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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

In the bulk of new extra-dimensional ideas, some attention has recently been devoted to asymmetrically warped space-times : generalization of AdS solutions without 4D Lorentz symmetry, in which only the 3D rotational invariance is maintained. There are two main reasons for this interest: first of all the violation of Lorentz invariance appears through a variation of the speed of light moving in the bulk. This could be observable studying the speed of gravitational waves or of any particle allowed to move in the extra dimension, e.g. right-handed neutrinos . The other reason is that these solutions can give a hint towards the solution of the cosmological constant problem: these models have no low energy Lorentz invariant description, so that it is conceivable to evade Weinberg’s no-go theorem  on the adjustment of the cosmological constant. In fact, explicit examples can be shown in which the only maximally symmetric solutions describe a Minkowski metric on the brane.

In this note we want to study these backgrounds, which are asymptotically AdS (222Other solutions, which are not asymptotically AdS, have been studied (see for example ); we stick to the simplest cases in which the holographic dual is known. Lorentz non-invariance in asymmetrically warped spaces have been studied also in the context of higher derivative gravity .), through the AdS/CFT correspondence. In particular we want to understand how the two main features of interest of these spaces are reinterpreted in the dual theory, which is purely 4-dimensional. At first one may be puzzled about this point of view: how can we select a 4D solution without cosmological constant? How can we have, in 4D, signals travelling faster than light? Do we loose 4D causality? We will see that the answers to these questions are pretty simple, but we hope they can help to better understand, as in other cases , the phenomenology of these models and the limitations of the AdS/CFT correspondence. In Section 2 we study the simple example of a 5D charged black hole and give the holographic description of the self-tuning of the cosmological constant. In Section 3 we study the signal transmission through bulk geodesics and its dual interpretation.

## 2  Holographic description of the adjustment of the cosmological constant

Assuming that the 3D rotational invariance is preserved, the general solution of the Einstein equations in the presence of a negative cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{bulk}}=24M^3/L^2`$ ($`M`$ is the 5D Planck mass) and of a U(1) gauge field is given by the AdS–Reissner–Nordström metric:

$$ds^2=h(r)dt^2+h(r)^1dr^2+\frac{r^2}{L^2}d\mathrm{\Sigma }_k^2$$
(1)
with

$$h(r)=k+\frac{r^2}{L^2}\frac{\mu }{r^2}+\frac{Q^2}{r^4}.$$
(2)
As we are interested in 3D flat solutions we will take $`k=0`$: $`d\mathrm{\Sigma }^2`$ describes flat 3D sections. The metric depends only on the mass $`\mu `$ and the charge $`Q`$ of the black hole as implied by Birkhoff’s theorem; $`L^1`$ is the asymptotic AdS curvature. If seen from the outside (large-$`r`$ region) the black hole singularity is shielded behind a horizon located at $`r=r_h`$, where $`r_h`$ is the largest root of the equation $`h(r)=0`$.

Now we introduce a brane in the region $`r>r_h`$: the brane joins two copies of the metric (1) linked by a $`_2`$ orbifold symmetry. The gauge field component $`A_r`$ is chosen to be $`_2`$-even, while $`A_\mu `$ is odd. Notice that with this choice we can take the brane as neutral under the gauge symmetry. The motion of the brane in this background can be studied using Israel’s junction conditions to obtain the evolution of the induced metric , which is of the FRW type

$$ds_{\mathrm{brane}}^2=d\tau ^2+R^2(\tau )d\mathrm{\Sigma }^2.$$
(3)
In particular we can look for static solutions so that the induced metric on the brane is the pure Minkowski space. We obtain :

* If the pressure to energy ratio of the brane $`\omega p/\rho `$ satisfies $`\omega 1`$, then we can find a static solution in a given interval of $`\rho `$, choosing the mass and charge of the black hole.
* The other 4D maximally symmetric solutions, namely 4D de Sitter and anti-de Sitter, are obtained only for $`\mu =Q=0`$ and $`\omega =1`$.

In this way we see that the 4D Minkowski metric is the only maximally symmetric solution obtained for a continuous set of parameters, so that we can imagine an adjustment mechanism which changes the black hole parameters to keep the effective 4D cosmological constant vanishing. If we look at the dynamical solutions we see that the black hole gives two contributions to the effective 4D Einstein equations. One is a positive energy density proportional to $`\mu `$ and red-shifting as $`R^4`$; the other is a negative energy density proportional to $`Q^2`$ and scaling as $`R^6`$.

It is interesting to find the holographic interpretation of the described solutions to understand the possible mechanism of cancellation of the cosmological constant in a purely 4D language. It is known that a slice of AdS terminated by a “Planck brane” is dual to a 4D theory with dynamical gravity, in which the matter living on the brane is gravitationally coupled to a CFT with a large number of colors $`N(ML)^{3/2}`$ . The “unusual” choice of taking $`A_r`$ $`_2`$-even makes $`A_\mu `$ vanishing on the brane. In this way the U(1) symmetry is not gauged in the 4D picture, as it would be for the other parity assignment , but it remains global, though spontaneously broken by the brane itself. In fact we can check that the 5D equations of motion give a massless normalizable zero mode for the 4D scalar $`A_r`$, with a constant profile in the $`5^{\mathrm{th}}`$ dimension: we interpret it as the Goldstone boson $`\pi `$ of the broken symmetry. The theory is invariant, as it must, under a constant shift $`c`$ of the Goldstone field

$$\pi (x^\mu )\pi (x^\mu )+c,$$
(4)
because this corresponds to a pure gauge $`A_r`$= constant in the 5D picture. Notice that, the global symmetry being broken, we have not the problem to reconcile the 4D gravitational violation of global symmetries (e.g. global charge disappearance into a black hole) with the corresponding 5D local invariance, which we expect to be respected by gravity .

Now we can reinterpret the two contributions described above to the 4D Einstein equations:

$$\rho _{\mathrm{CFT}}+\rho _{\mathrm{GB}}\frac{\mu }{R^4}\frac{Q^2}{R^6}.$$
(5)
The first one is the usual scale-invariant ($`\rho T^4`$) contribution of a hot CFT ($`p=\rho /3`$) . The second one comes from the interaction of the hot CFT with the Goldstone boson. The relevant part of the Lagrangian, neglecting higher dimension operators with two or more $`\pi `$’s, will be of the form

$$_{\mathrm{GB}}=\frac{1}{2}(_\mu \pi )^2+F_\pi ^1J_{\mathrm{CFT}}^\mu _\mu \pi ,$$
(6)
where $`J_{\mathrm{CFT}}`$ is the CFT current associated with the broken symmetry and $`F_\pi `$ is the Goldstone particle decay constant. Notice that this parameter has the dimension of a mass: this will lead to a non-scale-invariant contribution to the stress-energy tensor. The total conserved current is given by $`F_\pi \pi +J`$. The gravitational solution has a black hole of charge $`Q`$ in the bulk and a mirror black hole of charge $`Q`$ in the other $`_2`$ symmetric half space (the charge is $`_2`$-odd): this describes a hot CFT, which is charged under the global symmetry. Notice however that the total conserved charge is zero: if we start from a configuration with no gauge field (neutral black holes), the emission of charged particles from the Planck brane leads to the solution with charged black holes and an electric field $`F_{tr}`$ on the brane; as 4D charge is conserved, also this final state must have vanishing total charge. This means that the CFT charge density $`\rho _Q`$ is compensated by the Goldstone boson contribution:

$$F_\pi _t\pi +\rho _Q=0.$$
(7)
The global charge neutrality can also be seen as a consequence of Gauss law in the bulk, which relates the bulk charge (i.e. the CFT charge) with the integral on the brane of the field strength component $`F_{tr}`$ (which gives the Goldstone boson contribution $`_t\pi `$). It is easy to check that this leads to eq. (7).

If we now calculate the stress-energy tensor from the Lagrangian (6) and use eq. (7), we get a contribution

$$\rho =p=\frac{1}{2}\frac{\rho _Q^2}{F_\pi ^2}.$$
(8)
Having $`p=\rho `$ this energy density red-shifts as $`R^6`$; this can also be understood by noting that $`\rho _{\mathrm{GB}}`$ is proportional to the square of the charge density, which goes as $`R^3`$. The 4D description is compatible with the 5D gravity equations and gives the holographic interpretation of the stiff matter contribution found in .

Summarizing, the 4D description is the following: the matter on the brane describes a visible sector in which the global symmetry is broken; bulk physics describes a hidden sector formed by a hot CFT which interacts with the visible one only through gravity and higher dimension operators. Some charge is transferred from the visible to the dark sector and this charge acts as a source for the Goldstone boson, so that it becomes time-dependent.

