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# Structural and Superconducting Transitions in Mg1-xAlxB2

\[

## Abstract

From systematic ab initio calculations for the alloy system Mg1-xAlxB2 , we find a strong tendency for the formation of a superstructure characterized by Al-rich layers. We also present a simple model, based on calculated energies and an estimate of the configurational entropy, which suggests that the alloy has two separate concentration regimes of phase separation, with critical points near x = 0.25 and x = 0.75. These results, together with calculations of electronic densities of states in several ionic arrangements, give a qualitative explanation for the observed structural instabilities, as well as the x-dependence of the superconducting $`T_c`$ for $`x<0.6`$.

\]

The superconducting properties of MgB2  remain the subject of intense research. Although superconductivity in MgB2 ($`T_c=39`$ K) appears to result from a phonon-mediated BCS-like interaction the details of this mechanism, including the possible relevance of anharmonic effects, multiple gaps and Fermi nesting, are still being investigated. Studying the effects of doping is very important, as it may not only give additional evidence on the origins of superconductivity in pure MgB2 , but is also needed to explain the observed structural instabilities and experimental difficulties in verifying the predicted increase in $`T_c`$ with Na or Ca substitutions.

Alloys of the form Mg1-xAlxB2 are the most widely studied experimentally of all the doped MgB2 materials. These systems exhibit a variety of unusual behavior. For example, X-ray diffraction results suggest that Mg1-xAlxB2 is unstable against phase separation in the concentration range $`0.09<x<0.25`$ and again near $`x=0.7`$. Secondly, the superconducting transition shows unusual behavior as a function of x: the transition is broad around $`x=0.25`$, consistent with phase separation, then the transition temperature $`T_c`$ drops sharply within the single phase region ($`0.25<x<0.4`$), but superconductivity persists (with $`T_c10`$ K) up to $`x0.7`$. Thirdly, a superstructure appears to form near $`x=0.5`$, corresponding to Al ordering in the c direction, and possibly also at other Al concentrations.

In this study we investigate the energetics of Al-doped MgB2, and their possible relation to superconductivity. Our particular aim is, first, to determine which structures have the lowest energy at several concentrations, especially $`x=0.5`$ and $`x=0.333`$, and, secondly, to use this knowledge to shed light on the phase separation which may occur at small and at large $`x`$, and the relation of these structural phase transitions to the loss of superconductivity with doping. While the influence of Al doping on superconductivity in Mg1-xAlxB2 has been discussed theoretically by several authors, none have considered the effects of these superstructural transitions.

We have carried out ab initio calculations of the total energy for several compositions of Mg1-xAlxB2 , using the Vienna Ab Initio Simulation Package (VASP), which employs a plane wave implementation of density functional theory. We used ultra-soft pseudopotentials within the generalized gradient approximation. For all compositions, we first arranged the ions into an ideal MgB2 -like structure, then relaxed the positions of individual ions within a computational supercell until the energy had converged to a chosen tolerance. At most $`x`$ considered, we did calculations for several possible ionic arrangements, in an effort to determine the energetically favored superstructure.

Our main numerical results are summarized in Table I. For $`x=0`$ and 1, our calculated lattice parameters, band structure and density of states are in very good agreement with experiment or with those calculated by other authors. We now discuss our results at other $`x`$, starting with $`x=1/3`$. In Fig. 1(a), we show the supercell used to model this composition assuming equal concentrations of Al ions in the different Mg layers (entry d in Table I). After ionic relaxation, the B ions shift from their original positions towards the neighboring Al atoms, as indicated by arrows. This behavior is not surprising, since the fully ionized Al+3 ions carry an additional $`+e`$ charge compared to the Mg+2 ions, thus attracting the B- ions. But this ionic relaxation, since it requires altering the length of the strong in-plane $`\sigma `$-bonds formed by the B $`sp^2`$ orbitals, is very small ($`0.01`$ Å) in-plane, with a correspondingly small energy change ($`0.02`$ eV per Al).

By contrast, if the Al atoms are assumed to completely fill every third Al/Mg layer \[see Fig. 1(b)\], the entire B layers shift towards the Al layers by more than 0.1 Å. Table I shows that this relaxation reduces the energy by about 0.2 eV per Al atom. Hence, this layered superstructure is much more favorable energetically than that with Al ions uniformly distributed in the Mg layers.

Similar behavior is observed at other values of $`x`$ \[see Table I and Fig. 1(c)\]. The energies of “fully layered” superstructures are always lower than those of structures in which Al is uniformly distributed in the Mg layers, because of this relaxation effect. The large effect of layering is made clear in Fig. 2, where we plot $`\mathrm{\Delta }E(x)=E_{ground}(x)E_{lin}(x)`$. $`E_{ground}(x)`$ is the energy per Mg1-xAlxB2 formula unit of the fully layered ground state superstructure at concentration $`x`$, and $`E_{lin}(x)=(1x)E_{\text{MgB}_2}+xE_{\text{MgAl}_2}`$ is the linear interpolation. Clearly, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E(x)`$ is just proportional to the number of B layers situated between neighboring Mg and Al layers. This behavior is reasonable, since only these B layers can undergo the preferential relaxation which favors the layered superstructure.

Although the fully layered superstructure is always the lowest in energy at any $`x`$, one can attain nearly the same reduction in energy by segregating the Al into various partially layered superstructures. We illustrate this point by considering $`x=1/3`$. In the fully layered superstructure, the Al ions occupy all the Mg sites in every third Mg layer \[Fig. 1(b)\]. In an arrangement we denote the “2/3” structure, the Al’s fill 2/3 of the sites in every second layer \[cf. Fig. 1(d) and Table I\]. These two structures have nearly the same energy, which is significantly lower than that in which the Al’s are randomly distributed in the Mg layers. We now use this fact as the basis of a simple model for phase separation in these alloys, considering for simplicity only the regime $`x1/2`$.

At a given value of $`x`$, the quantity of interest is the Helmholtz free energy per three-atom primitive cell of the MgB2 structure, which we write $`F(x,T)=E(x)TS(x)`$. We consider a sample that has a total of $`N_z`$ layers, each

layer having $`N_{\mathrm{}}`$ of Mg/Al sites. We assume that $`x_zN_z`$ of these layers are Al-rich, each with Al concentration $`x_a`$, and $`(1x_z)N_z`$ layers are Al-poor, with concentration $`x_m`$. In the regime $`x<0.5`$, we assume for simplicity that $`x_m0`$, from which it follows that $`x_ax_z=x`$. (When we include $`x_m`$ as a variable, in a suitably generalized free energy, we find that $`F(x,T)`$ is minimized by $`x_m0`$ for

temperatures up to $`500`$ K.)

We assume that the internal energy $`E`$ does not depend on the arrangement of the Al ions within the Al-rich layer, but only on $`x_z`$ and $`x_a`$, and we consider only the region $`0x0.5`$. We then make the approximation that

$$E(x_a,x_z)=E_{random}(x)n(x_z)(E_1x_a+E_2x_a^2),$$
(1)
where Erandom(x) is the energy of random Mg1-xAlxB2. We approximate $`E_{random}`$(x) as varying linearly between $`x=0`$ and $`x=0.5`$, as is approximately true from our numerical results. The second term in eq. (1) is the energy reduction due to superstructural ordering, $`E_{ord}`$, discussed above. It is proportional to the fraction of B layers $`n(x_z)=0.5|x_z0.5|`$ which are situated between Al-rich and Al-depleted layers; this effectively bounds the range of possible values of $`x_z`$ by $`x_z0.5`$. From our numerical calculations, $`E_{ord}`$ is also roughly proportional to $`x_a`$. In addition, we allow for a term quadratic in $`x_a`$, to insure that the “fully layered structure” has an energy lower than that of “partially layered” structures. This quadratic term is crucial for phase separation. We obtain estimates of $`E_1`$ and $`E_2`$ from entries d-g from the Table I: we assume that at $`x=1/3`$, $`E_{random}=\frac{1}{3}E_d+\frac{2}{3}E_e`$, $`E(x_z=1/3,x_a=1)=E_g`$, and $`E(x_z=1/2,x_a=2/3)=E_f`$. These relations yield $`E_10.1`$ eV, $`E_20.03`$ eV.

