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# The thermodynamics of the quark-gluon plasma: Self-consistent resummations vs. lattice data

## 1 The failure of the conventional perturbation theory

The most compelling theoretical evidence for the existence of the quark-gluon plasma comes from lattice QCD which shows a clear signal for a deconfinement phase transition . Above it, the lattice results slowly approach the ideal-gas limit from below, with important deviations, though, of about 15-20%, up to temperatures $`5T_c`$, and these are expected to remain noticeable ($`10\%`$) even at temperatures as high as $`10^3T_c`$ .

This suggests a picture of the high-temperature phase of QCD where the interactions are more important than one would naïvely expect on the basis of the asymptotic freedom alone, but where the effects of these interactions are nevertheless small enough to be computable via weak-coupling techniques.

The weak coupling expansion of the thermodynamic potential $``$ (free energy) is presently known  to order $`\alpha _s^{5/2}`$, or $`g^5`$ ($`\alpha _sg^2/4\pi `$), but it shows a disappointingly poor convergence except for coupling constants $`\alpha _s<0.05`$ (which would correspond to temperatures $`>10^5T_c`$). Already the next-to-leading order correction of $`𝒪(g^3)`$ signals the inadequacy of the conventional perturbation theory except for very small coupling, because, in contrast to the leading-order terms, it leads to a free energy in excess of the ideal-gas value.

This blatant inadequacy is somewhat surprising, since one expects the free energy to be dominated by the hard thermal fluctuations with momenta $`kT`$, for which perturbation theory should apply. Indeed, at temperatures $`T>T_c300`$ MeV, the QCD coupling is reasonably small, $`\alpha _s<0.3`$, when renormalized at the Matsubara scale $`\overline{\mu }=2\pi T`$.

But a closer inspection of the perturbative expansion reveals that this is truly an expansion in powers of $`g`$ (rather than $`\alpha _s`$), with $`g1`$ for all temperatures of interest, and that the largest “corrections” are associated with odd powers of $`g`$. The latter come from resummations which take into account the phenomenon of Debye screening at the scale $`gT`$ . Thus, the large perturbative corrections are actually associated with soft degrees of freedom, with momenta of order $`gT`$, and arise when the contribution of the soft modes to the free energy is expanded in powers of $`g`$. But this expansion is potentially troublesome, since, as we shall shortly recall, the soft modes are non-perturbative.

## 2 The quasiparticle picture of the quark-gluon plasma

The soft degrees of freedom are collective excitations which would not even exist in the absence of interactions . To leading order in $`g`$, their dynamics is described by an effective theory obtained by integrating out the “hard” ($`kT`$) thermal fluctuations to one-loop order. This generates a set of non-local self-energy and vertex amplitudes, known as “hard thermal loops” (HTL) , which encompass screening effects and non-trivial dispersion relations. At momenta $`k<gT`$, the HTL’s are leading-order effects and must be resummed for consistency . Thus, when computing the contribution of the soft modes to thermodynamical functions, these modes should be treated as dressed quasiparticles, with properties described by the HTL effective theory. This suggests a description of the thermodynamics of hot QCD in terms of weakly interacting “hard” and “soft” quasiparticles (rather than the more strongly interacting elementary quanta). This is also supported by the success of phenomenological fits involving simple massive “quasiparticles” in reproducing the lattice results .

Quite generally, the physical information on the quasiparticles is contained in the spectral density $`\rho (\omega ,k)`$ related to the corresponding propagator by:

$`D(\omega ,k)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}k_0}{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{\rho (k_0,k)}{k_0\omega }}.`$ (1)
For free massless excitations, $`\rho _0(\omega ,k)\delta (\omega ^2k^2)`$. In the HTL approximation, the spectral densities are divided into a pole piece at time-like momenta, and a continuum piece at space-like momenta. At soft momenta $`k<gT`$, all the pieces of the HTL spectral functions appear to be equally important in our numerical calculations of thermodynamical quantities . At large momenta, the HTL spectral densities take the approximate form

$`\rho (\omega ,k)\delta (\omega ^2k^2m_{\mathrm{}}^2)\mathrm{for}kT,`$ (2)
where $`m_{\mathrm{}}^2g^2T^2`$ is the leading-order thermal mass (or “asymptotic mass”) of the hard excitations. Thus, quite remarkably, the HTL approximation describes correctly the mass-shell behaviour at both soft and hard momenta.

In traditional perturbative calculations of the thermodynamics performed in imaginary time , the HTL’s play almost no role: only the Debye mass $`m_DgT`$ needs to be resummed in the static ($`\omega =0`$) electric gluon propagator . Such a simple resummation retains only one moment of the spectral function in eq. (1). Although this is enough to obtain the leading order contribution, $`g^3`$, of the soft modes to $``$, it is clear that this procedure mistreats most of the physical content of the HTL’s.

To overcome this limitation, two approaches have been recently proposed to perform full resummations of the HTL self-energies in the calculation of thermodynamical functions . In Refs. , this has been done by merely replacing the free propagators by the HTL-resummed ones in the expression of the free-energy of the ideal gas:

$`_0={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{Tr}\mathrm{log}D_0^1_{HTL}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{Tr}\mathrm{log}(D_0^1+\mathrm{\Pi }_{HTL}).`$ (3)
In principle, this is just the first step in a systematic procedure which consists in resumming the HTL’s by adding and subtracting them to the tree-level QCD Lagrangian. This would be the extension to QCD of the so-called “screened perturbation theory”, a method which, for scalar field theories, has shown an improved convergence indeed, in two- and three-loop calculations. But in its one-loop approximation in eq. (3), this method over-includes the leading-order interaction term $`g^2`$ (while correctly reproducing the order-$`g^3`$ contribution), and gives rise to new, ultimately temperature-dependent, ultraviolet divergences and associated additional renormalization scheme dependences.

Our approach on the other hand  is based on self-consistent approximations using the skeleton representation of the thermodynamic potential which takes care of overcounting problems automatically, without the need for thermal counterterms.

## 3 The (approximately) self-consistent entropy

Specifically, we consider the 2-loop self-consistent (or “$`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-derivable” ) approximation to the thermodynamic potential $``$, and focus on the entropy111More generally, on the first derivatives of the thermodynamic potential, like the entropy and — for plasmas with non-zero chemical potential — also the quark density., which in this approximation takes a simple, effectively one-loop, expression \[with $`N(k_0)=1/(\mathrm{e}^{\beta \mathrm{k}_0}1)`$\] :

$`𝒮={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}^4k}{(2\pi )^4}\frac{N}{T}\left\{\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{ln}D^1\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Pi }[D]\mathrm{Re}D\right\}}`$ (4)
but in terms of fully dressed propagators so that $`\mathrm{\Pi }[D]`$ is the one-loop self-energy built out of the propagator $`D`$. Thus, any explicit two-loop contribution to the entropy has been absorbed into the spectral properties of quasiparticles. The price to be paid is that Dyson’s equation $`D^1=D_0^1+\mathrm{\Pi }[D]`$ becomes an integral equation, which is further complicated by UV problems and, in gauge theories, also by the issue of the gauge symmetry.

In spite of these complications, the expression (4) has some obvious virtues: In addition to its simple quasiparticle interpretation (as the entropy of a non-interacting gas of quasiparticles with effective propagator $`D`$), it is manifestly ultraviolet finite (the derivative of the statistical factor acting as an UV cut-off), and provides a non-perturbative approximation to the thermodynamics which is perturbatively correct up to, and including, $`𝒪(g^3)`$ (since the neglected 3-loop diagrams start contributing at $`𝒪(g^4)`$).

To cope with the problem that $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-derivable approximations are not gauge invariant in general, we have proposed gauge-independent but only approximately self-consistent dressed propagators as obtained from (HTL) perturbation theory. Using these in eq. (4) gives a gauge-independent and UV-finite approximation for the entropy, which, while being nonperturbative in the coupling, contains the correct leading-order and next-to-leading order effects of the interactions. Both arise from kinematical regimes where the HTL’s are justifiable approximations—at hard momenta, they involve the HTL’s only in the vicinity of the mass-shell, where the HTL approximation is sound, cf. eq. (2).

