text:
# Pressure dependent thermoelectric power of MgB2 superconductor

## I Introduction

The mechanism of superconductivity in MgB2 superconductor has been of a great interest since its discovery.akimitsu  The conventional BCS type superconductivity is suggested from theoretical approaches.kortus ; an  In this model, the light mass of boron in MgB2 was attributed to have a strong electron-phonon coupling which enhances $`T_c`$ of this material. On the other hand, the hole superconductivity model was also proposed,hirsch  where the superconductivity is driven by undressing of hole carriers.

Experimentally, various experiments have been done on this new superconductor and some of them could be used as a series of test for the theoretical models. Apparently, the BCS type superconductivity is supported by the experimental results of boron isotope effect,budko  heat capacitykremer , BCS like superconducting gaptakahashi  and high pressure measurement.highp  But the hole superconductivity model also accounts for the observed results by itself or with some assumptions.

$`T_c`$ of BCS superconductor can be expressed as McMillan formula,mcmillan  $`T_c\omega \mathrm{exp}(1/\lambda )`$, where $`\omega `$ is the phonon frequency and $`\lambda `$ is the electron-phonon coupling constant. The pressure effect on $`T_c`$ is manifest from $`\lambda `$ by the relation of $`\lambda =N(ϵ_F)<I^2>/M<\omega ^2>`$, where $`N(ϵ_F)`$ is the density of states at the Fermi level and $`<I^2>`$ is the electronic matrix element. By applying pressure, $`<\omega ^2>`$ increases due to lattice stiffening and $`N(ϵ_F)`$ decreases as the bandwidth increases. In the hole superconductivity model, $`T_c`$ was expected to increase with pressure if the pressure is to decrease in-plain boron-boron distance. Hall effect measurement under pressure was suggested to be a crucial test for this model.

Thermoelectric power (TEP) measurements under pressure will be a good probe to reveal the mechanism of superconductivity and to investigate transport properties in the normal state. By applying pressure, band parameters as well as electron-phonon coupling constant change, which will affect the absolute magnitude and the temperature dependence of TEP. In the simple metallic band model, TEP is proportional to $`N(ϵ_F)`$ or inversely proportional to the Fermi energy.mcdonald

We report here the results of TEP measurements under hydrostatic pressure. The sign of TEP is positive indicating hole carrier is majority. The temperature dependence is metallic (linear with temperature) below $``$ 120 K, above which negative contribution begins to appear. The magnitude of TEP increases and $`T_c`$ decreases with pressure, which cannot be explained by a simple metallic band model. We tried several models to explain the temperature dependence of TEP at normal state. And then we adapt the models to account for the pressure dependence of TEP and decrease of $`T_c`$ under pressure.

## II Experiments

Polycrystalline sample used in this experiment was prepared at 950 C under 3 GPa.kang  The superconducting transition temperature was 38.4 K with transition width of 0.6 K. The bar shape sample (with dimensions of $`4\times 0.5\times 0.1\mathrm{mm}^3`$) was mounted on two resistive heaters. Four gold wires were attached and two of them were used as thermoelectric potential leads for TEP measurements and as current feeding leads for 4-probe resistance measurements. Chromel-constantan thermocouples were used for the temperature gradient measurement. Sample ends and thermocouple beads were glued to the heater blocks by Stycast epoxy. 50:50 mixture of Daphne and Kerosene oil was used as a pressure mediummurata  in the self-clampled BeCu pressure cell. The pressure dependence of chromel-constantan thermocouples and gold lead wires were ignored, which are supposed to be very small. At room temperature, it was estimated that the TEP of chromel-constantan thermocouple increase by +0.7$`\%`$, and TEP of gold decrease by $`0.07\mu `$V/K at 15 kbar.blatt  As it will be shown in the following section, the absence of pressure effect on TEP below $`T_c`$ justifies our assumption. The detailed measurement set up will be published elsewhere.

## III Results and Discussion

Fig. 1 shows the temperature dependence of resistivity under different pressure. The inset shows the low temperature expansion around $`T_c`$. The normal state resistivity and $`T_c`$ decrease with pressure. $`T_c`$ was defined as a temperature where the resistance reduces to one-half of the normal state resistance of just above $`T_c`$. The pressure dependence of conductivity change ratio ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma /\sigma (1\mathrm{b}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{r})`$) and $`T_c`$ was shown in Fig. 2. $`T_c`$ decrease with rate $``$0.136 $`\pm `$ 0.004 K/kbar whose value is in well agreement with previous reports.highp

Fig. 3 shows the temperature dependence of TEP at ambient pressure and under pressures of 14.8, 11.3, 9.2, 6.3 and 3.2 kbar and the inset shows the superconducting transitions. For one pressure of about 6.5 kbar, the temperature was increased from room temperature to 370 K, which is also shown in the same figure. The overall temperature dependence and the magnitude of TEP are very similar with previous reports,lorentz  in which ambient pressure TEP was measured on the sample prepared without high pressure sintering. TEP is positive in the whole range of temperature and pressure, which indicates the majority carrier is hole as also evidenced by Hall effect measurement.kang  The overall temperature dependence of TEP is universal regardless of pressure, i.e., linear $`T`$dependence between $`T_c`$ and $``$ 120 K and gradual deviation from linear dependence at higher temperature. TEP increases with same curvature and same behavior extends to at least 370 K, the highest temperature in this measurement.

Superconducting transition is also clearly seen in the TEP measurements. Below the transition temperature, small offset of TEP was observed, $``$ $``$0.1 $`\mu `$V/K for 1 bar data and $``$ $``$0.2 $`\mu `$V/K for high pressure data. We believe that they are due to bad calibrations of gold lead wires in this temperature range where the temperature dependence of gold wire changes rapidly due to phonon drag. Nevertheless, the difference of magnitude of TEP below $`T_c`$ is within the error bars of our measurement setup ($``$ 50 nV/K) and pressure independent except 1 bar data.

As for the pressure dependence of TEP, both the room temperature value and the slope of linear $`T`$dependence increase with pressure. In our measurement set up, the pressure was initially increased from the ambient pressure to the highest value and the temperature dependence was measured. And then the pressure was released by few kbars followed by temperature dependence measurements. Fig. 4 shows the pressure dependence of TEP at room temperature and the slope of linear $`T`$ dependence of TEP. The pressure dependence of TEP at room temperature was measured during the initial pressurizing and the following successive temperature dependence measurements. TEP increases almost linearly by applying pressure with rate $`+4.35(\pm 0.09)\times 10^2\mu `$V/kbar at room temperature.

First, let us look into the temperature dependence of TEP. Due to the apparent linear $`T`$ dependence at the intermediate temperature region, we are tempted to account for the behavior by simple metallic diffusion TEP. In the simple metallic one band model, TEP can be expressed as,mcdonald ; blatt

$$S=\frac{\pi ^2k_B^2}{3e}T(\frac{n^{}}{n}+\frac{\tau ^{}}{\tau })|_{ϵ_\mathrm{F}}=\frac{\pi ^2k_B^2}{3e}T(N(ϵ_F)+\frac{\tau ^{}}{\tau }|_{ϵ_\mathrm{F}})$$
(1)
where $`n`$ is the carrier density and $`\tau `$ is the relaxation time. If we assume the relaxation time is energy independent, the linear $`T`$dependence can be explained by above formula. According to the band structure calculations of MgB2,kortus ; an  two dimensional $`\sigma `$ bands and three dimensional $`\pi `$ bands, which originate from the boron $`p_{x,y}`$ and $`p_z`$ orbitals respectively, were shown. The $`\sigma `$ bands are partially filled with small dispersion along the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-A line, which can produce large (large $`N(ϵ_F)`$ from small energy dispersion) and positive (hole carriers) TEP signal. If we apply Eq. 1 to derive $`N(ϵ_F)`$ from the observed linear $`T`$ dependence, $`N(ϵ_F)`$ is estimated to be about 1.42 states/eV-carriers at 1 bar and increase to 1.67 states/eV-carriers at 14.8 kbar. According to An and Pickett,an  the density of states of the two dimensional $`\sigma `$ band is $`N(ϵ_F)_\sigma `$=0.25 states/eV-cell and the total number of holes for that band is 0.13/cell, which corresponds to 0.25/0.13=1.92 states/eV-$`\sigma `$ carriers. The discrepancy of this value with the observed value is not surprising, because Eq. 1 is valid for single band and it should be modified when more than one band transport is involved.

When more than one band contributes TEP, total TEP is expressed as,mcdonald

$$S_{\mathrm{tot}}=\frac{\sigma _1S_1+\sigma _2S_2}{\sigma _1+\sigma _2}$$
(2)
where $`\sigma _1(\sigma _2)`$ and $`S_1(S_2)`$ are conductivity and TEP from band 1 (band 2). If we have metallic hole band (suppose band 1) and metallic electron band (suppose band 2), and if we assume all metallic bands have similar temperature dependence of conductivity, the total TEP will be expressed as $`S_{\mathrm{tot}}=A_1TA_2T=(A_1A_2)T`$. A1(A2) is absolute magnitude of slope of linear $`T`$dependence of TEP when TEP of band 1 (band 2) is probed exclusively. Therefore, TEP resulting from mixing of two metallic bands will show linear $`T`$ dependence again but its sign and magnitude depends on density of states of each bands. $`S_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ will be positive if $`N(ϵ_F)_{\mathrm{band1}}>N(ϵ_F)_{\mathrm{band2}}`$ and negative in opposite case.

In the band structure calculation, an antibonding $`\pi `$ band from boron $`p_z`$ orbitals is supposed to be electron like, which has larger dispersion than the $`\sigma `$ bands. The anitibonding $`\pi `$ band will give smaller slope of the linear $`T`$ dependence with opposite polarity than the value obtained exclusively from the $`\sigma `$ band.

But when we look into the higher temperature region, which deviates from linear $`T`$ dependence, the above simple arguments can not explain such behaviors. The temperature dependence of TEP from the $`\sigma `$ and the antibonding $`\pi `$ bands give same linear $`T`$ dependence, whereas the deviation becomes greater as the temperature increases.

The deviation of a linear $`T`$ dependence can be originate from the electron-phonon interaction which was not considered in Eq. 1. The phonon drag is the first candidate, which usually gives peak structure in the temperature dependence between $`\theta _D`$/10 and $`\theta _D`$/5, where $`\theta _D`$ is the Debye temperature. For MgB2 superconductor, $`\theta _D`$ is estimated about 900 K.wang  But in our results, there seems to be no such effects in the measured temperature range.

The phonon drag effect usually smeared out in the disordered metal, where the mass enhancement effect by electron-phonon interaction emerges in TEP instead. This effect was considered to account for the temperature dependence of high $`T_c`$ superconductors.kaiser  TEP with electron-phonon enhancement can be expressed as, $`S_{\mathrm{el}\mathrm{ph}}=S_0(1+\lambda (T))`$, where $`S_0`$ denotes the bare TEP without enhancement and $`\lambda (T)`$ is the electron-phonon coupling constant. the bare TEP behavior is recovered at high tempertature, since $`\lambda (T)`$ goes to zero as phonon-phonon interaction dominates. When considering the fact that the TEP shows similar behavior up to 370 K, this effect seems to be less likely in MgB2 superconductor.

