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# Source Regions of Coronal Mass Ejections

## 1 Introduction

In this paper, we concentrate on CME source regions with a view to gaining insight into the initiation mechanism of CMEs, especially in relation to pre-existing coronal structures and the underlying photospheric magnetic field. We confine our attention to CMEs observed in LASCO white light images that have clearly identifiable on-disk counterparts in EIT 195 Å data that are well away from the solar limb. The photons detected by the EIT 195Å channel are primarily due to Fe XII formed at a temperature around 1.4 x 106K (Dere et al., 2000).

We address such questions as:

1. What are the source regions of CMEs?
2. Are there any discernible characteristics of the source regions indicating an inclination for producing CMEs?
3. How are CMEs related to active regions and prominence eruptions?
4. What is the short and long-term temporal evolution of CME producing regions?

Several recent papers have reported on instances of phenomena in the lower corona in EIT 195 Å data that can be linked directly with CMEs observed with the LASCO coronograph. Examples include the halo CME associated with the EIT wave of May 12, 1997 (Thompson et al., 1998; Plunkett et al., 1998) and the CMEs of January 25 1998 (Gopalswamy et al., 1998) and 23 December 1996 (Dere et al., 1997). Delannèe et al. (2000) examine EIT 195 Å data for a period of 6 days between 1 and 6 November 1997 and find that of 17 ejections observed in this data, 13 are related to white light CMEs in LASCO data.

Several studies have been carried out on associating CMEs with other kinds of solar activity such as flares and disappearing prominences. Munro et al. (1979) used CME observations from Skylab data during 1973-1974 near solar minimum in conjunction with reports of associated activity from the Solar Geophysical Data archives. They found that 78% of the CMEs observed were associated with other forms of solar activity. Of these, they found that 40% of the CMEs observed are associated with flares, while more than 70% of CMEs are associated with eruptive prominences (with and without flares). Webb & Hundhausen (1987) examined SMM data during 1980 near solar maximum and found that 66 % of the CMEs observed were associated with other forms of solar activity. Of these, they found that 68% of the observed CMEs were associated with erupting prominences, 37% with H$`\alpha `$ flares and 47% with X-ray events. St. Cyr & Webb (1991) analyzed SMM data from 1984–1986, during the declining phase of the solar cycle. They find that slightly less than half of the CMEs have associations with other forms of solar activity. Of these, they found that 76% were associated with erupting prominences, 26% with H$`\alpha `$ flares and 74% with X-ray events. Gilbert et al. (2000) have analyzed H$`\alpha `$ data from the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory and LASCO data to study the relationship between prominence activity and CMEs. Their data cover the period February 1996 – June 1998, which is very similar to the period covered in our study. One of their principal findings is that 94% of eruptive prominences discerned in the H$`\alpha `$ data had CMEs associated with them.

We now review recent work examining the relation between CMEs and the photospheric magnetic field. Feynman & Martin (1995) find a strong correlation between newly emerging magnetic field and filament eruptions, which they take to be proxies for CMEs. Luhmann et al. (1998) employ potential field extrapolations to determine the large scale coronal field from the photospheric magnetic field. Their results suggest that although the changes in the small scale photospheric magnetic field before and after a CME might be indiscernible, CMEs could correspond to the opening up of large scale coronal field lines. Lara, Gopalswamy & DeForest (2000) examine 8 eruptive events associated with active regions during 1997 and 1998. They find that the total magnetic flux over an active region did not show significant changes. However, they found significant changes in the flux over small subregions of the overall active region associated with the CMEs. They also found that the changes in flux occur over timescales of several hours to days.

Photospheric magnetic field configurations are the boundary conditions for determining the coronal magnetic field which is disrupted during a CME. Canfield, Hudson & McKenzie (1999) have suggested that CME source regions often correspond to structures resembling sigmoids in YOHKOH soft X-ray images, that presumably trace highly stressed coronal magnetic field configurations.

The issue of CME initiation is thus an issue of considerable contemporary interest. The combination of the highly sensitive white light images provided by the LASCO coronograph, on-disk EIT images and 1.5 hour cadence (MDI) photospheric magnetograms provide a unique opportunity to investigate the complex question of CME initiation. This kind of comprehensive data set was not available when previous studies, described above, of the associations between CMEs and disk phenomena were made. We address the question of CME initiation by analyzing the source regions of CMEs observed on the solar disk in EIT 195 Å images during the solar minimum period of January 1996–June 1998.

## 2 Data Analysis Procedure

Our main aim in this paper is to determine the source regions of CMEs as seen in EIT 195 Å images, understand the signatures of CMEs in the low corona and compare them with underlying photospheric magnetic field configurations. Line-of-sight magnetograms measure the longitudinal component of the magnetic field. The magnetograms we use from the NSO Kitt Peak and the MDI instrument are most sensitive near disk center, since there is no foreshortening. Accordingly, we have searched the LASCO CME database (http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/cmelist.html) for the period January 1996 - June 1998 to find CMEs in white light LASCO images that have clear on-disk transients in EIT 195 Å images associated with them. We search EIT 195 Å images within approximately 20-25 minutes prior to the appearance of the CME in the LASCO C2 field of view to see if there are identifiable transients that could correspond to the initiation of the CME in the lower corona. Such signatures include plasma/material motions, transient coronal holes/dimming (Sterling & Hudson, 1997; Zarro et al., 1999), erupting prominences and EIT waves (Thompson et al., 1999) and flares. We have generally restricted ourselves to CMEs

* that have unambiguous associations with on-disk phenomena observed in EIT 195 Å images, and
* where there are high cadence (12-18m), full resolution (2.6 arc-sec/pixel) EIT 195 Å images so that the initiation and source region of the CME-related transients in 195 Å EIT images is clearly evident.

We have cataloged a total of 32 events that satisfy the above-mentioned criteria during the solar minimum period of January 1996–June 1998 (Table 1). Since this only a fraction of the CMEs observed by LASCO during this time period, it is necessary to consider the effect that our selection criteria might have on our final conclusions. First, the selected CMEs only refer to a specific time period near the rising phase of solar cycle 22 and may not be tightly correlated with other phases of the solar cycle. However, the correlation of CMEs observed with SMM with other forms of solar activity at solar maximum (Webb & Hundhausen, 1987) and during the declining phase (St. Cyr & Webb, 1991) were similar and suggest that the correlations found in the present study may be more generally applicable to other phases of the solar cycle. Our conclusions will certainly be affected by the relatively small number of events in our selection but we expect the basic conclusions to be broadly representative of this phase of the solar cycle. The criteria used to select the events we have examined were arrived at for the purpose of a clear determination of the source region and the short term photospheric magnetic field activity related to the CME. The signatures of CMEs in the EIT data are often subtle so that the availability of high cadence EIT data is necessary for a clear location of the source region. Since there were few high cadence EIT 195 Å observations before March 1997 because of telemetry restrictions, our data is biased towards events from March 1997 onwards. The MDI photospheric magnetograms are the only consistent set of data available for studying photospheric field evolution at a reasonable cadence. Since the magnetic sensitivity of MDI drops off toward the limb, these data are best used near disk center. Consequently, we believe that the conclusions of this study have been strengthened by limiting our list of CMEs to a well-observed subset of all of the CMEs observed by LASCO during our period of study.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Aggregate Results

We have recorded the heliographic coordinates of the source region of the CME related transient in 195 Å EIT images for each event. We have superimposed the heliographic positions of these source regions on synoptic magnetograms available from NSO Kitt Peak. If the outline of the CME source region lies over an active region, we conclude that it is active region related. During this phase of the solar cycle, active regions are usually well isolated and these identifications tend to be straightforward. Two examples of synoptic magnetograms with CME source regions superimposed are shown in Figures 1a and 1b. We have carried out this procedure for all the 32 events in our catalog (Table 1), but we do not show all the relevant synoptic magnetograms for lack of space.

We have employed a variety of sources to ascertain whether a CME is associated with an erupting prominence. H$`\alpha `$ data from the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) and the Observatory of Paris at Meudon and some other sources like the Holloman Air Force Base and the Hiraiso Solar Terrestrial Research Center often help to show whether a prominence existed near the source region of the CME related transient. Prominence eruptions are occasionally clearly evident in EIT 195 Å data as cool prominence material seen in absorption or as bright ejecta seen in emission. We have also examined EIT 304 Å data for prominences, but this is usually not very useful because the time interval between images is typically as large as 6 hours. Erupting prominences are also occasionally clearly evident in LASCO C2 data as highly structured material. We have also used Solar Geophysical Data reports of prominence eruptions.

This exercise allows us to place the source regions of CMEs into the following broad categories (see Table 1):

1. CME source regions that are co-spatial with active regions (AR category). Prominences are sometimes embedded in these active regions, but there is no evidence to suggest that any part of it erupted with the CME.
2. CME source regions that are related to eruptions of prominences that were embedded in active regions (AR+EP category). In some cases, the entire embedded prominence erupts as part of the CME, while in others only part of the prominence does so. The prominences in this category are often embedded in old, decaying active regions. Such regions might not necessarily be assigned a NOAA active region number. We have labelled some events in this category as AR+(EP). These are events for which evidence for eruption of a prominence embedded in the active region is not very conclusive.
3. CME source regions that are related to eruptions of prominences outside active regions (EP category). The prominences in this category occur in quiet regions where the magnetic fields are relatively weak.

The association of CME source regions with active regions (events in category 1) is made by visual inspection of EIT 195 Å images and synoptic magnetograms. The association with erupting prominences, on the other hand, is made by inspecting data from various sources as described above. Table 1 gives a short summary of all the events considered in this study. As summarized in Figure 2, we find that 13 (41%) of the cataloged events fall in the AR category, while 14 (44%) are in the AR+EP category and 5 (15%) are in the EP category. We have included events labelled as AR+(EP) in Table 1 in the count for AR+EP events.

