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# Origin of the pseudogap phase: Precursor superconductivity versus a competing energy gap scenario

## Abstract

In the last few years evidence has been accumulating that there are a multiplicity of energy scales which characterize superconductivity in the underdoped cuprates. In contrast to the situation in BCS superconductors, the phase coherence temperature $`T_c`$ is different from the energy gap onset temperature $`T^{}`$. In addition, thermodynamic and tunneling spectroscopies have led to the inference that the order parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{sc}`$ is to be distinguished from the excitation gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$; in this way, pseudogap effects persist below $`T_c`$. It has been argued by many in the community that the presence of these distinct energy scales demonstrates that the pseudogap is unrelated to superconductivity. In this paper we show that this inference is incorrect. We demonstrate that the difference between the order parameter and excitation gap and the contrasting dependences of $`T^{}`$ and $`T_c`$ on hole concentration $`x`$ and magnetic field $`H`$ follow from a natural generalization of BCS theory. This simple generalized form is based on a BCS-like ground state, but with self consistently determined chemical potential in the presence of arbitrary attractive coupling $`g`$. We have applied this mean field theory with some success to tunneling, transport, thermodynamics and magnetic field effects. We contrast the present approach with the phase fluctuation scenario and discuss key features which might distinguish our precursor superconductivity picture from that involving a competing order parameter. cond-mat/0107275

One of the biggest questions which faces the high temperature superconductivity community is determining the origin of the pseudogap phase. It is now becoming clear that pseudogap effects are not restricted to the normal state alone. Moreover, they appear to persist over a wide range of the phase diagram, up to and possibly above optimal doping. Understanding the pseudogap phase is essential in order to find a proper replacement for BCS theory. Indeed, the failure of BCS theory is demonstrated most clearly in thermodynamical and tunneling data which have made it clear that the underlying normal phase below $`T_c`$ contains a (pseudo)gap in the excitation spectrum. The phase diagram, itself, indicates that the larger the pseudogap the lower is $`T_c`$ and in this way the pseudogap appears to compete with superconductivity. This competition has led many researchers to argue that $`T_c`$ and $`T^{}`$ must necessarily originate from different physical mechanisms. A recent D- density wave (DDW) theory presents a concrete realization of the “competing energy gap” scenario, first conjectured by Loram and co-workers.

The present paper summarizes work from our group which is based on a precursor superconductivity approach to understanding the pseudogap phase. We have been arguing for some time now that pseudogap effects necessarily persist below $`T_c`$, and moreover, appear to compete with superconductivity – despite their common origin. Our approach is based on a simple physical picture which interpolates smoothly between BCS theory and Bose Einstein condensation, and on its realization as first studied by Leggett, Nozieres and Randeria and their respective co-workers. Our main contribution has been to extend the Leggett ground state picture to non zero temperatures in a self consistent fashion, so as to incorporate pseudogap effects which were absent in earlier finite temperature calculations. This is a manifestly mean field approach which should be contrasted with the phase fluctuation scenario. The latter builds on strict BCS theory (which is a special case of our more general theory), but goes beyond to include fluctuations of the order parameter phase, which we neglect here. It should also be stressed that a strong case can be made for focusing as we do here on an alternative mean field theory, as distinguished from a fluctuation scheme. A nice summary of the experimental support for this viewpoint, (principally based on the observed narrow fluctuation regime), can be found in Ref. .

The key assumption underlying our theoretical approach is that the ground state is of the generalized BCS form with wave-function

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_0=\underset{𝐤}{}[u_𝐤+v_𝐤c_𝐤^{}c_𝐤^{}]|0$$
(1)
Here, however, the chemical potential $`\mu `$ is determined self consistently with variable attractive coupling constant $`g`$. As $`g`$ increases, $`\mu `$ progressively decreases, ultimately becoming negative in the “bosonic” regime. In this approach it should be clear that superconductivity need not be associated with an underlying Fermi liquid state. Without doing any calculations one can make a number of inferences about the finite temperature behavior associated with Eq(1). It is clear that at sufficiently strong coupling, the onset for pair formation $`T^{}`$ will be different from $`T_c`$. It then follows that the excitation gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and mean field order parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{sc}`$ are necessarily distinct– except, however, at zero temperature, where there is full condensation of all pairs ($`\mathrm{\Delta }=\mathrm{\Delta }_{sc}`$), as is implicit in Eq. (1).

It should not be surprising, given the BCS-like form of the ground state wave-function, that one arrives at self consistent equations for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and the chemical potential $`\mu `$ which are essentially those of BCS theory. Here, however, the dispersion relation for fermionic excitations is

$$E_𝐤=\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }^2\phi _𝐤^2+(\xi _𝐤\mu )^2},\mathrm{\Delta }^2=\mathrm{\Delta }_{sc}^2+\mathrm{\Delta }_{pg}^2$$
(2)
where $`\phi _𝐤`$ represents $`s`$\- or $`d`$-wave symmetry and the essential deviation from BCS theory derives from the presence of the pseudogap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{pg}(T)`$ which must be determined from a third self consistency condition (not given here). This latter equation, in effect, differentiates our approach from others which also have a BCS-like structure, but in which $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{pg}`$ is presumed to arise from a non-pairing channel. Here, by contrast, the pseudogap arises from the stronger (than BCS) attractive interaction, and is associated with excitations of finite momentum pairs. The underlying microscopic theory behind our approach is based on a T-matrix decoupling scheme of Kadanoff and Martin which is discussed elsewhere. This T-matrix can be thought of as a propagator for pairs which, in turn, depends on the single particle self energy. The latter, in turn, depends on the T-matrix– so that particles and pairs interact and no higher order correlation functions are included. Stated simply, whereas BCS is a mean field treatment of the fermions (and condensate), here we go beyond BCS to include non-condensed (and essentially non-interacting) pairs which are correspondingly treated at the mean field level.

With this well defined many body scheme, one can compute two particle properties such as as the ac conductivity and superfluid density $`\rho _s`$. The conductivity diagrams are related to the well known Maki-Thompson and Aslamazov-Larkin terms (but with additional self energy insertions). A relatively simple expression for $`\rho _s`$ results, which is of the BCS form, but with a prefactor of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{sc}^2(T)`$, where everywhere else in the expression, the full energy gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ appears. What needs to be stressed here is that $`\rho _s`$ reaches zero (at $`T_c`$) “prematurely” before the fermionic excitation gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ vanishes and that this occurs because there are bosonic degrees of freedom (finite momentum pair excitations) in addition to the usual $`d`$-wave fermions. The presence of additional bosonic excitations is, perhaps, the simplest way to understand the experimental observation that $`\rho _s`$ scales with $`T/T_c(x)`$ rather than with $`T/\mathrm{\Delta }(x)`$.

In order to pass from coupling constant $`g`$ to hole concentration $`x`$, we note that the effective coupling (which always enters in a dimensionless form as a ratio to the bandwidth) is increased with underdoping, since electronic energy scales decrease as the Mott insulator is approached. Assuming $`g`$ is $`x`$ independent, and with one free parameter, we find a reasonable fit to the phase diagram as shown in Fig. 1. Indeed, the measured “universality” in a plot of $`\rho _s(T,x)/\rho _s(0,x)`$ vs $`T/T_c(x)`$ appears to be rather well satisfied within our theory, as is shown in Fig. 2 below– along with a comparison of data from Ref.. It should be stressed that this methodology for incorporating Mott insulating physics can be viewed as a device for fitting the phase diagram and is not an essential component of the good agreement between theory and experiment shown in Fig. 2.

The bosons in the present theory, have a quasi-ideal gas character, as might be expected based on the fully condensed ground state wavefunction, and this leads naturally to a low temperature rounding ($`T^{3/2}`$, which enters with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{sc}^2`$) of the inverse square of the penetration depth. Indeed, it is difficult to find samples where there is no low $`T`$ deviation from the expected $`d`$-wave linear dependence, although this rounding has generally been attributed to impurity effects (and fitted to $`T^2`$). It should be stressed that the bosonic degrees of freedom will show up quite generally in the finite frequency conductivity as well.

The presence of a pseudogap in the fermionic spectrum at $`T_c`$ has a number of important consequences. Because of the BCS like structure of the equation for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, it follows that $`T_c`$ will be suppressed as $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{pg}`$ increases. Physically, this is a consequence of the depressed density of states which makes it difficult for fermions to pair. This, in turn, is consistent with the general trends in the phase diagram with increased underdoping. The presence of this gap is also responsible for the stronger sensitivity to pair breaking perturbations, i.e. magnetic fields and impurity substitutions, seen in $`T_c`$, but not in $`T^{}`$. This latter observation should counter the wide-spread inference that the contrasting behavior of $`T_c`$ and $`T^{}`$ with respect to $`H`$ and other perturbations is suggestive of a competing rather than precursor origin of the pseudogap. Finally, the presence of a pseudogap at $`T_c`$ raises the question of what is responsible for the signature of true phase coherence at $`T_c`$, given that an excitation gap is present when superconductivity is established. Our recent work has addressed this question in more quantitative detail. One can view the excitations of the normal state as consisting of fermions as well as bosons or pairs of fermions. The non-zero $`Q`$ (finite lifetime or “resonant”) pair excitations persist below $`T_c`$ as well, and are not dramatically affected by the onset of phase coherence. However, the $`Q=0`$ pairs which Bose condense at $`T_c`$ necessarily acquire an infinite lifetime. It is this latter effect which is responsible for the signatures of coherence at $`T_c`$ in phase insensitive measurements.

Clearly one of the most important questions to be addressed by the community is to determine whether the pseudogap phase derives from the superconductivity or from a competing order parameter. Evidence for the existence of a quantum critical point would seem consistent with the latter alternative, although it has been recently claimed that thermodynamical data may not provide this support. In favor of the precursor scenario are the observations that the pseudogap has the same $`d`$-wave symmetry as the superconducting order parameter, and that there is no evidence of a phase transition at $`T^{}`$. In addition, the fact that the high temperature superconductors seem to belong to a relatively large class of “exotic” superconductors as seen by the Uemura plot suggests that one should focus on generic features of these materials in order to understand their superconductivity. Among the most distinctive generic features of the cuprates and other exotic superconductors is their short coherence length. It is this latter property which provides a very likely reason for the failure of BCS theory, and which underpins the present theoretical approach to the pseudogap phase.

We conjecture that the distinction between the two alternative origins of the pseudogap may be most clearly evident in the vicinity of the superconductor-insulator (SI) boundary. It is well established that the zero temperature excitation gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }(0)`$ is large at this point, but the competing order parameter scenario requires that the zero temperature order parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{sc}(0)`$ is vanishingly small. By contrast, in the absence of quantum fluctuations, the precursor scenario will have $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{sc}(0)=\mathrm{\Delta }(0)`$, which is thus large as well. In our rendition of this precursor school, superconductivity disappears because of the localization of $`d`$-wave pairs. The fermionic excitation gap, which is much more robust, persists even after superconductivity is suppressed, so that the system becomes insulating once superconductivity is destroyed by doping, by magnetic fields or by Zn or other impurity substitutions. This ubiquitous SI transition should hold fundamental clues to the origin of the pseudogap and more generally to the non-BCS superconductivity of these materials.

