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# Actinides: How well do we know their stellar production?

## 1 Introduction

Actinides enter astrophysics in different ways. First, the use of $`{}_{}{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}`$, $`{}_{}{}^{235}\mathrm{U}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{238}\mathrm{U}`$ to estimate astrophysical ages has a long history, a milestone of which is the much celebrated piece of work of Fowler & Hoyle (1960). For long, the field of nucleo-cosmochronology that has emerged from this paper has been aiming at the determination of the age $`T_{\mathrm{nuc}}`$ of the nuclides from abundances in the material making up the bulk of the solar system. If indeed the composition of this material witnesses the long history of the compositional evolution of the Galaxy prior to the isolation of the solar material, a reliable evaluation of $`T_{\mathrm{nuc}}`$ (clearly a lower bound to the age of the Universe) requires (i) the identification of radionuclides with half-lives commensurable with estimated reasonable galactic ages (i.e. $`t_{1/2}10^9`$ y), (ii) the construction of nucleosynthesis models that are able to provide the isotopic or elemental yields for these radionuclides, (iii) high quality data for the meteoritic abundances of the relevant nuclides, and, last but not least, (iv) the build-up of models for the evolution of the abundances of these nuclides in the Galaxy, primarily in the solar neighbourhood. All these requirements clearly make the chronometric task especially demanding. While everybody would agree this far, there are different ways to look at the question. The use of a so-called ‘model-independent’ approach can at best set limits on $`T_{\mathrm{nuc}}`$ (Schramm & Wasserburg 1970). On the other hand, the ‘exponential model’ introduced by Fowler & Hoyle (1960) has been advocated by many over the years. It takes the stand that, given the presumed complexity of the chemical evolution of the galactic disk, it is by far preferable to describe its nucleosynthetic history by a simple function with some adjustable parameters. In contrast, it is considered by some that it is really worth studying nucleo-cosmochronology in the framework of models for the chemical evolution of the Galaxy in the solar neighbourhood which imperatively satisfy as many observational constraints as possible (e.g. Yokoi et al. 1983; Takahashi 1998).

The astrophysical importance of Th and U has been enhanced further with the observation of Th in some very metal-poor stars and of U in one of them (Sneden et al. 1996; Cayrel et al. 2001). These measurements have raised the hope of a possible nuclear-based evaluation of the age of individual stars other than the Sun.

Other recent observational advances have triggered substantial interest in other actinides which are shorter-lived than Th and U. This comes about following the measurement with unprecedented resolution of the Galactic Cosmic Ray (GCR) abundances of the $`Z>70`$ elements, including the actinides, using the Trek detector (Westphal et al. 1998). Further significant progress is expected in the determination of the GCR abundances of the actinides Th, U, Pu and Cm both with respect to each other and with respect to the Pt-group of elements. This is hoped to be achieved with the Extremely Heavy Cosmic Ray Composition Observer (ECCO), a detector similar to Trek currently under study for deployment on the International Space Station (Westphal et al. 2000). Precise abundance measurements of this type would yield an estimate of the time elapsed between the nucleosynthesis of the GCR actinides and their acceleration to GCR energies (the GCR actinide propagation time after acceleration is very short, i.e of the order of 2 My). Hence, they would help determining whether GCRs were accelerated out of fresh supernova ejecta, superbubble material, or old well-mixed galactic material.

Let us also mention the attempts to measure the local interstellar medium (ISM) $`{}_{}{}^{244}\mathrm{Pu}`$ content, which may have some interesting astrophysics implications. At present, this can be done through the analysis of dust grains of identified interstellar origin recovered in deep-sea sediments (e.g. Paul et al. 2001). In a near future, the determination of elemental and isotopic composition of the ISM grains will be a major goal of research with their recovery to Earth by the Stardust mission (Brownlee et al. 1996).

In all the fields referred to above, a necessary condition to interpret the observational data is to have at disposal r-process predictions for the production ratios at the sources of the actinides with half-lives typically in excess of about $`10^6`$ y, as well as ratios of these actinides to lower $`Z`$-element abundances. Most importantly, fair estimates of the uncertainties in these predicted abundances have also to be evaluated. Providing such a key information to the cosmo-chemistry, GCRs or interstellar dust practitioners is the main aim of this paper (Sect. 2). Attempts to derive constraints on the predictions of the actinide production from the solar system r-nuclide content and from abundance measurements in very metal-poor stars are discussed in Sects. 3 and 4. Brief considerations concerning the relations between our predictions and the GCR actinide content are presented in Sect. 5. Some conclusions are drawn in Sect. 6. At this point, we want to make clear that a detailed discussion of the impact of our nucleosynthesis predictions in the fields of nucleo-cosmochronology, GCR physics and interplanetary actinide content is largely out of the scope of this paper, and will possibly be the main concern of other works.

## 2 Actinide production ratios

### 2.1 The multi-event canonical model of the r-process

The r-process remains the most complicated nucleosynthetic process to model from the astrophysics as well as nuclear physics points of view (for a review see Arnould & Takahashi 1999). On the nuclear physics side, the nuclear structure properties (such as the nuclear masses, deformation, …) of thousands of nuclei located between the valley of $`\beta `$-stability and the neutron drip line have to be known, as well as their interaction properties, i.e the ($`n,\gamma `$) and ($`\gamma ,n`$) rates, $`\alpha `$\- and $`\beta `$-decay half-lives and fission probabilities. Despite much recent experimental effort, those quantities for almost all the nuclei involved in the r-process remain unknown, so that they have to be extracted from theory, and are subject to unavoidable uncertainties. On top of these nuclear difficulties, the question of the astrophysical conditions under which the r-process can develop is far from being settled, all the proposed scenarios facing serious problems. For this reason, only parametric approaches, such as the so-called canonical model (Seeger et al. 1965) can be used to estimate the actinide production. The canonical model assumes that some stellar material composed solely of iron nuclei is subjected to neutron densities and temperatures that remain constant over the whole neutron irradiation time. Each event is therefore characterized by astrophysical conditions that are viewed as free parameters (temperatures $`T`$, neutron densities $`N_\mathrm{n}`$ and neutron irradiation times $`t_{\mathrm{irr}}`$, which can be replaced by the related quantity $`n_{\mathrm{cap}}`$, the average number of neutrons captured per iron seed). Their values are determined from a fit to the solar system composition of the abundances calculated for each canonical event (CEV).

In this paper, we use the multi-event model introduced by Bouquelle et al. (1996) (see also Goriely & Arnould 1997). 111As an unfortunate misconception persists in part of the r-process literature, we repeat here that the terminology ”multi-event” does not refer necessarily to numerous stars (like supernovae) responsible for the production of r-nuclides, but rather to numerous CEVs characterized by different thermodynamic conditions. Such a suite of CEVs might for exemple well be associated to adjacent layers of a single supernova. In view of our very poor knowledge of the precise astrophysical conditions of occurence of a given r-process, the suite of CEVs needed to approximate the yields of this process is clearly unknown as well. This is even more true if different types of r-process episodes have to be considered, at least if the assumption of the ‘universality’ of the r-process yields is not adopted from the start (see Sect. 4). The multi-event model relies on an iterative inversion procedure in order to find the ensemble of CEVs which best fits a given abundance distribution, and in particular the solar system one, for a given nuclear input. Any change in this nuclear input translates in this approach into a different ensemble of CEVs in order to fit at best a given observed r-nuclide distribution. This is thus a unique and efficient tool, in particular to carry out a systematic study of the impact of nuclear uncertainties on the yield predictions (Goriely 1999). Some would argue that the multi-event model has a real drawback because it can mask nuclear structure effects by introducing spurious CEVs. We would certainly concur with this criticism if indeed one would be able to distinguish at this point spurious CEVs from real ones. This ambiguity is made even more serious as our multi-event model as well as other more classical approaches (e.g. Cowan et al. 1999) make use of the CEV oversimplification. So far, we thus have to live with our inability to make a clear distinction between astrophysics and nuclear deficiencies of the r-process model (Goriely & Arnould 1997).

The calculations referred to as ‘standard’ in the following (see Table 1) are performed with the adoption of CEVs characterized by the astrophysical conditions (hereafter called SET1) $`1.3T_91.7`$ ($`T_9`$ is the temperature in $`10^9`$ K), and $`10^{22}N_\mathrm{n}[\mathrm{cm}^3]10^{29}`$. The CEVs are evaluated for the usual $`10n_{\mathrm{cap}}200`$ range needed to produce elements between $`{}_{}{}^{56}\mathrm{Fe}`$ and the actinides (only CEVs with reasonable timescales $`t_{\mathrm{irr}}<2`$ s are considered). Note that the yields from each of the considered CEVs are not calculated under the waiting point approximation (in contrast to Goriely & Clerbaux 1999). In these non-equilibrium conditions, the solution of a full reaction network is made necessary. When not available experimentally, the nuclear properties (in particular masses) are taken from the HFBCS-1 model of Goriely et al. (2001), the neutron capture and photodisintegration rates from Hauser-Feshbach calculations based on the HFBCS predictions (Goriely 2000), and from the gross theory (GT2) of Tachibana et al. (1990) for $`\beta ^{}`$decays and $`\beta `$-delayed neutron emissions. In addition, the spontaneous and $`\beta `$-delayed fission channels are included at times $`t>t_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ only. The various fission probabilities (as well as $`\alpha `$-decays) are calculated according to the approximate prescriptions of Kodoma & Takahashi (1975) with the experimental or ETFSI fission barriers (Mamdouh et al. 2001). In contrast, neutrino interactions are neglected. It is indeed meaningless to introduce them in a calculation which does not rely on a detailed astrophysical site.

When fitting a given observationally-based r-abundance distribution, the multi-event procedure is the same as the one described by Bouquelle et al. (1996), except that each nuclide is now given a weight inversely proportional to the uncertainty that is considered to affect its r-abundance. In the case of the solar system, its r-nuclide content and associated uncertainties are discussed in detail by Goriely (1999). The data he derives define the solar system r-abundance set referred to in the following as ‘SOL1’ (see Table 1). The multi-event fit to SOL1 obtained with the use of the standard calculations referred to above is displayed in Fig. 1. It involves a superposition of CEVs each of which being responsible for the production of a limited ensemble of r-nuclides. They can be characterized by the classically used quantity $`S_a^0(\mathrm{MeV})=\left(34.075\mathrm{log}N_n+\frac{3}{2}\mathrm{log}T_9\right)T_9/5.04`$. SET1 includes CEVs for which $`1.4S_a^0(\mathrm{MeV})4.2`$. It is seen that a distribution of $`S_a^0`$ decreasing roughly from 3.5 to 2 MeV with increasing $`A`$-values is needed in order to reproduce the solar system distribution of r-nuclides. Case 1 of Table 1 provides the production of the actinides of astrophysical interest resulting from the fit of Fig. 1.

