text:
# Photoluminescence of the Incompressible Laughlin Liquid: Excitons, Charged Excitons, and Fractionally Charged Excitons

## I Introduction

The magneto-optical properties of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) systems have been intensively studied experimentally and theoretically . It is known that in a dilute system confined in a so-called symmetric quantum well (QW), the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum is determined by a charged-exciton complex $`X^{}`$ (bound state of two electrons $`e`$ and a valence hole $`h`$) and its interaction with the remaining electrons. The existence of $`X^{}`$ in bulk semiconductors was predicted by Lampert , but only in 2D quantum wells (QW’s) does its binding energy turn out sufficiently large for the experimental detection. The observation of the $`X^{}`$ stimulated theoretical work, and it is now established that the only bound $`X^{}`$ state at zero magnetic field is the singlet state ($`X_s^{}`$) with the total electron spin $`J=0`$. Accordingly, the PL spectrum usually shows two peaks, due to the $`X`$ (neutral exciton) and/or $`X_s^{}`$ recombination, split by the $`X_s^{}`$ binding energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }_s`$.

The situation is more complicated in a magnetic field $`B`$. At very high $`B`$, the optically active $`X`$’s decouple from the electrons due to the “hidden symmetry” and the $`X_s^{}`$ unbinds. Interestingly, a different $`X^{}`$ state binds in high fields. It is a triplet ($`X_t^{}`$) with $`J=1`$ and finite total angular momentum. It has infinite radiative lifetime $`\tau _t`$ because of (independently) the “hidden” and 2D translational symmetry, and thus will be further called $`X_{td}^{}`$ ($`d`$ for “dark”). Although both symmetries are broken in experimental systems by mixing of Landau levels (LL’s), valence band mixing effects, asymmetry of the QW, and disorder, the $`X_{td}^{}`$ recombination is expected to be weak and disappear at very large $`B`$.

The fact that $`X_{td}^{}`$ unbinds at $`B=0`$ while $`X_s^{}`$ unbinds at high $`B`$ implies a singlet–triplet crossing, which in a GaAs QW of width $`w=10`$ nm was predicted at $`B30`$ T. Surprisingly, the following PL experiment showed no such transition up to $`B50`$ T. This puzzle was resolved by the identification of another bound state, a radiative excited spin-triplet $`X_{tb}^{}`$ ($`b`$ for “bright”) . The emission spectrum from both triplets was eventually measured , and agrees well with the theoretical prediction.

The fact that the PL spectrum of a 2DEG in a symmetric QW only measures the $`X`$ and/or $`X^{}`$ emission means that it is not a useful probe of electron correlations. The effect of surrounding 2DEG on the $`X^{}`$ emission is specially weak in dilute systems due to the Laughlin correlations effectively isolating an $`X^{}`$ from the electrons. Indeed, the measured PL spectra are remarkably insensitive to the electron density, and only at filling factors $`\nu `$ approaching $`\frac{1}{3}`$ does the relative position of PL peaks change with density.

The PL spectra containing more information about the original (Laughlin) electron correlations of the 2DEG are obtained in asymmetrically doped wide QW’s. In such structures, the spatial separation $`d`$ of $`e`$ and $`h`$ layers weakens the $`e`$$`h`$ interaction, and the PL spectra show discontinuities at the filling factor $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$ at which Laughlin incompressible liquid state is formed and the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) effect is observed in transport experiments. The reason for these discontinuities is that at $`d`$ exceeding the magnetic length $`\lambda `$, the effective Coulomb potential of the hole seen by the electrons is too weak and its resolution is too low, and a hole can no longer bind “whole” electrons to form $`X^{}`$’s. Instead, the hole interacts with charge excitations that are already present in the 2DEG and which near $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$ happen to be a small number of Laughlin quasiparticles (QP’s). At $`\nu <\frac{1}{3}`$, the hole repels positively charged quasiholes (QH’s) and thus remains in the locally undisturbed incompressible electron state (such state can be called a “decoupled hole” and denoted by $`h`$). The situation is quite different at $`\nu >\frac{1}{3}`$, when the hole attracts negatively charged quasielectrons (QE’s) and binds one or two of them to form a fractionally charged exciton (FCX), $`h`$QE or $`h`$QE2.

In this paper, we discuss results of numerical calculations of various radiative $`e`$$`h`$ complexes that contribute to the PL spectrum of a 2DEG depending on $`d`$ and $`\nu `$. The energy and PL spectra are obtained from exact diagonalization in Haldane spherical geometry. The presented unified description of the PL from the 2DEG at high $`B`$ given in terms of emission from well defined bound states ($`X`$, $`X^{}`$, and $`h`$QEn) reduces the problem of a very complicated interaction between a hole and the 2DEG to a simpler one, of determining the single-particle properties of the bound “quasiparticles”. In particular, the optical selection rules for these states are formulated, following from the translational invariance.

## II Model

Preserving the 2D translational symmetry of an infinite 2DEG in a finite-size calculation turns out to be essential for the identification of the optical selection rules of bound $`e`$$`h`$ states and the degeneracies in their energy spectrum. For any system of electrons and/or holes, this symmetry causes conservation of two orbital quantum numbers. For systems with total electric charge, $`𝒬0`$ (such as $`X^{}`$), they are the total angular momentum $``$ and an additional angular momentum quantum number $`𝒦`$ associated with a partial decoupling of the CM motion in a homogeneous magnetic field. The energy levels of a charged system fall into degenerate LL’s labeled by $`=+𝒦`$, and the states within each LL have $`𝒦=0`$, 1, 2, …. Since both $``$ and $`𝒦`$ commute with the PL operator $`𝒫`$, the following selection rule governs recombination of isolated charged $`e`$$`h`$ complexes: $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\mathrm{\Delta }𝒦=0`$.

In order to confine electrons to a finite area (in order to achieve finite degeneracy of electron and hole LL’s) without breaking the 2D symmetry, Haldane  proposed to put electrons and holes on a sphere of radius $`R`$. The magnetic field $`B`$ perpendicular to the surface is due to a monopole placed in the center. The monopole strength $`2S`$ is defined in the units of elementary flux $`\varphi _0=hc/e`$, so that $`4\pi R^2B=2S\varphi _0`$ and the magnetic length is $`\lambda =R/\sqrt{S}`$. The single-particle states are the eigenstates of angular momentum $`l`$ and its projection $`m`$ and are called monopole harmonics . The energies $`\epsilon `$ fall into $`(2l+1)`$-fold degenerate angular momentum shells separated by the cyclotron energy $`\mathrm{}\omega _c`$. The $`n`$-th ($`n0`$) shell (LL) has $`l=S+n`$ and thus $`2S`$ is a measure of the system size through the LL degeneracy. Due to the spin degeneracy, each shell is further split by the Zeeman gap, $`E_Z`$.

As a result of 2D rotational invariance, a many-body $`e`$$`h`$ system on a sphere has two good quantum numbers, length $`L`$ and projection $`L_z`$ of the total angular momentum $`𝐋`$. The mapping between quantum numbers $``$ and $`𝒦`$ on a plane and the 2D algebra of $`𝐋`$ on a sphere allows conversion of the results between the two geometries. In particular, LL’s of a charged $`e`$$`h`$ complex are represented on a sphere by $`L`$-multiplets, states within each LL are labeled by $`L_z`$, and the optical selection rule is $`\mathrm{\Delta }L=\mathrm{\Delta }L_z=0`$. The price paid for closing the many-body Hilbert space without breaking the 2D symmetry is the surface curvature affecting interaction matrix elements. However, if the correlations modeled have short range $`\xi `$, the effects of curvature (scaled by a small parameter $`\xi /R`$) can be eliminated by extrapolation to $`R\mathrm{}`$.

Using a composite index $`i=[nm\sigma ]`$ ($`\sigma `$ is the spin projection), the $`e`$$`h`$ Hamiltonian can be written as $`H=c_{i\alpha }^{}c_{i\alpha }\epsilon _{i\alpha }+c_{i\alpha }^{}c_{j\beta }^{}c_{k\beta }c_{l\alpha }V_{ijkl}^{\alpha \beta }`$, where $`c_{i\alpha }^{}`$ and $`c_{i\alpha }`$ create and annihilate particle $`\alpha `$ ($`e`$ or $`h`$) in state $`i`$, and $`V_{ijkl}^{\alpha \beta }`$ are the Coulomb matrix elements. The Hamiltonian $`H`$ is diagonalized numerically in the basis of $`Ne`$$`1h`$ Slater determinants. Small density of holes is assumed which allows ignoring $`h`$$`h`$ interaction effects and inclusion of only one valence hole in the basis. The $`Ne`$$`1h`$ eigenstates are labeled by $`L`$, $`L_z`$, and $`J`$.

The most important factors that determine dimension of the Hamiltonian matrix that must be diagonalized are the number of electrons $`N`$, the LL degeneracy controlled by $`2S`$, the number of excited LL’s included, and the inclusion of spin-unpolarized states. Using modified Lanczos algorithms we diagonalized Hamiltonians of dimensions up to about $`5\times 10^6`$. In the $`X^{}`$ problem, the number of particles is small and the inclusion of reversed spins and LL’s is possible. The numerical results for $`X^{}`$’s agree well with recent experiments . However, when studying FCX’s, as many electrons as possible need be included in the calculation, and the model must be simplified by assuming maximum spin polarization ($`J=\frac{1}{2}N`$), neglecting excited LL’s, and setting zero QW width, $`w=0`$. This allowed for calculation for $`N9`$ at $`\nu \frac{1}{3}`$, but the results are largely qualitative.

## III Coulomb Potential of the Hole as a Perturbation:
Strong and Weak Coupling Regimes

The potential $`V_{UD}(r)`$ seen by the electrons due to the positive charge of the optically injected valence hole $`h`$ can be described by two effective parameters, strength $`U`$ and spatial resolution $`D^1`$. The response of the 2DEG to the perturbation $`V_{UD}(r)`$ depends on the relation between $`U`$ and $`D`$ and the characteristic energies and lengths of the unperturbed system. The pair of perturbation parameters $`U`$ and $`D^1`$ in principle can be varied independently, but in experimental samples they are predominantly controlled through the effective spatial separation $`d`$ of the hole from the 2DEG layer. The magnitude of $`d`$ depends on the electric field oriented across the 2DEG plane and resulting from asymmetric doping. In symmetrically doped QW’s, the hole moves in the same physical layer as the electrons ($`d=0`$). However, in the asymmetrically (one-sided) doped QW’s the displacement $`d`$ can be as large as the QW width $`w`$.

