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# Polarization Squeezing of Continuous Variable Stokes Parameters

## Abstract

We report the first direct experimental characterization of continuous variable quantum Stokes parameters. We generate a continuous wave light beam with more than 3 dB of simultaneous squeezing in three of the four Stokes parameters. The polarization squeezed beam is produced by mixing two quadrature squeezed beams on a polarizing beam splitter. Depending on the squeezed quadrature of these two beams the quantum uncertainty volume on the Poincaré sphere became a ‘cigar’ or ‘pancake’-like ellipsoid.

The quantum properties of the polarization of light have received much attention in the single photon regime where fundamental problems of quantum mechanics, related to Bell’s inequality and the Einstein-Podolski-Rosen (EPR) paradox, have been examined AGR82 . In comparison quantum polarization states in the continuous variable regime have received little attention. Grangier et al. GSYL87  generated a polarization squeezed beam using an optical parametric process to improve the sensitivity of a polarization interferometer. Other schemes using Kerr-like media and optical solitons in fibers have also been proposed AAC98 ; KLLRS01  but have not yet been produced experimentally. This paper presents the generation of a new polarization squeezed state. A stably locked beam with better than 3 dB of squeezing in three Stokes parameters simultaneously was produced utilizing two bright quadrature squeezed beams. We present the first direct characterization of the polarization quantum noise on a continuous wave light beam allowing an experimental observation of polarization commutation relations in the continuous variable regime.

Both the production of new continuous variable quantum polarization states and the ability to accurately characterize them are necessary for these states to fulfill their potential in the field of quantum information. They can be carried by a bright laser beam providing high bandwidth capabilities and therefore faster signal transfer rates than single photon systems. Perhaps surprisingly they retain the single photon advantage of not requiring the universal local oscillator necessary for other proposed continuous variable quantum networks. Mapping of quantum states from photonic to atomic media is a crucial element in most proposed quantum information networks. Continuous variable polarization states are the only continuous variable state for which this mapping has been experimentally demonstrated HSSP99 .

The polarization state of a light beam in classical optics can be visualized as a Stokes vector on a Poincaré sphere (Fig. 1) and is determined by the four Stokes parameters Sto52 : $`S_0`$ represents the beam intensity whereas $`S_1`$, $`S_2`$, and $`S_3`$ characterize its polarization and form a cartesian axes system. If the Stokes vector points in the direction of $`S_1`$, $`S_2`$, or $`S_3`$ the polarized part of the beam is horizontally, linearly at 45, or right-circularly polarized, respectively. Two beams are said to be opposite in polarization and do not interfere if their Stokes vectors point in opposite directions. The quantity $`S=(S_1^2+S_2^2+S_3^2)^{1/2}`$ is the radius of the classical Poincaré sphere and the fraction $`S/S_0`$ ($`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}<S/S_0<1`$) is called the degree of polarization. For quasi-monochromatic laser light which is almost completely polarized $`S_0`$ is a redundant parameter, completely determined by the other three parameters ($`S_0=S`$ in classical optics). All four Stokes parameters are accessible from the simple experiments shown in Fig. 2.

The Stokes parameters are observables and therefore can be associated with Hermitian operators. Following JauchRohrlich76  and Robson74  we define the quantum-mechanical analogue of the classical Stokes parameters for pure states in the commonly used notation:

$`\widehat{S}_0`$ $`=\widehat{a}_H^{}\widehat{a}_H+\widehat{a}_V^{}\widehat{a}_V,\widehat{S}_2`$ $`=\widehat{a}_H^{}\widehat{a}_Ve^{i\theta }+\widehat{a}_V^{}\widehat{a}_He^{i\theta },`$ (1)
$`\widehat{S}_1`$ $`=\widehat{a}_H^{}\widehat{a}_H\widehat{a}_V^{}\widehat{a}_V,\widehat{S}_3`$ $`=i\widehat{a}_V^{}\widehat{a}_He^{i\theta }i\widehat{a}_H^{}\widehat{a}_Ve^{i\theta },`$
where the subscripts $`H`$ and $`V`$ label the horizontal and vertical polarization modes respectively, $`\theta `$ is the phase shift between these modes, and the $`\widehat{a}_{H,V}`$ and $`\widehat{a}_{H,V}^{}`$ are annihilation and creation operators for the electro-magnetic field in frequency space. The commutation relations of these operators

$$[\widehat{a}_k,\widehat{a}_l]=\delta _{kl},\text{with}k,l\{H,V\},$$
(2)
directly result in Stokes operator commutation relations,

$$[\widehat{S}_1,\widehat{S}_2]=2i\widehat{S}_3,[\widehat{S}_2,\widehat{S}_3]=2i\widehat{S}_1,[\widehat{S}_3,\widehat{S}_1]=2i\widehat{S}_2.$$
(3)
Apart from a normalization factor, these relations are identical to the commutation relations of the Pauli spin matrices. In fact the three Stokes parameters in Eq. (3) and the three Pauli spin matrices both generate the special unitary group of symmetry transformations SU(2) of Lie algebra Kaku93 . Since this group obeys the same algebra as the three-dimensional rotation group, distances in three dimensions are invariant. Accordingly the operator $`\widehat{S}_0`$ is also invariant and commutes with the other three Stokes operators ($`[\widehat{S}_0,\widehat{S}_j]=0,\text{with}j=1,2,3`$). It can be shown from Eqs. (1) and (2) that the quantum Poincaré sphere radius is different from its classical analogue, $`\widehat{S}=\widehat{S}_0^2+2\widehat{S}_0^{1/2}`$. The noncommutability of the Stokes operators $`\widehat{S}_1`$, $`\widehat{S}_2`$ and $`\widehat{S}_3`$ precludes the simultaneous exact measurement of their physical quantities. Their mean values $`\widehat{S}_j`$ and variances $`V_j=\widehat{S}_j^2\widehat{S}_j^2`$ are restricted by the uncertainty relations JauchRohrlich76

$$V_1V_2|\widehat{S}_3|^2,V_2V_3|\widehat{S}_1|^2,V_3V_1|\widehat{S}_2|^2.$$
(4)
In general this results in non-zero variances in the individual Stokes parameters as well as in the radius of the Poincaré sphere (see Fig. 1b)). Recently it has been shown that these variances may be obtained from the frequency spectrum of the electrical output currents of the setups shown in Fig. 2 KLLRS01 .

It is useful to express the Stokes operators of Eq. (1) in terms of quadrature amplitudes of the horizontally and vertically polarized components of the beam. The creation and annihilation operators can be expressed as sums of real classical amplitudes $`\alpha _{H,V}`$ and quadrature quantum noise operators $`\delta \widehat{X}_{H,V}^+`$ and $`\delta \widehat{X}_{H,V}^{}`$ WallsMilburn

$$\widehat{a}_{H,V}=\alpha _{H,V}+\frac{1}{2}(\delta \widehat{X}_{H,V}^++i\delta \widehat{X}_{H,V}^{}).$$
(5)
If the variances of the noise operators are much smaller than the coherent amplitudes then, to first order in the noise operators, the Stokes operator mean values are

$`\widehat{S}_0`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha _H^2+\alpha _V^2=\widehat{n},\widehat{S}_2=2\alpha _H\alpha _V\text{cos}\theta ,`$ (6)
$`\widehat{S}_1`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha _H^2\alpha _V^2,\widehat{S}_3=2\alpha _H\alpha _V\text{sin}\theta ,`$
where $`\widehat{n}`$ is the expectation value of the photon number operator. For a coherent beam the expectation value and variance of $`\widehat{n}`$ have the same magnitude, this magnitude equals the conventional shot-noise level. The variances of the Stokes parameters are given by

$`V_0=V_1=`$ $`\alpha _H^2(\delta \widehat{X}_H^+)^2+\alpha _V^2(\delta \widehat{X}_V^+)^2,`$
$`V_2(\theta =0)=V_3(\theta =\pi /2)=`$ $`\alpha _V^2(\delta \widehat{X}_H^+)^2+\alpha _H^2(\delta \widehat{X}_V^+)^2,`$ (7)
$`V_3(\theta =0)=V_2(\theta =\pi /2)=`$ $`\alpha _V^2(\delta \widehat{X}_H^{})^2+\alpha _H^2(\delta \widehat{X}_V^{})^2,`$
The variances of the noise operators in the above equation are normalized to one for a coherent beam. Therefore the variances of the Stokes parameters of a coherent beam are all equal to the shot-noise of the beam. For this reason a Stokes parameter is said to be squeezed if its variance falls below the shot-noise of an equal power coherent beam. Although the decomposition to the $`H,V`$-polarization axis of Eqs. (Polarization Squeezing of Continuous Variable Stokes Parameters) is independent of the actual procedure of generating a polarization squeezed beam, it becomes clear that two overlapped quadrature squeezed beams can produce a single polarization squeezed beam. We choose the two specific angles of $`\theta =0`$ and $`\pi /2`$ in Eqs. (Polarization Squeezing of Continuous Variable Stokes Parameters) corresponding to our actual experimental setup. If the polarization squeezed beam is generated from two amplitude squeezed beams $`\widehat{S}_0`$ and two additional Stokes parameters can in theory be perfectly squeezed while the fourth is anti-squeezed. In this case the uncertainty volume formed by the noise variances of the Stokes parameters in the Poincaré space becomes a “cigar”-like ellipsoid. If the polarization squeezed beam is generated from two phase squeezed beams the uncertainty volume becomes a “pancake”-like ellipsoid (see Fig. 5).

The experimental setup used to generate the polarization squeezed beams is shown in Fig. 3. Two quadrature squeezed beams were produced in a pair of spatially separated optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs). Past experiments requiring two quadrature squeezed beams commonly used a single ring resonator with two outputs Ou ; with two independent OPAs the necessary intracavity pump power is halved, this reduces the degradation of squeezing due to green-induced infrared absorption (GRIIRA) Furukawa . The OPAs were optical resonators constructed from hemilithic MgO:LiNbO3 crystals and output couplers. The reflectivities of the output couplers were 96% and 6% for the fundamental (1064 nm) and the second harmonic (532 nm) laser modes, respectively. The OPAs were pumped with single-mode 532 nm light generated by a 1.5 W Nd:YAG non-planar ring laser and frequency doubled in a second harmonic generator (SHG). The SHG was of identical structure to the OPAs but with 92% reflectivity at 1064 nm. Each OPA was seeded with 1064 nm light after spectral filtering in a modecleaner. This seed enabled control of the length of the OPAs. The coherent amplitude of each OPAs output was a deamplified/amplified version of the seed coherent amplitude; the level of amplification was dependent on the phase difference between pump and seed ($`\varphi _{sh}`$). Locking to deamplification or amplification provided amplitude or phase squeezed outputs, respectively.

