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# Quantum fast Fourier transform using multilevel atoms

## 1 Introduction

The discrete quantum Fourier transform,

$$\text{DFT}_N:|a\frac{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}}{\sqrt{N}}\underset{c=0}{\overset{N1}{}}\mathrm{exp}(i2\pi ac/N)|c,$$
(1)
which links two sets of states each labeled by integers, occurs in many applications of quantum computing . It is central to Shor’s algorithm for prime factorization , which has applications in public-key cryptography . Coppersmith  describes an efficient algorithm for implementing this transform when $`N`$ is a power of $`2`$, achieving an exponential speed-up over the classical fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm .

Advances in quantum FFT technology have been motivated by the difficulty of implementing quantum logic between macroscopically distinct two-level systems, or qubits. The difficulty arises from decoherence, the loss of coherence in a quantum superposition due to coupling with the environment. It is known that one-qubit gates alone, interspersed by classical measurements, suffice to build the quantum FFT , but this result is hard to implement in practice. Approximate simulations of DFTN have also been proposed , and are known to be more tolerant to phase fluctuations in the two-qubit gates when applied in the context of Shor’s algorithm .

In this paper, we consider an analogue of the exact quantum FFT algorithm based on multi-valued quantum logic , and propose a novel realization of DFTN in multilevel atomic systems using wave-packet control methods. The advantage of using $`d>2`$ comput- ational levels in each atom is that the number of atoms needed for the algorithm is reduced by a factor of $`\text{log}_2d`$. For example, $`d=8`$ levels stores three qubits of information in each atom, requiring only $`Q/3`$ atoms for computing DFTN for $`N=2^Q`$. Since fewer atoms are needed, the multilevel approach minimizes the

decoherence associated with the macroscopic entanglement of these atoms, and enables a scale-up in the implementation of the quantum FFT.

In section 2, we show that the elementary operations needed for the algorithm are a Fourier transform of the $`d`$ levels in each atom, DFTd, and a phase gate that couples two atoms together. The $`d`$-level Fourier transform takes the place of the Walsh-Hadamaard transform, which plays a prominent role in binary quantum computation . The phase gate involves a conditional coupling between two entangled atoms, and is more susceptible to decoherence in implementation. As the number of phase gates in the quantum FFT scales as the square of the number of atoms, the reduction in the latter in a multilevel implementation is advantageous from a coherence-time standpoint.

We propose to implement DFTd in the atom by a change of computational basis, as described in section 3. The Fourier transform occurs naturally in quantum mechanics in relating complementary representations and we show that this can be useful for computational purposes. A dual Fourier basis for atomic energy levels consists of localised electron wave packets at discrete times in one Kepler orbit about the nucleus . Individual elements in the wave-packet basis can be addressed by short laser pulses that interact with the electron when it is near the atomic core. A change of basis from energy levels to wave packets effectively accomplishes DFTd in the atom.

The quantum FFT then reduces to a sequence of controlled phase gates between two atoms in hybrid bases, evolving the phases of wave-packet states in one atom conditional on energy levels in the other. In section 4, we consider a method for implementing such a gate in the linear ion-trap quantum logic scheme proposed by Cirac and Zoller . A multilevel phase-gate protocol in this scheme involves a sequence of laser pulses applied to two ions in the trap.

## 2 Multi-valued quantum FFT

In a system of $`Q=\mathrm{log}_2N`$ qubits, DFTN can be cons- tructed using only two kinds of binary gates . These are the single-qubit Walsh-Hadamaard transform

$$A_m=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left[\begin{array}{cc}1& 1\\ 1& 1\end{array}\right],$$
(2)
acting on qubit $`m`$, and the two-qubit controlled phase gate

$$B_{lm}=\left[\begin{array}{cccc}1& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 1& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& e^{i\varphi }\end{array}\right],$$
(3)
acting on qubits $`l`$ and $`m`$, where $`\varphi =\pi /2^{ml}`$. Specifically, it can be shown that except for a reversal of bits in the final output,

$`\text{DFT}_N`$ $`=`$ $`(A_{Q1}B_{Q2,Q1})(A_{Q2}B_{Q3,Q1}B_{Q3,Q2})`$ (5)
$`\mathrm{}(A_1B_{0,Q1}B_{0,Q2}\mathrm{}B_{0,1})A_0,`$
where the sequence of gates on the right side is applied from left to right. The total number of gates is $`Q(Q+1)/2=𝒪[Q^2]`$, so this is an efficient process.

To describe the multi-valued quantum FFT, we generalize the gates $`A_m`$ and $`B_{lm}`$ to multilevel systems. Each $`d`$-level system is referred to as a qudit. The states $`|a`$ and $`|c`$ in Eq. (1) can be written as a tensor product of $`q=\mathrm{log}_dN`$ qudits,

$`|a=|a_{q1},a_{q2},\mathrm{},a_0,`$ (6)
$`a_m=0,1,\mathrm{},d1\text{ for all }m,`$ (7)
and similarly for $`|c`$. The numbers $`a_m`$ represent the digits of $`a`$ in base $`d`$. The number of qudits $`q`$ in the tensor product is less than the number of qubits $`Q`$ by a factor of $`\mathrm{log}_2d`$,

$$q=\mathrm{log}_dN=\frac{\mathrm{log}_2N}{\mathrm{log}_2d}=\frac{Q}{\mathrm{log}_2d},$$
(8)
which reduces the number of atoms needed for the algorithm. The multi-valued analogue of the Walsh-Hadamaard transform $`A_m`$ is a $`d`$-level Fourier transform,

$$𝒜_m=\text{DFT}_d:|a_m\frac{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}}{\sqrt{d}}\underset{b_m=0}{\overset{d1}{}}\mathrm{exp}(i2\pi a_mb_m/d)|b_m,$$
(9)
which mixes the $`d`$ states in the $`m`$th qudit, $`|0,|1`$, $`\mathrm{},|d1`$, with phases determined by the Fourier kernel. The phase gate $`B_{lm}`$ generalizes to the two-qudit gate

$$_{lm}:|a_l,b_m\mathrm{exp}(i2\pi a_lb_m/d^{ml+1})|a_l,b_m,$$
(10)
which is a diagonal transformation that advances the phase of each of the $`d^2`$ states in the two-qudit basis, $`|0,0,|0,1,\mathrm{},|d1,d1`$, by an amount determined by the values of both qudits, $`a_l`$ and $`b_m`$. For $`d=2`$ and $`a_l,b_m=0\text{ or }1`$ in Eqs. (9) and (10), we recover the binary gates in Eqs. (2) and (3) respectively.

Given the above definitions for $`𝒜_m`$ and $`_{lm}`$, we show that a sequence of gates similar to that in Eq. (5) simulates DFTN on an $`q`$-qudit register. In the multi-valued case, for $`N=d^q`$,

$`\text{DFT}_N`$ $`=`$ $`(𝒜_{q1}_{q2,q1})(𝒜_{q2}_{q3,q1}_{q3,q2})`$ (12)
$`\mathrm{}(𝒜_1_{0,q1}_{0,q2}\mathrm{}_{0,1})𝒜_0.`$
Based on an argument given by Shor  for the binary quantum FFT, we consider the matrix element of DFTN between two arbitrary states $`|a`$ and $`|c`$,

$$c|\text{DFT}_N|a=\frac{1}{\sqrt{N}}\mathrm{exp}(i2\pi ac/N),$$
(13)
and show that the sequence of gates in Eq. (12) has the same matrix element as above, but between states $`|a`$ and $`|b`$, where $`|b`$ is defined as the ‘dit-reversed’ version of $`|c`$,

$`|b`$ $`=`$ $`|b_{q1},b_{q2},\mathrm{},b_0,`$ (14)
$`=`$ $`|c_0,c_1,\mathrm{},c_{q1}.`$ (15)
The least significant place in $`b`$ becomes the most significant place in $`c`$, and vice versa. A reversal of qudits can be performed efficiently using multi-valued permutation gates , or else we can simply read out the final state in the reverse order.

To determine the amplitude $`Ae^{i\varphi }`$ of going from $`|a_{q1},a_{q2},\mathrm{},a_0`$ to $`|b_{q1},b_{q2},\mathrm{},b_0`$ under the sequence of gates in Eq. (12), consider each set of gates separated parenthetically in this sequence. First $`𝒜_m`$ transforms $`|a_m`$ to $`|b_m`$ in the $`m`$th qudit with amplitude $`(1/\sqrt{d})\mathrm{exp}(i2\pi a_mb_m/d)`$. This is followed by all the gates $`_{lm}`$ for $`m>l`$, each of which adds a phase $`2\pi a_lb_m/d^{ml+1}`$ to $`|a_l,b_m`$ without mixing states. The net modulus $`A`$ of the transition amplitude between $`|a`$ to $`|b`$ is thus determined by the product of the $`𝒜_m`$ gates,

$$A=\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{d}}\right)^q=\frac{1}{\sqrt{d^q}}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{N}}.$$
(16)
The net phase $`\varphi `$ can be separated into two parts, that due to the $`𝒜_m`$ gates and that due to the $`_{lm}`$ gates,

$$\varphi =\underset{m=0}{\overset{q1}{}}2\pi \frac{a_mb_m}{d}+\underset{l=0}{\overset{q1}{}}\underset{m>l}{}2\pi \frac{a_lb_m}{d^{ml+1}}.$$
(17)
Since the first term amounts to setting $`l=m`$ in the second term, we can combine the terms by replacing $`m>l`$ with $`ml`$ in the second summation. From Eq. (14),

we have $`b_m=c_{q1m}`$. Defining $`m^{}=q1m`$, the summation over $`ml`$ becomes one over $`m^{}<ql`$,

$$\varphi =\underset{l=0}{\overset{q1}{}}\underset{m^{}<ql}{}2\pi a_lc_m^{}\frac{d^m^{}}{d^{ql}}.$$
(18)
Including $`m^{}ql`$ terms in the second summation above will not affect the phase since these extra terms are integer multiples of $`2\pi `$. Hence, the two summations decouple to give

$$\varphi =\frac{2\pi }{d^q}\underset{l=0}{\overset{q1}{}}a_ld^l\underset{m^{}=0}{\overset{q1}{}}c_m^{}d^m^{}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\pi ac/N,$$
(19)
where we have used $`N=d^q`$ and identified $`a`$ and $`c`$ in their base-$`d`$ notation. From Eqs. (16) and (19), we see that the net amplitude of going from $`|a`$ to $`|b`$ under the sequence of gates in Eq. (12) is identical to that of going from $`|a`$ to $`|c`$ under DFTN. Thus, to within a reversal of qudits between $`|b`$ and $`|c`$, the $`q(q+1)/2`$ gates in Eq. (12) simulates a quantum Fourier transform on a $`q`$-qudit register.