In the left half of Fig. 1, the results for the entropy  in a pure HTL approximation and in a next-to-leading one (NLA) which includes soft corrections to the hard asymptotic mass are compared with lattice data for pure-glue SU(3) theory, showing good agreement for $`T>2.5T_c`$; in the right half, the resulting pressure222with renormalization scheme adjusted so as to match that of Ref.  is compared in addition to the calculation of the pressure in dimensional reduction of Ref.  for temperatures up to $`10^3\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}`$. The fairly good agreement with the best estimates of Ref.  ($`e_0=10`$) seems to validate our assumption of comparatively weak residual quasiparticle interactions.

Our method has been applied successfully also to plasmas with non-vanishing quark density (i.e., non-zero chemical potential) , for which lattice results are not yet available.


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# Two-Photon Interferometry for High-Resolution Imaging

## Abstract

We discuss the advantages of using non-classical states of light for two aspects of optical imaging: the creation of microscopic images on photosensitive substrates, which constitutes the foundation for optical lithography, and the imaging of microscopic objects. In both cases, the classical resolution limit given by the Rayleigh criterion is approximately half of the optical wavelength. It has been shown, however, that by using multi-photon quantum states of the light field, and a multi-photon sensitive material or detector, this limit can be surpassed. We give a rigorous quantum mechanical treatment of this problem, address some particularly widespread misconceptions, and discuss turning quantum imaging into a practical technology.

The idea of overcoming the limits of classical optical imaging by using multi-photon processes is fairly well known. For example, Marlan Scully discusses, in his book , a two-photon microscope scheme that beats the diffraction limitation by a factor of $`\sqrt{2}`$, by making a $`\mathrm{sinc}^4(kx)`$ diffraction pattern instead of the usual $`\mathrm{sinc}^2(kx)`$. Such narrowing of a diffraction pattern can be observed by a detector sensitive to the square of intensity, instead of just intensity itself. In other words, one needs a two-photon process to observe the $`\sqrt{2}`$ narrowing beyond the diffraction limit, even within classical optics. Moreover, using detectors based on a higher-order multi-photon process, which are sensitive exclusively to the higher orders of intensity, one could see even narrower diffraction patterns.

This approach would not work so well for holographic imaging used in lithography. In this technique, the desired image is composed of interference fringes of different spatial frequencies, so the resolution is given by the highest spatial frequency. This spatial frequency is equal to the inverse of the fringe period, which cannot be shorter than one half of the optical wavelength. It is easy to see that this period is the same for any power of intensity, e.g. a $`\mathrm{sin}^4(kx)`$ fringe has the same period as a $`\mathrm{sin}^2(kx)`$ fringe.

Different approaches have been suggested to obtain an interference fringe of the square of the intensity with a shorter period. It has been proposed, for example, that frequency modulation can be used to blur the longer-wavelength component of a $`\mathrm{sin}^4(kx)`$ fringe . The use of quantum sources of light to beat this limit has also been proposed  and demonstrated with electronic coincidence detection .

Consider the setup in Fig.1 that has been proposed for quantum interferometric lithography . This is a modification of a well-known two-photon interference experiment , in which the single-photon detectors are removed and the output beams are directed at a two-photon sensitive substrate (e.g., one covered with a lithographical photoresist).

Following the standard theoretical treatment for two-photon interferometers, we write the two-photon square amplitude as

$$|A|^2\mathrm{\Psi }|\widehat{E}^{()}\widehat{E}^{()}\widehat{E}^{(+)}\widehat{E}^{(+)}|\mathrm{\Psi }=|0|\widehat{E}^{(+)}\widehat{E}^{(+)}|\mathrm{\Psi }|^2,$$
(1)
where the fields depend on the propagation paths, and the state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is the frequency-entangled output state of a Spontaneous Parametric Down Converter (SPDC):

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }=𝑑\nu h(\nu )\widehat{a}^{}(\nu )\widehat{b}^{}(\nu )|0.$$
(2)
In (2), creation operators $`\widehat{a}^{}`$ and $`\widehat{b}^{}`$ refer to channels labeled $`l_1`$ and $`l_2`$, respectively, in Fig.1; $`\nu `$ is the frequency-detuning from the central frequency $`\omega _0`$, the later being equal to one half of the pump frequency $`\omega _p`$. The spectral function $`h(\nu )`$ gives the phase-matching width and accounts for inexact momentum conservation due to the finite length $`L`$ of the crystal:

$$h(\nu )=\frac{1e^{iL\mathrm{\Delta }_z(\nu )}}{iL\mathrm{\Delta }_z(\nu )}.$$
(3)
Derivation and analysis of expressions (2) and (3) are given in a number of publications on SPDC. In particular, in , it is shown that for collinear degenerate type-I SPDC

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_z(\nu )=D^{}\nu ^2,D^{}=\frac{d}{d\omega }\frac{1}{v}\underset{\omega _0}{\overset{}{}},$$
(4)
and for collinear degenerate type-II SPDC, where the signal and idler photons have orthogonal polarizations, we have

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_z(\nu )=D\nu ,D=\frac{1}{v_o}\frac{1}{v_e},$$
(5)
where $`v`$ denotes the group velocity of the signal and idler photons. In case of orthogonal polarizations (type-II), the group velocity $`v`$ has indices $`o`$ and $`e`$ for “ordinary” and “extraordinary” polarization components.

The two-photon amplitude of Eq.(1) can describe the coincidence detection rate, as well as the two-photon absorption rate, as a function of pathlengths $`l_{1,2}`$ and $`x_{1,2}`$. In the coincidence detection case, the fields in Eq. (1) are evaluated at the two distinct locations of the two detectors, while in the two-photon absorption case they are evaluated at the same, arbitrary, point on the photosensitive substrate. A geometric size of the “point” in this context may be equal to the size of photo emulsion grain, or of the photoresist molecule. It is reasonable to assume that this size is much smaller than the interference structure we are expecting to see. As a further simplification, we will consider a one-dimensional problem with exactly counterpropagating beams. This geometry is obviously not practical, since no light energy is delivered to the surface, and we study this case just as an illustration allowing us to simplify the treatment.

As a next step, we need to represent the fields in (1) in terms of the same operators that describe the two-photon wavefunction, Eq. (2). For perfectly monochromatic plane waves with a wavenumber $`k=\omega _0/c`$, the representation is obtained by propagating the operators through the interferometer:

$$\widehat{E}^{(+)}=\widehat{a}e^{ikl_1}\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}e^{ikx_2}+\frac{i}{\sqrt{2}}e^{ikx_1}\right)+\widehat{b}e^{ikl_2}\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}e^{ikx_1}+\frac{i}{\sqrt{2}}e^{ikx_2}\right).$$
(6)
In equation (6), we put the proportionality constant between the field operator and the annihilation operator equal to unity. Also, we assume that the fields in the arms $`l_1`$ and $`l_2`$ have the same polarization. It is easy to see that otherwise there will be no two-photon interference fringes on the photosensitive substrate.

The plane-wave approximation implies that in the wave function Eq. (2), $`h(\nu )`$ should be replaced by $`\delta (\nu )`$. Then substituting Eqs. (6) and (2) into Eq. (1) it is easy to notice that the terms with $`\widehat{a}^2`$ and $`\widehat{b}^2`$ drop out, which is consistent with only one photon being present in each channel. The other four terms can be represented by four paths shown in Fig.2. These paths correspond to both photons being transmitted by the beamsplitter (a), both reflected by it (b), one transmitted, the other reflected (c), and vice versa (d). Notice that, in the usual coincidence-detection treatment of two-photon interference, the amplitudes corresponding to paths (c) and (d) are discarded simply because they do not result in a pair of coincident detections. Therefore one cannot directly apply to our system the results well known for a two-detectors experiment, and then argue that the detectors are placed at the same point, since this leads to loss of the amplitudes (c) and (d). Let us now show that it is *these* amplitudes that give rise to two-photon interference.