The two quadrature squeezed beams were combined with orthogonal polarization on a polarizing beam splitter, similarly to a scheme proposed for solitons KLLRS01 . This produced an output beam with Stokes parameter variances as given by Eqs. (Polarization Squeezing of Continuous Variable Stokes Parameters). Both input beams had equal power ($`\alpha _H=\alpha _V=\alpha /\sqrt{2}`$) and both were squeezed in the same quadrature. The Stokes parameters and their variances were determined as shown in Fig. 2. The beam was split on a polarizing beam splitter and the two outputs were detected on a pair of high quantum efficiency photodiodes with 30 MHz bandwidth; the resulting photocurrents were added and subtracted to yield the means and variances of $`\widehat{S}_0`$ and $`\widehat{S}_1`$. To measure $`\widehat{S}_2`$ and $`V_2`$ the polarization of the beam was rotated by 45 with a half-wave plate before the polarizing beam splitter and the detected photocurrents were subtracted. To measure $`\widehat{S}_3`$ and $`V_3`$ the polarization of the beam was rotated by 45 with a half-wave plate and a quarter-wave plate was introduced before the polarizing beam splitter such that a horizontally polarized input beam became right-circular. Again the detected photocurrents were subtracted. The relative phase between the quadrature squeezed input beams $`\theta `$ was locked to $`\pi /2`$ rads producing in all cases a right-circularly polarized beam with Stokes parameter means of $`\widehat{S}_1=\widehat{S}_2=0`$ and $`\widehat{S}_0=\widehat{S}_3=|\alpha |^2`$. There is no fundamental bias in the orientation of the quantum Stokes vector. By varying the angle of an additional half-wave plate in the polarization squeezed beam and by varying $`\theta `$ any orientation may be achieved. In fact the experiment discussed here was also carried out with $`\theta `$ locked to 0 rads, in this case the Stokes vector was rotated to point along $`\widehat{S}_2`$ and the quantum noise was similarly rotated. Near identical results were obtained but on alternative Stokes parameters.

Each quadrature squeezed beam had an overall detection efficiency of 73%. The loss came primarily from four sources: loss in escape from the OPAs (14%), detector inefficiency (7%), loss in optics (5%), and mode overlap mismatch between the beams (4%). Depolarizing effects are thought to be another significant source of loss for some polarization squeezing proposals APu89 . In our scheme the non-linear processes (OPAs) are divorced from the polarization manipulation (wave plates and polarizing beam splitters), and depolarizing effects are insignificant.

As discussed earlier the Stokes parameters of a beam are squeezed if their variances fall below the shot-noise level of an equally intense coherent beam. This shot-noise level was used to calibrate the measurements presented here, it was determined by operating a single OPA without the second harmonic pump. The seed power was adjusted so that the output power was equal to that of the polarization squeezed beam. In this configuration the detection setup for $`\widehat{S}_2`$ (see Fig. 2c)) functions exactly as a homodyne detector measuring vacuum noise scaled by the OPA output power the variance of which is the shot-noise. Throughout each experimental run the sum of output powers from the two OPAs was monitored and was always within 2% of the power of the coherent calibration beam. This led to a conservative error in our frequency spectra of $`\pm `$0.04 dB.

The shot-noise and Stokes parameter variances presented here were taken with a Hewlett-Packard E4405B spectrum analyzer over the range from 3 to 10 MHz. The darknoise of the detection apparatus was always more than 4 dB below the measured traces and was taken into account. Each displayed trace is the average of three measurement results normalized to the shot-noise and smoothed over the resolution bandwidth of the spectrum analyzer which was set to 300 kHz. The video bandwidth of the spectrum analyzer was set to 300 Hz.

Fig. 4 shows the measurement results obtained with both input beams amplitude squeezed. $`\widehat{S}_0`$, $`\widehat{S}_1`$ and $`\widehat{S}_3`$ are all squeezed from 4.5 MHz to the limit of our measurement, 10 MHz. $`\widehat{S}_2`$ is anti-squeezed throughout the range of the measurement. Between 7.2 MHz and 9.6 MHz $`\widehat{S}_0`$, $`\widehat{S}_1`$ and $`\widehat{S}_3`$ are all more than 3 dB below shot-noise. The squeezing of $`\widehat{S}_0`$ and $`\widehat{S}_3`$ is degraded at low frequency due to phase noise on the second harmonic pump coupling into the amplitude quadrature of the OPA outputs. Since this noise is correlated it cancels in the variance of $`\widehat{S}_1`$. The maximum squeezing of $`\widehat{S}_0`$ and $`\widehat{S}_2`$ was 3.8 dB and 3.5 dB respectively and was observed at 9.3 MHz. The maximum squeezing of $`\widehat{S}_1`$ was 4.3 dB at 5.7 MHz. The repetitive structure at 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 MHz was caused by electrical pick-up in our SHG resonator emitted from a separate experiment operating in the laboratory.

By locking both OPAs to amplification we obtained results similar to those in Fig. 4 but with the input beams phase squeezed. In this case $`\widehat{S}_0`$, $`\widehat{S}_1`$ and $`\widehat{S}_3`$ were all anti-squeezed and $`\widehat{S}_2`$ was squeezed throughout the range of the measurement. The optimum noise reduction of $`\widehat{S}_2`$ was 2.8 dB below shot-noise and was observed at 4.8 MHz.

In Fig. 5 we visualize our experimental data at 8.5 MHz assuming Gaussian noise statistics. Given this assumption, the standard deviation contour-surfaces shown here provide an accurate representation of the states three dimensional noise distribution. The quantum polarization noise of a coherent state forms a sphere of noise as portrayed in Fig. 5 a). The noise volume formed by our experimental results with two phase or two amplitude squeezed beams respectively, was found to be a ‘pancake’-like (Fig. 5 b)) or ‘cigar’-like ellipsoid (Fig. 5 c)).

In all experiments prior to this work involving polarization squeezing the squeezing was generated by combining a strong coherent beam with a single weak amplitude squeezed beam GSYL87 ; HSSP99 . Utilizing only one squeezed beam it is not possible to simultaneously squeeze any two of $`\widehat{S}_1`$, $`\widehat{S}_2`$, and $`\widehat{S}_3`$ to quieter than 3 dB below shot-noise ($`V_i+V_j\widehat{n}`$, with $`i,j\{1,2,3;ij\}`$). This can be seen from the more general form of Eqs. (Polarization Squeezing of Continuous Variable Stokes Parameters) which includes arbitrary phase angle $`\theta `$ between the beams.

To conclude, we present the first direct experimental characterization of continuous variable quantum Stokes parameters. We generate a new quantum state with better than 3 dB squeezing of three Stokes parameters ($`\widehat{S}_0`$, $`\widehat{S}_1`$, and $`\widehat{S}_3`$) simultaneously, a quality impossible to produce with only one squeezed beam. We represent our results on a quantum version of the Poincaré sphere and experimentally demonstrate that in this space a polarization squeezed beam generated from two amplitude squeezed beams has a ‘cigar’-like quantum noise distribution; and one from two phase squeezed beams has a ‘pancake’-like quantum noise distribution.

We would like to acknowledge the Alexander von Humboldt foundation for support of Dr. R. Schnabel; the Australian Research Council for financial support; Dr. M. B. Gray and Dr. B. C. Buchler for technical assistance; and Dr. T. C. Ralph for useful discussion.


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# Comment on relationship between atomic squeezed and entangled states

##

Recently quantum entangled states have been focus of both theoretical and experimental research. This is due to the realization that the quantum entanglement is a key resource for implementation of protocols of quantum computation and quantum information processing . Theoretically lot of work has been done to quantify the quantum entanglement. For detail see the recent review by Horodecki et al. . Simultaneously several schemes have been proposed for generation of these states in many physical systems. In connection to the generation of multi particle entanglement in Bose-Einstein condensate Sorensen et al  proposed a parameter to characterize the entanglement. This parameter is given by

$$\xi ^2=\frac{N\left(\mathrm{\Delta }S_{\stackrel{}{n}_1}\right)^2}{S_{\stackrel{}{n}_2}^2+S_{\stackrel{}{n}_3}^2}$$
(1)
where $`S_\stackrel{}{n}=\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{S}`$, $`\stackrel{}{S}`$ is angular momentum operator representing the collective atomic operator and $`\stackrel{}{n}`$’s are mutually orthogonal unit vectors. The value of the parameter going below unity, that is $`\xi ^2<1`$, signifies atomic entanglement or quantifies inseparability of collective atomic states. It is important to note here that the same parameter is also used to characterize atomic squeezed states. Thus the collective atomic states satisfying $`\xi ^2<1`$ are also referred to as atomic squeezed states. Moreover the parameter $`\xi ^2`$ is also related to other parameters proposed for characterizing atomic squeezed states.

In this paper our aim is to investigate the capability $`\xi ^2`$ given by Eq.(1) to characterize the entanglement properties of bipartite states. As is well known that for both pure or mixture bipartite states there exists a necessary and sufficient criterion for inseparability of composite state due to Peres and Horodecki . According to this criterion separability is signified by existence of non-negative eigenvalues of partial transpose of density matrix of the composite system. For our purpose we study the entanglement property of a model system of two two-level atoms interacting with a single cavity mode by using both Peres-Horodecki criterion and the parameter defined in Eq.(1). We demonstrate that for a particular case of initial atomic and cavity field states the collective atomic state at any later time is always inseparable in accordance with the Peres-Horodecki criterion. On the other hand under the same initial condition $`\xi ^2`$ is always greater than unity. In the following we present our analysis and also discuss the condition under which $`\xi ^2`$ can characterize the entanglement property of composite systems.