A graphical illustration of the quantum FFT is shown in figure 1. The first three passes through the algorithm ($`m=q1,q2,q3`$) are shown, corresponding to the first three sets of gates in Eq. (12). During each pass, an $`𝒜_m`$ gate first mixes the $`d`$ states in qudit $`m`$, illustrated by a shading of the respective square in the figure, followed by a sequence of $`_{lm}`$ gates that couple all shaded squares with the next unshaded one. In each pass, the $`𝒜_m`$ gate enables a $`d`$-point Fourier transform that is repeated efficiently $`d^m`$ times by the conditional $`_{lm}`$ gates, achieving exponential speed-up over the classical FFT. The speed-up is made possible by the tensor product nature of quantum entanglement . In the multi-valued case, this corresponds to a $`d`$-ary tree decomposition of DFTN in terms of unitary operations.

At the completion of the quantum FFT, each qudit is read out by measurement. For a single multilevel system, this yields one value per qudit, corresponding to one of the $`d`$ computational levels. Information stored in a superposition of these levels is lost upon measurement, analogously to the situation in a two-level system. The measured output of the multi-valued algorithm is thus always a product state of the $`q`$ qudits, corresponding to a classical number in base $`d`$.

## 3 Atomic Fourier Transform

Consider the implementation of the transform $`𝒜_m`$ in an atom with $`d`$ computational levels. As shown in Eq. (9), this transform uniformly mixes all the levels in the atom with phases determined by the Fourier kernel. In the basis of energy levels, this requires precise control of the relative phases of the levels. Such control is not feasible for large numbers of levels in the energy basis. However, we can regard this as a problem in wave-packet control. Atomic wave packets are superpositions of energy levels with different phase relations among the levels. We propose to implement DFTd in the atom by means of a dual computational basis composed of wave packets .

### 3.1 Energy and wave packet bases

The Fourier transform occurs naturally in the change of state representation from coordinate to momentum in quantum mechanics. Although time is not an observable, we can also speak of an uncertainty relation between energy and time. In this case, the Fourier kernel appears in the unitary time-evolution operator, which relates the continuous dynamics of the bound atomic state to its discrete energy spectrum. A larger number of energy levels in the superposition leads to a greater localization in the wave packet. By appropriately discretizing the dynamics, we can define a wave-packet basis in the atom that is related to the energy-level basis by a discrete quantum Fourier transform.

Consider radial wave packets , which are superpositions of Rydberg energy levels with low angular momentum. These levels have long radiative life times, approaching a millisecond for principal quantum number $`n>100`$. Take $`d`$ energy levels centered at $`\overline{n}`$ with angular momentum $`l=1`$ to represent the computational basis in the atom,

$`|j_\nu =|\overline{n}+j,1,0,`$ (20)
$`j=d/2+1,d/2+2,\mathrm{},d/2,`$ (21)
where the subscript $`\nu `$ denotes a state in the energy-level basis. We have assumed above that $`\overline{n}`$ is an integer and $`d`$ is an even number for simplicity, but the arguments below are easily extended to non-integer $`\overline{n}`$ and odd $`d`$. A uniform superposition of the $`d`$ levels corresponds to a radially-localized wave packet in space whose time evolution is given by

$$|\psi (t)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{d}}\underset{j}{}\mathrm{exp}(i\omega _jt)|j_\nu ,$$
(22)
where $`\mathrm{}\omega _j`$ is the energy of the $`j`$th level in the superposition, and $`\mathrm{}\omega _0`$ is the mean energy of the wave packet corresponding to principal quantum number $`\overline{n}`$. To separate the classical and revival dynamics of the wave packet, we expand $`\omega _j\omega _0`$ in a Taylor series in $`j=n\overline{n}`$,

$$\omega _j\omega _0=2\pi \left[\frac{j}{T_K}\frac{j^2}{2!T_{\mathrm{rev}}}+\frac{j^3}{3!T_{\mathrm{sr}}}\mathrm{}\right].$$
(23)
The Kepler period $`T_K=2\pi \overline{n}^3`$ (in atomic units) measures the round-trip time for the wave packet traveling between the inner and outer turning points of the classical orbit. This corresponds to a radial shell of probability distribution varying periodically in size. The revival time $`T_{\mathrm{rev}}`$ and the super-revival time $`T_{\mathrm{sr}}`$ describe higher-order effects such as dispersion and revivals.

Define an orthogonal basis of wave-packet states corresponding to $`d`$ discrete times during the classical Kepler evolution of the radial wave packet ,

$`|k_\tau `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{d}}}{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}\mathrm{exp}(i2\pi jk/d)|j_\nu `$ (24)
$``$ $`|\psi (kT_K/d),`$ (25)
where $`k=d/2+1,d/2+2,\mathrm{},d/2`$, and the subscript $`\tau `$ denotes a state in the wave-packet basis. Thus $`k=0`$ corresponds to the wave-packet state centered at the inner turning point of the classical orbit, and $`k=\pm |k|`$ correspond to wave-packet states moving in opposite directions at some intermediate location in the orbit, as illustrated in figure 2.

The energy-level basis $`|j_\nu `$ is related to the wave-packet basis $`|k_\tau `$ by a $`d`$-level Fourier transform,

$`𝒜_m|j_\nu `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{d}}}{\displaystyle \underset{j^{}}{}}\mathrm{exp}(i2\pi jj^{}/d)|j^{}_\nu `$ (26)
$`=`$ $`|k=j_\tau ,`$ (27)
where we have used Eqs. (9) and (24). This suggests that $`𝒜_m`$ can be implemented in the atom by a change of computational basis from that of energy eigenstates to that of wave-packet states. A change of basis does not involve any free time evolution or real-time processing in the atom, which means that there is no computational cost to realizing the $`𝒜_m`$ gates in this manner.

To understand the effect of the basis change on the algorithm, we refer again to figure 1. Recall that the shading of each square in the figure corresponds to the application of a $`𝒜_m`$ gate to that qudit in the array, and the following $`_{lm}`$ gates in that pass through the algorithm couple all the shaded squares with the next unshaded one. If $`𝒜_m`$ is regarded as a change of basis from energy levels to wave packets, then the

shaded squares are to be read in the wave-packet basis. Consequently, each $`_{lm}`$ gate involves different bases for the two qudits $`l`$ and $`m`$ in the transformation. The quantum FFT thus reduces to a series of conditional two-qudit phase transforms $`_{lm}`$ performed in hybrid bases.

In the atomic case, $`_{lm}`$ can be regarded as phase shifts applied to each wave-packet state $`|k_\tau `$ in the $`m`$th atom conditional on each energy eigenstate $`|j_\nu `$ in the $`l`$th atom. In view of Eq. (26), we rewrite Eq. (10) as

$`_{lm}:|j_\nu |k_\tau \mathrm{exp}(i\varphi _{jk})|j_\nu |k_\tau ,`$ (28)
$`\varphi _{jk}=2\pi jk/d^{ml+1}.`$ (29)
We describe a protocol for implementing $`_{lm}`$ in a linear ion trap in section 4. This requires coherent control of the wave-packet basis in the target atom, which we discuss below.

### 3.2 Coherent wave packet control

Consider an arbitrary Rydberg state in the wave-packet basis,

$$|\psi (t)=\mathrm{exp}(i\omega _0t)\underset{k}{}\stackrel{~}{b}_k(t)|k_\tau ,$$
(30)
where $`\stackrel{~}{b}_k`$ are slowly varying amplitudes from which we have removed the average frequency $`\omega _0`$ corresponding to the mean Rydberg level $`\overline{n}`$ in Eq. (20). Since the wave-packet states are not stationary, the amplitudes $`\stackrel{~}{b}_k`$ evolve in time. During a Kepler period, the periodic motion of the radial wave packet corresponds to a cyclic permutation in the amplitudes,

$$\stackrel{~}{b}_k(mT_K/d)=\stackrel{~}{b}_{km}(0),$$
(31)
where $`m`$ is an integer and $`km`$ is taken modulo $`d`$. At later times, higher-order terms in the Taylor expansion of Eq. (23) become significant, and the dispersion of the Rydberg wave function mixes the amplitudes $`\stackrel{~}{b}_k`$ nontrivially. However at the revival times $`T_{\mathrm{rev}}`$, the wave function reforms into the original state and nearly recovers the initial distribution of amplitudes in the wave-packet basis.

An applied laser field interacts strongly with a Rydberg wave packet when it is near the atomic core. This phenomenon underlies the excitation and photo-ionization of radial wave packets , and we use this as a means for coherent control of individual amplitudes $`\stackrel{~}{b}_k`$ in the wave-packet basis. The idea is to use short laser pulses to transfer a chosen amplitude to the ground state for time-resolved processing.

