text:
# The Stellar IMF from Turbulent Fragmentation

## 1 Introduction

The process of star formation, particularly the origin of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), is a fundamental problem in astrophysics. Photometric properties and chemical evolution of galaxies depend on their stellar content. The process of galaxy formation cannot be described independently of the process of star formation, since galaxies are partly made of stars. Stars are also an important energy source for the interstellar medium of galaxies.

Stars are formed in molecular clouds (MCs), which have been the focus of the research on star formation for more than two decades. Currently, there is no generally accepted theory of star formation, capable of predicting the star formation rate and the stellar IMF based on the physical properties of MCs. This is hardly surprising, since turbulent motions are ubiquitously observed in MCs, and the physics of turbulence is poorly understood, due to the great mathematical complexity of the fluid equations. Magnetic field, self–gravity and high Mach numbers further increase the complexity.

The steady growth of computer performance has now made large three–dimensional numerical simulations of super–sonic magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence feasible (Padoan & Nordlund 1997, 1999; Stone, Ostriker & Gammie 1998; Mac Low et al. 1998; Padoan, Zweibel & Nordlund 2000; Klessen, Heitsch & Mac Low 2000; Mac Low & Ossenkopf 2000; Ostriker, Stone & Gammie 2000; Heitsch, Mac Low & Klessen 2000; Padoan et al. 2001a,b). Comparisons of numerical experiments with observational data have shown that super–sonic turbulence can explain the morphology and kinematics of MCs, and the formation of dense cores, provided that the motions are also super-Alfvénic (Padoan, Jones & Nordlund 1997; Padoan et al. 1998; Padoan & Nordlund 1997, 1999; Padoan et al. 1999; Padoan, Rosolowsky & Goodman 2001; Padoan et al. 2001a, b). We refer to this process of formation of dense cores in MCs by super–sonic turbulence as turbulent fragmentation. Since protostars evolve from the collapse of gravitationally unstable cores in MCs, even the stellar IMF could then be the result of turbulent fragmentation, with the power law shape of the IMF ultimately being the consequence of the self–similar nature of turbulence.

In this paper we do not use these increasingly sophisticated numerical simulations directly, but instead develop an analytic model. The assumptions of the model are inspired by the qualitative properties of the numerical model, but the current work does not depend on any particular set of numerical models or results.

Previous analytic models by Larson (1992), Henriksen (1986, 1991) and Elmegreen (1993, 1997, 1999, 2000b) have derived the stellar IMF on the basis of the self–similar structure of MCs. Larson, assuming one dimensional accretion, predicted a rather steep IMF slope, equal to the MC fractal dimension, while Henriksen found the IMF slope to depend on both the MC fractal dimension and the relation between density and linear size for structures inside MCs. Elmegreen pointed out that the IMF that results from random sampling of a self–similar cloud has an exponent $`x=1`$ (Salpeter $`x=1.35`$), independent of the cloud fractal dimension. In Elmegreen’s model the IMF is steeper than $`x=1`$ because the random sampling rate is assumed to be proportional to the square root of density, and because of “mass competition”.

These models are based on assumptions about the cloud geometry justified by the apparent fractal structure of MCs (Beech 1987; Bazell & Désert 1988, Scalo 1990; Dickman, Horvath & Margulis 1990; Falgarone, Phillips & Walker 1991; Zimmermann, Stutzki & Winnewisser 1992; Henriksen 1991; Hetem & Lepine 1993; Vogelaar & Wakker 1994; Elmegreen & Falgarone 1996), but the processes responsible for generating the assumed geometry are not discussed in detail.

In a previous attempt to relate the stellar IMF to the physical properties of super–sonic turbulence (Padoan, Nordlund & Jones 1997), we obtained the distribution of the local Jeans’ mass in super–sonic isothermal turbulence, from the probability distribution of the gas density. That work also provides a prediction for the stellar IMF, by identifying each local Jeans’ mass with a protostar. Although the prediction of the lower mass cutoff and the low mass portion of the IMF might be roughly correct, this model under–estimates the number of massive stars relative to low mass stars (as any other Log-Normal IMF). The main reason, as pointed out by Scalo et al. (1998), is the unphysical assumption that the most massive stars originate from gas at relatively low density including only a small fraction of the total mass.

In the present work we consider specific properties of MC turbulence and their consequences for the formation of protostellar cores. In particular, we i) assume approximate self–similarity of the super–sonic and super–Alfvénic velocity field, expressed by a power law shape of the power spectrum of turbulence, and ii) assume that the jump conditions for isothermal MHD shocks determine the scaling of the typical size of protostellar cores. Based on these fundamental assumptions, we are able to derive a power law mass distribution of gravitationally unstable cores, with a slope consistent with the Salpeter stellar IMF (Salpeter 1955). In order to derive the mass distribution of gravitationally unstable cores below one solar mass we also make use of the Probability Density Function (PDF) of the mass density in super–sonic turbulence, following Padoan, Nordlund & Jones (1997).

The formation of dense cores and the relation between the size of cores and the thickness of the postshock gas are discussed in the next section. In § 3 the power spectrum of super–sonic turbulence is discussed. Results on the PDF of the gas density in super–sonic turbulence are summarized in § 4. The mass distribution of dense cores formed by the process of turbulent fragmentation is derived in § 5, and the mass distribution of gravitationally unstable cores is computed in § 6. The relevance of these results for the origin of the stellar IMF is discussed in § 7 and 8. Conclusions are summarized in § 9.

## 2 The Origin of Dense Cores in Super–Sonic Turbulence

The qualitative properties of the local density maxima that form in super–sonic turbulence follow from first principles and numerical experiments have confirmed such properties.

Dense cores are formed in roughly isothermal super–sonic turbulent flows as the densest parts of sheets or filaments of shocked gas. Their typical size is therefore comparable to the sheet thickness, $`\lambda `$. Assuming that the magnetic pressure in the postshock gas exceeds the thermal pressure (this is the case for a large range of values of the preshock magnetic field strength, even when the flow is super–Alfvénic), the isothermal shock jump conditions are:

$$\frac{\rho _1}{\rho _0}_a$$
(1)
$$\frac{\lambda }{L}_a^1$$
(2)
$$\frac{B_1}{B_0}_a$$
(3)
where $`\rho _0`$, $`B_0`$ and $`\rho _1`$, $`B_1`$ are the values of the gas density and magnetic field strength before and after the shocks, respectively. $`L`$ is the linear extension of the gas before the shock (measured in the direction perpendicular to the shock surface) and $`\lambda `$ is the thickness of the postshock gas. $`_a`$ is the Alfvénic Mach number of the shock, that is the ratio of the flow velocity and the Alfvén velocity measured in the preshock gas:

$$_a=\frac{v}{v_a}=\frac{v}{B_0/\sqrt{4\pi \rho _0}}$$
(4)
Here the relevant magnetic field components are the ones parallel to the shock surface, because the perpendicular component does not provide pressure support against the compression and it is not amplified by the compression. Since only the parallel components of $`𝐁`$ are amplified, the field in the postshock sheets is nearly parallel to the sheet surface, and elongated in the direction of dense filaments (real ones, or two–dimensional sections of sheets). Since dense cores are formed predominantly in corrugations of sheets, the magnetic field within dense cores can occasionally show a strong curvature, depending on the orientation relative to the line of sight. This may considerably complicate the interpretation of dust polarization measurements (Ward–Thompson et al. 2000) and should be taken into account.

## 3 The Power Spectrum of Super–Sonic Turbulence

The power spectrum of turbulence in the inertial range (below the energy injection scale and above the dissipation scale) may be assumed to be a power law,

$$E(k)k^\beta ,$$
(5)
where $`k`$ is the wave–number, and the spectral index is $`\beta 5/3`$ for incompressible turbulence (Kolmogorov power spectrum) (Kolmogorov 1941), and $`\beta 2`$ for pressureless turbulence (Burgers power spectrum) (Burgers 1974; Gotoh & Kraichnan 1993). The $`\beta =2`$ power spectrum has often been assumed to be the correct power spectrum of super-sonic turbulence, at least for the compressional component of the velocity field.

The purpose of the present work is primarily that of establishing analytically a relation between the power spectrum of turbulence and the stellar IMF and we only need to assume that the power spectrum is a power law in the inertial range. Our analytic model does not assume a specific value of the spectral index, as obtained for example in numerical simulations. However, the predictions of our analytic model will be tested using the power spectrum of super–sonic turbulence computed from numerical simulations or estimated from observational data. For that reason we briefly summarize in this section some numerical and observational results.

### 3.1 The Power Spectrum in Numerical Simulations

The most detailed study of the power spectrum of numerical compressible turbulence has been presented by Porter, Pouquet & Woodward (1992, 1994) and Porter, Woodward & Pouquet (1998). From the 1992 paper to the 1998 paper the largest numerical resolution increased from $`256^3`$ to $`1024^3`$. These works are limited to decaying turbulence, with Mach numbers close to unity initially, and below unity at later times. The runs are therefore sub–sonic, except for an initial period of time. A magnetic field is not included.

The velocity field is usually decomposed into its solenoidal $`𝐯^s`$ and compressional $`𝐯^c`$ components as $`𝐯=𝐯^s+𝐯^c`$ with $`𝐯^s=0`$ and $`\times 𝐯^c=0`$. The velocity Fourier spectrum, $`E(k)`$, is also separated into its solenoidal and compressional parts: $`E(k)=E^s(k)+E^c(k)`$.

Porter, Pouquet & Woodward (1992) found that the compressional modes have a power spectrum $`E^c(k)k^2`$, and the solenoidal modes $`E^s(k)k^1`$. In the later works, after the larger numerical resolution runs were performed, the same authors concluded instead that both compressional and solenoidal modes develop a Kolmogorov power spectrum, $`E^c(k)E^s(k)k^{5/3}`$, with $`E^c/E^s0.15`$ (Porter, Pouquet & Woodward 1994; Porter, Woodward & Pouquet 1998). This conclusion is not strongly supported by the plots of power spectra presented by the authors, since the largest resolution runs ($`512^3`$ and $`1024^3`$) are consistent with a Kolmogorov power spectrum for the solenoidal modes only over a very limited range of wave–numbers, approximately $`4<k<10`$. At larger wave–numbers, the power spectrum is flatter, approximately $`E^s(k)k^1`$. An interpretation of the shallower power spectrum of solenoidal modes at large wave numbers is provided, in terms of a “near dissipation range”. The discrepancy between the steeper (Burgers) power spectrum of compressional modes in the early $`256^3`$ runs (Porter, Pouquet & Woodward 1992) and the Kolmogorov power spectrum in the latest $`256^3`$ runs (Porter, Pouquet & Woodward 1994; Porter, Woodward & Pouquet 1998) is not discussed.