This work was supported by the NSF-MRSEC, No. DMR-9808595 (KL, YK and AI), by the State of Florida (QC), by the University of Illinois (IK), and by University of Notre Dame (BJ).


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# The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - VIII. Absorption systems in the 10k catalogue

## 1 Introduction

Progress in the study of QSO absorption line systems has gone hand in hand with the advancement of technology over the past few years. During the 1980’s developments in echelle spectroscopy with sensitive electronic detectors increased the attainable resolution by a factor of ten. The detailed analysis of the absorption systems in these spectra was possible through absorption line profile fitting. The increase in spectral dispersion coupled with the need to obtain a respectable S/N, however, forced astronomers to observe the same object for many nights on 4 m-class telescopes, restricting the number of objects it was possible to observe. In the 1990’s the 10 m Keck telescope together with its powerful instrument HIRES enabled us to obtain optical spectra of faint, high redshift QSOs at unprecedented spectral resolution ($`7`$km s-1) and a signal-to-noise ratio in excess of a hundred in a single night. Meanwhile, ultra-violet spectroscopy using the Hubble Space Telescope opened a window on QSO absorbers at low redshift. Using these data, very detailed studies of the chemical properties of the largest absorbers, damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs), have provided a wealth of information about the formation of structure. Understanding the chemical evolutionary history of galaxies, seen here in absorption, is fundamental to the study of galaxy formation.

The study of DLAs has suffered from the small number of objects, approximately one hundred, that are currently known. Although detailed studies of individual objects are very revealing, HST imaging of QSO fields has revealed a wide range of luminosities and morphologies for DLA counterparts. Hence to determine the evolution in the absorption properties of a such mixed population of galaxies, much larger samples of QSO absorbers will be required.

With the recent release of the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ) 10k Catalogue (Croom et al. 2001a) the number of known QSOs has suddenly and dramatically increased. With the 2QZ rapidly approaching its target of 25000 QSOs, together with Sloan Digital Sky Survey observations (Fan et al. 1999), unprecedented numbers of new QSO spectra will soon be available from which we can identify and study large numbers of new heavy element absorption systems.

As the 2QZ spectra were taken primarily to confirm the identity of QSOs, and determine their redshift, they have a typical signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) $``$10, and a resolution of $``$8Å. Although this is not ideal for absorption line analysis, it is possible to identify strong heavy element absorption systems, especially those with distinctive features, such as Mg II / Fe II absorption.

In this letter we examine the highest S/N spectra from the 2QZ 10k release and identify over 100 new heavy element absorbers, suitable for higher resolution follow-up. These absorption systems map the spatial distribution of high-$`z`$ gas and metals in exactly the same volumes that the foreground 2QZ QSOs themselves sample and hence the 2QZ gives us the unique opportunity to directly compare the two tracers of large scale structure. We examine the cross-correlation of the two populations to see how they are relatively clustered. Finally, we consider the colour of the QSOs containing absorption systems, relative to the 2QZ average and detect a small amount of dust in these metal systems.

## 2 2QZ Spectra

The 2QZ comprises two $`5\times 75\mathrm{deg}^2`$ declination strips, one at the South Galactic Pole and one in an equatorial region in the North Galactic Cap. QSOs candidates were selected by ultra-violet excess (UVX) in the $`U`$-$`B`$:$`B`$-$`R`$ plane, using APM measurements of UK Schmidt Telescope photographic plates (Smith et al. 2001).

2QZ objects were observed with the 2-degree Field instrument (Lewis, Glazebrook & Taylor 1998) on the Anglo-Australian Telescope using the low resolution 300B grating, providing a dispersion of 178.8Å mm-1 (4.3Å pixel-1) and a resolution of $`8.6`$Å ($``$2 pixels) over the wavelength range 3700 – 7500Å. Each field received approximately 1 hour integration, adjusted to match conditions where possible.

The data were reduced using the pipeline reduction system 2DFDR (Bailey & Glazebrook 1999). Following bias subtraction, the spectra from each fibre were extracted and wavelength calibrated using a CuAr+He arc. Sky subtraction was done using a mean sky spectrum determined from between six and twenty sky-dedicated fibres in each frame.

The reduced 2dF spectra were identified automatically by  autoz (Miller et al., in preparation), which also determines the redshift of the QSOs. These identifications were confirmed by eye. Approximately 18000 QSO redshifts have been obtained to date, making this survey already an order of magnitude larger than any previous QSO survey.

The primary science goal of the 2QZ is to obtain an accurate measure of large-scale structure via the study of QSO clustering. The observations are therefore optimised to maximise the number of QSO identifications. Hence the S/N and resolution, whilst ideal for identifying broad emission features, are generally too low to detect all but the strongest narrow absorption features. Furthermore, the sky-subtraction possible on a multi-fibre instrument such as 2dF is relatively poor, leading to large uncertainties in the zero-level of the spectra (making equivalent width measurements less reliable), and variable sky lines, particularly at the red end of the spectrum. Having said that, the 10000 QSO spectra released so far are still, as we shall demonstrate, a hugely valuable resource for QSO absorption line studies.

## 3 Absorption Systems

To detect absorption systems in the spectra of the 2QZ QSOs released in the 10k catalogue (Croom et al 2001a), QSOs with $`z_{abs}>0.5`$ and S/N$`>15`$ were selected from the catalogue for examination by eye. Systems identified by two or more absorption features are included in this analysis (due to the resolution of the spectra, doublets such as C IV $`\lambda \lambda 1548,1550`$ and Mg II $`\lambda \lambda 2796,2803`$ were counted as single features). As the primary aim of this letter is to identify heavy element systems that could correspond to DLA candidates, only systems that exhibit low ionisation absorption features are reported here. Several of the spectra examined were BAL QSOs, or exhibited relatively high ionisation $`z_{abs}z_{em}`$ systems which are excluded from this analysis. Also excluded were several C IV systems, often with associated Si IV and H I absorption. Finally all unconfirmed single absorption features are excluded, including Ly$`\alpha `$ absorbers in the forest of high redshift QSOs that do not exhibit metal features, and individual metal features that most likely correspond to C IV or Mg II systems.

In total, 137 low-ionisation absorption systems were detected in 1266 QSO spectra. Of these, 120 are Mg II systems, and the remaining 17 are C IV systems at higher redshift, which also exhibit low ionisation species, and in 12 cases, strong Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption. Of these, two have a rest equivalent width in excess of 10Å, and hence are strong damped Ly$`\alpha `$ line candidates. Three example 2QZ spectra showing absorption systems are shown in Fig. 1, and Table 1 contains a full list of the low ionisation absorption systems. Where possible the rest equivalent width ($`W_0`$) of the Mg II $`\lambda \lambda 2796,2803`$ doublet (Å), or H I $`\lambda 1215`$ for the high redshift systems, is quoted. Due to the low resolution of the data the separate Mg II features are often not resolved. The $`W_0`$ determination is not highly reliable due to the relatively poor sky subtraction possible with fibre observations, leading to zero-level uncertainty, particularly at the blue end of the spectrum. Also, there is relatively high continuum uncertainty due to the low S/N and resolution of the data, particularly in the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest. Typical uncertainty in the $`W_0`$ is of order 20%.

## 4 QSO Absorbers and Large Scale Structure

The largest heavy element absorption systems, DLAs, are generally believed to be the progenitors of present day spiral galaxies (Wolfe 1995). They dominate the mass of neutral gas at redshift $`z3`$, a mass comparable with that of the stars in present day spiral disks, suggesting that DLAs are the source of most of material available for star formation at high redshift (Lanzetta, Wolfe & Turnshek 1995). 21cm emission surveys of the local universe have found that the contribution from intergalactic gas to the H I cross-section is negligible, whereas spirals contribute around 90 per cent (Rao & Briggs 1993), adding further weight to this hypothesis. HST imaging of QSO fields has been carried out in an attempt to determine the morphology and size of DLA absorbers. A wide range of luminosities and morphologies were seen, a result inconsistent with the standard H I disk paradigm (Le Brun et al. 1997; Rao & Turnshek 1998). Pettini et al. (1999) showed further that the metallicity of DLAs does not increase towards solar values with decreasing redshift, as expected by the large spiral progenitor model, but instead little evolution is seen, with metallicities staying sub-solar. It is possible that dust in the most metal rich galaxies obscures light from any background QSO making these objects too faint to see (Pei & Fall 1995). If so, this dust bias could help explain why the observed DLAs appear metal poor in comparison to present day galaxies. Another possible explanation is that the absorption cross-section may be dominated by diffuse objects with relatively low star-formation rates, whereas rapid star formation occurs in the most compact galaxies (Mo, Mao & White 1999). This evidence all points towards a mixed population of galaxies, with a large fraction of low-mass, or perhaps low surface brightness galaxies, being responsible for the DLA absorbers, rather than the simpler spiral progenitor model (Vladilo 1999).

QSO imaging experiments at redshifts out to $`z`$2 suggest that the clustering environment of UVX QSOs is similar to optically selected galaxies (Smith, Boyle & Maddox 1995; Croom & Shanks 1999). By measuring the two-point auto-correlation function of the 2QZ QSOs, Croom et al. (2001b) compared the clustering of QSOs at redshift $`\overline{z}1.4`$ with the clustering of normal galaxies locally ($`\overline{z}0.05`$) and concluded that the clustering properties are very similar. It would be preferable, however, to compare directly the clustering of QSOs and galaxies in the same redshift intervals. Whilst determining accurate redshifts for a large sample of high-redshift optically selected galaxies is challenging, absorption line analysis offers a complementary approach to constraining the QSO-galaxy bias.

To examine how the absorption systems cluster relative to the 2QZ QSOs, we calculate the two-point absorber-QSO cross-correlation function, $`\xi _{AQ}(s)`$, in an $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}`$=0.3, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$=0.7 cosmology. To estimate the effective volume of each bin, a catalogue of unclustered, random points that have the same radial selection function and angular mask, and approximately twenty times the mean density as the 2QZ QSOs is constructed, taking into account Galactic extinction (Schlegel, Finkbeiner & Davis 1998). The random catalogue number density is normalised to the number of observed QSOs on each UKST plate to correct for possible small residual calibration errors in the relative magnitude zero points of the UKST plates (see Croom et al. (2001b) for further details). We use the estimator

$$\xi _{AQ}(s)=\frac{D_{Abs}D_{QSO}(s)\overline{n}_R}{D_{Abs}R_{QSO}(s)\overline{n}_{QSO}},$$

where $`D_{abs}D_{QSO}(s)`$ is the number of absorber-QSO pairs at a given separation in redshift space, $`s`$, and $`D_{abs}R_{QSO}(s)`$ is the number of absorber-random pairs. As we are determining the average clustering of QSOs about each absorber, the spatial distribution of the absorbers themselves is not important (this distribution is not straightforward as the absorbers are selected along multiple lines-of-sight through the volume). The errors are calculated using the Poisson estimate, which is accurate at small scales, $`<50h^1`$Mpc, because each pair is independent. All absorbers that lie within $`\delta z=0.05`$ of the emission redshift of the QSO are excluded from the analysis to ensure that we are only considering truly intervening absorbers. In fact, all of the absorber-QSO pairs within $`100h^1`$Mpc separation are due to an absorber in a different line-of-sight to the QSO.

