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# Phase transition induced hydrodynamic instability and Langmuir-Blodgett Deposition

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## Abstract

We propose a model to understand periodic oscillations relevant to the origin of mesoscopic channels formed during a Langmuir-Blodgett deposition observed in recent experiments {M. Gleiche, L.F. Chi, and H. Fuchs, Nature 403, 173 (2000)}. We numerically study one-dimensional flow of a van der Waals fluid near its discontinuous liquid-gas transition and find that steady-state flow becomes unstable in the vicinity of the phase transition. Instabilities leading to complex periodic density-oscillations are demonstrated at some suitably chosen sets of parameters.

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Studies of pattern formation in non-equilibrium systems have attracted considerable attention due to their relevance in understanding fundamental physics and the potential for applications in a wide range of emerging technologies. The spontaneously formed patterns can be converted into functional structures when the pattern forming mechanism is properly controlled and designed. Typically, this class of pattern formation involves systems flowing at conditions around which the properties undergo dramatic changes. The patterns are a result of the occurrence and propagation of a phase transition or chemical reaction, the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction  and capillary flow of molten polymer  being two examples. One of the key issues to be understood in these systems is the nontrivial coupling between the system specific ‘phase transition’ and the hydrodynamics.

Our work has been motivated by recent experiments that have demonstrated the formation of macroscopic arrays of submicron-sized channels during a Langmuir-Blodgett deposition . Mechanisms based on stick-slip conditions have been proposed to describe the phenomenon . However, in this Letter, we propose a different scenario in which density oscillations occur in the flow of a single-component fluid at conditions tuned appropriately near its discontinuous liquid-gas phase transition. The system fails to support steady-state flow at these conditions due to the absence of a mechanically stable uniform state in a certain density interval. The instability leads to periodic oscillations in density or alternating appearance of liquid and gaseous phases in the system. The oscillations can be potentially useful in producing large arrays of periodic structures and we propose this as a possible mechanism for the experiments  mentioned above. The problem of fluid flow in the vicinity of a phase transition has been widely studied . A closely related subject on propagation of the phase transition front has also been investigated in detail. However, we are not aware of any previous work on unstable one-dimensional flow of a single-component fluid that leads to periodic density-oscillations of this nature. A realization of such a system is a fluid flowing in a narrow channel, or higher dimensional flow in which spatial variations of the system properties are suppressed in the direction transverse to the fluid velocity. The flow of surfactant molecules in a typical Langmuir-Blodgett deposition is an example in two-dimensions .

Our analysis begins with the standard hydrodynamics at constant temperature consisting of the continuity equation and the Navier-Stokes equation for a one-dimensional flow of compressible fluid as follows:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\rho }{t}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\rho v}{x}}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (1)
$`\rho \left({\displaystyle \frac{v}{t}}+v{\displaystyle \frac{v}{x}}\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{P}{x}}+\eta {\displaystyle \frac{v^2}{x^2}},`$ (2)
where $`\rho `$ is the density, $`v`$ is the velocity and $`\eta `$ is the viscosity. The main feature of the system is contained in the quantity $`P`$, the local pressure of the inhomogeneous fluid. It is expressed as

$`P=\rho {\displaystyle \frac{\delta \mathrm{\Psi }[\rho ]}{\delta \rho }}\psi (\rho )+{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa }{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\rho }{x}}\right)^2,`$ (3)
which is also the equation of state of the fluid. Here, the quantity $`\mathrm{\Psi }[\rho ]`$ denotes the Helmholtz free energy density for an inhomogeneous fluid  given by,

$`\mathrm{\Psi }[\rho ]={\displaystyle \left\{\frac{\kappa }{2}\left(\frac{\rho }{x}\right)^2+\psi (\rho )\right\}𝑑x},`$ (4)
where $`\psi (\rho )`$ is the Helmholtz free energy density of the homogeneous system and $`\kappa `$ is a phenomenological constant associated to the gradient term with a meaning that is specific to the particular system chosen. For a van der Waals (vdW) fluid, the Helmholtz free energy density of a uniform system is given by

$`\psi (\rho )=8\rho T\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\rho }{3\rho }}3\rho ^2,`$ (5)
where $`T`$ is the temperature and $`\kappa `$ is proportional to the surface tension of the liquid-gas interface. The reason for choosing a vdW fluid for our investigation is that it is one of the simplest descriptions that includes a discontinuous liquid-gas transition and a region in the $`P\rho `$ plane where the uniform fluid is unstable (negative compressibility) below the critical temperature $`T_c1`$. We note that the quantities $`P`$, $`\rho `$ and $`T`$ in Eqs. (3) and (5) have been normalized by their respective values at the critical point for convenience. We also remark that the fluid is maintained at thermal equilibrium at all times, that is, Eq. (3) always holds. It is the mechanical stability that is being investigated here.

A numerical algorithm has been developed to solve Eqs. (1) and (2) using the forward-time-centered-space approach described in Ref. . We will restrict ourselves to a special case depicted in Fig. 1: a flow in the region $`x[0,L]`$ subject to the following set of boundary conditions

$`v(x<0,t)`$ $`=`$ $`v_0,`$ (6)
$`v(x>L,t)`$ $`=`$ $`v_L,`$ (7)
$`\rho (x<0,t)`$ $`=`$ $`\rho _0,`$ (8)
$`\rho (x>L,t)`$ $`=`$ $`\rho (L,t).`$ (9)
The fluid velocity has been arbitrarily chosen so that it flows from left to right. The positions $`x=0`$ and $`x=L`$ correspond to, respectively, the inlet and the outlet. The quantities $`v_0`$ and $`v_L`$ are, respectively, the velocities at the inlet and the outlet. The density at the inlet is kept at $`\rho _0`$. This set of boundary conditions describes a situation where both the fluid density and velocity are kept fixed at the inlet, and the fluid density at the outlet is allowed to vary with time while keeping the velocity constant. Under this special circumstance, the instability of the flow is necessarily reflected in the time dependence of the density at the outlet and we systematically analyze $`\rho (L,t)`$. We remark that there are a total of six parameters involved, namely, $`v_0`$, $`v_L`$, $`\rho _0`$, $`T`$, $`\eta `$ and $`\kappa `$. In general, the solutions to Eqs. (1) and (2) are complex and possess many degrees of freedom. Here, we will focus our discussions on the results for a restricted sets of parameters.

When the density at the inlet $`\rho _0`$ and the velocity at the outlet $`v_L`$ are kept fixed, the behavior of $`\rho (L,t)`$ as $`v_0`$ varies can be understood intuitively as follows: if one insists on a steady-state flow, the density at the outlet $`\rho (L,t)`$ has to be

$`\rho (L,t)={\displaystyle \frac{v_0\rho _0}{v_L}}.`$ (10)
Since Eq. (3), the equation of state of the fluid, allows for a region where the compressibility is negative (spinodal region), mechanical instability is thus inevitable if $`v_0\rho _0/v_L`$ falls within the spinodal region. A rough estimate of the stability boundary, assuming the system is uniform, is given by $`v_L`$’s for which $`\rho (L,t)`$ coincides with the spinodal boundary (i.e., state of the fluid where compressibility diverges). Our numerical results indeed show that the steady state solution fails to be stable in some regions of the parameter space, restricted to the $`v_0T`$ plane in this work. The instability region in the $`v_0T`$ plane has been identified numerically. Figure 2 compares the computed stability boundary (blue) and that estimated from the spinodal boundary (red). The discrepancy between the estimates and the numerical results is a consequence of the shift in the spinodal region due to the flow-induced density gradient and is evident from Eq. (3).

Our results further show that the instability leads to oscillatory behavior in $`\rho (L,t)`$, the density at the outlet. The density-oscillations have been classified into two classes: a ‘simple’ oscillation in which $`\rho (L,t)`$ oscillates between two densities, and a more ‘complex’ oscillation where $`\rho (L,t)`$ cycles among three or more densities. The left panels of Fig. 3 illustrate the behavior of a simple density-oscillation whereas the right panels show a case of complex oscillations. Figure 3(a) displays plots of $`\rho (L,t)`$, showing the time evolution of the density at the outlet. The plots of spectral density $`|\stackrel{~}{\rho }(L,\omega )|^2`$ are shown in Fig. 3(b). A primary peak accompanied by its weaker harmonics is shown on the left panel; a more complicated structure exists on the right panel. Furthermore, the number of densities among which $`\rho (L,t)`$ cycles can be picked out by evaluating the density distribution function $`P(L,\rho )𝒩^1\delta [\rho (L,t)\rho ]𝑑t`$ where $`𝒩P(L,\rho )𝑑\rho `$ is the normalization constant. Figure 3(c) displays $`P(L,\rho )`$ with two peaks on the left and three on the right. The green curve in Fig. 2 is the boundary in the $`v_0T`$ plane separating the region of simple and complex oscillations. Simple oscillations occur in the region between the blue and the green curves, while complex oscillations are found under the green curve.

Figure 4(a) is a density plot of $`|\stackrel{~}{\rho }(L,\omega )|^2`$ versus $`v_0`$ and $`\omega `$, and Fig. 4(b) is a density plot of $`P(L,\rho )`$ as a function of $`v_0`$ and $`\rho `$, showing the dependence of these functions on the inlet velocity $`v_0`$, while keeping other parameters fixed. Higher intensity is represented by darker colors in the density plots, highlighting the peaks of the functions. The appearance of peaks at nonzero frequency in $`|\rho (L,\omega )|^2`$, and the multi-peak structures in $`P(L,\rho )`$ reflect the unstable region in $`v_0`$ \[$`v_0(0.119,0.146)`$\] at $`T=0.987`$. The region of complex oscillation at $`T=0.987`$ with $`v_0(0.123,0.139)`$ can be identified as the deviation from the simple structure of a single principal peak in $`|\stackrel{~}{\rho }(L,\omega )|^2`$ \[the trend of the principal peak is shown by the pink curve in Fig. 4(a)\], and the onset of additional peaks in $`P(L,\rho )`$ other than the two expected for simple oscillations.