We estimate $`S(x)`$ simply as the sum of the configurational entropies of the individual layers. The standard expression for this entropy of one layer having $`N_{\mathrm{}}`$ sites, of which $`pN_{\mathrm{}}`$ are occupied by Al ions, is $`k_BN_{\mathrm{}}[p\mathrm{ln}p+(1p)\mathrm{ln}(1p)]`$. Thus, the total entropy (per Mg1-xAlxB2 formula unit) is estimated as

$$S=k_Bx_z\left[x_a\mathrm{ln}x_a+(1x_a)\mathrm{ln}(1x_a)\right]$$
(2)
We have numerically minimized the free energy $`F(x_a,x_z,T)=E(x_a,x_z)TS(x_a,x_z)`$ for fixed $`x`$ and $`T`$ with respect to $`x_a`$, subject to $`x_ax_z=x`$. We call this resulting free energy $`F_{min}(x,T)`$, and define the quantity $`F_{linear}(x,T)(12x)F_{min}(0,T)2xF_{min}(0.5,T)`$, The resulting isotherms of $`\mathrm{\Delta }FF_{min}(x,T)F_{linear}(x,T)`$ are plotted in Fig. 3 for several $`T`$. They have the classic

shape associated with phase separation: concave up for $`T>T_{inst}`$; concave down for $`T<T_{inst}`$. In the latter regime, the concentrations of the two coexisting phases are determined by the standard common tangent construction sketched in Figure 3. The critical temperature $`T_{inst}`$ and critical concentration $`x_{inst}`$ for phase separation are determined as the maximum $`T`$, and corresponding $`x`$, where $`(^2\mathrm{\Delta }F/x^2)_T=0`$. We find $`T_{inst}=E_2/2`$ (independent of $`E_1`$), and $`x_{inst}=1/4`$. For our choice $`E_2=0.03`$ eV, this procedure gives $`T_{inst}175`$ K. The experimental value of $`T_{inst}`$ is unknown but must exceed the temperature at which a phase separated mixture was reported (presumably room temperature). But our estimate is obtained using an extremely simple means of estimating $`E_2`$, and would probably be improved by a more elaborate calculation (moreover, our data suggest slight deviation of $`E_{random}`$ from linear behavior, favoring phase instability).

For concentrations $`x>0.5`$, a similar model could also be applied, probably with different parameters $`E_1`$ and $`E_2`$, leading once again to a region of phase separation with a critical concentration $`x_{inst}=0.75`$. On the other hand, the upward curvature in $`E(x)`$ at $`x>0.5`$ (cf. Fig. 2) should oppose phase separation, decreasing the width of the two-phase region at a given temperature. This behavior once again appears to agree with experiment, as the observed two-phase region near $`x0.7`$ is reported to have much smaller width at comparable $`T`$.

Finally, we discuss the observed variation of superconducting transition temperature $`T_c(x)`$ with $`x`$, based on these results. Our calculations confirm the suggestion, that the decrease of $`T_c`$ with increasing x is due primarily to a reduction in the density of states (DOS) near the Fermi energy. By way of illustration, we show in Fig. 4 our calculated Kohn-Sham DOS $`N(\epsilon )`$ in pure MgB2 and the fully layered Mg0.5Al0.5B2 . (We have attempted to minimize structure due to spurious Van Hove singularities produced by the computational algorithm by using $`𝐤`$-meshes as fine as $`35\times 35\times 35`$.) Indeed $`N(\epsilon _F;x=0.5)<N(\epsilon _F,x=0)`$ as expected. The observed large width $`\mathrm{\Delta }T(x)`$ of the superconducting transition near $`x=1/4`$ occurs, we believe, because this concentration lies in the two-phase regime. To some extent, DOS behaves as predicted from the rigid-band model, simply shifting in energy, relative to $`\epsilon _F`$, without greatly changing its shape. However, the slightly broader DOS at $`x=0.5`$ is, we believe, a real departure from the rigid-band picture, and due to the increased physical unit cell size.

For further insight into the occurrence of superconductivity, we have examined the calculated band structures at different values of $`x`$ and $`x_z`$. We paid special attention to the $`\sigma `$-bonding $`p_{xy}`$ bands believed to be primarily responsible for the superconductivity. Using a rigid-band model for small variations in $`x`$ at fixed $`x_z`$, we found that for any value of $`x_z`$, these $`\sigma `$-bands fill at $`x0.6`$. (For example, they are filled for structure l.) If these were the only occupied bands, the superconducting $`T_c`$ would seem to vanish above $`x0.6`$. Since the electron-phonon coupling constant $`\lambda _{p_z}`$ for those bands that remain partially filled at $`x>0.6`$ is very small ($`\lambda _{p_z}0.28`$), it could not produce superconductivity for $`T>T_{c,p_z}0.01`$ K, according to the Allen-Dynes formula. Thus, the persistence of a finite $`T_c`$ ($`10`$ K) may result from some kind of coupling between electrons in the $`p_z`$ and $`\sigma `$ bands. For example, a strong pairing interaction between $`\sigma `$ electrons could make it energetically favorable for some electrons to transfer into the $`p_z`$ band.

To summarize, the present ab initio study of Mg1-xAlxB2 has led to three principal findings. First, we find that at low temperatures a layered superstructure is energetically preferred, not only at $`x=0.5`$ as was found experimentally, but also at other values of $`x`$. Secondly, we have described a very simple model for phase separation in these alloy systems. The model is based on a balance between the calculated ab initio energies and configurational entropy, and leads to critical points at $`x=0.25`$ and $`x=0.75`$, also consistent with experiment. Finally, we find that at $`x<0.5`$ the experimental trends in both $`T_c(x)`$ and the width $`\mathrm{\Delta }T(x)`$ of the superconducting transition can be qualitatively interpreted in terms of the calculated $`x`$-dependent density of states $`N(\epsilon _F,x)`$, but that the interband coupling must be crucial in maintaining finite $`T_c`$ at $`x>0.6`$.

We thank R. Hennig for useful discussions. This work was supported by NSF grant DMR01-04987, NASA Grant NCC8-152, and the U.-S. Israel Binational Science Foundation. Calculations were carried out using the facilities of the Ohio Supercomputer Center.


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# PROBABILITY AND THE MANY WORLDS INTERPRETATION OF QUANTUM THEORY

## 1 Introduction

The talk I presented in this conference analyzed the meaning of recent experiments claiming to close last loopholes in testing Bell’s inequality. I argued that the really important task in this field has not been tackled yet and that the leading experiments claiming to close locality and detection efficiency loopholes, although making very significant progress, have conceptual drawbacks. The important task is constructing quantum devices which will allow winning games of certain correlated replies against any classical team, and I proposed a novel game of this type named an “impossible necklace game”. However, this work has been recently published (Vaidman, 2001a), so I present here, instead, two recent unpublished works which I discussed extensively in the conference (mostly walking around the beautiful Vaxjo lake).

The two works presented here are closely related to the main theme of the conference: the meaning of probability in quantum mechanics. The first one was done together with Simon Saunders (see the discussion of the classical case in Vaidman and Saunders 2001) and it is presented in Section 2. It analyzes recent controversy in classical probability theory by transforming it to the framework of quantum theory. It is surprising that quantum theory, with its serious difficulties in dealing with the concept of probability, can help in the analysis of a classical probability problem. The second work (presented in Section 3) defends the many-worlds approach to quantum mechanics against recent criticism by Byrne and Hall of the Chalmers book that presented the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics as the most promising approach.

Before going to these sections I want to express my understanding of the main discussion in this conference. A very significant part of the conference was allocated to the analysis of Bayesian probability in the framework of quantum theory (see, e.g., Caves, Fuchs, and Schack, 2001). In my rough understanding, Bayesian approach denies existing underlying ontology and defines probability from several axioms related to properties of the concept of probability. In the conference we witnessed a very impressive progress in the Bayesian probability program. However, many participants were not ready to accept this approach due to difficulties of physics without ontology. I am fully accept the criticism of frequency approach to probability, but I am not ready to give up the ontology.