Consider a broadband laser pulse with a spectral width $`d/T_K`$ that couples all the Rydberg levels in Eq. (20) to the ground state $`|g`$ in the atom. If the pulse is transform-limited, it has a temporal width less than $`T_K/d`$, and we can to good approximation ignore the free Kepler evolution of the wave-packet amplitudes shown in Eq. (31). Only the amplitude $`\stackrel{~}{b}_0`$ changes significantly during the pulse, corresponding to the wave-packet state $`|0_\tau `$ nearest the atomic core. This state undergoes Rabi oscillations with the ground state ,

$`\dot{b}_g`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}f(t)\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_0\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{\Delta }_0t)\stackrel{~}{b}_0,`$ (32)
$`\dot{\stackrel{~}{b}}_0`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}f(t)\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_0\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{\Delta }_0t)b_g.`$ (33)
where $`f(t)`$ is the pulse profile, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0=\omega _0\omega `$ is the de-tuning of the center frequency $`\omega `$ of the pulse from the average Rydberg frequency, and $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_0`$ is proportional to the average of the Rabi frequencies $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{gj}`$ for the ground-to-Rydberg transitions,

$$\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_0=\frac{1}{\sqrt{d}}\underset{j}{}\mathrm{\Omega }_{gj}.$$
(34)
A localized wave packet behaves classically for $`tT_K`$, and the strong coupling to the laser field near the core can be understood as a large momentum transfer to the electron near the nucleus. The rate at which energy is absorbed from the field $`𝐄`$ is proportional to $`𝐩𝐄`$, and the electron momentum $`𝐩`$ is maximum at the inner turning point.

The two-level system of Eqs. (32) and (33) allows selective wave-packet processing in the atom. In particular, it allows phase control of individual wave-packet states in the Rydberg basis, as needed to implement $`_{lm}`$. To see this, note that a $`\pi `$-pulse of duration less than $`T_K/d`$ de-excites only that part of the Rydberg wave function associated with a single wave-packet amplitude $`\stackrel{~}{b}_k`$, creating a ‘dark’ wave packet in its place in the Rydberg basis.

The phase of $`\stackrel{~}{b}_k`$ in the ground state can be controlled by a narrow-band $`2\pi `$-pulse that couples this state to an auxiliary energy level in the atom (level $`e`$ in figure 3). The phase-shifted amplitude can be restored to the Rydberg basis at a time commensurate with when the dark wave-packet state returns to the atomic core. This accomplishes a phase shift of a selected wave-packet state in the target atom.

Since the wave-packet basis is not stationary, the time between successive interactions with the Rydberg basis is dictated by the free atomic time scales. This time interval has to an integer number of Kepler periods during which the Rydberg state has not incurred much dispersion, or alternately, when the free time evolution undergoes a revival in the Schrödinger picture. This ensures that the decomposition of the Rydberg wave function in the wave-packet basis has not changed appreciably between pulses.

## 4 Phase Gate in the Linear Ion Trap

Consider an implementation of the two-qudit phase gate $`_{lm}`$ in the linear ion-trap scheme for quantum computing . Assuming that $`d`$ energy levels in each trapped ion represent a qudit, consider a series of laser pulses applied to ions $`l`$ and $`m`$ in the trap, as illustrated in figure 3(a). Our goal is to control the phases of the wave-packet states $`|k_\tau `$ in the $`m`$th ion conditional on the energy eigenstates $`|j_\nu `$ in the $`l`$th ion, as required by Eq. (28).

The ions are assumed to be in the vibrational ground state and oscillate synchronously in the center-of-mass normal mode in the trap. Assuming that the interaction field has a standing-wave pattern along the trap axis, two kinds of interactions have been proposed in this scheme, labeled $`U`$ and $`V`$ . The $`V`$ interaction arises when the ion is at the antinode of the standing wave, and the laser resonantly couples two internal states in the ion according to the unitary evolution operator

$$\widehat{V}(t)=\mathrm{exp}\left[it\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{2}(\widehat{\sigma }^{}+\widehat{\sigma })\right],$$
(35)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the Rabi frequency and $`\widehat{\sigma }`$ is the lowering operator for the atomic transition. Alternately, the $`U`$ interaction arises when the ion is at the node of the standing wave and the laser is detuned off resonance to an atomic transition by the trap frequency $`\nu _x`$. We consider the lowest two trap states, $`|0`$ and $`|1`$. For atomic levels $`g`$ and $`e`$, where $`e`$ is the upper level, we find that the states $`|g`$$`|1`$ and $`|e`$$`|0`$ are coupled by the unitary operator

$$\widehat{U}(t)=\mathrm{exp}\left[it\frac{\eta }{\sqrt{q}}\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{2}(\widehat{\sigma }^{}\widehat{a}+\widehat{\sigma }\widehat{a}^{})\right],$$
(36)
where $`\widehat{a}`$ is the trap lowering operator and $`q`$ is the number of ions in the trap. The Lamb-Dicke parameter $`\eta `$ is defined as

$$\eta =k_x\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{}}{2m\nu _x}},$$
(37)
where $`m`$ is the mass of each ion, and $`k_x`$ is the wave vector along the trap axis. The unitary evolution in Eq. (36) is valid in the limit that $`\eta 1`$.

Consider the two-ion Rydberg wave function at some time $`t_0`$ when the trap has been initialized to $`|0`$,

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }(t_0)=\underset{j^{}}{}\underset{k^{}}{}c_{j^{}k^{}}(t_0)|j^{},k^{}|0,$$
(38)
where we use the abbreviation $`|j^{}_\nu |k^{}_\tau =|j^{},k^{}`$, and the summations over $`j^{}`$ and $`k^{}`$ run over the $`d`$ components of the energy-level and wave-packet bases in ions $`l`$ and $`m`$ respectively. The coefficients $`c_{j^{}k^{}}`$ are the Schrödinger picture amplitudes whose free time evolution has two contributions, one due to the phase evolution of the energy levels in the $`l`$th ion, and another due to the periodic evolution of the wave-packet amplitudes in the $`m`$th ion. We have to keep these contributions in mind as we pursue a phase gate in the hybrid basis.

When the $`k`$th wave-packet element in the $`m`$th ion is near the atomic core, the methods described in section 3 3.2 can be used to transfer the corresponding amplitudes $`c_{j^{}k}`$ to the ground state $`|g`$ in the ion. This is done by applying a broadband $`\pi `$-pulse of the $`V`$ type, denoted by $`V_m(\omega _0,\pi )`$ in figure 3(b). The pulse spectrum is centered on the mean frequency $`\omega _0`$ and has a duration less than $`T_K/d`$ that is an integer multiple of $`\pi /\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_0`$. This only affects the wave-packet state nearest the atomic core, denoted by $`k^{}=k`$, and leaves the two ions in the state

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }(t_1)`$ (41)
$`={\displaystyle \underset{j^{}}{}}\left[c_{j^{}k}(t_1)|j^{},g|0+{\displaystyle \underset{k^{}k}{}}c_{j^{}k^{}}(t_1)|j^{},k^{}|0\right]`$
$`=|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(t_1)+{\displaystyle \underset{j^{}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{k^{}k}{}}c_{j^{}k^{}}(t_1)|j^{},k^{}|0.`$
The second term in Eq. (41) represents that part of the wave function in the $`m`$th ion that is left in the Rydberg manifold, and we suppress this term briefly. The first term corresponds to the $`k`$th wave-packet state that has been de-excited, which can be written as

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(t_1)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{j^{}}{}}c_{j^{}k}(t_1)|j^{},g|0`$ (42)
$`=`$ $`c_{jk}(t_1)|j,g|0+{\displaystyle \underset{j^{}j}{}}c_{j^{}k}(t_1)|j^{},g|0,`$ (43)
where a particular energy level $`j`$ is taken out of the $`j^{}`$ summation. We seek to de-excite this level to the ground state in the $`l`$th ion, conditional on exciting the trap. This is done by applying a narrow-band $`\pi `$-pulse of the $`U`$ type to the $`l`$th ion, which has a pulse duration that is an integer multiple of $`\pi /(\eta \mathrm{\Omega }_{gj}/\sqrt{q})`$. The laser frequency is tuned to $`\omega _j`$ for the $`j`$th Rydberg level. This pulse is labeled $`U_l(\omega _j\nu _x,\pi )`$ in figure 3(b), and transforms $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(t_1)`$ to

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(t_2)=c_{jk}(t_2)|g,g|1+\underset{j^{}j}{}c_{j^{}k}(t_2)|j^{},g|0,$$
(44)
where the coefficients have evolved in phase from $`t_1`$ to $`t_2`$ due to the free time evolution of the energy levels in the Schrödinger picture. Equation (44) shows that the trap is excited only when both ions are in the ground state $`|g,g`$, corresponding to the initial state $`|j,k`$ at time $`t_0`$. Hence, the $`U`$ pulse has created entanglement between the trap state and the internal states of the two ions.