To have a stationary flat solution we must require that the total energy and pressure for the three components described above cancel out. The parameters (energy density; pressure) are respectively of the form:

$`\mathrm{Brane}\mathrm{matter}`$ $`:`$ $`\rho _{\mathrm{brane}}(1;\stackrel{~}{\omega })`$ (9)
$`\mathrm{CFT}`$ $`:`$ $`\rho _{\mathrm{CFT}}(1;1/3)`$ (10)
$`\mathrm{Goldstone}\mathrm{boson}`$ $`:`$ $`|\rho _{\mathrm{GB}}|(1;1).`$ (11)
For brane matter we mean all that is added to the fine-tuned positive tension brane with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{brane}}=24M^3/L`$: its contribution is cancelled by the bulk curvature and does not enter in the holographic dual theory. We see that varying the two parameters that describe the CFT we can compensate the energy density and pressure on the brane333If we take $`Q=0`$ we have only one free parameter and every static solution must be fine-tuned .. This can be done with some restrictions: it is easy to check in the 5D picture that the sum $`\rho _{\mathrm{CFT}}+\rho _{\mathrm{Gold}.}`$ is always positive and that the hidden sector contribution satisfies the weak energy condition $`\rho +p0`$ (444This actually holds only if the matter on the brane gives a subdominant contribution with respect to the brane tension; this is anyway required if we want to neglect higher derivatives of the Ricci tensor in the 4D dual.). Therefore the visible sector matter must have negative energy density and $`\rho +p0`$: $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }1`$. The brane tension does not contribute to $`\rho +p`$, so that also the total energy-momentum tensor of the brane (brane tension + visible matter) in the 5D picture violates the weak energy condition. This gives the bound $`\omega 1`$ for the whole brane discussed before .

It is easy to see that the violation of the weak energy condition  is pretty generic because in the 4D language there is a cancellation of $`\rho +p`$ among the various components. From this 4D point of view it is obvious that de Sitter or anti-de Sitter are obtainable only with a precise choice of the parameters: namely we have to “turn off” the CFT setting $`\mu =Q=0`$ and put pure tension on the brane. Only in this way does the total stress-energy tensor have $`p=\rho `$ as required by $`\mathrm{dS}_4`$ or $`\mathrm{AdS}_4`$ solutions.

In the holographic counterpart of the 5D model the possibility to evade Weinberg’s no-go theorem is seen in a slightly different way. Now the bulk dynamics is reinterpreted in a purely 4D language so that the theory is Lorentz invariant; nevertheless the static configurations are not Lorentz invariant: the CFT is, in particular, in a thermal state.

This point is quite general: the bulk metrics that violate the $`SO(3,1)`$ symmetry are holographically mapped into 4D states that are not Lorentz invariant. We notice that this is rather particular, because from the 4D point of view it is obvious that this Lorentz violating effects disappear for sufficiently high energy: locally the theory is Lorentz invariant as implied by the equivalence principle. As stressed in , this is not what happens in general when we look at the 4D effective action obtained as reduction of a higher dimensional theory: in this case the theory may never behave as Lorentz invariant, even in the UV limit. The point is that we are considering rather particular spaces that are asymptotically AdS5 so that it is obvious that they behave as Lorentz invariant in the high energy limit, which is sensitive only to the asymptotic region.

In the same reference  a cosmological problem for extra-dimensional theories was considered: as standard 4D cosmology must address the question of why the Universe is very close to the spatial flatness, now we have the further task to justify the approximate $`SO(3,1)`$ symmetry of the bulk. In the particular models we are studying, these two problems are deeply linked and they can be solved in the same way555This relation was briefly discussed in .. It is in fact clear, from the 4D point of view, that a period of inflation solves not only the flatness problem (as usual) but also the second one, because every possible non-invariant initial state is red-shifted away. From the 5D picture we look at the inflationary phase as a movement of the Planck brane towards the UV region which, as we said, is asymptotically AdS5 and therefore $`SO(3,1)`$-invariant.

Even if we have studied only the simple example given by the metric (1), we expect all our discussion to remain qualitatively true for other asymmetrically warped space-times, asymptotic to AdS. In particular the self-tuning of the cosmological constant will always turn into a cancellation among the various 4D energy components.

## 3  Causality on the brane and in the bulk

A characteristic property of asymmetrically warped space-times (see metric (1) for example) is that the speed of light is different at different points along the extra dimension. The holographic interpretation of this fact is simple: signals propagating in the bulk are viewed as excitations of the CFT and there is no reason to expect these excitations to have the speed of light. The problem is to understand what the interpretation of signals moving faster than light is: they violate causality from a 4D perspective. How is this possible?

First of all we have to distinguish two different cases. In the presence of a naked singularity it is possible that the speed of light on the surfaces at fixed $`r`$

$$c(r)=\frac{L}{r}h(r)^{1/2}$$
(12)
is growing, moving far from the brane (i.e. going to smaller $`r`$). This happens in the AdS–Reissner–Nordström metric if the charge is high enough: there are no positive root of the equation $`h(r)=0`$ and the singularity is naked. In this case, even if the brane is fixed at a given value of $`r`$, with flat induced metric, bulk signals can travel faster than those remaining on the brane. The different speed of light and gravitational signals could give experimental signatures in the forecoming gravitational wave experiments: electromagnetic and gravitational waves emitted by a supernova would arrive at different times . The presence of a naked singularity is however problematic from both the gravitational and the CFT side: it is difficult to discuss if and how the gravitational singularity will be resolved666A similar problem appeared in other extra-dimensional attempts to cancel the 4D cosmological constant ., while from the 4D point of view it is likely that we are trying to describe a theory which is not in its true vacuum so that causality could be violated. In the following we will study the cases in which the singularities are shielded by horizons, so that the gravitational and CFT pictures are under control. If the singularities are shielded, the speed of light is decreasing going to smaller $`r`$ and a geodesic escaping into the bulk cannot have a turning point and come back to the starting value of $`r`$. Nevertheless we can always have geodesics that connect two points on the brane protruding into the bulk if the brane moves (or more generally if it is bent) into the bulk itself. In this case the difference in signal propagation is deeply linked with the induced metric on the brane so that experimental signals can only come from cosmology.

To face the problem we study an example that is simpler than the metrics previously discussed, but equivalent with respect to this aspect of apparent causality violation. We take the pure AdS5 metric and a positive tension brane with matter living on it, which moves in the 5D space obeying, as usual, Israel’s junction conditions. From the brane point of view we have an induced metric of the form (3), with the only difference that now the 4D Einstein equations have no additional piece due to the bulk CFT. Let us study the propagation of bulk signals in this simple setting. Using the AdS5 parametrization

$$ds^2=\frac{L^2}{z^2}(dx^\mu dx_\mu +dz^2),$$
(13)
the distance $`r`$ travelled by a gravitational signal between two points $`A`$ and $`B`$ is obviously given by777Notice that there is no turning point: the geodesic always moves in a fixed $`r`$ direction. However, the brane motion into the bulk may be such that the gravitational signal leaves the brane and reintersects it at a subsequent time.

$$(z_Bz_A)^2+r^2=(t_Bt_A)^2.$$
(14)
In these coordinates the induced metric on a brane moving in the AdS background is of the form

$$ds_{\mathrm{brane}}^2=d\tau ^2+\frac{L^2}{z_{\mathrm{brane}}^2(\tau )}dx^idx_i:$$
(15)
the FRW scale factor $`R`$ is given by $`L/z_{\mathrm{brane}}`$ and

$$dt^2=\frac{1}{R^2}(1+L^2H^2)d\tau ^2,$$
(16)
where $`H`$ is the Hubble parameter. Let us take the two points $`A`$ and $`B`$ lying on the brane: from (14) and (16) we get

$$r_g=\left(\left[_A^B\frac{d\tau }{R}\sqrt{1+L^2H^2}\right]^2\left[_A^B\frac{d\tau }{R}LH\right]^2\right)^{1/2}.$$
(17)
This defines a “gravitational horizon”: the maximum distance that can be covered from $`t_A`$ to $`t_B`$ through signals moving in the bulk. We notice that this distance is always greater than the standard one, obtained by considering signals travelling on the brane (let’s say “light” signals):

$$r_\gamma =_A^B\frac{d\tau }{R}.$$
(18)
Notice that in obtaining eq. (17) we must assume that the brane motion is such that the geodesics can connect points $`A`$ and $`B`$ remaining inside the physical space, i.e. $`zz_{\mathrm{brane}}`$. It easy to show that this is true if $`dH/d\tau 0`$, which translates into the weak energy condition $`\rho +p0`$ . The inflating Universe $`\rho +p=0`$ is the borderline situation: bulk and brane geodesics coincide as implied by the fact that eqs (17) and (18) give the same result.