Considering the two band model shown in Eq. 2, we can separate high temperature contribution from the total TEP. If we assign band 1 as a metallic TEP showing linear $`T`$ dependence (which comes from hole band and/or electron band), the additional negative contribution (from band 2) can be extracted by subtracting the linear temperature dependence from the observed TEP. We plot $`\mathrm{\Delta }S(=S(T)AT)`$ versus temperature in Fig. 5, where $`A`$ is the slope of linear $`T`$ dependence of TEP between $`T_c`$ and $``$ 120 K.

Two notable features are shown in Fig. 5. The magnitude of $`\mathrm{\Delta }S`$ increases with temperature and pressure, and the deviation begins to occur above same temperature regardless of pressure.

The temperature dependence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }S`$ can be explained by assuming a existence of thermally activated carriers. In the situation where two types of charge carriers are involved; one is metallic and the other should overcome a energy gap $`E_g`$ to contribute transport, the total TEP can be expressed as,

$`S_{\mathrm{tot}}={\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _1AT+\mathrm{exp}(Eg/2k_BT)(B+CE_g/2k_BT)}{\sigma _1+\mathrm{exp}(Eg/2k_BT)}}`$
$`AT+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{exp}(Eg/2k_BT)(B+CE_g/2k_BT)}{\sigma _1}}`$ (3)
The approximation is valid when the metallic conductivity is dominant compared to the activation type transport. The fitting was done by fixing $`\sigma _1`$ as $`T^n(n=0,1,2)`$ and liberating all other parameters. The best fitting curves are shown in the inset of Fig. 5, where the data were shifted by $`0.25\mu `$V/K from the lower pressure data one by one. The fitting curves are obtained for temperature independent conductivity ($`n`$=0)fitting  and the fitted parameters are listed in Table. 1.

$`E_g`$ is more or less pressure insensitive while the magnitudes of $`B`$ and $`C`$ increases with opposite sign. The increasing negative contribution shown in Fig. 5 seems to come from the increase of fitting parameter $`B`$. To derive physical properties from the fitting, we speculate the TEP of band 2 follows the TEP of intrinsic semiconductor with band gap $`E_g`$. TEP of intrinsic semiconductor can be written as

$$S_{\mathrm{semicon}.}=\frac{k_B}{e}[\frac{c1}{c+1}\frac{E_g}{2k_BT}+\frac{3}{4}\mathrm{ln}\frac{m_e}{m_h}]$$
(4)
where $`c`$ is the ratio of the electron to hole mobility ($`\mu _e/\mu _h`$). Usually when a semiconducting band is dominant in transport, TEP shows 1/$`T`$ dependence and its sign exclusively depends on the mobility ratio. But when other competing bands are metallic bands, the contribution of TEP of semiconducting band decrease upon cooling due to the conductivity weighting and its sign depends on both mobility and effective mass ratio. Comparing Eq. 3 and Eq. 4, we listed the mobility and effective mass ratio in Table. 1.

The origin of semiconducting hole carriers is not clear yet. One of the possibilities is that they originate from the lower band of the $`\sigma `$ bands when the $`\sigma `$ bands are splitted into two sub-bands due to electron-phonon interaction. It is believed that the $`E_{2g}`$ mode (in-plane boron-boron displacement) of MgB2 splits the $`\sigma `$ band,an  and the lower band is pushed down to the Fermi level. If the electron-phonon interaction is so strong, the splitting may push the lower band below the Fermi level, which results in a semiconducting hole band. Usually the $`\sigma `$ bands are believed to take an important role in the superconductivity of MgB2 superconductor. Therefore, if our speculation is correct, one should consider reduced density of states and stronger electron-phonon coupling constants in theoretical estimation of $`T_c`$ of this material.

Now, we turn our attention to the pressure effect on normal state TEP and $`T_c`$. The increase of slope with pressure seems to be in apparent contradiction with McMillan formula because $`N(ϵ_F)`$ increases with pressure but $`T_c`$ decreases. This discrepancy is due to the fact that the measured $`N(ϵ_F)`$ from TEP contains contribution from all available bands as mentioned above to explain the magnitude of slope. If the pressure effect is to decrease inter-plane distance more significantly than the in-plane boron-boron distance, the increase of bandwidth of electron band (assumed to be antibonding $`\pi `$ band) is more dominant than that of the $`\sigma `$ band (in other words, d$`N(ϵ_F)_\pi `$/d$`P>`$ d$`N(ϵ_F)_\sigma `$/d$`P`$). Consequently, even when the total density of states decrease (as indirectly evidenced by the decrease of resistivity with pressure), the measured slope of linear $`T`$ dependence of TEP increases. The compressibility along the $`c`$-axis was found to be larger by 64 $`\%`$ than along the $`a`$-axis,jorgensen  which support this idea.

TEP for Al doped MgB2 was measured by Lorentz et al.,lorentz  and they also found an increase of slope and a decrease of $`T_c`$ upon electron doping. They attributed the decrease of $`T_c`$ to increase of the Fermi energy by doping, since the Fermi energy is close to an edge of decreasing density of state curves. But TEP results seems to be contradictory since TEP decreases for the increased Fermi energy in a simple one band metal. This inconsistency will be also explained by considering the role of electron band upon doping.

If we consider the pressure effect on the negative contribution at high temperature region (above $``$ 120 K), the speculation of a semiconducting hole band should be examined. The pressure will decrease electron-phonon coupling by lattice stiffening, therefore the splitting of $`\sigma `$ band should be suppressed. Consequently, we expect the semiconducting energy gap ($`E_g`$) will reduce with pressure, which is not clearly seen in our measurements (see Table. 1). The pressure effect seems to be rather dominant in the mobility and the effective mass term. It might be necessary to consider more complex situation like inter-band charge transfer to explain the observed TEP at high temperature region.

Within our model, we expect the anisotropic TEP measuremetns and/or the measurements under uniaxial stress will be helpful to understand the current observation. The sign of TEP and the temperature dependence of TEP will be quite different between in-plane and inter-plane direction. The in-plane TEP will be more or less same with polycrystalline sample data if our model is correct and the inter-plane TEP can be negative and linear at whole temperature range. And if a single crystal sample is compressed only along the $`c`$-axis while liberating expansion along the $`ab`$-plane, or vice versa, the behaviors of normal state TEP and $`T_c`$ will show different behaviors depending on the direction of compression.

## IV Conclusion

The temperature dependence of TEP under hydrostatic pressure was measured on MgB2 superconductor. The results show that metallic hole carriers (presumably from the $`\sigma `$ bands) are important to explain temperature dependence of TEP. But the pressure dependence of $`T_c`$ and TEP needs contribution of carriers from other bands, i.e., metallic electron band and semiconducting hole band. The increase of TEP and the decrease of $`T_c`$ can be explained by the two metallic bands (hole and electron band). The density of states of both bands will decrease with pressure but the electron band will give larger effect due to the anisotropic compressibility. The deviation from the metallic TEP can be explained by the semiconducing hole band, whose contribution is only observable at higher temperature.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by the grant for the promotion of scientific research in women’s universities (00-B-WB-06-A-04) and by the Brain Korea 21 Project in 2000. The pressure setup used in this study was developed with the support from the Ewha Research Fund of the year 2000. Works done at POSTECH was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Korea through the Creative Research Initiative Program.


format: text

text:
# Effect of Crystal Structure to Resonant X-Ray Scattering on YTiO3

## I Introduction

Recently the resonant x-ray scattering spectroscopy has attracted much attention because this experimental method is considered as one of the most powerful tools which can directly observe the orbital order in the strongly correlated systems. A lot of experiments have already been carried out on the perovskite transition-metal compounds,  V2O3 and DyB2C2,  in which the scattering intensities were observed on the orbital superlattice spots, which are forbidden for usual x-ray scattering. Such anomalous x-ray scattering will simply be referred to as RXS. Despite much effort so far, how and to what extent the RXS spectra are reflecting the orbital order are still controversial, especially on the perovskite compounds, since the orbital order usually accompanies the Jahn–Teller distortion (JTD) and the GdFeO3 type distortion, which can also gives rise to the RXS intensity.

The resonant scattering may be described by a second order process that a photon is virtually absorbed by exciting a core electron to unoccupied states and then emitted by recombining the excited electron with the core hole. Therefore, for the $`K`$ edge of the transition-metal compounds, the $`4p`$ states are involved in the intermediate states of the dipolar process. For the RXS in the $`K`$ edge of LaMnO3, the so called Coulomb mechanism was proposed that the anisotropic part of the intra-atomic Coulomb interaction between the orbitally polarized $`3d`$ states and the $`4p`$ states is responsible to the RXS intensity by making the degenerate $`4p`$ levels split. However, subsequent studies based on the band structure calculations have revealed that the Coulomb effect is much smaller ($`<1/100`$) than the JTD effect on the RXS intensity. This is because the $`4p`$ states are so extended in space that they are sensitive to neighboring O potentials.

The RXS spectra on YVO3 have been observed for the pre $`K`$ edge and the main $`K`$ edge regions of V. The spectra consist of several peaks as a function of photon energy, and the shapes are different between the $`(100)`$ and $`(011)`$ reflections. Assuming that the scattering tensor is directly related to the orbital polarization of the $`3d`$ states, the authors argued that the azimuthal angle dependence of the spectra was consistent with the C-type orbital order in the low temperature phase. However, this assumption made there implies the dominance of the Coulomb effect, which is questionable. Recently the resonant x-ray scattering experiment has also been carried out on YTiO3, and the RXS spectra have been observed with their shapes similar to those of YVO3. In this paper, concentrating our attention on YTiO3, we study the mechanism of the RXS spectra by carrying out a band structure calculation on the experimentally determined crystal structure.

The crystal structure of YTiO3 is known to belong to the space group $`Pbnm`$, as shown in Fig. 1; four Ti ions are inequivalent in the unit cell. The Ti-O-Ti bond angles strongly deviate from $`180^{}`$ due to the tilt of the TiO6 octahedra, and Ti-O bond lengths are different in TiO6 octahedra due to the JTD. One of the $`t_{2g}`$ levels is occupied under the crystal field in the $`d^1`$ configuration of Ti3+ ions, and since the $`t_{2g}`$ states are weakly hybridizing with O $`2p`$ states, the JTD is smaller ($`20\%`$) than that on LaMnO3. Note that the crystal structure of YVO3 belongs to the same space group of $`Pbnm`$ with similar sizes of the tilt of VO6 octahedra and the JTD.

We calculate the RXS spectra using the band calculation based on the local density approximation (LDA) together with the muffin-tin approximation. This approximate scheme leads to a metallic ground state for YTiO3 with a very small orbital polarization. In spite of this shortcoming for the $`3d`$ bands, we expect that the $`4p`$ bands are well described in the present calculation, since they have energies $`15`$ eV higher than the $`3d`$ bands and thereby the details of the $`3d`$ bands are irrelevant. What is important, which will become clear, to make the $`4p`$ states different at different Ti sites is the O potential of neighboring sites. The $`4p`$ states are so extended in space that they are sensitively modified by hybridizing and interacting with the electronic states of neighboring ions. Actually, for LaMnO3, it is known that the LDA$`+U`$ method, which predicts an insulating ground state with large orbital polarization, gives the $`4p`$ bands and the RXS spectra nearly the same as those given by the LDA method, although the latter predicts a small band gap and a small orbital polarization.

