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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The use of high finesse Fabry-Perot (FP) cavities has become widespread in the last decade, especially due to the availability of very high reflectivity mirrors. FP resonators play a crucial role in several physical fields, such as QED and vacuum structure measurements with optical techniques1, gravitational wave detection with interferometers2 and resonant bars3, and metrology. Their use for $`H^0`$ stripping in high intensity proton drivers with $`H^{}`$ injection has recently been suggested4. The resonant operating condition of these devices is achieved by frequency locking a laser to one of the fundamental modes of the cavity. The Pound-Drever-Hall technique5 is the most common method used to accomplish such a locking: the cavity instantaneous frequency is sensed by putting frequency-modulation (FM) sidebands on the cavity input beam, and a correction signal is then extracted and applied to change accordingly the laser frequency. Tuneable lasers have proved to be the best suited to implement such a scheme, and the Non Planar Ring Oscillator (NPRO) solid state diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser is probably the most common type of laser used in such applications. This device allows for two different types of modulation: a ”slow” one (bandwidth $``$ 1 Hz, dynamic range of several GHz), and a ”fast” one (bandwidth $``$ 100 kHz, dynamic range $``$ 200 MHz). Our group has developed an original locking scheme, in which FM sidebands at frequencies $`>`$ 500 kHz are generated using the laser itself, and the method was succesfully applied to a Nd:YAG laser emitting at 1064 nm6. In several applications, such as PVLAS type1 measurements and $`H^{}`$ double stripping4, there is an added bonus when operating at shorter wavelengths. The frequency doubled version of the above mentioned laser has become available only recently. In this device the infrared (IR) beam exiting the Nd:YAG crystal is fed onto a doubling crystal, where, under specific conditions, a second beam is generated at twice the original frequency. The output beam is a green radiation ($`\lambda `$ = 532 nm), having spectral characteristics which closely match those of the IR pump beam. In this paper we will show that it is possible to achieve frequency locking of the doubled beam with the same good results already obtained with the IR beam output by a Nd:YAG laser. In particular, we show that it is possible to generate the FM sidebands on the green output without using an external phase modulator.

## 2 Method

The frequency doubled NPRO laser7 is a tuneable laser emitting at 532 nm. The green output is generated by a single passage of the IR beam, coming from an NPRO Nd:YAG source, inside a periodically poled KTP (PP KTP) crystal kept at a stable temperature, so as to guarantee the correct phase matching for second harmonic generation. Tuneability is achieved by changing the frequency of the pump laser by means of a temperature control of the NPRO crystal (Bandwidth $``$ 1 Hz, Dynamic range $``$ 60 GHz), or of a piezoelectric transducer (Bandwidth $``$ 100 kHz, Dynamic range $``$ 200 MHz) mechanically acting on the laser crystal. In order to have the widest possible dynamic range it is compulsory to use single passage second harmonic generation. This enhances stability in the intensity of the green output, but results in a lower output power.

As shown by Cantatore et al.6, phase modulation is equivalent to frequency modulation. This allows for the possibility of using the laser itself as the optical phase modulator. The phase $`\phi `$ of a phase-modulated beam can be written as:

$$\phi (t)=\omega _0t+\beta \mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Omega }_mt+\psi )$$
(1)
where $`\omega _0`$ is the laser angular frequency, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ is the angular frequency of modulation and $`\beta `$ is the modulation index. In our setup we are using the piezoelectric actuator on the laser head for simultaneous frequency correction and phase modulation.

## 3 Apparatus

A schematic drawing of the apparatus is shown in figure 1. The laser emits a 100 mW, 532 nm, visible light beam, which is mode matched to the TEM00 mode of a Fabry-Perot cavity by means of a lens. The cavity is 87 cm long and is kept under vacuum (total pressure $`10^5`$ mbar); beam input to the vacuum enclosure is possible through glass windows. The mirrors forming the FP cavity are high reflectivity dielectric mirrors8 with an expected reflectivity of 0.99997. The feedback amplifier is a four-stage integrator circuit with a unity gain point that can be chosen in the 20 - 50 kHz interval: its transfer function has three poles in the origin and one at 0.16 Hz, and the 24 dB/octave slope begins below 7 kHz. A more detailed description of the feedback system can be found in Ref. 6. The correction signal coming from the feedback amplifier is summed to the phase-modulation signal and fed into the laser frequency tuning input. The possible bandwidth of the feedback loop is limited to the region of linear behaviour of the laser piezoelectric (PZT) actuator ($``$ 100 kHz), where it has an actuation coefficient of $``$ 2 MHz/V (for the green light output). For larger modulation frequencies the response is no longer linear, however the PZT can still be used at a fixed frequency for phase modulation. In order to reduce the unwanted Residual Amplitude Modulation (RAM) introduced by the phase modulation, one has first to study the modulation characteristics of the laser. In fact, as can be seen from figure 2, the RAM in the output beam changes with the frequency of the phase modulation signal. A RAM in the beam intensity produces a constant frequency shift between the laser and the Fabry-Perot cavity. The working frequency is then best set to the value where the RAM reaches a minimum. Accordingly, the modulation depth for several values of the modulation frequency has been measured, and the results are summarized in table 1. As can be seen from figure 3 the index of modulation $`\beta `$ (see Eq. 1) is linear with the voltage $`V_\mathrm{p}`$ applied to the laser PZT. In addition, we have also found that the ratio RAM/$`\beta `$ results to be constant as a function of $`V_\mathrm{p}`$. In the region around 660 kHz the RAM has a minimum value, with a ratio RAM/$`\beta `$ of the order $`1\times 10^4`$. This value is about three times larger than the value found6 using the infrared output of an NPRO laser (Lightwave model 124). The difference can probably be explained by the second harmonic generation process. In order to achieve the deepest modulation with minimum RAM, the working frequency has been chosen at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}/2\pi =660`$ kHz.

## 4 Results

The green laser output was successfully locked to the FP cavity. A cavity transmission of 7 % was obtained and the measured finesse was 45 000. The frequency locking was stable for durations up to several hours. Figure 4 shows the spectral density of the difference between the laser frequency and the instantaneous resonance frequency of the cavity. This spectral density has an overall minimum value of $``$1 mHz/$`\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}`$, while it stays below 10 mHz/$`\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}`$ in the region 1-200 Hz (excluding peaks due to the 50 Hz mains frequency and its harmonics). This result is comparable again to the one obtained using the IR output of the NPRO laser. The estimated value of the frequency shift due to RAM is $``$ 0.1 Hz. Finally, table 2 below summarizes a few relevant characteristics and measured performances of the system.

## 5 Conclusions

It has been shown that it is possible to lock the green output of a doubled IR NPRO laser to a resonant, high-finesse, Fabry Perot cavity, using an originally modified form of the Pound-Drever-Hall technique. In particular, phase modulation of the beam was achieved using the piezoelectric transducer acting on the infrared pump laser crystal. This allows for a simple locking scheme involving a previously unavailable wavelength (532 nm in this case), which is now in the visible domain.

## Acknowledgements

This work has been carried out within the PVLAS collaboration: the authors wish to thank all the members of the group.

## References

1. E. Zavattini, F. Brandi, M. Bregant, G. Cantatore, S. Carusotto, F. Della Valle, G. Di Domenico, U. Gastaldi, E. Milotti, R. Pengo, G. Petrucci, E. Polacco, G. Ruoso, G. Zavattini, The PVLAS Collaboration: Experimental Search For Anisotropy Of The Phase Velocity Of Light In Vacuum Due To A Static Magnetic Field, in Proc. of QED2000 - G. Cantatore Ed. - AIP Conf. Proceedings bf 564, 77 (2001);

D. Bakalov, F. Brandi, G. Cantatore, G. Carugno, S. Carusotto, F. Della Valle, A. M. De Riva, U. Gastaldi, E. Iacopini, P. Micossi, E. Milotti, R. Onofrio, R. Pengo, F. Perrone, G. Petrucci, E. Polacco, C. Rizzo, G. Ruoso, E. Zavattini and G. Zavattini, Quant. and Semiclass. Opt. 10, 239 (1998);

PVLAS homepage: http://www.ts.infn.it/experiments/pvlas.
2. A. Abramovici, W. E. Althouse, R.W.P. Drever, Y. Gursel, S. Kawamura, F. J. Raab, D. Shoemaker, L. Sievers, R.E. Spero, K.S. Thorne, R.E. Vogt, R. Weiss, S.E. Whitcomb, M.E. Zucker, Science 256, 325 (1992);

C. Bradaschia et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 289, 518 (1990).
3. L. Conti, M. De Rosa, F. Marin, Appl. Optics 39, 5732 (2000);

L. Conti, M. Cerdonio, L. Taffarello, J.P. Zendri, A. Ortolan, C. Rizzo, G. Ruoso, G.A. Prodi, S. Vitale, G. Cantatore, E. Zavattini, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 69, 554 (1998).
4. U. Gastaldi and M. Placentino, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 451, 318 (2000).
5. R. V. Pound, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 17, 490 (1946);

R. W. P. Drever, J.L. Hall, F.V. Kowalsky, J. Hough, G. M. Ford, A.J. Munley, and H. Ward, Appl. Phys. B 31, 97 (1983).
6. G. Cantatore, F. Della Valle, E. Milotti, P. Pace, F. Perrone, E. Polacco, C. Rizzo, G. Ruoso, E. Zavattini, G. Zavattini, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 66, 2785 (1995).
7. Model Prometheus, Innolight Gmbh, Hannover, Germany (http://www.innolight.de).
8. Made by Research Electro Optics, Boulder, CO, U.S.A. (http://www.reoinc.com).

FIGURE CAPTIONS

Figure 1: Experimental set-up.

Figure 2: Residual amplitude modulation (RAM) as a function of the modulation frequency. The signal on the PZT has an amplitude of 48 mVpp.

Figure 3: Index of modulation versus the voltage $`V_\mathrm{p}`$ applied to the piezoelectric transducer at the chosen modulation frequency of 660 kHz.

Figure 4: Spectral density of the difference between the laser frequency and the resonance frequency of the cavity. This is obtained by measuring the noise spectrum at the error point of figure 1 and by multiplying it by the slope of the error signal in the same point. The large peaks are due to 50 Hz and its harmonics.


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# Driving Rate Effects on Crackling Noise

(File generated . Submitted for publication Feb. 6, 2002)

## Abstract

Many systems respond to slowly changing external conditions with crackling noise, created by avalanches or pulses of a broad range of sizes. Examples range from Barkhausen Noise in magnets to earthquakes. Here we discuss how the scaling behavior of the avalanche size and duration distribution and the power spectra of this noise depend on the rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ at which the external conditions are changed. We derive an exponent inequality as a criteria for the relevance of adding a small driving rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ to the adiabatic model. We use the zero temperature nonequilibrium random field Ising model to test our results, which are expected to be applicable to a large class of systems with crackling noise. They also agree with recent experiments on Barkhausen noise in various materials.

