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# Decoupled CuO2 and RuO2 layers in superconducting and magnetically ordered RuSr2GdCu2O8

## I Introduction

The coexistence of superconductivity and magnetic order has placed the ruthenium cuprates in the focus of considerable work recently. Felner:97 ; Bernhard:99 ; McLaughlin:99 ; Tallon:00 ; Pickett:99 ; Chmaissem:00 ; Lynn:00 ; Fainstein:99 ; Williams:00 ; Pozek:01 ; Kumagai:01 ; Tokunaga:01  These superconductors were originally synthesized by Bauernfeind et al.. Bauernfeind:95 ; Bauernfeind:96  Most recent reports have focused on RuSr2RCu2O8 where R=Gd or Eu. Its crystal structure can be viewed as similar to that of the YBa2Cu3O7 where the one dimensional (1D) CuO chains are replaced by two dimensional (2D) RuO2 layers. Within this picture, it comes as no surprise that superconductivity may occur when the CuO2 layers are properly doped, in analogy to other cuprate superconductors. Recent X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES)RSLiu:01  and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies of RuSr2RCu2O8 Kumagai:01 ; Tokunaga:01  revealed that ruthenium occurs in a mixed valence state as Ru4+ and Ru5+ with almost equal concentration. Thus, from the point of view of superconductivity, the role of RuO2 planes is to act as the charge reservoir which is necessary to dope the superconducting CuO2 planes.

One can interpret the crystal structure of RuSr2RCu2O8 as CuO2 layers which are connected by perovskite ruthenate SrRuO3 via the apical oxygen atoms. Chen:01  From this perspective, it comes as no surprise that magnetic ordering may occur in RuSr2RCu2O8, as in most ruthenates of the Ruddlesden-Popper series Srn+1RunO3n+1.Ruddlesden:58  The most three dimensional member of the series is pseudocubic SrRuO3 ($`n`$=$`\mathrm{}`$), which ferromagnetically orders at $`T_m`$=165 K.Randall:59 ; Kanbayashi:78 . The $`n`$=3 member Sr4Ru3O10 is orthorhombic and becomes ferromagnetic below $`T_m`$=148 K.Cao:97  The effective dimensionality is drastically lowered in the $`n`$=2 member Sr3Ru2O7. It shows magnetic correlations dominated by ferromagnetic instability above $`T^{}`$=17 K, and develops a canted antiferromagnetic instability below $`T^{}`$. Ikeda:00 ; Liu:01  The 2D member Sr2RuO4 ($`n`$=1) does not order magnetically, and becomes superconducting at very low temperatures.Maeno:94

The crystal structure of RuSr2RCu2O8 has an additional complexity when compared to YBa2Cu3O7. The RuO6 octahedra in RuSr2RCu2O8 are coherently rotated around the c-axis with domains extending up to 20 nm in diameter.McLaughlin:99  Rotations of the RuO6 octahedra are common in the ruthenates and it is believed that the different magnetic order is due to structurally induced changes in the band structure. The rotation of the RuO6 octahedra was observed in Sr3Ru2O7,Huang:98  which shows competing, nearly degenerate magnetic instabilities.Ikeda:00 ; Perry:01  The importance of the rotation of the RuO6 octahedra is best seen in Ca2-xSrxRuO4,Nakatsuji:00  which is the $`n`$=1 member of the Ruddlesden-Popper series with Ca substitution for Sr. Since Ca2+ is smaller than Sr2+, the substitution brings about a structural distortion in which the RuO6 octahedra are rotated and flattened along the interlayer direction.Friedt:01  By varying the degree of the substitution, one obtains an intriguing phase diagram from paramagnetic metal to antiferromagnetic insulator. For some intermediate degrees of the substitution, one obtains a metallic system which shows an incomplete magnetic ordering at temperatures below $`T_m`$, and metamagnetic behavior similar to that observed in the $`n`$=2 member Sr3Ru2O7. Hence, it is not surprising that the reported studies of the magnetic structure in RuSr2RCu2O8 have shown some ambiguity. In some of the measurements of the zero field cooled (ZFC) dc susceptibility a clear ferromagnetic transition was observed,Kumagai:01  while in others a cusp-like signal characteristic of an antiferromagnetic transition was detected.Bernhard:99 ; Tallon:00 ; Williams:00  In all cases, though, there was a deviation of field cooled (FC) curves from ZFC ones, which proved the presence of a ferromagnetic component. Microscopic techniques could not resolve this ambiguity, either. For example, zero-field muon spin rotation study reported ferromagnetic order with the spontaneous magnetization in the ab plane.Bernhard:99  In contrast, neutron diffraction studies found evidence of antiferromagnetic order with the Ru moments aligned along the c axis.Lynn:00 ; Jorgensen:01 ; Takagiwa:01  The small ferromagnetic component was presumed to be produced by spin canting from the c axis. A recent magnetization study showed that the ferromagnetic component grows at higher fields.Williams:00  This provides evidence of a field induced transition which was attributed to a spin-flop transition. Similar field induced changes are observed in Sr3Ru2O7 and some partially substituted Ca2-xSrxRuO4 samples with distorted RuO6 octahedra. One should note, however, that the type of the magnetic order need not be simply related to the distortions of the RuO6 octahedra. For example, it was found that the other interesting ruthenate cuprate RuSr2R2-xCexCu2O10+δ has the same distortion of the RuO6 octahedra, as well as the same Ru-O-Ru and Ru-O-Cu bond lengths, found in RuSr2RCu2O8.Williams:02  Yet, RuSr2R2-xCexCu2O10+δ is ferromagnetic while RuSr2RCu2O8 is antiferromagnetically ordered at low fields.

A number of studies on RuSr2RCu2O8 have concluded that the RuO2 layers are insulating and the transport properties are dominated by the CuO2 layers. As mentioned above, it has also been concluded from a XANES study and NMR studies that Ru in the RuO2 layers shows a mixed Ru valence, which has not been reported in other ruthenate compounds. This could also be understood within the model of insulating RuO2 layers. However, the magnetoresistance above the magnetic ordering temperature has a dependence on magnetic field that is not observed in the high temperature superconducting cuprates (HTSC), McCrone:99  and clearly indicates that the transport process involves coupling to the Ru spins either from a conducting RuO2 layer or via coupling between the CuO2 layers and the spins in the RuO2 layers.

In the present paper, we address the question of the coexistence of superconductivity and magnetic order in RuSr2GdCu2O8. The question is reduced to the role played by CuO2 and RuO2 planes and their mutual couplings. We report our measurements of dc and ac susceptibility, dc resistance, magnetoresistance, Hall effect, and microwave absorption in RuSr2GdCu2O8. The measurements have been done on the same sample prepared as sintered ceramic and powder diluted in epoxy resin. This facilitates the distinction between intergranular and intrinsic intragranular properties. We find evidence that RuSr2GdCu2O8, as prepared in this study, has magnetic structure similar to Sr3Ru2O7, and partially substituted Ca2-xSrxRuO4, which have no CuO2 planes. Our results also show that the RuO2 planes are conducting, but do not become superconducting. In other words, our observations are consistent with the picture in which the charge carriers in the CuO2 and RuO2 planes are decoupled.

## II Experimental Details

The RuSr2GdCu2O8 ceramic samples were prepared from a stoichiometric mix of RuO2, SrCO3, Gd2O3 and CuO2. The powder was calcined in air at 960C for 10 hours and then pressed into pellets, which were sintered at 1010C for 10 hours to obtain the Sr2GdCuO6 and CuO2 precursors. This process has been shown to prevent the formation of the SrRuO3 impurity phase. The compound was then sintered at 1050C in O2 gas for 10 hours, 1055C in O2 gas for 10 hours, 1060C in O2 gas for 10 hours and finally 1060C in O2 gas for 7 days. The sample was reground after each sintering step. The final processing has been shown to result in good quality samples where the transition into the bulk diamagnetic phase occurs for temperatures of up to 35 K.

It has been shown in our recent study on RuSr2EuCu2O8Pozek:01  that the electronic transport at low temperatures in the normal and superconducting states can be dominated by intergranular processes. This has the effect of masking the intrinsic intragranular properties. For this reason, part of the sample was ground into a fine powder and then embedded in an epoxy resin. Unfortunately, it has been found that it is not possible to align the ruthenate cuprates and hence we did not attempt to cure the resin in a magnetic field.

Resistivity, magnetoresistance and Hall effect measurements were done in the standard six-contact configuration using the rotational sample holder and the conventional ac technique (22 Hz, 1 mA), in magnetic fields up to 8 T. Temperature sweeps for the resistivity measurements were performed with carbon-glass and platinum thermometers, while magnetic field dependent sweeps were done at constant temperatures where the temperature was controlled with a capacitance thermometer.

The samples were characterized by both, dc and ac magnetization measurements using a SQUID magnetometer. The temperature dependent dc magnetization measurements were made in an applied magnetic field of 5 mT, while the ac susceptibility was measured in zero dc field with an ac field of 5 $`\mu `$T and a frequency of 1 kHz.

The microwave measurements were made in an elliptical eTE111 copper cavity operating at 9.3 GHz. For the purpose of the present study it is essential to have a system with high stability so that very small changes of the $`Q`$-factor can be reproducibly measured over long time scales. Therefore, the body of the microwave cavity was kept at liquid helium temperature. The unloaded cavity had a $`Q`$-factor of about 25 000. The sample was mounted on a sapphire sample holder and positioned in the cavity center where the microwave electric field has maximum. The temperature of the sample could be varied from liquid helium to room temperature. The cryostat with the microwave cavity was placed in a superconducting magnet so that the sample could be exposed to a dc magnetic field of up to 8 T. The changes in the properties of the sample caused by either temperature variation or magnetic field were detected by a corresponding change in the $`Q`$-factor of the cavity and a resonant frequency shift. The quantity $`1/2Q`$ represents the total losses of the cavity and the sample. The experimental uncertainty in the determination of $`1/2Q`$ was about 0.03 ppm. We present our data as the difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ between the measured values with and without the sample in the cavity. In the case of the powder samples, the subtracted background signal was measured with a piece of clear epoxy of the same size as the sample with the powder. The resonant frequency of the cavity loaded with the sample was measured with a microwave frequency counter and the results are expressed as $`\mathrm{\Delta }f/f`$ where $`f`$ is the frequency at the beginning of the measurement and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$ is the frequency shift. The details of the detection scheme are given elsewhere Nebendahl:01 .

