exact optical dipole potential in Eq. (8). We consider the situation that for $`t<0`$ the BEC is in the ground state of a prescribed potential which is turned off for $`t>0`$ and the toroidal LG trap is turned on. To model this situation we have considered a variety of initial conditions at $`t=0`$ and their subsequent evolution. Rather than dwelling on a specific potential model for $`t<0`$ we consider the super-Gaussian initial macroscopic wave functions

$$\psi (r,0)=𝒩e^{(rr_{\text{peak}})^m/w^m},$$
(21)
where $`𝒩`$ is a normalization constant, $`w`$ is the width of the initial wave function, $`m2`$ is the order of the super-Gaussian, $`m=2`$ being the usual Gaussian, and $`r_{\text{peak}}`$ is the displacement of the density peak away from the origin: for $`r_{\text{peak}}=0`$ we have a centrally peaked initial density, $`r_{\text{peak}}=r_T`$ gives an initial ring BEC with its peak at the toroid radius. As $`m`$ increases the initial condition becomes more top-hat like, representative of the broadening due to repulsive many-body effects. For the numerics presented here we set $`m=8`$.

We have numerically solved the GPE (16) for a variety of initial conditions with the exact optical dipole potential in Eq. (8) subject to the above initial conditions using the split-step beam propagation method . In implementing this scheme we have included absorbing boundary conditions at the edge of the numerical grid, thereby simulating losses due to radially outward going atoms. We tested that the numerical results presented were not sensitive to the placement of the absorber. Thus, in our simulations the norm $`n(t)`$ in Eq. (3) of the macroscopic wave function is not conserved at unity. However, the norm $`n(t)1`$ is actually a measure of the fraction of initial atoms that are captured in the toroidal trap.

For most of the simulations presented we chose $`\mathrm{}=6`$ as this is characteristic of the LG beams that can be generated reliably experimentally at present .

### B Initial ring BEC

First we will discuss the loading of the toroidal optical dipole trap with a BEC that is already ring shaped. Although the BEC has already the desired shape, this transfer from a magnetic-based ring trap to a toroidal trap is still of importance as this trap can confine multi-component condensates in different Zeeman sublevels. For an initial ring BEC the ground state of the toroidal trap can be excited by reasonably matching the initial and ground state wave functions. Figure 4 shows two examples of the computed dynamics for an initial ring BEC formed in Na with $`u_1=25.3`$ ($`P_0=0.1\text{mW}`$), and $`\eta N=50`$. For these parameters and $`\mathrm{}=6`$ the Thomas-Fermi theory of the last section gives a ring width of $`\mathrm{\Delta }r_6=3.2\mu \text{m}`$. In Fig. 4(a), which shows a gray-scale plot of the 2D atomic density $`|\phi (x,0,t)|^2`$ versus time in ms along the horizontal axis and radius $`x`$ in microns along the vertical axis, we used $`\mathrm{}=6`$, $`w=4\mu \text{m}`$, and after a transient the density profile settles down to a steady ring of smaller width than the input. The transient involves expansion of the atoms outward from the ring and also inwards towards the origin, and the peak at the origin seen for $`t3.2`$ ms is due to interference between the inwardly propagating circular atomic waves. The outward propagating atomic waves leads to an effective loss mechanism which allows for the damping of the initial wave function towards the ground state toroidal BEC. The final ring contains $`n90\%`$ of the initial atoms. Figure 4(b) shows a gray-scale plot of the 2D atomic density for the same parameters as 4(a) except $`\mathrm{}=2`$, for which $`\mathrm{\Delta }r_2=5.6\mu \text{m}`$, so that the input with $`w=2.5\mu \text{m}`$ is now half the expected ring width. After a considerably larger transient than in Fig. 4(a) the density again settles down but now to a larger ring than the input containing about $`n80\%`$ of the initial atoms. Notice, however, that for $`t>15`$ ms the atomic density shows a further transient, and this is caused by weak atomic waves caught around the origin that start to leak out, as revealed by detailed examination of the data.

For these simulations we have used a rather low laser power $`P_0=0.1\text{mW}`$, so that the toroidal trap depth is only about $`13\text{nK}`$ for $`\mathrm{}=6`$. We have chosen such a loosely bound toroidal trap as an illustrative example of loading since tighter traps (larger $`|u_1|`$) are generally easier to excite by suitably matched initial ring BECs as the ground state and next excited state have a larger energy separation. Thus the present example shows that there is considerable robustness in loading from initial ring BECs, as expected intuitively. One might expect such shallow traps to be very susceptible to heating and losses induced by noise and background gas collisions. However, the heating due to position and intensity noise increase with the fourth and second power of the trap frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{}}`$, respectively, and heating due to background gas collisions is proportional to the square of the trap depth . Therefore our shallow traps (with low trap oscillation frequencies and small trap depth) should be relatively immune to these detrimental effects.