Jerky response to smoothly varying forces has been enjoying increasing attention for more than a decade. One reason for this is the surprising universality observed in the noise statistics of vastly different systems. Earthquake faults, magnetic tapes, vortices in type II superconductors, charge density waves, mechanically failing materials, and many other systems respond to slowly changing external conditions with discrete, impulse-like events (“avalanches”, or “pulses”, leading to familiar “crackling noise” Sethna et al. (2001)) that span a huge range of sizes: earthquakes for example are known to range from tiny tremors to devastating magnitude 9 quakes on the Richter scale Gutenberg and Richter (1954). Martensites crackle when subjected to slow temperature or stress changes Ortín et al. (1995); Carillo et al. (1998). Similarly, when a magnetic tape is slowly magnetized by an external magnetic field, the process happens in steps (“Barkhausen noise” (BN)), by avalanches of re-orienting magnetic domains, that range from microscopic to macroscopic in size Bertotti (1998). The avalanche size and duration distributions are often described by universal power laws over a broad range of sizes. The scaling behavior on long length scales is independent of the microscopic details, and only dependent on a few basic properties, such as symmetries, dimensions, interaction range, and dynamics (and a few others). In many systems this universality has been explained theoretically as being due to either proximity to an underlying critical point Sethna et al. (1993), or so called “self-organized criticality” (SOC) Bak et al. (1988).

Typically these systems are studied in the adiabatic limit where the rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ at which the driving force $`F=\mathrm{\Omega }t`$ is increased, is taken to zero allowing for a separation of the time scale of the fast local relaxation (given by the avalanche durations) from the scale set by the slow external driving (given by the rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$). For experiments and commercial applications it is important to understand the effect of a finite but small driving rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }>0`$ on the pulse statistics. In this letter we study this question, specifically focusing on the experimentally readily accessible BN in magnets as the primary example. Our results are fairly general in nature and expected to be applicable to a much larger class of systems with crackling noise.

A number of models have been used to study crackling noise ranging from interface depinning models and sandpile models, to models with many interacting interfaces due to domain nucleation. While we believe the main results we report in this letter will apply to many approaches in the slow sweep rate regime we use a variant of the zero temperature, nonequilibrium random field Ising model (ztneRFIM) to illustrate our results. The ztneRFIM is a simple model for hysteresis and avalanches (BN) in magnets Sethna et al. (1993); Ji and Robbins (1992). Neglecting the microscopic details it assumes a hypercubic lattice of spins $`s_i=\pm 1`$ with the Hamiltonian:

$$=J\underset{i,j}{}s_is_j\underset{i}{}(H(t)+h_i)s_i$$
(1)
where the first term represents the ferromagnetically coupled nearest neighbors (with coupling $`J>0`$), $`H(t)=\mathrm{\Omega }t`$ is the external applied field, and $`h_i`$ is the random magnetic field with Gaussian distribution $`\rho (h_i)=\mathrm{exp}(h_i^2/(2R^2))/(R\sqrt{2\pi })`$. $`h_i`$ models uncorrelated quenched disorder. Other types of disorder, such as random anisotropies, and random ferromagnetic bonds are expected to be in the same universality class Dahmen and Sethna (1996); Vives et al. (1995).

We study the model at zero temperature, far from thermal equilibrium to model systems in which the thermal relaxation time scale is much larger than experimental time scales. One sweep in our simulation begins at $`H=\mathrm{}`$ causing all spins to be down. We then raise the external field slowly and flip each spin $`s_i`$ when its local effective field

$$h_i^{eff}=H(t)+\underset{i}{}Js_j+h_i$$
(2)
changes from negative to positive. (Here $`i`$ stands for the nearest neighbors of site $`i`$.) A single spin flip takes a microscopic time $`\delta t1`$. It can trigger an avalanche of spin flips propagated through the ferromagnetic interactions Sethna et al. (1993). In the adiabatic limit $`\mathrm{\Omega }0`$, the external magnetic field is kept constant during each avalanche, it is only increased in between avalanches, until the next avalanche is triggered. The avalanche time profile $`V(t)`$, which is the number of spins flipped during the time interval of length $`\delta t`$ at time $`t`$ is proportional to the voltage time profile $`V(t)`$ measured in the induction coil in a corresponding BN experiment during a BN pulse.

For the adiabatic case it has been shown Sethna et al. (1993) that near a critical amount of disorder $`R=R_c`$ and a critical value of the magnetic field $`H=H_c`$ the avalanche size and duration distributions scale on long length scales as $`D_s(S)S^\tau 𝒟_s(Sh^{1/(\sigma \beta \delta )},h/r^{\beta \delta })`$ and $`D_t(T)T^\alpha 𝒟_t(Th^{\nu z/(\beta \delta )},h/r^{\beta \delta })`$, respectively, where $`r|(RR_c)/R|`$ and $`h|(HH_c)/H|`$. $`𝒟_s`$ and $`𝒟_t`$ are universal scaling functions and $`\sigma `$, $`\nu `$, $`z`$, $`\beta `$, $`\delta `$, $`\alpha `$, $`\tau `$ are all universal exponents that are known for the adiabatic case and are not all independent Dahmen and Sethna (1996). The scaling relation between the size and duration, $`TS^{\sigma \nu z}`$ relates $`\alpha `$ to $`\tau `$ through $`\alpha =\frac{\tau 1}{\sigma \nu z}+1`$. Numerical simulations render $`\tau =1.60\pm 0.06`$ and $`\alpha =2.05\pm 0.05`$ for this model Perković et al. (1995). Away from the critical point the correlation length $`\xi r^\nu \mathrm{\Xi }(h/r^{\beta \delta })`$ is finite, as is reflected by a cutoff to the power law scaling regime at a largest avalanche $`S^{}\xi ^{1/\sigma \nu }`$ and a largest duration $`T^{}\xi ^z`$. (Here $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ is another universal scaling function.)

At finite $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ new avalanches can be triggered by the increasing external field before a previous one is completed. In this regime pulses observed in the time series $`V(t)`$ do not necessarily correspond to the avalanches found in the adiabatic limit. (We stress here the subtle but necessary distinction between “avalanche” and “pulse”.) Since there is no mechanism in the model for the sweep rate to effect the local dynamics of a spin flip (a spin flips in one time step if its local field goes from negative to positive regardless of how large the positive local field is) the observed differences between pulses for finite $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and avalanches for zero $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, are a result of the simultaneous propagation of avalanches as well as the possible internal changes to avalanches induced by spatial overlap of simultaneously propagating avalanches at finite $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. For comparison with experiments it is important to understand how the pulse size and duration distributions are affected by temporal and spatial overlap of the avalanches as $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is increased from zero.

A number of experimental results have been reported in the literature regarding sweep rate effects on scaling exponents of pulse statisticsBertotti et al. (1994); Durin and Zapperi (2000); Zapperi et al. (1998). For BN in soft magnets without applied stress and with $`\alpha (\mathrm{\Omega }=0)=2`$ it has been reported that $`\alpha `$ and $`\tau `$ exhibit a linear sweep rate dependence on $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ as $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is increased from zero, whereas experiments with applied stress give $`\alpha (\mathrm{\Omega }=0)<2`$ and at finite $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ the $`\alpha `$ and $`\tau `$ exponents do not depend on $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. In the following we will show that these results can, in fact, be generalized and explained by straight forward temporal superposition of the adiabatic avalanches as $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is increased.

There are two important threshold sweep rates, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_t`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_s`$ that mark the transitions to avalanches overlapping in time ($`\mathrm{\Omega }>\mathrm{\Omega }_t`$), and in space and time ($`\mathrm{\Omega }>\mathrm{\Omega }_s`$):

(1) The lowest sweep rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\mathrm{\Omega }_t`$ at which on average successive avalanches overlap in time so that one obtains a macroscopic uninterrupted pulse (see Fig 1), is called the upper bound of “slow”(note that for $`\mathrm{\Omega }>\mathrm{\Omega }_t`$ the number of pulses is greatly reduced making it difficult to obtain pulse statistics at all). To estimate $`\mathrm{\Omega }_t`$ we set the increase in $`H`$ during the mean avalanche duration $`T`$ equal to the mean separation $`\frac{1}{a(H)}`$ (in $`H`$) between successive avalanche seeds, and find

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_t\frac{1}{a(H)T}=(\frac{1}{\stackrel{~}{a}(H)T})\frac{1}{L^d},$$
(3)
where $`a(H)\stackrel{~}{a}(H)L^d`$ is the non-universal number of avalanche seeds per unit field increase, and $`\stackrel{~}{a}(H)`$ is independent of the system size $`L^d`$ (here $`L`$ is the linear system size and $`d`$ is the dimension of the system). In general it is expected that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_t`$ will be proportional to $`1/n`$ where $`n`$ is the number of spins in principle available to nucleate an avalanche (volume in our model, and surface for single domain wall propagation). Eq.(3) implies that in the thermodynamic limit any finite sweep rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ results in the loss of distinct pulses, since all avalanches merge into only one big pulse.

(2) The lowest sweep rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }_s`$ at which successive avalanches tend to overlap not only in time, but also space can be estimated as follows: at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_s`$ the expected number of new avalanche seeds triggered by the increasing external magnetic field within the volume of a large propagating avalanche of adiabatic size $`S`$, during its duration $`T`$, is a finite fraction of $`S`$. If $`\tau >2`$ (i.e. $`S`$ is not divergent) $`\mathrm{\Omega }_s\frac{1}{T^{^{}}}\mathrm{\Omega }_t`$ (for large enough $`L`$). If $`\tau <2`$, in terms of the adiabatic quantities, we find White and Dahmen

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_s\frac{\xi ^{(\tau 2)/(\sigma \nu )}}{T^{^{}}}\xi ^{(\tau 2\sigma \nu z)/(\sigma \nu )}.$$
(4)
For large enough system sizes $`L`$, for finite correlation length $`\xi `$, one again obtains $`\mathrm{\Omega }_s\mathrm{\Omega }_t`$. Therefore, the resulting time series $`V(t)`$ in a BN experiment in the “slow” sweep rate regime $`\mathrm{\Omega }<\mathrm{\Omega }_t`$ is simply a superposition of voltages produced by the individual simultaneously propagating avalanches.

Superimposing power law distributed pulses yields results consistent with the experiments. The reason for this requires discussion: on the one hand, the time between successive avalanche nucleations decreases for increasing sweep rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. On the other hand the duration of the avalanche results from the dynamics of the material and, in the slow sweep rate regime, does not depend on the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. This is true for all avalanche models we have considered. The resulting pulse distributions are affected in two ways: (A) an avalanche of a certain size can appear to take longer, since a second avalanche starts before the first one ends, and runs longer (“swelling”). (B) Avalanches can completely disappear (“absorption”) from the distributions due to their time interval of propagation lying entirely within that of another avalanche.