The scenario described by Eqs. (1) and (2) with boundary conditions given by Eqs. (6)-(9) can be related to the flow of a Langmuir monolayer (a single molecular layer of insoluble surfactant molecules spread at the air/water interface) during a Langmuir-Blodgett deposition. In a Langmuir-Blodgett deposition, a substrate is withdrawn from or dipped into the water transferring the surfactant molecules onto the substrate at the contact line. The surfactant molecules are removed at the substrate withdrawal speed at the contact line. The boundary conditions at the outlet, Eqs. (7) and (9), are explicitly realized at the contact line if the transfer ratio is unity at all times. Although the correspondence between the inlet boundary conditions and the actual experiments is not completely clear, Eqs. (6) and (8) are reasonable for an appropriately chosen $`L`$. A sensible estimate of the inlet-outlet separation $`L`$ for the Langmuir-Blodgett deposition would be the meniscus height at the contact line, which is $`10^3`$m. Hence, the specific choice of boundary conditions, Eqs. (6)-(9), can be realistic. Despite the attempt to associate the proposed scenario to the actual experiment, the model is far from a complete description of the system. Many details relevant to the Langmuir monolayer such as long-range dipolar interactions between the surfactant molecules, surfactant-water interactions , water flow near the contact line , elasticity of the monolayer , are not taken into account. Nevertheless, the key emphasis is to point out that a discontinuous phase transition has been shown to lead to simple period density-oscillations which provide a possible mechanism for the formation of macroscopic arrays of mesoscopic structures.

In summary, we have demonstrated numerically that a one-dimensional flow of a van der Waals fluid near its discontinuous liquid-gas transition exhibits a hydrodynamic instability leading to periodic, classified as simple and complex, oscillatory behavior. We highlight the key point of our analysis: the instability in this simple system arises because of the inability to support a steady-state solution when enforcing the continuity equation in the vicinity of a discontinuous transition. Hence, this oscillatory behavior is not restricted to van der Waals fluids and could be observed in other kinds of systems (with well prescribed equation of state) that possess similar features. We have attempted to relate this one-dimensional model to Langmuir-Blodgett deposition where the boundary conditions can be physically realized. This simple model provides us with a route to periodic oscillatory behavior that has been observed . We note that the region in the parameter space where simple oscillations occur is limited. This is a possible explanation for the difficulty in finding the periodic oscillations and their sensitivity to experimental conditions, such as pressure and temperature. Estimates for the period and the interval of each of the phases, within the framework of this model, require a knowledge of the continuation of the equation of state into the metastable regime and the spinodals.

We thank Dr. Hans Riegler, Dr. Jack F. Douglas, Professor Boris Malomed, Professor Rashmi Desai and Professor Yulii Shikhmurzaev for many interesting discussions. One of us (KL) acknowledges a Director’s Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This work was supported by the US Department of energy.


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# Direct determination of quasar redshifts

## 1 Introduction

Large ground and space telescopes combined with solid state detectors have revolutionized optical astronomy over the past two decades, yet deriving physical diagnostics of stars and galaxies still requires the somewhat indirect methods of filter photometry or dispersive spectroscopy to measure spectral features, energy distributions, and redshifts. The recent development of high-efficiency superconducting detectors (Perryman et al., 1993; Peacock et al., 1996) has introduced the possibility of measuring individual optical photon energies directly, and the first high time-resolution spectrally-resolved observations of rapidly variable sources such as cataclysmic variables and optical pulsars using these techniques have been reported (Perryman et al., 1999; Romani et al., 1999; Perryman et al., 2001; Bridge et al., 2001). Many extensive observational programmes which aim at determining the large-scale structure of the Universe, and galaxy formation and evolution (e.g., the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Fan et al. 1999; the Anglo-Australian Telescope 2dF survey, Croom et al. 2001), demand high-efficiency extragalactic spectroscopy. Here we report the first optical measurements of spectral energy distributions of quasars using an imaging detector with intrinsic energy resolution, and show that we can determine their redshifts directly with excellent precision.

## 2 Observations

We observed 11 quasars in the redshift range $`z=2.2`$$`4.1`$, the sample comprising relatively bright high-redshift Lyman-limit quasars from the published literature (Sargent et al., 1989), supplemented by three lower redshift objects, two of which were discovered in objective prism-type surveys (Table 1). Observations used the ESA superconducting tunnel junction (STJ) camera, S-Cam2 (Rando et al., 2000), on the $`4.2`$-m William Herschel Telescope, La Palma, between 2000 October $`1`$$`4`$. The camera is a $`6\times 6`$ array of $`25\times 25`$ $`\mu `$m2 ($`0.6\times 0.6`$ arcsec2) tantalum junctions, providing individual photon arrival time accuracies to about 5 $`\mu `$s, a resolving power of $`8`$ at $`\lambda =500`$ nm, and high sensitivity from 310 nm (the atmospheric cutoff) to about 720 nm (currently set by long-wavelength filters to reduce the thermal noise photons). All objects show strong Ly-$`\alpha `$ and CIV emission lines which, at these redshifts, will be present within our wavelength response range. Observations were made in modest seeing (1–1.5 arcsec at airmass $`X=1`$), and at air-masses between $`X=1.07`$$`1.82`$.

## 3 Data reduction

Information on each detected photon consists of arrival time, $`x,y`$ coordinates of the junction, and an energy channel in the range $`0`$$`255`$. A photon of energy $`E_\mathrm{p}`$ (in eV) incident on a particular junction is assigned to an energy channel $`E_i=GE_\mathrm{p}+C`$, where each pixel is characterised by its own gain $`G`$ (in channels per eV) and offset $`C`$ (in channels). Laboratory measurements have confirmed that all 36 junctions have a highly linear, albeit slightly pixel-dependent, energy response. Calibration consists of first bringing the observed energy channels to a common reference scale, corresponding to an arbitrary reference pixel, using a fixed gain map based on laboratory measurements. The offset of the reference pixel is constant ($`C=2.0`$), and its gain is then the only free parameter in the absolute energy calibration. Small temporal gain variations resulting from bias voltage drifts and small detector temperature variations ($`\pm `$$`0.01`$ K on the nominal operating temperature of $``$$`0.32`$ K) are monitored and calibrated.

Subtraction of the appropriate sky contribution for each quasar spectrum can in principle be based on the background signal in the outer array junctions, but given the small array size and seeing and refraction effects, we generally also took a nearby sky frame immediately following each quasar observation. Most observations were taken in astronomically dark time; QSO 2233+136, 2143$``$158, and 0148$``$097 were observed with the Moon setting, with background subtraction slightly less accurate.

## 4 Results

We have determined each quasar redshift by comparing the calibrated energy distributions, $`f_{\mathrm{obs}}(E_i)`$, with a single rest-frame composite quasar spectrum (Zheng et al., 1997) based on 284 Hubble Space Telescope Faint Object Spectrograph spectra of 101 quasars with $`z>0.33`$. For a given gain $`G`$ and redshift $`z`$, we construct the model energy-channel distribution $`f_{\mathrm{mod}}(E_i)`$, as follows. The template spectrum is shifted from the rest frame to redshift $`z`$, and a mean accumulated absorption of the Lyman forest for this redshift is introduced (Møller & Jakobsen, 1990) (all our objects are at high Galactic latitude, and we neglect Galactic reddening). The resulting spectrum is corrected for the mean atmospheric transmission at the relevant airmass, adjusted for the instrument and telescope efficiency curves and exposure time, transformed from wavelength spectra to energy-channel spectra, and finally convolved with a suitable Gaussian in order to account for the finite energy resolution of the detector. We then derive redshift $`z`$ and gain $`G`$ (and a normalization constant $`N`$), by minimizing the classical $`\chi ^2`$ function:

$$\chi ^2(z,G,N)=\frac{1}{118}\underset{i=50}{\overset{170}{}}\left[\frac{f_{\mathrm{obs}}(E_i)Nf_{\mathrm{mod}}(E_i)}{\sigma _{f_{\mathrm{obs}}(E_i)}}\right]^2,$$
(1)
using a downhill simplex routine (Press et al., 1995). Summation extends over relevant energy channels, and $`118`$ is the number of degrees of freedom. Resulting gains are in the range $`42`$$`45`$ channels eV-1, consistent with laboratory calibration. The resulting redshifts are listed in Table 1, along with the literature values. Examples of the observed and modeled spectra are shown in Figure 1. The overall shape of these spectra, and in particular the sharp falloff at low energy channels, is due to the response of the instrument and telescope. In practice, the Ly-$`\alpha `$ emission line and the associated break at shorter wavelengths contribute most to the redshift determination. Figure 2 compares the best-fit redshifts with the literature values.

QSO 0127+059 is our single prominent outlier. It was discovered in a thin prism survey (MacAlpine et al., 1977), classified as a possible quasar, and tentatively assigned a redshift of $`z2.30`$, but with an uncertain line identification. Although the quality of our fit is acceptable (Figure 1), our derived redshift, $`z=2.976`$, differs significantly from the literature value. We subsequently obtained a 1200 s spectrum of QSO 0127+059 (Figure 3) with the Siding Spring Observatory $`2.3`$-m telescope. The wavelength coverage (not optimised for quasar spectroscopy) was $`345`$$`537`$ and $`560`$$`753`$ nm, using the Double Beam Spectrograph with dichroic 1 and gratings $`600`$B and $`600`$R. We determine a spectroscopic redshift $`z=3.04`$, which agrees with our estimate to about 2% (Figure 2).

