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# Photons uncertainty removes Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox

## Abstract

Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR) argued that the quantum-mechanical probabilistic description of physical reality had to be incomplete, in order to avoid an instantaneous action between distant measurements. This suggested the need for additional “hidden variables”, allowing for the recovery of determinism and locality, but such a solution has been disproved experimentally. Here, I present an opposite solution, based on the greater indeterminism of the modern quantum theory of Particle Physics, predicting that the number of photons is always uncertain. No violation of locality is allowed for the physical reality, and the theory can fulfill the EPR criterion of completeness.

Quantum Field Theory; Standard Model; Quantum Electrodynamics; Soft Photons; Quantum Measurement; EPR paradox

Introduction. In the abstract of their original 1935 paper (probably the most cited paper in the history of physics), Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR) summarize their argument as follows: “In a complete theory there is an element corresponding to each element of reality. A sufficient condition for the reality of a physical quantity is the possibility of predicting it with certainty, without disturbing the system. In quantum mechanics in the case of two physical quantities described by non-commuting operators, the knowledge of one precludes the knowledge of the other. Then either (1) the description of reality given by the wave function in quantum mechanics is not complete or (2) these two quantities cannot have simultaneous reality. Consideration of the problem of making predictions concerning a system on the basis of measurements made on another system that had previously interacted with it leads to the result that if (1) is false then (2) is also false. One is thus led to conclude that the description of reality as given by a wave function is not complete” Einstein et al. (1935).

As Laloë noticed in a recent review, for Einstein and collaborators “the basic motivation was not to invent paradoxes; it was to build a strong logical reasoning which, starting from well-defined assumptions (roughly speaking: locality and some form of realism), would lead ineluctably to a clear conclusion (quantum mechanics is incomplete, and even: physics is deterministic)” Laloe (2001). In fact, the EPR argument has been one of the main motivations for seeking a “complete” deterministic theory underlying quantum mechanics. In their (thought) “EPR experiment”, the measurement of a physical quantity on a system A did influence instantaneously, and in a perfectly deterministic way, the result of a corresponding measurement performed on another spatially separated system B that had been interacting with A in the past. This fact, which was since called the EPR paradox, was considered to be a hint for a fully deterministic theory underlying the probabilistic quantum theory.

However, we will see that the modern Quantum Field Theory (QFT) description of Particle Physics, known as the Standard Model (SM) Weinberg (1995, 1996), predicts a fundamental uncertainty about the number of photons that can be produced in any process involving an interaction. As a consequence, two distant measurements cannot influence each other in a certain, deterministic way, as required by the EPR argument.

The EPR thought-experiment and the EPR paradox. For our purposes, it will be sufficient to consider a class of “EPR experiments” defined as follows: two particles A and B 111It is easy to generalize the present discussion to the case of three or more particles. are emitted by a source; far apart, some conserved observable, such as a component of angular momentum (spin, helicity or polarization), is measured on particle A. According to the usual quantum-mechanical treatment, the measurement carried out on A reduces its state into an eigenstate of the measured observable, whose conservation immediately forces the second particle (B) to “collapse” into a corresponding eigenstate of this observable as well. For instance, let A and B be two spin 1/2 particles, produced with zero total angular momentum in a singlet spin state, described by the “entangled” spin vector

$$|\psi =\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(|+_A|_B|_A|+_B\right),$$
(1)
where $`|\pm _A`$ are the usual eigenstates of the spin component $`S_z(A)`$ of particle A with eigenvalues $`\pm \mathrm{}/2`$ respectively (this example is usually called the “EPR-Bohm” experiment Bohm (1996); Laloe (2001)).

Assuming the state of Eq. (1), it is easy to see that the measurement of the spin component $`S_z`$ performed independently on any of the two particles can give both values $`\pm \mathrm{}/2`$, each with probability 1/2. On the other hand, if in a given single event $`S_z(A)`$ is measured on A and found equal to, say, $`+\mathrm{}/2`$, it will then be possible to predict with certainty the result of the measurement of $`S_z(B)`$ on the distant particle B, that will give $`\mathrm{}/2`$. The quantity $`S_z`$ observed on A would then instantaneously acquire “an element of physical reality” also on B, according to the original definition: “If, without in any way disturbing a system we can predict with certainty (i.e. with probability equal to unity) the value of a physical quantity, then there is an element of physical reality corresponding to this physical quantity” Einstein et al. (1935) (the italics and the parenthesis also belong to the original paper). Moreover, the element of physical reality on B depends on the actual measurement that is done on A: for instance, if instead of measuring the component $`S_z(A)`$ of the angular momentum we decided to measure an observable incompatible with it, such as the component $`S_x(A)`$, then the state of the distant particle B after such a distant measurement would become an eigenstate of $`S_x(B)`$, rather than one of $`S_z(B)`$. Therefore, assuming that the two systems are no longer interacting, EPR deduced that two quantum-mechanically incompatible quantities ($`S_z(B)`$ and $`S_x(B)`$ in the example above) could be given a simultaneous reality. They then concluded that “the wave function does not provide a complete description of the physical reality”; otherwise, the definite values of $`S_z(B)`$ and $`S_x(B)`$ would have to “enter into the complete description, according to the condition of completeness” that they had defined as follows: “every element of the physical reality must have a counterpart in the physical theory” Einstein et al. (1935).

The EPR argument (later called paradox, see e.g. Ref. Einstein (1949)) is so rigorous, that Laloë reformulated it in the form of a theorem: “If the predictions of quantum mechanics are correct (even for systems made of remote correlated particles) and if physical reality can be described in a local (or separable) way, then quantum mechanics is necessarily incomplete: some ‘elements of reality’ exist in Nature that are ignored by this theory” Laloe (2001). The importance of this argument, based on their objective definition of physical reality, is that it holds almost independently of the interpretation of the theory, with the exception of deterministic interpretations introducing hidden variables Laloe (2001). It is then impossible to find an “EPR-paradox-free” interpretation of the probabilistic quantum mechanics based on Eq. (1). It is the latter equation, i.e. the entangled state vector description, which should be rejected, as EPR pointed out.

What EPR did not perhaps expect was that a way out was to be found in the modern version of the Quantum Theory itself. In fact, as we shall see, the SM description does not rely on the “entangled” state of A and B (whose spin part is Eq. (1) in the example that we have considered above), but it allows for the presence of an undetermined number of additional photons.

The uncertainty about the number of photons. The EPR paradox, as described above, originates from the assumption of a state with a definite number of particles (two in our example), which is incorrect in Relativistic Quantum Mechanics. As we shall see, the modern QFT description of Particle Physics predicts that it is impossible to prepare a state with a definite number of particles as the result of a given physical process, since additional real particles can always be created in the production process itself. Which additional species can appear depends on the available energy. Since massless particles can have arbitrarily low energy, the possible presence of real “soft photons” (i.e. photons having a low enough energy) should always be taken into account in the theoretical treatment.

Here, I will prove this statement using QFT perturbation theory (i.e. Feynman diagrams). To be concrete, I will first discuss two kinds of ideal EPR experiments: i) those involving two charged spin 1/2 particles; and ii) those involving two photons. In both cases, I will give explicit examples predicting the creation of an arbitrary number of additional photons.

i) In Fig. 1, I have drawn a tree-level diagram where the “blob” represents the particular elementary process that produces particles A and B.

Even without specifying that part of the diagram (involving some “initial” particles), we see that an arbitrary number of real photons (three in the particular case of the figure) can be attached to each of the external fermion legs (see also Chap. 13 of Ref. Weinberg (1995)).

ii) Since no three photon vertex exists at the tree level, in the “two-photon” EPR experiment we have to look for one loop effects. In Fig. 2, I show a “box” diagram for the production of two additional real photons 222This box diagram has been studied in different contexts, e.g. in the theory of two photon scattering..

The virtual particle in the loop can be any charged fermion (electron, muon, tau, quarks).

Note that additional photons can also be emitted by the other legs of the diagrams, those corresponding to the particles that are included in the “blob”, or even by loop diagrams involving charged particles that can contribute to the “vertex part” of the “blob”. All the relevant SM diagrams can be drawn, depending on the particular production process that is considered, although Feynman perturbation theory breaks down when the additional photons are attached to particles belonging to a bound system such as an atom Weinberg (1995). Fortunately, for the purposes of the present paper I do not need an exact computation of all the possible contributions.

The rates for the production of a given number of additional photons should be compared to the rate for the process in which only particle A and B are emitted, corresponding to the bare diagram without any additional photons attached (that would imply the same correlations as the old quantum-mechanical approach) 333The “Infrared Divergencies” related to the integration over arbitrarily small photons momenta can be handled as shown in Chapter 13 of Ref. Weinberg (1995), and they eventually cancel.. In any case, such rates are suppressed by increasing powers of the fine structure constant $`\alpha 1/137`$, depending on the considered number of additional photons. Since particle A is detected when a measure (for instance of some angular momentum) is made on it, its energy $`E_A`$ can also be measured. Therefore the upper limit for the total energy of the additional photons is $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=EE_Am_Bc^2`$ (where $`E`$ is the total energy liberated in the basic production process). This limit reduces the phase space available for the diagrams involving an increasing number of additional photons. In the case of the EPR-Bohm experiment, we will be interested in the diagrams allowing for parallel (rather than antiparallel) spins of A and B. Such diagrams are suppressed by powers of $`\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{E}\right)^2`$ (thus in the limit for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }0`$, the helicities of the two fermion will remain opposite Weinberg (1995)), although this is not necessarily a small factor in the EPR ideal experiment. In the case of a two-photons EPR experiment, the probability of a diagram such as that in Fig. 2 is suppressed by four powers of the fine structure constant and by the electron propagators in the loop (which are larger than the available energy, unless one considers ideal EPR experiments with very energetic photons, at or above the MeV range); the possible photons radiation from the charged fermions that appear in the “blob” part of the diagram could then be more important (although it may not be computable by Feynman perturbation theory).