We have recently started to perform a large number of numerical experiments with the purpose of computing the spectral index of the inertial range of driven super–sonic MHD turbulence as a function of the sonic and Alfvénic rms Mach numbers of the flow. The experiments use an isothermal equation of state, uniform initial density and magnetic fields, random initial velocity and random large scale forcing (both solenoidal), as described in previous works (Padoan et al. 1998; Padoan & Nordlund 1999; Padoan, Zweibel & Nordlund 2000). The results of these new experiments will be reported and discussed elsewhere. Results on power spectra and structure functions are reported in Boldyrev, Nordlund & Padoan (2002), where the scaling relations are also predicted on the basis of a new analytic model of super–sonic turbulence (Boldyrev 2002). A power spectrum intermediate between the Burgers and the Kolmogorov power spectra is found, $`E(k)k^{1.74}`$.

### 3.2 The Power Spectrum from Observational Data

The observed velocity dispersion–size Larson relation (Larson 1979, 1981), $`\mathrm{\Delta }vL^\alpha `$, should reflect the power spectrum of turbulence in the interstellar medium ($`\alpha =(\beta 1)/2`$), although it is often obtained from a combination of different clouds and cores inside the same cloud, or even different molecular transitions (see Goodman et al. 1998 for a discussion of the line width–size relation). Larson finds $`\alpha =0.37`$ in the range of scales $`1<L<1000`$ pc (Larson 1979); and $`\alpha =0.38`$ in the range of scales $`0.1<L<100`$ pc (Larson 1981); Leung, Kutner & Mead (1982) obtain $`\alpha =0.48`$ for $`0.2<L<4`$ pc; Myers (1983) gets $`\alpha =0.5`$ for $`0.04<L<10`$ pc; Sanders, Scoville & Solomon (1985) find an unusually large value $`\alpha =0.62`$ for $`20<L<100`$ pc, which they use to rule out any relation between a turbulent power spectrum and the line width–size relation; Dame et al. (1986) obtain $`\alpha =0.5`$ for $`10<L<150`$ pc; finally Falgarone, Puget & Pérault (1992) use a compilation of data from the literature together with their own new data, in order to sample a very large range of scales, $`0.01<L<100`$ pc, and include also a significant number of unbound objects (velocity dispersion larger than the virial velocity), which are usually not included in earlier studies. They find a correlation consistent with $`\alpha =0.4`$, and a large total scatter of almost one order of magnitude in line width. The value $`\alpha =0.4`$ for the exponent of the line width–size relation corresponds to a power spectrum of turbulence $`k^{1.8}`$.

Miesch & Bally (1994) have estimated the power spectrum of turbulence in molecular clouds by computing the autocorrelation and structure functions of emission line centroid velocities. Their results correspond to an average exponent for the line width–velocity relation $`\alpha =0.43`$, or a power spectrum with $`\beta =1.86`$. Previous attempts to measure the power spectrum of turbulence in molecular clouds with the same method had provided much shallower spectra (Kleiner & Dickman 1987; Hobson 1992).

A new method to estimate the power spectrum of turbulence in molecular clouds has also been recently proposed by Brunt & Heyer (2002), using the Principal Component Analysis by Heyer & Schloerb (1997). The method has already been applied to 23 molecular clouds in the outer Galaxy, and the result is a power spectrum with exponent varying from cloud to cloud, in the range $`1.72<\beta <2.9`$, with a typical error of 0.08. The average exponent is $`\beta =2.17\pm 0.31`$. This method has been calibrated using stochastic fields (Stutzki et al. 1998), with purely random phases and no correlation between density and velocity. Correlations in real turbulent flows are likely to be important, and could affect the calibration of this method.

## 4 The PDF of Mass Density

The study of Probability Density Functions (PDF) in turbulent flows has received increasing attention over the last few years. PDFs can provide important information complementary to power spectra. A well known example of a combined use of power spectrum and PDF, limited to linear density fluctuations, is the Press–Schechter model of the galaxy mass distribution (Press & Schechter 1974).

A number of numerical studies have established that the PDF of mass density in isothermal turbulent flows is well approximated by a Log–Normal distribution (Vázquez-Semadeni 1994; Padoan, Nordlund & Jones 1997; Scalo et al. 1998; Passot & Vázquez-Semadeni 1998; Nordlund & Padoan 1999; Ostriker, Gammie & Stone 1999), which can be understood analytically (Nordlund & Padoan 1999). A highly radiative turbulent flow develops a complex system of interacting shocks that are able to fragment the mass distribution into a random network of dense cores, filaments and sheets and low density “voids”, with a large density contrast. The intermittent nature of the Log–Normal PDF of mass density means that most of the mass concentrates in a small fraction of the total volume of the simulation.

The Log–Normal distribution may be written as:

$`p(\mathrm{ln}n^{})d\mathrm{ln}n^{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi \sigma ^2)^{1/2}}}`$
$`exp\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}n^{}\overline{\mathrm{ln}n^{}}}{\sigma }}\right)^2\right]d\mathrm{ln}n^{}`$ (6)
where $`n^{}`$ is the number density in units of the average density $`n_0`$,

$$n^{}=n/n_0,$$
(7)
the mean of the logarithm of density, $`\overline{\mathrm{ln}n^{}}`$, is determined by the standard deviation of the logarithm of density, $`\sigma `$:

$$\overline{\mathrm{ln}n^{}}=\frac{\sigma ^2}{2},$$
(8)
which is found to be a function of the rms Mach number of the flow $``$:

$$\sigma ^2=\mathrm{ln}(1+^2b^2)$$
(9)
or, for the linear density:

$$\sigma _\rho =b$$
(10)
where $`b0.5`$, from numerical experiments. The standard deviation of the linear density distribution thus grows linearly with the rms Mach number of the flow (Nordlund & Padoan 1999; Ostriker, Gammie & Stone 1999).

## 5 The Mass Distribution of Dense Cores

In this section we derive the mass distribution of dense cores based on the two following assumptions: i) The power spectrum of turbulence is a power law; ii) The typical size of a dense core scales as the thickness of the postshock gas.

If the typical size of a dense core is comparable to the thickness of the postshock gas, $`\lambda `$ (§ 2), its mass $`m`$ is:

$$m\rho _1\lambda ^3=\rho _0_a\left(\frac{L}{_a}\right)^3=\frac{\rho _0L^3}{_a^2},$$
(11)
where we have used the jump conditions (1) and (2). Equation (11) shows that on a given scale $`L`$, the mass of dense cores is proportional to the total mass available ($`\rho _0L^3`$) divided by the second power of the Mach number on that scale ($`_a^2`$).

Given the power spectrum (5), the rms velocity, $`\sigma _v`$ on the scale $`L`$ is

$$\sigma _vL^\alpha ,$$
(12)
where

$$\alpha =\frac{\beta 1}{2}.$$
(13)
The typical shock velocity on the scale $`L`$ is therefore $`\sigma _v(L)`$, and the shock Mach number is given by (4), where $`v`$ is replaced by $`\sigma _v(L)`$. Substituting this scale dependent expression of $`_a`$ into (11) one obtains

$$m\frac{\rho _0L_0^3}{_{a,0}^2}\left(\frac{L}{L_0}\right)^{4\beta },$$
(14)
where $`L_0`$ is the (large) scale where the turbulent velocity is $`v_0`$ and the rms Mach number is $`_{a,0}`$.

The smallest scale where significant density fluctuations may be expected is approximately the scale where the Mach number is of order unity:

$$m_{min}\frac{\rho _0L_0^3}{_{a,0}^{6/(\beta 1)}}$$
(15)
In MCs with a mass $`M_0=\rho _0L_0^3=10^4`$ M a typical value of the Mach number is $`_{a,0}10`$. We then obtain $`m_{min}0.0003`$ M, for $`\beta =1.8`$.

If $`L_0`$ in equation (14) is defined as the largest scale of the turbulent flow (the scale of turbulent energy injection), and we take $`L=L_0`$, we obtain an estimate of the mass of the largest cores formed by turbulent fragmentation,

$$m_{max}\frac{\rho _0L_0^3}{_{a,0}^2},$$
(16)
where $`_{a,0}`$ is the rms Mach number on the largest turbulent scale. In MCs with a mass $`M_0=\rho _0L_0^3=10^4`$ M and Mach number $`_{a,0}=10`$, $`m_{max}100`$ M.

To arrive at the distribution of core masses we first consider the mass distribution of a completely self–similar case and then consider the modification arising from the Mach number dependence.

The completely self–similar case leads to equal mass contributions from each logarithmic interval (IMF slope -1), as shown by Elmegreen (1997), who also demonstrated that this result does not depend on the fractal dimension of the self–similar distribution. To illustrate this result, and to derive the modification of it due to the Mach number dependence, it is useful to consider the setup and interpretation of numerical experiments.

Numerical turbulence experiments are in a certain sense scale–free; the density is usually rescaled so that the average density $`\rho =1`$ and the size of the box is scaled so that $`L=1`$. The only distinguishing, scale dependent properties that remain after such scalings are the (sonic and Alfvénic) Mach numbers; from Larson’s relations (Larson 1981) we expect larger scales to correspond to larger rms Mach numbers.

To recover the completely self–similar result we consider two experiments with identical initial conditions (also with respect to Mach numbers and average gas density), but interpreted at different scales $`L_1`$, and $`L_2>L_1`$. The total mass in the “large scale” experiment is obviously $`(L_2/L_1)^3`$ larger than in the “small scale” experiment. The cores in the large scale experiment would be equal in number, but heavier by the ratio $`(L_2/L_1)^3`$ than cores in the small scale experiment. On the other hand, the total number of cores in the small scale experiment is $`(L_2/L_1)^3`$ larger than in the large scale experiment, if the same total mass is used in the two cases (that is if cores from a number $`(L_2/L_1)^3`$ of small scale experiments are counted together). The result is therefore a total number of cores that depends on scale as:

$$NL^3,$$
(17)
in agreement with Elmegreen’s (1997) result.