Feynman & Martin (1995) find that quiescent filament eruptions (which they take to be proxies for CMEs) are strongly correlated with emergence of new magnetic flux over several days preceding the eruption. Our findings in this respect are different. As shown in Figure 2, 14 of the 32 events on our list are in the AR+EP category, which was not included in the study by Feynman & Martin (1995), while 5 of the 32 events on our list are in the EP category. The CMEs in the EP category arise from eruptions of prominences outside active regions. There is no evidence for significant large-scale emerging magnetic flux for any of the 5 events in the EP category. Nevertheless, we have observed quiescent filament eruptions that were associated with newly emerged magnetic flux, for example, the west limb CME on 1996 July 10. This event was not included in our study because of the lack of high cadence EIT data.

Of the 14 events in the AR+EP category, we find that 4 are associated with emerging magnetic flux. For 3 of these 4 AR+EP events, the flux emerges over timescales of $``$ 7–27 days. Only 1 of these 4 events shows flux emergence over a timescale of $``$ 1 day. Our conclusions regarding emergence or cancellation of magnetic flux (or the lack thereof) are based on detailed visual inspection of MDI magnetograms before and after the event.

### 3.2 Case Studies

Sorting the various CMEs into 3 categories provides a useful overall description of the source regions of CMEs. Nevertheless, such a broad characterization covers over much of the complexity of the nature of the CME source regions and the CME initiation. We have therefore selected 6 especially well observed events from the list of 32 events for closer examination (Table 2). The principal criterion used in the selection of this subset of 6 events was the availability of high cadence EIT 195 Å images. For these events, we have examined the EIT 195 Å images in detail and made detailed visual comparisons of the EIT 195 Å images with full disk photospheric magnetograms from the MDI instrument in order to determine the spatial and temporal relationship between the photospheric magnetic field evolution and the CME-related transient in EIT 195 Å images. We have also examined X-ray light curves from GOES data to determine if there are flares associated with each of these events. In particular, we have referred to the X-ray flare classification based on GOES X-ray data in the 0.1-0.8 nm band that is used in the Solar and Geophysical Data reports.

#### 3.2.1 The CME of 01 April 1997

This is an example of an active region (AR) associated CME and is associated with active region 8026 (lower panel of Figure 3a) during Carrington rotation 1921. The active region was absent on the previous rotation, and emerged on the back side of the sun after 14 March 1997. Since it is an isolated active region, loops associated with this AR can be discerned from LASCO C1 images as early as 22 March 1997, well before the AR reaches the East limb. The AR rotates into view in NSO Kitt Peak magnetograms close to the East limb during rotation 1921 on 27 March 1997 (S23E78). The CME of 01 April 1997 occurs when the AR is at S24E20 (Figure 3a). Following the CME, the active region weakens and disperses, but retains its identity well into rotation 1922. It was last seen near the west limb on 13 May 1997 during rotation 1922 in MDI magnetogram data and does not reappear at the east limb on 26 May 1997. In summary, the active region, with which the CME of April 1 1997 is associated, appeared between 14 March 1997 and 22 March 1997 and disappeared between 13 May 1997 and 26 May 1997. The lifetime of the active region is between 53 and 75 days. The CME occurred early in the life of the active region.

AR 8026 consists of two compact regions of opposite magnetic polarities, with a parasitic negative polarity embedded in the positive polarity region (Figure 3a). On 01 April 1997, the sunspot corresponding to AR 8026 is assigned a $`\beta `$ classification. The parasitic negative polarity region is evident in the MDI magnetogram images from as early as 23:59 UT on 1997/03/31. Upon comparing the two upper panels of Figure 3a, it is evident that that the parasitic negative polarity evolves from being embedded in the positive polarity region at 08:03 UT to forming a lane between two segments of the positive polarity region by 14:27 UT. This trend continues, and we find that the negative parasitic polarity lane has elongated further by 17:39 UT. On 1 April 1997, the MDI magnetograms show a fair amount of small-scale flux emergence and cancellation, particularly along the neutral line and the western edge of the active region.

Near the time of the CME, the first sign of activity in EIT 195 Å images is a brightening at 13:25 UT apparently at the top of the arch connecting the dominant polarities of AR 8026 (upper panel of Figure 3b). This is followed by a brightening at 13:46 UT near the eastern leg of the bipolar arch, around the location of the parasitic polarity (lower panel of Figure 3b). The brightening near the parasitic polarity is clearly evident in the straight EIT 195 Å image at 14:00 UT (Figure 3c). This sequence of events is accompanied by an M1.9 X-ray flare that starts at 13:25 UT, peaks at 13:48 UT and ends at 14:01 UT. An EIT wave is observed to emanate from the vicinity of the active region at 14:00 UT (lower panel of Figure 3b). The northwestern front of this disturbance is the only one that can be clearly identified as an outwardly propagating feature in successive images. It starts out with a velocity of $``$ 100 km s-1 and propagates with an acceleration of $``$ 70 $`\mathrm{ms}^2`$. By the time it reaches the northwest edge of the disk, it has attained a speed of $``$ 300 km s-1. A stationary dimming region is observed to the southwest of the active region. It is manifested as a deepened darkening at approximately the same location in the running difference EIT 195 Å image at 14:18 UT. We also observe a stationary transient dimming at 14:18 UT to the southeast of the active region. We have checked constant base difference EIT 195 Å images to verify that these features are not artifacts of the running difference technique. In summary, the activity observed in EIT 195 Å images consists of a flare(s), an EIT wave propagating towards the northwest and dimming regions to the southeast and southwest of the active region.

The LASCO C2 observations of the CME are shown in Figure 3d. These running difference LASCO C2 images show a wide, bright mound on the east limb appearing simultaneously with a small bright ejection on the west limb at 15:18 UT. The wide front on the east limb travels outward at a speed of 296 km s-1 (http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/cmelist.html). The appearance of this CME is considerably different from those that are typically ejected from the limb but is consistent with a CME ejected from the solar disk in the general direction of SOHO. The simultaneous ejection from the two limbs suggests that this CME could be a toroidal CME (Brueckner et al., 1998) propagating towards the earth. It is worth noting that the EIT wave propagates to the northwest, whereas the CME observed in LASCO C2 images is concentrated along the equator, with the brightest feature on the east limb. Consequently, the propagating front in EIT 195 Å data is probably not directly related to the white light CME. However, the visibility of the EIT wave on the disk could be non-uniform, and the northwestern feature could be the most evident one. Furthermore, CMEs originating near the limb that start out propagating at relatively large angles to the equator eventually tend to follow the large-scale dipole field and bend towards the equator as they propagate out.

#### 3.2.2 The CME of 21 October 1997

This event is classified in the AR+EP category. The source region of this CME is the old, decaying active region complex that includes AR 8097 and the magnetic fields to its northeast (Figure 4a). Synoptic magnetograms from the NSO Kitt Peak reveal that this active region complex emerges during Carrington rotation 1926. It then undergoes considerable evolution, but does not disappear until Carrington rotation 1932. The lifetime of the overall complex is thus $``$ 6 months, and this CME occurs $``$ 3 months after the complex first appeared. The emergence of AR 8097 represents the emergence of new flux into the original active region complex. AR 8097 was not present at the west limb during rotation 1927 on 02 October 1997. It grew on the backside of the Sun and rotated into view at the East limb in Kitt Peak NSO magnetogram data on 16 October 1997 (Carrington rotation 1928). There was evidence for loops associated with this active region in EIT 195 Å images when this active region was behind the east limb, on 14 October 1997. We therefore conclude that AR 8097 emerged between 02 October 1997 and 14 October 1997. Synoptic magnetograms from the NSO Kitt Peak reveal that this active region decayed slowly and disappeared between 13 January 1998 and 12 February 1998. There is evidence for small-scale flux emergence, cancellation and decay in the photospheric magnetic field (Figure 4a), but the relation of these changes to the activity in EIT 195 Å images is not clear. In summary, the CME of 21 October 1997 occured during the rising phase of new flux injected into an old, decaying active region complex.

The activity observed in the EIT 195 Å images includes a bright EIT wave accompanied by propagating density depletions, a possible prominence ejection, ejection of bright material to the southeast and flare-associated brightenings. The EIT 195 Å images available around the time of this event suggest that an EIT wave is initiated from AR 8097 between 16:18 UT and 17:34 UT. The top panel of Figure 4b shows the pre-initiation state of the EIT wave at 16:18 UT, while the bottom panel shows the EIT wave in progress at 17:45 UT. Unfortunately, there is no EIT 195 Å data between 16:18 and 17:34. The wave is observed to spread in a semi-isotropic manner, propagating preferentially towards the south. The most pronounced wave-associated darkenings (which could be interpreted as density depletions) are observed towards the north and south of the active region. The propagating depletion wave is also accompanied by material ejection that is manifested as the bright N–S feature at the southwestern boundary of the dark region in the lower panel of Figure 4b. This event is accompanied by a C3.3 flare that starts at 17:00 UT, peaks at 17:54 UT and ends at 18:16 UT. At 17:34 UT we observe a bright linear feature near the magnetic neutral line that we interpret as the prominence activation. Later, at 17:45 UT, we observe a double-ribbon flare-associated brightening on either side of the prominence and at the footpoints of the post-flare loops which are later seen in EIT 195 Å images at 18:12 UT (Figure 4c).

There is some evidence for an erupting prominence from EIT 195 Å images; a dark feature embedded in the active region is seen to travel outward after 16:18 UT. Also, at 17:34 a bright linear feature is seen along the neutral line between the two flare ribbons that are seen later in the flare. Furthermore, an H$`\alpha `$ 6563 Å image from the Big Bear Solar Observatory taken at 15:26 UT on 21 October 1997 reveals an embedded filament in the active region. The corresponding image taken at 15:45 UT on 22 October 1997 shows that the embedded filament has largely disappeared. It is therefore quite likely that this CME is associated with the eruption of a part of this embedded prominence. Consequently, we have place this CME in the active region with prominence (AR+P) category.

