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# The nebular spectra of the hypernova SN 1998bw and evidence for asymmetry

## 1 Introduction

SN 1998bw was a very interesting object from the word go (e.g. Nomoto et al. 2001). Discovered in the error box of GRB980425, and very possibly linked to it, this object was soon identified to be a supernova (SN) from its light curve, which was different from those of typical optical transients of GRB’s. Extensive data were collected at ESO, where SN 1998bw was designated a Target of Opportunity (Galama et al. 1998; Patat et al. 2001), and at other observatories.

Early spectra were rather blue and featureless, quite unlike those of other known SNe. However, a somewhat more careful inspection showed clear similarities with the spectra of Type Ic SNe (SNe Ic), but with one major difference: the absorption lines were so broad in SN 1998bw that they blended together, giving rise to what could even be confused with an emission spectrum. Very large expansion velocities ($`30,000`$ km s-1) were measured in the ejecta. Also, SN 1998bw was very bright for a SN Ic: for a redshift distance of 39 Mpc ($`z=0.0085`$ and $`H_0=65`$ km s-1 Mpc-1), the SN reached a maximum V$`=19.4`$ mag, which is bright even for a SN Ia, while a typical SN Ic like SN 1994 I was almost 2 mag dimmer (e.g. Nomoto et al. 1994; Richmond et al. 1996).

Modelling of the early data (Iwamoto et al. 1998, hereafter IMN98) led to several striking conclusions. First, the SN produced about $`0.7M_{}`$ of 56Ni, as much as a SN Ia. This was necessary to power the light curve via the deposition of the $`\gamma `$-rays emitted in the decay of 56Ni into 56Co and 56Fe.

IMN98 discuss that the light curves are degenerate, i.e. different combinations of ejecta mass $`M_{\mathrm{ej}}`$ and kinetic energy $`E_{\mathrm{kin}}`$ can all reproduce the data equally well. Spectra came to the rescue then: spectrum synthesis showed that the only way to get the observed extensive line blending was to have significant amounts of material moving at very large velocities. Since models with different $`E_{\mathrm{kin}}`$ give different degrees of blending, it was possible to select as best model one with $`M_{\mathrm{ej}}`$ $`=10.9M_{}`$ and $`E_{\mathrm{kin}}`$ $`=310^{52}`$ erg. This had an exploding core mass of $`13.8M_{}`$ and was designated CO138 accordingly. A typical SN Ic has $`M_{\mathrm{ej}}`$ $`=1M_{}`$, and the typical kinetic energy of most SNe of all types is only about $`10^{51}`$ erg (aka 1 foe). An even higher value of 50 foe was obtained for SN 1998bw by Nakamura et al. (2001a). This gives a better fit to the declining part of the light curve and to the spectra. A comparable value was obtained by Branch (2001) from an analysis of the early time spectra. Because of its exceptionally large $`E_{\mathrm{kin}}`$, SN 1998bw was called a ‘hypernova’. The progenitor must have been a massive star, and we estimated a main sequence mass of about $`40M_{}`$. Also, the remnant mass, which is computed by allowing only as much of the 56Ni produced by core Si burning to be ejected as is necessary to power the SN light curve, turned out to be $`3M_{}`$ Nakamura et al. (2001a,b). This exceeds the maximum mass of a Neutron Star, suggesting that the explosion that was observed as SN 1998bw resulted in the creation of a Black Hole.

Since SN 1998bw was probably connected to a highly non-spherical event like a GRB, departure from spherical symmetry could be expected. Early polarization measurements confirmed this. Polarization of $`0.5`$%, possibly decreasing with time, was detected (Kay et al. 1998, IMN98, Patat et al. 2001). This was interpreted as an axis ratio of about 2:1 in the expanding ejecta (Höflich et al. 1999). Models of the collapse of a rotating stripped core of a massive star were developed, which confirmed that the explosion should be asymmetric, thus establishing a possible link with the GRB (MacFadyen & Woosley 1999).

All the above conclusions were based on only about two months worth of data. Patat et al. (2001) presented extensive data covering more than one year. Note that here and throughout the paper epochs refer to the SN time since outburst, which is taken to have coincided with GRB980425, corrected for time dilation (the host galaxy of SN 1998bw, ESO 184-G82, has a redshift $`cz=2532`$ km s-1), while Patat et al. (2001) used the time from $`B`$ maximum, which occurred on 10 May, 1998). The evolution of SN 1998bw after the first two months reserved several surprises: after day 60 the light curve began declining less steeply than the model prediction (Mc Kenzie & Schaefer 1999); the nebular spectrum, which started to develop after about day 100, initially appeared to be a composite of a SN Ia and a SN Ib/c spectrum, showing strong Fe lines in the blue, typical of SNe Ia, and strong O and Ca lines in the red, typical of SNe Ib/c. What was even more peculiar was that there were two families of lines: one with a large velocity comprising mostly the Fe ii lines, and another with a smaller velocity (\[O i\], Mg i\]). Also, the various lines declined with different rates, which apparently contradicts the hypothesis that the only heating source is the decay of 56Co (Patat et al. 2001).

Several papers have addressed the behaviour of the light curve over the first 200 days (Mc Kenzie & Schaefer 1999), 600 days (Sollerman et al. 2000) and up to 800 days (Nakamura et al. 2001a). In all these papers the suggestion has been made that either the density distribution computed in spherically symmetric explosion models is not correct or that some degree of asymmetry in the explosion is probably required to explain the unusual behaviour of the light curve. In this paper we focus on the late time spectra, and show that they too require significant asymmetry in the ejecta.

## 2 Nebular spectra

As discussed by Patat et al. (2001), the transition from photospheric to nebular spectra took place between about day 65 and day 115, although net emission may have been present in the Ca ii IR triplet as early as day 37. Later other Ca ii lines, the H&K doublet and the forbidden 7320Å line became visible, followed by lines of \[O i\], Mg i\], by Na i D and by an emission at $`5200`$Å. This is most likely due to a complex of \[Fe ii\] lines, although at the earliest phases a possible contribution is present from permitted Fe ii transitions, which can produce nebular emission at sufficiently high density (Filippenko 1989), and most likely also from \[O i\] 5577Å. At about day 115 the spectrum of SN 1998bw was an interesting hybrid between that of a SN Ia (strong \[Fe ii\]) and that of a SN Ib/c (very strong \[O i\], Mg i\], Ca ii). This is already an indication that both Fe and the $`\alpha `$-elements are present with significant abundances in the ejecta. Another SN Ic for which an intense blue flux has been observed in the nebular epoch is SN 1999dq (Matheson et al. 2000a). This blue flux has been attributed to Fe ii lines, but the wavelength coincidence of this feature with the \[Fe ii\] one in SN 1998bw makes the \[Fe ii\] identification also a serious possibility. SN 1999cq was a bright SN Ic (at least using a redshift distance), so the presence of a larger amount of Fe than in ‘normal’ SNe Ic is to be expected.

The nebular spectra span epochs from 108 to 388 days. In all the spectra six dominant features can be identified: Mg i\] at 4500Å (1), the \[Fe ii\] complex near 5250Å (2), Na i D at 5900Å (3), \[O i\] 6300Å (4), a \[Ca ii\]-\[O ii\] blend near 7200Å (5) and the Ca ii IR triplet near 8500Å (6). However, although these features persist for almost one year, the change in the properties of the spectrum are striking. In particular, the \[O i\] and Mg i\] lines become stronger relative to the \[Fe ii\] lines as time goes on, but at the same time they also become narrower. While in the first spectrum all lines are broad ($`v12000`$ km s-1), already in the second spectrum \[O i\], Mg i\] and partly also Ca ii IR are narrower than the \[Fe ii\] complex. This behaviour continues for the duration of our spectral coverage, throughout which the \[O i\] and Mg i\] lines and the \[Ca ii\]-\[O ii\] blend grow in strength relative to the other three features. In practice, the decline rates of the various emission lines are different, so that while in the first spectrum features (1), (2), (4) and (6) all have similar peak fluxes, and feature (5) is as strong as feature (3), in later spectra \[O i\] is the strongest line by far, while the \[Fe ii\] feature rapidly decreases in strength relative to the other lines, so much so that after about one year the spectrum of SN 1998bw would be very difficult to distinguish from that of a normal SN Ib/c (see Patat et al. 2001 for a direct comparison and Matheson et al. 2001 for lots of late-time spectra of SNe Ic). At late epochs the strength of the \[O i\] and Mg i\] lines is mostly due to the narrow component, which develops with time but is absent in the \[Fe ii\] feature. All the lines that decline slowly become eventually significantly narrower than the \[Fe ii\] features. The weak Na i D line also has a narrow profile, and declines relatively slowly, while the Ca ii IR triplet is almost as broad as the \[Fe ii\] feature and declines almost as fast. The decline of the ratio Ca ii IR/\[Ca ii\] 7300Å is to be expected in a nebula of progressively decreasing density (Ferland & Persson 1989).

The features described above persist for the entire period sampled, the only noticeable change being that the \[Fe ii\] feature moves bluewards by about 130Å between day 108 and day 214. This may be due to a decreasing contribution of an underlying ’photospheric’ component, which is probably still significant at blue wavelengths in the earlier epochs, and to a progressively decreasing contribution of permitted Fe ii emission, as the density decreases, and of \[O i\] 5577Å, which has a rather high excitation potential (its lower level is the uppper level of \[O i\] 6300Å), and whose strength should decline as the electron temperature drops. After day 214, though, the emission feature stops moving, and its identification as the same \[Fe ii\] feature observed in SNe Ia is beyond doubt (Patat et al. 2001, Fig. 11). However, the decline rate of the luminosity of the \[Fe ii\] feature remains larger than that of both \[O i\] and Mg i\] at all epochs (Patat et al. 2001, Fig. 14), and so this is not just due to changing contributions to the \[Fe ii\] feature.