In the present case, the microwave penetration depth is much less than the sample thickness and the measured quantities are simply related to the surface impedance of the material

$$Z_s=\sqrt{i\frac{\stackrel{~}{\mu }_r\mu _0\omega }{\stackrel{~}{\sigma }}}$$
(1)
where $`\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$ is the complex conductivity, and $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }_r`$ is the complex relative permeability at the operating frequency. Both quantities can be temperature and field dependent. The sample is placed in the center of the cavity where the magnetic component of the microwave field has a node in the empty cavity. However, the wavelength in the conducting sample is much shorter than in vacuum so that a magnetic microwave field is also present within the skin depth from the sample surface. The total microwave impedance comprises both nonresonant resistance and resonant spin contributions.

## III Results and Analyses

### III.1 Magnetization and ac susceptibility

The dc magnetization curves observed in our RuSr2GdCu2O8 samples are typical of those previously reported.Bernhard:99 ; Tallon:00 ; Williams:00  Here we present in Fig. 1 the ZFC and FC dc magnetization at 5 mT in ceramic and powder samples taken from the same pellet. These curves show that the magnetic behavior observed in the ceramic sample is well reproduced in the powder sample, i.e. the influence of the intergranular medium on the dc-magnetic properties is negligible. There are three main features in ZFC curves: (i) a peak in the dc magnetization at $``$130 K, (ii) a decrease in the dc magnetization for temperatures less than $``$47 K, and (iii) an upturn of the magnetization below $``$20 K. The first feature is due to the magnetic ordering in the RuO2 layers. The FC curves deviate strongly from the ZFC ones indicating that a ferromagnetic component is present in our samples, both ceramic and powder. The second feature near 47 K has been attributed to the superconducting transition, and the third feature below 20 K is due to the onset of the magnetic ordering of the Gd sublattice, which orders antiferromagnetically at 2.5 K.Bernhard:99 ; Lynn:00

The ac susceptibilities of the same ceramic and powder samples are shown in Fig. 2. The magnetic ordering at $``$130 K is clearly seen in both, ceramic and powder samples. However, the superconducting transition, which is clearly seen in these samples below 47 K by dc magnetization in Fig. 1 is not manifested in the same way in the ceramic and powder samples when ac susceptibilities are measured. This is an unusual observation. The ac susceptibility curves in other HTSC exhibit nearly the same shapes and transition temperature widths for ceramic and powder samples of the same compound. Athanassopoulou:96 ; Kirschner:99  In contrast, in Fig. 2 we observe that a large diamagnetic shielding, which starts below 33 K in the ceramic sample, is not present in the powder. Hence, the large shielding signal in the ceramic sample could be interpreted as due to the onset of the intergranular Josephson currents. Superconductivity is certainly developed in the grains already below 47 K, but the intragranular ac screening currents appear to be very weak. They are so weak that even the high temperature tail of the Gd paramagnetic signal is sufficient to obscure their manifestation. In Fig. 2b we present also the ac susceptibility of the powder sample of RuSr2RCu2O8 with R=Eu, which is not paramagnetic. The intragranular superconducting signal is detectable in this compound. However, instead of showing a rapid drop just below the superconducting transition temperature $`T_c`$, this signal exhibits a gradual decrease in the whole temperature range of the measurement. Obviously, the penetration depth in RuSr2RCu2O8 does not drop rapidly from the normal state skin depth $`\delta _n=\sqrt{2/\mu _0\omega \sigma _n}`$ to the London penetration depth $`\lambda _L`$ as in other HTSC. For the operating frequency of 1 kHz, $`\delta _n`$ is typically much larger than the grain size ($`\delta _n`$ $``$1 cm).

Below $`T_c`$, the ac conductivity becomes complex $`\stackrel{~}{\sigma }=\sigma _1i\sigma _2`$, where the real and imaginary parts are due to the uncondensed normal electrons and the superconducting fluid, respectively. In the cuprate HTSC one reaches the condition $`\sigma _1\sigma _2`$ already a little below $`T_c`$. The penetration depth is then determined mainly by the superconducting fluid, and equals $`\lambda _L`$ independently of the operating frequency. Since $`\lambda _L`$ is typically smaller than the grain size, the intragranular screening currents become effective. Therefore, the diamagnetic signal in the ac susceptibility is strong and follows the temperature dependence of $`\lambda _L(T)`$. In the case of powder RuSr2EuCu2O8we observe only a weak ac susceptibility signal. Below $`T_c`$ the penetration depth is reduced from its normal state value $`\delta _n`$ , but obviously not enough to become smaller than the grain size. We have to conclude that a large fraction of the charge carriers remains in the normal state at all temperatures below $``$45 K. The penetration depth at 1 kHz is then a combined effect of both, superconducting and normal electrons, and remains larger than the grain size. The magnetization results do not allow us to determine the location of the normal state charge carriers at low temperatures below $`T_c`$. They are likely to be located either in the RuO2 planes or in the CuO2 planes. However, as we show later in this paper, it is possible to gather further information about these low temperature normal state charge carriers and their location from microwave measurements.

### III.2 DC resistance, magnetoresistance, and Hall effect

The resistivity of RuSr2GdCu2O8 has already been elaborated in some previous studies. Bernhard:99 ; Tallon:00  Here we focus on some features that have not been considered before and could elucidate the roles of CuO2 and RuO2 planes in the transport properties. Figure 3 shows the resistivity curves in zero field and 8 T field. For the latter a transverse geometry was used ($`𝐇𝐈`$). In general, the resistivity in ceramic samples may have contributions from intergranular medium and from intrinsic scattering process in the grains. We show below, using microwave measurements on a powder sample of RuSr2GdCu2O8, that the resistivity in the grains does not exhibit a semiconducting contribution. Thus, the upturn of the resistivity below 100 K in Fig. 3 can be attributed to the prevalence of the intergranular contribution. Above 100 K, the predominant contribution to the total resistivity comes from the intragranular scattering. The relevant question is whether the whole charge transport occurs only in the CuO2 planes, or there is an additional contribution of the RuO2 planes to the total conductivity. The ZFC curve in Fig. 3 shows a more rapid decrease of the resistivity near the magnetic ordering temperature $`T_m`$. This phenomenon is better displayed in the upper inset to Fig. 3 where the derivative of the resistivity with respect to temperature $`d\rho /dT`$ is seen to have a maximum at $`T_m`$. A peak in $`d\rho /dT`$ at $`T_m`$ is commonly observed in $`3d`$ ferromagnetic conductors. Campbell:82  It was explained by Fisher and Langer Fisher:68  who considered the effect of short range fluctuations in the magnetization in ferromagnetic metals. A peak in $`d\rho /dT`$ was also observed in SrRuO3which is a $`4d`$ ferromagnet,Klein:96  but the temperature dependence of $`d\rho /dT`$ near $`T_m`$ was different than that predicted by Fisher and Langer and observed in $`3d`$ ferromagnetic metals.

This deviation was ascribed to the bad metallicity of SrRuO3. We may conclude that the observation of a peak in $`d\rho /dT`$ in our ceramic RuSr2GdCu2O8 is a clear sign that RuO2 planes are conducting. At this point one can only list the factors which may influence the form of this peak. First, the magnetic order in RuSr2GdCu2O8 is predominantly antiferromagnetic at low fields with only a small ferromagnetic component. Second, the magnetic scattering affects the charge carriers in the RuO2 planes but need not have much influence on the conductivity in the CuO2 planes. Finally, the total resistivity in Fig. 2 includes also the intergranular semiconducting contribution. It is not predominant at $`T_m`$, but should not be totally neglected. For all these reasons, the form of the peak in the inset to Fig. 3 could deviate from that predicted by Fisher and Langer.

The effect of an applied magnetic field of 8 T is to decrease the transverse resistivity for temperatures less than $``$200 K, which is opposite to the effect observed in the HTSC. Harris:95  The general decrease in the resistivity at 8 T and for temperatures less than 200 K can be attributed to a decrease in the spin scattering contribution to the resistivity within the RuO2 layers due to ordering of the spins in the RuO2 layers. The decrease in the resistivity at 8 T is clearer in the lower insert to Fig. 3 where we plot the difference in the transverse resistivity against temperature. The resulting peak reflects the effect of spin fluctuations which can be suppressed by the applied magnetic field. Similar behavior is observed in the ferromagnetic metals SrRuO3 and Sr4Ru3O10 as the magnetic field is increased. This provides additional evidence that the RuO2 layers are conducting.

While the temperature dependence of the resistivity at 0 T and 8 T has features that are also observed in the ferromagnetic metals SrRuO3 and Sr4Ru3O10, we find that the transverse ($`𝐇𝐈`$) and longitudinal ($`𝐇𝐈`$) magnetoresistance in RuSr2GdCu2O8 deviates from the behavior observed in SrRuO3 and Sr4Ru3O10. This is apparent in Fig. 4 where we plot the transverse and longitudinal magnetoresistance above (Fig. 4a) and below (Fig. 4b) the magnetic ordering temperature. Far above the magnetic ordering temperature, in the region where $`M`$ is proportional to $`H`$ (above 200 K), we find that $`\mathrm{\Delta }\rho _T/\rho _0M^\alpha `$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\rho _T/\rho _0`$ is the transverse magnetoresistance and $`\alpha `$=2. This observation is consistent with the results previously reported by McCrone et al..McCrone:99  A similar magnetization dependence is observed in SrRuO3 and Sr4Ru3O10. However, below 200 K we find that $`\alpha `$ continously decreases to a value of $`\alpha `$=1 as the magnetic ordering temperature is approached. Furthermore, just below the magnetic ordering temperature, a positive transverse magnetoresistance is observed for low applied magnetic fields. A low field positive transverse magnetoresistance is observed in SrRuO3 but at a lower temperature and far below the ferromagnetic ordering temperature.Gausepohl:95  In the case of SrRuO3, longitudinal magnetoresistance ($`𝐇𝐈`$) measurements do not reveal a positive magnetoresistance.

Therefore, the positive transverse magnetoresistance observed in SrRuO3 was interpreted as being due to orbital magnetoresistance. The appearance of a low field positive magnetoresistance in both, transverse and longitudinal cases in Fig. 4b calls for a different interpretation. It has been recently observed in Sr3Ru2O7Liu:01  that below $`T^{}`$= 17 K, where dc resistivity changes its slope and dc susceptibility exhibits a maximum, both, transverse and longitudinal magnetoresistance curves develop a positive low field contribution. The explanation was given in terms of magnetic instability present in this sample due to its distorted crystal structure. Similar features were found also in Ca2-xSrxRuO4.Nakatsuji:00 ; Friedt:01  It is possible that the positive transverse and longitudinal magnetoresistance observed in Fig. 4 are connected with the observation of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic order in RuSr2GdCu2O8. The simultaneous antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic order in RuSr2GdCu2O8 may be driven by band structure effects because the ferromagnetic component is different for different rare earths. The low field ferromagnetic component is highest in RuSr2YCu2O8 ($``$30 % of the AF component).