(A) To illustrate the relationship between swelling and the adiabatic exponents we note that the largest avalanche nucleated during the propagation of another avalanche of duration $`T`$ (with $`\alpha >1`$) is given by-

$$T_{max}^{(2)}(a(H)T\mathrm{\Omega })^{\frac{1}{\alpha 1}}$$
(5)
If $`\alpha >2`$ the avalanche of duration $`T`$ will not swell appreciably since $`T_{max}^{(2)}T^\epsilon `$ where $`ϵ<1`$ and the new “swollen” pulse is, at its largest, $`T+T_{max}^{(2)}T`$ for large $`T`$. For $`\alpha <2`$, however $`T_{max}^{(2)}>T`$ is no longer negligible: by iteration the process runs away for very small sweep rate (for $`\mathrm{\Omega }>\mathrm{\Omega }_t\frac{1}{L^{d+z(2\alpha )}}`$, see eqn(3) for $`\alpha <2`$). For $`\alpha =2`$ there is a linear increase in the duration that is $`T\gamma T`$ . In this case, as we see below, absorption leads to a linear change of $`\alpha `$ with the sweep rate.

The discussion for the pulse size distribution runs analogously: The largest secondary avalanche triggered by the increasing field during a primary avalanche of duration T has size (for $`\tau >1`$)

$$S_{max}^{(2)}\left(a(H)T\mathrm{\Omega }\right)^{\frac{1}{\tau 1}}$$
(6)
The sweep rate significantly affects the distribution only if $`S_{max}^{(2)}S`$. This occurs if $`\frac{\sigma \nu z}{\tau 1}1`$, i.e. if $`\alpha 2`$ in agreement with the above argument for the duration distribution. If $`\alpha <2`$ the effects of sweep rate on the size distribution can be seen in de Queiroz and Bahiana (2001) which we would argue results not in a decrease in the exponents, as suggested, but in a decreasing region $`S<S^{}`$ over which the distribution can be described by a power law at all (see White and Dahmen  for more details) with $`S^{}\mathrm{\Omega }^{\frac{(\alpha 1)}{(\tau 1)(2\alpha )}}`$.

(B) The relationship between absorption and the adiabatic exponents is similar. As $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is increased from zero, note, that for an avalanche to maintain its identity (in terms of size and duration) it must not be absorbed into (i.e. propagate simultaneously with) larger ones. We assume the avalanches are uncorrelated in amplitude and have a nucleation density which can be described by a smoothly varying function of h and the probability $`𝒟(T,\mathrm{\Omega })`$ that a certain avalanche of duration T remains a pulse of duration T as $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is increased is given by

$$𝒟(T,\mathrm{\Omega })=D(T,\mathrm{\Omega }0)\underset{T^{}>T}{}(1P(T^{},\mathrm{\Omega }0)),$$
(7)
where $`P(T^{},\mathrm{\Omega }0)`$ is the probability that the avalanche of duration $`T`$ is absorbed in an avalanche of duration $`T^{}`$. A detailed analysis of both swelling and absorption is given elsewhere White and Dahmen . One finds that the effect of a slow but finite sweep rate depends on the adiabatic value of the exponent $`\alpha `$: (1) For $`\alpha (\mathrm{\Omega }=0)>2`$, on long length and time scales, we expect no change in the scaling exponents due to the introduction of a slow sweep rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }<\mathrm{\Omega }_t`$. (2) For $`\alpha (\mathrm{\Omega }=0)=2`$ we find a linear dependence of some of the exponents on the (slow) sweep rate:

$$\alpha (\mathrm{\Omega })=2\kappa \mathrm{\Omega }\tau (\mathrm{\Omega })=\frac{3}{2}\frac{\kappa \mathrm{\Omega }}{2}$$
(8)
where $`\kappa `$ is a non-universal constant. This is in agreement with the results found earlier for the ABBM model Alessandro et al. (1990a, b); Durin et al. (1995), a single domain wall model Cizeau et al. (1997), as well as for experiments in soft magnets with BN due to the propagation of parallel domain walls Durin and Zapperi (2000): all of these systems have $`\alpha (\mathrm{\Omega }=0)=2`$. (3) For $`\alpha (\mathrm{\Omega }=0)<2`$ the pulse perspective is lost even for very small sweep rates since temporal overlap takes over (leading to a large runaway pulse). For finite (but large) system size, in the slow sweep rate regime $`\mathrm{\Omega }<\mathrm{\Omega }_t`$, so that one can actually still observe distinct pulses, these pulses will be distributed according to the adiabatic scaling forms, since in this case they tend to be very sparse on the time axis. This result also agrees with experimental results of Durin and Zapperi on soft magnets with stress induced anisotropies Durin and Zapperi (2000).

Numerically in the 3-d ztneRFIM we find that $`\alpha (\mathrm{\Omega })`$ appears to have a linear dependence on $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ since the ztneRFIM has $`\alpha =2.05\pm .05`$, i.e. very close to 2 (see fig. 2). We would expect, however, that if $`\alpha `$\>2, for very large durations (roughly $`T10^{\frac{1}{\epsilon }}`$ where $`\alpha =2+\epsilon `$ , for our problem $`ϵ=.05`$) we would find, in the large system size limit, the finite but slow sweep rate to leave the exponent $`\alpha `$ unchanged. We estimate the system size required to bring the exponent to within the error bars (i.e. $`\pm .05`$) of the adiabatic value for $`\alpha =2.05`$ and we find the system size must be orders of magnitude larger than the largest system we can simulate ($`500^3`$) (see Kuntz et al. (1999) for details of the base algorithm). It should be easier to observe the exponent independence in models with $`\alpha `$ significantly greater than 2.

Conveniently it can be shown Travesset et al.  that the high frequency scaling behavior of the power spectra (PS) of the the BN voltage time series is independent of the sweep rate for $`\mathrm{\Omega }<\mathrm{\Omega }_s`$. This is a direct consequence of the time series being a mere superposition of the uncorrelated adiabatic avalanches. For Poissonian distributed avalanche nucleation events (as in the ztneRFIM) the PS of the time series is a simple superposition of the PS of the individual pulses Travesset et al. ; Mazzetti (1962) and we note no difference in the scaling even in the lowest frequency of the PS. Since we are able to directly extract many of the exponents associated with the adiabatic avalanches (z,$`\nu `$z,$`\sigma \nu z`$,$`\frac{3\tau }{\sigma \nu z}`$,$`\frac{2\tau }{\sigma \nu z}`$) from the PS regardless of sweep rate, collapses of the PS provide a useful tool for probing the collective behavior without needing to address temporal overlap of avalanches. For $`\mathrm{\Omega }>\mathrm{\Omega }_t`$ where pulse statistics are lost and avalanche interactions become important as seen in Hwa and Kardar (1992) one must use spectral tools.

In summary we have found that the experimental observations of sweep rate dependence/independence of pulse duration and size distribution exponents can be understood as a consequence of temporal superposition of the avalanches that would be observed in the adiabatic limit. This conclusion is borne out by our numerical work on the ztneRFIM where we know that the pulses are simply a superposition of the adiabatic avalanches. We also provide criteria for determining for which sweep rates pulse statistics provide insight into the adiabatic collective behavior and when spectral methods will serve better.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank Jim Sethna and Mike Weissman for very clarifying discussions. This work was supported by the Materials Computation Center, grant NSF-DMR 99-76550, and NSF grant DMR 00-72783. K.D. also gratefully acknowledges support from an A.P. Sloan fellowship. We thank IBM for a very generous equipment award that made extensive numerical simulations for this work possible.


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# 1 Introduction and theoretical basis

## 1 Introduction and theoretical basis

Within the MSSM the masses of the $`𝒞𝒫`$-even neutral Higgs bosons are calculable in terms of the other MSSM parameters. The lightest Higgs boson has been of particular interest, since its mass, $`m_h`$, is bounded from above according to $`m_hM_Z`$ at the tree level. The radiative corrections at one-loop order have been supplemented in the last years with the leading two-loop corrections, performed by renormalization group (RG) methods , by renormalization group improvement of the one-loop effective potential calculation , by two-loop effective potential calculations , and in the Feynman-diagrammatic (FD) approach . These calculations predict an upper bound for $`m_h`$ of about $`m_h\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}135}\mathrm{GeV}`$.111 This value holds for $`m_t=175\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`M_{SUSY}=1\mathrm{TeV}`$. If $`m_t`$ is raised by $`5\mathrm{GeV}`$ then the $`m_h`$ limit is increased by about $`5\mathrm{GeV}`$; using $`M_{SUSY}=2\mathrm{TeV}`$ increases the limit by about $`2\mathrm{GeV}`$.

After the termination of LEP, the Higgs boson search has now shifted to the Tevatron and will later be continued at the LHC. Due to the large number of free parameters, a complete scan of the MSSM parameter space is too involved. Therefore at LEP the search has been performed in three benchmark scenarios . Besides the $`m_h^{\mathrm{max}}`$ scenario, which has been used to obtain conservative bounds on $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ , and the no-mixing scenario, the large-$`\mu `$ scenario had been designed to encourage the investigation of flavor and decay-mode independent decay channels (instead of focusing on the $`hb\overline{b}`$ channel). The investigation of these channels has lead to exclusion bounds  that finally completely ruled out the large-$`\mu `$ scenario.

The different environment at hadron colliders implies different Higgs boson production channels and also different relevant decay channels as compared to LEP. The main production modes at the Tevatron will be $`V^{}V\varphi `$ ($`V=W,Z,\varphi =h,H,A`$) and also $`b\overline{b}b\overline{b}\varphi `$, while the relevant decay modes will be $`\varphi b\overline{b}`$ and $`\varphi \tau ^+\tau ^{}`$ . At the LHC, on the other hand, the most relevant processes for a Higgs boson with $`m_h135\mathrm{GeV}`$ will be $`ggh\gamma \gamma `$ and $`t\overline{t}t\overline{t}ht\overline{t}b\overline{b}`$. Also the $`W`$ boson fusion channel, $`WWh\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$ has been shown to be promising . In order to investigate these different modes, we propose new benchmark scenarios for the Higgs boson searches at hadron colliders. Contrary to the new “SPS” benchmark scenarios proposed in Ref.  for general SUSY searches, the scenarios proposed here are designed specifically to study the MSSM Higgs sector without assuming any particular soft SUSY-breaking scenario and taking into account constraints only from the Higgs boson sector itself.

The tree-level value for $`m_h`$ within the MSSM is determined by $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$, the $`𝒞𝒫`$-odd Higgs-boson mass, $`M_A`$, and the $`Z`$-boson mass, $`M_Z`$. Beyond the tree-level, the main correction to $`m_h`$ stems from the $`t`$$`\stackrel{~}{t}`$-sector, and for large values of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ also from the $`b`$$`\stackrel{~}{b}`$-sector (see Ref.  for our notations). Accordingly, the most important parameters for the corrections to $`m_h`$ are $`m_t`$, $`M_{SUSY}`$ (in this work we assume that the soft SUSY-breaking parameters for sfermions are equal: $`M_{SUSY}:=M_{\stackrel{~}{t}_L}=M_{\stackrel{~}{t}_R}=M_{\stackrel{~}{b}_L}=M_{\stackrel{~}{b}_R}`$), $`X_t`$ ($`A_t\mu /\mathrm{tan}\beta `$), and $`X_b`$ ($`A_b\mu \mathrm{tan}\beta `$); $`A_{t,b}`$ are the trilinear Higgs sfermion couplings and $`\mu `$ is the Higgs mixing parameter. $`m_h`$ depends furthermore on the SU(2) gaugino mass parameter, $`M_2`$ (the U(1) gaugino mass parameter is given by $`M_1=5/3s_W^2/c_W^2M_2`$). At the two-loop level also the gluino mass, $`m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}`$, enters the prediction for $`m_h`$.