Another feature which receives different contributions is Na i D. Early in the nebular phase the ground state \[Co iii\] multiplet near 5900Å contributes to this line, as it does in SNe Ia. However, the contribution is smaller in SN 1998bw because of the lower degree of ionisation. In fact, in our models Na i D is responsible for about 80% of the observed feature. At later times the contribution of Co iii is further reduced because 56Co decays to 56Fe. This feature may also receive a contribution from He i 5876Å, which may be excited non-thermally since He and 56Ni coexist in the ejecta (Maeda et al. 2001, Fig.1).

At all epochs, the strength of the \[Fe ii\] feature is unusually large for a SN Ib/c. Patat et al. 2001 (Fig.11) compared the nebular spectrum of SN 1998bw with that of the SN Ic 1996aq at an epoch of about 9 months, showing that in SN 1998bw the entire blue part of the spectrum, where the \[Fe ii\] lines are important, is much stronger relative to the \[O i\] and Ca ii lines in the red. Spectra of SNe Ic at an epoch of about 5 months, corresponding to the epoch when the spectrum of SN 1998bw had just turned nebular, have been published by A. Filippenko and collaborators (Filippenko et al. 1990 (SNe 1985F, 1987M); 1995 (SN 1994I); Matheson et al. 2001 (SNe 1990U, 1990aa)), and a comparison by eye of their spectra to those of SN 1998bw confirms the relative strength of the \[Fe ii\] feature in SN 1998bw even at the earlier epoch.

These properties of the late-time spectrum of SN 1998bw are odd in many respects. First, all (spherically symmetric) evolution-collapse-explosion models predict that O, which is found in the unburned part of the ejecta, is located above Fe in mass coordinates. Therefore O should have a larger velocity than Fe if anything, but not a smaller one. Secondly, if the spectrum is powered by $`\gamma `$-ray deposition, the region of the ejecta which should feel the heating the most should coexist with Fe, which is mostly the product of the decay of 56Co. Therefore, all lines should have a similar width, that of the Fe lines, and they should decline at about the same rate. This is the case for SNe Ia. The next odd fact is that SN 1998bw had broad \[Fe ii\] lines like SNe Ia, but lacked the strong \[Fe iii\] peak near 4700Å, which is the strongest line in the nebular spectra of SNe Ia. If the \[Fe ii\] identification is correct, the absence of \[Fe iii\] clearly must be the result of a different (lower) degree of ionisation in SN 1998bw. The above facts indicate that something unusual must be going on with the way the spectrum is powered.

We used a NLTE code to compute the nebular spectrum of SN 1998bw. The code computes the deposition of the $`\gamma `$-rays from the decay of 56Co to 56Fe in a nebula of uniform density and composition. Together with the positrons, which are also produced in the decay of 56Co and which are assumed to be trapped, this provides heating to the nebula. Cooling by nebular line emission is computed, a matrix of level populations is solved in NLTE and an emission spectrum is obtained. This approximation is reasonable for SN Ia nebulae (Axelrod 1980), so we apply it also to SN 1998bw. It is reasonable to do so as long as the nebular spectrum of SN 1998bw is mostly powered by 56Co decay. Furthermore, the density in the explosion model CO138, which reproduces the early light curve and spectra of SN 1998bw, is actually flat below about 12,000 km s-1 (Nakamura et al. 2001a), and mixing in the ejecta appears to be required because a stratified abundance distribution gives nebular lines with a flat-top profile (see Mihalas 1978, p.477), which is inconsistent with the observations (Sollerman et al. 2000). Mixing was also adopted in the light curve models of IMN98. Masses of the various elements are given as input to the code.

We modelled 5 spectra of SN 1998bw, dating from three months after maximum, when the SN was still entering the nebular phase, to more than one year after maximum.

Since our code assumes a uniform density, it can be used to determine the outer velocity of the nebula by fitting the width of the emission features, including complex blends like \[Fe ii\], which is the broadest feature in all the nebular spectra of SN 1998bw. Because line blending is computed, the comparison of the widths of synthetic and observed emission features is realistic. We found that the velocity of the \[Fe ii\] feature decreased only marginally, from 12,000 km s-1 in the first spectrum to 10,000 km s-1 in the last two, indicating that $`\gamma `$-ray deposition slowly became less efficient in the outer part of the nebula.

The major difficulties in reproducing the spectra were the presence of the narrow lines, in particular \[O i\] and Mg i\], and the apparent absence of \[Fe iii\] lines. As for the narrow lines, we chose to fit their peak flux, thus deriving an upper limit to the masses of these elements. The absence of \[Fe iii\] lines is interesting. Typical models of the nebula have electron density $`n_e10^7`$ cm-3, electron temperature $`T_e7000`$ K, and a ratio Fe iii/Fe ii $`0.5`$, so that both \[Fe ii\] and \[Fe iii\] lines are strong. This situation is typical also in SNe Ia. The only way to decrease the strength of the \[Fe iii\] lines without also reducing that of the \[Fe ii\] lines is of course to decrease the ionisation. This can only be achieved by increasing $`n_e`$ to favour recombination. Iron is not the main contributor to the electron density because of its relatively low abundance, so increasing $`n_e`$ does not mean increasing Fe iii/Fe ii significantly. $`n_e`$ cannot be increased by simply increasing the density, as this would imply increasing the mass, which would result in more emission in all lines.

One solution is to introduce clumping in the ejecta. This is done using the concept of volume filling factor. In practice, the state for a mass $`M`$ is computed using a volume $`fV`$, where $`V`$ is the entire volume of the nebula, computed from the outer velocity and the time since outburst, and $`f`$ is the volume filling factor, with $`0<f1`$. With this approximation, the density of the gas is increased by a factor $`f`$ to simulate clumping. The full volume $`V`$ is then used to distribute line emissivity and to compute the spectrum, which corresponds to the assumption of uniformly distributed clumps. We found that for a filling factor of about 0.1, $`n_e`$ (averaged over the whole nebula) increases to $`310^7`$ cm-3, while $`T_e`$ drops to $`6000`$ K, producing a lower Fe ii/Fe iii ratio of 0.05-0.1, which successfully eliminates the \[Fe iii\] lines, especially at the more advanced epochs. The presence of clumping is not surprising in the ejecta of core-collapse SNe (e.g. Spyromilio et al. 1993 for SN 1987A and Spyromilio 1994, Matheson et al. 2000b for SN 1993J). Sollerman et al. (2000) using a detailed density distribution in spherical symmetry obtained a lower degree of ionisation in the Fe-rich part of the ejecta, but they had to reduce the ejecta velocity artificially with respect to the results of the explosion models in order to obtain a good agreement with the width of the observed lines. Our models for the epoch they also modelled, day 139, are similar to theirs, providing perhaps a slightly better fit in the blue region where the \[Fe iii\] lines form. We also confirm the absence of lines of Fe i.

The properties of our models fitting the broad \[Fe ii\] feature are summarised in Table 1, and the synthetic spectra are compared to the observed ones in Figure 1.

For all the ‘broad’ models, the 56Ni mass was about $`0.65M_{}`$. This is in good agreement with the light curve calculations, although it is perhaps a slight overestimate since there is more flux in the synthetic spectra than there is in the observed ones, owing to the fact that the narrow observed lines are reproduced as broad lines. It is also encouraging that the 56Ni mass is very nearly constant over the entire period, showing that the \[Fe ii\] feature is indeed due to $`\gamma `$-ray deposition in an expanding nebula.

The O mass, on the other hand, ranges between 3 and $`5M_{}`$ in the various models, increasing first and then decreasing. In the first spectrum the profile of \[O i\] 6300Å is broad, and so our estimate $`(M(\mathrm{O})3M_{})`$ is probably more realistic, considering the large errors which are always incurred in when determining the mass of O from that line (Schlegel & Kirshner 1989). However, at later times the narrow component dominates, our broad synthetic \[O i\] lines have a larger EW than the observed lines, and our O masses are certainly overestimated. At very late phases the O mass drops again to about $`3M_{}`$, but this may be just an artifact of using a constant density model with a given velocity radius when the real ejecta had a decreasing density and so effectively a velocity radius decreasing with time.

The fact that the narrow lines of \[O i\] and Mg i\] decline less rapidly in luminosity than the \[Fe ii\] feature with time appears to indicate that there is a significant amount of these elements at low velocity. The ratio of the \[Fe ii\] feature and the broad component of \[O i\] 6300Å in the spectrum at day 108 also suggests that the Fe/O ratio is larger at high velocity. All this is very difficult to reconcile with the classical picture of a spherically symmetric explosion, even taking into account mixing.

Sollerman et al. (2000) computed a nebular spectrum for day 139 using the original density and abundance distributions of model CO138 (IMN98), and obtained broad \[OI\] lines with a flat emission top. This is a consequence of distributing O in a shell at high velocity. They overcame this problem by mixing the composition to eliminate the flat tops and by arbitrarily decreasing the velocity of the outer part of the nebula to reduce the width of the \[O i\] lines. However, our code can only handle nebulae of uniform density. Thus, in an alternative set of models we tried to fit the narrow-line spectrum, assuming it is also powered by $`\gamma `$-ray deposition. Such models were computed only for the last four epochs, since in the first spectrum the narrow \[O i\] line is still weak. The parameters of the models are detailed in Table 2, and the synthetic spectra are shown in Figure 2.

The synthetic narrow-line spectra fit well the lines of Mg i\], Na i D and \[O i\]. The width of the lines decreases only slowly with time, as was the case for the broad \[Fe ii\] feature: velocities range from 7500 to 5000 km s-1. The synthetic \[Fe ii\] feature is in these models significantly too narrow. Therefore we chose to reproduce its peak only. Once again we found that the 56Ni mass is very nearly constant in all four models, with a value of $`0.35M_{}`$. However, this is certainly an underestimate, as the total flux in the \[Fe ii\] feature is not reproduced. Values of the O mass in the low velocity nebula range between 1.5 and $`2.7M_{}`$, with the estimate decreasing with time after day +201. O masses which decrease with time were also derived by Schlegel & Kirshner (1989) for the SNe Ib 1984L and 1985F and for the SN II 1980K.