My ontology is the many-worlds ontolgy (Everett 1957). It turns out that in spite of having the ontolgy, I do need some kind of Bayesian approach to probability. The many-worlds interpretation has a serious difficulty with dealing with probability and my solution of this difficulty (Vaidman 1998, 2001b) uses an approach that adopts most if not all principles of Bayesian approach. So if before the conference I thought that Bayesian approach is orthogonal to my views on probability, now I consider it as a complementary one. The many-worlds approach resolves the difficulties of satisfactory description of the collapse of a quantum wave and the Bayesian approach solves the difficulty of the concept of probability in a deterministic theory such as the many worlds interpretation in which all possible outcomes of experiments are actual.

## 2 Sleeping Beauty in Quantumland

### 2.1 Lewis - Elga controversy

Lewis’s comment (2001) on Elga’s paper (2000) has far reaching consequences. If Lewis is right, then the approach to credence for an event as the value of an “intelligent bet” on this event (e.g. Sklar 1993) does not have universal applicability. The betting approach to this question (Aumann et al. 1997) leads to Elga’s result which Lewis contests. I believe, however, that Lewis’s approach is untenable, and thus the universality of the betting approach to probability has not been breached.

I give two arguments in favour of Elga’s conclusion, the first classical, the second quantum mechanical. It is of interest that a quantum mechanical analysis can be brought to bear on this classical probability problem.

The first is as follows: consider the following three experiments, the first of which is Elga’s. I claim the credence of Beauty is the same in each case.

> (i) Beauty sleeps during the week. On Sunday a fair coin is tossed. If the result is Heads (H), Beauty is awaken on Monday only, if the result is Tails (T), Beauty is awaken on Monday and Tuesday. On every awakening, Beauty is told nothing, but must answer the question: “What is your credence for the coin to be H?” After the conversation her memory of the awakening is erased and she sleeps again.
>
> (ii) Beauty sleeps for 100 years, uninterrupted save for awakenings according to procedure (i), which take place every week, following a coin toss on each Sunday of each week.
>
> (iii) Beauty sleeps for 100 years, uninterrupted save for 7827 awakenings. Using a classical random number generator to determine the order, on 2609 awakenings a coin is placed H, and on 5218 awakenings a coin is placed T. On each awakening, the same procedure is followed as in (i).

Experiment (ii) is not just a repetition of experiment (i) 5218 times. In the latter, on every awakening, Beauty knows which week it is. In (ii) Beauty does not know which week it is and, therefore, she does not know which coin in the sequence the question is about. However, since all the coins are fair, Beauty’s situation is the same in all weeks and thus the lack of information which week it is cannot make a difference in her credence.

Experiments (ii) and (iii) are also not identical. The probability in experiment (ii) that one will obtain exactly 2609 H will is very small. However, the probability that this number will be different from 2609 by more than, say, 100, is also very small. Therefore, the probability that the relative frequency of H will be significantly different from 1:2 is negligible. Thus, although I do not have an argument according to which Beauty has to give exactly the same answer in (ii) and (iii), I can argue that these answers cannot differ significantly. Since our job is to decide between credences 1/2 (Lewis) and 1/3 (Elga), this is enough.

In experiment (iii) it is obvious that Beauty should give credence 1/3 for H. If there is no significant difference in Beauty’s answer in case (iii) and (ii), and no significant difference in her answer in case (ii) and (i), then in Elga’s experiment Beauty should give the answer 1/3, and not 1/2 as Lewis claims.

There is a conceptual difference between (i) and (ii) (and a similar difference between (i) and (iii)). In (i) the Beauty was asked a question about an uncentered proposition: “What is the state of the coin?” In contrast, in (ii) Beauty was asked a question about a centered proposition: “What is the state of the coin of this week?” The unusual feature of Elga’s experiment, that Beauty must alter her credence about an uncentered proposition with no new uncentered evidence, is not present here. But this does not alter the fact that Beauty must give the same answer in case (ii) and (i).

Apart from the small statistical difference between (ii) and (iii) already mentioned, the two differ in another aspect. In (ii) there is something which corresponds to Lewis’s number 1/2: in half of the weeks of Beauty’s sleep the coin is H, and in half it is T. In contrast, in experiment (iii), nothing corresponds to 1/2. However, knowledge of this statistical structure to her string of awakenings, in case (ii), is not knowledge that Beauty can use, since never on awakening does she learn where in the string she is located.

### 2.2 The inconsistency of the Lewis approach

In order to see how the difference between the one-week experiment and the many-weeks experiment arises, and in order to show the inconsistency of Lewis’s approach, consider an experiment of the kind (ii) but limited to two weeks. A fair coin is tossed twice. The credence of Beauty $`p(H)`$ can be calculated as the sum of conditional probabilities on the outcomes of the coin tosses:

$$p(H)=p(H|HH)p(HH)+p(H|TT)p(TT)+p(H|HT)p(HT)+p(H|TH)p(TH)$$
(1)
It is uncontroversial that $`p(H|HH)=1`$ and $`p(H|TT)=0`$. Given that one of the outcomes is H and another T, Beauty knows that there are three awakenings: one H and two T. Therefore, the conditional credences of Beauty for these cases are $`p(H|HT)=p(H|TH)=\frac{1}{3}`$. According to Lewis, Beauty has equal credence for all possible outcomes of the coin tosses: $`p(HH)=p(TT)=p(HT)=p(TH)=\frac{1}{4}`$. It then follows from (1) that Beauty’s credence for H on awakening during the two weeks is $`p(H)=\frac{5}{12}`$. This is in contradiction with the assumption that there should be no change between Elga’s one-week experiment and the similar two-week experiment. Therefore, unless Lewis rejects this very natural assumption, his approach is inconsistent.

On the analysis that I favour there is no such difficulty. On awakening, Beauty’s credences for the four outcomes of the coins tosses should not be identical, they should be weighted according to the number of awakening corresponding to these outcomes. Thus $`p(HH)=\frac{1}{6}`$, $`p(TT)=\frac{1}{3}`$, and $`p(HT)=p(TH)=\frac{1}{4}`$. Using (1), it follows that $`p(H)=\frac{1}{3}`$, just as in the one-week experiment in accordance with Elga’s argument.

### 2.3 The quantum coin experiment

An entirely independent argument to the same conclusion follows from the interpretation of probability in the Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics (an elaboration of the Everett approach (1957)). Consider the toss of a quantum coin, say, for a simple example, the observation of a photon, incident on semi-transparent mirror, as either reflected (R) or transmitted (T). According to the MWI, the world splits in two: one (the R-world) in which the photon is observed as reflected, and the other (the T world) in which the photon is observed as transmitted.

Elga’s experiment, but with such a quantum coin, is very similar to the “sleeping pill” experiment (Vaidman 1998), which was introduced to give a possibility of an ignorance interpretation of probability in the framework of the MWI. According to this approach, the observer assigns the probability for outcomes of a quantum measurement in proportion to the “measures of existence” (Vaidman, 1998) of the corresponding worlds, the modulus squares of the amplitudes of the corresponding branches of the universal wave function. (See Saunders (1998) for a discussion of a similar concept of “measure” .) There is no direct meaning for this probability for the person who is going to perform the quantum measurement (and who is put to sleep for its duration): there is no information, centered or uncentered, that he is then ignorant of. The meaning for probability is given through the (identical) credences of the two successors of the experimenter, on awakening, in centered propositions, namely the propositions “I am in the R-world” and “I am in the T-world”. For each of these successors, there is a fact of the matter as to the outcome of the experiment and he is ignorant of this fact.

It is worth remarking that the problem of the MWI recently posed by Peter Lewis does not arise in this approach. He argued (Lewis 2000) that a believer in the MWI should agree to play “quantum Russian roulette”, provided that death is instantaneous . The large “measures” of the worlds with dead successors is a good reason not to play.

There is a difference between Elga’s experiment and the “sleeping pill” quantum coin flipping. On awakening, Beauty is not only ignorant of which world she is in, she is also ignorant of which time she is at in T-world. There are three mutually exclusive propositions: “I am in an H-world on a Monday”, “I am in a T-world on a Monday” and “I am in a T-world on a Tuesday”, and she must assign credences in them summing to unity. Failing any other information which could discriminate between the three cases, her credences should be in proportion to the “measures” of the corresponding worlds, which happened to be exactly the same. Therefore, her credence in each should be the same, namely one third.