Besides having been useful in studying the nature of the magnetism in RuSr2GdCu2O8, the observed magnetoresistance implicitly proves that RuO2 planes are conducting, i.e. it supports further the conclusion reached from the analysis of the slope change in dc resistivity shown in Fig. 3. Further evidence that the RuO2 planes are conducting can be obtained from the analysis of the Hall effect in RuSr2GdCu2O8.

Hall resistance, $`\rho _{xy}`$, was measured as a function of the applied magnetic field $`H`$ at temperatures above and below $`T_m`$. Fig. 5 shows the data at 124.5 K. For applied magnetic fields below 1 T a nonlinear increase of the Hall resistance $`\rho _{xy}`$ with increasing $`H`$ is observed. For high magnetic fields a linear field dependence of $`\rho _{xy}`$ dominates. The nonlinear increase in $`\rho _{xy}`$ with increasing $`H`$ is due to an additional term arising from the extraordinary Hall effect. This term is present in magnetic metals and it is due to skew scattering where the probability of scattering from $`𝐤`$ to $`𝐤^{}`$ is different from the probability of scattering from $`𝐤^{}`$ to $`𝐤`$. The Hall effect in magnetic metals is commonly given by

$$\rho _{xy}=R_0\mu _0H+R_s\mu _0M,$$
(2)
where $`R_0`$ is the ordinary Hall coefficient, $`R_s`$ is the extraordinary Hall coefficient, $`\mu _0`$ is the vacuum permeability and $`M`$ is the magnetization of the sample. We show in Fig. 5 (solid curve) that Eq. (2) does provide a reasonable representation of the data where $`M`$ from the RuO2 layers was obtained from SQUID measurements. Previous measurements of the Hall coefficient McCrone:99  were made at 8 T only, where it was found that the Hall coefficient displayed a peak near 160 K and decreased for temperatures less than 160 K. However, the Hall coefficient measured in this way will be significantly affected by the anomalous Hall effect. The development of the anomalous Hall effect can be seen in Fig. 6 where we plot the average $`d\rho _{xy}/d(\mu _0H)`$ for low and high fields. It can be seen that the high field $`d\rho _{xy}/d(\mu _0H)`$ is temperature independent and for $`T<T_m`$ the values are lower than those found from the average low field $`d\rho _{xy}/d(\mu _0H)`$. We note that the ordinary Hall effect contains contributions from both the CuO2 and RuO2 planes. We find that the high field $`d\rho _{xy}/d(\mu _0H)`$ is slightly greater than that observed in YBa2Cu3O7-δ with a similar $`T_c`$ ($`R_H0.8\times 10^8`$ m3C-1)Segawa:01  while it is significantly greater than that observed in SrRuO3 ($`R_H0.06\times 10^8`$ m3C-1)Klein:00 . This might suggest that the ordinary Hall effect in RuSr2GdCu2O8 is dominated by the CuO2 layers. However, the occurrence of the extraordinary Hall effect in RuSr2GdCu2O8 indicates that the RuO2 planes are conducting.

### III.3 Microwave measurements

In Fig. 7 we plot the temperature dependences of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ for the ceramic and powder samples in zero and 8 T applied magnetic field. We first consider the microwave impedance in the normal state. It is apparent in Fig. 7a that the zero field $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ of the ceramic sample shows a peak at the magnetic ordering transition temperature. Note that such a peak is not observed in the dc resistivity data of the same ceramic sample presented earlier, where a peak is observed only in the derivative $`d\rho /dT`$. When shown on an expanded scale in the insert to Fig. 7a, this peak is seen to be superimposed on a decreasing resistive signal with some curvature due to the intergranular semiconducting medium. A similar peak was observed also in ceramic RuSr2EuCu2O8 but the temperature dependence below the magnetic

ordering temperature was obscured by the microwave resistance from intergranular transport. The peak disappears at high magnetic fields as can be seen in Fig. 7a where we plot $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ at 8 T. We observe in Fig. 7b that the semiconductor like upturn in $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ of the ceramic sample is not present in the powder sample, thus providing clear evidence that it arises from intergranular conduction. However, the peak in $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ is still seen in the powder sample. This peak is therefore an intrinsic property of the intragranular regions. It is possible that the peak arises from a change in $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }_r`$ at the magnetic ordering temperature, although it can be seen in the insert to Fig. 7b that this would require a large change in $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }_r`$ over a small temperature range. It may also be that model of Fisher and Langer for dc resistivity does not apply to microwave frequencies. We note that a peak in the dc resistance was predicted earlier by De Gennes and Friedel who based their calculation on the long range spin fluctuations. DeGennes:58

The suppression of the peak in $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ by an applied magnetic field is evident in Fig. 8a where we plot $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)(\mu _0H)\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)(8\mathrm{T})`$. It is apparent that the peak rapidly disappears with increasing magnetic field and it vanishes completely at magnetic fields greater than 1 T. Unlike the dc case, we find that the microwave magnetoresistance is negative for all temperatures in the normal state. The magnetic field dependence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ can be seen in Fig. 8b. For magnetic fields greater than $``$2 T, there is a linear decrease in $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ with increasing magnetic field. At 70 K and below, the Gd3+ ESR absorption is evident in the low field region and centered near 0.3 T. The intensity of this resonance increases with decreasing temperature owing to the increasing spin population difference in the lowest Gd3+ spin levels.

We show in Fig. 9 that there is an additional spin resonance below the magnetic ordering temperature. Here we plot $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f/f`$ at 130 K and for magnetic fields of up to 1 T. For magnetic fields greater than $``$0.3 T, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f/f`$ have equal but opposite slopes as expected for a thick sample where microwave resistance is the only source of the microwave response. However, at low fields one observes a peak in $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ centered at $``$25 mT, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f/f`$ displays a magnetic field dependence indicative of resonance phenomena.

This feature could be due to the Ru ferromagnetic resonance observed by Fainstein et al.Fainstein:99  in RuSr2GdCu2O8. We estimate by the dashed curve in Fig. 9a that this resonance contributes $``$0.7 ppm to $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ at zero applied field. However, it is apparent in Fig. 8 that this resonance contribution to $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ is insufficient to explain the full height of the peak at $`T_m`$. We note that $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f/f`$ in the powder sample are similar to those in Figs. 8 and 9 but the signal to noise ratio is much worse.

We now consider the microwave response in the superconducting state. Returning to Fig. 7, it can be seen that the zero field microwave resistance decreases near 50 K, similar to the dc case. The effect of an applied magnetic field on $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ of the ceramic sample is similar to that observed in the HTSC.Pozek:92 ; Narlikar:96  However, the data for the powder sample is anomalous because at low temperatures the zero field values become larger than those taken at 8 T. We show later that this behavior is due to an enhancement of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ at low fields and low temperatures which is induced by the Gd3+ resonance.

The magnetic field dependence of the microwave absorption in the superconducting state can be seen in Fig. 10a where we plot $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ for temperatures of 5 K, 15 K, 25 K, 35 K and 45 K. The initial rapid increase in $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ is due to the Josephson coupled weak links that are being driven normal by the relatively small applied magnetic field. The slower increase in $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ at higher magnetic fields arises from the absorption due to the increasing density of vortices in the grains.Coffey:91 ; Portis:93 ; Dulcic:93  The effect of these processes on the frequency shift is seen in Fig. 10b where $`\mathrm{\Delta }f/f`$ is plotted at 5 K. Above 35 K the Josephson coupling between grains becomes weaker. Thus, at 45 K no characteristic Josephson signal is seen in Fig. 10a. At temperatures just below $`T_c`$, only the individual grains become superconducting. The intergranular coupling is established at a lower temperature.

Superimposed on the changes in $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f/f`$ is the effect of the Gd3+ resonance for low applied magnetic fields. It is partly obscured in Fig. 10 by the initial rapid changes in $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f/f`$ induced by the weak link structure of the ceramic sample. The effect of the Gd3+ resonance is much clearer in Fig. 11 where we plot $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f/f`$ of the powder sample. For applied magnetic fields above $``$2.5 T, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f/f`$ are dominated by the dissipative motion of the vortices in the mixed state Coffey:91 ; Portis:93 ; Dulcic:93 , while for magnetic fields less than $``$2.5 T the microwave response from Gd3+ contributes significantly to $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f/f`$. It is possible to account for the resonant contribution of Gd3+ to $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ by extrapolating the high field $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ to the low field region as indicated by the dashed line in Fig. 11. By applying this correction, we show in Fig. 7b (open triangles) that the microwave resistance at zero applied magnetic field is consistently smaller than that at 8 T. The absorption due to an effective microwave resistivity always increases with the applied magnetic field. There is, however, another unusual feature of the zero field microwave resistance in Fig. 7b. Unlike the cuprate HTSC, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ drops rapidly below $`T_c`$ by more than two orders of magnitude, the zero field signal in Fig. 7b is significant even for temperatures much less than $`T_c`$.

The anomalously large microwave resistance can not be accounted for by the occurrence of the spontaneous vortex phase. In this model, the ferromagnetic component of the spontaneous magnetization of the magnetically ordered RuO2 layers generates vortices.Sonin:98  The microwave currents would then induce oscillations of these vortices, leading to a microwave loss.Coffey:91 ; Portis:93 ; Dulcic:93  The density of vortices, and hence the local field that is required for the increased $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/2Q)`$ to be accounted for by the spontaneous vortex phase model, can be estimated from the observed rise of the signal level when the applied magnetic field is changed from zero to 8 T. We find that a spontaneous magnetic field of 7 T to 9 T is required. This is significantly larger than the local field estimated from a muon spin rotation study ($``$0.1 T) or a Gd3+ ESR study.Fainstein:99  The large microwave resistance at zero applied magnetic field is certainly due to a large fraction of the normal carriers still being present at temperatures well below $`T_c`$. Since the spontaneous vortex model is seen to be insufficient to provide the necessary amount of normal carriers, we propose that the normal carriers are to be found in the RuO2 layers.

