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# Supernova Neutrino Detection

## 1 THE NEUTRINO SIGNAL

Astronomers expect that every 30 years or so, a massive star in our Galaxy will reach the end of its life. When the core of such a star collapses, it emits nearly all of the gravitational binding energy of a neutron star in the form of neutrinos, some $`E_b3\times 10^{53}`$ ergs. Less than 1% of this energy is released in the form of kinetic energy and optically visible radiation. The remainder is radiated in neutrinos, of which approximately 1% is $`\nu _e`$ from an initial “breakout” burst and the remaining 99% are $`\nu \overline{\nu }`$ pairs from the later cooling reactions, roughly equally distributed among flavors. Average neutrino energies will be about 12 MeV for $`\nu _e`$, 15 MeV for $`\overline{\nu }_e`$, and 18 MeV for all other flavors. This hierarchy of energies is explained by the fact $`\overline{\nu }_e`$’s have fewer charged current (CC) interactions with the neutron-rich stellar core than do $`\nu _e`$’s; they decouple deeper inside the core where it is hotter and so emerge with higher average energies than do $`\nu _e`$’s. Similarly, $`\nu _{\mu ,\tau }`$111I will use the symbol $`\nu _{\mu ,\tau }`$ to refer to muon and/or tau neutrinos and their antineutrinos., which have only neutral current (NC) interactions with the core’s matter, emerge with even higher energies. The neutrinos are emitted over a total timescale of tens of seconds, with about half emitted during the first 1-2 seconds, and with the spectrum eventually softening as the proto-neutron star cools. Burrows  sketches the expected neutrino signal. Some more recent developments in core collapse theory are described in these proceedings by Mezzacappa  and Prakash .

## 2 DETECTORS

Several kinds of detector are capable of detecting a burst of neutrinos from a gravitational collapse in our Galaxy. Most of the detector types described here actually have primary purposes other than supernova neutrino detection, e.g. proton decay searches, solar and atmospheric neutrino physics, neutrino oscillation studies, and astrophysical neutrino source searches.

### 2.1 Scintillation Detectors

The hydrogen in hydrocarbon scintillator has a high cross-section for the charged current (CC) antineutrino absorption reaction,

$$\overline{\nu }_e+pe^++n.$$
(1)
The positron energy is highly correlated with the neutrino energy. The neutron from reaction 1 may also be detectable via the time-delayed fusion of the neutron with protons in the scintillator:

$$n+pd+\gamma (2.2\mathrm{MeV}),$$
(2)
where the $`\gamma `$ can be detected by its Compton scattering. The average moderation time for the neutron is $``$10 $`\mu `$s, and the average capture time is $`170\mu `$s; the neutron typically wanders for tens of centimeters before being captured. Therefore, a time-delayed coincidence of a $``$10 MeV pulse with a $``$2 MeV signal can provide a signature for the interaction of supernova $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ in liquid scintillator detectors.

Scintillators are also sensitive to CC and NC neutrino-electron scattering and the superallowed NC excitation of 12C by neutrinos of all flavors, although cross-sections are much lower than for inverse beta decay. The NC 12C excitation can be detected (and, to some extent, be tagged) via the 15 MeV de-excitation gamma; such events should represent about 10% of the total number of interactions, although detection efficiency varies, depending on detector geometry.

Scintillator detectors are not generally able to point to a supernova source. The positron products of the predominant inverse beta decay reaction are emitted nearly isotropically, and the scintillation light is isotropized. However the neutron emission is asymmetric and if the relative positions of the positron and the neutron absorption can be measured, some directional information can be extracted. The CHOOZ experiment  has recently demonstrated of this principle using reactor neutrinos.

Currently, the MACRO  and LVD  detectors at Gran Sasso have enough scintillator mass to be sensitive to a gravitational collapse anywhere in the Galaxy. LSD and Baksan, with less mass and sensitivity, are also still running. Scintillation detectors which will come online over the next several years include Borexino at the Gran Sasso and KamLAND in Japan.

### 2.2 Water Cherenkov Detectors

The charged current inverse beta decay reaction, reaction 1, will dominate the supernova neutrino interaction rate in water Cherenkov detectors. Therefore, as for scintillator detectors, the primary sensitivity is to the $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ component of supernova neutrino radiation. Light water Cherenkov detectors are also capable of detecting CC and NC neutrino-electron scattering reactions:

$$\nu _x+e^{}\nu _x+e^{},$$
(3)
where $`\nu _x`$ represents a neutrino of any flavor. Although elastic scattering events should represent only a few percent of the total supernova signal, this reaction has potential for allowing reconstruction of the direction to the supernova source, because the $`e^{}`$ direction, which can be determined from the Cherenkov cone direction, is related to the $`\nu _e`$ direction.

Some NC interactions of neutrinos on oxygen are expected,

$${}_{}{}^{16}\mathrm{O}+\nu _x{}_{}{}^{16}\mathrm{O}_{}^{}+\nu _x,$$
(4)
which can be detected via a cascade of 5-10 MeV de-excitation gammas; these may be useful for neutrino mass measurements (see section 3). Finally, a few percent of interactions will be CC interactions of $`\nu _e`$ and $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ on 16O and 18O.

The largest existing water Cherenkov detector is the Super-Kamiokande detector  in Japan, which should observe thousands of neutrinos from a Galactic supernova.

### 2.3 Heavy Water Detectors

Heavy water neutrino detectors exploit the relatively high cross-sections for the interaction of neutrinos with deuterons. Both CC and NC deuteron breakup reactions are detectable, via Cherenkov light of the lepton products for the CC case, and via neutron detection of some sort for the NC and $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ CC cases. Two classes of reactions are relevant here:

1. The neutral current interaction of neutrinos with deuterons:

$$\nu _x+dn+p+\nu _x.$$
(5)
In this case the neutron is detected in some way, via Cherenkov light from Compton-scattered gamma rays produced from absorption of the neutrons on nuclei in the detector medium, or using dedicated neutron detectors. The proton is below Cherenkov threshold and is therefore invisible. No energy or neutrino direction is available for this reaction; however, the reaction is sensitive to all flavors of neutrinos.
2. The charged current interaction of electron neutrinos and anti-neutrinos with deuterons:

$$\nu _e+dp+p+e^{}$$
(6)
$$\overline{\nu }_e+dn+n+e^+.$$
(7)
In these cases, the $`e^+`$ or $`e^{}`$ can be detected by its Cherenkov light, and energy and directional information can be extracted. In addition, the neutrons from the anti-neutrino reaction can be detected with a time-delayed coincidence (also tagging the anti-neutrino reaction). The products of these reactions retain some information about the direction of the incoming neutrino.

The neutral current (NC) sensitivity of heavy water will make its supernova signal especially rich. In addition to providing a unique diagnostic of supernova processes, a NC detector may be able to provide strong constraints (or measurement) of absolute neutrino mass from relative time of flight measurements (see section 3) in conjunction with CC data from the same detector, or with data from other detectors with primarily $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ flavor sensitivity.

At present, the only example of a heavy water supernova neutrino detector is the SNO  detector in Canada.

### 2.4 Long String Water Cherenkov Detectors

Long string water Cherenkov detectors consist of long strings of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) hanging in very clear water or buried in ice. These detector arrays are designed primarily to observe high energy ($`>>`$GeV) neutrinos by looking for Cherenkov light from upward-going neutrino-induced muons. However, these detectors have some supernova neutrino sensitivity as well. Although the PMTs in the array are too sparse to allow event-by-event supernova neutrino reconstruction at low energy, a large burst of supernova neutrinos will produce enough Cherenkov photons from interactions in the ice surrounding the PMTs to cause a coincident increase in single PMT count rates from many PMTs . For instance, the track length for 20 MeV positrons in ice is expected to be about 10 cm, from which roughly 3000 Cherenkov photons are emitted ; an absorption length of $``$100 m then leads to an effective volume of $``$400 m3 per PMT. The supernova sensitivity of such a long string detector is strongly dependent on the noisiness of its phototubes and ambient light background. Again, since reaction 1 dominates, primary sensitivity is to $`\overline{\nu }_e`$. There is no direction sensitivity, although in principle participation in a triangulation measurement using timing is possible.

Examples of long string Cherenkov detectors are AMANDA in the Antarctic ice, the Lake Baikal detector, and NESTOR and ANTARES in the Mediterranean. Currently the most promising for supernova detection in terms of a low background noise rate is the AMANDA detector .

### 2.5 High Z/Neutron Detectors

High Z/neutron detectors are primarily sensitive to the high energy component of the supernova neutrino flux. The idea is to observe neutrons emitted from the NC reaction

$$\nu _x+(A,Z)(A1,Z)+n+\nu _x.$$
(8)
In addition, neutrons can arise from CC neutrino interactions

$$\nu _e+(A,Z)(A1,Z+1)+n+e^{},$$
(9)
$$\overline{\nu }_e+(A,Z)(A1,Z1)+n+e^+;$$
(10)
The $`e^+`$ or $`e^{}`$ may be detectable as well. These reactions occur primarily for high energy neutrinos; therefore the neutrino flavors detected are expected to be mostly muon and tau (which are emitted with higher temperatures). Just as for the other detectors with NC sensitivity, multi-flavor sensitivity is useful for probing core collapse physics, and will be especially valuable for neutrino mass studies via time delay measurements . High Z materials such as lead or iron are appropriate, since the cross-section increases along with number of nucleons in the nucleus, and a large quantity of relatively pure material can be obtained cheaply. A combination of different materials can give rough neutrino spectral information due to different energy dependence of cross-sections for different nuclei; this in turn can yield information about neutrino oscillation, which would produce distortion of the energy spectra. A particularly promising target material for oscillation tests is 208Pb .