To summarize, the precise suppression factor depends on the particular case that is considered. For our purposes, it is sufficient to note that there is a non-vanishing probability for additional photons to be created, at least due to diagrams such as those of Figs. 1 or 2, and that they contribute to energy, momentum and angular momentum conservation.

The important fact is that this uncertainty principle can be generalized: an undetermined number of photons is created in any experiment, in any step that involves an interaction, and in particular in the process that originates our EPR particles 444An undetermined number of photons can also be created due to the interaction of any observed system with the particles belonging to the measuring apparatus. Although such an effect will not be used in the following discussion, it can be interesting for the Theory of Measurement.. In fact, all the known elementary particles, including the neutral ones, such as the photon, the neutrino (and even the possible Higgs boson), can radiate photons when they appear as external legs of an interaction process. For the charged particles and for the photon, this fact is shown in Figs. 1 and 2. For a neutrino (or a Higgs boson), it is easy to construct loop diagrams involving virtual W bosons and charged fermions to which a photon line can be attached. In the case of composite particles, such as the neutral K or B mesons, the production process involves the constituent quarks, charged particles to which external photon lines can be attached just as in Fig. 1 555In all such cases, additional photons can also be radiated by the lines of all the possible charged particles (besides the EPR pair) that are involved in the relevant “blob” production process..

This generality is by no means accidental, but it corresponds to a well-known characteristic of QFT: any process that does not violate the fundamental symmetries is “allowed” and has a non-vanishing amplitude. Exceptions to such a “rule” are so rare, that they are thought to hide new symmetries. Here, it is sufficient to note that no symmetry forbids the radiation of additional photons in coincidence with a given interaction, since photons do not carry any conserved “internal” charge.

The uncertainty about photons radiation can also be related to a symmetry principle. In fact, it is based on two points: the existence of massless neutral particles, the photons; and of the fermion-photon vertex, that allows for the radiation of photons by any external line of the relevant Feynman diagrams (possibly through loops as in Fig. 2). But it is well known that both the electromagnetic vertex and the masslessness of the photon are the direct consequences of the local, unbroken (electromagnetic) gauge symmetry.

The EPR paradox removed. According to the previous discussion, the state arising from the interaction is never an eigenstate of the operator counting the number of photons: the number of photons cannot be determined (it never gets a physical reality). This implies that it is never correct to use a state with a fixed number of particles, such as that of Eq. (1), as emerging from a given interaction.

Now, in a given Feynman diagram, the conservation laws hold for the set including particles A and B together with all the additional photons that appear in that diagram. Therefore, after the measurement on A in any given single event, the energy, momentum and angular momentum conservation laws do not hold for the two particle (sub)system, A and B. The detection of particle A does not necessarily correspond to particle B appearing in the opposite direction. Moreover, the measurement on A does not allow for a certain prediction of the value of the considered conserved quantity (be it energy, momentum or angular momentum) on B (B is not put in an eigenstate of the observable that has been measured on A). For instance, in the EPR-Bohm experiment, $`S_z`$ will not be given a “physical reality” on B after it is measured on the distant particle A. According to our previous discussion, this is sufficient to save the theory from the original EPR paradox. Note that this result holds even for a small probability of additional photons radiation.

Note that we can know that particle B appears in the given region, and that it is in a given eigenstate of the considered observable, only after detecting the particle B and measuring the considered observable on it. Therefore, the physical reality is given to the observables on B only after the measurement on its own location is performed. In this sense, QFT respects local realism: the elements of physical reality of the theory can be obtained only after local measurements. According to this definition, we can even say that QFT is locally realistic, although such a definition is usually reserved to hidden variables theories.

A general single event, where only particles A and B are detected, can show apparent symmetry violations. In particular, any violation of a discrete variable such as angular momentum is important, since it is a multiple of $`\mathrm{}`$. These considerations suggest that a possible signature of the theoretical solution I am proposing would be the observation of an apparent symmetry violation event in an EPR experiment (actually due to the presence of additional unobserved photons).

It is worth pointing out that there is no possibility of getting rid of the uncertainty about the number of photons. Even if we filled the whole space with detectors, we would never catch all the possible photons involved in a single event, since they can have arbitrarily low energy Weinberg (1995). Only a definite number of photons will be detected, while the state produced in the basic process has no definite photons content. After the measurement, the amplitude for the additional undetected photons spreads over the whole space, eventually overlapping with A and B; therefore there is no theoretical possibility to define two determined spatially separated subsystems as required by the EPR argument. Strictly speaking, in QFT it can be correct to say that A and B themselves are spatially separated only after measuring on both particles, since the measurement on A and global momentum conservation are not sufficient to ensure the “collapse” of B as a particle in a given direction as well (it is even possible that A and B are caught by the same detector!).

In other words, the modern QFT description is even less deterministic than the old non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics. In fact, the only predictions that it allows are on probabilities and average values. This greater uncertainty protects the theory from the EPR paradox. It seems that, to remove the paradox, one has to choose between the most extreme possibilities: determinism (hidden variables), or complete lack of determinism for the single event (QFT, the dice of God) 666However, the QFT field equations are deterministic. This is an important point, whose possible consequences for the problem of locality will be discussed elsewhere.. We also see that the SM fulfills the EPR criterion of completeness that was cited above: for instance, in QFT the Fock space state vector after the measurement of a conserved charge on a massive particle is an eigenvector of that one-particle charge operator. The element of physical reality that appears after the measurement then has a counterpart in the theory, being the corresponding eigenvalue (i.e. the definite value) of this one-particle observable 777Possibly the only observables that can actually get a local reality in QFT are the conserved gauge charges. This would not prevent QFT to fulfill the EPR criterion of reality, that only requires the existence of a counterpart for all the physical reality of the theory..

Ultimately, the recovery of local realism can be attributed to the local gauge symmetry that implies the uncertainty about the photons as we have seen. I think that this result is not surprising, since the local gauge symmetry implies local interactions. Note also that the possibility of radiating arbitrarily soft photons corresponds to the “infrared” behavior of the theory, i.e. to its long distance properties, which are precisely those that are expected to be relevant for the discussion of distant measurements.

On Bell’s variant of the EPR experiment. The actual so-called EPR experiments Aspect et al. (1982); Laloe (2001), that have been inspired by the work of Bell Bell (1964), do not test the EPR argument directly. First of all, the measurement on particle B is performed and only the events where particles A and B appear in coincidence at opposite directions are considered. The fact that we need to detect B in order to define such events already differentiates such experiments from the ideal EPR experiment. Moreover, the results are given in terms of the correlations between the polarizations of the two (or more) particles A and B, which are statistical averages over the products of the observed spin/polarization components for the different single events. For instance, in Bell’s version of the EPR-Bohm experiment, the relevant correlations are the average values of the products of the components $`S_\stackrel{}{a}(A)`$ and $`S_\stackrel{}{b}(B)`$ of the spins of the two particles along arbitrary unit vectors $`\stackrel{}{a}`$ and $`\stackrel{}{b}`$ Bell (1964). The old Quantum Mechanics prediction, based on the spin state of Eq. (1), was $`S_\stackrel{}{a}(A)S_\stackrel{}{b}(B)=\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{4}\stackrel{}{a}\stackrel{}{b}`$, which is the maximal correlation (in absolute value) that can be achieved. In fact, the original EPR paradox requires strictly maximal correlations, since it is about completeness and determinism, being formulated for the objective “physical reality” (as we have seen, the measurement on A should imply a certain prediction of the measurement on B). These are theoretical problems, impossible to test directly due to the unavoidable experimental errors. On the other hand, Bell’s version of the EPR experiment was explicitly aimed at testing the hidden variables solution of the paradox Bell (1964), and not the EPR paradox itself.

In fact, we have seen that the SM is EPR-paradox-free due to the photons uncertainty. This is a theoretical result. It is not difficult to see that the SM also predicts EPR correlations close to those calculated by the old quantum mechanics approach that agreed with the experimental data. In fact, allowing for the radiation of additional photons, the correlations will be smaller than maximal. However, we have already seen that the correction will imply some suppression factors at least proportional to some power of the fine structure constant. Moreover, the selection of the events where A and B appear in opposite directions implies a further, severe reduction of the phase space available for the additional photons, whose transverse momenta should add up to zero within the small solid-angle uncertainty given by the cross section of the detector divided by the distance from the production point. For this reason, the contributions to the correlations from the diagrams involving additional photons are expected to be small compared with the experimental errors, and will not spoil the previous agreement with the data. Such correlations, although they are not strictly maximal, may still be used in Quantum Computing and Quantum Information Theory Laloe (2001).

The EPR correlations are usually interpreted as a sign of some non-locality in themselves, since they cannot be justified by a deterministic local theory based on additional “hidden variables” Bell (1964); Laloe (2001). Such a supposed non-locality would now be less problematic, since we know that locality is respected by all the elements of physical reality; according to the EPR criterion, this is sufficient to save the consistency of the theory (which is challenged by the measurement problem anyway Laloe (2001)). Nevertheless, I think that the views that I have presented here could suggest the need for a QFT approach to the whole problem of locality. In fact, the original motivation for introducing hidden variables in the study of the EPR correlations was the EPR argument. Now this motivation has disappeared. Without introducing hidden variables, should QFT be considered non-local invoking “Bell’s theorem” Bell (1964); Laloe (2001)? This question will possibly require an approach to the measurement problem and in general to the interpretation of QFT, and will be discussed elsewhere.

Conclusions. The QFT description of Particle Physics has been shown to be protected from the original EPR paradox by the local gauge symmetry. This corresponds to the fact that it allows for the creation of an undetermined number of photons in any interaction, in particular in coincidence with the observed particles in an EPR experiment. This result is particularly important since it does not depend on the interpretation of the theory, and it removes one of the most disturbing paradoxes of the quantum theory, the violation of “local realism”. On the other hand, the QFT description, which is not limited to the “entangled” wave function with a definite number of particles, can fulfill the EPR criterion of completeness (although it can hardly be considered to be the ultimate “theory of everything”, e.g. it does not describe gravity). This solution would be confirmed by the observation of an apparent symmetry violation in a single event in an EPR experiment. On the other hand, the EPR correlations are expected to be smaller than those calculated by ignoring the soft photons, but in the case of the actual experiments inspired by the work of Bell the correction is expected to be small, so that the agreement of the Quantum Theory with the present data is not spoiled. Such EPR correlations are usually thought to be in themselves a sign of some “quantum nonlocality”. This residual problem possibly depends on the interpretation of the quantum theory and deserves further research, that could profit from the views that I have presented here.