When the Mach number dependence on scale is taken into account the result is that the larger scales contribute relatively less massive cores, because of the scaling relation (14). We assume that the number of cores per scale $`L`$ still scales as $`L^3`$. Combining the relations (14) and (17) we obtain:

$$N(m)\mathrm{d}\mathrm{ln}mm^{3/(4\beta )}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{ln}m.$$
(18)
If the spectral index is consistent with the observed velocity dispersion–size Larson relation (Larson 1981) and with our numerical and analytical results (Boldyrev, Nordlund & Padoan 2001), then $`\beta =1.74`$ and the mass distribution is

$$N(m)\mathrm{d}\mathrm{ln}mm^{1.33}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{ln}m,$$
(19)
which is almost identical to the Salpeter stellar IMF (Salpeter 1955).

## 6 The Mass Distribution of Collapsing Cores

The mass distribution of dense cores has been computed assuming that the pre–shock density is $`n_0`$ and the postshock density $`_an_0`$, where $`_a`$ is scale dependent. A more precise computation should include the effect of the probability distribution of the value of $`_a`$ at each scale, or the overall effect of the statistics of the turbulent velocity field, which is the generation of a Log–Normal PDF of mass density (see § 4). This is necessary to compute the fraction of dense cores that are gravitationally unstable and collapse into protostars, since dense cores can be significantly denser than their average density predicted by the scaling laws. While most of the large cores will be dense enough to collapse, the probability that small cores are dense enough to collapse is determined by the PDF of mass density. Because of the intermittent nature of the Log–Normal PDF, even very small (sub–stellar) cores have a finite chance to be dense enough to collapse.

We write the thermal Jeans’ mass as:

$$m_J=m_{J,0}\left(\frac{n}{n_0}\right)^{1/2}$$
(20)
where:

$$m_{J,0}=1.2m_{}\left(\frac{T}{10K}\right)^{3/2}\left(\frac{n_0}{1000cm^3}\right)^{1/2}$$
(21)
is the Jeans’ mass at the mean density $`n_0`$. The distribution of the Jeans’ mass is obtained from the PDF of density assuming constant temperature as in Padoan, Nordlund & Jones (1997):

$`p(m_J)d\mathrm{ln}m_j={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi }\sigma /2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_J}{m_{J,0}}}\right)^2`$
$`exp\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}m_JA}{\sigma /2}}\right)^2\right]d\mathrm{ln}m_J,`$ (22)
where $`m_J`$ is in solar masses, and:

$$A=\mathrm{ln}m_{J,0}^2\overline{\mathrm{ln}n^{}}$$
(23)
The fraction of cores of mass $`m`$ with gravitational energy in excess of their thermal energy is given by the integral of $`p(m_J)`$ from 0 to $`m`$. The mass distribution of collapsing cores is therefore

$$N(m)d\mathrm{ln}mm^{3/(4\beta )}\left[_0^mp(m_J)𝑑m_J\right]d\mathrm{ln}m$$
(24)
The mass distribution is plotted in Figure 1, for $`\beta =1.8`$. In the top panel the mass distribution is computed for three different values of the largest turbulent scale $`L_0`$, assuming Larson type relations (Larson 1981) to rescale $`n_0`$ and $`_{a,0}`$ according to the value of $`L_0`$. The mass distribution is a power law, determined by the power spectrum of turbulence, for masses larger than approximately 1 m. At smaller masses the mass distribution flattens, reaches a maximum at a fraction of a solar mass, and then decreases with decreasing stellar mass. Collapsing sub–stellar masses are found, thanks to the intermittent density distribution in the turbulent flow. The middle and bottom panel of Figure 1 show the dependence of the mass distribution on the rms Mach number of the flow and on the average gas density respectively.

The magnetic critical mass is derived in the next section. We have not used it here to obtain the mass distribution of collapsing cores because the thermal Jeans’s mass is a more strict condition for collapse. The magnetic critical mass depends on the core morphology in relation to the field geometry and on the magnetic field strength that correlates with the gas density with a very large scatter (see below). It is possible therefore that magnetic pressure support against the gravitational collapse affects the shape of the mass distribution, but only as a secondary effect.

## 7 The Stellar IMF

Observations show that the stellar IMF is a power law above 1–2 m, with exponent around the Salpeter value $`x=1.35`$, roughly independent of environment (Elmegreen 1998, 2000), gradually flattens at smaller masses, and peaks at approximately 0.2–0.6 m (Hillenbrand 1997; Bouvier et al. 1998; Luhman 1999; Luhman & Rieke 1999; Luhman 2000; Luhman et al. 2000). The shape of the IMF below 1–2 m, and particularly the relative abundance of brown dwarfs, may depend on the physical environment (Luhman 2000).

The scalings discussed above result in a mass distribution of dense cores consistent with the stellar IMF for masses larger than 1 m, without invoking a sampling rate proportional to the free fall time, or “competition for mass” as in Elmegreen (1997, 1999). Two conclusions are possible; either there are effects in addition to those considered by Elmegreen, and they all happen to cancel each other, or else additional effects are not important in the first place. In the spirit of Occam, let’s consider the latter possibility. If, as argued elsewhere by Elmegreen (2000a), star formation essentially happens in a crossing time, then we may indeed see only one generation of stars being produced at each scale, rather than the repeated process implied by scaling with the local dynamical time. The picture thus is one where a particular MC forms as a consequence of the random intersection of counter-streaming, super–sonic motions (Ballesteros–Paredes, Hartmann & Vázquez–Semadeni 1999; Hartmann, Ballesteros–Paredes & Bergin 2001), internal turbulence creates the distribution of core masses derived above, and the cores are then grabbed by gravitation to form one generation of stars. Energy feedback from stars subsequently disperses the cloud before the process has time to repeat.

In the process envisaged above, turbulent fragmentation is responsible for creating the core mass distribution, while gravity is only responsible for the collapse of each protostar. The flattening and the turn around of the IMF is also easily accounted for in such a model. While scale–free turbulence generates a power law mass distribution down to very small masses, only cores with a gravitational binding energy in excess of their magnetic and thermal energy can collapse. The shape of the stellar IMF is then determined by the PDF of gas density, that is by the probability of small cores to be dense enough to collapse. The mass distribution of collapsing cores derived in the previous section and based on the Log–Normal PDF of mass density is indeed consistent with the observed IMF.

The scaling of the mass where the IMF peaks can be derived without a knowledge of the PDF of mass density, using the scaling laws and the definition of the critical mass for collapse. We first consider the magnetic critical mass,

$$m_B=m_{B,0}\left(\frac{B}{B_0}\right)^3\left(\frac{n}{n_0}\right)^2,$$
(25)
where $`m_{B,0}`$ is the magnetic critical mass at the average number density $`n_0`$,

$$m_{B,0}=8.3\mathrm{M}_{}\left(\frac{B_0}{8\mu \mathrm{G}}\right)^3\left(\frac{n_0}{10^3\mathrm{cm}^3}\right)^2,$$
(26)
(McKee et al. 1993). Padoan & Nordlund (1999) have shown that super–sonic and super–Alfvénic turbulence generates a correlation between gas density and magnetic field strength, consistent with the observational data. The two most important properties of such a $`B`$$`n`$ relation are the very large scatter, and the power law upper envelope ($`Bn^{0.4}`$). More recently, Padoan et al. (2001b) have computed the magnetic field strength in dense cores produced in numerical simulations of self–gravitating, super–sonic and super–Alfvénic turbulence. They found typical field strength as a function of column density in agreement with new compilations of observational samples by Crutcher (1999) and Bourke et al. (2000). Here we adopt the following empirical $`B`$$`n`$ relation consistent with our previous works:

$$B=B_0\left(\frac{\rho }{\rho _0}\right)^{0.5},$$
(27)
where the exponent is $`0.5`$, and not $`0.4`$ as reported above, because we now refer to the average values of $`B`$ inside bins of $`n`$, and not to the upper envelope of the $`B`$$`n`$ relation, as above. The slight steepening is due to the fact that the lower envelope of the $`B`$$`n`$ relation is steeper than the upper envelope.

Note that (27) is a statistical relation between the average magnetic field strength as a function of core density, while Eqs. (1) and (3) are fundamental shock jump relations. Flows along magnetic field lines are able to alter the ratio of mass to magnetic flux in regions upstream of shocks, resulting in the ensemble that (27) characterizes. Both relations are valid, and enter into the derivation of the critical mass.

We find the critical mass by imposing $`m=m_B`$, where $`m`$ is given by equation (14), and $`m_B`$ by equation (25),

$$m_{B,c}=m_{B,0}\left(\frac{\rho L_0^3}{m_{J,0}}\right)^{(\beta 1)/(153\beta )}_{a,0}^{2/(5\beta )},$$
(28)
For $`\beta =1.8`$, we get

$$m_{B,c}m_{B,0}_{a,0}^{0.625}.$$
(29)
The critical mass is therefore typically a few times smaller than the critical mass at the average density. For $`_{a,0}=10`$, $`n_0=10^3`$ cm<sup>-3</sup> and $`B_0=8`$ $`\mu `$G, the critical mass is approximately $`2`$ m.<sup>3</sup><sup>3</sup>3This value of $`B_0=8`$ $`\mu `$G provides a normalization of the $`B`$$`n`$ relation consistent with the results of our super-Alfvénic numerical simulations discussed in Padoan & Nordlund (1999) and in Padoan et al. (2001b). The probability that cores smaller than this mass are larger than their critical mass decreases with decreasing core mass, which could produce some flattening of the stellar IMF. Because of the large scatter in the $`B`$$`n`$ relation the magnetic critical mass does not define a sharp cut-off in the IMF, but rather a gradual flattening. A sharper mass scale is defined by the Jeans’ mass in the cores,

$$m_{J,c}m_{J,0}_{a,0}^{2/(5\beta )},$$
(30)
where $`m_{J,0}`$ is the Jeans’ mass at the average density defined in (21). For $`_{a,0}=10`$, $`n_0=500`$ cm<sup>-3</sup>, $`T_0=10`$ K and $`\beta =1.8`$, the thermal critical mass is approximately $`0.4`$ m. Therefore, using physical parameters typical of nearby molecular clouds, the present model predicts that the IMF should gradually flatten below approximately 2 m and peak in a (logarithmic) neighborhood of 0.4 m, due to increasing thermal pressure support at smaller masses (cores smaller than their Jeans’ mass are not included in the mass distribution).

