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# Clusters of Galaxies at Sharp Focus: Cooling Flows and Radio Sources Unveiled by Chandra

## 1. Introduction

In my oral presentation, I discussed four topics: the discovery and interpretation of the large density discontinuities, or so-called cluster “cold fronts”, Chandra observations of high redshift clusters, interactions between radio sources and the hot intracluster medium (ICM), and cooling flows. The first topic has been reviewed by Forman et al. (2001) and Sarazin (2001), to which I refer the interested reader. The exciting topic of high resolution X-ray imaging of distant clusters is somewhat less mature, perhaps because it is photon-starved and results are emerging slowly. However, Chandra is beginning to reveal the structure, temperatures, and masses of distant clusters, giving us a new view of cluster formation and evolution. For further details, I refer the reader to other discussions of high redshift galaxies (Fabian et al. 2001a, Holden et al. 2001, Stanford et al. 2001, Jeltema et al. 2001) while at the same time, apologizing to those whose papers I have missed.

I concentrate here on Chandra observations of the cores of relatively nearby $`z<0.1`$ cooling flow clusters (Fabian 1994). I emphasize the bright X-ray systems where Chandra’s superb spatial resolution can be used to full advantage in exploring the structure of the ICM. These systems are particularly interesting as they tend to harbor powerful radio sources. Chandra observations of these systems are providing new insight into the life cycles of radio sources and the deposition of energy and magnetic field into the ICM. In addition, I highlight the significant contributions Chandra’s superb spatial resolution is making toward a solution to the well-known cooling flow problem–the fate of the putatively large cooling mass fluxes in clusters–which I discuss in some detail. This review updates and expands the briefer discussions by McNamara et al. (2001a) and McNamara (2001).

## 2. Interactions Between Radio Sources and the keV Gas

Images of cooling flow clusters taken in the past decade with the ROSAT High Resolution Imager (HRI) have shown X-ray structure surrounding the radio sources in CDGs (Sarazin et al. 1995, Sarazin 1997, Rizza et al. 2000). The X-ray morphology varies, with some objects exhibiting enhanced emission at the location of the radio source, while others show deficits. However, in most instances, a detailed comparison between the X-ray and radio morphologies was prohibited by the roughly four arcsec resolution of the HRI. By virtue of their proximity, the HRI images of NGC 1275 in the Perseus cluster (Böhringer et al. 1993) and Cygnus A (Carilli, Perley, & Harris 1994) clearly show the radio lobes displacing the thermal gas surrounding them. Nevertheless, ROSAT’s limited spatial and spectral resolution did not permit a spectral analysis that would lead to a detailed understanding of the nature of the interactions. Chandra has changed this situation dramatically. Its exquisite, half arcsecond spatial resolution and moderate spectral resolution is capable of probing both spatially and spectrally interactions between radio sources and the surrounding plasma in a variety of systems including galaxies (Finoguenov & Jones 2000, Jones et al. 2000), groups (Vrtilek et al. 2000), and clusters. I discuss here the recent cluster studies which I suggest are leading to a new understanding of these interactions and their impact on the dynamics of the ambient medium in which they occur.

### 2.1. Radio-Bright Cavities in the keV Gas

The first Chandra images to show crisp signatures of interactions between the keV gas and powerful radio sources were those of the Hydra A and Perseus clusters (McNamara et al. 2000, Fabian et al. 2000a). In both cases, the large depressions in the X-ray emission coincident with the radio lobes and the bright emission surrounding and between the lobes are strikingly shown in Figure 1. Since then many clusters have been reported with similar features, such as Abell 2052 (Blanton et al. 2001), RBS 797 (Schindler et al. 2001), MKW3s (Mazzotta et al. 2001), Abell 2597 (McNamara et al. 2001b), Cygnus A (Wilson, Young, & Shopbell 2000), and 2A0335+096 in the Chandra archive. As Figure 1 shows, the radio lobes appear to have displaced the keV gas surrounding them, leaving cavities. Some of the questions to be answered are how the cavities formed, how they are supported against collapse (i.e., what is the equation of state within the cavities?), how long they survive, how frequently they occur, and their long-term impact on the ICM. I will address these topics here to the varying degrees of detail permitted by the data available at this time.

Using simulations of jets expanding into the ICM, Clarke, Harris, & Carilli (1997) and Heinz, Reynolds, & Begelman (1998) argued that the cavities seen in the ROSAT images of Perseus (Böhringer et al. 1993) and Cygnus A (Carilli, Perley, & Harris 1994) were caused by strong shock waves generated by relativistic jets. These models predicted that the X-ray emission from the rims surrounding the cavities should be spectrally hard, and gas in the rim should have higher entropy than the surrounding gas. While these predictions have yet to be tested in the case of Cygnus A, to our surprise the Chandra images of Hydra A (McNamara et al. 2000, Nulsen et al. 2001), Perseus (Fabian et al. 2000a), and Abell 2052 (Blanton et al. 2001) show soft emission from the rims, indicative of low entropy gas. This implies that the radio lobes expanded gently into the intracluster medium at roughly the sound speed in the keV gas (Reynolds, Heinz, & Begelman 2001, David et al. 2001, Nulsen et al. 2001). The few cavities studied thus far do not appear to have formed by shock waves associated with the radio sources, or they are being viewed in the late stages of their development.

The source of pressure within the cavities is not well understood. In Hydra A and Abell 2052, the external gas pressure exceeds the internal equipartition magnetic field and cosmic ray pressure by roughly a factor of ten (McNamara et al. 2000, Blanton et al. 2001). If the equipartition pressures are valid, the cavities should quickly collapse. However, their high frequency of detection, and the existence of the older, radio-quiet ghost cavities, implies that they persist on timescales longer than their sound crossing (collapse) timescales. The cavities should then be roughly in pressure balance with the surrounding gas. This would require an additional source of internal pressure support such as a dilute thermal gas, or an unseen population of energetic particles.

In Hydra A and Abell 2052, the data are consistent with the cavities being devoid of thermal gas. However, the uncertainties of the measurements do not preclude this. As a counter example, Mazzotta et al. (2001) have reported a hot thermal bubble in MKW3s. In either case, the gas density within the cavities is clearly less than their surroundings, so they should behave like bubbles in water and rise buoyantly in the intracluster medium (McNamara et al. 2000, Churazov et al. 2001). In this instance, the timescale for cavities to reach their heights in cluster atmospheres is determined by their buoyancy speed, which is of the same order as the Keplerian velocity at their true distance from the center of the cluster (Churazov et al. 2001). This timescale provides crude ages for the cavities of $`10^{7.5}10^8`$ yr, which exceeds their sound collapse timescales.

### 2.2. Radio-Faint “Ghost” Cavities in the keV Gas

In addition to radio-filled cavities, holes in the cluster X-ray emission that lack bright radio emission above $`1`$ GHz have been discovered in the Perseus and Abell 2597 clusters. These “ghost” cavities are seen in Perseus beyond its inner radio-filled cavities (Fabian et al. 2000a and Figure 1) and beyond the powerful radio source in the nucleus of Abell 2597’s CDG (McNamara et al. 2001b and Figure 2). In Perseus, flattened ghost cavities are seen roughly one arcmin to the northwest and south of the cluster center (Figure 1). The inner cavities are filled with bright radio emission (Fabian et al. 2000a), although the radio emission is not shown in Figure 1.

Likewise, Abell 2597’s ghost cavities are located symmetrically about the inner radio source roughly 20 arcsec to the northeast and southwest of the CDG’s nucleus. The cavity to the southwest is most prominent in the left panel of Figure 2. In the right panel of Figure 2, I have displayed the cavities with respect to the compact central radio source after subtracting the background cluster emission and expanding the image to highlight the central structure. The ghost cavities clearly do not coincide with the central radio source.

Based on the properties of radio-bright cavities, it is reasonable to suppose that the ghost cavities were produced in radio episodes that predated the current ones. One might then expect to detect faint radio emission from the dying lobes of the causal radio event. Indeed, faint spurs of radio emission have been detected near Perseus’s ghost cavities at 74 MHz (Blundell et al. 2000, Fabian et al. 2000a). Likewise, faint radio emission at 1.4 GHz was detected at the level of a few mJy toward Abell 2597’s ghost cavities with the VLA (McNamara et al. 2001b). These radio detections are consistent with the hypothesis that the ghost cavities were created in earlier radio events that occurred between 50–100 Myr ago. The energy required to inflate Abell 2597’s ghost cavities implies that the radio source was an order of magnitude more powerful in the past than the one seen today, which would have been as powerful as Hydra A. These bubbles of magnetic field and cosmic rays are presumably lifted into the outer regions of clusters where, rejuvenated, they may contribute to the formation of radio halos (Kempner & Sarazin 2001, Enßlin & Gopal-Krishna 2001).

### 2.3. Repeated Radio Outbursts Magnetize the keV Gas

That nearly 70% of CDGs in cooling flows are radio-bright (Burns 1990) implies that radio sources live longer than about 1 Gyr, or they recur with high frequency. Our interpretation of the cavities implies the latter, with a recurrence approximately every 100 Myr (McNamara et al 2001b). This would have significant implications for understanding energy feedback from the radio source to the ICM (Tucker & David 1997, Soker et al. 2001, Churazov et al. 2002). A lower limit to the energy expended during cavity formation is given by the $`PdV`$ work done on the surrounding gas. For Hydra A, the total energy is $`10^{59}`$ erg (McNamara et al. 2000), and energies of the same order are found for Abell 2052 (Blanton et al. 2001) and Abell 2597 (McNamara et al. 2001b).