In the following, we will consider the more realistic model of wavepackets rather than plane waves. The fields will be allowed to have a finite frequency bandwidth around the central frequency $`\omega _0`$, described by a real, even function $`f(\nu )`$:

$$E=𝑑\nu f(\nu )\left\{\widehat{a}(\nu )e^{ik(\nu )l_1}\left(e^{ik(\nu )x_2}+ie^{ik(\nu )x_1}\right)+\widehat{b}(\nu )e^{ik(\nu )l_2}\left(e^{ik(\nu )x_1}+ie^{ik(\nu )x_2}\right)\right\}.$$
(7)
Then the two-photon amplitude, Eq. (1), takes on the following form:

$`A`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑\nu 𝑑\nu _1𝑑\nu _2h(\nu )f(\nu _1)f(\nu _2)}`$
$`\left\{e^{ik(\nu _1)l_1}e^{ik(\nu _2)l_2}\left(e^{ik(\nu _1)x_2}+ie^{ik(\nu _1)x_1}\right)\left(e^{ik(\nu _2)x_1}+ie^{ik(\nu _2)x_2}\right)\right\}`$
$`0|\widehat{a}(\nu _1)\widehat{b}(\nu _2)\widehat{a}^{}(\nu )\widehat{b}^{}(\nu )|0.`$
The inner product in Eq. (Two-Photon Interferometry for High-Resolution Imaging) is equal to $`\delta (\nu _1\nu )\delta (\nu _2+\nu )`$ which reduces Eq. (Two-Photon Interferometry for High-Resolution Imaging) to a single integral. To handle it, we expand $`k(\nu )=k_0+\nu /c`$, where $`k_0k(\omega _0)`$. This allows us to arrive at,

$$A=e^{ik_0(l+x)}\left[u(\mathrm{\Delta }l+\mathrm{\Delta }x)u(\mathrm{\Delta }l\mathrm{\Delta }x)+2u(\mathrm{\Delta }l)\mathrm{cos}(2k_0\mathrm{\Delta }x)\right],$$
(9)
where $`u(z)`$ is given by a Fourier transformation of a combined spectral density, and therefore has a meaning of a correlation function, namely,

$$u(z)𝑑\nu h(\nu )f^2(\nu )e^{i\frac{\nu }{c}z}.$$
(10)
In Eq. (10), the variables $`xx_2+x_1`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }x\frac{1}{2}(x_2x_1)`$, $`ll_2+l_1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }ll_2l_1`$ have been introduced. Note that coordinate along the substrate $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ is equal to a half of the path difference $`x_2x_1`$.

Analyzing the symmetry properties of $`h(\nu )`$, we find that in both cases of type-I, Eq. (4), and type-II, Eq. (5), SPDC $`u(z)`$ is always a real, even function:

$$u(z)=u(z)=u^{}(z)=u^{}(z).$$
(11)
Therefore the first two terms in Eq. (9) cancel each other when $`\mathrm{\Delta }l=0`$. Taking the absolute square of the remaining term, we get

$$|A|^2=4u^2(0)\mathrm{cos}^2(2k_0\mathrm{\Delta }x).$$
(12)
We see from Eq. (12) that the two-photon absorption amplitude is a perioic function of coordinate $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ measured along the photosensitive substrate, that has a spatial frequency $`4k_0`$, which is twice the spatial frequency of the usual, second-order interference fringes. The two-photon interference fringes of Eq. (12) appear to have a perfect contrast for all $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$. This is a consequence of a plane-wave approximation for the pump. If one considers the pump with a finite bandwidth, the exponential pre-factor in (9) will no longer be just a phase factor, but will turn into an envelope, equivalent to the pump envelope. Therefore the two-photon interference fringes (12) will have a coherence length equal to the pump coherence length, which may be quite long and can reach meters for cw lasers.

It is very important that the two-photon coherence length does not depend on the bandwidth of the fields given by $`f(\nu )`$, nor on the phase-matching width given by $`h(\nu )`$. This is obvious from the condition $`\mathrm{\Delta }l=0`$. It has been shown , that in this case the two-photon amplitudes represented in Fig.2 by diagrams (a) and (b) exactly cancel each other, and the photon pair always goes to one channel (either $`x_1`$ or $`x_2`$), depicted in diagrams (c) or (d). In other words , the beamsplitter produces an entangled state, $`|2_{x_1}|0_{x_2}|0_{x_1}|2_{x_2}`$, which picks up spatial phase at the same rate as the pump photon would. It also dephases at the same slow rate as the pump photon does, due to its finite bandwidth, which results in the two-photon coherence length of the SPDC light being equal to the pump (single-photon) coherence length.

Now let us consider the linear interference in our apparatus. This analysis is important, since the modulations of intensity will directly affect the result Eq. (12) for the two-photon absorption rate. For example, there will be no two-photon absorption in the nodes of the single-photon interference fringe.

The expression for intensity is

$$I=\mathrm{\Psi }|\widehat{E}^{()}\widehat{E}^{(+)}|\mathrm{\Psi },$$
(13)
where the state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is given by Eq. (2) and the field is given by Eq. (7). Setting $`l_1=l_2`$, and treating this expression the same way we have treated the forth-order field momenta, we arrive at

$$I=1\mathrm{cos}(2k_0\mathrm{\Delta }x)𝑑\nu |h(\nu )|^2f^2(\nu )\mathrm{sin}\left(2\frac{\nu }{c}\mathrm{\Delta }x\right).$$
(14)
Notice that the integrand in Eq. (14) is an odd function, and hence the whole integral is zero and Eq. (14) equals unity. This means that in our apparatus there will be no intensity modulations due to the second-order interference, regardless of individual coherence length of the signal and idler photons. This at first appears surprising, since one might expect to see at least a few interference fringes at the white light interference condition $`x_1=x_2`$. However, taking into account that both inputs of the beamsplitter are used, we realize that we actually have two sets of interference fringes exactly out of phase with each other, and hence the total intensity is unmodulated.

Two more issues associated with two-photon quantum imaging need to be addressed to make it a practically useful technology. One is the availability of two-photon sensitive photoresists and detectors, and the other has to do with the fact that using SPDC as a two-photon source, one first loses a factor of two in spatial resolution by down converting the pump frequency (and hence doubling the wavelength), and then re-gains this factor by using two-photon processes. Therefore, in terms of spatial resolution, our quantum imaging technique has no apparent advantage over using classical imaging at the pump wavelength. The counter is that it is not always possible to use the UV light argument . For example, it may be incompatible with imaging biological or other light sensitive objects. Another example is 3D lithography . Creating 3D structures with single-photon exposure of photolithographical materials is very difficult, since they strongly absorb UV light, which limits the depth of penetration. Two-photon exposures solve this problem. However, much value would be added to the quantum imaging technology if one could prepare two-photon states without doubling the wavelength. One way to achieve it is to use a Hyper Parametric Scattering (HPS) instead of SPDC.

HPS is a nonlinear optical process occurring via the cubical optical nonlinearity $`\chi ^{(3)}`$, in which two pump photons recombine into an entangled photon pair. This process is similar to four wave mixing in the same sense as SPDC is similar to Parametric Amplification: four wave mixing and PA assume non-vacuum input into the signal or the idler modes. HPS is distinct from the SPDC, where a single pump photon produces an entangled pair. This distinction is most evident from comparing the phase-matching conditions for SPDC with those for HPS:

$`\stackrel{}{k}_p=\stackrel{}{k}_s+\stackrel{}{k}_i,`$ $`\omega _p=\omega _s+\omega _i,`$ (15)
$`2\stackrel{}{k}_p=\stackrel{}{k}_s+\stackrel{}{k}_i,`$ $`2\omega _p=\omega _s+\omega _i,`$ (16)
which is illustrated graphically in Fig.3. An important thing to notice in Fig.3 is that the average wavelength of the photons produced in HPS is the same as that of the pump, while in the case of SPDC it doubles.

HPS was observed for the first time over 30 years ago . At that time, it did not attract attention as a source of EPR-states because of a very low efficiency of the $`\chi ^{(3)}`$ processes compared to $`\chi ^{(2)}`$ processes. A typical value for $`\chi ^{(2)}`$ is $`10^8`$ \[CGS units of electric field\]-1, while for $`\chi ^{(3)}`$ it is $`10^{15}`$ \[CGS units of field\]-2. Fortunately, HPS output power is quadratic with respect to the pump intensity, while in case of SPDC it is only linear. To compare efficiencies of the two processes, one must compare the $`E_p\chi ^{(2)}`$ and $`\chi ^{(3)}`$. Modern powerful femtosecond lasers, that were not yet available in the early days of HPS, dramatically changed the situation in favor of HPS.