This sequence of events is associated with a halo CME at 18:18 UT in LASCO C2 data (Figure 4d). The CME front is brightest on the east limb, although a faint front extends all over the northen hemisphere. The southwestern front of the halo is somewhat delayed with respect to the other fronts. The leading edge on the east limb travels outward at a speed of 465 km s-1, with no appreciable acceleration.

#### 3.2.3 The CME of 20 January 1998

The source of this CME is placed in the AR category. The source region of this CME is the compact active region 8135 (lower panel of Figure 5a). On 20 January 1998, AR 8135 is associated with a $`\beta `$ sunspot. There was no evidence for this active region at the west limb on 01 January 1998 during rotation 1930. AR 8135 appears near the East limb in Kitt Peak magnetogram data on 13 January 1998. EIT 195 Å images show evidence for this active region until as far as 24 January 1998. Since this is a fairly weak active region, it is difficult to discern if it survives beyond 24 January 1998, either from EIT 195 Å or from MDI magnetogram data. It is, however, clear that this active region does not appear at the East limb during rotation 1931 on February 6 1998. We therefore conclude that AR 8135 appeared between 01 and 13 January 1998 and disappeared between 24 January 1998 and 6 February 1998. The lifetime of AR 8135 is fairly short, between 11 and 36 days. The CME of 20 January 1998 occurred roughly midway during the lifetime of the active region.

A comparison of the top left and top right panels of Figure 5a reveals flux cancellation to the south of the dominant polarities in the active region over a 6 hour timescale. There was no evidence for an erupting prominence in this active region. This event is therefore an example of those in the active region (AR) category.

The EIT 195 Å images of Figure 5b show the development of a transient dumbell shaped depletion region behind faint loop-like structures. The depletion region starts forming at 20:53 UT and deepens by 21:05 UT and extends to the north and south of AR 8135. Constant base difference images also show this depletion region. The faint loop-llike structures appear to connect opposite magnetic polarity with high field strength as seen in the MDI images. Unlike some of the events previously described, the outward propagation of the depletion region is very limited. This suggests that the dimming is not an EIT wave.

The activity seen in EIT 195 Å images is associated with the a faint CME on the west limb. The first signs of this CME in LASCO C2 images are observed at 22:03 UT. Figure 5c shows the successive stages of the CME as it develops and propagates outward. The leading edge of the CME travels outward at a speed of 253 km s-1 with no appreciable acceleration (http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/cmelist.html). As with the AR event of 01 April 1997, the direction of motions observed in EIT 195 Å images do not appear to be well correlated with the CME seen in LASCO C2 images; while the density depletion formed in the southwest, the CME was observed over the west limb. However, as mentioned before, it is possible that the large scale dipole field channeled the CME that originated in the lower corona towards the equator. There is no evidence of a flare associated with this event. A C1.5 flare occurred between 19:32 UT and 19:46 UT, but it was evidently not associated with the sequence of events related to this CME.

#### 3.2.4 The CME of 25 January 1998

This is a fairly complex event that has been classified in the AR+EP category. This CME has also been studied in some detail by (Gopalswamy et al., 1998). It involves a newly emerged active region AR 8145 and decaying active region flux that contains a quiescent filament. The decaying active region complex shown in Figure 6a has a lifetime of $``$ 7 months, first appearing during Carrington rotation 1927 and disappearing by rotation 1933.

During the previous rotation (1931), there was no evidence for AR 8145 near the west limb on 11 January 1998. AR 8145 grew on the backside of the sun and came into view during rotation 1932 near the east limb in MDI magnetogram data on 24 January 1998. MDI magnetogram data shows that AR 8145 retains its identity until it is close to the west limb on 03 February 1998 during rotation 1932, but does not appear on the east limb on 16 February 1998 during the subsequent rotation. AR 8145 appeared between 11 January and 24 January 1998 and disappeared between 03 February and 16 February 1998. Its lifetime is thus between 11 and 37 days. Either way, it is evident that the CME of 25 January 1998 occurred during the rising phase of the active region. Since AR 8145 is fairly close to the limb around the time of the CME, projection effects limit our ability to discern short-term changes in the photospheric magnetic field.

This CME occurs $``$ 6 months after the overall complex first appeared, during rotation 1932. Unlike the AR+EP CME of 21 October 1997, this CME does not seem to be associated with emerging flux into the old, decaying active region complex. However, the EIT 195 Å images of Figure 6c, which show the latter stages of development of the CME suggest that the large-scale fields associated with this CME are rooted in AR 8145 towards the east of the decaying active region complex.

The EIT 195 Å images of Figure 6b show an EIT wave and an erupting prominence starting at 14:19 UT. Figure 6c shows the latter stages of evolution of the erupting filament and the associated EIT wave. The EIT wave is comprised of a depletion region behind a bright front. As before, we have examined constant base difference images to verify that the depletion and brightenings are not merely artifacts of the running difference technique. At around 14:32 UT, the depletion region develops and propagates to the southeast. By 15:02 UT, the bright front of the EIT wave have covered a substantial portion of the solar disk. This sequence of events is accompanied by a C1.1 X-ray flare that starts at 14:29 UT, peaks 15:12 UT and ends at 17:00 UT. The post-flare loop brightenings evident in Figure 6c are primarily concentrated across the neutral line of the old active region fields.

The EIT He II 304Å image at 13:47, one of 4 synoptic 304Å images obtained on that day, shows a filament that gives the impression of lifting off from the old active region neutral line. The time series of EIT 195Å images indicates that the hot ejecta that also participate in the CME observed in LASCO C2 originate in the newly emerged AR 8145 at 14:19. Other ejecta also appear from the south-west of the old active region flux. It is possible that Feynman and Martin would have classified this event as a quiescent filament eruption that was associated with the emergence of new, nearby magnetic flux. The orientation of the polarities of the new flux is likely to result in a reconnection of magnetic flux between the new and the old flux system.

A very bright CME is observed above the east edge of the LASCO C2 occulter at 15:26 (Figure 6d). This CME is a partial halo but the halo signatures are most prominent to the south.

#### 3.2.5  The CME of 03 May 1998

The source region of the 1998 May 3 CME is of the AR+EP type. The source region AR 8210 is the prolific source of several CMEs between 27 April 1998 and 06 May 1998 during rotation 1935. It was absent at the west limb on 16 March 1998, during rotation 1933. It grew on the backside of the sun and rotated into view at the east limb on 29 March 1998 during rotation 1934. AR 8210 rotates into view at the east limb on 25 April 1998 during rotation 1935. AR 8210 is close to the west limb on 08 May 1998 during rotation 1935. A considerably weakened version of this active region rotates into view on the east limb during rotation 1936 on 21 May 1998. It disappears during its passage across the disk between June 2 and June 3 1998. In summary, the active region appeared between 16 March and 29 March 1998 and disappeared around 3 June 1998. The overall active region lifetime is thus $``$ 65-79 days. This is a prolific active region that produced several CMEs and large flares during its transit across the disk during rotation 1935 (Table 3). All the CMEs that originate from this active region between 27 April 1998 and 06 May 1998 (Table 3) take place roughly during the mid-phase of this active region. Figure 7a shows MDI magnetogram images of AR 8210 around the time of the CME. The lower panel of Figure 7a shows the position of AR 8210 on the solar disk, while the upper panels show closeups of the active region. On 03 May 1998, AR 8210 is associated with a $`\beta `$$`\gamma `$$`\delta `$ sunspot. It can be seen that there is small scale flux cancellation in the areas marked by the black arrows over a timescale of $``$ 6 hours prior to the initiation of the CME of 03 May 1998. The general level of small-scale flux emergence and cancellation in this active region is considerably enhanced over other source regions discussed in this paper. The strength of this activity may be related to high rate of CME production.

On May 03 1998, the first sign of activity in EIT 195 Å data is a brightening in the central part of AR 8210 at 21:25 UT. Bright prominence material is also ejected to the north in EIT 195 Å data at 21:25 UT. This is followed by propagation of a density depletion towards the north accompanied by material ejection at 21:39 UT (upper panel of Figure 7b). The brightening of AR 8210 continues, and the patchy transient density depletion covers most of western half of disk by 21:57 UT (lower panel of Figure 7b). This sequence of events is accompanied by an M1.4 flare that starts at 21:12 UT, peaks at 21:29 UT and ends at 21:49 UT. The CME is first observed in the LASCO field of view over the northwest limb at 22:02 UT (Figure 7c), propagating outwards with an initial speed of 639 km s-1 (http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/cmelist.html). In the C2 field of view, the CME propagates to the northwest even though its active region source lay in the southern hemishpere.

#### 3.2.6 The CME of 19 May 1998

This is an example of a CME that falls in the EP category (Figure 2). The prominence is formed along the neutral line of the relatively weak, extended magnetic fields to the west of AR 8222 (Figure 8a). These fields appear to be the dispersed remnants of AR 8203 which emerged during the previous rotation (rotation 1935). We studied the active region and the weaker magnetic fields to its west for a period of 5 days before the CME. We found no evidence for significant large-scale emerging or cancelling flux near the location of the prominence over this timescale. A comparison of the upper and lower panels of Figure 8a shows that there are no significant small-scale changes in magnetic flux over timescales of a few hours either.

The EIT 195 Å images of Figure 8b and 8c show the prominence eruption starting at 09:34 UT. The entire prominence disappears in unison. The eruption is well in progress by 09:56 UT. In particular, the erupting prominence is clearly evident in the straight EIT 195 Å image of Figure 8b. The prominence eruption results in the CME in LASCO C2 data shown in Figure 8d. The prominence is clearly evident as the bright filamentary structure in the right panel of Figure 8d. There was a C4 flare associated with this CME.