Assuming that CDGs produce between $`10100`$ bubbles over their lifetimes, each with an energy of $`10^{5859}\mathrm{erg}`$, they would deposit $`>10^{5961}`$ erg into the ICM in the form of magnetic field, cosmic rays, and heat. This energy would be comparable to the the total thermal energy of the X-ray-emitting plasma in the inner regions of some clusters. Clusters are magnetized (Clarke, Kronberg, & Böhringer 2001, Kronberg et al. 2001), and these bubbles may be vessels that transport magnetic field from giant, central black holes to the ICM. If a significant fraction this energy were deposited as magnetic field in the inner 100 kpc of clusters, the implied field strengths of $`550\mu `$G would be consistent with the field strengths derived from Faraday rotation measures observed in the cores of cooling flow clusters (Ge & Owen 1993).

## 3. The Cooling Flow Problem in the Chandra–XMM-Newton Era

Galaxy clusters often harbor bright cusps of X-ray emission in their central $`100`$ kpc. These cusps are associated with regions of dense gas with radiative cooling times less than a few Gyr (Fabian 1994). Absent a significant source of heat, the gas will cool to low temperatures and accrete onto the cluster’s CDG where it will presumably accumulate in atomic and molecular clouds and form stars. Indeed, the likelihood that a CDG has detectable levels of cold gas and star formation increases dramatically with X-ray cooling rate (McNamara 1997, Cardiel et al. 1998, Allen 1995, Crawford & Fabian 1993, Crawford et al. 1999, Edge 2001). This is shown in Figure 3, where I plot the trend for larger blueward $`UB`$ colors associated with star formation in CDGs with increasing mass cooling rate. The cooling rates were estimated primarily with ROSAT data. The correlation suggests a strong connection between cooling flows and star formation. The problem with this interpretation rests with the large discrepancies between the star formation rates implied by the $`UB`$ colors and the X-ray cooling rates.

While the cooling rates plotted are typically hundreds of solar masses per year, the star formation rates are typically several to several tens of solar masses per year, depending on the star formation history of the system in question. The systems with the largest star formation rates, which approach $`100\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, appear to have experienced bursts or episodes of star formation lasting $`<100`$ Myr or so (McNamara 1997). Therefore, unless cooling is likewise episodic, cold gas would accumulate to the observed levels in tens of Myr, much less than the probable $`110`$ Gyr ages of cooling flows. This uncomfortable situation has lead to the view that either the matter is accumulating in a dark or otherwise unusual physical state, or the cooling rates have been substantially overestimated. The Chandra and XMM-Newton data are showing that the cooling rates were indeed substantially overestimated. Nevertheless, the consensus of data from a variety of disciplines suggests that cooling is indeed occurring.

### 3.1. The Short Cooling Time of the keV Gas

Chandra has the unprecedented capability to measure the state of the keV gas in clusters on scales of a few arcsec. This corresponds to a few kpc for clusters within $`z<0.1`$, which is comparable to the sizes of the radio sources and sites of star formation. With this unique capability, Chandra is applying a critical test of the cooling flow paradigm by providing for a direct comparison between local cooling rates and star formation rates, and searches for local heat sources that could reduce the cooling rates.

Chandra has confirmed the signature decline in gas temperature and the steeply rising density and pressure in the inner few tens of kpc of cooling flows (McNamara et al. 2000, David et al. 2001, Blanton et al. 2001, McNamara et al. 2001b). A typical example, Abell 2597, is shown here in Figure 4. The gas temperature declines from $`3.5`$ keV at 100 kpc to $`1.3`$ keV in the inner few kpc. At the same time, the density and pressure increase dramatically, reaching values of $`0.08\mathrm{cm}^3`$ and $`1.1\times 10^{10}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^3`$ in the central few kpc. The radiative cooling time of the gas there is only a few hundred Myr. No other X-ray observatory can make these measurements on such a fine scale.

### 3.2. Correlated Sites of Cooler KeV Gas & Star Formation

Several Chandra studies have shown a great deal of X-ray structure associated with high density, cooler gas in the central few tens of kpc of clusters. Much of this structure, seen for example in Figures 1 & 2, is associated with the radio sources, nebular emission, and sites of star formation. For instance, a bright, flattened X-ray structure is associated with the disk of star formation and nebular emission in Hydra A (McNamara et al. 2000). A similar spatial correlation is seen in Abell 2597, where bright knots of X-ray emission accompany the regions of ongoing star formation, nebular emission, and molecular gas (Heckman et al. 1989, McNamara & O’Connell 1993, Koekemoer et al. 1999, Voit & Donahue 1997, Donahue et al. 2000, Baker & Jaffe 2001, private communication). In both Hydra A and Abell 2597, the star formation regions and H$`\alpha `$ emission are seen where the cooling time of the keV gas is shortest $`300600`$ Myr.

The most striking example of this correlation is seen in Abell 1795. The Chandra image (Fabian et al. 2001b) shows a bright filament of gas near the nucleus of the CDG that extends southward between 50–70 kpc. Trails of $`U`$-band, young-star continuum (McNamara et al. 1996) and H$`\alpha `$ emission (Cowie et al. 1983) roughly correspond to the bright X-ray filament. I have reproduced these images here in Figure 5. Although it is not clear how these features came into being, the possibilities include a cooling filament or “cooling wake” of gas that formed as the CDG sloshed about in the cluster potential (cf., Markevitch, Vikhlinin, & Mazzotta 2001), or the remains of cooler gas that arrived in the cluster core by way of a merger with a group of galaxies (McNamara et al. 1996). In any case, these correlations clearly establish a relationship between the coolest X-ray-emitting gas and star formation, as is suggested by the statistical correlation between cooling rate and color excess shown in Figure 3.

### 3.3. Atomic & Molecular Gas of Varying Temperature

I wish to emphasize that the evidence for gas with a range of temperature, as would be expected in a cooling flow, is not restricted to keV and recombination (H$`\alpha `$) temperatures alone. Large reservoirs of atomic and molecular gas with a variety of temperatures are seen in cooling flows. H I has been detected in absorption against the radio continua of several CDGs in large cooling flows (e.g., O’Dea, Baum, & Galimore 1994). The kinetic temperature of the atomic hydrogen is probably between $`1001000`$ K. In addition, molecular gas has been detected in the $`2.1\mu `$ H2 feature in essentially all of the large cooling flows with strong nebular line emission (Elston & Maloney 1994, Jaffe & Bremer 1997, Falcke et al. 1998, Donahue et al. 2000). This infrared feature is tracing molecular gas at a temperature of $`2000`$ K. Furthermore, carbon monoxide emission, which was first detected in Perseus (Lazareff et al. 1989), has now been detected in many cooling flow clusters by Edge (2001). In several cases, emission is seen in multiple line transitions which seem to trace warm molecular gas at $`2040`$ K. The amounts of gas can exceed $`10^{10}\mathrm{M}_{}`$ in some cases, bearing in mind uncertainties in the mass estimates of factors of several. These properties are atypical of CDGs in clusters without the X-ray signatures of cooling flows, although sensitive observations of a proper control sample should be pursued to confirm this. In any case, these observations demonstrate that large reservoirs of gas ranging between the virial temperature and molecular cloud temperatures are indeed present in the central few tens of kpc of cooling flows.

### 3.4. Reduced Cooling Rates from Chandra and XMM-Newton

Cooling rates have been now been estimated using a variety of methods and instruments on Chandra and XMM-Newton for several cooling flow clusters (Fabian et al. 2000b, McNamara et al. 2000, Peterson et al. 2001, David et al. 2001, Molendi & Pizzolato 2001, Böhringer et al. 2001). The consensus reached in these studies of an admittedly limited number of objects is that the spectroscopically-derived cooling rates are factors of 5–10 less than earlier ROSAT and Einstein values.

The most compelling evidence for reduced cooling is found with the XMM-Newton and Chandra high resolution grating spectra for the putatively massive, $`\dot{M}2300\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ cooling flow in Abell 1835 (Allen et al. 1996). In contrast, the grating spectra give upper limits of $`\dot{M}<200300\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, based primarily on Fe XVII emission line fluxes (Peterson et al. 2001, Wise 2001, private communication). These measurements imply that either most of the cooling gas is maintained above $`2`$ keV, or that gas is cooling without an obvious spectroscopic signature (Fabian et al 2000b). Moderate resolution CCD spectroscopy from Chandra and XMM-Newton also give systematically lower cooling rates.

The only remaining evidence for massive cooling is found using morphological cooling rates, calculated essentially by dividing the central gas mass by the cooling time. This method gives $`\dot{M}`$s that are roughly consistent with results from earlier X-ray missions. However, the morphological $`\dot{M}`$ vastly exceed the spectroscopic $`\dot{M}`$ in Hydra A, for example (David et al. 2001). The inconsistency between these methods suggests that either the cooling gas is being reheated or maintained at keV temperatures by some heating process (David et al. 2001, Fabian et al. 2000b, Narayan & Medvedev 2001), or our cooling models are wrong.