Another argument in favor of HPS is that, unlike SPDC, this process does not require any particular symmetry of the media and can be observed not only in crystals but also in glass fibers , which promises to increase the interaction length to meters or beyond. Furthermore, it has been shown  that nearly four orders of magnitude improvement of the signal can be achieved by cascading two $`\chi ^{(2)}`$ processes to emulate a $`\chi ^{(3)}`$ HPS process. A large amount of research has been done on $`\chi ^{(3)}`$ processes, and particularly on four wave mixing , and we plan to rely on these results in our new research program directed at creating a robust source of entangled photon pairs or two-photon states without down converting from a higher frequency.

The second practical issue, mentioned above, is the availability of two-photon sensitive photoresists. Considering the very low power of two-photon sources, a high two-photon sensitivity of the photoresists is required. Unfortunately, high, single-photon, UV sensitivity of many commercially available photoresists does not guarantee that they would be suitable two-photon sensitive materials. The synthesis of such a material appears to be a difficult task, although a large volume of research has been done in this area motivated by the growing recognition of the two-photon imaging technology importance .

We also have carried out a preliminary search for two-photon sensitive lithographic materials. Relying on the analogy with atomic systems, we expect that a suitable two-photon material would have an intermediate level corresponding to the single photon energy, so that the single-photon detuning, which factors inversely into the two-photon absorption cross section, is small, and the two-photon absorption rate is peaked. It is furthermore required that the molecular transition corresponding to the intermediate absorption level does not result in the photochemical reaction in the phototresist (otherwise the resist would be one-photon sensitive). Finally, we require that the intermediate level or band is normally depopulated and very short-lived (otherwise the resist would be one-photon sensitive via cascaded processes); and that both transitions have the correct selection rules.

We have taken absorption spectra of various commercially available photoresists. The results are shown in Fig.4. One of our samples, the Novalac 5740, has shown a local absorption maximum which is centered at about 520 nm and is clearly separated from the strong transition in the UV part of the spectra, which is associated with the photochemical reaction initiating the photoresist. We spun an approximately 15 $`\mu `$m-thick sample of this photoresist on a gold plated substrate and exposed the sample to different doses of the Argon Ion laser light, whose wavelength (514.5 nm) was close to the center of the absorption peak of interest. We found the threshold dose of about 2 kJ/cm2, assuming 100% radiation reflection off the mirror substrate and operating at the intensity level of 5 W/cm2. Repeating the experiment at 25 W/cm2, we obtained the same results with an exposure time that was five times shorter. This result suggests that the exposure process is linear in intensity and hence is a single-photon one. Notice that the threshold we found at 514.5 nm is roughly five orders of magnitude higher then for a regular UV exposure.

Next, we repeated the exposures for another Argon Ion laser line with the 457.9 nm wavelength, which is off the intermediate absorption peak but is closer to the UV absorption transition. We found that at this wavelength the threshold dose was definitely lower than 0.4 kJ/cm2. This suggests that the high-threshold photo-initiation observed at 514.5 nm, as well as at 457.9 nm, is not related to the intermediate absorption peak, but rather is due to a far off-resonant absorption on the wing of the UV absorbing transition. Therefore, the selected material may satisfy the above-outlined requirements for a two-photon optimized photoresist, and it would be interesting to try exposing it with a two-photon source. We plan on carrying out such experiment in the nearest future.

In conclusion, we have carried out a rigorous analysis that confirmed the earlier results . In addition, our analysis has shown that the desired two-photon interference fringe will have a very long coherence length, equal to that of the pump, and that the second-order (single-photon) interference fringes will be entirely absent. The questions related to alternative sources of two-photon states and to the choice of two-photon sensitive photo-lithographical materials have been discussed. Although bringing the research in this area to the level of practical technology is a challenging task, it is at the same time is an interesting and potentially rewarding one.

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge useful discussions with R. Y. Chiao, J. D. Franson, D. F. V. James P. G. Kwiat, W.D. Phillips, Y. H. Shih, J. E. Sipe, and A. M. Steinberg. We thank Victor White for valuable help with photoresists. We would like to acknowledge financial support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Office of Naval Research, and the Advanced Research and Development Activity.


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# References

RUB-TP2-05/01

A note on inequalities for the masses of the lightest $`\pi \pi `$ resonances in large $`N_c`$ QCD

M.V. Polyakov111e-mail:maximp@tp2.ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina,
18835 St.Petersburg, Russia

Institute for Theoretical Physics II
Ruhr University, 44780 Bochum, Germany

V. V. Vereshagin222e-mail:vvv@av2467.spb.edu
Institute of Physics
St. Petersburg State University
St. Petersburg, 198504, Russia

## Abstract

We derive and analyse inequalities relating masses of the lightest $`\pi \pi `$ resonances ($`\rho `$ and $`\sigma `$) to low energy couplings of the effective chiral Lagrangian in the limit of large number of colours.

1. The issue of the existence and interpretation of the light scalar resonance (we call it as $`\sigma `$ in what follows) is one of the most controversial questions in the meson spectroscopy (for a review of the scalar meson spectroscopy see the note on scalar mesons by S. Spanier and N. Tornqvist in Review of Particle Physics  Related problems are also discussed in the review article .. Far from complete list of experimental and theoretical papers devoted to the $`\sigma `$–meson - (see also  and references therein) shows that this topic attracts considerable interest.

In these notes we analyse the sum rules relating low energy constants (LECs) of the effective chiral lagrangian (EChL) to the resonance spectrum parameters in the limit of large number of colours . §§§In  it is shown that those sum rules can be derived from the general postulates of the effective theory without referring to large-$`N_c`$ limit; see also . We shall show that from these sum rules one can derive a set of inequalities, e.g. such as:

$`M_\sigma ^2(3L_2+L_3)+M_\rho ^2L_2{\displaystyle \frac{F_\pi ^2}{4}},`$ (1)
where $`L_i`$ are the coupling constants of the fourth order EChL , $`M_\rho `$ is the mass of the lightest isovector resonance ($`\rho `$ meson), $`M_\sigma `$ is the mass of the lightest isoscalar resonance ($`\sigma `$ meson), and $`F_\pi 93`$ MeV is the pion decay constant. This inequality, apart from applications for estimates of the $`\sigma `$-meson mass from above, demonstrates that properties of the resonance spectrum are in close relations with properties of chiral symmetry breaking. Below we give derivation of the inequality (1) as well as its enhancements.

2. In the ref.  the following set of the large $`N_c`$ sum rules relating the constants of the effective chiral Lagrangian $`L_i`$Note that LECs $`L_i`$ are scale independent in the large $`N_c`$ limit to the parameters of resonance spectrum has been derived:

$`1+O(m_\pi ^4)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{F_0^2V_0}{\left[M_0^22m_\pi ^2\right]^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{F_0^2V_1}{\left[M_1^22m_\pi ^2\right]^2}},`$
$`3L_2+L_3+\alpha m_\pi ^2+O(m_\pi ^4)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{F_0^4}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{V_0}{\left[M_0^22m_\pi ^2\right]^3}},`$
$`L_2+\beta m_\pi ^2+O(m_\pi ^4)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{F_0^4}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{V_1}{\left[M_1^22m_\pi ^2\right]^3}}.`$ (2)
Here $`M_I`$ are the masses of pion-pion resonances with isospin $`I`$, and $`V_I`$ — the corresponding residues. The latter are related to the $`\pi \pi `$ resonance width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(R\pi \pi )`$ via:

$`V_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}16\pi (2J+1){\displaystyle \frac{M_0^2}{\sqrt{M_0^24m_\pi ^2}}}\mathrm{\Gamma }(R\pi \pi ),`$ (3)
$`V_1`$ $`=`$ $`16\pi (2J+1){\displaystyle \frac{M_1^2}{\sqrt{M_1^24m_\pi ^2}}}\mathrm{\Gamma }(R\pi \pi ),`$ (4)
where $`J`$ is the resonance spin. The constant $`F_088`$ MeV is the pion decay constant in the chiral limit. The constants $`\alpha ,\beta `$ are related to low energy coefficients (LECs) of the sixth order EChL. We use estimates for the LECs of the sixth order EChL obtained in ref.  from the chiral expansion of the dual (string) models:

$`\alpha m_\pi ^20.1810^3,\beta m_\pi ^20.0510^3.`$ (5)
From the sum rules eqs. (2) one can immediately obtain the following obvious inequalities:

$`3L_3+L_2+\alpha m_\pi ^2>0,`$
$`L_2+\beta m_\pi ^2>{\displaystyle \frac{V_\rho F_0^4}{4(M_\rho ^22m_\pi ^2)^3}}1.6610^3,`$ (6)
where $`M_\rho `$ and $`V_\rho `$ stand for the mass and residue of the lightest isovector $`\pi \pi `$ resonance ($`\rho `$–meson). Further noting that

$$\underset{I=0}{}\frac{V_0}{\left[M_0^22m_\pi ^2\right]^k}>\left[M_\sigma ^22m_\pi ^2\right]\underset{I=0}{}\frac{V_0}{\left[M_0^22m_\pi ^2\right]^{k+1}},$$
(7)
where $`k2`$ and $`M_\sigma `$ is a mass of the lightest isoscalar (scalar) resonance, we obtain the following inequality:

$`M_\sigma ^2\left(3L_3+L_2+\alpha m_\pi ^2\right)+M_\rho ^2\left(L_2+\beta m_\pi ^2\right)<{\displaystyle \frac{F_0^2}{4}}+2m_\pi ^2\left(4L_2+L_3\right).`$ (8)
This inequality provides us with a nice example of nontrivial relations between the parameters of resonance spectrum and low energy constants of EChL. The model independent large-$`N_c`$ inequality (8) can be used for the estimates of the $`\sigma `$–meson mass from above (see below), as well as for consistency checks of various models of low–energy QCD in the large-$`N_c`$ limit.

Parameters of the EChL in the large-$`N_c`$ limit have been calculated in various models of the low–energy QCD . We shall use parameters from the analysis of the EChL coupling constants in the large-$`N_c`$ limit done in  (the error bars take into account different values of the constants obtained in the fits performed in ):

$`L_2`$ $`=`$ $`(1.6\pm 0.1)10^3,`$
$`L_3`$ $`=`$ $`(4\pm 1)10^3,`$ (9)
These values are close to those obtained from the phenomenological analysis , what shows that the $`1/N_c`$ corrections to low energy coefficients $`L_i`$ are rather small.

Due to the inequality eq. (6) the value of $`L_2`$ can not be below $`1.6310^3`$, therefore we shall use this minimal value of $`L_2=1.6310^3`$ lying in the range given by the eq. (9) Note that for larger values of $`L_2`$ the bounds on $`M_\sigma `$ discussed below are stronger. The error of calculation of $`L_3`$ is bigger. Also, the errors of $`L_2`$ and $`L_3`$ are strongly correlated. In order to make an estimations of the $`M_\sigma `$ based on inequality eqs. (8) we use first the relation $`2L_2+L_3=0`$ which follows from integration of the non–topological chiral anomaly  and from the low–energy limit of the dual–resonance (string) models . Using the above values of $`L_2`$ and $`L_3`$ we obtain from eqs. (8):

$`M_\sigma `$ $`<`$ $`770\text{MeV},\mathrm{if}2L_2+L_3=0.`$ (10)
This is the upper bound for the lightest isoscalar resonance if one assumes the relation $`2L_2+L_3=0`$. To consider the more general case, we derive the upper limit on $`M_\sigma `$ as a function of the parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ defined as follows:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }={\displaystyle \frac{2L_2+L_3}{L_2}}.`$ (11)
The value of this parameter is zero for EChL obtained by integration of non-topological chiral anomaly  as well as for EChL obtained by chiral expansion of the dual–resonance (string) models . In the large-$`N_c`$ based model of ref.  the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is fixed in terms of gluon condensate and constituent quark mass $`m_Q0.35`$ GeV as $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\frac{\pi ^2\frac{\alpha _s}{\pi }G^2}{5N_cm_Q^4}0.3.`$ The value of LECs obtained in ref.  corresponds to $`\mathrm{\Delta }=5/8=0.625`$. In any case the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ can not exceed unity due to the inequality (6). Experimentally, the parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is constrained by the ratio of the D-wave pion scattering lengths:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }=3{\displaystyle \frac{a_2^2}{a_2^0}}+O(m_\pi ^2)0.2\pm 0.6,`$ (12)
where we took the experimental values of the D-wave scattering lengths ref. .

Now it is easy to derive from the inequality (8) the upper bound for the $`\sigma `$ meson mass as a function of the parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. This function at small values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ takes the form

$`M_\sigma <770\left[1+0.42\mathrm{\Delta }+0.29\mathrm{\Delta }^2+O(\mathrm{\Delta }^3)\right]\mathrm{MeV}.`$ (13)
We see that the upper bound for the $`\sigma `$-meson mass is sensitive to the sign of the parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (see definition (11)). Therefore the values of LECs of the fourth order EChL can give us a valuable information about the lightest scalar meson in the spectrum of QCD.

3. In the case when one posseses an additional information (masses and widths of resonances) on the excited meson spectrum (mesons heavier than $`\sigma `$ in the isoscalar channel and $`\rho `$ in isovector one) the inequality (8) can be enhanced. Let us call the excited resonances for which we have additional information about their masses and widths as known. With this additional information the inequality (8) can be enhanced as follows:

$`M_\sigma ^2\left(3L_3+L_2+\alpha m_\pi ^2{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{known}}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{F_0^4V_0}{4\left[M_0^22m_\pi ^2\right]^3}}\right)+M_\rho ^2\left(L_2+\beta m_\pi ^2{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{known}}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{F_0^4V_1}{4\left[M_1^22m_\pi ^2\right]^3}}\right)`$
$`<{\displaystyle \frac{F_0^2}{4}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{known}}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{F_0^4V_0}{4\left[M_0^22m_\pi ^2\right]^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{known}}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{F_0^4V_1}{4\left[M_1^22m_\pi ^2\right]^2}}`$ (14)
$`+2m_\pi ^2\left(4L_2+L_3{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{known}}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{F_0^4V_0}{2\left[M_0^22m_\pi ^2\right]^3}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{known}}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{F_0^4V_1}{2\left[M_1^22m_\pi ^2\right]^3}}\right).`$
For the numerical estimates we take as the known resonances $`f_2(1275)`$ in the isoscalar channel and $`\rho _3(1690)`$ in the isovector channel. We do not include other scalar and vector mesons as their nature is not well established and it is not clear whether their dynamics is “leading” in large $`N_c`$. Taking the masses and $`\pi \pi `$ widths of $`f_2(1275)`$ and $`\rho _3(1690)`$ from  we obtain the enhancement of the inequality (13)

$`M_\sigma <665\left[1+0.44\mathrm{\Delta }+0.33\mathrm{\Delta }^2+O(\mathrm{\Delta }^3)\right]\mathrm{MeV}.`$ (15)
Obviously the inclusion of other resonances, e.g. $`f_0(980),f_0(1370)`$, $`f_0(1500)`$, $`\rho ^{}`$, $`f_4`$, etc. would lead to lower bound on the mass of $`\sigma `$–meson.

4. To summarize, we derive the inequalities for the masses of the lightest $`\pi \pi `$ resonances in the limit of large number of colours ($`N_c\mathrm{}`$), see eqs. (8,14). These inequalities put an upper bound on the mass of $`\sigma `$–meson in terms of pion decay constant $`F_\pi `$ and the low–energy constants of effective chiral Lagrangian $`L_2`$ and $`L_3`$. Analysis of these inequlities favours the presence of the light (mass $`<750`$ MeV) scalar state in the meson spectrum of the multicolour QCD.

As a final remark we note that the sum rules (2) are derived in the limit of large number of colours, this implies that the exotic mesons (glueballs, four-quark states) do not contribute to the sum rules because their contributions are suppressed by powers of $`1/N_c`$. This observation shows that the sum rules (2) can be used for identification of the nature of various mesons, in particular the low–lying ones. For example, the sum rules in eq. (2) tell us that the leading large–$`N_c`$ part of the width (read the width of the $`q\overline{q}`$ and hybrid parts) and the mass of the $`\sigma `$–meson should satisfy the following constraint:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{32\pi F_0^2M_\sigma ^2\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(\sigma \pi \pi \right)}{3\sqrt{M_\sigma ^24m_\pi ^2}\left[M_\sigma ^22m_\pi ^2\right]^2}}1{\displaystyle \frac{4\left(M_\rho ^22m_\pi ^2\right)}{F_0^2}}L_2.`$ (16)
Obviously, other sum rules in eq. (2) and an additional information about resonance spectrum would provide more sofisticated constraints on the parameters of $`q\overline{q}`$ component of the $`\sigma `$–meson. We shall analyse them elsewhere.