It is a pleasure to thank Humberto Michinel for stimulating discussions and help, and Esther Pérez, Rafael A. Porto, Uwe Trittmann and Ruth García Fernández and Rebecca Ramanathan for useful comments.


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# Stellar Outflows Driven by Magnetized Wide-Angle Winds

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Newly formed stars drive copious mass back into the environments which gave them birth. Stars at the end of their lives also drive strong outflows into the interstellar medium. Mass loss from young stellar objects (YSOs) takes the form of highly collimated Herbig-Haro jets and molecular outflows (Reipurth, 1997), while in low mass, evolved stars, mass loss takes the form of proto-planetary (PPNe) and planetary nebulae (PNe) (Balick, 2000). High resolution observations of PPNe and PNe have revealed outflow features that are very similar to those found in YSOs (Sahai, 2000). In particular, recent visible and molecular observations of PPNe and young PNe have revealed the presence of both well collimated jets and broader wind-swept bubbles. Even though PNe and YSOs are at different extremes of stellar evolution, the similarity manifested in their mass loss raises intriguing questions about the processes driving and shaping their outflows. For example, outflows from PPNe appear to have more momentum than can be supplied by the central star’s luminosity ($`L_{}/c\dot{M}V`$) (Alcolea et al., 2000), a situation which also occurs in YSOs. Recently, it has been shown that PPNe winds may derive their acceleration and collimation from the same magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) forces believed to be at work in YSOs (Blackman, Frank & Welch, 2001). Thus, there exits the possibility that a cross fertilization between the two fields may yield some insights into the origins of magnetized winds and their dynamical interaction with surrounding media. In this paper we focus on one specific issue in the study of stellar outflows: the role of shocked magnetic fields in shaping wind blown bubbles.

Wind blown bubbles have long been part of the theoretical explanation for PNe. The interaction of a fast wind from the hot central star of a PN with a slower, denser, and possibly aspherical AGB wind has been successful at explaining many properties of spherical PN (Kwok et al., 1978; Kahn & West, 1985; Balick, 1987; Icke, 1988; Frank et al., 1993; Mellema, 1997). New images of PPNe and young PNe, however, show features which can not be explained with a purely hydrodynamic interacting stellar wind model (Delamarter et al., 2000). With an eye toward understanding the intermediate to large scale shaping of PNe, Chevalier & Luo (1994) drew attention to the role of shock amplified toroidal magnetic fields in the wind-blown bubble scenario. We will refer to this as the magnetized wind-blown bubble (MWBB) model. A number of MWBB studies (Różycka & Franco, 1996; García-Segura, 1997; García-Segura et al., 1999) have demonstrated the model’s ability to create a rich variety of structures in the shocked regions of the flow. A central assumption of the MWBB model, however, is that the magnetic field strength in the central wind is sufficiently weak that intrinsic MHD collimation can be ignored. Gardiner & Frank (2001) recently studied the role of intrinsic collimation in the magnetized central wind showing that for many cases of interest, the freely expanding wind may experience significant collimation before it passes through the wind shock. In this paper we borrow the central idea from Chevalier & Luo (1994) regarding the shock amplification of toroidal magnetic fields and use the results of Gardiner & Frank (2001) to explore MHD, wide-angle wind driven outflows from YSOs.

Wind blown bubbles have also been invoked to explain YSO outflows. Shu et al. (1991) presented a model wherein a radially directed wind from a central source sweeps up strongly cooling ambient material like a snowplow. This snowplow model was critically examined by Masson & Chernin (1992) who noted that without extreme choices for the angular variation of ambient density and wind momentum it is difficult to match the observed mass versus velocity relation. They concluded that the driving force was unlikely to originate from a wide angle wind, but rather from a collimated, and possibly precessing, jet (Chernin & Masson, 1995). Li & Shu (1996b), however, found that taking the wind parameters from X-wind model (Shu et al., 1995) and the ambient density as described by Li & Shu (1996b) an improved agreement with observations could be found. More recently, Matzner & McKee (1999) have argued that the asymptotic form of the density and toroidal magnetic field strength in the X-wind model (Shu et al., 1995) is generally applicable to all MHD outflows. Moreover they argue that the power-law mass vs. velocity relations typically observed for molecular outflows is recovered for a wide variety of ambient density distributions.

More recently, Delamarter et al. (2000) used time-dependent, purely hydrodynamic simulations of winds driven into infalling environments, characteristic of YSOs (Hartman et al., 1996), to study very young outflows (Wilkin & Stahler, 1998). It was concluded that the snowplow model could not embrace nonlinear effects which may yield changes in momentum distributions in the resultant outflows. Delamarter et al. (2000) focused on the effect of shock-focusing, where the wind strikes the bubble shell obliquely and is redirected to flow along the walls of the shell. The flow of shocked wind material toward the poles has the effect of substantially changing the bubble’s morphology and evolution from that obtained in a simple snowplow model. In addition, it was found that inflow ram pressure produced significant collimation. In a different set of purely hydrodynamic simulations, Lee et al. (2001) examine both wind driven and jet driven models, concluding that only some observed outflows have properties consistent with wide-angle winds. Their wind blown bubble simulations do not, however, include infall and their use of an isothermal equation of state produces what appear to be very thin bubble shells. It is not clear if shock-focusing could become manifest in such conditions. Thus, even in pure hydrodynamic models the applicability of wind blown models remains an open issue.

Magnetic forces are expected to play a central role in launching and collimating YSO (and perhaps PPN) winds. Steady state models of MHD winds have been quite successful at articulating their characteristic distributions of mass and momentum (Shu et al., 1995; Pudritz & Konigl, 2000). These models rely on a detailed solution of cross-field force balance via the Grad-Shafranov equation (Shu et al., 1991). Interaction with an ambient medium will alter these distribution as the wind passes through the shock bounding the inner edge of the outflow shell. The subsequent redistribution of mass, momentum, and magnetic energy, as the plasma seeks equilibrium, will alter downstream (post-shock) regions of the flow from what might expected via steady MHD wind models. If the sources are variable, substantial portions of the outflow cavities may behave differently as well. Thus the time-dependent interaction of MHD winds with their environments is a rich subject with important consequences for both YSOs and PNe.

In this paper we describe a set of calculations aimed at elucidating the interaction of MHD winds from a central source with a collapsing environment applicable to YSOs. We show that magnetized wide-angle winds differ significantly from their hydrodynamic counterparts and offer a viable explanation for molecular outflows even for slow magnetic rotators. This paper focuses only on the flow pattern achieved in the simulations. In a second paper we plan to discuss observational consequences of MHD wind driven outflows. We also note that due to the difficulty in treating magneto-centrifugally driven winds ab-initio in larger-scale simulations we choose magnetic field strengths in the wind consistent slow magnetic rotators. While MHD launched winds will be in the fast rotator regime our results, relying on toroidal pinch effects, will hold for stronger field strengths. This level of abstraction allows us to isolate key effects in the evolution of magnetized winds which will result regardless of the field strengths and builds on previous studies which only considered pure hydrodynamic winds (Delamarter et al., 2000; Lee et al., 2001).

## 2 SIMULATION DETAILS

We present axisymmetric (2.5-D) numerical simulations calculated with a recently constructed Godunov type scheme for the system of ideal MHD. We implement the “Positive Scheme” (Liu & Lax, 1996; Lax & Liu, 1998) which makes use of a Roe linearized Jacobian matrix, e.g. Cargo & Gallice (1997). Optically thin radiative cooling is included by making use of the Dalgarno-McCray coronal cooling curve in tabulated form. Below $`10^4`$ K the cooling is turned off. The cooling is implicitly differenced and solved using Brent’s algorithm NumRecC (Numerical Recipes). The gravitational field of a central source is included using a first order, explicit Euler step. The cooling and gravitational terms are operator split from the MHD integration. The system of ideal MHD is integrated in an unsplit (directional splitting) fashion and second order accuracy is obtained through the Runge-Kutta method of Shu & Osher (1989).

The simulations presented in this paper use the $`f^{}=10`$ simulation of Delamarter et al. (2000) as a starting point. The parameter

$$f^{}=\frac{\dot{\mathrm{M}}_i}{\dot{\mathrm{M}}_w},$$
(1)
measures the ratio of the inflow mass flux to the wind mass flux. (Note that Table 1 in that paper contains typographical errors such that the infall mass flux should read $`\dot{\mathrm{M}}_i`$ and be in units of $`10^7`$ M yr-1 rather than $`10^6`$ M yr-1.) The environment is derived from simulations of a collapsing, rotating, axially symmetric sheet (Hartman et al., 1996). This study is extended in two ways. First, a magnetic field, which is believed to be the principal agent for wind launching and collimation, is introduced into the wind. Second, an angular variation of the wind density and magnetic field strength is introduced which is consistent with magnetic collimation at small radii.