We consider two two-level atoms with ground and excited states denoted by $`|g_i`$ and $`|e_i`$ respectively, where $`i=1,2`$, coupled to a single cavity radiation mode with same coupling constant $`g`$. The interaction hamiltonian for the two atom system with a single cavity mode is given by

$$H=g\underset{i}{}\left(S_i^+a+S_i^{}a^{}\right)$$
(2)
where $`a(a^{})`$ is the annihilation (creation) operator of the radiation mode, $`S_i^+=|e_ig_i|`$ and $`S_i^{}=|g_ie_i|`$ represent the atomic raising and lowering operators respectively. Recently Kim et al.  employed the same system to investigate the generation of the entangled state of the atomic system when the field mode is in number and thermal states. Here we consider the case of both the atoms in their ground states ($`|g_1,g_2`$) and the field mode in the number state $`|n`$. The atomic density operator for the above mentioned initial condition at $`t>0`$ is given by

$$\rho (t)=X_1|11|+X_2|22|+X_3|33|$$
(3)
where $`|1=|e_1,e_2,|2=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(|e_1,g_2+|g_1,e_2\right)`$ and $`|3=|g_1,g_2`$ and the coefficients $`X_i`$ are given by

$`X_1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{n\left(n1\right)}{(2n1)^2}}\left[\mathrm{cos}^2\lambda t2\mathrm{cos}\lambda t+1\right]`$
$`X_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{n}{(2n1)}}\mathrm{sin}^2\lambda t`$
$`X_3`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{n^2\mathrm{cos}^2\lambda t+2n(n1)\mathrm{cos}\lambda t+(n1)^2}{(2n1)^2}}`$ (4)
where $`\lambda =gt\sqrt{2(2n1)}`$. In accordance with the Peres-Horodecki criterion the collective atomic states at $`t>0`$ are entangled or inseparable atomic if and only the condition $`X_2>\sqrt{X_1X_3}`$ is satisfied. For the single photon case, that is $`n=1`$, this condition reduces to $`\mathrm{sin}^22gt>0`$. Therefore for fock state $`|1`$ and both the atoms in their ground state collective atomic state is always entangled except at $`t=0`$ . On the other hand for the same initial atomic and cavity mode states the squeezing parameter of Eq.(1) is given by

$$\xi ^2=\frac{1+\mathrm{sin}^22gt}{\mathrm{cos}^42gt}.$$
(5)
It is easy to verify that $`\xi ^2`$ given above (Eq.(5)) never goes below unity at any time signifying that collective atomic states are not entangled. This also shows that no atomic squeezed states are generated in the atom-field interaction. Thus we show that a density matrix of composite system of $`2\times 2`$ dimension can be inseparable or entangled in accordance with the Peres-Horodecki criterion. However, same system fails to satisfy the condition of entanglement given by Eq.(1).

We emphasize here that the condition $`\xi ^2<1`$ to signify entanglement or atomic squeezed state require that the density matrix of composite must have non-zero off-diagonal ( coherence ) matrix elements . To show this explicitly we consider the density matrix of the form

$`\rho `$ $`=`$ $`X_1|11|+X_2|22|+X_3|33|`$ (6)
$`+`$ $`Y|13|+Y|13|.`$
For the sake of simplicity we assume $`Y`$ to be real. It is straightforward to extend the discussion for a complex $`Y`$ too. Now corresponding to the above density matrix (Eq.(6)) the parameter $`\xi ^2`$ is given by

$$\xi ^2=\frac{2Y+2S_z^2}{S_z^2}$$
(7)
where $`S_z=\frac{1}{2}\left(S^+S^{}S^{}S^+\right)`$. The entanglement or squeezing condition requires that

$$S_z^2+S_z^2>2+2Y$$
(8)
For $`Y=0`$, that is for a diagonal density matrix Eq.(8) can never be satisfied as $`S_z^2`$, $`S_z^21`$. However for, $`Y0`$ it is still possible to satisfy Eq.(8) under some conditions. For example, if the field is in a coherent or a squeezed state then off-diagonal terms of the atomic density matrix are not zero and it may be possible to achieve $`\xi ^2<1`$  under appropriate condition.

In conclusion we have demonstrated that the parameter proposed in Ref. is not suitable for characterizing entanglement or inseparability properties of composite systems having diagonal density matrix. It is only for systems with off-diagonal density matrix $`\xi ^2`$ may be employed to characterize entangled states.


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# Untitled Document

YITP-01-71

Effective vector-field theory and long-wavelength universality
of the fractional quantum Hall effect

K. Shizuya

Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics
Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan

Abstract

We report on an effective vector-field theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect that takes into account projection to Landau levels. The effective theory refers to neither the composite-boson nor composite-fermion picture, but properly reproduces the results consistent with them, thus revealing the universality of the long-wavelength characteristics of the quantum Hall states. In particular, the dual-field Lagrangian of Lee and Zhang is obtained, and an argument is given to verify the identification by Goldhaber and Jain of a composite fermion as a dressed electron. The generalization to double-layer systems is also remarked on.

PACS:73.43.Cd,71.10.Pm

Keywords: Quantum Hall effect; Bosonization; Composite fermions

1. Introduction

The early studies of the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) based on Laughlin’s variational wave functions \[1-4\] gave impetus to descriptions of the FQHE in terms of electron–flux composites. The Chern-Simons (CS) theories \[5-7\] realize the composite-boson and composite-fermion pictures of the FQHE and have been successful in describing the long-wavelength characteristics of the fractional quantum Hall states. The CS approaches, however, make no explicit use of projection to the lowest Landau level, a procedure which is crucial in the wave-function approach. One might naturally wonder if and how the former are compatible with the Landau-level structure and quenching of the electronic kinetic energy. The present paper is motivated to answer this question affirmatively.

In this paper we wish to report on an effective vector-field theory of the FQHE that takes into account projection to the Landau levels . The effective theory, constructed via the electromagnetic responses and bosonization, does not refer to either the composite-boson or composite-fermion picture, but properly reproduces the results consistent with them, thus revealing the universality of the long-wavelength characteristics of the quantum Hall states. In particular, the dual-field Lagrangian of Lee and Zhang  is obtained. An argument is given to substantiate the identification by Goldhaber and Jain  of the composite fermion as a dressed electron.

2. Electromagnetic response of Hall electrons

Consider electrons in a plane with a perpendicular magnetic field $`B>0`$, and study how they respond to weak external potentials $`A_\mu (x)=(A_0,𝐀)`$. The eigenstates of a freely orbiting electron are Landau levels of energy $`\omega _\mathrm{c}(n+{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}})`$ with $`\omega _ceB/m^{}`$ and $`n=0,1,\mathrm{}`$. This level structure is modified in the presence of $`A_\mu (x)`$, and the effect of level mixing it causes is calculated by diagonalizing the Hamiltonian $`H`$ with respect to the true levels $`\{n\}`$.

Suppose now that an incompressible many-body state of uniform density $`\overline{\rho }`$ is formed via the Coulomb interaction (for $`A_\mu =0`$). The projected Hamiltonian then serves to determine its response to weak electromagnetic potentials $`A_\mu (x)`$, with the result

$`L[A;\overline{\rho }]=\overline{\rho }`$ $`\left[A_0\mathrm{}^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}A_\mu ϵ^{\mu \nu \lambda }_\nu A_\lambda +{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2\omega _\mathrm{c}}}(A_{k0})^2{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma (\nu )\mathrm{}^2}{2m^{}}}(A_{12})^2\right]+O(^3),`$ (1)
where $`\mathrm{}1/\sqrt{eB},A_{\mu \nu }_\mu A_\nu _\nu A_\mu `$ and the electric charge $`e>0`$ has been suppressed by rescaling $`eA_\mu A_\mu `$; $`ϵ^{\mu \nu \rho }`$ is a totally-antisymmetric tensor with $`ϵ^{012}=1`$ and $`\sigma (\nu )`$ is some factor of $`O(1)`$, whose value is not needed in what follows.

3. Bosonization and effective theory

The electromagnetic response we have calculated is essentially the partition function $`W[A]=\mathrm{exp}(id^3xL[A;\overline{\rho }])`$, which is written as a functional integral over the electron fields. Once such $`W[A]`$ is known it is possible to reconstruct it through the quantum fluctuations of a boson field. The rules of functional bosonization  tell us that the response $`W[A]`$ is reconstructed from a bosonic theory of a 3-vector field $`b_\mu =(b_0,b_1,b_2)`$, with the action $`Z[b]`$ given by Fourier transforming (given) $`W[v]`$,

$$e^{iZ[b]}[dv_\lambda ]e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^3xb_\mu ϵ^{\mu \nu \rho }_\nu v_\rho }}W[v].$$
(2)
The $`b_\mu `$ field is coupled to $`A_\mu `$ through the coupling $`A_\mu ϵ^{\mu \nu \lambda }_\nu b_\lambda `$.

Let us now substitute $`L[A;\overline{\rho }]`$ into Eq. (2) and construct an equivalent bosonic theory that recovers it. The relevant functional integration is best carried out in the following way: First make a shift $`v_\mu =v_\mu ^{}+f_\mu [b]`$ and choose $`f_\mu [b]`$ so as to decouple $`v_\mu ^{}`$ and $`b_\mu `$ in the exponent. All the $`b_\mu `$ dependence is then isolated in the background piece $`f_\mu =(1/\overline{\rho }\mathrm{}^2)b_\mu +O(b)`$, leading to the action $`Z[b]=d^3xL^{(0)}[b]`$ with

$`L^{(0)}[b]=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}^2}}b_0+{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{\nu }}b_\mu ϵ^{\mu \nu \lambda }_\nu b_\lambda +{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{\nu \omega }}(b_{k0})^2{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma (\nu )\pi }{\nu m^{}}}(b_{12})^2+O(^3),`$ (3)
where the filling factor $`\nu =2\pi \mathrm{}^2\overline{\rho }`$ and $`b_{\mu \nu }=_\mu b_\nu _\nu b_\mu `$.