To implement $`_{lm}`$, we need to shift the phase of $`|j,k`$ by $`\varphi _{jk}`$ according to Eq. (28). In state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(t_2)`$, this corresponds to evolving the phase of $`|g,g`$$`|1`$ by $`\varphi _{jk}`$ without affecting the other basis states. To do this, consider the auxiliary level $`e`$ in the $`m`$th ion shown in figure 3(b). Applying a $`U`$ pulse of $`2\pi `$ duration couples states $`|g`$$`|1`$ and $`|e`$$`|0`$ in the $`m`$th ion. For a laser detuning of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, the interaction phase of $`|g,g`$$`|1`$ evolves by an integer multiple of $`\pi (1+\mathrm{\Delta }/\mathrm{\Omega }_{ge})`$, which can be controlled to achieve $`\varphi _{jk}`$. This pulse is denoted $`U_m(\omega _e\nu _x\mathrm{\Delta },2\pi )`$ in the figure, and transforms $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(t_2)`$ to

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(t_3)`$ $`=`$ $`c_{jk}(t_3)\mathrm{exp}(i\varphi _{jk})|g,g|1`$ (46)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{j^{}j}{}}c_{j^{}k}(t_3)|j^{},g|0,`$
giving a controlled phase shift $`\varphi _{jk}`$ to the state $`|g,g`$$`|1`$ as desired. We now reverse the operation that took us from $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(t_1)`$ to $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(t_2)`$ by applying $`U_l(\omega _j\nu _x,\pi )`$ again to the $`l`$th ion, creating

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(t_4)`$ $`=`$ $`c_{jk}(t_4)\mathrm{exp}(i\varphi _{jk})|j,g|0`$ (48)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{j^{}j}{}}c_{j^{}k}(t_4)|j^{},g|0.`$
Lastly, the $`m`$th ion state $`|g`$ is restored to $`|k_\tau `$ by applying $`V_m(\omega _0,\pi )`$ again at a time that is commensurate with when the ‘dark’ radial wave-packet element corresponding to $`k`$ returns to the atomic core. Since this is a $`V`$ pulse, it does not affect the trap. The resulting state is

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }_k(t_5)`$ $`=`$ $`c_{jk}(t_5)\mathrm{exp}(i\varphi _{jk})|j,k|0`$ (50)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{j^{}j}{}}c_{j^{}k}(t_5)|j^{},k|0.`$
The $`k^{}k`$ terms in Eq. (41) are unaffected by the combination of the five pulses used above. Including their contribution to the final wave function, we get

$`|\mathrm{\Psi }(t_5)`$ $`=`$ $`c_{jk}(t_5)\mathrm{exp}(i\varphi _{jk})|j,k|0`$ (52)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{j^{}j}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{k^{}k}{}}c_{j^{}k^{}}(t_5)|j^{},k^{}|0.`$
Comparing Eqs. (38) and (52), we see that the sequence of five pulses,

$`V_m(\omega _0,\pi )U_l(\omega _j\nu _x,\pi )U_m(\omega _e\nu _x\mathrm{\Delta },2\pi )`$ (53)
$`U_l(\omega _j\nu _x,\pi )V_m(\omega _0,\pi ),`$ (54)
accomplishes a controlled phase shift of the hybrid state $`|j,k=|j_\nu |k_\tau `$, as desired. This procedure is repeated for each of the $`d^2`$ states in the two ions, leading to the phase gate $`_{lm}`$ in mixed energy-level and wave-packet bases.

The coefficients $`c_{j^{}k^{}}(t_5)`$ are different from $`c_{j^{}k^{}}(t_0)`$ due to the phase evolution of the energy levels in both ions during the time interval $`t_5t_0`$. This is also responsible for the non-stationarity of the wave-packet basis, which makes this procedure sensitive to when the $`k`$th wave-packet amplitude in the $`m`$th ion is de-excited from, and excited to, the Rydberg manifold. The time interval between the two $`V_m`$ pulses in the sequence is determined by the free atomic time scales governing the classical or revival dynamics of the wave packets. By appropriate timing of these pulses, we can implement a conditional phase-shift between the two atoms.

## 5 Conclusion

This paper shows that the quantum FFT can be simplified using a multilevel wave-packet approach to its implementation. In atomic systems, the basic logic gate is a multilevel Fourier transform $`𝒜_m`$ in each atom, which is equivalent to a change of basis from energy levels to wave packets. Such an implementation takes advantage of the natural Fourier transform relation between energy and time in quantum mechanics. The FFT then reduces to a series of two-qudit phase gates $`_{lm}`$ in hybrid bases, which we have considered in the context of the linear ion-trap scheme for quantum computing.

The advantage of the multilevel approach is a reduction in the number of entangled quantum systems (e.g. trapped ions) by a factor of $`\mathrm{log}_2d`$ compared to the binary case. For the same reason, the number of logic gates needed to simulate DFTN is fewer by a factor of $`(\mathrm{log}_2d)^2`$, as seen by comparing Eqs. (5) and (12). However, this comes at the cost of larger elementary gates, up to $`d^2`$-dimensional in the case of $`_{lm}`$. The trade-off in computation time depends very much on the particular implementation scheme used, which dictates the physical time taken to perform each gate.

The bottleneck for the gate operation time in the linear ion-trap scheme is the trap frequency $`\nu _x`$ , typically kHz to MHz, which limits the speed of the narrow-band $`U`$ pulses. This is due to the need for selective entanglement between the internal state of the ion and its motional state in the trap. By comparison, the Rydberg atomic time scales are much faster, typically in the ns to $`\mu `$s range, allowing much faster execution times in principle for the phase-gate protocol given in section 4.

There are two advantages to a wave-packet approach to multilevel processing. One is the quantum Fourier transform itself, which is integral to the approach and key to quantum computing. The other is the feasibility of the control scheme for atomic systems. Universal control of multiple energy levels in the atom requires multiple lasers tuned to the neighbouring transitions . This is much easier in the time domain, where wave-packet transforms can be achieved by controlling the timing and durations of a sequence of laser pulses. The implementation of the quantum FFT in multilevel systems is thus made more feasible using wave-packet methods.

This work was supported by the Army Research Office through the MURI Center for Quantum Information.


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# Chapter 1 Gravitational Lensing of the Most Distant Known Supernova, SN1997ff

## Chapter 1 Gravitational Lensing of the Most Distant Known Supernova, SN1997ff

### Abstract

We investigate the effect of gravitational lensing on the farthest known supernova, SN1997ff. The SN was found at $`z1.7`$ in the Hubble Deep Field North and is most likely of Type Ia. Due to our poor knowledge of the properties of the lensing foreground galaxies, we conclude that large magnification effects are possible for reasonable lens parameter values implying that this single SN does not put any strong constraints on the cosmological parameters, grey dust obscuration or luminosity evolution of SNIa until we can model the lensing with high accuracy.

### 1. Introduction

A primary goal for cosmology is to determine the total energy density of the Universe, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and its constituents. It has been long recognised that this goal is achievable through the study of the redshift-distance relation of Type Ia supernovae (SNe). The relation is sensitive to different values of the cosmological parameters and this difference is more prominent at high redshifts. Therefore, the recently discovered SN at $`z1.7`$  might prove to be invaluable in this respect. However, different systematic effects such as obscuration by grey dust, luminosity evolution of Type Ia SNe and gravitational lensing are also possibly more severe at high redshifts. In Ref. , the systematic effects of gravitational lensing on a large sample of SNe have been investigated. Here, (with more details in Ref. ), we investigate the effects of gravitational lensing due to galaxies lying close to the line-of-sight to SN1997ff, generalising the work in Refs.  and  by investigating the combined effects from a larger number of galaxies and estimating the masses and velocity dispersions of the lensing galaxies from the measured luminosities. Riess et al.  argued that the observed brightness of SN1997ff suggests that there cannot be a sizeable luminosity evolution for Type Ia’s nor significant extinction by dust. Our work shows that the possible lensing magnification effects are large enough that the data is also consistent with an intrinsically dimmer supernova, or with significant dust density along the line-of-sight.

### 2. Method

From the Hubble Deep Field North (HDF-N; ), we obtain the relative positions and redshifts of galaxies lying in the proximity of the line-of-sight to SN1997ff. All (11) galaxies within $`0z1.7`$ and which are lying closer than 10 arc-seconds to the line-of-sight to SN1997ff and its host galaxy have been included in the study. We model the matter distribution of the galaxies as truncated isothermal spheres characterised by their velocity dispersion, $`v`$, which can be estimated from the Faber-Jackson relation

$$\frac{v}{v_{}}=\left(\frac{L}{L_{}}\right)^{0.25}=10^{0.1(MM_{})}.$$
(1)
Here, $`M`$ is the absolute magnitude of the galaxy as measured in the $`b_J`$ magnitude system and $`L`$ is the luminosity. The star indicates typical galaxy values on $`v`$, $`L`$ and $`M`$ (and the mass, $`m`$, below). We calculate $`M`$ by performing cross-filter K-corrections (assuming early-type galaxy spectra) on the observed magnitudes in the $`r`$ and $`i`$ bands (ST magnitude system) into rest-frame $`b_J`$.

To estimate the masses of the lensing galaxies, we combine the observed luminosities with the mass-to-luminosity ratio

$$\frac{m}{m_{}}=\left(\frac{L}{L_{}}\right)^{1.25}=10^{0.5(M_{}M)},$$
(2)
valid for early-type galaxies lying in the fundamental plane. From the velocity dispersion and mass of the galaxies, we can compute the truncation radii of the halos. The magnification and deflection of the light from SN1997ff are calculated by using the multiple lens-plane method \[8, Ch. 9\] where the mass of each of the lensing galaxies is projected onto a plane at the galaxy redshift. Next, the deflection angle and magnification in each plane is computed and by tracing the light-rays backwards from the observer to the source, we can determine the magnification and position of the ray in the source plane. Our calculations have been made using $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{M}=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, $`h=0.7`$ and the filled beam approximation when calculating cosmological distances. A typical value of $`v_{}=238`$ km/s was obtained in Ref.  for this cosmology.