This result is consistent with the analytic expression of the IMF derived in the previous section based of the density PDF. As can be seen in Figure 1, the IMF peaks at approximately $`0.4`$ m, for $`_{a,0}=10`$, $`n_0=500`$ cm<sup>-3</sup>, $`T_0=10`$ K and $`\beta =1.8`$.

### 7.1 The Largest Stellar Mass

In § 5 we have estimated the largest mass of dense cores formed by the process of turbulent fragmentation, given by the expression (16). The largest stellar mass should also be of the order of $`m_{max}`$. Assuming that the turbulent velocities are of the order of the virial velocities in the parent molecular cloud, and adopting the Larson relation $`\rho _0L_0^1`$ (Larson 1981), we obtain $`m_{max}M_{cloud}^{0.5}`$ <sup>4</sup><sup>4</sup>4According to the Larson relations larger clouds have lower average gas density than smaller clouds. This does not mean that the most massive stars are formed in lower density regions. In each cloud stars of different mass are assumed to form, on average, from pre–shock gas at the mean cloud density.. This is close to the empirical relation $`m_{max}M_{cloud}^{0.43}`$ (Larson 1982), which is found for a cloud sample known to follow the above size–density relation. It is likely that the true exponent of this relation is slightly larger than the value found by Larson (1982), because the lifetime of the most massive stars is comparable to, or shorter than, the lifetime of their parent molecular clouds, and therefore the probability of observing the most massive stars decreases with increasing mass.

Elmegreen (1993, 1997) has argued that the largest stellar mass is related to the mass of the parent cloud for purely statistical reasons: the larger the cloud mass is, the higher the probability of populating the high mass tail of the IMF. Such a statistical argument is correct only if the normalization of the IMF is independent of the total cloud mass. The scalings derived above show that this is not the case; larger clouds in general have larger velocities and therefore form relatively fewer stars of a given mass. This is also indicated by observations, since it is commonly found that larger clouds have lower star formation efficiency than smaller clouds. However, since the star formation efficiency also depends on the low mass cut-off of the IMF, and since age differences also may enter, it would have been hard to draw firm conclusions from observations alone.

## 8 Discussion

In Section 5 we found that the mass distribution of dense cores formed by turbulent fragmentation has a power law shape, with a slope consistent with the stellar IMF at intermediate and large masses, and in Section 6 we found the distribution of the mass of collapsing cores, which has a shape consistent with the observed IMF also at small masses. Three assumptions were essential for the derivation, and we would here like to emphasize what these assumptions are, and point out that they are independent of each other.

The first assumption is that approximate selfsimilarity holds for supersonic turbulence of varying Mach number, to the extent that the scaling of the number of cores with upstream scale $`L`$ scales as $`L^3`$, also when the Mach number varies with scale $`L`$. This is a reasonable assumption because the compressed cores occupy only a tiny fraction of the volume where their mass was collected from. The second assumption is that the mass of the compressed cores scales as the cube of the thickness of the shocked gas, which again scales as the inverse of the Mach number. This assumption is independent of the particular density and scale of the upstream flow, and rests only on the fundamental shock jump condition and on the core shape being independent of Mach number. The third assumption is that the Mach number of the upstream gas depends on the scale $`L`$ of the upstream flow as $`L^\alpha `$, where $`\alpha `$ is essentially the index in Larson’s (1979, 1981) velocity–size relation.

It is remarkable that, under these assumptions, an IMF slope consistent with Salpeter’s (1955) value is obtained as a direct result of the observed velocity dispersion–size relation of ISM turbulence and the fundamental jump conditions for isothermal MHD shocks. Provided that some general criteria are met, the slope of the stellar IMF is thus independent of the physical conditions in the star–forming clouds, as also indicated by the observations (Elmegreen 1998, 2000).

We have also interpreted the gradual flattening of the IMF around 1–2 M and its peak at approximately 0.3–0.5 M as the effect of thermal (possibly also magnetic) support against the gravitational collapse. The mass distribution of collapsing cores, computed on the basis of the PDF of mass density and the thermal Jeans’ mass, is consistent with the observed stellar IMF, down to sub–stellar masses.

We have shown that the IMF at low stellar masses is sensitive to the average physical properties of the star forming gas, such as the rms Mach number and the average gas density, also consistent with the observations (Luhman 2000). An even larger number of sub–stellar objects would be predicted if a significant fraction of them originate as close companions of more massive stars and later on separate as individual brown dwarfs. In the present work we do not study the evolution of density fluctuations smaller than their Jeans’ mass within the collapsing background of an unstable larger core, and therefore this mechanism for the formation of giant planets and brown dwarfs is not discussed here.

The assumption behind the result is that the upstream density is sampled from a Log-Normal density distribution, and that the distribution of the densities of cores therefore also is approximately Log-Normal. An exact Log-Normal density distribution requires exactly isothermal conditions, but even for non-isothermal conditions the central part of the density PDF is still approximately Log-Normal (Scalo et. al 1998, Nordlund & Padoan 1999).

Given the fact that turbulent fragmentation is unavoidable in super–sonic turbulence, and given the success of the present model in predicting the correct slope of the stellar IMF, it is difficult to argue that super–sonic turbulence does not play a dominant role in the generation of the stellar IMF. Other processes such as gravitational fragmentation (Larson 1973; Elmegreen & Mathieu 1983; Zinnecker 1984), opacity limited fragmentation (Hoyle 1953; Gaustad 1963; Yoneyama 1972; Suchkov & Shchekinov 1976; Low & Lynden-Bell 1976; Rees 1976; Yoshii & Saio 1985; Silk 1977a, b), protostar interactions and coagulation (Nakano 1966; Arny & Weissman 1973; Silk & Takahashi 1979; Bastien 1981; Yoshii & Saio 1985; Lejeune & Bastien 1986; Allen & Bastien 1995, 1996; Price & Podsiadlowski 1995; Murray & Lin 1996), stellar winds and outflows (Silk 1995; Nakano, Hasegawa & Norman 1995; Adams & Fatuzzo 1996), competitive accretion (Larson 1978; Tohline 1980; Bonnell et al. 1997; Myers 2000) must be relatively unimportant.

This conclusion is supported by a recent computation of the mass distribution of dense self–gravitating cores in numerical simulations of self–gravitating super–sonic MHD turbulence (Padoan et al. 2001b). The result is a power law mass distribution consistent with the stellar IMF. Mass distributions of cores from numerical simulations of super–sonic turbulence, roughly consistent with the stellar IMF, are also reported by Klessen (2000).

It should be noted that even the formation of molecular clouds, a process that some authors ascribe to the random collisions of gas streams (e.g. Ballesteros-Paredes, Hartmann & Vázquez-Semadeni 1999; Hartmann, Ballesteros–Paredes & Bergin 2001), may be a manifestation of a process analogous to the one discussed above, just operating on a larger scale. If motions on larger scales are also characterized by power laws, one would then expect the distribution of MC masses to obey a Salpeter-like scaling. However, such scaling would be rather difficult to probe observationally, due to the fact that MCs are dispersed by the process of star formation before they are able to collapse as a whole, which prevents them from being well defined as individual objects.

For almost twenty years estimates of the mass distribution of dense cores in molecular clouds, based on molecular–line studies, found a shallow power law mass distribution with a single exponent in the range $`0<x<0.7`$<sup>5</sup><sup>5</sup>5(Myers, Linke & Benson 1983; Casoli, Combes & Gerin 1984; Blitz 1987; Carr 1987; Loren 1989; Stutzkie & Güsten 1990; Lada, Bally & Stark 1991; Nozawa et al. 1991; Tatematsu et al. 1993; Langer, Wilson & Anderson 1993; Williams & Blitz 1993; Blitz 1993; Williams, De Geus & Blitz 1994; Williams, Blitz & Stark 1995; Dobashi, Bernard & Fukui 1996; Onishi et al. 1996; Yonekura et al. 1997; Kawamura et al. 1998)., with a typical value $`x=0.5`$. The main reasons for the shallow mass distribution obtained in these works are i) the relatively low density traced by the molecular emission lines normally used ($`10^3`$ cm<sup>-3</sup> for <sup>13</sup>CO, and $`10^4`$ cm<sup>-3</sup> for C<sup>18</sup>O); ii) the limited density range probed by each molecular emission line; iii) the use of inappropriate “clump–find” algorithms; iv) the relatively low resolution that allows only the selection of large cores, with typical mass ranging from $`10`$ m to hundreds or thousands m. Clearly, cores selected in this way cannot be identified with single protostellar cores, as discussed in Padoan (1995), where it was predicted that the exponent of the intrinsic mass distribution of protostellar cores should have been $`x>1`$, based on the stellar IMF. Recently, Onishi et al. (1999) have obtained a sample of dense cores in the Taurus molecular cloud complex using a higher density tracer, H<sup>13</sup>CO<sup>+</sup>, which probes a density of approximately $`n=10^5`$ cm<sup>-3</sup>. They found a power law mass distribution with exponent $`x=1.5\pm 0.3`$, in the mass range between $`3.5`$ m and $`25`$ m. While most previous determinations of core mass distributions using molecular–line maps are affected by the arbitrary definition of an individual core, which is far from trivial in the hierarchical cloud structure, the dense H<sup>13</sup>CO<sup>+</sup> cores found by Onishi et al. (1999) in Taurus are all isolated and therefore unambiguously defined.