The absorber-QSO cross-correlation function, $`\xi _{AQ}(s)`$, is shown in Fig. 2. As there are relatively few absorbers in the analysis, the errors are still quite large and clustering is only detected at the 1.5$`\sigma `$ level. The amplitude of the clustering appears to agree remarkably well with the QSO auto-correlation measurement (Croom et al. 2001b); further evidence that QSOs are clustered like normal galaxies at these high redshifts. By including absorption systems detected in low S/N spectra, and extending this analysis to the full 2QZ dataset when the survey is complete it will soon be possible to measure the cross-correlation function to much higher precision.

## 5 QSO colour and dust implications

The average colour of the QSOs in this sample is $`(\overline{B_JR})_{ABS}=0.546`$. To test whether the QSO spectra have been reddened by dust in the foreground absorption systems, we compare this colour to the average colour of QSOs in the 2QZ catalogue. As QSO colour is redshift dependent, we draw random samples from the full catalogue with the same redshift distribution as the QSOs in this absorption line sample to produce a fair comparison. The resultant expected QSO colour for a random sample of 2QZ QSOs of this size and redshift distribution is $`(\overline{B_JR})_{QSO}=0.493\pm 0.026`$. Hence we have a $`2\sigma `$ detection of reddening in the absorption system QSOs. The spectra are reddened by an average of $`E(B_JR)=0.053`$, corresponding to a visual extinction $`A(V)=0.13`$, assuming an $`R_V=3.1`$ extinction curve (Schlegel, Finkbeiner, & Davis 1998).

Adopting the relationship between interstellar extinction and neutral hydrogen gas column density from Bohlin, Savage & Drake (1978),

$$<N(\mathrm{HI}+\mathrm{H}_2)/E(BV)>=5.8\times 10^{21}atomscm^2mag^1,$$

we obtain an average neutral hydrogen column of $`N(\mathrm{HI})2.3\times 10^{20}`$ atoms cm-2 for our absorbers. This is approximately the minimum column density of a DLA, and is probably considerably smaller than the average neutral hydrogen column of our sample. The reason for this is that the dust-to-gas ratio in high redshift DLAs is typically much lower than in the local interstellar medium. Using zinc and chromium abundance measurements, Pettini et al. (1997) found that the average dust-to-gas ratio in DLAs at $`\overline{z}2.5`$ is $`1/30`$ that in the Milky Way. Our sample of absorbers is at a lower redshift and, assuming an average neutral hydrogen column of $`N(\mathrm{HI})10^{21}`$ atoms cm-2, the observed extinction appears consistent with a dust-to-gas ratio of about a quarter that of the Milky Way. It is possible that selection effects could bias our sample towards higher metallicity or column density. Further observations could be used to determine these quantities, and hence allow a more reliable measurement of the dust in these systems.

## Acknowledgements

The 2QZ is based on observations made with the Anglo-Australian Telescope and the UK Schmidt Telescope, and we would like to thank our colleagues on the 2dF galaxy redshift survey team and all the staff at the AAT that have helped to make this survey possible. NL acknowledges the receipt of a PPARC studentship.


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# Introduction

## Introduction

Since the theoretical prediction of Parametric X-radiation (PXR) in crystals  and its experimental observation in 1985  a great number of experiments dedicated to studying of PXR characteristics has been carried out. Most of these experiments were performed in schemes of Laue geometry (Fig.1a) and so called extremely asymmetric geometry, in which PXR photons were emitted from the crystal through the lateral surface of crystal plate at the right angle relative to the electron beam velocity $`\stackrel{}{v}`$ (see Fig.1b).

In this case for theoretical interpretation of experimental data it is sufficient to use simplified by the special way exact theory, developed in . Specified simplification of the theory is similar in some details to kinematical approximation used by Ter-Mikaelyan for description of resonance radiation of charged particle in medium with periodical dialectical permittivity . Let us remind, that the typical property of resonance radiation (and its main difference from PXR) is dependence of emitted photons energy on the energy of charged particles, while the PXR frequency is constant and determines only by the crystal lattice period and direction of charged particle propagation relative to crystallographic planes. However, the attempts of using some simplified variants of the theory for explanation of Bragg geometry experiments (see Fig.1c) appeared to be unsuccessful. In this paper it is shown that for theoretical description of experiments in Bragg scheme it is necessary to use dynamical theory, developed in .

In that way, there’s a series of experiments on PXR measurement in scheme of Bragg geometry, which did not get any theoretical interpretation. In the this work we present and discuss the results of numerical calculations of spectral-angular and angular distributions of PXR in backward geometry, which is a particular case of Bragg geometry scheme, for the experimental parameters corresponding to the Mainz microtrone . The experimental data were kindly given to us by professor H.Backe with colleagues, and as far as they are not published, we don’t present them in this paper. In addition, we performed calculations of angular distributions for the experiment , which was also made in the backward geometry.

## 1 General expressions for PXR spectral-angular intensity in Bragg diffraction scheme

The spectral- angular distribution of radiation, generated by the charged particle at pass through the crystal plate into the maximum at the angle $`2\theta _B`$ ($`\theta _B`$ – angle between the particle velocity vector $`\stackrel{}{v}`$ and planes corresponding to vector $`\stackrel{}{\tau }`$) relative to the direction of its velocity in scheme of Bragg diffraction is given by the following expression :

$$\frac{d^2N_s}{d\omega d\stackrel{}{O}}=\frac{e^2Q^2\omega }{4\pi ^2\mathrm{}c^3}(\stackrel{}{e}_{\tau s}\stackrel{}{v})^2\left|\underset{\mu =1,2}{}\gamma _{\mu s}^\tau \left[\frac{1}{\omega \stackrel{}{k}_\tau \stackrel{}{v}}\frac{1}{\omega \stackrel{}{k}_{\mu \tau s}\stackrel{}{v}}\right]\left[e^{\frac{i(\omega \stackrel{}{k}_{\mu \tau s}\stackrel{}{v})L}{c\gamma _0}}1\right]\right|^2,$$
(1)
$$\gamma _{1(2)s}^\tau =\frac{\beta _1C_s\chi _\tau }{(2\epsilon _{2(1)s}\chi _0)(2\epsilon _{1(2)s}\chi _0)\mathrm{exp}\left(i\frac{\omega }{c\gamma _0}(\epsilon _{2(1)s}\epsilon _{1(2)s})L\right)},$$

where $`eQ`$ -particle charge, $`C_s=\stackrel{}{e}_s\stackrel{}{e}_{\tau s}`$, $`\stackrel{}{e_{\tau 1}}\left[\stackrel{}{k}\stackrel{}{\tau }\right]`$, $`\stackrel{}{e_{\tau 2}}\left[\stackrel{}{k}\stackrel{}{e_{\tau 1}}\right]`$– the unit vectors of radiation polarization, $`\stackrel{}{e}_s`$ – the unit polarization vector of incident wave, $`\stackrel{}{k_{\mu s}}=\stackrel{}{k}+\frac{\omega }{c\gamma _0}\epsilon _{\mu s}\stackrel{}{N}`$, $`\stackrel{}{N}`$ \- unit vector of the normal to the entrance surface of a crystal plate, directed inside the crystal, $`\chi _0`$, $`\chi _\tau `$, $`\chi _\tau `$ – Fourier-components of complex crystal susceptibilities,

$$\epsilon _{\mu s}=\frac{1}{4}\left(\alpha _B\beta _1+\chi _0(\beta _1+1)\pm \sqrt{\left[\alpha _B\beta _1+\chi _0(\beta _11)\right]^2+4\beta _1\chi _\tau ^s\chi _\tau ^s}\right),$$
(2)
$$\alpha _B=\frac{2\stackrel{}{k}\stackrel{}{\tau }+\tau ^2}{k^2},$$
(3)
$`\alpha _B`$ is the Bragg-off parameter ($`\alpha _B=0`$ in case of exact fulfillment of Bragg’s condition) $`\beta _1=\gamma _0/\gamma _1`$, $`\gamma _0=\stackrel{}{n}_\gamma \stackrel{}{N}`$, $`\stackrel{}{n}_\gamma =\frac{\stackrel{}{k}}{k}`$, $`\stackrel{}{n}_{\gamma \tau }=\frac{\stackrel{}{k}+\stackrel{}{\tau }}{|\stackrel{}{k}+\stackrel{}{\tau }|}`$, $`\gamma _1=\stackrel{}{n}_{\gamma \tau }\stackrel{}{N}`$, $`L_0`$ \- the thickness of the crystal along the direction of a charged particle velocity $`L_0=L/\gamma _0`$. The expression (1) has transparent physical sense: in case of two-beam diffraction the crystal has two reflex indexes $`n_{\mu s}=\frac{k_{z\mu s}}{k_z}=1+\frac{\kappa _{\mu s}}{k_z}`$, axis $`z`$ is directed along vector $`\stackrel{}{N}`$, $`\kappa _{\mu s}=\frac{\omega }{c\gamma _0}\epsilon _{\mu s}`$.

Every item in (1) describes well-known radiation amplitude $`A_{\mu s}`$ of photon arising as a result of charged particle movement through the crystal target of $`L`$ thickness. Such as there are two reflex indexes, that the total radiation density expressed through the square of module of amplitudes sum, that is $`\frac{d^2N_s}{d\omega d\stackrel{}{O}}|A_{1s}+A_{2s}|^2`$.

Such as $`\chi _0^{}<0`$ though from the Vavilov-Cherenkov condition it follows that only for a single root $`(\mu =1)`$ the real part of refraction index $`n^{}>1`$. As a result the difference $`\omega \stackrel{}{k}_{1\tau s}\stackrel{}{v}`$ can turn into zero and the term of the expression (1) comprising this difference in a denominator, begins to grow proportionally $`L`$. At first sight it means that the term, containing this difference (quasi-Cherenkov term), will give the main contribution into the radiation when increasing the thickness of the crystal along the particle velocity. However, in case of Bragg diffraction there’s a considerable distinction of physical phenomenon, taking place in the crystal, from the case of Laue diffraction, namely, in some area of frequencies and angles the phenomenon of total reflection takes place. In this area of angles and frequencies the wave vectors in crystal lattice become imaginary values at conditions of absorption absence. In the area of total reflection, stipulated by the existence of the heterogeneous wave in the crystal, it is necessary to take into account of both dispersion branches during calculation of the radiation intensity in Bragg diffraction scheme. Although the structure of expression (1) is very simple, but in order to obtain quantitative data it is necessary to performed correct calculations on formula (1) with taking into account all terms of it, since presence oscillating ones and its interference can easily bring to wrong results if some terms are neglected.

## 2 PXR in backward geometry

Recently there were conducted the experiments on observation of X-ray radiation, generated by the charged particles in scheme of backward diffraction  \- see the Fig 2.

There were taken the angular dependence of radiation intensity as the function of the tilt angle $`\psi `$ relatively the direction of charged particles movement, for the tilt angle $`\psi =0`$ this direction coincides with the direction of charged particles movement, the Bragg’s angle $`\theta _B=90^{}`$, the radiation is detected at the angle $`2\theta _B=180^{}`$ relative to this direction. At rotation of the crystal at the angle $`\psi `$ the Bragg’s angle becomes equal to $`\theta _B^{}=\theta _B+\psi `$, the radiation angle – $`2\theta _B^{}=2\theta _B+\theta _X`$, where $`\theta _X=2\psi `$.