It is straight-forward to show from the $`\varphi `$-component of the induction equation and the momentum equation that for $`rR_A`$, where $`r`$ is the spherical radius and $`R_A`$ is the Alfvén radius,

$$\frac{B_\varphi }{B_r}\frac{r\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{sin}(\theta )}{v_r}.$$

The other parameters in this equation are $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, the angular velocity at the base of the wind, and $`v_r`$, the radial wind velocity. This expression assumes a radially directed wind and solid body rotation. From the expression above we find that the toroidal field will likely dominate over the poloidal. Thus for $`\mathrm{sin}(\theta )=1/\sqrt{2}`$, $`v_r=200`$ km $`\mathrm{s}^1`$, $`r=13`$ AU we find $`B_\varphi /B_r6\times 10^6\mathrm{\Omega }`$ where $`\mathrm{\Omega }=2\pi /\tau `$ and $`\tau `$ is the rotational period in seconds. It is not immediately clear which rotational period should used in these expressions, the stellar rotational period, or the period of the gas in orbit around the YSO at a few stellar radii. For example, using the sun’s rotational period of 25 days we find $`B_\varphi /B_r20`$. The higher rotation rates associated with YSOs should lead to stronger field ratios than calculated above and it is likely that $`B_\varphi /B_r>100`$. Moreover, in the presence of cooling the post-shock toroidal field strength can be amplified by orders of magnitude over it’s pre-shock value. Thus we begin our calculations by approximating the magnetic field in the wind as being purely toroidal . The strength of the toroidal magnetic field is controlled by the parameter $`\sigma =(V_m/V_{\mathrm{}})^3`$ where $`V_m`$ is the Michel velocity and $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the asymptotic wind velocity (Michel, 1969; Belcher & MacGregor, 1976; Gardiner & Frank, 2001). In this study we will be primarily concerned with slow magnetic rotators, i.e. $`\sigma 1`$. As we will see, since the magnetic field will come to strongly influence the evolution of the outflow, our results will be valid for fast rotators (and their stronger initial fields) as well.

The angular variation of the wind density and magnetic field is parameterized by $`\chi `$, the ratio of the density at the pole $`(\theta =0)`$ to the density at the equator $`(\theta =\pi /2)`$ in the wind. We refer to this ratio as the pole to equator density contrast and study the range of $`1\chi 9`$. Given these two parameters, $`\sigma `$ and $`\chi `$, the wind density

$$\rho (r,\theta )=\left(\frac{\dot{\mathrm{M}}}{4\pi r^2V_{\mathrm{}}}\right)\left(\frac{\sqrt{\chi }}{\chi \mathrm{sin}^2(\theta )+\mathrm{cos}^2(\theta )}\right),$$
(2)
and toroidal magnetic field component

$$B_\varphi (r,\theta )=\left(\frac{\sqrt{\sigma \dot{\mathrm{M}}V_{\mathrm{}}}\mathrm{sin}(\theta )}{r}\right)\left(\frac{\sqrt{\chi }}{\chi \mathrm{sin}^2(\theta )+\mathrm{cos}^2(\theta )}\right).$$
(3)
In these expressions we’ve assumed that $`r`$ is sufficiently large that the radial component of the wind velocity $`v_rV_{\mathrm{}}`$. For $`\chi =1`$ we obtain the classic split monopole, spherically symmetric wind conditions. For $`(\chi 1)\mathrm{sin}^2(\theta )1`$ the density and toroidal field strength take the form $`B_\varphi 1/\varpi `$ and $`\rho 1/\varpi ^2`$, where $`\varpi =r\mathrm{sin}(\theta )`$. This form is consistent with the asymptotic form of the X-wind solution (Shu et al., 1995) and in this way the parameter $`\chi `$ models the intrinsic magnetic collimation at small radii. The parameters $`\chi `$ and $`\sigma `$ are not actually independent of one another, but rather are connected through a self consistent solution at small radii, i.e. the launching and collimation process. However, since a complete simulation of the wind launching, collimation, and propagation is beyond the scope of this paper, we will treat them as weakly independent.

A few details remain to complete the specification of the wind. All simulations use a wind with temperature $`10^4`$ K. The wind mass loss rate is $`10^7`$ M yr-1 and the velocity is taken to be $`200`$ km $`\mathrm{s}^1`$. The “wind-sphere” (the boundary on which the wind conditions are set) has a radius of $`11.25`$ AU or 30 grid cells. The toroidal magnetic field strength as shown above gives rise to a current sheet at the equator $`(\theta =\pi /2)`$. To smooth out this singularity, we impose a linear variation on the toroidal magnetic field within $`6`$ degrees of the equator. At the radius of the wind-sphere this affects approximately 3 grid cells adjacent to the equatorial plane. This should not influence the results of the simulations. Finally, note that

$$\frac{2}{\pi }_0^{\pi /2}\frac{\sqrt{\chi }}{\chi \mathrm{sin}^2(\theta )+\mathrm{cos}^2(\theta )}d\theta =1.$$
(4)
Hence the mass loss rate is independent of the parameter $`\chi `$.

## 3 RESULTS

Here we focus on the effect of magnetic fields in shaping wide-angle wind blown bubbles by showing the results of five simulations where the field strength ($`\sigma `$) and density stratification ($`\chi `$) vary. In figures 1 through 4 we present the logarithm of density for the four combinations of $`\sigma =0,0.01`$ and $`\chi =1,9`$. Figure 5 shows a time sequence of logarithmic density maps for a more highly stratified model ($`\sigma =0.01`$, $`\chi =100`$). Note that $`\sigma =0.01`$ is approximately equal to the value for the solar wind, for which $`\sigma 0.009`$, indicating that this is a slow magnetic rotator, i.e. the magnetic field is relatively unimportant in accelerating the wind. As we shall see, however, this does not imply that the field is dynamically unimportant with respect to shaping the bubble (Chevalier & Luo, 1994; García-Segura et al., 1999). We note also that our simulations are relevant to the earliest phase of dynamical shaping since the length and time scales are relatively short ($`L<10^{16}cm`$, $`t<50y`$). Our explicit goal is to understand the role of shock amplified magnetic fields and wide-angle winds in shaping the early evolution of the outflow.

First consider the hydrodynamic models shown in Figure 1 and 2 ($`\sigma =0`$, $`\chi =1,9`$). In the spherical wind ($`\chi =1`$) case the outflow assumes a characteristic bipolar morphology. As Wilkin & Stahler (1998) and Delamarter et al. (2000) have shown, the aspherical nature of the outflow is the result of both inertial and infall ram pressure gradients. The morphology is also effected by the development of shock focusing where the freely flowing wind impinges the wind shock at an oblique angle. This leaves high velocity (potentially supersonic) post-shock gas flowing tangential to the shock along the walls of the bubble shell. This post-shock material flows toward the bubble’s axis altering its shape and momentum distribution (Cantó et al., 1988; Giuliani, 1982). Simplified calculations by Delamarter et al. (2000) show that mixing of the shocked ambient and shocked wind material cannot a priori, be expected to quench shock focusing. In addition Delamarter et al. (2000) found that the time-scale for mixing was comparable to the outflow evolution time-scale meaning the bubble shell was unlikely to be fully mixed. Thus the shape of the outflow may deviate from what is predicted by simple snowplow models.

In Figure 2 we see the effect of the angular variation in the wind ram pressure (density stratification in a wide-angle wind, $`\chi =9`$). As has been shown for nebulae surrounding Luminous Blue Variables, aspherical winds flowing into spherical environments can produce bipolar bubbles when cooling in the shell is effective (Frank et al., 1998). The higher wind ram pressure at the poles increases the shock speed at the tip of the bubble, elongating the outflow. This in turn has a secondary effect of increasing the obliquity of the wind shock relative to the freely expanding wind. The degree of shock focusing is thereby increased creating a converging conical flow at the symmetry axis. Converging conical flows can be quite effective at producing well collimated jets from the tips of wind blown bubbles. This effect has been studied in analytical models (Cantó et al., 1988), numerical simulations (Mellema & Frank, 1997), and more recently, laboratory experiments (Lebedev et al., 2002) which have shown the stability of the collimation process.

In figures 3 and 4 we present the logarithm of density for magnetohydrodynamic wind calculations with $`\sigma =0.01`$ and $`\chi =1,9`$. Compared with the hydrodynamic calculations, the magnetic field in the wind has modified the outflow evolution considerably. In both of these figures we find a dense, jet-like flow aligned with the symmetry axis. These features have been documented before in spherical wind models appropriate to PPNe (García-Segura et al., 1999). In our simulations we are able to investigate a new phenomenon, the effect of wind stratification on the subsequent MWBB evolution.

The origin of axial feature is a simple result of shock amplified toroidal magnetic fields. The magnetic field is amplified after it passes through the wind shock. Strong cooling further compresses the field, decreasing $`\beta =8\pi P_{gas}/B^2`$ and leaving the Lorentz force out of balance with gas pressure gradients. When the magnetosonic wave speed is comparable to or greater than the radial expansion velocity of the bubble, the plasma in the post-shock region will be approximately in force balance. If the radiative cooling decreases $`\beta `$ to less than or equal to 1, the Lorentz force will drive the plasma toward the axis. Gas pressure near the axis grows due to the compression driven by the magnetic pinch. While a new radial force balance will eventually be established, as we discuss below, the gas and magnetic pressures lead to expansion parallel and anti-parallel to the $`z`$-axis. The jets expand along the $`z`$-axis leading to an acceleration of the “head” of the bubble. When the wind is spherical, the jet can also push back toward the star creating a dense “spike” that changes the wind shock geometry from convex to concave. The development of such backflowing jets has been seen in previous studies (Różycka & Franco, 1996; García-Segura et al., 1999).

A new feature observed in our simulations is shown in Figure 4 where density stratification in a wide-angle wind produces increased ram pressure near the axis. The ram pressure gradient and corresponding shock focused flow inhibits the backflowing jet. Thus, for $`\chi `$ sufficiently large, a density stratified, wide-angle wind produces a convex wind shock rather than the concave feature seen in Figure 3. The quenching of the backflow implies the jets will not appear to extend back to the source, and one expects hollow cavities with jets appearing some distance above the source inside the outflow.

Figure 5 shows a time sequence for a highly stratified wind, $`\sigma =0.01`$ and $`\chi =100`$. In this model the flow is highly elongated and is quite similar in appearance to simulations of toroidally dominated MHD jets (Cerqueira & de Gouveia Dal Pino, 2001; Frank et al., 1998, 2000; Stone & Hardee, 2000; O’Sullivan & Ray, 2000). The long term evolution results in a highly cylindrically stratified, jet-like outflow. Note that near the base of the flow the divergent streamlines are still able to carve out a hollow cavity.