Recent dust continuum emission surveys, which also probe relatively high densities ($`n=10^5`$$`10^6`$ cm<sup>-3</sup>), have provided more support to the idea that the stellar IMF reflects the mass distribution of dense cores. The mass distribution of dense cores in $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi (Motte et al. 1998; Johnstone et al. 2000), in the Serpens core (Testi & Sargent 1998) and in Orion (Motte et al. 2001; Johnstone et al. 2001) are found to be consistent with the stellar IMF. Motte et al. (1998), for example, obtained a power law mass distribution with exponent $`x=1.5`$ (in logarithmic units such that Salpeter’s exponent is $`x=1.35`$) in the range of masses between $`0.5`$ m and $`3`$ m, and $`x=0.5`$ in the range between $`0.1`$ m and $`0.5`$ m. The results by Motte et al. (1998, 2001) are confirmed by Johnstone et al. (2000, 2001). Testi & Sargent (1998) found $`x=1.1`$, in the range of masses between $`0.5`$ m and $`30`$ m.

Detailed studies of pre–stellar cores selected in this way could provide accurate volume density measurements and therefore a test for the density–size relation implied by our equation (11). Note, however, that because all quantities involved have wide distribution functions it is important to distinguish between average or typical values, extreme values, and observed values. The latter may often be more representative of extreme values than of average values. One example is Larson’s density–size relation, which by its nature tends to refer to the densest cores of a given size rather than the average cores of that size; many low density cores may exist that are unobservable, or are ignored.

In the context of our derivation and assumptions one may understand Larson’s density–size relation as the result of combining Eq. 1 and 3 and then taking the extreme with respect to $`L`$; i.e., the relation represents those extreme cases where roughly the same initial density gas has been compressed by shocks, perhaps repeatedly, to various degrees. If each compression is essentially one–dimensional one retains the approximately inverse relation between core size and core density.

## 9 Conclusions

In conclusion, we have related the stellar IMF to the mass distribution of dense cores formed by the process of turbulent fragmentation, assuming that only cores with gravitational energy in excess of their magnetic and thermal energy can collapse as protostars. Most sub–critical cores disperse back into the turbulent flow, and are therefore irrelevant for the process of star formation, as we have argued in other recent works (Padoan et al. 2001a, b). Previous theories of star formation (see Shu, Adams & Lizano 1987) assume that stars of small and intermediate mass are formed from sub–critical cores. In such theories, sub–critical cores are in static equilibrium and evolve quasi–statically, on the time–scale of ambipolar drift. We have argued that such a scenario is inconsistent with the turbulent nature of MCs (Padoan et al. 2001a, b).

We have derived the mass distribution of dense cores generated by the process of turbulent fragmentation, and have found a power law mass distribution consistent with the Salpeter stellar IMF, for stellar masses larger than 1–2 m. This result is a direct consequence of fundamental physical properties of super–sonic turbulence in MCs, such as the power spectrum of turbulence and the jump conditions for isothermal MHD shocks. We have also shown that another fundamental physical property of turbulent flows, namely the PDF of the gas density, can explain the shape of the IMF at smaller stellar masses, and the formation of gravitationally unstable cores of sub–stellar mass.

The main results of this work are: i) The power law stellar IMF at masses larger than 1–2 m is the result of the near self–similar nature of inertial range super–sonic turbulence; ii) The low mass roll-over and cut-off of the IMF is caused by the combined effects of the thermal support of the smallest cores against gravitational collapse and the density PDF of super–sonic turbulence; iii) The mass–scaling of the peak of the IMF may be expressed as a function of the physical parameters of turbulent star–forming clouds; primarily their rms turbulent velocity, temperature, magnetic field strength and average density; iv) For physical parameters typical of nearby MCs the peak of the IMF is predicted to be around 0.3–0.5 m; v) The slope of the IMF at masses larger than 1–2 m is determined by the inertial range spectral index of super–sonic turbulence and the jump conditions for isothermal MHD shocks; vi) For magnetically dominated jump conditions, which are applicable to typical molecular cloud conditions, the IMF spectral index is equal to $`3/(4\beta )`$, where $`\beta `$ is the inertial range spectral index of super–sonic turbulence; vii) For a value of the inertial range spectral index $`\beta =1.74`$, consistent with Larson’s relations and with new numerical results, the IMF spectral index is $`x=1.33`$, almost identical to Salpeter’s slope.

We conclude that the process of turbulent fragmentation is essential to the origin of the stellar IMF, in support of the thesis that star formation can be viewed as the main consequence of the dissipation of super–sonic turbulence in molecular clouds.

We thank the anonymous referee for useful comments. We are grateful to Bruce Elmegreen, Alyssa Goodman, Chris McKee, Phil Myers and Ralph Pudritz for valuable discussions. This work was performed while PP held a National Research Council Associateship Award at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Å.N. acknowledges partial support by the Danish National Research Foundation through its establishment of the Theoretical Astrophysics Center.


format: text

text:
# Electron-Like Fermi Surface and Remnant (𝜋,0) Feature in Overdoped La1.78Sr0.22CuO4

\[

## Abstract

We have performed an angle-resolved photoemission study of overdoped La1.78Sr0.22CuO4, and have observed sharp nodal quasiparticle peaks in the second Brillouin zone that are comparable to data from Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ. The data analysis using energy distribution curves, momentum distribution curves and intensity maps all show evidence of an electron-like Fermi surface, which is well explained by band structure calculations. Evidence for many-body effects are also found in the substantial spectral weight remaining below the Fermi level around ($`\pi `$,0), where the band is predicted to lie above EF.

\]

Studies of low lying excitations and the Fermi surface in the high temperature superconductors by angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) have mostly been focused on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (BSCCO) and YBa2Cu3O7-y (YBCO). In these systems, however, additional features derived from complicated crystal structures, such as the Bi-O superstructures in BSCCO and the Cu-O chains in YBCO, have made the analysis rather complicated. In particular, the Bi-O superstructure complicates the interpretation of spectra around ($`\pi `$,0), resulting in the controversy over the Fermi surface geometry. La2-xSrxCuO4 (LSCO), by virtue of the absence of these effects and the availability of high quality single crystal samples over the entire doping range, provides the opportunity to advance our understanding of the high temperature superconductors. In the underdoped regime, earlier studies have uncovered the presence of two electronic components, a systematic suppression of the spectral weight near ($`\pi /2,\pi /2`$) (when compared with that of overdoped samples or BSCCO for data taken under the same conditions), and straight Fermi surface segments near ($`\pi `$,0) of width $`\pi /2`$, which have been interpreted as evidence for electronic inhomogeneities. In the overdoped regime, an electron-like Fermi surface was observed in the high-Tc superconductors for the first time, but despite this progress, important problems remain. Since ARPES data from underdoped samples are very broad, worries about the sample quality persist. There are also questions about the effects of the photoemission matrix element, which makes it difficult to extract quantitative information about stripe effects on nodal spectral weight by comparing the experiments and theoretical calculations that predict suppression. We address these important questions by performing a detailed study of overdoped LSCO ($`x`$= 0.22) where the stripe effects are expected to be weak, and have the aid of reliable band structure calculations (unlike the case of BSCCO). We performed ARPES in three Brillouin zones (BZ) and performed numerical simulations to investigate the matrix element effects. In the second BZ, using a favorable polarization, we have identified a sharp spectral feature along the diagonal direction in this sample that is comparable to that of BSCCO. This observation demonstrates that the surface quality of LSCO is comparable to that of BSCCO and gives credence to LSCO data in the underdoped region, since the sample quality of LSCO in the underdoped region is expected to be improved with decreasing Sr content. Our detailed analysis shows that the compound has an electron-like Fermi surface with additional spectral weight near ($`\pi `$,0), which is the remnant of the flat band feature in the underdoped samples. The detailed comparison of experiment and simulation also provides a better understanding of the matrix element effect in these experiments.

The ARPES measurements were carried out at BL10.0.1.1 of the Advanced Light Source, using incident photons with an energy of 55.5 eV. We used a SCIENTA SES-200 spectrometer in angle mode, where one can collect spectra over $``$14 degrees, corresponding to a momentum width of $``$1.1$`\pi `$ (in units of $`1/a`$, where $`a3.8\mathrm{\AA }`$ is the lattice constant). The total energy and momentum resolution was about 20 meV and 0.02$`\pi `$, respectively. We studied high quality single crystals of LSCO with $`x=0.22`$ grown by the traveling-solvent floating-zone method. The measurements were performed in an ultra high vacuum of 10-11 Torr at 20 K and the samples were cleaved in situ. The position of the Fermi level ($`E_F`$) was calibrated with gold spectra.

Figure 1 shows energy distribution curves (EDC’s) for two different experimental geometries along the directions shown in the right panel. In both geometries, the light is incident to the surface with an incident angle of $`7^{}`$. The EDC’s in geometry I were measured by rotating the sample, which causes the changes in the in-plane $`E`$-vector of the incident photons as shown in the right panel. On the other hand, in geometry II, the spectra were measured by moving the analyzer, and therefore the in-plane $`E`$-vector is fixed. While in geometry I, the $`E`$-vector was almost normal to the sample surface, resulting in a small in-plane $`E`$ component, in the geometry II, the $`E`$-vector was almost parallel to the sample surface. Panels (a) and (d) show ARPES spectra around the $`(\pi ,0)`$ point. These spectra show a single peak with little dispersion, which will be addressed in the discussion below as a remnant of the “flat band” feature appearing below $`E_F`$ even for $`x<0.2`$. Panels (b) and (e) give the nodal cut \[(0,0) to ($`\pi ,\pi `$) direction\] in the first BZ for each geometry. One can see that panel (e) shows a dispersive feature while panel (b) shows almost no corresponding spectral feature, due to transition matrix element effects. Thus, compared to the previous results, we could observe the nodal feature in the first BZ more clearly in geometry II. Furthermore, as shown in panels (c) and (f), we found that the nodal state feature become stronger in the second BZ, particularly in geometry II. As a whole, geometry II gives clearer dispersive features, probably because the in-plane $`E`$-vector is much larger than that in geometry I. These results show that there are significant matrix element effects which should be carefully considered in order to extract intrinsic information. It should be emphasized that the intensity of the first BZ nodal state in underdoped LSCO is still much weaker than that in BSCCO or overdoped LSCO observed under the same experimental conditions. These relative changes in data with doping under the same experimental geometry are intrinsic but the matrix element effect makes quantitative analysis more difficult.