### 3.5. A Stellar Repository for Cooling Gas in Abell 2597 & Hydra A

The strongest spectroscopic evidence for cooling gas in the Hydra A cluster is found in the central 30 or so kpc (David et al. 2001, McNamara et al. 2000) near a large circumnuclear disk of young stars and gas (McNamara 1995, Hansen et al. 1995, Melnick et al 1997). The spectroscopic cooling rate derived from spectral imaging is $`\dot{M}35\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ within a 70 kpc radius. Beyond roughly 70 kpc, the Chandra data are consistent with single temperature thermal models without cooling, while earlier studies reported cooling rates of $`\dot{M}300600\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ (David et al. 1990, Peres et al. 1998, but see Ikebe et al. 1997). The mass of young stars in the disk derived from rotation curve and luminosity measurements is $`10^{89}\mathrm{M}_{}`$. This mass is consistent with the present rate of cooling throughout the limited volume of the disk over the age of the cluster. However, if all $`35\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ of material cooling within a 70 kpc radius is accreting onto the disk, it would double its mass in $`30`$ Myr.

Similarly, a preliminary analysis of a Chandra image of Abell 2597 gives $`\dot{M}60\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ (McNamara et al. 2002), compared to the $`ROSAT`$ PSPC value of $`\dot{M}280350\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ (Sarazin & McNamara 1997, Peres et al. 1998). The CDG in Abell 2597 likewise is experiencing vigorous star formation with a total mass of $`10^{89}\mathrm{M}_{}`$ (McNamara & O’Connell 1993, Koekemoer et al. 1999). Cooling at the above rate would be capable of fueling star formation for a few tens of Myr or so depending on the star formation history. The upshot here is that the local cooling rates surrounding the star formation regions and the star formation rates seem to be converging. However, the state of the hot gas in cluster cores is much more complex than we might have hoped. Until these complexities are sorted out, the connection between cooling and star formation will remain uncertain. A lingering issue with the X-ray analysis is that while cooling flow models generally reproduce the observed spectra of the inner most regions of clusters quite well, we and others (Molendi & Pizzolato 2001) find that single temperature models often work equally well. There is ample evidence for keV gas with short cooling times, but there is little evidence for multiphase, cooling gas.

### 3.6. Episodic Cooling, Star Formation, and Feedback

The properties of Abell 2597 and Hydra A, if representative of other cooling flows, suggest that cooling and star formation occur episodically, rather than in a long duration flow as was previously thought. Interestingly, it has been known for some time that star formation in cooling flows probably occurs primarily in bursts, and that these bursts are sometimes associated with the radio source (McNamara & O’Connell 1993, Allen 1995, McNamara 1997, Cardiel et al. 1998). Furthermore, the star formation episodes occur on timescales that are less than or on the order of both the $`100`$ Myr timescales for radio outbursts inferred from the ghost cavity properties, and the cooling time of the gas in the vicinity of the star formation regions. The similarity of these timescales is at least consistent with the notion that feedback between gas accretion and the radio source is in some cases triggering star formation, while at the same time, regulating the degree of cooling.

One of the most appealing models to explain the reduced cooling rates is heating by the mechanical power of radio sources (Soker et al. 2001, Churazov et al. 2002). While there is some evidence for heating as seen in Hydra A’s flat central entropy profile (David et al. 2001), the gas surrounding the radio source is cooler, not hotter, than the ambient gas (McNamara et al. 2000, Fabian 2000a, Nulsen et al. 2001). This fact is seriously troubling for direct heating scenarios.

In Figure 6, I plot radio luminosity against central X-ray luminosity for a small sample of cooling flows. The filled points represent the observed radio luminosity, while the triangles are the same points multiplied by $`100`$ to represent the possible total mechanical energy available to work on the surrounding medium. The line indicates the threshold where the instantaneous radio luminosity matches the cooling luminosity, or the minimum energy required to quench a cooling flow over the short duration of the radio source.

Figure 6 shows that Hydra A and a few other sources are certainly powerful enough to significantly reduce or quench a cooling flow for many tens of Myr or so. However, most objects do not have enough power to quench cooling, and those that do must efficiently couple their mechanical power to the cooling gas. How the radio power would be coupled to the cooling gas is poorly understood. Several authors (David et al. 2001, Nulsen et al. 2001, Quilis, Bower & Balogh 2001, Brüggen et al. 2002, Churazov et al. 2002) have proposed scenarios where convective currents driven by Hydra A’s radio source may be removing cooling material out of the cluster’s core where it will expand, mix with ambient gas, and cool less efficiently. This process can assist in reducing the deposition of cooled gas without directly introducing heat. However, it is not clear whether these scenarios are consistent with the pronounced metallicity gradient in the cluster’s core (David et al. 2001, Fukazawa et al. 2000). Convection should remove a metallicity gradient, unless the excess metals can be replenished rapidly by ongoing star formation.

I should caution that the ROSAT data plotted in Figure 6 were taken heterogeneously from the literature, and the spatial resolution is poorly matched to the radio sources. Certainly this correlation needs to be revisited with Chandra. But it serves to illustrate the point that although radio sources clearly have a major impact on the cores of clusters, their ability to quench cooling over cluster ages has not, in my view, been demonstrated. Other agents such as heat conduction from the hot outer layers of clusters ought, yet again, to be reconsidered (Narayan & Medvedev 2001) in models aiming to reduce the level of cooling in cooling flows.

## Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the colleagues with whom I have worked closely in the last few years, Michael Wise, Paul Nulsen, Craig Sarazin, Larry David, and Chris Carilli, for their major contributions to the work discussed here. This research is supported by generous grants from NASA, the Chandra X-ray Center, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the Department of Energy, including LTSA grant NAG5-11025 and Chandra General Observer and Archival Research Awards GO0-1078A, AR2300-7X, and GO1-2139X. I would like to give special thanks to Eric Schlegel for organizing this meeting, and to the Scientific Organizing Committee for inviting me to attend.

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# Anisotropy and periodicity in the density distribution of electrons in a quantum-well

## Abstract

We use low temperature near-field optical spectroscopy to image the electron density distribution in the plane of a high mobility GaAs quantum well. We find that the electrons are not randomly distributed in the plane, but rather form narrow stripes (width smaller than 150 nm) of higher electron density. The stripes are oriented along the \[11̄0 \] crystal direction, and are arranged in a quasi-periodic structure. We show that elongated structural mounds, which are intrinsic to molecular beam epitaxy, are responsible for the creation of this electron density texture.

The two-dimensional electron system (2DES) that is formed in a semiconductor quantum well (QW) is a major platform for studying electron interactions in two dimensions. The electrons in this structure are confined to a thin layer, typically 10-20 nm wide, and are free to move only in the direction parallel to that layer. The significant advance over the last two decades in growth of semiconductor heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), particularly of the GaAs/AlGaAs material system, has made a critical contribution that facilitated these studies. In addition to achieving high purity and excellent crystalline quality, MBE allows tailoring the potential and doping profile inside the semiconductor with atomic layer precision. Using modulation doping the 2DES can be spatially separated from the ionized impurities, thus strongly enhancing the electron mobility Stormer . Indeed, 2DES samples with high electron mobility, of $`10^610^7`$ cm2/(V sec), are readily available today and serve for a variety of studies.

Irregularities in the crystal structure, however, are always present and introduce a disorder potential even in these high quality samples. The disorder becomes particularly important and determines the system behavior when it gives rise to spatial fluctuations in the electron density. A particular example is the behavior in high magnetic field, which is governed by the filling factor $`\nu `$, the ratio between the electron and magnetic flux densities. Clearly, a spatially varying density would translate into spatial fluctuations of $`\nu `$ and lead to inhomogenous behavior. Nevertheless, despite their importance relatively little is known on the nature of these electron density fluctuations. It was therefore natural that with the evolution of scanning-probe experimental techniques a considerable effort was directed to resolving spatial inhomogeneities in the system properties Hess  \- Yacoby . Near-field spectroscopy Betzig ; Paesler  studies have proven to be particularly useful in that context. The high spatial resolution that can be obtained, typically 100-200 nm, and the wealth of information contained in the optical spectrum made it a favorable technique for studying the local properties of semiconductor QWs.

In this work we use near-field photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy to study spatial correlations in the distribution of the electron density in a gated 2DES. Our ability to extract the electron distribution from the PL spectrum derives from the fact that a photo-excited electron-hole pair binds to a “native” electron in the 2DES and creates a bound complex, known as a negatively charged exciton, $`X^{}`$ Kheng ; Finkelstein . The $`X^{}`$ can be easily identified in the PL spectrum as a peak which appears $`1`$ meV below the neutral exciton, $`X`$, peak (Fig. 1), and its intensity is directly proportional to the average electron density, $`n_e`$. This proportionality is demonstrated in the inset of Fig. 1, which shows the area under the $`X^{}`$ peak (measured in the far-field) as a function of $`n_e`$. We have recently shown that this proportionality between the intensity and the electron density holds also locally: regions with high electron density give a large $`X^{}`$ signal, and vice versa Eytan1 ; Yayon . This is demonstrated in Fig. 1 which shows two spectra measured at two nearby points in the sample. It is seen that the intensity of the $`X^{}`$ peak is significantly different between the two locations while the $`X`$ peak is nearly the same. Thus, integrating the area under the $`X^{}`$ peak at each point (shaded area in Fig. 1) yields a value which is proportional to the local electron density, $`I_X^{}(x,y)`$. Hence, by photo-exciting the 2DES with weak laser light and conducting a spatially resolved measurement of the PL spectrum, we can image the electron distribution in the plane.