Clearly, at $`d=0`$ both $`U`$ and $`D^1`$ are the largest, and the strongest response of the 2DEG to the hole can be expected. The actual magnitudes of $`U`$ and $`D^1`$ at $`d=0`$ depend on the details of hole wave function, which to some extent depend on the magnetic field. In the extreme case of $`B=\mathrm{}`$ (lowest LL approximation), the $`e`$ and $`h`$ wave functions are identical and the interaction Hamiltonian is particle–hole symmetric. This “hidden” symmetry causes vanishing of all electric moments in the optically active ground state of a bound $`e`$$`h`$ pair ($`X`$), which in turn causes the decoupling of $`X`$’s from the 2DEG. As a result, the $`X`$ is the most strongly bound optically active $`e`$$`h`$ state that can form in the 2DEG. In the opposite case, the (infinitely heavy) hole acts as a point charge and its attraction to an electron is larger by a factor of $`\sqrt{2}`$. In an intermediate situation, the enhanced $`e`$$`h`$ attraction always breaks the hidden symmetry and causes coupling of an $`X`$ to electrons. As a result, radiative $`X^{}`$ states occur, and the $`X^{}`$ rather than $`X`$ should be regarded the most stable bound state formed by a hole injected into the 2DEG. This can be rephrased as that at finite $`B`$ and $`d=0`$ the 2DEG responds to $`V_{UD}(r)`$ by binding two electrons to the hole to form an $`X^{}`$ and screen the hole’s positive charge.

In the other limit of large $`d`$, both $`U`$ and $`D^1`$ are too small to cause a strong response of an incompressible electron liquid. A hole is no longer able to pick out and bind a single electron from the 2DEG, which can be understood by noticing that the elementary charge excitations of an unperturbed 2DEG (QE’s and QH’s) have finite energy ($`\epsilon _{\mathrm{QE}}`$ and $`\epsilon _{\mathrm{QH}}`$), and that the electron wave function in the vicinity of the hole that corresponds to an $`X^{}`$ can be expanded in the basis of these QE and QH excitations. On the other hand, too large $`d`$ implies too large $`D`$ and the size of an isolated $`X^{}`$ ($`2e`$$`1h`$ ground state) that would exceed the characteristic $`e`$$`e`$ distance $`\sqrt{\varrho }`$ ($`\varrho `$ means density) and make such an $`X^{}`$ unstable when inserted into the 2DEG (independently of the preceding energetic argument). The only allowed response of the 2DEG to the hole in this (“weak”) coupling regime is to screen the hole’s positive charge with the negatively charged QE’s that are already present in the 2DEG. The fact that only the existing QE’s can bind to the hole makes the response critically depend on the filling factor $`\nu `$. For example, near the Laughlin filling of $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$, the hole repels the QH’s and moves in the locally incompressible $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$ liquid, causing no local response of the 2DEG. Conversely, the binding of one or more QE’s to the hole is expected at $`\nu >\frac{1}{3}`$, and the resulting bound FCX states $`h`$QEn are the most stable bound states at large $`d`$. Since the “uncoupled” state $`h`$ has different emission energy $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ and oscillator strength $`\tau ^1`$ than the $`h`$QEn’s, discontinuity in the PL spectrum is expected at $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$, in agreement with the experimental PL data for asymmetric structures .

## IV Strong Coupling Regime: Neutral and Charged Excitons

### Isolated Charged Exciton: Energy Spectrum.

An isolated neutral ($`X`$) or charged ($`X^{}`$) exciton consists of only two or three particles. In the numerical calculation of the energy and PL spectra of this relatively simple quantum mechanical system we were able to include the effects of the finite magnetic field $`B`$ that causes LL mixing (by including up to five electron and hole LL’s, $`n4`$, with the lowest LL degeneracy of $`2S+1=21`$) and of the finite QW width $`w`$ (by using the values of the two-body Coulomb matrix elements appropriate for the lowest subband of the QW rather than for an ideal 2D system). It should be stressed that due to different electron and hole effective masses and due to a different height of the electron and hole confinement potential at the well/barrier interface, the electron and hole wave functions in the $`z`$-direction are different even in the symmetric structures with $`d=0`$. To a first approximation, this is included by introducing a pair of effective widths of the electron and hole layers, $`w_e^{}`$ and $`w_h^{}`$, obtained by fitting the actual density profile $`\varrho (z)`$ of each carrier with $`\mathrm{cos}^2(\pi z/w^{})`$. For a $`w=10`$ nm GaAs/Al0.33Ga0.67As QW the effective widths are $`w_e^{}=w+3.3`$ nm and $`w_h^{}=w+1.5`$ nm.

The Zeeman energy $`E_Z=g^{}\mu _BB`$ ($`g^{}`$ is the effective giromagnetic factor and $`\mu _B`$ is the Bohr magneton) enters the problem of an $`X^{}`$ in two ways. (i) Because of the complete spin polarization of the 2DEG, binding of an $`X^{}`$ state may or may not require a spin flip, depending on the total spin $`J`$ of two electrons in the bound $`X^{}`$ state. Therefore, the binding energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of each spin triplet ($`J=1`$) $`X^{}`$ state is insensitive to the Zeeman energy, but for spin singlet ($`J=0`$) states $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is reduced by $`E_{Ze}`$ compared to the pure Coulomb binding energy. For GaAs, $`E_{Ze}`$ is roughly a linear function of energy through both cyclotron energy $`\mathrm{}\omega _cB`$ and confinement energy $`1/w^2`$. After Snelling et al., for $`w10`$ nm at $`B=0`$, we have $`g_e^{}=(w_0/w)^2+g_0`$ with $`w_0=9.4`$ nm and $`g_0=0.29`$. After Seck et al. we find $`dg_e^{}/dB=0.0052`$ T-1. (ii) The recombination of an $`X`$ or $`X^{}`$ state can occur through relaxation of a conduction electron with either spin to the valence band. Since the angular momentum of the photon ($`\pm 1`$) depends on the spin of the relaxing electron, and the emission energy $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ includes the Zeeman energy of the recombining $`e`$$`h`$ pair, $`E_{Ze}+E_{Zh}`$, each PL peak associated with the emission from an $`X`$ or $`X^{}`$ state is split into two circularly polarized peaks by $`E_{Ze}+E_{Zh}`$. The splitting is most evident for $`X_s^{}`$ because of the large population of both electron spin levels even at a very low temperature.

In Fig. 1 we show the $`2e`$$`1h`$ energy spectra calculated for a $`w=11.5`$ nm GaAs QW at $`B=13`$, 30, and 68 T.

In each frame, the energy $`E`$ is measured from the exciton energy $`E_X`$, so that for the bound $`X^{}`$ states it is opposite to the binding energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Open and full symbols denote singlet and triplet electron spin configurations, respectively, and only the state with the lowest Zeeman energy ($`J_z=J`$) is marked for each triplet. Similarly, each state with $`L>0`$ represents a degenerate multiplet with $`|L_z|L`$. The angular momentum $`L`$ calculated in the spherical geometry and given on the horizontal axes under each graph translates into the angular momentum on a plane $``$ in such way that the $`L=S`$ and $`S1`$ multiplets correspond to the planar LL’s with $`=0`$ and $`1`$, respectively.

### Isolated Charged Exciton: Radiative Recombination.

Due to the conservation of $`L`$ in the PL process, only those $`2e`$$`1h`$ states from the $`L=S`$ channel are radiative. This is because an annihilated $`e`$$`h`$ pair has $`l_X=0`$, and the electron left over in the lowest LL has $`l_e=S`$. Recombination of other, non-radiative states requires breaking the rotational symmetry (e.g., by interaction with other charges). This result is independent of chosen spherical geometry; on a plane the 2D translational symmetry leads to the conservation of both $``$ and $`𝒦`$, and the corresponding PL selection rule for $`2e`$$`1h`$ states is $`=0`$.

Three $`X^{}`$ states in Fig. 1 are of particular importance. The $`X_s^{}`$ and $`X_{tb}^{}`$, the lowest singlet and triplet states at $`L=S`$, are the only strongly bound radiative states, while $`X_{td}^{}`$ has by far the lowest energy of all non-radiative ($`LS`$) states. In agreement with earlier prediction, the transition from $`X_s^{}`$ to $`X_{td}^{}`$ ground state is found at $`B30`$ T, and a new, radiative excited triplet state $`X_{tb}^{}`$ is identified in all frames. The binding energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of each of these three $`X^{}`$ states, extrapolated to the $`R/\lambda =\sqrt{S}=\mathrm{}`$) limit, is plotted as a function of $`B`$ in Fig. 2a.

Clearly, the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{td}`$ increases most quickly of all curves with increasing $`B`$, the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_s`$ remains almost constant (specially its Coulomb part drawn with the thin line), and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{tb}`$ remains smaller than both $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{td}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_s`$ at any value of $`B`$.

The extrapolated values of the oscillator strength $`\tau ^1`$ of the $`X`$ and two radiative $`X^{}`$ states are shown in Fig. 2b. The ratio $`\tau _{tb}^12\tau _s^1`$ remains almost independent of $`B`$, and the resulting three PL peaks ($`X`$, $`X_s^{}`$, and $`X_{tb}^{}`$) are precisely the ones observed in experiments. In the above, we assumed that both electrons and holes are completely spin-polarized ($`J_z=J`$), but typically, all electron spins and only a fraction of hole spins $`\chi _h`$ are aligned with the field. As a result, the $`X_{tb}^{}`$ PL has definite circular polarization ($`\sigma _+`$) and its intensity is reduced by $`\chi _h`$, while the $`X_s^{}`$ PL peak splits into a $`\sigma _\pm `$ doublet (separated by the appropriate Zeeman energy) with the intensity of the two transitions weighted by $`\chi _h`$ and $`1\chi _h`$. An increase of $`\chi _h`$ from $`\frac{1}{2}`$ to 1 with increasing $`B`$ may explain the observed increase of $`\tau _{tb}^1`$ by up to a factor of two, while $`\tau _s^1`$ remains constant.

### Interaction of Charged Excitons with Electrons.

Even in dilute systems, recombination of bound $`e`$$`h`$ complexes can in principle be affected by their interaction with one another or with excess electrons. Specially the recombination of a $`X_{td}^{}`$ might become allowed in a collision assisted process in which the translational symmetry of an isolated $`X_{td}^{}`$ is broken. The critical question is if the $`e`$$`X^{}`$ correlations are of the Laughlin type, meaning that the many-body $`e`$$`X^{}`$ wave function contains a Jastrow prefactor $`(x_iy_j)^\mu `$ (where $`x`$ and $`y`$ are complex coordinates of $`e`$ and $`X^{}`$, and $`\mu `$ is an integer). If it is so, then a number $`\mu `$ of the highest energy $`e`$$`X^{}`$ pair eigenstates are avoided in the low-energy many-body states  (just as the $`p`$ leading $`e`$$`e`$ pair eigenstates are avoided in the Laughlin $`\nu =(2p+1)^1`$ state of electrons). This means lack of high-energy $`e`$$`X^{}`$ collisions, and thus an effective isolation of the $`X^{}`$ states from the 2DEG and insensitivity of the $`X^{}`$ binding or recombination to the electron density. In particular, Laughlin $`e`$$`X_{td}^{}`$ correlations would eliminate the possibility of collision-assisted recombination of the $`X_{td}^{}`$.