An upper limit to the O mass can also be derived from the flux in the \[O i\] 6300Å line and the nebular temperature in the high density limit ($`n_e10^6`$cm-3) using the formula

$$M(\mathrm{O})=10^8d^2F([\mathrm{O}\mathrm{i}])e^{2.28/T_4}$$
(1)
(Uomoto 1986), where $`M`$(O) is the O mass in $`M_{}`$, $`d`$ is the distance to the SN in Mpc, F is the flux of the \[O i\] line in erg cm-2 s-1 and $`T_4`$ is the temperature of the nebula in units of $`10^4`$K. The high density limit should apply given the conditions in our model nebulae (Tables 1 and 2).

The values we obtained for SN 1998bw ($`d=39.3`$Mpc) using values of $`T_4`$ as derived from our models are listed in Table 3. The O mass thus derived is in good agreement with that used in the model calculations, except at the latest epochs, when the density is lower and the condition of Eq.(1) is not as well satisfied.

## 3 A ‘portrait’ of SN 1998bw

Most of the work on SN 1998bw has been based on spherically symmetric models. The very bright and relatively broad light curve of SN 1998bw can be reproduced by a family of explosion models with various values of the fundamental parameters ($`M_{\mathrm{ej}}`$, $`E_{\mathrm{kin}}`$). All models require $`M`$(56Ni)$`0.40.7M_{}`$ to power the bright light curve peak. This is about one order of magnitude larger than in typical core-collapse SNe. Models with different $`E_{\mathrm{kin}}`$ yield different synthetic spectra, and by comparing with the observed early-time spectra of SN 1998bw and trying to fit the very broad absorption features, Nakamura et al. (2001a) selected a model with $`M_{\mathrm{ej}}`$$`=10.9M_{}`$, $`E_{\mathrm{kin}}`$$`=510^{52}`$ erg (model CO138E50). This model has the same $`M_{\mathrm{ej}}`$ but a larger $`E_{\mathrm{kin}}`$ than the model CO138 of IMN98, and it yields a better fit to the observed bolometric light curve, the evolution of the photospheric velocity and the spectra of SN 1998bw. The large value of $`E_{\mathrm{kin}}`$ easily qualifies SN 1998bw as ‘the’ Type Ic Hypernova. The mass of the exploding CO star was $`13.8M_{}`$, which implies a main sequence mass of $`40M_{}`$. Similar results were also obtained by Branch (2001) from models of the early time spectra.

These explosion models work well around maximum, but the predicted light curve tail is quite a bit steeper than the observed one, starting at about 60 days and continuing until at least day 200. This signals that either these energetic models underestimate $`\gamma `$-ray deposition at those phases or that an additional source of energy is present, or both.

The nebular spectra of SN 1998bw also had a peculiar evolution. Early on, the SN showed a ‘composite’ spectrum: \[Fe ii\] lines, typical of SNe Ia, were strong, and so were lines of \[O i\] and Mg i\], which are typical of SNe Ib/c. At the same time \[Fe iii\] lines, also typical of SNe Ia, were absent. The \[O i\] and Mg i\] lines grew stronger with time relative to the \[Fe ii\] lines, but this was due mostly to a narrow component, which became more and more the dominant one as time progressed. The emergence of the narrow profiles occured at about the same time as the light curve deviated from the model prediction.

The broad spectrum could be reproduced with $`M`$(56Ni)$`0.65M_{}`$ and an outer nebula velocity of $`12,000`$ km s-1. This is consistent with the distribution of 56Ni in CO138E50 of Nakamura et al. (2001a), but the estimate of the 56Ni mass is somewhat larger here. Note, however, that the light curve obtained with CO138E50 underestimates the late time flux (Nakamura et al. 2001a, Fig.5), and so this result is not unexpected. The narrow lines have a width of only $`6,000`$ km s-1, and can be reproduced with a 56Ni mass of $`0.35M_{}`$. The velocity of the narrow \[O i\] line appears to be consistent with the lower energy model CO138E10 of Nakamura et al. (2001a).

On average, our nebular models required enclosed masses of $`3M_{}`$ below a velocity of $`6000`$ km s-1 and of $`5M_{}`$ below $`12000`$ km s-1. Both these values are larger than the corresponding values from model CO138 by about $`2M_{}`$. This may suggest the presence of a high density inner part of the ejecta, which could explain the slow decline of the light curve between days 60 and 200, as suggested by Nakamura et al. (2001a) and Chugai (2000). A similar suggestion was made by Iwamoto et al. (1999) and Mazzali et al. (2000) for the other Type Ic hypernova, SN 1997ef. However, the two situations are different. For SN 1997ef, evidence of a high density region at low velocities came from the fact that the spectra remain photospheric for a long time, and that the photospheric velocity drops below the velocity of the inner cutoff. In a 1-dimensional explosion model, this is the separation between the material which is ejected by the SN and the infalling matter which forms the compact remnant. In SN 1998bw the photospheric phase ends earlier, and the need for the central high density region comes from the behaviour of the light curve, and it is therefore a less direct result.

Rather strong clumping had to be introduced to increase recombination and keep the \[Fe iii\] lines from forming. Introducing clumping may slow the light curve somewhat. The increasing strength of the low-velocity intermediate-mass element emission, however, indicates that this will not be sufficient to explain all observations. The same would apply to the approach adopted by Sollerman et al. (2000), who reduced the velocity of the ejecta, thus enhancing $`\gamma `$-ray deposition, and could thus improve the fit to both the light curve and the spectrum. Also, with this approach the \[Fe ii\] lines are not expected ever to become broader than the \[O i\] line.

A more complete solution which takes into account all the observed facts should probably include the presence of asymmetry in the explosion, both geometrical and in the density distribution. If SN 1998bw was actually linked to GRB980425, the fact that the explosion was aymmetric should not be surprising. Observations indicate that a rather large mass of O-dominated material is present at low velocity. Spherical explosions do not allow that: they are very effective at ‘emptying’ the central region, and always place the unburned elements at the top of the ejecta.

A 2-dimensional explosion model was computed by Maeda et al. (2001). If the explosion is highly asymmetric, it produces large quantities of unburned material (mostly C and O) expanding at low velocity in directions away from the axis along which most of the energy was released and 56Ni synthesised. Our vantage point must have been very close to that axis, because we also detected the GRB, as Maeda et al. (2001) show from an analysis of the line profiles. At early times, the fast-expanding lobes must have been much brighter than the rest, and so we observed the broad-lined spectra and the bright light curve. The fast-moving regions rapidly became thin, and soon emission lines appeared. Initially the emission lines were broad, dominated by the hyper-energetic lobes. The distribution of density and abundances in a 2-dimensional model (Maeda et al. 2001, Fig. 2) shows that in the region of the ejecta with velocities of about 10000 km s-1 the density contours deviate less from spherical symmetry. Therefore, early in the nebular phase, when these fast-moving regions contribute to the nebular spectrum, a sufficient amount of high velocity oxygen is present that the \[O i\] line can be expected to be broad. Later, though, the $`\gamma `$-rays from the fast-moving 56Co could escape that region more and more easily, and the inner, slowly moving, O-dominated part of the ejecta would dominate the spectrum. A smaller amount of 56Co is present at low velocities, but the $`\gamma `$-rays it produces are trapped more efficiently and excite the O and Mg there. At lower velocities, though, the distribution of oxygen becomes preferentially equatorial, and one expects the \[O i\] line to decrease significantly in width as the effective size of the emitting nebula decreases. Maeda et al. (2001) suggest that the relative width of the \[Fe ii\] complex and the \[O i\] line can be explained by such a model. However, because O dominates over Fe at low velocity, the strength of the \[O i\] line should increase relative to that of the \[Fe ii\] feature, as is indeed observed.

The low-velocity cutoff of the asymmetric explosion model (Maeda et al. 2001, Fig. 2) is only about 1500 km s-1, which is significantly less than in the 1D models (5000 km s-1 in CO138E50; Nakamura et al. 2001a, Fig.7), also because of the lower overall $`E_{\mathrm{kin}}`$ of the asymmetric models (see below). This feature of the 2D models seems to match nicely the need for a low-velocity, high-density region resulting from the behaviour of the light curve. Additional deposition in the low-velocity region of the $`\gamma `$-rays produced in the high velocity region may in turn increase the deposition function above what our spherically symmetric models could estimate, and may help explain the slowly declining tail of the light curve.

That the SN 1998bw explosion was asymmetric is not a new suggestion: first the polarization measurements indicated an axial ratio of 2-3:1 (Höflich et al. 1999), and the calculation of the explosion of a rotating core (McFadyen & Woosley 1999) also gave similar results, in an effort to explain the connection between SN 1998bw and GRB980425. More detailed results have to await detailed numerical models in two dimensions. If the explosion was asymmetric, our results for $`E_{\mathrm{kin}}`$ in spherical symmetry are overestimated, because those would only refer to the fast-moving part of the ejecta. In fact, Maeda et al. (2001) propose a model with $`E_{\mathrm{kin}}`$$`=10`$ foe. However, the estimate of the 56Ni mass in the nebular epoch ($`0.5M_{}`$) is probably correct, as it should not be significantly influenced by the asymmetry as long as the ejecta are completely optically thin. In this case, in fact, every optical photon created by the deposition of $`\gamma `$-rays and positrons escapes the nebula immediately and can be observed as SN light. As for the value of $`M_{\mathrm{ej}}`$, this can only be determined by computing light curves and spectra using 3D hydrodynamical models of the explosion (e.g. Khokhlov et al. 1999), but a careful analysis of the spectra, especially at late times, when both the fast and the slow components are observable, can yield at least approximate results.