Proposed detectors of this type include OMNIS and LAND.

### 2.6 Other Detectors

Some other supernova-sensitive detectors (existing, under construction, or proposed) are:

* ICANOE (Imaging and CAlorimetric Neutrino Oscillation Experiment): liquid argon drift chambers are to be built at the Gran Sasso Laboratory. These should have sensitivity to $`\nu _e`$ from supernovae via

$$\nu _e+^{40}\mathrm{Ar}{}_{}{}^{40}\mathrm{K}_{}^{}+\mathrm{e}^{}.$$
(11)
The final state electron is detected, and in addition the de-excitation gamma rays from $`{}_{}{}^{40}\mathrm{K}_{}^{}`$ can be detected.
* Radiochemical detectors: the 37Cl solar neutrino detector at the Homestake mine, the gallium solar neutrino detectors such as GALLEX and SAGE, or a possible 127I detector, will register counts if supernova neutrinos interact inside them. Since the sensitive chemicals are only extracted at very long time intervals ($``$ weeks or months), these detectors have no time (or energy) resolution and are of limited value for a stellar collapse search. However, if a burst of gravitational collapse neutrinos were confirmed in one or many of the real-time neutrino detectors, radiochemical experiments could perform prompt extractions to determine whether any counts over background were registered during the relevant time period. Furthermore, recent proposals for quasi-real-time triggered chlorine extractions () may make radiochemical technology more interesting for supernova neutrinos.
* Gravitational wave detectors: large interferometer experiments under construction such as LIGO and VIRGO will have the capability of detecting gravitational wave signals from asymmetric supernova explosions (although the details of a stellar collapse gravitational wave signal are not yet well understood). The gravitational wave signal may be more prompt even than the neutrino signal.

### 2.7 Detector Summary

Table 1 gives a brief overview of the neutrino detector types mentioned here.

In summary, scintillator and water Cherenkov detectors are sensitive primarily to $`\overline{\nu }_e`$; detectors with NC capabilities (heavy water, high Z/neutron) are sensitive to all flavors. Water Cherenkov and heavy water detectors have significant pointing capabilities. All can see neutrinos in real-time, except radiochemical. All have good energy resolution, except long string water Cherenkov, high Z and radiochemical.

Table 2 lists specific supernova neutrino detectors and their capabilities.

## 3 WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

### 3.1 Overview

A comprehensive review of all that might be learned from a Galactic signal would be a daunting task, so I will give only a brief overview, and then will focus on the one subject of absolute neutrino mass sensitivity via time of flight.

#### 3.1.1 Neutrino Physics

A core collapse event provides a powerful and distant natural source of neutrinos, allowing the study of neutrino properties, such as mass, flavor oscillations, and charge. Some of the most interesting possible measurements are of absolute neutrino mass, exploiting the time of flight delays over the long distance from the supernova: one can look for an energy-dependent time spread in the observed events, or a flavor-dependent delay. In addition, the effects of neutrino oscillation in the core of the star manifest themselves as an anomalously hot $`\nu _e`$ (or $`\overline{\nu }_e`$) spectrum (e.g. ). More information can be extracted: the neutrino data from SN1987A set limits on neutrino lifetime, charge, number of neutrino families, neutrino magnetic moment , and even extra dimensions . Although there will always be at least some collapse model dependence in any conclusions, in many cases it is possible to make quite robust assumptions about the neutrino source.

#### 3.1.2 Core Collapse Physics

The time structure, energy spectrum and flavor composition of the neutrino burst will yield information on astrophysical stellar collapse processes, even for “silent” collapses, i.e. those occurring without strong electromagnetic fireworks or in regions of the Galaxy obscured by dust. The neutrino signal will help to understand the explosion mechanism and the mechanisms of proto neutron star cooling (see ). In addition, the formation of a black hole may be signaled by a sharp cutoff in neutrino luminosity .

#### 3.1.3 Astronomy from an Early Alert

The neutrino burst produced by the core collapse emerges promptly from the stellar envelope. However, the shock wave produced by the collapse takes some time to travel outwards. The time of first shock breakout is highly dependent on the nature of the stellar envelope, and can range from minutes for bare-core stars to hours for red giants. For SN1987A, first light was observed about 2.5 hours after the neutrino burst; the first observable photons probably reached us about one hour earlier than that. The observation of very early light from a supernova just after shock breakout is astrophysically very interesting , and rare for extragalactic supernovae. One can learn about the supernova progenitor and its immediate environment. And of course, an observation of very early supernova light could also yield entirely unexpected effects. It is possible that a core collapse event will not yield an optically bright supernova, either because the explosion “fizzles”, or because the supernova is in an optically obscured region of the sky. In the latter case there may still be an observable event in some wavelengths, or in gravitational radiation.

### 3.2 Absolute Neutrino Mass

The time delay for a neutrino of energy $`E`$ and mass $`m_\nu `$ is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=0.0515\left(\frac{m_\nu }{E}\right)^2D`$ for a supernova at distance $`D`$ (for $`m_\nu `$ in eV, $`E`$ in MeV and $`D`$ in kpc). Therefore, a spread in arrival time and correlation of arrival time with energy can point to a non-zero neutrino mass, assuming that the neutrinos are emitted with some energy spectrum on a short timescale. However, because there is a relatively large intrinsic emission time spread ($``$ 10 seconds), one can in practice only get an upper limit on $`m_\nu `$. For 1987A, for reasonable assumptions about the nature of the source time spread, a typical limit is $`m_{\overline{\nu }_e}<20`$ eV. For a supernova in our Galaxy and current detectors, time of flight sensitivity to neutrino mass is around 3 eV for $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ ; this is not better than the best laboratory kinematic limits on $`m_{\nu _e}`$ .

However, the next supernova may well give us mass limits for $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$ which are orders of magnitude better than laboratory limits (currently 190 keV for $`\nu _\mu `$ and 15.5 MeV for $`\nu _\tau `$ ). The idea is to use detectors with NC sensitivity to measure relative delays between tagged NC events (which have substantial $`\nu _{\mu ,\tau }`$ component) and $`\overline{\nu }_e`$, under the assumption that the latter are light enough to have negligible delay and can therefore provide $`t=0`$. Information from more than one detector could be used. As an example, the analysis of Beacom and Vogel  (see Figure 1) shows that Super-K and SNO have sensitivity to $`\nu _{\mu ,\tau }`$ masses in the tens of eV to keV range. Some more recent work  shows that a supernova that continues its collapse to a black hole could be even more interesting: in this case, the sharp ($``$ sub-millisecond) cutoff in neutrino luminosity, which should be nearly simultaneous for all flavors, provides a clean $`t=0`$ for a time of flight delay measurement. If we are lucky enough to observe such a supernova, the energy and time structure of the $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ cutoff signal could yield $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ mass limits rivaling laboratory ones. In addition, for proposed detectors such as OMNIS, the relative NC and $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ time delay could give sensitivity to absolute $`\nu _{\mu ,\tau }`$ masses as low as 6 eV.

## 4 SNEWS

As mentioned above, a burst of supernova neutrinos will precede the optical signal by hours or even days; therefore, an early warning to astronomers which could allow unprecedented early light observation may be possible. SNEWS (SuperNova Early Warning System) is an international collaboration of supernova neutrino detectors, with the goal of providing the astronomical community with a very high confidence early alert from the coincidence of neutrino signals in several detectors . In addition, the SNEWS alarm may be able to serve as a trigger for detectors which are not able to trigger on a supernova signal by themselves, allowing extra data to be saved. Currently, MACRO, LVD and Super-K participate; SNO and AMANDA will be the next active members.

Although any early warning is helpful, we would also like to be able to tell astronomers where to look. The question of pointing to the supernova using the neutrino data has been examined in detail in reference . There are two ways of pointing with neutrinos: first, individual detectors can make use of asymmetric reactions for which the products “remember” the direction of the incoming neutrino. Second, the timing of the neutrino signals in several detectors can be used to triangulate; however triangulation will be difficult with the event statistics of current detectors. The best bet will be to use elastic scattering interactions (equation 3) in Super-K. Estimated resolution is several degrees for a 10 kpc supernova.

## 5 SUMMARY

In summary, several supernova neutrino detectors (Super-K, SNO, MACRO, LVD and AMANDA) with sensitivity to a Galactic supernova are now running. Others (Borexino, KamLAND, possibly OMNIS) will join them shortly. If a stellar core collapse occurs in our Galaxy, in addition to providing an early supernova alert for astronomers, these detectors will record signals from which a wealth of physical and astrophysical information can be mined.

## 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to thank all the members of the SNEWS inter-experiment working group (in particular Alec Habig). John Beacom provided Figure 1.


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# Searching for MACHOs in Galaxy Clusters

## 1 Introduction

After many years of searching, the nature of dark matter still eludes us. Over the last decade, however, programs searching for microlensing variability in stars in the Magellanic Clouds have revealed a population of compact objects in front of the LMC (Afonso et al.  1999; Alcock et al.  2000a). The EROS team have used their observations to place an upper limit of 10% of the mass fraction in MACHOs in the Galactic halo (Lasserre et al.  2000), while the MACHO team interprets their data as providing evidence of a significant fraction, perhaps 20%. The recent discovery of nearby cold, high proper motion, hydrogen atmosphere white dwarfs appears to support the latter interpretation (Ibata et al.  2000; Hodgkin et al.  2000). These results are complicated by fact that views towards the Galactic Bulge appear to be overdense in compact objects (Alcock et al. 2000b), suggesting that the Galactic Halo is clumped (c.f. Klypin et al. 1999) and our view towards the Magellanic Clouds simply represents an underdense line-of-sight. Currently, therefore, the true fraction of the Galactic Halo composed of compact objects is uncertain.