It should be noted in this context that the FD result has been obtained in the on-shell (OS) renormalization scheme (the corresponding Fortran code, that has been used for the analyses by the LEP collaborations, is FeynHiggs ), whereas the RG result has been calculated using the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme; see Ref.  for details (the corresponding Fortran code, also used by the LEP collaborations, is subhpole ). While the corresponding shift in the parameter $`M_{SUSY}`$ turns out to be relatively small in general, sizable differences can occur between the numerical values of $`X_t`$ in the two schemes; see Refs. . For this reason we specify below different values for $`X_t`$ within the two approaches.

## 2 The benchmark scenarios

In this section we define four benchmark scenarios suitable for the MSSM Higgs boson search at hadron colliders. In these scenarios the values of the $`\stackrel{~}{t}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{b}`$ sector as well as the gaugino masses will be fixed, while $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ and $`M_A`$ are the parameters that are varied. It has been checked that the scenarios evade the LEP2 bounds  over a wide range of the $`M_A`$-$`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$-plane, where the variation should be chosen according to

$`0.5\mathrm{tan}\beta 50,M_A1\mathrm{TeV}.`$ (1)
To illustrate the effects arising in the different proposed benchmark scenarios, we have evaluated (using the results presented in Refs. )

$$\frac{\left[\sigma \times \mathrm{BR}\right]_{\mathrm{MSSM}}}{\left[\sigma \times \mathrm{BR}\right]_{\mathrm{SM}}}$$
(2)
for several Higgs production and decay channels for the new benchmark scenarios. Further information about the properties of these scenarios can be found at www.feynhiggs.de .

### 2.1 The $`m_h^{\mathrm{max}}`$ scenario

This scenario is kept as presented in Ref. , since it allows conservative $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ exclusion bounds  (only the sign of $`\mu `$ is switched to a positive value). The parameters are chosen such that the maximum possible Higgs-boson mass as a function of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ is obtained (for fixed $`M_{SUSY}`$, and $`M_A`$ set to its maximal value, $`M_A=1\mathrm{TeV}`$). The parameters are222 Better agreement with $`\mathrm{BR}(bs\gamma )`$ constraints is obtained for the other sign of $`X_t`$ (called the “constrained $`m_h^{\mathrm{max}}`$” scenario). However, this lowers the maximum $`m_h`$ values by $`5\mathrm{GeV}`$. :

$`m_t=174.3\mathrm{GeV},M_{SUSY}=1\mathrm{TeV},\mu =200\mathrm{GeV},M_2=200\mathrm{GeV},`$
$`X_t^{\mathrm{OS}}=2M_{SUSY}\text{(FD calculation)},X_t^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}=\sqrt{6}M_{SUSY}\text{(RG calculation)}`$
$`A_b=A_t,m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}=0.8M_{SUSY}.`$ (3)
In Fig. 1 we show $`[\sigma \times \mathrm{BR}]_{\mathrm{MSSM}}/[\sigma \times \mathrm{BR}]_{\mathrm{SM}}`$ for the channels $`ggh\gamma \gamma `$ (left plot) and $`W^{}WhWb\overline{b}`$ (right plot) in the $`M_A\mathrm{tan}\beta `$-plane. For low values of the $`𝒞𝒫`$-odd Higgs boson mass, $`M_A`$, the structure of the MSSM Higgs sector leads to an enhancement with respect to the SM value of the $`hb\overline{b}`$ and $`h\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$ coupling. The MSSM coupling possesses an additional factor of $`\mathrm{sin}\alpha _{\mathrm{eff}}/\mathrm{cos}\beta `$, where $`\alpha _{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is the mixing angle of the neutral $`𝒞𝒫`$-even Higgs sector, including radiative corrections (see e.g. Refs. ), and the factor of $`1/\mathrm{cos}\beta `$ can lead to an enhancement for large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$. The additional factor in the coupling converges very slowly to 1 for large values of $`M_A`$, and can differ significantly for low values of $`M_A`$. The branching ratio of the decay of $`h`$ into other channels, in particular the $`h\gamma \gamma `$ channel, is in this case significantly suppressed. Therefore, the $`ggh\gamma \gamma `$ channel can be strongly suppressed for small and moderate values of $`M_A`$. The $`W^{}WhWb\overline{b}`$ channel, on the other hand, is nearly always enhanced compared to the SM case, since the $`WWh`$ coupling is mostly SM-like, except for $`M_A\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}100}\mathrm{GeV}`$, where for intermediate and large values of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ the $`WWh`$ coupling becomes small. In this parameter region, however, for very small values of $`M_A`$ the heavy $`𝒞𝒫`$-even Higgs boson, $`H`$, has SM-like couplings. As a consequence, in the parameter regions where the light Higgs boson is very difficult to observe, the search for the $`H`$ should have similar prospects as the SM Higgs search.

The channels presented in Fig. 1 show the complementarity between Tevatron and LHC for the search for the lightest MSSM Higgs boson. It is worth to notice as well that the LHC itself will exhibit a similar complementary behavior in this benchmark scenario between the $`ggh\gamma \gamma `$ process and the other two search channels, $`t\overline{t}ht\overline{t}b\overline{b}`$ and $`WWh\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$.

### 2.2 The no-mixing scenario

This benchmark scenario is the same as the $`m_h^{\mathrm{max}}`$ scenario, but with vanishing mixing in the $`\stackrel{~}{t}`$ sector and with a higher SUSY mass scale to avoid the LEP Higgs bounds:

$`m_t=174.3\mathrm{GeV},M_{SUSY}=2\mathrm{TeV},\mu =200\mathrm{GeV},M_2=200\mathrm{GeV},`$
$`X_t=0\text{(FD/RG calculation)},A_b=A_t,m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}=0.8M_{SUSY}.`$ (4)
In Fig. 2 we show $`[\sigma \times \mathrm{BR}]_{\mathrm{MSSM}}/[\sigma \times \mathrm{BR}]_{\mathrm{SM}}`$ for the channels $`ggh\gamma \gamma `$ (left plot) and $`W^{}WhWb\overline{b}`$ (right plot) in the $`M_A\mathrm{tan}\beta `$-plane. As in the $`m_h^{\mathrm{max}}`$ scenario, the branching ratio for $`hb\overline{b}`$ and $`h\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$ is significantly enhanced for low values of $`M_A`$. Therefore, also in the no-mixing scenario the $`ggh\gamma \gamma `$ channel can be strongly suppressed for not too large values of $`M_A`$. The $`W^{}WhWb\overline{b}`$ channel is nearly always enhanced compared to the SM case for the same reasons as in the $`m_h^{\mathrm{max}}`$ scenario (except for $`M_A\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}100}\mathrm{GeV}`$).

### 2.3 The gluophobic Higgs scenario

In this scenario the main production cross section for the light Higgs boson at the LHC, $`ggh`$, is strongly suppressed. This can happen due to a cancellation between the top quark and the stop quark loops in the production vertex (see Ref. ). This cancellation is more effective for small $`\stackrel{~}{t}`$ masses and hence for relatively large values of the $`\stackrel{~}{t}`$ mixing parameter, $`X_t`$. The partial width of the most relevant decay mode, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(h\gamma \gamma )`$, is affected much less, since it is dominated by the $`W`$ boson loop. The parameters are:

$`m_t=174.3\mathrm{GeV},M_{SUSY}=350\mathrm{GeV},\mu =300\mathrm{GeV},M_2=300\mathrm{GeV},`$
$`X_t^{\mathrm{OS}}=750\mathrm{GeV}\text{(FD calculation)},X_t^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}=770\mathrm{GeV}\text{(RG calculation)}`$
$`A_b=A_t,m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}=500\mathrm{GeV}.`$ (5)
In Fig. 3 we show $`[\sigma \times \mathrm{BR}]_{\mathrm{MSSM}}/[\sigma \times \mathrm{BR}]_{\mathrm{SM}}`$ for the channels $`ggh\gamma \gamma `$ (left plot) and $`t\overline{t}t\overline{t}ht\overline{t}b\overline{b}`$ (right plot) in the $`M_A\mathrm{tan}\beta `$-plane. The $`ggh\gamma \gamma `$ channel can be strongly suppressed over the whole $`M_A\mathrm{tan}\beta `$-plane, rendering this detection channel difficult. The $`t\overline{t}t\overline{t}ht\overline{t}b\overline{b}`$ channel, on the other hand, is always enhanced compared to the SM case (except for $`M_A\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}100}\mathrm{GeV}`$). The same qualitative behavior holds for the $`WW`$ fusion channel with subsequent decay to $`b\overline{b}`$ or $`\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$.

### 2.4 The small $`\alpha _{\mathrm{eff}}`$ scenario

Besides the channel $`ggh\gamma \gamma `$ at the LHC, the other channels for light Higgs searches at the Tevatron and at the LHC mostly rely on the decays $`hb\overline{b}`$ and $`h\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$, see Sect. 2.1. If $`\alpha _{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is small, these two decay channels can be heavily suppressed in the MSSM due to the additional factor $`\mathrm{sin}\alpha _{\mathrm{eff}}/\mathrm{cos}\beta `$ compared to the SM coupling. ($`hb\overline{b}`$ can also receive large corrections from $`\stackrel{~}{b}`$-$`\stackrel{~}{g}`$ loops .) Such a suppression occurs for large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ and not too large $`M_A`$ (in a similar way as in the large-$`\mu `$ scenario ) for the following parameters:

$`m_t=174.3\mathrm{GeV},M_{SUSY}=800\mathrm{GeV},\mu =2.5M_{SUSY},M_2=500\mathrm{GeV},`$
$`X_t^{\mathrm{OS}}=1100\mathrm{GeV}\text{(FD calculation)},X_t^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}=1200\mathrm{GeV}\text{(RG calculation)}`$
$`A_b=A_t,m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}=500\mathrm{GeV}.`$ (6)
In Fig. 4 we show $`[\sigma \times \mathrm{BR}]_{\mathrm{MSSM}}/[\sigma \times \mathrm{BR}]_{\mathrm{SM}}`$ for the channels $`W^{}WhWb\overline{b}`$ (left plot) and $`W^{}WhW\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$ (right plot) in the $`M_A\mathrm{tan}\beta `$-plane. Significant suppression occurs for large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta \stackrel{>}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}20}`$, and small $`M_A`$, $`M_A\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}250},400\mathrm{GeV}`$, for $`hb\overline{b}`$ and $`h\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$, respectively. Thus, Higgs boson search via the $`W`$ production channel and the $`WW`$ fusion channel (see also Ref. ) will be difficult in these parts of the parameter space. The same applies for the channel $`t\overline{t}ht\overline{t}b\overline{b}`$. The complementary channel, $`h\gamma \gamma `$, is unsuppressed compared to the SM case for large parts of the $`M_A\mathrm{tan}\beta `$-plane.