Acknowledgements. This work has been supported in part by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (12640233) and COE research (07CE2002) of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports in Japan. It is a pleasure to thank Alex Filippenko for enlightening discussions on the late-time spectra of SNe Ic.


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# A Novel Approach to Quantum Heuristics for Structured Database Search

## 1 Introduction

Quantum computers  are thought to be able to solve some problems more efficiently than classical computers. The most important quantum algorithm is the Grover search  because of its applicability to solving important computational problems, such as NP-complete problems. In fact, it has already been shown that a nested Grover search can be used to solve the graph-coloring problem, which is NP-complete .

Here I report a new approach to structured database search, and I apply it to the set partition problem, which is NP-complete. Through simulation, I find in this application that the number of required oracle calls is fewer than a random classical search, but more than an unstructred Grover search (see figures 3 and 4). However, it is only necessary to maintain quantum coherence for a single oracle call at a time, unlike Grover searches which require that quantum coherence is maintained throughout the entire running time. Since the short coherence times of quantum systems is the biggest obstacle to quantum computing , this is an interesting result.

I will start by presenting the general principles outlining the new approach to structured database search. I will then show how they can be specifically applied to the set partition problem.

## 2 Quantum Algorithm for Structured Database Search

### 2.1 Definitions of Quantum Operators

In order to search a mathematically-specified database, our quantum computer will need two registers. One is for the index of the database item ($`n`$ qubits) and the other is for the data associated with that index (size requirements discussed later). This is a mathematically-specified database because the data associated with the index is the result of a mathematical function when given the index as input.

The first operator to define is one that creates the database to be searched without making any measurement on the system. The most natural way to accomplish this is in a two-step process. First,

$$\widehat{W}_s\widehat{W}\widehat{I}$$
(1)
or equivalently,

$`\widehat{W}_s|i|j(\widehat{W}|i)|j`$ (2)
where $`\widehat{W}`$ is an $`n`$-bit Walsh-Hadamard transform .
Second, if we take $`P`$ to be the mathematical function relating the index of the database item to its data, we want to define a unitary operator that implements this function:

$$\widehat{P}|i|j|i|(j+P(i))modN$$
(3)
where $`modN`$ allows for overflow in the second register ($`N2^n`$). In an optimization problem, $`P`$ is a cost function. Now, if we define

$`\widehat{A}\widehat{P}\widehat{W}_s`$ (4)
we have that

$`\widehat{A}|i|j={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2^{\frac{n}{2}}}}{\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{2^n1}{}}}(1)^{ik}|k|(j+P(k))modN`$ (5)
where $``$ is binary bit-wise addition. These definitions imply that

$`\widehat{A}^1=\widehat{W}_s^1\widehat{P}^1=\widehat{W}_s\widehat{P}^1`$ (6)
where

$`\widehat{P}^1|i|j|i|(j+NP(i))modN`$ (7)
From this we see that

$`\widehat{A}^1|i|j={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2^{\frac{n}{2}}}}({\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{2^n1}{}}}(1)^{ik}|k)|(j+NP(i))modN`$ (8)
Most importantly,

$`\widehat{A}|0|0={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2^{\frac{n}{2}}}}{\displaystyle \underset{s=0}{\overset{2^n1}{}}}|s|P(s)`$ (9)
The following phase flip operator will also be needed:

$`\widehat{S}_ϵ^\pi |i|j\{\begin{array}{cc}|i|j\hfill & jϵ\hfill \\ |i|j\hfill & j>ϵ\hfill \end{array}`$ (12)
States $`i`$ for which $`P(i)`$ is less than or equal to $`ϵ`$ are called *good*, and states $`i`$ for which $`P(i)`$ is greater than epsilon are called *nogood*. In general, our target state will be any $`i_0`$, for which $`P(i_0)`$ is a global minimum.
Finally,

$`\widehat{D}\widehat{A}^1\widehat{S}_ϵ^\pi \widehat{A}`$ (13)
You may notice that $`\widehat{D}`$ is actually part of the general Grover operator , but the use here will be very intuitively different, as I will discuss later.

### 2.2 Implementation of Quantum Operators

In order to use these quantum operators in an algorithm, it is necessary to show that they are efficiently implementable. $`\widehat{W}_s`$ is trivial. $`\widehat{P}`$ relies only on addition and a function evalution of $`P`$. Since these are both efficient classically, they can be implemented efficiently on a quantum computer . $`\widehat{S}_ϵ^\pi `$ can be implemented with the use of a single work bit. First, add $`(Nϵ)`$ to the second register and store overflow in the work bit. Second, invert the work bit and perform a conditional phase flip. Finally, uncompute to clear the work bit.

### 2.3 The Algorithm

Here I will present the steps of an algorithm for structured database search, then proceed to fill in the missing details.

1) Clear to $`|0|0`$ $`|\psi =|0|0`$

2) Apply $`\widehat{D}|\psi =(|0\frac{2}{2^{\frac{n}{2}}}_{good}|s)|0`$

3) Measure $`|\psi =|m|0`$

4) Use $`m`$ to half the size of the database.

5) Repeat steps $`14`$ until a solution is found.

### 2.4 Using Measurement to Reduce Problem Size

Step 4 of the above algorithm is the crucial step. The idea is basically as follows: $`\widehat{D}`$ consists of three operators: $`\widehat{A}`$ creates a database, $`\widehat{S}_ϵ^\pi `$ flips phases of good states, and $`\widehat{A}^1`$ uncomputes. $`\widehat{S}_ϵ^\pi `$ flips phases based on the value in the 2nd register, but the subsequent phase interference affects what is measured in the 1st register. Using $`|m`$, we want to deduce which first register values were entangled to second register values less than $`ϵ`$.

#### 2.4.1 Viewpoint as a Quantum Oracle

I have defined $`\widehat{D}`$ as a series of quantum operators on two registers. However, in the context of solving computational problems with quantum algorithms, it is important to understand that $`\widehat{D}`$ can be equivalently viewed as operations on just one quantum register with the help of a ’quantum oracle.’

$`\widehat{D}`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{A}^1\widehat{S}_ϵ^\pi \widehat{A}`$ (14)
$`=`$ $`\widehat{W}_s\widehat{P}^1\widehat{S}_ϵ^\pi \widehat{P}\widehat{W}_s`$
$`=`$ $`\widehat{W}_s\text{(quantum oracle)}\widehat{W}_s`$
In the first viewpoint, a function evaluation acts in parallel to entangle all possible inputs to their outputs, and a phase operator flips the phases of target states based on their output value. Then, in uncomputation, the inverse function evaluation returns all values in the second register to $`|0`$ so that phase interference can occur between different states in the first register.

In the quantum oracle viewpoint, only one quantum register is used *explicitly*. The phases of certain target states are flipped by a quantum oracle that uses machinery whose details we do not examine.

#### 2.4.2 Deterministic Measurement

So far, the only new idea I have presented is to propose that the steps in section 3 could be considered as an algorithm. The rest of what I have covered is basically a summary of how I understand and use existing ideas. Now I will begin to explain step 4 of the algorithm and justify the claim that $`\widehat{D}`$ can be used for structured database search.

In general, the state $`\widehat{D}|0|0`$ will be a superposition of many eigenstates of the computational basis, and when we measure this state, the value we obtain for $`m`$ is not deterministic.

However, it is very useful to ask the following question: what would be the structure of a problem instance for which $`\widehat{D}|0|0`$ is an eigenstate of the computational basis? This is an easy question to answer with the quantum oracle viewpoint:

$`\widehat{W}\text{(oracle)}\widehat{W}|0`$ $`=`$ $`|x`$
$`\text{(oracle)}\widehat{W}|0`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{W}|x`$ (15)
$`\text{using}\widehat{W}^2=\widehat{I}`$
From this we see that *if* the best half of the states in our database exactly corresponds to the half of the database whose phase is flipped in the Walsh-Hadamard transformation of some $`|x`$, *then* after measurement we will obtain $`|m=|x`$ with certainty.

#### 2.4.3 Choosing a Subset

Based on the function $`P`$, we could divide our database of $`2^n`$ states into a best half and worst half. The 1st register values of the best half will not be random, or else this would be an *un*structured database search. Nonetheless, their structure could easily be sufficiently complicated that we could not adjust $`\widehat{A}`$ to create a superposition of only those states . More importantly, if our goal is to reduce the size of our database by a factor of 2, then it is sufficient to choose any half that still contains the state $`i_0`$. Therefore, it seems reasonable to look for a way to *approximate* the best half of solutions.

I propose the following: after measuring and obtaining $`|m`$, keep the $`2^{n1}`$ items whose phases are flipped in the expansion of $`\widehat{W}|m`$. This will be the half of the database that we use to approximate the best half, motivated by the finding in section 2.4.2 that if this approximate half was really the best half, then we would have measured $`|m`$ with certainty.

Details for exactly how these states are chosen will be given later in the context of the set partition problem. In this case we will see that it is always possible to efficiently create a superposition of the database items we want, but in general this may or may not be true.

#### 2.4.4 Measurement Probabilities

The above section implicity assumes that we can choose an $`ϵ`$ such that $`\widehat{S}_ϵ^\pi `$ flips exactly half of the states of the database. However, this is not a strict requirement.