At this point it is worthwhile to discuss whether the proposed interpretations of the ac susceptibility and microwave data are consistent. The operating frequencies for the two cases differ by seven orders of magnitude. The normal state skin depth is inversely proportional to the square root of the frequency. At our microwave frequency of 9.3 GHz, the skin depth in the normal state of RuSr2GdCu2O8 is $``$5$`\mu `$m, which is close to the grain size. As soon as a fraction of charge carriers is condensed into the superconducting state, the penetration depth at the microwave frequency is reduced below the grain size. This effect causes a significant drop of the signal level as shown in Fig. 7b. This does not occur with the ac susceptibility signal in the same powder sample shown in Fig. 2b. Due to the remaining fraction of the normal carriers, the penetration depth does not become frequency independent. The extremely weak superconducting signal inferred from Fig. 2b implies that the penetration depth at 1 kHz is reduced from $`\delta _n`$ $``$ 1 cm to a value still larger than the grain size. The comparison of the data at those two largely different frequencies provides the final proof that a large fraction of the charge carriers in RuSr2GdCu2O8 is not condensed in the superconducting state even at very low temperatures.

The proposed scenario would imply that there is no induced superconductivity in the RuO2 layers. This can be contrasted with fully loaded YBa2Cu3O7, where the distance between the CuO2 layer and the CuO chain is similar to the distance between the CuO2 layer and RuO2 layer in RuSr2GdCu2O8, but there is induced superconductivity on the CuO chains in YBa2Cu3O7. The idea of decoupled CuO2 and RuO2 planes has been mentioned in the early work of Felner et al. on a related ruthenate-cuprate compound RuSr2Gd1.4Ce0.6Cu2O10-δ.Felner:97  The conditions of decoupling have been treated theoretically.Pickett:99 ; Nakamura:01  The Ru $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals, where magnetism arises, are coupled to Cu $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals, but the latter are almost fully occupied. On the other hand, Ru $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals do not couple directly to the Cu $`e_g`$ orbitals, but only a more indirect coupling path via the apical oxygen may be possible. As a result, quite a small exchange splitting is induced in the antibonding $`d_{x^2y^2}p_x`$ ($`dp\sigma `$) orbitals in the CuO2 planes. It was concluded that magnetism and superconductivity could coexist if the $`dp\sigma `$ orbitals formed the basis for superconductivity. The present paper provides experimental support for theoretical models based on decoupled subsystems in RuO2 and CuO2 planes.

## IV Conclusion

In conclusion, we find experimental evidence that, contrary to the conclusion from a number of previous studies, the RuO2 layers in RuSr2GdCu2O8 are conducting and contribute to the electronic transport above the superconducting transition. This is proven by the appearance of the peak in the temperature derivative of the dc resistivity $`d\rho /dT`$ at the magnetic ordering temperature $`T_m`$, negative magnetoresistance, and extraordinary Hall resistivity. Hence, the insulating local moment model can not be applied to the RuO2 layers in this compound. Rather, by combining the results of this study with NMR and XANES data which provide strong evidence of a mixed Ru valence,Kumagai:01 ; Tokunaga:01  the RuO2 planes can be described as conducting with a spatially varying charge density.

The behavior below the superconducting transition is revealed from a detailed analysis of the dc magnetization, ac susceptibility, and microwave impedance data in the ceramic and powder samples. We prove that a large fraction of the charge carriers in RuSr2GdCu2O8 is not condensed in the superconducting state even at temperatures far below $`T_c`$. The spontaneous vortex phase is found to be insufficient to account for the scale of the observed effect so that the normal conductivity is proposed to reside in the RuO2 planes at all temperatures. The present paper provides experimental support for theoretical models which explain the coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism through effectively decoupled subsystems in CuO2 and RuO2 planes.

###### Acknowledgements.

We acknowledge funding support from the Croatian Ministry of Science and Technology, the New Zealand Marsden Fund and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.


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# The stellar content of the Galaxy: the white dwarf population

## 1. The model

Our Galactic model is a three components (spheroid, disc, thick disc) code which closely follows the “classic” Galactic models by Bahcall & Soneira (1984, B&S) and Gilmore & Reid (1983, see also Paper I and references therein) concerning the spatial density distribution of stars. However, it relies on suitable assumptions on the evolutionary status and on the initial mass function (IMF) of the various Galactic populations to reproduce the luminosity functions used as an (observational) input in Paper I. We recall here the main characteristics of the model referring, for a detailed discussion, to Castellani et al. (2001, Paper II). Predicted results are obtained by randomly generating star masses according to the adopted IMF (Kroupa 2001) and by using stellar models to derive luminosities in the selected bands for each given value of the stellar mass and age. Spheroid stars are assumed to be almost coeval and thus they are reproduced by populating a suitable theoretical isochrone (age= 12 Gyr, Z= 0.0002, Y= 0.23), while for both the thick disc and the disc one has to take into account prolonged episodes of star formation. Thus for these two components star masses and ages are both randomly generated, the mass distribution reproducing the selected IMF, while a flat age distribution is adopted within the range assumed for each component. For the disc we chose a constant star formation rate (SFR) from 50 Myr to 9 Gyr to populate evolutionary tracks (Z=0.02 Y=0.27) until the asymptotic giant branch and the WD cooling sequences. For the thick disc, following Gilmore, Wyse, & Jones (1995) and Norris (1999), we assume a metallicity of $``$Z=0.006 and a SFR centered at $``$ 10 Gyr with a spread of few Gyr. Thanks to this theoretical approach the model spontaneously predicts the occurrence of stars in the various evolutionary phases.

## 2. The white dwarf population

By relying on the above described model one can easily predict the expected abundance of WDs, since each star evolved beyond the AGB phase and less massive than the lower mass limit for supernovae (Mup) is assumed to be a WD. However, to predict the colour-magnitude (CM) location of these dwarfs one needs further theoretical ingredients, as given by: i) a WD mass - progenitor mass relation , ii) theoretical WD models to obtain luminosity and temperature of a WD as a function of mass and age and iii) suitable color transformations. As shown in more detail in Paper II, the prediction on the WD population barely changes if we substitute the theoretical cooling tracks by Chabrier et al. (2000) with the ones by Salaris et al. (2000), both transformed into the observational plane by means of Saumon & Jacobson (1999) model atmosphere. We checked also that the predicted WD magnitude distribution shows small differences changing the semi-empirical WD mass - progenitor mass relation by Weidemann (2000) with the exponential one by Wood (1992). In the following we will adopt theoretical cooling tracks by Salaris et al. (2000) and the semi-empirical mass relation by Weidemann (2000). The predicted spheroid WD population obviously depends on the assumption on the halo age. Fig. 1 shows the predicted luminosity functions at four different ages: 6, 8, 10, 13.5 Gyr. As well known, for a given age the bulk of the WD distribution is close but not precisely at the faint end of the cooling isochrone. The larger is the age the fainter is the bulk of the WD population. This is a well understood feature: the increase of the time spent in the cooling sequence implies a progressive decrease of WD luminosity.

Furthermore the distribution of WD populations significantly depends on the adopted IMF. The number of WDs is obviously affected only by IMF variations for masses which could evolve into WDs in a time shorter than the estimated age of the Universe. As range of variation we assume the uncertainty on the Salpeter exponential ($`\alpha `$), as evaluated by Kroupa (2001; $`\alpha =2.3\pm 0.3`$). As expected, a steeper IMF ($`\alpha `$=2.6) depopulates the WD stars. This behaviour can be easily understood as a consequence of the decrease of the number of stars in the mass range able to produce WDs.

## 3. Results

Fig 2 and 3 show the predicted results for a field of 0.5 square degrees at the Galactic coordinates l=0, b=50.

The small panel in the CM diagram (CMD) (left figure) show the star counts for a field of about 6.6 arcmin2 of extension, that is the area generally covered by Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations (see e.g. King et al. 1998). Due to the presence of the thick disc population, the whole sample of stars in the CMD appears rather uniformly spreaded, without the “double peaked” feature usually predicted by the two-components models because of the separation in colour between the disc and the spheroid population (see e.g. B&S, 1984). An important finding of our prediction is that observations down to $`V=28`$ include almost the whole disc population and disc WDs. Only a few percent of thick disc and spheroid WDs are observable to this luminosities; from Fig. 3 one sees that the thick disc WD $`V`$-magnitude distribution appears centered at $`V30`$, while the spheroid distribution is centered at $`V31`$, with a tail reaching faint luminosities down to $`V36`$. From the ($`VI`$)-colour distributions (Fig 2, right panel) it appears that the whole WD population takes place at colours bluer then ($`VI`$)$`1.5`$. Moreover, at sufficiently blue colours, i.e. ($`VI`$)$`<0.5`$, and not too high luminosity ($`V>16`$), the sample is constituted exclusively by WDs.

## 4. Conclusions

We described our galactic model able to reproduce star counts and synthetic CMDs of field stars from the main sequence to the WD evolutionary phase at the various photometric bands and Galactic coordinates. The main goal is the introduction of disc/thick disc and spheroid WD population in an evolutionary consistent way. We found that the WD population is barely sensitive to a change of theoretical WD models or to a variation of the adopted relation between the WD mass and the progenitor mass.

## References

Bahcall, J.N. & Soneira, R.M. 1984, ApJS 55, 67

Castellani, V., Cignoni, M., Degl’Innocenti, S., Petroni, S., & Prada Moroni, P. G., 2001, in preparation (Paper II)

Castellani, V., Degl’Innocenti, S., Petroni, S., & Piotto, G. 2001, MNRAS 324, 167 (Paper I)

Chabrier, G., Brassard, P., Fontaine, G., & Saumon, D. 2000, ApJ 543, 216

Gilmore, G. F., Wyse, R.F.G., & Jones J. B. 1995, AJ 109,1095

Gilmore, G. F. & Reid, N. 1983, MNRAS 202, 1025

King, I.R., Anderson, J., Cool, A.M., & Piotto, G. 1998, ApJ 492, L37

Kroupa P., 2001, astro-ph/0102155

Norris, J.E. 1999, Ap&SS 265, 213

Salaris, M., Garcia-Berro, E., Hernanz, M., Isern, J., & Saumon, D. 2000, ApJ 544, 1036

Saumon, D. & Jacobson, S.B. 1999, ApJ 511, L107

Weidemann, V. 2000, A&A 363, 647

Wood, M.A. 1992, ApJ 386, 539


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# Strangeness in strongly interacting matter

## 1 Introduction: The original strange ideas or ‘how we got where we are’

I want to start with a citation of the introduction of an over twenty year old paper by Randrup and Ko : ‘Since the threshold for their production is relatively high on the scale of presently availabe beam energies, the kaons are predominantly produced before the initial motion is substantially degraded. They are therfore expected to be better suited as messengers of the primary violent stage of the collision which might otherwise remain quite elusive.’

This statement is robust and I will come back to it throughout this review. Although not intended at that former time, today even up to CERN-SPS energies our strong feeling is that the overall strangeness in heavy ion collisions is being produced at the beginning of the reaction when the system is still far from being near to any (quasi-)equilibrium stage.