The problem is that the 4D holographic counterpart lives on the metric (15) so that it defines the causal horizon by (18), while we have seen that in the AdS picture the causal horizon is greater and given by (17). We expect the two equivalent theories to have the same causal horizon, because this fixes the possibility for a space-time event to affect another one. How can we reconcile the two points of view?

The solution is evident if one goes back to the definition of the duality. The introduction of the Planck brane can be seen as a way of integrating out all degrees of freedom of the CFT above the scale $`1/L`$: the 4D theory is defined with a Wilsonian cutoff given by the inverse of the AdS radius. In this way the conformal theory feels the gravitational background as smeared out over a typical length scale $`L`$ and this justifies the apparent discrepancy between (17) and (18). For example eq. (17) can be specified for a standard power law evolution of the form $`R(\tau )=R_0\tau ^\alpha `$ with $`\alpha <1`$ to give, for $`HL^1`$

$$\frac{r_g}{r_\gamma }1+(LH_B)^2\frac{1\alpha }{2(1+\alpha )}\left(\frac{R_B}{R_A}\right)^{1+\frac{1}{\alpha }}.$$
(19)
A significant result can be obtained on the CFT side if we consider that its excitations feel a scale factor $`R(\tau )`$ averaged over a time $`L`$. Always in the limit $`HL^1`$ we have

$$\overline{R}(\tau )R(\tau )\left(1+(LH)^2\frac{\alpha 1}{24\alpha }\right):$$
(20)
calculating the causal horizon (18) with $`\overline{R}(\tau )`$ instead of $`R(\tau )`$ the result (19) is obtained up to a factor of order one. Actually it is not possible to establish a precise correspondence because the details of the smearing procedure are not known, but we clearly see that there is no obvious contradiction between the two ways of looking at the same theory. The same remains true if we consider more complicated 5D metric as (1): now the propagation of bulk signals is described by excitations of the hot CFT, but the apparent violations of causality can be explained in the same way.

Notice that a consistent difference between the two horizons is obtained only if the typical curvature of the induced metric $``$ is greater than the AdS curvature. This regime is beyond the possibility of the CFT description because an infinite number of operators involving higher derivatives of the metric should be taken into account. This is another indication that the theory is coarse-grained over the length scale $`L`$.

### 3.1 The full AdS case

How much of what of we said remains true in the pure AdS case, in which no brane is present and the 4D gravity is non-dynamical? In general to understand if the causality structure given on a fixed surface by the induced metric is the same as that given by the bulk metric, we must check if the surface has extrinsic curvature. In particular the two structures do not coincide if

$$K_{ab}k^ak^b0,$$
(21)
where $`K_{ab}`$ is the extrinsic curvature of the surface and $`k`$ is a null vector for the induced metric. In this case the null geodesics do not lie on the surface so that the causal structures are different.

In the pure AdS case the bulk metric can be cast into the form

$$G_{ij}dx^idx^j=\frac{L^2}{z^2}\left(g_{\mu \nu }(x^\mu ,z)dx^\mu dx^\nu +dz^2\right),$$
(22)
where $`g`$ tends to a given metric $`g_{(0)}`$ at the boundary ($`z=0`$), which belongs to the conformal structure on which the CFT lives. We can obtain an expansion for $`g`$, using the bulk Einstein equations, of the form888For our discussion the presence of terms in $`\mathrm{log}z`$  is irrelevant.

$$g=g_{(0)}+z^2g_{(2)}+z^4g_{(4)}\mathrm{},$$
(23)
with $`g_{(n)}`$ an expression with $`n`$ derivatives of the metric $`g_{(0)}`$.

The extrinsic curvature of a surface at fixed small $`z`$ can be calculated to give at leading order

$$K_{\mu \nu }=\frac{L}{z^2}g_{(0)\mu \nu }+𝒪(z^2).$$
(24)
As a function of the induced metric $`\gamma `$ on the surface at fixed $`z`$ we get

$$K_{\mu \nu }\frac{1}{L}\gamma _{\mu \nu }+Lg_{(2)\mu \nu }.$$
(25)
The first term is not important because, being proportional to the induced metric, it vanishes if applied to null vectors; the second one is given by

$$g_{(2)\mu \nu }=\frac{1}{2}\left(R_{\mu \nu }\frac{1}{6}Rg_{(0)\mu \nu }\right),$$
(26)
where $`R_{\mu \nu }`$ and $`R`$ are the Ricci tensor and the scalar curvature of $`g_{(0)}`$. We obtain for the component $`K^{\mathrm{NULL}}`$ of the extrinsic curvature non-vanishing on the null vectors

$$K_{\mu \nu }^{\mathrm{NULL}}=\frac{L}{2}R_{\mu \nu }+𝒪(z^2).$$
(27)
The Ricci tensor for the metric $`g_{(0)}`$ is the same, at leading order in $`z`$, as that for the induced metric $`\gamma `$ so that we are relating the extrinsic and intrinsic curvatures of a surface at fixed $`z`$. The expression (27) is valid for any metric $`g_{(0)}`$ we choose in the same conformal class, for any (sufficiently small) $`z`$ and therefore for the boundary $`z=0`$. We see that for any surface at fixed $`z`$ geodesics starting on the surface do not remain on it: the causal structure is different from that implied by the induced metric $`\gamma `$. The meaning of this remains the same as in the presence of a brane: whatever surface at fixed $`z`$ we choose, the CFT living on it, conjectured to be dual to the gravity theory inside , does not know the details of the metric: it is always blurred over a length scale of order $`L`$. This is another way to look at the holographic idea that the boundary theory has only a limited storage capability: one degree of freedom per Planck volume . In fact a theory with $`N^2`$ fields living on a lattice of spacing $`L`$ has a number of degrees of freedom in a 3D volume $`V`$

$$N_{\mathrm{dof}}N^2\frac{V}{L^3}\frac{V}{G_5}.$$
(28)
To conclude we stress that even if eq. (27) is valid for any $`z`$ and implies the finite number of degrees of freedom per Planck volume, in the limit $`z0`$ the corrections to the causal structure due to bulk geodesics vanish. This follows from the fact that the scalar curvature of the surfaces tends to zero, making the advantage of the shortcuts smaller and smaller. In this way, after removing the cut-off, the CFT feels exactly the conformal structure $`g_{(0)}`$ belongs to.

## 4 Conclusions

We have studied the holographic dual of asymmetrically warped space-times that are asymptotically AdS. The self-tuning of the cosmological constant is reinterpreted in a much more conventional (and unappealing!) way: the stress-energy tensor of the matter living on the brane is cancelled by a “dark sector” formed by a strongly coupled CFT, which is charged under a spontaneously broken global symmetry. The possibility to detect a difference in light and gravitational waves speed is possible only in the presence of a naked singularity, which is likely to describe a CFT in a wrong vacuum. In the presence of horizon-shielded singularities the difference between the causal horizon defined using only geodesics on the brane and that defined in the full space is justified in the dual theory as a smearing of the 4D metric over a length scale of the order of the AdS radius. This difference, however, is always small when the 4D dual makes sense.

#### Acknowledgements

I thank Riccardo Rattazzi for many useful comments and Alessandro Strumia for constructive criticisms. This work is partially supported by EC under TMR contract HPRN-CT-2000-00148.


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# Resonant Control of Elastic Collisions in an Optically Trapped Fermi Gas of Atoms

## Abstract

We have loaded an ultracold gas of fermionic atoms into a far off resonance optical dipole trap and precisely controlled the spin composition of the trapped gas. We have measured a magnetic-field Feshbach resonance between atoms in the two lowest energy spin-states, $`|9/2,9/2`$ and $`|9/2,7/2`$. The resonance peaks at a magnetic field of $`201.5\pm 1.4`$ G and has a width of $`8.0\pm 1.1`$ G. Using this resonance we have changed the elastic collision cross section in the gas by nearly 3 orders of magnitude.
PACS number(s): 34.50.-s, 32.80.Pj, 05.30.Fk

Magnetic-field Feshbach resonances have recently emerged as a powerful tool for studies of ultracold and quantum degenerate gases. These resonances arise when the collision energy of two free atoms coincides with that of a quasi-bound molecular state. To access the resonance a magnetic field is applied to tune relative energies through the Zeeman effect. Measurements of Feshbach resonances enable highly accurate determinations of molecular interaction parameters. More importantly, a Feshbach resonance gives the experimenter the unique ability to control the interaction strength in a system. The interactions between atoms in a gas can be adjusted from very weak to very strong simply by controlling the magnitude of an applied magnetic field. In addition, a Feshbach resonance can be used to control the sign of the s-wave scattering length, which determines whether interactions between atoms are effectively repulsive or attractive. These abilities were recently exploited in 85Rb experiments where a Feshbach resonance was used to facilitate evaporative cooling to Bose-Einstein condensation. Furthermore, the resonance enabled a detailed study of the collapse dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates with attractive interactions. In a quantum degenerate Fermi gas of atoms a magnetic-field Feshbach resonance has the potential to play a similar and equally valuable role in exploring radically different interaction regimes. Additionally, a Feshbach resonance in a Fermi gas offers the opportunity to access a predicted phase transition to a novel superfluid state.