An advantage of the bosonic theory is that the Coulomb interaction is handled exactly. It further admits inclusion of new degrees of freedom, vortices, which describe Laughlin’s quasiparticle excitations over the FQH states. Eventually the bosonic theory that takes into account both the Coulomb interaction and vortices is described by the Lagrangian

$$L_{\mathrm{eff}}[b]=A_\mu ϵ^{\mu \nu \rho }_\nu b_\rho 2\pi \stackrel{~}{j}_\mu b_\mu +L^{(0)}[b]\frac{1}{2}\delta b_{12}V\delta b_{12},$$
(4)
where $`\stackrel{~}{j}_\mu `$ stands for the vortex 3-current; $`\delta b_{12}V\delta b_{12}d^2𝐲\delta b_{12}(x)V(𝐱𝐲)\delta b_{12}(y)`$ denotes the (bosonized) Coulomb interaction and $`\delta b_{12}=b_{12}\overline{\rho }`$. Upon quantization the CS term $`bϵb`$ in $`L^{(0)}[b]`$ combines with the kinetic term $`(b_{k0})^2`$ to yield a “mass” gap $`\omega `$ while the $`(b_{12})^2`$ term yields only a tiny $`O(^2)`$ correction to it.

This $`L_{\mathrm{eff}}[b]`$ almost precisely agrees with the dual-field Lagrangian of Lee and Zhang (LZ) , derived within the Chern-Simons-Landau-Ginzburg (CSLG) theory. The only difference to $`O(^2)`$ lies in the $`(b_{12})^2`$ term, which, however, is unimportant at long wavelengths.

The fact that we have practically arrived at the LZ dual Lagrangian without invoking the composite-boson picture would thus reveal the following: (1) The long-wavelength characteristics of the FQH states, as governed by the LZ dual Lagrangian, are determined universally by the filling factor and some single-electron characteristics, independent of the details of the FQH states. (2) In the CSLG theory the random-phase approximation properly recovers the effect of the Landau-level structure, crucial for determining the electromagnetic response.

It is instructive to read off the vortex charge from the $`2\pi \stackrel{~}{j}_\mu b_\mu `$ coupling in $`L_{\mathrm{eff}}[b]`$. The $`b_\mu `$ field acquires, in the presence of the electromagnetic coupling $`A_\mu ϵ^{\mu \nu \rho }_\nu b_\rho `$, a background component, i.e., $`b_\mu =b_\mu ^{}+f_\mu `$ with $`f_\mu =(\nu /2\pi )A_\mu +O(A)`$, so that

$$2\pi \stackrel{~}{j}_\mu b_\mu =\nu \stackrel{~}{j}_\mu A_\mu +\mathrm{},$$
(5)
which reveals the vortex charge of $`\nu e`$.

4. Composite fermions

The fermionic CS theory  realizes the composite-fermion description of the FQHE. There the composite fermions are visualized as electrons carrying an even number $`2p`$ of flux quanta of the CS field $`c_\mu (x)`$. The fractional quantum Hall states at the principal filling fractions $`\nu 2\pi \mathrm{}^2\overline{\rho }=\nu _{\mathrm{eff}}/(2p\nu _{\mathrm{eff}}\pm 1)`$ are thereby mapped into an integer quantum Hall state of composite fermions in the reduced field $`B_{\mathrm{eff}}=(12p\nu )B`$ at $`\nu _{\mathrm{eff}}=1,2,\mathrm{}`$.

It is possible to cast, via the electromagnetic response of the composite fermion, this fermionic CS theory into an equivalent bosonic version, with the Lagrangian

$`L_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\mathrm{CF}}[b,c]=`$ $`e(A_\mu +c_\mu )ϵ^{\mu \nu \rho }_\nu b_\rho 2\pi \stackrel{~}{j}_\mu b_\mu +L^{(0)}[b;B_{\mathrm{eff}}]+L_{\mathrm{CS}}[c],`$ (6)
where $`L^{(0)}[b;B_{\mathrm{eff}}]`$ stands for $`L^{(0)}[b]`$ of Eq. (3) with $`BB_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`\nu \nu _{\mathrm{eff}}`$.

Let us here try to eliminate $`c_\mu `$ from $`L_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\mathrm{CF}}[b,c]`$ and derive an equivalent theory of the $`b_\mu `$ field alone. We omit the detail here. The result precisely coincides with $`L_{\mathrm{eff}}[b]`$ in Eq. (4), apart from (unimportant) $`(b_{12})^2`$ terms. This verifies, in particular, that the composite-boson and composite-fermion descriptions of the FQHE as well as our (projection+bosonization) approach are perfectly consistent in the long-wavelength regime.

As for the nature of the composite fermion Goldhaber and Jain  identified it as a dressed electron with bare charge $`e`$, and argued on the basis of Laughlin’s wave functions that the bare charge is screened in the composite-fermion medium to yield local charge $`\nu e`$.

It is possible to substantiate such characteristics of composite fermions within the CS approach. First, applying Laughlin’s reasoning reveals that the vortex excitations over the composite-fermion ground state are nothing but the composite fermions (or holes) themselves. Counting of the vortex charges \[or simply Eq. (6)\] shows that each composite fermion has “bare” charge $`e`$ in response to the ”bare” field $`A_\mu +c_\mu `$. Note next that, upon integration over $`b_\mu `$ with $`L^{\mathrm{CF}}[b,c]`$, the CS field $`c_\mu `$ acquires a background piece proportional to $`A_\mu `$, leading to substantial dressing (or renormalization) of the bare field

$$A_\mu +c_\mu =\pm (\nu /\nu _{\mathrm{eff}})A_\mu +\mathrm{},$$
(7)
which shows that a composite fermion has fractional charge

$$Q_{\mathrm{CF}}=(\nu /\nu _{\mathrm{eff}})e=e/(2p\nu _{\mathrm{eff}}\pm 1)$$
(8)
in response to $`A_\mu `$. (In the above the $`\pm `$ sign refers to the sign of $`B_{\mathrm{eff}}/B`$.) Hence the bare charge $`e`$ coupled to $`A_\mu +c_\mu `$ is the same as the renormalized charge $`Q_{\mathrm{CF}}`$ probed with $`A_\mu `$. This special dressing of the bare field has a natural consequence: The composite fermion with bare charge $`e`$ feels an effective electric field $`E_y^{A+c}E_y+c_{20}=\pm (\nu /\nu _{\mathrm{eff}})E_y+\mathrm{}`$ in the effective magnetic field $`B_{\mathrm{eff}}=\pm (\nu /\nu _{\mathrm{eff}})B`$ so that it drifts with the same velocity as the electron, as it should,

$$v_x^{\mathrm{drift}}=E_y^{A+c}/B_{\mathrm{eff}}=E_y/B.$$
(9)
5. Concluding remarks

In this paper we have presented an effective vector-field theory of the FQHE. It does not refer to either the composite-boson or composite-fermion picture, and simply supposes an incompressible FQH ground state of uniform density. Our approach by itself does not tell at which filling fraction $`\nu `$ such a state is realized. Instead, it tells us that once such an incompressible state is formed its long-wavelength characteristics are fixed universally, independent of the composite-boson and composite-fermion pictures. In this sense, our approach is complementary to the picture-specific CS approaches.

The CS approaches without Landau-level projection encounter some subtle difficulties , when generalized to double-layer systems where intra-Landau-level collective excitations play an important role in the low-energy regime. In our approach it turns out possible to construct an effective theory that properly incorporates the effect of the dipole-active inter-layer out-of-phase collective mode (via its electromagnetic response in the single-mode approximation) . Details will be reported elsewhere.

Acknowledgments

This work is supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education of Japan, Science and Culture (No. 10640265).

References

 R. B. Laughlin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 50 (1983) 1395.

 S. M. Girvin and A. H. MacDonald, Phys. Rev. Lett. 58 (1987) 1252 .

 N. Read, Phys. Rev. Lett. 62 (1989) 86.

 J. K. Jain, Phys. Rev. Lett. 63 (1989) 199.

 S. C. Zhang, T.H. Hansson, and S. Kivelson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 62 (1989) 82.

 D.-H. Lee and S.-C. Zhang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66 (1991) 1220.

 A. Lopez and E. Fradkin, Phys. Rev. B 44 (1991) 5246.

 K. Shizuya, Phys. Rev. B 63 (2001) 245301 1-8.

 A. S. Goldhaber and J. K. Jain, Phys. Lett. A 199 (1995) 267.

 F. A. Schaposnik, Phys. Lett. B 356 (1995) 39, and earlier references cited therein.

 A. H. MacDonald and S.-C. Zhang, Phys. Rev. B 49 (1994) 17 208 .

 K. Shizuya, in preparation.


text:
# Quantum current enhancement effect in hybrid rings at equilibrium

## Abstract

Current enhancement- a novel quantum phenomena is found to occur in a mesoscopic hybrid ring at equilibrium. The hybrid system is described by a ring with bubble which is in turn coupled to a reservoir. In the system the ring encloses a magnetic flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ while the bubble does not enclose any flux. The novelty of this work lies in the fact that while earlier current enhancement was observed in non-equilibrium systems (e.g., a ring coupled to two reservoirs at different chemical potentials $`\mu _1`$ and $`\mu _2`$), herein we prove that current enhancement can also arise in equilibrium. In addition, we show that the closed system analog of our chosen open hybrid ring system violates parity effects. Finally, we bring to focus the discrepancy between the equilibrium magnetic moment (obtained via energy eigenvalues) and that calculated from the currents in the system.

The physics of low dimensional systems particularly those whose system size is less than the electron phase coherence length has been quite vibrant in recent years thanks to technological advances in the field of nanoscience. The study of such systems where the electron retains its wave nature over the entire sample is termed mesoscopic physics. In these systems experiments have revealed that several classical laws which hold for macroscopic systems breakdown. This is attributed to the interference effects of electronic waves. One of the simple quantum mechanical phenomena which has been predicted in such systems is that of current enhancement or magnification . Current enhancement can be defined as follows- In a metallic loop(see inset fig. 1) connected to two ideal leads transport current I flows through the system. Currents $`I_1`$ and $`I_2`$ flow in the upper and lower arms of the ring respectively. In general, $`I_1`$ is not equal to $`I_2`$ but $`I=I_1+I_2`$, Kirchoff’s law. In classical case both $`I_1`$ and $`I_2`$ are positive and flow in same direction as the applied bias. In quantum mechanics, for particular values of Fermi energy $`I_1`$ or $`I_2`$ can become much larger than I, this implies to obey Kirchoff’s law the current in the other arm must be negative. The property that current in one of the arms is larger than the transport current is referred to as current enhancement effect. In this situation, we interpret the negative current flowing in one arm of the ring as a circulating current that flows continually in the loop. When the negative current flows in the upper arm the circulating current direction is taken to be anti-clockwise (or negative) and when it flows in the lower arm the circulating current direction is taken to be clockwise (or positive).