### 2.2 How uncertain are the actinide abundance predictions?

The predicted production of the actinides is obviously sensitive to the many, and still more or less uncertain, astrophysics and nuclear physics aspects of the r-process modelling. For all fields of space sciences where actinides enter, and in particular for cosmochronological purposes and for GCR astrophysics, it is of fundamental importance to know to what extent these uncertainties transpire into the calculated actinide synthesis. In fact, the problem of their production is particularly acute. There is no stable nuclide heavier than $`{}_{}{}^{209}\mathrm{Bi}`$, so that the actinide production can only be constrained by the stable nuclides lying some 30 mass units below. Moreover, in the simple r-process model considered here, the CEVs responsible for the actinide production do not contribute to the synthesis of the elements lighter than Pb, including the third Os-Ir-Pt r-peak (Goriely & Clerbaux 1999). Consequently, the estimated actinide production can be constrained solely by a fit to the Pb and Bi abundances.

We evaluate the uncertainties attached to the synthesis of the actinides by focussing on the solar system r-nuclide content. The conclusions derived from such a study can be generalized to other cases, and in particular to some very metal-poor stars, at least if the hypothesis of ‘universality’ of the r-process holds (Sect. 4). In this analysis of the reliability of the actinide production, the multi-CEV model is adopted throughout. In other words, we put under the rug all the uncertainties of purely astrophysical nature affecting the r-process. This procedure finds its justification in the fact that these astrophysical uncertainties are almost impossible to quantify today, as the precise site(s) where the r-process develops is(are) largely unknown. Sticking to the multi-CEV model, we can, however, provide a limited evaluation of the astrophysical uncertainties by adopting a second set of conditions for the CEVs: $`T_9=1.35`$ and $`10^{21}N_\mathrm{n}[\mathrm{cm}^3]10^{28}`$. This set, referred to as SET2, is made of a much smaller number of CEVs than SET1, their $`S_a^0`$ values ranging from about 1.7 to 3.5 MeV.

A second potential source of uncertainties relates to the fact that the relative s- and r-contributions to the solar Pb and Bi remain obscure. This increases the difficulty to extrapolate abundance predictions reliably to the actinides. To estimate the uncertainty in the solar Pb and Bi r-abundances, we consider not only the set SOL1 defined above, but also the set referred to as SOL2 derived by Käppeler et al. (1989) from the classical s-process. The major difference between SOL1 and SOL2 lies in the predicted r-process contribution to the solar system $`{}_{}{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}`$ abundance: SOL2 and SOL1 predict values of 0.24 and in the (0 to 1.78) range, respectively (these r-abundances are expressed in the Si = $`10^6`$ scale). The SOL1 predictions are so uncertain that the $`{}_{}{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}`$ abundance cannot provide any meaningful constraint in the CEV fitting procedure.

Another important source of uncertainties in the actinide abundance predictions is of nuclear physics nature. In order to evaluate its extent, we consider modifications to the various pieces of our standard nuclear input that are known to affect drastically the r-process predictions (Goriely & Clerbaux 1999). These concern the nuclear masses, neutron capture and $`\beta `$-decay rates, as well as the probabilities of the fission channels that may open at one point or another during the r-process. With respect to the standard input, we replace

* the inclusion of fission just at times $`t>t_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ by the due consideration of the fission processes during the neutron irradiation as well. This modification is called ‘Fission’ in Table 1. In such conditions, the neutron-induced fission channel opens up on top of those already considered in the standard case;
* the HFBCS-1 nuclear masses by the following models: (i) HFB-1 (Samyn et al. 2001), (ii) ETFSI2 (Goriely 2000), (iii) ETFSI-Q (Pearson et al. 1996) which takes into account in a purely phenomenological way the still-debated strong quenching of the shell effect found in some microscopic calculations of highly neutron-rich nuclei, (iv) FRDM (Möller et al. 1995), or (v) the Duflo & Zuker (1995; DZ) prescription based on a very different approach than the previously cited models, and which has proven its remarkable ability to predict experimentally known masses;
* the GT2 $`\beta `$-decay rates by (i) the FRDM+QRPA predictions of Möller et al. (1997), or (ii) the ETFSI+cQRPA estimates of Borzov & Goriely (2000);
* the Hauser-Feshbach estimates of the neutron capture rates by the direct plus compound model (CN+DC) of Goriely (1998) which takes into account the possible existence of a low-lying E1 pygmy resonance and the contribution of direct captures of relevance for exotic neutron-rich nuclei.

Many studies have compared the quality of these nuclear models on grounds of available experimental data, as well as the differences in their predictions far away from the valley of $`\beta `$-stability. Their impact on the r-process nucleosynthesis has also been analyzed in various papers (e.g. Goriely 1998, 2001, Borzov & Goriely 2000). Here, we restrict ourselves to an analysis of their predictions regarding the actinide synthesis.

Table 1 compares the abundances of Pb and of the actinides with half-lives $`t_{1/2}10^6`$ y predicted by the multi-event calculations for the CEV SET1 and SET2 and for the solar r-abundances from SOL1 and SOL2. These different choices are mingled with the standard nuclear physics input defined in Sect. 2.1, or with various other combinations of nuclear models defined above. In all cases, the derived fits to the solar system content of r-nuclides up to Bi are of more or less equal quality (Goriely & Clerbaux 1999). The corresponding abundance $`{}_{}{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}_{\mathrm{f}}^{}`$ of $`{}_{}{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}`$ after decay of its shorter-lived progenitors $`{}_{}{}^{236}\mathrm{U}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{244}\mathrm{Pu}`$ ($`{}_{}{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}_{\mathrm{f}}^{}`$ = $`{}_{}{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}`$ \+ $`{}_{}{}^{236}\mathrm{U}`$ \+ $`{}_{}{}^{244}\mathrm{Pu}`$), as well as the ratios $`R_{232,238}=`$ $`{}_{}{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}_{\mathrm{f}}^{}`$/$`{}_{}{}^{238}\mathrm{U}`$ and $`R_{235,238}=`$ ($`{}_{}{}^{235}\mathrm{U}`$ \+ $`{}_{}{}^{247}\mathrm{Cm}`$)/$`{}_{}{}^{238}\mathrm{U}`$ are displayed in Table 2. The considered large variety of nuclear models goes without any doubt along with large ranges of actinide predicted abundances.

## 3 Can the solar system r-nuclide content constrain the range of predicted actinide abundances?

The long-lived $`{}_{}{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}`$-$`{}_{}{}^{238}\mathrm{U}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{235}\mathrm{U}`$-$`{}_{}{}^{238}\mathrm{U}`$ pairs have been classically used to estimate the age of the r-nuclides (assumed to be roughly equal to the age of the Galaxy) from the present meteoritic content of these nuclides. The opinion has been expressed at several occasions that these pairs have just limited chronometric virtues (e.g. Yokoi et al. 1983, Arnould & Goriely 2001). This opinion does not relate only to the uncertainties in the production ratios exemplified in Table 2, which could be increased still further if the oversimplification coming from the considered CEVs was removed. An additional source of worry comes from the still large uncertainties affecting the meteoritic Th and U abundances, which amount to at least 25% and 8%, respectively (Grevesse et al. 1996). Last but not least, further problems arise because of the necessity of introducing the solar system-based nucleo-cosmochronology in chemical evolution models of the Galaxy. These models have to satisfy in the best possible way as many astronomical observables as possible. In addition, their internal consistency has to be checked by comparing the deduced actinide abundance ratios at the time of formation of the solar system with those adopted at the nucleosynthetic source. In fact, this consistency requirement is far from being trivial to fulfil. From the construction of a galactic evolution model generalized in order to include chronometric pairs, Yokoi et al. (1983) conclude first that the predicted ($`{}_{}{}^{235}\mathrm{U}`$/$`{}_{}{}^{238}\mathrm{U}`$)0 and ($`{}_{}{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}`$/$`{}_{}{}^{238}\mathrm{U}`$)0 ratios at the time $`T_{}`$ of isolation of the solar system material from the galactic one about 4.6 Gy ago is only very weakly dependent on galactic ages, at least in the explored range from about 11 to 15 Gy. This results largely from the expected rather weak time dependence of the stellar birthrate (except possibly at early galactic epochs, but a reliable information on these times is largely erased by the subsequent long period of chemical evolution). In this situation, the $`{}_{}{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}`$-$`{}_{}{}^{238}\mathrm{U}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{235}\mathrm{U}`$-$`{}_{}{}^{238}\mathrm{U}`$ pairs are unable to provide chronometric information which cannot be revealed by other methods. At best, they can provide results in agreement with conclusions derived from other techniques. As Yokoi et al. (1983) show, this is true at least if the r-process production ratios lie in the approximate ranges 1 $`<`$ $`{}_{}{}^{235}\mathrm{U}`$/$`{}_{}{}^{238}\mathrm{U}`$ $`<`$ 1.5 and 1.5 $`<`$ $`{}_{}{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}_{\mathrm{f}}^{}`$/$`{}_{}{}^{238}\mathrm{U}`$ $`<`$ 2. If this is not the case, the adopted galactic evolution model simply does not provide any chronometric solution in the explored 11 to 15 Gy age range. As seen in Table 2, these constraints cannot be satisfied by any of the considered cases. The situation would not be as desperate if the lower and upper limits of the production ranges $`R_{232,238}`$ and $`R_{235,238}`$ were stretched by a value of 0.1. Considering the intricacies of the galactic model adopted by Yokoi et al. (1983) to derive their chronological results, this small extension certainly does not hurt unsupportably their results. With such a procedure, we would be left with cases 1,3,4,7,8,9,13,20,22 and 30 of Tables 1 and 2.

## 4 Can the observation of very metal-poor stars constrain the range of predicted actinide abundances?

One might also confront the predicted range of actinide productions reported in Tables 1 and 2 with the observations of r-nuclides in old metal-poor stars. Compared with the case of the solar system discussed in Sect. 3, this chronometry has the advantage of allowing the economy of a galactic evolution model. Even so, the exercise of finding good reasons to reject some of the cases considered in Tables 1 and 2 is more risky than it might appear at first to some. The major origin of the difficulties lies in the necessity to make the assumption that the r-process is ‘universal’. In other words, the observed patterns of r-nuclide abundances in metal-poor stars have to be considered as exactly solar. This is indeed the only way to take the largest possible advantage of the observed metal-poor star content of Th and U by bringing them to the status of chronometers.