Galaxy clusters represent the largest bound accumulations of matter in the Universe, and a number of lines of evidence, including kinematic (Bird, Dickey & Salpeter 1993), X-ray (Henry et al. 1993) and gravitational lensing (Kneib et al. 1993) studies, indicate that they must possess a substantial quantity of dark matter. In this paper we address the question of what would be the observational consequences if this dark matter were also composed of compact objects.

An approach to test the nature of cluster dark matter was recently suggested by Walker & Ireland (1995) and Tadros, Warren & Hewett (1998; 2000). As with compact matter in the Galactic Halo, MACHOs in clusters are expected to introduce brightness fluctuations in background sources, and this is searched for in a monitoring program of $`600`$ quasars behind the Virgo cluster. While initial results are promising, the vicinity of the Virgo cluster means that the microlensing optical depth is small $`(0.001)`$ and induced fluctuations are relatively rare. The optical depth can be increased by changing the lensing geometry and considering clusters at higher redshift. With this, however, it is difficult to identify a substantial number of background quasars without greatly increasing the number of clusters to be monitored. The problem is also compounded by the difficulty of distinguishing microlensing-induced quasar variability from intrinsic mechanisms.

Lewis & Ibata (2000) addressed the question of what effect a cosmological distribution of compact objects would have on the surface brightness distributions of galaxies at $`z<0.5`$. While the microlensing optical depth is quite small $`(\sigma \stackrel{<}{}0.04)`$, the resulting low-level fluctuations, $`2\%`$, are observable. In this paper we extend this analysis to the view of distant galaxies observed through galaxy clusters whose dark matter is composed of MACHOs. The ideal targets are the giant gravitationally lensed arcs. Focusing on these systems ensures that the column density of matter through the cluster is substantial, resulting in an optical depth near unity; this vastly exceeds ‘self-lensing’, with an optical depth of only $`10^5`$, where MACHOs microlens galaxies within the cluster (Gould 1995). Potential sources abound, as giant arcs and extended images have been identified in more than thirty clusters (e.g Fort & Mellier 1994). As the induced variability will be searched for on a pixel-by-pixel basis, each extended image presents a large number of resolution elements which can be viewed as separate sources, far outweighing the potential number of background quasars.

In Section 2 we outline the numerical approach we adopt to tackle this problem, focusing on the simulation of microlensing light curves. As an illustration of the efficiency of microlensing as a mechanism for introducing variability, we present in section 3 a case study of the giant arc seen in the cluster Abell 370. This section also discusses the observational considerations for a monitoring program of giant arcs. The conclusions to this study are presented in Section 4.

## 2 Method

In examining microlensing of sources in the Magellanic Clouds, the goal is to identify the variation in brightness of a single star as a compact object passes in front of it. Considering instead microlensing towards more distant sources, individual stars can no longer be resolved and induced variations are identified against an unresolved stellar background. Termed ‘pixel-lensing’ (e.g. Crotts 1992), the magnification of a star results in the increase of flux in an individual resolution element, and hence appears as a fluctuation in the surface brightness of a source. Employing an efficient technique called ‘Difference Imaging’, searches for such fluctuations have recently proved fruitful with the identification of microlensing variability towards the Galactic Bulge and M31 (Alcock et al. 1999a, 1999b; Ansari et al. 1999).

In a similar vein, observations of gravitationally lensed giant arcs do not resolve individual stars, rather each pixel over an arc represents the summed flux from a population of stars. As stars in this population are magnified due to gravitational microlensing by compact objects in the foreground cluster, the apparent surface brightness of the pixels will be seen to fluctuate. It is important to note that at the substantial optical depths considered in this paper, each star in the population will be subject to microlensing and so the overall light curve seen will be the sum of the individual fluctuations of each star. This differs substantially from pixel lensing in the local group, where the optical depth is small and at most only a small number of stars are significantly microlensed at any instant.

In simulating the expected variability, the following procedure is adopted; firstly, for a particular set of microlensing parameters, a large catalogue of light curves, $`\mu _i(t)`$, are generated. A population of stars, $`S_i`$, is randomly selected such that the total luminosity of the population is $`L_{POP}=\mathrm{\Sigma }L(S_i)`$. Each star is used to normalize a light curve selected from the catalogue to produce a microlensed view of the star. These individual light curves are then combined to produce a total microlensed light curve for the entire stellar population, $`M(t)=\mathrm{\Sigma }\mu _i(t)L(S_i)`$. As a consistency check, the mean luminosity of the resultant light curves must equal $`\mu _{th}L_{POP}`$, where $`\mu _{th}`$ is the mean magnification of the arc induced by the macrolensing model of the cluster. Typically, stellar luminosity functions increase at fainter magnitudes, implying that populations are dominated, in number, by low luminosity stars. Such faint stars, even if substantially lensed, will not significantly contribute to the final light curve. Hence, for any star for which $`\mu _{max}L(S_i)/\mu _{th}L_{POP}<0.005`$, where $`\mu _{max}`$ is taken to be $`70`$, the contribution to the final light curve is taken as uniform and equal to $`\mu _{th}L(S_i)`$; such an approach reduces the required numerical calculations in constructing a light curve. As with Lewis & Ibata (2000), we adopt the stellar luminosity function as determined by Jahreiß & Wielen (1997).

An efficient method of generating high optical depth microlensing light curves for a point-like source is employed (Witt 1993; Lewis, Miralda-Escudé, Richardson & Wambsganss 1993). This approach treats the source trajectory as a line of infinite extent, ensuring that it is numerically simple to find all the microlensed images with a contour following algorithm. This guarantees that the light curve is not lacking flux due to ‘undiscovered’ images. The efficiency allows large samples of light curves to be generated, the basis for a number of extensive statistical studies (Lewis & Irwin 1995; Lewis & Irwin 1996; Wyithe & Webster 1999; Wyithe, Webster & Turner 1999,2000).

While the approach is straight-forward, the volume of potential parameter space is very large and a full examination of this is beyond the scope of this paper, and a more extensive study will be presented elsewhere. As an illustration of the efficacy of microlensing on introducing variability into surface brightness distributions, we now focus on the spectacular giant arc in Abell 370.

## 3 Case Study: A370

At a redshift of $`z=0.37`$, the rich galaxy cluster Abell 370 possesses several giant gravitationally lensed arcs (Soucail et al. 1987). Utilizing their spatial extent, detailed modeling of the mass distribution of Abell 370 has been undertaken (Kneib et al 1993; Abdelsalam et al. 1998), confirming the binary nature of the cluster. The most prominent giant arc is over 20 arcsecs in extent and has a spectroscopic redshift of $`z=0.724`$ (Soucail et al. 1988). Examining the models for the mass distribution in Abell 370 in the vicinity of this giant arc, we choose a fiducial model with an optical depth of $`\sigma =0.6`$ and shear of $`\gamma =0.2`$. This results in a mean magnification of $`\mu _{th}=8.33`$.

### 3.1 Light Curves

A large sample of light curves was generated using the above parameter set and combined with the stellar luminosity function to produce the light curves of an entire population as outlined in Section 2. The source trajectory is aligned with the shear, although simple scaling relations to other shear orientations exist (Lewis & Irwin 1995). Each lens has a mass of $`1M_{}`$.

Several light curves of these are presented in Figure 1 for stellar populations of $`L_{POP}=10^4`$, $`10^5`$, $`10^6`$ and $`10^7L_{}`$; these numbers represent the intrinsic luminosity of the population, the observed value is $`L_{Obs}=\mu _{th}L_{POP}`$. The abscissa is in units of Einstein radii for a solar mass star; this is related to a time scale, as explained below. The light curves display the complex variability of high optical depth microlensing. At low optical depths, the light curves would consist of solitary events due to individual microlenses. While these can be used to directly infer microlensing parameters, they occur very rarely and low optical depth light curves are extremely quiescent. With the rich structure seen in the light curves of Figure 1, the details of the microlensing can be determined in a statistical sense (e.g. Lewis & Irwin 1996).

In examining the light curves in Figure 1 it is apparent that the degree of variability drops as the total luminosity is increased, with populations of $`10^4L_{}`$ displaying rapid variations of 10-20% on scales much less than an Einstein radius, while the light curves for populations of $`10^7L_{}`$ appear essentially flat with only small scale variability. This is due to the fact that even a strongly lensed, very luminous star can contribute only a small amount to the total luminosity of a stellar population of $`L_{POP}10^7L_{}`$.

The abscissa can be normalized into a time scale (Lewis & Ibata 2000); the crossing time of an Einstein radius of a Solar mass star is 9.2 $`v_{1000}^1h^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ yrs (assuming $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{o}=1,\mathrm{\Lambda }_\mathrm{o}=0`$), where $`v_{1000}`$ is the velocity of the microlensing masses in units of 1000km/s. When considering a population of microlensing objects of a different mass it is only this crossing time that needs to be rescaled, with the degree of fluctuations in Figure 1 remaining the same. Being simply a function of the square root of the lensing masses, if the dark matter in Abell 370 was composed of Jupiter mass compact objects, the corresponding value would be $`3.5v_{1000}^1h^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ months.

