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# Annihilation Radiation from a Dark Matter Spike at the Galactic Centre

## 1 Introduction

In a recent paper, Gondolo and Silk (2000) showed that the existence of a massive black hole in the Galactic centre would produce a ’spike’ in the dark matter density profile due to the adiabatic accretion of dark matter particles. It has subsequently been argued that such a spike may be destroyed by mergers (Ullio, Zhao and Kamionkowski, 2002; Merritt et al., 2002). We point out here that such dynamical destruction processes are unlikely to have occurred for the Milky Way. However our knowledge of black hole formation is so uncertain that we cannot make this assertion with any real confidence, and we therefore propose a new means of observing the central spike via gamma ray emission. Both the flux and spectrum of the galactic centre annihilation gamma ray source are consistent with EGRET observations (as long as the initial cusp profile is rather shallow, $`r^\gamma `$ with $`\gamma 0.1`$) and if this interpretation is correct, will potentially enable us to deduce the magnetic field in the vicinity of SgrA\*.

Supermassive black holes (SMBH) are ubiquitous in galactic nuclei. Their formation remains a mystery. However circumstantial evidence points strongly towards formation in the highly dissipative environment of the forming galaxy. This is based on the remarkably tight correlation between black hole mass and bulge velocity dispersion (Ferrarese and Merritt, 2000; Gebhardt et al., 2000; Merritt and Ferrarese, 2002) that attests to a common origin, which, given the fact that our bulge formation preceded that of the disk some 12 Gyr ago, places black hole formation at an epoch when our galaxy was extremely gas-rich. Now dynamical formation of the SMBH by stellar collisions and mergers is an extremely slow process, as also would be formation by black hole mergers. Theory supports a dissipative origin, and the protogalactic origin provides the ideal environment. Thus, the SMBH formed early in the protogalaxy, which in turn condensed in a dark halo of weakly interacting particles that constitute cold dark matter (CDM).

A spike would inevitably have developed in the CDM halo core as the SMBH formed by dissipation of gas infall. The critical issue is: were there subsequent mergers that destroyed the spike and boosted the SMBH mass? The answer is yes and no. Yes for ellipticals and for early type galaxies with massive bulges. But no for the Milky Way, and presumably for similar late-type galaxies with small bulge-to-disk ratios.

There is little doubt that massive spheroids formed by mergers, and most likely by a series of mergers. Observations points to a drastic increase in the merger rate associated with starbursts in the early universe, and the inferred formation rate of dust-shrouded spheroids. The phenomenological case for merger-driven spheroid formation is strong (Sanders and Mirabel, 1996). Theory, for those who take it seriously, indicates that mergers were common in the past (e.g. Steinmetz and Navarro, 2002). SMBH fit into the merger scenario by virtue of the fact that a major merger provides a dramatic means for channeling gas into the central regions of the merged galaxy (e.g. Barnes and Hernquist, 1996), thereby instigating the formation of the SMBH. Possibly later mergers enable the central SMBH to merge and thereby develop and maintain the observed correlation between SMBH mass and bulge central velocity dispersion.

But what can be stated with considerable confidence is that our Milky Way galaxy underwent one significant merger 12 Gyr ago. This resulted in the formation of the bulge, and presumably therefore of the SMBH, and of the thick disk. Gas disk formation is a consequence of a gas-rich merger, and such disks commonly characterize merger remnants (Barnes, 2002). The chemical evidence for a unique merger origin in the case of our Milky Way’s thick disk is compelling (Wyse, 2001). The thick disk amounts to as much as 20 percent of the thin disk, so that this one merger was indeed a major merger. But the continuity between thin disk, thick disk, and bulge would have been destroyed had anything significant happened since in the way of a merger. In particular, the bulge was formed then, and therefore the SMBH formed shortly afterwards if we accept a dissipative protogalactic origin. The spike developed in the halo core when the SMBH formed by gas infall, and no subsequent major dynamical merging event occurred that could have destroyed it.