The local measurement of the PL spectrum is realized using a homemade near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) Eytan2  operating at 4.2 K. The sample is illuminated uniformly by a single-mode fiber and the emitted PL is collected through a tapered Al-coated optical fiber tip, which is brought into close proximity ($`<`$10 nm) of the sample surface. The tip collects the PL and guides it through an optical fiber into a spectrometer, where it is dispersed onto a liquid nitrogen cooled charged copule device (CCD) camera. The overall spectral resolution is 80 $`\mu `$eV. The spatial resolution is determined by the tip diameter. We have conducted measurements with tips of various diameters, between 0.2 – 0.3 $`\mu `$m. The two dimensional images shown in this paper were measured with a 0.3 $`\mu `$m tip, for which the higher collection efficiency allowed shortening the acquisition time Comments-tips .

The experiment is conducted on a 20 nm GaAs QW. A $`\delta `$-doped donor layer with a density of $`2.5\times 10^{12}`$ cm-2 is separated from the QW by a 50 nm Al0.36Ga0.64As spacer layer. The distance between the QW and the sample surface is 96 nm and the total thickness of the MBE grown layers is 1.55 $`\mu `$m. A $`2\times 2`$ $`\mu `$m2 mesa was etched, and ohmic contacts were alloyed to the 2DES layer. A 4.5nm PdAu semitransparent gate was evaporated on top of the mesa. By applying a voltage between the gate and the 2DES we could vary the electron density under illumination between $`1\times 10^{10}`$ \- $`2.5\times 10^{11}`$ cm-2. The electron mobility exhibits anisotropy, being $`3\times 10^6`$ cm2/(V sec) along the \[$`1\overline{1}0`$\] direction and $`2\times 10^6`$ cm2/(V sec) in the orthogonal direction Comment110 .

Figure 2a shows a two-dimensional image of $`I_X^{}(x,y)`$, which is proportional to the electron density, in an area of $`11\times 11`$ $`\mu `$m2. The image shown here was measured at an electron density of $`3\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2. In this low density regime the fluctuations in the electron density are large compared to the average density, and hence, it is a convenient regime to measure them Eytan1 . Similar images have been measured at different gate voltages, different regions of the same sample, and on different gated 2DES samples. It is seen that the 2DES density is highly non-uniform and exhibits large random fluctuations, manifested as changes of $`I_X^{}(x,y)`$. The X intensity image (not shown), on the other hand, is very uniform, and shows much smaller and more gradual fluctuations. This behavior is consistent with the fact the neutral exciton can diffuse in the plane, and provides a reassuring evidence for the significance of the observed fluctuations.

To unveil possible order in this seemingly random image we have studied the $`X^{}`$ intensity autocorrelation function $`G(x,y)=<I(x^{},y^{})I(x^{}x,y^{}y)>`$, where $`<\mathrm{}>`$ denotes averaging over all measured points in the scanned area, and $`I(x,y)`$ is the difference between $`I_X^{}(x,y)`$ and its intensity average over all points, i.e., $`I(x,y)=`$ $`I_X^{}(x,y)<I_X^{}(x,y)>`$. The correlation function averages out the random behavior and highlights the correlated part of the signal. The width of its central peak provides the correlation length, namely, the typical cluster size, and periodic peaks in $`G(x,y)`$ indicate the existence of periodicity in the electron distribution. The function $`G(x,y)`$ is shown in Fig. 2b, with bright and dark colors signifying high and low correlation amplitude, respectively. It is seen that there is a pronounced anisotropy in $`G(x,y)`$: it is dominated by periodic stripes and its central peak is elongated parallel to \[$`1\overline{1}0`$\]. To better understand this behavior we show in Fig. 2c two cuts through the origin of $`G(x,y)`$, one along \[$`1\overline{1}0`$\] (dashed) and the other perpendicular to it, along \[$`110`$\] (solid). We can see that both the short and long range correlations are different. The cut along the \[$`110`$\] direction exhibits a correlation length of 0.35 $`\mu `$m (half-width at half maximum), and clear long-range oscillations with a periodicity of $`1.3`$ $`\mu `$m. The \[$`1\overline{1}0`$\] cut, on the other hand, shows a significantly larger correlation length, 0.6 $`\mu `$m, and no significant long-range order. We have verified that this behavior is not an instrument artifact by both rastering at different angles and by rotating the sample relative to the scan direction. Furthermore, no stripes were observed in the $`X`$ intensity image. The correlation length along the \[$`110`$\] direction, 0.35 $`\mu `$m, is only slightly larger than the tip diameter, which is 0.3 $`\mu `$m. In the inset of Fig. 2c we compare the central peak measured with tips having 0.2 and 0.3 $`\mu `$m diameters. The correlation length is seen to scale with the tip diameter, and it is 0.25 $`\mu `$m with the smaller tip. This allows us to determine the width of the stripes, after deconvolving the tip diameter, to be smaller than 150 nm.

The formation of electron density stripes is further emphasized by making cuts in $`G(x,y)`$ at different angles, $`\theta `$. This is formally defined as the angular autocorrelation function $`H(r,\theta )=<I(x^{},y^{})I(x^{}r\mathrm{cos}\theta ,y^{}r\mathrm{sin}\theta )>`$. The results are shown in Fig. 2d, with the horizontal scale being $`r`$ and the vertical scale \- $`\theta `$. Clear concentric contours are observed, describing a gradual change of the periodicity with $`\theta `$. It is easy to see that this behavior indeed corresponds to periodic electron density stripes along the \[$`1\overline{1}0`$\] direction. Clearly, the oscillation period of such a stripes pattern would vary with $`\theta `$ as $`\lambda /\mathrm{cos}\theta `$, where $`\lambda `$ is the period of the stripes.

The fact that the electron density stripes coincide with crystalline orientation and the relatively large periodicity point to an underlying crystalline structure as the source of this behavior. To examine this possibility we performed atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements of the crystal surface on different pieces of the same wafer. Figure 3a shows a typical topography image and Fig. 3b – the variations in cantilever amplitude, which are proportional to the topography derivative. It is seen that narrow ridges, which are oriented along the \[$`1\overline{1}0`$\] direction, cover the sample surface. The formation of these ridges is well studied and understood. Their origin is an intrinsic growth instability, which inhibits downward movement of adatoms at surface step edges, and leads to build-up of mounds Johnson . The heights of these mounds and their typical size increase with the number of layers grown Orme , and their anisotropy is due to the particular surface reconstruction of the As atoms that terminate the (001) surface Comment-arsenic . The dangling bonds of these atoms form dimers that are arranged in rows along the \[$`1\overline{1}0`$\] direction, and since the growth rate along the dimer rows is larger than in the orthogonal direction, the mounds become elongated along \[$`1\overline{1}0`$\]. Clearly, these mounds modulate the distances of the ionized donors layer and the crystal surface relative to the 2DES plane, and thereby cause variations in the electrostatic potential in that plane. Considering the structure as a parallel plate capacitor (gate and 2DES) with a positively charged layer (the donors) in between, it is straightforward to show that varying the distances of these layers in our sample by a monolayer would be translated to a density change of $`10^9`$ cm-2 in the 2DES. The relation between the density distribution and the crystal topography is best demonstrated by comparing the autocorrelation functions of the density distribution and that of the topography image. Fig. 3c shows two cuts of the topography autocorrelation function along \[$`1\overline{1}0`$\] (dashed) and \[$`110`$\] (solid). The similarity between Figs. 2c and 3c is evident. We notice, however, that the periodicity in the topography image is considerably larger than that of the electron density stripes. This larger period was found in all AFM measurements of different areas of the same wafer. The difference between the surface mounds and the electron density periods is not surprising. The coarsening process that occurs during the growth, in which small mounds join to form larger ones, results in an increase of the period towards the surface. Hence, the distance between the 2DES and the surface would be modulated with a period, which is roughly the average between the mounds period at the surface and at the 2DES.

It should be emphasized that other disorder potentials might also affect the electron distribution. Fluctuations in the QW width cause the electron confinement energy in the well to vary from one point to another and hence introduce potential fluctuations. These fluctuations can be imaged as well in our experiment by determining the X peak energy at each point Hess ; Wu . We have found that the well width fluctuations, despite being sensitive to the mounds Comment well width , show no correlation with the charge fluctuations. The QW width fluctuations as well as the fluctuations in the donor density are the probable source of the random density pattern, which is evident in Fig. 2a but averages out in the correlation function.

It is interesting to consider our results in the context of the recent debate on the origin of transport anisotropy in high Landau levels Lilly1 -Willet . Our observation of charge stripes provides a direct support to the suggestion that the transport anisotropy is due to the underlying crystalline structure 20. Finally, we wish to note that the elongated mounds are intrinsic property of MBE growth and are found even at the highest mobility samples Lilly2 ; Willet . Hence, the electron density stripes formation is a fundamental property of 2DES systems, and should play a particularly important role at low electron densities, where the electrons form a network of quasi-one dimensional wires.