The formation of a steady, dense, well-collimated jet downstream of the wind shock (as is seen in figures 3, 4 and 5) requires the establishment of a new MHD equilibria. A more detailed consideration of the simulation results along with simple results from magneto-statics shows how this occurs (Choudhuri, 1998). Establishment of a force balance in a cylindrical plasma column requires

$$\frac{dp_g}{d\varpi }\frac{\rho v_\varphi ^2}{\varpi }=\frac{1}{\varpi ^2}\frac{d}{d\varpi }\frac{\varpi ^2B_\varphi ^2}{8\pi }$$
(5)
where the term on the right hand side can be decomposed in to magnetic pressure and tension components $`(\frac{d}{d\varpi }\frac{B_\varphi ^2}{8\pi }+\frac{B_\varphi ^2}{4\pi \varpi })`$. If the rotation in the wind is not significant, the behavior of the solution to equation (5) is controlled by the parameter $`\beta `$. For $`\beta 1`$, the Lorentz force is insignificant to achieving force balance and hence we find that the gas pressure is a constant. For $`\beta 1`$ we have the opposite situation where the gas pressure is insignificant. In this case the magnetic pressure and tension must balance one another. From equation (5) it is apparent that this force-free configuration occurs for $`B_\varphi \varpi ^1`$. Clearly this approximation cannot hold near the axis where the gas pressure (or poloidal magnetic field component) must again become important. From the $`z`$-component of Ampere’s law,

$$\frac{1}{\varpi }\frac{d\varpi B_\varphi }{d\varpi }=\frac{4\pi }{c}j(\varpi )$$
(6)
we see that this situation describes a jet with a non-zero current density in the “core” surrounded by a current free region. The return current flows along the bow shock.

In the simulations we present in this paper, the radial force balance in the post-shock region is complicated by strong radiative cooling. In principle, since only the ambient gas is rotating and only the wind gas is magnetized, the preceding arguments should hold. We note that strong cooling in these simulations results in a mixing of the post-shock gas resulting in some rotation in the bubble plasma. The radial equilibrium of the post-shock plasma is then attained through a combination of the forces present: thermal, centrifugal, and magnetic.

Finally we note that the MHD simulations differ from their hydrodynamic counterparts in the physics occurring within the shell. Note the increased angle between the wind shock and the slip stream (the contact discontinuity) near the equator in the MHD models. The critical parameter determining the internal shell dynamics is the magnetosonic Mach number which is lower than its sonic counterpart. This implies higher pressures (magnetic + gas) within the shell. This effect was noted by Li & Shu (1996a) in their study of the interaction of a wide-angle wind with a flared accretion disk. The relative importance of the magnetic field in opening the angle between the wind shock and slip stream is increased in the presence of cooling which depletes the thermal pressure in the post shock region.

### 3.1 MOMENTUM DISTRIBUTION

Resolution requirements limit our studies to relatively short length and timescales compared with what is typically observed. In spite of this limitation we have attempted to characterize one simple observational characteristic of the outflows in our simulations. In a future work we provide a more complete investigation of observational consequences of larger and older simulated outflows.

In Masson & Chernin (1995) an analysis of the momentum distribution in a number of molecular outflows was presented. Averaging in slices orthogonal to the outflow axis, they found that the momentum distribution as a function of position along the outflow axis (from the base to tip of the outflow) is generally peaked in the middle of the outflow lobe. Comparing their observations to hydrodynamic models of wind blown bubbles, jet bow shocks and turbulent jet entrainment, Masson & Chernin (1995) found that none of the models could recover the momentum peak in the middle of the outflow flow.

Using a version of our code which can separately track wind and ambient material we can compare the momentum peak seen in the observations to what occurs in our models. We have repeated the calculation of the $`\sigma =0.01`$, $`\chi =1`$ model with this new multiple continuity equation code. In Figure 6 we plot the momentum distribution of the swept up ambient material at 4 different times. These plots shows two prominent features. One occurs near the base of the outflow and is ambient material picked up from the collapsed sheet. This peak is artificially high due to a lack of computational resolution across the slip stream. We note however that even ignoring the resolution issues, the peak at the base could never account for a significant fraction of the momentum in a mature (large scale outflow) since momentum available in a cloud core will be small compared with what has been swept up from the surrounding inter-core medium. The second and most important feature is the momentum of the outflow lobe.

At first inspection it might appear that this peak corresponds to the dense spike (jet) on the axis of the outflow. In fact, this peak does not occur at the tip of the outflow where the jet elongates the outflow lobe. Instead the momentum peak is located near the largest extent in height (z) of what would traditionally be called the “wind blown bubble”. Recall that the dense axial jet is formed from wind material. Thus it does not contribute at all to the momentum. Note also that this peak shows a clear tendency to broaden with time and coincides with the bubble evolving toward a more prolate shape. While it is a large extrapolation to extend these results to the length scales and evolutionary time scales appropriate to molecular outflow observations, the results appear suggestive in that the observed momentum distributions could be recovered if we were to let these models evolve for longer times allowing the peak to continue to broaden and smooth.

Perhaps the most promising aspect of our models is the suggestion of an observational split between a narrow jet which forms from wind material on the axis (due to axial magnetic forces) and the broader outflow formed by the rest of the wide-angle wind sweeping up ambient material. Thus the Masson & Chernin (1995) finding may point to a wide-angle wind with perhaps most of the ram pressure per unit area along the axis, but the bulk of the outward momentum at some fairly wide opening angle. By creating a jet within the wind, the addition of magnetic fields to wide angle wind models may provide the needed physics to overcome the obstacles to finding an observationally consistent model of molecular outflows (Cabrit et al., 1997).

## 4 CONCLUSIONS

A dichotomy exists in the theoretical picture of molecular outflow formation. It appears that, to some degree, wide-angle winds were abandoned in favor of jets as the driving source for molecular outflows (Masson & Chernin, 1992). Such conclusions have been, to a large extent, based upon an analysis of snowplow models (Shu et al., 1991) in which ambient molecular material is driven in a purely radial direction by a central, wide-angle wind. In the wake of these conclusions, it was hoped that both Herbig Haro (HH) jets and molecular outflows could be unified into a single model for outflows from YSOs. More recent studies have shown that wind-angle winds can be effective in producing molecular outflows when non-linear flow effects or appropriate wind/ambient conditions are considered (Wilkin & Stahler, 1998; Delamarter et al., 2000; Lee et al., 2001). Since both HH jets and wide-angle winds are believed to be launched and collimated by magnetic fields, attempts to unify jets and molecular outflows into a single consistent phenomenon need to address the role of magnetic forces and shocks in shaping the flows. In this paper we have sought to address this question.

As we have shown, MHD wide-angle winds with little or no collimation at small scales give rise to a dense, jet-like, collimated outflows. We have shown that this is true even for slow magnetic rotators. Increasing either the collimation at small radii, parameterized by $`\chi `$, or the magnetic field strength, parameterized by $`\sigma `$, toward the fast magnetic rotator limit will only enhance these results. As shown previously (Li & Shu, 1996b; Matzner & McKee, 1999), steady wide-angle winds with cylindrical density stratification, (consistent with MHD wind collimation), are capable of reproducing the observed characteristics of molecular outflows. In this paper we have described unsteady phenomena which result in highly collimated outflows even if there is little or no collimation to the driving wind. Extrapolating these simulations to larger radii, one can envision that as the flow evolves, an evacuated and well collimated channel is created. At larger radii, the intrinsic MHD collimation will narrow the central wind, further realizing the results of Li & Shu (1996b) and Matzner & McKee (1999). Thus we conclude that MHD wide-angle winds are capable of driving molecular outflows.

Our results are also of relevance to models of PNe and PPNe. Chevalier & Luo (1994), Różycka & Franco (1996) and García-Segura et al. (1999) pioneered the study of the MWBB model in evolved, stellar outflows. As Gardiner & Frank (2001) have shown, however, even winds from slow rotators are likely to experience collimation before they are shocked via interaction with the environment. This conclusion implies that MWBB models should begin with density stratified wide-angle winds as initial conditions. The simulations presented in this paper show that when such wide-angle winds are included the resultant morphologies differ in significant ways from those obtained with spherically symmetric winds. In particular, the backflows obtained with spherical winds are suppressed when density stratified flows are included.

Future directions for this line of research include modeling both the smaller, collimation scales and larger, propagation scales. In addition, one might question the stability of such thin, dense magnetized plasma configurations seen in the axial jet. García-Segura (1997) studied the three-dimensional evolution of a magnetized wind for the case of PPNe at low resolution. That investigation found that while the dense, jet-like core does suffer some instabilities its gross morphology was not disrupted giving rise to similar outflow characteristics seen in two-dimensional cylindrically symmetric calculations (i.e. the formation of streamlined nose cones (Frank et al., 1998)). We note however, Cerqueira & de Gouveia Dal Pino (2001) study jet propagation in three-dimensional jets and contrary to two-dimensional simulations do not observe the formation of “nose-cones”.

We wish to thank Chris Matzner for helpful discussions and for providing us with information on generic wind configurations. This work was supported by NSF Grant AST-0978765, NASA Grant NAG5-8428 and the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics.


text:
# Temperature Scale and Iron Abundances of Very Hot Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae

## 1. Introduction

In this review we choose to concentrate on very hot central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPN), whose analysis faces several difficulties. These objects generally have weak or very weak winds and can be analyzed with windless model atmospheres. Two other reviews in these proceedings concentrate on analyses of CSPN with strong winds (Hamann and Pauldrach for H-deficient and H-rich stars, respectively).

CSPN are spectroscopically assigned to one of two families: H-rich or H-deficient. The origin of H-deficiency is now regarded as the consequence of a (very) late helium shell flash occurring during post-AGB evolution (Herwig et al. 1999) and we observe a complete H-deficient post-AGB sequence. On the other hand, the apparent gap in the separate H-rich sequence has been closed by Napiwotzki (1999) who discovered numerous very hot (white dwarf) CSPN.

Several spectral sub-classes for the two sequences have been established by Méndez (1991). Most of his terms are still used in present work, some new have been added by others. To start our discussion we summarize these classification criteria.