A little later, in the mid-eighties, when the Bevalac had succesfully started since a couple of years with their relativistic heavy ion physics program and the AGS as well as the SPS era were on its way, strange particles had been proposed as an intriguing diagnostic probe for a variety of interesting questions and phenomena. In the following I want to list three of them which I personally consider as the potential ‘smoking guns’ for the then evolving field of ‘strangeness in strongly interacting matter’ probed with relativistic heavy ion physics.

Strange Goings in Dense Nuclear Matter : It was raised by Kaplan and Nelson that the kaons do feel strongly attractive (scalar) potentials in the background of a dense nuclear environment due to the KN-sigma term, resulting in a significant lowering of their mass with increasing baryon density. As higher baryonic densities do occur either in relativistic heavy ion collisions or in the deep interiour of neutron stars, it was furthermore proposed that such an attraction actually can ultimately lead to the condensation of kaons . In addition, there exists also a vector-type interaction given in leading order (within an effective chiral perturbative expansion) by the Tomozawa-Weinberg term, which acts repulsive for the kaons and further attractive for the antikaons. Hence, one was led to the conclusion that the antikaons should feel a stronger attraction whereas the kaons might feel a slight repulsion, if at all, with increasing nuclear density. Such a behaviour, predicted by a mean field calculation, is depicted in fig. 1. Here the free parameters were fixed to the KN scattering length . However, one should keep in mind that because of the large kaon mass and momenta involved within a chiral expansion higher order terms might become significant already at moderate nuclear densities. Be it as it is, to leading order such an effect for the antikaon is a nice demonstration that hadronic particles might significantly change their property if situated in a nuclear environment. Modifications of the properties of hadronic particels are eagerly looked after experimentally in a variety of different nuclear experiments ($`\gamma ,e^{},\pi ,p+A`$ setups and heavy ion collisions) as they would prevail new knowledge about the manifestation of strong interactions in the nuclear medium. In heavy ion collisions a lowering of the threshold of kaon pair production compared to the vacuum via the reaction

$$N+NN+N+K^++K^{}$$
(1)
should lead to a dramatically enhanced production of antikaons especially for subthreshold energies. This indeed has been observed experimentally. Is this a clear hint for strong attractive potentials for the antikaons?

Subthreshold Kaon Production as a Probe of the Nuclear Equation of State : It has been shown by Aichelin and Ko within a premature microscopic Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport approach that the number of produced kaons can vary by a factor of $`3`$ at subthreshold energies for central collisions (subthreshold with respect to $`N+NN+K+\mathrm{\Lambda }`$), depending on the stiffness of equation of state employed. To understand the idea, one first has to accept that most of the $`K^+`$s are produced via a second step process by the more massive $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$s via the reaction $`\mathrm{\Delta }+NN+K+\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ as here the threshold is strongly diminished. The $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$s in turn have been produced initially via inelastic nucleon-nucleon scattering. The argument now goes as follows: For a softer EoS larger nuclear densities are being buildt up, lowering the mean free path $`\lambda _\mathrm{\Delta }`$, thus leading to more inelastic collisions of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, e.g.

$$\mathrm{\Delta }+NN+K+\mathrm{\Lambda },$$
(2)
and hence to more kaons. This proposal has lead to a considerable interest in the physics of kaon production at subtreshold energies, in particular, because of the chances to survey the nuclear EoS being the sought after ‘holy grail’ at that days. Considerable progress in the concepts of microscopic transport approaches and in the various reaction channels had been achieved so far. In addition the kaons might feel a slight repulsion. What is the status of this idea today?

Strangeness Production in the Quark Gluon Plasma : As the first example, strangeness enhancement has been predicted a long time ago by Müller and Rafelski as a diagnostic probe to prove for the short-time existence of a QGP. The main quantitative idea is that the strange (and antistrange) quarks are thought to be produced more easily via the fusion of gluons and hence also more abundantly in such a deconfined state as compared to the production via highly threshold suppressed inelastic hadronic collisions. Enhanced strangeness production via the QGP should thus been seen most easily in the yield for the most dominant strange particles, the kaons. Here, it was argued, however, that a factor of 2-3 enhancement in the $`K/\pi `$-ratio relative to the one obtained in p+p collisons can only be seen as an indirect signal for QGP creation . With respect to the high production thresholds in the various binary hadronic reaction channels, especially the antihyperons and also the multistrange baryons were then advocated as the appropriate candidates . Fig. 2 intriguingly shows the approach to chemical equilibrium as a function of time for the various particle densities of strange hadrons containing at least one antistrange quark within a hot and baryonrich hadronic system. Even after 1000 fm/c the antihyperons do not approach by far their chemical equilibrium values. It was argued that for a thermalized fireball of hadronic particles the strange antibaryons are mainly produced via subsequent binary strangeness exchange reactions with the kaons, e.g.

$$K+\overline{p}\pi +\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }},$$
(3)
with low crossections. On the other hand, assuming the existence of a temporarily present phase of QGP and following simple, statistical coalescence estimates the abundant (anti-)strange quarks can easily be redistributed to combine with the light (anti-)quarks to form the strange (anti-)baryons , which do then, in return, come close to their chemical equilibrium values. Such a behaviour of nearly chemically saturated populations of the (multi-)strange (anti-)baryons has been experimentally demonstrated with the Pb+Pb experiments at CERN-SPS. (This statement can, of course, only be made by invoking an analysis by a thermal model and fitting the thermal parameters to the set of individual hadronic abundancies . Indeed, the extracted value for the temperature parameter is significantly close to the critical temperature $`T_C`$ obtained by thermodynamical QCD lattice calculations.) However, Leupold and myself have recently conjectured that a sufficiently fast and simple redistributions of strange and light quarks into (strange) baryon-antibaryon pairs might equally well be achieved by multi-mesonic fusion-type reactions of the type

$$n_1\pi +n_2K\overline{Y}+p$$
(4)
for a moderately dense hadronic system . The beauty of this argument lies in the fact that (at least) these special kind of multi-hadronic reactions have to be present because of the fundamental principle of detailed balance. Are (anti-)hyperons thus still a good diagnostic tool for the onset of QGP formation in central ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions?

In the following sections I will continue to elaborate in more theoretical detail on the understanding of strangeness production in relativistic heavy ion collisions and the three questions raised. Strangeness production can best be described microscopically within a hadronic transport approach. This is my personal prejudice. Therefore, as a basic guideline for the discussion, I will employ our extensive experience with such a description. By detailed comparison to data these approaches should provide theoretical evidence whether each of the above ideas does manifest in nature or not. As the basic input are vacuum cross sections for the various binary hadronic reaction channels, transport approaches do have a profound and solid foundation: relativistic kinetic theory  (being, in principle, superior to any thermal or hydrodynamical description) and known vacuum physics. However, caution comes into the description and the character of a model enters when cross sections are asked which can not be measured experimentally. Besides the dynamics of all kinds of hadronic resonances this is, in particular, true for the modelling of the highly energetic inelastic binary hadronic reactions (by e.g. string fragmentation) and their collective incorporation into space-time dynamics.

An alternative and (to a certain part) complimentary theoretical description of the final hadronic yield being explored in tremendous detail over the last years is given by various thermal model analyses as already mentioned above. Why complimentary? As it cannot make any predictions for the initial phase and how the (pre-)final hadronic system might have reached some approximate thermodynamical equilibrium, it exactly does not rest on any (microscopic) model assumptions. This description helps to extract global properties and systematics from experimental data like, being specific, strangeness saturation in the hadronic abundancies. Here I want to refer to the recent review by Redlich .

In the next section 2 I discuss the production of kaons at SIS energies. Section 3 then deals with kaon and (anti-)hyperon production at SPS energies. I will end with a brief conclusion what I do believe what has been learned at present.

Although important, I will not touch on p+A physics (for a recent review containing a brief summary please see ). I will also not discuss the physics of strangelets  or multihypernuclear objects , although these exotic states would clearly represent ‘strongly interacting strange matter’, if they do exist in nature. For a review and the experimental situation I refer to . In addition, microscopic studies of single hypernuclei (please see  for some new developments) and the role of strangeness on the strucure of neutron stars (see ) deserves attention, but will not be reviewed here. Last but not least on this list of topics not covered are the encouraging and brand new results on production of strange hadronic particles within the RHIC program, which now do ask for more detailed theoretical studies.

## 2 Strange Physics at SIS

The production of kaons and antikaons, respectively, in relativistic heavy ion collisions below and around the individual threshold energies up to 2 AGeV has been adressed with significant progress over the last ten years by the FOPI and the KAOS collaboration with the SIS at GSI. It has become clear by now that the data has to be understood in complete and careful detail within the various transport models in order to pin down possible in-medium effects for the antikaons or to extract the nuclear EoS. The main competing approaches are the QMD model (Nantes), the RQMD model (Tübingen), the URQMD model (Frankfurt), the RBUU or HSD model (Giessen) and the RBUU model (Stonybrook,Texas). I will concentrate in the following to discuss the recent progress in theoretical understanding being made, but also point out some present conflicts, at least to my understanding, which has to be adressed in order to come to solid conclusions.

As will become evident below one first has to understand the production mechanism(s) of the kaons before considering the antikaons, being more rarer and thus more exotic. A detailed analysis in comparison to data for $`K^+`$ production was first made by Bratkovskaya et al. . It was found that the inclusive momentum spectra for various systems and different bombarding energies can be best described without employing slightly repulsive in-medium potentials for the kaons. Inclusion of the potentials would lower the total yield by roughly 30%. It should be remarked, though, that the kaon flow on the other hand seems to be more consistent with data by including a slight repulsion . In addition, it was found that the reaction

$$\pi +NK^++\mathrm{\Lambda }$$
(5)
dominates considerably compared to the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-induced production via (2). On the other hand, rather opposite findings have been obtained recently by Hartnack and Aichelin . Here the later reaction (2) is the most important for producing the kaons, although different channels do contribute differently for different energies and for different masses of the system. They do obtain an agreement to the rapidity spectra for Ni+Ni at 1.93 AGeV when including a repulsive potential. It might well be that the main difference between the two approaches stems from a different parametrization of the, in principle, unknown production cross section (2). A comparison between both implemantations of this channel seems to reveal that at least for the higher energies (at 1.93 AGeV, where the comparison has been made) this could be the sole reason: Implementing the same parametrization of the cross sections gives rather identcal results for the kaon rapidity spectra within the two diffenent transport algorithms . A consistent check also for lower energies and different systems is, however, mandatory. In any case, as the reaction (2) is of definite relevance, a final consensus on its parametrizaion should be striven for. This seems to be one of the major ambiguities at present.