When measuring the state $`\widehat{D}|0|0`$, what is the probability of measuring a given state $`|x`$ in the first register? (second register is deterministically $`|0`$)

First, in order to help quantify the action of the oracle, define:

$`\mathrm{\Theta }_ϵ(k)\{\begin{array}{cc}1\hfill & P(k)ϵ\hfill \\ 1\hfill & P(k)>ϵ\hfill \end{array}`$ (18)
Now we can calculate the probability of measuring $`|x`$, $`M(x)`$:

$`M(x)`$ $``$ $`|x|\widehat{D}|0|^2`$ (19)
$`x|\widehat{D}|0`$ $`=`$ $`x|\widehat{W}\text{oracle}\widehat{W}|0`$ (20)
$`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2^{\frac{n}{2}}}}{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}k|(1)^{kx}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2^{\frac{n}{2}}}}{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}\mathrm{\Theta }_ϵ(k)|k\right)`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2^n}}{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}(1)^{kx}\mathrm{\Theta }_ϵ(k)`$
Now, let

F = number of states $`|k`$ such that $`(1)^{kx}=1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Theta }_ϵ(k)=1`$

and

N = number of states $`|k`$ such that $`(1)^{kx}=1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Theta }_ϵ(k)=1`$

With a little algebra,

$`x|\widehat{D}|0={\displaystyle \frac{FN}{2^{n1}}}`$ (21)
$`M(x)=\left({\displaystyle \frac{FN}{2^{n1}}}\right)^2`$ (22)
## 3 Application to the Set Partition Problem

### 3.1 Statement of Problem

Given a set $`S=\{a_1,a_2,\mathrm{},a_n\}`$ of positive numbers, find a subset $`sS`$ such that $`P`$ is minimized, where

$`P(s)=\left|{\displaystyle \underset{a_js}{}}a_j{\displaystyle \underset{a_ks}{}}a_k\right|`$ (23)
Not only is this problem at the heart of NP-completeness , but it is framed in the manner of a binary optimization that minimizes a cost function. While the nested Grover search is the best result so far for solving NP-complete problems, it relies on a structure that does not exist in optimizations.

### 3.2 Solving Set Partition

#### 3.2.1 Using the Algorithm

The function $`P`$ in (23) takes the place of the function $`P`$ used in (3). The first register of our quantum computer will still be $`n`$ qubits. If each of the numbers in the set $`S`$ has $`b`$ bits of precision, then the second quantum register will have to be $`b+\mathrm{log}n`$ qubits in order to accomodate the largest possible value of $`P(s)`$, which is $`N=n2^b`$. If $`b`$ is large, this requirement can be significantly relaxed. The only strict requirement is that $`\widehat{S}_ϵ^\pi `$ has to distinguish between goods and nogoods.

The registers also are set-up such that each qubit $`i`$ in the 1st register corresponds to a specific $`a_i`$ in $`S`$ ($``$ $`P(s)=(1)^ia_i`$). The set partition problem has a degeneracy because $`P(s)`$ is the absolute value of a difference, so in solving this problem with a quantum algorithm I only consider a database of solutions where the smallest number is in the subset $`s`$. In principle, however, any $`a_i`$ could be used for this purpose. Also, this problem becomes deterministic at $`n=4`$, so I only solve cases $`n5`$.

Most importantly, I need to specify exactly how to reduce the size of the database. Suppose that the state $`|m`$ that we measure has $`l`$ 1’s in its binary representation. This means that there are $`nl`$ $`a_is`$ in the subset $`s`$ and $`l`$ $`a_is`$ not in $`s`$. The procedure is as follows: if $`l`$ is even, then choose the smallest $`a_i`$ and call it $`t`$. In $`S`$, replace each $`a_i`$ not in $`s`$ with the difference $`a_it`$ and remove $`t`$ from $`S`$. If $`l`$ is odd, then add $`a_1`$ to the group of $`a_i^{}s`$ not in $`s`$ and use the same procedure. In order to solve a problem instance, $`n4`$ of these decisions must be made, and with classical processing they can tracked to give a solution of $`n`$ variables at the end of the iterations.

#### 3.2.2 Simulations

My wish is not to submit these simulations as primary evidence that my method works for solving NP-complete and optimization problems. Rather, the above sections contain enough information to see that this will be true, and I will discuss some of these points in section 4. However, the complexity of this solution cannot be predicted analytically, so a simulation helps to quantify a few examples of using this algorithm.

The simulations were set-up as follows: a random instance of the problem was generated, and the probability of measuring each state was calculated using (21). Each possible measurement was tagged good or bad based on whether it would led to inclusion of the $`i_0`$ after database reduction. For a given iteration on a specific problem instance, these probabilities can be summed to obtain the total probability of making either a good or bad measurement. When these probabilities are averaged over many problem instances they are denoted $`p_G`$ and $`p_B`$ respectively.

Given average values of $`p_G`$ and $`p_B`$ for runs with 5 qubits up to $`n`$ qubits, the complexity in terms of number of oracle calls can be calculated as follows:

The probability of finding the correct solution in a given run:

$`P_c=\mathrm{\Pi }_{i=5}^np_G(i)`$ (24)
The algorithm will produce a solution after $`n`$ iterations. However, if we choose to only use certain types of states for measurement, multiple oracle calls may be required for a given iteration. The average number of oracle calls for a run is:

$`N_0={\displaystyle \underset{i=5}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{p_G(i)+p_B(i)}}`$ (25)
In order for the correct solution to be found after $`r`$ runs of the algorithm, an incorrect solution must be found $`r1`$ times in a row, followed by a correct solution on the $`rth`$ try. Therefore, the complexity is given by:

$`Complexity`$ $`=`$ $`P_cN_0+(1P_c)P_c(2N_0)+(1P_c)^2P_c(3N_0)+\mathrm{}`$
$`=`$ $`N_0P_c{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}k(1P_c)^{k1}`$
$`Complexity`$ $`=`$
$$\left(\underset{i=5}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{1}{p_G(i)+p_B(i)}\right)\left(\mathrm{\Pi }_{i=5}^np_G(i)\right)\left(\underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}k(1(\mathrm{\Pi }_{i=5}^np_G(i)))^{k1}\right)$$
(26)
A few comments:
1) The form of $`P_c`$ implies that this complexity will grow exponentially unless $`p_G1`$ as $`n\mathrm{}`$.
2) In calculating the infinite sum from simulation data, I just add terms until they are below the threshold $`10^4`$. I checked this against smaller thresholds and it does not appear to affect results.
3) The asymptotic value of the exponential part of the complexity can be estimated by $`O((\frac{1}{p_G(i)})^n)`$ using the largest $`i`$ for which $`p_G`$ is known, but this will not necessarily give the whole picture.

#### 3.2.3 Results of Simulation

At each iteration, an $`n`$ variable problem is reduced to an $`n1`$ variable problem, thus reducing the size of the database by a factor of 2. If the target solution remains in the database, then this was a successful reduction. Figure 1 shows the average probability of a successful database reduction at various problem sizes. The first measurement scheme repeats the first three steps of section 2.3 until $`|m=|2^k+2^j`$. The second scheme uses any $`|m|0`$ as a valid measurement. As figure 1 clearly indicates, the first scheme is more successful. Based on the form of (26), improving $`p_G`$ can save an exponential number of steps, so the first scheme is adopted in future simulations.

In these first two simulations, the $`ϵ`$ appearing in (12) and (18) was not explicity used. In order to test an ideal case, I *cheated* and flipped the phase of exactly half of the states in the database. However, it was shown in (21) that this is not necessary. In order to obtain *realistic* complexity data, I henceforth simulate the algorithm using a naiive method that flips all states whose cost is below $`.29_ia_i`$. In general, if we know what fraction of states we want to flip, better methods than the naiive one I employ are available using the density of states for the partition problem .

As stated in section 2.3, the algorithm requires $`n`$ iterations to find a solution. However, if the $`l=2`$ measurement scheme is employed, some measurements will be thrown out, in which case extra oracle calls must be made. Figure 2 is a plot of data for (25) with a linear fit. This shows that we have paid a small price by using the $`l=2`$ measurement scheme: instead of taking $`n`$ iterations to get a solution we need $`O(n)`$.

The asymptotic behavior of the algorithm is related to the asymptotic behavior of figure 1. It is possible that as $`n\mathrm{}`$, $`p_G(n).5`$, which is equivalent to a random decision (there is no reason to expect $`p_G`$ would go lower than .5). In this case, the asymptotic behavior would be no better than a classical search. If the asymptotic behavior of $`p_G.5`$, then of course we are in luck. Of course, this cannot be determined from simulation. But by examining figure 1 I argue that if $`p_G`$ falls off slowly enough, then we still benefit.

Figure 3 is a comparison between three different searches. A random classical search will, on average, find a solution after $`2^{n1}`$ tries. The data for this algorithm is based on simulations using the naiive phase-flipping scheme described above and plugged into 26. An unstructured Grover search requires $`2^{\frac{n1}{2}}`$ oracle calls (rotates towards 2 target solutions). Comparisons to classical search and further comments are given in section 4.

However, the data in figure 3 slightly misrepresents the new approach, because although each iteration of the algorithm makes at least one oracle call, these oracle calls use fewer than $`n`$ variables. For example, assume for a moment that the oracle function takes $`O(n^2)`$ steps to implement. When the algorithm makes an oracle call on $`n3`$ variables, let us count that as only $`(\frac{n3}{n})^2`$ of a call, because both the classical and Grover unstructured searches always make oracle calls using all $`n`$ variables. Figure 4 shows data adjusted in this manner, and it shows a noticeable improvement.

## 4 Comments on this Algorithm

Since this is a new method, it may be necessary to explain the intuition behind how it works.

### 4.1 Summary of Results

The algorithm presented in section 2.3 can be used in order to perform structured database search. It returns a solution after $`O(n)`$ oracle calls, but (26) shows that the probability of this being an optimal solution decreases exponentially. Each oracle call is followed by a measurement, implying that quantum coherence is necessary for only one oracle call at a time.