Before embarking on the problem of deriving constraints, let us first briefly discuss the validity of the universality hypothesis. In contrast to a widely spread opinion, Goriely & Arnould (1997) (see also Goriely & Clerbaux 1999; Arnould & Goriely 2001) consider that the observed convergence of the solar and of the metal-poor stars CS 22892-052 and HD115444 abundance patterns in the $`56Z76`$ range does in no way demonstrate the universality of the r-process, without excluding it, however. This conclusion fully applies as well to the recent abundance determinations of $`50Z70`$ elements in 22 metal-poor r-process-rich stars (Johnson & Bolte 2001). In addition, there has been some bad news for the many proponents of the r-process universality with the observations by Cayrel et al. (2001) of the very metal-poor r-process-enriched halo star CS 31082-001. While a large similarity between the $`56<Z<70`$ element patterns in CS 22892-052, HD115444 and CS 31082-001 is reported, the abundances in the latter star differ significantly from those of the other two stars in the $`Z>70`$ range, including Th. In these conditions, the universality assumption would lead to quite odd chronometric conclusions (Arnould & Goriely 2001). In particular, the Th/Eu ratio in CS 31082-001 is about 3.2 times larger than in CS 22892-052. Hence, under the universality assumption, CS 22892-052 (with \[Fe/H\]=-3.1) predates CS 31082-001 (with \[Fe/H\]=-2.9) by 24 Gy, and would thus be about 36 Gy old.

The Pb/Th ratios observed in CS 22892-052 (log$`ϵ`$(Pb/Th)=1.80 $`\pm `$ 0.40) and in CS 31082-001 (log$`ϵ`$(Pb/Th)$`<`$0.76) may run down as well the universality hypothesis. A correlation indeed exists between the r-process production of Pb and Th, the abundances of these two elements increasing or decreasing concomitantly (see Fig. 1 of Goriely & Clerbaux 1999). In these conditions, and if the universality of the Pb/Th ratio is assumed, the observed Pb/Th values turn out to be discrepant by a factor of about 10, at least if the two stars have roughly the same age. If this is indeed the case (which is not a farfetched assumption in view of their similar \[Fe/H\] ratio), either the universality assumption is invalid, and a specific actinide-producing r-process has to be called for, or the Pb in CS 22892-052 is largely of s-process origin. This could well be the case if a Pb pollution by a low-metallicity AGB star could be invoked (in particular if CS 22892-052 would be a binary star). As shown by Goriely & Siess (2001) and Van Eck et al. (2001), the s-process in extremely low-metallicity AGB stars indeed leads almost exclusively to the production of Pb, in such a way that none of the elements lighter than Pb would see its abundance affected by the s-process. It would be of substantial interest to find ways to discriminate between the r-process non-universality and the s-process pollution scenarios. Even if the assumption of a universal r-process appears to be more and more fragile with time, we dare suppose in the following that it indeed holds in order to examine if constraints can be put in such a favourable situation on the nuclear and astrophysical models for use in r-process calculations, and consequently on the actinide production.

To make things clear, the universality assumption means nothing more and nothing less than the following: all possible combinations of CEVs found in nature always result in the same final abundance pattern. It is important to acknowledge that the precise characteristics of each of the CEVs which may contribute to the universal mix are unknown, as well as the relative level of the contribution of each of the CEVs to the mix. In such conditions, it cannot be excluded that different combinations of different individual CEVs lead to the same final mix. An improper evaluation of this situation may lead to spurious constraints on the nuclear models to be used as input to the CEV calculations. Another source of spurious constraints might arise by focussing on the quality of a fit to a single nuclide, even in a quite crucial region, like the Pb one (e.g Cowan et al. 1999). Such a highly punctual quality of fit may be quite misleading in the evaluation of the merits of a global nuclear input and of the associated predictions of the actinide production.

One might imagine gaining some constraints from Th alone. The ages of CS 22892-052 and CS 31082-001 derived from a confrontation between the observed Th abundances and those displayed in Table 1 vary in the $`3T^{}[\mathrm{Gy}]60`$ and $`0T^{}[\mathrm{Gy}]37`$ ranges, respectively. Obviously, some of these ages are meaningless when reference is made to other age determination techniques (reviewed in e.g. von Hippel et al. 2001). On such grounds, one might thus be tempted to eliminate right away some of the nuclear models used in Table 1. This stand is perfectly legitimate in the simplistic astrophysics scenario of superposed CEVs we have adopted (Sect. 2.1). In contrast, by so doing, one may face the danger of reaching wrong conclusions if more realistic r-process models were considered. The absolute Th production is indeed likely to be highly dependent on these models. The consequences of this situation are aggravated by the fact that the ages derived from Th are especially sensitive to its precise yield predictions, as a result of its long half-life ($`t_{1/2}14`$ Gy).

Let us thus turn to safer ways to derive meaningful constraints. One can in particular rely on accurate measurements of U/Th in individual low-metallicity stars (Arnould & Takahashi 1999, Goriely & Clerbaux 1999), these two actinides being produced concomitantly. A U/Th ratio has been reported for the star CS 31082-001 (Cayrel et al. 2001; Hill et al. 2001). This is real good news, even if the situation is not free of observational and theoretical difficulties. The former ones are discussed by Cayrel et al. (2001), and are vividly illustrated by the very recent re-evaluation of the ThII and UII line strengths by Nilsson et al. (2001, 2001a) leading to the revised values of log $`\epsilon `$(U/H)=-1.83 and log $`\epsilon `$(Th/H)=-0.89. The resulting log(U/Th) for CS 31082-001 is -0.94 $`\pm `$ 0.09 (Cayrel, private communication) instead of the originally derived value of -0.74 (Cayrel et al. 2001; Hill et al. 2001). On the theoretical side, uncertainties, if they cannot of course be eliminated, are largely reduced, however. The predicted stellar ages lie in the restricted $`9T^{}[\mathrm{Gy}]18`$ range (Table 2). None of the r-process calculations shown in Table 2 can be excluded for sure on the basis of the U/Th chronometry. This situation just translates the enhanced reliability of the predictions of the U/Th ratio compared to the ones based on a single actinide.

Some constraints on the actinide production could be gained from the development of chronometries based on other r-process pairs, ideally to be used in conjunction with U/Th. One of these pairs which has already been adopted quite often in the past is Th/Eu. This choice has of course been dictated by available observations, but is in fact quite unfortunate from a theoretical point of view. It indeed combines the drawback coming from the long Th lifetime, as stressed above, with the inconvenience that Eu and Th are not produced in the same CEV, so that the Th/Eu production ratio is expected to be quite drastically model dependent. Considering now the U/Eu pair, it is, of course, expected to be as model dependent as Th/Eu. It has however the pleasing feature of involving U, which has a lifetime about three times shorter than Th. This has the advantage of making chronometric conclusions less sensitive to the precise production of U than to the one of Th. So, although it also requires the assumption of r-process universality, the U/Eu chronometry may be safer than the Th/Eu one. Table 2 indicates that the use of U/Eu leads to a CS 31082-001 age in the $`7T^{}[\mathrm{Gy}]23`$ range. Under the constraint that the age of CS 31082-001 obtained from U/Th ($`T_{\mathrm{U},\mathrm{Th}}^{}`$) and U/Eu ($`T_{\mathrm{U},\mathrm{Eu}}^{}`$) should be the same, we reject the cases for which $`T_{\mathrm{U},\mathrm{Th}}^{}`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{U},\mathrm{Eu}}^{}`$ differ by more than 5 Gy. From the retained cases, we suggest in Tables 1 and 2 recommended, minimum and maximum values for each predicted abundance and age. Note that U/Os would be a valuable chronometric pair as well, in principle at least. We do not use it, however. The star CS 31082-001 indeed exhibits a Os overabundance of about 0.35 dex with respect to the universal pattern (Hill et al. 2001). This clearly contradicts the universality assumption which is the basis of all the chronometric considerations making use of metal-poor stars. The measured Os overabundance would imply a CS 31082-001 age $`T_{\mathrm{U},\mathrm{Os}}^{}`$ exceeding $`T_{\mathrm{U},\mathrm{Eu}}^{}`$ by about 5 Gy. More generally, this situation creates some discomfort about the whole cosmochronometric virtues of the actinides in metal-poor stars.

Some closing remarks are in order at this point. First, we want to restate that the reported constraints strictly relate to the simplistic CEV model of the r-process, and put totally under the rug uncertainties related to the very nature of the r-process and the likely intricate astrophysical conditions that prevail during its development. A detailed treatment of uncertainties of such a nature is largely out of reach in view of the poor characterization of the true astrophysical context in which an analysis of this type should have to be conducted. Second, the constraints adopted to select the recommended actinide productions and their ranges of variations given in Tables 1 and 2, while admitedly highly subjective, appear reasonable to the authors only under the assumption of the universality of the r-process. At discussed above, this basic assumption appears to be more and more questionable as data accumulate. As a direct consequence, the derived constraints are increasingly unsecure.

## 5 The Galactic cosmic ray actinide composition

As stressed in Sect. 1, measurements of actinide abundances relative to each other and to the Pt-group of elements is of very special interest in order to help determining whether GCRs are fresh supernova ejecta, or superbubble material, or old galactic material.

It is generally taken for granted today that supernova explosions are the most probable GCR energy source. It is believed that individual supernova remnants may be responsible for the acceleration of external, swept-up ISM, with at most a very tiny contribution of internal, nucleosynthetically processed material (Meyer & Ellison 1999; Ellison & Meyer 1999). Observation of GCR actinides could confirm this scenario. Massive star supernova explosions are not random in the Galaxy, however, and concentrate strongly in OB associations. In fact, fireworks of sequential explosions of tens of massive stars lasting for periods as short as a few million years could create ‘multiple supernova remnants’. These can grow into so-called ‘superbubbles’ made of hot tenuous plasma most commonly observed from their x-ray emission in our and nearby galaxies (e.g. Spitzer 1990). Superbubbles might well be privileged galactic locations for the acceleration of matter to GCR energies (Higdon et al. 1998; Parizot 2000, 2001; Bykov 2001). Just as in the case of isolated remnants, each superbubble remnant accelerates external, swept-up superbubble material. This material, while predominantly ordinary ISM evaporated from nearby clouds, is, however, significantly contaminated by the recent ejecta of previous local supernovae. In addition, turbulent acceleration should take place steadily throughout the superbubble gas. So, more fresh supernova ejecta may be expected in GCRs from superbubbles than from isolated supernovae. This results from the study of both the superbubble dynamics and from considerations about the synthesis of the light elements Li, Be and B in the early galaxy (e.g. Parizot 2000, 2001). This increased fraction of fresh ejecta also nicely accounts for the GCR $`{}_{}{}^{22}\mathrm{Ne}`$ anomaly (Meynet et al. 2001).