To determine if the Laughlin correlations occur in a mixed $`e`$$`X^{}`$ liquid, one must calculate the $`e`$$`X^{}`$ interaction pseudopotential $`V(L)`$, defined as the dependence of the pair interaction energy $`V`$ on the pair angular momentum $`L`$. The general criterion for the occurrence of Laughlin correlations in a many-body system confined to a degenerate LL and interacting through $`V(L)`$ is that $`V`$ must have short range, i.e. decrease sufficiently quickly with increasing $`L`$. On a sphere, $`V`$ must be a super-linear function of $`L(L+1)`$. It turns out that this criterion is satisfied by the $`e`$$`X^{}`$ repulsion in narrow QW’s. This implies a simple connection between $`\nu `$ and the maximum allowed $`L`$ (i.e., minimum average separation) for a $`e`$$`X^{}`$ pair: $`L+\mu l_e+l_X^{}`$ for $`\nu \mu ^1`$, and allows calculation of the effect of the $`e`$$`X^{}`$ interaction on the $`X^{}`$ recombination as a function of $`\nu `$.

In Figs. 3 and 4 we plot the PL oscillator strength $`\tau ^1`$ and energy $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ (measured from the exciton energy $`E_X`$) for the $`3e`$$`1h`$ eigenstates corresponding to an $`X^{}`$ interacting with another electron.

We assume that the Zeeman energy will polarize all electron spins prior to recombination, except for those two in the $`X_s^{}`$, and concentrate on the following three initial configurations: $`e`$$`X_s^{}`$ with $`J_z=J=\frac{1}{2}`$ and $`e`$$`X_{tb}^{}`$ and $`e`$$`X_{td}^{}`$ with $`J_z=J=\frac{3}{2}`$. For each of the three configurations, $`\tau ^1`$ and $`E`$ are plotted as a function of $`L`$ (i.e. of $`\nu `$).

For $`X_{tb}^{}`$ and $`X_{td}^{}`$, only an $`e`$$`h`$ pair can be annihilated, and an emitted photon has a definite circular polarization $`\sigma _+`$. Two indistinguishable electrons left in the final state have $`J=1`$, so their $`L`$ must be odd ($`2l_e`$ minus an odd integer). For $`X_s^{}`$, both $`\sigma _+`$ and $`\sigma _{}`$ PL are possible, with the energy of the latter transition shifted by $`E_{Ze}+E_{Zh}`$. For $`\sigma _+`$, the two electrons in the final state can have either $`J=0`$ and $`L`$ even, or $`J=1`$ and $`L`$ odd; while for $`\sigma _+`$ they can only have $`J=1`$ and $`L`$ must be odd.

As expected, for $`L0`$ (i.e., $`\nu 0`$) both $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ and $`\tau ^1`$ converge to the values appropriate for single $`X^{}`$’s plotted in Fig. 2 (the energies shown in Fig. 4 correspond to the $`\sigma _+`$ transitions given by $`E_X`$ plus Coulomb binding energy; if present in the PL spectrum, additional $`\sigma _{}`$ transitions will appear at the energy higher by $`E_{Ze}+E_{Zh}`$). There is no significant effect of the $`e`$$`X^{}`$ interactions on the $`X^{}`$ recombination at small $`L`$. This justifies a simple picture of PL in dilute $`e`$$`h`$ plasmas, according to which, recombination occurs from a single isolated bound complex and hence is virtually insensitive to $`\nu `$. Somewhat surprisingly, the Laughlin correlations prevent increase of the $`X_{td}^{}`$ oscillator strength through interaction with other charges ($`\tau _{td}^1`$ remains ten times longer than $`\tau _s`$ even at $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$). This explains the absence of an $`X_{td}^{}`$ peak even in the PL spectra  showing strong recombination of a higher-energy triplet state $`X_{tb}^{}`$ (except at very low temperatures). An interesting feature in Fig. 4 is the merging of $`\mathrm{}\omega _{tb}`$ and $`\mathrm{}\omega _{td}`$ which actually has been observed.

## V Weak Coupling Regime: Fractionally Charged Excitons

The fractionally charged excitons (FCX’s) $`h`$QEn formed in strongly asymmetric QW structures ($`d>\lambda `$) consist of $`n`$ QE’s bound to a valence hole $`h`$. Since QE’s are collective excitations of a many-electron system, as many electrons as possible must be included in the computation. This was only possible by a severe limitation of the single-particle Hilbert space to the lowest LL. Although the inter-LL $`e`$$`h`$ scattering was quite important at $`d=0`$ (where it caused binding of $`X_s^{}`$ and $`X_{tb}^{}`$ states), it is greatly reduced at larger $`d`$ and, unlike at $`d=0`$, the lowest-LL approximation is expected to be more justified. Nevertheless, the model studied is necessarily a very ideal one and, consequently, such realistic elements as the finite QW width have also been excluded. Therefore, the numerical results obtained in this section are not meant to describe experiments as accurately as those for $`X^{}`$’s, although the fact of the FCX binding or the optical selection rules for different FCX states are expected to be valid for experimental systems.

The binding of FCX states relies on the attractive interaction between the (oppositely charged) $`h`$ and QE, and the weak QE–QE interaction at short range. On the other hand, the stability of the FCX states at sufficiently large $`d`$ against the formation of $`X`$ or $`X^{}`$ excitons results from the $`h`$–QE attraction being sufficiently small compared to the Laughlin gap $`\epsilon _L=\epsilon _{\mathrm{QE}}+\epsilon _{\mathrm{QH}}`$. The comparison of the $`h`$–QE attraction energy (the largest $`h`$–QE pseudopotential parameter) to $`\epsilon _L`$ shows that the FCX’s rather than $`X`$’s or $`X^{}`$’s should be the most stable bound states formed by a hole injected into the 2DEG at $`d`$ larger than about a magnetic length $`\lambda `$.

### Numerical Energy Spectra.

The series of $`9e`$$`1h`$ energy spectra calculated for $`d=\lambda `$ and $`2\lambda `$ are presented in Figs. 5 and 6.

The three spectra shown for each $`d`$ are obtained for different values of $`2S`$, corresponding to $`N_{\mathrm{QE}}=1`$, 2, and 3 QE’s in the Laughlin $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$ state of $`9e`$ system (without interaction with the valence hole). In Fig. 5 ($`d=\lambda `$, intermediate-coupling regime), new low-energy bands of states emerge in addition to those characteristic of strong coupling and containing an $`X`$ or $`X^{}`$. These new states contain various FCX’s interacting with the remaining QP’s of the $`9e`$ liquid. In some cases the FCX states occur in the same spectrum with the $`X`$ or $`X^{}`$ states. For example, the $`h`$QE2–QE band in Fig. 5c coexists with the $`X`$ state (meaning $`X`$ weakly coupled to the Laughlin $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$ state of the remaining $`8e`$) and the $`X^{}`$–QH band (meaning $`X_{td}^{}`$ Laughlin-correlated with the remaining $`7e`$; QH denotes a quasihole in the two-component, $`e`$$`X^{}`$ Laughlin liquid). In other cases, low-lying $`X`$ or $`X^{}`$ states of the strong-coupling regime occur at the same $`L`$ as a low-lying FCX of the weak-coupling regime, and the transition between the two states (which occurs at $`d\lambda `$) is continuous. For example, $`h`$QE2 is mixed with $`X^{}`$QH2 in Fig. 5b, and $`h`$QE is mixed with $`X^{}`$QH3 in Fig. 5a.

In Fig. 6 ($`d=2\lambda `$, weak-coupling regime), well developed FCX bands occur. The isolated $`h`$QE, $`h`$QE2, and $`h`$QE3 states are the ground states in the spectra corresponding to $`N_{\mathrm{QE}}=1`$, 2, and 3, respectively. Their angular momenta $`l_{\mathrm{FCX}}`$ are obtained by adding $`l_h=S`$ and $`l_{\mathrm{QE}}=S^{}+1`$, where $`2S^{}=2S2(N1)`$ is the effective monopole strength in the composite fermion picture and $`2S=3(N1)N_{\mathrm{QE}}`$. Similarly, the angular momenta of states containing an FCX and excess QP’s result from adding $`l_{\mathrm{FCX}}`$ and $`l_{\mathrm{QP}}`$.

### Selection Rules and Photoluminescence.

Similarly as it was for $`X^{}`$’s, the translational symmetry of an isolated FCX leads to the conservation of $`L`$ and $`L_z`$ in the emission process. This leads to the strict optical selection rules that can only be broken by collisions or disorder. The recombination of an FCX state $`h`$QEn formed in a Laughlin $`\nu =(2p+1)^1`$ electron liquid occurs through annihilation of a well defined number of QE’s and creation of an appropriate number of QH’s. It turns out that the processes involving more than the minimum number of QP’s all have negligible intensity, which for $`p=1`$ ($`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$) leaves only the following four possible recombination events: $`h+n\mathrm{QE}(3n)\mathrm{QH}+\gamma `$, where $`n=0`$, 1, 2, or 3, and $`\gamma `$ denotes the photon. Let us apply the angular momentum conservation law, $`\mathrm{\Delta }L=\mathrm{\Delta }L_z=0`$, to the above recombination events. In the fermionic picture, the angular momenta of QE and $`h`$ in the initial $`Ne`$$`1h`$ state at a given monopole strength $`2S`$ are $`l_{\mathrm{QE}}=SN+2`$ and $`l_h=S`$. By adding $`l_{\mathrm{QE}}`$ and $`l_h`$, the following values are obtained for the angular momenta of FCX complexes: $`l_{h\mathrm{QE}}=N2`$, $`l_{h\mathrm{QE}_2}=\frac{1}{2}(N1)`$, and $`l_{h\mathrm{QE}_3}=3`$. The angular momentum of QH in the final $`(N1)e`$ state at the same $`2S`$ is $`l_{\mathrm{QH}}=SN+2`$. By comparing the values of $`l_{h\mathrm{QE}_n}`$ with the angular momenta allowed for $`(3n)`$ identical QH’s in the final state, we obtain that (i) the “decoupled hole” state $`h`$ is radiative and can recombine to create a QH3 molecule with the maximum $`L=3l_{\mathrm{QH}}3`$ allowed for three QH’s, (ii) $`l_{h\mathrm{QE}}`$ is different from any $`L`$ allowed for two QH’s and thus $`h`$QE is non-radiative; however, the first excited state, $`h`$QE\* at $`l_{h\mathrm{QE}^{}}=l_{h\mathrm{QE}}+1`$ is radiative and recombines to create a QH2 molecule with $`L=2l_{\mathrm{QH}}1`$; (iii) $`l_{h\mathrm{QE}_2}`$ is radiative and its recombination leaves behind a single QH; (iv) neither $`l_{h\mathrm{QE}_3}`$ nor its excitations are radiative.