In this Letter we report the observation of a Feshbach resonance between optically trapped fermionic atoms in two different internal states. An optical dipole trap was used to confine atoms in the two lowest energy Zeeman states of 40K, $`|F=9/2,m_F=9/2`$ and $`|9/2,7/2`$, where $`F`$ is the total atomic spin and $`m_F`$ is the magnetic quantum number. The Feshbach resonance between atoms in these states drives a dramatic change in the measured cross-dimensional rethermalization rate, with a peak at an applied magnetic field of $`201.5\pm 1.4`$ G, in agreement with the theoretical prediction in Ref. .

The fermionic isotope 40K, with a nuclear spin of 4, has a wealth of spin-states available for study (see Fig. 1). The procedure for creating an ultracold gas of 40K atoms builds upon our previous cooling and trapping techniques. Atoms in the $`|9/2,9/2`$ and $`|9/2,7/2`$ states are first held in a magnetic trap and cooled by forced evaporation. (Two spin components are used for the evaporative cooling because fermions in the same internal state stop colliding at ultralow temperatures.) The ultracold gas is then loaded into a far-off resonance optical dipole trap (FORT). The FORT provides additional experimental capabilities, such as the ability to confine atoms in any combination of hyperfine spin-states with a trapping potential that is independent of an atom’s magnetic moment. This is particularly useful when working with fermionic atoms since the realization of an interacting quantum Fermi gas requires two (or more) components. In addition, optical trapping allows for the application of arbitrary magnetic fields. Both capabilities are essential for accessing the predicted Feshbach resonance in 40K since it occurs for collisions between atoms in the “strong-field-seeking” $`|9/2,9/2`$ and $`|9/2,7/2`$ states, which cannot be confined in a static magnetic trap.

The FORT consists of a single focused beam obtained from a $`\lambda `$ = 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser. The trapping beam passes through an acousto-optic modulator, which is used for intensity stabilization and switching. The beam is spatially filtered with a single-mode optical fiber before being focused to a waist of approximately 20 $`\mu `$m at the center of the magnetic trap. To load the atoms into the FORT we simply overlap the FORT beam with the magnetic trap. The FORT is switched on to 0.18 W in 40 ms with a linear ramp. The magnetic trap is then turned off quickly ($`<`$ 1 ms switching time) 10 ms later.

Before imaging the atom cloud, the FORT light is suddenly switched off and the gas is allowed to expand freely. Following an expansion time of typically 6 ms we take a picture of the gas using resonant absorption imaging. Number, temperature, and center-of-mass position of the gas are extracted from the images. As this imaging technique is destructive, all the measurements described here involved repeated cycles of the experiment. To observe the spin-composition of the gas, a magnetic field with a strong vertical gradient is applied during the expansion from the FORT. Atoms in different spin states then separate spatially via the Stern-Gerlach effect. Figure 1 shows a resonant absorption image of a gas that contains a mixture of all 10 Zeeman states in the $`F=9/2`$ hyperfine ground state of 40K.

To characterize the FORT strength, the radial frequency was measured by modulating the optical power and monitoring the resulting temperature of the gas. For a harmonic potential, parametric heating occurs when the modulation frequency equals twice the trap frequency. In parametric heating measurements we observed two transverse frequencies, vertical and horizontal, which differed by a factor of 1.6. We attribute this difference to astigmatism or asymmetry in the FORT beam optics. For the 0.8 W of optical power used for the measurements of the Feshbach resonance, the lower, vertical frequency, $`\nu _y`$, was 1.2 kHz. In the weaker axial direction the trap strength was measured by exciting center-of-mass motion with a pulsed magnetic field gradient. In the 0.8 W FORT the gas oscillated with a frequency of 15 Hz. However, strong damping of this axial motion after only a couple cycles was indicative of strong anharmonicity in the axial potential. As an operational measure of the trap depth we found that the maximum temperature of a gas confined in the 0.8 W FORT was 18 $`\mu `$K.

Exploitation of a Feshbach resonance between atoms in two internal states requires precise control over the spin composition of the gas. Both elastic and inelastic collision rates can be strongly affected by spin composition impurity. For example, if the elastic collision cross-section between the two relevant states is tuned to zero using the Feshbach resonance, even a small fraction of atoms in a third spin state will dominate collisional interactions in the gas and set a finite elastic collision rate. In addition, atoms in other spin states can cause heating and number loss due to inelastic processes such as spin-exchange collisions.

For measurements of the Feshbach resonance, the spin composition of the gas was controlled using the following procedure. Prior to loading the FORT, the magnetically trapped 40K gas was spin-polarized with all the atoms in the $`|9/2,9/2`$ state. Atoms in the second spin-state used for the evaporative cooling, $`|9/2,7/2`$, were selectively removed with a frequency-swept microwave field, which drove transitions to an untrapped spin state in the upper hyperfine ground state. To ensure that the remaining gas contained only atoms in the $`|9/2,9/2`$ state, we applied a second frequency-swept microwave field that removed any atoms in the $`|9/2,5/2`$ and $`|9/2,3/2`$ states. The spin-polarized gas was then loaded into the FORT as described above. To preserve the spin composition we maintained an applied magnetic field of at least 2 gauss while the atoms were in the FORT.

After the gas is loaded into the FORT, we used adiabatic rapid passage to create a mixture of atoms in the $`|9/2,9/2`$ and $`|9/2,7/2`$ states. The transfer used an applied radio-frequency (rf) field and was performed in two steps. For both steps a static, spatially uniform  magnetic field of 28.5 G, generated by two of the magnetic trap coils, was applied along the weaker axial direction of the FORT. In the first step, the spin-polarized $`|9/2,9/2`$ gas was completely transferred to the $`|9/2,9/2`$ state with a 10 ms long frequency sweep across all 9 Zeeman transitions. In the second step, approximately 40$`\%`$ of the atoms were transferred to the $`|9/2,7/2`$ state by sweeping the rf frequency across the $`|9/2,9/2`$ to $`|9/2,7/2`$ transition in 20 ms. With the rf sweeps optimized for minimal transfer to other Zeeman states, the fraction of atoms transferred to the $`|9/2,7/2`$ spin state was 36$`\pm 8\%`$.

For our measurements of the Feshbach resonance the FORT power was adiabatically increased from 0.18 W to 0.8 W and the magnetic field was increased to between 160 G and 260 G. The elastic collision cross-section was then measured with a cross-dimensional rethermalization technique. The cloud was taken out of thermal equilibrium by applying a parametric drive (modulating the optical trap power) to preferentially heat the gas in the vertical direction. The optical power in the FORT beam was modulated for 3 to 5 ms with a 30$`\%`$ amplitude and a frequency of 2$`\nu _y`$. Following parametric heating, thermal relaxation of the gas was observed in the time evolution of the rms cloud radii $`z_{rms}`$, $`y_{rms}`$ in the axial and radial directions (see Fig. 2). A rethermalization time constant $`\tau `$ was extracted from an exponential fit to the aspect ratio $`z_{rms}`$/$`y_{rms}`$ versus time.

The elastic collision cross-section $`\sigma `$ was obtained from the measured rethermalization time $`\tau `$ using $`\frac{1}{\tau }`$ = $`\frac{2}{\alpha }n\sigma v`$. The constant $`\alpha `$ = 2.5 is the calculated average number of binary s-wave collisions required for thermalization . The mean relative speed is given by $`v=4\sqrt{\frac{k_BT}{\pi m}}`$ and the density overlap by $`n=\frac{1}{N}n(\stackrel{}{r})^2f(1f)d^3\stackrel{}{r}`$, where $`f`$ is the fraction of atoms in the $`|9/2,7/2`$ spin-state. The total number of atoms $`N`$, the temperature $`T`$, and the density $`n(\stackrel{}{r})`$ were obtained from gaussian fits to absorption images of equilibrated samples.