We are pleased to acknowledge D. Kandel for helpful discussions on the MBE growth, E. Khivrich for his assistance in the AFM measurements, and G. Fish from Nanonics for providing the NSOM tips.


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# Elastic Tensor of Sr2RuO4

## Abstract

The six independent elastic constants of Sr2RuO4 were determined using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy on a high-quality single-crystal specimen. The constants are in excellent agreement with those obtained from pulse-echo experiments performed on a sample cut from the same ingot. A calculation of the Debye temperature using the measured constants agrees well with values obtained from both specific heat and Mössbauer measurements.

preprint: preprint

Since the discovery of superconductivity in Sr2RuO4,Maeno\_Nature  there has been much interest in the possibility of novel pairing symmetry in this material.Maeno\_PT  The availability of large, high-quality single crystals of Sr2RuO4 has allowed the full range of physical properties to be measured, with the prospect of identifying the order parameter symmetry and the mechanism of superconductivity. A thorough knowledge of the elastic properties is one important element in obtaining a complete understanding.

The elastic constants of a material, which relate deformation to stress, are of interest because they are involved in fundamental solid-state phenomena: interatomic potentials, equations of state and phonon spectra. Furthermore, thermodynamics links elasticity directly to quantities such as thermal expansivity, atomic volume, Debye temperature, and Grüneisen parameter.Truell  A determination of the Debye temperature provides information on the phonon contribution to the low-temperature specific heat and the possible role of electron-phonon coupling in superconductivity.

There are six independent second-order elastic constants $`C_{ij}`$ associated with the tetragonal crystal structure of Sr2RuO4. Using Voigt notation, they are expressed as $`C_{11}`$, $`C_{33}`$, $`C_{23}`$, $`C_{12}`$, $`C_{44}`$, and $`C_{66}`$. The constants for which $`i=j`$ correspond to sound propagation in various principle crystal directions. When using a conventional time-of-flight, or pulse-echo, measurement technique, the determination of off-diagonal constants requires the troublesome measurement of sound propagation along non-principal directions, something which has not been done for Sr2RuO4. This difficulty does not arise when using resonance spectroscopy, which relies on a different technique to obtain the full elastic tensor of a material in a single measurement. In this article, we report the full elastic tensor of Sr2RuO4 obtained by resonance spectroscopy.

The single-crystal sample of Sr2RuO4 was grown by the traveling solvent floating zone technique Mao  and found to have a superconducting transition temperature of 1.37 K as determined from magnetic susceptibility, which is a good indication of its high purity and quality. The sample was aligned using Laue x-ray diffraction, cut into a rectangular parallelepiped using spark erosion, and polished to dimensions of $`2.88(1)\times 1.99(1)\times 0.86(1)`$ mm3. The sample mass was $`0.0292`$ g, yielding a density of $`5.92(8)`$g/cm3, which agrees with the previously reported value of $`5.918`$g/cm3. density

Measurements were made at room temperature using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS).Migliori  This technique abandons the plane-wave approximation used in pulse-echo experiments and instead uses the normal modes of vibration of a solid specimen of known geometry, crystal symmetry and density to deduce the complete elastic tensor in a single measurement. Thus, it allows for relatively easy determination of off-diagonal elastic constants, which are generally impractical to measure in non-cubic symmetries using the pulse-echo technique.

The acoustic resonance frequencies of a single-crystal specimen can be calculated given the dimensions, mass, and elastic constants. The key to the RUS technique lies in the ability to determine unknown parameters (in this case the elastic constants) from knowledge of the resonance frequencies, which are readily determined experimentally. There exists no analytic method of performing this calculation, and so the unknown parameters are determined via a computational fitting procedure which uses an iterative algorithm to match resonance frequencies calculated analytically with those measured experimentally. This calculation requires the input of measured dimensions, mass, and an estimated set of elastic constants to start the fitting iteration: the elastic constants are left as adjustable parameters to be determined by minimization of error between the measured and calculated frequencies. Because the largest source of error in this experiment was the determination of the sample dimensions, they were also left as free parameters in the fitting routine, allowing for a comparison between measured dimensions and those determined from the fit. As a test, the RUS apparatus and method were used to obtain the complete elastic tensor of the heavy-fermion material UPt3 (which has a hexagonal crystal structure). This gave the values $`C_{12}=1.44(2)`$, $`C_{23}=1.70(2)`$, $`C_{33}=2.93(2)`$, $`C_{44}=0.3794(1)`$, and $`C_{66}=0.8367(9)`$ (all in units of $`10^{12}`$dynes/cm2), JP  which are in excellent agreement with those measured by de Visser et al. using the pulse-echo technique.DeVisser

The resonance frequencies of the Sr2RuO4 sample were determined at room temperature using the apparatus shown schematically in the inset of Fig. 1. By holding the sample between two piezoelectric transducers, where one transducer is used to drive the sample with mechanical vibrations and the other to detect the mechanical response of the sample, a frequency sweep allowed a rapid measurement of the resonance modes. It should be noted that the only assumption made in the RUS technique lies in the ability to observe the natural resonances of a solid body under free boundary conditions, allowing a proper comparison between measurement and calculation. The rectangular parallelepiped sample was held only lightly by its corners to minimize suppression of any resonance modes, thus making the free boundary approximation appropriate.

Measurements up to $`3`$ MHz provided more than sixty measured resonance frequencies. The central portion of this frequency spectrum is shown in Fig. 1. The first thirty measured frequencies are listed in Table 1 along with those calculated analytically using a program developed specifically for the rectangular parallelepiped sample geometry.Migliori  Note that all of the first thirty calculated resonance frequencies were detected, and only three of the next thirty were undetectable. The error is listed as the percentage difference between measured and calculated values. It should be noted that in RUS measurements it is commonly found that the first one or two modes typically have a much larger discrepancy between measured and calculated values than the average, as is seen for the first mode in Table 1, and are therefore not weighted in the fit. The dependence of each mode on the elastic constants was also estimated using this program in order to indicate the pure (shear/compressional) or composite nature of each resonance mode, and are listed as the normalized values $`df/dC_{ij}`$ in Table 1. For example, the $`n=5`$ resonance mode can be seen to depend mainly on the constant $`C_{66}`$, and is thus primarily a pure shear mode. Identification of pure resonance modes can be of use in tracking the behavior of individual elastic constants as a function of temperature or magnetic field.

The elastic constants used as initial fitting parameters were estimated using a combination of available values for Sr2RuO4Matsui67 ; Lupien  and the isostructural material La2CuO4Sarrao , and subsequently adjusted through numerous fitting iterations to obtain the best fit. The quality of each fit was calculated using the root-mean-square error $`\sigma _{RMS}`$ between measured and calculated resonant frequencies,

$$\sigma _{RMS}=100\times \sqrt{\frac{1}{N}\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}\left(\frac{f_{meas}^{(n)}f_{calc}^{(n)}}{f_{calc}^{(n)}}\right)^2}\%,$$
(1)
where $`n`$ is the mode number and $`N`$ is the total number of modes weighted in the fit. The fitting procedure resulted in a $`\sigma _{RMS}`$ value of $`0.19\%`$ between the measured and calculated frequencies: such a small value is an indication of an excellent fit.Migliori  The fitted dimensions agreed with the measured values to within error, also confirming the validity of the fit. The elastic constants calculated using this fit are compared in Table 2 with values obtained for Sr2RuO4 from various pulse-echo experiments and with those obtained for La2CuO4 using the RUS technique. The absolute accuracy of the constants obtained in this study was based on either a quality-of-fit estimate, obtained from a measure of the stability of the minimization calculation used in the fitting routine, or on errors in density measurement, taking the larger of the two as the conservative approximation. Specifically, the errors on $`C_{11}`$, $`C_{33}`$, $`C_{23}`$, and $`C_{12}`$ were obtained from quality-of-fit estimates, and those on $`C_{44}`$ and $`C_{66}`$ were based on the variation in calculated $`C_{ij}`$ values obtained from fits using upper and lower dimensional bounds as input parameters.error

The elastic constants reported by Lupien et al. were measured at low temperature ($`<4`$ K) using the pulse-echo technique on samples cut from the same ingot used in this study.Lupien  A typical pulse-echo experimental apparatus is shown schematically in the inset of Fig. 2. With this technique, sound velocities are calculated using the length between two parallel faces of an oriented crystal and the measured time delay between echoes of the initial pulse, such as those shown in Fig. 2. By solving the usual Christoffel equations, the elastic constants are obtained from sound velocities measured for various propagation and polarization directions and the mass density.Truell  For example, the shear elastic constant,

$$C_{66}=\rho v_{[100/010]}^2,$$
(2)
is calculated from the mass density $`\rho `$ and sound velocity $`v_{[100/010]}`$ (propagating in the  direction and polarized in the  direction). All of values from Ref. Lupien,  shown in Table 2, except for $`C_{12}`$, are proportional to the square of various velocities directly measured in different propagation and polarization directions (the value for $`C_{12}`$ is given as an average of two values calculated using two different sound velocities and the value of $`C_{11}`$). By extrapolating these low-temperature values to 300 K using temperature dependencies found elsewhere,Matsui69  agreement is found to within experimental error for $`C_{44}`$ and $`C_{66}`$, and to within $`10\%`$ for $`C_{11}`$, $`C_{12}`$ and $`C_{33}`$ when compared to the values in this study. The various elastic constants reported by Matsui et al. (Ref. Matsui67, Matsui69, ) and Okuda et al. (Ref. Okuda, ) are a factor of $`2`$ less than these values, which is much greater than the $`6\%`$ change in the constants observed from low to room temperature.