A small systematic offset in the overall correlation, of $``$$`0.03`$ in $`z`$, can be attributed to a small mismatch in the shape of the energy broadening function or the overall throughput used in the modeling. The mean scatter for all observations is $`\sigma _z=0.03`$; removing the systematic offset, 8 of the 11 objects agree to within 1%. Several factors, such as gain variations, erroneous sky subtraction or extinction correction (e.g., due to unmodeled seasonal Saharan dust in the atmosphere), or template mismatch at the object level (related to continuum slope, line ratios, etc.), may explain the observed spread. Formally, none of the fits is particularly good, in the sense that none of them has reduced $`\chi ^21`$. A key factor in $`\chi ^2`$-statistics, however, is the absence of systematic errors, which will exist here in part due to template mismatch, although details are largely hidden as a result of the limited detector resolution. The general consistency between the models and the observations, and the pronounced, deep and narrow, minima in all $`\chi ^2`$ versus $`z`$ plots, nonetheless indicate that our fits, as a set, are acceptable.

The pronounced minima are apparent in our data sets truncated a posteriori to observation times as small as, e.g. $`10`$$`20`$ s for the $`z=4.1`$ object QSO 0000$``$263, where $``$$`350`$ source photons s-1 were recorded.

## 5 Discussion

Although extraction of detailed physical information from the spectra is limited by the modest resolving power ($`8`$) of the current device, a significant improvement in energy resolution can be expected in the future (Perryman et al., 1993; Peacock et al., 1997), and additional template spectra could then be used for model fitting. Our results show that low-resolution spectroscopy of faint extragalactic sources is possible with these devices, enabling the determination of redshift, and perhaps morphological type and emission and absorption line ratios (Jakobsen, 1999; Mazin & Brunner, 2000). Our instrument development is aimed at larger format arrays to facilitate sky subtraction and possibly for multi-object spectroscopy, and an increased energy resolution to improve physical diagnostic capability. An overall wavelength response extending further to the red, consistent with the fundamental device response characteristics, would also open up a larger accessible redshift range.

###### Acknowledgements.

The William Herschel Telescope is operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group (ING) in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. We thank J. Verveer and S. Andersson for instrument contributions, P. Jakobsen for advice on the template spectrum, I. Busa and B. Fuhrmeister for obtaining and reducing the spectrum of QSO 0127+059, and the referee, Scott Croom, for helpful comments. This research has made use of the ADS (NASA) and SIMBAD (CDS) services.


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# Dynamics of hot gauge theoriesBased on a talk presented at Lattice-2001, Berlin, August 2001.

## 1 Introduction

Much progress has been made on understanding static equilibrium properties of gauge theories at finite temperature. This includes perturbative results valid at asymptotically high temperature , as well as accurate results on phase structure, thermodynamics, correlation lengths and other observables from numerical simulations .

Far less progress has been made on dynamic properties of hot gauge theories, such as equilibration rates and transport properties, despite the fact that these properties are of direct interest in applications to both heavy ion collisions and early universe cosmology. The reason is simple. Static properties may be extracted directly from the Euclidean theory, to which the whole panoply of modern theoretical tools (numerical simulations, renormalization group methods, effective field theories, …) may be applied. Dynamic properties require analytic continuation of thermal correlation functions back to Minkowski space, or equivalently a functional integral formulation with a complex measure involving a non-trivial contour in the complex time plane .

Nevertheless, considerable progress has been made in recent years in understanding dynamic processes in very hot, weakly coupled gauge theories.111 “Very hot” means that the temperature is much larger than any other relevant mass scale. For QCD, this means $`T`$ is large compared to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}`$ and the masses of all (active) quarks. For electroweak theory, this means $`T\text{ }>\text{ }\text{ }M_\mathrm{W}`$.  The utility of theoretical results for asymptotically high temperature to data obtained at current or future heavy ion experiments is an open question. But at the very least, the asymptotically high temperature regime is an instructive theoretical laboratory which serves as a warm-up for efforts to understand more realistic non-equilibrium situations.

In the asymptotically high temperature regime where the running coupling $`g(T)`$ is small, one may disentangle a variety of phenomena which depend on different characteristic spatial or temporal scales. Dynamic phenomena display a richer set of characteristic scales than do static equilibrium properties. In a non-Abelian gauge theory like QCD, these include:

The energy of a typical quark or gluon is $`O(T)`$. Hence, $`T^1`$ sets the scale for the de Broglie wavelength of typical excitations.

Electric fields are Debye screened on this length scale. The corresponding frequency, $`O(gT)`$, is the scale of thermal corrections to the energy of typical excitations, as well as the plasma oscillation (plasmon) frequency.

This is the characteristic “color coherence length” — the maximum length over which a quark or gluon can be regarded as having a definite color. The factor of $`1/g`$ inside the logarithm comes from a ratio of the $`(gT)^1`$ Debye length and the $`(g^2T)^1`$ magnetic length.

The amplitudes of magnetic field fluctuations on this length scale (or longer) are sufficiently large that their dynamics becomes non-perturbative.

This is the characteristic large angle scattering time for quarks or gluons — the mean time for their direction of motion to change by $`O(1)`$. This is also the characteristic relaxation time for non-perturbative magnetic fluctuations whose wavelengths are $`O[(g^2T)^1]`$.

For sufficiently small coupling $`g`$, the mean free path between scattering events which change a quark or gluon’s color is longer than their de Broglie wavelength by a parametrically large factor of $`1/g^2\mathrm{ln}g^1`$, and the mean free path between large angle scattering events is longer still by another factor of $`1/g^2`$. Consequently, one should regard quarks and gluons with typical “hard” momenta ($`𝐩T`$) as well-defined, weakly interacting quasiparticles.

Since the phase space of hard excitations is parametrically large compared to that of soft ($`𝐩gT`$) excitations, most physical observables are predominately sensitive to the properties of hard excitations. This includes bulk thermodynamic quantities like pressure or energy density, the Debye screening length, equilibration rates and transport coefficients, the photo-emission rate, and many others. But there are important exceptions. In the high temperature phase of electroweak theory, for example, the rate of baryon number violation , and the wall velocity of a bubble nucleated at a first order phase transition , depend on the low-frequency dynamics of non-perturbative magnetic fields.

## 2 Quasiparticle scattering

Understanding the various scattering processes which can affect a hard quasiparticle is a prerequisite for calculating any observable which probes quasiparticle dynamics. These scattering processes include the basic $`22`$ particle processes of gauge boson exchange, Compton scattering, and pair annihilation illustrated in Fig. 1. For a hard scattering with momentum transfer $`𝐪T`$, the explicit $`g^2`$ in the amplitude, plus dimensional analysis, implies that the rate is of order $`g^4T`$. But a soft scattering, with momentum transfer $`𝐪gT`$, has a much larger $`O(g^2T)`$ rate due to the $`1/q^2`$ behavior of the exchanged gluon propagator, which reflects the long-range nature of Coulomb interactions. This enhancement of soft scattering is essentially cut off by Debye screening at the $`gT`$ scale. Note that a soft scattering event causes only a small $`O(1/g)`$ change in a quasiparticle’s direction, but will make an $`O(1)`$ change in its color.

The $`O(g^4T\mathrm{ln}g^1)`$ large angle scattering rate is the same as the two-body hard scattering rate except for the $`\mathrm{ln}1/g`$ factor. This arises because an $`O(1)`$ change in angle need not be produced by a single hard scattering — it may also occur via a sequence of many soft scatterings each making a small change in the particle’s direction, which add incoherently to produce an $`O(1)`$ deflection. This gives rise to a log enhancement which is cut off at the soft $`gT`$ scale. And the $`O[(g^2T\mathrm{ln}1/g)^1]`$ color coherence length is just the inverse of the two-body soft scattering rate again up to a log factor that arises from logarithmic sensitivity to transverse magnetic scattering with $`𝐪gT`$, which is only cut off by non-perturbative physics .

In addition to these $`22`$ particle processes, it is also important to consider the bremsstrahlung and inelastic annihilation processes illustrated in Fig. 2 . These amplitudes contain an explicit factor of $`g^3`$, so on would naively expect an $`O(g^6T)`$ rate which would be suppressed relative to the $`g^4T`$ hard scattering rate. However, if one examines the near-collinear, soft-exchange region in which the momentum transfer $`𝐪gT`$ and the angle $`\varphi g`$, then one finds that these rates have a $`1/g^4T^4`$ enhancement from the exchanged soft gluon propagator, a further $`1/g^4T^2`$ enhancement from the nearly on-shell internal quark propagator, and a $`g^2`$ suppression from the near-collinear kinematics at the photon vertex. When combined with the explicit $`g^6`$ factors plus a $`g^4T^4`$ phase space suppression from the restricted kinematics, one finds an $`O(g^4T)`$ rate — exactly the same as the hard scattering rate.

Consequently, a hard quark (or gluon) moving through the plasma can “fission” into a nearly collinear pair of hard excitations, or “fuse” with a another nearly collinear hard excitation, at a rate which is parametrically the same as the two body scattering rate. These processes may be regarded as $`12`$ particle processes which are normally forbidden by kinematics, but which become kinematically allowed when accompanied by a soft transfer of momentum to other particles in the system. However, if one soft scattering with the rest of the system can take place during a near-collinear bremsstrahlung or annihilation process, so can two or more. The $`1/g^4T^2`$ enhancement from the internal quark propagator is a sign that virtual intermediate states in these processes are living for a parametrically long time of order $`1/g^2T`$ — which is not small compared to the color coherence time. Therefore, multiple soft scatterings occurring during these near-collinear processes cannot be neglected and will produce an $`O(1)`$ suppression in the resulting rate. This is known as the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect .

The net result is that a leading-order calculation of any observable which is sensitive to the dynamics of hard quasiparticles must correctly incorporate both the appropriate two-body scattering processes as well as LPM-suppressed near-collinear emission processes.

## 3 Photon emission rate

The photon emission rate from hot QCD is one quantity which has received considerable theoretical attention , due in part to the hope that it will provide a useful probe in heavy ion collisions. A complete leading-order evaluation of this emission rate (in equilibrium) has only recently been completed . The differential emission rate for photons of momentum $`k`$ has the form

$$\frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma }{dk}=(k)\left[\mathrm{ln}(T/m_{\mathrm{}})+C(k/T)+O(g_\mathrm{s})\right],$$
(1)
where $`(k)=\frac{4}{\pi }\alpha _{\mathrm{EM}}\alpha _\mathrm{s}T^2\left(_sq_s^2\right)k/(e^{k/T}+1),`$ $`q_s`$ is the charge assignment of quark species $`s`$, and $`m_{\mathrm{}}^2g_\mathrm{s}^2T^2/3`$ is the asymptotic thermal quark mass. The function $`C(k/T)`$, shown in Fig. 3, is the “constant under the log”; it is a non-trivial function of $`k/T`$ but it is independent of the strong coupling $`g_\mathrm{s}`$, whereas $`\mathrm{ln}(T/m_{\mathrm{}})\mathrm{ln}(1/g_\mathrm{s})`$ since $`m_{\mathrm{}}=O(g_\mathrm{s}T)`$. The lowest order two body processes $`q\overline{q}g\gamma `$ and $`qgq\gamma `$ generate the $`\mathrm{ln}(T/m_{\mathrm{}})`$ term and part of $`C(k/T)`$; these contributions were evaluated in . The near-collinear processes only affect the non-logarithmic term $`C(k/T)`$. Their contribution to the leading-order emission rate was recently shown to involve the solution of a non-trivial integral equation which incorporates the effects of multiple soft scatterings during the emission process, dynamical screening in the plasma, and thermal corrections to the quasiparticle dispersion relations .

## 4 Transport coefficients

Transport coefficients, such as shear viscosity or flavor diffusion constants, are physical observables of obvious interest which are sensitive to the dynamics of quasiparticles. Specifically, they depend on the rates at which non-equilibrium fluctuations in the phase space distribution of quasiparticles relax back toward equilibrium. And these rates depend on exactly the same scattering processes depicted in Figs. 1 and 2. Parametrically, these transport coefficients are proportional to the large angle scattering time and hence scale as $`(g^4\mathrm{ln}1/g)^1`$. The fact that transport coefficients grow linearly with mean free time is well known from the simple Drude model of conductivity; the current induced by an applied field is proportional to the length of time between collisions during which charges are accelerated by the field. It is the large angle scattering rate which is relevant, not the much faster rate of soft scattering, because these transport coefficients all involve the flux of gauge invariant conserved densities (i.e., momentum density, isospin density, etc.), and the contribution of a quark or gluon to these fluxes is not significantly changed if it undergoes a scattering with tiny momentum transfer.222This is not true for the “color conductivity” of a non-Abelian plasma, which is sensitive to very soft scattering processes.

These transport coefficients may be formally defined by Kubo formulas relating them to the zero frequency limit of a current-current or stress tensor-stress tensor Wightman correlation function. The inverse dependence of the coupling constant is an obvious sign than an infinite number of Feynman diagrams must contribute to the leading order result.333The usual loop expansion breaks down because one is evaluating the correlation function at an exceptional point in momentum space, namely $`\omega ,𝐤0`$.  However, the complicated set of diagrams which contribute to the leading-order result may be summed up by a suitable integral equation, which is precisely a linearized Boltzmann equation (projected onto a particular symmetry channel) for small perturbations in the quasiparticle phase space densities.

As a specific example, the flavor diffusion constant characterizing the relaxation of fluctuations in isospin or strangeness density (in the high temperature limit where quark masses are negligible) has the form

$$D=𝒜/\left\{g_\mathrm{s}^4T\left[\mathrm{ln}g_\mathrm{s}^1+O(1)\right]\right\},$$
(2)
where $`𝒜`$ is a pure number (depending on the number of active quark flavors). Just as for the photon emission rate, the leading-log coefficient $`𝒜`$ is determined by $`22`$ scattering processes, while the $`O(1)`$ constant “under” the log also depends on near-collinear emission and absorption processes in the presence of multiple soft scatterings. Quite a few efforts have been made to evaluate QCD transport coefficients like $`D`$ in a “leading-log” approximation (where one pretends that $`\mathrm{ln}1/g_\mathrm{s}1`$) by solving a linearized Boltzmann equation incorporating appropriate $`22`$ particle scattering rates . Nevertheless, until recently almost all reported results were incorrect due to a failure to appreciate that Compton scattering and pair annihilation processes, in addition to gluon exchange, contribute to the leading-log result. This has been remedied in recent work  which found

$$𝒜\frac{2^4\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3}^6\zeta (3)^2\pi ^3}{24+4N_\mathrm{f}+\pi ^2},$$
(3)
for QCD with $`N_\mathrm{f}`$ flavors.444This is an approximate form, accurate to within a fraction of a percent, which results from using a one-term variational ansatz in the relevant integral equation .  The three terms in the denominator arise, in order, from $`t`$-channel gluon exchange between a quark and a gluon, $`t`$-channel gluon exchange between two quarks, and Compton scattering or annihilation to gluons.

Analogous leading-log results for shear viscosity and electrical conductivity may also be found in .

Of course, a leading-log result, in which the constant under the log is totally undetermined (and hence relative corrections suppressed only by $`1/\mathrm{ln}g_\mathrm{s}^1`$ are neglected) is unlikely to provide a useful prediction in any realistic theory. At the very least, one would like to obtain a complete leading-order result, in which neglected effects are suppressed by at least a factor of the coupling $`g_\mathrm{s}`$. Doing so requires the correct inclusion of near-collinear gluon emission or absorption processes analogous to the near-collinear processes relevant for photon emission. It should be possible to augment the linearized Boltzmann equation with effective $`12`$ particle scattering terms which correctly reproduce these near-collinear reactions, and whose transition rates incorporate the correct LPM suppression effects. (However, this will require solving a non-trivial integral equation just to determine the kernel to be used in another integral equation.) Such work is currently in progress.

## 5 Soft gauge field dynamics

As noted earlier, a few important observables like the rate of baryon number violating transitions (also known as the “topological transition rate”) are not primarily sensitive to the dynamics of hard quasiparticles, but instead probe low frequency, long wavelength gauge field dynamics. The starting point for understanding this regime is the observation that the relevant degrees of freedom, namely modes of the gauge field with $`𝐤,\omega T`$, will have parametrically large occupation numbers since the Bose distribution $`n_b(\omega )T/\omega `$ for $`\omega T`$. Consequently, these modes may be viewed as classical fields . But these soft modes of the gauge field are driven by the color current generated by all the hard quasiparticles in the plasma. If one splits the theory into hard and soft degrees of freedom, one may formulate a Boltzmann-Vlasov kinetic theory which describes the propagation of ultrarelativistic hard excitations in the background of a long wavelength classical gauge field, together with the non-Abelian Maxwell equation $`D_\nu F^{\mu \nu }=j^\mu `$ characterizing the reaction of the hard quasiparticles back on the soft gauge field. This kinetic theory (linearized in the deviation of quasiparticle distributions away from equilibrium) is a formulation of the well-known hard thermal loop (HTL) effective theory .

As shown by Bödeker , one may systematically integrate out the effects of fluctuations down to a scale $`\mu gT`$, and derive an effective theory for the soft gauge field alone. Of course, since hard quasiparticles propagate as nearly free particles, with definite color, over distances up to the color coherence length $`\gamma ^1=O[(g^2T\mathrm{ln}1/g)^1]`$, this effective theory will be non-local on the scale of $`\gamma ^1`$. But if one restricts attention to distances large compared to the color coherence length, or wavenumbers $`𝐤\gamma `$, then one may formulate a consistent local effective theory. The result is a stochastic theory which simply combines Ampere’s law, Ohm’s law, and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem ,

$$\mathrm{D}\times \mathrm{B}=\sigma \mathrm{E}\zeta .$$
(4)
The single parameter $`\sigma `$ is the color conductivity, and $`\zeta `$ is Gaussian noise with a variance $`\zeta (x)\zeta (y)=2\sigma T\delta ^4(xy)`$.

As noted in the introduction, the color coherence length $`\gamma ^1`$ is parametrically smaller than the non-perturbative magnetic length by one factor of $`1/\mathrm{ln}g^1`$. Consequently, if one applies this effective theory to non-perturbative $`g^2T`$ scale physics, then corrections to this effective theory will be suppressed by powers of $`1/\mathrm{ln}g^1`$. In fact, it is possible to show  that corrections are suppressed by two powers of $`1/\mathrm{ln}g^1`$ provided one determines the correct value of the color conductivity by appropriately matching the long distance effective theory to the underlying HTL theory which in turn is derived straight from hot QCD. One finds (for an SU($`N_\mathrm{c}`$) theory)

$$\sigma ^1=\frac{3N_\mathrm{c}\alpha T}{m_\mathrm{D}^2}\left[\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{m_\mathrm{D}}{\gamma (\mu )}\right)+𝒞\right],$$
(5)
where $`m_\mathrm{D}`$ is the leading-order Debye mass (inverse screening length), $`\gamma (\mu )=N_\mathrm{c}\alpha T\mathrm{ln}(m_\mathrm{D}/\mu )`$, $`\mu `$ is a renormalization scale which should be chosen to be of order $`\gamma `$, and $`𝒞=3.041`$. The leading-log coefficient was found in , while the constant under the log, $`𝒞`$, is the result of the very tricky matching calculation in .