Acknowledgements
We are thankful to Shi-Lin Zhu for valuable remarks. This work was supported in part by the Russian Foundation for Basic Researches (grants RFBR 00-15-96610 and RFBR 01-02-17152), Russian Ministry of Education (grant E00-3.3-208) and by INTAS (INTAS Call 2000 project 587).


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# Photometric Variability in the Ultracool Dwarf BRI 0021-0214: Possible Evidence for Dust Clouds

## 1 Introduction

During the last five years, we have witnessed the discovery of hundreds of ultracool dwarfs,111We define ultracool dwarfs as those with spectral type M7 or later. located in the solar neighborhood and in young open clusters and associations, e.g., Jones & Steele (2001). Detailed study of their properties is still in its infancy, but some general facts seem to be already well established.

Non-gray model atmospheres have shown that dust forms under the low-temperature and high-density conditions prevalent in M dwarfs with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}<2,800`$ K, e.g., Tsuji, Ohnaka, & Aoki (1996a) and Allard et al. (1997). Dust grains such as calcium titanate (CaTiO3) and corundum (Al2O3) have been held responsible for the observed depletion of gaseous TiO from the atmospheres of the coolest M dwarfs. A new spectral class, designated as L, has been defined to classify dwarfs cooler than M (Kirkpatrick et al., 1999; Martín et al., 1999). The optical spectra of late L dwarfs do not show any TiO features, and they are dominated by broad resonance lines of alkali elements (Cs, K, Na, Rb). The $`JK`$ colors of late M and L dwarfs are extremely red due to their cool temperatures and the greenhouse effect caused by dust opacity, which dissociates the main molecular absorbers in the $`K`$-band (CO and H2O). Dusty atmospheric models are more successful than dust-free models in reproducing the observed colors of late M and L dwarfs in the field (Leggett, Allard, & Hauschildt, 1998), in the Pleiades cluster (Martín et al., 2000), and in very low-mass multiple systems (White et al., 1999; Leinert et al., 2000). On the other hand, the same models cannot explain the blue $`JK`$ colors of even cooler dwarfs ($`T_{\mathrm{eff}}<1,200`$ K), such as Gl 229 B, without gravitational settling of dust grains (Tsuji et al., 1996b). The real atmospheres of ultracool dwarfs are likely to be very dynamical, due to turbulent motions related to convection and rotation (Allard et al., 2001; Marley, 2001).

Ultracool dwarfs are generally fast rotators. Rotational broadening ($`v`$ sin $`i`$) for about 40 late-M and L dwarfs has been measured using high-resolution spectra (Basri & Marcy, 1995; Martín et al., 1997; Tinney & Reid, 1998; Basri et al., 2000; Basri, 2001). The majority of the ultracool dwarfs have $`v\mathrm{sin}i>5`$ km s-1, with a trend for faster rotation toward cooler temperatures. The late L dwarfs also tend to be very inactive as judged from the flux of Hα emission (Gizis et al., 2000). Chandra observations of the M9 dwarf LP944-20 have set an upper limit to the quiescent X-ray emission that is two orders of magnitude lower than typical X-ray emission levels in M0–M6 dwarfs (Rutledge et al., 2000).

BRI 0021$``$0214 is an ultracool dwarf (M9.5) that was discovered during the course of a survey for high-redshift quasars because it has an extremely red $`BR`$ color (Irwin, McMahon, & Reid, 1991). Among the known very late M and L dwarfs, BRI 0021$``$0214 is one of the fastest rotators with $`v\mathrm{sin}i=37.5\pm 2.5`$ km s-1 (Basri, 2001). Moreover, it is a very inactive dwarf because it usually does not show a detectable Hα emission line (Basri & Marcy, 1995), although a weak flare has been observed once (Reid et al., 1999). Even at the maximum of the flare, the level of activity was 3 times lower than the mean quiescent level in mid-type M dwarfs. The flare recurrence rate was estimated to be $`<`$7% of the time. Neuhauser et al. (1999) reported a nondetection of X-rays from BRI 0021$``$0214 in a pointed ROSAT/HRI observation of 106 kiloseconds, implying $`\mathrm{log}L_x/L_{\mathrm{bol}}<4.68`$, which is one of their most sensitive upper limits to X-ray emission from brown dwarf candidates.

The fast rotation of BRI 0021$``$0214, originally reported by Basri & Marcy (1995), prompted us to start a program of CCD monitoring in 1995. Earlier results of a program of CCD observations of M7–M9 field dwarfs have been reported in Martín, Zapatero Osorio, & Rebolo (1996). Thermal inhomogeneities in the atmosphere, such as magnetic cool spots or massive cloud systems, could be modulated with the rotation period, which is expected to be shorter than 0.135 day for a typical radius of 0.1 $`R_{}`$. Thus during one observing night, the object completes a few rotation cycles. This paper reports on the results of monitoring the behavior of BRI 0021$``$0214 in the $`I`$-band over 10 nights in 1995 and 4 nights in 1996. In §2 we describe the data acquisition, reduction, and analysis techniques. In §3 we present the light curves that result from the differential photometry. We discuss the results and implications in §4, and our conclusions and directions for future research in §5.

## 2 Observations and Data Analysis

CCD images of BRI 0021$``$0214 were obtained on the nights of 1995 November 8–15 and 22–23 with the 1 m Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope (JKT) at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma), and on the nights of 1996 August 19–22 with the 0.82 m telescope (IAC80) at the Observatorio del Teide (Tenerife). We used standard broadband $`I`$ filters. The JKT was equipped with a $`1024\times 1024`$ pixel Tektronix camera mounted on the Cassegrain focus, providing a field of view of 32.3 arcmin2 (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$333 pix-1). The IAC80 was equipped with a $`1024\times 1024`$ pixel Thomson camera mounted on the Cassegrain focus, providing a field of view of 54.4 arcmin2 (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$433 pix-1). All nights were photometric with the exception of 1995 November 15 and 1996 August 21–22, which had some patchy thin cirrus. Exposure times ranged from 300 s to 500 s. We adjusted the exposure time to compensate for extinction due to high airmass or cirrus clouds. The seeing of the images varied from 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0 to 2$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5, and the airmasses at which they were taken ranged from 1.18 up to 1.80. All the CCD frames were bias subtracted and flat fielded using packages within the IRAF environment.222IRAF is distributed by National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.

We performed aperture photometry on BRI 0021$``$0214 and on five other stars in the field using “vaphot,” an IRAF script written by Hans Deeg (Deeg et al., 1998). We verified that the two brightest stars in the field of view are not variable on the timescale of our observations, and we have used them as reference stars. They are shown in Figure 1. Images were first aligned, and the nonoverlapping parts were removed. Changes in the seeing conditions and in the telescope focus throughout a night implied variations in the size of the point-spread function (PSF) of the stellar sources from frame to frame. To take this into account we derived an average PSF of the three stars by fitting a circular Gaussian on each frame. All three sources comply with the requisites for a good definition of the PSF. Additionally, to obtain high signal-to-noise aperture photometry, we determined optimum apertures for each star according to Howell (1989). All apertures were expressed in multiples of the FWHM of the average PSF, and the sky intensity was defined as an outer ring 1.5 pixels wide. These multiples were kept constant from night to night. Finally, instrumental magnitudes were computed, and relative magnitudes (i.e., differential photometry) of BRI 0021$``$0214 with respect to the sum of the flux of the two reference stars were derived. The 1 $`\sigma `$ accuracy of the differential photometry is $`\pm `$0.006 mag and $`\pm `$0.003 mag for the IAC80 and JKT data, respectively.