There is an important difference between Elga’s experiment with a quantum and a classical coin . Classically, Beauty’s credence concerns a proposition, “the coin is H”, and this along with the entire sequence of events are located in a unique world. It is for this reason that the proposition is reckoned to be uncentered. But using a quantum coin, on the MWI, that is no longer so. Quantum mechanical outcomes are in different worlds, and propositions about such outcomes, such as “the photon is T” should be read as tacitly indexical, “in this world the photon is T”; they are properly speaking centered propositions. To revert to our previous discussion, the difference between case (i) and case (ii), using a quantum coin, does not concern the centeredness or otherwise of the proposition Beauty’s credence is about. In both cases it is centered.

On switching to a quantum coin in Elga’s experiment, and on interpreting quantum mechanics in terms of the MWI, one loses the unusual feature that Lewis found so objectionable: that Beauty must change her credence in an uncentered proposition, although her uncentered evidence has not changed. Lewis may even agree, in this case, that Beauty’s credence should change, for it is credence in a centered proposition - and if so he will presumably agree that her credence in H is one third. But the quantum coin is considered to be the best possible implementation of a fair coin: Beauty should not have different credences in classical and quantum experiments.

## 3 Byrne and Hall on Everett and Chalmers

### 3.1 Introduction

Byrne and Hall (1999) criticized the argument of Chalmers (1996) in favor of the Everett-style interpretation. They claimed to show “the deep and underappreciated flaw in any Everett-style interpretation”. I will argue that it is possible to interpret Chalmers’s writing in such a way that most of the criticism by Byrne and Hall does not apply. (Recently I have learned that Chalmers himself (2000) partly accept the criticism, so my interpretation of his writing might differ from his original proposal.) In any case the general criticism of Byrne and Hall of the many-worlds interpretation is unfounded. The recent recognition that the Everett-style interpretations are good (if not the best) interpretations of quantum mechanics has, therefore, not been negated.

It is probably impossible to present an interpretation of quantum mechanics in unambiguous way without writing equations. Chalmers’s presentation of Everett-style interpretation also can be understood in different ways. Instead of equations Chalmers used some technical jargon of quantum theory, however, some words like “substates” have no clear meaning even for physicists. Byrne and Hall (BH) interpreted Chalmers’s jargon in a way which leads to contradictions. In this note I will argue that by taking a more positive approach, one can see in Chalmers’s writing a consistent (although not necessarily very persuasive) argument.

In the second part of their paper BH claimed to show not only that Chalmers has failed to establish his Everett-inspired interpretation, but that “anything resembling it should not be taken seriously”. Their first point is of a general character: if the spaces of states in two theories are identical but the dynamics is not, it is not obvious that the interpretation of these states in the two theories must be identical too. BH point out that this is the situation regarding the interpretation of quantum states in the orthodox and the Everett interpretations. I will argue that although their general argument is correct, its application is not. There is enough similarity between the dynamics that makes the identification plausible. The second point of BH is that the Everett-style interpretation has less “substantive content” than the orthodox interpretation. This is because in the Everett (many-worlds) interpretation there is no counterpart of “outcome probabilities”, the concept of the orthodox interpretation associated with a system in a superposition of eigenstates of some variable. I will argue that the definition of the probability of an outcome in the framework of the many-worlds interpretation which I recently proposed solves this difficulty and makes this BH criticism obsolete.

In Section 3.2 I will adopt the BH interpretation of Chalmers and will show (in a different from BH way) how it leads to a contradiction. In Section 3.3 I propose an alternative interpretation of Chalmers’s writing which leads to a consistent argument. In Section 3.4 I critically analyze the general arguments of BH against the Everett-style interpretations. Finally, in Section 3.5 I summarize my defense of the many-worlds interpretation.

### 3.2 Byrne and Hall interpretation and a contradiction in the Chalmers argument

The central thesis of Chalmers quoted by BH is the principle of organizational preservation under superposition:

> OPUSIf a computation is implemented by a system in a maximal physical state $`P`$, it is also implemented by a system in a superposition of $`P`$ with orthogonal physical states.(Chalmers, 350)

Consider a simple model: a computer which performs calculations in a classical way. If at time $`t_0`$ the computer receives a classical input (a particular punching of its keyboard), then it evolves in time is such a way that it is always in a “classical” state. This means that all the registers of the computer at all times are in some definite states (exited or not exited) i.e., not in a superposition of excited and not excited. Suppose that $`P`$ corresponds to a computation of a square of a number 5, while $`Q`$ corresponds to a computation of a square of a number 10. Denote $`|P(t)`$ a quantum state of the computer at time $`t`$ performing the calculation of the square of 5, while $`|Q(t)`$ a quantum state of the computer at time $`t`$ performing the calculation of the square of 10. In the two computations at any time the registers must be in different states, therefore, $`|P(t)`$ is orthogonal to $`|Q(t)`$. Thus, according to OPUS the computer in a quantum state

$$|R_+(t)1/\sqrt{2}(|P(t)+|Q(t)),$$
(2)
also implements computation of the square of 5. The quantum state

$$|R_{}(t)1/\sqrt{2}(|P(t)|Q(t)),$$
(3)
is orthogonal to $`|R_+(t)`$. BH read Chalmers in such a way that OPUS can be applied to $`|R_+(t)`$ and $`|R_{}(t)`$, i.e., that the superposition $`1/\sqrt{2}(|R_+(t)|R_{}(t))`$ also implements computation of the square of 5. But,

$$\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|R_+(t)|R_{}(t))=\frac{1}{2}[(|P(t)+|Q(t))(|P(t)|Q(t))]=|Q(t).$$
(4)
The state $`|Q(t)`$ corresponds to the computation of the square of 10. It corresponds to the punching of a different input, it has different registers activated during the calculation, it has different output. Clearly, it does not implement computation of the square of 5.

Applying this direct reading of Chalmers, BH reached somewhat different contradiction which lead them to reject Chalmers’s approach.

### 3.3 An alternative interpretation of Chalmers

It is possible to read Chalmers in another way such that the contradictions of the type described in the previous section do not arise. Let us make the following modification of the OPUS principle:

> OPUSIf a computation is implemented by a system in a maximal physical state $`P`$ which is not a superposition, it is also implemented by a system in a superposition of $`P`$ with orthogonal physical states.

This modified principle can be applied to $`P`$ and $`Q`$, but it cannot be applied to $`R_+`$ and $`R_{}`$ and, therefore, one cannot reach the contradiction described above as well as the contradictions described by BH.

One might see that OPUS is what Chalmers actually had in mind even though he did not say it explicitly. Indeed, another way to see the difference between OPUS (as read by BH) and OPUS is that in the latter it is required that $`P`$ corresponds to a single experience. Chalmers’s first definition of the OPUS principle is:

> If the theory predicts that a system in a maximal physical state $`P`$ gives rise to an associated maximal phenomenal state $`E`$, then the theory predicts that a system in a superposition of $`P`$ with some orthogonal physical states will also give rise to $`E`$. (349)

The word “associated” hints that Chalmers meant that there is only one experience (“phenomenal state $`E`$” in Chalmers’s notation) corresponding to physical state $`P`$.

In fact, BH saw a possibility of reading OPUS as OPUS. The “(Version of) OPUS” described in their section 5.2.3 is essentially OPUS. They rejected this because they understood that Chalmers denies the existence of preferred basis. BH are correct in their criticism that without preferred basis there is no way to distinguish between quantum state which is a “superposition” and a state which is not a “superposition”. Thus, the modification of OPUS to OPUS cannot be done without assuming preferred basis.