The Debye temperature $`\theta _D`$ is estimated from the elastic constants by using the following expression for a tetragonal crystal,Alers

$$\theta _D=\frac{h}{k_B}\left(\frac{9N}{4\pi V}\right)^{1/3}\rho ^{1/2}J^{1/2},$$
(3)
where $`h`$ and $`k_B`$ are Planck’s and Boltzmann’s constants, respectively, $`N/V`$ is the atomic density, and $`J`$ is the series expansion of an integration over sound velocities in all crystal directions, written in terms of the elastic constants (see Eq. 32 in Ref. Alers, ). Using Eq. 3, the full set of elastic constants measured in this study gives $`\theta _D=465(5)`$ K (this value increases by $`5`$ K when using values extrapolated to low temperature in a manner similar to that used in Table 2 for Ref. Lupien, ). This elastic measure of $`\theta _D`$ compares well with the value of $`410(50)`$ K extracted from the $`T^3`$ phonon contribution to specific heat,thetaC  and the value of 427(50) K obtained in Mössbauer measurements,thetaM  where $`\theta _D`$ is extracted from the temperature dependence of the Debye-Waller factor.

In conclusion, the complete set of elastic constants was obtained for the tetragonal crystal Sr2RuO4 using the measured resonance frequencies of a small rectagular parallelepiped sample. Excellent agreement was found with values obtained from pulse-echo experiments performed on a sample cut from the same ingot. The Debye temperature determined from the measured constants was found to compare well with values obtained from other measurements.

This work was supported by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and funded by NSERC. J.P. and C.L. acknowledge the support of the Walter C. Sumner Foundation, and C.L. also acknowledges the support of FCAR (Québec).


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# Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in Ga1-xMnxAs

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge discussions with A. H. MacDonald and M. Abolfath. This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research and the Research Foundation fo the State University of New York under grant number N000140010951 and by the 21st Century Science and Technology Fund of the State of Indiana.


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# Event synchronization: a simple and fast method to measure synchronicity and time delay patterns.

## I Introduction

In recent years, several measures of synchronization have been proposed and applied successfully to different types of data. Among these studies we can distinguish two main approaches: 1) One based on similarities of trajectories in phase space (constructed e.g. by time-delay embedding) schiff ; quyen ; arnhold ; quian ; quian1 ; 2) One that measures phase differences between the signals, where the phases are defined either from a Hilbert rosemblum ; tass ; florian  or from a wavelet transform lachaux ; rodriguez  (as shown in quian1 , these two apparently different phases are indeed closely related).

These new methods compete in popularity with standard measures such as the cross-correlation, the coherence function, mutual information, and also with simple visual inspection of the recordings. Cross-correlation and coherence are clearly the measures most used so far. In contrast to them, all new measures are non-linear in the sense that they depend also on properties beyond second moments. In addition, some of them have the advantage of being asymmetric, eventually being able to show driver-response relationships arnhold ; quian .

Among others, synchronization measures have been used for the study of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Applications include prediction and localization of epileptic activity quyen ; arnhold ; florian , phase-locking between different recording sites upon visual stimulation lachaux ; rodriguez , resonance between EEG and muscle activity in Parkinson patients tass , desynchronization upon lesions in the thalamic reticular nucleus in rats sleepwake , synchronization in motoneurons within the spinal cord schiff , etc.

In the present paper we present a very simple algorithm that can be used for any time series in which we can define events. These can be spikes in single-neuron recordings, epileptiform spikes in EEGs, heart beats, stock market crashes, etc. In principle, when dealing with signals of different character, the events could be defined differently in each time series, since their common cause might manifest itself differently in each series. This event synchronization (ES) does not require the notion of phase. It cannot distinguish between different forms of $`m:n`$ lockings rosemblum ; tass , but it can tell which of the two time series leads the other. And, above all, it is very simple conceptually and easy to implement. Due to that, it can be used on-line and can show rapid changes of synchronization patterns.

## II Event synchronization and delay asymmetry

Given two simultaneously measured discrete univariate time series $`x_n`$ and $`y_n`$, $`n=1,\mathrm{},N`$, we first define suitable events and event times $`t_i^x`$ and $`t_j^y`$ $`(i=1,\mathrm{},m_x;j=1,\mathrm{},m_y)`$. In the signals to be analyzed in this paper, these events will be simply local maxima, subject to some further conditions. If the signals are synchronized, many events will appear more or less simultaneously. Essentially, we count the fraction of event pairs matching in time, and we count how often each time series leads in these matches. Similar concepts were used in pijn .

Let us first assume that there is a well defined characteristic event rate in each time series. Counter examples include strong chirps and onsets of epileptic seizures where event rates change rapidly. Such cases will be treated below. Allowing a time lag $`\pm \tau `$ between two ‘synchronous’ events (which should be smaller than half the minimum inter-event distance, to avoid double counting), let us denote by $`c^\tau (x|y)`$ the number of times an event appears in $`x`$ shortly after it appears in $`y`$, i.e:

$$c^\tau (x|y)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{m_x}{}}\underset{j=1}{\overset{m_y}{}}J_{ij}^\tau $$
(1)
with

$$J_{ij}^\tau =\{\begin{array}{cc}1\hfill & \text{if }0<t_i^xt_j^y\tau \hfill \\ 1/2\hfill & \text{if }t_i^x=t_j^y\hfill \\ 0\hfill & \text{else}\hfill \end{array}$$
(2)
and analogously for $`c^\tau (y|x)`$. Next, we define the symmetrical and anti-symmetrical combinations

$$Q_\tau =\frac{c^\tau (y|x)+c^\tau (x|y)}{\sqrt{m_xm_y}},q_\tau =\frac{c^\tau (y|x)c^\tau (x|y)}{\sqrt{m_xm_y}},$$
(3)
which measure the synchronization of the events and their delay behavior, respectively. They are normalized to $`0Q_\tau 1`$ and $`1q_\tau 1`$. We have $`Q_\tau =1`$ if and only if the events of the signals are fully synchronized. In addition, if the events in $`x`$ always precede those in $`y`$, then $`q_\tau =1`$.

In cases where we want to avoid a global time scale $`\tau `$ since event rates change during the recording, we use a local definition $`\tau _{ij}`$ for each event pair $`(ij)`$. More precisely, we define

$$\tau _{ij}=\mathrm{min}\{t_{i+1}^xt_i^x,t_i^xt_{i1}^x,t_{j+1}^yt_j^y,t_j^yt_{j1}^y\}/2.$$
(4)
We then define $`J_{ij}`$ as in Eq.(2) with $`\tau `$ replaced by $`\tau _{ij}`$, and $`c(x|y)`$ as in Eq.(1) with $`J_{ij}^\tau `$ replaced by $`J_{ij}`$. The factor $`1/2`$ in the definition of $`\tau _{ij}`$ avoids double counting if, e.g., two events in $`x`$ are close to the same event in $`y`$. Of course, one could also make other choices, e.g. by taking $`\tau _{ij}`$ smaller than in Eq.(4) or by using $`\tau _{ij}^{}=\mathrm{min}\{\tau ,\tau _{ij}\}`$. As in the definition of events, an optimal choice of $`\tau `$ depends on the problem. In the following we shall suppress the dependence on $`\tau `$, understanding that all formulas apply for both variants.

To obtain time resolved variants of $`Q`$ and $`q`$ we simply modify eq.(1) to

$$c_n(x|y)=\underset{i}{}\underset{j}{}J_{ij}\mathrm{\Theta }(nt_i^x)$$
(5)
with $`n=1,\mathrm{},N`$ and $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ the step function (i.e. $`\mathrm{\Theta }(x)=0`$ for $`x0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Theta }(x)=1`$ for $`x>0`$). Similarly, $`c_n(y|x)`$ is obtained by exchanging $`x`$ and $`y`$. Then, we define the time resolved anti-symmetric combination $`q(n)=c_n(y|x)c_n(x|y)`$ which can be seen as a random walk that takes one step up every time an event in $`x`$ precedes one in $`y`$ and one step down if vice versa. If an event occurs simultaneously in both signals or if it appears only in one of them, the random walker does not move. Exchanging $`x`$ and $`y`$ just reverses the walk. For non-synchronized signals, we expect to obtain a random walk with the typical diffusion behavior. With delayed synchronization we will have a bias going up (down) if $`x`$ precedes (follows) $`y`$. We should remark that such a bias clearly shows the presence of a time delay of one signal with respect to the other, but does not necessarily prove a driver-response relationship, although it might suggest it. In fact, internal delay loops of one of the systems can fool the interpretation. Also, the two signals might be driven by a common hidden source and the bias just indicates different delays.