In the effective theory (4) pure dimensional analysis shows that the the topological transition rate (per unit volume) has the form

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\kappa (\alpha T)^5/\sigma $$
(6)
with $`\kappa `$ a dimensionless pure number which depends on the non-perturbative dynamics of the theory. But this effective theory is a superrenormalizable, UV finite theory which may be discretized on a spatial lattice and numerically simulated in a completely unambiguous fashion. (In fact, in $`A_0=0`$ gauge, the effective theory (4) is precisely the stochastic quantization of 3$`d`$ Yang Mills theory.) Such a numerical simulation was performed in , with a result that $`\kappa =22.6\pm 1.5`$.

The topological transition rate has also been extracted from real time simulations  of two different more microscopic (i.e., less “effective”) theories which are lattice versions of the Boltzmann-Vlasov theory described earlier. Surprising good agreement was found between the results obtained using the long distance effective theory (4) and both of these more microscopic formulations. As a result, the non-perturbative high temperature baryon violation rate is now a satisfyingly well determined quantity .

## 6 Open questions

Many aspects of hot gauge field dynamics offer opportunities for further progress. Examples of problems which can be addressed using perturbative methods include the following.

1. Perform complete leading-order evaluations of QCD transport coefficients such as shear viscosity, flavor diffusion, and electrical conductivity.
2. Evaluate bulk viscosity in hot QCD. Bulk viscosity does not receive a leading-log contribution from $`22`$ particle processes, and at present there are no published results deriving even the parametric dependence on coupling in a gauge theory.
3. Compute any transport coefficient beyond leading order, even in a non-gauge theory. Can a valid effective theory still take the form of kinetic theory?

Other natural topics involve the development or improvement of methods for studying real time dynamics outside of perturbation theory. To list just a few goals:

1. Test the domain of utility of leading order, or leading-log perturbative results for observables like transport coefficients. This has been accomplished, so far, only in one special case, namely the $`N_\mathrm{f}\mathrm{}`$ limit , where the next-to-leading log approximation works surprisingly well as long as the coupling $`g^2N_\mathrm{f}`$ is not so strong that its scale dependence becomes a dominant effect.
2. Develop a practical scheme for extracting transport coefficients from Euclidean lattice gauge theory simulations. This would involve extracting an estimate for the zero frequency slope of a spectral density from knowledge of a Euclidean correlator.
3. Extract more physics from real-time classical lattice gauge theory simulations. It should be possible to exhibit the presence of over-damped low frequency gauge field dynamics in observables other than the topological transition rate. Current efforts in this direction have found somewhat perplexing results .
4. And last but not least, develop better methods for exploring the real time dynamics of systems with substantial departures from equilibrium. A couple of recent steps in this direction include .


text:
# A finite spin-foam-based theory of three and four dimensional quantum gravity

## I Introduction

Attempts to construct a well defined and consistent theory of quantum gravity have recently received a significant boost through the introduction by Ashtekar and Lewandowski  of mathematical tools for performing well defined calculations in the context of theories of connections modulo gauge transformations in infinite dimensional situations. The introduction of these mathematical tools has actually had impact in two different avenues of quantization of general relativity: the canonical and the covariant (path integral) approach.

In the canonical approach, Thiemann  was able to construct a finite, well defined, anomaly-free representation of the quantum Hamiltonian constraint. In a separate development, similar techniques were used to define an equally consistent operator on the space of Vassiliev knot invariants . Thiemann’s Hamiltonian operates on a space of diffeomorphism invariant spin networks. The algebra of two Hamiltonians with different lapses is therefore an Abelian one, and it is faithfully implemented quantum mechanically. Controversy however remains about if this is “the right” implementation of a Hamiltonian constraint. For instance, it was noticed that a similar implementation in a space of non-diffeomorphism invariant states also yielded an Abelian algebra . The constraint also appears to contain a rather large number of spurious solutions. For instance, applying the Thiemann construction in $`2+1`$ dimensions , one encounters many quantum states in addition to the usual solutions of the Witten quantization. In this case one can remove the undesired states by the choice of inner product, and this construction works rather naturally in $`2+1`$ dimensions. In $`3+1`$ dimensions, an example of potentially spurious solution is to consider states $`<\psi |`$ with support on spin networks with regular (non-extraordinary) vertices. Since the action of Thiemann’s Hamiltonian on a bra state is to remove an extraordinary line (a line ending in two vertices that are planar and with two of the three incoming lines collinear), a state $`<\psi |`$ that does not contain extraordinary lines is automatically annihilated by the constraint. These states are quite problematic since it is difficult to imagine how a semiclassical theory could be built on them that did not approximate an arbitrary metric, including metrics that do not satisfy the Einstein equations. Getting rid of undesired quantum states is tantamount to “imposing the Einstein equations”, and therefore is expected to be a difficult task in $`3+1`$ dimensions. It s therefore not entirely surprising that it was possible to do it in $`2+1`$ dimensions. These concerns are in our view enough to motivate an active program of searching for alternatives to Thiemann’s quantization, although as should be evident from the above discussion, do not imply that there is something definitely “wrong” about the construction up to now. It might be that in the end Thiemann’s quantization does lead to the correct theory of quantum gravity, albeit via an elaborate choice of inner product.

The aforementioned mathematical techniques have also had an impact in the construction of path integrals for general relativity, an approach that has come to be known as “spin foams” (see  for a recent review and references). Initial interest in this approach arose quite independently of gravity, in the study of topological field theories. In the spin foam approach to topological field theories one expands the partition function of the theory in terms of the basis of gauge invariants constructed with spin networks and performs the integral over connections of the path integral. To perform this integral one goes to the dual lattice, and is left with an expression that is function of the valences associated to the faces of the dual lattice. One can understand the resulting path integral as a time evolution. If one slices the “spin foam”, the intersections of the faces of the dual lattice with a plane produce lines associated with a spin inherited from that of the face of the dual lattice, that is one reconstructs a “spatial” spin network. When one expands the action, one chooses a discretization of the expression. To recover the continuum theory one therefore has to either refine the discretization indefinitely or perhaps perform a sum over all possible discretizations in the hope that the sum will be dominated by the finer discretizations. In general these procedures produce difficulties. Refining the lattice is problematic to implement in practice with irregular lattices , and for a non-renormalizable theory is very likely to lead to divergences even if one were to use regular lattices (which in addition may conflict with diffeomorphism invariance) to perform the refinement. The general attitude has therefore favored the idea of summing over all triangulations as a way to handle this issue. In the case of topological field theories, since they only have a finite number of degrees of freedom, the resulting expression for the discretized action happens to be invariant under choice of discretization. This immediately simplifies things, since one does not need to sum over triangulations, and accounts in part for the success achieved by this approach in topological field theories. One immediately is left with a discretized partition function that correctly embodies the dynamics of the theory in a consistent way. This “miracle” is unlikely to repeat itself for theories with an infinite number of degrees of freedom like general relativity. Although the theory is invariant under diffeomorphisms, it is by no means expected that the partition function should be invariant under changes of triangulations not related by diffeomorphisms. Worse, if one attempts to simply “sum over all triangulations” one is clearly summing (infinitely) many times the same triangulation shifted by four-dimensional diffeomorphisms. The result will be divergent. It is akin to the observation by Mazur and Mottola  in the context of traditional path integrals for gravity that the resulting partition function is divergent if one does not properly gauge fix the theory. Unfortunately, it appears difficult that one will be able to properly gauge fix in terms of spin networks, or alternatively, it appears as difficult as handling the Hamiltonian and diffeomorphism constraints. The situation appears particularly complex, since space-time diffeomorphisms are implemented in a non-trivial way. For instance, one can consider a pair of initial and final spin network states $`|s_i>`$ and $`|s_f>`$ and many spin foams that interpolate between them. Several of these topologically different (not related by diffeomorphisms) spin foams may correspond to the same space-time interpolating between the initial and final states. So it is not just a matter of simply considering “floating lattices” to get rid of the redundancy in the sum implied by diffeomorphism invariance. An extreme example of this point is given by $`BF`$ theories, where all spin foams interpolating between $`|s_i>`$ and $`|s_f>`$ yield the same result, no matter if they are related by diffeomorphisms or not. Furthermore, the sum over all spins involved in the discretization of the action has also proved to be divergent in several cases, although this divergence can be seen as an “infrared” problem and can be handled by the introduction of a cut-off. The evolution operators depend on the cutoff but only through a fixed overall factor. In fact surprisingly encouraging recent results have been reported in regularizing the sums (for a given discretization), even for the case of the Lorentzian path integral (see  and references therein).

It is worthwhile noticing that if one were able to complete a spin foam quantization of general relativity, one could also use this to answer some of the issues arising from the Hamiltonian approach. The spin foam approach allows to construct evolution operators and therefore to construct functions of spin networks that should be annihilated by the Hamiltonian constraint. The evolution operators also embody in a finite way the infinitesimal symmetries implied by the constraints of the canonical theory, so they naturally lead to insights about the nature of the constraints.

In this paper we would like to present the construction of a theory inspired by spin foams which is associated with a Hamiltonian constraint that can be explicitly solved. The theory we present is quite remarkable in the light of the discussion above: it is well defined in spite of the fact that it has an infinite number of degrees of freedom. Moreover, we will see that analyzing the connection of the evolution operators of the theory with the Hamiltonian picture one discovers that the theory produces solutions to the Hamiltonian constraint proposed by Thiemann. This makes the theory a candidate for quantum theory of gravity.