We note that an alternative theory for bulge formation in Milky Way-type galaxies has no recourse at all to a merger (e.g. Emsellem, 2001). Gravitational instability of a cold disk and secular evolution is capable of forming the bulge, and such a process would also be capable of driving in the gas to form the SMBH. Only small bulges are presumably formed in this manner, the massive bulges forming via mergers. Hence theory and phenomenology of the Milky Way formation support our contention that the CDM spike presents a primordial feature that developed as the SMBH formed and has not subsequently been destroyed.

Other dynamical effects, such as the influence on the dark halo of the formation of the galactic stellar nucleus bulge disc (Klypin, Zhao & Somerville,2001), have been neglected here. The consequent enhancement of dark matter density in the Galactic centre would further reduce the portion of dark matter parameter space we showed to be consistent with observations.

The SMBH acts as an amplifier of the CDM, locally enhancing the annihilation rate. The enhancement of the particle number density and self-annihilation rate in the proximity of the central black hole provides a means of probing the nature of CDM by indirect detection of the various annihilation signatures. There are three such signatures: high energy neutrinos, synchrotron emission from high energy positrons and electrons, and high energy gamma rays. We have previously discussed the observability of neutrinos and of synchrotron emission from the spike at the GC. Here we discuss the gamma ray signature for our favoured dark matter candidate, the so-called neutralino, arising in the framework of supersymmetric theories (for an extensive review of dark matter candidates see e.g. Bergstrom, 2000).

In particular, we have previously estimated (Bertone, Sigl and Silk, 2001) the corresponding enhancement of annihilation signals, such as synchrotron radiation originating from the propagation of e+e- pairs in the galactic magnetic field. We were able to constrain neutralino mass and cross section, the constraints being strongly dependent on the slope of the density profile. Here we extend this analysis to continuum gamma-ray emission, which, in absence of the central spike, has previously been evaluated by several authors (see e.g. Berezinsky et al., 1994).

When considering neutralinos annihilating in a halo with a power-law density profile, even with an index as high as 1.0, a deficit of gamma-rays is found, with respect to the flux measured by EGRET (see Mayer-Haesselwander, 1998). An explanation for this excess has been proposed in terms of ’clumpiness’ of the halo by Bergstrom et al. (1999). However rather extreme clumpiness factors are required, and it is not clear that the halo substructure has survived at least as judged by counting the number of dwarf satellites and by theoretical arguments pertaining to excessive loss of angular momentum by clumpy protogalactic gas (e.g. Silk, 2001).

In the present case, the gamma-ray flux is enhanced by the presence of the central spike at the Galactic Centre. We will show that a consistent scenario can be developed that simultaneously reproduces the observed SgrA\* radio spectrum as well as the high energy gamma ray emission observed from the Galactic Centre by EGRET if the initial cusp profile, before adiabatic accretion onto the SMBH, is rather shallow, with power law index $`\gamma 0.1`$.

Although some astrophysical processes may flatten considerably the cusps respect to conventional $`\gamma 1`$ profiles (see Katz & Weinberg, 2002 and Valenzuela & Kyplin, 2001) and lead to the formation of shallow cusps, we prefer here to treat $`\gamma `$ as an unknown parameter.

Alternative models exist in literature, to explain the spectrum of SGR A\*, suggesting that high energy emission could have an origin in pulsars or around a supermassive black hole (e.g. Mayer-Haesselwander et al., 1998).

In section 2 we give details about the supersymmetric scenarios used to make detailed estimates of expected fluxes. Section 3 is devoted to the description of the halo model with a central spike. The detailed analysis of synchrotron and gamma-ray emission is presented in section 4. The final section contains results and conclusions.

## 2 Neutralinos as dark matter candidates

There is convincing evidence that a large part of the dark matter is non-baryonic. Here we focus on the lightest supersymmetric particle, which in most supersymmetric scenarios turns out to be the neutralino (e.g. Jungman et al., 1996, and references therein).

One of the best reasons to consider neutralinos as dark matter candidates is that SUSY was not introduced to solve cosmological or astrophysical problems: rather, its motivations are related to some fundamental problems of theoretical physics, such as the fundamental difference between bosons and fermions, the mass hierarchy problem and Grand Unification (e.g. Jungman et al., 1996).