The time course of the strength of ES can be obtained from $`Q(n)=c_n(y|x)+c_n(x|y)`$. If an event is found both in $`x`$ and $`y`$ within the window $`\tau `$ (resp. $`\tau _{ij}`$), $`Q(n)`$ increases one step, otherwise it does not change. Of course, $`Q(n)`$ will also not change if there are no new events at all. The synchronization level at time $`n`$, averaged over the last $`\mathrm{\Delta }n`$ time steps, is thus obtained as

$$Q^{}(n)=\frac{Q(n)Q(n\mathrm{\Delta }n)}{\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }n_x\mathrm{\Delta }n_y}},$$
(6)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }n_x`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }n_y`$ are the numbers of events in the interval $`[n\mathrm{\Delta }n,n]`$. Similarly, we can also define instantaneous delay asymmetries $`q^{}(n)`$.

## III Applications

Let us now apply these concepts to two sets of intracranial EEG recordings, one from rats and the other from an epileptic patient.

### III.1 Rat EEGs

The five pairs of rat EEG signals were obtained from electrodes placed on the left and right frontal cortex of male adult WAG/Rij rats (a genetic animal model of human epilepsy) giles . They were referenced to an electrode placed in the cerebellum, filtered between 1-100 Hz and digitized at 200 Hz. In Fig. 1 we show these signals www . The first pair (example A in Fig. 1) is a normal EEG, all others contain spike discharges (not to be confused with spikes in single neuron recordings) which are the landmark of epileptic activity. They arise from abnormal synchronization in an epileptic brain even when there are no seizures. A localized appearance of spikes can indeed delimit a zone with abnormal activity (though this will not necessarily be the epileptic focus). Furthermore, time delays between them can identify the electrode closest to the epileptic focus, especially at the onset of seizures.

Several measures of synchronization were recently applied to the first three cases of Fig. 1 quian1 . Since spike trains lasted usually about 5 seconds, the challenge was to try the different measures in these short epochs. Surprisingly, nearly all the measures gave qualitatively similar results hard to be guessed beforehand. These examples and two additional cases (D and E), also containing spikes, will be further analyzed in this paper.

For the example A it is difficult, due to its random-like appearance, to visually estimate its level of synchronization and any delay of one electrode with respect to the other. However, we can already observe some patterns appearing nearly simultaneously in both the left and right channels, thus showing some degree of interdependence. The spike-wave trains in the other examples in principle suggests a high level of synchronization. However, as already shown in quian1 , the spikes of example C appear with a varying time lag between right and left channels and are therefore much less synchronized than those in B. This is of course not easily seen by visual inspection of Fig. 1, but will be clear from the following analysis.

Events were defined as local maxima fulfilling the following additional conditions:

1. $`x(t_i)>x(t_{i+k})`$, for $`k=K+1,\mathrm{},0,\mathrm{},K1`$
2. $`x(t_i)>x(t_{i\pm K})+h`$

and the same for $`y`$. We took $`K=3`$ and $`h=0.1`$. Other choices gave very similar results.

Since the rate of events is more or less constant, we used a fixed $`\tau `$. The choice $`\tau =2`$ gave a good discrimination between the five cases. All results shown below were compared to those obtained with surrogate pairs which were defined by shifting the left channel signals 500 data points (2.5 sec) to the right, with periodic boundary conditions. Our test hypothesis is that without changing the individual properties of each signal, after a large enough shifting synchronization should reach a background ‘zero’ level. The usefulness of such surrogates was discussed in in more detail in quian1 .

For the five EEG signals of Fig. 1, we show the values of $`Q_{\tau =2}`$ and $`q_{\tau =2}`$ in Table 1, both for the original signals and the ‘time-shifted’ surrogates. We observe that synchronization levels rank $`\mathrm{D}>\mathrm{E}>\mathrm{B}>\mathrm{A}>\mathrm{C}`$. This is in agreement with the analysis of examples A, B and C done in quian1  with several other measures of synchronization. Note that even example A is ranked consistently with the other measures, although it does not contain obvious events such as the spikes of the other examples.

All synchronization values are clearly higher than those of their corresponding surrogates (surrogates constructed with other delay values gave similar results). These surrogate values vary a lot for the different examples. This stresses the importance of keeping the individual properties of the signals when constructing surrogates. Except for example A, the values of $`q`$ show that the signals from the right hemisphere lag behind the left ones ($`y`$). A closer visual inspection of Fig. 1 at higher resolution shows that this lag is usually 1 data point. The reason of this systematic lag is unclear (it could be an artifact of the data acquisition or a real physiological effect) and it is beyond the scope of this paper.

In Fig. 2 we show the time evolution of synchronization $`Q^{}(n)`$ for the five examples, calculated with a window of $`\mathrm{\Delta }n=100`$ data points. For most of the time, they are higher than the values calculated from time-shifted surrogates (the light blue horizontal lines indicate time averages $`\pm 1`$ standard deviation). In examples A, B and C we see abrupt changes of synchronization with time which seem statistically significant. In retrospect they can also be seen in Fig. 1 on closer inspection, but they are much less obvious there and could easily be missed. Compared to the first three, examples D and E are more stable in time. Finally, the time resolved ES shows a better resolution than all synchronization measures considered in quian1 .

Figure 3 shows the time resolved asymmetry between the right and the left channels (upper plot) and the results from surrogates (lower plot). In all five cases, the bias is in agreement with the $`q`$ values shown in Table 1. The bias in example D is not only the strongest but also the most constant, confirming that D shows the most robust and stationary ES (compare Fig. 2). For the other examples we see regular changes with time. This is of course very difficult to see in the original recordings, and it was also not seen with any of the synchronization measures studied in quian1 . As expected, for the surrogates we obtain random walks with small and erratic displacements.

### III.2 Human EEG

As a second example we analyzed an intracranial EEG recording from an epileptic patient containing 12 min. of pre-seizure and seizure EEG. Data were recorded from 2 needle shaped depth electrodes with 10 contacts each. They were symmetrically placed in the left (contacts TL1 to TL10) and right (contacts TR1 to TR10) temporal lobes, in the entorhinal cortex and hippocampal formation. The EEG was sampled at 173 Hz and band pass filtered between 0.53-40 Hz. For further details on the data we refer to arnhold . As in the previous example, event times were defined as local maxima, but using $`K=10`$ and $`h=50`$ (this large $`K`$ was needed because the data are more noisy than the rat data, and smaller values would have led to many spurious events). Due to the varying event rate, we used a variable-$`\tau `$ approach. For the time resolved event synchronization $`Q^{}(n)`$ we took a window $`\mathrm{\Delta }n=1730`$.

Figure 4 shows the time-averaged event synchronization values between all channels. A detailed analysis of synchronization patterns for similar recordings has already been described by Arnhold et al. arnhold  using a robust measure of non-linear synchronization. Here, we just summarize the main results which are in perfect agreement with those in Ref. arnhold . We first note that synchronization between left and right electrodes is relatively low and that the right contacts form two clusters: TR1-3 and TR4-10. This is just due to the fact that the first 3 contacts were located in the entorhinal cortex and the remaining ones in the hippocampus arnhold . Moreover, for the right side we observe a gradual decrease of synchronization with increasing distance between contacts. The synchronization pattern for the left channels is different. There, the entorhinal cortex/hippocampus separation is overshadowed by the epileptic activity leading to a higher overall synchronization level.

A visual analysis of the seizure onset revealed that contacts TL7 and TL8 showed the first signs of seizure activity. Figure 5 shows the time resolved synchronization $`Q^{}(n)`$ and delays $`q(n)`$ between TL7 and the remaining left side channels. As expected, synchronization is largest between TL7 and its neighbors TL8 and TL6. It is not homogeneous in time and we have several short drops before seizure starts. Moreover, starting at seizure onset and during the whole seizure, synchronization of TL7 with TL8 and TL9 is high, while synchronization with TL6 and all others is decreased. The lower panel shows that all left channels lag behind channel TL7. There is just one exception: During the first part of the seizure, channel TL7 falls back and channel TL8 leads for about half a minute (indeed, the lead of TL7 is weakened already some 3 minutes before the seizure). After this, TL7 takes up its lead even more vigorously than before. This might indicate that the source of epileptic activity moves. Whether these features are common to many epileptic seizures and whether they can have clinical significance for e.g. seizure anticipation or focus localization requires further study with a larger database.

In Fig. 6 we show the delays of the contralateral channel (TR7) with respect to the other right channels (upper plot) and to the left channels (lower plot). Channels TR4-6 strongly and steadily follow channel TR7, which itself follows channels TR8 and TR10. This might reflect the source of ‘normal’ synchronized activity. A detailed analysis is outside the scope of this paper and will be further addressed elsewhere. As seen from the lower panel, synchronization between both hemispheres is weak and $`q`$ shows unbiased random walks. The complete absence of any deviant behavior during the seizure reflects the fact that the seizure does not spread to the contralateral side.

## IV Conclusion

In conclusion we presented a new approach to measure synchronization and time delays that is based on the relative timings of events (in this study defined as local maxima). This also gives an easy visualization of time-resolved synchronization and delay patterns. The method is appealing due to its simplicity, straightforward implementation and speed. These features make very easy its on-line implementation. In the particular case of EEGs, the proposed approach is promising for the study of recordings of epileptic patients, where synchronization is important and the analysis of time delay patterns could be useful for the localization of the epileptic focus and the prediction of seizure onset. Also, the method should be well suited for single-neuron recordings, where the fast dynamics of spikes makes difficult the analysis with other measures. In this paper we focussed on application to EEG signals, but the method can be easily applied to other types of data just by adjusting the definition of events.