The theory we will propose is derived from the “spin foam” formulation of BF theory. The latter is a topological field theory (in either three or four space-time dimensions) whose solution space corresponds to flat connections. Ooguri has proposed a partition function for these theories , in terms of which one can construct evolution operators (since these are totally constrained theories, these operators are also projectors, in the sense that acting on an arbitrary “initial” state they produce a solution of the quantum Hamiltonian constraint of the theory). Since the evolution operators are projectors, evolved states are left invariant by further evolution. Such quantum states of BF theory are functions of spin networks that also happen to solve the Hamiltonian constraint of quantum gravity. This is not hard to believe, since flat connections solve the constraints of quantum gravity and these states are associated with flat connections.

The condition for the states to be kept invariant under evolution is encoded in the following elementary “moves” in terms of which all evolutions from one spin network to another can be achieved,

$$\psi \left(\text{}\right)=(1)^{_{i=1}^6j_i}\mathrm{\Lambda }^{1/2}\underset{i=4}{\overset{6}{}}\sqrt{2j_i+1}\left\{\begin{array}{ccc}j_1& j_2& j_3\\ j_4& j_5& j_6\end{array}\right\}\psi \left(\text{}\right),$$
(1)
$$\psi \left(\text{}\right)=\underset{j_4,j_5,j_6}{}(1)^{_{i=1}^6j_i}\mathrm{\Lambda }^{1/2}\underset{i=4}{\overset{6}{}}\sqrt{2j_i+1}\left\{\begin{array}{ccc}j_1& j_2& j_3\\ j_4& j_5& j_6\end{array}\right\}\psi \left(\text{}\right),$$
(2)
$$\psi \left(\text{}\right)=\underset{j_6}{}(1)^{_{i=1}^6j_i}\sqrt{2j_6+1}\sqrt{2j_3+1}\left\{\begin{array}{ccc}j_1& j_2& j_3\\ j_4& j_5& j_6\end{array}\right\}\psi \left(\text{}\right).$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a cutoff that is needed for the Ooguri action to be finite. The moves allow to untangle any spin network into a trivial one, generating $`6j`$ symbols and other coefficients in the process. These moves are well known, they are called recoupling identities and just state that a spin network state is based on a flat connection. For that reason all networks can be reduced to a trivial one (the trivial network depends on the topology of the manifold, for instance on a sphere it is a point, on a torus it is a “Theta-net”).

The first move is interesting, since it action appears as the “inverse” of the action of Thiemann’s Hamiltonian constraint for general relativity. In Thiemann’s construction the action of a Hamiltonian constraint is to add a line at a trivalent intersection. The first move allows to remove such a line. But in fact, the result is stronger. It was shown that if one uses the first move to “undo” the action of Thiemann’s Hamiltonian constraint, the end result vanishes . That is, a quantum state whose definition incorporates the first move automatically satisfies the Hamiltonian constraint of quantum gravity (in fact it also solves the generalization of the constraint proposed in  as well). We will use this fact to construct the theory.

The theory we propose is defined in the following way: its wavefunctions are defined by diffeomorphism invariant spin network states that satisfy the first two moves of the three listed above. These moves are inverse of each other so the theory is consistent. It is well defined. But the lack of the third move prevents us from “undoing” a non-trivial spin network into the trivial one. The theory therefore has infinitely many inequivalent states, which hints to the fact that in its connection representation version the wavefunctions are not concentrated on flat connections anymore and the theory has an infinite number of degrees of freedom. Yet, due to the discussion of the previous paragraph, its wavefunctions still solve the Hamiltonian constraint of quantum gravity as proposed by Thiemann. This is the main result of this paper. We have just constructed, simply by removing the last move, a theory that is finite, well defined and whose states are in the kernel of Thiemann’s Hamiltonian constraint. The theory is well defined in the sense that the evolution operators that arise from the above moves are finite and well defined operators and they satisfy the condition of being projectors, $`_s^{}P(s,s^{})P(s^{},s^{\prime \prime })=P(s,s^{\prime \prime })`$, that as we discussed above was required of evolution operators of a totally constrained theory. The sum over the intermediate spin networks $`s^{}`$ is appropriately restricted (otherwise there is potential for a divergence). In BF theory, as Ooguri  first discussed, the sum is only over colorations of a given triangulation. Choosing different triangulations just correspond to different representations of the same Hilbert space. In the case of our theory one needs a more subtle structure. The sum is over all colorations and over all inequivalent “skeletons” of spin networks. A skeleton is defined as the minimal spin network one obtains when all triangles are removed. Since the projectors are nonvanishing only if the initial and final spin network share the same skeletonization (the moves keep the skeleton invariant), then the left hand side is indeed finite even if one sums over all skeletons. Different spin networks with the same skeleton correspond, as in Ooguri’s case, to different representations of the Hilbert space.

The construction works in three and four dimensions and is not confined to trivalent intersections. If one wishes to consider intersections of higher valence (which is especially of interest in four dimensions) one need to consider additional recoupling moves. For four valent intersections the move to consider is ,

$$\mathrm{\Psi }\left(\text{}\right)=\underset{i=5,k=2}{\overset{10,5}{}}\sqrt{2j_i+1}\sqrt{2I_k+1}\left\{6j\right\}\left\{15j\right\}\mathrm{\Psi }\left(\text{}\right)$$
(4)
and its inverse. These moves contain the ones listed before as particular cases by setting valences to zero. One would need two additional moves in order to have complete recoupling corresponding to a flat connection if one has four valent intersections.

We need to elaborate a bit on the precise nature of the space of states that we are proposing. In spite of similarities with gravity, BF theory has an evolution operator that acts on a space of combinatorial spin networks. The evolution operator “propagates in space” in the sense that its action creates new vertices. These aspects seems to imply that there should be little connection between these evolution operators and Thiemann’s Hamiltonian constraint. The latter operates on regular (not combinatorial), diffeomorphism invariant, spin networks. Its action is only concentrated at vertices and only produces new “extraordinary” vertices that are not “seen” if one further operates with the constraint. Yet, it is remarkable that a state that is left invariant by our evolution operator ( acting on the space of diffeomorphism invariant spin networks) manages to be annihilated by the Hamiltonian constraint of Thiemann. It can be seen as if the condition implied by our theory is “stronger” on the states than the one implied by the vanishing of Thiemann’s Hamiltonian. To give an analogy (it has only a partial meaning as we will soon discuss), consider the Hamiltonian constraint of classical general relativity (indices omitted) EEF=0. One can consider a theory whose constraint is F=0 and therefore all its solutions will also be annihilated by EEF=0. The analogy here would be BF theory. It has been known for some time  that the solutions of BF theory (chromatic evaluations) are trivially annihilated by Thiemann’s Hamiltonian. The theory we are proposing today would be roughly of the same kind as the one defined by a “Hamiltonian constraint” EF=0. All its solutions would still be included in Thiemann’s theory, but it has a richer solution space than that of the theory defined by F=0. In reality this analogy is too naive. The realization of the Hamiltonian constraint of our theory in terms of classical variables is unknown, but given the way we constructed it, is very likely (as we mentioned before) to be highly non-local (it is “simple in knot space”, which suggests a very complex nature in connection space).

We have therefore constructed a well defined theory, with an infinite number of degrees of freedom, which manages to solve in the sense discussed above, the Hamiltonian constraint of (Euclidean) quantum gravity as proposed by Thiemann. The theory exists in either three or four dimensions. In three dimensions it is of little physical interest, since there gravity is finite dimensional and therefore the theory we constructed is clearly unphysical. The four dimensional theory we constructed, since its states manage to solve Thiemann’s Hamiltonian constraint, is in principle a candidate for a quantum theory of (Euclidean) gravity in four dimensions. It should be evident from the way we constructed the theory (it was not derived from an action, it is only formulated in terms of moves by removing one of the moves of BF theory) that it is unlikely that it will be connected with the correct physics of four dimensional quantum gravity. Nevertheless, we believe it is a valuable example in that it embodies many features considered desirable in a theory of quantum gravity. It is consistent in the sense that the evolution operators are projectors. There are explicit solutions to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. The evolution operators do not suffer the “locality”  issues that apparently arise in Thiemann’s formulation. We expect that when further progress is achieved in the analysis of a semi-classical limit for spin-network based theories , our theory could be analyzed and ruled out as not containing the correct classical physics of general relativity. Both the theory in three and the one in four space-time dimensions will however be quite non-trivial and rich examples to be analyzed, which go beyond the flatness of BF theory and nevertheless are finite and well defined. The fact that the states solve the Hamiltonian constraint of quantum gravity and include “propagation in space” sheds further light on the Hamiltonian proposed by Thiemann and may even imply that the theory constructed has more physical relevance than the one we can establish today.

We wish to thank Abhay Ashtekar for discussions. This work was supported in part by grants NSF-PHY0090091, NSF-PHY-9800973, NSF-INT-9811610, by funds of the Horace C. Hearne Jr. Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the Uruguay Fulbright commission.


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# Evidence for Static Magnetism in the Vortex Cores of Ortho-II YBa2Cu3O6.50

## Abstract

Evidence for static alternating magnetic fields in the vortex cores of underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+x is reported. Muon spin rotation measurements of the internal magnetic field distribution of the vortex state of YBa2Cu3O6.50 in applied fields of $`H=1`$ T and $`H=4`$ T reveal a feature in the high-field tail of the field distribution which is not present in optimally doped YBa2Cu3O6.95 and which fits well to a model with static magnetic fields in the vortex cores. The magnitude of the fields is estimated to be 18(2) G and decreases above $`T=10`$ K. We discuss possible origins of the additional vortex core magnetism within the context of existing theories.