An accurate measurement of the actinide GCR composition which is within the reach of the planned ECCO detector (Sect. 1) could provide an additional and specific way of distinguishing between the isolated supernova remnant and supperbubble scenarios for the source of the GCRs (Westphal et al. 2000). Indeed, the relatively short lifetimes of the superbubbles imply a young age (say $`<30`$ My) for the emerging GCRs. Such an age constraint is relaxed in the case of isolated supernova remnants. So, as noted by Westphal et al. (2000), GCRs originating from supperbubbles would likely be young enough for containing a significant amount of $`{}_{}{}^{244}\mathrm{Pu}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{247}\mathrm{Cm}`$ the lifetimes of which are commensurable with the superbubble ones. Concomitantly, the presence of $`{}_{}{}^{247}\mathrm{Cm}`$ in the GCRs and their implied young age would be the indication that Th, U, and Pu have abundance ratios close to their r-process yields. In such conditions, first hand constraints on the actinide production by the r-process could be gained, in addition to quality information on the origin and age of the GCRs.

We provide in Fig. 2 some predicted abundances of interest for the quantitative interpretation of the future GCR actinide measurements. We retain only the cases of Table 2 satisfying the constraints set in Sect. 4 from the spectroscopic analyses of very metal-poor stars. A detailed discussion of these results is out of the scope of this paper.

## 6 Conclusion

The reliable evaluation of the r-process production of the actinides and careful estimates of the uncertainties affecting these predictions are key ingredients especially in nucleo-cosmochronology studies based on the analysis of very metal-poor stars or on the composition of meteorites. This type of information is also required in order to prepare making the best possible use of future high precision data on the GCR actinide composition, to establish a more quantitative confrontation with an expected growing body of measurements of the actinide content of the interstellar medium in the solar neighbourhood, or even of meteoritic grains of suspected circumstellar origin.

This paper provides the practitioners in these various fields with the most detailed and careful analysis of the r-process actinide production available to-date. These predictions are based on a version of the multi-event canonical model of the r-process which discards the largely used waiting point approximation. This approach is especially well suited for evaluating uncertainties which emerge from the adopted nuclear physics. It is acknowledged that this model is astrophysically oversimplified. However, going far beyond this simplification is close to impossible in view of the present lack of knowledge about the site(s) of the r-process and of the physical conditions prevailing during its development. Thirty-two different combinations of models for the calculation of nuclear masses, $`\beta `$-decay rates, $`\beta `$-delayed probabilities, as well as fission processes are considered. Two variants of the model used to predict nuclear reaction rates are adopted. The impact of uncertainties in the r-process production of the closest Pb and Bi r-nuclides is also analyzed.

For the defenders of the universality of the r-process, we show how this property can help defining constraints on the actinide yield predictions and associated uncertainties. To derive these constraints, we take advantage of the simultaneous Th and U measurements in the star CS 31082-001 and we impose somewhat arbitrarily that the age derived from the observed U/Th ratio should not differ from the U/Eu age by more than 5 Gy. We acknowledge that other criteria could be defined on grounds of the metal-poor star actinide data and of the r-process universality. From the information provided by Tables 1 and 2, the readers may in fact set up their own choice of criteria and define their corresponding own constraints and recommended actinide productions, if they find them more appropriate. We stress most strongly that these constraints are just meaningless if the universality of the r-process does not hold, a situation that we clearly favour. In fact, the universality of the r-process appears to be less and less likely as data accumulate.

We also discuss briefly constraints that could be put on the r-process nuclear physics input from nucleo-cosmochronological results based on the confrontation between meteoritic actinide abundances and predictions relying on a model for the chemical evolution of the Galaxy in the solar neighbourhood. The problem of setting up this second set of constraints does not relate to the likely non-universality of the r-process, but instead to the intricacies introduced by the necessity to rely on models for the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. As a consequence, providing solid values for the actinide production, or even reliable ‘error bars’ on this production, remains a highly risky exercise. Clearly, much is left for the future.

Finally, our calculations of the actinide production are shown to provide the necessary tools for using at best future data about the galactic cosmic ray actinide composition. The confrontation between these observations and our predictions should help confirming that galactic cosmic rays are not fresh supernova ejecta. They should also provide a way of discriminating between two competing models for their acceleration: the isolated supernova remnant exploding in ordinary, old ISM and the superbubble scenario.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank R. Cayrel for bringing to our attention the sill unpublished re-evaluation of the Th and U abundances in the star CS 31082-001. We also thank J.-P. Meyer and A.J. Westphal for fruitful discussions concerning the actinide content of GCRs, and for their guidance in the field. J.-P. Meyer and R. Cayrel are also acknowledged for their careful reading of the manuscript and for suggestions which have helped improving the manuscript. S.G. is FNRS Research Associate.


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# Conservation laws for collisions of branes (or shells) in general relativity

## I Introduction

Conservation laws during collisions are a cornerstone of Newtonian mechanics. They have been generalized to special relativity and are ubiquitous in the interpretation of collider experiments. In general relativity, the question of conservation laws during collisions is subtler because the colliding (self-gravitating) objects affect spacetime itself. Some attention has been paid in the literature to the collision of shells in general relativity . Only particular cases however have been considered and the calculations are rather involved. One can distinguish two types of approaches, one based on (not always well justified) energy-momentum conservation laws, another based on geometrical constraints, especially in the case of light-like shells. The interest for collisions in general relativity has been renewed very recently in the context of brane-world cosmology by the idea that our current universe could be the product of a collision of 3-branes in a five-dimensional spacetime .

In this Letter, we propose a unified treatment, based on a purely geometric approach, which considerably simplifies the calculations, and thus immediately applies to any number of $`n`$-branes in a $`D=n+2`$ dimensional spacetime. The case $`n=2`$ corresponds to shells in standard general relativity, whereas the case $`n=3`$ applies to the collision of $`3`$-branes in the brane cosmology scenarios. The simplicity of our treatment follows from expressing the geometrical constraint as a sum rule for angles associated with generalised Lorentz boosts between the branes and the intervening spacetime regions.

## II Local motion of a brane

In an $`n+2`$ dimensional spacetime, $`n`$-branes divide the spacetime into distinct regions. We will consider the simplest case where each such region is empty and can be described by a metric of the form

$$ds^2=f(R)dT^2+\frac{dR^2}{f(R)}+R^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_n^2,$$
(1)
where the ‘orthogonal’ metric $`d\mathrm{\Omega }_n^2`$ does not depend on either $`T`$ or $`R`$. The well-known case of a Schwarzschild-(anti)-de Sitter spacetime corresponds to $`f(R)=k(\mu /R^{n1})(R/\mathrm{})^2`$.

A brane at the boundary of this region is described by a two-dimensional trajectory $`(T(\tau ),R(\tau ))`$, where $`\tau `$ is the proper time. If we define the two-dimensional velocity vector $`u^a=(\dot{T},\dot{R})`$, where the dot denotes the derivative with respect to $`\tau `$, then by definition of the proper time, $`u^a`$ is normalized so that $`g_{ab}u^au^b=f\dot{T}^2+f^1\dot{R}^2=1`$. One can make connection with the formulas of special relativity by introducing a basis of normalized vectors, $`𝐞_𝐓=f^{1/2}\frac{}{T}`$ and $`𝐞_𝐑=\sqrt{f}\frac{}{R}`$.

One can then define a Lorentz factor $`\gamma =𝐞_𝐓.𝐮`$ and a relative velocity $`\beta `$, given by $`\gamma \beta =𝐞_𝐑.𝐮`$, which yields

$$\gamma =\sqrt{1+\frac{\dot{R}^2}{f}},\gamma \beta =\frac{ϵ\dot{R}}{\sqrt{f}}.$$
(2)
where $`ϵ=+1`$ if $`R`$ decreases from “left” to “right”, $`ϵ=1`$ otherwise. Equation (2) characterizes the motion of the brane $``$ with respect to an observer at rest in the frame $``$ defined by (1). It is easy to check that this implies the standard special relativistic formula $`\gamma =1/\sqrt{1\beta ^2}`$.

At any point along the brane trajectory there is a local transformation from the bulk coordinates $`T`$ and $`R`$ to the proper time along the brane, $`\tau `$, and Gaussian normal coordinate, $`\chi `$:

$$\left(\begin{array}{c}d\tau \\ d\chi \end{array}\right)=\mathrm{\Lambda }(\alpha )\left(\begin{array}{c}\sqrt{f}dT\\ ϵdR/\sqrt{f}\end{array}\right),$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(\theta )`$ is a two-dimensional Lorentz matrix

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }(\theta )=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{cosh}\theta & \mathrm{sinh}\theta \\ \mathrm{sinh}\theta & \mathrm{cosh}\theta \end{array}\right),$$
(4)
and $`\alpha `$ in Eq. (3) is the Lorentz angle associated with the motion of the brane with respect to the original coordinate systems $``$, i.e.

$$\alpha =\mathrm{sinh}^1(ϵ\dot{R}/\sqrt{f}).$$
(5)
## III Junction conditions

Being of codimension $`1`$, the worldsheet of each brane we consider here will separate the spacetime in two disconnected regions: the left region, which we call $`_{}`$, and the right region, which we call $`_+`$, with two metrics of the form (1) on the two sides. The coordinate $`R`$ must be the same on the two sides because the orthogonal part of the metric must be continuous.