The scheme of this kind (Fig.2) presents a keen interest, because the theoretical description of the radiation intensity cannot be given in scope of kinematical diffraction, such as existence of the inhomogeneous wave brings to the possibility of realization of the effect of the total reflection. Let us make a comparison of numerical calculations results basing on the formula (1) with the results, received in the experiment on the microtone in Mainz. The measurements were taken in a silicon crystal plate thick $`L=525`$ $`\mu `$m, the energy of electron beam $`855`$ MeV. The temperature of the target was maintained at 120 K. There was studied the radiation in reflexes (111), (333), (444), (555), (777), (888). At the Fig.3 there are presented spectral-angular distributions of PXR for the reflex (444), received basing on the formula (1) for the tilt angles of the crystal 0,3 mrad, 2,5 mrad and 5 mrad.

As far as the tilt angle gets greater there’s a shift of the spectrum towards increasing of the frequency. The narrow maximum in the radiation spectrum corresponds at calculation by (1) to the term, proportional to $`\frac{1}{\omega \stackrel{}{k}_{1\tau \sigma }\stackrel{}{v}}`$, which denominator can turn into $`0`$, and so this peak can be interpreted as conditioned by quasi-Cerenkov radiation mechanism.

With increasing of the tilt angle of the crystal $`\psi `$ (what corresponds to the polar angle of the radiation $`2\psi `$) the spectral-angular intensity of this maximum increases and at some angle $`\vartheta _{ph}=\sqrt{\gamma ^2\chi _0^{}}`$ ($`\gamma `$ – Lorentz factor of charged particle) becomes to exceed the intensity of radiation maximum, intensity of which can be received using simplified theory  based on simple presentation of ordinary transition radiation diffraction on crystallographic planes, and maximum corresponds to area of maximal effectiveness of the X-ray reflection on the crystal surfaces (the radiation, emitted at angles and frequencies, for which Vavilov-Cherenkov condition does not fulfill, however the coefficient of the X-ray radiation reflection is maximum). It’s necessary to note, that the spectral width of the quasi-Cerenkov maximum is defined by the expression $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\omega }{\omega _B}\frac{c}{L_{eff}\omega _B\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _B}`$ , here $`\omega _B=\frac{\pi c}{d\mathrm{sin}\theta _B}`$ – Bragg frequency, $`d`$ – interplanar distance, $`L_{eff}=min(L_0,L_{abs})`$, $`L_{abs}`$ – absorption length, while the width of maximum, corresponds to area of total reflection $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\omega }{\omega _B}\frac{|\chi _\tau |}{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _B}`$.

For the reflex (444) the width of the quasi-Cherenkov maximum is in order $`4\times 10^7\omega _B`$, what more than one degree narrow of the width of peak in total reflection area, equal to $`5\times 10^6\omega _B`$. At the Fig.4 for the reflex (555) there were demonstrated the spectral-angular distributions of ”forming” the sum radiation components (the radiation, corresponding to different branches of dispersion curves ($`\mu =1,2`$). It’s clear from the picture, that the quasi-Cherenkov maximum belongs to the first dispersion branch $`\mu =1`$.

The distribution at the Fig.4 was received for the tilt angle of the crystal $`\psi =0,3`$ mrad, at such angles the intensity of the maximum, corresponding to area of total reflection is considerably exceeding the intensity of the quasi-Cherenkov maximum. The angular intensity at such angles is fully defined by total reflection area, as the frequency’s width of this maximum is much greater the width of quasi-Cherenkov maximum.

At the fig.5 there are presented the angular distributions of the radiation as a function of the tilt angle for reflexes (111), (333) and (444). The form of distributions coincides well with the experimental curves, the value of the angular distribution in the maximum for the reflex (111) is different from the experimental one at $`10\%`$, for the reflex (333) at $`18\%`$, for (444) - at $`21\%`$. So, this difference appears at small angles - less and order of 0,3 mrad. The difference increases with increasing of the energy of photons being emitted. Possible explanation of this effect can be the influence of the multiple scattering, and exactly, the additional contribution in the intensity of the bremsstrahlung radiation, emitted at small angles.

When decreasing the energy of charged particles, the contribution of the bremsstrahlung radiation increases considerably. This is explained by fact that coherent length of bremsstrahlung radiation $`L_{Br}=\sqrt{\frac{4c}{\omega \overline{\theta _s^2}}}`$, $`\overline{\theta _s^2}`$ \- root-mean-square angle of multiple scattering (MS), becomes less then coherent length of PXR. In the paper  there is described an experiment also in backward geometry, only at the energy of the electron beam one degree lower ($`E_p=80,5`$ and $`86,5`$ MeV). In this energy region coherent length of bremsstrahlung radiation $`L_{Br}L`$, and the account of bremsstrahlung radiation contribution is very important. Our calculations showed that the intensity of angular distribution in the maximum, received by the integration of the expression (1) over frequency in the range $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega =10^3\omega _B`$, is two times lower the experimental value. However, it is necessary to take into consideration the contribution of the bramsstrahlung radiation into the sum radiation at such energies of electron beam (estimations were made basing on the formulas from the paper . In that way, it’s possible to state that received results for the angular intensity of the radiation agree well with the experimental data.

## Conclusion

Conducted comparisons of theoretical and experimental distributions of PXR in the backward geometry showed a good coincidence of results of the theory, developed in  and the experiment. It allows to state, that only the approach of dynamical theory of the diffraction allows to interpret experiment. The other simplified approaches, such as kinematical theory, approach in which diffraction maximum is considered as diffracted on crystal planes transition radiation (it is called in some works diffraction transition radiation (DTR)) and which does not take into account interference between different dispersion branches , don’t bring to successful interpretation of experimental data.


text:
# Design and Performance of the Level 1 Calorimeter Trigger for the BaBar Detector Manuscript first received November 2, 2000. This work was funded by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, UK.

## I PEP-II and BaBar

The BaBar experiment ,  has been built to study $`CP`$-violation in the decays of $`B`$ mesons. These are produced in the decays of $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4S)`$ mesons created in $`e^+e^{}`$ collisions at the PEP-II collider at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California, USA. $`CP`$-violating effects are expected to be subtle, and so these measurements require very large statistical samples of $`B`$ mesons. This means that the PEP-II machine must deliver unprecedentedly high luminosity, and indeed it has already set a new world record luminosity of greater than $`2\times 10^{33}`$ cm$`^2`$s<sup>-1</sup> during the first year of operation, enabling BaBar to record a data sample of approximately 20 million $`B`$ meson decays.

The high luminosity of PEP-II has been obtained by using very high beam currents, of order 1 A. The PEP-II machine design achieves this by filling the machine with 1658 bunches in each beam, with a bunch collision rate of 238 MHz. A serious consequence of this high current is that the machine-induced backgrounds have been very significant. This has provided a major challenge for the BaBar trigger and data acquisition system, as this unwanted background must be rejected without losing the $`B`$ meson decays of interest. Since high statistics are vital for this experiment, the trigger design emphasized the need for high efficiency.

## II The Level 1 Trigger Requirements

The BaBar trigger has two levels, a hardware Level 1 and a software Level 3 trigger. This article describes one of the two main sections of the Level 1 trigger, the ElectroMagnetic calorimeter Trigger (EMT). The other main section, the Drift Chamber Trigger (DCT), has been described previously . A third component, the Instrumented Flux return Trigger (IFT) is used to collect events with muon particles which are used for calibration purposes. This part of the trigger is not primarily designed to be efficient for $`B`$ mesons.

These two main subsystems work independently and in parallel, processing data from the calorimeter and drift chamber detectors respectively, and seek characteristics of particles coming from $`B`$ meson decays to identify signals. These signals, termed trigger “primitives”, are then passed to a third system, the Global Level 1 Trigger (GLT). Here the individual primitives are combined to form a picture of the whole particle collision, and the GLT then decides whether or not to accept this collision. This trigger decision is passed to the fast control system where it is distributed to the whole detector. Fig. 1 shows the systems with which the Level 1 trigger interacts.

The technical requirements for the Level 1 trigger system as a whole are set by the data acquisition  and other electronics systems of BaBar. To ensure maximum redundancy, the EMT and DCT subsystems were each designed to satisfy these requirements independently.

All the front-end electronics systems of the BaBar detector buffer their data for 12 $`\mu `$s, which defines the latency allowed for the Level 1 trigger decision. The collision rate of 238 MHz is effectively continuous as far as the time resolution of the drift chamber and calorimeter detectors are concerned, and so the Level 1 trigger has the task of determining the time of the collision of interest to within 1 $`\mu `$s. Each system in BaBar then reads out data in a window of at least 1 $`\mu `$s, in order to ensure that the data from the triggered collision are fully collected.

The data acquisition system is designed to accept a maximum Level 1 output rate of 2 kHz. This is much higher than the rate of physics collisions, which totals around 120 Hz. The Level 1 trigger is designed to be as unbiased as this maximum output rate allows, and to accept all physics events without preselection. The challenge is to provide such a trigger whilst still rejecting sufficient background to keep the total rate below 2 kHz.

A number of other requirements must be satisfied in addition to high efficiency. The efficiency must be measurable accurately, the trigger must be stable and robust to varying background levels, and it must be flexible enough to be adaptable to unexpected operating conditions. The first of these is ensured by the redundancy of the EMT and DCT triggers. The remainder were satisfied by designing the trigger to be able to operate at up to ten times the expected level of background. The EMT design described below has been shown to fulfill all the requirements.

## III The EMT Data Interfaces and Algorithm

The EMT receives its data from the electromagnetic calorimeter. There are 6580 channels in the electromagnetic calorimeter, each giving a 16-bit energy value at 3.7 MHz. These data are extracted continuously (without triggering) from the front-end electronics via 280 fibre-optic links . In order to reduce the EMT input data rate, the data are summed over typically 24 channels before being sent to the EMT, since a physical energy deposit is usually spread over multiple calorimeter channels. This reduces the input rate to 2.1 GBytes/s, which are transmitted as serial 59.5 MHz differential ECL signals. To compensate for differing cable lengths and component time delays, the data are resynchronised to the 59.5 MHz clock when they are received by the EMT.

The technique used by the EMT to identify particle energy deposits relies on the fact that the probability of multiple particles arriving close together in time in the same region of the calorimeter is low. This is true even in the high background conditions of PEP-II. This means energy deposits may be summed over azimuthal ($`\varphi `$) slices of the calorimeter, yielding 40 so-called “$`\varphi `$ strips”, without significantly increasing the probability of pile-up. This considerably simplifies the trigger logic, and the EMT processing now becomes a one-dimensional, rather than two-dimensional, problem. Each $`\varphi `$ strip corresponds to 165 crystals; these are added in overlapping pairs to form 40 “$`\varphi `$ sums” in order to fully contain energy deposits which extend into a neighbouring $`\varphi `$ region.

An overview of the algorithm applied to the $`\varphi `$ sums is shown in Fig. 2.