### 4.2 A Quantum Heuristic

#### 4.2.1 Description of the Heuristic

We have a database of size $`2^n`$. Each of the $`2^n1`$ possible states that could be measured in step 4 of the algorithm implies a subspace with $`2^{n1}`$ members (see section 2.4.3). We are most likely to explore a given subspace if the number of good states included in that subspace and number of good states not included in that subspace differ (see equation (21)).

#### 4.2.2 Meaning of Heuristic in $`l=2`$ example

In solving the set partition problem, measurements of the form $`|2^k+2^j`$ have the simple interpretation that the database is reduced by placing two numbers from the set $`S`$ in different groups. If placing two numbers in different groups results in a large number of either low-lying or non-low-lying solutions , then the probability of following this path is high. In fact, the data in figure 2 implies that in the set partition problem, states of the form $`|2^k+2^j|0`$ are peaked in $`\widehat{D}|0|0`$ The fact that $`p_G`$ is greater than .5 (as can be seen in figure 1) means that a subspace with a non-random distrubtion of low-lying states has a better than $`50\%`$ chance of containing target solution.

#### 4.2.3 Quantum Heuristic vs. Classical Heuristic

Differencing heuristics already exist to solve partition problems classically . The quantum heuristic is different because it can take into account properties of a whole database for a specific problem instance. For example, putting the largest two numbers into different sets is a good classical heuristic because it works well on *most* problem instances. However, the probability of putting the two largest numbers in different sets in a given run of this algorithm is based on how many low-lying solutions that action creates in the specific instance being solved.

### 4.3 This is not Amplitude Amplification

It is important to understand that this approach does not utilize amplitude amplification as used in other algorithms . The states that are peaked in $`\widehat{D}|0|0`$ represent subspaces of the database to be searched on future iterations. *They no longer represent the states indexing the database*. Furthermore, there is the following difference with amplitude amplification: if a classical algorithm makes $`2^n`$ oracle calls, it will have explicity checked the cost of $`2^n`$ different database items. However, if a Grover search makes $`2^{\frac{n}{2}}`$ oracle calls to rotate to a target state, at the end it will only have explicitly checked the cost of a single database item because only one measurement occurs. This algorithm falls somewhere in between those two extremes. After every $`O(n)`$ oracle calls a database item is checked. However, this algorithm is more likely than a classical algorithm to check the same database item multiple times because quantum measurement is probabilistic.

### 4.4 Usefulness of this Approach

The most important goal is to find a solution as quickly as possible. So far, I have not demonstrated that this algorithm is any better at finding solutions than a Grover search (although it has different properties as noted in section 4.3). Whether or not there are benefits reducing the required coherence time is hard to say. If it becomes more difficult to perform many logic gates as system size increases (see  for proposed implementation where this is true), then it is possible to imagine a situation where it is much more feasible to implement this algorithm than a Grover search for certain problem sizes.

As compared to classical algorithms, this approach has interesting properities. It is certainly impossible to solve a problem this way classically. The steps in section 2.3 outline what is probably the simplest approach to using the properties of an entire database to decide how to parse the tree of possible solutions to an optimization problem. It may be that this algorithm’s usefulness would be not be in solving the set partition problem, but in solving problems where little is known about the database structure a riori.

## Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science at NASA Ames Research Center. I would not have started work on this without the help of Vadim Smelyanskiy and Dogan Timuçin. I would also like to thank Cyrus Master for finding a crucial error in the original version of this algorithm during a presentation at Stanford last November.

## Comments

I would appreciate comments sent to brian34@feynman.stanford.edu.


text:
# Arguments for a Hubble Constant near 𝐻₀ = 55

## 1 Introduction

Ever since Hubble’s discovery of the redshift-apparent magnitude relation for galaxies, the value of the slope of the inferred redshift-distance law has been in contention. In the 1960’s there were two camps, one claiming a value around 50 and the other claiming around $`H_0`$ = 100 km/sec/Mpc. The latter, high figure in recent years has come down to values in the 70’s. Now, with the results from the Hubble space Telescope measurement of distances to galaxies with Cepheids, the best value has been announced to be $`H_0=72\pm 8`$ (Freedman et al. 2001).

It is interesting to note that in the Virgo Cluster the spirals always gave higher $`H_0`$’s because their redshifts were on average higher. It was argued by G. de Vaucouleurs and others that this was because there was a group of more distant spirals just in back of the Virgo Cluster. This proposed segregation has been put finally to rest with the new HST

Cepheid distances which show these high redshift spirals to be firmly at the distance of the center of the Cluster. (See for e.g. Table 1 of the present paper.) Their high redshift must now be explained by something else. Peculiar velocities will not work because the redshifts are systematically positive. For field galaxies peculiar velocities of the order of 1000 km/sec are out of the question because they would blow apart the whole lower third of the Hubble redshift-apparent magnitude relation.

The long debated and ever changing value of the Hubble constant certainly involves excess redshifts, particularly of the spirals. It is the purpose of the following paper to argue that the new Cepheid measures actually require a value of $`H_0`$ only slightly greater than 50. One consequence is that spiral galaxies can contain a component of non-velocity redshift. Independent supporting evidence for this result is reviewed.

## 2 The Cepheid Evidence

Table 1 lists the final adopted distances for the luminosity class I Galaxies in Table 4 of Freedman et al. 2001. (Corrected for metallicity and called $`D_z`$ in the above reference.) In the last two columns of Table 1 above are listed the redshift distances for these galaxies, One column for $`H_0`$ = 72 and the last column for $`H_0`$ = 55. Since the Cepheid distances are the most accurate direct measure of distance available they force the conclusion that the redshift distances for these particular galaxies are inescapably too large.

If one uses the $`v_0`$ redshifts from Sandage and Tamman (1981) and divides by the Cepheid distances listed in Table 1, one gets $`H_0`$ = 87, 96 ,115, and 110. Because the Cepheid distances are so accurate it can be finally established that the Hubble constant discrepancies lie in the redshifts not the distances.

Are these excess redshifts due to peculiar velocities? If so why would they be all in the same direction and why most conspicuously in the SI’s? Actually this systematic redshift excess has been demonstrated previously in analyses using independent distance indicators.

## 3 Redshift Distances Compared to Tully-Fisher Distances

As is well known, Tully-Fisher distances rely on a mass calculated from rotation which is converted to luminosity by means of a mass-luminosity relation and hence into a distance modulus. Calibrated with nearby galaxies whose distances are best known, they represent, in principle, distance determinations independent of the redshift of the galaxy.

Fig. 1 shows the differences in distances derived from redshifts relative to the distances derived from Tully-Fisher measures. The $`d_zd_{TF}`$ is plotted against blue luminosity from an analysis published by Arp (1990) using $`H_0`$ = 65. From a best fit of Cepheid distances D. Russell (2001) reports an $`H_0`$ = 60. But the deviations for the most luminous galaxies would be even larger using $`H_0`$ = 55 as advocated in the present paper. The diagram illustrates that for low redshift Sc galaxies the T-F distances agree well with the redshift distances. But for larger redshift galaxies the redshift distances are increasingly in excess, reaching the rather staggering discrepancy of up to 30 Mpc! It is among the highest distance discrepancies that we find the ScI galaxies, the same highest luminosity class which gave such excessive Hubble constants in Table 1 using Cepheid distances.

It is now important to plot a diagram similar to Fig. 1 using the new HST Cepheid distances.

## 4 Redshift Distances Compared to HST Cepheid Distances

Fig. 2 shows the redshift differences between distances derived using an $`H_0`$ = 55 and distances announced for the Cepheids in Freedman et al. (2001), i.e. $`d_z(55)`$ \- $`D_z(Ceph)`$. The result is that the highest redshift Sc galaxies show the greatest excess compared to Cepheid distances just as they did when compared to Tully-Fisher distances in Fig. 1. Also, as in Fig. 1, the low redshift Sc’s show good agreement with their redshift distances.

Fig. 3 now shows the same plot for Sb galaxies. (Points from a new Cepheid distance from Macri et al. 2001 and Saha et al. 2001 have been added.) The result is that the high redshift Sb’s show the same increasing discrepancy toward higher redshift.

Other important properties that Figs. 2 and 3 show:

1) The Sb’s are, as class, brighter than $`M_B`$ = -20 mag. The Sc spirals are generally fainter than $`M_B`$ = -20. This is in the sense that Sc’s are usually found as fainter companions to a dominant Sb in a group (like M31 and M81 group, see Arp 1990; 1994; 1998a,b).

2) In the above references fainter companion Sc’s are systematically redshifted from the redshift of the central Sb. This same effect is seen in Fig. 2 where the low luminosity Sc’s are shifted slightly above the zero difference line. In Arp 1990, Table Ib, some of the most certain Sc companions of Sb’s are listed with excess redshifts of from +21 to + 599 km/sec with an average of about +174. The average upward displacement of the Sc’s fainter than $`M_B`$ = -20 mag. in Fig. 2 is about 1.5 Mpc or about a systematic redshift excess of around 83 km/sec.

3) It might be better to try to set the value of $`H_0`$ with Sb spirals. But we see from Fig. 3, that the same type of galaxies, with their only difference being their high redshift, give much too great redshift distances compared to their real (Cepheid) distances.

### 4.1 Peculiar Velocities

It is clear from both Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 that the high luminosity Sc’s and Sb’s have unacceptably large redshifts for their distances. In the past such deviations have been attributed to peculiar (non-Hubbble flow) velocities. There are, however, four outstanding reasons why this explanation cannot be invoked here:

1) The spirals with low redshift that we know to be nearby have very small peculiar velocities. We can see from Figs. 1 and 2 particularly that more than a few hundred km/sec would disrupt the good agreement between their Cepheid and redshift distances. There seems to be no obvious reason why locally galaxies should be anomalously quiet.

2) The largest excess redshifts as seen in Figs. 2 and 3 are essentially all positive (nine out of nine). If these were peculiar velocities we would expect as many negative as positive discrepancies.