## 4 Discussion and Conclusions

We have surveyed 32 CMEs during January 1996 - June 1998 whose source regions are well observed on the solar disk in EIT 195 Å images. All these CMEs occurred near solar minimum during the rising phase of cycle 21, and are tabulated in Table 1. As depicted in Figure 2, we find that 13 (41%) of these events are associated with active regions without prominence eruptions, 14 (44%) are associated with eruptions of active region prominences, and 5 (15%) are associated with eruptions of prominences outside active regions. Of the 14 CMEs that are associated with eruptions of active region prominences, 4 show evidence for emerging magnetic flux over several days before the CME.

These statistics contrast with those obtained from Skylab and SMM observations (Munro et al., 1979; Webb & Hundhausen, 1987; St. Cyr & Webb, 1991) which find that a significantly larger fraction of CMEs are associated with prominence eruptions. However, the differences between these studies should be kept in mind: the current study considers only those CMEs that have on-disk counterparts in EIT 195 Å data. On-disk CMEs are considered because we wish to compare the CME source regions with the underlying photospheric magnetic field, and longitudinal magnetograms are more reliable when observed close to disk center. The studies made with Skylab and SMM data, (Munro et al., 1979; Webb & Hundhausen, 1987; St. Cyr & Webb, 1991) on the other hand, mostly consider CMEs seen on the limb. None of these studies had accompanying full-disk EUV data. The association of CMEs with prominences in these studies was made by considering prominences within specified latitudinal and longitudinal ranges of the CME locations as inferred from white light coronograph data.

We have described 6 especially well observed events from our overall catalog of 32 CMEs that have identifiable on-disk signatures in EIT 195 Å images. The principal criterion used in selecting these 6 events was the availability of high resolution, high cadence EIT 195 Å data. We have discussed these events in some detail in §3.2. We have abstracted some salient characteristics from these descriptions in Table 2. It suggests that active region CMEs (AR) are associated with active regions with lifetimes ranging from $``$ 11-80 days. These CMEs occur either during the rising phase or mid-life of the active regions. AR CMEs are also often associated with growing parasitic polarity magnetic fields or with cancelling magnetic flux over timescales of $``$ 6 hours near the initiation time of the CME. It should be emphasized that such changes in magnetic flux take place over timescales that are much longer than the timescale over which the CMEs are initiated. While these changes in the photospheric magnetic field take place over timescales of around 6-7 hours, the CME initiation processes typically take place over timescales of $``$ 30 minutes \- 1 hour. Furthermore, there is no particularly distinguishing feature that sets these changes in the photospheric magnetic field apart from similar changes in other non-CME producing active regions, based on a fairly non-critical study. CMEs that result from erupting active region prominences (AR+EP), are associated with old, decaying active regions with lifetimes greater than 6 months.

PS acknowledges several useful discussions with Dr. Angelos Vourlidas. We acknowledge several useful comments and suggestions from the anonymous referee. This work was made possible with funding from NASA. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA. The SOHO/LASCO data used in this paper are produced by a consortium of the Naval Research Laboratory, Max-Planck-Institut fuer Aeronomie (Germany), Laboratoire d’Astronomie (France), and the University of Birmingham (England). We gratefully acknowledge the SOHO SOI/MDI team for use of data from the MDI instrument. We thank the Big Bear Solar Observatory and the Observatory of Paris at Meudon for making their data available on the SOHO synoptic data webpage. NSO/Kitt Peak data used here are produced cooperatively by NSF/NOAO, NASA/GSFC, and NOAA/SEL.


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# Deterministic entanglement concentration

## I Introduction

Quantum entanglement has come to be viewed as a significant resource for quantum information processing with the discoveries of quantum teleportation  and superdense coding . A particular entangled state called a Bell pair,

$$|\mathrm{\Phi }^+_{AB}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|00_{AB}+|11_{AB}),$$
(1)
is an essential ingredient for these communications, where qubits $`A`$ and $`B`$ are possessed by Alice (sender) and Bob (receiver), respectively. It is thus important for Alice and Bob to prepare Bell pairs between them in advance, which is related to the main result in this paper.

In order to seek new applications and efficient manipulation of entangled states, we need a deep understanding of the nature of quantum entanglement. Most recent investigations of entangled states have been undertaken within the framework of local operations and classical communication (LOCC) (for a review, see Ref. ). Since Alice and Bob are supposed to be separated by a large distance, they are allowed to access only their own systems locally, and to communicate in a classical manner. In other words, neither global operations on the whole system nor transmission of quantum systems is allowed. Thus the following question is crucial for a good grasp of entanglement: What can we do on entangled states by using LOCC?

In this paper, we deal with only bipartite pure entangled states, for which general theorems useful in answering the above question have already been proved . Nielsen proved the necessary and sufficient conditions for deterministic transformations between bipartite pure entangled states . In Ref. , Vidal derived the formula for the maximum probability with which a pure entangled state is transformed into another one. Jonathan and Plenio extended Nielsen’s theorem to the case where the final state is an ensemble of pure states .

Transformations whose final states include Bell pairs are of special interest among possible entanglement transformations, because the resultant Bell pairs can be used for quantum communication such as teleportation. Extraction of maximally entangled states from partially entangled states by LOCC is generally called entanglement concentration. Various studies on its limitations and efficiency have been carried out . First, Bennett et al. constructed an entanglement concentration procedure, which extracts Bell pairs from many identical copies of a partially entangled pair . Its efficiency in the asymptotic limit is characterized by the von Neumann entropy of Alice’s (or Bob’s) reduced density matrix. This fact, together with the existence of the reverse procedure, called entanglement dilution, established von Neumann entropy as a unique measure of pure-state entanglement in the asymptotic limit . In Refs. , Lo and Popescu gave a formula for the maximum probability of obtaining a maximally entangled state from a partially entangled state (and Vidal later extended it for more general final states). Furthermore, Jonathan and Plenio optimized the average amount of entanglement obtained in the entanglement concentration that transforms a partially entangled state into an ensemble of maximally entangled states in various dimensions . All these entanglement concentration processes are probabilistic for a finite number of entangled pairs.

The entanglement concentration scheme presented in this paper is designed for a somewhat different purpose. It deterministically extracts Bell pairs from two-qubit entangled pairs. In other words, we focus on a concentration that converts a collection of two-qubit partially entangled pairs having different amounts of entanglement into a bunch of Bell pairs with probability 1. While the above probabilistic concentration processes run the risk of losing all the entanglement contained in the initial states with certain probability, our concentration scheme answers the question of how many Bell pairs can be obtained from partially entangled pairs without gambling. On the other hand, it is probable in practical applications that Alice and Bob share many partially entangled pairs with different entanglement, and wish to prepare Bell pairs from them. Thus we consider transformations whose initial states are tensor products of partially entangled pairs.

This paper derives the maximum number of Bell pairs obtained in the deterministic entanglement concentration, and proves that the optimal procedure needs only a two-pair entanglement manipulation in each step. This contrasts sharply with the fact that the probabilistic concentrations known so far requires a collective manipulation of all entangled pairs for optimality. Furthermore, this scheme reveals a reasonable entanglement measure for the deterministic concentration.

This paper is organized as follows. We begin in Sec. II by introducing the main tool used in this paper, that is, Nielsen’s theorem. Then we review the transfer of entanglement between two partially entangled pairs in a slightly different way from Ref. . The argument is essentially the deterministic entanglement concentration of two pairs. In Sec. III, we deal with the deterministic concentration of $`n`$ pairs, which is the main result of this work. The maximum number of Bell pairs is derived and proved to be attained by a series of collective manipulations of two pairs. Section IV introduces an entanglement measure for the deterministic concentration. Section V describes a schematic representation of the concentration scheme. Then we extend the entanglement measure to general pure entangled states in Sec. VI. Finally, Sec. VII concludes the paper.

## II Transfer of entanglement between two pairs

In this section, we treat the transfer of entanglement between two pairs, which is the basis of the entanglement concentration of $`n`$ pairs. This subject was already examined from a different point of view, the recovery of entanglement, in Ref. . When Alice and Bob transform an entangled state into another one by LOCC, the quantity of entanglement generally decreases. However, the entanglement lost in the manipulation can be partially recovered by an auxiliary entangled pair. Attaching an auxiliary entangled pair, Alice and Bob can partially transfer the entanglement lost in the original pair to the auxiliary one by collective manipulation of both pairs. In the following, the result from the recovery scheme is briefly reviewed in a useful form for entanglement concentration.

First we introduce Nielsen’s theorem and its mathematical basis. The theorem is described by the mathematical theory of majorization, which gives an ordering of real vectors according to their degree of disorder . Let $`x=(x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$ and $`y=(y_1,\mathrm{},y_n)`$ be real $`n`$-dimensional vectors. Rearranging the elements of $`x`$ in decreasing order, we obtain $`x^{}=(x_1^{},\mathrm{},x_n^{})`$, where $`x_1^{}\mathrm{}x_n^{}`$. We say that $`x`$ is majorized by $`y`$, written as $`xy`$, if

$$\underset{j=1}{\overset{k}{}}x_j^{}\underset{j=1}{\overset{k}{}}y_j^{},1kn1,$$
(2)
for $`k=1,\mathrm{},n1`$, with equality instead of inequality for $`k=n`$.