We can read Chalmers in such a way that we do not run into inconsistency: Chalmers only objects to the claim that the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics, i.e. the Schrödinger equation, leads to preferred basis. He cannot object to the existence of preferred basis, but he views it as arising from his theory of consciousness. This reading of Chalmers is justified by the following quotations:

> Everett assumes that a superposed brain state will have a number of distinct subjects of experience associated with it, but he does nothing to justify this assumption. It is clear that this matter depends crucially on a theory of consciousness. A similar suggestion is made by Penrose (1989): “… a theory of consciousness would be needed before the many-worlds view can be squared with what one actually observes” (348)

> … last three strategies are all indirect strategies, attempting to explain the discreteness of experience by explaining an underlying discreteness of macroscopic reality. An alternative strategy is to answer the question about experience directly. (349)

Before discussing quantum mechanics, Chalmers argues for a principle of organizational invariance:

> POIGiven any system that has conscious experiences, then any system that has the same fine-grained functional organization will have qualitatively identical experiences. (249)

The main difficulty which BH see in putting together the principle of organization invariance together with OPUS follows from the same misinterpretation of Chalmers. If there is no preferred basis then they have reasons to say:

> … perceptual experience is (more or less) entirely illusory. When you seem to see a voltmeter needle pointing to ‘10’ your perceptual experience is probably veridical: the needle (if, indeed, we can sensibly speak of such a thing) is not pointing to ‘10’ or anywhere else.

However, accepting preferred basis, even if it is defined by the concept of experience itself, resolves the difficulty: the pointer does point to ‘10’ and in addition, in parallel worlds, to other values too.

Chalmers claims that his independently motivated theory of consciousness predicts that even in the world which is in a giant superposition there are subjects who experience a discrete world. He bases his argument on “the claim that consciousness arises from implementation of an appropriate computation.” Taking the model of a simple computer presented above, we can follow (at least approximately) his proof on p. 350. Projection of the superposed state on “the hyperplane of $`P`$” might mean projection of the quantum state of the computer in a “superposed” state at the initial time on the state corresponding to the input of calculating square of the number 5 which leads to quantum states of the various registers at later times corresponding to this calculation. The parallel between the calculation and experience yields the desired result, but accepting this parallel is relying on our experience. So, if we read Chalmers as BH do, that he claims to deduce “what the world is like if the Schrödinger equation is all” without the guide of our experience, then they have a valid criticism. However, Chalmers admits that Schrödinger equation cannot be all:

> … the only physical principle needed in quantum mechanics is the Schrödinger equation, and the measurement postulate and other basic principles are unnecessary baggage. To be sure, we need psychophysical principles as well, but we need those principles in any case, and it turns out that the principles that are plausible on independent grounds can do the requisite work here. (350-351)

I feel that these “independent grounds” are connected with our experience in a stronger way than one might imagine reading Chalmers. But this fact cannot lead to rejection of this approach as BH claim.

### 3.4  Byrne and Hall against any Everett-style interpretation

BH start their argument by pointing out that the orthodox quantum theory and the Everett interpretation formally defined on the same “family of state spaces” and that the difference is only in dynamics. Then they say that because of the difference in dynamics it does not follow that the quantum state corresponding to a particular experience in the orthodox theory will correspond to the same belief (if at any) in the framework of the Everett theory.

This might be considered as a criticism of Chalmers if one reads him as saying that Everett theory predicts what our experiences should be, but usually this connection is postulated in Everett-style theories. There is a strong motivation for this postulate. The orthodox theory is defined only on a (tiny) part of the space of all quantum states: macroscopic quantum systems cannot be in a “superposition states”. The dynamics of the allowed states between quantum measurements is identical to the dynamics of the quantum states in the Everett theory. Let us discuss the example analyzed by BH at the end of p.385. When a state $`\varphi `$ is a state of an observer who has the belief that the measurement outcome was “up” in the orthodox theory, the dynamics will tell that she will write “up” in her lab-book. The dynamics of the state $`\varphi `$ in the Everett theory leads to the same action. This justifies considering $`\varphi `$ to be a “belief vector” in the Everett theory too.

BH proceed with their criticism claiming that Everett’s interpretation has less of “substantiative content” because when a quantum system is in a superposition of eigenstates with different eigenvalues of some quantity M, the orthodox interpretation associates probabilities to the various outcomes, while the Everett theory does not.

It is true that there is a difficulty with the concept of probability in the framework of the Everett-style interpretation. The Everett theory is a deterministic theory and it does not have a genuine randomness of the collapse of the orthodox interpretation. A deterministic theory might have the concept of ignorance probability, but it is not easy to find somebody who is ignorant of the result of a quantum experiment: it is senseless to ask what is the probability that an observer will obtain a particular result, because she will obtain all results for which there are a non-zero probabilities according to the orthodox approach. It seems also senseless to ask what is the probability of the observers in various branches (these are persons with the same name and the same memories about events which took place before the measurements, but who live in different branches corresponding to the different outcomes) to obtain various results, since obviously the probability to obtain the result “$`𝐌=m_i`$” in branch “$`j`$” is 1 if $`i=j`$ and it is 0 if $`ij`$. These are not the quantum probabilities we are looking for.

However, BH cannot dismiss the Everett-style interpretations without even discussing current proposals to deal with this problem (Lockwood et al. 1996, Saunders 1998, Deutsch 1999, etc.) Here, I will sketch my proposal for solving this difficulty (Vaidman 1998, 2000). The splitting into various branches occurs usually before the time when the observers in these branches become aware of the outcome of the measurement. (To ensure this we may ask the observer to keep her eyes close during the measurement.) Thus, an observer in each branch is ignorant about the outcome of the measurement and she can (while any external person cannot!) define the the ignorance probability for the outcome of the measurement. She will do so using standard probability postulate: the probability of an outcome is proportional to the square of the amplitude of the corresponding branch. Moreover, since observers in all these branches have identical concept of ignorance probability and since they all are descendants of the observer who performed the experiment, we can associate probability for an outcome of a measurement for this observer in the sense that this is the common ignorance probability of her descendants in various branches.

The fact that I have used a probability postulate here does not spoil the argument: I had to show that substantive content of Everett interpretation is not less than that of the orthodox interpretation. The latter has the probability postulate as well. What was done here (and what was not trivial from the beginning) was to present a way which allows to define probability in the frame of the many-worlds interpretation. This definition also resolves the difficulty recently discussed by Lewis (2000). He argued that a believer in the many-worlds (minds) interpretation should agree to play a “quantum Russian Roulette” provided the death is instantaneous. Indeed, the instantaneity makes it difficult to establish the probability postulate, but after it has been justified in the wide range of other situations it is natural to apply the postulate for all cases.

The last argument of BH relies on their claim that Everett-style interpretation lacks “statistical algorithm”. Since the ignorance probability defined above generates the same statistical algorithm as the the orthodox theory, this argument does not hold either.

### 3.5 Summary

The main claim of BH is “that any Everett-style interpretation should be rejected”. The basis of their argument is the observation that neither Chalmers nor anybody else can answer the question: “What the world is like if the Shrödinger equation is all?” It is true that this question is much more difficult to answer in the framework of the Everett-style interpretation relative to interpretations which do not have multitude of worlds. “The world is everything which exist” is not a valid definition. Moreover, the Shrödinger equation itself cannot define the concept of a “world”. The world is the concept defined by conscious beings and it requires the analysis of the mind-body connection. Chalmers’s theory of consciousness provides an answer. One might argue how substantial his answer is, but even if there is no a detailed answer to this question today, one cannot reject the Everett interpretation. It suffices that Everett’s theory is consistent with what we see as our world. It is so superior to the alternatives from the physics point of view, because it avoids randomness and action at a distance in Nature (e.g., see Vaidman 2000), that it is still preferable in spite of the fact that it is less satisfactory from the philosophical point of view. Therefore, even if BH were able to point out a difficulty in obtaining the interpretation out of the “bare theory” this would not be enough for rejecting the Everett interpretation. Moreover, I have argued that the BH have not presented persuasive arguments showing the difficulty. Their first argument is that it is not obvious that the correspondence between quantum states and classical properties in the orthodox quantum mechanics can be transformed as it is to the Everett interpretation. This argument does not take into account the similarity in dynamics which justifies the identification. Their other arguments rely on the well known difficulty in the interpretation of probability in the many-worlds interpretation disregard recently proposed solutions of this problem.

In summary, BH were not able to show a flaw in Everett-style interpretations. The temptation to appeal to the philosophy of mind in interpreting quantum mechanics, in particular, the idea that a theory of mind might help rescue from the difficulties with standard interpretation is still very attractive. Indeed, the Everett-style interpretation which says that physics is described in full by the Schrödinger equation is the most satisfactory from the physics point of view. What is left is to complete Chalmers’s work, i.e. to elaborate the connection between the quantum state evolving according to the Schrödinger equation and our experience.