The data from each sum are used in two ways: to find the time at which the energy was deposited, and to compare the total energy against several thresholds.

The time is determined using a digital 8-tap finite impulse response (FIR) filter which operates on the summed energy signal from each $`\varphi `$ sum at a frequency of 3.7 MHz. Before digitisation, the calorimeter signal is shaped by a three stage differentiator-integrator-integrator (CR-RC-RC) circuit with time constants of 0.8 $`\mu `$s, 0.25 $`\mu `$s, 0.25 $`\mu `$s respectively. The EMT FIR weights are chosen such that this shaped signal drives the filter output from positive to negative at a fixed time interval after the particle arrives. This is illustrated in Fig. 3. It is this “zero-crossing” which is detected and used as the basic time estimate. To increase the accuracy of this determination, the EMT also performs a linear interpolation between consecutive FIR output values to approximate the output at 7.4 MHz.

In parallel, the energy values of the $`\varphi `$ sums are compared against three threshold values. These configurable thresholds are typically set to values around 120 MeV, 300 MeV and 800 MeV. The first is designed to be efficient for minimum ionising particles, which on average deposit 180 MeV in the calorimeter. Typical GLT triggers would require four non-neighbouring $`\varphi `$ sums above this lowest threshold, or three $`\varphi `$ sums with a minimum $`\varphi `$ angle separation between at least one pair of them of $`120^{}`$. The other thresholds are set as low as possible, consistent with reasonable background trigger rates. These data are typically used in the GLT for triggers requiring two $`\varphi `$ sums, such as two $`\varphi `$ sums above the 300 MeV threshold with a minimum $`\varphi `$ angle separation of $`120^{}`$, or two non-neighbouring $`\varphi `$ sums above the 800 MeV threshold with no further angle requirement.

Each of the three thresholds from each $`\varphi `$ sum has a corresponding output bit. The bits from pairs of $`\varphi `$ sums are put through an OR so as to reduce the number of bits for the whole range of $`\varphi `$ from 40 to 20; this is necessary as the GLT does not have the input bandwidth for a 40-bit wide array. The degradation on the trigger performance because of this OR has been checked to be negligible. These bits together form the EMT primitives. The number and position of these bits are used in the GLT to determine if a valid trigger condition existed, such as the ones outlined above. The time determination from the FIR filter is used to gate the threshold bits so that they are only set on around the time of a valid energy deposit. The bits are transmitted to the GLT as differential PECL at a rate of 7.4 MHz, giving a total data rate for these data of 450 Mbits/s.

## IV Implementation of the EMT

The algorithm outlined above was implemented so that data from each $`\varphi `$ sum are processed by a single “Algorithm” Xilinx 4020E FPGA clocked at 59.5 MHz. All 40 such components operate in parallel. They are distributed over ten Trigger Processor Boards (TPB), each containing four such FPGA’s, all with identical firmware. Each FPGA, and TPB, runs independently of the others, so the data cannot be considered at a “global” event level until they reach the GLT. An overview of the whole EMT system is shown in Fig. 4.

The TPB’s are housed in a 9U VME crate with a standard J1 backplane and three custom backplanes covering J2 and J3. The EMT was built to operate with the same protocol as every front-end system in BaBar, in order to minimise the need for system-specific readout software. This protocol is implemented via a TX/RX fibre-optic connection  from a BaBar ReadOut Module (ROM) , which is common to every system in the detector. A split J2 and J3 backplane divides the crate into two independent sections, one occupied by the ROM and a related fast control and timing module, the other containing the EMT cards.

The whole EMT is timed and controlled via the fibre-optic connection from the ROM. The fundamental 59.5 MHz clock signal and all configuration and control commands are sent along this fibre and distributed across the custom backplane to the TPB’s via an optical-to-electrical converter TRansition Board (TRB) in the centre of the crate. Because of the high clock speed, all the custom backplane signals were implemented as differential 100 $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ ECL point-to-point connections. In addition, care was taken to route the differential lines on the custom backplane as closely as possible and equalise the signal return delay times between the TRB and each TPB. The command protocol is decoded on the TPB by a “Fast Control” Xilinx 4013E FPGA, which also performs all control functions on the board. All output data from the TPB’s are sent via the backplane to the TRB where they are converted to optical signals. Hence, the fibre-optic connection back to the ROM is used to transmit the event data and to read back configuration data, as standard in BaBar.

The major components on the TPB are shown in Fig. 5 and a photograph of a production board is shown in Fig. 6. Besides the algorithm calculation itself, the TPB performs several other functions that are described in the following paragraphs.

The data associated with the triggered event are read from the EMT whenever there is a Level 1 trigger and are buffered in the TPB for the 12 $`\mu `$s latency. They are then stored in one of four event buffers until a readout request is sent from the ROM. Each event buffer can store up to $`\pm 2\mu `$s of data around the event time, this length being a configurable parameter. The latency and event buffers are configured and controlled by a “Formatter” Xilinx 4013E FPGA. These data are used offline for detailed checks on the trigger performance and for tuning the algorithm configuration parameters.

The TPB’s have large memory arrays which can be loaded with arbitrary data patterns via the ROM. These come in two sets; the “front-end” and “back-end” playback buffers. These can be configured to inject the stored data to the front of the algorithm processor, instead of the input data from the calorimeter, or to inject the stored data to the EMT output, instead of the normal output data to the GLT. Around 140 $`\mu `$s of data can be stored. Any chosen data values can be clocked through the entire EMT chain. This functionality proved invaluable while testing the boards after production.

In addition to the standard BaBar control path, a read-only VME interface was built into the TPB. This allows several on-board “spy” memories to be read at a low rate while the trigger is active. These spy memories are filled with data from several locations in the trigger algorithm data path, namely the raw input data, the results of a number of intermediate processing stages and the final output to the GLT. The memories allow around 140 $`\mu `$s of data to be stored at a time. This allows detailed, bit-level validation that the EMT is functioning correctly by comparing the spy data with a software model. The combination of the spy and the playback memories significantly reduced the time taken in the prototype and production testing cycles.

## V Performance of the EMT

The EMT was fully installed for the start of BaBar data-taking in May 1999 and has operated successfully thereafter. Fig. 7 shows a typical event from the perspective of the Level 1 trigger. The detector is drawn end-on, with the calorimeter information being shown in the outermost layer. The solid blocks give the offline reconstructed calorimeter information, the hashed blocks the EMT data. Four significant energy deposits were identified, which together caused a trigger. In addition, four tracks were found in the DCT and these are shown as the lines in Fig. 7; they are clearly correlated with the calorimeter deposits. The other DCT information, shown in the inner part of Fig. 7, indicates the track hits detected (the small circles) overlayed on the drift chamber cell geometry. This event in fact satisfied several redundant triggers, which is typical of the physics processes of interest. Such events allow cross-checks of the EMT and DCT trigger systems against each other.

No major components have needed to be replaced. The only minor hardware concern has been the pin housing of the calorimeter-to-EMT cables which was damaged through removal of misplaced pins during the cable assembly. The faulty housings have been replaced.

The EMT satisfied the technical requirements for latency and time jitter without any tuning of the FIR filter weights beyond the values found from a simulation study during the design phase. Fig. 8 shows the distribution of times determined in the EMT for individual energy deposits, compared to a very much more accurate offline estimate using the drift chamber data. This demonstrates the time of each deposit is usually determined to much better than 1 $`\mu `$s. The overall requirement for the Level 1 trigger of 1 $`\mu `$s applies to the whole event. This event time is determined in the GLT from all the primitives, potentially including those from the DCT, and is effectively a weighted average. The time resolution of the event is therefore significantly better than that of each individual energy deposit.

Typical Level 1 trigger rates are below 1 kHz, well within the 2 kHz limit. Fig. 9 shows the overall rate for DCT and EMT triggers combined as a function of the PEP-II beam currents. These rates were achieved despite a factor of twenty times higher backgrounds than expected levels, showing the importance of designing for high background rates from the outset. The GLT uses a combination of EMT-only triggers, DCT-only triggers and EMT-DCT combined triggers. In addition, an event often has multiple trigger conditions satisfied simultaneously. It is therefore not possible to give an unambiguous value for a trigger rate due to the EMT; the rate of events which only trigger because of the EMT is around 14% of the total, while removing the EMT completely from the Level 1 trigger would make the rate fall by around 50%.

The EMT efficiency for finding individual energy deposits above threshold is above 99%, except in regions with noisy channels which had to be excluded from the trigger (see below). Fig. 10 shows this efficiency as a function of the deposited energy around the lowest threshold used of 120 MeV. This threshold is designed to give a good efficiency for minimum ionising particles, which deposit an average of 180 MeV. It is seen that the trigger is at full efficiency by this energy.

During the initial data-taking period, several faulty channels were found which sporadically became noisy. Whenever this occurred, it was necessary to modify a configurable mask to exclude these noisy regions from the trigger. Some were due to isolated calorimeter channels which were then disabled individually within the calorimeter electronics, allowing the others in the 24 channel sum to continue to be used. However, some noisy regions were due to faults downstream of the sum, in which case the input from all 24 had to be disabled. The average number of input channels masked out over the first year was 1.5%. Simulation studies indicate that these dead regions caused a negligible loss of efficiency for $`B`$ meson decays.

The high efficiency per energy deposit translates directly into high efficiencies for physics processes. The EMT efficiency for Bhabha events, with both outgoing particles falling within the calorimeter acceptance, has been measured to be at least 97%, with some of the apparent inefficiency being due to muon pairs contaminating the sample used to measure the efficiency. The EMT efficiency for $`B`$ meson final states is more than 99%, where the high figure is achieved through multiple redundancy; typically the GLT requires four of the $`\varphi `$ sums to be above the 120 MeV threshold, but hadronic events have around ten such deposits on average.

## VI Conclusions

The EMT has performed well during the first year of BaBar data-taking. The hardware has had no significant problems and the high-speed FPGA design has functioned correctly throughout this period. The trigger has proven to be robust against backgrounds that were significantly higher than expected, has been flexible enough to deal with changing conditions, and has maintained a very high efficiency for all physics collisions of interest.

## VII Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Su Dong for his help in the preparation of this paper.


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# Topology and Energetics of Metal-Encapsulating Si Fullerene-Like Cage Clusters

## Abstract

On the basis of a topological discussion as well as an ab initio calculation, we show that it is possible to construct a fullerene-like Si cage by doping of a transition metal atom. The cage is a simple 3-polytope which maximizes the number of its inner diagonals close to the metal atom. Our topological argument also reveals how closely the structure of the fullerene-like Si cages studied is related to that of fullerenes themselves.

Synthesis of fullerene-cage-like clusters composed of elements other than carbon (C) is a subject of great interest. Especially, it is intriguing to study whether silicon (Si) analogues of the fullerenes can exist in energetically favorable forms. Production of Si cage clusters is also important from a technological point of view. They may be used as building blocks for fabrication of various structures in electronic devices in ten nanometer scales.

A main question which we would like to answer in this study is how one can obtain a smooth fullerene-like cage composed of Si atoms. Due to their $`sp^3`$ nature, the Si atoms tend to bind themselves against generation of fullerene cages. As a matter of fact, Sin clusters ($`n`$ up to $``$50) usually favor compact forms which are completely different from fullerene cages. The structure of a Si60 cluster in a fullerene cage is highly distorted.