Figure 3 shows the elastic collision cross-section $`\sigma `$ as a function of the applied magnetic field. The Feshbach resonance is clearly revealed as a change in $`\sigma `$ spanning nearly 3 orders of magnitude. At the peak of the resonance $`\sigma `$ is limited by the finite temperature of the gas (T = 5 $`\mu `$K), while at the zero of the resonance $`\sigma `$ is limited by a background rethermalization rate. For the data shown in Fig. 3 we have subtracted this background rate, which was determined by measuring the rethermalization rate in a spin-polarized $`|9/2,9/2`$ gas and is consistent with spin-state contamination at the level of 0.2$`\%`$. The error bars in Fig. 3 are dominated by uncertainties in $`\tau `$ and the background rate. In addition, $`\sigma `$ has an overall systematic uncertainty of approximately $`\pm 50\%`$ that comes from measurements of $`N`$. The magnetic field values $`B`$ were calibrated using rf-driven spin-flip transitions and have a systematic uncertainty of $`\pm `$ 0.5%.

The solid line in Fig. 3 is the best-fit theory curve, computed from a multichannel scattering calculation whose details have been discussed elsewhere . In this calculation the singlet and triplet scattering lengths $`a_s`$ and $`a_t`$ are regarded as fully independent fitting parameters that uniquely characterize the singlet and triplet potassium potentials. The model has been refined to incorporate both the accurate ab initio van der Waals coefficient $`C_6=3897\pm 15`$  and the correct number of bound states in the 39K singlet and triplet potentials, $`n_s=86`$ and $`n_t=27`$, respectively . For each value of applied magnetic field, thermally averaged cross sections are computed as described in Ref. . The reduced $`\chi ^2`$ is then minimized with respect to $`a_s`$, $`a_t`$, and an overall scaling factor $`ϵ`$ that accounts for the systematic uncertainty in the magnitude of the measured cross section. The resulting best fit, with $`\chi ^2=1.06`$, yields $`a_s=104.8\pm 0.4`$, $`a_t=174\pm 7`$, and $`ϵ=1.30`$. We find that $`C_6`$ does not play a critical role in the shape or the position of the resonance, but does affect the nominal value of $`a_t`$. This uncertainty is included in the quoted $`a_t`$ error bars. Performing the proper mass scaling, the scattering lengths of 39K are found to be $`a_s=139.4\pm 0.7a_o`$ and $`a_t=37\pm 6a_0`$, where $`a_o`$ is the Bohr radius. These results are in agreement with the values of triplet scattering length reported in Ref.  ($`a_t=33\pm 5a_o`$) and the singlet scattering length reported in Ref.  ($`a_s=140_6^{+3}a_o`$).

In conclusion, we have demonstrated an optical trap for an ultracold gas of fermionic atoms. While the experiments described here were carried out in the nondegenerate regime (at approximately twice the Fermi temperature), future work will explore an optically trapped quantum degenerate gas. For example, with an appropriate choice of FORT and magnetic trap parameters it may be possible to achieve a high degree of degeneracy with an adiabatic compression of the Fermi gas. Further, optical trapping has enabled us to observe a magnetic-field Feshbach resonance in $`{}_{}{}^{40}K`$. This resonance is one of only a handful of such resonances observed to date and furthermore is unique in that it occurs for fermionic atoms in different internal states. Future work will explore the utility of this tool for controlling collisional interactions in a dilute Fermi gas. We have already seen density dependent heating and number loss around the peak of the Feshbach resonance. Understanding these effects, presumably due to inelastic collisions, will be important for future applications. Of particular interest is the region where the s-wave scattering length is negative, between the peak and the minimum seen in our elastic collision cross-section measurements. Here the interparticle interactions are effectively attractive and could drive Cooper pairing of the fermionic atoms.

This work is supported by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. C. A. Regal acknowledges support from the Hertz Foundation.


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# Isotropic-Nematic Transition in Liquid-Crystalline Elastomers

(September 24, 2002)

## Abstract

In liquid-crystalline elastomers, the nematic order parameter and the induced strain vary smoothly across the isotropic-nematic transition, without the expected first-order discontinuity. To investigate this smooth variation, we measure the strain as a function of temperature over a range of applied stress, for elastomers crosslinked in the nematic and isotropic phases, and analyze the results using a variation on Landau theory. This analysis shows that the smooth variation arises from quenched disorder in the elastomer, combined with the effects of applied stress and internal stress.

Liquid-crystalline elastomers are unusual materials that combine the elastic properties of rubbers with the anisotropy of liquid crystals warner96 ; terentjev99 . They consist of crosslinked networks of polymers with mesogenic units. Because of this structure, any stress on the polymer network influences the orientational order of the liquid crystal, and conversely, any change in the orientational order affects the shape of the elastomer. These materials are being actively studied for both basic research mao00 ; warner00 ; clarke01prl ; mao01 ; finkelmann01  and applications, including use as actuators or artificial muscles thomsen01 . For this application, a change in temperature near the isotropic-nematic transition induces a large change in the orientational order, which causes the elastomer to extend or contract.

In this paper, we investigate the isotropic-nematic transition in liquid-crystalline elastomers. In conventional liquid crystals, this is a first-order transition, with a discontinuity in the magnitude of the orientational order as a function of temperature. By contrast, experiments on liquid-crystalline elastomers show that both the orientational order parameter and the elastomer strain change smoothly at this transition, with no first-order discontinuity thomsen01 ; schatzle89 ; kaufhold91 ; disch94 ; clarke01pre . Surprisingly, this is neither a first- nor a second-order transition, but rather a rapid nonsingular crossover from the isotropic to the nematic phase. Thus, the key question is how to explain this difference between conventional liquid crystals and liquid-crystalline elastomers. That question is important for basic research, because it shows how orientational ordering is affected by coupling to a crosslinked polymer network. That question is also important for applications, because it shows how to optimize these materials for artificial muscles, which should have the greatest possible length change for a fixed temperature change.

There are two possible explanations for a smooth crossover from the isotropic to the nematic phase. The first explanation is based on the effect of an aligning stress on a first-order transition degennes75 . The classical theory of phase transitions predicts the generic behavior shown in Fig. 1. For a stress below the critical point, a system has a first-order discontinuity in the order parameter at the transition. As the stress increases, the discontinuity decreases. When the stress reaches the critical point, the discontinuity vanishes and the system has an infinite slope in the order parameter as a function of temperature. Beyond the critical point, the system evolves smoothly from the disordered to the ordered phase. In liquid-crystalline elastomers, an aligning stress may come from an applied stress on the sample. It may also come from an internal stress due to crosslinking an elastomer in the nematic phase, which imprints orientational order in the pattern of crosslinks. It is possible that the combination of applied stress and internal stress might put an elastomer beyond the critical point, so that it would show a supercritical evolution from the isotropic to the nematic phase. If this explanation is correct, then one would optimize elastomers for applications by working close to the critical point, where the slope is greatest.

An alternative explanation for this behavior is heterogeneity in an elastomer. The polymerization and crosslinking process induces some quenched disorder in a sample. For example, polydispersity in the chain length gives one type of disorder. This disorder may lead to a distribution of regions with different isotropic-nematic transition temperatures. In that case, at any given temperature, a sample would have a coexistence of isotropic and nematic domains. As the temperature decreases, it would cross over from mostly isotropic to mostly nematic, leading to a smooth evolution in the average orientational order parameter and in the macroscopic strain. If this explanation is correct, then one would optimize elastomers for applications by reducing the heterogeneity to get the transition in the narrowest possible range of temperature.

To determine which explanation is correct, we measure the strain as a function of temperature over a range of applied tensile stress. We use elastomer samples crosslinked in the nematic phase, which should have a large internal stress imprinted by the crosslinking process, and samples crosslinked in the isotropic phase, which should not have an internal stress. The samples are composed of a 50/50 mol % mixture of 4-acryloyloxybutyl 2,5-(4-butyloxybenzoyloxy)benzoate (MAOC4) and 4-acryloyloxybutyl 2,5-di(4-pentylcyclohexyloyloxy)benzoate (MACC5), with 5 mol % of the 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate crosslinker. Nematic-crosslinked samples are simultaneously polymerized and crosslinked in a cell with rubbed surfaces at $`30^{}`$C, and isotropic-crosslinked samples at $`110^{}`$C. Synthesis, preparation, and characterization of nematic-crosslinked samples are described in Ref. thomsen01 . At low temperature those samples have long-range orientational order, with order parameter $`S=\frac{3}{2}\mathrm{cos}^2\theta \frac{1}{2}`$ of 0.3, as determined by polarized FTIR spectroscopy thomsen01 .

Under zero applied stress, the samples were seen to extend and contract as a function of temperature. For finite applied stress, the thermoelastic curves for strain vs. temperature were obtained in static measurements on a dynamic mechanical analyzer (TA Instruments DMA 2980) at a heating/cooling rate of $`0.5^{}`$C/min. The data are shown in Fig. 2. The strain is measured relative to an arbitrary zero value. These plots show a smooth nonsingular isotropic-nematic transition at all values of the applied stress, and under both crosslinking conditions, although the transition is sharper at lower applied stress and under isotropic crosslinking.