## 3 Conclusions

We have presented four benchmark scenarios for the MSSM Higgs boson search at hadron colliders, evading the exclusion bounds obtained at LEP2. The different scenarios exemplify different features of the MSSM parameter space, such as large $`m_h`$ values and significant $`ggh`$ or $`hb\overline{b}`$, $`h\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$ suppression. In the benchmark scenarios proposed above, we have briefly analyzed the possible suppression of several Higgs production and decay channels, showing possible “problematic” regions of the MSSM parameter space.

With the exception of the gluon fusion mediated process, which is significantly suppressed in the gluophobic Higgs scenario, the production processes at the Tevatron and the LHC considered here, $`W^{}Wh`$, $`t\overline{t}t\overline{t}h`$, $`WWh`$ and $`ggh`$, are close to their SM values for most of the allowed parameter space of the benchmark scenarios. Hence, deviations of the rate of the Higgs search processes at hadron colliders compared to the SM case are mainly due to the SUSY corrections affecting the Higgs decay modes.

In all the cases analyzed in this note, we have found a complementarity between the $`hb\overline{b}`$, $`h\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$ and the $`h\gamma \gamma `$ channels, i.e. in the parameter regions where the search for the Higgs in one of these channels becomes problematic, in at least one of the other channels it becomes easier than in the SM case. It is difficult to find exceptions to this rule in the MSSM parameter space. Therefore in analyzing the new benchmark scenarios, it will be helpful to make use of the complementarity of different channels accessible at the Tevatron and the LHC (see e.g. Ref.  for details).

#### Acknowledgements

G.W. thanks the organizers of the Les Houches workshop for the invitation and the pleasant and constructive atmosphere.


text:
# Frictional Drag between Two Dilute Two-Dimensional Hole Layers

\[

## Abstract

We report drag measurements on dilute double layer two-dimensional hole systems in the regime of $`r_s=1939`$. We observed a strong enhancement of the drag over the simple Boltzmann calculations of Coulomb interaction, and deviations from the $`T^2`$ dependence which cannot be explained by phonon-mediated, plasmon-enhanced, or disorder-related processes. We suggest that this deviation results from interaction effects in the dilute regime.

\]

In recent years, transport properties in dilute two-dimensional (2D) electron or hole systems have generated much interest from the possibility that strong interactions between charge carriers in such systems could stabilize a new quantum state, which can exhibit unusual transport characteristics. In contradiction to the scaling theory of localization, which predicts only an insulating state in 2D in the absence of interactions, a metallic behavior characterized by a decreasing resistivity ($`\rho `$) with decreasing temperature ($`T`$) and an apparent metal-insulator transition as the carrier density is varied has been observed in many dilute 2D systems. Despite numerous experimental and theoretical studies, there is no conclusive understanding of the nature of the metallic behavior at this point. It is an interesting question whether this metallic behavior is related to any non-Fermi liquid behavior, since the interactions between the carriers are strong. Studies indicate that the 2D system behaves as a Fermi liquid even in this dilute metal-insulator transition regime by examining the weak localization and interaction corrections to the conductivity. In this paper, we present an alternative way of studying the validity of Fermi liquid theory in this dilute regime: frictional drag experiment.

Drag measurements, which are performed on double layer structures, have been utilized to study the interlayer carrier-carrier interactions. These measurements are done by passing a drive current ($`I_{drive}`$) through one of the layers, while measuring the potential difference ($`V_D`$), which arises in the other layer due to carrier momentum transfer. The drag resistivity, given by $`\rho _D=(W/L)V_D/I_{drive}`$, where $`W`$ and $`L`$ are the width and the length of the sample, provides a direct measure of the interlayer scattering rate in these structures. The first component of $`\rho _D`$ has been identified as from the Coulomb interaction, which is characterized by a quadratic increase of $`\rho _D`$ with $`T`$ in a simple single particle picture. Any deviations from this $`T^2`$ dependence would mean either a non-Fermi liquid behavior or an additional interaction mechanism. Most previous drag measurements have been performed on high density samples, and confirmed the $`T^2`$ dependence when the layer separation was 300 Å and less, while they showed deviations from this dependence when either the layer separation is large or the temperature is high. These deviations, shown as a peak when $`\rho _D/T^2`$ is plotted as a function of $`T`$, were attributed to either a phonon-mediated process or a plasmon excitation contribution.

What is of major interest in our study is the drag in the low density regime with small layer separation in order to investigate the validity of $`T^2`$ dependence in the $`T0`$ limit, a test for the Fermi liquid behavior. In this paper, we present drag measurements on dilute two dimensional hole systems at layer densities $`(p)`$ ranging from $`2.5\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2 to $`6\times 10^9`$ cm-2. These are the first reported results, to our best knowledge, of drag measurements in this low density range. In addition, the larger effective mass ($`m^{}`$) in the hole samples allows us to explore a much higher $`r_s`$ regime than has been previously measured in electron samples; $`r_s`$ is the ratio of interaction energy to Fermi energy and is given by $`r_s=(p\pi )^{1/2}m^{}e^2/4\pi \mathrm{}^2ϵϵ_0`$, where $`ϵ`$ is the dielectric constant. The $`r_s`$ values of the 2D systems which exhibit metal-insulator transition is usually around 10 or higher at the transition. Using the hole effective mass for our system $`m^{}=0.38m_e`$, we find that the $`r_s`$ values for our measurements range from 19 to 39. This is more than an order of magnitude larger than the $`r_s`$ values for the lowest density electron systems which have been measured. From the $`T`$ dependence of $`\rho `$ taken from one of the layers, we observed a clear metal-insulator transition at $`p8.5\times 10^9`$ cm-2 and $`\rho 30k\mathrm{\Omega }/\mathrm{}`$ (inset of Fig. 1).

Our drag measurements in this regime show that, for $`T0.5T_F`$, the drag exhibits a slightly stronger than $`T^2`$ dependence, where $`T_F`$ is the Fermi temperature. The magnitude of the drag is much larger than the simple Boltzmann calculations predict. As the temperature is further increased we find a crossover to a sub-linear dependence, and when $`\rho _D/T^2`$ is plotted as a function of $`T`$, the data exhibits a peak similar to that in a phonon-mediated or plasmon-enhancement process. However, from the dependence on the density ratio of the two layers, we observe no evidence of such processes in our systems. In addition, we find our data to be inconsistent with previous disorder enhanced studies of the drag. These findings lead us to believe that interaction effects are behind the observed enhancement.

The samples used in this experiment are Si $`\delta `$-doped AlGaAs/GaAs/AlAs double quantum well structures, which were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on the (311)A surface. Most of this paper presents data taken from a low density double layer hole sample, which we will refer to as sample A. We also provide data from an intermediate density double layer hole sample, which we refer to as sample B. The structure of sample A (sample B) consists of two 150 (175) Å GaAs quantum wells separated by a 150 (100) Å AlAs barrier, corresponding to a center to center layer separation ($`d`$) of 300 (275) Å. The grown densities in each layer are $`2.5\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2 for sample A, and $`7.0\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2 for sample B. For sample A, the mobility of each layer is roughly $`1.5\times 10^5`$ cm2/Vs for the grown densities at 300 mK. For sample B, the mobilities are, for the grown densities, $`5.7\times 10^5`$ cm2/Vs and $`7.7\times 10^5`$ cm2/Vs for the top and bottom layer respectively, at 300 mK. The samples were processed using a selective depletion scheme allowing independent contact to each of the two layers. Both layer densities are independently tunable with the aid of gates evaporated on both sides of the sample.

The data presented in this paper were taken in a 3He refrigerator and in a dilution refrigerator. The layer densities were determined by independently measuring Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations of each layer. Drive currents between 500 pA to 10 nA were passed through one of the layers, while the drag signal was measured in the other layer, using standard lock-in techniques at 1 to 4 Hz. We performed all the standard consistency checks on our measurements. The grounding to the drag layer was swapped between voltage contacts and the signals matched. The drag and drive layers were swapped and showed good agreement. The drag signal showed a linear variation with the drive current. Also, the out of phase signal was monitored to ensure that capacitive coupling between the layers was not affecting our measurement. It should be pointed out that three working samples were made from wafer A and two from wafer B. All of the samples from each wafer showed reasonable agreement with each other. However, data are presented from only one sample from each wafer.

In Fig. 1, we present $`\rho _D`$ vs $`T`$ for sample A at $`p=2.5\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2. The temperatures in this plot range from $`0.08T_F`$ to $`0.25T_F`$. When a trial fit is made with $`T^2`$(dashed line), the data does not show good agreement. Instead, when we fit the data with $`T^{2.5}`$(solid line), a better result is obtained. When the exponent is varied as a free parameter, we also find a value close to 2.5. It is clear that at low temperatures, $`\rho _D`$ shows a stronger than $`T^2`$ dependence. In addition, we find a very large enhancement of $`\rho _D`$. For this density, our measurements are greater than 200 times that calculated from the Boltzmann equation (valid for $`k_Fd1`$ and $`TT_F`$, with $`k_Fd=1.2`$ and $`T<0.25T_F`$ in our measurement) and roughly 5 orders of magnitude larger than the original drag experiment involving high density electrons ($`n=1.5\times 10^{11}`$ cm-2) with $`d=375`$ Å ($`\rho _D=0.5m\mathrm{\Omega }/\mathrm{}`$ at 500 mK). More recent measurements on bilayer electron systems, which have similar $`d`$ to our samples, showed a nearly quadratic temperature dependence for densities ranging from $`5.3\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2 to $`2.5\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2, which are slightly larger than ours samples. For the largest density, they measured $`\rho _D/T^20.4\mathrm{\Omega }/\mathrm{}K^2`$, which is only four times larger than that expected from a Boltzmann calculation ($`k_Fd=1.6`$, which is comparable to our sample). It is evident that Boltzmann transport theory fails to provide either the proper temperature dependence or the correct magnitude for measurement in our samples.

In Fig. 2, we present the complete temperature dependence of $`\rho _D`$ for matched layer densities at $`p=1.5\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2 taken from sample A. Although the data points on the low temperature side are again well described by a $`T^{2.5}`$ fit (dashed line), as the temperature is further increased we find a crossover to a sub-linear dependence at approximately $`0.5T_F`$. Also, we find the magnitude at this density to be roughly 500 times larger than the Boltzmann calculation. For comparison we also present intermediate density data taken from sample B. For this sample $`d=275`$ Å, so comparison is reasonable. For matched layer densities, $`p=7\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2, the data exhibits a nearly quadratic temperature dependence, and has a magnitude about 20 times larger than that calculated from the Boltzmann equation. At this intermediate density, we find no evidence that the system cannot be described by Fermi liquid theory. Note that this data shows no significant deviation from $`T^2`$ up to and above the Fermi temperature of about 5 K. This is in contrast to the low density sample (sample A), which clearly exhibits non-quadratic behavior at temperatures far below $`T_F`$.