### 3. Results and discussion

#### 3.1. Magnification

In Fig. 1., the magnification of SN1997ff is given as a function of the mass normalisation in the left panel and of the velocity dispersion normalisation in the right panel. The masses and velocity dispersions are calculated from the observed luminosities $`i_{\mathrm{ST}}`$-band but the $`r_{\mathrm{ST}}`$-band give very similar results. For a circularly symmetric lens, the magnification is determined by the mass within the radius defined by the impact parameter of the light-ray and the surface mass density (or *convergence*) at this radius. The effect of the convergence here is to increase the magnification. Therefore, a light-ray that is passing a plane outside a halo for some specific values of $`m_{}`$ and $`v_{}`$ might pass inside the same halo for some other values, thereby gaining the convergence component of the magnification or vice versa. This is what causes the discontinuities in the magnification in the plots. Of course, these effects are unphysical in the sense that they are very sensitive to the specific modeling of the halos, in this case the steepness of the density profile and the cut-off radii. It is also an indication that lensing effects are very model dependent, and thus very detailed, individual modeling of the lensing galaxies is necessary to make robust predictions of the magnification.

#### 3.2. Clues from host galaxy

The appearance of the host galaxy might offer some clues to the magnitude of the lensing effect. Riess et al.  studied the lensing effects of the foreground galaxy closest to the line-of-sight and concluded that the probability of a large magnification is small with such a small ellipticity as is observed (axis ratio $`0.85`$). For a single lens, this is true but when including all foreground galaxies close to the line-of-sight, the situation proves to be much more complicated. The results in Ref.  shows that there is no simple relation between magnification and ellipticity when more than one lens is included in the study.

### 4. Conclusions

Our lensing analysis show that a large range of magnifications of SN1997ff is possible for reasonable values of the galaxy masses and velocity dispersions. The value of the magnification is very sensitive to details in the modelling of the matter distribution in the lensing galaxies. The apparent (lack of) ellipticity of the host galaxy can be shown not to put any strong constraints on the magnitude of the magnification effect. Thus we conclude, that in order to use the apparent magnitude of a single high redshift SN to infer the values of any cosmological quantities, or even to place meaningful limits on the possible dimming of Type Ia SNe by intergalactic grey dust or luminosity evolution, very careful modelling of the galaxies along the line-of-sight is needed in order to control the systematic effects from lensing.

This work has been carried out together with Edvard Mörtsell and Ariel Goobar. The author would like to thank Lars Bergström, Joakim Edsjö and Peter Nugent for helpful discussions and Tomas Dahlén for providing galaxy spectral templates. I would also like to thank the Swedish Research Council for financial support.


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# New Results on Bar-Halo Interactions

## 1. Introduction

It is by now well established that galactic discs can be bar unstable (e.g. Miller, Prendergast & Quirk 1970; Hohl 1971). In the quest for stability three main stabilising mechanisms have been proposed (see e.g. reviews by Athanassoula 1984, Sellwood & Wilkinson 1993 and references in either) :

i) The disc could be immersed in a massive spheroid, e.g. a bulge and/or an inner halo (Ostriker & Peebles 1973).

ii) The disc could be hot or have a hot center (Athanassoula 1983, Athanassoula & Sellwood 1986).

iii) The galaxy could be sufficiently centrally concentrated to stop the initially linear wave from reaching the center (Toomre 1981; Sellwood & Evans 2001).

Each one of these mechanisms has generated a lot of discussion, both regarding its efficiency and the way it can be applied to real galaxies. Here I will address the first of them, which was also historically the first to be introduced, and show that, contrary to what has been argued so far, inner haloes can, at least in some cases, enhance the bar. For this I will use a series of numerical simulations of disc-halo systems, described by Athanassoula & Misiriotis (2002, hereafter AM02) and Athanassoula (2002b in preparation, hereafter A02b). I describe the simulations and their results in section 2, and in section 3 I discuss the role of the halo. Finally in section 4 I give a general discussion and address the applicability of my results to real galaxies.

## 2. Simulations of and results on bar formation

I will present here the results of three $`N`$-body simulations made with the GRAPE-5 systems of Marseille observatory (Kawai et al. 2000). The three initial conditions have identical exponential discs of unit mass and scale length, and $`Q`$ = 1.2. Their halos are five times as massive as their discs and have different degrees of central concentration. They are initially thermalised, spherical and non-rotating. The halo of the first simulation has initially a mass of 0.4 within three disc scale lengths, while the halo of the other two has a mass of 1.4 within that distance. The initial circular velocity curves (loosely called hereafter rotation curves) of the three models are shown in Fig. 1. In the first simulation, hereafter MD, the disc dominates in the inner parts, roughly up to $`r`$ = 5, whereas in the other two (hereafter MH and RH, respectively), the halo contribution is slightly larger than that of the disc up to the maximum of the disc rotation curve, and considerably so after that. Model RH is identical to model MH, except that its halo is rigid – i.e. given by a potential imposed on the disc particles – and does not evolve during the simulation. Models MD and MH are similar to the ones described in AM02, but have somewhat thinner discs. Details on the initial conditions and on the simulations, as well as results for other such simulations, can be found in AM02 and in A02b. A reasonable calibration (AM02) gives that $`t`$ = 500 corresponds to 7 $`\times 10^9`$ years. Different values, however, can be obtained for different scalings of the disc mass and scale length.

The results of the evolution at $`t`$ = 600 are summarised in Fig. 2. The upper row of panels gives the three “rotation curves”. We note that the disc material has moved considerably inwards in the two first cases, but much less so in the third one. In model MD the difference between $`t`$ = 0 and $`t`$ = 600 is quantitative, since the inner parts were initially disc dominated and are still so after the evolution, albeit to a larger degree. On the other hand for model MH the difference is qualitative, since the inner regions are now dominated by the disc, contrary to what was the case initially. The remaining panels give the face-on, side-on and end-on views of the disc/bar component. The differences between the three models are striking. Comparing models MD and MH we note that the bar that grew in the initially more halo dominated environment is stronger than the bar that grew in the disc dominated environment (AM02). It is longer and its isophotes are more rectangular-like (AM02). Comparing the Fourier components, the surface density profiles and the isophotal shapes of the $`N`$-body bars with those of observed barred galaxies, I find that the MD-type bars have observed properties reminiscent of those of late-type bars, while MH-type bars resemble early-type strongly barred systems (Athanassoula 2002a).

Very strong differences can also be found when we compare model MH with model RH. Model MH has a very strong bar, while model RH has a mild oval distortion, or a very weak bar. The difference between the lengths of the two bars is striking – the MH bar being 2 or 3 times longer that the RH “bar”. Their edge-on views are also very different. Model MH seen side-on has a strong peanut or X-shape, and a big bulge-like protuberance if seen end-on. Model RH shows no such features.

The difference between the three bars is also clear when I plot the relative Fourier component of the face-on distributions of the discs (e.g. AM02). The maximum values of the relative $`m`$ = 2 component for models MH, MD and RH at time 800 are 0.68, 0.45 and 0.23, respectively.

The three models differ also in the way their bars evolve. The pattern speed of model MH starts off higher than that of model MD, but ends considerably smaller. The pattern speed of MD also decreases with time, but much less so. In this our results agree at least qualitatively with those of Debattista & Sellwood (1998) obtained for different galactic models and with a different type of code. A more quantitative comparison, including the time evolution of the ratio of the corotation radius to the bar length, is underway. The pattern speed of the “bar” in RH can not be measured reliably before $`t`$ = 300, and after that does not show any signs of decrease. For models MD and MH there is exchange of energy and angular momentum between the disc and halo components, so that the halo, which was initially non-rotating, displays rotation after the bar has grown. This is small for model MD and considerable for model MH, for which shortly after $`t`$ = 800 the halo has roughly a third of the angular momentum of the disc, i.e. a quarter of the total.

## 3. The role of the halo

What is the role of the halo in these simulations, and why is it that the discs which are immersed in more massive live haloes make stronger bars? Although I still do not have a full quantitative answer to this question, I will present here results which can bring useful qualitative understanding.

I have always found that understanding the orbits in a given system is a crucial step towards understanding its dynamics. In particular Lynden-Bell & Kalnajs (1972) have shown that stars at resonances can absorb or emit angular momentum, thus driving the evolution of the disc. I therefore froze the potential at a few selected times during each simulation and followed the orbits of 100 000 disc particles, and of an equal number of halo ones. From these I calculated the basic frequencies of each orbit, namely $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, $`\kappa `$ and $`\kappa _z`$. Here $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the angular frequency, $`\kappa `$ is the epicyclic frequency and $`\kappa _z`$ is the vertical frequency. An orbit is resonant if there are three integers $`l`$, $`m`$ and $`n`$ such that $`l\kappa +m\mathrm{\Omega }+n\kappa _z=m\mathrm{\Omega }_p`$, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_p`$ is the pattern speed of the bar.

The main resonances occur for small integer numbers. I will here restrict myself to radial (planar) resonances, for which $`n`$ = 0. The most important such resonances are the inner Lindblad resonance (ILR), where $`l`$ = -1 and $`m`$ = 2, the corotation resonance (CR), where $`l`$ = 0, the outer Lindblad resonance (OLR), where $`l`$ = 1 and $`m`$ = 2, and the inner and outer ultra-harmonic resonances (IUHR and OUHR respectively), for which $`m`$ = 4 and $`l`$ = -1 and 1 respectively. At corotation resonance the particles have the same angular frequency as the bar, while in the other resonances they make $`m`$ radial oscillations in the time they make $`l`$ revolutions around the center of the galaxy. Calculating the basic frequencies, and in particular $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, is far from straightforward. In fact I am still working towards an optimum method, combining reliability, robustness and speed, so that the results given here can be considered as somewhat preliminary. Nevertheless, they are sufficiently reliable for 80% to 90% percent of the particles and so they warrant discussion.