The current enhancement effect leads to enhanced magnetic response (orbital magnetic moment) of a loop carrying current in the absence of magnetic flux which can lead to an experimental verification of this. It is to be noted that these circulating currents arise in the absence of magnetic flux and in presence of transport currents (i.e., in a non-equilibrium system). In the present work our thrust is whether we can observe the aforesaid current enhancement effect and the resulting circulating currents in equilibrium. For this we consider the one dimensional hybrid ring system as depicted in figure 1 connected to a reservoir at chemical potential $`\mu `$. The static localised flux piercing the loop is necessary to break the time reversal symmetry and induce a persistent current in the system. The reservoir acts as an inelastic scatterer and as a source of energy dissipation. All the scattering processes in the leads including the loop are assumed to be elastic. The loops J1J2aJ3J1 and J1J2bJ3J1 enclose the localised flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. However, the bubble J2aJ3bJ2 does not enclose the flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. This special situation we have considered, so as to answer the question of existence of circulating currents in equilibrium systems. We show that circulating currents (due to current enhancement) arise in a bubble which does not enclose a magnetic flux. We would like to mention here that the current enhancement effect and the associated circulating currents arise even when the magnetic field extends over the entire sample. However, for this the treatment is involved as one has to study separately persistent as well as circulating currents in the bubble as they have different symmetry properties. This has been studied in a simple loop in the presence of both transport currents and magnetic flux.

In the local coordinate system the wave-functions in the various regions of the ring in absence of magnetic flux are given as follows

$`\psi _0`$ $`=`$ $`e^{ikx_0}+re^{ikx_0},`$ (1)
$`\psi _j`$ $`=`$ $`a_je^{i(k+\frac{\alpha _j}{l_j})x_j}+b_je^{ikx_j+i\frac{\alpha _j}{l_j}(x_jl_j)}.`$ (2)
Here $`x_j,j=1,\mathrm{..4}`$ are coordinates along the the segments J1J2, J2bJ3, J2aJ4 and J3J1 respectively and $`x_0`$ is the coordinate along the connecting lead to the reservoir, while $`\alpha _j`$’s are the phases picked up by the electron as it traverses the various regions of the system with the restriction that $`\alpha _1+\alpha _2+\alpha _4=2\pi \mathrm{\Phi }/\mathrm{\Phi }_0,`$ and $`\alpha _1+\alpha _3+\alpha _4=2\pi \mathrm{\Phi }/\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ which implies $`\alpha _2=\alpha _3`$. To solve for the unknown coefficients in eqn.(1) we use Griffith boundary condition at the junctions $`J1,J2`$ and $`J3`$. These boundary conditions are due to the continuity of wavefunctions and conservation of current (Kirchoff’s law).

In the lead connecting the reservoir to our circuit there is no current flow as $`|r|^2=1`$. The current densities (dimensionless form) in the small interval $`dk`$ around the Fermi energy $`k`$ in the various segments of the circuit are given by - $`I_j=|a_j|^2|b_j|^2,`$ The current densities are calculated from the usual formula of current density in presence of magnetic flux- $`J_j=\frac{e\mathrm{}}{2mi}(\psi _j^{}\psi _j\psi _j\psi _j^{}2i\frac{\alpha _j}{l_j}\psi _j^{}\psi _j)`$, which implies $`I_j=\frac{J_j}{e\mathrm{}k/m}`$.

The persistent current densities in various parts of the system show cyclic variation with flux and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ periodicity (reminiscent of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations), and oscillate between positive and negative values as a function of energy or the wave-vector $`k`$ as expected. Since the analytical expressions for these currents are too lengthy we confine ourselves to a graphical interpretation of the results. It should be noted that in all these expressions for current densities, flux enters only through the combinations $`\alpha _1+\alpha _2+\alpha _4`$ and $`\alpha _1+\alpha _3+\alpha _4`$, the magnitude of these combinations is given by $`2\pi \mathrm{\Phi }/\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ as expected. For us the current densities in the bubble, i.e., J2bJ3aJ2 are of special importance as in this region there is possibility of current enhancement which would be analysed below. The current density shows an extremum near the corresponding eigen-states of the system. We have calculated these eigen states for two different cases. For open system as depicted in figure 1, one can calculate the energies (or wave-vector) of these states by looking at the poles of the S-Matrix. In our case S-Matrix is simply a complex reflection amplitude $`r`$. We have also analysed the eigen states of a closed system (without coupling lead to reservoir).

We analyse the case of a bubble with unequal lengths, of its two arms i.e the length of $`J2bJ3J2aJ3`$. This asymmetry implies that currents in the two arms of the bubble are not equal. In figure 2 we plot the persistent current densities in various parts of the circuit. It should be noted that absolute value of the persistent current densities $`I_2`$ and $`I_3`$ are individually much larger than the input current density $`I_1`$ into the bubble and thus the current enhancement effect is evident (without violating the basic Kirchoff’s law). The input current arises due to the presence of flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ as it breaks the time reversal symmetry. The system parameters are mentioned in the figure caption. In the interval, $`5.2<kL<7.4`$ current density $`I_1`$ changes from positive to negative and exhibits extremum around the real part of the poles of the S-Matrix. When $`I_1`$ is positive, negative current density of magnitude $`I_2`$ flows in the arm $`J2bJ3`$ of the bubble. Thus, when $`I_1`$ is positive circulating current flows in the anti-clockwise direction in the bubble. In the range wherein $`I_1`$ is negative, i.e, input current into the bubble is in anti-clockwise direction, then positive current flows in arm $`J2aJ3`$. According, to our convention as mentioned earlier, circulating current flows in the anti-clockwise direction. In all the figures drawn, the length of the bubble is $`l=l_2+l_3`$ which is taken as unity throughout our discussion. The current densities along with the Fermi wave-vectors are in their dimensionless form. Of course the phenomena of current enhancement is extremely sensitive to the arm lengths of the bubble. It should be noted that if we interchange the values of $`l_2`$ and $`l_3`$ keeping other parameters unchanged circulating current will flow in a clockwise direction. This is obvious from the geometry of the problem. Alongwith the current densities the persistent currents in various parts of the ring can also be plotted, to do that we integrate the current densities $`J_j`$ in various regions of the circuit over the Fermi wave vector $`k_f`$. The persistent currents $`P_j`$ at temperature $`T=0`$ is given by

$`P_j={\displaystyle _0^{k_f}}𝑑kJ_j`$ (3)
In figure 3 we have plotted the persistent currents(in dimensionless units) for the system parameters as mentioned in the caption. An interesting point to note is that although in most cases current enhancement occurs around the eigenenergies of the closed system there are a few exceptions. In figure 4 we plot one of those exceptions. Herein, we show that current enhancement does not occur at a place which is an eigen’k’ of the aforesaid system. Here the eigen wave-vector $`kL`$ corresponds to $`13.85`$. One can readily notice that the persistent current density (i.e, input current density $`I_1`$ into the bubble) shows extrema around this value. In this region both the currents in the bubble $`I_2`$ and $`I_3`$ are individually smaller than $`I_1`$ and they flow in the same direction as the input current. Hence we do not observe current enhancement.

The above discussion shows that current enhancement effect is not restricted to non-equilibrium systems only but is also expressed in mesoscopic systems at equilibrium. Our special system not only shows current enhancement but also in it parity effects are violated, of course in its closed system disguise. The study of parity effects or rather the lack of it especially in a metallic ring with a static localised flux at its center and a stub attached to it has attracted a lot of interest. Parity effects are defined as follows- The persistent current carried by an electron in the eigen state $`E_n`$ in case of an isolated single loop is defined as $`I_n=\frac{1}{c}\frac{E_n}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$. In a closed single loop persistent current changes its sign as we go from one level to the next successive level, i.e., from diamagnetic to paramagnetic or vice-versa. The total persistent current is given by sum of currents carried by all electrons. Thus for spinless electrons at temperature ($`T=0`$), a system with odd number of electrons behaves as a diamagnet while that with an even number of electrons behaves as a paramagnet. This is called parity effect. In figure 5 we have plotted the first few eigen energies $`E=k_n^2`$ of our isolated system (with the connecting lead to reservoir removed). The system parameters are mentioned in the figure caption. These eigen energies are calculated from the condition that the determinant of the coefficient matrix must vanish. The coefficient matrix is built from first principles using quantum waveguide theory with the second wavefunction of equation 1. The eigen energies are flux periodic with period $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$. For our system we immediately notice that certain number of successive energy levels from the bottom, have same direction of slope with respect to flux. Particularly the third and fourth energy levels from bottom carry diamagnetic current for small values of flux while levels five and six again from bottom carry a paramagnetic current. Thus breaking the well known parity effect. For details we refer to Ref.\[\].

As a corollary to the discussion above, we consider the magnetic moments of our system. The orbital magnetic moment defined via currents in a loop, depends strongly on the topology of the system. If we consider our system as depicted in figure 1 to be planar and lying in the x-y plane then the magnetic moment density would be $`\mu =\frac{1}{c}(I_1A_r+I_3A_b)`$ wherein $`A_r`$ and $`A_b`$ are areas enclosed by the ring($`J1J2aJ3J1`$) and bubble($`J2aJ3bJ2`$) respectively, for details we refer the interested reader to Ref. \[\]. Another orientation of the system in which the ring is not to the left but to the right of the bubble gives $`\mu =\frac{1}{c}(I_1A_r^{}I_2A_b)`$, where $`A_r^{}`$ is the area of the ring for this changed configuration. Several other orientations also are possible, for example, if the bubble lies in x-y plane and the ring lies in x-z plane, then the magnetic moment density for the bubble is $`\mu _z=\frac{1}{c}(I_3A_bI_2A_b)/2`$ and in case of the ring is $`\mu _y=\frac{1}{c}I_1A_r`$ . All the above examples buttress the fact that the orbital magnetic moment is inherently linked to the topology of the system. An important point to be noted is that the magnetic moment calculated herein is not same (qualitatively), as the magnetic moment calculated in case of the closed system from its eigenenergy spectra, which is same for all topological situations. A full discussion on this discrepancy alongwith a detailed analysis of different quantum effects exhibited by our chosen mesoscopic system will be presented elsewhere.