## 3 Results

Figure 2 displays the light curve of BRI 0021$``$0214 obtained at the JKT in 1995 November. The photometry of reference star 1 with respect to reference star 2 is also shown. The target presents a larger photometric dispersion than the two reference stars. In Figure 3, we show the standard deviation ($`\sigma `$) associated with the total JKT differential light curve of BRI 0021$``$0214 and five other stars (including the references 1 and 2) in the field of view of our CCD images. We call this quantity $`\sigma _I`$ in analogy to Bailer-Jones & Mundt (2001). The $`I`$-band photometry was calibrated using the DENIS $`I`$-band magnitude of reference star 1 (X. Delfosse, 2000, private communication). The value of $`\sigma _I`$ increases toward fainter magnitude, as expected. We find a rather tight relationship between $`I`$-band magnitude and $`\sigma _I`$ value for the JKT data ($`\sigma _I=0.171440.028001\times I+0.001154\times I^2`$) with a scatter of 0.0006 mag (1 $`\sigma `$). The amplitude of photometric variability in the JKT data of BRI 0021$``$0214 is 0.0182 magnitudes. This value is 14 $`\sigma `$ away from the relation between I-magnitude versus $`\sigma _I`$ for the reference stars.

Figure 4 displays the total light curve of BRI 0021$``$0214 obtained at the IAC80 in 1996 August. The scatter in the differential photometry of BRI 0021$``$0214 in the IAC80 data set is $`\sigma _I=0.006`$ mag, which is a factor of three lower than that in the JKT data set ($`\sigma _I=0.018`$ mag). On the other hand, the photometric errors in the IAC80 data are larger due to the smaller aperture of the telescope and poorer image quality. In Figure 5 we plot the $`\sigma _I`$ versus $`I`$-band magnitude (DENIS system). The relation between these two quantities is not as good as for the JKT data. The standard deviation of the fit shown in Figure 5 is 0.00316 mag (compare with 0.0006 mag for the fit shown in Figure 3). This is probably because there are large PSF variations across the CCD frames taken with the IAC80. BRI0021–0214 and reference star 1 have a better PSF than the average of the other reference stars because they are closer to the center of the chip. Our differential photometry was obtained by averaging the fluxes of the reference stars, and this procedure gives more weight to the brighter sources. The reference star 1 is the brightest source. Figure 5 indicates that photometric variability of BRI 0021$``$0214 with the same amplitude as in the 1995 JKT dataset ($`\sigma _I=0.018`$ mag) can be ruled out in the IAC80 dataset with a confidence of 2.5 $`\sigma `$. Thus, the photometric variability of BRI 0021$``$0214 in the I-band appears to have decreased from 1995 November to 1996 August. In the next subsection we will show that this effect can be accounted for by a source of periodic modulation which was present in 1995 but vanished in 1996.

Since BRI 0021$``$0214 is redder than the reference stars, we checked for the presence of correlations between differential magnitude and airmass or seeing, which, if present, might indicate color-dependent differential photometric effects due to refraction and scattering in the Earth’s atmosphere. We did not find any such correlation, as illustrated in Figures 6 and 7. We conclude that the variability of BRI 0021$``$0214 is likely to be intrinsic to the object, and not due to changes in the Earth’s atmosphere.

### 3.1 Periodogram analysis

We performed a period analysis of the data using a CLEAN algorithm modified by one of us (H. J. Lehto, 2002, in preparation). For an earlier version of this method, see Roberts, Dreher, & Lehár (1987). The sampling in both the 1995 November and 1996 August data sets is such that the window function shows high sidelobes at small multiples of about 1 d-1. In principle, these could create ambiguity in the determined period.

Because CLEAN (and any other deconvolution method) contains inherently degenerate solutions, we ran several solutions with different values of the gain to get an idea of the stability of the solution. The solutions for our periodograms remained stable. In 1995 November, BRI 0021$``$0214 shows a single strong peak with a frequency of 1.1898 d-1, corresponding to a period of 0.8405 day. This peak has a pseudo-power about 2 orders of magnitude higher than the highest peak in the comparison star’s CLEANed periodogram (Fig. 8). The amplitude of this peak is 0.018 mag, which is similar to the value of $`\sigma _I`$. In 1996 August there is no sign of the 0.8405 day peak, but a new small cluster of peaks has appeared around 4.8842 d-1 (corresponding to a period of 0.205 day). These peaks clearly have a lower amplitude than previously, and may represent a sinusoid-like variation with a modulated amplitude. There is also a small possibility that the dominant frequency of this variation is actually 4.0115 d-1 (corresponding to a period of 0.249 day). The amplitude of the peak at $`P=0.205`$ day is 0.007 mag, which is similar to the photometric errors. The periodogram can, however, find a sinusoid of amplitude below the photometric uncertainty because the noise is spread over many frequencies in the power spectrum.

Figures 9 and 10 present the JKT light curve of BRI 0021$``$0214 folded with a period of 0.84 day. In the first figure, data points taken at different nights are given different symbols. In the second one the data points have been binned in groups of five and a sinusoid fit is overplotted. We note that around phase=0.5 the data seems to deviate from the sinusoidal function. Each individual error bar corresponds to the standard deviation of a group of five points. Figure 11 displays the IAC80 light curve of BRI 0021$``$0214 folded with a period of 0.20 day. Data points have been binned by 5, as in Figure 10. The amplitudes of the sinusoidal fits are 0.022 mag for the JKT and 0.006 mag for the IAC80. After subtracting the 0.84 day sinusoidal fit from the JKT data, we searched for the 0.2 day period. The JKT residual photometry is plotted in phase with $`P=0.2`$ day in Figure 12. Data points have been binned in groups of seven to increase the S/N ratio. The shape of the phased light curve suggests that the 0.2 day period may be present in the JKT data, although the amplitude is lower than the 0.84 day modulation. In fact, the amplitude of the 0.2 day sinusoidal fit to the JKT residuals is 0.006 mag, which coincides with the amplitude of the fit to the IAC80 data.

## 4 Discussion

The presence of the 0.2 day photometric modulation in both the IAC80 and JKT light curves of BRI 0021$``$0214 suggests that this is a long-lived modulation. Could it be the rotation period? The absolute magnitude and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ of BRI 0021$``$0214 are $`M_\mathrm{K}=10.15`$ and 2,500–2,000 K (Leggett et al. 1998), respectively. Another observational constraint is that lithium has been depleted from the atmosphere (Basri & Marcy, 1995). According to the evolutionary models of Chabrier et al. (2000), the lack of lithium rules out the possibility that the object is younger than 0.3 Gyr and less massive than 0.06 $`M_{}`$. Given these constraints, the models predict that the radius of BRI 0021$``$0214 should be $`R0.11R_{}`$. For $`R=0.11R_{}`$, $`\mathrm{sin}i=1`$, and $`V_{\mathrm{eq}}=35`$ km s-1, we get a period of 0.14 day, which is inconsistent with our periodogram analysis. The radius would have to be 0.14 $`R_{}`$ to get a rotation period of $`P=0.2`$ day, which is inconsistent with the theory. We consider several hypotheses to explain this discrepancy.

First, we consider the possibility of non-rotational line broadening. Three different studies have derived $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ independently by using high-resolution optical spectra (Basri & Marcy, 1995; Tinney & Reid, 1998; Basri, 2001). They all find values of about 40 km s-1, and we have adopted the most recent one. The agreement between $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ measurements obtained at different epochs indicates that the broadening is not due to an unresolved spectroscopic binary. BRI 0021$``$0214 does not have an unusual rotation among the sample of late M and L dwarfs that have been studied at high spectral resolution. It is unlikely that the broadening is due to any line formation effect, which should basically be the same for all dwarfs of similar gravity and temperature.

Second, we consider the possibility that the radius is about 30% larger than predicted by the models. Recently, the radius of an extrasolar giant planet has been observed for the first time. The planet HD209458b has a radius about 40% larger than that of Jupiter (Mazeh et al., 2000). The favored interpretation is that the radius has been puffed up by stellar insolation (Burrows et al., 2000). The radius of BRI 0021$``$0214, however, cannot be increased in the same way because of the lack of a close main-sequence star. The lack of detected X-ray emission by ROSAT (Neuhauser et al., 1999) rules out the possibility that there is a compact relativistic primary, such as a black hole or neutron star. The effects of rotation have not yet been included in models of brown dwarfs. One possible effect in a fully convective object is a larger radius and a cooler central temperature (Martín & Claret, 1996). Preliminary calculations by I. Baraffe (2000, private communication) indicate, however, that the rotational distorsion in a fast-rotating 0.1 M star is small ($``$1%).

Our previous discussion has ruled out the possibility of problems with either the $`v`$ sin $`i`$ or the theoretical radius. Thus, we must address the evidence that BRI 0021$``$0214 presents periodic photometric variability with periods longer than the rotation period.