Figures 3 and 4 show the number density of particles/orbits that have a given value of $`(\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_p)/\kappa `$ as a function of this ratio. Let me first describe the results for the disc components. The distribution is far from homogeneous and there are strong peaks at the location of the main resonances. The highest peak, both for the MH and the MD disc, is for the ILR, where $`(\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_p)/\kappa `$ = 0.5. Indeed orbits making two radial oscillations in the time they make one revolution around the center of the galaxy are the backbone of the bar. The peak is higher, by roughly 60 %, in the MH case than in the MD case, in agreement with the fact that the bar in this model is stronger (cf. Fig. 2). The height of the CR peak is sizeable for model MD, and small for MH. The ratio of the height of the CR peak to that of the ILR is 0.47 for the MD case, while for model MH it is only 0.09. Model MD has a sizeable peak also for $`(\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_p)/\kappa `$ = -0.5, i.e. at the OLR. The differences between the two models are due to their different corotation radii. Thus at time 800 the CR radius is 6.7 for model MH and 3.3 for model MD. Similar differences are found for the OLR radii of the two models. Therefore these two resonances are in the outer parts of the MH disc and can trap only few particles. This is not the case for model MD, and the differences in the trappings are reflected in the differences in the heights of the respective resonant peaks.

The big surprise, however, comes from the halo component. So far considered as non-, or little, responsive, it shows, on the contrary, unmistakable signs of strong resonances with the bar. Since we have analysed the same number of particles from the two components, while there are roughly five times more halo than disc particles, the halo numbers should be multiplied by roughly five, thus highlighting the importance of the halo for the dynamical evolution of the galaxy.

There are important differences between the orbital structures of the MH and MD haloes, as was the case for the corresponding discs. The ILR peak of model MH is relatively high (more than 20 times higher than the corresponding MD peak) and there is considerably more material between ILR and CR than in model MD, while the CR peak in model MH is more than twice as high as the corresponding peak in model MD. All these are in agreement with the fact that the MH halo is much more concentrated than the MD one. Further out the situation shifts. The OLR peak of the MD model is more than twice as high as the MH one, and the -1:1 peak is also very high in MD, while for model MH this resonance has been depleted of its particles. The amplitude of the CR peak for model MD shows considerable evolution with time, nearly doubling from 500 to 800. The role of these differences in the dynamical evolution of the galaxy will be discussed elsewhere.

Halo stars in resonance with the bar can exchange energy and angular momentum with it and thus influence its evolution (Tremaine & Weinberg 1984). In general, the halo resonances will absorb angular momentum. Since the bar is inside corotation, it has negative energy and angular momentum, and thus the effect of halo resonant stars will be to destabilise it, i.e. will lead to stronger bars. This is in good agreement with the results on angular momentum transfer discussed at the end of the last section. Since the disc, the bar and the final halo component rotate in the same direction, the halo will take positive angular momentum from the disc/bar component and thus will further destabilise the bar.

I am thus proposing a new instability mechanism, by which the halo will stimulate bar growth. This of course will only work if the halo is non-rigid and is capable of absorbing positive angular momentum. Similarly the bar should also be non-rigid. Further work quantifying this mechanism and studying its efficiency in different types of models and in real galaxies is in progress (A02b). An analytical description of this instability, including the effect of the non-planar resonances, and a comparison with the $`N`$-body results is forthcoming, in collaboration with M. Tagger and F. Masset.

## 4. Discussion

In the above I have compared three simulations starting off with identical discs, but different halo components. Any differences in their dynamical evolution should thus be attributed to the haloes. The strongest bar forms in the most halo dominated case, provided this is live, followed by the one in the disc-dominated case. In the simulation with the rigid halo there is only a very weak bar, or mild oval distortion, in the inner part. I thus reach the interesting conclusion that haloes can, at least in some cases, stimulate the bar instability and lead to stronger bars. This can be understood by a frequency analysis of the halo orbits, which reveals a large number of resonant orbits. Since these can exchange energy and angular momentum with stars at other resonances (Lynden-Bell & Kalnajs 1972) they can stimulate the bar instability, contrary to previous beliefs.

The evolution of the galaxy leads to considerable concentration of the disc material in the central areas. Thus model MD starts off as disc dominated in the central parts, and, with time, the disc further enhances its superiority. Model MH starts off quite differently. Initially the halo is slightly more important than the disc within the radius at which the disc rotation curve is maximum, and considerably more so at larger radii, as witnessed from its circular velocity curve, shown in Fig. 1. The central concentration of the disc increases considerably with time, so that, after the bar has grown, the disc dominates in the inner region. This may contribute an additional argument to the long standing debate of whether galactic discs are maximum or sub-maximum (e.g. Athanassoula, Bosma & Papaioannou 1987; Bosma 1999, 2000; Bottema 1993; Courteau & Rix 1999; Kranz, Slyz & Rix 2001; Sellwood 1999, Weiner, Sellwood & Williams 2001).

Sackett (1997) and Bosma (2000) give a simple working definition to distinguish between maximum and sub-maximum discs, based on the value of $`\gamma =V_{d,max}/V_{tot}`$, where $`V_{d,max}`$ is the circular velocity due to the disc component and $`V_{tot}`$ is the total velocity, both calculated at a radius equal to 2.2 disc scale lengths. According to Sackett (1997) this ratio has to be at least 0.75 for the disc to be considered maximum or maximal. In the simulations it is not easy to define a disc scale length after the bar has formed, so I will calculate $`\gamma `$ at the radius at which the disc rotation curve is maximum, which is a well defined radius and is roughly equal to 2.2 disc scale lengths in the case of an exponential disc. Model MD starts off with $`\gamma >0.75`$, so that the disc starts maximum and stays so all through the simulation. In fact the value of $`V_{d,max}/V_{tot}`$ increases somewhat with time. Model MH has initially a value of $`\gamma `$ around 0.68, i.e. close to the value of 0.63 advocated by Bottema (1993), and is therefore initially sub-maximum. This value, however, increases abruptly after the bar has formed, so that the disc can be considered maximum well before the time shown in Fig. 2, with a value of $`\gamma `$ roughly equal to 0.86. Thus the formation of the bar leads the disc to evolve from sub-maximum to maximum, and hence strongly argues for maximum discs in disc galaxies with strong bars. This means that if we observe a strong bar in a disc galaxy the above simulations argue strongly and quantitatively that the underlying disc is maximum. The existence of gas should not alter this result. Indeed if the gas leads to a density distribution with a weak bar or no bar, then the above argument will be irrelevant, since it applies only to galaxies with strong observed bars. On the other hand, if the resulting bar is strong, then it should have rearranged the disc material sufficiently for the above argument to hold.

We can reach similar results about the disc-to-halo mass ratio if we use the criterion of Athanassoula, Bosma & Papaioannou (1987), who examined what spiral perturbations can grow in a given disc/halo decomposition of an observed rotation curve. In a similar way I can calculate the $`m`$ component that will be strongest amplified via the swing amplification mechanism (Toomre 1981) in my simulations at or around the radius at which the disc rotation curve reaches its maximum. I find that, for model MD, it is the $`m`$ = 2 all through the simulation, as expected. The initial disc for model MH is certainly not maximum. I find that at $`t`$ = 0 higher $`m`$ components will be the most strongly amplified. The evolution, however, changes this, so that after the bar has grown it is the $`m`$ = 2 component that is the strongest amplified at or around the radius at which the disc rotation curve reaches its maximum. Both MD and MH models thus have, after the bar has grown, a disc which is intermediate between the “no $`m`$ = 1” and “no $`m`$ = 2” limits advocated by Athanassoula, Bosma & Papaioannou (1987) for real galaxies. Indeed these authors made a link between the structure present in a disc at a given time and the underlying halo mass at that time (not the initial halo mass) and thus their results are in good agreement with the above simulations, and many other similar ones (e.g. AM02 and A02b) .

Apart from the halo, several other parameters can influence the formation of a bar. In particular let me stress the importance of the velocity dispersion of the disc particles, the effect of gas, and the effect of the velocity and mass distribution in the halo, as well as the existence of a gaseous companion. A complete description of all these effects is well beyond the scope of the present contribution and will be presented elsewhere. Let me just add a few preliminary words about the effect of the disc velocity dispersion. A sequence of MH-type galaxies shows that for larger initial velocity dispersion of the disc particles the bar is less strong and for sufficiently high values, becomes oval, or quasi-circular, in good agreement with what was found for 2D models (Athanassoula 1983). A sequence of MD-type models is more complicated. In these models the bar grows faster and becomes very long and strong. At that time, however, a strong buckling instability develops which leads to a considerable decrease of the bar amplitude. The final amplitude of the bar is a result of the competition between these two effects and this may be close. Only at sufficiently large values of the velocity dispersion can we be sure that the resulting oval will be very thick, as in the MH sequence. All the above are rather preliminary and will be discussed at length elsewhere.

Finally the mass and velocity distribution of the halo component, together with the bar pattern speed and its time dependence, should influence how each of the resonance regions is populated and how responsive it is, and therefore influence its ability to exchange energy and angular momentum with the bar. Since very little is known on the composition of the halo, let alone about the distribution of the matter in it, it is very difficult to pursue this issue further. Nevertheless the arguments in section 3 lead to the prediction that at least some of the stars of the visible halo should be in resonance, in as much as they trace the relatively inner parts of the halo. Testing this would necessitate accurate information on the six phase space coordinates of a sufficiently large number of halo stars, as well as a sufficiently accurate description of the halo potential and the bar pattern speed. Our own Galaxy, which is barred, is the only place where advances with future astrometric satellites may make this possible, if we concentrate in areas which could have a high fraction of resonant stars.

### Acknowledgments.

I would like to thank Albert Bosma for many discussions on barred galaxies, M. Tagger for discussions on the description and effect of the halo resonances, A. Misiriotis for his collaboration on the software calculating the orbital frequencies and J. C. Lambert for his help with the GRAPE software and the administration of the simulations. I would also like to thank the Region PACA, the INSU/CNRS, the University of Aix-Marseille I and the IGRAP for funds to develop the GRAPE computing facilities used for the simulations discussed in this paper.