We obtain the RXS spectra with sufficient intensities for YTiO3. The obtained spectra as a function of photon energy resemble closely to the results of the experiment for the $`(100)`$ and $`(011)`$ reflections of YVO3, and also to those of the recent experiment of YTiO3. Since the muffin-tin approximation averages the Coulomb interaction between the $`4p`$ and the $`3d`$ states, the anisotropy of the Coulomb interaction is eliminated in the calculation of the RXS spectra. Therefore the obtained RXS intensity arises from the distorted crystal structure. We may roughly estimate that the Coulomb effect is less than $`1/4`$ of the JTD effect, since the Coulomb effect is evaluated as 1/100 smaller than the JTD effect in LaMnO3. Note that the JTD effect cannot be distinguished from that of the tilt of the TiO6 octahedra in the present calculation. Such sensitivity of the $`4p`$ states to the electronic states at neighboring sites has already been recognized in the analysis of the magnetic circular dichroism of the $`K`$ edge absorption spectra on the ferromagnetic states of transition metals and the analysis of the resonant x-ray magnetic scattering spectra on CoO and NiO.

This paper is organized as follows. In the next section, we briefly discuss the band structure calculation on the ground state. In section 3 we outline the calculation procedure of RXS spectra and discuss the calculated results. The final section is devoted to concluding remarks.

## II Calculation of the ground state and density of states

First we examine the meaning of the atomic $`4p`$ states. Figure 2 shows the atomic $`4p`$ wave function for a Ti3+ ion, calculated within the Hartree-Fock approximation. The $`4p`$ wave function extends considerably in space so that a large part of the amplitude would lie on the neighboring oxygen sites or the interstitial region in solids. This situation is not changed in the presence of the core-hole potential, as shown by the broken line in the figure. Thus one may easily understand the sensitiveness of the $`4p`$ states to electronic states at neighboring sites. The concept of the atomic $`4p`$ levels loses its clear meaning in solids, and the $`4p`$ states are to be treated as energy bands. Nevertheless, the $`p`$ symmetric states (centered at a Ti site) above the Fermi energy are referred to the $`4p`$ states, since the atomic character is almost preserved inside the atomic sphere in the band structure calculation.

In the band structure calculation for YTiO3, we use the Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker (KKR) method within the LDA scheme. We assume the crystal structure determined experimentally at room temperature in Ref. , which is shown in Fig. 1. As mentioned before, the crystal structure belongs to the space group $`Pbnm`$; the unit cell involves four Y ions, four Ti ions and 12 O ions. The four Ti sites are distinctive in terms of the orientation even though the orbital ordering does not occur. The large tilt of TiO6 octahedra makes the Ti-O-Ti bond angles strongly deviates from $`180^{}`$ by as much as $`35^{}`$. Each TiO6 octahedron also undergoes the JTD such that the direction $`\xi `$ corresponds to the short bond, the $`\eta `$ to the long bond, and the $`\zeta `$ to the middle bond, where three arrows $`\xi \eta \zeta `$ attached to each Ti ion are directed to neighboring oxygen sites and are almost orthogonal to each other. There exists an important symmetry that the configuration surrounding the Ti 1 site becomes coincident to that surrounding the Ti 2 site under the rotation of all positions of atoms by $`\pi `$ around the line parallel to the $`x`$ axis passing through the Ti 1 site. In the same way, the configuration surrounding the Ti 1 site becomes coincident to those surrounding the Ti 3 and the Ti 4 sites under the rotation of the atomic position by $`\pi `$ around the line parallel to the $`y`$ and the $`z`$ axes, respectively, passing through the Ti $`1`$ site.

As regards the magnetism, the system undergoes a ferromagnetic transition below the Curie temperature $`T_\mathrm{C}=29`$K. Neglecting the spin-orbit coupling, we obtain a ferromagnetic ground state with the magnetic moment $`0.95`$$`\mu _\mathrm{B}`$ per Ti3+ site ($`0.68`$$`\mu _\mathrm{B}`$ inside the muffin-tin sphere of Ti3+ site), consistent with the previous calculations. This value is a little larger than the experimental value $`0.84`$$`\mu _\mathrm{B}`$ . The orbital polarization is underestimated to be very small. The ground state is obtained as a metal, although it is experimentally a semiconductor. The LDA is known to have a tendency of wrongly predicting a metallic ground state. We think these shortcomings for the $`3d`$ states have only minor effects on the $`4p`$ states, since they have high energy ($`15`$ eV above the Fermi level).

Figure 3 shows the density of states projected onto the $`s`$, $`p`$, and $`d`$ symmetric states inside the muffin–tin sphere of a Ti site. Around $`7`$ eV below the Fermi level, the $`3d`$ states form bonding states with the $`2p`$ states of the neighboring O ions. Around the Fermi level, the $`3d`$ states are highly concentrating in a form of antibonding states with the O $`2p`$ states. In high energy region, a broad band appears, to which the $`s`$, $`p`$ and $`d`$ symmetric states equally contribute. The $`p`$ DOS in this energy region is much smaller than the $`d`$ DOS near the Fermi level, as expected from the character of the atomic $`4p`$ wave function that extends considerably in the interstitial region. The $`p`$ DOS is enlarged in the inset. It has two peaks. Note that the $`p`$ DOS is roughly proportional to the $`K`$ edge absorption spectrum, if the effect of the core hole potential is neglected in the final states. This final state interaction may enhance the peak of the low energy side in the $`p`$ DOS. In any event, the two-peak structure corresponds well to the absorption spectrum of YVO3.

## III Calculation of RXS spectra

### A Formulation

In the resonant process around the Ti $`K`$ edge region, the $`1s`$ core electron is virtually excited to the $`4p`$ states. Therefore the RXS spectra directly reflect the $`4p`$ states at the scattering center. We specifically calculate the RXS intensities for the (100), (001) and (011) reflections.

We choose the $`x`$, $`y`$ and $`z`$ axes such that they are parallel to the crystal a, b, and c axes, respectively. With respect to these axes, we define the $`1s`$$`4p`$ dipole transition density matrix $`\tau _{mn}^{(k)}(\epsilon )`$ at the Ti $`k`$ site in the unit cell as

$`\tau _{mn}^{(k)}(\epsilon )={\displaystyle \underset{b,𝒌}{}}{\displaystyle r^2𝑑rr^2𝑑r^{}[R_{1s}^{}(r)r𝒫_m\varphi _{b,𝒌}(r)]^{}}`$ (1)
$`[R_{1s}^{}(r^{})r^{}𝒫_n\varphi _{b,𝒌}(r^{})]\delta (\epsilon \epsilon _{b,𝒌}),`$ (2)
where $`\varphi _{b,𝒌}`$ represents the wave function with the band index $`b`$, wave-vector $`𝒌`$ and energy $`\epsilon _{b,𝒌}`$. The $`𝒫_m`$ is a projection operator which projects the wave function $`\varphi _{b,𝒌}`$ onto the $`m`$ ($`mx,y,z`$) component of the $`p`$ symmetric part around the Ti $`k`$ site, and $`R_{1s}`$ represents the Ti $`1s`$ wave function. This matrix is obtained from the KKR Green’s function $`g_{mn}^{(k)}(r,r^{};\epsilon )`$ by the equation

$$\tau _{mn}^{(k)}(\epsilon )=\frac{1}{\pi }\mathrm{Im}r^2𝑑rr^2𝑑r^{}g_{mn}^{(k)}(r,r^{};\epsilon )rr^{}R_{1s}(r)R_{1s}(r^{}).$$
(3)
Numerically this $`1s`$$`4p`$ transition density matrix is roughly proportional to the $`4p`$ density matrix $`\rho _{mn}^{(k)}(\epsilon )=\frac{1}{\pi }\mathrm{Im}_0^{r_{MT}}r^2𝑑rg_{mn}^{(k)}(r,r;\epsilon )`$ with $`r_{\mathrm{MT}}`$ being the muffin-tin radius. Assuming that photons are linearly polarized, we have the scattering amplitude at the Ti $`k`$ site as

$$f^{(k)}(\omega )=\frac{A}{4}𝑑\epsilon \underset{m,nx,y,z}{}E_m^{\text{out}}\frac{\tau _{mn}^{(k)}(\epsilon )}{\omega \epsilon +\epsilon _{1s}+\mathrm{i}\mathrm{\Gamma }}E_n^{\text{in}},$$
(4)
where $`A`$ is a numerical constant, $`E_m^{\text{in}}`$ and $`E_n^{\text{out}}`$ are the $`m`$ and $`n`$ components of polarization of the incident and the emitted photons, respectively. In the denominator, $`\omega `$ is the photon energy, and $`\epsilon _{1s}`$ is the energy of the $`1s`$ state. The $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ describes the broadening due to the core–hole lifetime, which are assumed $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1`$ eV. The effect of the core-hole potential is neglected in the intermediate states. We think this effect on the RXS intensity is small, since the core hole potential is spherically symmetric, and it affects merely the diagonal elements of the density matrix which are irrelevant to the RXS intensity. The integration in terms of $`\epsilon `$ is performed from the Fermi energy to $`60`$ eV above it.

It is obvious that the transition density matrix $`\tau _{mn}^{(k)}`$ becomes symmetric with neglecting the spin–orbit interaction. Using $`a`$, $`b`$, $`c`$, $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$, functions of $`\epsilon `$, the matrix at the Ti 1 site can be represented as

$$\tau ^{(1)}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill a& \hfill \alpha & \hfill \gamma \\ \hfill \alpha & \hfill b& \hfill \beta \\ \hfill \gamma & \hfill \beta & \hfill c\end{array}\right).$$
(5)
Due to the crystal symmetry mentioned before, the transition density matrices $`\tau ^{(2)}`$, $`\tau ^{(3)}`$ and $`\tau ^{(4)}`$ at the Ti $`2`$, Ti $`3`$, and Ti $`4`$ sites are represented as

$`\tau ^{(2)}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill a& \hfill \alpha & \hfill \gamma \\ \hfill \alpha & \hfill b& \hfill \beta \\ \hfill \gamma & \hfill \beta & \hfill c\end{array}\right),`$ (9)
$`\text{ }\tau ^{(3)}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill a& \hfill \alpha & \hfill \gamma \\ \hfill \alpha & \hfill b& \hfill \beta \\ \hfill \gamma & \hfill \beta & \hfill c\end{array}\right),`$ (13)
$`\text{ }\tau ^{(4)}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill a& \hfill \alpha & \hfill \gamma \\ \hfill \alpha & \hfill b& \hfill \beta \\ \hfill \gamma & \hfill \beta & \hfill c\end{array}\right).`$ (17)
Using these representations, the scattering amplitudes are expressed in simple forms. For the (100) reflection, we have

$`f_{(100)}(\omega )=f^{(1)}(\omega )f^{(2)}(\omega )f^{(3)}(\omega )+f^{(4)}(\omega )`$ (18)
$`=A(E_x^{\text{out}}E_y^{\text{in}}+E_y^{\text{out}}E_x^{\text{in}}){\displaystyle 𝑑\epsilon \frac{\alpha (\epsilon )}{\omega \epsilon +\epsilon _{1s}+\mathrm{i}\mathrm{\Gamma }}}.`$ (19)
In the similar way, we have the scattering amplitude for the (001) and (011) reflections as

$`f_{(001)}(\omega )=A(E_y^{\text{out}}E_z^{\text{in}}+E_z^{\text{out}}E_y^{\text{in}})`$ (20)
$`{\displaystyle 𝑑\epsilon \frac{\beta (\epsilon )}{\omega \epsilon +\epsilon _{1s}+\mathrm{i}\mathrm{\Gamma }}},`$ (21)
$`f_{(011)}(\omega )=A(E_x^{\text{out}}E_z^{\text{in}}+E_z^{\text{out}}E_x^{\text{in}})`$ (22)
$`{\displaystyle 𝑑\epsilon \frac{\gamma (\epsilon )}{\omega \epsilon +\epsilon _{1s}+\mathrm{i}\mathrm{\Gamma }}}.`$ (23)
Only one of the off-diagonal elements remains in each expression of the scattering amplitudes, with the diagonal elements $`a`$, $`b`$, and $`c`$ completely vanishing. Therefore, we can select out one of them by choosing the reflection index. The photon energy dependence is factored out from the polarization of photon in Eqs. (19), (21), and (23). The RXS intensities $`I_{(100)}`$, $`I_{(001)}`$, and $`I_{(011)}`$ are given by $`|f_{(100)}|^2`$, $`|f_{(001)}|^2`$, and $`|f_{(011)}|^2`$, respectively.