By combining the light curves from the various stellar samples it is possible to generate a probability distribution for the expected fluctuations (Figure 2). These reflect the features observed in Figure 1, namely that microlensing of lower luminosity populations results in more substantial fluctuations. In terms of integrated probability, a $`10^4L_{}`$ population will exhibit deviations from the mean exceeding 5% for half of all observations. A quarter of all observations will reveal fluctuations exceeding 10%. The corresponding values for the more luminous populations are 2% & 3.5% for $`L_{POP}=10^5`$, 0.6% & 1% for $`L_{POP}=10^6`$ and 0.2% & 0.3% for $`L_{POP}=10^7`$. The $`L_{POP}=10^4L_{}`$ case also displays more extreme fluctuations, experiencing deviations of $`>15\%`$ for 10% of observations, and $`>29\%`$ over 2% of its light curve.

To detect the fluctuations expected for a population of cluster MACHOs it is advantageous to target stellar populations with smaller intrinsic luminosities. Targeting fainter sources, however, presents observational difficulties, such as substantially increased integration times, a point we turn to in the next section.

### 3.2 Observational Considerations

The study of cosmological microlensing by Lewis & Ibata (2000) examined stellar luminosity in a pixel covering a galaxy out to $`z0.5`$. Here we explore the possibility of using HST to constrain the microlensing variability in a strongly lensed arc of Abell 370. For a source redshift of $`z=0.724`$, a spatially resolved population with intrinsic U-band luminosity $`L=10^7L_{}`$, magnified by a factor of $`8.3`$, will give rise to an observed V-band flux of $`1.3\mathrm{photons}/\mathrm{sec}/\mathrm{m}^2`$, ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_o=1`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_o=0`$, and $`H_0=100\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{Mpc}`$). The expected total system efficiency of the new HST instrument the “Advanced Camera for Surveys” is approximately $`40`$% at $`6000`$$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{A}}`$, so $`2.5\mathrm{photons}/\mathrm{sec}`$ will be detected per $`10^7L_{}`$ population. The sky background will be negligible in comparison, $`0.1\mathrm{photons}/\mathrm{sec}`$ per resolution element (the area encompassed by the point spread function) 111This value was derived from archival WFPC2 “Planetary Camera” data on this cluster.. In a $`10^4`$ sec exposure HST will therefore measure variability to 0.66% accuracy; this would allow a $`3\sigma `$ detection of 2% variability events which according to the simulations of §3.1, occur with 0.25% chance. The giant arc in Abell 370 subtends over $`1000`$ HST spatial resolution elements and $`8`$ variability events would be detected in a 2-epoch observation campaign if all the cluster dark matter is in the form of MACHOs. Similarly, for a $`10^6L_{}`$ population, the above $`10^4`$ sec integration time would allow 3% variability events to be detected at the $`3\sigma `$ level. Approximately $`100`$ such events would be expected in the 2-epoch dataset. Several exposures would be required at each epoch to correct for cosmic rays and to identify Poisson fluctuations in the surface photometry that could be mistaken for microlensing events.

Currently, only coarse surface photometry of the giant arc in Abell 370 has been published, but its total brightness suggests that each HST resolution element corresponds to an average intrinsic source luminosity of $`10^610^7L_{}`$. HST images of the arc reveals that it is very clumped (Smail et al. 1996) and a range of source luminosities are available for study. We have begun a more detailed modeling of the microlensing in Abell 370, taking into account both the variation in the microlensing parameters and surface brightness over the arc, with the goal of providing a map of the variability signature.

To detect the more common variability in populations of lower luminosity will require NGST. With this instrument, the sky background is expected to be substantially lower than on HST: $`<10^1`$ photons/sec/resolution element 222see http://www.ngst.stsci.edu/sky/sky.html at $`1.1\mu m`$. Assuming a $`20`$% total system efficiency, a $`10^5`$ sec integration at two epochs would allow 10% variability events to be detected at the $`3\sigma `$ level in a population of intrinsic luminosity $`10^4L_{}`$. As discussed above, variability of this magnitude must be very common, occurring in 25% of the resolution elements per epoch. If MACHOs make up a substantial fraction of the dark matter in clusters, giant arcs will be seen to shimmer with NGST, the degree of shimmering being dependent upon the luminosity of the population under consideration.

The above analysis is very encouraging, demonstrating that the signature of microlensing due to cluster dark matter could soon be detected with HST, as well as illustrating that microlensing fluctuations may be ubiquitous in future observations with NGST.

## 4 Conclusions

If dark matter in galaxy clusters exists in the form of compact objects, it should introduce variability on background sources. Current searches for cluster dark matter have focused upon monitoring quasars behind the Virgo cluster. Its close proximity, however, makes Virgo a poor lens.

By considering clusters at higher redshift, the microlensing optical depth increases, although the potential number of background quasars that can be used as microlensing targets is reduced. In this paper we have examined the microlensing effect that a population of compact dark matter objects would have on the surface brightness distributions of giant luminous arcs. Focusing upon the spectacular arc in Abell 370, numerical simulations reveal that substantial variability can be introduced over the lensed image. This variability is, however, dependent upon the intrinsic luminosity of the population of stars under consideration, with more luminous populations displaying more quiescent light curves.

To detect microlensing induced variability in the surface brightness of the giant arcs, a deep monitoring program over a single semester is required. Such a program would allow easy identification of variability contaminants, such as novae, supernovae and highly luminous variable stars, due to their characteristic temporal profiles (see Lewis & Ibata 2000). These contaminating systems are also rare, while microlensing variability will appear ubiquitously over the arc. As the mass distribution in the cluster can be determined via the modeling of the macrolensing features, the identification of microlensing variability will reveal the MACHO mass fraction within the cluster. Many strongly lensed systems are available for study, several displaying very extended structure \[e.g. cB58 (Yee et al. 1996)\], providing ideal tools for the examination of the nature of cluster dark matter.

## Acknowledgments

GFL thanks the computer support and staff at the Anglo-Australian Observatory for providing the facilities on which the simulations presented in this paper were undertaken.


text:
# Resolving the Antibaryon-Production Puzzle in High-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions

\[

## Abstract

We argue that the observed antiproton production in heavy-ion collisions at CERN-SpS energies can be understood if (contrary to most sequential scattering approaches) the backward direction in the process $`p\overline{p}\overline{n}\pi `$ (with $`\overline{n}`$=5-6) is consistently accounted for within a thermal framework. Employing the standard picture of subsequent chemical and thermal freezeout, which induces an over-saturation of pion number with associated chemical potentials of $`\mu _\pi `$ 60-80 MeV, enhances the backward reaction substantially. The resulting rates and corresponding cross sections turn out to be large enough to maintain the abundance of antiprotons at chemical freezeout until the decoupling temperature, in accord with the measured $`\overline{p}/p`$ ratio in Pb(158AGeV)+Pb collisions.

\]

Over the last decade remarkable progress has been made in the understanding of the dynamics of strong interactions probed through (ultra-) relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Although the main challenge of an unambiguous identification of the QCD phase transition to the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) persists, we have greatly advanced our knowledge on properties of highly excited hadronic matter close to the expected phase boundary. A variety of collective phenomena has been observed indicating that the produced systems have indeed reached macroscopically large sizes, justifying the use of equilibrium techniques such as thermo- and hydrodynamics.

One of the important results that will be used below is that the final-state hadron abundances, including antibaryons, can be rather accurately characterized by the so-called chemical freezeout stage  with a common temperature $`T_{ch}`$ and baryon chemical potential $`\mu _B^{ch}`$, the specific values depending on collision energy (note that a precise description of all hadron species requires corrections to an ideal gas ensemble, e.g., excluded (eigen-) volumes  to mimic short-range repulsions, or ’strangeness suppression’ factors . Such corrections are not important for our subsequent analysis and will be neglected. For a contrasting view of hadron production in heavy-ion collisions, see, e.g., ref. ).

At SpS energies, the chemical freezeout is clearly distinct from the thermal one (with an associated temperature $`T_{th}<T_{ch}`$), from where on the particles stream freely to the detectors. This follows from the kinetics of hadronic reactions , i.e., a significant difference between elastic and inelastic collision rates at low relative energies, and has been confirmed by several experimental evidences (see, e.g., ref. ). In central Pb+Pb collisions, e.g., a nucleon at midrapidity is elastically rescattered on average about 10-15 times, but less than once inelastically . Also, as shown in , most of the collective flow effects at SpS are generated in between the two freezeouts, and their observation leaves no doubt about the existence of such an intermediate stage.

Another consequence is that abundances of secondary mesons (pions, kaons, etc.) are not subject to significant changes when the system evolves from $`T_{ch}`$ to $`T_{th}`$. Again, this is conceivable as the rates for number changing reactions are too small to maintain chemical equilibrium on the time scales of the hadronic fireball lifetime, $`t10`$ fm/c. Since, on the other hand, elastic scattering (e.g., $`\pi \pi \rho \pi \pi `$) is still effective, thermal equilibrium is approximately maintained. In a statistical mechanics language such a scenario entails additional conservation laws, which can be implemented via effective (pion-, kaon-, etc.) chemical potentials to guarantee fixed particle numbers. For pions (kaons) typical values of $`\mu _\pi =`$ 60-80 MeV ($`\mu _K=`$ 100-130 MeV) are reached at $`T_{th}=`$ 110-120 MeV, see . The ensuing ’over-saturation’ of the pion phase space is to play the key role in what follows.