As is well known, the structure of a typical fullerene cage (Cn) is composed of only 5- and 6-membered rings. The number of the 5-membered rings is twelve irrespective of $`n`$. Each atom is connected with three neighbors. Stability of fullerenes may be attributed to two factors: $`\sigma `$ bonding among $`sp_{}^2`$ hybrids, where $`p_{}`$ stands for the intra-cage component of the C $`p`$ orbital, and $`\pi `$ conjugation among $`p`$-orbital components normal to the cage surface ($`p_{}`$).

A fundamental difficulty to maintain a smooth Si fullerene cage stems from the fact that the $`\pi `$ conjugation among the $`p_{}`$ orbitals does not occur. Thus, the caging mechanism is only the $`\sigma `$ bonding of the $`sp_{}^2`$ hybrids. The distortion of the fullerene cage of Si60 is due to admixture of substantial $`p_{}`$ components with $`sp_{}^2`$.

A promising solution to the augmentation of Si cage structures is to put one or more additional atoms inside of the cages. If electron orbitals of these “doped” atoms have a substantial overlap with the $`p_{}`$ orbitals, then the additional cohesion forces would be supplied to the cage. This idea has originally sprouted from the construction of Sin clusters with $`n`$ larger than $``$20 to account for the exceptional chemical inertness of Si39 and Si45 and also for “prolate-oblate” structural change in Sin around $`n`$$``$27. A common aspect of the Sin configurations studied in Refs. is that they are configured to mimic as much of the bulk Si structure as possible, while the outermost cages yet resemble the counterparts of fullerenes.

As explained above, there are at least two mechanisms to stabilize a doped Si fullerene-cage cluster: (a) $`\sigma `$ bonding within the $`sp_{}^2`$ hybrid network of the cage and (b) bonding among the $`p_{}`$ orbitals of the cage and the orbitals of doped atoms. A key issue to be solved for production of stable fullerene-like Si cage clusters is how these two factors should be tuned in order to maximize the total binding among the constituent atoms in the clusters.

The goal of this study is to give an explicit answer to this question from a theoretical point of view. For this purpose, we target metal-doped Si cage clusters, $`M\mathrm{@}`$Sin, because we have recently experimentally suggested that stable metal-encapsulating Si cage clusters ($`M\mathrm{@}`$Sin, $`M`$$`=`$Hf, Ta, W, Re, Ir, etc. and $`n`$$``$$``$14) might be grown. We also note the outstanding property of $`M\mathrm{@}`$Sin. When doped with Na and Ba, the $`M\mathrm{@}`$Sin clusters in certain phases of the solid state exhibit superconductivity. Although some theoretical as well as experimental studies have been performed for metal-doped Si clusters, roles of the cage topologies played in stabilization of fullerene-like Si cages have been little argued.

First, we discuss what topology should be suitable for a cage of $`M\mathrm{@}`$Sin ($`n`$$``$20). A very important clue to the solution has been recently given by mathematicians, Bremner and Klee. They study inner diagonals (see below or Ref. for definition of an inner diagonal) of convex polytopes. The quantity of our own interest here is the number of inner diagonals denoted by $`\delta _3`$. We will propose that a simple 3-polytope, in which the number of inner diagonals close to the dopant ($`\delta _3^{eff}`$) is maximized, should be a candidate of a stable fullerene-like Si cage of $`M\mathrm{@}`$Sin.

Next, we perform a first-principles energetics of the clusters in the case of $`M`$$`=`$W (W$`\mathrm{@}`$Sin, 8$``$$`n`$$``$16). The clusters in fullerene-like cages predicted by the above topological picture are indeed obtained for $`n`$$`=`$12 \[Fig.1(d)\] and $`n`$$`=`$14 \[Fig.1(e)\]. For $`n`$$`=`$8 and 10, however, the caging with corresponding simple 3-polytopes \[Fig.1(a) and Fig.1(b)\] may not occur, because their total energies are significantly higher than those of the respective isolated atoms. For $`n`$$`=`$16, a single cage is unstable (Fig.2). The cage is relaxed into a skeleton similar to either of $`n`$$`=12`$ \[Fig.1(d)\] or $`n`$$`=`$14 \[Fig.1(e)\]. Thus we conclude that it is possible to construct energetically favorable fullerene-like Si cage clusters doped with a transition metal atom, whose cage sizes depend on the dopant.

Now we describe our results. First a topological discussion of Si cages is given. We denote the number of $`p`$-membered rings of a Si cage as $`N_p`$. Throughout this study, we limit the range of $`p`$ to 4$``$$`p`$$``$6. We also use a vector notation $`\stackrel{}{N}`$$`=`$$`(N_4,N_5,N_6)`$ for brevity. For example, simple 3-polytopes with $`n`$$`=`$8 and 10 vertices are a cube \[$`\stackrel{}{N}`$$`=`$(6,0,0), Fig.1(a)\] and a pentagonal prism \[$`\stackrel{}{N}`$$`=`$(5,2,0), Fig.1(b)\], respectively. For each $`n`$$``$12, simple 3-polytopes with different $`\stackrel{}{N}`$’s exist as shown in Fig.1 and Table I.

An inner diagonal (or a 3-diagonal) of a convex 3-polytope $`P`$ is defined as a segment that joins two vertices of $`P`$ and that lies, except for its ends, in $`P`$’s relative interior. There are two other kinds of diagonals of $`P`$, 1- and 2-diagonals. The former are the edges. As for the latter, there are two, five and nine 2-diagonals in a 4-, 5- and 6-membered ring, respectively. If we denote the number of $`i`$-diagonals by $`\delta _i`$, then $`\delta _1`$$`+`$$`\delta _2`$$`+`$$`\delta _3`$$`=`$$`\frac{n(n1)}{2}`$, where $`n`$ is the number of vertices. For example, $`\delta _3`$$`=`$4 for $`\stackrel{}{N}`$$`=`$(6,0,0) and $`\delta _3`$$`=`$10 for $`\stackrel{}{N}`$$`=`$(5,2,0). In this study, we further define $`\delta _3^{eff}`$ as $`\delta _3^{eff}`$$`=`$$`_{i>j}\theta (d_{\mathrm{cut}}d_{ij})`$, where $`i`$ and $`j`$ are indices of Si atoms, $`d_{\mathrm{cut}}`$ is the cut-off radius and $`d_{ij}`$ is the distance between a metal atom and a diagonal joining the $`i`$-th and $`j`$-th Si atoms. $`\theta (x)`$ is a step function; $`\theta (x)`$$`=`$1 for $`x`$$``$0 and $`\theta (x)`$$`=`$0 otherwise. Obviously, $`\delta _3^{eff}`$ approaches $`\frac{n(n1)}{2}`$ for $`d_{\mathrm{cut}}`$$``$$`\mathrm{}`$. In order to count the number of only inner diagonals, $`d_{\mathrm{cut}}`$ must be small. In practice, we vary $`d_{\mathrm{cut}}`$ from 1.0Å down to 0.25Å to check the $`d_{\mathrm{cut}}`$-dependence on $`\delta _3^{eff}`$. The overlap between the $`p_{}`$ orbitals of a Si cage and the counterparts of the dopant metal atom may be roughly proportional to the number of the $`p_{}`$ orbitals pointing toward the metal atom, which should also be approximately proportional to $`\delta _3^{eff}`$ at a small $`d_{\mathrm{cut}}`$ by its definition. Thus analyzing $`\delta _3^{eff}`$ may measure the strength of the bonding between the doped atom and the Si cage. Our first-principles calculation shows that $`\delta _3^{eff}`$ at $`\delta _{\mathrm{cut}}`$$`=`$0.25Å is maximized for the lowest-energy W$`\mathrm{@}`$Sin cluster for each of $`n`$$`=`$12 and 14.

Bremner and Klee show that, for a given $`n`$, $`P`$ with a maximum $`\delta _3`$ is simplicial. A simplicial 3-polytope seems the best for a cage of $`M\mathrm{@}`$Sin for each $`n`$, because the energy gain due to the factor (b) should be fully enjoyed. This is not true, however, since the mechanism (a) is instead sacrificed so that a total energy gain is not maximized. Our first-principles calculation shows that a W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si12 cluster with an icosahedron cage (i.e. a simplicial 3-polytope with 12 vertices and $`\delta _3`$$`=`$36) is energetically very unfavorable \[5.76 eV higher in energy than the (6,0,2)-cage cluster shown in FIg.1(d)\], despite that all $`p_{}`$ orbitals of the cage point toward the central W atom. The averaged Si-Si distance ($`d_2`$) of the icosahedron cage (2.72Å) is much longer than those of both (4,4,0)- ($`d_2`$$`=`$2.42Å) and (6,0,2)-cages ($`d_2`$$`=`$2.39Å). In contrast, the averaged Si-W distances ($`d_1`$) are similar, $``$2.6Å. This evidences that too much preference of the factor (b) is taken over (a) in the icosahedron cage. Therefore a simple 3-polytope is a good candidate for a Sin ($`n`$$``$20) cage, in which both (a) and (b) factors may work equally well to enhance the stability of the $`M\mathrm{@}`$Sin cluster as a whole.

Turning to the topology of a carbon fullerene cage, its peculiarity can be characterized in light of $`\delta _3`$. Let $`Q`$ be a simple 3-polytope with $`n`$ vertices. For each of $`n`$$``$24, $`Q`$ with $`F`$ ($`=n/2+2`$) facets composed of only twelve pentagons and $`F`$$``$12 hexagons maximizes $`\delta _3`$ which is $`n(n13)/2+30`$. For $`n`$$`=`$20, $`Q`$ with the largest $`\delta _3`$ ($`=`$100) is a dodecahedron which has only twelve pentagons. In the case of $`n`$$`=`$22, however, $`Q`$ with $`N_5`$$`=`$12 cannot be realized. The maximum possible value of $`\delta _3`$ is 128 when $`\stackrel{}{N}`$$`=`$(1,10,2). Thus a typical fullerene Cn cage ($`n`$$``$20) can be identified to be a simple 3-polytope with a maximum value of $`\delta _3`$ except $`n`$$`=`$22. The Sin cages we consider for 8$``$$`n`$$``$16 include $`Q`$’s with maximum $`\delta _3`$’s. Although $`\delta _3`$ ($`=`$18) of the (6,0,2)-cage \[Fig.1(d)\] is not a maximum, it is the second largest value. This is why we can say that our Si cages are fullerene-like.

In order to substantiate the above topological argument, we perform a first-principles energetics of the W$`\mathrm{@}`$Sin clusters. Here we adopt a recently proposed single-parent evolution algorithm (SPEA) to update the atomic coordinates in an unbiased way. For SPEA simulation, we calculate the total energies of clusters with a linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) using the GAUSSIAN98 package. Then we use the calculated coordinates of the clusters as the inputs of plane-wave (PW) total energy calculations where quenched molecular dynamics is performed for final convergence. Electronic structures of clusters are calculated with density-functional theory within generalized gradient approximation to the exchange-correlation energy functionals (Becke’88 and Perdew-Wang’91 for LCAO and Perdew-Wang-Ernzerhof’96 for PW).