## 2. H-rich and H-deficient CSPN

The H-rich CSPN can be classified by the following spectral characteristics.

hgO(H): denotes high-gravity stars with very broad Balmer absorptions. These are either hot white dwarfs or non-post-AGB stars.

O(H): stars with spectra very similar to massive, young O stars, with He II 4686Å in absorption. Spectral subtypes can be defined from the relative strengths of He I and He II absorption, but excellent spectra are needed, because He I absorptions are often masked by nebular emission. The hottest CSPN do not show He I absorptions at all.

Of(H): the stellar He II 4686Å line is a narrow emission (FWHM $`>`$ 4Å, sometimes with P Cyg profile). He II 4200, 4541Å are in absorption, and blueshifted by less than 50 km/s relative to the PN velocity. H$`\gamma `$ is in absorption.

Of-WR(H): He II 4686Å is a strong and broad emission, H$`\gamma `$ shows a more or less developed P Cyg profile. He II 4541Å is not in emission but, if visible in absorption, strongly blueshifted (about 100 km/s).

Spectral analysis of these stars has been pioneered by Kudritzki, Méndez and co-workers (e.g. Méndez et al. 1988), by determining basic photospheric parameters ($`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, $`\mathrm{log}g`$ , He abundance). Subsequently, more analyses in this style have been published, too numerous to refer to here. Napiwotzki (1999) published new basic results on many CSPN including a very useful compilation of CSPN analyses with an extensive reference list. Mass-loss rates of O- and Of-type CSPN have been determined, too (e.g. Kudritzki et al. 1997). Metal abundance analyses of H-rich CSPN are rather scarce and mostly qualitative descriptions of spectral signatures were performed. We discuss this in more detail below. Recent and current research on H-rich CSPN concentrates on wind modeling (Pauldrach, these proceedings) for the O and Of types, and on problems with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ determination for the hottest O and hgO types (Napiwotzki 1999, and the present paper), and on metal abundance determinations in the latter (see below).

The H-deficient CSPN are classified as follows.

O(He), O(C): Stars showing predominantly an absorption line spectrum, dominated by He or C, respectively. O(C) stars are now more commonly called PG1159 stars (after PG1159-035) although NGC 246 is the prototype of this class (Heap 1975). The PG1159 classification has been further refined, using line-shapes of the dominant species as characteristic criteria (Werner 1992).

Of(C), Of-WR(C): Defined in analogy to the H-rich counterparts (without meeting criteria for presence of H). These stars are also termed \[WC\]–PG1159 transition objects because of their mixed emission/absorption line spectra, bearing characteristics of both spectral classes. Examples are Abell 30 and Abell 78.

\[WC\]: Defined like in the case of massive Wolf-Rayet stars, with necessary extensions to earlier and later subtypes.

We remark that all of these stars are sometimes called “O VI” CSPN, because of the prominence of an O VI doublet in the optical UV. The so-called “weak emission line stars” (WELS) are sometimes equated to the \[WC\]–PG1159 objects (Parthasarathy et al. 1998) but better spectra and quantitative analyses may reveal that many of them are either \[WC\] or PG1159 stars, or even H-rich CSPN with only slightly enriched metal abundances (like discussed below).

Some PG1159 and \[WC\] stars do show photospheric hydrogen, which is difficult to detect because of high temperatures, blending He II photospheric or H nebular lines. H abundances in PG1159 stars can be as high as 35% (by mass), placing the respective objects somewhat between the H-rich and H-deficient CSPN, hence, they are termed hybrid-PG1159 stars. However, from an evolutionary standpoint they are to be assigned to the H-deficient sequence, because of their related origin (so-called “AGB Final Thermal Pulse” scenario, Herwig 2001). The O(He) stars (e.g. K1-27) are very rare (two CSPN and two similar objects without PN) and their status and relation to other post-AGB stars is not really understood (Rauch et al. 1998).

During the last decade, considerable effort has been put into analyses of H-deficient CSPN, see the review on \[WC\] stars (Hamann, these proceedings) and a recent summary on PG1159 stars (Werner 2001). It is now well established that both subclasses represent different stages of an evolutionary sequence.

Considerable progress, which can only be shortly mentioned here, has been achieved with NLTE atmospheric modeling since the last PN symposium. For models with winds we refer again to the reviews by Pauldrach and Hamann in these proceedings. Windless models are now available over a wide parameter range, including opacities of light metals and iron group elements (see contribution by Rauch, these proceedings). Results reported here were obtained with such models for both H-deficient and H-rich objects. They are calculated with an Accelerated Lambda Iteration code (Werner & Dreizler 1999).

## 3. Very hot H-rich CSPN

On the PN symposium in Innsbruck, Liebert (1993) pointed out that “ironically, the temperature determinations for the H-poor sequence with their complicated and mixed atmospheric abundances of He and CNO elements may presently be more accurate than those of the H-rich sequence.” This was certainly true for hot CSPN (say, $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$$`>`$70 000 K), particularly because the “Balmer line problem” came up at that time (Napiwotzki 1992). The lack of neutral helium lines in these stars prevents a reliable $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ determination based on the He I/He II ionization balance, hence, the Balmer line spectrum alone was used for that purpose. But it turned out that no consistent fit to all lines of the Balmer series could be achieved: The higher the series member, the higher the required fit temperature. Although we have learned to circumvent this problem (the higher series member give the “correct” $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$) and partly understand its reason (neglect of metal line blanketing in the NLTE models, Werner 1996), considerable problems remain for the hottest CSPN. In contrast to cooler CSPN, line blanketed models do not resolve the Balmer line problem for these stars. The reason is still not understood, hence, other means must be used for determining their temperatures. These “other means” are the ionization balances of metals.

Metals in very hot CSPN are highly ionized and the strongest lines of these ions are found in the UV region. UV high resolution spectra usually display lines from many metals so that a number of ionization balances can be exploited simultaneously in order to fix $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. This is highly desirable, because in principle other photospheric parameters which also affect ionization balances ($`\mathrm{log}g`$ and element abundances) must be derived from these features at the same time. Iron promised to be exceptionally useful, because iron lines in IUE spectra of hot CSPN and related subdwarfs were reported earlier (Schönberner & Drilling 1985). In order to proof the viability of such an analysis we proposed HST UV spectroscopy of eight H-rich CSPN. Their location in the $`g`$$`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ diagram (mainly derived from optical analyses and, hence, possibly uncertain) is displayed in Fig. 1. Another immediate motivation for these observations came from an analysis of archival IUE spectra, which indicated a possible general iron deficiency in many hot H-rich CSPN (Deetjen et al. 1999). Furthermore, Méndez (1991) emphasized that the optical spectra of many hot H-rich CSPN indicate a variety of carbon abundances which promise insight into previous (post-) AGB evolutionary processes. Our HST observations were performed in 2001/2002 with the STIS spectrograph and cover the wavelength range 1150-1730Å with a resolution of better than 0.1Å and S/N$``$50. The data are currently analyzed. Only NGC 1535 exhibits wind signatures in the strongest CNO lines. Sample spectra shown in Fig. 2 give an impression of the data quality. We discuss some qualitative results on individual objects in some detail.

NGC 4361 was highlighted by Méndez (1991), because it shows very strong C IV lines in the optical, as compared to NGC 1360 which has otherwise similar $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`\mathrm{log}g`$ thus, NGC 4361 is apparently strongly overabundant in C. In the meantime, we have presented evidence from extended optical and EUV observations (Hoare et al. 1996) that NGC 1360 is about 20 000 K hotter than previously thought, which possibly explains the relative weakness of C IV in this star. But still, the strong C IV lines in NGC 4361 are even more remarkable since Torres-Peimbert et al. (1990) found that it must be a metal-poor halo object. Our HST spectrum confirms both, the halo nature of NGC 4361 because of the almost complete absence of iron lines, and the high C abundance: NGC 4361 reveals the strongest C IV lines in our sample of stars. The probably high C overabundance is reminiscent of the same situation in K 648, the central star of the PN Ps 1 in the globular cluster M15 (Rauch et al. 2002). NGC 1360 on the other hand shows a rich spectrum of Fe VI/Fe VII lines. They are weaker than expected, which either indicates an even higher $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ or a subsolar Fe abundance.

LSS 1362 and Abell 36 show only Fe VII but no Fe VI lines. This might indicate that these stars are hotter than NGC 1360, as opposed to their currently known position in Fig. 1. This is supported by the fact that all three stars display O V and O VI lines while only NGC 1360 displays O IV, too.

NGC 6853 and NGC 7293 both have high gravities and do show iron lines. NGC 7293 has Fe VI and Fe VII lines, NGC 6853 only Fe VII. The higher $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and the lower gravity of NGC 6853 explains this qualitative difference. The helium abundance in NGC 6853 is solar, while it is subsolar in NGC 7293, indicating that the photospheric abundances are influenced by gravitational settling in the latter. Detailed analyses are needed to see if metal abundances comprise the signature of diffusion and radiative levitation. The white dwarf central star of S 216 has a spectrum which is very rich in iron (Fe V-VII) and nickel (Ni V-VI) lines (see Fig. 3), the strongest of them were detected earlier in IUE spectra (Tweedy & Napiwotzki 1992). In our HST spectra we also find lines of other iron group elements: chromium, cobalt, and manganese (ionization stages V and VI). Their line strengths as well of Ni clearly points at an overabundance with respect to Fe, which is a result of radiative levitation. Many absorptions in the UV remain unidentified, most of them are probably unknown iron lines, as can be concluded by comparison with known line features in the different stars.

From the FWHM of the iron lines in NGC 1360 and NGC 7293 we find that the projected equatorial rotation velocity or any turbulent atmospheric motion does not exceed about 20 km/s. This is in contrast to Méndez et al. (1988) who deduced 100 km/s and 50 km/s, respectively, from weak metallic absorption lines in their optical spectra, and who attributed this to some kind of “macroturbulence”. Similar iron line widths are found in S 216 and NGC 6853. For Abell 36 and LSS 1362 we find larger values, namely 30 km/s and 50 km/s.