Cool stars are usually understood by analogy to the Sun. Periodic photometric variability in cool stars arises from the presence of dark spots, where the enhanced magnetic field suppresses convective energy transport and cools off the plasma to temperatures below that of the photosphere. Early- and mid-M-type dwarfs have a high occurrence of Hα emission, light variability, and flares (the BY Dra syndrome), e.g., Bopp & Espenak (1977); Herbst & Miller (1989). The photometric periods of BY Dra stars are consistent with their expected rotation periods. The fraction of the bolometric luminosity that is emitted in the Hα line ($`R_{\mathrm{H}_\alpha }=L_{\mathrm{H}_\alpha }/L_{\mathrm{bol}}`$) is $`\mathrm{log}R_{\mathrm{H}_\alpha }=3.9\pm 0.2`$ for the active, photometrically variable, BY Dra stars. Many of these stars have photometric variability with an amplitude of 0.3 to 0.02 mag in the V-band (Bopp & Espenak, 1977; Pettersen et al., 1987; Alekseev & Gershberg, 1997).

BRI 0021$``$0214 is rotating even faster than most BY Dra stars, but it is not active. It has $`\mathrm{log}R_{\mathrm{H}_\alpha }<6.3`$ (Basri & Marcy, 1995), which is more than two orders of magnitude lower than the BY Dra stars. Magnetic flares cannot account for the observed light changes because they happen $`<`$7% of the time and are too weak to produce continuum light at optical wavelengths (Reid et al., 1999). Thus, it seems unlikely that the source of photometric variability in BRI 0021$``$0214 is a magnetic field because most of the time there is no evidence for chromospheric or coronal cooling.

Bailer-Jones & Mundt (2001) recently presented results of an $`I`$-band search for variability in 21 late-M and L dwarfs. Half of their objects present evidence for variability with amplitudes of 0.01 to 0.05 mag on timescales between 0.4 and 100 hr. CLEAN periodograms found strong periodicities at about a few hours in some of the objects, but for other objects the variability did not seem to be periodic. For one object with observations obtained 1 year apart, no common period could be found. Bailer-Jones & Mundt (2001) argued that the periodicities were due to long-lived surface features modulated with the rotation periods, and the absence of periodicities for other stars was due to surface features that evolved in brightness and physical size on timescales of a few hours to a few days. The surface inhomogeneities could plausibly be due to magnetically induced spots or plages, or dusty clouds.

If magnetic fields produce surface features, we would expect that the amplitude of the photometric modulation may scale with the strength of Hα emission. We could also expect that photometric modulation becomes smaller for cooler objects, because they tend to be more inactive (Gizis et al., 2000). Bailer-Jones & Mundt (2001) found that the amplitude of photometric modulation does not depend on spectral type from M6 through L5. In Figure 13 we plot photometric variability ($`\sigma _I`$) versus Hα equivalent width (EW$`_{\mathrm{H}_\alpha }`$) of BRI 0021$``$0214 together with L dwarfs for which Bailer-Jones & Mundt found evidence for variability. For these ultracool dwarfs there is no correlation between EW$`_{\mathrm{H}_\alpha }`$ and the amplitude of photometric variability, suggesting that these two observables are not causally connected.

We conjecture several possibilities to explain the pattern of variability in BRI 0021$``$0214: (a) There is differential rotation in BRI 0021$``$0214, however it would have to be extreme to explain the very long periodicity of 0.84 day; (b) There are turbulent regions in BRI 0021$``$0214 reminiscent of Jupiter’s bands and zones. Perhaps bright spots are lagging behind the mean rotation of the photosphere; however, the period of 0.84 day seems again to be too extreme because Jupiter’s zonal velocities are moderate (Smith & Hunt, 1976). On the other hand, this period may be related to a zonal oscillation. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot has a zonal oscillation with a period of three months (Solberg, 1969), and it is possible that an ultracool dwarf may have shorter zonal oscillation period; (c) The fast rotation of BRI 0021$``$0214 (almost three times faster than Jupiter) may produce instabilities related to strong Coriolis forces. The instabilities may lead to wave motions typical of rotating fluids, similar to inertial waves or Rossby waves e.g., Tritton (1988). It is possible that the 0.2 day periodicity corresponds to a stable pulsation mode, but the 0.84 day periodicity cannot be accounted for by stable pulsations; (d) Convection reaches the optically thin layers of ultracool dwarf atmospheres (Hauschildt, Allard, & Baron, 1999). Coriolis forces and convective overshooting may push clouds of dust some distance beyond the theoretical radius of structural models. Some cloud decks could reach out to significant altitudes with respect to the surface. They would be dragged by rotation, but they could lag behind the deeper layers. The photosphere of BRI 0021$``$0214 may not rotate as a solid body. The 0.2 and 0.84 day periods could arise from bright or dark clouds located high above the photosphere.

## 5 Conclusions and Future Directions

We have monitored the brightness of the ultracool dwarf BRI 0021$``$0214 for 10 nights in 1995 November and 4 nights in 1996 August using $`I`$-band CCD imaging. BRI 0021$``$0214 has shown significant variability, particularly in 1995. We find a surprisingly long modulation in the 1995 data set (0.84 day) that cannot be due to rotation. A CLEAN periodogram of the 1996 data set gives a periodicity of 0.2 day. None of these two periods correspond to the expected rotation period ($``$0.14 day).

Since BRI 0021$``$0214 is a very inactive object with extremely low levels of Hα and X-ray emission, we favor the interpretation that the source of surface thermal inhomogeneities required to explain the photometric variability are clouds rather than magnetically induced spots. BRI 0021$``$0214 has weak TiO bands, which is a sign of Ti depletion by condensation onto grains. The atmosphere of BRI 0021$``$0214 is too warm for water to condense, but silicate and iron clouds are expected (Chabrier et al., 2000; Ackerman & Marley, 2001). Theoretical models indicate that they play a key role in controlling opacity and temperature structure in the atmosphere. The rapid rotation and cool temperature of BRI 0021$``$0214 could make its surface appear more analogous to Jupiter than to the Sun. Gelino & Marley (2000) have simulated integrated light observations of Jupiter at 400 nm ($`B`$-band) made by the Hubble Space Telescope. They find that the apparent magnitude could be modulated with Jupiter’s rotation period. The amplitude of the sinusoidal light curve would be about 0.04 mag, which is similar to the amplitudes found by us and Bailer-Jones & Mundt (2001). Gelino & Marley (2000) predict that the amplitude would be larger in the thermal emission regime. Thus, near-infrared monitoring of BRI 0021$``$0214 and other ultracool dwarfs may be worthwhile.

Tinney & Tolley (1999) reported a search for variability using a tunable filter technique to measure changes in the strength of TiO bands. Tinney (2000) discusses more techniques, such as long-slit spectra and narrowband imaging. We suggest that $`K`$-band observations could be particularly valuable to search for changes in the dust-induced greenhouse effect on the CO bands. Optical spectroscopic monitoring could test the hypothesis that the clouds are made of dust because the strengths of the TiO bands should be variable. A report of possible variability of the Li I resonance line in Kelu 1, an L2 dwarf, was made by Martín et al. (1998). Since the Li I line is formed against a background of TiO bands (Pavlenko, 2000), the apparent variability of the atomic line could be due to variable TiO opacity and/or variable continuum opacity. Kirkpatrick et al. (2001) reported variability in the L dwarf Gl 584 C in the 835–975 nm region in timescales of days and years.

We have briefly discussed four possible scenarios to explain the variability observed in BRI 0021$``$0214: differential rotation; bands and zones moving with different velocities; pulsations; and turbulent clouds located high above the photosphere. In any case, the variability of BRI 0021$``$0214 is more complicated than previously anticipated. Simultaneous multiwavelength observations may shed light on what phenomena are responsible for the surprising photometric behaviour of BRI 0021$``$0214.

We thank the following people: Isabelle Baraffe for providing a digital version of the theoretical models used in this work, Xavier Delfosse for giving us DENIS photometric data, Ted Simon and an anonymous referee for providing insightful comments, and Louise Good for correcting the English language used in the manuscript. This paper is based on observations made with the 1 m Jacobus Kapteyn telescope operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), and the 0.82 m telescope operated on the island of Tenerife by the IAC at the Observatorio del Teide. Partial funding for this work has been provided by NASA grant NAG 5-9992.