One may suspect that the weak dispersion of the features in underdoped LSCO, particularly in the nodal direction , may be due to inferior surface quality (roughness, defects etc.). The present results have shown that the sharpness of the nodal feature seen in geometry II is comparable to that in BSCCO, which demonstrates the high quality of the LSCO surfaces. One can expect that the sample quality decreases with increasing $`x`$ because of the disorder introduced by Sr and the difficulty in the crystal growth due to the Sr solubility limit. In fact, underdoped samples give better cleavage than overdoped samples, which possibly indicates the better surface quality for the underdoped samples. Therefore, the ARPES results in the underdoped region, which show broad features around ($`\pi `$, 0) and interpreted as a two-component feature, should be reliable results.

The band dispersions along the (0,0) to ($`\pi ,0`$) and (0,0) to ($`\pi ,\pi `$) directions, which have been derived from the ARPES spectra by taking the second derivatives, are shown in Fig. 2. In going from (0,0) to ($`\pi `$,0), the band reaches $`E_F`$ at $`k_x0.8\pi `$ but substantial spectral weight remains below $`E_F`$ up to ($`\pi ,0`$). However, as shown in the inset, the peak in the momentum distribution curves (MDC’s) clearly crosses the Fermi level around ($`0.85\pi ,0`$) concomitant with the decrease of spectral weight for $`k_x>0.85\pi `$. This behavior is not seen in optimally-doped and underdoped LSCO along the (0,0)-($`\pi `$,0) line . The LDA band calculation also predicts an electron like Fermi surface for $`x0.17`$ , although the calculation shows finite band dispersions along the c-axis and the Fermi surface is somewhat $`k_z`$-dependent. The $`k_z`$ dispersion is expected to be strongly renormalized in real materials. Therefore, we state that the $`x=0.22`$ has an electron-like Fermi surface centered at (0,0). The red line shows a tight-binding fit to the experimental band dispersion with parameters $`E_pE_d`$= 1.2 eV, $`t_{pd\sigma }`$= 0.5 eV, $`E_{xy}t_{pp\sigma }/2t_{pp\pi }/2`$=0.15 eV. Here, $`t_{pd\sigma }`$ and $`E_{xy}`$ are the transfer integrals for the nearest-neighbor O 2$`p_\sigma `$-Cu 3$`d_{x^2y^2}`$ and O 2$`p_x`$-O 2$`p_y`$ overlap, respectively. The best fit values for $`t_{pd\sigma }`$ and $`E_{xy}`$ are much smaller than those obtained from a tight-binding fit to the LDA band-structure calculation due to the band narrowing corresponding to the mass enhancement by a factor of $`3`$ in the overdoped region .

Figure 3 shows the spectral weight plot integrated over a 30 meV window around the Fermi level \[(a),(c)\] for both geometries and simulations of the spectral weight plot for each geometry including transition matrix element effects \[(b),(d)\] (see below). Integrating over the narrow window of the order of the energy resolution makes it possible to obtain the spectral weight at $`E_F`$, which approximately represents the Fermi surface. The Fermi surfaces at $`k_z=0`$ and $`\pi /c`$ from the band-structure calculation for La$`{}_{2x}{}^{}M_{x}^{}`$CuO4 ($`x=0.2`$) , as well as the Fermi surface from the present tight-binding fit are superimposed on Fig. 3(a). As a whole, they well describe the global features related to the Fermi surface obtained from ARPES. In particular, looking at the nodal direction in the second BZ, they agree well with each other. The volume enclosed by the tight-binding Fermi surface is $`S_{\mathrm{FS}}0.8\times 2\pi ^2`$, which satisfies Luttinger’s sum rule \[$`S_{FS}=2\pi ^2(1x)`$\] within experimental accuracy.

Here, we have performed simulations of spectral weight distribution including matrix-element effects by using the same method described in . The simulation method which we apply here has given a good account of the photoemission results on graphite  and TaSe2 . Therefore, this is a good starting point to understand the matrix element effect in the present ARPES results, at least qualitatively. First, we consider the initial state $`|i>=(1/\sqrt{N})_{i,j}e^{iq(R_j+\tau _i)}a_i\varphi _i(rR_j\tau _i)`$ as the two-dimensional tight-binding ground state, where $`\varphi _i`$ is the atomic orbital Cu 3$`d_{x^2y^2}`$ or O 2$`p_x,p_y`$. The matrix element factor is given by $`M(k)=|a_{d_{x^2y^2}}A_{d_{x^2y^2}}+a_{p_x}A_{p_x}+a_{p_y}A_{p_y}|^2`$, where $`A_{d_{x^2y^2}},A_{p_y},A_{p_x}`$ are angular distribution factor from each atomic orbital Cu 3$`d_{x^2y^2}`$, and O 2$`p_x,p_y`$ . $`a_d,a_{p_x}`$, and $`a_{p_y}`$ have been determined from the tight-binding fit to the dispersion of ARPES result as shown in Fig. 2. The spectral function $`A(𝐤,\omega )`$ of the tight-binding band was approximated by broadening the $`\delta `$-function with width of $`\omega ^2`$, where $`\omega `$ is in units of eV. Then, the simulated momentum distribution of spectral weight is given by $`n(𝐤)=M(𝐤)I(𝐤,\omega )𝑑\omega `$, where $`I(𝐤,\omega )`$ is spectral weight broadened by energy resolution of 20 meV.

As shown in Fig. 3(b), in geometry I, the nodal states in the first BZ show almost no spectral weight while those in second BZ are enhanced, consistent with the experimental data in Fig. 3(a). This implies that the suppression in geometry I compared to geometry II is caused by matrix element effects. According to the simulation, the smaller matrix elements in the first BZ are a result of the combination of the symmetry of the $`d_{x^2y^2}`$ orbital and the large out of plane component in the $`E`$-vector. The enhancement in the second BZ may be caused by the angular distribution factor of the three atomic orbitals, because they have a small emission probability for small angles when the $`E`$-vector is vertical to the surface. In geometry II, we can see the clear dispersion and spectral weight in the nodal state in the first BZ as shown in Fig. 1(e) and Fig. 3(c). The simulation in Fig. 3(d) shows an enhancement of the spectral weight in the (0,0)-($`\pi ,\pi `$) direction compared to the nodal states of the first BZ in geometry I, which qualitatively agrees with the experimental results.

While the overall features in the experimental results agree with the simulation as shown above, there was still a discrepancy between them regarding the spectral weight distribution near ($`\pi ,0`$). Here, we discuss the possible origin of the strong spectral weight around the ($`\pi ,0`$) point which cannot be described within the simple two dimensional electron-like Fermi surface picture. As shown in Fig. 4, the spectral weight distribution around ($`\pi ,0`$) shows a relatively straight contour along the $`k_x`$ direction, which is slightly narrower than that in Nd-LSCO ($`|k_y|<\pi /4`$). This spectral weight distribution is very similar to that of the flat band which appears below $`E_F`$ for smaller $`x`$. Presumably the ($`\pi ,0`$) flat band feature which exists in the optimum and underdoped regions does not completely lose its spectral weight even for $`x=0.22`$ (and probably for $`x=0.3`$, see data in Ref.) where the saddle point is located above $`E_F`$. Therefore, the spectral weight around ($`\pi ,0`$) appears as a remnant of the “flat band”. Recently, there have been debates as to whether there exists an electron-like Fermi surface in BSCCO or not . While this discussion has been complicated by the Bi-O superstructures, the present results from overdoped LSCO clearly shows an electron-like Fermi surface with much less ambiguity. One may suspect that the matrix element may suppress spectral weight only around the $`(\pi ,0)`$ point making the hole-like Fermi surface appear electron-like. However, as far as the matrix element simulation using the simple tight-binding scheme is concerned, such a suppression localized in momentum space around ($`\pi `$,0) is difficult to explain. This is consistent with an earlier calculation. In the case of BSCCO, the possibility of additional states at ($`\pi ,0`$) has been proposed . In the present case, strong intensity around ($`\pi ,0`$), which is not predicted by the simulation, always exists irrespective of polarization geometries, while the nodal states are strongly affected by matrix element effects. This implies an intrinsic unusual electronic structure such as stripes associated with the “flat band” feature.

As seen in Fig. 4, we have shown that the electronic structure of LSCO with $`x=0.22`$ shows two features. One is the nodal Fermi surface which is found to be consistent with the band structure calculation. The other is the remnant flat band which gives rise to a straight segment of spectral weight near the ($`\pi ,0`$) region. These two features are qualitatively similar to those observed in Nd-LSCO and LSCO with $`x=0.15`$ samples , although quantitatively the flat band effect in LSCO with $`x=0.22`$ is weaker. This dual nature of the electronic structure can be explained in terms of order-disorder stripes competition . The origin of the nodal state can be understood by considering strongly disordered stripes and/or weakened stripe order. In the latter case, one may begin to recover the underlying band structure. The underlying electronic structure will manifest itself stronger as the charge ordering effect becomes weaker in LSCO with $`x=0.22`$.

In conclusion, we have unambiguously observed an electron-like Fermi surface in slightly overdoped LSCO with $`x=0.22`$, which agrees with the band-structure calculation. By utilizing the matrix element effects, we have obtained clear dispersion and sharp peak features for the nodal states comparable to BSCCO. The transition matrix element effects have been discussed by simulations, which account for the enhancement in the second BZ and for different geometries. Although the stripe effect in the present sample is weaker, the observation of the nodal spectral weight and the straight segment near ($`\pi ,0`$) is consistent with the picture of order-disorder competition of stripes in the system.

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research “Novel Quantum Phenomena in Transition Metal Oxides”, a Special Coordination Fund from the Science and Technology Agency and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Advanced Light Source of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is operated by U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Science, Division of Material Science.


text:
# Asymptotic Deconfinement in High-Density QCD

\[

## Abstract

We discuss QCD with two light flavors at large baryon chemical potential $`\mu `$. Color superconductivity leads to partial breaking of the color SU(3) group. We show that the infrared physics is governed by the gluodynamics of the remaining SU(2) group with an exponentially soft confinement scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{exp}(a\mu /(g\mathrm{\Delta }))`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu `$ is the superconducting gap, $`g`$ is the strong coupling, and $`a=2\sqrt{2}\pi /11`$. We estimate that, at moderate baryon densities, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}`$ is $`𝒪`$(10 MeV) or smaller. The confinement radius increases exponentially with density, leading to “asymptotic deconfinement.” The velocity of the SU(2) gluons is small due to the large dielectric constant of the medium.

preprint: CU-TP-xxx
\]

Introduction.—Soon after the discovery of asymptotic freedom in QCD  a hypothesis was put forward that, at high baryon densities, quarks (which are normally confined in hadrons by strong forces) are liberated, i.e., nuclear matter transforms into deconfined quark matter . In recent years, our knowledge of dense quark matter has considerably expanded. We now understand that, in reality, dense matter shows more intricate features than in the original picture of . In particular, quark matter at high densities exhibits the phenomenon of color superconductivity , which determines the symmetry of the ground state and the infrared dynamics.