NGC 1535 is the lowest gravity CSPN in our sample. It has a most remarkable UV spectrum. The strongest CNO lines have P Cygni profiles which has been know long before (Heap 1983). What is new, however, is the detection of prominently strong and broad Fe VI and Fe VII lines (Fig. 2). We think that this is no indication for an iron overabundance. Rather, the broad lines indicate some macroturbulent motions with a speed of the order of 100 km/s. Clearly, this object requires an analysis with atmosphere models including a wind.

## 4. Very hot hydrogen-deficient CSPN

The first attempt to determine the iron abundance in H-deficient CSPN arrived at a surprising result. Since PG1159 stars belong to the disk population and since diffusion effects can be excluded due to ongoing mass-loss, one expects a solar iron abundance in these stars. However, Miksa et al. (2001) report an underabundance of at least one dex as derived from the absence of Fe VII lines in FUSE spectra of the extremely hot CSPN K1-16. Subsequent analyses of FUSE spectra from other PG1159 stars confirmed that such an Fe underabundance is possibly the rule rather than the exception among these objects: Miksa et al. (2002) and Werner et al. (these proceedings) failed to detect Fe VII lines in NGC 7094 and Abell 78, respectively.

As already mentioned, the high C and O abundances in H-deficient CSPN results from envelope mixing caused by a late He-shell flash, hence, this event also dredges up matter where s-process elements were built up by n-capture on 56Fe seeds during the AGB phase. In principle, this scenario can be tested by analyzing the resulting Fe/Ni abundance ratio, because it is significantly changed in favor of Ni by the conversion of 56Fe into 60Ni. The Fe depletion by n-captures typically amounts to a factor of 10 (Busso et al. 1999). In order to roughly estimate the Ni/Fe ratio one can assume nuclear statistical equilibrium. The two most abundant Ni isotopes are 60Ni (26%) and 58Ni (68%). During s-process 58Ni is destroyed (and not synthesized), by conversion into 60Ni. 60Ni is converted to heavier elements 4 times faster than it is produced from 56Fe. Consequently, a ratio Fe/Ni$``$4 results, which is a factor of five below the solar value. This could be detected by high resolution HST and FUSE UV spectroscopy. Interestingly, Asplund et al. (1999) have indeed found that in Sakurai’s object, which is thought to undergo a late He-shell flash, Fe is reduced to 0.1 solar and Fe/Ni$``$3. This and other s-process signatures might also be exhibited by Wolf-Rayet central stars and PG1159 stars. More quantitative results from nucleosynthesis calculations in appropriate stellar models have been presented at this conference by Herwig et al. and inclusion of nuclear networks in evolutionary model sequences will become available in the near future.

Other results presented at this conference confirm that Fe deficiency among H-deficient post-AGB stars is not restricted to PG1159 stars, as can be expected from evolutionary considerations. Three Wolf-Rayet central stars are iron deficient, too. Gräfener et al. report a low Fe abundance in SMP 61, an early type \[WC5\] central star in the LMC. Its abundance is at least 0.7 dex below the LMC metallicity. Crowther et al. find evidence for an iron underabundance of 0.3–0.7 dex in the Galactic \[WC\] stars NGC 40 (\[WC8\]) and BD+30 3639 (\[WC9\]).

## 5. Conclusion

We have discussed the potential of high-resolution UV spectroscopy for the determination of photospheric parameters of the hottest CSPN. Ionization equilibria of metals, particularly of iron, are the only means for precise temperature determinations. NLTE model atmospheres have been developed to fully exploit this technique. HST and FUSE are essential instruments and have been successfully used to obtain F(UV) spectra of the necessary high quality.

Metal abundance determinations from UV data are necessary to understand mixing processes in the interior of the precursor AGB stars. In the case of hydrogen-deficient CSPN the surface abundances reflect the intershell abundances of the former AGB star with some superimposed modification due to the mixing and nucleosynthesis processes as a consequence of a late thermal pulse. This can also explain their Fe deficiency, as due to n-capture nucleosynthesis on Fe seeds during the AGB evolution and/or the neutron burst which occurs during rapid burning of protons initiated by the late He shell flash.

### Acknowledgments.

HST data analysis in Tübingen is supported by the DLR under grant 50 OR 9705 5.

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# Electron-hole localization in coupled quantum dots

## Abstract

We theoretically investigate correlated electron-hole states in vertically coupled quantum dots. Employing a prototypical double-dot confinement and a configuration-interaction description for the electron-hole states, it is shown that the few-particle ground state undergoes transitions between different quantum states as a function of the interdot distance, resulting in unexpected spatial correlations among carriers and in electron-hole localization. Such transitions provide a direct manifestations of inter- and intradot correlations, which can be directly monitored in experiments.

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are solid state nanostructures which allow confinement of carriers in all directions within dimensions smaller than their de Broglie wavelength. hawrylak:98 ; bimberg:98  Quantum confinement results in a characteristic discrete energy spectrum and a $`\delta `$-like density of states; therefore QDs are often referred to as “artificial atoms”. Coupling between dots is now becoming an issue of crucial importance. On the one hand, it is an inherent feature of any high-density QD ensemble, as, e.g., needed for most optoelectronic applications. bimberg:98  On the other hand, it is essential to the design of (quantum) information devices, for example QD cellular automata lent:99  or QD implementations of quantum computation. troiani:00  “Artificial molecules” formed by two or more coupled QDs are extremely interesting also from the fundamental point of view, since the interdot coupling can be tuned far out of the regimes accessible in natural molecules, and the relative importance of single-particle tunneling and Coulomb interactions can be varied in a controlled way. The interacting states of $`N`$ electrons in a double dot were studied theoretically rontani:98 ; partoens:00 ; tejedor:00  and experimentally by tunneling and capacitance experiments, austing:97 ; oosterkamp:97 ; schmidt:97 ; blick:98 ; brodsky:00 ; austing:01  and correlations were found to induce coherence effects and novel ground-state phases depending on the interdot coupling regime. rontani:98 ; partoens:00 ; tejedor:00 ; austing:01

The effects of correlations on the photoexcited electron and hole system in coupled dots are instead still largely unknown, in spite of their importance for possible novel applications such as quantum-information processing devices. troiani:00 ; biolatti:00  Stacked self-organized dots were demonstrated; fafard:00  exciton splitting in a single artificial molecule was observed in the linear regime, and explained in terms of single-particle level filling of delocalized bonding and anti-bonding electron and hole states. schedelbeck:97 ; bayer:01  When a few photoexcited particles are present, however, Coulomb interactions between electrons and holes adds to the homopolar electron-electron (hole-hole) interactions. singledot  The correlated ground and excited states will thus be governed by the competition of these effects, sofar not included in theoretical descriptions of photoexcited artificial molecules. However, even for the simplest symmetric double-dot structures basic questions regarding the nature of electron-hole states are still open. When more than one electron-hole pair is photoexcited, what is the most favorable spatial arrangement of the interacting electrons and holes, i.e., are carriers distributed in both dots or do they prefer localization in the same dot? Can the structural parameters be tuned in order to induce given spatial distributions of electrons and holes in the artificial molecule, thus allowing for a controlled engineering of the Hilbert space? Can electrons and holes tunnel separately or is the system best described in terms of excitonic tunneling?

In this Rapid Communication we analyze ground and excited states of realistic double quantum dots trough a full configuration-interaction description of the few-particle electron-hole system. It is shown that for a given number of excitons the ground state configuration undergoes non-trivial quantum transitions as a function of the interdot distance $`d`$ resulting in unexpected spatial correlations among carriers, which can be directly monitored in the optical spectra.

The initial ingredients of our calculations are the single-particle wavefunctions $`\varphi _\mu ^m(𝒓)`$ and energies $`ϵ_\mu ^m`$ for electrons ($`m=e`$) and holes ($`m=h`$) which are obtained from the solutions of the three-dimensional Schrödinger equation within the envelope-function and effective-mass approximations. hawrylak:98  We examine a prototypical confinement for two vertically coupled dots, which is double-box-like along $`z`$ and parabolic in the $`(x,y)`$-plane; dot  such parabolic lateral confinement is known to mimic the most important features of various kinds of self-assembled dots and to give results in good agreement with experiment. hawrylak:98 ; bayer:00 ; rinaldi:96  The single-particle wavefunctions factorize into in-plane and $`z`$-dependent parts, where the in-plane solutions are the well-known Fock-Darwin states. hawrylak:98  Our approach for the description of the interacting electron-hole states is provided by a full configuration interaction (CI) calculation. Within the Hilbert space of all possible single-particle electron-hole excitations $`|\mathrm{}`$, the many-body energies $`E_\lambda `$ and states $`|\lambda `$ are obtained for a given number of electrons and holes by direct diagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix $`\mathrm{}|(H_o+H_c)|\mathrm{}^{}`$hohenester:00 ; rontani:01  with $`H_o`$ the single-particle Hamiltonian and $`H_c`$ the Coulomb term:

$$H_c=\frac{1}{2}\underset{mn}{}d(𝒓𝒓^{})\frac{\psi _m^{}(𝒓)\psi _n^{}(𝒓^{})\psi _n(𝒓^{})\psi _m(𝒓)}{\kappa |𝒓𝒓^{}|},$$
(1)
which accounts for all possible electron-electron, hole-hole, and electron-hole interactions; here the field operators $`\psi _m^{}(𝒓)`$ create an electron or hole at position $`𝒓`$, and $`\kappa `$ is the semiconductor dielectric constant. In our calculations truncation of the Hilbert space to the 12 single-particle states of lowest energy for both electrons and holes is found to yield very accurate convergence for the lowest few-particle states.

Let us first analyze the single-particle (SP) ingredients of our coupled-QD model. Figure 1 shows the energies for the “bonding” (solid line) and “antibonding” (dashed line) state of lowest energy for electrons (left axis) and holes (right axis), respectively; the insets show the wavefunctions along $`z`$ for two selected values of the interdot distance $`d`$. Because of the heavier hole mass hole tunneling becomes suppressed at smaller interdot distances $`d`$ than electron tunneling; this is also reflected in the faster decrease of the bonding-antibonding splitting with increasing $`d`$.