In conclusion, we have shown that the phenomenon of current enhancement is not restricted to non-equilibrium mesoscopic systems only but can also arise in equilibrium systems but ofcourse in the presence of magnetic flux. In addition to this quantum effect our hybrid ring geometry breaks parity effects in its closed system analog.


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# Radio–Optically Selected Clusters of Galaxies

## 1 Introduction

Groups and clusters of galaxies are the largest gravitationally bound, observable structures, and much can be understood about the global cosmological properties of the universe by studying their properties – such as their dynamical status and evolution, their morphological content and interactions with the environment. To this aim, it is of fundamental importance to gather cluster samples representative of different dynamical structures – from groups to rich clusters – in a wide range of redshift and covering large areas of the sky.

Existing wide-area cluster samples based on visual inspection of optical plates (Abell et al. Abell (1989)) or obtained through objective algorithms (EDCC, Lumsden et al. Lumsden (1992); APM, Dalton et al. Dalton94 (1994)) are limited to redshift less than $`0.2`$, and suffer from the possibility of misclassification due to projection effects along the line of sight. Even more difficult is the detection of groups of galaxies, due to their low density contrast with respect to field galaxy distribution. In the optical band, cluster samples at higher $`z`$ have been built over selected areas of few square degrees (Postman et al. Postman (1996); Scodeggio et al. Scodeggio (1999)). Alternatively, the X-ray emission of the hot intracluster medium has been widely used to build distant cluster samples, but this technique suffers from the limited sensitivity of wide-area X-ray surveys and from the possibility of evolutionary effects (Gioia et al. Gioia (1990); Henry et al. Henry (1992); RDCS, Rosati et al. Rosati (1998)).

A different approach – complementary to purely optical or X-ray cluster selection methods – is the use of radiogalaxies as suitable tracers of dense environments. Faranoff–Riley I and II radio sources have been shown to inhabit different environments at different epochs and proved to be efficient tracers of galaxy groups and clusters (Prestage & Peacock Prestage (1988); Hill & Lilly Hill (1991); Allington–Smith et al. Allington–Smith (1993); Zirbel Zirbel97 (1997)). FRI sources are found on average in rich groups or clusters at any redshift, and are associated with elliptical galaxies, with the most powerful FRI often hosted by a cD or double nucleus galaxy. FRII radio sources are typically associated with disturbed ellipticals and they avoid rich clusters at low $`z`$ (Zirbel Zirbel96 (1996)).

Since there is no significant correlation between the radio properties of galaxies within a cluster with the cluster X-ray luminosity (Feigelson et al. Feigelson (1982); Burns et al. Burns (1994)), or richness (Zhao et al. Zhao (1989); Ledlow & Owen Ledlow (1996)), as well as between the properties of group members and the radio characteristics of the radiogalaxies (Zirbel Zirbel97 (1997)), radio selection should not impact on the X-ray or optical properties of the clusters found in this way.

Radiogalaxies can thus be used to study the global properties of galaxy groups and clusters, such as their morphological content, dynamical status and number density, as well as the effect of the environment on the radio emission phenomena.

We used the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS, Condon et al. Condon (1998)) publicly available data to build a sample of radio-optically selected clusters through optical identifications of radio sources and search of excesses in the surface density of galaxies around these radiogalaxies. The NVSS survey offers indeed an unprecedented possibility to study a wide-area, homogeneous sample of radio sources down to relatively low flux levels, together with a positional accuracy suitable for optical identifications.

In a previous paper (Zanichelli et al. Zanichelli (2001), hereafter Paper I) we described how we extracted a radio source catalogue from the NVSS maps and the optical identification procedure that led to the compilation of a radiogalaxy sample. In this paper we discuss the cluster finding method used for the compilation of a new sample of candidate groups and clusters of galaxies, and present the first observational results that spectroscopically confirmed the presence of a group or cluster for $`9`$ out of the $`11`$ successfully observed candidates.

This paper is structured as follows: in Sect. 2 we give a summary of the properties of the radio and optical data samples used for the cluster search. In Sect. 3 we describe the cluster finding method. The new sample of candidate clusters is presented in Sect. 4. Spectroscopic observations of a subsample of candidate clusters, aimed to obtain an observational confirmation of the presence of a cluster are presented and discussed in Sects. 5 and 6.

## 2 The data

In the following two Sects. we recall the properties of the radiogalaxy sample and of the optical galaxy catalogue that have been used during this search. For more details on the radio source catalogue and the definition of the radiogalaxy sample, refer to Paper I.

### 2.1 The radiogalaxy sample

The radio source catalogue has been extracted from $`31`$ maps of the $`1.4`$ GHz NRAO VLA Sky Survey (Condon et al. Condon (1998)) and consists of $`\mathrm{13\hspace{0.17em}340}`$ pointlike and $`2662`$ double radio sources down to a flux limit of $`2.5`$ mJy beam-1 over an area of $`550`$ sq. degrees at the South Galactic Pole.

Optical identifications of NVSS radio sources have been made with galaxies brighter than $`b_\mathrm{J}=20.0`$ in the EDSGC catalogue (Nichol et al. Nichol (2000)) using a search radius of $`15\mathrm{}`$, i.e. $`3\sigma `$ positional accuracy for the faintest sources. The initial sample of optical counterparts consists of $`1288`$ radiogalaxies, $`926`$ of them having a pointlike radio morphology at the NVSS resolution of $`45\mathrm{}`$.

As shown in Table 2 of Paper I, the contamination level due to spurious identifications varies according to the radio morphological classification, ranging from about $`16\%`$ for the lists of optical counterparts of pointlike radio sources and “close” radio pairs (separation between components $`D50\mathrm{}`$), to about $`28\%`$ for the list of optical counterparts of “wide” radio doubles ($`50\mathrm{}<D<100\mathrm{}`$).

In order to obtain a more reliable sample, the radiogalaxy data set used in the search of candidate clusters has been selected among these optical identifications on the basis of radio-optical distance and galaxy magnitude. The uncertainty in the optical identification sample is indeed the only source of contamination that can be limited when selecting cluster candidates by looking for excesses in surface galaxy density near the identified radiogalaxies. Other contamination terms – like the probability of detecting a candidate by chance coincidence of the radiogalaxy position with an optical density excess, or the possibility that the optical excess itself is intrinsically spurious, i.e. due to chance superpositions of galaxies along the line of sight – cannot in fact be reduced unless one knows the redshift distribution of the galaxies.

From the initial sample of optical counterparts we thus selected those radiogalaxies having $`d_{\mathrm{r}\mathrm{o}}7\mathrm{}`$. This constraint introduces a selection effect against faint sources in the radio sample, whose positional uncertainty is typically $`5\mathrm{}`$.

Furthermore, as our aim is to select candidate clusters at intermediate redshifts, we discarded those radiogalaxies brighter than magnitude $`b_\mathrm{J}=17.5`$. In fact, considering the magnitude – redshift relation typical of radiogalaxies obtained in the R band by Grueff & Vigotti (Grueff (1977)), and using color indexes for elliptical galaxies given in Frei & Gunn (Frei (1994)), this cut in $`b_\mathrm{J}`$ magnitude corresponds to a redshift lower limit of $`z>0.1`$.

With these constraints, the final radiogalaxy sample that has been taken into account for the search of candidate clusters consists of $`661`$ radiogalaxies, and the mean, expected contamination level due to spurious optical identifications has been lowered to about $`10\%`$.

### 2.2 The galaxy catalogue

The Edinburgh–Durham Southern Galaxy Catalogue (EDSGC, Nichol et al. Nichol (2000)) lists $`1.5\times 10^6`$ galaxies over a contiguous area of $`1200`$ sq. degrees at the South Galactic Pole. About one half of this area is currently covered by our radiogalaxy sample and has been considered for the search of cluster candidates.

The EDSGC has been obtained from COSMOS scans of IIIa–J ESO/SERC plates at high galactic latitude ($`b_{\mathrm{II}}20\mathrm{°}`$). The automated star-galaxy separation algorithm used for the EDSGC guarantees a completeness $`>95\%`$ and a stellar contamination $`<12\%`$ down to magnitudes $`b_\mathrm{J}=20.0`$.

Magnitudes have been calibrated via CCD sequences, providing a plate-to-plate accuracy of $`\mathrm{\Delta }b_\mathrm{J}0.1`$ and an rms plate zero-point offset of $`0.05`$ magnitudes.

The EDSGC incompleteness starts to exceed the $`5\%`$ only above $`b_\mathrm{J}=20.5`$ (Collins et al. Collins92 (1992)). When looking for candidate clusters we thus decided to make optical galaxy counts down to the magnitude limit $`b_\mathrm{J}=20.5`$: as the radiogalaxy sample reaches $`b_\mathrm{J}=20.0`$, this choice makes it possible to point out also those regions of high galaxy surface density associated to the optically faintest radio sources in our sample.

## 3 Joint radio–optical cluster selection

The cluster finding method we adopted is based on optical counts of galaxies in cells, followed by a smoothing of these counts with a Gaussian function and by the definition of a detection threshold for the selection of significative excesses in the surface galaxy density. The density peaks that are found near an optically identified NVSS radio source are included in the cluster sample.

Both to keep in evidence any possible inhomogeneities in optical counts and to make the data handling easier, we divided the EDSGC galaxies brighter than $`b_\mathrm{J}=20.5`$ in $`21`$ adjacent sky maps corresponding to the $`5\mathrm{°}\times 5\mathrm{°}`$ central regions of the UKST plates that cover the radio source catalogue area.

The detection threshold is built in terms of the mode and rms of galaxy counts over each of these sky regions. Despite the possibility of small intra-plate variations in the photometric accuracy of the optical data, we considered the choice of a “local” threshold for each plate preferable to a “global” one, over the whole sky region, as the latter choice would introduce in the cluster sample incompleteness effects that depend on the cluster location in the sky.

The optical count matrix for each $`5\mathrm{°}\times 5\mathrm{°}`$ sky region has been built by defining a regular grid of $`600\times 600`$ cells and by counting galaxies in these cells. The size of each cell has been chosen to be $`30\mathrm{}\times 30\mathrm{}`$, to optimize the statistics of galaxy counts as well as to point out the presence of structure in the spatial distribution of galaxies.