The number of light quark flavors $`N_f`$ turns out to play a crucial role. The simplest case is $`N_f=2`$, where up and down quarks are massless and other quarks are neglected. The following picture emerges in perturbation theory, as well as in instanton-inspired models. The condensation of color antitriplet up-down diquarks breaks the color SU(3) down to an SU(2) subgroup. Thus, five of the original eight gluons acquire “masses” by the Meissner effect , similar to the Higgs mechanism. The remaining three gluons are massless (perturbatively). Because of Cooper pairing, the spectrum of quark excitations carrying SU(2) color charge has a gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$.

In order to understand the physics below the energy scale $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ we must examine the pure gluodynamics in the remaining unbroken SU(2) sector. As we shall see, the process of high-density “deconfinement” is quite nontrivial in this case: the quarks are always confined (assuming that SU(2) Yang-Mills theory confines), however, the confinement radius grows exponentially with increasing density. We shall also see that, at scales much shorter than the confinement radius, the dynamics of the SU(2) gluons is similar to electrodynamics in a dielectric medium with large refraction index.

The effective Lagrangian.—Below the scale $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, we expect that the heavy (gapped) degrees of freedom decouple and the remaining fields can be described by a local effective Lagrangian. The absence of quarks carrying SU(2) charges below $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ implies that the medium is transparent to the SU(2) gluons: there is no Debye screening and Meissner effect for these gluons. Mathematically, the polarization tensor $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{ab}^{\mu \nu }(q)`$ vanishes at $`q=0`$, which can be checked by a direct calculation of $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ at small $`q`$, as was done in Ref. . The absence of Debye screening means that a static color charge inserted into the medium cannot be completely screened as it is in hot plasmas. This is easy to understand since all quarks carrying SU(2) color are bound into SU(2) singlet Cooper pairs. Analogously, the Meissner effect is absent because the superconducting currents, which are coherent motions of the condensate, cannot screen the magnetic field, since the condensate is SU(2) neutral. Thus, at first sight, it might seem that the quarks in the medium have no effect on the gluon effective Lagrangian, which must be simply $`L=F_{\mu \nu }^2/(4g^2)`$, i.e., the SU(2) Yang-Mills Lagrangian with the coupling $`g`$ matching the running coupling in the original theory at the scale $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ . However, a closer look shows that the situation is somewhat more complicated and, in fact, more interesting.

Although a static SU(2) charge cannot be completely Debye screened by SU(2) neutral Cooper pairs, it can still be partially screened if the medium is polarizable, i.e., if it has a dielectric constant $`ϵ`$ different from unity. If $`ϵ>1`$, then the Coulomb potential between two static color charges is $`g^2/(ϵr)`$; i.e., the gauge coupling is effectively reduced by a factor of $`ϵ^{1/2}`$. As explained in more detail below, this is exactly the situation in the color-superconducting phase. Analogously the medium can, in principle, have a magnetic permeability $`\lambda 1`$. (We denote the permeability by $`\lambda `$ instead of the more common $`\mu `$, since the latter symbol is already used for the chemical potential.) The dynamics of gluons is thus modified by the dielectric constant and the magnetic permeability of the medium. Hence, one needs to develop the theory of “gluodynamics of continuous media”, which, as far as we know, has never been encountered before. This theory, in contrast to its U(1) counterpart (the electrodynamics of continuous media), is an interacting theory.

Fortunately, even without explicit calculation we can already write the effective Lagrangian of SU(2) gluons from rather general arguments. It should satisfy the requirements of locality (since the quarks that have been integrated out have gaps) and gauge invariance. It does not need to be Lorentz invariant, since this invariance is already violated by the presence of the high-density medium, but it should be rotationally invariant and conserve parity. Thus the effective action at the scale $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ must have the following form

$$S_{\mathrm{eff}}=\frac{1}{g^2}d^4x\left(\frac{ϵ}{2}𝐄^a𝐄^a\frac{1}{2\lambda }𝐁^a𝐁^a\right),$$
(1)
where $`E_i^aF_{0i}^a`$ and $`B_i^a\frac{1}{2}ϵ_{ijk}F_{jk}^a`$. Higher-order corrections (in powers of fields and derivatives) to (1) are irrelevant for the infrared physics and have been neglected. The constants $`ϵ`$ and $`\lambda `$ in Eq. (1) have the meaning of the the dielectric constant and the magnetic permeability in the regime where the gluon fields are linear. The speed of gluons in this regime is $`v=1/\sqrt{ϵ\lambda }`$.

As we shall see, $`ϵ\lambda 1`$. This should be contrasted with the standard picture of the vacuum as a dielectric, in which case $`ϵ_0\lambda _0=1`$ by Lorentz invariance. In other words, vacuum polarization effects (such as gluon, ghost, and $`\mu =0`$ quark loops) in Eq. (1) have been absorbed into the running of $`g^2`$. The constants $`ϵ`$ and $`\lambda `$ are defined relative to those of the vacuum.

One can give a parametrically correct estimate of $`ϵ`$ using a crude model, in which the Cooper pairs are represented by classical oscillators with the spring constant $`k`$. The characteristic scale for a Cooper pair “oscillator” is $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$; thus one can estimate $`k\mathrm{\Delta }^3`$. The polarizability of each oscillator is $`g^2/k`$. Multiplying by the density of the Cooper pairs, $`\mu ^2\mathrm{\Delta }`$, one finds $`ϵ1g^2\mu ^2/\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$. This estimate is corroborated by the explicit calculation, presented later in this paper, where we obtain

$`ϵ`$ $`=`$ $`1+\kappa =1+{\displaystyle \frac{g^2\mu ^2}{18\pi ^2\mathrm{\Delta }^2}},`$ (2)
$`\lambda `$ $`=`$ $`1.`$ (3)
At high densities, the gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is exponentially suppressed compared to the chemical potential $`\mu `$ ,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=b\mu g^5e^{c/g},c=\frac{3\pi ^2}{\sqrt{2}},$$
(4)
where $`g`$ is the gauge coupling at the scale $`\mu `$, and $`b`$ is some numerical constant. According to Eq. (2), $`\kappa 1`$ and we can write

$$ϵ\frac{g^2\mu ^2}{18\pi ^2\mathrm{\Delta }^2}1,$$
(5)
which means that the dielectric constant of the medium is very large. Hence, the Coulomb potential between SU(2) color charges is greatly reduced. This can be interpreted as a consequence of the fact that the Cooper pairs have large size (of order $`1/\mathrm{\Delta }`$) and so are easy to polarize. The magnetic permeability, in contrast, remains close to 1 due to the absence of mechanisms that would strongly screen the magnetic field.

The scale of confinement.—Once the effective Lagrangian (1) is obtained, one can use it to investigate the infrared dynamics of the gluons. One notices that (1) possesses a modified Lorentz symmetry in which the speed of light $`c=1`$ is replaced by

$$v=\frac{1}{\sqrt{ϵ}}.$$
(6)
One can make this symmetry manifest by rescaling the time, the field $`A_0`$ and the coupling in Eq. (1),

$`x^0={\displaystyle \frac{x^0}{\sqrt{ϵ}}},A_0^a=\sqrt{ϵ}A_0^a,g^{}={\displaystyle \frac{g}{ϵ^{1/4}}}.`$ (7)
After the rescaling (7), the action (1) assumes the familiar Lorentz-invariant form in the new coordinates,

$$S=\frac{1}{4g^2}d^4x^{}F_{\mu \nu }^aF_{\mu \nu }^a,$$
(8)
where

$$F_{\mu \nu }^a=_\mu ^{}A_\nu ^a_\nu A_\mu ^a+f^{abc}A_\mu ^bA_\nu ^c.$$
(9)
The coupling in the action (8) is not $`g`$ but $`g^{}`$ which is smaller by a factor of $`ϵ^{1/4}`$. This means that the small parameter that controls the perturbative expansion in the theory (1) is not $`\alpha _s=g^2/(4\pi )`$ but rather

$$\alpha _s^{}=\frac{g^2}{4\pi \sqrt{ϵ}},$$
(10)
which is much smaller than $`\alpha _s`$, since $`ϵ`$ is large.

Another way to derive Eq. (10) is by restoring $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`c`$ in the expression for the strong coupling constant $`\alpha _s`$, which is given by $`g^2/(4\pi \mathrm{}c)`$ in the vacuum. In our dielectric medium, the Coulomb potential between two static charges separated by $`r`$ is $`g^2/(ϵr)`$. Thus, we have to replace $`g^2`$ by $`g_{\mathrm{eff}}^2=g^2/ϵ`$. The velocity of light $`c`$ also needs to be replaced by the velocity of gluons $`v`$. This gives

$$\frac{g_{\mathrm{eff}}^2}{4\pi \mathrm{}v}=\frac{g^2}{4\pi \sqrt{ϵ}},$$
(11)
since $`\mathrm{}=1`$ in our unit system. Equation (11) coincides with $`\alpha _s^{}`$ in Eq. (10), as one expects.