The situation for antibaryons is different from mesonic secondaries as the pertinent inelastic (or annihilation) cross section is not small. At the relevant (thermal) energies in the comoving frame of collective expansion, $`\sqrt{s}=2(m_N+E_N^{th})2.3`$ GeV, one has $`\sigma _{p\overline{p}n\pi }50`$ mb. Taking an average baryon density of $`\varrho _B=0.75\varrho _0`$ ($`\varrho _0=0.16`$ fm-3) around $`T=150`$ MeV in the course of the hadronic evolution and a typical (anti-) proton velocity of $`v_{th}=p/E_{tot}=0.56c`$ (from $`E_p^{th}=(3/2)kT225`$ MeV), we obtain for the chemical equilibration time scale

$$\tau _{ch}=\frac{1}{\sigma _{ann}\varrho _Bv_{th}}3\mathrm{fm}/\mathrm{c}.$$
(1)
This is well below the fireball lifetime in the pure hadronic phase of $`\tau _{had}7`$ fm/c , cf. Fig. 1; in other words, only a fraction of $`\mathrm{exp}[\tau _{had}/\tau _{ch}]10`$ % does not rescatter towards thermal freezeout. Thus, in spite of the good agreement of the final $`\overline{p}`$ yields with the standard chemical freezeout predictions, antibaryon production ought to be reconsidered.

Naively one might expect most of the antiprotons to be annihilated, and various transport calculations (e.g., ARC  and UrQMD ) have indeed been unable to account for the measured number, falling short by significant factors. Consequently, speculations have been raised that the puzzle could be resolved by certain in-medium effects leading to either a reduction of the annihilation rate  or an enhanced production .

A generic problem with transport/cascade simulations is that, although multi-body resonance decays are included, the inverse reactions are not. As is well-known, this violates detailed balance and, in principle, prevents the simulations from reaching the proper thermodynamic limit . The discussions are typically focused on three-body reactions; in the present context it is even 5- or 6-pion collisions which are most relevant for producing baryon-antibaryon pairs. A widespread belief is that those reactions have insignificant rates under the conditions probed in the hadronic stages of heavy-ion collisions. However, as we will argue below, this is not the case; inverse reactions have to be addressed and are, in fact, capable of explaining the observed antiproton yield (although the $`\overline{p}`$ enhancement in nucleus-nucleus over $`p`$-$`p`$ collisions thus looses its proposed direct relation to QGP formation, the latter is by no means excluded by the subsequent arguments).

The expression for the thermal reaction rate for the process $`p\overline{p}n\pi `$ can be written as (see also Ref. )

$`_{th}={\displaystyle d^3\stackrel{~}{k}_pd^3\stackrel{~}{k}_{\overline{p}}d^3\stackrel{~}{k}_{\pi _1}\mathrm{}d^3\stackrel{~}{k}_{\pi _n}\delta ^{(4)}(K_{tot})|_n|^2}`$ (2)
$`\times \{z_pz_{\overline{p}}\mathrm{exp}[{\displaystyle \frac{E_p+E_{\overline{p}}}{T}}]z_\pi ^n\mathrm{exp}[{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\omega _{\pi ,i}}{T}}]\},`$ (3)
where $`_n`$ denotes the invariant scattering matrix element (which, of course, is identical for the back- and forward direction due to time-reversal invariance of strong interactions), $`d^3\stackrel{~}{k}_x=d^3k_x/(2\pi )^3`$ the phase space integrations and $`K_{tot}=k_p+k_{\overline{p}}k_{\pi _1}\mathrm{}k_{\pi _n}`$ the total four-momentum; $`z_x=\mathrm{e}^{\mu _x/T}`$ are the fugacities of particle species $`x`$ (in Boltzmann approximation), and $`n`$ is the number of pions produced in a $`\overline{p}p`$ annihilation at a given energy (to be discussed in more detail below). For a nonvanishing net nucleon number and in chemical equilibrium, one has $`\mu _N>0`$, $`\mu _{\overline{N}}=\mu _N`$ and $`\mu _\pi =0`$. Under SpS conditions, typical values at chemical freezeout are  $`(T_{ch},\mu _N^{ch})(170,260)`$ MeV, which results in an antiproton-to-proton ratio of

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{p}}{p}}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{exp}[(E_{\overline{p}}+\mu _N)/T]}{\mathrm{exp}[(E_p\mu _N)/T]}}`$ (4)
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{exp}[2\mu _N/T]=4.7\%,`$ (5)
consistent with the experimentally measured value of $`(5.5\pm 1)`$ % . Note also that at chemical freezout $`z_pz_{\overline{p}}=1`$, $`z_\pi =1`$, and the forward and backward rates in eq. (3) are simply equal (the Boltzmann factors in both terms contain the same total energy). This implies, e.g., that cascade simulations ignoring the back-reaction at comparable pion densities ($`\varrho _\pi 0.20.25`$ fm-3) cannot give a proper account of the antiproton production.

The evolution of the system towards thermal freezeout can be constructed using a thermal fireball model which, based on isentropic expansion, leads to $`(T_{th},\mu _N^{th})(120,415)`$ MeV. At first sight, this gives a $`\overline{p}/p`$ ratio of $`\mathrm{exp}[2\mu _N/T]0.1`$ %, a factor of $``$50 below the experimental result. However, this estimate is lacking an important ingredient. A correct statistical treatment including pion-number conservation forces us to introduce individual chemical potentials/fugacities for anti-/protons and pions. Insisting on equilibrium for the reaction in question, the following relation holds:

$$z_{\overline{p}}=(z_p)^1z_\pi ^n.$$
(6)
Since antibaryons constitute only a small fraction of the produced secondaries, they have an insignificant impact on the evolution of nucleon- and pion-chemical potentials. Therefore, eq. (6) provides an estimate of the antiproton fugacity at thermal freezeout. The crucial point here is that pion over-saturation will generate a strong enhancement of the back-reaction $`n\pi p\overline{p}`$.

For a more quantitative assessment it is important to have a rather accurate determination of the pion multiplicity distributions in $`p\overline{p}`$ annihilation. A nice discussion of its systematics has been given in ref. , which we will follow here to incorporate the empirical knowledge. For $`\overline{p}p`$ annihilation at rest ($`\sqrt{s}=2m_N`$), the data can be represented by a least-square fit to a Gaussian probability distribution (normalized to one),

$$P(n)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi }\sigma }\mathrm{exp}[(nn)^2/2\sigma ^2],$$
(7)
with a mean $`n=5.02`$ and width $`\sigma =0.90`$ (see also ref. ). At larger $`c.m.`$-energies both the average number and width increase. For the former, linear  and logarithmic  dependencies have been proposed,

$`n`$ $`=`$ $`c_1+c_2s^{0.5}`$ (8)
$`n`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{~}{c}_1+\stackrel{~}{c}_2\mathrm{ln}(s)`$ (9)
($`s`$ in \[GeV2\]), which both reproduce the measured multiplicities up to at least $`\sqrt{s}=5`$ GeV using the parameters $`c_1=2.6\pm 0.5`$, $`c_2=(1.3\pm 0.2)`$ GeV-1 and $`\stackrel{~}{c}_1=2.65`$, $`\stackrel{~}{c}_2=1.78`$, respectively. For the latter, the energy dependence of the width has also been given as

$$\sigma ^2=0.174ns^{0.2}.$$
(10)
For our application in a thermal environment at $`T=150`$ MeV (implying $`\sqrt{s}=2.33`$ GeV) we fix $`n=5.65`$ (in accordance with eq. (9)) together with a 10% increase in $`\sigma `$ (as suggested by eq. (10)) to extract discrete weights $`w_n=P(n;n,\sigma )`$. The averaged pion-fugacity enhancement factor then follows as

$$z_\pi ^n=\underset{n=2}{\overset{n_{max}}{}}w_n\mathrm{exp}[n\mu _\pi /T],$$
(11)
where $`n_{max}=9`$ for any practical purpose. Inserting now thermal freezeout values $`T_{th}=120`$ MeV and $`\mu _\pi ^{th}65`$ MeV (as arising in a thermal fireball model ), yields $`z_\pi ^n=25`$. This entails a large enhancement of the antiproton-to-proton ratio, from 0.1% to 2.5%. In fact, owing to the high power of the pion fugacity, slightly larger chemical potentials of $`\mu _\pi =`$ 75-80 MeV result in an enhancement factor of 42-54, rendering the pertinent $`\overline{p}/p`$-ratio in line with the observed (chemical freezeout) value, cf. Fig. 2.

Such slightly increased values for the pion chemical potential close to thermal freezeout can indeed be easily argued for. Within the thermal fireball model of ref.  elastic $`\pi NB`$ scattering ($`B`$: baryonic resonances up to $`m_B1.7`$ GeV) was assumed to be frequent enough to maintain (relative) chemical equilibrium for the occupation of the excited baryonic states. However, with typical corresponding cross sections of $`\sigma _{\pi NB}`$ 15-30 mb , this might not be fully justified anymore for the last few fm/c prior to thermal freezeout. Consequently, a larger fraction of the pion number resides in explicit pionic degrees of freedom rather than in excited resonances, which translates into an effectively larger $`\mu _\pi `$.