The nature of this deviation from the $`T^2`$ dependence in the dilute regime is of much importance, since it possibly could be representative of non-Fermi liquid behavior of the strongly interacting charge carriers. On the other hand, it is also possible that the system can still be described as a Fermi liquid and the deviations from $`T^2`$ arise from the activation of some other interlayer momentum transfer mechanism. We approach this question by examining the deviation from the simple quadratic dependence more closely. In Fig. 3, we present the $`T`$ dependence of $`\rho _D/T^2`$. Data is shown for layer densities from $`2.5\times 10^{10}`$cm-2 to below $`1\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2. The deviation is clearly demonstrated by a local maxima around a characteristic crossover temperature, similar to previous drag measurements involving phonon mediated and plasmon enhanced processes.

For electron scattering mediated by phonons, this deviation arises from scattering processes involving 2$`k_F`$ phonons, and the expected peak in $`\rho _D/T^2`$ vs $`T`$ was observed in higher density samples near the Bloch-Grüneisen temperature ($`T_{BG}`$), given by $`k_BT_{BG}=2\mathrm{}k_Fc_s`$, where $`c_s`$ is the sound velocity in the barrier. For our sample, $`T_{BG}`$ ranges from 1 to 2 K, and the phonon-mediated process is certainly a possibility. In previous experiments on electron samples, a second peak in $`\rho _D/T^2`$ was observed at still higher temperatures near $`0.5T_F`$, which arises from a plasmon excitation. Since $`0.5T_F`$ in our low density sample ranges from 500 mK to 1.5 K, we expect the peak positions arising from both phonon and plasmon processes to fall in roughly the same range. Therefore, we look at the density dependence of the peak position to determine which of these could be contributing to $`\rho _D`$.

In the inset (a) of Fig. 3, we plot the peak position versus the matched layer density. It is clear that the peak position shifts to lower temperature as the density is lowered. We expect, for phonon mediated processes, this peak should scale with the square root of the matched density. On the other hand for plasmon enhanced processes, the peak should scale with the matched layer density. To determine whether the peak in the scaled drag resistivity could be arising from phonon or plasmon processes, we provide the best square root fit (phonon) and the best linear fit (plasmon) of the data. Considering the error bar associated with the determination of peak position and the narrow range of data, we found that the precise density dependence of this peak position cannot be specified accurately.

Yet, regardless of whether phonon or plasmon processes contribute to the drag resistivity, this enhancement should be strongest when the layer densities are matched. In the former, phonon exchange between carriers in each layer mediates the scattering process, and one would expect the enhancement of the drag resistivity to be largest when the 2$`k_F`$ phonons in each layer are identical. Drag measurements on the high density electron samples exhibited a sharp local maxima when the densities were matched. Similar to the phonon case, the plasmon enhancement of the drag resistivity was also shown to be maximized when the layer densities were matched. In the inset (b) of Fig. 3, we present measurements of $`\rho _D`$ versus density ratio of the two layers. The drive layer density was slowly changed for a fixed drag layer density of $`2.0\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2, and the resulting drag signal was measured. The measurements were performed near the peak temperature for matched density of $`2.0\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2. We notice that the density dependence is monotonic and we see no structure at all anywhere around the matched density point. Although we may not expect a strong peak at the matched density because the Fermi temperature difference between the two layers are about the same as the measurement temperature in this plot, we note that the previous plasmon-enhanced drag measurements showed a peak under similar conditions. If the thermal broadening makes the peak invisible for the phonon-mediated process, we expect that the peak in the temperature dependence in Fig. 3 would be broadened significantly as well, which is not the case in our data.

From the density dependence data, we find our measurements are inconsistent with the results of previous drag experiments involving phonons and plasmons. In fact, no evidence of either of these were seen in our intermediate density sample (Fig. 2 inset), and there is no reason to believe that these mechanisms should become much stronger as the density is lowered. On the other hand, we know that as the density is tuned into the dilute regime both disorder and interaction effects play an important role in charge transport. In the diffusive limit as $`T0`$, the disorder is expected to enhance the drag, and change the temperature dependence from the expected $`T^2`$ to $`T^2lnT`$. Investigating the possibility that the deviation from the $`T^2`$ dependence in our low temperature data could be due to diffusive behavior, we found that the data could not be fit by $`T^2lnT`$. In addition, the inset (a) of Fig. 3 shows that the boundary of the regime of the enhancement to the $`T^2`$ dependence shifts to lower temperature as the density and, in turn, the mobility is lowered. This is in contrast to the expectation that the boundary of the diffusive behavior should scale with the disorder temperature of the system, given by $`\mathrm{}/\tau `$, where $`\tau `$ is the transport scattering time, and it should shift to higher temperatures as the mobility is lowered. These inconsistencies lead us to believe that no signatures of the disorder are evident in our data.

In conclusion, we find ourselves unable to explain the drag measurements in this dilute regime by accounting for additional corrections due to phonon, plasmon or disorder enhanced processes. We are therefore led to believe that the characteristics observed in the data are due to interaction effects. Calculations have shown that for electron systems with intermediate densities, $`\rho _D`$ still exhibits a $`T^2`$ dependence at low temperatures and is enhanced by an order of magnitude over the Boltzmann calculations by accounting for intralayer correlations. However, we find that this calculation can only partly explain our data since we observe a much larger enhancement and a greater than $`T^2`$ dependence. We therefore find it still unclear whether the strong interaction between carriers simply adds more corrections which enhance and alter the temperature dependence of the drag, or if the interaction stabilizes a new state which exhibits non-Fermi liquid behavior.

We acknowledge S. Das Sarma, S. Simon, and T. J. Gramila for useful discussions related to the data. This work is supported by the NSF, and a DURINT grant through the ONR.


text:
# Strong Lensing Constraints on Small-Scale Linear Power

## Abstract

We place limits on the linear power spectrum on small scales ($`k50h\text{ Mpc}^1`$) using measurements of substructure in gravitational lens galaxies. We find excellent agreement with the simplest $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM models, and in conjunction with other cosmological probes, place constraints on the neutrino mass $`m_\nu `$, tilt of the primordial power spectrum $`n`$, and mass of the dark matter particle $`m`$. We find $`n>0.94`$, and for a Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum, $`m_\nu <0.74`$ eV and $`m>5.2`$ keV, at 95% confidence.

The amplitude of matter fluctuations on subgalactic scales can provide a wealth of information on a wide range of physics. For example, the inflaton potential kl00 , the neutrino mass lyanu , and the physics of the dark matter particles wdm ; sidm  can all cause measurable effects on the primordial power spectrum, especially on small scales. Hence, measurement of the small scale linear power spectrum is of great interest. Unfortunately, direct probes of the linear power on these scales has proven difficult, due to a host of astrophysical processes which complicate the interpretation of attempted measurements. The most promising avenue of attack has been study of the Lyman $`\alpha `$ forest absorption power spectrum lyagood , however it has been argued that inference of the linear power spectrum from the Ly $`\alpha `$ forest will be difficult due to nonlinear effects lyabad . One relatively clean probe of the linear power spectrum is the number of collapsed halos as a function of mass. Assuming Gaussian density fluctuations, simple smoothing arguments may be applied to calculate the collapsed halo abundance given the linear power spectrumps . This Press-Schechter formalism reproduces the mass function produced in cosmological simulations remarkably well, with only minor modifications st . A consequence of Press-Schechter theory, subsequently confirmed by numerical simulations, is that simple inflationary cold dark matter (CDM) models predict halos with significant amounts of satellite substructure substruc . The dearth of observed Local Group dwarf satellites, relative to these predictions, could in principle hint at suppression of fluctuations on small scales, implying new physics in inflation kl00  or in the dark matter sector sidm ; wdm . Unfortunately, once again uncertainties in the astrophysics of such dwarfs, such as star formation or feedback processes bullocks , limit the utility of these objects in constraining the matter power spectrum. Instead, a direct probe of the satellite mass (as opposed to the light) is required. Gravitational lensing, as an effect sensitive to mass rather than light, can provide such a probe. Recently, the abundance of satellite substructure in a sample of elliptical galaxies has been measured using gravitational lensing us . In this Letter, we quantify the constraints of this detection on the linear power spectrum.

Gravitational lens galaxies require a significant fraction, $`0.006<f_{\mathrm{sat}}<0.07`$, of their mass to be in subhalos in order to be consistent with observations of lens image fluxes and relative positions us . The most likely candidates for such satellites are the CDM subhalos predicted by Press-Schechter arguments and seen in N-body simulations; see Ref. us  for more details. Using the conditional mass function bower , which has been shown to match well the satellite mass function found in high resolution N-body simulations kl00 , this $`f_{\mathrm{sat}}`$ directly translates into a measurement of the linear rms density fluctuations on such mass scales, $`\sigma (M_{\mathrm{sat}})`$. For a Sheth-Tormen (ST) multiplicity function st , we have

$$f_{\mathrm{sat}}(>M_{\mathrm{sat}})=A\left[\mathrm{erfc}\left(\sqrt{\frac{a\nu }{2}}\right)+\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{1}{2}p,a\nu /2)}{2^p\sqrt{\pi }}\right]$$
(1)
$$\nu =\frac{\left[\delta _c\left(D(z_{\mathrm{sat}})^1D(z_{\mathrm{gal}})^1\right)\right]^2}{\sigma ^2(M_{\mathrm{sat}})\sigma ^2(M_{\mathrm{gal}})}.$$
(2)
Here, $`\delta _c=1.68`$ is the critical linear overdensity for collapse eke , erfc($`x`$) is the complementary error function, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(n,x)`$ is the incomplete gamma function, $`A^1=1+2^p\pi ^{1/2}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{1}{2}p)`$ is a normalization constant, $`D(z)`$ is the linear growth factor normalized so that $`D(z=0)=1`$, and $`z_{\mathrm{gal}}1`$ is a typical redshift at which the lens galaxy halo of mass $`M_{\mathrm{gal}}10^{12.5}M_{}`$ formed. For a Press-Schechter multiplicity function, we would have $`a=1`$, $`p=0`$ and $`A=\frac{1}{2}`$, however ST find that N-body simulations are better fit by $`a=0.707`$, $`p=0.3`$ and $`A0.322`$ st . We estimate the typical formation redshift for satellites by assuming they are tidally truncated and setting their inferred density equal to 200 times the background matter density when they formed. Assuming a flat $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmology with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.33`$ and Hubble constant $`h=H_0`$/(100 km/s/Mpc)=0.66, and adopting the ST fit, the lens constraints on satellite Einstein radius and mass fraction translate into constraints on $`\sigma (M)`$. This is plotted in Figure 1.

Having determined the rms linear mass fluctuations on subgalactic scales, we now compare this result to the predictions of various cosmologies. A representative sample are plotted in the figure. Fortuitously, the wide degeneracy in the lens constraints happens to lie nearly orthogonally to the direction in which different $`\sigma (M)`$ curves shift as the cosmology is varied. Clearly, the lensing measurement can strongly constrain a variety of physics. We consider three such constraints: the tilt of the primordial power spectrum, the mass of the neutrino, and the mass of the dark matter particle. Throughout, we use COBE normalized power spectra bunnwhite , assume a flat $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmology with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{DM}}h^2=0.13`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{B}h^2=0.02`$ and $`h=0.66\pm 0.05`$, and employ fitting functions for the transfer functions eisensteinhu ; wdm .