With the aid of SPEA, we indeed find that the cages of energetically favorable W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si12 and W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si14 clusters are simple 3-polytopes with $`\stackrel{}{N}`$$`=`$(6,0,2) \[Fig.1(d)\] and (3,6,0) \[Fig.1(e)\], respectively. Varying $`d_{\mathrm{cut}}`$ from 1.0Å down to 0.25Å, we find that $`\delta _3^{eff}`$’s of both are constants (6 and 4; see Table I for the summary of the result). On the other hand, $`\delta _3^{eff}`$’s of the other W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si12 and W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si14 clusters decrease to 0$``$2 as $`d_{\mathrm{cut}}`$ becomes smaller, whose total energies are all higher than those of the (6,0,2) and (3,6,0) cages, respectively. These results support the topological argument made above.

It should be noted that the W$`\mathrm{@}`$Sin ($`n`$$``$10) clusters may be viewed as metastable phases of Si-rich tungsten silicides, which do not appear in equilibrium W-Si phase diagram. It is suggested in the previous experiment that the clusters are obtained via a sequential growth where a W$`\mathrm{@}`$Sin cluster is obtained by attaching additional $`m`$ Si atoms to a smaller W$`\mathrm{@}`$Sin-m cluster. In order to understand the essence of the growth process on the basis of our energetics, we calculate differential binding energy, defined as $`\mathrm{\Delta }E(n)`$$`=`$$`E_{\mathrm{bind}}(n+2)2E_{\mathrm{bind}}(n)+E_{\mathrm{bind}}(n2)`$, where $`E_{\mathrm{bind}}(n)`$$`=`$ $`E_{\mathrm{total}}^{atom}(\mathrm{W})+nE_{\mathrm{total}}^{atom}(\mathrm{Si})E_{\mathrm{total}}^{cluster}(\mathrm{WSi}_n)`$. A negative value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E(n)`$ means that generation of a W$`\mathrm{@}`$Sin cluster is favorable. We find that $`\mathrm{\Delta }E(10)`$$`=`$1.6 eV, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E(12)`$$`=`$$``$2.8 eV and $`\mathrm{\Delta }E(14)`$$`=`$$``$0.3 eV. For $`n`$$`=`$10, stable caging of a W atom in simple 3-polytopes \[Fig.1(b)\] is unlikely to occur. The cluster should be chemically very reactive, because there are too few Si atoms around W to fulfil its reaction points. If additional Si atoms can arrive at the cluster prior to its collapse, then subsequent growths to W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si12 and possibly to W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si14 should occur with high probabilities.

We also find that there exists a threshold cage size for W$`\mathrm{@}`$Sin beyond which the cages become unstable. In Fig.2, some of calculated structures of W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si16 clusters are shown. The initial configurations of the cages are taken like simple 3-polytopes with 16 vertices. Upon relaxation, all cages we considered are completely distorted and become similar to either the (6,0,2) cage plus 2 Si atoms or the (3,6,0) cage plus 4 Si atoms. It appears that $`n`$$`=`$14 is the threshold size in the case of W doping. For a cage beyond a critical size, there are too many Si atoms around W to cover its reaction points.

In conclusion, we show that it is possible to construct Si clusters in fullerene-like cages with transition-metal atom doping. A topological discussion suggests that simple 3-polytopes with maximum numbers of inner diagonals close to the dopant may be good candidates of fullerene-like Si cages. First-principles calculation shows that, in the case of W doping, W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si12 and W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si14 are energetically most favorable and also have the cages predicted by the above topological picture.

This work is partly supported by NEDO.

Figure captions

* (color) Calculated structures of W$`\mathrm{@}`$Sin in “fullerene-like” cages. Double line segments are drawn when the inter-atom distance is less than 2.7Å. The double line segments corresponding to the edges of simple 3-polytopes are colored with blue. In panels (a), (g) and (h), red single lines should be supplemented and also green double lines should be removed to retrieve connectivity in the corresponding simple 3-polytopes. See also a note.
* (color) Calculated structures of W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si16. Si atoms colored with dark blue are regarded “attached” to either the (6,0,2)-cage W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si12 (panel (e)) or (3,6,0)-cage W$`\mathrm{@}`$Si14 clusters (panels (a), (b), (c) and (d)). Other conventions are the same as in Fig.1.


text:
# Magic numbers in exotic nuclei and spin-isospin properties of 𝑁𝑁 interaction

\[

## Abstract

The magic numbers in exotic nuclei are discussed, and their novel origin is shown to be the spin-isospin dependent part of the nucleon-nucleon interaction in nuclei. The importance and robustness of this mechanism is shown in terms of meson exchange, G-matrix and QCD theories. In neutron-rich exotic nuclei, magic numbers such as $`N`$=8, 20, etc. can disappear, while $`N`$=6, 16, etc. arise, affecting the structure of lightest exotic nuclei to nucleosynthesis of heavy elements.

\]

The magic number is the most fundamental quantity governing the nuclear structure. The nuclear shell model has been started by Mayer and Jensen by identifying the magic numbers and their origin . The study of nuclear structure has been advanced on the basis of the shell structure associated with the magic numbers. This study, on the other hand, has been made predominantly for stable nuclei, which are on or near the $`\beta `$-stability line in the nuclear chart. This is basically because only those nuclei have been accessible experimentally. In such stable nuclei, the magic numbers suggested by Mayer and Jensen remain valid, and the shell structure can be understood well in terms of the harmonic oscillator potential with a spin-orbit splitting.

Recently, studies on exotic nuclei far from the $`\beta `$-stability line have started owing to the development of radioactive nuclear beams . The magic numbers in such exotic nuclei can be a quite intriguing issue. In this Letter, we show that new magic numbers appear and some others disappear in moving from stable to exotic nuclei in a rather novel manner due to a particular part of the nucleon-nucleon interaction.

In order to understand underlying single-particle properties of a nucleus, we can make use of effective (spherical) single-particle energies (ESPE’s), which represent mean effects from the other nucleons on a nucleon in a specified single-particle orbit. The two-body matrix element of the interaction depends on the angular momentum $`J`$, coupled by two interacting nucleons in orbits $`j_1`$ and $`j_2`$. Since we are investigating a mean effect, this $`J`$-dependence is averaged out with a weight factor $`(2J+1)`$, and only diagonal matrix elements are taken. Keeping the isospin dependence, $`T`$=0 or 1, the so-called monopole Hamiltonian is thus obtained with a matrix element :

$$V_{j_1j_2}^T=\frac{_J(2J+1)<j_1j_2|V|j_1j_2>_{JT}}{_J(2J+1)},$$
(1)
where $`<j_1j_2|V|j_1^{}j_2^{}>_{JT}`$ stands for the matrix element of a two-body interaction, $`V`$.

The ESPE is evaluated from this monopole Hamiltonian as a measure of mean effects from the other nucleons. The normal filling configuration is used. Note that, because the $`J`$ dependence is taken away, only the number of nucleons in each orbit matters. As a natural assumption, the possible lowest isospin coupling is assumed for protons and neutrons in the same orbit. The ESPE of an occupied orbit is defined to be the separation energy of this orbit with the opposite sign. Note that the separation energy implies the minimum energy needed to take a nucleon out of this orbit. The ESPE of an unoccupied orbit is defined to be the binding energy gain by putting a proton or neutron into this orbit with the opposite sign.

Figure 1 shows neutron ESPE’s for 30Si and 24O, both of which have $`N`$=16. The Hamiltonian and the single-particle model space are the same as those used in , where the structure of exotic nuclei with $`N`$$``$20 has been successfully described within a single framework. The valence orbits are then $`0d_{5/2,3/2}`$, $`1s_{1/2}`$, $`0f_{7/2}`$ and $`1p_{3/2}`$.

The nucleus 30Si has six valence protons in the $`sd`$ shell and is a stable nucleus, while 24O has no valence proton and is a neutron-rich exotic nucleus. For 30Si, the neutron $`0d_{3/2}`$ and $`1s_{1/2}`$ are rather close to each other (see Fig. 1 (a)). For 24O, as shown in Fig. 1 (b), the $`0d_{3/2}`$ is lying much higher and is quite close to the $`pf`$ shell, giving rise to a large gap ($``$6 MeV) between $`0d_{3/2}`$ and $`1s_{1/2}`$ . On the other hand, for the stable nucleus 30Si, a considerable gap ($``$4 MeV) is created between the $`0d_{3/2}`$ and the $`pf`$ shell (See Fig. 1 (a)). Thus, the $`N`$=20 magic structure is evident for 30Si, whereas the $`N`$=16 magic number arises in 24O. In 24O, the $`0d_{3/2}`$ is lying higher reflecting the large spin-orbit splitting which is basically the same as that for 17O. Although this high-lying $`0d_{3/2}`$ orbit is not so relevant to the ground state of lighter O isotopes, it should affect binding energies of nuclei around 24O. Such an anomaly was pointed out by Ozawa et al.  in observed binding energy systematics.

The dramatic change of ESPE’s from 24O to 30Si is primarily due to the strongly attractive interaction between a proton in $`0d_{5/2}`$ and a neutron in $`0d_{3/2}`$. A schematic picture on this point is shown in Fig. 1 (c) for the general cases comprised of a pair of orbits $`j_>=l+1/2`$ and $`j_<=l1/2`$ with $`l`$ being the orbital angular momentum. Note that $`j_>`$ and $`j_<`$ are nothing but spin-orbit coupling partners. The present case corresponds to $`l`$=2. As one moves from 24O to 30Si, six valence protons are put into the $`0d_{5/2}`$ orbit. Consequently, due to the strong attraction shown in Fig. 1 (c), a neutron in $`0d_{3/2}`$ is more bound in 30Si, and its neutron $`0d_{3/2}`$ ESPE becomes so low as compared to that in 24O where such attraction is absent.

The process illustrated in Fig. 1 (d) produces the attractive interaction in Fig. 1 (c). The nucleon-nucleon ($`NN`$) interaction in this process is written as

$$V_{\tau \sigma }=\tau \tau \sigma \sigma f_{\tau \sigma }(r).$$
(2)
Here, the symbol “$``$” denotes a scalar product, $`\tau `$ and $`\sigma `$ stand for isospin and spin operators, respectively, $`r`$ implies the distance between two interacting nucleons, and $`f_{\tau \sigma }`$ is a function of $`r`$. In the long range (or no r-dependence) limit of $`f_{\tau \sigma }(r)`$, the interaction in eq.(2) can couple only a pair of orbits with the same orbital angular momentum $`l`$, which are nothing but $`j_>`$ or $`j_<`$.

The $`\sigma `$ operator couples $`j_>`$ to $`j_<`$ (and vice versa) more strongly than $`j_>`$ to $`j_>`$ or $`j_<`$ to $`j_<`$. Therefore, the spin flip process is more favored in the vertexes in Fig. 1 (d), while spin non-flip contributions certainly exist. The same mathematical mechanism works for isospin: the $`\tau `$ operator favors charge exchange processes. Combining these two properties, $`V_{\tau \sigma }`$ produces large matrix elements for the spin-flip isospin-flip processes: proton in $`j_>`$ $``$ neutron in $`j_<`$ and vice versa. This gives rise to the interaction in Fig. 1 (c) with a strongly attractive monopole term for the appropriate sign of $`V_{\tau \sigma }`$. This feature is a general one and is maintained with $`f_{\tau \sigma }(r)`$ in eq.(2) with reasonable $`r`$ dependences.