## Acknowledgments

It is a pleasure to thank David Chalmers, Adam Elga, Christopher Fuchs, Andrei Khrennikov, Simon Saunders and Ruediger Schackfor for illuminating comments. This research was supported in part by grant 62/01 of the Israel Science Foundation and the EPSRC grant GR/N33058.

## References

Aumann, R. J., Hart, S., and Perry, M. 1997 The forgetful passenger, Games and Economic Behaviour 20: 117-120.

Byrne, A. and Hall, N. 1999. Chalmers on Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics, Philosophy of Science 66: 370-390.

Caves, C. M., Fuchs, C. A., and Schack, R. 2001 Making good sense of quantum probabilities, e-print: http://xxx.lanl.gov/quant-ph/0106133.

Chalmers, D. J. 1996 The Conscious Mind, New York: Oxford University Press.

Chalmers, D. J. 2000 Responses to articles on my work, www homepage, http://www.u.arizona.edu/ chalmers/responses.html

Deutsch D. 1999 Quantum Theory of Probability and Decisions, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 455: 3129-3137.

Elga, A. 2000 Self-locating belief and the Sleeping Beauty problem Analysis 60:143-147.

Everett, H. 1957 “Relative State’ Formulation of Quantum Mechanics,” Review of Modern Physics 29: 454-462.

Lewis, D. 2001 Sleeping Beauty: reply to Elga, Analysis 61: 171-176.

Lewis, P. J. 2000 What is it like to be Schrödinger’s cat? Analysis 60: 22-29.

Lockwood, M., Brown, H. R., Butterfield, J., Deutsch, D., Loewer, B., Papineau, D., Saunders, S. 1996. Symposium: The ‘Many Minds’ Interpretation of Quantum Theory, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 47: 159-248.

Penrose, R., 1989 The emperor’s new mind : concerning computers, minds, and the laws of physics, New York: Oxford University Press.

Saunders, S. 1998 Time, Quantum Mechanics, and Probability, Synthese 114: 373-404.

Sklar, L. 1993 Physics and Chance : Philosophical Issues in the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Vaidman, L. 1998 On Schizophrenic Experiences of the Neutron or Why We should Believe in the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Theory, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 12: 245-261.

Vaidman, L. 2001a Tests of Bell Inequalities, L. Vaidman Physics Letters A 286: 241-244.

Vaidman, L. 2001b The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Theory, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-manyworlds/

Vaidman, L. and Saunders, S. 2001 On Sleeping Beauty Controversy, PhilSci Archive, http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/documents/disk0/00/00/03/24/index.html


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# Chemical equilibration of U(1) charged particles in a thermal environment

## I introduction

One of the crucial questions being addressed in the context of heavy ion collisions is the equilibration of the high density QCD medium created during these collisions . This question has been considered on different levels: by analysing physical conditions required for a perturbative QCD medium to reach equilibrium  or by studying the level of particle equilibration in the final state . From the theoretical point of view to discuss equilibration one needs to formulate the kinetic equation for particle production and evolution. In the partonic medium this requires, in general, the formulation of a transport equation involving colour degrees of freedom and a non-abelian structure of QCD dynamics . In the hadronic medium, on the other hand, one needs to account for the charge conservations related with U(1) internal symmetry .

In this article we will discuss the formulation of kinetic equations for U(1) charged particles produced in a thermal environment. We will indicate the importance of the conservation laws in the time evolution and chemical equilibration of particle multiplicities and their probability distributions. In particular we will argue that the constraints imposed by U(1) charge conservation are of crucial importance for rarely produced charged particle species.

## II Kinetic master equation for probabilities with U(1) symmetry constraints

To study equilibration in a hadronic medium one introduces a kinetic model that takes into account the production and annihilation of particle–antiparticle pairs $`c\overline{c}`$ carrying U(1) quantum numbers. It is also assumed that particles $`c`$ are produced according to a binary process $`abc\overline{c}`$ and that all particle momentum distributions are thermal and described by Boltzmann statistics. The U(1) charge neutral particles $`a`$ and $`b`$ are constituents of a thermal fireball of temperature $`T`$ and volume $`V`$. We will consider the time evolution and equilibration of particles $`c`$ inside a thermal fireball, taking into account the constraints imposed by U(1) symmetry. First we formulate a general master equation for the probability distribution of particle multiplicity in the medium with vanishing net charge and consider its properties and solutions. We will then discuss two limiting cases of abundant and rare particle production. Finally the rate equation will be extended to the situation where there is a net U(1) charge in the thermal fireball.

### A Rate equation for particle multiplicity distribution

Consider $`P_{N_c}(t)`$ as the probability to find $`N_c`$ particles $`c`$, where $`0N_c\mathrm{}`$. This probability will obviously change in time owing to production $`abc\overline{c}`$ and absorption $`c\overline{c}ab`$ processes. The probability $`P_{N_c}`$ tends to increase in time, following the transition from $`N_c1`$ and $`N_c+1`$ states to the $`N_c`$ state. It also tends to decrease since the state $`N_c`$ makes transitions to $`N_c+1`$ and $`N_c1`$ (see Fig. 1). The transition probability per unit time from $`N_c+1N_c`$ is given by the product of the probability $`L/V`$ that the single reaction $`c\overline{c}ab`$ takes place multiplied by the number of possible reactions which is, $`(N_c+1)(N_{\overline{c}}+1)`$. In the case when the U(1) charge carried by particles $`c`$ and $`\overline{c}`$ is exactly and locally conserved, that is if $`N_c+N_{\overline{c}}=0`$; then this number is just $`(N_c+1)^2`$. Similarly the transition probability from $`N_cN_c+1`$ is described by $`GN_aN_b/V`$, where one assumes that particles $`a`$ and $`b`$ are not correlated and their multiplicity is governed by the thermal averages. One also assumes that the multiplicity of $`a`$ and $`b`$ is not affected by the $`abc\overline{c}`$ process.

The master equation for the time evolution of the probability $`P_{N_c}(\tau )`$ can be written in the following form :

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dP_{N_c}}{d\tau }}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G}{V}}N_aN_bP_{N_c1}+{\displaystyle \frac{L}{V}}(N_c+1)^2P_{N_c+1}`$ (1)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G}{V}}N_aN_bP_{N_c}{\displaystyle \frac{L}{V}}N_c^2P_{N_c}.`$ (2)
The first two terms in Eq. (2) describe the increase of $`P_{N_c}(\tau )`$ due to the transition from $`N_c1`$ and $`N_c+1`$ to the $`N_c`$ state. The last two terms, on the other hand, represent the decrease of the probability function due to the transition from $`N_c`$ to $`N_c+1`$ and $`N_c1`$ states respectively.

Multiplying the above equation by $`N_c`$ and summing over $`N_c`$, one obtains the general kinetic equation for the time evolution of the average number $`N_c_{N_c=0}^{\mathrm{}}N_cP_{N_c}(\tau )`$ of particles $`c`$ in a system. This equation reads:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dN_c}{d\tau }}={\displaystyle \frac{G}{V}}N_aN_b{\displaystyle \frac{L}{V}}N_c^2.`$ (3)
The above equation cannot be obviously solved analytically as it connects particle multiplicity $`N_c`$ with its second moments $`N_c^2`$. However, the solution can be obtained in two limiting situations: i) for abundant production of $`c`$ particles, that is when $`N_c1`$ or ii) in the opposite limit of rare particle production corresponding to $`N_c1`$. Indeed, since

$`N_c^2=N_c^2+\delta N_c^2,`$ (4)
where $`\delta N_c^2`$ represents the fluctuations of the number of particles $`c`$, one can make the following approximations:

i) for $`N_c1`$ one has, $`N_c^2N_c^2,`$ and Eq. (2) obviously reduces to the well known form :

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dN_c}{d\tau }}{\displaystyle \frac{G}{V}}N_aN_b{\displaystyle \frac{L}{V}}N_c^2;`$ (5)
however, for rare production, particles $`c`$ and $`\overline{c}`$ are strongly correlated; then,

ii) $`N_c1`$ and $`N_c^2N_c`$; consequently Eq. (2) takes the form:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dN_c}{d\tau }}{\displaystyle \frac{G}{V}}N_aN_b{\displaystyle \frac{L}{V}}N_c,`$ (6)
where the absorption term depends only linearly, instead of quadratically, on the particle multiplicity.