### C Initial centrally peaked BEC

Figure 5 shows representative 2D atomic density plots from simulations of loading from an initial centrally peaked ($`r_{\text{peak}}=0`$) Na BEC with $`m=8`$,$`u_1=100`$ ($`P_0=0.40\text{mW}`$), the corresponding trap depth being $`21.2\sqrt{\mathrm{}}\text{nK}`$, and $`\eta N=400`$. The plots are for different initial BEC widths (a) $`w=r_T=10\mu \text{m}`$ with $`\mathrm{}=6`$, (b) $`w=14\mu \text{m}`$ with $`\mathrm{}=6`$, and (c) $`w=14\mu \text{m}`$, with $`\mathrm{}=2`$. Case (a) shows very little signs of trapping in the toroid which is centered at $`r_T=10\mu \text{m}`$, but (b) with an increased BEC width of $`w=14\mu \text{m}`$ now shows substantial trapping with $`N=90\%`$ of the initial atoms trapped. What distinguishes these two case is that the initial Hamiltonian in Eq. (4), which we evaluated numerically, is $`H(0)/\mathrm{}\omega _T=148`$ in case (a) and $`H(0)/\mathrm{}\omega _T=16.6`$ for case (b). The Hamiltonian has three contributions, the kinetic energy which is positive, the optical dipole potential which for a red-detuned laser is negative, and the nonlinear term due to many-body repulsion which is positive. As we simulate the effects of atom losses due to outward propagating atoms using the absorbing boundary, the atom number decreases and so typically does the Hamiltonian as the initial BEC evolves. Physically, as we consider red-detuned traps that have negative optical dipole potentials which go to zero away from the trap, atoms with energies above the trap energy of zero will tend to be lost from the toroidal trap. For case (a) the initial Hamiltonian or energy is above the trap energy and the atoms fly above the toroidal trap under the influence of the repulsive many-body effects. Indeed the initial density profile with $`w=10\mu \text{m}`$ overlaps the toroidal trap very little, leaving only positive contributions to the Hamiltonian in Eq. (4). In contrast, for the wider initial BEC in Fig. 5(b) the initial density profile overlaps the toroidal trap giving a net Hamiltonian less than the trap energy, so trapping becomes possible. We remark that the requirement that the initial Hamiltonian be less than the trap energy is a necessary but not sufficient condition for trapping, as there is still dependence on the initial density profile. For example, Fig. 5(c) is the same as in 5(b) except $`u_1=253`$ ($`P_0=1\text{mW}`$), the corresponding trap depth being $`130\text{nK}`$ for $`\mathrm{}=6`$. In this case $`H(0)/\mathrm{}\omega _T=216`$, well below the trap energy, but Fig. 5(c) shows that the atoms do not cleanly load into the ground state of the toroidal trap, but rather the density displays undamped oscillations on the time scale of the simulation. This oscillatory behavior is typically a feature for deeper traps. We have begun to explore methods of smoothing the loading of deeper toroidal traps, such as tapering the turn-on of the optical potential and phase-imprinting the initial BEC so that it moves towards a ring. These methods do smooth the loading process and we shall report on these issues along with the effects of beam misalignments in a future publication.

## V Summary and conclusions

In this paper we have shown that Laguerre-Gaussian beams provide a flexible means for forming toroidal optical dipole traps in 2D atomic BECs, and that the toroidal traps can be loaded from initial conditions representative of conventional magnetic traps. It remains to be seen how tight the atoms can be confined in these rings, and detailed numerical studies are underway. This work is a first step towards developing toroidal traps which shall act as mesoscopic rings for atoms for a variety of basic and applied studies . For example, once a BEC is prepared in its ground state of the toroidal trap a vortex state of variable angular momentum can be excited using Raman coupling (involving a second LG beam) to another Zeeman sublevel , hence allowing for studies of ring vortices and persistent currents on a torus . Also, as our toroidal trap does not involve a magnetic trap it allows for studies of multi-component BECs trapped on a ring . In the limit of small number of atoms there is also the possibility of realizing a Tonk’s gas of impenetrable bosons on a ring , which has been predicted to exhibit dark solitons . Furthermore, by looking at higher-order LG modes with different radial index $`p`$, and hence multiple concentric rings, we can create coaxial toroidal traps for the BECs, hence allowing for radial tunneling between condensates. In particular, multiple rings could create a circular grating for atoms which could in principle act as the feedback mechanism for a 2D atom laser, by analogy to circular grating optical lasers . On the applied side, once a ring BEC is formed we can further pierce it with blue-detuned lasers at positions along its perimeter to form tunnel-junctions akin to superconducting links. One can then envision a range of sensors, e.g. rotation, based on the sensitivity of the tunneling current to any perturbation of the system. In principle, large rings could be made by first loading a small ring and then adiabatically expanding the LG light mode incident on the BEC, hence very sensitive matter-wave sensors of inertial forces could result.

EMW was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research Contract No. N00014-99-1-0806, and the Department of Army Grant No. DAAD 19-00-1-0169. KD acknowledges the support of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Figure 3

Figure 4(a)

Figure 4(b)

Figure 5(a)

Figure 5(b)

Figure 5(c)