The above analysis leaves $`h`$, $`h`$QE\*, and $`h`$QE2 as the only radiative FCX states, while $`h`$QE and $`h`$QE3 are found dark. It is expected that a valence hole introduced into the 2DEG at $`\nu <\frac{1}{3}`$ (in the absence of free QE’s) and at $`d>\lambda `$ will decouple and recombine from the initial state $`h`$ (local filling factor $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$). On the other hand, at $`\nu >\frac{1}{3}`$ the valence hole will bind one or more free QE’s and recombine from either $`h`$QE\* or $`h`$QE2 initial state, depending on $`d`$, temperature, and the QE density. Since the initial state from which the hole recombines changes at $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$, and since different FCX states have different emission energy and intensity, the PL spectrum of a 2DEG created in a strongly asymmetric structure is expected to change discontinuously at the corresponding magnetic field.

## VI Conclusion

The PL spectrum of a 2DEG was studied as a function of the separation $`d`$ between $`e`$ and $`h`$ layers. Two types of response of the 2DEG to the optically injected hole were identified. In the strong-coupling regime ($`d\lambda `$) the most strongly bound states are $`X`$ and $`X^{}`$, and the PL spectrum measures their optical properties rather than the original correlations of the 2DEG. In particular, the dark triplet $`X_{td}^{}`$ remains virtually non-radiative at $`\nu <\frac{1}{3}`$. In the weak-coupling regime ($`d>\lambda `$), the $`X^{}`$ states unbind and, depending on $`\nu `$, the hole either decouples from the 2DEG or binds one or more QE’s to form a FCX state $`h`$QEn. The most stable radiative bound state at $`\nu \frac{1}{3}`$ is found to be the “decoupled hole,” while at $`\nu >\frac{1}{3}`$ it is either $`h`$QE2 or $`h`$QE\* (excited state of $`h`$QE). Since different FCX states have different opticl properties, discontinuities are expected in the PL spectrum at $`\nu =\frac{1}{3}`$.

### Acknowledgment

The author acknowledges helpful discussions with J. J. Quinn, P. Hawrylak, M. Potemski, and I. Bar-Joseph, and support by the KBN grant 2P03B05518.


format: text

text:
# A thermal instability for positive brane cosmological constant in the Randall-Sundrum cosmologies

## 1 Introduction

In this letter we describe a new dynamical mechanism, which, in the context of the Randall-Sundrum cosmological scenario, renders unstable solutions described by the embedding of a four dimensional de Sitter universe in the five dimensional $`AdS`$ spacetime. This mechanism is closely related to the Unruh effect and, more directly, to the effect whereby accelerated mirrors radiate. When the four dimensional vacuum energy (or cosmological constant) is a function of dynamical degrees of freedom, such as when the vacuum energy depends on the value of a scalar field, our result implies that positive vacuum energy density may be radiated into the bulk, resulting in a decrease of the effective four dimensional cosmological constant111Earlier proposals for dynamical decay of the cosmological constant in de Sitter spacetime were described in ..

More particularly, we describe here three results of an investigation into the possible role of Unruh and moving mirror acceleration in the context of the Randall-Sundrum cosmologies.

* There are modes of the linearized bulk gravitational field which, rather than being bound to the brane, see the brane as a perfectly reflecting mirror.
* Given plausible physical assumptions, this implies that the brane does radiate into the $`AdS`$ bulk spacetime. However, when the effective four dimensional cosmological constant $`\lambda _{4e}`$ vanishes, or is negative, the temperature is zero. Thus, the original RS scenario in which $`\lambda _{4e}=0`$ is in fact stable and does not Unruh radiate into the bulk.
* When $`\lambda _{4e}`$ is strictly positive, the temperature is non-vanishing. The temperature is proportional to the square root of effective 4d cosmological constant, $`\sqrt{\lambda _{4e}}`$.

We note that so long as the approximations we employ are valid, these results mean that any positive value of the cosmological constant can be radiated away, with a temperature governed by $`\sqrt{\lambda _{4e}}`$ 222 Chamblin et al , previously discussed moving mirror radiation from branes and its interaction with Hawking radiation from black holes in the bulk. A related idea, studied previously by Deffayet et al and Levin, is that de Sitter radiation in the brane might leak into the bulk, resulting in decay of the cosmological constant..

In the next section we display the existence of linearized modes of the bulk gravitational field which see the brane as a mirror. In section 3 we apply to this known results on Unruh radiation in $`AdS`$ spacetime and moving mirrors to deduce the conclusions just mentioned. In the concluding section we discuss the range of parameters in which our approximations may be considered valid.

## 2 The Brane as a Mirror

Randall and Sundrum and others have studied modes of the linearized bulk Einstein equations which are, in the sense described in , bound to the brane. In this section we demonstrate the existence of other linearized bulk modes, for which the brane functions as a mirror. We begin with the five dimensional action for the RS scenario:

$$S=\frac{1}{G_5}d^5x\sqrt{g_5}(^{(5)}\mathrm{\Lambda })\mathrm{d}^4\mathrm{x}\sqrt{\mathrm{g}_4}(\tau +_{\mathrm{matter}}),$$
(1)
where $`^{(5)}`$ is the five dimensional Ricci scalar, $`g_5`$ and $`g_4`$ are the five and four dimensional metrics respectively, $`G_5=l_{Pl}^2R`$ is the five dimensional Newton’s constant and $`\tau `$ is the brane tension. The bulk space is a piece of anti-de Sitter space described by

$$ds^2=dy^2+e^{|y|/R}\eta _{\mu \nu }dx^\mu dx^\nu ,$$
(2)
and the brane resides at $`y=0`$. We are interested in the boundary conditions for gravitational modes at the brane. Hence, we begin by linearizing the Einstein equations.

We begin by noting that it is possible to consider two classes of bulk perturbations. The first are those identified by Randall-Sundrum as those bound to the brane.

$$ds^2=dy^2+e^{|y|/R}[\eta _{\mu \nu }+\gamma _{\mu \nu }]dx^\mu dx^\nu ,$$
(3)
where $`\gamma _{\mu \nu }`$ is assumed to be $`C^{\mathrm{}}`$ at the brane. This means that the derivatives of the linearized modes actually have singular behavior near the brane, coming from terms in $`_y|y|`$ and $`_y^2|y|`$ at $`y=0`$. The behavior of these modes is by now well studied to linearized order. Let us call these type I modes.

These are not the only linearized modes of the metric in the spacetime. Consider perturbations of the form,

$$ds^2=dy^2+[e^{|y|/R}\eta _{\mu \nu }+h_{\mu \nu }]dx^\mu dx^\nu ,$$
(4)
where now $`h_{\mu \nu }(y,x)`$ is considered to be non-singular at the brane. Let us call these type II modes. To study them it is more convenient to switch to coordinates $`z=Re^{y/R}`$, for $`y0`$ (which implies that $`zR`$), so that the $`AdS`$ metric is of the form

$$ds^2=\frac{R^2}{z^2}(dz^2+dx_4^2),$$
(5)
and the linearized metric is of the form,

$$ds^2=\frac{R^2}{z^2}\left(dz^2+dx_4^2\right)+h_{\mu \nu }(z,x)dx^\mu dx^\nu .$$
(6)
Again $`h_{\mu \nu }`$ is assumed to be non-singular333Note that while the background RS solution is invariant under a parity transformation in which $`yy`$, the same is not required to be true of the linearization of solutions close to the RS solution. The point is that while a particular solution to Einstein’s equations may have an isometry, no isometry can be imposed on the whole space of solutions to the Einstein’s equations. (In fact, only a set of measure zero of metrics in the space of solutions have any isometries). Thus, if we consider linearizing the Einstein’s equations around a given solution with an isometry, the isometry cannot be imposed also on the linearized modes. The reason is that to be physically meaningful the linearized modes must span the space of linearizations of exact solutions close to the original one. Were we to impose a symmetry of the background on the linearized modes we might miss some modes which are linearizations of full solutions. Thus we must consider all type II modes which satisfy the boundary conditions, without regard to symmetry. at the position of the brane, which is now $`z=R`$.

We choose a flat brane located at $`z=z_0=R`$ with $`R^2=\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and then linearize the field equations arising from the action (1). It is sufficient for our purposes to go directly to traceless, transverse gauge, where we find,

$$\frac{1}{\sqrt{g_5}}_\rho g_5^{\rho \sigma }_\sigma \sqrt{g_5}h_{\mu \nu }=\tau \delta (z,z_0)h_{\mu \nu }+T_{\mu \nu }^{matter}\delta (z,z_0).$$
(7)
Since the brane tension $`\tau `$ is non-vanishing, all solutions to this equation in the absence of matter on the brane must satisfy

$$h_{\mu \nu }(z_0)=0.$$
(8)
This is simply the Dirichlet boundary condition. Thus, we find that type II modes which satisfy the linearized Einstein’s equations exist, but they are not free on the brane, instead, in the absence of matter, the brane acts as a mirror for these modes444Note that for Type I modes the dangerous $`\tau \delta (z,z_0)`$ term is canceled by a delta function coming from the term $`_y^2|y|/R`$ which comes from the five dimensional wave operator applied to the perturbation $`e^{|y|/R}h_{\mu \nu }`$. .

This result is not special to the flat embedding, it applies to all fluctuations around brane embeddings which extremize the action (1) of the form,

$$ds^2=dy^2+[g_{\mu \nu }^0+h_{\mu \nu }]dx^\mu dx^\nu ,$$
(9)
where $`g_{\mu \nu }^0`$ is the metric for an embedding of a brane.

Type II modes were considered also by Randall and Sundrum, who argued that they interact very weakly with matter on the brane. While this is true, we will show below that the fact that they see the brane as a mirror has consequences due to the quantum effect that accelerated mirrors in some circumstances radiate.

Before going on to understand what the consequences of the type II modes are for the RS cosmological scenarios we should comment on the existence of two kinds of modes of the linearized metric, Type I, bound to the brane and Type II, which are reflected by the brane. How can we tell if either, or both are true modes of the gravitational field? The point is that not any solution to the linearized Einstein’s equation represents an actual linearization of a full solution to the full Einstein’s equations. What is required is more: $`h_{\mu \nu }`$ is a genuine linearization of a full solution to Einstein’s equations if there is a one parameter family of exact solutions $`g_{\mu \nu }(\lambda ),\varphi (\lambda )`$, where $`\varphi `$ represents all the matter degrees of freedom, such that $`dg_{\mu \nu }(\lambda )/d\lambda |_{\lambda =0}=h_{\mu \nu }`$. One simple check is to carry out an expansion of the Einstein equations to higher order, to show that a solution can be generated order by order. In the case of Type I modes these equations may be singular as a result of the $`_y|y|\theta (y)`$ and $`_y^2|y|\delta (y)`$ behavior of the derivatives of the modes at the location of the brane at $`y=0`$. This is a question that deserves investigation.