Any bipartite pure entangled states can be written in a standard form called Schmidt decomposition: $`|\psi _{AB}=_i\sqrt{a_i}|i_A|i_B`$, where $`\{|i_A\}`$ and $`\{|i_B\}`$ are the orthonormal bases of respective systems. The eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix $`\rho _\psi tr_B(|\psi _{ABAB}\psi |)`$ are $`a_1,\mathrm{},a_n`$, which are positive real numbers, and sum to 1. We define the vector of these eigenvalues as $`\lambda _\psi (a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)`$. With these definitions and the theory of majorization, Nielsen proved that a bipartite pure entangled state $`|\psi _{AB}`$ is transformed into another one $`|\varphi _{AB}`$ with probability 1 by LOCC, if and only if $`\lambda _\psi `$ is majorized by $`\lambda _\varphi `$, i.e.,

$$|\psi _{AB}|\varphi _{AB}\text{iff}\lambda _\psi \lambda _\varphi .$$
(3)
One way of quantifying entanglement is to use the von Neumann entropy of a reduced density matrix:

$$E(\psi )\mathrm{tr}(\rho _\psi \mathrm{log}_2\rho _\psi ).$$
(4)
This measure is related to the efficiency with which an infinite number of identical copies of a partially entangled pair are concentrated . It is known that entanglement generally decreases during deterministic transformations by LOCC, i.e., if

$$|\psi _{AB}|\varphi _{AB}\text{then}E(\psi )E(\varphi ).$$
(5)
Therefore, when entanglement is transferred from an entangled pair to another one, the total entanglement of two pairs generally decreases.

Next we proceed to the transfer of entanglement between two pairs. The process can be considered as the entanglement concentration of two pairs if the purpose is extraction of a Bell pair. Suppose Alice and Bob share two partially entangled pairs

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill |\psi & =& \sqrt{a}|00+\sqrt{1a}|11,\hfill \\ \hfill |\varphi & =& \sqrt{b}|00+\sqrt{1b}|11.\hfill \end{array}$$
(6)
Without loss of generality, we can set

$$\frac{1}{2}<ab<1.$$
(7)
According to Nielsen’s theorem, neither of these two pairs can be concentrated to a Bell pair with probability 1. However, when $`ab\frac{1}{2}`$, it is possible that Alice and Bob extract a Bell pair from the combined entangled state $`|\psi |\varphi `$ with probability 1, as shown below.

Case (a): $`\frac{1}{4}<ab\frac{1}{2}`$. In this case, Alice and Bob can extract a Bell pair from $`|\psi |\varphi `$ and keep the residual entanglement in another entangled pair $`|\omega `$. The state that maximizes the residual entanglement is

$$|\omega =\sqrt{2ab}|00+\sqrt{12ab}|11.$$
(8)
This concentration is proved to be possible by Nielsen’s theorem as follows. The vectors of eigenvalues for the initial and the final states are

$$\begin{array}{c}\lambda _{\psi \varphi }=\left(\begin{array}{c}a\\ 1a\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}b\\ 1b\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{c}ab\\ a(1b)\\ (1a)b\\ (1a)(1b)\end{array}\right),\hfill \\ \lambda _{\mathrm{\Phi }^+\omega }=\left(\begin{array}{c}\frac{1}{2}\\ \frac{1}{2}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}2ab\\ 12ab\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{c}ab\\ \frac{1}{2}ab\\ ab\\ \frac{1}{2}ab\end{array}\right),\hfill \end{array}$$
(9)
respectively. In order to rearrange the elements of these vectors in decreasing order, all we have to do is just reverse the order of the second and third elements of each vector because of Eq. (7). Since Eq. (7) guarantees the inequalities

$$b2ab,(1a)(1b)\frac{1}{2}+ab,$$
(10)
the majorization relation $`\lambda _{\psi \varphi }\lambda _{\mathrm{\Phi }^+\omega }`$ holds. Thus Alice and Bob can perform the concentration $`|\psi |\varphi |\mathrm{\Phi }^+|\omega `$. If the larger amplitude of $`|\omega `$, $`\sqrt{2ab}`$, becomes smaller, the first inequality for $`\lambda _{\psi \varphi }\lambda _{\mathrm{\Phi }^+\omega }`$ does not hold. Therefore, Eq. (8) is optimal in the sense that it contains as much residual entanglement as possible.

Case (b): $`\frac{1}{2}<ab<1`$. It is impossible for Alice and Bob to extract a Bell pair in a deterministic way. The best they can do is gather entanglement of two pairs into one pair to make an entangled pair as close to a Bell pair as possible. That is, they perform $`|\psi |\varphi |\omega |00`$, where

$$|\omega =\sqrt{ab}|00+\sqrt{1ab}|11.$$
(11)
We can prove this transformation to be possible by Nielsen’s theorem again. The vector of eigenvalues for the final state becomes

$$\begin{array}{ccccc}\hfill \lambda _{\omega |00}& =& \left(\begin{array}{c}ab\\ 1ab\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}1\\ 0\end{array}\right)& =& \left(\begin{array}{c}ab\\ 0\\ 1ab\\ 0\end{array}\right).\hfill \end{array}$$
(12)
Clearly, this vector majorizes the vector of the initial state $`\lambda _{\psi \varphi }`$ \[Eq. (9)\]. Thus Alice and Bob succeed in collecting the entanglement of $`|\psi `$ and $`|\varphi `$ into $`|\omega `$, whose entanglement is maximized for the same reason as the previous case.

These two cases of deterministic concentration of two pairs are illustrated in Fig. 1. In both cases, the most important point is that the largest element of the four-dimensional vector, $`ab`$, never changes during the concentration process. In other words, the product of the larger amplitudes of each entangled pair is conserved before and after the transformation, which is the crux of the optimality of the deterministic concentration presented in Sec. III.

## III Deterministic entanglement concentration of $`n`$ pairs

Now we move on to the main topic of this paper: the concentration of a finite number of partially entangled pairs. Suppose Alice and Bob share $`n`$ partially entangled pairs $`|\psi _1\mathrm{}|\psi _n`$, where

$$|\psi _i=\sqrt{a_i}|00+\sqrt{1a_i}|11(i=1,\mathrm{},n),$$
(13)
with

$$\frac{1}{2}<a_i<1,$$
(14)
and wish to extract as many Bell pairs as possible from these entangled pairs with probability 1. The final state is $`^k|\mathrm{\Phi }^+^{nk}|00`$ if they obtain $`k`$ Bell pairs and $`(nk)`$ disentangled pairs after the concentration. Thus the vectors corresponding to the initial and the final states are $`\left(\begin{array}{c}a_1\\ 1a_1\end{array}\right)\mathrm{}\left(\begin{array}{c}a_n\\ 1a_n\end{array}\right)`$ and $`^{nk}\left(\begin{array}{c}1\\ 0\end{array}\right)^k\left(\begin{array}{c}\frac{1}{2}\\ \frac{1}{2}\end{array}\right)`$, respectively.

This concentration is accomplished if the following majorization relation holds:

$$\left(\begin{array}{c}a_1\mathrm{}a_n\\ \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}\\ (1a_1)\mathrm{}(1a_n)\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}\frac{1}{2^k}\\ \mathrm{}\\ \frac{1}{2^k}\\ 0\\ \mathrm{}\\ 0\end{array}\right).$$
(15)
In the initial state, the first element of the vector is the largest one. All the nonzero elements of the vector for the final state are equal to $`2^k`$. Therefore, if the first inequality of majorization relation (15) holds, i.e.,

$$a_1\mathrm{}a_n\frac{1}{2^k},$$
(16)
this concentration is successfully completed because the other inequalities for Eq. (15) are automatically satisfied.

Inequality (16) gives the maximum number of Bell pairs that can be extracted from the partially entangled pairs given by Eq. (13),

$$k_{max}=\mathrm{log}_2(a_1\mathrm{}a_n),$$
(17)
where $`x`$ represents the largest integer equal to or less than $`x`$.

Equation (17) tells us that the maximum number of Bell pairs is determined only by the product of the parameters of each pair to be concentrated, i.e., $`a_1\mathrm{}a_n`$. This fact guarantees that we lose no Bell pairs as long as the product is conserved. In Sec. II, we found that the product never changes during the optimal deterministic concentration of two pairs. This means that we can attain the maximum number of Bell pairs through repeated use of two-pair concentrations.

The actual concentration procedure is as follows. Alice and Bob choose two arbitrary entangled pairs, then perform a concentration on them. If they obtain a Bell pair \[the case in Fig. 1(a)\], it is put aside, and the residual entangled pair will be reused in the next stage of concentration. If the selected two pairs are not enough for a Bell pair \[the case in Fig. 1(b)\], they transfer all the entanglement contained in a pair into another one to make a partially entangled pair that will be reused in the next pairwise concentration. They repeat these operations until they achieve the maximum number of Bell pairs.

By repeating the two-pair concentrations as stated above, Alice and Bob finally obtain $`k_{max}`$ Bell pairs, one partially entangled pair, and $`(nk_{max}1)`$ disentangled pairs. The product of the larger elements of vectors for each pair never changes throughout these concentration processes, i.e., it is always $`a_1\mathrm{}a_n`$. Therefore, the residual partially entangled state becomes

$$|\omega =\sqrt{2^{k_{max}}a_1\mathrm{}a_n}|00+\sqrt{12^{k_{max}}a_1\mathrm{}a_n}|11,$$
(18)
where $`\frac{1}{2}<2^{k_{max}}a_1\mathrm{}a_n1`$, because there are $`k_{max}`$ Bell pairs and $`(nk_{max}1)`$ disentangled pairs besides that partially entangled pair. The amount of entanglement of the residual pair cannot exceed that of Eq. (18) for the same reason as stated in the proof of the two-pair concentration.

The product $`a_1\mathrm{}a_n`$ is not usually equal to $`2^{k_{max}}`$. Thus $`k_{max}`$ Bell pairs do not represent all the available entanglement. By preserving the residual entanglement in Eq. (18) and conserving the quantity $`a_1\mathrm{}a_n`$, Alice and Bob do not waste any potential entanglement that can be extracted in a future concentration, which attains the true optimality in this deterministic concentration. That is, if they obtain an extra partially entangled pair later, they will be able to perform a pairwise concentration on the residual pair $`|\omega `$ and the extra pair.