### B Calculated results

We calculate the RXS spectra on the crystal structure determined at room temperature in Ref. , using the above formulas. We show in the following the results calculated in the ferromagnetic ground state of YTiO3, although the RXS experimental data are given above the Curie temperature $`T_\text{c}`$. We checked that the RXS spectra are insensitive to the magnetic states by calculating the spectra also in a nonmagnetic state. This is consistent with the $`4p`$ DOS above $`15`$ eV in Fig. 3, which shows no exchange splitting.

Figure 4 shows the calculated spectra as a function of photon energy for the (100), (001) and (011) reflections. Note that the anisotropy of the Coulomb interaction between the $`4p`$ and the $`3d`$ states is eliminated in the calculation by using the muffin-tin approximation. The experimental spectra in the low temperature phase of YVO3 are also shown for the sake of comparison, since their shapes are quite similar to the unpublished experimental data for the RXS spectra of YTiO3. As already mentioned, the resemblance of the RXS spectra is quite understandable in the light of the mechanism of the distorted crystal structure, since both the JTD and the tilt of the VO6 octahedra in the low temperature phase of YVO3 are quite similar to those in YTiO3. In the (100) and (001) reflections, the intensities vanish for the $`\sigma \sigma ^{}`$ channel. For the $`\sigma \pi ^{}`$ channel, we have three peaks denoted by A, B, and C, whose intensities are comparable to each other in the (100) reflection, while we have two peaks denoted as D and E in the (001) reflection. In the experimental data of YTiO3, three peaks appear at 4.974 keV, 4.986 keV, and 5.0 keV, corresponding to peaks A, B, C, for the (100) reflection, while two peaks appear at 4.974 keV and 4.984 keV with the former intensity about twice as the latter, corresponding to peaks D and E. In the (011) reflection, both the $`\sigma \sigma ^{}`$ and the $`\sigma \pi ^{}`$ channels contribute to the intensities; we have a dominant peak denoted as F and a small peak denoted as G. The energy of peak F is found slightly higher ($`2`$ eV) than that of the peaks A and D. In the experimental data of YTiO3, two peaks appear at 4.976 keV (2 eV higher than the positions of peaks A and D) and 4.986 keV with the former intensity dominating the latter.

Figure 5 shows the azimuthal angle dependence of the RXS spectra. As clear from Eqs. (19), (21), and (23), the peaks belonging to the same scattering vectors show the same dependence. In the (100) and (001) reflections, the intensities are proportional to $`\mathrm{cos}^2\psi `$ for the $`\sigma \pi ^{}`$ channel, with the condition $`E^{\text{in}}b`$ at $`\psi =0`$. In the the (011) reflection, the intensities are proportional to $`\mathrm{sin}^22\psi `$ for the $`\sigma \sigma ^{}`$ channel, with the condition $`E^{\text{in}}a`$ at $`\psi =0`$, while the dependence is rather complicated for the $`\sigma \pi ^{}`$ channel. The calculated results are in agreement with the those of YVO3 (and also YTiO3).

To see more closely how the $`4p`$ states are modified, we examine the $`4p`$ density matrix $`\rho _{mn}^{(1)}(\epsilon )`$ at the Ti 1 site, which is shown in Fig. 6. The left panel shows the representation in the $`xyz`$ system. Although the diagonal elements are larger than the off-diagonal elements, the former quantity does not contribute to the RXS intensity. The right panel shows the representation in the local $`\xi \eta \zeta `$ coordinate system. The off-diagonal elements remain comparable to those in the $`xyz`$ system, indicating that the $`\xi \eta \zeta `$ axes are still deviating from the principal axes of the density matrix. Since the off-diagonal elements are fluctuating with changing energy, the principal axes may also be fluctuating. One may think that the principal axes of the density matrix are related to the direction of the $`3d`$ orbital polarization. However, this is not the case in the present calculation, since the $`3d`$ orbital polarization has little effect on the $`4p`$ states within the muffin-tin approximation. We interpret this as the sensitiveness of the $`4p`$ states to the tilt of the TiO6 octahedra which makes the local $`\xi \eta \zeta `$ coordinate axes no longer principal axes.

## IV Concluding remarks

We have studied the effect of the crystal structure to the RXS spectra of YTiO3, using the band structure calculation within the LDA. The calculated spectra are mainly compared with the experimental data of YVO3, since the unpublished data of YTiO3 are similar to those of YVO3. This similarity is consistent with the mechanism of the distorted crystal structure. The obtained spectra as a function of photon energy are in agreement with the experiments of YVO3 (and also YTiO3). Since the muffin-tin approximation averages the Coulomb interaction between the $`4p`$ states and the $`3d`$ states, the anisotropy of the Coulomb interaction is eliminated in the calculation of the RXS spectra. We have clearly shown that along with the JTD the tilts of the transition-metal oxide octahedra need to be taken into account. The agreement between the calculation and the experiment suggests that the RXS intensity originates mainly from the distorted crystal structure, casting doubt on a prevailing assertion that the RXS is a direct observation of the orbital order. We hope that the present work could accelerate further study on the relation between the RXS and the orbital order.

In spite of the above findings, there are several points to be made clear. First, since the crystal structure includes both the JTD and the tilt of the TiO6 octahedra, it is not clear which effect is important. Closely related to this question, the crystal structure of YVO3 changes into a state of a very small JTD for $`T>100`$ K (the tilt is not changed so much). According to this change, the intensities of peaks a and c were found to become very small, while those of other peaks were found to remain similar. This suggests that the effect of the JTD on the RXS spectra is different from that of the tilt of the octahedra. For clarifying this point and for a direct comparison with the experiment, the calculation of the RXS spectra in the two cases of the atomic coordinates for YVO3 is now under progress. Second, the intensities in the (100) reflection are $`1/51/10`$ smaller than those in the other reflections in the experiment of YVO3 (and YTiO3). Note that the samples are different for different reflections in the experiment. This may make the comparison of the data between different reflections less accurate. In any event, this behavior is not reproduced by the present calculation. It might improve the situation to go beyond the muffin-tin approximation in which the potential is crudely treated as a constant in the interstitial region. Third, in addition to the RXS spectra mentioned above, another small peak has been observed about 10 eV below the main $`K`$ edge peak. Since its azimuthal angle dependence is nearly the same as in other peaks, this pre-edge peak must come from the dipolar process. The presence of such pre-edge peaks has been predicted for LaMnO3. This study suggests that the pre-edge peak arises from the $`p`$ symmetric states (centered at a Ti site) hybridizing to neighboring $`3d`$ states in the intermediate states. Since the orbital polarization is obtained very small in the present calculation, we are unable to handle the pre $`K`$ edge structure. The LDA$`+U`$ method may be suitable to treat this problem.

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank H. Nakao and Y. Murakami for valuable discussion and showing their data prior to publication. MT wishes to thank H. Akai for providing the KKR code. This work was partially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan.


text:
# Radiation in a Fractal Cosmology

##

Recently a fractal cosmological model has been proposed  that follows naturally if one assumes (i) that matter in the Universe is distributed like an isotropic fractal of dimension 2, (ii) the General Theory of Relativity and (iii) the Conditional Cosmological Principle . Hitherto, the absence of a physical model has been an impediment for subjecting fractality to precision cosmological tests .

In a fractal Universe, density is not defined at any point. The concept of density has to be replaced by that of a “mass measure” defined over sets. The mass measure as obtained by any observer moving with the cosmological fluid (part of the fractal) will be the same as that obtained by any other observer. However, observers in a region of void are precluded, because spheres drawn with such points (not belonging to the fractal) as centre, will be empty with probability 1 .

It was shown in  that the time–time component $`G^{00}`$ of the Einstein tensor for any observer on an occupied point of the fractal (galaxy), must be of the form:

$$G_{\mathrm{fractal}}^{00}(t,\chi ,\theta ,\phi )=f(\chi )G_{\mathrm{FRW}}^{00}(t)$$
$`(1)`$
where $`G_{\mathrm{fractal}}^{00}`$ and $`f(\chi )`$ are to be regarded as ansatz to compute measures to satisfy the integrated Einstein’s equations over any 3-volume in the constant time hypersurface and:

$$G_{\mathrm{FRW}}^{00}=3\left\{\left(\frac{\dot{a}}{a}\right)^2+\frac{k}{a^2}\right\}$$
$`(2)`$
is the $`G^{00}`$ obtained from the FRW metric:

$$ds^2=dt^2+a^2(t)\{d\chi ^2+\mathrm{\Sigma }^2(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\phi ^2)\}$$
$`(3)`$
where

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{sin}\chi \text{if }k\frac{K}{|K|}=+1\text{ (positive spatial curvature)}$$
$`(4)`$
$$\mathrm{\Sigma }\chi \text{if }kK=0\text{ (zero spatial curvature)}$$
$`(5)`$
$$\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{sinh}\chi \text{if }k\frac{K}{|K|}=1\text{ (negative spatial curvature)}$$
$`(6)`$
Let $`S_P^3(R)`$ denote a hypersphere of radius $`R`$ centered at $`P`$ on the hypersurface of constant time $`t`$, and assume $`M_P(R)`$, the mass enclosed in $`S_P^3(R)`$, to have a fractal dimension $`D`$. Then:

$$M_P(R)=\{\begin{array}{ccc}& C(t)R^D\hfill & \\ & 0\hfill & \end{array}\begin{array}{c}\text{if P }\text{ the fractal }\hfill \\ \text{otherwise}\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(7)`$
The integrated Einstein’s eqns. give:

$$G_{\mathrm{FRW}}^{00}(t)=6C(t)a^{D3}(t)$$
$`(8)`$
and

$$f(\chi )=\frac{D}{3}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{D3}(\chi )$$
$`(9)`$
We denote the “fractal mass density ” $`C(t)`$ by $`C_a`$, because the scale factor $`a`$ is a function of time $`t`$. The ‘fractal mass density ” for scale factor $`a(t)`$ is related to that at the present scale factor $`a_0`$ by:

$$a^D(t)C_a=a_o^DC_{a_o}$$
$`(10)`$
Eqns (2), (8) and (10) yield:

$$3\left\{\left(\frac{\dot{a}}{a}\right)^2+\frac{k}{a^2}\right\}=6\frac{a_o^D}{a^D}C_{a_o}a^{D3}$$
$`(11)`$
Eqns. (9) and (11) describe the fractal cosmology completely for a universe in which matter is distributed as a fractal of dimension 2 and “fractal mass density” $`C_{a_o}`$ when the scale factor is $`a_o`$.