Experimental  as well as theoretical  efforts concerning the idea on extracting the nuclear EoS from the $`K^+`$ excitation function has been made just recently. Because of the uncertainty in the one cross section as explained, it was found that the ratios of $`K^+`$ spectra for heavy an light ion reactions is a more robust indicator . Also the kaon yield for light systems should be less sensitive to the EoS than for heavy systems. From the theoretical analysis it turns out that the new data do favor a soft (and momentum dependent) nuclear EoS. Still, if in addition one does employ a moderately repulsive in-medium potential for the kaons, the difference in the yield for the kaons between a soft and a hard EoS shrinkens from a factor of 3  down to only 40% . Refering to the reasoning in the introduction, this counter effect is understood as for a soft EoS one produces the kaons at higher baryonic densities where the repulsive potential then increases the threshold. Hence, an identification of the EoS has become more delicate compared to the original idea. Establishing cross correlations with other observables being also potentially sensitive to the EoS is definitely needed for. It is worth mentioning that looking at the standard signal of in-plane and out-of-plane proton and neutron flow experimental data seems to be mostly consistent with a soft and strongly momentum dependent EoS (with emphasis more on the strong momentum dependence of the potentials) . Encouragingly, within this same RBUU code the yields of the kaons are found to be most consistent by employing this same EoS .

The (subthreshold) production of kaons either via the two step process of energetic $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$s or pions does happen still at the onset of the reaction when the buildt up baryon density is high. Afterwards, more or less no further strangeness is being produced in any of the microscopic simulations. This reflects the early statement of Randrup and Ko remarked in the introduction. Putting it differently, when the momenta of the nucleons sufficiently degraded and the system has to some extent thermalized, the timescale for production of strange particles via the considered kinetic reactions becomes incredibly large, exceeding two order of magnitude the lifetime of the system. Fig. 3 shows this statement in a dramatic way: Within the RBUU model the chemical saturation of the kaons has been investigated microcanonically for a static box with isosysmmetric baryon content . It is found that for low energy densities as expected at SIS energies the saturation time scale exceeds $`10^3`$ fm/c. (In the figure actually only energy densities as expected for situation for lower AGS energies ($`4`$ AGeV) up to SPS energies are given. For even lower densities to be expected at SIS see .) A similar conclusion with a dynamical simulation has been recently shown by Pal, Ko and Lin . Refering e.g.to the reaction (5), the fundamental and simple kinetic reason for the large saturation timescale is the fact that the probability for a $`K^+`$ to meet with a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and then to annihilate becomes tinely small. It are these kind of annihilation rates of the kaons which in sum equals the rate towards chemical equilibrium. Kaon production at SIS energies is an initial nonequilibrium phenomena as is the overall strangeness production.

It might accidentally be that the amount of produced kaons might ressemble a chemical equilbrium population at some very late stage of the reaction as advocated in . (The overall population at equilibrium is very sensitive on the temperature parameter and thus there is a good chance to ‘fit’ to the data with a particular value. In  it was found within the employed microscopic calculation that at the very late stage there exists temporarily a situation where the Gain and Loss contribution, although tinely small, do become equal in size. Although the number of kaons does not change anymore throughout this final evolution, this particular situation resembles qualitatively that of a system at equilibrium.)

Being prepared with a good understanding of the production of the kaons, I want to go over to our present knowledge of the production of the more exotic probe, the antikaons. One should be aware that at all SIS energies the kaons and hyperons are nearly equal in number and the antikaons are much rarer than the kaons. In principle, there is a good chance that the antikaons are made by redistributing the strange quarks of the hyperons to mesonic degrees of freedom. Indeed, it was pointed out nearly 20 years ago by Ko that the kinetic reaction

$$\pi +YN+K^{}$$
(6)
should play a dominant role in the production of subthreshold antikaons. The cross section of the back reaction is known experimentally quite well and becomes very large close to threshold. The direct reaction can then be obtained by means of detailed balance. As (2) is thought to be rather dominant for kaons, one might think similarly also of a second step process involving the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }+YN+N+K^{},$$
(7)
for the production of the kaons . (Here, however, again the cross section is not known experimentally and thus has to be modelled.) Also, as shown in , the more direct pion induced reaction with energetic, incoming nucleons

$$\pi +NN+K^++K^{},$$
(8)
does contribute considerably to the yield, especially when turning on the attractive potentials .

Comparing the two microscopic approaches,  and , both dealing with a detailed description of antikaon production, one has to clearly admit, that a comprehensive emerging picture is at present still not really given. Both approaches do have in common, that they show, that the elementary NN-reaction (1) in the vacuum is of no  importance. The antikaons are produced via second or higher step processes. Within the RBUU model an attractive potential for the antikaons is definetely needed in order to describe the various $`K^{}`$-spectra . (The $`K^+`$ are calculated without any - in this case repulsive - potentials as this is shown to describe the various data as outlined above.) Reabsorption on the nucleons, i.e. the backward reaction of (6) is shown to be important so that it is argued that a sufficient fraction of kaons has to be produced via (8) when the baryon density is still high and the mass reduction of the antikaons is at work. Within the QMD model, however, it is shown that the reabsorption and production via (6) is by far the most important channel . Production and Absorption do happen on a very fast timescale and do occur hand in hand. The mass law action seems to be at work so that the antikaons and the hyperons are in chemical equilibrium relative to each other. (This picture gives a microscopic justification for the use of a thermal and chemical equilibrium model  at SIS energies at least for the antikaons.) When all particles do freeze out, the baryon density is rather low, so that the possible attractive potentials have not any significant influence on the abundance of the antikaons any longer. Any potential antikaons of the early high-density phase, when the reduction in mass is of most importance, will get reabsorbed with a probability near to one in the ongoing evolution of the system . This view stands in contrast to the findings and argumentations of .

Does one see the medium effects of the antikaons, i.e. a significant lowering in mass when the baryon density is high? Yes and no, at present. The RBUU analysis does require a strong attractive selfenergy for the kaons to account for the measured yield. QMD does not, although they do need some repulsive potential for the kaons to get the number in kaons and thus also in the hyperons correct. Here, however, as just explained, due to the strong reabsorption it does not really matter as with or without the potentials the final yield in antikaons is calculated to be more or less the same . The experimental data by KAOS and FOPI have become much refined in quality over the years and now do ask for a clear theoretical (re-)analysis. My presumption is that the parametrization and implementation of the cross sections for the reaction (6) has to be accurately cross checked by the various competitors in the field. It is somewhat suspicious that the one group sees a much stronger reabsorption of early produced antikaons than the other group. This might well be only one possible source of some (minor) mismatches. A certain ‘unification’ in the various parametrizations and implementations of cross sections is again mandatory.

Before finishing the discussion on SIS physics, I want to mention that indeed the medium effects of the antikaons might not be as simple as advocated above and as incorporated simplistically by mean field type potentials in the various transport approaches. It is known for a long time from coupled channel analyses of $`K^{}N`$-scattering data that the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$-resonance strongly couples in the s-channel slightly below threshold to the two particle system. In medium, roughly spoken, this coupling results in an additional $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$-hole branch for the kaon(-like) excitations with a nontrivial form for their spectral function  having a structure much different from a simple quasi-particle. This is an intriguing topic. Over the years nontrivial possible medium modifications of spectral functions of e.g. vector-mesons (because of their electromagnetic decay channel) has attracted a lot of interest in the heavy ion physics community. However, considering solely the kaons, it is a delicate question at present whether such effects really are visible by means of a final yield of onshell antikaons. In addition a full understanding of a consistent transport scheme for continous, off-shell particle-like excitations has not yet emerged.

## 3 Strange Physics at AGS and SPS

A first and thorough attempt to understand strangeness production for AGS and SPS energies within one microscopic model, the RQMD model, was carried out over many years by Sorge and coworkers. For a nice discussion of the various results, pre- and postdictions, and physics points of view I like to refer to .

As outlined in the previous section, certain differences in the implementations of particular cross sections already had some profound influence on the production of kaons and antikaons within the various transport descriptions. Turning now the discussion to the higher incident bombarding energies, it should not be a too big surprise that the predictions for strangeness productions should possibly vary even more. This is indeed the case, at least for all AGS energies, ranging from 2 to 11 AGeV, and the lower SPS energies, and will be briefly reported below (see also the contribution of Bass ). Dealing with the description of the various inelastic reactions, a certain physics point of view and hence a true character of a model enters: The very first nucleonic and hadronic collisions are highly energetic. Particle production is not directly calculable and can only be described with phenomenological descriptions being adjusted to data like the well known Lund model with string fragmentation. In addition, certain classes of inelastic hadronic reactions at intermediate energies might still be modelled by various (baryonic and mesonic) resonances being not so much well established.

In a recent systematic study the properties of $`K^+`$, $`K^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ particles in nuclear reactions from SIS to CERN-SPS energies have been investigated within the microscopic HSD model . The outcome for the excitation function of the most dominant strange particles, the $`K^+`$-mesons, relative to the $`\pi ^+`$-yield within the HSD model is summarized in fig. 4. Since a relative enhancement of strangeness is observed already in hadron-hadron collisions for increasing energy the to be measured strangeness should be compared relative to p+p collisions at the same energy. After the primary string fragmentation of intrinsic p-p–collisions the hadronic fireball starts with a $`K^+/\pi ^+`$ ratio still far below chemical equilibrium with $`68\%`$ at AGS to SPS energies before the hadronic rescattering starts. Secondary (meson-baryon) and ternary (meson-meson) induced string-like interactions do then contribute significantly to additional strange particle production, particular for reactions at SPS energies. Via these channels about the same number of strange and anti-strange quarks is produced as in the primary p+p collisions. This then can explain the factor 1.75 as the relative enhancement compared to p+p (compare fig. 4). Hence, the major amount of produced strange particles (kaons, antikaons and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$s) at SPS-energies can be understood in terms of early and still energetic, non-equilibrium interactions.

As the average kinetic energy and the particle density increases monotonically with incoming kinetic energy of the projectile while the lifetime of the fireball increases with the system size, a smooth and continous enhancement is expected in a hadronic description by these effects. Experimentally, at AGS energies and also at the lower, new SPS data, a different bahaviour for the excitaion $`K^+/\pi ^+`$ is seen. The relative enhancement factor here is $`3`$ and can not be fully explained within the cascade type calculations . Strangeness production is underestimated by $``$ 30% compared to explicit kaon data  wheras the pion population is in addition slightly overestimated.