The application of a large magnetic field to a superconductor drives part of the sample, the vortex cores, into a “normal” state. While the physics of these vortex cores in conventional superconductors is generally thought of as metallic, the vortex cores of high temperature superconductors may offer insight into more unusual low temperature properties. A new class of theories has predicted that magnetism may be induced near/inside the cores of vortices by the application of a magnetic field-. For example in Zhang’s $`SO(5)`$ theory, static antiferromagnetism (AF) should appear in regions where the superconducting (SC) order parameter is suppressed, and as a consequence, vortices in underdoped superconductors should be magnetic. Similarly, Lee and Wen have predicted a staggered flux phase (SFP) of orbital currents in the vortex cores of underdoped cuprates. Below $`T_c`$, the system is locally a $`d`$-wave superconductor away from the vortex cores, but has a SFP “frozen” inside the vortex cores. Consequently, they predict the appearance of quasi-static alternating magnetic fields of order $`10`$ G in the vortex cores. Finally, Zhu and Ting have developed the Hubbard model with an on-site repulsion term and shown that AF-like spin density waves (SDW) can appear in the vortex cores,

The possible coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity in the cuprates has been a key issue since the discovery of high-$`T_c`$ superconductors. In zero field, microscopic coexistence of superconductivity, magnetism, and spin-glass behavior has been detected with $`\mu `$SR in the underdoped region near the boundary between SC and AF, in Ca-doped YBa2Cu3O6+x, La2-δSrδCuO4, and underdoped and optimally doped YBa2Cu3O6+x. There is also recent experimental evidence from neutron scattering for anomalous magnetism in underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+x in zero applied field. Field-induced low-frequency magnetic fluctuations in La2-δSrδCuO4 have been reported by Lake and in YBa2Cu3O6+x by Mitrovic. Vaknin  found a possible signature of AF cores in optimally-doped YBa2Cu3O6+x, while Katano report sharp incommensurate neutron scattering peaks in La2-δSrδCuO4 that are enhanced in a magnetic field.

In this paper, we report a search for static magnetism in the region of the vortex cores of underdoped Ortho-II YBa2Cu3O6.50. Significant improvements of the fits to the muon spin precession signal in the vortex state are obtained using a model of the vortex lattice with an additional alternating magnetic field of $`18(2)`$ G, whose magnitude decreases away from a vortex core center on the length scale of the coherence length. As a control, similar fits were made on data from the conventional superconductor NbSe2 in which case no improvement in the fits was observed, as expected.

Muons are an excellent probe of magnetism in superconductors. As described elsewhere , the implanted spin polarized muons stop randomly on the length scale of the vortex lattice and precess at a rate proportional to the local magnetic field, thus providing a direct measure of the local field distribution $`n(B)`$. The observed asymmetric magnetic field distribution in a superconductor is characteristic of a lattice of magnetic vortices in a type-II superconductor. In Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory, a vortex core’s size is determined by the applied magnetic field $`H`$ and the in-plane GL coherence length $`\xi _{ab}`$, while the magnetic field decays away from the vortex core over a length scale given by the GL $`ab`$ in-plane penetration depth $`\lambda _{ab}`$. The magnetic field distribution $`n(B)`$ can be calculated from the spatial distribution of the magnetic field :

$$B(r)=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}{S}(1b^4)\underset{G}{}e^{i\stackrel{}{G}\stackrel{}{r}}\frac{uK_1(u)}{1+\lambda _{ab}^2G^2},$$
(1)
where $`u^2=2\xi _{ab}^2G^2(1+b^4)[12b(1b)^2]`$, $`K_1(u)`$ is a modified Bessel function, $`\stackrel{}{G}`$ is a reciprocal lattice vector of the vortex lattice, $`b=H/H_{c_2}`$ is the reduced field, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ is the flux quantum, and $`S`$ is the area of the reduced unit cell for a hexagonal lattice.

A phenomenological model of $`n(B)`$ that includes alternating fields in the vortex cores can be created by adding a term to Eq. 1:

$$B^{}(r)=B(r)+(1)^{(x+y)/a}Me^{(r/\xi _{ab})^2},$$
(2)
where $`M`$ is the amplitude of the alternating fields in the vortex core that alternates in sign between neighboring crystal lattice sites ($`a`$ is the distance between sites). Our model assumes that the amplitude of the fields in the vortex cores decays away from the vortex core center over the same length scale $`\xi _{ab}`$ as the SC order parameter increases. We note: 1) that Eq. 2 strictly holds only in the unit cell of the vortex lattice, in the limit $`\xi _{ab}/L_01`$, where $`L_0`$ is the distance between vortex cores. This ensures there is negligible overlap between alternating fields of neighboring vortices. 2) Because the vortex and crystal lattices are incommensurate, the parameter $`a`$ has been varied between the Cu-Cu distance in the planes and a much smaller value that allows the muon to experience all alternating fields from $`M`$ to $`M`$. The results presented here are insensitive to such a change.

Figure 1 shows the effect of the vortex core alternating fields on $`n(B)`$. The dashed line shows $`n(B)`$ without alternating fields ($`M=0`$ G), for typical values $`\lambda =2450`$ Å and $`\xi =35`$ Å in an applied field of $`H=4`$ T. The high-field cutoff corresponding to the magnetic field at the vortex core center is visible at $`b`$. The modified $`n(B)`$ due to the introduction of the fields of magnitude $`M=15`$ G (solid line) shows a double step in the high field tail at $`a`$ and $`c`$. The lower step (at $`a`$) is caused by additional fields in the vortex core antiparallel to the applied magnetic field $`H`$, whereas the upper step (at $`c`$) originates from sites where the additional fields are aligned with the applied field. The spatial variation of the magnetic field near the vortex cores is shown in the inset. The line corresponds to $`B(r)`$ from Eq. 1 without alternating fields, while the squares show $`B^{}(r)`$ from Eq. 2 with the fields. The van Hove singularity in $`n(B)`$ at $`a`$ is caused by the nearly flat field distribution in the inset along the lower line of square points. These points correspond to fields aligned opposite to the applied field.

With a model for $`n(B)`$, a theoretical function of the muon spin precession signal $`P(t)=P_x+iP_y`$ is constructed from Eq. 1 or 2 by calculating the local magnetic field at points on a lattice in the reduced unit cell and summing the contributions from all sampling points:

$$P_x(t)=P(0)G(t)_0^{\mathrm{}}n(\omega )cos(\omega t+\delta )𝑑\omega ,$$
(3)
where $`\omega =\gamma _\mu B`$, $`G(t)`$ is a gaussian relaxation function that accounts for additional broadening due to nuclear dipole moments and lattice disorder, and $`2\pi \gamma _\mu =135.54`$ MHz/T.

In our fits to the muon spin precession signal, $`n(B)`$ parameters $`\xi _{ab}`$, $`\lambda _{ab}`$, $`M`$, and $`H`$ were allowed to vary. It has been shown previously that Eqs. 1 and 3 can be used to model the muon spin precession signal in NbSe2  and YBa2Cu3O6+x  superconductors. In this work, constraints on the fits of Eq. 3 were applied to the range of allowed values of $`\xi _{ab}`$. We find that at the highest applied fields ($`H=4`$ T), $`\xi _{ab}25`$ Å, a value smaller than expected from previous $`\mu `$SR measurements of YBa2Cu3O6.60. Therefore, in the fits, $`\xi _{ab}`$ is constrained to $`\xi _{ab}>35`$ Å at $`H=4`$ T. Unconstrained fits yield larger values for the alternating field magnitude.

The $`\mu `$SR experiments were performed on the M15 surface muon channel at TRIUMF using a horizontal gas-cooled cryostat and a high-field ($`7.5`$ T) high timing resolution spectrometer (BELLE). All data were taken under conditions of field cooling, and high statistics runs were made with approximately $`30`$ million muon decay events for each value of $`B,T`$. A mosaic of high purity YBa2Cu3O6.50 single crystals were used. They were grown in BaZrO3 crucibles, and detwinned below 200 C. Ortho-II ordering was achieved by low temperature annealing for $`7`$ days . The oxygen content of the sample was chosen due to its stoichiometry and high degree of crystalline order, proximity to the AF/SC boundary, and the oxygen ordering of the Ortho-II phase.

$`\mu `$SR measurements performed in zero magnetic field in YBa2Cu3O6.50 show no internal magnetic fields. Furthermore, the magnetic field dependence of the skewness and second moment of the field distribution shows no signature of a transition to a 2D pancake state at $`T=2.2`$ K, where $`n(B)`$ is no longer described by Eqs. 1 and 2. In a field of $`4`$ T, an asymmetric field distribution, the signature of a well-ordered lattice, is visible up to $`T=30`$ K. Further details of the vortex phase diagram in YBa2Cu3O6.50 will be published elsewhere.

Figure 2 shows a fit to the muon spin precession signal in YBa2Cu3O6.50 assuming the phenomenological field profile of Eq. 2. Notice the excellent fit of the theoretical line to the data, and the small uncertainty in the data due to the high statistics. The significant improvement in the fits of our model with alternating magnetic fields is shown in Figure 3. Fig. 3(a) shows the deep minimum in $`\chi ^2/NDF`$ (number of degrees of freedom) achieved by the addition of fields of magnitude $`M=15`$ G. Figs. 3(b) and (c) show that a similar effect is not found in optimally doped YBa2Cu3O6.95 (at $`H=6`$ T) or in the conventional superconductor NbSe2 (at $`H=0.7`$ T), which is generally well described by BCS theory. The absence of this effect in these materials indicates that the improvement of the fits is not simply due to the addition of another parameter and that the feature in YBa2Cu3O6.50 is not present in optimally doped YBa2Cu3O6.95 or conventional superconductors. The curves in Fig. 3 are guides to the eye.