There is evidence to suggest  that matter distribution in the Universe could be a fractal of dimension 2. However, there is no evidence to suggest that radiation is not homogeneous to a very good accuracy.

So let us try to include homogeneous radiation in our model described by radiation density $`\rho _\gamma `$ which scales with scale factor $`a(t)`$ as:

$$\rho _\gamma a^4=\rho _{\gamma _0}a_0^4$$
$`(12)`$
Then the integrated Einstein’s equations will yield:

$$4\pi G_{\mathrm{FRW}}^{00}(t)a^3(t)_0^\chi f(\chi )\mathrm{\Sigma }^2(\chi )\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}(\chi )𝑑\chi $$

$$=8\pi \{C(t)a^D(t)\mathrm{\Sigma }^D(\chi )+4\pi \rho _\gamma (t)a^3(t)_0^\chi \mathrm{\Sigma }^2(\chi )\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}(\chi )𝑑\chi \}$$

$$=8\pi \{C_{a_0}a_0^D\mathrm{\Sigma }^D(\chi )+4\pi \rho _{\gamma _0}\frac{a_0^4(t)}{a(t)}_0^\chi \mathrm{\Sigma }^2(\chi )\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}(\chi )𝑑\chi \}$$
$`(13)`$
This equation will have solutions only for $`D=3`$, that is homogeneous distribution of matter.

In , fractal matter was treated as a perturbation in a radiation dominated universe. The fractal cosmology of , which follows naturally from first principles, incorporates fractal distribution of matter a priori.

We have shown that homogeneous radiation can not be incorporated in a fractal model. However, eqn(13) may throw more light on the treatment of fractal matter as a perturbation in a radiation dominated universe as done in . Fractal matter can be neglected if the condition:

$$C_{a_0}\frac{4\pi \rho _0a_0^{4D}}{3a(t)}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{3D}$$
$`(14)`$
is satisfied. Clearly for a given epoch, this condition will be violated for sufficiently small $`\chi `$. This suggests a need for incorporating a lower cutoff in the fractal distribution of matter, which will also make the model more realistic. However, for a given low cut-off, the assumption of radiation dominance will fail for sufficiently large $`a(t)`$. (For open ($`k=1`$) models, this would mean for sufficiently large time).

## Acknowledgements

We thank Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) for hospitality and facilities to carry out this research.


text:
# Two-point correlation functions of the diffusion-limited annihilation in one dimension

## I Introduction

Nonequilibrium systems have been studied extensively during the past decades. Reaction-diffusion systems especially have attracted much interest due to their relevance to many areas of physics, biology, economics, and so on. A commonly used description of the dynamics of reaction-diffusion systems is the master equation. The master equation for the probability distribution of a many-body system is a linear equation, and can be written as an imaginary time Schrödinger equation with a (generally non-Hermitian) Hamiltonian acting on a many-particle Fock space. The energy spectrum of the Hamiltonian contains all the information about the system. It is, in general, difficult to diagonalize the Hamiltonian, and many methods to treat the systems have been developed: the mean field rate equation, the scaling arguments, and the renormalization group (RG) technique to name only a few.

In simple situations, it is possible to find exact solutions of the model systems. A prototype of such models is the one-dimensional diffusion-limited pair annihilation and/or creation of hard core particles. The model can be solved exactly only in the so-called free-fermion limit. As implied in the work of Spouge, the free fermion limit, for example, of the pair annihilation model can be reduced to a one-dimensional diffusion problem of a noninteracting “free” particle. Any exact results for models beyond the free-fermion case would add much to our understanding of the reaction-diffusion systems of hard core particles.

In this context, a recent work by Bares and Mobilia is of interest. Studying the model mentioned above in the general parameter space, Bares and Mobilia suggested a method to find an exact solution of a general one-dimensional reaction-diffusion system applicable to the non-free-fermion case. The method relies on an analog of the Wick theorem. The present authors, however, pointed out that the Wick theorem does not hold except for the free-fermion case. According to Ref., the method of Bares and Mobilia relies on a neglect of the higher order correlations, so the result of Ref. can at best be regarded as a Hartree-Fock-type approximation.

What is unknown is the validity of the approximation. In particular, the long-time behavior of the density and the correlation reported in Ref. could be correct in merely a fortuitous way. To check this possibility, we performed an extensive Monte Carlo simulation on the system (with no bias) and compared the numerical results with the analytical predictions of Ref.. We find that the numerical result and the analytical prediction of Ref. for the density are consistent with each other in the long-time limit, while those for the two-point density-density correlation functions clearly deviate from one another. We conjecture from the data that the two-point density-density correlation function $`M_r(t)`$, defined below, contains an extra term with a simple analytic structure, and we estimate its coefficient. We also provide a heuristic argument as to why the density behavior is not modified in the Hartree-Fock-type approximation.

## II model

In this Brief Report, we study the standard reaction-diffusion system $`A+A\mathrm{}`$ with symmetric hopping on a one-dimensional lattice of size $`L`$ with periodic boundary conditions. Each site is either occupied by a hard core particle or is vacant. We restrict ourselves to the dynamic rules

$$\begin{array}{ccc}A\mathrm{}\mathrm{}A& \mathrm{with}\mathrm{rate}& \frac{1}{2},\\ \mathrm{}AA\mathrm{}& \mathrm{with}\mathrm{rate}& \frac{1}{2},\\ AA\mathrm{}\mathrm{}& \mathrm{with}\mathrm{rate}& p,\end{array}$$
(1)
where, in what follows, $`p`$ is limited to be smaller than or equal to $`1`$. To implement the above dynamics on simulation, we use the following algorithm: At time $`t`$, we choose one of the occupied sites randomly, and select one of the nearest neighbors of the chosen site with equal probability $`1/2`$. If the selected nearest neighbor is empty, the chosen particle hops to that site. Otherwise, the two particles are annihilated with a probability $`p`$, and with a probability $`1p`$ nothing happens. After an attempt, the time is increased by $`1/N(t)`$, where $`N(t)`$ is the total particle number at a time $`t`$. The corresponding master equation of this algorithm can be written as $`_t|\mathrm{\Psi };t=H|\mathrm{\Psi };t`$, with the Hamiltonian

$`H={\displaystyle \underset{m=1}{\overset{L}{}}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\sigma _{m+1}^+\sigma _m^{}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\sigma _{m+1}^{}\sigma _m^++p\sigma _m^{}\sigma _{m+1}^{}\sigma _m^+\sigma _m^{}\gamma \sigma _m^+\sigma _m^{}\sigma _{m+1}^+\sigma _{m+1}^{}\right],`$ (2)
where $`\gamma p1`$ and $`\sigma _m^\pm `$ represent the Pauli matrices. We regard the spin-down (-up) state as a vacuum (particle) state. $`|\mathrm{\Psi };t`$ is defined as $`|\mathrm{\Psi };t_\eta P(\eta ,t)|\eta `$, where $`\eta `$ is the representation of a possible microscopic configuration, and $`P(\eta ,t)`$ is the probability with which the system is in state $`\eta `$ at time $`t`$. The free-fermion limit corresponds to the $`\gamma =0`$ (or $`p=1`$) case. The above Hamiltonian, with a fully occupied initial condition, was studied in Ref.  and it was reported that the asymptotic behavior of density and correlation functions up to the subleading order become (we are using our notation)

$`\rho ^{\mathrm{BM}}(t)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{4\pi t}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1p}{\pi pt}},`$ (3)
$`𝒞_r^{\mathrm{BM}}(t)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi t}}+\left\{\pi r+8{\displaystyle \frac{p1}{p}}\right\}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(4\pi t)^{3/2}}},`$ (4)
respectively, where $`\rho (t)`$ is the density at time $`t`$, $`𝒞_r(t)`$ is the two-point (connected) correlation function, and the superscript BM stands for “the result of Bares and Mobilia”.

In the following, we concentrate our attention on the two-point density-density correlation function, which is defined as

$$M_r(t)=\frac{1}{L}\underset{m}{}n_mn_{m+r}(t)=𝒞_r(t)+\rho (t)^2,$$
(5)
where $`n_m\sigma _m^+\sigma _m^{}`$, and $`\mathrm{}(t)`$ represents the ensemble average at time $`t`$. The reason for studying $`M_r(t)`$ rather than $`C_r(t)`$ is twofold: First, the subleading order of the connected correlation function is the same as the leading order of $`M_r(t)`$ \[see Eqs. (9) and (10)\] and, in general, the study of the leading order is more reliable than that of a subleading order. Second, $`M_1(t)`$ is an order parameter of the pair contact process with diffusion (PCPD) model, and it is known that the PCPD model in the absorbing phase shares features with the annihilation model studied here. From Eqs. (3) and (4), the leading behavior of $`M_r(t)`$ is meant to be

$$M_r^{\mathrm{BM}}(t)\frac{\pi r}{(4\pi t)^{3/2}}.$$
(6)
To see how good Eqs. (3) and (6) are, we present the numerical results in Sec III.

## III numerical results

We performed the Monte Carlo simulations for several $`p`$’s ($`p=1`$, $`3/4`$, $`1/2`$, and $`1/4`$) with a system size $`L=10000`$. The initial conditions for all cases are fully occupied states as in Ref.. For each $`p`$, we realize $`10^6`$ samples. We monitored the simulation up to $`10^5`$ Monte Carlo time steps.

At first, we compare the density obtained by numerics with Eq. (3) in Fig. 1. This figure clearly shows that Eq. (3) is in excellent agreement with the numerical results up to subleading orders. This result also implies that a system size of $`10000`$ is large enough not to show the finite size effect up to $`10^5`$ time steps.

Next we compare the numerical results of the density-density correlation functions with Eq. (6). For this purpose, in Fig. 2 we draw $`M_r(t)/M_r^{\mathrm{BM}}(t)`$ as a function of time rather than $`M_r(t)`$ itself. If Eq. (6) is correct, all data are expected to converge to the constant value of 1 in the long-time limit, but no such convergence is observed except for $`p=1`$, i.e., the free-fermion case and for large $`r`$. Figure 2 clearly shows deviations from that anticipated by Eq. (6). Hence the correct asymptotic behavior of the density-density correlation function may take the form

$$M_r(t)\frac{\pi r}{(4\pi t)^{3/2}}\mathrm{\Delta }(r,p).$$
(7)
One expects $`\mathrm{\Delta }(r,p=1)=1`$ for all $`r`$. We estimate $`\mathrm{\Delta }(r,p)`$ from the data by the least squares fits, and show them in Fig. 3 as functions of $`1/r`$ for various $`p`$’s. It appears that $`\mathrm{\Delta }(r,p)`$ has a very simple dependence on $`1/r`$:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(r,p)=\frac{\lambda (p)}{r}+1.$$
(8)
Interestingly, $`\lambda (p)`$ also seems to have a simple mathematical structure, i.e., $`\lambda (p)(1p)/p`$; see the inset of Fig. 3. Combining the results, we conjecture the forms of $`M_r(t)`$ and $`𝒞_r(t)`$ to be

$`M_r(t)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(4\pi t)^{3/2}}}\left(\pi r+c{\displaystyle \frac{1p}{p}}\right),`$ (9)
$`𝒞_r(t)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{4\pi t}}}+\left\{\pi r+(8c){\displaystyle \frac{p1}{p}}\right\}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(4\pi t)^{3/2}}}`$ (10)
with $`c=3.4\pm 0.2`$ in case of the fully occupied initial condition.