This discrepancy in strangeness production at AGS energies indicates either hadronic physics not taken into account or some new nonhadronic physics involved for the primary $`s\overline{s}`$ production. Including kaon potentials does help to some extent to raise somewhat the production of $`K^+`$ and especially $`K^{}`$ mesons at highest AGS energies, still a significant underestimation at AGS energies does persist . The above HSD results do agree more or less with older RQMD results  (version 1.7) and ARC results , whereas newer RQMD calcualtions  (version 2.3) are more in line with data. (Unpublished) URQMD calculations, as reported in , do find agreement for the lower AGS energies, but otherwise appreciably do underestimate the ratio. In the here reported HSD calculations only established baryon resonances up to $`N^{}(1535)`$ are included, wheras at least in the newer version of RQMD  resonances of much higher mass have been implemented. As for the AGS energies and the lower SPS energies the baryon densities achieved are the highest, especially then the baryonic resonances could be of crucial importance and thus could be the possible reason for the significant differences in the various numerical simulations. At the full SPS energies, where the secondary interactions are meson dominated, the possible influence of baryonic resonances is diminished and this then could explain why at this much higher energy the various model predictions do not differ as much as compared to the various AGS energies. (The changing role and importance of either baryonic or mesonic contributions to the $`K^+/\pi ^+`$ excitation function when going from AGS to SPS energies has recently also been obeserved within a thermal model analysis .) Clearly, a unified description would be desirable, however, different physical interpretations for the various model inputs can hardly be justified by a theoretical ab initio derivation at present.

Closing the discussion on the outcome of strangeness production at AGS and SPS energies within transport simulations, I do mention once more that the overall strangeness is produced by the very first highly non-equilibrium collisions. The amount of strange quarks in the system is then roughly conserved when the energetic and non-equilibrium reactions have ceased and the system has started to equilibrate locally in its particle momentum distributions. This observation is indeed the continuation to much higher bombarding energies of the early statement raised by Randrup and Ko for Bevalac energies. Refering again to our recent investigation , summarized in fig. 3, the chemical saturation timescale of kaons in a hadronic transport description is larger than 40 fm/c for all equilibrium energy densities up to 2-3 GeV/fm<sup>3</sup>, and thus exceeds considerably the lifetime of the fireball in the center of mass frame.

What do we know about predictions on strangeness production in a QGP or on the strangeness content of a fully saturated QGP? The basic answer is ‘not much more’ than in the days when the first pQCD estimate  was made. This is a personal, and provocative statement. The old and simple estimate for the saturation rate of strangeness was based on the elementary cross section $`\sigma _{ggs\overline{s}}\frac{\pi \alpha _s^2}{3s}\mathrm{ln}\frac{s}{m_s^2}`$ of two free gluons fusing to a strange-antistrange quark pair folded with thermal distributions for the gluons. The cross section depends logarithmically on the value of the strange quark mass. Instead of using the current masse of $`m_s150`$ MeV one might consider the typical value of $`m_s^{NJL}400500`$ MeV obtained within a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio approach at and slightly above chiral restoration temperature , yielding roughly a factor of 2-3 smaller cross section in the kinemetical region of interest. The powerful tool of ‘hard thermal loop’ resummed techniques, in order to deal with the dynamically generated masses in a thermal field theoretical, infrared safe and consistent framework, for calculating strangeness production in the QGP has not been carried out with full success and a lot of uncertainties do remain . Lattice gauge calculations so far have not contributed at all to the question of how much strangeness is inside a saturated QGP or inside a hadronic system close to the critical temperature. The strangeness content is again based solely on simple, perturbative estimates. Furthermore, hadronization is a nonperturbative phenomena and it is not known whether strangeness can be produced or not when hadrons are created out of a deconfined QGP state.

As mentioned in the introduction, a factor of 2-3 enhancement in the $`K/\pi `$-ratio relative to the one obtained in p+p collisons was not really considered as an unambiquous signal for QGP creation. Strangeness enhancement relative to p+p is seen from SIS energies up to nowadays RHIC energies. With particular respect to the experimental findings at SIS and AGS it is valid to say that strangeness enhancement does not require deconfinement. In view of our discussion above, strangeness production can be understood in terms of hadronic physics, although this does not disprove a temporary creation of a QGP.

The true proposed and advocated candidates have been the multistrange baryons, and, even more strikingly, all antihyperon species . The analysis of abundancies of hadronic particles and especially strange particles, measured by NA49 and WA97, within thermal models does strikingly support the idea of having established a (thermodynamically) equilibrated and chemically saturated hadronic fireball in some particular late stage of the reaction, dubbed ‘point’ of chemical freeze-out (for analyses of Pb+Pb collisions at CERN-SPS see ). In this respect especially a nearly fully saturated yield of antihyperons is found. In the following I will now report on our recent idea  of rapid antihyperon production by multi-mesonic reactions of the type (4) (see also the schematic illustration fig. 5) and provide new calculations considerably supporting this new insight. This idea does rest on the (conservative) view that before chemical freeze-out already a hadronic system has been established.

A few detailed, yet purely phenomenological attempts to explain a more abundant production of antihyperons within a hadronic transport description do exist like the color rope formation by Sorge et al  or the high-dense cluster formation of Werner and Aichelin within the VENUS transport approach . The underlying mechanisms, however, have to be considered as exotic: Sorge (as well as other studies like e.g. ) point out in detail the dramatic role of antibaryon annihilation, which he more then counterbalances by initial formation via color ropes. He also finds that the binary exchange channel (3) is actually not as small as advertised originally in , but helps rather quickly to repopulate the various strange antibaryon populations, if enough antibaryons are present (compare also the above discussion at SIS energies for the dominance and importance of the complete similar (T-conjugated) reaction (6)). The high-dense cluster formation, on the other hand, resembles in its philosophy the idea that in a very dense hadronic system potential multi-particle interactions could be modelled by a simple statistical treatment.

What are the new arguments? If the hadronic degrees of freedom are in a state of thermodynamical equilibrium, which constitutes the basic concept of any thermal model analyses, a dynamically realization to describe such a system has to fulfill the concept of detailed balance in the considered chemical reactions. As the annihilation of antihyperons on baryons is of dramatic relevance, the multi-mesonic (fusion-like) ‘back-reactions’ involving $`n_1`$ pions and $`n_2`$ kaons, corresponding to the inverse of the strong binary baryon-antihyperon annihilation process (similar to the standard baryon annihilation $`\overline{p}+pn\pi `$), have, in principle, to be taken care of in a dynamical simulation. ($`n_2`$ counts the number of anti-strange quarks within the antihyperon $`\overline{Y}`$. $`n_1+n_2`$ is expected to be around $`57`$.) This reasoning has first been raised recently by Rapp and Shuryak concerning the production of anti-protons .

The annihilation rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\overline{Y}}`$, as implemented in the various codes, is large and it should be approximately similar in magnitude as for $`p+\overline{p}`$ at the same relative momenta. Hence, with $`\sigma _{p\overline{Y}n_1\pi +n_2K}50`$ mb one has

$$(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\overline{Y}})^1\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}/(\sigma _{\overline{Y}N}v_{\overline{Y}N}\rho _N)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}3fm/c,$$
(9)
when adopting for the baryon density a typical value $`\rho _N12\rho _0`$ when the system is still more dense than at the chemical freeze-out ‘point’ with $`\rho _N0.51\rho _0`$ . It is this rapid annihilation process which also does dictate the timescale of how fast the antihyperon densities do approach local chemical equilibrium with the pions, nucleons and kaons. This follows rigorously from the concepts of kinetic theory . In principle, one can start from a kinetic Boltzmann-type equation taken into account these multi-mesonic fusion-type reactions as the production term being the necessary counterpart to the annihilatin term. From the microscopic Boltzmann description master equations, as presented in , can be obtained in a direct way . Assuming further (for simplicity) that throughout the later expanison of the fireball the pions, baryons and kaons do stay in thermal and chemical equilibrium, a simplified master equation for the number of antihyperons as a function of time can be written in the most simple, but yet direct and illustrative form

$$\frac{d}{dt}\rho _{\overline{Y}}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\overline{Y}}\left\{\rho _{\overline{Y}}\rho _{\overline{Y}}^{eq}\right\},$$
(10)
where production due to the multi-mesonic ‘back-reactions’ is hidden in the second term $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\overline{Y}}\rho _{\overline{Y}}^{eq}`$.

The annihilation ($``$ chemical saturation) timescale of the antihyperons is indeed small, and, according to (9), it is roughly proportional to the inverse of the baryon density. Still it has to compete with the expansion timescale of the late hadronic fireball, which is in the same range or larger. It becomes clear that these multimesonic, hadronic reactions, contrary to binary reactions, can explain most conveniently a sufficiently fast chemical equilibration of the antihperons. A redistribution of some strange antiquarks out of the reservoir of the most abundant strange particles, the kaons, and of light antiquarks out of the huge reservoir of pions occurs to populate the much rarer antihyperon degrees of freedom to its equilbrium value. Beyond a certain ‘point’ (which, of course, is actually some continous regime where inelastic decoupling occurs) with already a moderately low baryon density (and correspondingly low pion and kaon densities) it will be that the multi-mesonic creation process becomes more and more ineffective. This can explain, as will be demonstrated now, the clear ‘position’ of the chemical freeze-out for the antihyperons.

To be quantitative, two results of a recent study  will be briefly explained. The global late-time evoltion of the system is assumed to be an isentropic expansion of the hadronic resonance gas with fixed total entropy content being specified via the entropy per baryon ratio $`S/A`$. The effective volume $`V(t)`$ is parametrized as function of time by longitudinal Bjorken expansion and including also an accelerating radial expansion. At starting time $`t_0`$ an initial temperature $`T_0`$ is chosen. (In the following two figures $`T_0`$ is set to $`190`$ MeV. For the various entropy per baryon ratios $`S/A=2040`$ this corresponds to an initial baryon density of $`\rho _B(T_0;S/A)=2.51\rho _0`$ and to an initial energy density of about 1 GeV/fm<sup>3</sup>.) From this ansatz the temperature and the chemical potentials do follow as function of time. The initial abundancy of antihyperons is set to zero (as a minimal assumption). A set of master equations of the principal structure as (10) are solved. In fig. 6 the number of antihyperons of each specie (normalized to the conserved net baryon number) as a function of the decreasing temperature is depicted. For a direct comparison the instantaneous equilibrium abundancy of antihyperons, $`N_{\overline{Y}}^{eq.}(T(t),\mu _B(t),\mu _s(t))/N_B`$, is also shown. The entropy per baryon is chosen as $`S/A=30`$ being characteristic to global SPS results . The equilibrium number strongly decreases as a function of time (or decreasing temperature). The typical characteristic of the depicted results is that first the antihyperons are dramatically being poulated, then their individual yield does overshoot its respective equilibrium number and then does finally saturate at some slightly smaller value because of some final reabsorbtion. From fig. 6 one sees that the antihyperons effectively do saturate at a number which can be compared to an equivalent equilibrium number at a temperature parameter around $`T_{eff}150160`$ MeV. This value for the temperature is strikingly close to the ones obtained within the various thermal analyses . (For the baryochemical potential a similar finding holds .)