## 3 The Brane Mirror and Thermal Radiation

The problem of moving mirror boundary conditions in quantum field theory has been studied in some detail since the 1970’s. The conclusion in Minkowski spacetime is that a moving mirror with a constant acceleration will radiate a thermal bath of particles with a temperature given by the Unruh radiation associated to its value of acceleration, $`a`$

$$T_{mm}=T_{unruh}=\frac{\mathrm{}a}{2\pi c}.$$
(10)
It is important to note that this is a nontrivial observation, as a moving mirror is a different physical system than the detectors first studied by Unruh and others. However it is easy to make a thermodynamic argument for it. If I am in a bath of thermal radiation at temperature $`T`$ and I uncover a mirror, or take one out of my pocket, that mirror will interact with the radiation and come to equilibrium at the same temperature. Any other behavior would contradict the second law of thermodynamics. But since an accelerating observer in the vacuum is known to observe a thermal bath of radiation, the same must apply to this case, otherwise an accelerated observer could violate the laws of thermodynamics.

The problem of Unruh radiation has also been studied in $`AdS`$ spacetimes, by Deser and Levin, and Jacobson, following a seminal work on $`QFT`$ in $`AdS`$ spacetimes by Avis, Isham and Storey. They find that there are several natural choices of vacua, corresponding to the fact that $`AdS`$ spacetime is not globally hyperbolic. The specification of the vacuum state then depends on boundary conditions imposed at timelike infinity. Isham et al, and Deser and Levin study three natural choices of vacua, corresponding to reflected or transmitted boundary conditions at the time like infinity. They find that a particle detector following a timelike worldline in a $`d`$ spacetime dimensional $`AdS`$ spacetime will in some cases detect a flux of particles with a thermal or modified thermal spectrum. They further find that there are simple criteria to determine whether the temperature is non-vanishing, and compute its value. These have to do with the embedding of the accelerating trajectory in the flat $`d+1`$ dimensional spacetime within which the $`AdS`$ spacetime is embedded. First, the temperature is only non-vanishing when the trajectory in the $`d+1`$ dimensional spacetime is hyperbolic, so it has horizons in the embedding spacetime, analogous to the Rindler horizon. Then, when the temperature is non-vanishing it is in fact proportional to the $`d+1`$ dimensional acceleration of the worldline in the $`d+1`$ dimensional flat embedding spacetime.

$$T_{unruh}=\frac{\mathrm{}a_{d+1}}{2\pi c}.$$
(11)
The moving mirror problem has not, to our knowledge, been studied in an $`AdS`$ spacetime. But by making a similar thermodynamic argument we can arrive at the conclusion that a moving mirror in $`AdS`$ spacetime will radiate quanta in a thermal or modified thermal spectrum at a temperature given by (11). Suppose a family of observers in ordinary $`AdS`$ spacetime follows the trajectories that would be followed by freely falling worldlines of an RS brane. By the results of  they would see themselves immersed in a bath of radiation with temperature (11). Now suppose they convert some sand they are carrying into mirrors that totally reflect the quanta in question. Then those mirrors must also come to equilibrium at the same temperature (11), otherwise the second law is violated. Thus, an external observer, moving inertially in the $`AdS`$ spacetime will see the mirrors radiate a flux of quanta at the same temperature.

Of course the energy must come from the observers, who require energy to both continue their motion and construct the mirrors. The energy drained by the radiation created represents a kind of purely quantum mechanical radiation reaction. In the case that the brane itself acts as a mirror, the energy must come from energy density stored in the vacuum of the quantum field theory on the brane.

In the previous section we showed that the RS brane is precisely a mirror for a certain set of modes in the bulk five dimensional $`AdS`$ spacetime, which we called Type II modes. We then have a prediction that the RS brane will radiate into the bulk a gas of thermal Type II gravitons

$$T_{RS}=\frac{\mathrm{}a_6}{2\pi c},$$
(12)
where $`a_6`$ is the acceleration of a freely falling particle in the RS brane measured in the six dimensional embedding spacetime.

We need now only look at the details to find out what this implies for RS cosmologies.

The RS brane is embedded in $`AdS_5`$ which is an embedding into a flat six dimensional space

$$ds_6^2=d\stackrel{~}{y}_0^2+d\stackrel{~}{y}_1^2+d\stackrel{~}{y}_2^2+d\stackrel{~}{y}_3^2+d\stackrel{~}{y}_4^2d\stackrel{~}{y}_5^2,$$
(13)
with constraint

$$\stackrel{~}{y}_0^2+\stackrel{~}{y}_1^2+\stackrel{~}{y}_2^2+\stackrel{~}{y}_3^2+\stackrel{~}{y}_4^2\stackrel{~}{y}_5^2=R^2.$$
(14)
The coordinates can be parameterized by defining

$`\stackrel{~}{y}_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2z}}(z^2+x_i^2t^2+R^2),`$
$`\stackrel{~}{y}_i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{Rx_i}{z}},`$
$`\stackrel{~}{y}_4`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2z}}(z^2+x_i^2t^2R^2),`$
$`\stackrel{~}{y}_5`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{Rt}{z}},`$ (15)
such that the metric can be written as,

$$ds_5^2=\frac{R^2}{z^2}(dz^2+dx_i^2dt^2),$$
(16)
where index $`i`$ runs from 1 to 3. If we define,

$$z=Re^{y/R},$$
(17)
then it takes the form,

$$ds_5^2=dy^2+e^{2y/R}(dx_i^2dt^2).$$
(18)
To consider the $`dS`$ embedding, let us introduce a positive constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_4`$, and take the following coordinate transformation

$`y`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }_4}Rt^{}Rlog(sinh{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma y^{}}{R}}),`$
$`t`$ $`=`$ $`Rcoth{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma y^{}}{R}}e^{\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }_4}t^{}},`$
$`x_i`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_4R^2x_i^{}.`$ (19)
The metric becomes

$$ds_5^2=d^2y^{}+(\mathrm{\Lambda }_4R^2sin^2h\frac{\gamma y^{}}{R})(e^{2\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }_4}t^{}}d^2x_i^{}d^2t^{}),$$
(20)
where $`\gamma `$ is related to the brane tension by,

$$\tau =\frac{3}{G_5R}coth\frac{\gamma }{R}.$$
(21)
It’s evident that, at $`y^{}=const.`$, the metric of the brane describes the standard $`deSitter`$ spacetime555 We emphasize that equation (20) is indeed a solution to the action (1). For details, see ; for de Sitter embeddings with two rather than one branes, see .. We also see that a de Sitter embedding is only possible for $`\tau >3/G_5R`$. However as can be seen from (28), below, this does not restrict the effective four dimensional cosmological constant.

Now suppose a graviton detector is set at $`x_i=0`$ on the brane. Despite being static with respect to brane world, it is accelerated in both $`AdS_5`$ and the six-dimensional flat space time. Furthermore, the trajectory of the detector can be identified with the trajectory of the brane in $`AdS_5`$ or $`M_6`$. We are particularly interested in the six-dimensional acceleration $`a_6`$. When $`y^{}=const.`$ and $`x_i=x_i^{^{}}=\stackrel{~}{y}_i=0`$,

$$\stackrel{~}{y}_0^2+\stackrel{~}{y}_4^2=R^2cosh^2\frac{\gamma y^{}}{R}R^2a_6^2,$$
(22)
where $`a_6`$ is the constant acceleration in six dimensional flat space time. We see that the trajectory is indeed hyperbolic in the six dimensional spacetime, which means that the temperature will be non-zero. We can also compute the magnitude of the six dimensional acceleration directly by making use of equations (15), (17) and (19) to compute $`d^2\stackrel{~}{y}^\alpha /ds^2`$, where $`s`$ is the proper time of the detector. As $`x_i^{}=dx_i^{}=0`$ and $`y^{}=const.`$, $`s=\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }_4}Rsinh\frac{\gamma y^{}}{R}t^{}`$. It is straightforward to obtain the magnitude of acceleration which is,

$$|a_6|^2=|a_{y_0}|^2+|a_{y_4}|^2=\frac{1}{R^2sinh^2\frac{\gamma y^{}}{R}}.$$
(23)
Thus, by combining this with the results of  we conclude that an observer at $`y^{}=const.`$ and $`x_i=x_i^{}=y_i=0`$ on a de Sitter brane will detect thermal radiation with the temperature

$$T=\frac{\mathrm{}a_6}{2\pi c}=\frac{\mathrm{}}{2\pi cRsinh\frac{\gamma y^{}}{R}}.$$
(24)
To find the effective four dimensional cosmological constant $`\lambda _{4e}`$ we must renormalize the coordinates so that the metric is in the form of

$$ds_{brane}^2=e^{2\sqrt{\lambda _{4e}(y^{})}s}d^2w_id^2s.$$
(25)
This requires new coordinates,

$$ds=(\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }_4}Rsinh\frac{\gamma y^{}}{R})dt^{},$$
(26)
$$dw_i=(\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }_4}Rsinh\frac{\gamma y^{}}{R})dx_i^{}.$$
(27)
The effective cosmological constant for a brane positioned at $`y^{}`$ is then

$$\lambda _{4e}=\frac{1}{R^2sin^2h\frac{\gamma y^{}}{R}}.$$
(28)
We see then that at fixed $`y^{}`$ the temperature is related to the effective cosmological constant by the usual de Sitter relation,

$$T=\frac{\mathrm{}\sqrt{\lambda _{4e}}}{2\pi c}.$$
(29)
By the above thermodynamic argument we then expect that the brane itself will radiate into the modes for which it serves as a mirror, with the same temperature. These are our main results.

We now make several comments on these results.