Let us finally comment on implications of our observations for RHIC. Close to the expected chemical freezeout the pion density is very similar to SpS conditions. Thus the rate of producing antiprotons through multi-pion annihilation per unit time and volume is essentially the same in both cases. The crucial difference is, however, that the total density of antiprotons is much larger around midrapidity at RHIC due to substantially smaller baryon chemical potentials. More quantitatively, using typical thermal model estimates  with $`\varrho _B^{tot}0.2\varrho _0`$ shortly after chemical freezeout (further reduced thereafter), one obtains $`\tau _{ch}^{RHIC}11`$ fm/c. With the lifetime of the hadronic phase at RHIC being comparable to that at SpS energies, chemical equilibrium in the $`p\overline{p}n\pi `$ reaction cannot be maintained until thermal freezeout (also, the emerging pion oversaturation is less pronounced in a baryon-poor regime). The observed antiprotons at RHIC should therefore mostly originate from earlier stages, corresponding to the standard hadro-chemical freezeout in the vicinity of the phase boundary. Nevertheless, our time scale estimate indicates that even under RHIC conditions, antibaryon annihilation will be partially compensated by the inverse reactions.

To summarize, we have analyzed the $`\overline{p}/p`$-ratio at SpS energies employing a thermal approach. So far this observable has been difficult to understand within, e.g., transport models which only included the annihilation channel, causing doubts whether the latter is actually active, or unconventional mechanisms for enhanced production need to be invoked. We have shown, however, that the ’puzzle’ can be resolved in a rather standard statistical-mechanics framework upon inclusion of the inverse process of multipion scattering into $`\overline{p}p`$ pairs, which can be supported until thermal freezeout. Our main ingredient was that effective pion-number conservation generates pion over-saturation at the later stages of a heavy-ion collision, as described by the build-up of appreciable pion chemical potentials. Raised to a large power ($`n6`$) the corresponding pion fugacities sustain a high antibaryon fraction, thus counter-balancing the loss from $`B\overline{B}`$ annihilation. This mechanism also complies with the measured centrality dependence being essentially constant, as to be expected from a hadro-chemistry varying little with impact parameter (for sufficiently peripheral collisions the applicability of thermal model analyses, of course, ceases and $`\overline{p}`$ production, normalized to the number of participant nucleons, approaches its value in $`p`$-$`p`$ collisions, which lies about 30% below the one in central nucleus-nucleus reactions ).

Finally we should note again that our findings are not contradictory to an earlier QGP formation. They rather give further support to the equilibrium concept of subsequent chemical and thermal freezeout stages, which has already proven successful in the explanation of a variety of observables, such as hadron abundances, collective flow, HBT radii and electromagnetic radiation.

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG02-88ER40388.


text:
# Discovery of a new, third kHz QPO in 4U 1608–52, 4U 1728–34, and 4U 1636–53 Sidebands to the lower kHz QPO?

## 1 Introduction

In the last four years observations with the Rossi X–ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite have revealed the presence of several quasi–periodic phenomena at frequencies higher than 100 Hz in the Fourier power spectra of low–mass X–ray binaries (LMXBs). First, the kilohertz quasi–periodic oscillations (kHz QPOs) were discovered (van der Klis et al. 1996a,b; Strohmayer, Zhang, & Swank 1996; Strohmayer et al. 1996; for the most recent review see van der Klis 2000). Somewhat later, nearly coherent oscillations were discovered during type I X–ray bursts in several of these LMXBs (Strohmayer et al. 1996; for a review see Swank 2000); these burst oscillations presumably occur at frequencies close to the neutron star spin frequency (Strohmayer et al. 1996).

The kHz QPOs are nearly always found in pairs. Although their frequencies can vary over several hundred Hz, the frequency separation between the twin kHz QPOs, $`\nu _2\nu _1`$, remains approximately constant, close to the inferred spin frequency of the neutron star (but see e.g. van der Klis et al. 1997; Méndez et al. 1998a; Méndez, van der Klis, & van Paradijs 1998; Méndez & van der Klis 1999). Various models exist for the origin of these QPOs. Immediately after their discovery a beat frequency model was proposed (Strohmayer et al. 1996), of which the sonic–point model is the most elaborate example (Miller, Lamb, & Psaltis 1998). Later, Stella & Vietri (1998) proposed the relativistic precession model (see also Psaltis & Norman 2000; but see Marković & Lamb 2000) and Osherovich & Titarchuk (1999) introduced the two–oscillator model. In the latter model the QPO at $`\nu _1`$ (the lower kHz QPO) occurs at the Keplerian frequency of material orbiting the neutron star, whereas in the other two models the QPO at $`\nu _2`$ (the upper kHz QPO) is the one that is Keplerian.

The possibility that sidebands to the two main kHz peaks could occur was mentioned by several authors (Miller et al. 1998; Psaltis & Norman 2000; Miller 2000), but no sidebands, nor in fact any other kHz QPOs beyond the initial pair were detected up to now (see e.g., Méndez & van der Klis 2000). In the LMXBs 4U 1608–52, 4U 1728–34, and 4U 1636–53 the kHz QPOs have been extensively studied on previous occasions (4U 1608–52, Berger et al. 1996; Yu et al. 1997; Méndez et al. 1998a,b; 4U 1728–34, Strohmayer et al. 1996; Strohmayer, Zhang, & Swank 1996; Ford & van der Klis 1998; Méndez & van der Klis 1999; 4U 1636–53, Zhang et al. 1996; Wijnands et al. 1997; Méndez, van der Klis, & van Paradijs 1998; Kaaret et al. 1999, Méndez 2000).
In this Letter, we describe the discovery of a new, third kHz QPO close to the lower kHz QPO in these three sources, which is probably an upper sideband to the lower kHz QPO. We discuss briefly the possible implications of this discovery in terms of the existing models for the kHz QPOs.

## 2 Observations and analysis

We have used observations obtained with the proportional counter array (PCA; Jahoda et al. 1996) onboard the RXTE satellite (Bradt, Rothschild, & Swank 1993). The observations of 4U 1608–52 used here are the same as those described by Méndez et al. (1999, and references therein); the observations of 4U 1728–34 are those used by Strohmayer et al. (1996), Strohmayer, Zhang, & Swank (1996), Ford & van der Klis (1998), and Méndez & van der Klis (1999). The observations of 4U 1636–53 used in this paper are listed in Table 1.

We used data with a time resolution of at least 122$`\mu `$s to calculate power spectra of data segments of 64 s up to a Nyquist frequency of 4096 Hz in two different energy bands, from 2.0–8.7 keV and from 8.7–60 keV if available, and in one band combining the total effective PCA energy range (2.0–60 keV). Observation 10094-01-01-00 of 4U 1608–52 only covered the 2.0–13.2 keV band and we excluded it in the calculation of the fractional rms amplitudes of QPOs. We selected only those power spectra in which a narrow (full–width at half maximum, FWHM, less than $``$10 Hz) lower kHz QPO was observed. This resulted in $``$67, $``$92, and $``$80 ksec of data in the 2.0–60 keV range which corresponds to $``$18%, $``$12%, and $``$15% of the total amount of analyzed data for 4U 1608–52, 4U 1728–34, and 4U 1636–53, respectively.

We traced the lower kHz QPO using a dynamical power spectrum (e.g. see plate 1 in Berger et al. 1996) displaying consecutive power spectra to visualize the time evolution of the QPO frequency. For each source separately, we fitted this QPO peak in each power spectrum in the range 100 Hz above and 100 Hz below the traced QPO frequency (so to exclude the upper kHz QPO) with a constant plus a Lorentzian. For each source separately, we used the shift-and-add method described by Méndez et al. (1998b) to shift each lower kHz QPO peak to the same frequency and average the aligned power spectra. We then fitted each average power spectrum (one per source) with a constant plus Lorentzians to represent the QPOs. Errors on the fit parameters were calculated using $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=1.0`$ (1$`\sigma `$ single parameter). The 95% confidence upper limits were determined using $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=2.71`$.

## 3 Results

Figure 1 shows the resulting power spectra for 4U 1608–52, 4U 1728–34, and 4U 1636–53 after applying the abovementioned procedure. We discovered a new kHz QPO in these three sources at a frequency that is, respectively, 52.8$`\pm `$0.9 Hz, 64$`\pm `$2 Hz, and 58.4$`\pm `$1.9 Hz higher than that of the lower kHz QPO, at a significance level of 6.3$`\sigma `$, 6.0$`\sigma `$, and 3.7$`\sigma `$ (single trial), respectively (Table 2). This new kHz QPO is detected at the same time as the twin kHz QPOs that were already known in these sources.

In 4U 1636–53 we detected a fourth kHz QPO, at the same frequency separation below the lower kHz QPO (Figure 1, Table 2). This new kHz QPO was detected in a single trial, at a 3$`\sigma `$ significance level. The presence of two, symmetrically located, peaks on either side of the lower kHz QPO suggests the new kHz QPOs are sidebands to the main peak and from now on we will refer to these new kHz QPOs as such. No significant lower sidebands could be detected in the other two sources.

We applied an F–test to the $`\chi ^2`$ of the fits with and without the upper sideband in order to test its significance. We derived values for the significance of the upper sideband similar to those calculated from the errors in the fit parameters which we quoted above. Conservatively estimating the number of trials involved in obtaining our results at $``$400 (the number of frequencies where we searched for a QPO, $``$4000, divided by the FWHM of the QPO $``$10 Hz) still results in a $`>5\sigma `$ detection in case of 4U 1608–52.