The improvements in the fit can be seen more clearly in the frequency domain. FFT’s of data from Fig. 2 and the corresponding fits are shown in Fig. 4. The triangles are an FFT of the data, whereas the full (dashed) line is a FFT of the fit with (without) vortex core fields. Fig. 4(b) shows the high field tail of the Fourier transforms in greater detail. The improved fit is clearly visible in the high field tail, despite the broadening introduced by Fourier transforming finite data. Additional weight is present at fields higher than the high field cutoff found using Eq. 1. Similar improvements in the fits were found at other temperatures in applied fields of $`H=4`$ T and $`H=1`$ T. The amplitude of the magnetic fields $`M`$ in the vortex core center decreases gradually with temperature above $`T=10`$ K. Beyond $`T=20`$ K, no clear signature of the fields could be seen.

In our experiment, the muon is sensitive to the $`c`$-axis component of the local magnetic field at the muon site. Estimating the size and direction of the effective magnetic moment responsible for these alternating fields from these results is not easy. However, Hsu et al. calculated that the geometric factor due to the displacement between the muon site and the center of a CuO plaquette would be of order $`1`$, assuming the muon bonds to the oxygen above the CuO planes. Hence measurement of $`18`$ G static fields at the muon site in the center of the vortex core agrees quantitatively with theoretical predictions. Various other forms of the alternating field term in Eq. 2 have also been tried. Replacing the gaussian function in the alternating field term by an exponential yields a worse fit (although $`\chi ^2`$ is still a minimum at non-zero $`M`$), while fitting with a second length scale for the magnetic field amplitude decay function (instead of $`\xi _{ab}`$) provides only a marginal improvement in the fit.

We note that there may be a number of other possible interpretations of the anomalous $`n(B)`$ we have measured. For example, little is known about vortices in underdoped high-$`T_c`$ superconductors. The $`d`$-wave nature of the vortices or changes in the pairing symmetry may affect $`n(B)`$. However, to our knowledge no theories currently exist that predict a change in the high-field tail due to such effects. Another possibility is that the vortex lattice is characterized by two domains that coexist in the sample, one a well-ordered vortex flux lattice and the other a disordered flux lattice. The high quality of the sample makes the likelihood of such coexistence small. Thus, we are led to the conclusion that the most likely interpretation is the presence of alternating fields in the vortex cores. As noted above, numerous theories predict their existence, and experimental evidence of fluctuating AF fields in the vortex cores of La2-δSrδCu2O4 has been recently reported in neutron scattering measurements. Our main result is precisely the signature one would expect in the field distribution of a superconductor with additional alternating magnetic fields in the vortex cores.

In conclusion, we have shown that a phenomenological model of the field distribution with alternating magnetic fields in the vortex cores fits the muon spin precession signal in YBa2Cu3O6.50 in high magnetic fields significantly better than a model without such vortex core fields. We find the amplitude of these fields to be 18(2)$`G`$ at the muon site. The origin of the anomalous magnetism reported here may be consistent with Zhang’s $`SO(5)`$ spin magnetism or various $`tJ`$ Hubbard models of orbital magnetism. Further measurements at intermediate doping between $`x=0.5`$ and $`0.95`$ are in progress. This measurement is of significant importance to a class of theories of high-Tc superconductors that predict spin or orbital magnetism in underdoped cuprates.

###### Acknowledgements.

We wish to gratefully acknowledge discussions with Ian Affleck and the help of Kim Chow, Mel Good, Bassam Hitti, Don Arseneau and Syd Kreitzman and of the technical staff at TRIUMF. Correspondence should be addressed to R.I. Miller (miller@physics.ubc.ca).


text:
# G343.1-2.3 and PSR 1706-44

## 1. Introduction

The discovery that the COS-B gamma-ray source was a pulsar (PSR B1706-44) was made by Johnston et al (1992). McAdam, Osborne, & Parkinson (1993) published a map made by the MOST telescope at 843 MHz of the area around the gamma-ray source. It showed a semicircular arc of emission, which has subsequently been denoted as the supernova remnant (SNR) G343.1-2.3, with the pulsar seemingly embedded in a small feature at its south eastern extremity. It was argued that the approximate distance of 3 kpc for the remnant, derived from the surface brightness-diameter relationship ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$-D) was not incompatible with the pulsar’s dispersion measure, although the distance indicated by the widely used interstellar electron density model of Taylor & Cordes (1993) would be only 1.8 kpc. The $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$-D relationship was based on the flux values from single dish observations, as both the VLA and the MOST integrated flux fell short of what would be expected from these (McAdam et al 1993).

If the association of the pulsar and the supernova remnant were real a transverse velocity of $`900`$ kms-1 would be required for the pulsar to have moved from the approximate geometric centre of the SNR arc in the characteristic spin down time of 17 kyr. This is a high value but not the highest measured value for a pulsar nor as high as that implied for some seemingly well-established pulsar-SNR associations.

Frail, Goss, & Whiteoak (1994) mapped the area around the pulsar at 20 cm and 90 cm with the VLA and cast some doubt on it’s association with G343.1-2.3 based on the morphology, and the argument that the dispersion measure and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$-D distance were discrepant. The latter was subsequently countered by a 21 cm hydrogen line absorption measurement of the pulsar by Koribalski et al. (1995) which gives a distance range of 2.4 to 3.2 kpc.

Nicastro, Johnston, & Koribalski (1996) also argue against the association. They report a maximum value only 27 kms-1 for the magnitude of the transverse velocity of the pulsar calculated from the interstellar scintillation. However in both Dodson (1997) and then their later paper (Johnston, Nicastro, & Koribalski 1998) this estimate is revised up to 100 kms-1. The possibility of a direct determination of the proper motion of PSR B1706-44 has been investigated, but no phase reference sufficiently strong for the current Australian VLBI network (the LBA) could be found.

We have made a number of radio images of the remnant to determine its full extent. These are with MRT at 150 MHz, with the ATCA at 1400 MHz and at 6.6 GHz with the 26m dish at Mt Pleasant observatory, Hobart.

## 2. Images from MRT and Mt. Pleasant

The object as seen at 150 MHz, and at 6.6 GHz are shown in figure 1. The 150-MHz map is a preliminary result from the MRT all sky survey. The 6.6-GHz image was produced as part of the Honours thesis of M. Howlett (Howlett 1998), a survey along the galactic plane using the 26m antenna run by the University of Tasmania. Both contain all spatial frequencies up to their resolution. They both show broad extended structure to the south of the bright arc seen by MOST.

## 3. Results from the Compact Array

The Australia Telescope Compact Array has been use to re-observe G343.1-2.3, with a nineteen pointing mosaic. Mosaicing was required to cover the extent of the source, but also to assist in the recovery of the flux on the shortest uv spacings, which were missed in the MOST and the VLA observations.

The images in Figure 2 a), look very much like those of MOST and indeed have very similar resolution ($`70^{\prime \prime }\times 47^{\prime \prime }`$) (the longer baselines, to the 6km antenna, were not used due to their poor support). We have included as a constraint in the deconvolution the observed total flux for the SNR, 30 Jy, as seen with the 26m single dish in Hobart.

Figure 2 b) shows the polarisation angle overlaid on the polarised intensity. The polarised fraction is typically about 20 per cent and the polarisation angle is randomly orientated and changes rapidly around the bright ring. Wisps of polarised emission can be seen to extend beyond the ring as originally defined, and throughout the region with broadscale emission. This confirms that the broadscale emission is associated with the synchrotron emission from the SNR.

It is instructive to compare the VLA maps of figure 4 in Frail et al (1994) with the map in Figure 2 a). The spur of emission on which the pulsar lies is clearly a continuous feature covering more than $`30^{}`$. This makes it extremely unlikely to be a cometary tail from the pulsar. Furthermore the width of the spur, $`4^{}`$, is unlikely to be that due to ram pressure of a moving pulsar. It is intriguing this approximately the size that would be expected from a static pulsar wind, i.e. the Sedov equations with a continuous input of energy, with the $`\dot{E}`$ of PSR1706-44 (Rees & Gunn 1974).

## 4. Conclusion

The arguments against the association were based around Kaspi’s critia (Kaspi 1996). These were that the pulsar DM distance and the SNR $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$-D distance did not match, and the pulsar was at the edge of the SNR and had too low a velocity to have travelled from the geometric centre of the SNR. Also there was no morphological evidence to imply a velocity direction. It has turned out that it is the DM distance is incorrect, and the extent of the SNR has been underestimated.

It is clear from both the low total flux values found by the MOST and VLA maps that there is a smooth broad component to this SNR. The ATCA observations confirm the extent of the broad emission, and that this is syncrotron in character. Taking this smooth component as the true limits of the SNR enlarges the extent and moves it southwards. This places the pulsar PSR1706-44 within the SNR shell, rather than on the rim.

We expect a SNR to be associated with PSR1706-44 because of its youth. The association was rejected in the past, and we have shown that the grounds for the rejection are not compelling as previously believed. The question of the pulsar velocity could be resolved by finding a phase reference for VLBI observation, with either the SKA or an upgrade to the current LBA. We will be able to rule out the upper velocity limits with the ATCA within the next few years but will not be able to measure to the lower limits for a few decades.

## References

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Frail D., Goss W., Whiteoak J., 1994, AJ., 437, 781

Howlett M., 1998, Hons thesis, University of Tasmania

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Johnston S., Nicastro L., Koribalski B., 1998, MNRAS, 297, 108

Kaspi V., 1996, in Johnston S., et al eds, Pulsars: Problems and Progress, IAU 160, ASP, p. 375

Koribalski B., Johnston S., Weisberg J., Wilson W., 1995, AJ., 441, 756

McAdam W., Osborne J., Parkinson M., 1993, Nature, 361, 516

Nicastro L., Johnston S., Koribalski B., 1996, AA. Letters, 306, L49

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Taylor J., Cordes J., 1993, AJ., 411, 674