The junction conditions can be written in the form

$$[K_{AB}]=\kappa ^2\left(S_{AB}\frac{S}{n}g_{AB}\right),$$
(6)
where the left hand side is the jump of the extrinsic curvature tensor across the brane. $`S_{AB}`$ is the energy-momentum tensor of the brane, $`S`$ its trace, and $`\kappa ^2`$ is the coupling between matter and gravity. For the orthogonal part, the extrinsic curvature components are $`K_{ij}=(ϵ/R)\sqrt{f+\dot{R}^2}g_{ij}`$, which in the junction conditions yields the expression

$$ϵ_+\sqrt{f_++\dot{R}^2}ϵ_{}\sqrt{f_{}+\dot{R}^2}=\frac{\kappa ^2}{n}\rho R,$$
(7)
where $`\rho `$ is the comoving energy density on the brane. This can be translated into a Friedmann-like equation inside the brane, which reads

$$\dot{R}^2=\frac{\kappa ^4}{4n^2}\rho ^2R^2\frac{1}{2}\left(f_++f_{}\right)+\frac{n^2}{\kappa ^4\rho ^2R^2}\left(f_+f_{}\right)^2.$$
(8)
The other part of the junction conditions is equivalent to the usual energy conservation law $`\dot{\rho }+n(\dot{R}/R)(\rho +P)=0`$, where $`P`$ is the pressure.

Let us now study the coordinate transformation that relates the coordinates $`(T_+,R_+)`$ to the coordinates $`(T_{},R_{})`$ (note that, for the brane, $`R_{}=R_+=R`$, as imposed by the continuity of the metric along the ‘orthogonal’ directions). Because for both coordinate systems the metric is of the diagonal form (1), the coordinate transformation is necessarily given by

$$\left(\begin{array}{c}\sqrt{f_+}dT_+\\ ϵ_+dR_+/\sqrt{f_+}\end{array}\right)=\mathrm{\Lambda }(\alpha )\left(\begin{array}{c}\sqrt{f_{}}dT_{}\\ ϵ_{}dR_{}/\sqrt{f_{}}\end{array}\right),$$
(9)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a two-dimensional Lorentz matrix as defined in Eq. (4) . If one evaluates the coordinate transformation at the brane, it is easy to see that the angle is given by $`\alpha =\alpha _+\alpha _{}`$, where $`\alpha _+`$ and $`\alpha _{}`$ are the Lorentz angles associated with the motion of the brane with respect to the coordinate systems $`_+`$ and $`_{}`$ respectively, as defined in Eq. (5). Intuitively, this result is very easy to understand. It simply means that to go from the coordinates of the region $`_{}`$ to the coordinates of the region $`_+`$, one must do a (pseudo-)Lorentz transformation, which is the combination of a Lorentz transformation going from $`_{}`$ to a system where the brane is at rest, with a Lorentz transformation from the brane system to $`_+`$.

## IV System of several branes

So far, we have considered only one brane and the two regions surrounding it. To describe the collision of a system of branes in general, we now introduce a system of $`N=N_{in}+N_{out}`$ branes, consisting of $`N_{in}`$ ingoing branes colliding simultaneously and of $`N_{out}`$ outgoing branes, which are produced by the collision. These $`N`$ branes are separated by $`N`$ different regions of spacetime, which are assumed to be empty but can be endowed with different cosmological constants and Schwarzschild masses.

To simplify the formalism, we are going to label alternately branes and regions by integers, starting from the leftmost ingoing brane and going anticlockwise around the point of collision (see Fig. 1). The branes will thus be denoted by odd integers, $`2k1`$ ($`1kN`$), and the regions by even integers, $`2k`$ ($`1kN`$). Let us introduce, as before, the angle $`\alpha _{2k1|2k}`$ which characterizes the motion of the brane $`_{2k1}`$ with respect to the region $`_{2k}`$, and which is defined by

$$\mathrm{sinh}\alpha _{2k1|2k}=\frac{ϵ_{2k}\dot{R}_{2k1}}{\sqrt{f_{2k}}}.$$
(10)
Of course we can equally describe the motion of the region $`_{2k}`$ with respect to the brane by the Lorentz angle $`\alpha _{2k|2k1}=\alpha _{2k1|2k}`$.

We will find it convenient to define a rescaled brane density

$$\stackrel{~}{\rho }_{2k1}=\pm \frac{\kappa ^2}{n}\rho _{2k1}R,$$
(11)
with the plus sign for ingoing branes ($`1kN_{in}`$), the minus sign for outgoing branes ($`N_{in}+1kN`$). An outgoing positive energy density brane thus has the same sign as an ingoing negative energy density brane.

The junction condition (7) then takes the simple form,

$`\stackrel{~}{\rho }_{2k1}`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ_{2k}\sqrt{f_{2k}}\mathrm{cosh}\alpha _{2k1|2k}`$ (13)
$`ϵ_{2k2}\sqrt{f_{2k2}}\mathrm{cosh}\alpha _{2k2|2k1}`$
which can be further simplified, using the definition (10), to give

$`\stackrel{~}{\rho }_{2k1}`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ_{2k}\sqrt{f_{2k}}\mathrm{exp}(\pm \alpha _{2k1|2k})`$ (15)
$`ϵ_{2k2}\sqrt{f_{2k2}}\mathrm{exp}(\alpha _{2k2|2k1}).`$
## V Collision and conservation law

In a small neighbourhood around the collision event, one can consider the change of coordinate systems between two regions in two ways: going from one region to the next anticlockwise or clockwise. The requirement of having the same result in the two cases requires that the composition of the pseudo-Lorentz transformations must give identity after a complete tour around the collision event. This gives the consistency relation

$$\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\mathrm{\Lambda }(\alpha _{2k1|2k}\alpha _{2k1|2k2})=\mathrm{𝐈𝐝},$$
(16)
where we identify the index $`i=j+2N`$ with $`i=j`$. This condition has been obtained recently in a more complicated derivation by Neronov  using the existence of common null coordinates. In terms of the Lorentz angles $`\alpha `$, this consistency relation is simply the sum rule

$$\underset{i=1}{\overset{2N}{}}\alpha _{i|i+1}=0.$$
(17)
This relation provides one constraint, which can be written in many ways. What we will show is that this relation can be expressed in an extremely intuitive form, which can look either like energy conservation or, equivalently, like momentum conservation.

The main result of this Letter is that, using the junction conditions (15), the sum rule (17) can be written as the conservation law

$$\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\stackrel{~}{\rho }_{2k1}e^{\pm \alpha _{2k1|j}}=0,$$
(18)
for any value of the index $`j`$, where we have introduced the generalized relative angle

$$\alpha _{j|j^{}}=\underset{i=j}{\overset{j^{}1}{}}\alpha _{i|i+1},$$
(19)
if $`j<j^{}`$, and $`\alpha _{j^{}|j}=\alpha _{j|j^{}}`$. To prove Eq. (18) one can simply use Eq. (15) to substitute for $`\stackrel{~}{\rho }_{2k1}`$ and obtain a sum over exponentials minus another sum which is in fact identical by Eq. (17) and hence they cancel each other out. One must be aware that although one can use Eq. (18) to give many different expressions, there is only one underlying geometrical constraint embodied in (17).

Let us now point out that the conservation law (18) can be written as an energy conservation law seen in the $`j`$-th reference frame,

$$\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\stackrel{~}{\rho }_{2k1}\gamma _{j|2k1}=0,$$
(20)
where $`\gamma _{j|j^{}}\mathrm{cosh}\alpha _{j|j^{}}`$ corresponds to the Lorentz factor between the brane/region $`j`$ and the brane/region $`j^{}`$ and can be obtained, if $`j`$ and $`j^{}`$ are not adjacent, by combining all intermediary Lorentz factors (this is simply using the velocity addition rule of special relativity), or the relative angle formula (19). The index $`j`$ corresponds to the reference frame with respect to which the conservation rule is written.

But the conservation law (18) can also be written as a momentum conservation law in the $`j`$-th reference frame,

$$\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\stackrel{~}{\rho }_{2k1}\gamma _{2k1|j}\beta _{2k1|j}=0,$$
(21)
with $`\gamma _{j|j^{}}\beta _{j|j^{}}\mathrm{sinh}\alpha _{j|j^{}}`$.

Note that the relation (17) implies a strong analogy between the real exponentials (and the hyperbolic cosine and sine), which we are using here, with the complex exponentials (and the usual cosine and sine) by effectively imposing a periodicity.

## VI Light-like branes

Our formalism can also be extended to deal with the case of light-like branes . One cannot then introduce a local Lorentz transformation from an adjacent region to the brane frame, as we did above for time-like branes. But we can still consider the coordinate transformation from one of the adjacent regions to the other, which is still of the form (9). Since we now have $`ϵ_{}dR=ϵ_+f_+dT_+=ϵ_{}f_{}dT_{}`$ (with $`ϵ_{}=+1`$ for a left-moving brane, $`ϵ_{}=1`$ for a right-moving brane), one finds $`ϵ_+=ϵ_{}`$ (we have been implicitly assuming here that $`T`$ is a time-like coordinate, i.e. $`f>0`$, but it is straightforward to generalize to the case $`f<0`$) and

$$e^{ϵ_{}\alpha }=\sqrt{f_{}/f_+}.$$
(22)
For example, in the case of two ingoing light-like branes and two outgoing light-like branes, defining four regions $`I`$, $`II`$, $`III`$ and $`IV`$, the substitution of the above result in the sum rule (17) immediately yields the DTR (Dray-t’Hooft-Redmount) formula  $`f_If_{III}=f_{II}f_{IV}.`$ This can be easily generalized to any combination of time-like branes with light-like branes, using the general sum rule for angles (17) and grouping the angles in pairs for the light-like branes.

## VII Examples

Let us first consider the case of two ingoing branes, $`a`$ and $`b`$, colliding to give a single brane $`c`$, separated by the regions $`I`$, $`II`$ and $`III`$ (see Fig. 2). It is most convenient to express the energy conservation law in the frame of the outgoing brane. One finds $`\rho _c=\rho _a\gamma _{a|c}+\rho _b\gamma _{b|c}.`$

Note that here, the outcome of the collision is completely determined by the situation before collision. Indeed, the outgoing brane velocity and the energy density are interdependent as can be seen in Eq. (8). If one had several outgoing branes then our conservation law would provide only one relation, which should completed by other information (based for instance on the microphysics of the collision) in order to fully determine the outcome.