To assess whether the data are compatible with the first proposed explanation, we use Landau theory for a homogeneous elastomer. The free energy can be expanded in terms of the orientational order parameter $`S`$ and the strain $`e`$ relative to the high-temperature relaxed state. This expansion gives degennes75

$$F=\frac{1}{2}\alpha ^{}(TT_0^{})S^2\frac{1}{3}b^{}S^3+\frac{1}{4}c^{}S^4ueS\sigma e+\frac{1}{2}\mu e^2,$$
(1)
where $`T`$ is the temperature and $`\sigma `$ is the effective stress acting on the elastomer, which is a combination of the applied stress and the internal stress due to anisotropic crosslinking. We average this free energy over $`S`$ to obtain the free energy in terms of $`e`$ alone,

$$F=\frac{1}{2}\alpha (TT_0)e^2\frac{1}{3}be^3+\frac{1}{4}ce^4\sigma e.$$
(2)
Minimizing this free energy over $`e`$ gives

$$\alpha (TT_0)ebe^2+ce^3\sigma =0.$$
(3)
This equation implicitly determines $`e`$ as a function of $`T`$ and $`\sigma `$. In particular, it predicts a critical point at

$$\sigma _c=\frac{b^3}{27c^2},T_c=T_0+\frac{b^2}{3c\alpha }.$$
(4)
We attempt to fit the prediction of Eq. (3) to the data presented above. For computational convenience, we solve Eq. (3) for the inverse function $`T(e)`$ and fit it to temperature as a function of strain. Because this inverse function depends linearly on the fitting parameters, we can use linear regression techniques. Since the strain data are reported relative to an arbitrary zero, we subtract off the high-temperature asymptotic strain from the data to obtain the values of $`e`$ for the analysis. This procedure fits the data to the functional form shown in Fig. 1. The fit can be on either the first-order or the supercritical side of the critical point, depending on the data.

Our analysis gives the fits shown by the dashed lines in Fig. 3. These fits agree well with the data in the high- and low-temperature limits, but they are unsatisfactory for intermediate temperatures. In all cases, the fitting function shows a first-order discontinuity at the isotropic-nematic transition. Apparently the regression sacrifices the intermediate regime in order to give good fits at high and low temperatures. We also fit the data to an extended model with fifth- and sixth-order terms in the free energy (not shown), and the fits are also unsatisfactory. These results show that the data are not consistent with a supercritical evolution between the isotropic and nematic phases. The high- and low-temperature data do not connect together following the prediction for a supercritical transition in a homogeneous elastomer.

In addition to the unsatisfactory fits, there are two other indications that the data are inconsistent with predictions for a supercritical transition in a homogeneous elastomer. First, we can use the Landau theory to extract the maximum slope $`e/T`$ at the inflection point in the supercritical regime $`\sigma >\sigma _c`$. The result is

$$\left(\frac{e}{T}\right)_{\mathrm{max}}=\frac{\alpha }{3c^{2/3}(\sigma ^{1/3}\sigma _c^{1/3})}.$$
(5)
This equation implies that the maximum slope should decrease inversely with stress $`\sigma \sigma _c`$ beyond the critical point. However, the measured slope depends rather weakly on stress, and it is approximately constant with respect to stress at low stress. This result suggests that some mechanism other than supercritical stress is responsible for the observed broadening of the transition. Second, in this experiment we minimize any symmetry-breaking influence on the elastomer by crosslinking one sample in the isotropic phase and reducing the applied stress to 10 kPa. Even under these conditions, the experiment shows a smooth crossover between the isotropic and nematic phases. It is unlikely that these conditions could give a supercritical stress on the system; it is more plausible that another mechanism is involved.

Because of these inconsistencies between the data and the model for a homogeneous elastomer, we consider a model for heterogeneity in the elastomer. As a hypothesis, we suppose that heterogeneity gives regions with different isotropic-nematic transition temperatures. We consider a Gaussian distribution of the transition temperature $`T_{NI}`$, and thus of the parameter $`T_0`$. Hence, the macroscopic strain is an average over the strain of local regions, which can be written as the convolution

$$e_{\mathrm{hetero}}(\sigma ,T)=d(T_0)e_{\mathrm{homo}}(\sigma ,TT_0)P(T_0),$$
(6)
where

$$P(T_0)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi }T_{0,SD}}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{T_0\overline{T_0}}{T_{0,SD}}\right)^2\right].$$
(7)
To compare this heterogeneous prediction with the data, we take the homogeneous fit discussed above and convolve it with a Gaussian of adjustable width $`T_{0,SD}`$. We fit the width to the data through a nonlinear least-squares procedure. The results are shown by the solid lines in Fig. 3. The convolution does not change the high- or low-temperature limits of the fits, which were already satisfactory, but it has a great effect on the intermediate-temperature behavior. Instead of a discontinuous jump in the strain at $`T_{NI}`$, the fitted curves show a smooth crossover as the elastomer changes from mostly isotropic to mostly nematic. The shape of the curve in the intermediate-temperature regime is approximately an error function of width $`T_{0,SD}`$. This behavior agrees with the trend in the data. As a result, the heterogeneous model gives good fits over the full range of temperature.

To analyze the fitting results further, we would like to know how close an elastomer is to the critical point at $`\sigma =\sigma _c`$. For that reason, we define the dimensionless stress ratio $`\sigma /\sigma _c`$, where $`\sigma `$ is the apparent stress that comes from fitting the homogeneous model to the high- and low-temperature data, and $`\sigma _c=b^3/(27c^2)`$ is the critical stress derived from the parameters $`b`$ and $`c`$ in those fits. In Fig. 4(a) we plot the stress ratio for isotropic- and nematic-crosslinked samples vs. applied stress. From this plot, we can make several observations. First, the stress ratio increases linearly with applied stress. This increase is expected, since an applied stress should shift a sample toward the critical point. At the highest applied stress of 40 kPa, the nematic-crosslinked sample nearly reaches the critical point. When the applied stress goes to zero, the stress ratio does not go to zero but rather to a finite limit. This behavior shows that the effective stress acting on a sample is a combination of the applied stress and an internal stress. For the nematic-crosslinked sample, we expect an internal stress due to the anisotropy of the crosslinking, and indeed the internal stress is large, giving a contribution equivalent to 35 kPa of applied stress. For the isotropic-crosslinked sample, we do not expect an internal stress, but Fig. 4(a) implies that some internal stress is present, equivalent to 16 kPa of applied stress. This surprising contribution must come from some unintentional anisotropy in the sample preparation, perhaps related to the boundary conditions on the sample.

Another parameter to extract from the fits is the Gaussian width $`T_{0,SD}`$ that is required to fit the isotropic-nematic crossover in the data. In Fig. 4(b) we plot $`T_{0,SD}`$ vs. applied stress for isotropic- and nematic-crosslinked samples. The plot shows that the fitted values of $`T_{0,SD}`$ have some scatter, but they are not correlated with applied stress. This result is reasonable, because the distribution of transition temperatures should not be related to applied stress. The average value of $`T_{0,SD}`$ is approximately $`2.25^{}`$C for the isotropic- and $`2.9^{}`$C for the nematic-crosslinked sample. This corresponds to a distribution with a full width at half maximum of $`5.3^{}`$C or $`6.8^{}`$C in each of the samples, respectively.

As a final point, we note that our model for a distribution of transition temperatures describes only one way in which heterogeneity can affect liquid-crystalline elastomers. A second possible mechanism would be a distribution in the direction of the imprinted orientational order, especially in a sample crosslinked in the nematic phase. Indeed, a distribution of quenched director orientations might explain the greater value of the Gaussian width found in the nematic- than in the isotropic-crosslinked sample. A distribution of transition temperatures is random-bond disorder, while a distribution of quenched director orientations is random-field disorder. Our study has shown that the sharpness of the isotropic-nematic transition is controlled by heterogeneity, but it has not addressed the question of whether random-bond or random-field disorder is dominant. Indeed, measurements of the strain vs. temperature may not be enough to make this distinction; more microscopic studies may be needed. This remains a question for future research.

In conclusion, we have developed a phenomenological theory for the isotropic-nematic transition in liquid-crystalline elastomers. This theory is a variation on Landau theory, which allows for quenched disorder in the elastomer through variation in the transition temperature. We compare this theory with measurements of the strain vs. temperature over a range of applied stress, for samples crosslinked in the isotropic and nematic phases. This comparison shows that applied stress, internal stress, and quenched disorder are *all* involved in the shape of the thermoelastic curve. In particular, quenched disorder is a key limiting factor in the sharpness of the isotropic-nematic transition, which must be controlled for applications of liquid-crystalline elastomers.