If we would neglect at the lowest order of approximation Coulomb interactions, the few-particle electron-hole states would be simply obtained by filling successive SP electron and hole states. However, inclusion of Coulomb interactions gives rise to a mixing of different SP states, where the gain in potential energy through Coulomb correlations is achieved at the price of populating states with higher SP energies. The few-particle electron-hole states thus result from the detailed interplay of these trends, where the relative importance of SP energies and the increase of the Coulomb ones varies with interdot distance $`d`$. As will be shown in the following, such interplay can drastically alter the simple-minded SP picture.

We first consider the case of a single electron-hole pair (exciton). The diamonds in Fig. 2 show the $`d`$-dependence of the exciton groundstate. An estimate of Coulomb correlations is provided by the usual electron-hole correlation function

$$g_{eh}(𝒓_e,𝒓_h)=\psi _e^{}(𝒓_e)\psi _h^{}(𝒓_h)\psi _h(𝒓_h)\psi _e(𝒓_e),$$
(2)
which gives the probability of finding an electron at position $`𝒓_e`$ when a hole is at position $`𝒓_h`$. In the insets of Fig. 2 we plot the spatial average of $`g_{eh}`$ over the center-of-mass coordinate $`𝑹=\frac{1}{2}(𝒓_e+𝒓_h)`$, $`\overline{g}_{eh}(𝒓)`$, which instead gives the probability of finding the two particles at the relative position $`𝒓=𝒓_e𝒓_h`$. Owing to the strong Coulomb interaction the electron and hole stay together and $`\overline{g}_{eh}`$ is localized around $`𝒓\mathrm{𝟎}`$ \[insets in Fig. 2, with crosses at $`𝒓=\mathrm{𝟎}`$\]. Thus, even for the smallest interdot distance $`d`$ exciton tunneling dominates over separate electron and hole tunneling. Note that in a pure single-particle picture, with electrons and holes occupying the lowest available SP states, there would be no spatial correlation between them; this would be reflected in $`\overline{g}_{eh}(x,0,z)`$ by a structure with two peaks around $`z=\pm d`$ and a larger one centred on $`z=0`$ (for an electron in the left dot the hole is with equal probability in the left or right dot, and vice-versa).

The effects of Coulomb-correlations become more striking when higher-order interactions —i.e. beyond single excitons— are taken into account. In contrast to transport experiments, austing:97 ; oosterkamp:97 ; schmidt:97 ; blick:98 ; brodsky:00 ; austing:01  which primarily give information about groundstate properties, optical spectroscopy allows easy access to excited states. For instance, in non-linear coherent spectroscopy bonadeo:98  a strong “pump” laser prepares the system in an exciton state, and a weak “probe” beam measures the optical transitions to biexciton states (i.e., two Coulomb-correlated electron-hole pairs). The solid lines in Fig. 2 are associated with the transitions from the exciton groundstate to the lowest optically active biexciton states where the two electron-hole pairs have parallel (gray line) or opposite (black lines) spin orientations; the thickness of the lines is proportional to the oscillator strengths of the respective transitions. hohenester:00  As to the general trends of the curves, the most striking features are the following: for parallel spins, because of Pauli blocking the second electron-hole pair is created in an excited state, as reflected by the increase of the optical transition energy with increasing $`d`$ (“antibonding” behaviour). On the contrary, for antiparallel spins the overall $`d`$-dependence of the lowest biexciton states shows a “bonding” behavior, which reflects the predominant occupation of the SP “bonding” states. More in detail, one can see that at a critical interdot distance $`d_c2`$ nm an anti-crossing occurs between the two solid black lines, where the energetically lowest one picks up all the oscillator strength. Besides, at the largest interdot distances, $`d3`$ nm, two of the lines merge with the exciton energy: the corresponding biexciton states consist of two spatially separated excitons localized in the two dots, as discussed below. At the same values of $`d`$, in the biexciton groundstate all four particles are localized in the same dot, where because of Coulomb correlations the energy is reduced by $``$1 meV as compared to the uncorrelated case (biexciton binding energy). bayer:00 ; hohenester:00

In the following we analyze in more detail the lowest biexcitonic states. As will be apparent from the results of Fig. 3, there exist two major trends for correlation effects: In case of “anti-correlation” electrons and holes tend to avoid each other, and the repulsion energy is minimized when each dot is populated by one electron-hole pair. As in the absence of external fields there is no net charge distribution in each QD, there exists an only very weak long-range interaction between the excitons—even in regimes where the QDs are tunneling-coupled (Fig. 1); as consequence, the biexcitonic energy at large $`d`$ tends to twice the excitonic one (grey and upper black curve, respectively, in Fig. 2). Alternatively, correlation can favour spatial arrangements where all four particles are localized in the same QD. This requires a correlation of higher order hoc  with occupation of the antibonding states for both electrons and holes. When all particles are localized in the same QD, in-plane spatial correlations becomes effective which give rise to a short-range interaction (analogue to a classical interaction between induced dipoles) and to the well-known biexcitonic binding energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{2X}`$. This spatial arrangement becomes energetically more favourable with respect to the former when the cost of its stronger degree of correlation in terms of SP energy is $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{2X}`$.

Figure 3 shows the $`d`$-dependence of the (a) energies, and the mean (b) electron-hole, (c) electron-electron, and (d) hole-hole distances for the four biexciton states of lowest energy. Let us first focus on the ground state. At the smallest values of $`d`$ , the ground state is seen to correpond to: no electron-hole correlation, intermediate anti-correlation between electrons and a pronounced one between holes \[left insets in Figs. 3 (b-d)\]. This different degree of correlation for electrons and holes can be attributed to the different SP level splittings (Fig. 1) and the corresponding different cost in SP energy to create two-particle correlations. Apparently, at $`d_c`$ the system undergoes an abrupt transition. The correlation functions \[middle and right insets of Figs. 3 (b-d)\] show how spatial correlation becomes more and more effective, with strong correlations between all particles. Such transition is also confirmed by the trends of the mean carrier-carrier distances that abruptly decrease for $`dd_c`$ . The second optically active biexcitonic state (continuous grey lines) shows a precisely reversed trend (and a similar anti-crossing occurs between the two intermediate, non optically active states \[dotted lines in Figs. 3(a-d)\].

Further calculations show that the distance at which the transition occurs can be tailored by controlling the QD confinement and interdot coupling. In addition, we have found that the effects are preserved in the presence of small asymmetries between both dots, although the transitions occur at different distance $`d`$ for different states, and that similar phenomena persist for a larger number of photoexcited particles in the double dot. troiani:01 .

In conclusion, we have addressed for the first time few-particle correlations in photoexcited coupled quantum dots. We have demonstrated that they can induce novel transitions between different quantum states as a function of the interdot distance $`d`$, and are essential for a quantitative or even qualitative description of the electron and hole states. The fundamental reason for these transitions lies in a very general phenomenon, namely that interdot coupling controls the balance between the gain in Coulomb energy obtained by the spatial correlation of carriers (which requires occupation of higher-lying single-particle states) and the corresponding cost in single-particle energy. These transitions leave a clear fingerprint in the nonlinear optical spectra. Beside their fundamental interest as manifestations of inter- and intradot correlations, these quantum transitions may be used to tailor the Hilbert space structure and the qubit identification in quantum computation schemes based on coherent optical control of coupled quantum dots.

This work has been supported in part by INFM through PRA-99-SSQI, and by the EU under the TMR Network “Ultrafast Quantum Optoelectronics” and the IST programme “SQID”.


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# Untitled Document

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE QUANTUM FREQUENCY OF RADIATION AND FREQUENCIES
OF CIRCLING OF THE ELECTRON IN ATOM OF HYDROGEN

Stanislav Tereshchenko

Astrophysical Dept.

National Institut of Scientific and Technical Information

VINITI, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow

## Abstract

The connection between the quantum frequency of radiation by the transition of the electron from orbit $`n`$ to orbit $`k`$ and frequencies of circling of electron in these orbits for the atom of hydrogen is determined.

In the atom of hydrogen by the transition of the electron from the orbit $`n`$ to the orbit $`k`$ ($`n>k`$) the quantum of energy is radiated

$$h\nu =E_nE_k.$$

At present the dependence of quantum frequency of radiation $`\nu `$ from frequency of circling of electron $`\nu _n`$ and $`\nu _k`$ in orbit $`n`$ and $`k`$ is not determined. It is only known, that if the quantity of $`n`$ is big, by the transition $`nn1`$ the quantum frequency $`\nu `$ is nearly equal to the frequency of circling of electron $`\nu _n`$ (principle of accordance). However, one can show, that there is a simple connection between the quantum frequency of radiation $`\nu `$ and the frequencies of circling of electron $`\nu _n`$ and $`\nu _k`$. Indeed, the frequency of the circling of electron is equal to

$$\nu _n=\frac{4\pi ^2me^4}{h^3n^3}.$$

The quantum frequency of radiation is determined with the formula

$$\nu =\frac{2\pi ^2me^4}{h^3}\left(\frac{1}{k^2}\frac{1}{n^2}\right).$$
(1)
The expression (1) we will written following way

$$\nu =\frac{k}{2}\frac{4\pi ^2me^4}{h^3k^3}\frac{n}{2}\frac{4\pi ^2me^4}{h^3n^3}.$$

Then

$$\nu =\frac{1}{2}(k\nu _kn\nu _n).$$
(2)
Thus, we obtained the formula, which connects the quantum frequency of radiation $`\nu `$ with the frequencies circling of electron in atom hydrogen. The product $`n\nu _n`$ makes the following sense: there are $`n`$ of de Broglie’s wave in the orbit $`n`$. Then $`n\nu _n=\nu _n^{}`$ is the frequency of de Broglie’s wave of electron, moving in orbit $`n`$. So formula (2) can be written in following way

$$\nu =\frac{1}{2}(\nu _k^{}\nu _n^{}).$$
(3)
It is possible, that formula (3) is also true for atoms with many electrons.