Next we consider the complexity of the deterministic concentration. In each pairwise concentration, at least one of the pairs becomes a Bell pair or a disentangled pair, which does not proceed to the next concentration. Thus, if we perform a pairwise concentration at most $`n1`$ times in a process similar to elimination in a tournament, there finally remain $`k_{max}`$ Bell pairs, the residual pair $`|\omega `$, and $`(nk_{max}1)`$ disentangled pairs.

According to the prescription given in Ref. , a transformation of an entangled state with Schmidt number $`m`$ can be performed by $`m1`$ operations, where each operation consists of transformations in the two-dimensional subspace of the entire entangled state. Thus, when we collectively manipulate $`n`$ entangled pairs consisting of two qubits, i.e., an entangled state with Schmidt number $`2^n`$, we generally perform $`O(2^n)`$ operations. On the other hand, the number of steps in the deterministic concentration of $`n`$ pairs is reduced to $`O(n)`$ by pairwise manipulation, because each pairwise concentration needs four operations. This argument suggests the importance of the complexity of entanglement manipulation. It is worth considering not only what we can do on entangled states, but also how efficiently we can manipulate them.

The pairwise nature of this concentration scheme is useful in a practical sense too. Even if we fail in the manipulation of two pairs, or if some error occurs in the concentration, only the two pairs are affected. The other pairs remain intact in spite of such unexpected effects. This contrasts sharply with other concentration schemes that require collective manipulation of all pairs.

In general, collective manipulation of more than two pairs is necessary even for transformations whose initial and final states consist of tensor products of entangled pairs. For example, the transformation illustrated in Fig. 2 requires a collective manipulation of three pairs. The vectors for the initial and the final state are $`(0.5,0.5)(0.5,0.5)(0.95,0.05)`$ and $`(0.9,0.1)(0.9,0.1)(0.9,0.1)`$, respectively. These tensor products are calculated in decreasing order as follows: $`\lambda _{initial}=(0.2375,0.2375,0.2375,0.2375,0.0125,0.0125,0.0125,0.0125)`$ and $`\lambda _{final}=(0.729,0.081,0.081,0.081,0.009,0.009,0.009,0.001)`$. It is easily seen that $`\lambda _{initial}\lambda _{final}`$, and thus this transformation is really possible according to Nielsen’s theorem. However, it requires collective manipulation of three pairs because it was proved that two-pair manipulation cannot increase the entanglement of the less entangled pair in the initial state . That is, any successive operations of two pairs cannot pump up the lowest state $`(0.95,0.05)`$. As shown in this example, not all transformations of entangled pairs consist of two-pair manipulations. Therefore, it is remarkable that two-pair manipulation is enough for the deterministic concentration.

## IV Entanglement measure for the deterministic concentration

The argument in Sec. III leads to an entanglement measure for the deterministic concentration of a finite number of pairs. First we present conditions for entanglement measures in deterministic transformations of pure states, which is a modified version of the conditions for entanglement measures proposed in Refs. . When we restrict ourselves to manipulating entangled pure states in a deterministic manner, a measure of entanglement $`M(\psi )`$ should satisfy the following conditions:

* (i) $`M(\psi )=0`$ iff $`|\psi `$ is separable.
* (ii) $`M(\psi )`$ remains unchanged under local unitary transformations.
* (iii) $`M(\psi )`$ cannot be increased by deterministic LOCC.

Due to the restriction of deterministic transformations, the third condition is weaker than the counterpart in Refs. , which requires the nonincreasing property of the expected value of the measure when the final states are not unique.

Now we derive an entanglement measure for deterministic concentration. The formula for the maximum number of Bell pairs \[Eq. (17)\], can also be written in the following form:

$$k_{max}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\mathrm{log}_2a_i$$
(19)
This expression implies that the number of Bell pairs that a partially entangled state $`|\psi _i=\sqrt{a_i}|00+\sqrt{1a_i}|11`$ contains is

$$D(\psi _i)\mathrm{log}_2a_i(\frac{1}{2}a_i1).$$
(20)
It is easily seen that this quantity satisfies the above conditions for entanglement measures in deterministic cases. If we allow probabilistic transformations, the expected value of our measure can be increased in some cases. Note that the measure $`D(\psi _i)`$ does not diverge since it is defined with the square of the larger Schmidt coefficient of $`|\psi _i`$, which ranges from $`\frac{1}{2}`$ to $`1`$. In addition, a Bell pair corresponds to the unit of this measure, i.e., $`D(|\mathrm{\Phi }^+)=1`$.

Another entanglement measure $`E(\psi )`$ defined by Eq. (4) represents the amount of entanglement per one partially entangled pair $`|\psi `$ in the asymptotic limit. This means that if we have an infinite number of identical copies of $`|\psi `$, we can extract $`E(\psi )`$ Bell pairs per copy. On the other hand, $`D(\psi _i)`$ quantifies the number of Bell pairs contributed by the state $`|\psi _i`$ when we deterministically concentrate a finite number of entangled pairs that are not generally identical. For example, if Alice and Bob share two pairs $`|\psi _1`$ and $`|\psi _2`$, where $`D(\psi _1)=0.7`$ and $`D(\psi _2)=0.6`$, then they can obtain a Bell pair and a residual state $`|\omega `$ with $`D(\omega )=0.3`$, because $`0.6+0.7=1+0.3`$.

Since $`D(\psi )`$ is smaller than $`E(\psi )`$, our concentration scheme is less efficient than the original Schmidt projection method , which attains $`E(\psi )`$ in the asymptotic limit. The inefficiency is due to the strong restriction of deterministic transformations. Thus the quantity $`D(\psi )`$ does not converge on $`E(\psi )`$ even in the asymptotic limit.

The most fascinating property of this measure $`D(\psi )`$ is that the maximum number of Bell pairs is determined by the addition of the contribution of each pair. This property shows that the deterministic concentration procedure does not depend on the way of pairing entangled pairs, because we can attain the optimality as long as the sum $`_iD(\psi _i)`$ does not decrease. This fact assures the optimality of deterministic concentration by any pairwise manipulation.

## V Schematic representation of the deterministic concentration

In this section, we schematically represent our understanding of the deterministic concentration. Figure 3 represents a set of entangled states such that each element is a tensor product of two-qubit entangled pairs, and has the same value of $`_iD(\psi _i)`$. The center of the set is the point that represents a bunch of $`k_{max}`$ Bell pairs and a residual entangled pair. As shown in Sec. IV, all points in the set can be transformed into the center. In other words, wherever the initial state is, every path surprisingly leads to the center as long as the transformation conserves the sum of $`D(\psi _i)`$. The center representing $`k_{max}`$ Bell pairs and a residual pair acts like a drain.

The advantage of the deterministic concentration is explained schematically as follows. Since pairwise manipulation is enough for optimality, any point representing a collection of partially entangled pairs are transformed into the center along the path that changes only two pairs at a time. Furthermore, our concentration procedure does not depend on the way of pairing entangled pairs. This corresponds to the fact that there are many possible paths that connect an initial state and the drain.

Figure 3 is also explained in terms of the entropy of entanglement $`E(\psi )`$ and the entanglement measure $`D(\psi )`$. The total entropy generally decreases in deterministic transformations. Thus Fig. 3 means that as long as $`_iD(\psi _i)`$ is conserved, every point in the set is always led to the center by any transformation that decreases the total entropy. The drain that represents $`k_{max}`$ Bell pairs and a residual pair is the most stable state under the condition that the sum of $`D(\psi _i)`$ remains unchanged. In other words, whatever entangled pairs Alice and Bob share, those pairs are swept up to a bunch of Bell pairs and a bunch of disentangled pairs. All we need for the optimality of deterministic concentration is the conservation of $`_iD(\psi _i)`$.

## VI Extension to general pure entangled states

The entanglement measure for the deterministic concentration $`D(\psi )`$, defined in Eq. (20), can be extended to general pure entangled states. Suppose Alice and Bob share a partially entangled state whose Schmidt number is $`m`$,

$$|\psi =\underset{j=1}{\overset{m}{}}\sqrt{p_j}|j,j(m2),$$
(21)
where

$$\underset{j=1}{\overset{m}{}}p_j=1.$$
(22)
By the same argument as in Sec. III, we can determine the maximum number of Bell pairs extractable from this partially entangled state:

$$k_{max}=\mathrm{log}_2(\underset{i}{\mathrm{max}}p_i).$$
(23)
Thus the contribution of the partially entangled state $`|\psi `$ to the maximum number of Bell pairs is also expressed as

$$D(\psi )\mathrm{log}_2(\underset{i}{\mathrm{max}}p_i)(0<\underset{i}{\mathrm{max}}p_i1).$$
(24)
Of course, Eq. (24) satisfies the conditions for the entanglement measure in deterministic cases, as in Sec. IV.

From Eq. (24), it is easily seen that $`D(\psi )`$ is additive for a system composed of independent subsystems, namely,

$$D(\psi \varphi )=D(\psi )+D(\varphi ),$$
(25)
because the largest element of the vector for $`|\psi |\varphi `$ is the product of those for $`|\psi `$ and $`|\varphi `$. We also point out that both $`D(\psi )`$ and another additive quantity $`E(\psi )`$ are obtained by some limits of a quantity known as Renyi entropy of order $`t`$, $`H_t(\{p_i\})=[1/(1t)]\mathrm{log}_2_{i=1}^np_i^t`$, which is also additive. That is, $`H_1(\{p_i\})=E(\{p_i\})`$ and $`H_{\mathrm{}}(\{p_i\})=D(\{p_i\})`$, where $`p_i`$ represents the square of each Schmidt coefficient.