We thank P. Keller for synthesizing the materials. This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. HGJ was supported by the National Research Council Associateship Program.


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# Effects of Grain Morphology and Impurities on the Infrared Spectra of Silicon Carbide Particles

## 1. Introduction

Thermal emission of solid silicon carbide (SiC) particles has been observed in the spectra of circumstellar envelopes around carbon stars (e.g. Little-Marenin 1986, Speck et al. 1997). The identification is based on a broad infrared feature in the 10-13 $`\mu `$m wavelength range, which is ascribed to the fundamental phonon transition of SiC. Attempts have been made to derive the crystal type of the circumstellar SiC grains from a comparison of the observed band profiles to those measured on laboratory analogs (Speck et al. 1997, 1999). Although knowledge about the crystal types (polytypes) of cosmic SiC grains would be very helpful, four points must be objected to such a comparison and the conclusions drawn from it:

1. The number of laboratory samples on which the comparison relies is very small and the samples have not been characterized sufficiently. In Sect. 3 we will show laboratory spectra of another set of SiC samples, which fully contradict the conclusions drawn by Speck et al. (1999).
2. The phonon frequencies of the several SiC polytypes are experimentally and theoretically known to be very similar (Mutschke et al. 1999). As we will show in Sect. 2 by calculating SiC particle spectra, therefore very similar band profiles are expected for the different polytypes.
3. As we have reviewed in another paper in this volume (Henning & Mutschke), absorption and emission by small grains near such strong transitions as the single-phonon band in SiC crystals is entirely determined by surface modes. Therefore, the grain morphology (shape, size and agglomeration) has a huge influence on the spectrum. This will be demonstrated by the calculations in Sect. 2 as well as by measurements (Sect. 4).
4. The $`\beta `$-SiC laboratory spectra used in the comparisons by Speck et al. (1997, 1999) are probably influenced by impurity-induced conductivity, which via plasmon-phonon coupling determines the appearance of the phonon band profile. Unfortunately, such impurity effects are not restricted to one or the other polytype. In Sect. 5 we will discuss this effect by means of a number of new laboratory spectra.

## 2. Theoretical Predictions for SiC Particle Spectra

SiC is one of the textbook examples for which the dielectric function in the phonon band can be described very exactly by a single Lorentzian oscillator. The oscillator parameters differ slightly from one polytype to another and for the anisotropic polytypes also for the polarizations in the directions of the different principal axes of the crystals. Mutschke et al. (1999) derived average values of the oscillator parameters for the most important polytypes based on an extensive literature study.

We have used these parameters to calculate absorption spectra of particles in the Rayleigh limit (nanometer-sized particles, for an exact definition see Henning & Mutschke, this volume) for ellipsoidally shaped grains composed of the two most common polytypes. We denote the cubic 3C polytype by $`\beta `$-SiC and the hexagonal 6H type by $`\alpha `$-SiC (see Mutschke et al. 1999). The calculated spectra clearly show (Fig. 1) that (i) there is no significant difference caused by the crystal type and (ii) the spectrum is very different for different grain shapes. In the case of uniform ellipsoidal (or spherical) shapes the extinction is dominated by resonances appearing between the transverse (about 12.6 $`\mu `$m) and longitudinal (about 10.3 $`\mu `$m) optical phonon frequencies. These resonances are related to the principal axes of the ellipsoids and are called “surface modes” (compare Bohren & Huffman 1983, chap.12). In the limiting case of infinite elongation of a particle axis (e.g. for extreme needle- or plate-like shapes) an additional very strong resonance occurs at the transverse optical frequency corresponding to the volume mode of the material (see Fig. 2).

Unfortunately, theory at the moment is not able to calculate the extinction for other more realistic grain shapes or distributions of shapes in strong absorption bands. It is quite clear that such a realistic sample will show a more continuous broad band covering more or less the whole wavelength range between the transverse and longitudinal optical phonon frequencies. A possibility for approximating such spectra is the assumption of a distribution of ellipsoidal shapes. A very extreme one with equal probability of all shapes (CDE, Bohren & Huffman 1983) is shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Similarly to the other calculated spectra it does not reveal significant differences between the polytypes, which might be observable in space. Although any measured spectrum could be, in principle, translated to such a distribution of ellipsoidal shapes (Papoular et al. 1998), this certainly is not an exact approach especially for irregular, sharp-edged grains and should be handled with care.

The result for infinite plate-like particles (Fig. 2) has to be equivalent to usual thin-film spectra. The latter indeed are known to show the pure volume mode (12.6 $`\mu `$m) in transmission measurements normal to the interfaces, and an additional resonance at the position of the longitudinal optical frequency (10.3 $`\mu `$m) for a measurement at grazing incidence and polarization normal to the interfaces (the Berreman effect, Sciacca et al. 1995). The spectra of the “thin films” produced by pressing SiC powder in a diamond anvil cell by Speck et al. (1999) do not show this typical thin-film characteristics, but a broad band quite similar to the CDE calculation and our measured particle spectra (see next sections). This indicates that forming a continuous thin film in the anvil cell fails in the case of the SiC powders, which together with a basic misunderstanding lead to questions about the influence of the particle-surrounding medium. The comparability of the anvil cell method with single-crystal transmission spectra, which is undoubted if real thin films are formed and only volume modes are measured, should not be intermixed with small-particle extinction measurements where surface modes dominate the spectrum.

## 3. Measurements on Polytypes

As we have seen in the preceding section, from a theoretical point of view, spectra of SiC particles of different polytype should not differ very much - provided that the morphologies are the same. Nevertheless, spectra of the cubic ($`\beta `$) and hexagonal/rhombohedral ($`\alpha `$) modifications published in the astronomical literature earlier, showed band maxima at different positions (11.4 and 11.8 $`\mu `$m, respectively). These band positions have been taken for characteristics of the polytypes and have been used for deriving the polytype of circumstellar grains.

In order to show that this conclusion is fallacious, Fig. 3 gives four other spectra of $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$SiC laboratory samples. Clearly, all of these spectra show band maxima longward of 11.8 $`\mu `$m independent of the polytype. Interestingly, the $`\beta `$SiC spectra peak at the longest wavelengths, around 12.2 $`\mu `$m. One of the spectra (dashed line) reveals a big shoulder towards smaller wavelengths, which could indicate a kind of affinity to the $`\beta `$SiC spectra known from the literature. However, this sample consists of pure $`\alpha `$SiC, which was proved by X-ray scattering.

All of these samples consist of submicron grains, especially the $`\beta `$SiC samples have typical grain sizes of about 50 nm, well below the Rayleigh limit. We will not deal further with size effects here, since they have been treated in detail by Andersen et al. (1999), Mutschke et al. (1999) and elsewhere in this volume (Henning & Mutschke).

The SiC samples have been measured dispersed in KBr. This is of course not an ideal preparational method since there remains a considerable amount of agglomeration of the grains, which together with the grain shape should determine the actual band profile. However, we are not aware of a better method for a given powder sample. We have to point out that the KBr matrix of course induces an effect on the spectrum in the way discussed by Henning & Mutschke (this volume). For SiC there is a possibility to correct for this in an approximate way by the method proposed by Papoular et al. (1998).

## 4. Measurements on Shape Effects

As we have seen in the previous section, there is no clear dependence of the SiC phonon band profile on the polytype, as expected. Nevertheless, the spectra show unsystematic differences in peak position and band shape. Following Sect. 2, a major reason for this behaviour could be different grain shapes.

The problem with discussing grain shape effects arises both from the theoretical and experimental side. As pointed out already, there is no theory which clearly can predict what band profiles have to be expected from a sample of the usually irregular, sharp-edged SiC grains. Further, the problem is considerably complicated by the fact that in the measurement the particles are not isolated from each other but form aggregates around the grains of the embedding medium (usually KBr). So far, there is no method to deagglomerate submicron powders for an IR measurement. Therefore, we have to expect that the probably very elongated aggregates determine the band profile to a large extent. This could be the reason why we find usually a band maximum quite close to the volume mode. There is no conclusive explanation so far for the small shoulder seen in many commercial SiC powders at about 10.6 $`\mu `$m (see the dotted line in Fig. 3, the big bump in the dashed line will be discussed in the next section).