3) The largest excess redshifts are from galaxies with recognizably different morphology, namely predominantly luminosity class I galaxies. There is no reason for just these kinds of galaxies to be expanding faster than the rest.

4) It has been argued in the past by Sandage and Tamman (e. g. 1981) that the Hubble flow is quiet to $``$ 50 km/sec. Even smaller peculiar velocities are required not to wash out redshift periodicities of 72 km/sec (Tifft 1976; Arp and Sulentic 1985) and 37.5 km/sec (Napier and Guthrie 1993).

Of course we have direct evidence from clusters and groups of galaxies that the Sc spirals and lower luminosity companions in general have non-velocity redshifts. In the two nearest groups centered on Sb’s, M31 and M81, 22 out of 22 major companions have positive redshifts with respect to the central galaxy (Arp 1994). More distant groups show the same pattern. Then there are the cases where high redshift ScI’s are actually linked by luminous connections to much lower redshift galaxies (Arp 1990).

## 5 What is $`H_0`$?

Fig. 2 shows that $`H_0`$ = 55 fits reasonably well the lower luminosity Sc’s if they have approximately 100 km/sec intrinsic redshift. That value is loosely corroborated by the low luminosity Sb’s in Fig. 3 but the accuracy is obviously low. The question arises, can we support this value with a different set of galaxies? The answer is that we can by using the accepted members of the Virgo Cluster of classes: E + E/S0, S0 + SB0 + S0p and Sa + Sab. These 55 galaxies, give a luminosity weighted mean redshift of $`v_0`$ = 863 km/sec (Arp 1988a). This weighting does not allow faint, small mass objects to overly affect the final average. The derived value represents the redshift of the average mass residing in the major galaxies in the center of Virgo.

Taking the Cepheid distance to Virgo as 15.3 Mpc (from Freedman et al 2001, Table 8) we obtain a Hubble constant of

$$H_0=863/15.3=56.4km/sec/Mpc$$

Alternatively we could take the redshift of the brightest galaxy in Virgo, the central E/S0, M49, and obtain

$$H_0=822/15.3=53.7km/sec/Mpc$$

It is enlightening to notice that in Table 2 of Arp 1988 the luminosity weighted mean redshift of the Sb +SBb class galaxies is 97 km/sec and the same mean for the Sc + Sbc classes is 1344 km/sec. These would give wildly implausible Hubble constants and yet it is these very classes which the Freedman et al. (2001) Cepheid calculations of $`H_0`$ are based - as per Figs. 2 and 3.

The most illuminating diagram for understanding why there is a long history of contention over the value of the Hubble constant is shown here in Fig. 4. It is clear that the redshift independent distances to the nearest galaxies define a Hubble relation just slightly greater than $`H_0`$ = 50. But as one goes past about $`d_{TF}`$ = 15 Mpc one encounters galaxies which have excess redshifts. Most of these are high luminosity or ScI spirals.

What has happened in the controversy is that in an attempt to get further out in distance in order to minimize the effect of presumed peculiar velocities, investigators have taken more and more galaxies with excess (intrinsic) redshifts. Naturally the Hubble constant increases - and also becomes very indeterminate. On the other hand, previous analyses which obtained $`H_0`$ near 55 (e.g. Sandage 2000; Theaureau et al. 1999) used distance limited samples to avoid Malmquist bias. But the ”long distance scale” was involved and the sample was redshift-distance limited which excluded galaxies with large intrinsic redshifts.

The Tully-Fisher plot in Fig. 4 is strikingly confirmed by using Cepheid distances in Fig. 5. In the latter figure we can be sure the more luminous spirals are at their plotted distance and that their redshifts indicate too high an expansion velocity for that distance. Arguments against these discrepancies being peculiar velocity are given in section 4.1.

## 6 Remarks on some Discordant Points in Figs. 2 and 3

In Fig. 3 both strongly negative Sb points come from the Virgo Cluster and one has an obviously low redshift of $`v_0`$ = 366 km/sec. The latter is a good candidate for an older galaxy if the intrinsic redshifts are a function of the age of their constituent matter (Arp 1998b).

In Fig. 2 the discordant point at $`M_B`$ = -19.52 mag. and excess redshift distance of 13.65 Mpc is NGC 4496A. This is an interesting object because there is a smaller galaxy with cz = 4510 km/sec only 0.87 arcmin from A which has cz = 1725 km/sec. What is going on? The solution I would suggest is that NGC 4496A was a high redshift ScI like the points to its left. But the interaction with the high redshift companion (the interaction is argued in Arp 1990b) destroyed the sharp star forming arms characteristic of the ScI, reduced its luminosity in the process, and turned it into the SBcIII-IV which it presently classified. Note that a galaxy of this morphological type is ordinarily a low luminosity, dwarf type object.

The most difficult point in Fig. 2 is the open circle at $`M_B`$ = -21.24 mag. which represents the nearby ScI galaxy M101. Its placement in the sky and redshift would argue for its being a companion to M81. That would make its luminosity and absolute diameter much more in consonance with other galaxies of its type. However, its Cepheid distance would have to be reduced from 6.7 to around 3.6 Mpc. As it stands it is an anomalous point in Fig. 2. Perhaps its cepheids are very low metal content and are vibrating in a low luminosity/ low overtone mode.

## References

Arp, H. 1988a, A&A 201, 70

Arp, H. 1988b, Seeing Red: Redshifts, Cosmology and Academic Science, Apeiron, Montreal

Arp, H. 1990a, Astro. Phys. Sp. Sci. 167,183

Arp, H. 1990b, P.A.S.P. 102, 436

Arp, H. 1994, ApJ 430, 74

Arp, H. 1998, ApJ 496, 661

Arp, H., Sulentic, J. 1985, ApJ 291, 88

Freedman,W., Madore, B., Gibson, B. et al. 2001, ApJ 553, 47

Macri, L., Stetson, P., Bothun, G., et al. 2001, ApJ in press and astro-ph/0105491

Napier, W., Guthrie, B. 1993, Progress in New Cosmologies, Plenum Press, 29.

Russell, D. 2001, ApJ submitted

Saha, A., Sandage A., Thim, F. et al. 2001, ApJ 551, 973

Sandage, A. 2000, PASP 112, 504

Sandage, A., Tamman, G. 1981, A Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog of Bright Galaxies, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Theureau, G., Hanski, M., Ekholm, T., Bottinelli, L., Gougenheim, L., Pateurel, G., Teerikorpi, P. 1999, IAU 183, 71

Tifft, W. 1976, Apj 206, 38


text:
# Damping and frequency shift in the oscillations of two colliding Bose-Einstein condensates

## I Introduction

The issue of the interaction between Bose-Einstein condensates in different internal states has deserved much attention in the recent literature, both from the experimental  and theoretical point of view . The study of these mixtures of quantum fluids includes several important topics, as the characterization of the dynamical behaviour, the response in presence of an external coupling, the phase coherence and the superfluid properties of the system.

Recently we have demonstrated an experimental method for a sensitive investigation of the interaction between two condensates , where two condensates are made to collide after periods of spatially separated evolution and quantitative information is extracted from the resulting collective dynamics.

In this Paper we report on new measures performed on such system in a wide range of trapping frequencies, which allow a systematic investigation of the effects of the collisions between the two condensates.

The experimental setup follows the scheme reported in Ref. . We use a radio-frequency (rf) pulse to produce two 87Rb condensates in the states $`|F=2,m_f=2|2`$ and $`|2,1|1`$. Due to the different magnetic moments and the effect of gravity, they are trapped in two potentials whose minima are displaced along the vertical $`y`$ axis by a distance much larger that the initial size of each condensate. As a consequence the $`|1`$ condensate, initially created with the same density distribution and at the same position of the $`|2`$ condensate, undergoes large center-of-mass oscillations. Moreover, the two condensates periodically collide, and this strongly affects the collective excitations of both the condensates . In particular the center-of-mass oscillation of the $`|1`$ condensate is damped and its frequency is shifted upwards, with respect to the non interacting case.

The Paper is organized as follows. In Section II, we describe the experimental setup. Then, in Section III, we present the experimental results, analyzing the effect of mutual interactions on the center-of-mass motion over a wide range of trap frequencies. The data are compared with the predictions of the Gross-Pitaevskii theory for two coupled condensates at zero temperature, according to the model discussed in Ref. . Finally, in Section IV we draw the conclusion.

## II Experimental setup

We start with a single $`|2`$ condensate containing typically $`1.5\times 10^5`$ 87Rb atoms at a temperature below 130 nK, confined in a 4-coils Ioffe-Pritchard trap elongated along the horizontal $`z`$ symmetry axis , which produces an axially symmetric harmonic potential. The harmonic oscillator axial frequency is held fixed to $`\nu _{z2}=12.6`$ Hz, while the radial frequency $`\nu _2`$ has been varied in the range $`113÷310`$ Hz by changing the minimum magnetic field $`B_0`$ according to the relation $`\nu _2=221\text{ Hz}/B_0\text{[G]}^{1/2}`$. The density distribution is an inverted parabola of the Thomas-Fermi (TF) regime , and the typical radial and longitudinal radii of the condensate are $`R_{}=4.3÷2.4\mu `$m and $`R_z=39÷58\mu `$m, in the range of frequencies considered here.

To populate the $`|1`$ state we apply a rf oscillating magnetic field. After the rf pulse the initial $`|2`$ condensate is put into a coherent superposition of different Zeeman $`|m_f`$ sub-levels of the $`F=2`$ state, which then move apart: $`|2`$ and $`|1`$ are low-field seeking states and stay trapped, $`|0`$ is untrapped and falls freely under gravity, while $`|1`$ and $`|2`$ are high-field seeking states repelled from the trap.