* We note that (29) is the same as the de Sitter temperature of de Sitter radiation internal to the brane, which is a consequence of the existence of horizons in the de Sitter spacetime. However the moving mirror radiation radiates into the five dimensional $`AdS`$ spacetime. As the brane is the source of that radiation it must result in energy loss from the brane.
* If we consider the Minkowski and $`AdS`$ embeddings, which have vanishing or negative cosmological constant, respectively, we can easily show that there is no thermal radiation in these cases. To see this, we consider the flat brane which is obtained by fixing $`y`$ to be constant in (18), and a quick calculation shows that the acceleration in six dimensional spacetime is zero 666Even so, note the five dimensional acceleration over the $`AdS`$ background is not zero. The brane is accelerated with respect to the bulk at the rate of $`1/z_0`$, where $`z_0(R)`$ is the transverse position of the brane., implying a vanishing temperature. As far as the $`AdS`$ brane is concerned, we have the following choice,

$`y`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }_4}Rx_3^{}Rlog(cosh{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma y^{}}{R}}),`$
$`x_3`$ $`=`$ $`Rtanh{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma y^{}}{R}}e^{\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }_4}x_3^{}},`$
$`x_{1,2}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_4R^2x_{1,2}^{},t=\mathrm{\Lambda }_4R^2t^{},`$ (30)
such that the metric has the form,

$$ds_5^2=d^2y^{}+(\mathrm{\Lambda }_4R^2cosh^2\frac{\gamma y^{}}{R})[e^{2\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }_4}x_3^{}}(dx_1^2+dx_2^2dt^2)+dx_3^2].$$
(31)
From (15), (17) and (30), we find the six-dimensional acceleration of a detector at a fixed spatial position on the brane is also zero. Thus, the temperature of the brane is given by

$$T=\frac{\mathrm{}a_6}{2\pi c}=\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Theta }(\lambda _{4e})\sqrt{\lambda _{4e}}}{2\pi c}.$$
(32)
* It of course follows from (24) that, if the effective cosmological constant of our universe is positive, all the fields we observe are very weakly coupled to a five dimensional thermal bath of Type II gravitons with a temperature given by (29). Of course, the coupling is extremely weak, as has been discussed by  and other authors. But it is not impossible that there may be observable consequences of this prediction.

## 4 Conclusion: A Possible Dynamical Mechanism for Radiating away Positive Cosmological Constant

The results just describe imply that the embedding of a four dimensional de Sitter universe as a brane in the five dimensional Randall-Sundrum cosmology is unstable. The exact channel that the instability goes through depends on the coupling of the quantum fluctuations of the vacuum to the Type II modes and hence on the model used for the vacuum energy. Of course, as noted in  the coupling of matter degrees of freedom living on the brane to the Type II modes may be suppressed by various factors. Let us first consider the case where the suppression is insignificant, so that the radiation may be considered to be blackbody. In this case the energy radiated into the bulk per unit time and unit brane volume is given by the usual formula,

$$=c\mathrm{}^4T^5\lambda _{4e}^{5/2}.$$
(33)
It is not difficult to see that this effect may be significant for the evolution of the early universe. Let us consider a standard inflationary model in which $`\tau =𝒱(\varphi )`$ where $`\varphi `$ is the inflation field and $`𝒱(\varphi )`$ its potential. Let $`\lambda _{4e}=1/L^2`$ and define the evaporation time scale by

$$t_{evap}=\left(\frac{1}{\tau }\frac{d\tau }{ds}\right)^1.$$
(34)
Then an adiabatic approximation, in which the solution can be approximated by a series of de Sitter embeddings with slowly decreasing $`\lambda _{4e}`$, will be valid so long as

$$\frac{t_{evap}}{L}>>1.$$
(35)
But it is then not difficult to see that

$$\frac{t_{evap}}{L}>3\left(\frac{L}{l_{Pl}}\right)^2\left(\frac{L}{R}\right)^2$$
(36)
so that if $`RTev^1`$ to solve the hierarchy problem then an adiabatic approximation is good so long as $`L>10^7l_{Pl}`$. At the same time, we see that the evolution of an inflationary solution may be significantly modified at early times.

The rate of decay may be slowed by suppression factors coming from the fact that the coupling of Type II modes to the vacuum energy is weak and gravitational. But the effect of these will be to increase the evaporation time, which increases the regime in which an adiabatic approximation is valid.

We note that the effect is present so long as $`\lambda _{4e}>0`$, which means that $`\tau >3/G_5R`$. Thus this effect may radiate away all contributions to the effective cosmological constant, including those that result from matter falling onto the brane from the bulk, such as described in (). In principle, the radiation continues until $`\lambda _{4e}=0`$, at which point $`\tau `$ decreases to the value necessary to stabilize the embedding of the flat $`RS`$ brane. However the evaporation time becomes much longer than $`L`$ as $`\lambda _{4e}`$ decreases. More work is then needed to understand whether this effect may be significant for observational astronomy.

In closing we remark on several checks of our reasoning that should be carried out. First, the thermodynamic argument we rely on here should be checked by doing a first principles calculation of radiation from a moving mirror in a five dimensional $`AdS`$ spacetime. These calculations are in progress. Given these results one may investigate, in the context of particular models of the inflation, whether the effective cosmological constant is in fact sent to zero and how the transition from an inflating universe to a FRW universe takes place. Finally, the question of whether both Type I and Type II modes are genuine linearizations of full solutions to the Einstein equations should be investigated by carrying out the linearizations to higher order.

## Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Daniel Freedman, Kelle Stelle, Emmanual Katz, Janna Levin and Lisa Randall for discussion and correspondence and to Clifford Burgess, Robert Brandenberger, Andrew Chamblin, Gia Dvali, Ted Jacobson, Nemanja Kaloper and Robert Myers for comments on earlier versions of this letter. Yi Ling and Lee Smolin would like to thank Chris Isham and the theoretical physics group at Imperial College for hospitality. This work was supported by the NSF through grant PHY95-14240, a PPARC grant and gifts from the Jesse Phillips Foundation.


text:
# Angle of repose and segregation in cohesive granular matter

## I Introduction

The presence of small amounts of liquid can have a considerable influence on the properties of granular matter. For example, the angle of repose of a wet granular pile is greater than that of a dry pile made of the same material. Cohesive forces are introduced because of liquid bridges that are formed between particles. Cohesivity causes jamming in the flow of granular matter even in a regime where dry granular matter may flow. Wet granular matter is also observed to segregate less than dry granular matter as particles cannot move easily relative to each other. Although these qualitative facts are well known, a detailed knowledge of the properties even in comparison with dry granular matter has not yet been attained.

The properties of dry granular matter have attracted a considerable number of studies. Granular matter in a box which is tilted does not flow until a certain angle is exceeded at the surface. This angle usually called the maximum angle of stability $`\theta _m`$ depends on the frictional properties and the packing of the granular matter. However, if the granular matter is in motion, it can relax down to a lower angle which is called the angle of repose $`\theta _r`$. The existence of the lower $`\theta _r`$ may be due to the lower kinetic friction compared to static friction between the particles and other dynamical effects . The observed hysteresis may also occur because there are infinitely many meta-stable states above $`\theta _r`$ in which the system can get trapped .

In case of a very large pile of granular matter, it has been argued that $`\theta _m`$ is unaffected by the cohesivity introduced by the presence of the fluid. This is true provided that the frictional properties between the particles are unaltered due to the presence of a lubrication layer. The basic argument is that while frictional force which helps hold a pile together increases with the size of the pile, the cohesive force is constant and becomes insignificant in comparison . However the effects can be important for a laboratory or industrial scale system. Recently, there have been a number of studies that have tried to relate the fluid content and its surface tension to observed increase in angles. $`\theta _r`$ measured by Schiffer and collaborators  using the draining crater method is observed to initially increase linearly and then fluctuate around a constant value. For an ideal sphere-sphere contact, increasing the liquid content will lead to decreased cohesive force and hence a lowered $`\theta _r`$. Therefore they proposed that particle surface roughness plays an important role and a cone-plane type of contact between particles may be more appropriate. They also believed that the fluid coats the particles evenly. Mason et al.  have studied the distribution of the fluid on the surface of the particles using optical fluorescence microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. These studies appear to show that the fluid is in fact trapped in the menisci that are formed at the asperity on the grain surface. They have therefore claimed that the behavior of $`\theta _m`$ at low volume fractions of the fluid is consistent with a scaling theory based on the surface roughness of the grains . Other studies note that considerable differences between $`\theta _r`$ and $`\theta _m`$ can arise when humidity is present and have shown that the wetting properties of the fluid can be also important .

The identification of the occurance and the extent of segregation is of considerable importance in material handling in industry. Preferential percolation of small particles through layers of larger particles is usually identified as leading to segregation when granular flows occur at a free surface . Stratification can occur in such systems if rough and smooth shaped grains are present . The presence of the fluid alters the percolation of particles  and thus has a profound influence on the progress of segregation in granular matter. It is thus surprising that the effects of the fluid on the progress of segregation has not been investigated in detail till recently. In a recent publication, we reported that the presence of a fluid drastically reduces segregation in bidisperse granular matter that is poured into a silo .

Although it is clear that the surface tension of the fluid is important in determining the cohesive force and hence $`\theta _r`$, the role of the viscosity of the fluid $`\nu `$ may be less obvious. It is a common observation that a finger dipped in honey feels sticky in comparison to a finger dipped in water. This occurs because stronger forces are required to move the liquid into regions that are vacated. Therefore viscous forces may have a significant effect on the dynamics of the grains. It is thus important to investigate the effect of $`\nu `$ on both $`\theta _r`$ and on size separation. Furthermore, viscous effects grow in importance for smaller dimensions. It may be possible to understand the effects of humidity on powders, that are smaller in size in comparison, by investigating effects of viscosity on segregation in granular systems. This may be useful because quantitative studies with powders are more difficult to conduct.

In this context, we report a detailed study of the angle of repose and segregation of granular matter in the presence of a fluid using high resolution digital imaging. Some of the results have been reported in a Letter  and here we report additional data and analysis. We first investigate the effect of the size of the particles on $`\theta _r`$ as a function of the volume fraction of the fluid. We also discuss in detail our experimental observation of the effect of the viscosity $`\nu `$ of the fluid on $`\theta _r`$. We then study the extent of segregation by visualizing the color-coded glass particles using bidisperse glass beads with size ratio $`r`$. Interestingly, the decrease in segregation is observed to saturate at similar values of volume fraction as $`\theta _r`$. It can be also noted that small particles preferentially clump in a bidisperse mixture and this leads to subtle effects on the nature of the particle spatial-distribution as the volume fraction of the fluid is increased. As the volume fraction of the fluid increases and as the limit is approached where all the interstitial volume is saturated with the fluid, one can expect that the effects of the cohesion introduced by liquid bridges to become less important. This may have an effect on $`\theta _r`$ and size separation. However, there are practical difficulties in investigating high volume fractions because the fluid tends to drain. Therefore we also conducted experiments when the particles are completely immersed in a fluid to understand this limit.

## II Experimental Apparatus

A schematic of the experimental apparatus is shown in Fig. 1. A rectangular silo of dimensions $`50.0\mathrm{cm}\times 30.5\mathrm{cm}`$ and a width $`w`$ of $`3.0\mathrm{cm}`$ is used for the experiments. The flow is visualized through the glass side-walls of the silo using a 1000 pixel $`\times `$ 1000 pixel Kodak ES 1.0 digital camera. The glass particles and fluids used are listed in Table I and Table II respectively. The granular sample is prepared in batches by throughly mixing 1.0 kilogram of each of the two kinds of particles with the fluid before the mixture is placed inside the reservoir. The volume fraction $`V_f`$ of the fluid is calculated as the ratio of the volume of the fluid to the volume of all the particles. The volume of the particles corresponds to the weight of the particles divided by the density of the glass beads which is $`2.4\mathrm{gcm}^3`$.