In fig. 7 the number of anti-$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$s as a function of time is given for various entropy per baryon ratios. One notices that the final value in the yield significantly depends on the entropy content, or, in other words, on the baryochemical potential. Especially the results at midrapidity from WA97 can best be reprouced by employing an entropy to baryon ratio $`S/A=40`$ .

Summarizing, multi-mesonic fusion-type reactions are a consequence of detailed balance and as the rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\overline{Y}}`$ is indeed very large for a dense hadronic system chemical equilibrium is approached very quickly. This is a remarkable observation as it clearly demonstrates the importance of hadronic multi-particle channels. In this respect I would like to mention the recent proposal by Karliner and Ellis, that an intermediate multi-pion-state can actually explain the so called $`e^+e^{}\overline{N}N`$ puzzle at threshold energies .

As the basic assumptions, i.e. (I) the annihilation cross section for antihyperons colliding with a nucleon is roughly as large as the measured one for $`\overline{p}+p`$ and (II) at the onset for the equilibration of the antihyperons one has to assume a somehow equilibrated hadronic fireball with still a moderate baryonic density, are quite modest and not of any exotics, the enhancement of antihyperon production is not a true QGP signature. One can always argue that (1) the hadronic gas can only exist as a dilute sytem with an energy density to be considerable below 1 GeV/fm<sup>3</sup>, otherwise the system would be in a deconfined QGP state, and/or (2) the expansion goes dramatically rapid so that any inelastic interactions in the late hadronic system are non-effective . But these are just other model assumptions.

One could be tempted to ask whether a similar reasoning also applies for the multi-strange hyperons (the $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ and the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$) for which also experimentally a significant enhancement has been reported. The answer is ‘no’. The equilibration rate here would be governed by the density of antibaryons and is thus too low, or putting it differently, the equilibrium density of multi-strange hyperons is much higher than the one of antihyperons. Especially the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ could be the potential loop-hole as QGP signal, as it is very difficult to obtain its dramatically large yield (compared to p+p) by pure binary final state hadronic interactions without invoking additional pre-hadronic mechanisms ; see, however, also .

Cassing made a significant step forward very recently in trying to implement such ‘back-reactions’ withinn a present transport code. First results concerning the production of anti-protons at AGS and SPS energies are quite impressive . There is also a clear hint at AGS energies of enhanced anti-$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ production: E917  had reported very recently a large value for the $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}/\overline{p}`$ ratio of $`3.6_{1.8}^{+4.7}`$ for central Au+Au collisions, which confirms earlier, but indirect measurements by E864 and E878, and by E859 for the lighter Si+Au collision at 14.6 AGeV. Here it is mandatory to first understand the $`\overline{p}`$-production as reported by e.g. E802 and to see whether the multi-pionic channel is dominant. This seems to be indeed the case . The enhanced production of anti-$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$s compared to anti-protons at AGS energies one can understand in a way that one assumes that their annihilation cross section on baryons is just slightly smaller . But this is speculation at present. Unfortunately, there is no data for $`\overline{\mathrm{\Xi }}`$ at AGS. A clean and detailed measurement of all antihyperons represents an excellent opportunity for future heavy ion facilities at an energy upgraded GSI.

## 4 Conclusions: ‘Where are we $`\mathrm{}`$?’

I have tried to review three of the early great ideas of why strange particles can probe interesting, collective physics of strong interactions in a macroscopic system. For the theoretical guide of the discussion I had tried to review and to give insight in the present and very detailed knowledge of hadronic transport approaches. They do serve as an excellent benchmark to understand the complete nonequilibrium evolution, to test and implement, if possible, various ideas and, if necessary, to really unravel new exciting physics beyond standard transport.

Do we see a strongly reduced effective energy for the antikaons, and a slightly enhanced one for the kaons at SIS energies? All groups do need the potentials in one or the other way. None of the many transport approaches can describe the various data without invoking some sort of in-medium modifications. So there is a good indication. However, there still remains some important cross sections to be adressed and compared in detail among the transport competitors in order to converge to a consistent picture.

Do we have learned the nuclear EoS from kaon measurement? There is a moderate indication that indeed one can extract a soft and momentum dependent EoS from comparison with data. Still, because of the various ambiguities in the cross sections, which have to be adressed, I think the claim might be premature. In any case cross correlations with other potential good observables on the nuclear EoS should be consistently adressed with each individual model if to come for a final consensus.

Last not least the historically intriguing question whether we do see the QGP from abundant strange particle production and, in particular, from antihyperons? As elaborated, I believe that the overall strangeness discussed is produced at the very early nonequilibrium stage. As this seems to be true for all energies this does not prove deconfinement. How does then strange flavor redistribution to rare particles happen. At SIS energies the rare antikaons are not produced directly but stem from secondary flavor exchange reaction of a hyperon on a pion. An alternative reasoning could be true for making the rare antihyperons at SPS and AGS energies: Intriguing, novel, multi-mesonic collapses to form baryon-antibaryon pairs could efficiently do the job. Hence, antihyperons can be produced by more collective and complicated, yet hadronic kinetic reactions.

## Acknowledgements

Part of the results presented had been done in various collaborations with E. Bratkovskaya, W. Cassing, J. Geiss, S. Leupold and U. Mosel. I am in particular indebted to J. Aichelin, E. Bratkovskaya and H. Oeschler for the exhaustive discussions on the various experimental and theoretical results and problems concerning the production of strange particles within the relativsitic heavy ion physics program with the SIS at GSI/Darmstadt. Further discussions with S. Bass, F. Becattini, M. Bleicher, W. Cassing, D. Röhrich and C. Sturm are also acknowledged. This work has been supported by BMBF and GSI Darmstadt.

## References


text:
# Comment on “Unique Translation between Hamiltonian Operators and Functional Integrals”

In a recent letterGollisch and Wetterich (2001), Gollisch and Wetterich (GW) show that a careful treatment of discretization errors in a phase-space path integral formulation of quantum mechanics leads to a correction term as compared to the standard form based on coherent states. Since the coherent state formalism is widely used in field theory and statistical physics, one would have to view any suggestion that it may produce incorrect results with deep concern. In order to support their finding, GW study the simple one-dimensional nonlinear oscillator described by the Hamiltonian

$$H=ma^{}a+\frac{\lambda }{2}a^{}a^{}aa$$
(1)
and calculate the thermal expectation value $`p^2`$ both in conventional quantum mechanics and the proposed new functional integral approach ($`p=i(a^{}a)/\sqrt{2}`$). A comparison of both calculations indeed supports the proposed correction term. However, in this Comment, we point out that a calculation of $`p^2`$ within the standard coherent state path integral approach also agrees with conventional quantum mechanics, provided that discretization errors are correctly controlled here as well.

Standard coherent state path integral techniques Negele and Orland (1998) allow us to write down the partition function $`Z`$ for the Hamiltonian (1)

$$Z=\underset{N\mathrm{}}{lim}_{z_0=z_N}\left(\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{d^2z_k}{\pi }\right)\mathrm{exp}(S)$$
(2)
with the discrete representation for the action

$$S=\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}z_k^{}(z_kz_{k1})+\frac{\beta m}{N}z_k^{}z_{k1}+\frac{\beta \lambda }{2N}z_k^2z_{k1}^2.$$
(3)
Here, $`\beta `$ denotes inverse temperature. We now transform into Fourier space using

$$z_k=\underset{n=N/2+1}{\overset{N/2}{}}\varphi _n\mathrm{exp}(2\pi ink/N).$$
(4)
In the new integration variables $`\varphi _n`$, the action reads

$`S`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=N/2+1}{\overset{N/2}{}}}\varphi _n^{}\varphi _nN[1e^{\frac{2\pi in}{N}}(1{\displaystyle \frac{\beta m}{N}})]`$ (5)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\beta \lambda }{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n,n_1,n_2}{}}\varphi _{n_1n}^{}\varphi _{n_2+n}^{}\varphi _{n_1}\varphi _{n_2}e^{\frac{2\pi i}{N}(n_1+n_2)}`$
with the continuum limit ($`N\mathrm{}`$, $`ϵ=1/N`$)

$`S`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\varphi _n^{}\varphi _n(2\pi in+\beta m)`$ (6)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\beta \lambda }{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n,n_1,n_2}{}}\varphi _{n_1n}^{}\varphi _{n_2+n}^{}\varphi _{n_1}\varphi _{n_2}e^{2\pi i(n_1+n_2)ϵ}.`$
It is understood here that the integration measure of the functional integral is suitably normalized so that the correct free particle limit of the theory is obtained. Eq. (6) does not contain the correction term proposed by GW in their eq. (11). Instead, it contains an exponential factor, which guarantees convergence at large n. The limit $`ϵ0^+`$ must be taken only after the evaluation of the functional integral. Although sometimes neglected (as e.g. in Ref. Schulman (1981)), the importance of this exponential factor is pointed out, for example, in Refs. Negele and Orland (1998); Klauder (1960); Luttinger and Ward (1960).

With the action (6), a standard calculation in first order perturbation theory yields

$$Z=\frac{1}{1e^{\beta m}}\left[1\beta \lambda \left(\frac{e^{\beta m}}{1e^{\beta m}}\right)^2\right]$$
(7)
from which one easily obtains

$$p^2=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{coth}\frac{\beta m}{2}\frac{\beta \lambda }{4}\frac{e^{\beta m/2}}{\mathrm{sinh}^3(\beta m/2)}.$$
(8)
A simple analysis confirms that eqs. (7) and (8) exactly agree with conventional quantum mechanics as well as the GW results up to order $`\lambda `$ (cf. eq. (14) in Ref. Gollisch and Wetterich (2001)).

To conclude, we agree that the phase-space path integral approach proposed by GW, which employs a particular operator ordering resulting in a correction term to the continuum action, provides a correct translation between Hamiltonian operators and functional integrals. However, as pointed out in this Comment, this approach is not unique. The coherent state path integral formalism, without correction term, yields the same results due to exponential convergence factors to which we have drawn attention above.

One of the authors (MW) would like to thank the CSSM for its hospitality and Walter Apel, Janusz Szwabiński, and Wolfgang Weller for helpful discussions.