For each source we divided the data into two parts based on the frequency of the lower kHz QPO in the power spectra. In each of these parts we shifted the lower kHz QPO peak to the same frequency as before and fitted the average power spectrum. In 4U 1636–53 and 4U 1728–34 the separation between the upper sideband and the main peak, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SB}`$, is consistent with being the same in the two parts, whereas in 4U 1608–52 $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{SB}`$ increases significantly (2.9$`\sigma `$, Table 2). In 4U 1608–52, the frequency of the upper sideband increases by $``$139 Hz as the frequency of the lower kHz QPO increases by $``$134 Hz. The fact that the distance of the sideband remains approximately constant (to within $``$4.5 Hz) as both peaks move over $``$135 Hz is an additional argument supporting the interpretation of the new kHz QPO as a sideband to the lower kHz QPO. Simultaneously, the frequency distance of the sideband to the upper kHz QPO changes by nearly 60 Hz; this and the fact that the sideband is much narrower than the upper kHz QPO, strongly argues in favor of the sideband being un–related to the upper kHz QPO.

To correct for the relative motion of the sideband with respect to the main peak, which artificially broadened it in our previous analysis, we calculated the frequencies to which each power spectrum should be shifted in order to align the sideband, assuming a linear relation between the frequencies of the sideband and the main peak. Applying this new shift to the data of 4U 1608–52 we indeed obtained a narrower sideband (9.7$`\pm `$2.2 Hz), although the effect is marginal. Aligning the power spectra on a hypothetical lower sideband did not result in a significant detection in 4U 1608–52. The upper sideband is also significantly detected in 4U 1608–52 when only a fraction of the data is selected and no shift-and-add is applied, although at a smaller significance level.

Applying the same shifts to the power spectra calculated for the two energy bands, we measured the dependence of the fractional rms amplitude on photon energy of the detected QPOs. Only for 4U 1608–52 we were able to significantly detect the sideband in both energy bands. The increase in fractional rms amplitude with energy in 4U 1608–52 is different for the lower and upper kHz QPO (see Méndez et al. 1998b). Although the fractional rms amplitude of the sideband increased from 1.7%$`\pm `$0.2% to 2.6%$`\pm `$0.3% as a function of photon energy (2.0–8.7–20 kev) in 4U 1608–52, the uncertainties on the measurements of the fractional rms amplitudes of the sideband did not enable us to distinguish between the two different trends observed for the kHz QPO pair. The FWHM of the lower kHz QPO, that of the upper kHz QPO, and that of the sideband nor the sideband separation nor the peak separation between the upper and lower kHz QPO changed significantly with respect to the values obtained in the total energy band.

We also investigated the lower frequency part of the power spectra for the presence of a QPO at a frequency equal to the difference between the sideband and the lower kHz QPO. We detected a low frequency QPO (LFQPO) at 40.9$`\pm `$0.7 Hz with a FWHM of 19$`\pm `$2 Hz and a fractional rms amplitude of 2.8$`\pm `$0.1% in 4U 1608–52 (see also Psaltis, Belloni, & van der Klis 1999). In 4U 1728–34, a LFQPO at 41.5$`\pm `$0.2 Hz, with a FWHM of 19.9$`\pm `$0.8 Hz and a fractional rms amplitude of 5.3$`\pm `$0.1% was present (see also Ford et al. 1998; Di Salvo et al. 2000). In 4U 1636–53 no LFQPO was found, but a broad noise component was detected which could be described with an exponentially cutoff power law with a cut off frequency of 70$`\pm `$18 Hz, a power law index of 0.0$`\pm `$0.1, and a fractional rms amplitude of 2.8$`\pm `$0.1%.

## 4 Discussion

We have discovered a new kHz QPO at frequencies close to the frequency of the lower kHz QPO in the three LMXBs 4U 1608–52, 4U 1728–34, and 4U 1636–53. This new kHz QPO moves in frequency with the lower kHz QPO and maintains a distance to it which is nearly (but not exactly) constant; its distance to the upper kHz QPO varies much more. In 4U 1636–53 an additional QPO was found symmetrically located at the lower frequency side of the lower kHz QPO peak (3$`\sigma `$). These facts suggest that the new kHz QPOs are sidebands to the lower kHz QPO.

If these QPOs are sidebands due to an amplitude modulation of the lower kHz QPO, there must be an additional mechanism reducing the amplitude of the lower sideband or enhancing the upper sideband, since in 4U 1608–52 and 4U 1728–34 the presence of a symmetric lower sideband can be excluded. If the lower kHz QPO is a beaming oscillation, a single-sideband (rotational) beat frequency scenario could apply (e.g. Alpar & Shaham 1985). However, this would lead to a lower rather than an upper sideband, opposite to what is observed, unless the modulating part of the disk is counter rotating. When both rotational modulation and amplitude modulation of the formation of the lower kHz QPO produce sidebands, but of opposite phase, destructive interference could in principle cause the amplitude of the lower frequency sideband to be suppressed. Kommers et al. (1998) observed sidebands to the pulses of the pulsar 4U 1626–67 at much lower frequencies ($``$0.1Hz). There the lower sideband was stronger than the upper one and they proposed a model using both amplitude modulation and rotational modulation of the pulsar beam.

The frequency separation between the sideband and the main peak ($``$50–60 Hz), hereafter ‘sideband separation’ is reminiscent of typical frequencies of horizontal branch oscillations (HBOs) in Z sources and low frequency QPOs (LFQPOs) in atoll sources. However, the frequency of the LFQPO ($``$41 Hz) apparent in two of the three sources is inconsistent with the observed sideband separation. Furthermore, the increase in sideband separation with increasing lower kHz QPO frequency we observed in 4U 1608–52 is less than the increase in HBO frequency with lower kHz QPO frequency usually seen (Psaltis et al. 1999). So, the sidebands appear to be unrelated to the LFQPO in these atoll sources. Mechanisms that might explain these QPOs, such as the magnetospheric beat frequency model (Alpar & Shaham 1985; Lamb et al. 1985) or the Lense-Thirring precession model (Stella & Vietri 1998) could be used in explaining the LFQPO and the sideband, however one model can not explain both simultaneously unless the LFQPO and the sideband reflect frequencies at different radii in the disk.

None of the kHz QPO models in the literature (e.g. the sonic point model, Miller et al. 1998, Miller 2000, the relativistic precession model, Stella & Vietri 1998, and the two–oscillator model, Osherovich & Titarchuk 1999) in their present form predict the presence of an upper sideband to the lower kHz QPO with a sideband separation different from the LFQPO frequency.

One of the effects possibly occurring in the sonic point beat frequency model (Miller et al. 1998, Miller 2000) could perhaps explain the formation of the upper sideband we discovered. The density enhancements along the spiral flow responsible for the generation of the lower kHz QPO rotate around the neutron star $``$5–10 times before reaching the surface (Miller et al. 1998). Therefore, the orbital frequency of the enhancements is higher than the orbital frequency at the sonic point, the beat frequency will end up at slightly higher frequencies than the frequency of the lower kHz QPO. Since the sideband has a FWHM of $``$10 Hz corresponding to at least $``$100 cycles at a Keplerian frequency of 1000 Hz, the beat frequency will end up at frequencies 50–100 Hz higher. The orbital frequency of the enhancements and the change in the sideband separation as a function of the frequency of the lower kHz QPO, as observed in 4U 1608–52, will depend on the details of the physical processes at work close to the neutron star.

This work was supported in part by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) grant 614-51-002. This research has made use of data obtained through the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center Online Service, provided by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. This work was supported by NWO Spinoza grant 08-0 to E.P.J.van den Heuvel. MM is a fellow of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de la República Argentina. PGJ would like to thank Jeroen Homan for stimulating discussions and Rob Fender for comments on an earlier version of this work. We would like to thank the anonymous referee for his/her comments which improved the paper.


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# Two-dimensional array of diffusive SNS junctions with high-transparent interfaces

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## Abstract

We report the first comparative study of the properties of two-dimensional arrays and single superconducting film–normal wire–superconducting film (SNS) junctions. The NS interfaces of our SNS junctions are really high transparent, for superconducting and normal metal parts are made from the same material (superconducting polycrystalline PtSi film). We have found that the two-dimensional arrays reveal some novel features: (i) the significant narrowing of the zero bias anomaly (ZBA) in comparison with single SNS junctions, (ii) the appearance of subharmonic energy gap structure (SGS), with up to $`n=16`$ ($`eV=\pm 2\mathrm{\Delta }/n`$), with some numbers being lost, (iii) the transition from 2D logarithmic weak localization behavior to metallic one.

\]

Improvements in fabrication technology enable a variety of nanoscale mesoscopic hybrid structures to be made and phase-coherent transport to be studied. In the past few years, the mesoscopic systems, consisting of a normal metal (N) or heavily doped semiconductor being in contact with a superconductor (S), have been attracting an increasing interest mainly because of the richness of involved quantum effects . The key mechanism governing the carrier transport through the NS contact is the Andreev reflection. In this process, an electron-like excitation with an energy $`ϵ`$ smaller than the superconducting gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ moving from the normal metal to the NS interface is retro-reflected as a hole-like excitation, while Cooper pair is transmitted into the superconductor. This phenomenon is the basis of the proximity effect, which generally implies the influence of a superconductor on the properties of a normal metal being in electrical contact. Nowadays the comprehensive proximity effect is considered to be determined by the parameters of the normal part of the junction and by the properties of the NS interface in common. SNS systems may be classified with respect to the the relation between the mean-free path and any other characteristic length in the system (either diffusive or ballistic regime) and by the transparency of the NS interfaces. At present, a large variety of NS and SNS junctions (most of them are diffusive) is fabricated and studied . The investigations of these junctions are primarily focused on the nonlinear behavior of current-voltage characteristics which exhibit the zero bias anomaly (ZBA), the subharmonic energy gap structure (SGS), etc. Although much work has been done on single SNS junctions, it is an experimental challenge to fabricate and carry out comparative measurements on multiply connected SNS systems. In this Letter, we present the results of low-temperature transport measurements on two-dimensional arrays of SNS junctions (2DSNS) and on single SNS junctions and perform the comparative analysis of their properties.