In the long-time limit and at large length scales, all the $`p`$ dependence is suppressed in the density and correlation functions. This observation is evidence of the irrelevance of $`\gamma `$ in the RG sense. In Sec. IV, we use this irrelevance argument to present a possible explanation for the partial success of Ref..

## IV discussion and summary

This section discusses the success and failure of the method given in Ref., and summarizes our work. First of all, the incorrect result of $`M_r(t)`$ is ascribed to the non-Gaussian form of the generating function (GF). The relation between the Gaussian form of the GF and the Wick factorization is explicitly shown in Appendix A. Furthermore, Appendix B explicitly shows that Wick factorization is not always possible, even though the probability conservation is satisfied. From this point of view, the method of Bares and Mobilia may be regarded as an approximation scheme where quartic terms are neglected. As long as only the decay exponent of $`M_r(t)`$ is concerned, Eq. (6) is good enough. The irrelevance of $`\gamma `$ in the RG sense makes it possible for one to obtain the correct decay exponents of density and correlation functions from the exactly solvable $`\gamma =0`$ limit.

We also resort to the irrelevance argument to explain the correct subleading behavior of the density. First note that the quartic coupling in the generating function, say $`W`$, contributes to $`M_r`$ for nonzero $`\gamma `$, but this contribution should be $`O(t^{3/2})`$, because $`W`$ is generated by the irrelevant operator $`\gamma `$ and $`M_rO(t^{3/2})`$. Thus we expect that the implicit contribution of $`W`$ to the density is at most $`O(t^{3/2})`$ which happens to be smaller than the subleading order of the density decay. The Wick factorization, which neglects $`W`$, then gives a correct time dependence of the density up to the subleading order. We also believe that the method in Ref. would be partially successful only if the nonquadratic terms in the Hamiltonian are irrelevant in the RG sense.

For completeness, we address the question of why the Wick factorization may yield the correct steady state density in the presence of pair creation. When the pair creation rate is not zero, the mean field rate equation for the density can be written as

$$\frac{d\rho }{dt}=2ϵ^{}\rho ^2+2ϵ(1\rho )^2,$$
(11)
with $`ϵ^{}`$ the annihilation rate and $`ϵ`$ the pair creation rate, using the same notation as in Ref.. Its stationary state solution is $`\rho _\mathrm{s}=1/(1+\sqrt{ϵ^{}/ϵ})`$, which interestingly is the same as the exact solution. This result implies that the exact steady-state solution displays the characteristics of the mean field solution. Hence an exact result for the steady-state density from the Wick factorization is not surprising.

In summary, we have extensively simulated the diffusion-limited annihilation model, and have shown numerically that the long-time behavior of the correlation functions given in Ref. is not correct, although the behavior of density is. In addition, an analytical form of the asymptotic behavior of the correlation functions is conjectured.

## Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Catholic University of Korea research fund 2000, and by the Brain Korea 21 Project at Seoul National University.

## A Generating function and Wick theorem

This appendix proves that the Gaussian form of the generating function (GF) is a sufficient and necessary condition for Wick factorization. We restrict ourselves to the even sector of the Hilbert space as in Ref.. In the following, we adopt the notation of Ref.. First let us assume that the GF, discussed in Refs. and  takes the Gaussian form

$$Z[\xi ]=\mathrm{exp}\left[\underset{q_1<q_2}{}\xi _{q_1}\xi _{q_2}f(q_1,q_2)\right],$$
(A1)
with $`\xi _q`$ the Grassmann numbers. Proving the Wick factorization for this GF is a simple combinatoric problem. One can easily check that the Wick theorem can be applied; hence we prove that the Gaussian form of the GF yields Wick factorization.

Next we consider the following question: Does the Wick factorization imply a Gaussian form of the GF? To answer this, we adopt the reductio ad absurdum. Let us assume that the GF does not take a Gaussian form, but is instead of the form

$`Z[\xi ]=\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \underset{q_1<q_2}{}}\xi _{q_1}\xi _{q_2}f(q_1,q_2)+{\displaystyle \underset{q_1<q_2<q_3<q_4}{}}\xi _{q_1}\xi _{q_2}\xi _{q_3}\xi _{q_4}W(q_1,q_2,q_3,q_4)+\mathrm{}\right],`$ (A2)
where $`W(q_1,q_2,q_3,q_4)`$ is the quartic coupling, and $`\mathrm{}`$ stands for higher order terms. One can calculate the four operator correlation functions simply by differentiation, and find

$`a_{q_1}a_{q_2}a_{q_3}a_{q_4}=a_{q_1}a_{q_2}a_{q_3}a_{q_4}a_{q_1}a_{q_3}a_{q_2}a_{q_4}+a_{q_1}a_{q_4}a_{q_2}a_{q_3}+W(q_1,q_2,q_3,q_4)`$ (A3)
for $`q_1<q_2<q_3<q_4`$. The presence of $`W`$ prohibits the factorization. Since this result stems from the assumption of a non-Gaussian form of the GF, we proved that the Wick factorization implies a Gaussian form of the GF.

Hence the Gaussian form of the GF is a sufficient and necessary condition of the Wick factorization.

## B Four-Particle Annihilation Model

In this appendix, we introduce a simple toy model, called the four-particle annihilation model (FPAM), defined in one space dimension, and analyze it to show that the probability conservation does not imply Wick factorization. The dynamics occurs only when four particles form a cluster. If a four-particle cluster exists, it annihilates with a rate $`\lambda `$. Hopping events are not allowed. The Hamiltonian of the FPAM is

$`H_{\mathrm{FPAM}}=\lambda {\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\left[\sigma _n^{}\sigma _{n+1}^{}\sigma _{n+2}^{}\sigma _{n+3}^{}\sigma _n^+\sigma _n^{}\sigma _{n+1}^+\sigma _{n+1}^{}\sigma _{n+2}^+\sigma _{n+2}^{}\sigma _{n+3}^+\sigma _{n+3}^{}\right],`$ (B1)
where the periodic boundary condition is assumed. For simplicity, let us consider a fully occupied initial condition with a system size $`4`$, that is, $`|\mathrm{\Psi };0=_{i=1}^4\sigma _i^+|\mathrm{}`$, where $`|\mathrm{}`$ is the particle vacuum state and $`|\mathrm{\Psi };t`$ is the state vector as usual. In the momentum space $`|\mathrm{\Psi };0=_{q>0}a_q^{}a_q^{}|\mathrm{}`$, where possible values of $`q`$’s are $`\pi /4`$ and $`3\pi /4`$. The state vector at time $`t`$ is $`|\mathrm{\Psi };t=e^{4\lambda t}|\mathrm{\Psi };0+(1e^{4\lambda t})|\mathrm{}`$. The nonvanishing two-operator correlation functions are $`a_{\pi /4}a_{\pi /4}(t)`$ and $`a_{3\pi /4}a_{3\pi /4}(t)`$ with the value $`e^{4\lambda t}\mathrm{tan}\pi /8`$ and $`e^{4\lambda t}\mathrm{cot}\pi /8`$, respectively. The four-operator correlation function at time $`t`$ is $`a_{3\pi /4}a_{3\pi /4}a_{\pi /4}a_{\pi /4}(t)=e^{4\lambda t}`$ which is different from $`a_{\pi /4}a_{\pi /4}(t)a_{3\pi /4}a_{3\pi /4}(t)`$ by $`e^{4\lambda t}e^{8\lambda t}`$: Hence, we see a failure of the Wick theorem under the condition of probability conservation. In other words, probability conservation has nothing to do with Wick factorization.


text:
# Experimental evidence of stochastic resonance without tuning due to non Gaussian noises

thanks: fellow of CNEA

## Abstract

In order to test theoretical predictions, we have studied the phenomenon of stochastic resonance in an electronic experimental system driven by white non Gaussian noise. In agreement with the theoretical predictions our main findings are: an enhancement of the sensibility of the system together with a remarkable widening of the response (robustness). This implies that even a single resonant unit can reach a marked reduction in the need of noise tuning.

The phenomenon of Stochastic resonance (SR) has attracted enormous interest due to both its potential technological applications for optimizing the response to weak external signals in nonlinear dynamical systems and its connection with some biological mechanisms. A recent review shows the state of the art srrmp . There, a large number of applications are shown in science and technology, ranging from paleoclimatology BEN , to electronic circuits elect1 ; elect2 , lasers laser , chemical systems chem , and the connection with some situations of biological interest (noise-induced information flow in sensory neurons in living systems, influence in ion-channel gating or in visual perception) biol . Recent works have shown a tendency pointing towards achieving an enhancement of the system response (by means of the coupling of several SR units in what conforms an extended medium buls1 ; nosot ; bowi ), or analyzing the possibility of making the system response less dependent on a fine tuning of the noise intensity claudio , as well as different ways to control the phenomenon control .

It is worth remarking here that a majority of such studies on SR, with very few exceptions nG , have been done assuming that the noises were Gaussian. However, some experimental results in sensory systems, particularly for one kind of crayfish circle  as well as recent results for rat skin nuevo , offer strong indications that the noise source in these systems could be non Gaussian. Some recent studies in neural networks also point in this direction German .

In recent works NG1 ; NG2 , a nice way of generating a non Gaussian noise with a “fine” control on the degree of non Gaussianity was introduced and some interesting results concerning the effect of using non Gaussian noises in the study of SR have been obtained. The results of some analytical approximations and of numerical simulations indicate a certain degree of enhancement of the system response when it departs from Gaussian behavior. However, a most remarkable finding was that the system shows a marked “robustness” against noise tuning. Such robustness means that the maximum of the signal-to noise ratio (SNR) curve can flatten when departing from Gaussian behavior, implying that the system does not require a fine tuning of the noise intensity in order to maximize its response to a weak external signal.