Fortunately, there is a possibility to demonstrate by a measurement at least that shape effects indeed are real. This possibility is provided by commercial $`\beta `$-SiC samples which consist of whiskers with a diameter of 1-2 $`\mu `$m and a length of several ten micrometers. According to Sect. 2, such grains should produce two resonances. One at about 10.5 $`\mu `$m should be caused by electric fields normal to the whisker axis, and field components parallel to the whisker axis should produce a resonance close to the volume mode. Fig. 4 shows such measurements carried out with an infrared microscope. The unpolarized spectrum (solid line) indeed reveals both features expected. The IR microscope additionally allowed us to find some whiskers which by chance were aligned in the directions of their axes. Putting a polarizer directly in front of the sample we have been able to measure both resonances separately which proves their origin from the special grain shape.

## 5. Influence of Impurities

The calculations and measurements shown in the previous sections should have proven that $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$SiC cannot be distinguished in the way adopted by Speck et al. (1999). All measured spectra shown so far independently of the polytype peaked at 11.9-12.2 $`\mu `$m. It remains to clarify what is the reason for some SiC bands in the literature to appear with maxima at about 11-11.5 $`\mu `$m.

For this sake, Fig. 5 displays four spectra measured on other $`\alpha `$\- and $`\beta `$-SiC samples. Three of them have their phonon band maxima in the mentioned wavelength range, the fourth (shown already in Fig. 3) a big shoulder at these short wavelengths. Even more striking, all spectra reveal a broad absorption shortward of the phonon band reaching down to the near infrared. The maximum of the very broad absorption varies between 3 and 10 $`\mu `$m. These features point towards highly damped surface plasmon absorption caused by free charge carriers. The resonance frequency of the absorption band depends on the plasma frequency which is proportional to the square root of the carrier density. Similar absorption spectra are known from doped CdO and GaAs small particles. It is also known that the plasmon generally couples to the longitudinal phonon and, therefore, changes the appearance of the former band.

To our experience, such a plasmon absorption is quite common to many commercial and laboratory SiC products. Unfortunately, the nature of the charge carriers is still only partly understood. Mutschke et al. (1999) showed that plasmon absorption can be introduced into SiC particle spectra by doping the SiC grains with nitrogen. These investigations will be continued because the induced strong mid-infrared absorption should be important for the thermal behaviour of the circumstellar SiC particles. If such doped particles would be present in circumstellar environment they would probably be quite warm, comparable to carbon grains and much warmer than undoped SiC grains. This would also give them an advantage for being observed.

## 6. Conclusion

In our discussion of the optical properties of different polytypes of SiC we have demonstrated both theoretically and by experimental studies that it is not possible to distinguish by IR spectroscopy between $`\alpha `$\- and $`\beta `$-SiC dust grains. Observed profiles of SiC phonon bands contain information mainly about the morphology (size and shape) of the particles and possibly about the conductivity of the material. The evaluation of these grain properties, however, encounters the very general unsolved problem of calculating band profiles for complicated morphologies.

Therefore, progress in interpretation of observed band profiles in the future will mainly rely on laboratory measurements. The first problem which has to be solved in this respect is the preparation of particle samples free from agglomeration and with as little matrix-influence as possible. The second will be the preparation of realistic circumstellar-dust analogues by condensation experiments. Both things have been started already for carbonaceous grains by means of molecular beam techniques (Schnaiter et al. 1998) and are our program for the next years also with SiC.

### Acknowledgments.

H.M. gratefully acknowledges support by the Max Planck society. This project was partly supported by DFG grant Mu 1164/3-1.

## References

Andersen, A.C., Jäger, C., Mutschke, H., Braatz, A., Clément, D., Henning, Th., Jørgensen, U.G., Ott, U. 1999, A&A, 343, 933

Bohren, C.F., Huffman, D.R. 1983, Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small particles, John Wiley & Sons

Little-Marenin, I.R. 1986, ApJ, 307, L15

Mutschke, H., Andersen, A.C., Clément, D., Henning, Th., Peiter, G. 1999, A&A, 345, 187

Papoular, R., Cauchetier, M., Begin, S., LeCaer, G. 1998, A&A, 329, 1035

Schnaiter, M., Mutschke, H., Dorschner, J., Henning, Th., Salama, F. 1998, ApJ, 498, 486

Sciacca, M.D., Mayur, A.J., Oh, E., Ramdas, A.K., Rodriguez, S., Furdyna, J.K., Melloch, M.R., Beetz, C.P., Yoo, W.S. 1995, Phys. Rev. B, 51, 7744

Speck, A.K., Barlow, M.J., Skinner, C.J. 1997, MNRAS, 288, 431

Speck, A.K., Hofmeister, A.M., Barlow, M.J. 1999, ApJ, 513, L87


text:
# DESY 01-164 Overlap and domain wall fermions: what is the price of chirality?

## Abstract

In this contribution the costs of simulations employing domain wall and overlap fermions are estimated. In the discussion we will stay within the quenched approximation.

Chirally invariant formulations of lattice QCD are still relatively new. However, besides their conceptual advantages, a number of physics applications have already been performed . In these works it became clear that simulations with such formulations are expensive, even when they are restricted to the quenched approximation. Consequently, at the time of the conference no simulations have been performed with such dynamical quarks so far.

Our conclusions concerning the costs of simulations with dynamical overlap or domain wall fermions will therefore be rather indirect: we will estimate the overhead of using chiral invariant formulations to standard Wilson fermions in the quenched case and assume this overhead to be the same for an unquenched simulation. The discussion below will be organized in the form of four statements.

Statement 1

The 5-dimensional domain wall construction in the limit $`N_s\mathrm{}`$ is completely equivalent to a 4-dimensional lattice formulation of overlap fermions.

This is a mathematical statement that can be proven rigorously . Denoting by $`s`$ the extra 5th dimension, the 5-dimensional operator reads

$$D_5=\frac{1}{2}\{\gamma _5(_s^{}+_s)a_s_s^{}_s\}+M$$
(1)
with

$$M=D_wm_0.$$
(2)
Here $`D_w`$ is the standard Wilson-Dirac operator, $`a_s`$ the lattice spacing in the extra dimension and $`m_0`$ a mass parameter.

Keeping $`a_s`$ finite, in the limit $`N_s\mathrm{}`$ we obtain a 4-dimensional operator

$$aD_4=1A(A^{}A)^{1/2}$$
(3)
with

$$A=a_sM(2+a_sM)^1$$
(4)
that satisfies the Ginsparg-Wilson relation. If also $`a_s0`$, Neuberger’s overlap operator  is recovered.

Statement 2

Domain wall fermions do not perform better than overlap fermions.

The mathematical equivalence of domain wall and overlap fermions gives rise to the suspicion that also in practical applications no clear preference for either formulation –as far as the expense of the simulation is concerned– can be given. We give one example below for the cost of computing the pion propagator $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\pi `$ to a certain relative precision. In fig. 1 we plot the ratio $`R`$,

$$R=\left|\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_\pi ^{\mathrm{exact}}(T/3)\mathrm{\Gamma }_\pi ^{\mathrm{approx}}(T/3)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_\pi ^{\mathrm{exact}}(T/3)}\right|.$$
(5)
Aiming at a, say, per mil precision we find for this particular example that domain wall fermions are about a factor of two more expensive than overlap fermions. It is clear that for both formulations additional improvements might be implemented. However, it seems very unlikely that one particular formulation will give an order of magnitude better performance.

Statement 3

Keeping $`N_s`$ finite: the residual mass is not all.

The locality of chirality breaking effects is only guaranteed at distances $`|xy|N_sa`$. This is discussed in . First investigations of this question have been performed in . I find it very important to study the effects of this observation further on a quantitative level.

Statement 4

Whatever time estimate is found for Wilson fermions: multiply the effort by a factor of O(100) for chiral symmetric actions.

The factor referred to in this statement is really only an order of magnitude estimate. The reasons for this large factor are different for overlap and domain wall fermions.

In the case of overlap fermions it turns out that the polynomial required to approximate the square root has typically a degree of O(100). Since this polynomial has to be evaluated in every step of a linear solver, the cost of simulations with overlap fermions increase correspondingly. It is also noteworthy that so far no way of preconditioning the overlap operator has been found.

In the case of domain wall fermions there is some experience  that the number of conjugate gradient iterations is larger for the 5-dimensional problem. This in addition to the additional number of slices in the extra dimension gives again a large value of the factor compared to standard Wilson fermions.

Conclusion

If the estimate of about 100Tflops to solve most of the problems in lattice QCD as discussed in the panel contributions is indeed correct, then this would mean a demand of 10 Petaflops for simulations with chirally invariant formulations of lattice-QCD. We then would be close to the number  anticipated by K. Wilson in his 1989 Capri contribution.

When, as it is done at this conference, we emphasize that thinking about better algorithms is one of the most important things the lattice community should address, then this is even more true for chirally invariant formulations of lattice-QCD. And, finally, the hope is that putting effort into the development of better algorithms, it can be shown that statement number 4 is not correct.