The tilt of the primordial power spectrum, $`n`$, is related to the slow roll parameters of the inflaton potential kolbturner . Recent measurements cmb  of the cosmic microwave background radiation constrain $`n1\pm 0.1(1\sigma )`$ on large scales ranging up to the horizon size. Lensing probes mass scales some 18 orders of magnitude smaller, so it provides the strongest constraints on the tilt that are currently possible. We find $`0.93<n<1.04`$ at 95.5% confidence, consistent with a scale-invariant Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum of perturbations. If we instead derive one-sided limits, we find $`n>0.94`$ at 95.5% confidence. Inflationary models with broken scale invariance kl00 ; bsi  are tightly constrained; the inflaton potential cannot have features which break scale invariance on scales larger than $`20`$ kpc.

Experiments probing atmospheric superk  and solar neutrinos sno  have established that neutrinos have mass and thus constitute particle (hot) dark matter. However, these experiments do not provide a definite measure of the mass of neutrinos, but instead the squared mass difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }(m^2)`$ between different neutrino flavors. The linear power spectrum constrains the neutrino mass, since kolbturner ; lyanu

$$m_\nu =94\mathrm{\Omega }_\nu h^2\text{eV}.$$
(3)
Note that this relation only applies for active neutrino flavors, and for vanishing lepton asymmetry, however recent work indicates that the asymmetry (and hence its corrections) are small dolgov . Increasing the energy density in neutrinos has the effect of suppressing power on small scales. Previous constraints lyanu  from Lyman $`\alpha `$ forest observations limit $`m_\nu <5.5`$ eV. By probing even smaller scales, lensing further tightens this bound. We explored a range of neutrino masses ranging from 0.05 eV, near the lower limit imposed by atmospheric neutrino oscillations superk  up to 3.2 eV. For a Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum, and assuming a uniform prior on $`m_\nu `$, we find $`m_\nu <0.74`$ eV at 95.5% confidence. If we instead assume a logarithmic prior, which may be more appropriate, we find $`m_\nu <0.53`$ eV at 95.5% confidence. Interestingly, the lensing upper limit on the sum of neutrino masses is quite close to the lower limit on neutrino mass measured by the LSND experiment lsnd , roughly $`\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }m^2}0.3`$ eV.

Additionally, our measurement provides a lower limit on the energy spectrum of dark matter particles. We follow standard convention and characterize the energy spectrum by the mass of a neutrino with an equivalent free streaming scale. Warm dark matter models, with $`m1`$ keV, have been proposed as a modification to CDM, in order to account for the dearth of dwarf satellite galaxies and the lack of cusps in dark matter density in the central regions of galaxies wdm . The close agreement of lensing observations with CDM predictions indicates that the free streaming scale must be below the $`20`$ kpc scales probed by lensing. Assuming a uniform prior in the range 1 keV $`<m<`$ 32 keV, and assuming a Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum, we find that $`m>5.2`$ keV is required at 95.5% confidence. Since the dark matter particle mass can be much larger than the range we have explored, our bound is conservative.

Certain effects which we have not considered will tend to suppress the effects of substructure, and hence bias our measurements to low $`\sigma `$. First, the conditional mass function ignores the effects of tidal stripping and disruption of satellite subhalos. Secondly, the finite angular sizes of radio QSO’s tend to wash out the lens effects of halo substructure. A proper treatment of these effects is beyond the scope of this Letter, however we note that both effects tend to increase the required abundance of satellite substructure and strengthen the constraints. Hence our limits should be regarded as conservative.

These constraints should all improve as the sample of suitable lens systems expands, and as the quality of the data improves. In general, multiply-imaged compact radio sources will be the preferred probe because of the high imaging resolutions available for radio sources using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). For the current lenses, deep VLBI observations of extended, thin jet structures in lenses trotter00  are a promising means of breaking the wide degeneracy between satellite mass and mass fraction. The Extended Very Large Array evla  and the proposed Square Kilometer Array radio array ska  can easily expand the sample of radio lenses by more than an order of magnitude, with a corresponding reduction in the uncertainties.

We thank Kev Abazajian, James Bullock, Joanne Cohn, Marc Davis, George Fuller, Ravi Sheth, Max Tegmark and Martin White for helpful discussions. ND was supported by the Dept. of Energy under grant DOE-FG03-97-ER 40546, and by the ARCS Foundation. CSK was supported by the Smithsonian Institution and NASA grants NAG5-8831 and NAG5-9265.


text:
# Feshbach-Stimulated Photoproduction of a Stable Molecular Condensate

## I Introduction

In addition to translation, the molecular degrees of freedom include rotation and vibration, so that the laser cooling techniques used to create an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC)  are difficult, if not impossible, to apply to molecules. Buffer gas cooling  and Stark-deceleration  methods are thus being developed as replacements for lasers in the precooling step towards a molecular BEC. Meanwhile, for systems where atomic BEC is already available, photoassociation  and the Feshbach resonance  have been proposed as a shortcut to the production of a molecular condensate.

Photoassociation occurs when a pair of colliding ultracold atoms absorb a laser photon , thereby jumping from the two-atom continuum to a bound molecular state. If the initial atoms are Bose-condensed, then the subsequent molecules will also form a Bose-Einstein condensate . Nevertheless, photoassociation generally occurs to an excited state, and the subsequent irreversible losses defeat the purpose of molecular coherence. Adding a second laser to drive molecular population to a stable electronic state, stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP)  in photoassociation of a BEC  has been proposed as a means for avoiding radiative decay. However, collisions between particles make it difficult to achieve adiabaticity, which ultimately limits the practical efficiency of STIRAP to about fifty percent .

On the other hand, the process known as the Feshbach resonance  occurs when two ultracold atoms collide in the presence of a magnetic field, whereby the spin of one of the colliding atoms flips, and the pair jump from the two-atom continuum to a quasibound molecular state. As with photoassociation, the so-formed molecules will constitute a BEC if the incident atoms are themselves Bose-condensed . Unfortunately, the quasibound condensate, while translationally and rotationally ultracold, is vibrationally very hot, and thus highly susceptible to collision-induced vibrational relaxation. Hence, while an adiabatic sweep of the magnetic field across the Feshbach resonance will create a molecular BEC with near-unit efficiency, coherence is again moot in the face of irreversible losses . Although adding a pair of lasers to this scheme allows for a stable molecular condensate, the practical efficiency of STIRAP is limited to about twenty percent .

The purpose of this Article is to develop a means for creating a stable molecular BEC that is near-unit efficient in both principle and practice. We therefore consider Feshbach-stimulated photoproduction, wherein the quasibound state formed in the presence of a static magnetic field is coupled via a Raman laser configuration to a stable molecular state. Again, a version of this scheme, in which STIRAP-inducing lasers are run concurrently with a sweep of the magnetic field across the Feshbach resonance, has been previously proposed ; but, the efficiency of STIRAP is limited by the time-dependence of the quasibound energy arising from the changing magnetic field, and large system densities ($`\stackrel{>}{}10^{14}`$cm-3) allow collision-induced mean-field shifts and vibrational relaxation to dominate atom-molecule conversion. On the contrary, we consider a static magnetic field interacting with a modest-density gas of atoms, which minimizes the role of mean-field shifts and vibrational relaxation, and enables the production of a stable molecular condensate with near-unit efficiency.

The development herein is outlined as follows. Section II introduces the model, along with the concept of collective enhancement. Section III illustrates the creation of a stable molecular condensate using a CW two-photon Raman configuration, as well as with transient STIRAP, both of which avoid radiative losses. In Sec. IV we discuss vibrational quenching and dissociation of the quasibounds, and estimate explicit numbers to determine the atomic systems for which such losses are negligible. Besides a summary, Section V considers our results in light of recent experiments with 85Rb.

## II Model

We model a two-component quantum degenerate gas of atoms coupled via a Feshbach resonance to a condensate of quasibound molecules; additionally, one laser drives quasibound $``$ excited-bound molecular transitions, thus creating a condensate of electronically excited molecules, and a second laser induces excited-bound $``$ ground transitions to a stable molecular condensate (see Fig. 1). The initial atoms are denoted by the field $`\varphi _\pm (𝐫,t)`$, the quasibound molecules by the field $`\psi _1(𝐫,t)`$, the excited molecules by the field $`\psi _2(𝐫,t)`$, and, finally, the ground state molecules by the field $`\psi _3(𝐫,t)`$. The atoms may be either bosons or fermions, whereas the molecules are strictly bosonic. All fields obey the appropriate commutation relations. For the moment, we neglect both collisions and irreversible losses. Assuming that these five modes sufficiently describe the relevant physics, the Heisenberg equations of motion that govern the evolution of the atomic and molecular fields are

$`i\dot{\varphi }_\pm `$ $`=`$ $`()^\eta \frac{1}{2}\overline{\alpha }\varphi _{}^{}\psi _1,`$ (2)
$`i\dot{\psi }_1`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _1\psi _1+\frac{1}{2}\overline{\alpha }\varphi _1\varphi _2+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_1\psi _2,`$ (3)
$`i\dot{\psi }_2`$ $`=`$ $`\delta \psi _2+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_1\psi _1+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_2\psi _3,`$ (4)
$`i\dot{\psi }_3`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }\psi _3+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_2\psi _2.`$ (5)
Here $`\eta =2`$ (1) for bosons (fermions), and the amplitudes $`\varphi _\pm `$ and $`\psi _i`$ have been taken as uniform over the volume of the system ($`i=1,2,3`$).

The strength of the Feshbach resonance, the process by which atoms are converted into quasibound molecules, is given by $`\overline{\alpha }=[2\eta \pi |a|\mu _{ma}\mathrm{\Delta }_R/m]^{1/2}`$, where $`a`$ is the off-resonance $`s`$-wave scattering length, $`\mu _{ma}`$ is the difference in magnetic moments between the quasibound molecule and free-atom pair, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_R`$ is the resonance width in magnetic-field units. The molecular energies are $`\mathrm{}\omega _i`$, with the quasibound energy is given specifically in terms of the magnetic field by $`\mathrm{}\omega _1=\text{sgn}[a](BB_0)\mu _{ma}/2`$, where $`B_0`$ locates the resonance position. Note that the magnetic-field dependence of $`\overline{\alpha }`$ and $`\omega _1`$ are chosen so that, upon adiabatic elimination of the quasibound field, the resonance-induced atom-atom scattering length has the correct dispersive form $`\mathrm{\Delta }_R/|BB_0|`$. Finally, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{1(2)}`$ denotes the Rabi frequency corresponding to laser L1 (L2), which has a frequency $`\omega _{L1(L2)}`$; correspondingly, the respective intermediate and two-photon detunings are $`\delta =\omega _2\omega _{L1}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\omega _3\omega _{L1}+\omega _{L2}`$.