A slightly more complicated case, but of direct relevance to the recent ekpyrotic scenario  or other works on brane cosmology inspired by the Horava-Witten model , is when one of the ingoing branes, $`a`$ say, is a $`Z_2`$-symmetric orbifold fixed point. We assume that the second brane, $`b`$, is not $`Z_2`$-symmetric, otherwise one dimension of spacetime would disappear at the collision. Because of the mirror symmetry about $`a`$, one must consider two copies, $`b`$ and $`b^{}`$, of the incoming brane (see Fig. 3). We finally assume that the product of the collision is a single $`Z_2`$-symmetric brane, labelled $`c`$. Then, $`Z_2`$-symmetry combined with Eq. (17) implies that $`\alpha _{a|c}=0`$, i.e. there is no redshift between the ingoing and outgoing $`Z_2`$-symmetric branes. As a consequence, the energy conservation law reads simply $`\rho _c=\rho _a+2\rho _b\gamma _{b|a}.`$ Note that the total momentum is automatically zero in the frame comoving with $`a`$ or $`c`$, however $`\dot{R}_c`$ is only zero if $`\rho _c`$ has the critical value given by Eq. (8). Of course, if one considers the peeling off from an initial $`Z_2`$-symmetric brane, $`a`$, of a brane $`b`$, then one gets the conservation law $`\rho _a=\rho _c+2\rho _b\gamma _{b|c}`$ where the $`Z_2`$-symmetric brane after collision is labelled $`c`$. Further applications of our results will be discussed in a separate publication .

## VIII Conclusions

We have presented here a general treatment of the collision of branes in a vacuum spacetime. We have extended to the general case of time-like branes the geometrical constraint characterizing the collision, which was known before only in the special case of light-like branes. This constraint can be expressed in the simple form of a sum rule for hyperbolic angles. The general relativistic junction conditions (15) allow us to relate these angles to the energy or momentum of branes at the collision. In this way we obtain extremely simple and intuitive energy and momentum conservation laws, which are analoguous to the collision of point particles in two-dimensional special relativity.

One can envisage extending our formalism to the case where the spacetime regions between the branes need be neither empty nor static. One immediate generalization would be to consider a Reissner-Nordstrom-(anti-)de Sitter metric in (1). The formalism would then be unchanged but one would have to supplement the conservation law (17) with the conservation of the brane charges. In general, however, the generalization will be complicated by the need to take into account the junction conditions for the bulk fields and by the possibility that part of the energy at the collision might dissipate in excitations of the bulk field. Nonetheless we believe that our approach, by its simplicity, is likely to be a useful starting point for such a generalization. One application of our formalism will be to shed some light on the evolution of cosmological perturbations through a 3-brane collision .

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank C. Barrabes and J. A. Vickers for discussions. DL thanks the Portsmouth RCG for its hospitality and KM thanks both the IAP and the Portsmouth RCG for their hospitality. This work was supported in part by the Yamada foundation. DW is supported by the Royal Society.


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# Location-Sensitive Measurement of the Local Fluctuation of Driven Vortex Density in Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy

## I INTRODUCTION

Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates, the physics of the vortex matter has attracted greater attention than before the high-$`T_c`$ era. This is because, in high-$`T_c`$ superconductors, various important energy scales such as thermal energy, pinning energy, elastic energy, and interaction between vortices are comparable with each other, which leads to a rich variety of new physics in the mixed state of high-$`T_c`$ superconductors. In particular, the physics of current-driven vortices has attracted much recent attention. This subject concerns the physics of a driven system under random pinning, and much work has been focused on the nature of the moving state and also on the dynamic phase diagram, namely the phase diagram in the $`HTF`$ ($`F`$ is the driving force) space. The physics of driven vortices has many common aspects to the dynamics of charge- and spin-density waves (CDW and SDW) in quasi-one dimensional materials, and to the dynamics of Wigner crystals in correlated materials, and also to solid friction. This means that the subject probes a quite general, important issue in condensed-matter physics.

In high-$`T_c`$ superconductors, a complex equilibrium phase diagram, particularly the presence of the first-order transition (FOT) of the vortex lattice, makes the problem more complicated and challenging.

In a textbook of superconductivity, the situation has been considered where a vortex lattice moves elastically under a driving force. If there is finite pinning, flux creep takes place. On the other hand, when there is almost no pinning, flux flow occurs. In both cases, vortices were considered to move in an elastic bundle. Recently, however, a more complex form of vortex motion has been considered. Several theoretical studies and numerical simulations have discussed in detail the possible dynamical phases of driven vortices in superconductors. Many of them agree with each other regarding the following aspects. If the driving force increases, depinned vortices start moving. When the driving force is small, vortices move in a plastic manner (plastic flow (PF)), where there are channels in which vortices move with a finite velocity, whereas in other channels vortices remain pinned. Thus, between moving channels and static channels, there are dislocations in the vortex lattice. With further increasing driving current, vortices tend to re-order. This is a common feature of the theoretical studies listed above. However, regarding the exact detail, there has been no consensus on what the dynamical phase of the vortices should be.

Koshelev and Vinokur proposed a dynamic melting under a finite driving force. Through this dynamic melting, the stationary vortex lattice changes into the moving vortex lattice. In addition, the critical field (or the critical temperature) corresponding to the FOT of the vortex lattice in the equilibrium state did not depend on the driving force.

Giamarchi and Le Doussal proposed another ordered phase, the moving-Bragg-glass. This phase is characterized by the presence of translational order whose spatial correlation decays in a power law both parallel and perpendicular to the translational motion of the vortices. According to this theory, the transition between the Bragg glass and the moving-Bragg-glass is not a phase transition, but rather a gradual crossover. They also argued that the Bragg glass changes into the moving Bragg glass directly, without a region of plastic flow, if the disorder is weak. On the other hand, if the disorder is strong, the equilibrium phase is the vortex glass. After going through the PF, it changes into the moving transverse glass, which does not posses translational order.

Phenomenologically, the moving-Bragg-glass phase can be characterized by the presence of the so-called washboard oscillation, which is a periodic velocity modulation caused by the interaction between an almost uniform translation of a periodic object and pinning centers. Thus, the frequency, $`f`$, of the washboard oscillation is simply given as $`f`$=$`v/a`$, where $`v`$ is the velocity and $`a`$ is the spatial periodicity of the object. This phenomenon is well known in CDW and SDW systems..

On the other hand, Balents et al. proposed a smectic phase which lacks translational order in the longitudinal direction of the flow even in the case of weak disorder. This was based on the experimental fact that the washboard noise had not been observed in the vortices of superconductors before, except in a system with artificially introduced strong periodic pinning centers and in the thermally-excited motion of a limited number of vortices.

Quite recently, washboard oscillation was observed in the noise spectrum generated by driven vortex motion under random pinning in the superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy. This supports the notion of the development of translational order along the flow direction, and should force reconsideration of current theories. However, a detailed picture of the vortex motion at each point of the dynamic phase diagram still remains a serious open question.

To elucidate this issue, several experimental efforts have been made. In particular, various imaging techniques have established the existence of various states of driven vortices in conventional superconductors. However, for high-$`T_c`$ superconductors, almost nothing has been clarified, since these probes are applicable only over a limited parameter range (temperature, magnetic field, and driving force). For high-$`T_c`$ superconductors, we chose a slightly different approach; local-density-noise (LDN) measurement. Observation of low-frequency-noise has been a popular tool to study the vortex motion both in conventional and high-$`T_c`$ superconductors, and such noise has been considered to have some relationship with various low-frequency phenomena. This conduction noise represents the velocity fluctuation averaged over a macroscopic sample. However, what we discuss below is the local-density fluctuation of vortices. This probe has a merit that we can discuss how the local fluctuations generated at different places are correlated with each other. Yeh et al. already studied the density fluctuation using a SQUID technique both in a conventional superconductor and in a high-$`T_c`$ superconductor. However, they did not concentrate on the dependence on the location nor on the spatial correlations.

In this paper, we present the results of a study of the LDN of vortices generated in a small area in the sample, measured by a micro-Hall probe array, with a special emphasis on the spatial correlations of the noise generated at different places both parallel and perpendicular to the flow direction. Using this technique, we tried to clarify (1) the nature of the vortex state at each point of the dynamical phase space (2) the nature of the re-ordered phase (smectic phase vs moving-Bragg-glass phase) (3) characteristic aspects for high-$`T_c`$ cuprate superconductors.

## II EXPERIMENTAL

### A Sample preparation and Characterization

The samples were single crystals of Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy (Bi-2212) made by the floating-zone method. Almost optimally doped crystals were obtained by appropriate post annealing. They were cut into rectangular pieces with typical dimensions of 1.5$`\times `$0.5 mm2 in the $`ab`$ plane and 0.02 mm thickness along the $`c`$-axis. Four probe dc resistivity measurements showed no indication of other phases such as the so-called 2223 phase (Bi2Sr2Cu2Cu3Oy). The resistivity just above the critical temperature $`T_c`$ was $``$400$`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$cm. The critical temperature, $`T_c`$, ranged between 82 K and 89 K, depending on the crystals, which is probably due to very slight differences in the chemical composition of the material. We do not believe that these differences of $`T_c`$ between different pieces of crystal should affect the essential physics discussed below. Table I lists the samples which were used in the measurements described in this paper.

### B Local Density Noise Measurement

#### 1 Definition of the quantities we measured

The central significance of this paper is the time ($`t`$) dependent noise (fluctuation) of the local vortex density at the site $`i`$, $`x_i(t)`$, which is correlated to its Fourier component, $`X_i(f)`$ ($`f`$ is frequency) as

$$X_i(f)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}x_i(t)\mathrm{e}^{j2\pi ft}dt.$$
(1)
The power spectral density, $`S_{ii}(f)`$, is the square average of $`X_i(f)`$.

$$S_{ii}(f)\underset{T\mathrm{}}{lim}<\frac{X_i(f)X_i^{}(f)}{T}>,$$
(2)
where * represents the complex conjugate, and $`<>`$ represents the ensemble average. According to the Wiener-Kintchine theorem, $`S_{ii}(f)`$ is related to the auto-correlation function, $`A_{ii}(t)`$,

$$A_{ii}(t)=\underset{T\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{1}{T}_{T/2}^{T/2}x_i(t_0)x_i(t_0+t)dt_0,$$
(3)
as

$$S_{ii}(f)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}A_{ii}(t)\mathrm{e}^{j2\pi ft}dt.$$
(4)
On the other hand, the cross-correlation function between the density noise at the $`i`$ site, $`x_i(t)`$, and that at the $`j`$-site, $`x_j(t)`$, $`A_{ij}(t)`$ is defined as

$$A_{ij}(t)=\underset{T\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{1}{T}_{T/2}^{T/2}x_i(t_0)x_j(t_0+t)dt_0,$$
(5)
and represents how the fluctuations generated at these two different places are correlated spatially. The cross-spectral density

$$S_{ij}(f)\underset{T\mathrm{}}{lim}<\frac{X_i(f)X_j^{}(f)}{T}>$$
(6)
is found to be equal to the Fourier transform of $`A_{ij}(t)`$ as

$$S_{ij}(f)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}A_{ij}(t)\mathrm{e}^{j2\pi ft}dt.$$
(7)
Below, we use the normalized cross-spectral density,

$$H_{ij}(f)=\frac{S_{ij}(f)}{\sqrt{S_{ii}(f)S_{jj}(f)}}.$$
(8)
Note that the cross-spectral density, $`S_{ij}`$, and the normalized cross-spectral density, $`H_{ij}`$, are complex quantities. So, we can represent

$$H_{ij}(f)h_{ij}(f)\mathrm{e}^{i\theta (f)}.$$
(9)
The amplitude, $`h_{ij}`$, is called coherence. If $`h_{ij}`$ is unity, that means the fluctuations generated at the two places are completely correlated. On the other hand, if $`h_{ij}`$ is zero, these fluctuations are uncorrelated.