In stable nuclei with $`N`$$``$$`Z`$ with ample occupancy of the $`j_>`$ orbit in the valence shell, the proton (neutron) $`j_<`$ orbit is lowered by neutrons (protons) in the $`j_>`$ orbit. In exotic nuclei, this lowering can be absent, and then the $`j_<`$ orbit is located rather high, not far from the upper shell. In this sense, the proton-neutron $`j_>`$-$`j_<`$ interaction enlarges a gap between major shells for stable nuclei with proper occupancy of relevant orbits. This interaction has been known, for instance , to play important roles also in other issues, e.g., the onset of the deformation.

The origin of the strong $`V_{\tau \sigma }`$ is quite clear. The One-Boson-Exchange-Potentials (OBEP) for $`\pi `$ and $`\rho `$ mesons have this type of terms as major contributions. While the OBEP is one of major parts of the effective $`NN`$ interaction, the effective $`NN`$ interaction in nuclei can be provided by the G-matrix calculation with core polarization corrections and other various effects. Such effective $`NN`$ interaction will be called simply G-matrix interaction for brevity. The G-matrix interaction should maintain the basic features of meson exchange processes, and, in fact, existing G-matrix interactions generally have quite large matrix elements for the cases shown in Fig. 1 (c), including strongly attractive monopole terms .

We would like to point out that the $`1/N_c`$ expansion of QCD by Kaplan and Manohar indicates that $`V_{\tau \sigma }`$ is one of three leading terms of the long-range part of the $`NN`$ interaction . Since the next order of this expansion is smaller by a factor $`(1/N_c)^2`$, the leading terms should have rather distinct significance. One of the other two leading terms in the $`1/N_c`$ expansion  is a central force,

$$V_0=f_0(r),$$
(3)
where $`f_0`$ is a function of $`r`$. The last leading term is a tensor force. We shall come back to these forces later.

Figure 2 shows the effective $`0d_{3/2}`$ \- $`1s_{1/2}`$ gap, i.e., the difference between ESPE’s of these orbits, in $`N`$=16 isotones with $`Z`$=8$``$20 for three interactions: “Kuo” means a G-matrix interaction for the $`sd`$ shell calculated by Kuo , and USD was obtained by adding empirical modifications to “Kuo” . The present shell-model interaction is denoted SDPF hereafter, and its $`sd`$-shell part is nothing but USD with small changes . Steep decrease of this gap is found in all cases, as $`Z`$ departs from 8 to 14. In other words, a magic structure can be formed around $`Z`$=8, but it should disappear quickly as $`Z`$ deviates from 8 because the gap decreases very fast. The slope of this sharp drop is determined by $`V_{0d_{5/2}0d_{3/2}}^{T=0,1}`$ in eq. (1), where the dominant contribution is from $`T`$=0. Note that $`V_{0d_{5/2}0d_{3/2}}^{T=0}`$ is most attractive among all $`V_{j_1j_2}^T`$’s in the $`sd`$ shell for each of the three interactions. In SDPF, for instance, its magnitude exceeds by $``$1 MeV that of the second most attractive one.

We shall now discuss briefly the present gap in other approaches. The gap can be calculated from the Woods-Saxon potential which is a standard modeling of single-particle structure for stable nuclei. The resultant gap is rather flat, and is about half of the SDPF value for $`Z`$=8. With Skyrme Hartree-Fock (HF) interactions, the gap changes more smoothly and gradually, too.

The occupation number of the neutron $`1s_{1/2}`$ is calculated by Monte Carlo Shell Model  with full configuration mixing for the nuclei shown in Fig. 2. It is nearly two for 24O as expected for a magic nucleus, but decreases sharply as $`Z`$ increases. It remains smaller ($`<`$ 1.5) in the middle region around $`Z`$=14, and finally goes up again for $`Z`$$``$20. This means that the $`N`$=16 magic structure is broken in the middle region of the proton $`sd`$ shell, where deformation effects also contribute to the breaking. The $`N`$=16 magic number is thus quite valid at both ends. It is of interest that the gap becomes large again for larger $`Z`$, due to other monopole components.

We now turn to exotic nuclei with $`N`$$``$20. The ESPE has been evaluated for them in . The small effective gap between $`0d_{3/2}`$ and the $`pf`$ shell for neutrons is obtained, and is found to play essential roles for various anomalous features. This small gap is nothing but what we have seen for 24O in Fig. 1 (b). Thus, the disappearance of $`N`$=20 magic structure in $`Z`$=9$``$14 exotic nuclei and the appearance of the new magic structure in 24O have the same origin.

A very similar mechanism works for $`p`$-shell nuclei. We consider the structure of a stable nucleus 13C, and exotic nuclei 11Be and 9He, all of which have $`N`$=7. Shell model calculations are performed with the PSDMK2 Hamiltonian  in the $`p`$+$`sd`$ shell model space on top of the 4He core. Figure 3 indicates that the experimental levels are reproduced well for 13C , whereas notable deviations are found in 11Be and 9He . Here, for experimental levels in the continuum, their resonance(-like) energies are compared to the shell-model results.

The $`p`$-shell part of PSDMK2 is the Cohen-Kurath (CK) Hamiltonian . The single-particle energies of $`0p_{3/2}`$ and $`0p_{1/2}`$ are 1.38 and 1.68 MeV, respectively, in PSDMK2. These energies correspond to the observed spectra of 5He: 1.15 for $`0p_{3/2}`$ and $``$5 MeV for $`0p_{1/2}`$. We use these observed values as single particle energies, while $`0p_{1/2}`$ is quite low in PSDMK2. As compared to the G-matrix interaction , the interaction in Fig. 1 (c) for the $`p`$-shell is too weak in CK, and is enlarged by shifting all $`<0p_{3/2}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}p_{1/2}|V|0p_{3/2}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}p_{1/2}>_{J,T=0}`$’s by -2 MeV independently of $`J`$. Thus, the Hamiltonian is modified only for three parameters. Since we are focusing on basic trends and would like to eliminate spurious center-of-mass components, all shell model calculations for $`N`$=7 isotones are made in the so-called 0$`\mathrm{}\omega `$ or 1$`\mathrm{}\omega `$ space. Figure 3 (a) indicates that the levels of 13C calculated from the present Hamiltonian are similar to the ones obtained from PSDMK2, because the higher-lying $`0p_{1/2}`$ is pulled down by $`V`$ as discussed above.

The ground state of 11Be and 9He is known for the inversion between 1/2+ and 1/2- . The present calculation reproduces this inversion for both nuclei, whereas the PSDMK2 fails in either case. With the present Hamiltonian, neutron effective $`1s_{1/2}`$ \- $`0p_{1/2}`$ gap decreases from 8.6 MeV for 13C down to 0.8 MeV for 9He. Dynamical correlations finally invert 1/2+ and 1/2- eigenstates . Thus, we achieve a reasonable description of stable and exotic nuclei with $`N`$=7. Although the result appears promising, we have investigated only possible improvements, and further studies are needed for an overall description of $`p`$-$`sd`$ nuclei. For instance, in comparison to experiments, the present interaction gives a 3/2- state in 15O $``$2 MeV too high , and 9He is too unbound relative to 8He by $``$4.5 MeV . The latter may be related to coupling to continuum and/or to nuclear-size dependence of two-body interaction.

The neutron $`0p_{1/2}`$ orbit becomes higher as the nucleus loses protons in its spin-flip partner $`0p_{3/2}`$. In nuclei such as He, Li and Be, the $`N`$=8 magic structure then disappears. In some cases, $`N`$=6 becomes magic: for instance, bound 8He and unbound 9He are obtained, similarly to bound 24O and unbound 25O.

As the neutron $`0p_{1/2}`$ is shifted quite high in He, Li and Be, this orbit becomes close to the $`1s_{1/2}`$ which may come down due to halo structure. This is a situation like the Efimov state . The pairing between these two orbits, including contribution from the tensor force, may stabilize the two-neutron halo and provide us with bound 11Li, etc. Thus, the present mechanism plays a crucial role for the structure of dripline nuclei. Without this mechanism, it is usually difficult to make $`0p_{1/2}`$ and $`1s_{1/2}`$ so close to each other, except for an empirical shift of the single-particle energy.

Moving back to heavier nuclei, from the strong interaction in Fig. 1 (c), we can predict other magic numbers, for instance, $`N`$=34 associated with the $`0f_{7/2}`$ \- $`0f_{5/2}`$ interaction. In heavier nuclei, $`0g_{7/2}`$, $`0h_{9/2}`$, etc. are shifted upward in neutron-rich exotic nuclei, disturbing the magic numbers $`N`$=82, 126, etc. It is of interest how the $`r`$-process of nucleosynthesis is affected by it.

In conclusion, we showed how magic numbers are changed in nuclei far from the $`\beta `$-stability line: $`N`$=6, 16, 34, etc. can become magic numbers in neutron-rich exotic nuclei, while usual magic numbers, $`N`$=8, 20, 40, etc., may disappear. Since such changes occur as results of the nuclear force, there is isospin symmetry that similar changes occur for the same $`Z`$ values in mirror nuclei. The mechanism of this change can be explained by the strong $`V_{\tau \sigma }`$ interaction which has robust origins in OBEP, G-matrix and QCD. In fact, simple structure such as magic numbers should have a simple and sound basis. Since it is unlikely that a mean central potential can simulate most effects of $`V_{\tau \sigma }`$, we should treat $`V_{\tau \sigma }`$ rather explicitly. It is nice to build a bridge between very basic feature of exotic nuclei and the basic theory of hadrons, QCD. In existing Skyrme HF calculations except for those with Gogny force, effects of $`V_{\tau \sigma }`$ may not be well enough included, because the interaction is truncated to be of $`\delta `$-function type. The Relativistic Mean Field calculations must include pion degrees of freedom to be consistent with $`V_{\tau \sigma }`$. Thus, the importance of $`V_{\tau \sigma }`$ opens new directions for mean field theories of nuclei. In addition, $`f_0(r)`$ in eq.(3) and $`f_{\tau \sigma }(r)`$ in eq.(2) should have different ranges. Since the latter has smaller contributions in exotic nuclei, this difference should produce very interesting effects on nuclear size. Loose-binding or continuum effects are important in some exotic nuclei. By combining such effects with those discussed in this Letter one may draw a more complete picture for the structure of exotic nuclei. Finally, we would like to mention once more that the $`V_{\tau \sigma }`$ interaction should produce large, simple and robust effects on various properties, and may change the landscape of nuclei far from the $`\beta `$-stability line in the nuclear chart.

One of the authors (T.O.) acknowledges the Institute for Nuclear Theory for inviting him to the INT-00-3 program. He is grateful to Prof. K. Yazaki for valuable comment. We thank Prof. A. Gelberg for reading the manuscript. The MCSM calculations were performed by the Alphleet computer in RIKEN. The conventional shell-model calculations were made by the code oxbash . This work was supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)(2) (10304019) from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.