The design of our samples is based on the fabrication technique of SNS junctions with perfect NS interfaces that was recently proposed and realized by us . The point is the losing superconductivity in the submicron constrictions made in the ultrathin polycrystalline PtSi superconducting film by means of electron beam lithography and subsequent plasma etching. The reason of that is not completely understood. Nevertheless, this processing allows us to obtain the SNS junctions, in which the superconducting and the normal metal parts are made from the same material. In that way we escape from unavoidable uncertainty about parameters of the NS interfaces resulting from disorder near interface or appearance of oxide barrier that is typical for intermetallic junctions.

The original PtSi film with thickness of 6 nm was formed on Si substrate. The film had critical temperature $`T_\mathrm{c}=0.56`$ K. The resistance per square was 104 $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. The carrier density obtained from Hall measurements was $`710^{22}`$ cm-3, corresponding to the mean-free path $`l=1.2`$ nm and the diffusion constant $`D=6`$ cm2/s estimated assuming the simple free-electron model. The initial samples used in the experiments were Hall bridges with $`50\mu `$m in width and $`100\mu `$m in length.

To fabricate 2D array we patterned the square lattice of holes covering the whole Hall bridge by means of electron lithography and subsequent plasma etching. The micrograph of the lattice are shown in Fig. 1c. The lattice constant is $`2.1\mu `$m and diameter of holes $`1.7\mu `$m, so the width of the narrowest part is $`0.4\mu `$m. Thus we obtain the structure which consists of the islands of the film, with characteristic dimension being $`1.3\mu `$m, connected by narrow necks. As the constrictions are not superconducting we have a two-dimensional array of SNS junctions (Fig. 1d). To do a comparative study, single SNS junctions were made with the same dimensions of constrictions, as shown in Fig. 1a,b.

The measurements were carried out with the use of a phase sensitive detection technique at a frequency of 10 Hz that allowed us to measure the differential resistance ($`R=dV/dI`$) as a function of the dc voltage ($`V`$). The ac current was equal to 10 nA. Figure 2 shows typical dependences of $`dV/dI`$-$`V`$ for the structures with a single SNS junction. The data exhibit a behavior very similar to that reported in the previous work . The differential resistance reveals a minimum at zero bias voltage and reaches $`R_N530\mathrm{\Omega }`$ at $`V_{\mathrm{ZBA}}140\mu `$V ($`R_N`$ is the difference between the resistance of the whole structure with constriction and the resistance of the original film at $`T>T_\mathrm{c}`$). As one can see from the uppermost curves obtained at the highest temperatures, the zero bias anomaly survives even under the condition of fluctuation superconductivity and has the same voltage scale as that at the lowest temperatures.

In Fig. 3 we present the temperature dependence of the resistance for one of the two-dimensional arrays of SNS junctions. We have investigated three samples and found the similar behavior. At the temperatures higher than the superconducting transition temperature (this part of the curve is also shown in the lower inset to Fig. 3a) we observe the logarithmic behavior of the conductivity described by $`G(T)=G_{00}\mathrm{ln}(k_BT\tau /\mathrm{})`$, where $`G_{00}=e^2/(2\pi ^2\mathrm{})`$. It indicates the effects of the weak localization and interaction in the diffusion channel in quasi-two-dimensions. As $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ is approached, the increase of the resistance slows down and at a temperature slightly lower than $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ it changes to quick decrease which proceeds down to the lowest temperature. The low-temperature part of the curve is presented in the top inset to Fig. 3a. This behavior can be considered as a transition from a 2D logarithmic weak localization to a metallic one due to the proximity effects. The transition region is depicted in Fig. 3b. It should be noted that the resistance of the original PtSi film nearby $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ is determined by the large contribution from the superconducting fluctuations. Here a deviation from the logarithmic behavior, originated from the superconducting fluctuations, becomes apparent at $`T0.8`$ K. As it will be seen from the following results, the rapid decrease of the resistance observed at $`T0.45`$ K, that is less than $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ of the unpatterned film, is not due to the superconducting transition in the islands. The latter occurs at a higher temperature. Thus the transition region is determined by an interplay of several different contributions: (a) the weak localization, (b) the superconducting fluctuations, and (c) the proximity effects.

The differential resistance measurements on the two-dimensional array of SNS junctions shown in Fig. 4 represent the key data of this Letter. The differential resistance has a minimum at zero bias voltage and shows a maximum at a finite bias voltage of about $`10\mu `$V followed by a rapid decrease and eventually a slow decrease at large biases. In comparison with single SNS junctions where the zero-bias resistance dip extends to $`140\mu `$V for 2DSNS we observe significant narrowing of the ZBA. It is less than $`10\mu `$V. At nonzero biases a pronounced and fully symmetric structure in the differential resistance is seen. It is the so-called subharmonic energy gap structure (SGS) originated from the multiple Andreev reflections. In the general case the positions of these features are determined by the condition $`eV=\pm 2\mathrm{\Delta }/n`$, with ($`n=1,2,3,\mathrm{}`$). As the right panel in Fig. 4b shows, the dips corresponding to $`n=2,4,5,6,8,10,16`$ manifest in our case. The presence of SGS in curves 2 and 3 indicates clearly that in this temperature region the islands are already superconducting. The precise shape of the structure which we observe for all 2D arrays of SNS junctions varies from sample to sample, with even $`n`$ being commonly more pronounced and some $`n`$ being absent. Summarizing the observations concerning to the appearance of SGS in our single and multiply connected SNS systems one can say that the structure reveals in both systems, with it being richer in 2DSNS. It should be noted that from the earlier theory  describing the subgap current transport in terms of ballistic propagation of quasiparticles it follows that there is no chance to observe the SGS in the case of the high-transparent NS interfaces. The SGS on current-voltage characteristics of single diffusive SNS junctions was observed in the works  and has only just been explained in a recent paper . Following the spirit of Nazarov’s circuit theory , authors of Ref.  show that unlike the ballistic case in long diffusive SNS junctions the SGS survives even for perfect NS interfaces. It occurs owing to coherent impurity scattering of the quasiparticles inside the proximity region that formally corresponds to renormalized value of the interface resistance.

The issue to be addressed now is the behavior of the differential resistance at zero bias. For all samples under study we observe the dip, with the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{\mathrm{SNS}}/R_N`$ being more than 10%. It is the so-called excess conductance experimentally observed in all single diffusive SNS junctions . ZBA observed in our single SNS junctions is likely to be the result of interplay of non-local coherent effects, namely (i) the superposition of multiple coherent scattering at the NS interfaces in the presence of disorder (so-called reflectionless tunneling ) and (ii) the electron-electron interaction in the normal part. The latter is one of the important points of recently developed “circuit theory” when applied to diffusive superconducting hybrid systems . Within this approach, which is based on the use of the nonequilibrium Green function method, the electron-electron interaction induces weak pair potential in the normal metal. It results not only in the change of the resistance, but in a non-trivial distribution of the electrostatic and chemical potentials in the structure as well, that implies non-local resistivity in the structure. It is essentially a consequence of coherent nature of Andreev reflection. The most striking feature is, as the results for 2D array of SNS junctions presented in this Letter show, that self-averaging is totally absent and coherence of the effects governed by Andreev reflection is maintained over the entire sample. Moreover, in comparison with single SNS junction the manifestation of the effects in 2DSNS systems (particularly the SGS) is far more pronounced. The behavior of the ZBA and SGS in 2D array of SNS junctions strongly suggests that the development of a novel theoretical approach is needed which would self-consistently take into account the distribution of the currents, the potentials, and the superconducting order parameter. In this connection a recent work  should be noted, where the authors have extended the theoretical approach to disordered systems based on the nonlinear $`\sigma `$-model. An advantage of this approach is, unlike the others where the superconducting order parameter was taken into account just by the boundary conditions for the normal region, that it makes possible to describe an effect on the superconducting order parameter of disorder in the normal metal and even inside the superconducting region. As a consequence it was shown that the size of the superconductor influences the proximity effects. In our case this can be a probable reason for a drastic decrease of the effective suppression voltage for the ZBA when we turn from a single SNS system to multiply connected SNS junctions.

In summary, we have performed the first comparative study of two-dimensional array of diffusive SNS junctions and single SNS junction. Our experiments show that coherent phenomena governed by the Andreev reflection are not only maintained over the macroscopic scale but manifest novel pronounced effects as well. To have clear physical understanding of the phenomena observed in mesoscopic multiply connected systems further theoretical progress is needed.

We thank R. Donaton and M. Baklanov (IMEC) for providing the PtSi films. We would like to acknowledge valuable conversation with M. Feigel’man and Yu. Nazarov. This work has been supported by the program “Physics of quantum and wave processes” of the Russian Ministry of Science and Technology and by RFBR Grant No. 00-02-17965.