Since radiogalaxies tend to reside in different environments – from groups of galaxies to rich clusters – depending on their Faranoff–Riley morphological classification (Zirbel Zirbel97 (1997)), a careful choice of the size for the smoothing function is needed to avoid selection effects in favour of a particular environment. Too large a size could translate into a lack of detections of distant clusters, whose angular sizes are small. A small size could resolve a nearby cluster in many substructures thus leading to the spurious detection of many candidates relative to the actual cluster, or, if the optical surface density excess in each substructure is less than the selected threshold (see below), could lead to a lack of detections. This last case is the most likely for clusters at moderate $`z`$ having irregular morphologies, like the Abell I types (Abell Abell58 (1958)), where subclumps in the galaxy distribution are seen. Given the redshift range we expect to cover with our cluster sample, we decided to adopt, for the smoothing of the optical counts, a circular Gaussian function of FWHM$`=2\mathrm{}`$, which is about half an Abell radius at $`z=0.4`$.

We then looked for significative excesses in the optical surface galaxy density: for each smoothed matrix, we determined the mode $`m_{\mathrm{gal}}`$ and rms $`\sigma _{\mathrm{gal}}`$ of the optical surface density.

The threshold we adopted for the detection of density excesses is defined on each smoothed plate in terms of $`m_{\mathrm{gal}}`$ and $`\sigma _{\mathrm{gal}}`$ as $`n_{\mathrm{threshold}}=m_{\mathrm{gal}}+3\sigma _{\mathrm{gal}}`$, that is we consider significative only those peaks where the galaxy surface density exceeds by at least $`3\sigma _{\mathrm{gal}}`$ the value of the mode determined over the whole plate. This choice can introduce selection effects in favour of “core-dominated”, regular clusters, and against irregular ones, where galaxies are less concentrated in the cluster core itself.

Finally, from this list of significant peaks we selected only those for which a radiogalaxy belonging to the considered smoothed matrix is found at a maximum distance of $`4\mathrm{}`$ from the density peak position. To determine the list of density peaks, no constraint has been set on the number of connected cells above the threshold. Radiogalaxies themselves are not required to belong to pixels whose optical surface density is above $`n_{\mathrm{threshold}}`$. Given the definition of the Abell radius, $`R_\mathrm{A}=\frac{1.7\mathrm{}}{z}`$, this search distance corresponds to the Abell radius of a cluster at $`z0.45`$.

In the case of nearer clusters, this choice will favour the selection of those candidates where the radiogalaxy is located in the central region of the cluster. A larger value of the search distance would however increase the probability of detecting spurious associations between density peaks and radiogalaxies.

In Fig. 1 we show as an example the smoothed matrix relative to the UKST plate 412: regions with higher surface galaxy density are represented by increasing grey levels; the superimposed contours are given as $`2,3,\mathrm{}\times \sigma _{\mathrm{gal}}`$ above $`m_{\mathrm{gal}}`$. The $`44`$ radiogalaxies having $`17.5b_\mathrm{J}20.0`$ and $`d_{\mathrm{r}\mathrm{o}}7\mathrm{}`$ present in this sky region are shown as well, marked with diamonds, except for the two associated with a known candidate cluster (see Sect. 4), that are marked with an asterisk. The $`13`$ radio–optically selected cluster candidates are marked as small circles around the position of the associated radiogalaxy. For clarity, only the ACO/Abell and EDCC clusters found in this sky region are plotted in Fig. 1: they are marked with big circles, whose radius is equal to the cluster Abell radius. The fact that the clusters A2878, 2904 and E536 do not seem very conspicuous in this galaxy density map can be explained in terms of the different optical data set and the different scale used by Abell et al. (Abell (1989)) and Lumsden et al. (Lumsden (1992)) to look for overdensities in the galaxy distribution.

## 4 The candidate cluster sample

By applying the cluster finding method described in the previous Section, we obtained a sample of $`171`$ candidate clusters associated to NVSS radio sources identified with $`d_{\mathrm{r}\mathrm{o}}7\mathrm{}`$ with EDSGC galaxies of magnitude $`17.5b_\mathrm{J}20.0`$. Among these candidates, $`123`$ are associated to NVSS pointlike sources, $`23`$ to NVSS “close” double sources, and $`25`$ to NVSS “wide” doubles. The sample covers an area of $`550`$ sq. degrees at the South Galactic Pole and the uncertainty on the candidate cluster position is $`30\mathrm{}`$.

As a further step in the compilation of the cluster sample we looked for candidates in common with other cluster catalogues, considering a candidate as already “known” if the radiogalaxy and the optical centroid are found inside an Abell radius from the cluster centre.

Out of $`171`$ candidates, $`76`$ were found to be associated with a known cluster according to the above definition. In six cases two candidates are associated with the same known cluster. We detected $`2`$ Abell poor clusters with measured redshift, $`40`$ out of the $`128`$ ACO/Abell (Abell et al. Abell (1989)) rich clusters present in this sky region ($`31`$ of them being listed in the EDCC as well), $`16`$ EDCC (Lumsden et al. Lumsden (1992)) clusters, $`9`$ clusters from the APM catalogue (Dalton et al. Dalton94 (1994), Dalton97 (1997)), $`2`$ groups selected from the ESO Slice Project survey (Ramella et al. Ramella (1999)). Finally, in one case the candidate corresponds to a cluster identified with an X-ray source in the Einstein Medium Sensitivity Survey (Stocke et al. Stocke (1991)).

To evaluate $`R_\mathrm{A}`$, we used the measured cluster redshift when available; otherwise, we used the estimated redshift or, in the case of EDCC clusters, values of $`R_\mathrm{A}`$ estimated by the catalogue authors. In thirty-six cases the association with previously known clusters has been made on the basis of a measured redshift in the literature, while for the other $`40`$ only an estimated redshift is available.

The detection of these known clusters can be interpreted as a further indication that this radio-optical selection method is powerful in the search of cluster candidates.

Among the $`76`$ known clusters, $`57`$ host a pointlike NVSS radio source, while $`11`$ and $`8`$ are respectively associated to “close” and “wide” double radio sources.

In Fig. 2 the sky distribution of the known candidates (empty symbols marked with the cluster name) and of those candidates without a counterpart in the literature (filled symbols) is shown.

The use of this bivariate radio–optical selection method, based on the condition that an optical excess is considered as a reliable candidate cluster only if it is associated with a radiogalaxy, makes it possible to detect cluster candidates whose reliability, in terms of their optical surface density alone, would be in many cases too low to be included in catalogs based on pure optical selection methods.

The total contamination present in the cluster sample, due to the probability of chance coincidence between a radiogalaxy and an excess in the optical surface galaxy density, has been estimated as follows: we repeated the search of cluster candidates coupling the smoothed matrix relative to each UKST plate with the radiogalaxies belonging to another plate. By applying the same cluster finding criteria described above, we found a contamination percentage of $`28\%`$ in our sample of candidate clusters at intermediate redshifts. As the actual radiogalaxy sample instead of a random-generated one has been used, this is an estimate of the effective contamination, that is also the contamination term due to the presence of spurious radio-optical associations among the radiogalaxies is taken into account.

An assessment of the reliability of the method is provided by the association with known clusters and measurements on new candidates. Therefore, in the next two Sects. we briefly report on those candidates hosting a radiogalaxy whose redshift is known from previous surveys. This search has been made using the NASA Extragalactic Database 111The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.. In Sect. 5 and 6 the results obtained from a spectroscopic observative run for a first set of new cluster candidates are presented. The whole candidate cluster sample will be presented in a following paper.

### 4.1 Previously known clusters

The naming convention for cluster candidates in our sample is as follows: first digits identify the number of the UKST plate on which the candidate has been found; letters are used to distinguish among the various radio morphologies (pointlike or double sources) and to identify candidates associated to more than one radiogalaxy. Last digits in the name are the sequential number of the radio source on that UKST plate.

295BN07: this candidate is found to correspond to A2860, whose measured redshifts is $`z=0.105800`$ (Struble & Rood, Struble (1999)). The radiogalaxy lies at $`z=0.10757\pm 0.00018`$ (Vettolani et al. Vettolani98 (1998)) so that 295BN07 is considered actually coincident with a known cluster.

295D24: the candidate is found inside one Abell radius from the ESP Group 193 (Ramella et al., Ramella (1999)). The radiogalaxy has been detected at $`z=0.05547\pm 0.00007`$ in the ESP survey (Vettolani et al. Vettolani98 (1998)). ESP group 193 lies at redshift $`z=0.05444\pm 0.001`$ so that the association is considered real.

352N25: the candidate has been found to be associated with the ACO cluster A2871. In A2871 the presence of $`2`$ galaxy systems at different redshifts has been detected (Katgert et al., Katgert96 (1996)) respectively at $`<z>=0.114`$ ($`14`$ galaxies) and $`<z>=0.122`$ ($`18`$ galaxies). The radiogalaxy has measured redshift from the ENACS survey $`z=0.11415\pm 0.0003`$ (Katgert et al. Katgert98 (1998)) so 352N25 seems to be associated with one of these two substructures.

411N35: the radiogalaxy in this candidate lies inside an Abell radius from the center of the EDCC cluster E482, whose measured redshift is $`z=0.108040`$. The radiogalaxy has $`z=0.07673\pm 0.0003`$ (Collins et al. Collins95 (1995)); 411N35 is thus not actually coincident with E482. However, measured velocities in the E482 field include a set of galaxies with $`cz22700\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, indicating the possible presence of a superimposed structure at about the same redshift as the radio source.

### 4.2 New cluster candidates

From the publicly available data of the Las Campanas Redshift Survey (Shectman et al. Shectman (1996)) we obtained the redshift of two radiogalaxies associated with the new candidate clusters 297BN04 ($`cz=53460\pm 58\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) and 293D22 ($`cz=41695\pm 95\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$). At $`2\mathrm{}`$ from the radiogalaxy in 297BN04 we found a galaxy with measured velocity $`cz=53319\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Finally, a further redshift has been found in the ESP survey for the radiogalaxy associated to the candidate 294N04: $`cz=43097\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Vettolani et al. Vettolani98 (1998)). No redshift data for other galaxies near these radiogalaxies are available, so these velocity measurements cannot be used to confirm or not the presence of a cluster.