We are very thankful to Ralph Andrzejak, Alexander Kraskov, Klaus Lehnertz, and Heinz Schuster for stimulating discussions, to Giles van Luijtelaar and Joyce Welting from NICI, University of Nijmegen, for the rats data used in this paper and to K. Lehnertz and C. Elger from the Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn, for the intracranial EEG data. T.K. is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB TR3.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

One of the most striking predictions of QCD at high temperatures is the formation of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a deconfined phase with quarks and gluons as degrees of freedom. Unfortunately, finding direct evidence for this phase or studying its properties is not an easy task. Ideally, one would like to study the behaviour of an observable sensitive to the formation of the QGP, such as the J/$`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ system or dilepton radiation. In reality, however, no static QGP system can be prepared in a heavy ion collision and all processes inside the resulting fireball are necessarily convoluted with its evolution dynamics. As this leaves two a priori unknown inputs into any model calculation, the modified reaction dynamics inside the system and the fireball evolution itself, a model which is able to describe just one (or a few) observables may not be sufficient to disentangle these two pieces and extract unambiguous information.

The proper way to proceed seems therefore as follows: From the theoretical side, and especially from lattice calculations (see e.g. ), much is known about thermodynamical properties of the QGP in a static situation. Although there is no direct possibility to compare to experiment, this knowledge can be used under certain circumstances as an input for dynamical fireball models, which constitute the next important building block for modelling any specific process inside such a system. Here, experimental input is available in the form of bulk hadronic observables such as directed flow and total multiplicities which characterize the evolution endpoint. The third and final step is then the calculation of a given process within the arena prepared by the fireball evolution. In this way, fireball evolution and the process in question are tied to different observables and are readily disentangled.

In the following, we try to elaborate on the second building block, the dynamical fireball evolution in a simple framework and calculate as an application dilepton radiation from this fireball. This is more completely worked out in .

## 2 Model framework

We do not aim at the detailed description of the heavy-ion collision or its subsequent expansion on an event by event basis or by a hydrodynamical simulation. Instead we use a model of an expanding fireball which enables us to rapidly test different scenarios with different parameter sets in a systematic way, so as to gain insight into the time evolution of the strongly interacting system.

We assume that the physics of the fireball is the same inside each volume of given proper time $`\tau `$, thus averaging over spatial inhomogenities in density and temperature. The volume itself is taken to be an expanding cylinder, in which the volume elements move away from the center in order to generate the observed flow. There is no global Lorentz frame in which thermodynamics can be applied. As the fireball expands, volume elements away from the center are moving with large velocities and are subject to time dilatation when seen in the center of mass frame of the collision. In this frame, the fireball expands, at a given time, much more rapidly in the center than at the edges and does not resemble a cylinder any more. We assume a linear increase in rapidity when going from central volume elements to the fireball edge along the beam ($`z`$)-axis and the transverse axis. As the velocities along the $`z`$-axis are typically large (up to $`c`$) as compared to transverse motion (up to 0.55 $`c`$) for SPS and RHIC conditions, we make the simplifying assumption that the proper time is in a one-to-one correspondence to the $`z`$-position of a given volume element, thus neglecting the time dilatation caused by transverse motion. The whole system is assumed to be in local thermal (though not necessarily chemical) equilibrium at all times.

Given this overall framework, the volume expansion of the fireball is governed by the longitudinal growth speed $`v_z`$ and the transverse expansion speed $`v_{}`$ at a given proper time. These quantities can be determined at the freeze-out point and correspond to the observed amount of flow. However, flow is measured in the lab frame and needs to be translated into the growth of proper time volume.

Note that it is important to keep track of the velocity $`v_z`$ at the fireball edge in this setup. If this quantity is simply assumed to be $`c`$, the volume of given proper time does not grow like $`\tau c`$ as one might naively expect (the c.m. frame volume does so, however), but is infinite right from the beginning.

We use a detailed analysis of the freeze-out conditions for central Pb-Pb collisions at 160 AGeV  to fix the endpoint of the evolution. The initial state is constrained using the overlap geometry of the colliding nuclei. The expansion between initial and freeze-out stages is then required to be in accordance with the EoS as determined from the quasiparticle model described in .

The volume expansion is parametrized by the following set of equations:

$$v_{}(\tau )=_0^\tau 𝑑\tau ^{}c_{}\frac{p(\tau ^{})}{ϵ(\tau ^{})}R(\tau )=R_0+_0^\tau _0^\tau ^{}𝑑\tau ^{}𝑑\tau ^{\prime \prime }c_{}\frac{p(\tau ^{\prime \prime })}{ϵ(\tau ^{\prime \prime })}$$
(1)
$$v_z(t)=v_z^i+_0^t𝑑t^{}c_z\frac{p(t^{})}{ϵ(t^{})}z(t)=z_0+v_z^it+_0^t_0^t^{}𝑑t^{}𝑑t^{\prime \prime }c_z\frac{p(t^{\prime \prime })}{ϵ(t^{\prime \prime })}.$$
(2)
Here, the acceleration was assumed to be proportional to the ratio of pressure $`p`$ over energy density $`ϵ`$ with a proportionality constant $`c`$. The free parameters $`c_{},c_z`$, freeze-out proper time $`\tau _f`$ and freeze-out c.m. time $`t_f`$ can be fitted by requiring agreement with initial conditions $`R_04.5`$ fm and $`v_{}`$ = 0 (overlap geometry) and final conditions $`R_f8.55`$ fm, $`\overline{v}_{}=0.5c`$, $`T_f=100`$ MeV, $`v_z=0.9c`$ (results from ). Assuming entropy conservation with an entropy per baryon of 26 for SPS conditions at 160 AGeV, the entropy density $`s`$ at a given proper time can then be obtained by dividing the total entropy $`S_0`$ by the volume, $`s=S_0/V(\tau )`$. With the help of the EoS, the temperature $`T(s)`$, pressure $`p(s)`$ and energy density $`ϵ(s)`$ can then be calculated. These are inserted into eqs.(1–2) in order to yield a self-consistent solution. Chemical potentials for hadrons are introduced in order to agree with the experimentally observed particle abundancies. For the above conditions, a rise in the pion chemical potential $`\mu _\pi `$ up to 123 MeV towards freeze-out is necessary.

## 3 Results

The resulting volume expansion and temperature profile for SPS conditions at two different energies is shown in Fig. 1.

The primary uncertainty is attached to the initial temperature, which appears rather large ($``$300 MeV) for 160 AGeV collisions. Part of the difference in this value as compared to other approaches comes from the use of a more realistic equation of state, which even for the initial temparatures differs considerably from the EoS of an ideal gas. Moreover, it depends on the initial longitudinal expansion velocity. After a few fm/c evolution time, however, the system is not very sensitive to details of the initial conditions any more. Remarkably, even the 40 AGeV scenario shows some evolution above the critical temperature $`T_C=170`$ MeV. This is unavoidable — for thermodynamical reasons the volume required for an initial temperature below $`T_C`$ would be by far too large to be found after the expansion within a sensible thermalization time of 1–2 fm/c. Note that there is no mixed phase present. This is again a consequence of the EoS which indicates a smooth crossover between the two phases. Close to the critical temperature there is a soft point in the EoS and its effect is included in the model.

As a test for the extracted fireball evolution scenarios, we consider dilepton emission. Once the thermal emission rate $`\frac{dN(T(\tau ),M,\eta ,p_T)}{d^4xd^4p}`$ from a hot source is known, the experimentally measured rate can be calculated as

$$\frac{d^2N}{dMd\eta }=\frac{2\pi M}{\mathrm{\Delta }\eta }\underset{0}{\overset{\tau _f}{}}𝑑\tau 𝑑\eta V(T(\tau ),\eta )\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑p_Tp_T\frac{dN(T(\tau ),M,\eta ,p_T)}{d^4xd^4p}Acc.$$
(3)
Here ’$`Acc`$’ refers to the acceptance characteristic of the detector. Using the thermal quasiparticle model  for the QGP spectral function and and improved vector meson dominance model combined with chiral dynamics  for the hadronic part, we insert the resulting rate into the fireball evolution shown above in order to compare to the CERES data .

The 160 AGeV scenario is shown in Fig. 2, the 40 AGeV scenario in Fig. 3. We calculate the full rate and also the contributions from different processes, namely the thermal rate from the QGP, the so-called cocktail contribution from Dalitz decays after freeze-out and the vector meson channels. In both scenarios we find good agreement with the data within errors. The driving force of the dilepton excess around 500 MeV invariant mass is the broadening of the $`\rho `$-meson due to finite baryon density. The QGP contribution is visible at invariant masses above 1 GeV in the 160 AGeV scenario and negligible for 40 AGeV. Note that we do not aim for a best fit. For example, in the invariant mass region around 200 MeV, our calculation overshoots the data. This could be easily cured by raising the freeze-out temperature which corresponds to a reduction of the hadronic rate. However, as we choose to fix the fireball evolution before with hadronic observables, this is not an option any more.

It is clearly an interesting and challenging task to also apply the fireball evolution model to other processes, e.g. direct photon emission or J/$`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and see whether further agreement can be found, giving support to the overall scenario. This is work currently in progress.