From the above discussion it is thus clear that depending on the thermal conditions of the system (that is its volume and the value of the temperature) we are getting different results for the equilibrium solution and the time evolution of the number of produced particles $`c`$. This is very transparent when solving the rate equations (4) and (5).

In the limit when $`N_c1`$, the standard Eq. (5) is valid and has the well known solution:

$`N_c(\tau )=N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}\mathrm{tanh}\left(\tau /\tau _0\right),`$ (7)
where the equilibrium value $`N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ of the number of particles $`c`$ and the relaxation time constant $`\tau _0`$ are given by:

$`N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}=\sqrt{ϵ},\tau _0={\displaystyle \frac{V}{L\sqrt{ϵ}}},`$ (8)
respectively, with $`ϵGN_aN_a/L`$.

In the particular case when the particle momentum distribution is thermal, the gain ($`G`$) and loss ($`L`$) terms are just the thermal averages of the absorption and production cross sections with

$`{\displaystyle \frac{G}{L}}={\displaystyle \frac{N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}N_{\overline{c}}_{\mathrm{eq}}}{N_a_{\mathrm{eq}}N_b_{\mathrm{eq}}}},`$ (9)
where we have employed the detailed balance relation between production $`\sigma _{ab}`$ and absorbtion $`\sigma _{c\overline{c}}`$ cross section for $`abc\overline{c}`$ processes.

Assuming a Boltzmann particle momentum distribution, the equilibrium average number of particles $`k`$ is obtained after momentum integration as:

$`N_k_{\mathrm{eq}}={\displaystyle \frac{d_k}{2\pi ^2}}VTm_k^2K_2(m_k/T),`$ (10)
where $`d_k`$’s denote spin–isospin degeneracy factors, $`m_k`$ the particle mass, and $`K_2`$ is the modified Bessel function.

This is a well known result for the average number of particles in the Grand Canonical (GC) ensemble with respect to U(1) charge conservation. The chemical potential, which is usually present in the GC ensemble, vanishes in our case, because of the requirement of U(1) charge neutrality of a system. Thus, the solution (5) results in the expected value for the equilibrium limit in GC formalism where the charge is conserved on the average.

In the opposite limit, where $`N_c1`$, the time evolution of particle abundance is described by Eq. (5), which has the following solution:

$`N_c^\mathrm{C}(\tau )=N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}^\mathrm{C}\left(1e^{\tau /\tau _0^\mathrm{C}}\right),`$ (11)
with the equilibrium value and relaxation time given by

$`N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}^\mathrm{C}=ϵ,\tau _0^\mathrm{C}={\displaystyle \frac{V}{L}}.`$ (12)
The above result is the asymptotic limit of the canonical C formulation of conservation laws . Here the charge related with U(1) symmetry is exactly and locally conserved, contrary to the GC formulation where this conservation is only valid on the average.

Comparing Eq. (8) with Eq. (12), we first find that, for $`N_c1`$, the equilibrium value in the canonical formulation is far smaller than what is expected from the grand canonical result as

$`N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}^\mathrm{C}=N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}.`$ (13)
Secondly, we can conclude that the relaxation time for a canonical system is far shorter than what is expected from the grand canonical value as

$`\tau _0^\mathrm{C}=\tau _0N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}\tau _0,`$ (14)
since in the limit $`(\mathrm{𝐢𝐢})`$ the equilibrium value $`N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}1`$.

The above discussion shows the importance of the canonical description of quantum number conservation if the U(1) charged particle multiplicity is small. We also see that the volume dependence differs in the two cases. The particle density in the GC limit is $`V`$-independent whereas, in the opposite case, the density scales linearly with $`V`$.

We note that $`(𝐢)`$ and $`(\mathrm{𝐢𝐢})`$ limits are essentially determined by the size of $`\delta N_c^2`$, the fluctuation of the number of particles $`c`$. The grand canonical results correspond to small fluctuations, i.e. $`\delta N_c^2/N_c^21`$, while the canonical description is relevant if the fluctuations are large, i.e. $`\delta N_c^2/N_c^21`$.

## III Master equation - general solution

In the previous section, we formulated a general master equation (1) for the probability to find the number of U(1) charged particles being produced by the binary $`abc\overline{c}`$ process. The approximate solutions of Eq. (1) were considered in two limiting cases. For a large number of produced particles carrying U(1) charge, the time evolution and the equilibrium limit of Eq. (1) correspond to the GC result. We have also indicated the difference between GC and asymptotic C results on the level of rate equations for particle multiplicity. This difference is particularly transparent when comparing master equations for probabilities.

### A Master equation for abundant U(1) charged particle production

For abundantly produced particles $`c`$ and $`\overline{c}`$ through $`abc\overline{c}`$, process we do not need to worry about strong particle correlations due to U(1) charge conservation. This also means that instead of imposing U(1) charge neutrality conditions through $`N_cN_{\overline{c}}=0`$, one assumes conservation on the average, that is $`N_cN_{\overline{c}}=0`$. In this case the master equation (1) can be simplified.

In the derivation of Eq. (1) the absorption terms proportional to $`L`$ were obtained by constraining the U(1) charge conservation to be local and exact. For the conservation on the average, the transition probability from $`N_c`$ to the $`(N_c1)`$ state is no longer proportional to $`(L/V)N_c^2`$ but rather to $`(L/V)N_cN_{\overline{c}}`$, since the exact conservation condition $`N_c=N_{\overline{c}}`$ is no longer valid and the number of $`\overline{c}`$ particles can only be determined by its average value. In the GC limit, the master equation for the time evolution of the probability $`P_{N_c}(\tau )`$ takes the following form:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dP_{N_c}}{d\tau }}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G}{V}}N_aN_bP_{N_c1}+{\displaystyle \frac{L}{V}}(N_c+1)N_{\overline{c}}P_{N_c+1}`$ (15)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G}{V}}N_aN_bP_{N_c}{\displaystyle \frac{L}{V}}N_cN_{\overline{c}}P_{N_c}.`$ (16)
Multiplying the above equation by $`N_c`$, summing over $`N_c`$ and using the condition that $`N_c=N_{\overline{c}}`$, one recovers Eq. (4), the rate equation for $`N_c`$ in the GC ensemble. The above equation is thus indeed the general master equation for the probability function in the GC limit. Comparing this equation with the more general Eq. (1), one can see that the main difference is contained in the absorption terms, which are linear instead of quadratic in particle number.

Equation (14) can be solved exactly. Indeed, introducing the generating function $`g(x,\tau )`$ for $`P_{N_c}`$,

$`g(x,\tau )={\displaystyle \underset{N_c=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}x^{N_c}P_{N_c}(\tau ),`$ (17)
the iterative equation (14) for probability can be converted into a differential equation for the generating function:

$$\frac{g(x,\tau )}{\tau }=\frac{L}{V}\sqrt{ϵ}(1x)[g^{}\sqrt{ϵ}g],$$
(18)
with the general solution :

$$g(x,\tau )=g_0(1xe^{\stackrel{~}{\tau }})e^{\sqrt{ϵ}(1x)(e^{\stackrel{~}{\tau }}1)},$$
(19)
where $`g^{}g/x`$, $`\stackrel{~}{\tau }=(L\sqrt{ϵ}/V)\tau `$ and $`\sqrt{ϵ}=N_c_{eq}`$ given by Eq. (9).

One can readily find the equilibrium solution to the above equation. Taking the limit $`\tau =\mathrm{}`$ in Eq. (17) leads to

$$g_{\mathrm{eq}}(x)=e^{\sqrt{ϵ}(1x)},$$
(20)
with the corresponding equilibrium multiplicity distribution:

$$P_{N_c,\mathrm{eq}}=\frac{(\sqrt{ϵ})^{N_c}}{N_c!}e^\sqrt{ϵ}.$$
(21)
This is a Poisson distribution with averaged multiplicity $`\sqrt{ϵ}`$.