#### 2 Measurements

The LDN of the vortices was measured by a GaAs/GaAl1-xAsx 2DEG micro-Hall probe array (active area; 5 $`\times `$ 5 $`\mu `$m2 or 15 $`\times `$ 15 $`\mu `$m2, spacing between centers of each probe; 30 $`\mu `$m) placed on the flat surface of the specimen. There are typically 4-6 active areas in one array. The excitation level of the Hall probe is typically 10 $`\mu `$A$``$ 100 $`\mu `$A. The voltage generated by each active area is proportional to the local vortex density below the area. Thus, measurement of the average voltage tells us the local magnetization. After a differential preamplification, the noise voltage of the Hall sensors was analyzed by an HP-35665 FFT analyzer. Our measurement sensitivity was limited by the background noise level of the probe, which was typically 0.0005 G$`/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}`$ above 200 Hz.

On the back side of the crystal, four electrodes were attached to measure the electrical resistivity. Thus we can investigate both the LDN and electrical resistivity simultaneously in the same experimental run. Our experimental setup is shown schematically in Fig. 1.

Spatial correlations of the noise were measured simply by putting the noise voltage generated at different places into two different signal inputs of the analyzer, and calculating the cross-spectral density, $`S_{ij}(f)`$. The array could be aligned in the direction parallel or perpendicular to the driven current. By doing so, the spatial correlations of the density noise could be measured both parallel and perpendicular to the flow direction (Fig. 2).

As for the data presentation, no background (noise sepctrum at zeor current density and zero magnetic field) subtraction was made in the power spectral density data, other than Figs. 7 and 10. Cross correlations were calculated with using the data without backgrownd subtraction.

The noise measurements were performed around the FOT for various driving forces. Since the driving force density f is expressed as

$$𝐟=𝐣\times 𝐁,$$
(10)
where j and B are the driving current density and magnetic field, respectively, we changed either j or B in the experiment. For convenience, typically we swept magnetic field with a very slow rate under a fixed driving dc current. It should be noted, however, in the B swept experiment, the “equilibrium” condition was also changed. For experiments which changed the driving force under fixed “equilibrium” parameters ($`T`$ and B), a j-swept experiment under constant B is preferable.

In all measurements, the magnetic field was applied perpendicular to the CuO2 plane.

## III EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

### A Total Features

Figure 3 shows the resistivity- and zero-current magnetization data of three typical samples as a function of magnetic field under a fixed current. For instance, in Fig. 3 (a), a clear anomaly was observed at 43 Oe, which corresponds to the FOT in the vortex lattice. Around the magnetization anomaly, the resistivity changed rapidly. Although not shown in the figure, the magnetization anomaly was found to be independent of the driving current. This behavior is in good agreement with our previous result, which is also consistent with theoretical predictions. However, the field value where the resistivity changes very rapidly depends on the driving current. Thus, as was already clarified in ref. , the resistivity is not a good measure of the FOT for Bi-2212.

Figure 4 shows a typical LDN spectrum as a function of driving current under fixed magnetic field and temperature. For this sample (# 72c6), the magnetic field value of 31.8 Oe corresponds to the solid phase in the zero-current limit. Extra noise appeared with increasing driving current, and the noise spectrum consisted of two kinds of noise, broadband noise (BBN) and narrow-band noise (NBN) which has a peak at some frequency and its harmonics. Previously, we investigated the noise spectra as a function of magnetic field H under fixed current density j, and found that the BBN took its maximum just before the resistivity onset. In addition, the NBN appeared after the BBN intensity began to decrease. On the other hand, the data shown in Fig. 4, where the experiment was done for various current densities j’s under a fixed magnetic field H, have total features which appear different from what were seen in ref.. In the data shown in Fig. 4, (1) the BBN survived up to high driving current densities (eg, up to 240 - 288 A/cm2) and (2) the NBN appeared even at a driving current density where the BBN was still large (eg, up to 144 -240 A/cm2). These differences are apparently strange, for both kinds of experiments are similar in the sense that the driving force was increased. However, sweeping the magnetic field under constant current density crosses the magnetic field anomaly corresponding to the FOT in the zero-current limit. On the other hand, sweeping the current density under constant magnetic field does not cross the magnetization anomaly. This difference leads to the apparent differences between the data in ref. and those presented in Fig. 4. This will be shown more clearly in the next subsection. Unlike this difference, one common feature was that the frequency of the NBN shifted to higher frequencies with increasing driving force in both experiments.

The data in Fig. 4 show that at higher current densities (eg., 432 A/cm2) another source of noise generation occured. This probably corresponds to the presence of pinning centers with different pinning forces.

It should be also noted that the presence or the absence of the NBN depended on the sample. For example, among the three samples shown in Table I, only two samples other than #92r3 exhibited the NBN. This suggests that the origin of the NBN is sensitive to the sample quality. Alternatively, the NBN generation might be related to an extrinsic mechanism unconnected with the bulk pinning properties.

In the following subsection, we will discuss the BBN in more detail.

### B Broadband Noise

The inset of Fig. 5 shows the equi-noise contour in the current density (j) vs magnetic field (H) plane measured at various temperatures. The differences discussed above can be understood more easily in this figure. That is, if H is increased under constant j, the noise power takes a maximum at a certain field value, and decreases rapidly at the field corresponding to the FOT in the zero-current limit. On the other hand, if one increases j under constant H, the noise power also takes a maximum value. However, it still remains at a rather large value. For instance, if we increase j along the line of H=125 Oe at 44 K, the noise power takes a maximum at around 790 A/cm2. After this maximum, however, it remains large up to $``$1200 A/cm2. This corresponds to the apparent asymmetry already discussed between the data in Fig. 4 and those in ref. . We consider that the asymmetry in these two experiments is characteristic of high-$`T_c`$ cuprate superconductor, where the FOT exists in the equilibrium phase diagram. Except for the presence of the FOT, we consider that the behavior of the noise power is basically symmetric in the j \- H plane.

When the driving force density f$`=`$j$`\times `$B is constant, j$``$1/B. If we can regard that B $``$ H, then the constant driving force, f, corresponds to the relationship, j$``$1/H. The equi-noise power data are found to be approximately along this constant-f curve at each temperature. Furthermore, the data suggest that the noise power takes its maximum on another constant-f curve.

To compare the noise intensity with resistivity data, the equi-noise contour is shown together with the equi-velocity contour at 44 K (the main panel of Fig. 5), where the velocity $`v`$ was estimated as $`v=\rho j/B=E/B=V/LB`$ ($`E`$ is electric field, V is voltage between the potential electrodes, $`L`$ is the distance between the potential electrodes, $`\rho `$ is the resistivity, $`j`$ is the current density, and $`B`$ is the magnetic field). In this figure, 7.5$`\times `$10 cm/s corresponds to 10-9 $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$cm, which is about the sensitivity limit of our resistivity measurement. The data show that the noise takes its maximum just before the resistivity onset (“velocity onset”). Although the data are not shown in Fig. 5, essentially the same results were obtained at all other temperatures investigated. Thus, it was confirmed that large BBN was generated when the vortices start to move with a critical driving force probably corresponding to the critical current density, jc, at various points of the three dimensional phase diagram of $`H`$-$`T`$-$`F`$.

Figure 6 compares the noise spectra taken at driving current densities with the same magnitude but different directions. Although the NBN position differed very slightly, the BBN spectra for different driving-force directions were found to be almost identical.

As was already discussed previously, the presence of the finger-print effect and the independence of the driving-force direction suggest that the BBN was generated by the bulk pinning centers located under each probe. To see this more clearly, cross-correlation measurements should be powerful probes, which will be shown in section III D.

### C Narrow-band Noise

Although the BBN is suggested to have a bulk origin, the experimental features of the NBN support a rather different origin for the NBN. Below, we will list the experimental features of the NBN.

(1) The presence or the absence of the NBN is dependent on the samples, which is in sharp contrast to the fact that the BBN was observed in all the samples investigated.

(2) The time scale of the NBN was found to be the transit time of vortices. This is quite different from the time scale of the NBN observed in the conduction noise, which was the washboard noise.

(3) As was shown just above, the frequency of the NBN depended on the driving-force direction. A similar phenomenon was already reported in the conduction noise data of YBa2Cu3Oy, although the magnetic field was applied parallel to the CuO2 plane.

All of these data suggest that the NBN generation is related to the presence of semi-macroscopic defect. Again, to confirm this idea, cross-correlation measurements are effective.

### D Spatial Correlation Measurement

#### 1 BBN vs NBN

We clarified that the BBN reached a maximum just before the resistivity onset at various points in the $`H`$-$`T`$-$`F`$ diagram. This suggests that the BBN is related to the depinning process. On the other hand, the plastic flow that was predicted close to the resistivity onset might also be the origin of a large BBN, since the opening and closing of the moving channels leads to the LDN of vortices. To see which is more probable in the present case, spatial-correlation measurements of the noise are useful. As was mentioned above, spatial correlation measurements of the noise are also important to determine the origins of the NBN. If we choose a value for the current where the NBN is clearly observed in the spectrum, then the spatial correlations of the NBN can be studied. On the other hand, if we choose the current value at a level where only the BBN is observed, then the spatial correlations of the BBN can be studied.