We also scale the the atomic and molecular field amplitudes in Eqs. (II) by the square-root of the total number density of particles: $`xx^{}=x/\sqrt{\rho }`$, with $`x=\varphi _\pm ,\psi _1,\psi _2,\psi _3`$. Dropping the primes, the now order-unity field amplitudes evolve in time according to

$`i\dot{\varphi }_\pm `$ $`=`$ $`()^\eta \frac{1}{2}\alpha \varphi _{}^{}\psi _1,`$ (7)
$`i\dot{\psi }_1`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _1\psi _1+\frac{1}{2}\alpha \varphi _1\varphi _2+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_1\psi _2,`$ (8)
$`i\dot{\psi }_2`$ $`=`$ $`\delta \psi _2+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_1\psi _1+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_2\psi _3,`$ (9)
$`i\dot{\psi }_3`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }\psi _3+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_2\psi _2.`$ (10)
The term $`\alpha =\sqrt{\rho }\overline{\alpha }`$ would have previously been referred to as the Bose-stimulated free-bound coupling ; however, since the above equations of motion are statistics independent, we realize that Bose stimulation (in this case) has nothing whatsoever to do with bosons, but is instead a many-body effect that applies equally well to Fermi-degenerate systems. This idea is implicit to a (Feshbach-) photoassociation-induced Bose-Fermi superfluid , as well as four-wave mixing  in a Fermi-degenerate gas of atoms . Hereafter, we therefore coin a more appropriate term for $`\alpha `$: the collective-enhanced free-bound coupling.

## III Avoiding Radiative Decay

Given a Raman configuration, the brute-force way to avoid radiative decay from an electronically-excited state is a large intermediate detuning, and we thus consider the effective one-color problem obtained by adiabatically eliminating the excited-bound molecular field:

$`i\dot{\varphi }_\pm `$ $`=`$ $`()^\eta \frac{1}{2}\alpha \varphi _{}^{}\psi _1,`$ (12)
$`i\dot{\psi }_1`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _1^{}\psi _1+\frac{1}{2}\alpha \varphi _1\varphi _2\frac{1}{2}\chi \psi _3,`$ (13)
$`i\dot{\psi }_3`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\psi _3\frac{1}{2}\chi \psi _1,`$ (14)
where $`\psi _1\psi _3`$ transitions result from the two-color Rabi coupling $`\chi =\mathrm{\Omega }_1\mathrm{\Omega }_2/2\delta `$, and the Feshbach (two-photon) detuning has picked up a Stark shift $`\omega _1^{}=\omega _1\mathrm{\Omega }_1^2/4\delta `$ ($`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }_2^2/4\delta `$). In such case, spontaneous decay will now occur at a rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_s/\delta `$, and is managed by choosing $`\delta `$ suitably large.

For simplicity, we focus on a single-component BEC as our initial quantum gas: $`\varphi _\pm =\varphi `$, $`i\dot{\varphi }=\alpha \varphi ^{}\psi _1`$. The field amplitudes are treated as $`c`$ numbers, with initial conditions $`\varphi (0)=1`$ and $`\psi _i(0)=0`$. As shown in Fig. 2, the atomic and stable molecular condensates undergo Rabi-like oscillations consistent with a nonzero but small detuning. This detuning is effectively induced by the presence of the quasibound condensate, so that, while the spontaneous decay of the excited-bounds is essentially eliminated by a large intermediate detuning, losses due to vibrational quenching and dissociation of the quasibounds would still be encountered.

Although irreversible decay from the electronically-excited molecules is undoubtedly managed by a large intermediate detuning, we present a more elegant alternative: stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. The hallmark of STIRAP is the counterintuitive pulse sequence , which amounts to adjusting the two lasers so that initially, when most everything is in the quasibound molecular condensate $`\psi _1`$, the $`\psi _3\psi _2`$ coupling is strongest, and finally, when effectively everything is in the stable molecular condensate $`\psi _3`$, the $`\psi _1\psi _2`$ coupling is strongest. As the population moves from quasibound to stable molecules, the state with the larger population is always weakly coupled to the field $`\psi _2`$, thus keeping the population of the excited molecular condensate low (ideally zero) and reducing (eliminating) losses– even for zero intermediate detuning.

The idea is near that a properly-timed counterintuitive pulse sequence, applied to a degenerate atomic gas in the presence of a static magnetic field, will deliver a stable molecular BEC while avoiding radiative losses. Given the appropriate frequency scale as the collective-enhanced free-bound coupling $`\alpha `$, then atoms will be coherently converted to quasibound molecules on a timescale given by $`1/\alpha `$, and we need only wait for sufficient population to build before effecting STIRAP. In our model we assume Gaussian laser pulses of the form $`\mathrm{\Omega }_i=\mathrm{\Omega }_0\mathrm{exp}[(tt_i)^2/T^2]`$, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ determines the pulse height , $`t_i`$ locates the pulse center, and $`T`$ defines the pulse width ($`i=1,2`$).

This piece of intuition is correct, as shown in Fig. 3. We again use a single-component BEC as an example, with the pulse parameters specified as $`\alpha T=1/2`$, $`t_2=5T`$, and $`t_1=7T`$. Adiabaticity is assured by selecting pulse heights such that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0T=10^3`$. The atoms are tuned close to the Feshbach resonance, and the molecules onto laser resonance, by the choices $`\omega _1/\alpha =10^2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\delta =0`$. The plot shows the system coherently converting from atoms to quasibounds, and the laser pulses subsequently transferring nearly the entire population to the stable molecular condensate. Characteristic of a counterintuitive pulse sequence, radiative losses are expectedly minimized by a low excited-state population, of the order of $`10^5`$. Again, the presence of a meaningful fraction of quasibound molecules means that the physics of quenching and dissociation must still be addressed, to which we now turn.

## IV Quenching, Dissociation, and Explicit Numbers

Given either a CW two-photon or transient STIRAP set-up, it is safe to neglect radiative decay from the excited molecular state, and the remaining practical issues involve the mean-field energy shift produced by $`s`$-wave collisions between particles, as well as loss-inducing vibrational relaxation and dissociation of the quasibound molecules. Particle-particle collisions shift the system off of resonance by an amount proportional to the $`s`$-wave scattering length; since the numbers are not well known for atom-molecule and molecule-molecule collisions, we take $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=4\pi \mathrm{}\rho a/m`$ as approximating the mean-field shift due to $`s`$-wave particle collisions in general. Meanwhile, vibrational relaxation in sodium occurs at a rate  $`2\mathrm{\Gamma }\rho \times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{10}`$ s-1, and we use this value to estimate the effects of both atom-molecule and molecule-molecule vibrational quenching. Finally, dissociation of the quasibounds back to the atomic continuum will occur analogous to photodissociation , and necessarily involves “rogue” modes defined as modes lying outside the atomic condensate (Fermi sea). All told, rogue dissociation is non-exponential, i.e., the Fermi Golden Rule and simple inclusion with a non-hermitian term  do not strictly apply , and will impose a rate limit on all-bosonic atom-molecule conversion given roughly by $`R_L=6\omega _\rho `$, where $`\omega _\rho =\mathrm{}\rho ^{2/3}/m`$ . For fermionic atoms, the factor of two difference in the collective-enhanced free-bound coupling $`\alpha `$ should lead to a doubling of the maximum rate, $`R_L=12\omega _\rho `$ . From Fig. 3, ninety-five percent of the atoms are converted in $`3/\alpha `$ seconds, corresponding to a rate $`R=0.95\alpha /3`$.

Explicit numbers for various systems  are listed in Table I, where the densities (resonance widths) were chosen as a balance between being low (high) enough to enable safe neglect of $`s`$-wave and vibrational-quench-inducing collisions, and large (small) enough to keep atom-molecule conversion below the rate limit. The table indicates that rogue dissociation is the main obstacle. Overall, the 23Na (853 G) and 87Rb (680 G) resonances appear as the strongest candidates. For a CW two-photon Raman scheme, intermediate detunings $`\delta 10^3\mu `$s-1 should manage typical spontaneous molecular decay rates $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_s10\mu `$s-1 over the timescale $`\alpha ^1`$, while at the same time allowing moderate bound-bound Rabi frequencies: $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1=\mathrm{\Omega }_20.1`$ ms-1 for $`\chi /\alpha =1`$. The STIRAP peak Rabi frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_01\mu `$s-1 is larger, but not unreasonable. If by chance irreversible quasibound decay proves more than a marginal issue, one might imagine a multi-shot STIRAP scheme (see also Ref. ), where a smaller fraction of the population is converted per shot, and losses are further reduced by keeping the population low.

## V Summary

Admittedly, our inclusion of fermions is based on a BEC as an explicit example; nevertheless, the model itself is not dependent on statistics. Collective enhancement applies equally to fermions and bosons, so that the atom-quasibound conversion should still set the timescale $`1/\alpha `$, as is evident in Ref. . Absent Pauli blocking, dominant rogue losses render the production of stable molecules inefficient for the 6Li and 40K resonances considered; nevertheless, in a manner analogous to the bosonic case  (see also below), collective oscillations between atoms and correlated dissociation pairs, i.e., Cooper pairs, could still occur.

We have, moreover, identified the 155 G 85Rb resonance as a severely rogue-dominated system ($`R/R_L10`$), meaning that it is useless for producing any significant fraction of molecular condensate, stable or otherwise. On the other hand, Feshbach-only experiments have led to the observation of bursts of atoms emanating from a remnant condensate , and follow-up experiments using pulsed magnetic fields indicate large-amplitude oscillations ($``$ 30%) between remnant and burst atoms with a good many of the initial atoms gone missing– prompting speculation as to the formation of a molecular condensate . Although we have no doubt as to the achievement of atom-molecule coherence, the amplitude of the experimental oscillations need not be indicative of the number of molecules present: the double-pulse experiments  realize a Ramsey-type  interferometer, which maps out collective oscillations between atoms and dissociated atom pairs, and which is highly sensitive to a small fraction of molecular condensate ($``$ 1%)  (see also Ref. ).

In conclusion, we have presented a method for preparing a stable molecular condensate with near-unit efficiency: (i) start with a quantum degenerate gas of atoms, a magnetic field tuned at or near a Feshbach resonance, and a pair of lasers arranged in a Raman configuration; (ii) induce either CW two-photon Rabi flopping or transient STIRAP; (iii) obtain a stable molecular condensate. Favorable systems for implementation are 23Na and 87Rb. The advantage of this scheme is near-unit efficiency, which implicitly avoids rather large inelastic losses incurred by molecular collisions with unconverted atoms , and delivers a truly stable condensate of molecules. Moreover, experiments with photoassociation alone  are just on the verge of coherent conversion , and culmination requires a difficult-to-impossible balancing of low density and high laser intensity to simultaneously minimize mean-field shifts and rogue dissociation; a magneto-optical scheme may therefore provide the best opportunity for observing large-scale collective atom-molecule oscillations.

## VI Acknowledgements

The author thanks Randy Hulet, Juha Javanainen, Emil Lundh, Jani Martikainen, Jyrki Piilo, and Kalle-Antti Suominen for helpful discussions, and acknowledges the Academy of Finland for support (projects 43336 and 50314).