## References

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Athanassoula, E. 2002b, in preparation (A02b)

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## Discussion

Kormendy:  You concluded that disks of barred galaxies are maximal. Ortwin Gerhard concluded in the previous talk that the disk of our Galaxy is close to maximal. But Piet van der Kruit concluded that the typical late-type disk is substantially sub-maximal. This is a microcosm of the debate about maximal versus sub-maximal disks that has been going on in the literature for a long time. I wonder what we can learn about this apparent disagreement and in particular whether we can make progress in resolving it because we have proponents of both points of view at this meeting.

Athanassoula:  My simulations show that even discs which are initially sub-maximum can form bars and thus evolve to maximum. They thus argue that discs with strong bars are maximum, or near so. Concerning non-barred galaxies there are, as you just said, results arguing for maximum discs and others arguing for sub-maximum discs. I thoroughly agree that a debate on this subject would be most useful and I would like to mention that it will be the topic of a panel discussion in the 6th Guillermo Haro meeting, which will take place in Puebla (Mexico) in November 2001.

Illingworth:  What are the initial conditions for your models? I am wondering how you would relate these to actual galaxies. In a sense, how realistic are they compared to how galaxies are built up?

Athanassoula:  The instability mechanism which I proposed here, namely stimulating the bar growth by its interaction with the halo, depends on the present day properties of the halo and the bar, and only indirectly on the formation history of the galaxy. Since the properties of my $`N`$-body bars are in good agreement with those of bars observed at $`z`$ = 0, I do not have to worry overly about how the galaxy was built up, at least in as much as the physics of the mechanism I proposed here is concerned. Of course if we were able to follow the formation of discs and bars starting from initial conditions resembling those of galaxies observed at high $`z`$, including a fair fraction of gas and non-equilibrium initial conditions, we would be able to learn a lot about disc galaxy formation and evolution.


text:
# Pion-only, chiral light-front model of the deuteron

## I Introduction

Recently, there has been much interest in effective field theories (EFT) for nuclear physics. In particular, the expansion of the nuclear forces about the chiral limit gives good results Weinberg:um ; Ordonez:1995rz . Attempts have been made to apply pion-less EFTs to study deuteron properties Kaplan:1998tg ; vanKolck:1998bw ; Chen:1999tn . However, it has been shown that pions are required to obtain a well-controlled theory Beane:2001bc .

It is not surprising that the pions are necessary. Indeed, the gross features of the deuteron are determined principally by the one-pion-exchange (OPE) potential Ericson , a consequence of EFT. However, the short-distance behavior of the naïve OPE potential is singular, and must be regulated. Physically, this regulation is provided by the exchange of more massive mesons and multi-meson exchanges. EFT tells us that these high-energy parts can be replaced by anything that has the correct form dictated by symmetry, and the low energy properties of the deuteron will be left unaffected.

The expectation that pionic effects are very important is related to work by Friar, Gibson, and Payne (FGP)Friar:1984wi  who obtained non-relativistic deuteron wave functions using only the OPE potential. In their calculations a pion-nucleon form factor replaces the high-energy physics. The only influence of chiral symmetry in the FGP model is to require that that the pion-nucleon coupling be of the $`𝝉𝝈\mathbf{}`$ form.

In this paper, we build upon the FGP model by performing a relativistic calculation using light-front dynamics. In addition, we go beyond the OPE potential and include the two-pion-exchange (TPE) potential. Chiral symmetry is known to have profound implications for the TPE interaction, so that we will be able to study the effect that ignoring chiral symmetry has on the deuteron.

Our plan is to introduce a model Lagrangian for nuclear physics using only nucleons and pions. A Lagrangian which includes chiral symmetry Miller:1997cr  has been used to compute the OPE and TPE potentials for a new light-front nucleon-nucleon potential Miller:1997cr ; Cooke:2001dc ; Cooke:2001kz  which involves the exchange six different mesons. We retain only the contributions arising from pionic exchanges here in Sect. II. The resulting pion-only potentials are then used to see if the deuteron state is bound and if so, to compute the binding energy in Sect. III. A final section IV is devoted to presenting a brief set of conclusions.

## II Model

We consider a pion-only light-front nucleon-nucleon potential derived from a nuclear Lagrangian. This model is inspired by the non-relativistic one-pion-exchange model used by Friar, Gibson, and Payne Friar:1984wi . We generalize their model to form the basis of our pion-only light-front model, which includes relativity automatically. This pion-only model is essentially the same as the model presented in Ref. Cooke:2001kz  restricted to pions only.

Our starting point is a nuclear Lagrangian Miller:1997cr ; Miller:1997xh ; Cooke:2001kz ; Miller:1999ap  which incorporates a non-linear chiral model for the pions. The Lagrangian is based on the linear representations of chiral symmetry used by Gursey Gursey:1960yy . It is invariant (in the limit where $`m_\pi 0`$) under chiral transformations.

The pion-only model prescribes the use of nucleons $`\psi `$ and the $`\pi `$ meson, which is a pseudoscalar isovector. The Lagrangian $``$ is given by

$``$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}f^2\text{Tr}(_\mu U^\mu U^{})+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}m_\pi ^2f^2\text{Tr}(U+U^{}2)`$ (1)
$`+\overline{\psi }\left[i\text{/}UM\right]\psi ,`$
where the bare mass of the nucleon is $`M`$ and the pion is $`m_\pi `$. The unitary matrix $`U`$ can be chosen to have one of the three forms $`U_i`$:

$`U_1`$ $``$ $`e^{i\gamma _5𝝉\mathbf{}𝝅/f},`$ (2)
$`U_2`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1+i\gamma _5𝝉𝝅/2f}{1i\gamma _5𝝉𝝅/2f}},`$ (3)
$`U_3`$ $``$ $`\sqrt{1\pi ^2/f^2}+i\gamma _5𝝉\mathbf{}𝝅/f,`$ (4)
which correspond to different definitions of the fields. Note that each of these definitions can be expanded to give

$`U`$ $`=`$ $`1+i\gamma _5{\displaystyle \frac{𝝉𝝅}{f}}{\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2}{2f^2}}+𝒪\left({\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^3}{f^3}}\right).`$ (5)
In this paper, we consider at most two pion exchange potentials, so we consider $`U`$ to be defined by Eq. (5).

In the limit where $`m_\pi 0`$, the Lagrangian in Eq. (1) is invariant under the chiral transformation

$`\psi e^{i\gamma _5𝝉𝒂}\psi ,Ue^{i\gamma _5𝝉𝒂}Ue^{i\gamma _5𝝉𝒂}.`$ (6)
We use the Lagrangian to obtain the OPE and TPE light-front nucleon-nucleon potentials Miller:1997xh ; Miller:1997cr ; Miller:1999ap ; Cooke:2001kz ; Cooke:2001dc . We find that there are three classes of TPE potentials. The first class, the TPE box diagrams, consists of diagrams where the pion lines do not cross. The second class, the TPE contact diagrams, consists of diagrams where at least one of the vertices is a two-pion contact vertex, as demanded by chiral symmetry. The third class is the TPE crossed diagrams, where the pion lines cross.

As discussed in Refs. Cooke:1999yi ; Cooke:2000ef ; Cooke:2001kz ; Cooke:2001dc , we have some freedom in deciding which TPE diagrams to include in our potential. In particular, we may neglect just the crossed diagrams, or both the crossed and contact diagrams. Although neglecting these diagrams may affect the exact binding energy calculated, we should find a partial restoration of rotational invariance as compared to using just the OPE potential.

We also want to keep the potentials chirally symmetric as well. Whereas rotational invariance of the potential is partially restored by including higher-order potentials, chiral symmetry is restored by including the $`\pi \pi `$ contact interaction graphs to the same order as the non-contact graphs.

Chiral symmetry tells us that for pion-nucleon scattering at threshold, the time-ordered graphs approximately cancel Miller:1997cr . Furthermore, upon closer examination, we find that all the light-front time-ordered graphs for the scattering amplitude vanish except for the two graphs with instantaneous nucleons and the contact graph. These graphs are shown in Fig. 1. Using the Feynman rules Refs. Miller:1997cr ; Miller:1997xh ; Miller:1999ap ; Cooke:2001kz ; Cooke:2001dc , and denoting the nucleon momentum by $`k`$ and the pion momentum by $`q`$, we find that

$`_U`$ $`=`$ $`C{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _i\tau _j}{2(k^++q^+)}}u(k^{})\gamma ^+u(k),`$ (7)
$`_X`$ $`=`$ $`C{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _j\tau _i}{2(k^+q^+)}}u(k^{})\gamma ^+u(k),`$ (8)
$`_C`$ $`=`$ $`C{\displaystyle \frac{\delta _{i,j}}{M}}u(k^{})u(k),`$ (9)
where the factors common to all amplitudes are denoted by $`C`$.

For threshold scattering, we take $`k^+=M`$ and $`q^+=m_\pi `$. In that limit, we find

$`_U`$ $`=`$ $`C^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta _{i,j}+iϵ_{i,j,k}\tau _k}{2(M+m_\pi )}},`$ (10)
$`_X`$ $`=`$ $`C^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta _{i,j}iϵ_{i,j,k}\tau _k}{2(Mm_\pi )}},`$ (11)
$`_C`$ $`=`$ $`C^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta _{i,j}}{M}},`$ (12)
where $`C^{}=C\overline{u}(k^{})u(k)`$. In the limit that $`m_\pi 0`$, the sum of these three terms vanishes. The term in these equations proportional to $`\tau _k`$ is the famous Weinberg-Tomazowa term Brandsden:1973 ; Adler:1968 .