In this letter we analyze the case of SR when the noise source is non Gaussian but from an experimental point of view. We have studied an experimental set up similar to the one used in elect1 , but now using a non Gaussian noise source which was built exploiting the form of noise introduced in NG1 ; NG2 , but for the particular case of white noise. In NG1 ; NG2  a particular class of Langevin equations was studied, having non Gaussian stationary distribution functions borland1 . The work in borland1  is based on the generalized thermostatistics proposed by Tsallis TS  which has been successfully applied to a wide variety of physical systems TS2 . Those equations were

$`\dot{x}`$ $`=`$ $`f(x,t)+g(x)\eta (t)`$ (1)
$`\dot{\eta }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\tau }}{\displaystyle \frac{d}{d\eta }}V_q(\eta )+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\tau }}\xi (t)`$ (2)
where $`\xi (t)`$ is a Gaussian white noise of zero mean and correlation $`<\xi (t)\xi (t^{})>=2D\delta (tt^{})`$, and $`V_q(\eta )`$ is given by borland1  $`V_q(\eta )=\frac{1}{\beta (q1)}\mathrm{ln}[1+\beta (q1)\frac{\eta ^2}{2}]`$, where $`\beta =\frac{\tau }{D}`$. The function $`f(x,t)`$ was derived from a potential $`U(x,t)`$, consisting of a double well potential and a linear term modulated by $`S(t)F\mathrm{cos}(\omega t)`$ ($`f(x,t)=\frac{U}{x}=U_0^{}+S(t)`$). This problem corresponds (for $`\omega =0`$) to the case of diffusion in a potential $`U_0(x)`$, induced by $`\eta `$, a colored non-Gaussian noise. Clearly, when $`q1`$ we recover the limit of $`\eta `$ being a Gaussian colored noise (Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process). The stationary probability distribution for the random variable $`\eta `$ and $`q>1`$ is given by $`P_q^{st}(\eta )=\frac{1}{Z_q}\left[1+\beta (q1)\eta ^2/2\right]^{\frac{1}{q1}}`$, with $`\eta (\mathrm{},\mathrm{})`$, and $`Z_q`$ the normalization factor. When $`q<1`$ the expression adopts the form:

$$\begin{array}{cc}P_q(\eta )=\hfill & \{\begin{array}{cc}\frac{1}{Z_q}\left[1+\beta (q1)\eta ^2/2\right]^{\frac{1}{q1}}& \text{ if }|\eta |<w\\ & \\ 0& \text{otherwise,}\end{array}\hfill \end{array}$$

with $`w^2=(1q)\beta ,`$ and with noise intensity $`D=2\beta ^1/(53q)`$.

By applying a path-integral formalism to the Langevin equations given by Eqs. (1),(2), and making an adiabatic-like elimination procedure pi1  it was possible to arrive at an effective Markovian approximation. The specific details, not relevant here, have been shown elsewhere NG1 . In the present work we have used a stationary probability distribution for the noise with the same form indicated above, and for $`q<1.`$ To obtain a number with the mentioned probability distribution we generate two uniformly distributed random numbers $`x`$ $`(w,w)`$ and $`y(0,P_q(0)).`$ $`x`$ is accepted if $`y<P_q(x).`$

To make the experiment we have used an electronic (analogical) circuit. We have used the well known Schmitt trigger, in an arrangement similar to elect1 . Analogical approaches have been extensively used in order not only to study SR (see Section II.C of srrmp ) but also to analyze the propagation of freezing fronts, spatiotemporal SR, irreversibility of classical fluctuations, SR in nonlinear electronic systems, resonant propagation, etc. electvar .

The experimental setup was implemented with a LM741 integrated opamp with positive feedback and variable resistors in a voltage divider configuration that could be used to set appropriately the threshold level of the circuit. The input and output signals were driven by a 12 bit data acquisition board (Advantech PCL-818L) connected to a PC. The frequencies of the periodic signal provided to the circuit was chosen as 100 Hz or 250 Hz, with an amplitude that could be varied between 0 and 3.536 $`V_{\text{rms}}`$. The threshold level of the circuit was set as 3.018 $`V_{\text{rms}}.`$ The optimal temporal resolution achieved with the system was 70 $`\mu `$s. The noises were obtained using a numerical generator as indicated above.

The set of parameters controlled during the experiments were the amplitude ($`V_s`$) and frequency ($`\nu `$) of the periodic signal, the noise intensity $`D`$ and the parameter $`q`$ of the noise distribution. For each election of the parameter values we performed measurements comprising 300000 points with a time lapse of 70 $`\mu `$s between two consecutive acquisitions.. The phenomena of SR was characterized by the residence time distribution srrmp . In particular, we considered the area ($`A_\nu `$) and the height ($`H_\nu `$) of the first peak of the distribution, centered at $`t=1/(2\nu )`$. In Figs. 1 and 2 we display curves showing the behavior of $`A_\nu `$ as a function of $`D`$, for several situations.

Figure 1 shows the effect of varying the $`q`$ parameter for $`\nu =100`$ Hz and $`V_s=1.414V_{\text{rms}}`$. We can see that for each value of $`q`$, there is a clear resonant noise intensity. As $`q`$ decreases we find that the resonant noise intensity shifts to higher $`D`$values and the region where $`A_\nu `$ remains high is much wider (robustness). At the same time, the value of the maximum of each curve is higher. These results are in correspondence with previously reported ones obtained from numerical simulations NG2 . In Fig. 2 we show the effect of changing the amplitude $`V_s`$ and the frequency $`\nu `$ of the periodic signal. We can see that the resonant range for $`D`$ turns wider and the sensitivity of the system increases for growing $`V_s`$. On the other hand, the effect of increasing the frequency is to shift the resonant peak towards higher values of $`D`$.

As mentioned earlier, $`A_\nu `$ corresponds to the area under the first peak of the residence time distribution. This quantity produces neat curves that allow us to show more clearly the SR effect. However, if we want to compare the effect of $`q`$ on the sensitivity of the system it is more convenient to plot the height of the peak, $`H_\nu `$, for a chosen value of $`V_s`$ and $`\nu ,`$ and several $`q`$ values. The latter is shown in Fig. 3 where we can see that there is a clear enhancement of the sensitivity of the system with decreasing $`q`$.

Summarizing, motivated by some experimental results in sensory systems circle ; nuevo , as well as some recent theoretical results NG1 ; NG2 , we have experimentally analyzed the problem of SR when the noise source is non Gaussian. We have chosen a white non Gaussian noise source with a probability distribution based on the generalized thermostatistics TS .

Our experimental results indicate that

* The resonance range increases significantly with the non-gaussianity of the noise. That shows that tuning the noise intensity is not determinant in order to increment the signal perception. This effect is what we call increased robustness of the system.
* At the same time there is a clear enhancement of the sensitivity of the system (rising of $`H_\nu `$) with decreasing $`q.`$
* For larger amplitude ($`V_s`$) of the periodic signal, the “resonant” range for $`D`$ becomes wider and the height of the response increases.
* The effect of increasing the frequency $`\nu `$ is to shift the resonance peak towards lower values of $`D`$.

As we depart from Gaussian behavior (with $`q<1`$), the SNR shows two main aspects: firstly it becomes less dependent on the precise value of the noise intensity, and secondly its maximum as a function of the noise intensity increases. Both aspects are of great relevance for technological applications srrmp . Moreover, as was indicated in nuevo , non Gaussian noises could be an intrinsic characteristic in biological systems, particularly in sensory systems biol ; circle ; nuevo . In addition to the increase in the response (SNR), the reduction in the need of tuning a precise value of the noise intensity is of particular relevance both in technology and in order to understand how a biological system can exploit this phenomenon. It is worth remarking here that such effects have been obtained considering a single resonant unit and that, according to the results of previous works buls1 ; nosot ; bowi , one should expect an even larger effect when several units are coupled. Here we have focused on the case of white non Gaussian noise, the case of colored non Gaussian noise will be the subject of a forthcoming work.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank J. Bergaglio for technical assistance and V. Grunfeld for a revision of the manuscript, and acknowledge support from CONICET, Argentine. M.K. and M.F. thank Fundación Antorchas for partial support.

FIGURE CAPTIONS

Figure 1: $`A_\nu `$ vs. $`D`$ for several $`q`$ values. $`\nu =100`$Hz and $`V_s=1.414`$ $`V_{\text{rms}}`$.(solid)$`q=1`$; (dashed) $`q=0.5`$; (dotted) $`q=0.25`$; (dash-dotted) $`q=0.1`$.

Figure 2: $`A_\nu `$ vs. $`D`$ for $`q=0.1`$ and varying $`V_s`$ and $`\nu :`$ (dotted)$`\nu =100`$ Hz and $`V_s=2.121`$ $`V_{\text{rms}}`$; (dashed) $`\nu =250`$ Hz and $`V_s=1.414`$ $`V_{\text{rms}}`$; (solid) $`\nu =100`$ Hz and $`V_s=1.414`$ $`V_{\text{rms}}`$.

Figure 3: $`H_\nu `$ vs. $`q`$, for $`\nu =100`$Hz and $`V_s=1.414`$ $`V_{\text{rms}}`$.


text:
# From Fractal Cosmography to Fractal Cosmology

##

Standard cosmology is based on the assumption of homogeneity and isotropy of the Universe, the so-called Cosmological Principle, on scales greater than $`10^8`$ light years. During the last decade this assumption has come to be challenged. The number of galaxies $`N(r)`$ within a sphere of radius $`r`$, centred on any galaxy, is not proportional to $`r^3`$ as would be expected of a homogeneous distribution. Instead $`N(r)`$ is found to be proportional to $`r^D`$, where $`D`$ is approximately equal to 2. This is symptomatic of a distribution of fractal dimension $`D`$.

It has further been argued  that available evidence indicates that the fractal distribution of visible matter extends well upto the present observational limits without any evidence of cross-over to homogeneity. This suggests that the entire Universe could be a fractal. At present this question is being hotly debated . Controversy remains, interalia, for want of agreement on proper treatment of raw observational data sets. As a result, the available observational evidence has not been able to pronounce unequivocally whether the Universe becomes homogeneous at large enough scales or whether it continues to remain a fractal indefinitely.

Even though the evidence in favour of a fractal universe that does not homogenize on any scale is not undisputed, it must be remembered that no generally acceptable structure formation scenario has yet emerged within the framework of the standard big-bang cosmologies.

In the absence of a viable alternative, it will be a useful exercise to take the fractal distribution as given and examine the consequences for a cosmological model that follow from the General Theory of Relativity and the Copernican Principle.

If the Universe does not homogenize on any length scale, can one have a cosmological model consistent with this fractal picture, which could also be reasonably concordant with observations.

Apart from controversies in interpretation of observational data, a major obstacle in the acceptance of a fractal cosmography is that no cosmolgical model has been proposed which would support this cosmography, be consistent with the General Theory of Relativity and satisfy the Copernican principle.

Assumptions, like the Cosmological Principle, helped give simplistic solutions to the Einstein’s equations. When simplifying assumptions are dropped, chaotic solutions of Einstein’s equations can be obtained . Chaotic dynamical systems are intimately linked with fractals. This suggests a need to explore the cosmological implications of chaotic solutions of Einstein’s equations. In creating models of the Universe, one invariably encounters fine-tuning problems. In order to overcome these problems, the inflationary scenario was proposed. However, this transfers the fine-tuning problem from cosmology to the underlying particle physics models. Thus there is no successful inflationary model, which can actually achieve the goals for which it was proposed. Models with fine-tuning problems are not regarded as acceptable because they lack predictive capability. In contrast to the approach followed by cosmologists, it should be appreciated that chaotic dynamical systems, by definition, suffer from fine-tuning problems, yet they have been useful in modeling physical phenomenon. This indicates that there is a need for seeking chaotic cosmological models exploiting the recent advances and successes in the fields of chaos and fractals. In particular one may expect that the fractal description, so successful in characterizing the statistics of dissipative eddies in turbulent flows, should also be useful for the statistical analysis of gravitational clustering.

Self-similarity is ubiquitous in nature. Perhaps it is the true ‘Cosmological Principle’. Although, a fair amount of evidence has been collected in support of inhomogenous distribution of visible matter, there is no evidence to contradict isotropy in a statistical sense from any galaxy. Mandelbrot  proposed to replace the standard Cosmological Principle by the Conditional Cosmological Principle. According to this principle the Universe appears to be the same statistically from every galaxy and in every direction. Thus the Conditional Cosmological Principle could allow one to obtain simplified solutions of the Einstein’s equations, similar to those for the standard cosmology.