Using Eq. (5), one can express the coupling $`\alpha _s^{}`$ in terms of the gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$,

$$\alpha _s^{}=\frac{3}{2\sqrt{2}}\frac{g\mathrm{\Delta }}{\mu }.$$
(12)
Equations (10) and (12) define the coupling in our effective theory at the matching scale with the original microscopic theory, i.e., at the scale $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. The coupling increases logarithmically as one moves to lower energies, since pure SU(2) Yang-Mills theory is asymptotically free. This coupling becomes large at the confinement scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}`$, which is the mass scale of SU(2) glueballs. The spectrum of these glueballs is known from lattice studies of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory , except that the role of the speed of light is now played by $`v`$ \[Eq. (6)\]. Since $`\alpha _s^{}`$ is tiny \[because $`\mathrm{\Delta }/\mu 1`$ in Eq. (12)\] it takes long to grow, and the scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}`$ is thus very small. Using the one-loop beta function, one can estimate

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{2\pi }{\beta _0\alpha _s^{}}\right)\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{2\sqrt{2}\pi }{11}\frac{\mu }{g\mathrm{\Delta }}\right),$$
(13)
where $`\beta _0`$ is the first coefficient in the beta function and is equal to $`22/3`$ in SU(2) gluodynamics.

We can draw a few immediate conclusions from Eq. (13). First, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}`$ depends very sensitively on the gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, in particular on the numerical value of the constant $`b`$ in Eq. (4). Unfortunately, the latter is not exactly known. The uncertainty in the value of the gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ translates into a huge variation of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}`$. For example, if one uses

$$b=512\pi ^4,$$
(14)
which is obtained by solving the one-loop gap equation where the exchanged gluon propagator is replaced by the hard dense loop (HDL) expression , then with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}=200`$ MeV we find $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}10`$ MeV at $`\mu =600`$ MeV. However, if we use

$$b=512\pi ^4\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\pi ^2+4}{8}\right),$$
(15)
which is obtained if one assumes the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer ratio between the critical temperature $`T_c`$ and the gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, and computes $`T_c`$ by taking into account the fermion wave-function renormalization , then, at the same chemical potential, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}`$ is reduced to a mere 0.3 keV. Regretfully, neither Eq. (14) nor (15) seems to be entirely correct, since there are physical effects that they do not take into account (e.g., the Meissner effect). Clearly, any attempt to give even the roughest numerical estimate for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}`$ requires an accurate determination of the gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. It has been argued that to compute $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ one needs a better understanding of the issue of gauge invariance, the finite fermion lifetime, and the running of the coupling . Regardless of all these uncertainties, the exponential dependence of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}`$ on $`\mu /\mathrm{\Delta }`$ makes it safe to predict that, even at moderate values of $`\mu `$, the confinement scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}`$ is very small, much smaller than $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}`$.

Second, as the density, i.e., $`\mu `$, is increased, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}`$ vanishes exponentially fast due to the factor $`\mu /\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in the exponent. We arrive at the following picture of how deconfinement occurs at large densities. Strictly speaking, at any given density, the theory is confined. However, the confinement radius $`1/\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}`$ grows exponentially as the density is increased. Therefore, if one looks at the physics at some large, but fixed, distance scale, there is a crossover density when effectively the color degrees of freedom become deconfined at that scale. We call this phenomenon “asymptotic deconfinement.”

The computation of $`ϵ`$ and $`\lambda `$.—To find $`ϵ`$ and $`\lambda `$, one has to calculate (1) by integrating out the quark degrees of freedom in the QCD Lagrangian. This amounts to computing the one-loop polarization operator $`\mathrm{\Pi }(q)`$ and the gluon vertices $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3(q_1,q_2)`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_4(q_1,q_2,q_3)`$, etc. This procedure is the same as the one giving rise to the hard thermal loop (HTL) and hard dense loop effective actions . The situation here is simpler than in the HTL and HDL cases: in the regime where all gluon momenta $`q`$ are much smaller than $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, the functions $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ can be expanded in powers of $`q`$, yielding a local effective Lagrangian. (In contrast, the HTL and HDL actions are non-local, since the fermions do not have gaps.) The gauge invariance of the effective Lagrangian greatly simplifies our task: in order to know $`ϵ`$ and $`\lambda `$, one needs to compute only the polarization tensor $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ of the SU(2) gluons. The leading contribution at large density comes from the superconducting quark loop. The detailed calculation of $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ was done in Ref. . From Eq. (99a) of that paper one can derive the following expression for $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{ab}^{00}(q_0,𝐪)`$, $`a,b=1,2,3`$:

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_{ab}^{00}(q_0,𝐪)`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _{ab}{\displaystyle \frac{g^2\mu ^2}{\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{q}}{\displaystyle \underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}𝑑z{\displaystyle \underset{0}{\overset{q/2\mathrm{\Delta }}{}}}𝑑y\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{z^2y^2+1}{u_+u_{}}}\right)`$ (16)
$`\times `$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{u_++u_{}+q_0/\mathrm{\Delta }}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{u_++u_{}q_0/\mathrm{\Delta }}}\right),`$ (17)
where $`u_\pm =\sqrt{(z\pm y)^2+1}`$, and we assume that $`q_0`$ and $`q|𝐪|`$ are much smaller than $`\mu `$ so that the dominant contribution comes only from particles near the Fermi surface. Physically, the first term in parentheses is the probability to excite a quark-hole pair through an SU(2) gluon, and the last term contains the corresponding energy denominators for such an excitation. For $`|q_0|>2\mathrm{\Delta }`$, one should replace $`q_0`$ by $`q_0+iϵ`$. Expanding Eq. (17) to quadratic order in $`q_0`$ and $`q`$ around $`q_0=q=0`$, one finds

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_{ab}^{00}(q_0,𝐪)=\kappa q^2\delta _{ab},$$
(18)
where

$$\kappa =\frac{g^2\mu ^2}{18\pi ^2\mathrm{\Delta }^2}.$$
(19)
The appearance of a factor $`\mu ^2`$ is due to the fact that the loop integral is dominated by the momentum region near the Fermi surface, whose area is proportional to $`\mu ^2`$. Similarly, one obtains from Eq. (99b) of  the following:

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_{ab}^{0i}(q_0,𝐪)=\kappa q^0q^i\delta _{ab}.$$
(20)
The computation of $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{ab}^{ij}(q_0,𝐪)`$ is facilitated by writing

$`\mathrm{\Pi }(q_0,𝐪)`$ $``$ $`[\mathrm{\Pi }(q_0,𝐪)\mathrm{\Pi }(0,𝐪)]+[\mathrm{\Pi }(0,𝐪)\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mathrm{HDL}}(0,𝐪)]`$ (21)
$`+`$ $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mathrm{HDL}}(0,𝐪),`$ (22)
where $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mathrm{HDL}}`$ is the standard HDL gluon self-energy, which vanishes for $`q_0=0`$. The term $`\mathrm{\Pi }(0,𝐪)\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mathrm{HDL}}(0,𝐪)`$ can be shown to be of order $`𝒪(\mathrm{\Delta }^2)`$ and thus negligible compared to the first term $`\mathrm{\Pi }(q_0,𝐪)\mathrm{\Pi }(0,𝐪)`$. The reason for the manipulation (22) is to get rid of the antiparticle contributions in this term. With Eq. (99c) of , the result for $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{ab}^{ij}`$ can be written analogously to Eq. (17) as

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_{ab}^{ij}(q_0,𝐪)=\delta _{ab}{\displaystyle \frac{g^2\mu ^2}{\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{q}}{\displaystyle \underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}𝑑z{\displaystyle \underset{0}{\overset{q/2\mathrm{\Delta }}{}}}𝑑y{\displaystyle \underset{0}{\overset{2\pi }{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\phi }{2\pi }}\widehat{k}^i\widehat{k}^j`$ (23)
$`\times `$ $`\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{z^2y^21}{u_+u_{}}}\right)`$ (24)
$`\times `$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{u_++u_{}+q_0/\mathrm{\Delta }}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{u_++u_{}q_0/\mathrm{\Delta }}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{u_++u_{}}}\right),`$ (25)
where $`\widehat{𝐤}=(\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{cos}\phi ,\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\phi ,\mathrm{cos}\theta )`$, and $`\mathrm{cos}\theta =2y\mathrm{\Delta }/q`$. Expanding to quadratic order in $`q_0`$ and $`q`$, one finds

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_{ab}^{ij}(q_0,𝐪)=\kappa q_0^2\delta ^{ij}\delta _{ab}.$$
(26)
Note that (i) the polarization tensor satisfies current conservation, $`q_\mu \mathrm{\Pi }_{ab}^{\mu \nu }=0`$; (ii) at this order, there is no spatial transverse contribution $`q^2\delta ^{ij}q^iq^j`$ to $`\mathrm{\Pi }^{ij}`$, although such a term is not forbidden by the symmetries.

After the quark loop has been integrated out, the quadratic term in the effective Lagrangian becomes $`A^\mu (q)[D_{\mu \nu }^1(q)+\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }(q)]A^\nu (q)/(2g^2)`$, where $`D`$ is the bare gluon propagator. Comparing with the quadratic terms in Eq. (1), we obtain Eqs. (2) and (3). The fact that $`\lambda =1`$ \[Eq. (3)\] is due to the absence of the spatial transverse term in $`\mathrm{\Pi }^{ij}`$.

In our analysis above we have neglected other low energy excitations: the unpaired fermions of the third color and the pseudoscalar isoscalar mode similar to the $`\eta `$ meson. This is justified because they are colorless with respect to the unbroken SU(2)c gluons. It is also interesting to note that since the gap in the SU(2) colored quark spectrum, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, is much larger than $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{}`$, the spectrum of mesons made of these quarks must resemble that of heavy quarkonia.

The asymptotic deconfinement phenomenon is specific to the case $`N_f=2`$. At sufficiently high densities when, effectively, $`N_f=3`$, the ground state is the color-flavor locked (CFL) state: the color symmetry is broken completely  and all gluons are screened, both electrically and magnetically . The low energy modes in the CFL phase are the Goldstone modes described by a chiral effective Lagrangian . Between the two regimes, when one has strange quark matter below the “unlocking” phase transition , the system might be an anisotropic dielectric if an $`ss`$ condensate breaks rotational invariance. Another interesting regime with asymptotic deconfinement is that of high isospin density , where the gauge group of the gluodynamics of continuous media is SU(3).

The authors are indebted to D.B. Kaplan, R.D. Pisarski and A.R. Zhitnitsky for stimulating discussions. We thank RIKEN, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and U.S. Department of Energy for providing the facilities essential for the completion of this work. The work of D.T.S. is supported, in part, by a DOE OJI grant.