## 5 Optical observations

A first set of $`14`$ visually good candidate clusters associated with pointlike NVSS radio sources have been observed with the $`3.6`$m ESO telescope at La Silla, with the EFOSC1 spectrograph in multislit mode. Moreover, photometry of each field in the r-Gunn filter has been acquired during the first night of observation to achieve magnitude $`r22.5`$ – corresponding to roughly $`b_\mathrm{J}24`$ – with a photometric accuracy better than $`0.2`$ mag.

The targets for spectroscopic observations were chosen on the basis of these photometric observations. For $`12`$ candidate clusters the spectra of the radiogalaxy and about $`1014`$ companions were acquired. Observations were made with the $`B300`$ grism, characterized by a wavelength range $`37406950\mathrm{A}`$, central wavelength $`\lambda _\mathrm{c}=5250\mathrm{A}`$ and dispersion $`230\mathrm{A}\mathrm{mm}^1`$. The slit width was chosen to be $`2.1\mathrm{}`$ while the slit length varied in order to optimize the number of acquired spectra. The resolution on the spectra was about $`20\mathrm{A}`$.

Exposures of He-Ar lamps for wavelength calibration have been acquired through the same masks used in the scientific exposures. Spectroscopic dome flats proved not to be useful during the data reduction phase: due to the low quality of the slit profiles achieved with the mask Punching Machine, the flatfielding process did not significantly help in the extraction of spectra. As we did not apply flat field correction, the obtained spectra are not flux calibrated.

### 5.1 Data reduction

Multislit spectroscopic data reduction has been made interactively by means of the IRAF package. Reduction steps involved bias subtraction, spectra extraction, spectra wavelength calibration. We found no need to correct for dark current. This procedure has been applied both to astronomical and to calibration lamps exposures.

We acquired a total number of $`129`$ galaxy spectra, plus $`4`$ stars, for $`12`$ successfully observed candidates, and determined the velocity of galaxies from absorption and, in a few cases, emission lines by means of the RVSAO package. None of the radiogalaxies we observed show emission lines in their spectra. Templates for the cross-correlation consist of $`8`$ galaxy and $`8`$ star spectra known from previous observative programs: the $`8`$ galaxies were observed during the Edinburgh–Milano Cluster Survey (Collins et al. Collins95 (1995)) with EFOSC1 and with the same spectral resolution as our observations. The $`8`$ stars come from ESO Slice Project (Vettolani et al. Vettolani97 (1997)) observations with the fiber spectrograph OPTOPUS.

To allow for cleaning of cosmic rays, multiple exposures were taken for each field, for a total exposure time varying from $`40`$ to $`60`$ min. In Fig. 3 the direct imaging exposures of these $`12`$ candidates are shown, together with the targets we selected for spectroscopy.

In Table 1 the r-Gunn magnitudes, the measured velocities and their associated errors are given for each galaxy we observed in the selected candidate clusters. As can be seen from Table 1, for $`22`$ out of the $`129`$ observed galaxies the S/N was not good enough to measure the redshift. The typical $`r`$ magnitude for galaxies with measured redshift is $`18.7`$. Stars are marked with an asterisk. The high errors associated to some velocity measurements are mainly due to the low spectral S/N.

## 6 Results

On the basis of the measured galaxy velocities for each candidate cluster, we verified in which cases the spectroscopic data confirm the presence of a cluster associated to a NVSS radiogalaxy. As can be noticed from Table 1, for the candidate 349N02 the few available spectroscopic data are not useful for a statistical analysis aimed to assess the presence of a cluster around the radio source.

Among the $`11`$ fields for which we have sufficient data, in two cases (409N03 and 412N23) the radiogalaxy velocity is significantly different from all the other measured values and we conclude that the radiogalaxy is not associated to a cluster. In both cases the data suggest the presence of a group or cluster, but at a redshift different from that of the radiogalaxy.

For the $`9`$ remaining candidates, we confirm the presence of a cluster around the radiogalaxy: this corresponds to a positive detection rate of $`82\%`$. For these $`9`$ clusters we determined the mean velocity and velocity dispersion by means of the ROSTAT package (Robust Statistics, Beers et al. Beers (1990)), which allows robust estimates of central location and scale in data samples affected by the presence of “outliers”. When dealing with small data sets ($`n=510`$) as in our case, the best estimators are the biweight $`C_{\mathrm{BI}}`$ (Tukey Tukey (1958)) for the central location and the classical standard deviation $`S_\mathrm{G}`$ for the scale (Beers et al. Beers (1990)). The $`C_{\mathrm{BI}}`$ estimator is evaluated iteratively, by minimizing a function of the deviations of each observation from the estimate of the central location. It thus requires an additional estimate of this last quantity, which is generally given as the absolute value of the median of the differences between the data and the sample median.

The uncertainties associated to central location and scale have been estimated by the bootstrap method. This technique consists in the generation of a large number of samples, not independent from the original data set, and in the evaluation of the statistical parameters for each of these “bootstrapped” samples.

In Fig. 4 we show the distributions of measured velocities for the $`9`$ cluster candidates involved in this statistical analysis: the shadowed regions represent the data sets used as input for the ROSTAT package.

The results of the statistical analysis are shown in Table 2: mean cluster velocities vary from $`40514\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ to $`90122\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, corresponding to the redshift range $`0.13z0.3`$.

Despite the small number of available redshifts for each cluster, which reflects into rather large errors for both the central location and velocity dispersion, an interesting result arises from the velocity dispersions: they range from $`210\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ to $`906\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, that is from values typical of poor clusters or groups of galaxies to those typical of moderately rich clusters.

Following the criteria in Abell (Abell58 (1958)), we used the EDSGC catalog to get an estimate of the cluster richness for the $`9`$ confirmed clusters: the background–subtracted galaxy counts in the magnitude range $`m_3÷m_3+2`$ within an Abell radius from the cluster centre range from a minimum of $`6`$ to a maximum of $`23`$. These galaxy counts are similar to those found for many of the ACO poor clusters (Abell et al. Abell (1989)), and suggest that our radio–optically selected clusters are poorer than Abell richness class $`0`$. We stress however that these richness estimates must be viewed with caution: first, the values of $`m_3+2`$ often fall near or below $`b_J=20.5`$, where the EDSGC completeness drops significantly, thus seriously biasing the galaxy counts. Second, at our typical $`m_3`$ the number density of galaxies in the EDSGC is high, about $`50`$ galaxies per square degree, thus the probability of selecting as the third member of the cluster a galaxy which is actually a background or foreground object seen in projection is not negligible, and this again can alter the richness estimate.

As shown in Fig. 5, there is no evident correlation between measured velocity dispersion and cluster redshift. The use of radio emission properties of galaxies seems thus a very efficient method to select new candidate clusters samples in a wide range of richness at any redshift.

If confirmed by future spectroscopic follow-up, this result could be of great interest as our sample would offer the possibility to investigate differences in cluster dynamical properties in a homogeneously selected sample of clusters which spans a wide range in richness, and to improve our knowledge of their number counts, as well as to study the radio emission properties of galaxies residing in different environments.

## 7 Conclusions

To study the status and the evolution of clusters of galaxies at intermediate redshifts we built a sample of candidate clusters using radiogalaxies in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey as tracers of dense environments.

From the NVSS maps we extracted a catalogue of radio sources over an area of $`550`$ square degrees, and made optical identifications with galaxies brighter than $`b_\mathrm{J}=20.0`$ in the EDSGC Catalogue, resulting in a sample of $`1288`$ radiogalaxies (Zanichelli et al. Zanichelli (2001), Paper I).

In this paper we have presented the detection technique we applied to select candidate groups and clusters associated to NVSS radio sources. The method is based on the search of excesses in optical surface galaxy density nearby NVSS radiogalaxies. To keep low the probability of spurious radio-optical identifications, as well as to preferentially select clusters at redshifts $`z>0.1`$, we restricted the cluster search to the $`661`$ radiogalaxies having radio-optical distance $`7\mathrm{}`$ and magnitude $`b_\mathrm{J}17.5`$.

The search of regions having high optical galaxy density has been made using the EDSGC galaxy catalogue, building matrices of galaxy counts down to magnitude $`b_\mathrm{J}=20.5`$. This choice allows to find density excesses surrounding the faintest radiogalaxies (identified down to $`b_\mathrm{J}=20`$) without introducing significant incompleteness effects in the optical data. Smoothing of galaxy counts has been done using a gaussian filter with FWHM$`=2\mathrm{}`$. The mode and standard deviation of smoothed galaxy counts have been used to define a detection threshold for the surface density excesses: we selected as cluster candidates those density excesses whose centroid is within $`4\mathrm{}`$ from a radiogalaxy. This search radius for candidate clusters associated to NVSS radio sources corresponds to an Abell radius of a cluster at $`z0.45`$.

By applying this cluster detection strategy to $`661`$ radiogalaxies over $`550`$ sq. degrees at the South Galactic Pole, we obtained a sample of $`171`$ cluster candidates. The estimated contamination level is about $`28\%`$.

Out of these $`171`$ candidates, $`76`$ correspond to already known clusters, while $`95`$ cluster candidates in our list do not have any known counterpart in the literature and have been the subject of subsequent spectroscopic follow-up. The full sample of radio-optically selected cluster candidates will be presented in a following paper. Multi Object Spectroscopy aimed to confirm the detection of clusters has been successfully acquired at the 3.6 m ESO telescope for a subset of $`12`$ candidates. In $`2`$ cases the radiogalaxy does not lie at the same redshift as any other observed target, while $`9`$ candidates have been confirmed as clusters of galaxies in the redshift range $`0.13z0.3`$, thus confirming that this joint radio-optical cluster selection technique can be used as a powerful tool for the detection of cluster candidates at intermediate redshifts. For one additional candidate, the very low number of measured redshifts does not allow any conclusion on the presence of a cluster surrounding the radiogalaxy, and further observations are needed. Velocity dispersions of the $`9`$ spectroscopically confirmed clusters vary from values typical of moderately rich clusters to those typical of groups or poor clusters, thus strengthening the assumption that this technique is equally efficient in selecting structures over a wide range of richness at different redshifts. If confirmed by future spectroscopic follow up, this last result could be of great interest as this technique would offer the possibility to study the properties of different environments, such as groups or rich clusters, in a homogeneously selected cluster sample.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors acknowledge Marco Mignoli for his valuable help during the observative run.