The wet granular material is first filled into a reservoir and then drained through a pipe into the silo. In previous experiments we demonstrated that segregation can occur during draining of a wide silo , and therefore a tall cylindrical reservoir is used to minimize segregation from occuring during pouring. Pipes with various diameters are used to control the flow rate $`Q`$. Larger diameters are used at higher $`V_f`$ in order to maintain $`Q2.2`$ g s<sup>-1</sup>. The reservoir is raised at a slow constant rate with a stepper motor and a system of pulleys. The slow upward velocity of the reservoir allows the particles to accumulate inside the pipe before flowing down the surface and reduces the kinetic energy of particles due to free fall. Such precautions are necessary otherwise particles acquire substantial kinetic energy during free fall and tend to bounce back from the surface several times leading to size separation and stratification in the case of bidisperse particles. Smaller particles bounce back higher from the surface of the pile and land further down the pile in contrast to what is usually observed, i.e. small particles at the top of the sandpile. This effect coupled with periodic avalanching observed at the surface can lead to alternate layers of mixed and small particles. By using the pipe, we ensure that the interaction of particles is restricted to the surface of the pile. Thus the number of mechanisms involved in segregation is reduced and the system is simpler.

We varied the time that the sample was mixed and found it had little effect on $`\theta _r`$. We also waited a varying amount of time before pouring to test the effect of evaporation. We found that only in the case of water, there was a small influence if we waited for one hour for volume fractions below $`V_f<2\times 10^3`$. Therefore, to minimize the effects of evaporation, the mixture was poured immediately after mixing.

## III The effect of interstitial fluid on the angle of repose

A triangular shaped granular pile is formed after the material is poured into the silo. The flow of the granular material is continuous for dry particles, but becomes increasingly stick-slip as $`V_f`$ is increased. The flowing region is roughly 10 layers deep for dry particles, but the flow region becomes deeper and is not as well defined as $`V_f`$ is increased. The resulting pile for monodisperse glass particles is shown in Fig. 2 and it can be observed that the surface of the wet pile is at a greater inclination than the dry pile.

### A Size dependence of the angle of repose

$`\theta _r`$ is measured by obtaining images of the sand pile after the silo is filled and fitting a straight line to the surface of the pile. The obtained slope is averaged over 10-15 images as a centimeter deep layer of granular matter is added and a new surface is created. $`\theta _r`$ is plotted as a function of $`V_f`$ for particles with various diameters $`d`$ in Fig. 3(a). $`\theta _r`$ is first observed to increase sharply with $`V_f`$ and then saturate approximately. The value of $`V_f`$ at which $`\theta _r`$ begins to saturate is $`V_c`$. The saturation value of $`\theta _r`$ is observed to increase with the size of the particles. This fact can be qualitatively noted from Fig. 2.

The increase and approximate saturation of $`\theta _r`$ is qualitatively similar to those earlier observed using the draining crater method . Quantitative differences exist perhaps because of the difference in the geometries. As discussed in the introduction, both the increase in $`\theta _r`$ and saturation is surprising if one assumes ideal spheres in contact. To explain this property, work has focused on the fact that particles are not perfectly smooth but have asperities. Using Mohr-Coloumb analysis and making assumptions for the height and distance over which the surface of the sphere fluctuates, Halsey and Levin  found that $`\theta _m`$ can increase linearly and then saturate to a value given by:

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta _mk+\frac{\sqrt{8}\pi k\mathrm{\Gamma }}{d\rho _ggH}\mathrm{sec}[\mathrm{tan}^1(k)]$$
(1)
where, $`k`$ is coefficient of static friction, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the surface tension of the fluid, $`g`$ is acceleration due to gravity, $`\rho _g`$ is the density of the particles, and $`H`$ is height of the pile. It has been assumed here that the capillary force $`F_{cap}`$ between the particles is given by $`\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }d`$. They assume that the saturation will occur approximately when the wetting is determined by the macroscopic curvature of the particles, which is greater than the scale of the roughness of the surface of the particles. According to the model, volume $`V_c`$ is given by $`\lambda ^2d`$ where $`\lambda `$ is length scale over which fluctuations occur. The model predicts that $`\theta _m`$ decreases with $`d`$, which is consistent with our observations. Although there is a qualitative agreement between our data for $`\theta _r`$ and the model for $`\theta _m`$ , there is considerable disagreement related to the value of $`V_c`$. For example for 1 mm particles, where the particle surface fluctuations are about $`1\mu `$m, the model predicts saturation for $`V_c10^5`$. However the observed $`V_c`$ is significantly higher and is approximately $`5\times 10^3`$.

While it is possible that the disagreement can arise because $`\theta _m`$ is calculated and $`\theta _r`$ is measured, additional effects may have to be taken into account in calculating the average cohesive force due to capillary bridges. For example, it has been assumed that only the capillary forces between particles in contact is important. However it is possible that as $`V_f`$ increases, particles that are slightly away from each other can also form liquid bridges. Therefore, it is possible that the average number of liquid bridges per particle increases with $`V_f`$. This effect may be important in determining the regime over which $`\theta _r`$ can increase.

We plot in Fig. 3(b), the $`\theta _r`$ for particles with $`d=0.5`$ mm and $`d=3.1`$ mm and the bidisperse mixture (BD-3) to illustrate the behavior of $`\theta _r`$ when particles of different diameters are present. The $`\theta _r`$ for the bidisperse mixtures are located in between the $`\theta _r`$ of their components. A similar effect is observed for the other size ratios.

Besides the increase of $`\theta _r`$ due to the addition of the fluid, the surface of the pile is observed to become rough \[see Fig. 2(b),(d)\]. In addition, the roughness of the surface of the pile is greater for the smaller particles. We plot the mean square of the deviation of the surface from a straight line $`\chi ^2`$ for the particles mixed with water for a fixed $`V_f=24\times 10^3`$ in Fig. 3(c) to quantitatively show the increase in roughness with decreases in particle size. We observe that smaller particles clump more than larger particles at similar $`V_f`$. We therefore believe that the increased roughness of the surface is because of clumping of the particles. As the particles form more clumps, the surface becomes increasingly rough and $`\chi ^2`$ grows. The standard deviation of $`\theta _r`$ obtained by repeating measurements for a particular $`V_f`$ was reported in Ref.  as a measure of clumping. The reported observations are consistent with our more direct measurement of the surface heights. We will later see that the preferential clumping of small particles has an important effect on the progress of segregation and introduces layering.

### B Effect of viscosity of the fluid on the angle of repose.

To investigate the effect of viscosity on the flow and the angle of repose, we kept the surface tension of the fluid constant and change $`\nu `$ of the fluid. Because water and glycerol have very similar surface tension, we used mixtures of these two fluids to change $`\nu `$ . Glycerol dissolves in water and the mixture is homogenous after it is stirred for a few minutes. Using water-glycerol mixtures we obtained $`\theta _r`$ as a function of $`V_f`$.

In Fig. 4(a) we plot $`\theta _r`$ for $`d=0.5`$ mm beads as a function of $`V_f`$, for water, glycerol, and a water-glycerol mixture. Fig. 4(a) shows that $`\theta _r`$ increases with $`\nu `$. The increase is observed to be sharper and the saturation is observed to occur at higher values for glycerol compared to water. We chose $`V_f=24\times 10^3`$ in the saturated regime to plot $`\theta _r`$ as a function of $`\nu `$ for monodisperse particles and bidisperse mixtures in Fig. 4(b). We observe that saturation value for $`\theta _r`$ depends on $`\nu `$ and increases with $`\nu `$.

We have measured $`\theta _r`$ up to 48 hours after the granular mixture is poured into the silo. While a few local rearrangements occur up to a few minutes after pouring, we do not find measurable changes in the surface, thus indicating the absence of creep. We have thus shown that the viscosity of the fluid clearly influences the observed $`\theta _r`$. In the next section we will discuss the viscous force between the particles due to the fluid.

### C Estimates of the viscous force

Let us consider two particles that are moving away from each other. A schematic diagram is shown in Fig. 5(a). Fig. 5(b) shows 0.1 mm particles mixed with glycerol for $`V_f=24\times 10^3`$. Based on Reynolds lubrication theory, an expression for the viscous force has been derived for two identical rigid spherical surfaces . The theory relates the pressure $`P`$ generated in the liquid to the relative displacement of the two particles as:

$$\frac{d}{dr_1}(r_1H^3(r_1)\frac{dP(r_1)}{dr_1})=12\nu r_1\frac{dh}{dt},$$
(2)
where, $`H(r_1)=h_0+2r_1^2/d`$ is the distance between the two surfaces at radial distance $`r_1`$ from the center \[see Fig. 5(a)\]. If the particles are completely immersed in the fluid, the expression for the viscous force is:

$$F_{vis}=\frac{3}{8}\pi \nu d^2\frac{1}{h_0}\frac{h_0}{t}.$$
(3)
For a liquid bridge, there is a correction coefficient  to Eq. (3) and the expression for the force is:

$$F_{vis}=\frac{3}{8}\pi \nu d^2(1\frac{h_0}{H(R)})^2\frac{1}{h_0}\frac{h_0}{t},$$
(4)
where, $`R`$ is the radius of the contact area. This equation can be related to the volume of the liquid bridge using $`V=_0^R2\pi r_1H(r_1)𝑑r_1`$. Pitois et. al.  experimentally investigated the effect of viscosity of the fluid on the properties of a liquid bridge between two moving spheres. They showed that Eq.(4) fits their experimental data.

The value of the viscous force in our experiments can be estimated assuming that $`\frac{h_0}{t}`$ is of the order of the velocity of the particles flowing down the surface. For 1 mm particles, if $`h_0`$ is of the order of 10 $`\mu `$m then $`F_{vis}10^7`$ N for water and $`F_{vis}2\times 10^4`$ N for glycerol. The capillary force estimated using $`F_{cap}=\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }d`$ for 1 mm particles is $`10^4`$ N. Therefore the viscous force for glycerol is relevant whereas for water the viscous force may be insignificant. These improved results are also consistent with our previous estimates obtained neglecting the curvature of the particles .

Because viscous force decreases with relative velocity it appears surprising that the viscosity of fluid plays any role at all in determining $`\theta _r`$ in our experiments and we return to this point later in the paper. However it is clear that such forces are important in determining the extent of segregation as it occurs when the particles are in motion.