The conditional cosmological principle offers the hope that one can develop cosmological models along the lines of the standard model, while having a simple explanation of the fractal distribution of matter. Although the conditional cosmological principle was proposed about two decades ago, to the best of our knowledge, we are presenting the first ansatz that provides a concrete application of the conditional cosmological principle.

Homogeneity of the Universe in the standard model means that through each event in the Universe, there passes a spacelike “hypersurface of homogeneity”. At each event on such a hypersurface the density, pressure and curvature of spacetime must be the same.

In a fractal universe, density is not defined at any point. The concept of density has to be replaced by that of a ‘mass measure’ defined over sets. The mass measure as obtained by any observer will be the same. By an observer we will mean an observer moving with the cosmological fluid. This precludes observers in a region of void. It should be noted that in a fractal, each of the points belonging to the fractal is on the same footing. But they are not on the same footing for the points not belonging to the fractal. It is known that any sphere centred at a point not belonging to the fractal will be empty with probability 1. Because of this the conditional cosmological principle demands an observer to be situated on a galaxy (point of the fractal) and not in a region of void.

We define a “hypersurface of homogeneous fractality of dimension D” as the hypersurface in which the mass measure over a sphere of radius R centred on the observer is proportional to $`R^D`$. We say that the Universe is a fractal universe of dimension D, if through each galaxy in the Universe, there passes a spacelike “hypersurface of homogeneous fractality of dimension D”.

Isotropy of the Universe means that, at any event, an observer who is “moving with the cosmological fluid” cannot distinguish any space direction from another by local physical measurements.

It is widely believed that isotropy from all points of observation implies homogeneity. Thus an inhomogeneous Universe like a fractal could not be isotropic. It was shown from the observed isotropy of the Universe that the fractal dimension of the Universe could not differ appreciably from 3; $`(|D3|<0.001)`$ . To counter this argument, Mandelbrot  demonstrated a method of constructing fractals of any given dimension whose lacunarity could be tuned at will to make the distribution as close to isotropy (from any occupied point of the fractal) as desired. Thus in a fractal scenario isotropy from all galaxies may permit inhomogeneity to the extent of admitting homogeneous fractality.

Isotropy of a fractal universe implies that the world lines of the cosmological fluid are orthogonal to each hypersurface of homogeneous fractality. An observer moving with the cosmological fluid can discover by physical measurements the hypersurface of homogeneous fractality relative to which the observer is at rest. His world line would be orthogonal to this hypersurface.

We now choose a hypersurface of homogeneous fractality $`S_I`$. To all the events on this hypersurface, one may assign coordinate time $`t_I`$. Galaxies on this hypersurface may be assigned coordinates $`x^i`$. We now let each galaxy evolve along with the cosmological fluid for proper time $`\tau `$. We assign coordinate time $`t=t_i+\tau `$ to the hypersurface formed by the galaxies. We let the spatial coordinates of each galaxy remain unchanged. This would correspond to a “dust approximation” for the fractal distribution. It is easy to see that this hypersurface will be a hypersurface of homogeneous fractality because each galaxy has the same environment and evolves under identical laws.

With coordinates to the galaxies being assigned in the above manner, the interval between two galaxies with coordinates ($`t,x^i`$) and ($`t+dt,x^i+dx^i`$) will be given by

$$ds^2=dt^2+g_{ij}(t,x)dx^idx^j$$
$`(1)`$
with isotropy demanding the time dependence to seprate as : $`g_{ij}(t,x)=a^2(t)\gamma _{ij}(x)`$

From isotropy and the Copernican Principle it is ordinarily shown  that the 3-metric $`\gamma _{ij}(x)`$ must yield the same curvature $`K`$ everywhere. From this it follows that:

$$\gamma _{ij}(x)dx^idx^j=d\chi ^2+\mathrm{\Sigma }^2(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\phi ^2)$$
$`(2)`$
where

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{sin}\chi \text{if }k\frac{K}{|K|}=+1\text{ (positive spatial curvature)}$$
$`(3)`$
$$\mathrm{\Sigma }\chi \text{if }kK=0\text{ (zero spatial curvature)}$$
$`(4)`$
$$\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{sinh}\chi \text{if }k\frac{K}{|K|}=1\text{ (negative spatial curvature)}$$
$`(5)`$
The FRW metric  so obtained leads to a constant (same everywhere on the hypersurface of constant time) value of $`G^{00}`$ given by

$$G_{\mathrm{FRW}}^{00}=3\left\{\left(\frac{\dot{a}}{a}\right)^2+\frac{k}{a^2}\right\}$$
$`(6)`$
However, this cannot satisfy Einstein’s equations as $`T^{00}`$ is not constant everywhere for a fractal distribution of matter. If matter distribution on a constant time hypersurface satisfies the definition of homogeneous fractality given earlier, we know that

$$_{S_P^3(R)}T^{oo}𝑑V=M_P(R)$$
$`(7)`$
where $`S_P^3(R)`$ denotes a hypersphere of radius $`R`$ centered at $`P`$ on the hypersurface of constant time $`t`$, and $`M_P(R)`$ is the mass enclosed in $`S_P^3(R)`$. If the matter distribution on the hypersurface of constant time $`t`$ has a fractal dimension $`D`$, we know that:

$$M_P(R)=\{\begin{array}{ccc}& C(t)R^D\hfill & \\ & 0\hfill & \end{array}\begin{array}{c}\text{if P }\text{ the fractal }\hfill \\ \text{otherwise}\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(8)`$
Einstein’s eqns. give

$$_{S_P^3(R)}G_{\mathrm{fractal}}^{oo}𝑑V=8\pi M_P(R)$$
$`(9)`$
As noted earlier, for a fractal distribution of matter, the concept of density is undefined and has to be replaced by the notion of a measure on sets. This implies that curvature (more precisely $`G^{00}`$) is not defined at any point. However a measure may be defined to satisfy the integrated Einstein’s equations over any 3-volume in the constant time hypersurface. In the equation above $`G_{\mathrm{fractal}}^{00}`$ may appear to be a function. It would be more appropriate to regard it as an ansatz for defining a measure on sets containing the point P. In the same way we could express the mass measure by using mass density $`\rho `$ proportional to $`r^{D3}`$. Here $`\rho `$ would not mean the density at a point, but merely an ansatz to compute the mass measure. In this way we can hope to express the Einstein’s equations for a fractal distribution of mass by a relation connecting $`G_{\mathrm{fractal}}^{00}`$ to $`\rho `$, remembering clearly that these are not functions but ansatz to compute measures. Thus the dependence of $`G_{\mathrm{fractal}}^{00}`$ on $`\chi `$ and of $`\rho `$ on $`r`$ should not be seen as an indication of inhomogeneity but rather as a means of concrete realization of how conditional cosmological principle satisfies the Copernican principle for all occupied points of the fractal.

Now our ansatz is essentially described by:

$$G_{\mathrm{fractal}}^{00}(t,\chi ,\theta ,\phi )=\{\begin{array}{ccc}& f(\chi )G_{\mathrm{FRW}}^{00}(t)\hfill & \\ & 0\hfill & \end{array}\begin{array}{c}\text{if P }\text{ the fractal }\hfill \\ \text{otherwise}\hfill \end{array}$$
$`(10)`$
On a constant time hypersurface, so long as the origin P is chosen as belonging to the fractal, the integrated $`G^{00}`$ measure on sets containing P will not depend on the choice of the origin. Thus, despite an apparent dependence of $`G_{\mathrm{fractal}}^{00}`$ on $`\chi `$, the Conditional Cosmological Principle will be satisfied. Thus,

$$_{S_P^3(R)}G_{\mathrm{fractal}}^{00}(t,\chi ,\theta ,\phi )𝑑V=8\pi C(t)R^D\text{if P }\text{ fractal}$$
$`(11)`$
With $`\chi `$ chosen so that $`R=\mathrm{\Sigma }(\chi )a(t)`$, eqns. (10) and (11) yield:

$$4\pi G_{\mathrm{FRW}}^{00}(t)a^3(t)_0^\chi f(\chi )\mathrm{\Sigma }^2(\chi )\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}(\chi )𝑑\chi =8\pi C(t)a^D(t)\mathrm{\Sigma }^D(\chi )$$
$`(12)`$
Hence:

$$G_{\mathrm{FRW}}^{00}(t)=2\nu C(t)a^{D3}(t)$$
$`(13)`$
and

$$f(\chi )\mathrm{\Sigma }^2(\chi )\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}(\chi )=\frac{D}{\nu }\mathrm{\Sigma }^{D1}(\chi )\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}(\chi )$$
$`(14)`$
or

$$f(\chi )=\frac{D}{\nu }\mathrm{\Sigma }^{D3}(\chi )$$
$`(15)`$
where $`\nu `$ is a constant. We fix this constant by demanding $`f(\chi )=1`$ for $`D=3`$. This gives $`\nu =3`$. Thus,

$$G_{\mathrm{FRW}}^{00}(t)=6C(t)a^{D3}(t)$$
$`(16)`$
We denote $`C(t)`$ by $`C_a`$, because the scale factor is a function of time. When the scale factor is $`a(t)`$, the mass contained in a hypersphere of coordinate radius $`\chi `$ is $`C_a\{a\mathrm{\Sigma }(\chi )\}^D`$. This mass remains unchanged as the scale factor changes. Hence,

$$a^DC_a=a_o^DC_{a_o}$$
$`(17)`$
Therefore we simply get:

$$3\left\{\left(\frac{\dot{a}}{a}\right)^2+\frac{k}{a^2}\right\}=6\frac{a_o^D}{a^3}C_{a_o}$$
$`(18)`$
There have been treatments of a fractal distribution of matter in the universe as a perturbation on a radiation dominated cosmology . In our approach, we have incorporated the fractal distribution of matter from the beginning. Eqn.(18) shows that the dynamics of the scale factor due to a fractal distribution of matter is the same as in standard cosmology from an effective homogeneous density:

$$\rho _{\mathrm{eff}}\frac{3}{4\pi }\frac{a_o^DC_{a_o}}{a^3}$$
$`(19)`$
To summarize, instead of trying to explain the fractal clustering of the universe from hypothetical assumptions about the early universe, we have assumed as given, a fractal distribution of matter. In the present context of ubiquity of chaos and fractals in nature  and observational evidence not ruling out fractality, there is (at least) as much (rather much more of a) justification for making a priori assumption of homogeneous fractality, as there was for making the assumption of homogeneity at the time that the standard model was proposed.

Just as the standard model follows naturally from the Cosmological Principle when General Theory of Relativity is applied, the fractal model described in this article follows naturally from the conditional cosmological principle, once the necessary change in perspective to deal with fractal distributions is made.

This model may play a significant role in the debate on whether the universe is a fractal or crosses over to homogeneity at some scale. It may be in order to recall the words of Jim Peebles , “The geometrical picture of a fractal Universe is elegant, but since it has not been translated into a physical model we can not discuss some of the precision cosmological tests”. We hope that the model described in this article would contribute to fill the gap and be regarded as an idealized model around which more realistic models of the universe may be built.

## Acknowledgements

We thank Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) for hospitality and facilities to carry out this research.