Though we succeeded in extending the entanglement measure to general cases, the actual concentration procedures are different from that of two-qubit cases in some points. First, the residual entanglement represented by $`\{D(\psi )k_{max}\}`$ cannot be always kept in a partially entangled pair. A simple example is the transformation from a maximally entangled pair with Schmidt number three to a Bell pair. Since $`\mathrm{log}_23=1`$, we can extract a Bell pair from $`(1/\sqrt{3})(|00+|11+|22)`$. If the residual entanglement represented by $`(\mathrm{log}_231)`$ is kept in another partially entangled pair, the Schmidt number of the final state becomes 4, which is impossible because we cannot increase the Schmidt number of initial states. This also means the optimal concentration by tournamentlike operations is impossible in general cases, because it is necessary for the optimal tournamentlike concentration to retain the residual entanglement in the form of a partially entangled pair in each step.

Second, the schematic representation of the generalized cases is slightly different from that of the two-qubit case. When the initial state is a collection of two-qubit entangled pairs, every state can be transformed into the state with a bunch of Bell pairs and a residual entangled pair, as shown in Sec. V. However, in general cases, not all initial states reach that state. All states with the same value of $`D(\psi )`$ are transformed into the following state, which is similar to the $`d`$-dimensional maximally entangled state, where $`d=1/(\underset{i}{\mathrm{max}}p_i)`$. (for simplicity, we use vector notation):

$$(\stackrel{d}{\stackrel{}{\underset{i}{\mathrm{max}}p_i,\mathrm{},\underset{i}{\mathrm{max}}p_i}},1d(\underset{i}{\mathrm{max}}p_i),0,\mathrm{},0).$$
(26)
This state is the drain in the generalized cases. As shown in Fig. 4, the point representing a bunch of Bell pairs and a residual entangled pair is different from the drain in the general case. \[When $`D(\psi )`$ is equal to an integer, two points coincide because there is no residual entanglement.\] Of course, we can always reach the state of $`k_{max}`$ Bell pairs from the drain, though the state is not in the set shown in Fig. 4. The deterministic concentration of two-qubit entangled pairs is a special case, which always enables us to retain the residual entanglement in a compact form of a partially entangled pair.

With this generalization of $`D(\psi )`$, we can prove that entanglement catalysis  cannot enhance the efficiency of the deterministic entanglement concentration. Since an attached catalyst state $`|\varphi `$ must remain intact after the transformation, the term $`D(\varphi )`$ does not contribute to the number of extractable Bell pairs due to the additivity of $`D(\psi )`$. Thus the concentration scheme presented in this paper is the best we can do in deterministic cases.

## VII Conclusion

We have presented a deterministic entanglement concentration scheme for a finite number of partially entangled pairs consisting of two qubits. We determined the maximum number of Bell pairs that can be extracted by LOCC, which was proved to be attained by a series of two-pair manipulation in each step. There is no need of collective manipulation of all entangled pairs for deterministic concentration. The complexity of entanglement manipulation also deserves further investigation for a deeper understanding of quantum resources.

Furthermore, this concentration scheme revealed an entanglement measure for the deterministic concentration of a finite number of pairs. The measure represents the amount of entanglement that we can use without fail. In the concentration of two-qubit entangled pairs, we proved that all the entanglement quantified by the measure can be used without loss. However, in the general cases, what kind of initial states can be concentrated into Bell pairs without discarding any residual entanglement remains open.

## Acknowledgments

We are grateful to N. Imoto for valuable discussions, and for a careful reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (Grant No. 12740243) and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (Grant No. 12440111) by the Japan Society of the Promotion of Science.


text:
# Semiconductor quantum dot - a quantum light source of multicolor photons with tunable statistics

## Abstract

We investigate the intensity correlation properties of single photons emitted from an optically excited single semiconductor quantum dot. The second order temporal coherence function of the photons emitted at various wavelengths is measured as a function of the excitation power. We show experimentally and theoretically, for the first time, that a quantum dot is not only a source of correlated non-classical monochromatic photons but is also a source of correlated non-classical *multicolor* photons with tunable correlation properties. We found that the emitted photon statistics can be varied by the excitation rate from a sub-Poissonian one, where the photons are temporally antibunched, to super-Poissonian, where they are temporally bunched.

PACS numbers: 78.67.Hc, 42.50.Dv, 78.55.Cr, 85.30.Vw

Semiconductor quantum dots have been extensively investigated recently as a potential, technology-compatible quantum light emitters.  Such emitters are important for possible future quantum computing  and cryptography. It has been recently demonstrated that under continuous wave (cw) excitation, a single quantum dot emits antibunched photons obeying a sub-Poissonian statistics , while under optical pulse excitation, they emit single photon per each excitation pulse.. Similar effects were previously observed also in optical studies of the fluorescence from single atoms and molecules.

In this work we report on measurements of temporal correlations among multi-color photons emitted from cw optically excited single semiconductor quantum dots (SCQD). We show for the first time, that there is a tunable intensity correlation among photons emitted at the same and at different wavelengths due to the recombination of excitons from different collaborative quantum states. We show that the temporal correlations among the photons emitted by the SCQD change dramatically with the excitation power. While strong characteristic antibunching correlations are observed for low power excitations, these correlations disappear with the increase in the excitation power and gradually transform into bunching correlations for yet higher excitation power. These observations demonstrate that a multiply populated quantum light source may emit bunched photons, obeying super-Poisson statistics.

We quantitatively account for the experimentally measured distribution of the time interval, $`\tau `$, between consecutively emitted photons. Specifically, we explain the changes in the distribution under variable excitation powers, both for photons originating from the same spectral line, as well as for photons from two different spectral lines. We do that by analytically solving a set of coupled rate equations  describing the conditional probability that a photon is emitted from a collective state of $`j`$ confined electron-hole (e-h) pairs (i.e. the $`j^{th}`$ multiexciton) following a photon emission event from a collective state of $`i>j`$ e-h pairs.

The SCQD sample was grown by molecular beam epitaxy of a strained epitaxial layer of InAs on (100) oriented GaAs substrate. Small islands of In(Ga)As connected by a very thin wetting layer are thus formed in the Stranski-Krastanov growth mode. The vertical and lateral dimensions of the InAs SCQDs were adjusted during growth by the partially covered island growth technique. The sample was not rotated during the growth of the strained layer, therefore a gradient in the QDs density was formed and low density areas, in which the average distance between neighboring QDs is larger than our optical spatial resolution, could easily be found on the sample surface.

We use a diffraction limited low temperature confocal optical microscope for the photoluminescence (PL) studies of the single SCQDs. In order to measure the temporal correlation between emitted photon pairs we constructed a wavelength selective Hanbury-Brown and Twiss (HBT)  setup (see inset, Fig. 2b) including a beam splitter (BS) which divides the PL emission from the SCQD into two equal beams. Each beam is then dispersed by a 0.22m monochromator (MC1 and MC2) and focused into a thermo-electrically cooled, avalanche silicon photodiode (D1 and D2). Each time a photon is detected in one of the detectors, an electronic pulse is produced and transmitted to a time to analog converter. The temporal difference between a pair of pulses is translated into an output pulse of proportional voltage while a multichannel analyzer sorts the pulses and produces histograms of the number of counts as a function of the time between pairs of detected photons. The temporal resolution of our system, as evaluated by its response to a picosecond laser pulse is $``$250 picoseconds. By tuning the monochromators we can correlate two photons emitted not only from the same spectral line (auto-correlations), but also from different spectral lines (cross-correlations).

We used a Ti:Sa laser at 1.6 eV, in order to non-resonantly excite carriers in the sample. The SCQDs are thus populated by diffusion of the photogenerated carriers into them. We locate an optically excited SCQD by scanning the sample surface while monitoring the resulted PL spectra using a 0.22m monochromator followed by a liquid nitrogen cooled charge coupled device (CCD) array detector. Once a typical SCQD emission spectrum is observed the scan is terminated and the objective position is optimized above the SCQD. The PL emission spectra from a single quantum dot for increasing cw excitation powers are shown in Fig. 1. The measured spectra strongly depend on the excitation power because of the shell-filling effect and the Coulomb interactions between the carriers. For the lowest excitation power there is a finite probability for one e-h pair (exciton) to occupy the dot. The radiative recombination of this pair gives rise to a sharp line (denoted as $`X^0`$). As the excitation power is increased, the probability to find few e-h pairs in the dot increases significantly. Since only two carriers with opposite spins can occupy each non-degenerate level, a second level is occupied when there are three or more excitons in the SCQD. The radiative recombination of carriers occupying the first and second energy levels, gives rise to the emission of photons in two groups, denoted S and P, respectively, in analogy with atomic shells. The Coulomb exchange interaction reduces the effective bandgap of an optically excited SCQD (in a similar way to the well known bulk phenomenon of bandgap renormalization) and gives rise to red shifted PL lines  (denoted by $`nX^S`$ ), when $`n>1`$ spectator e-h pairs are present in the SCQD during the recombination.

At yet higher excitation powers, the probability to find higher number of e-h pairs within the QD increases and the probability to find the QD with a small number of e-h pairs decreases. As a result, the intensity of any emission line under cw excitation increases, reaches a maximum and then decreases as the excitation power is further increased.