## IV Effect of interstitial fluid on size segregation

To study the segregation of the particles in the pile, we use different colors for the two kinds of particles. Fig. 6(a) shows a pile after dry bidisperse granular material has been poured inside the silo. Here the small particles appear white and the large particles appear black. Thus strong size separation is observed as the granular matter flow down the inclined surface. Two main mechanisms are important in determining the observed spatial distribution: (i) the void filling mechanism where smaller particles percolate through the larger particles and are thus found at the bottom of the flow , and (ii) the capture mechanism where the smaller particles which are more sensitive to surface fluctuations are stopped at the top of the pile before the larger particles . Segregation is observed to vanish when a small amount of fluid is added. Fig. 6(b) shows the situation where $`V_f=6\times 10^3`$, which corresponds to less than 1% by volume of water in the system. Thus a very small amount of fluid is observed to prevent segregation from occuring.

To parameterize the extent of segregation, a histogram of the ratios of the two types of particles in a $`3.5\mathrm{mm}^2`$ area is measured using the light intensity. The light intensity is a monotonic function of the density ratio of the particles and is measured by using pre-determined weight ratios of particles in a separate series of calibration experiments. The histogram of local particle density ratio $`P_w`$ of the two kinds of particles in the pile is thus obtained and is plotted in Fig. 6(c),(d). The peaks in distribution can be fitted to a Gaussian and the mean value is used to determine the most common particle ratios $`a`$ and $`b`$. The segregation parameter is defined as $`s=\frac{(ba)}{100}`$ which has a value between 0 and 1 and describes the extent of segregation.

### A Dependence of the segregation on the size ratio

$`s`$ for three different bidisperse granular mixtures BD-1, BD-2, BD-3 (see Table I) are plotted in Fig. 7(a) as a function of $`V_f`$ of water. $`s`$ depends on the size ratio $`r`$ of particles, and goes to zero at lower $`V_f`$ for smaller $`r`$. However, segregation can persist even in the presence of fluid although the extent is considerably smaller. A phase diagram of the observed segregation as a function of $`r`$ and $`V_f`$ can be found in Ref. .

### B Discussion of segregation on $`r`$ size ratio

The observed properties can be described in terms of the differences in the strength of interactions between particles due to difference in the sizes. In the presence of a wetting fluid, there are three possible interaction between the particles: interactions between the (i) small-small particles $`SS`$, (ii) small-large particles $`SL`$, and (iii) large-large particles $`LL`$. In addition, the particles and clumps will also interact with the inclined surface on which they flow.

At small $`V_f`$ the fluid is observed to selectively coat the small particles forming clumps of small particles due to the cohesive forces discussed earlier. Most of these interactions are in form of $`SS`$. There is less percolation of small particles through larger particles thus reducing $`s`$. By increasing the amount of fluid further, the size of clumps increases, the interaction of $`SL`$ also become important, resulting in even smaller $`s`$. Finally, above a certain $`V_fV_c`$ all types of interaction can be present, clumps are formed with both kinds of particles and segregation saturates. For large $`r`$ clumps of $`SL`$ appear but are not strong enough and segregation decreases but saturates to non-zero values.

### C Layering instability

Fig. 9(a) shows the intermediate situation where partial segregation is observed. We obtain the azimuthal correlation function $`g(\varphi )`$ of the particle density inside the pile to characterize the layering where $`g(\varphi )`$ is given by:

$$g(\varphi )=\underset{x,y,r_2}{}\frac{I(x,y)\times I(x+r_2\mathrm{cos}(\varphi ),y+r_2\mathrm{sin}(\varphi ))}{I(x,y)^2}$$
(5)
where, $`I(x,y)`$ is the particle ratio at position $`(x,y)`$ and $`r_2`$ and $`\varphi `$ define the distance from the point where correlation is calculated. The correlation function was calculated for a square region in the middle of the pile. The peaks were observed to decrease in amplitude and are hidden by the noise if the whole pile was used for averaging. Fig. 10(a) shows $`g(\varphi )`$ for the image shown in Fig. 9(a). The correlation function has two distinct peaks corresponding to the angles parallel to the surface. The peaks are observed to decrease in amplitude as layering fades with increased $`V_f`$. Finally for the complete mixture we observe the flat line shown in Fig. 10(b) for $`V_f=6\times 10^3`$. The correlation function does not show peaks for larger size ratios consistent with the visual observation.

Although the layering is not as periodic as in dry mixtures of rough and smooth particles , some stratification is clearly observed below $`V_c`$. We believe that the layering is related to the selective coating and clumping of smaller particles (see Fig. 9). A clump of small particles effectively behaves as a particle with a rough surface which can be greater than the individual large particle. Makse et al. have shown that stratification can occur when two species with different surface roughness are present in granular flows when the size of the rough particles exceeds the smoother particles . The features observed in Fig. 9 appear to be related to this mechanism, although the increased stick-slip nature of the flow at the surface brought about by the addition of the fluid makes the layering aperiodic. The strongest layering is observed for BD-2 and decreases at higher $`r`$ where the clumps of small particles stay smaller than the larger beads. At higher $`V_f`$, the average size of clumps increases and the interaction between small and large particles also become important. Thus clumps with small and large particles and layering disappears.

### D Viscosity dependence of the segregation

Next we examine the effect of the viscosity of the fluid on the extent of segregation. As in the measurements for $`\theta _r`$, we change the viscosity of the fluid by using mixtures of water and glycerol to keep the surface tension almost constant. $`s`$ corresponding to water and glycerol is plotted in Fig. 8. The segregation is observed to decrease to zero at a lower value of $`V_f`$ in the case of higher glycerol, which has $`\nu `$ a thousand times that of water. In fact, although some incipient amount of segregation is observed for large $`r`$ in the case of water, segregation is observed to completely dissappear in the case of glycerol for all measured $`r`$.

In Section III.C we discussed the strength of the viscous forces that may be important in determining percolation. For the particles ($`d1.2`$ mm) used in the experiments, and for glycerol or water as interstitial fluid, the saturation force due to surface tension is of the order of $`10^4`$ N. Therefore the viscous force is greater than the capillary force in the case of glycerol. The viscous force damps velocity fluctuation as it increases with relative velocity between particles. Because velocity fluctuations and percolation are required for segregation, $`s`$ is therefore observed to be lower at higher $`\nu `$ for similar $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Since the linear increase of $`\theta _r`$, and decrease of $`s`$ occurs below a similar $`V_c`$, and both of these quantities saturate above this volume fraction, the cohesion due to the fluid appears to have the same effect on both $`\theta _r`$ and $`s`$.

## V Experiments when particles are immersed in the fluid

In this section, we study the angle of repose and the progress of segregation when the bidisperse glass particles are poured into a silo filled with various liquids with different $`\nu `$. The procedure and the system is similar to the previous sections except that in these experiments, we first fill the silo with the fluid and then pour the dry granular matter. In this case only viscous forces are present and capillary forces are not present because liquid bridges are absent.

Because the terminal velocity for particles decreases with $`\nu `$, they take a significantly longer time to drain in a viscous fluid compared to that in air and $`Q<0.02`$ g s<sup>-1</sup> in glycerol. As $`\nu `$ is increased, the particles are increasingly observed to deviate from a downward trajectory and are deflected further down the slope even before coming in contact with the surface. The reason for the deflection of the particles can be qualitatively understood as follows. For a particle moving with velocity $`v`$, a boundary layer develops in the fluid which is proportional to $`\sqrt{\nu d/\rho v}`$. This estimate is essentially from dimensional arguments . As the distance between the particle and the surface becomes comparable to the size of this boundary layer, the particles feel a net horizontal force similar to the viscous forces discussed earlier due to fluid expulsion. These forces tend to deflect the particles further down the slope.

We observed $`\theta _r`$ is $`24^0\pm 1^0`$ for mono and bidisperse glass particles for not only water and glycerol but also using polybutene (see Table II). Unlike the case of partial $`V_f`$, no systematic dependence of $`\theta _r`$ is observed on the viscosity. Furthermore, the observed $`\theta _r`$ in the fluid is very similar to that observed in air. This appears to suggest that the viscous forces discussed in Section III.C may not be relevant in the absence of liquid bridges. Although it must be noted that the experiments conducted in the regime where the particles are mixed with a small volume fraction of fluid is somewhat different in nature than these experiments because of the presence of the boundary layer.

Experimental work investigating liquid bridges between moving spheres  has shown that bridge rupture distance and time between particles increases with viscosity. It is therefore possible that the increases in $`\theta _r`$ with viscosity in the case of partial $`V_f`$ is related to the increase in the number and change in structure of liquid bridges with viscosity.

Fig. 11(a) shows an image of the granular pile after bidisperse particles (BD-2) were poured into the silo filled with glycerol. Separate series of experiments to calibrate the intensity of light scattered by particles to the number of particles were first conducted when particles were completely immersed in the various fluids. Using the same procedure as before, we measured the histogram of light intensity to determine $`s`$ \[see Fig. 11(b)\]. Comparing Fig. 11(a) to Fig. 6(a) shows a significant drop in $`s`$, when particles are poured in glycerol instead of air. The $`s`$ is plotted in Fig. 12(a) as a function of $`\nu `$ for three different $`r`$. The segregation is observed to decrease as a function of $`\nu `$ and drops to zero at high $`\nu `$ which depends on $`r`$.

The observed decreases in segregation with $`\nu `$ can be explained as follows. The boundary layer washes away the details of the surface roughness of the pile at higher $`\nu `$. Thus the capture mechanism which is sensitive to surface roughness decreases in importance with $`\nu `$. Furthermore, velocity fluctuations at higher $`\nu `$ are damped out as particles reach terminal velocity over a short distance leading to a reduction in percolation of particles . Therefore the segregation decreases because the two mechanism which cause segregation in dry granular matter diminish in strength.

It is well known that sedimentation of different sized particles (for example in lakes) cause layering of different size particles to occur at the bottom because the terminal velocity reached by a spherical particle is proportional to $`\sqrt{d}`$. This does not occur in our geometry because particles are constantly fed into the system from the reservoir.

## VI Conclusions

In conclusion, the role of the size ratio of the particles, volume fraction, surface tension and viscosity of the fluid on the extent of segregation and the angle of repose of a granular pile is clarified based on experiments and physical arguments. The angle of repose of the granular matter is observed to increase sharply as the volume fraction of the fluid is increased and then saturates. The saturation occurs at a higher $`V_f`$ than estimated by using only particle roughness ideas. We observe that the viscosity of the fluid has a significant effect on the angle of repose of the pile. A sharp reduction of segregation is observed in the granular flow when a small volume fraction of fluid is added. The sharp changes in the angle of repose and segregation occurs over similar volume fractions suggesting that cohesivity has the same effect on both properties. The experiments point to a need for examining the role of the number of liquid bridges between particles in determining the angle of repose. Our experiments appear to indicate that the changes in the number of liquid bridges and their structure with volume fraction, surface tension and viscosity of the fluid may be very important in determining the properties of wet granular matter.

We thank Jacob Goodman for help in acquiring data, and G. McKinley for bringing Ref.  to our attention. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number DMR-9983659, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and by the donors of the Petroleum Research Fund.