### B Equilibrium solution - general case

The master equation (14), describing the evolution of the probability function in the GC limit, could be solved exactly. The general equation (1), however, because the quadratic dependence of the absorption term, can only be solved numerically. Nevertheless the equilibrium result for particle multiplicity can be given.

Converting Eq. (1) for $`P_{N_c}`$’s into a partial differential equation for the generating function

$$g(x,\tau )=\underset{N_c=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}x^{N_c}P_{N_c}(\tau ).$$
(22)
one finds

$`{\displaystyle \frac{g(x,\tau )}{\tau }}={\displaystyle \frac{L}{V}}(1x)\left(xg^{\prime \prime }+g^{}ϵg\right).`$ (23)
The equilibrium solution $`g_{\mathrm{eq}}(x)`$ thus obeys the following equation:

$`xg_{\mathrm{eq}}^{\prime \prime }+g_{\mathrm{eq}}^{}ϵg_{\mathrm{eq}}=0.`$ (24)
By a substitution of variables ($`x=y^2/4/ϵ`$), this equation is reduced to the Bessel equation, with the following solution:

$`g_{\mathrm{eq}}(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{I_0(2\sqrt{ϵ})}}I_0(2\sqrt{ϵx}),`$ (25)
where the normalization is fixed by $`g(1)=P_{N_c}=1`$.

The equilibrium value for the probability function $`P_{N_c}`$ is now expressed from Eqs. (20–23) as:

$`P_{N_c,\mathrm{eq}}={\displaystyle \frac{ϵ^{N_c}}{I_0(2\sqrt{ϵ})(N_c!)^2}}.`$ (26)
We note that the equilibrium distribution of the particle multiplicity in not a Poissonian. This fact was first indicated in equilibrium studies in . In our case this is a direct consequence of the quadratic dependence on the multiplicity in the loss terms of the master equation (1). A Poisson distribution is obtained from Eq. (24) if $`\sqrt{ϵ}1`$, that is for large particle multiplicity. In this case the C ensemble coincides with the GC approximation.

The result for the equilibrium average number of particles $`c`$ can be obtained as:

$`N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}=g^{}(1)=\sqrt{ϵ}{\displaystyle \frac{I_1(2\sqrt{ϵ})}{I_0(2\sqrt{ϵ})}}.`$ (27)
The equilibrium solution presented above coincides with the expected result for the particle multiplicity in the canonical ensemble with respect to U(1) charge conservation . Thus, the rate equation formulated in Eq. (1) is valid for any arbitrary value of $`N_c`$ and obviously reproduces the standard grand canonical result for large $`N_c`$. We can study the chemical equilibration of U(1) charged particles following Eq. (1) independently from the thermal conditions in a system.

### C Master equation for net U(1) charge in thermal environment

So far, constructing the evolution equation for probabilities, we have assumed that there is no net U(1) charge in a system. In the application of the statistical approach to particle production in heavy ion collisions, the above assumption is only justified when the initial state is U(1) charge neutral and when considering particle yields in full phase space. However, because of experimental limitations, one often deals with data in restricted kinematical windows. Here the overall U(1) charge is no longer zero and a generalization of the above master equation is required.

In the following we construct the evolution equation for $`P_{N_c}^S(t)`$ in a thermal medium assuming that its net U(1) charge $`S`$ is non–vanishing. The presence of the net charge requires a modification of absorption terms in Eq. (1). The transition probability per unit time from the $`N_c`$ to the $`N_c1`$ state was proportional to $`(L/V)N_cN_{\overline{c}}`$. Given an over all net charge $`S`$ the exact U(1) charge conservation implies that $`N_cN_{\overline{c}}=S`$. The transition probability from $`N_c`$ to $`N_c1`$ due to pair annihilation is thus $`(L/V)N_c(N_cS)`$. Following the same procedure as in Eq. (1) one can formulate the following master equation for the probability $`P_{N_c}^S(t)`$ to find $`N_c`$ particles $`c`$ in a thermal medium with a net charge $`S`$:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dP_{N_c}^S}{d\tau }}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G}{V}}N_aN_bP_{N_c1}^S+{\displaystyle \frac{L}{V}}(N_c+1)(N_c+1S)P_{N_c+1}^S`$ (28)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G}{V}}N_aN_bP_{N_c}^S{\displaystyle \frac{L}{V}}N_c(N_cS)P_{N_c}^S,`$ (29)
which obviously reduces to Eq. (2) for $`S=0`$.

To get the equilibrium solution for the probability and multiplicity, we again convert the above equation to the differential form for the generating function $`g^S(x,\tau )=_{N_c=0}^{\mathrm{}}x^{N_c}P_{N_c}^S(\tau )`$:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{g^S(x,\tau )}{\tau }}={\displaystyle \frac{L}{V}}(1x)\left(xg_S^{\prime \prime }+g_S^{}(1S)ϵg_S\right).`$ (30)
In equilibrium, $`g^S(x,\tau )\tau =0`$ and the solution for $`g_{\mathrm{eq}}^S`$ can be found as follows:

$`g_{\mathrm{eq}}(x)={\displaystyle \frac{x^{S/2}}{I_S(2\sqrt{ϵ})}}I_S(2\sqrt{ϵx}),`$ (31)
where the normalization is fixed by $`g(1)=P_n=1`$.

The master equation for the probability to find $`N_{\overline{c}}`$ antiparticles $`\overline{c}`$, its corresponding differential form and the equilibrium solution for the generating function can be obtained by replacing $`SS`$ in Eqs. (26-28)

The result for the equilibrium average number of particles $`N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ and antiparticles $`N_{\overline{c}}_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ is obtained from the generating function using the relation: $`N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}=g^{}(1)`$. The final expressions read:

$`N_c_{\mathrm{eq}}=\sqrt{ϵ}{\displaystyle \frac{I_{S1}(2\sqrt{ϵ})}{I_S(2\sqrt{ϵ})}},N_{\overline{c}}_{\mathrm{eq}}=\sqrt{ϵ}{\displaystyle \frac{I_{S+1}(2\sqrt{ϵ})}{I_S(2\sqrt{ϵ})}}.`$ (32)
The strangeness conservation is explicitly seen by taking the difference of these equations, which yields, the net value of the U(1) charge $`S`$.

The results of Eq. (32) were previously derived from the equilibrium partition function by using the projection method . The master equation derived here allows a study of the time evolution of particle production in a thermal medium and the approach towards chemical equilibrium. This equation explicitly accounts for U(1) charge conservation for both strongly correlated and uncorrelated particles.

The results presented here can be extended to the more general case where there are different particle species carrying the U(1) charge being produced in a thermal environment .

## IV Concluding remarks

We have discussed the kinetics and chemical equilibration of particles carrying quantum numbers related with U(1) symmetry. Our analysis was restricted to the particular case of one kind of particle and antiparticle being produced by the binary process. However, this example is of physics interest as it can be applied to the study of such problems as the equilibration of heavy quarks in QCD plasma due to gluon–gluon fusion or strangeness and baryon production due to baryon–baryon and meson–meson interactions. The last process is of relevance in the application of statistical models to the description of particle production in low energy heavy ion collisions . We have discussed the procedure that allows the construction of the rate for time evolution of particle multiplicity and its probability distribution. Our result is quite general and applicable, as well as for abundantly and rarely produced U(1) charged particles. We have indicated the important differences between two limiting thermodynamical situations. In the first case the system approaches the equilibrium limit corresponding to the grand canonical approximation, in the second that corresponding to the canonical exact value. Of particular interest are the master equations for particle multiplicity distributions, which can be used to study not only the time evolution of the particle number but also all their higher moments . This allows, for instance, a study of the time evolution of U(1) quantum number fluctuations , which has been proposed as a possible signal for QCD phase transition .

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Stimulating discussions with M. Gyulassy, Z. Lin, H. Satz, M. Stephanov and Xin-Nian Wang are kindly acknowledged. K.R. also acknowledges a partial support of the Polish Committee for Scientific Research (KBN-2P03B 03018). The work of V.K. was partially supported by GSI and partially by the Director, Office of Science, Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics, Division of Nuclear Physics, and by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Nuclear Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.