The fact that the amplitudes cancel only when the contact interaction is included demonstrates that chiral symmetry can have a significant effect on calculations. In terms of two-pion-exchange potentials, this result means that the contact potentials cancel strongly with both the iterated box potentials and the crossed potentials. This serves to reduce the strength of the total two-pion-exchange potential, which should lead to more stable results.

However, since we do not use the crossed graphs for the nucleon-nucleon potential, we must come up with a prescription which divides the contact interactions into two parts which cancel the box and crossed diagrams separately. We do this by formally defining two new contact interactions, so that

$`_{C_U}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{M}{2(M+\lambda m_\pi )}}_C,`$ (13)
$`_{C_X}`$ $``$ $`_C_{C_U},`$ (14)
and the value of $`\lambda `$ is of order unity. With these definitions, we find that at threshold and in the chiral limit,

$`_U+_{C_U}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (15)
$`_X+_{C_X}`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (16)
Since the prescription given by equations (13) and (14) leads to the correct results in the chiral limit for pion-nucleon scattering, we use it to factor the TPE potentials so that chiral symmetry can be approximately maintained while neglecting the crossed potentials.

We find that the results of our TPE calculation which include approximate chiral symmetry have a very weak dependence on the value of $`\lambda `$, provided that $`0<\lambda <1`$. As such, we show only the results for $`\lambda =1`$. These features indicate that we can incorporate approximate chiral symmetry without including crossed graphs simply by weighting each contact interaction graph with a factor of $`\frac{M}{2(M+m_\pi )}`$.

## III Results

To numerically calculate the bound states for these pion-only potentials, we must choose values for the potential parameters. As a starting point, we look for inspiration from the non-relativistic one-pion-exchange model used by Friar, Gibson, and Payne (FGP) Friar:1984wi . The basic parameters of the model are the mass of the nucleon ($`M=938.958`$ MeV), the mass of the pion ($`m_\pi =138.03`$ MeV), and the pion decay constant ($`f_0^2=0.079`$), which correlates to a coupling constant of $`\frac{g_\pi ^2}{4\pi }=\frac{4M^2f_0^2}{m_\pi ^2}=14.6228`$ in our formalism.

The FGP model uses family of $`n`$-pole pion-nucleon form factors, with the form

$`F(q)`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2m_\pi ^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2+𝒒^2}}\right)^n,`$ (17)
and the parameter $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is fit to reproduce the deuteron binding energy for a given value of $`n`$.

We can obtain the FGP model from our light-front nucleon-nucleon potential by considering only the OPE potential and performing a non-relativistic reduction. To understand our results, it is important to first consider how well the light-front potential and wave functions approximate the non-relativistic potential and wave functions.

It is useful to start by reviewing some of the properties of the deuteron. First, we note that the deuteron is very lightly bound. Second, although a majority of the deuteron wave function resides in the non-relativistic regime, it has a high-momentum tail that falls off rather slowly, as $`\frac{1}{k^4}`$ Machleidt:1987hj . Recalling our experience with the Wick-Cutkosky model Cooke:1999yi , where we found that mass splitting between states with different $`m`$ values is small for lightly bound states, it may appear plausible that masses of the $`m=0`$ and $`m=1`$ states of the deuteron are approximately the same when calculated with the light-front OPE potential. However, the high-momentum tail of the deuteron enhances the effects of the potential’s relativistic components. Since the breaking of rotational invariance is a relativistic effect, this implies that the mass splitting may be large for the deuteron calculated with the light-front potential.

To clearly understand how a large mass splitting might arise in the light-front pion-only model, we take a step back and consider a scalar version of the pion-only model, in which we assume that the pion has a scalar coupling to the nucleon. This allows for a more direct comparison with the Wick-Cutkosky model, since the main difference between the scalar-pion-only potential and the Wick-Cutkosky potential (aside from an isospin factor) is the pion-nucleon form factor. Since the denominator of the form factor has the same form as the denominator of the potential, the form factors do not significantly change the rotational properties of the scalar-pion-only potential. Another difference is that factors of $`\overline{u}u`$ appear in the numerator of the scalar-pion-only potential, but the effect of those is small.

The bound state calculations are performed using techniques detailed in Refs. Cooke:2001kz ; Cooke:2001dc , so we concern ourselves here only with the results. In Table 1, we show the binding energies for deuterons calculated with the scalar-pion-only model. Two pion-nucleon form factors are considered, the first one has $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=1.0`$ GeV, for which the coupling constant was fit to give the correct binding energy for the non-relativistic potential, and the second form factor uses $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=1.915`$ GeV, which was fit to give the correct binding energy for the light-front potential. Those form factors are used to calculate the binding energies for the non-relativistic and light-front potentials, as well as the instantaneous and retarded potentials, which are relativistic and defined by analogy with instantaneous and retarded potentials defined for the Wick-Cutkosky model in Ref. Cooke:2000ef . We find that the binding energies for all of the potentials have the same order of magnitude, and that the light-front potentials have consistently lower binding energies, which confirms the behavior observed in Ref. Cooke:2000ef . In addition, the binding energies of the $`m=0`$ and $`m=1`$ light-front potentials are essentially degenerate.

Now we ready to consider the (pseudoscalar) pion-only model. The only difference between this potential and the scalar-pion-only potential is that the numerator contains factors of $`\overline{u}i\gamma ^5u`$ instead of $`\overline{u}u`$. Although this seems to be only a small change, it has a large effect on the binding energies. The pseudoscalar coupling generates a tensor force, which is more sensitive to the relativistic components of the wave function than the scalar force. In general, this means that the differences in binding energies obtained with different potentials, such as those shown in Table 1, will be larger for the pion-only potential.

In Table 2, we show the binding energies for deuterons computed with the pion-only model. Two pion-nucleon form factors are considered, the first one has $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=1.01`$ GeV, which was fit for the non-relativistic pion-only model Friar:1984wi , and the second form factor uses $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=1.9`$ GeV, which was fit to give the most reasonable binding energy for the light-front potentials. We find that the binding energies vary greatly depending on which potential is used. In fact, the light-front potentials do not bind the deuteron with the first form factor, and with the second form factor, the mass splitting between the $`m=0`$ and $`m=1`$ states is very large. These facts indicate that the deuteron wave functions are very sensitive to subtle changes in the relativistic structure of the pion-only potentials.

The reason for this mass splitting is that the OPE potential breaks rotational invariance. To reduce this splitting, higher-order potentials must be used. Naïvely, one might think that we can choose any set of TPE graphs which is a truncation of a rotationally-invariant infinite series of graphs. In particular, one might think that using the TPE box graphs, which we denote as the non-chiral-TPE (ncTPE) potential, would be adequate for our analysis of rotational invariance.

Another choice for the TPE potential is to take sum of the TPE box graphs and the TPE contact graphs. To incorporate chiral symmetry as accurately as possible without including the crossed TPE potentials, we weight the contact vertex with a factor of $`\frac{M}{2(M+m_\pi )}`$, as explained in earlier. Note that in the sum, which we call the TPE potential, chiral symmetry provides a cancelation between the box diagrams and the contact diagrams. This indicates that the results obtained with the TPE potential will be more stable than those obtained with the ncTPE potential.

To check this stability and the restoration of rotational invariance of the pion-only model, we calculate the energy of the deuteron using the OPE, OPE+TPE, and OPE+ncTPE potentials. We verify that the results are independent of the choice of the pion-nucleon form factor by considering three different choices for the form factor.

For the first pion-nucleon form factor, we choose $`n=1`$ and find that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=1.9`$ GeV gives a reasonable range of binding energies. We use the form factor to calculate the lowest energy bound state with arbitrary total angular momentum.

The results for the first pion-nucleon form factor are shown in Table 3. Note that the results show that both the mass splitting and the difference in the percentage of the D-state wave function decrease when TPE diagrams are included. In addition, the wave functions are almost completely in the $`J=1`$ state. As for the D-state probability, we first note that it increases with the binding energy. It is consistent (given the range of values it and the binding energy take) with the value of 6% reported in Ref. Friar:1984wi  for the FGP model.

Table 3 also shows that numerically the states are almost angular momentum eigenstates, since the percentage of each state with $`J=1`$ is almost 100%. This happens even though the eigenstates of the light-front Hamiltonian are not in principle eigenstates of the angular momentum. However, this does not mean that rotational invariance is unbroken. Rotations relate the different $`m`$ states, and from the mass splittings, we see that the states do not transform correctly.

Another thing to note in Table 3 are the effects of using the ncTPE potential. As mentioned earlier, this potential is greater in magnitude than the TPE potential and should have a larger effect on the binding energy. In fact, the effect is so large that it serves to unbind the deuteron. (Strictly speaking, this indicates only that the binding energy is very small or zero; the error in the binding energy calculation increases as the binding energy approaches zero.) Because the ncTPE potential has such a large effect by itself, it is impossible to determine what effect it has on the rotational properties of the state. Only the TPE potential can be used to analyze the restoration of the state’s rotational invariance.

To make sure that the results found are independent of the pion-nucleon form factor, we performed the same calculation with $`n=1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=2.1`$ GeV and with $`n=2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=2.9`$ GeV. The results (shown in Ref. Cooke:2001dc ) are qualitatively the same as those in Table 3, demonstrating that these results are robust.

## IV Conclusions

In this paper, a light-front pion-only model was used to investigate the effects that relativity and chiral symmetry have on the deuteron. We used OPE, OPE+TPE, and OPE+ncTPE potentials to calculate the binding energy and wave function for the $`m=0`$ and $`m=1`$ states of the deuteron. We find that the splitting between the $`m=0`$ and $`m=1`$ states is smaller for the OPE+TPE potential as compared to what the OPE potential gives. We also find that chiral symmetry must be included to obtain sensible results when using two-pion-exchange potentials.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work is supported in part by the U.S. Dept. of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG03-97ER4014. We also thank Daniel Phillips for many useful discussions.