By using our wavelength selective HBT setup, we measure the intensity correlation function between photons emitted at various wavelengths, due to the recombination of e-h pairs in the presence of different number of spectator other pairs. The measured correlation function is expressed as,

$$g_{ij}^{(2)}(\tau )=\frac{I_i(t)I_j(t+\tau )}{<I_i(t)><I_j(t)>},$$
(1)
where $`I_k(t)`$ is the emission intensity at a wavelength corresponding to the recombination of a $`k^{th}`$ multiexciton at time $`t`$. The function $`g_{ij}^{(2)}(\tau )`$ represents therefore the conditional probability that a photon from recombination events which involves $`j`$ e-h pairs will be emitted at time $`\tau `$ after such an emission which involve $`i`$ pairs has previously occurred. Obviously, when the same spectral line is monitored on both channels $`(i=j)`$, Eq. 1 simply turns into the second order temporal coherence function. We note that completely uncorrelated photons have $`g^{(2)}(\tau )=1`$ (Poisson statistics), photons with positive correlation (bunched photons) have $`g^{(2)}(\tau )>1`$ (super-Poisson statistics), and photons with negative correlation (antibunched photons) have $`g^{(2)}(\tau )<1`$ (sub-Poisson statistics). It is very well established  that chaotic and thermal light sources are characterized by $`g^{(2)}(0)>1`$ and $`g^{(2)}(\tau )<g^{(2)}(0)`$, while quantum light sources are characterized by $`g^{(2)}(0)<1`$ and $`g^{(2)}(\tau )>g^{(2)}(0)`$.

The measured intensity auto-correlation function for the $`X^0`$ spectral line ($`g_{11}^{(2)}(\tau )`$) for an increasing excitation powers is presented in Fig. 2a. The figure demonstrate that for low excitation power the probability of simultaneous detection of two photons is zero (the photons are antibunched). This can be readily understood intuitively, since the recombination of a single e-h pair, which results in the detection of a photon from the $`X^0`$ line, empties the SCQD. The probability to detect another photon immediately after the detection of the first one is then zero, since the time it takes for the SCQD to repopulate and emit another photon depends on the excitation power and the e-h pair lifetime. Thus, as can be seen in Fig. 2a, this population regeneration time (the width of the antibunching notch) decreases as we increase the excitation intensity. For further increase in the excitation power, the population regeneration time continues to decrease, as a result the measured $`g_{11}^{(2)}(0)`$, which is limited by the temporal resolution of our setup, ceases to vanish. With yet further increase of the excitation power, as the $`X^0`$ line emission intensity decreases (see Fig. 1a) the emitted photons appear to be *bunched*. This novel observation can intuitively be understood as follows. The $`X^0`$ line auto-correlation function $`g_{11}^{(2)}(\tau )`$ reflects the probability to find the SCQD occupied with a single e-h pair at time $`\tau `$ after the emission of previous $`X^0`$ photon, which actually left the SCQD empty. At high excitation powers the average number of e-h pairs occupying the dot in steady state is large. Therefore, the average probability to find the SCQD occupied with only a single pair is small. However, a short time after the SCQD was emptied from pairs (as evident by the detection of the first $`X^0`$ photon), this probability increases, becoming thus larger than the average one.

From the above discussion, it naturally follows that there are also strong temporal correlations between the emission of photons due to recombination of a given collective state of e-h pairs and that from any other collective state. These correlations depend on the dynamics of the SCQD population regeneration. In Fig. 2b we present the measured cross-correlation between the emitted photons from the $`nX^S`$ line and the photons from the $`X^0`$ line for various excitation powers. While the auto-correlation function (Fig. 2a) is symmetric, the cross-correlation function is very asymmetric. At low excitation power this asymmetry reflects the fact that the elapsed time between the emission of an $`X^0`$ photon (after which the SCQD is empty) and the emission due to recombination of one pair out of the collective $`n`$ pair state, is larger than the reverse order of events. At higher excitation power, the cross-correlation function even changes sign. This means that the probability that a single pair recombines in the SCQD short time after the recombination of one pair out of $`n`$ ($`n3`$) has occurred, is larger than the product of the average probabilities, while the probability for the opposite order of events is smaller than the product of the average probabilities. This peculiar behavior can also be understood intuitively. The average number of e-h pairs in the SCQD at this excitation power is larger than $`n3`$. Therefore, the probability that a single pair recombines within the SCQD short time after the detection of recombination from the $`n`$ pair collective state is larger compared with that probability at long times (the product of average probabilities). While after the SCQD has been found empty, as evident by the detection of the $`X^0`$ photon, it takes time for the SCQD to repopulate. During that time no emission from the $`nX^S`$ line, is likely.

We now present a quantitative analysis for the above observations. For that purpose, we model the correlation properties of photons emitted from a single SCQD by the multiexcitonic coupled rate equations used earlier. We denote by $`n_i`$ the probability to find the SCQD occupied with the $`i^{th}`$ multiexciton and by a vector $`\stackrel{}{n}(t)=(n_0(t),n_1(t),\mathrm{}n_N(t))`$ a given multiexcitonic state of the SCQD at time t. Here $`n_0(t)`$ represents the probability to find the SCQD empty and N is the highest multiexciton with non-vanishing probability. At non resonant cw excitation the set of coupled rate equations which describes the temporal evolution of the SCQD population can be expressed in matrix form as follows.

$$\frac{d\stackrel{}{n}(t)}{dt}=\mathrm{\Psi }\stackrel{}{n}(t),$$
(2)
where the time indenpendent matrix $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is given by,

$$\mathrm{\Psi }=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}(G+\frac{1}{\tau _0})& \frac{1}{\tau _1}\hfill & & & \\ G& (G+\frac{1}{\tau _1})& \frac{1}{\tau _2}& & \\ & G& (G+\frac{1}{\tau _2})& \frac{1}{\tau _3}\hfill & \\ & & & \mathrm{}& \\ & & & G& \frac{1}{\tau _N}\end{array}\right)$$
(3)
Here $`\tau _i`$ are the $`i^{th}`$ multiexciton decay times ($`\tau _0=\mathrm{}`$) and $`G`$ is the cw e-h pairs photogeneration rate. The steady state solution to Eq. 2 $`\mathrm{\Psi }\stackrel{}{n}(t)=0`$ is given by,

$`n_i^{ss}=n_0^{ss}G^i{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{i}{}}}\tau _j,`$ (4)
$`n_0^{ss}=(1+\tau _1G+\tau _1\tau _2G^2+\mathrm{}+G^N{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\tau _j)^1.`$ (5)
A general solution for Eq. 2 is given by,

$$\stackrel{}{n}(t)=\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}c_k\stackrel{}{\xi _k}e^{r_kt},$$
(6)
where $`\stackrel{}{\xi _k}`$ is the eigenvector corresponding to the eigenvalue $`r_k`$ of the matrix $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$, and the constant coefficients $`c_k`$ are determined by the initial conditions of the problem. Note that because $`det(\mathrm{\Psi })=0`$, $`r=0`$ is always one of its eigenvalues. Thus for $`t\mathrm{}`$ the solution $`\stackrel{}{n}(t)`$ is given by the steady state solutions Eq. 3. This means that $`<\stackrel{}{n}(t)>=\stackrel{}{n}`$.

Assuming for simplicity that the decay of different multiexcitons result in different spectral lines, we have:

$`I_i(t)=n_i(t)/\tau _i`$. The function $`I_j(t+\tau )`$ in Eq. 1 can now be expressed in terms of $`n_j^i(\tau )`$ which is calculated analytically for each $`\tau `$ by solving Eq. 2 with the appropriate initial conditions: $`n_k(t)=\delta _{(i1),k}`$ . These initial conditions reflect the important fact that a radiative decay of the $`i^{th}`$ multiexciton at some time $`t`$ results in a probability 1 to find the SCQD populated by the $`(i1)^{th}`$ multiexciton state at that time. Since $`I_j(t+\tau )`$ is therefore independent of $`t`$, the correlation function $`g_{ij}^{(2)}(\tau )`$ can be now expressed as,

$$g_{ij}^{(2)}(\tau >0)=n_j^i(\tau )/n_j^{ss},g_{ij}^{(2)}(\tau <0)=g_{ji}^{(2)}(\tau ).$$
(7)
For low enough excitation power, when the probability of the dot to be occupied by more than one exciton is negligibly small, we find for the auto-correlation function a relatively simple formula: $`g^{(2)}(\tau )=1exp(\tau (1/\tau _1+G))`$ provided that $`N=1`$. It is important to note here that it is incorrect to use this last formula for higher excitation levels, where $`N>1`$. In order to calculate the intensity correlation functions between the various SCQD emission lines, one has to know the multiexcitonic recombination rates $`\tau _i`$. We directly measured $`\tau _1`$ ($`\tau _1`$$``$1 nsec) and used a model to estimate the decay rates of higher multiexcitons. We note, that our solution to Eq. 2 is quite robust and that its general behavior is not strongly dependent on the specific $`\tau _i`$.

The calculated auto- and cross-correlation functions convoluted with the system impulse response function are presented by solid lines overlaid on the experimental data in Fig. 2. General good agreement with the experimentally measured data is obtained, by slightly adjusting $`G`$ within the experimental uncertainties, to best fit the experimental data. As can be seen our calculated correlation functions describe quantitatively the following phenomena:
(a) The crossover from antibunching to bunching for the auto-correlations of monochromatic photons as the excitation power increases.
(b) The asymmetric antibunching-bunching behavior of the cross-correlation function between different wavelength photons and its evolution with excitation power.

In conclusion, we have demonstrated that the statistical properties of photons emitted from a cw excited single semiconductor quantum dot can be variably controlled by the external excitation intensity. For same color photons the quantum dot acts as a quantum light source, although the emitted photons can be either bunched (i.e. super-Poissonian statistics) or antibunched (i.e. sub-Poissonian statistics) in time. We have also measured for the first time temporal correlations between photons of different colors, and developed a semiclassical model which quantitatively accounts for our observations.

Acknowledgments – The work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (335/99) and by the Israel-US Binational Science Foundation (453/97).

Figure Captions

* PL spectra from a cw excited SCQD for various excitation powers.
* a)Measured (thick solid lines) and calculated (thin solid lines, see text) temporal intensity auto-correlation function of the $`X^0`$ spectral line for various excitation powers. b)Measured and calculated temporal intensity cross-correlation function of the $`X^0`$ and $`nX^S`$ spectral lines for various excitation powers. Inset: schematic description of the modified HBT setup.