By fixing the duration and varying the amplitude of the rf field, we control the relative population in different Zeeman sub-levels . In the experiments described here we use a 10 cycles rf pulse at 1.24 MHz with an amplitude B=20 mG to quickly transfer $`13`$% of the atoms to the $`|1`$ state without populating the $`|0`$, $`|1`$ and $`|2`$ states.

In the frequency domain, the pulse width exceeds by almost one order of magnitude the transition broadening due to the inhomogeneous magnetic field across the condensate. As a result, the coupling strength does not depend on position and $`|1`$ is produced with the same spatial density profile as $`|2`$. Furthermore, since the characteristic time scale of the collective dynamics is of the order of 1 ms, no evolution occurs for the wavefunctions during the pulse, but, immediately after, excitations start in both the condensates.

The $`|1`$ condensate experiences a trapping potential with lower axial and radial frequencies ($`\nu _1=\nu _2/\sqrt{2}`$), whose minimum is displaced along the vertical $`y`$ axis by a distance $`y_0=g/\omega _2^2`$ due to gravity (“gravitational sagging”). In the frequency range considered here $`y_0`$ varies between 19 and 2.6 $`\mu `$m. After the rf-pulse, the $`|1`$ condensate moves apart from $`|2`$, and begins to oscillate around its equilibrium position. Due to the mutual repulsive interaction, the latter starts oscillating too, though with a much smaller amplitude. Actually, each condensate moves in an effective potential which is the sum of the external potential (magnetic and gravitational) and the mean-field one. Here we have studied the dynamics of the $`|1`$ condensate by varying the permanence time in the trap up to 40 ms.

After the release from the magnetic trap, we let the clouds drop and expand for 30 ms, and finally we take an absorption image on a CCD array. We notice that the process of switching off the magnetic field is not instantaneous, and lasts about 1 ms. Moreover it produces a magnetic gradient which affects the initial velocity of the two condensates. The acquired velocities experimentally observed are $`v_{1y}=0.7\pm 0.1`$cm/s and $`v_{2y}=1.4\pm 0.1`$cm/s, respectively for the $`|1`$ and $`|2`$ condensates. In the following we use an unknown, effective, switch-off delay time as the only fitting parameter for our theoretical model.

## III Center-of-mass oscillations

Let us recall the basic features of our system, as reported for the original experiment in Ref. . The initial configuration corresponds to the stationary ground-state with all the $`N`$ trapped atoms in the $`|2`$ condensate. Afterwards, at $`t=0`$, $`N_10.13N`$ atoms are transferred from the $`|2`$ to the $`|1`$ state, the former remaining with $`N_2=NN_1`$ atoms.

The dynamics of the condensate $`|2`$ is characterized by small amplitude center-of-mass oscillations and by shape oscillations which are both affected by the mutual repulsion with the other condensate when they periodically collide (see Fig. 1) .

Here we are mainly interested in the motion of the $`|1`$ condensate, which is on the contrary dominated by large oscillations, whose frequency $`\nu _1`$ turns out to be larger than the “bare” trapping frequency $`\nu _1`$. In fact the condensate $`|1`$ moves in an anharmonic effective potential (see Fig. 2) due to the presence of the condensate $`|2`$, which provides an extra repulsion with a consequent up-shift of frequency. This shift is one of the clear signatures of the mutual interaction, since it only occurs if the two condensates overlap periodically.

Furthermore, the oscillations appear to be damped. At the level of the Gross-Pitaevskii theory this damping is not due to dissipative processes (the total energy is conserved), but to a redistribution of the kinetic energy initially associated with the center-of-mass motion of the $`|1`$ condensate, which is eventually shared among the other degrees of freedom of the system (center-of-mass of the other condensate and internal excited states of both of them) .

To investigate the role of the interactions in the large center-of-mass oscillations of the $`|1`$ condensate in different dynamical regimes, we have carried out a systematic analysis by varying the trap frequency $`\nu _1`$ in the range $`80÷220`$ Hz (which corresponds to the above mentioned range $`113÷310`$ Hz for $`\nu _2`$).

In Fig. 3 we show the center-of-mass motion of the $`|1`$ condensate, for some values of the radial trapping frequency, by comparing the experimental data with the prediction of the 2D Gross-Pitaevskii model discussed in Refs. . In this case the only fitting parameter in the theoretical curves is the delay time caused by the non instantaneous switch-off of the trapping potential. Its value is $`0.7`$ ms. We notice also that in our model the effect of the expansion on the center-of-mass motion is considered as a simple free fall under gravity, neglecting any residual interaction between the condensates. Actually, although the two clouds acquire different velocities during the release from the trap, and cross each other in the fall, we expect them to quickly become so dilute, due to the fast radial expansion, that we can neglect their mutual mean-field repulsion. This is also supported by numerical simulation including interaction in the early stages of expansion .

The values for the frequency shift and the damping time in the whole range of frequency are summarized in Figs. 4 and 5 respectively. In Fig. 4 the relative shift of the $`|1`$ oscillation frequency is plotted versus its “bare” trapping frequency, i.e. in absence of interactions with $`|2`$. The experimental data are compared with the prediction of the classical model (solid line) and of the 2D-GP model (triangles). In Fig. 5, we show the “quality factor” $`Q=\omega _1\tau `$ of the oscillator as a function of $`\nu _1`$, $`\tau `$ being the damping time, comparing experimental points and theoretical predictions for our 2D model.

We notice that, concerning the frequency shift, there is a general agreement (within the experimental uncertainty) between GP theory and experiment in the whole range of frequency, except for the frequency of the original experiment (116.3 Hz). By the way, we have found that in this frequency range around 116.3 Hz there is an almost degeneracy between the energies of the two condensates (mean field + kinetic + potential energy that the two condensates can exchange during the collisions, see Ref. ). At this stage, we cannot tell whether this can play some physical role, or it is a pure coincidence.

On the contrary the observed damping is generally underestimated by the 2D GP model. This is not surprising, since there could be other sources of damping not included in our mean-field description. To be more specific, one should consider the following points.

(i) The theoretical curves are based on a 2D model which only includes the radial degrees of freedom in the $`xy`$-plane. In fact, being the geometry of our condensates strongly elongated in the longitudinal direction, we have approximated the system as a uniform cylinder, by freezing out the axial dynamics (see Ref.  for a comprehensive discussion). Therefore, the remaining contribution to the damping could in part arise from the excitations of axial modes (possible distortions of the shape of the two condensates along $`z`$), which are ignored in the present analysis. Anyway, there are indications from preliminary 3D simulations that these contributions should not be so important, at least for the case at 116.3 Hz.

(ii) We observe a certain fragmentation of the $`|1`$ condensate after some collision. This may have an influence on the measured center-of-mass since the density distribution develops low density asymmetric wings, which we might be unable to detect properly.

(iii) From the analysis of the experimental data there are indications in support of the occurrence of atom (and energy) losses from both condensates. In fact, the relative number of atoms for the $`|1`$ state ($`N_1/N`$) is in average a decreasing function of the trapping time. We remind that, although each experimental point corresponds to a different experiment (each point corresponds to a condensates released from the trap after a variable time), they are all performed with almost the “same” initial conditions. In principle we can exclude that these losses originate from the condensate finite lifetime ($`0.7(1)`$ s) or heating ($`dT/dt=0.11(2)\mu `$K/s), due to the short permanence times in the trap (less than 40 ms). Actually, this behaviour could be explained with a loss of atoms due to binary collisions between atoms of the two condensates, an effect that is not included in our GP mean-field theory.

Concerning this last point, an appealing mechanism could be the occurrence of elastic scattering processes between atoms of the two overlapping condensates, as discussed in Ref.  for the impurities motion inside a Bose condensate  and in the analysis of matter 4-waves mixing . In fact, since Bose-Einstein condensates are superfluids, when the relative velocity of the two condensates exceeds a critical value of the order of the sound velocity, we could expect the GP mean-field approximation to break down and “elastic scattering” losses to take place. Indeed, in our experiment, the two condensates collide at a velocity which is larger than the (maximum) speed of sound at the top of $`|2`$, $`c_0=\mathrm{}\sqrt{4\pi n_2a_{22}}/m`$, by a factor $`\alpha `$ that can be tuned by changing the radial frequency. In the frequency range considered, $`\alpha `$ goes from 4.2 at $`\nu _2=113`$ Hz to 2.1 at $`\nu _2=310`$ Hz. So, we should expect the effect of the “elastic scattering”, if any, to be more pronounced at low radial frequency. As a consequence the results of the GP model should be more accurate at high frequency. This conclusion, however, is not supported by the experimental observations.

A detailed theoretical analysis of our experiment in this respect is under way at the NIST group, in Gaithersbourg (USA). Preliminary results give a better agreement for the damping time with the inclusion of elastic scattering , at least for the case of the original experiment in Ref. .

## IV Conclusions

To summarize, we have analyzed the large center-of-mass oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensates in a strongly elongated magnetic trap, over a wide range of frequencies. The condensate is produced by transferring part of the atoms from a parent condensate in the $`|F=2,m_f=2`$ state to the $`|F=2,m_f=1`$ state. The new condensate is created far from its equilibrium position in the magnetic potential, and undergoes large oscillations, periodically colliding with the parent condensate. We have shown that the mutual interactions between the two condensates deeply affect both the amplitude and the frequency of the oscillations. The experimental data are compared with the prediction of a 2D model based on the Gross-Pitaevskii theory for two coupled condensates at zero temperature. This model accounts for the basic features of the system, and the agreement with the data is generally satisfactory. Nevertheless, the discrepancy observed for the damping (and in some case also for the frequency) suggests that processes of atom losses (e.g. elastic scattering losses ) could play a significant role beyond the mean-field theory.

## V Acknowledgments

We acknowledge useful discussions with Y. Band, J. Burke and P. Julienne. We also thank F. Dalfovo for critical readings of the manuscript. This work was supported by the Cofinanziamento MURST and by the EU under Contract No. HPRICT1999-00111.