We will discuss the cross-correlation of the BBN first. Figure 7 shows the power spectral density of the BBN of sample #72c6 taken at 4 different sites. Only the BBN was observed at all the sites at these values of H and j. The cross-correlations were investigated between these 4 different sites. Figure 8 shows the coherence $`h_{ij}\frac{|S_{ij}|}{\sqrt{S_{ii}S_{jj}}}`$ taken between two neighboring sites when the sensor array was placed in the direction parallel to the flow direction, where $`S_{ii}`$ and $`S_{jj}`$ are the autocorrelation of the noise voltage at the sites i and j, respectively, and $`S_{ij}`$ is the cross-correlation of the noise voltage between the i site and the j site. The data in Figs. 8 (a) and (b) show that the cross-correlation of the BBN is $``$0.02 at most above 160 Hz. Thus, the spatial correlation of the BBN was found to be rather small even between the neighboring sites. It should be noted that the data taken between site 3 and site 4 (Fig. 8 (c)) and the low-frequency part of Fig. 8 (b) show slightly larger spatial correlations. By investigating the cross-correlations in various places in other samples, we found that the behavior seen between site 3 and the neighboring sites is exceptional. We believe that the general behavior is that the BBN shows a small spatial correlation.

Figure 9 shows the cross-correlation between sites which are farther from each other. Although the data taken between site 1 and site 3 show slightly larger correlations only at very low frequencies, the overall result is that the BBN shows rather small spatial correlations also between these sites.

Next, let us move on to the NBN. Figure 10 shows the power spectra of the NBN of sample #72c6 taken at 4 different sites. In all spectra, the NBN was clealy observed. Figure 11 shows the coherence $`h_{ij}`$ taken between two different sites with different distances (30, 60 and 90 $`\mu `$m) when the sensors were put in the direction parallel to the flow direction. It is remarkable that the NBN shows a very large spatial correlation even between the farthest sites (1-4), which is in sharp contrast to the BBN data. This supports our previous conclusion that the NBN is related to the transfer of the density fluctuation generated at some point in the sample, definitely. This also suggests the presence of semi-macroscopic defects that can produce large density fluctuations. On the other hand, the local nature of the BBN strongly suggests that the BBN is generated by bulk pinning centers under the area of each sensor.

#### 2 Cross-correlation of the BBN and NBN; dependence on the array direction relative to the flow direction

We also investigated the cross-correlation of the BBN and NBN in the direction perpendicular to the flow direction. Figure 12 shows the coherence $`h_{ij}`$ taken between two neighboring sites when the sensors were in the direction perpendicular to the flow direction. Both for the BBN and the NBN, the cross-correlations are very small. By comparing the BBN data in Figs. 12 (a) and (b) with those in Fig. 8, it was found that the BBN showed larger correlations in the direction of the vortex flow than in the perpendicular direction at low frequencies below 100 Hz. (At high frequencies, the noise level was very close to the background noise level. Thus, we do not discuss the data at high frequencies.) Thus, these data suggest that the coherence of the vortex lattice is better developed in the translational direction than in the transverse direction. As will be discussed in the next section, this is consistent with the concept of channel-like flow characteristic of plastic flow.

This very large anisotropy was also found in the spatial correlation of the NBN. As will be discussed later, however, we consider the meaning of the anisotropy in the spatial correlation to be very different between the BBN and the NBN.

## IV DISCUSSION

### A Origin of the BBN

In the previous sections, we showed the various experimental features of the BBN data, some of which were those in the solid phase and the others were in the liquid phase. We believe that even in the liquid phase the spatial correlation makes sense, for short-range correlations exist even in the liquid phase. Thus, the discussion below is applicable both for the solid and liquid phases.

To summarize the experimental features of the BBN, (1) it is independent of current direction, (2) it shows the finger-print effect, and (3) it shows rather small spatial correlations even between neighboring sites (30 $`\mu `$m far). All of these characteristics suggest that the BBN is generated by local-density fluctuations caused by bulk pinning centers which are present under the active areas of the Hall sensor. We stress that this conclusion became convincing by the spatial correlation measurements.

The data presented in this paper showed that the fluctuations generated near site 3 show larger spatial correlations compared with other fluctuations. As was discussed in the previous section, this large correlation is exceptional, and the general trend for the BBN is small spatial correlations. On the other hand, the noise data from site 3, together with other correlation data, rather suggest that the correlation length of the BBN is something between 60-30 $`\mu `$m.

### B Origin of the NBN

In contrast to the BBN, the experimental features of the NBN may be summarized as follows. (1) The presence of the NBN itself is dependent on the samples. (2) The time scale is the transit time of vortices. (3) It is dependent on the current direction. (4) Large translational correlations exist even between the farthest sites (90 $`\mu `$m). These results suggest that the NBN is related to the semi-macroscopic transmission of the density fluctuation at some location in the sample. Two candidates for the origin are possible. One is a semi-macroscopic defect in the bulk. Indeed, macroscopic linear defects were observed in this material. The other candidate is surface. The asymmetry observed under the sign reversal of the driving force strongly suggests that the surface explanation is more plausible. In fact, in the presence of a surface barrier, the entry and exit of the vortices into/out of the sample was highly asymmetric.

### C Plastic Flow

Above, we discussed that the BBN had a bulk origin, whereas the NBN had an origin related to the presence of the surface barrier. Thus, below, we concentrate on the BBN.

In previous studies of the noise generated by the vortices in superconductors (mostly the conduction noise), it was considered that the noise was generated when the vortices were depinned, or when the vortices underwent plastic flow. However, it was quite difficult to discriminate solely on these experiments which of the two mechanisms was dominant in each set of data. In almost all cases of previous studies, information obtained by numerical simulations played an essential role to obtain conclusions.

In the present study, however, we measured the spatial correlation of the BBN directly for two different relative orientations (parallel and perpendicular to the flow direction). Thus, it became possible to understand the dominant mechanism of the BBN generation solely based on the experimental data.

The magnitude of the spatial correlations of the BBN was different when the Hall probe array was placed parallel to the flow direction compared to perpendicular to the flow direction. This clearly indicates that coherence of the vortex lattice developed better in the flow direction than in the perpendicular direction. This is in contradiction to the elastic motion of the isotropic vortex bundle. It is rather more consistent with channel-like motion considered in the concept of plastic flow. Plastic flow was already observed in conventional superconductors. Our location-sensitive noise measurement also indicates that plastic flow occurs in high-$`T_c`$ superconductors.

Concerning on the anisotropy of the spatial correlations of the BBN, one may interpret the anisotropy simply in terms of the anisotropy of the elastic modulus of the vortex lattice. That is, the anisotropy may simply be due to the fact that the long-wavelength compression modulus, $`c_{11}`$, of the vortex lattice is much larger than the shear modulus, $`c_{66}`$, and may not be necessarily an indication for plastic flow. However, we do not think that the difference in the elastic modulus can explain the anisotropy in the noise data. We measured the LDN in the steady state. Thus, even if we have any differences between $`c_{11}`$ and $`c_{66}`$ (they may differ by 4$``$5 orders of magnitude in the present case, indeed), the fluctuation should have definite spatial correlations in the perpendicular direction as well as in the parallel direction, provided there is a finite $`c_{66}`$. In other words, there will be no differences in the spatial correlation length of the fluctuation between these two directions. Since the anisotropy data were taken in the solid phase where $`c_{66}`$ was finite, the noise data would behave similarly even in quantitatively, unless there was a plastic nature in the vortex motion. Therefore, it is unlikely that the anisotropy in the noise data shown up in our experiments is interpreted by the difference in the elastic modulus. Thus, the data strongly suggest that the plastic nature exists in the vortex motion.

The NBN was also found to have large anisotropy in the spatial correlations. It should be noted, however, that the large anisotropy found in the spatial correlation of the NBN has a quite different meaning. Since it already became clear that the NBN in the LDN is the manifestation of the translation of a semi-macroscopic density fluctuation created at the surface etc., the anisotropy in the spatial correlation demonstrates that the fluctuation translates in one direction parallel to the vortex flow. We do not think that the anisotropy in the spatial correlation of the NBN is related to the channel-like characteristics of the vortex motion.

### D Correspondence to Theoretical Models

Finally, let us discuss the relation between our noise data and existing theories of the dynamic states of vortices.

Through our noise study, the BBN was found to be the manifestation of the plastic motion of the vortices under the effects of random bulk pinning. Since the BBN was largest just before the resistivity onset at all temperatures, it can be said that plastic flow was realized just before the resistivity onset. This behavior is consistent with almost all the existing theories and simulations. Thus, we could not restrict the theoretical possibilities based solely on the existing data of the LDN. As was already mentioned in section I, the presence of the washboard conduction noise should force certain theories to reconsider the dynamic state. Without this other information, however, we could only state that our data are consistent with all the theories currently available.

It should be also noted that at all temperatures the noise is very small in the liquid state. This is closely related to the presence of the FOT. However, this is quite different from the dynamic melting/re-ordering transition proposed in ref. . In general, the noise power decreased rapidly with increasing driving force. At present, we cannot separate the “phase transition” from a rapid crossover from plastic flow to ordered flow.

According to a simulation, the crossover takes place via “the smectic phase”, where there are finite spatial correlations only in the flow direction. Since the characteristic length scale of the spatial correlations in the smectic phase is the vortex lattice spacing, which is $``$ submicrons in the present situation, it is impossible to judge whether or not the smectic phase exists from our present apparatus.

## V CONCLUSION

Noise in the local vortex density was investigated in the mixed state of a high-$`T_c`$ superconductor, Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy, using 2DEG micro-Hall probe array. We studied the cross-correlation function, together with the auto-correlation function, both parallel and perpendicular to the flow direction of vortices. The BBN exhibited the finger-print effect, and did not have large spatial correlations. These observations suggest that the BBN is due to fluctuations of the local vortex density generated by the bulk pinning centers under the area of each probe. On the other hand, the NBN, whose time scale was found to be the transit time of the vortices, had large translational correlations. Various features of the NBN, including the very presence or absence of the NBN, depended on the samples. Thus, we consider the NBN to have been generated by semi-macroscopic imperfections. In relation to the dynamic phase diagram, large BBN was observed just when the vortices started moving. The dependence of the spatial correlations on the direction of the array relative to the direction of the driving current suggested that plastic flow was realized when the large BBN was observed, changing into coherent flow with further increasing driving current. The gross features of our data agree well with some of the theoretically proposed dynamical phase diagrams of vortices in superconductors.

Although our noise measurements were on the local-density fluctuation, almost all other noise data have focused on the conduction noise, which mainly represents the velocity fluctuations averaged over the whole sample. To get more detailed information from the noise experiments, it is valuable to compare these two different kind of fluctuation in the same sample. This work is in progress, and the results will be published in a separate publication.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank F. Nori, C. J. Olson, T. Giamarchi, P. Le Doussal, D. Dominiguez, H. Matsukawa and J. R. Clem for fruitful discussions and D. G. Steel for a critical reading of the manuscript. This work was, in part, supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Area “Vortex Electronics”. T. T, Y. T, and H. K thank the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for financial support.