Despite its success in solving some of these problems, it is still not very predictive, containing a huge number of free parameters. This is mainly due to the fact that SUSY is not an exact symmetry of nature, and should be broken at some scale (otherwise we would observe superpartners of ordinary particles with the same masses, and we do not).

It is possible, however, to reduce the number of free parameters by making several reasonable assumptions. The definition of a SUSY scenario thus corresponds to specifying a set of assumptions that aim to reduce and constrain the parameter space. The results discussed in this paper are obtained in the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (see Haber&Kane, 1985, or Jungman et al, 1996) as implemented by Gondolo et al (2000) in the DarkSUSY code, in which there are seven free parameters: one scalar mass parameter $`m_0`$, the mass of the pseudo-scalar Higgs $`m_A`$, one universal gaugino mass $`M_2`$, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ (ratio of the VEVs of the two Higgs fields) and two trilinear parameters $`A_b`$, $`A_t`$.

We run extensive scans of the dMSSM 7-dimensional parameter space and choose the models consistent with accelerator and cosmological constraints. In particular, all the models discussed here have a relic density $`0.025\mathrm{\Omega }h^20.3`$.

## 3 Modified density profile

As discussed by Gondolo and Silk (2000), the presence of a black hole can dramatically modify the dark matter density profile near the Galactic Centre.

Starting from an ordinary power law for the dark matter density profile in the Galaxy (as predicted by N-body simulations), one obtains, after adiabatic accretion onto the central black hole, the following ’modified’ profile

$$\rho ^{}=\left[\alpha _\gamma \left(\frac{M}{\rho _DD^3}\right)^{3\gamma }\right]^{\gamma _{sp}\gamma }\rho _Dg(r)\left(\frac{D}{r}\right)^{\gamma _{sp}}$$
(1)
where $`\gamma _{sp}=(92\gamma )/(4\gamma )`$, $`D`$ is the solar distance from the Galactic Centre and $`\rho _D=0.24GeV/c^2/cm^3`$ is the density in the solar neighborhood.

The factors $`\alpha _\gamma `$ and $`g_\gamma (r)`$ cannot be determined analytically (for approximate expressions and numerical values see paper I). The expression (1) is only valid in a central region of size $`R_{sp}=\alpha _\gamma D(M/\rho _DD^3)^{1/(3\gamma )}`$ where the central black hole dominates the gravitational potential.

Self-annihilation of dark matter particles further modifies the density profile: if $`t_{BH}`$ is the age of the SMBH, the maximal dark matter density is

$$\rho _{core}=m_x/\sigma vt_{BH}$$
(2)
where $`m_x`$ and $`\sigma v`$ are respectively the neutralino mass and annihilation cross section (times relative velocity).

The final profile is given by

$$\rho _{dm}(r)=\frac{\rho ^{}(r)\rho _{core}}{\rho ^{}(r)+\rho _{core}}$$
(3)
following a power law for large values of $`r`$, and with a flat core of density $`\rho _{core}`$ and dimension

$$R_{core}=R_{sp}\left(\frac{\rho (R_{sp})}{\rho _{core}}\right)^{(1/\gamma _{sp})}.$$
(4)
This result is obtained neglecting dynamical effects of hierarchical merging. If one takes into account the former effects, then shallower dark matter profiles are formed, with power law index as low as $`\gamma 0.5`$ or even flatter (see Merritt et al., 2002, Nakano & Makino, 1999, and Ullio, Zhao & Kamionkowski, 2001).

However, as stressed in the introduction, post-merger black hole formation, as seems to be the case for our galaxy, means that the spike will still form, albeit with a reduced value of $`\gamma _{sp}`$ that however is always larger than 7/4 and hence gives a large annihilation flux enhancement. An interesting effect arises if the massive black hole does not lie exactly at the centre of the dark matter halo, as may be the consequence of being embedded in a central massive star cluster of size $`a<0.01`$pc. According to Chatterjee, Hernquist and Loeb (2002), for solar mass stars, stochastic motions of the SMBH occur in a harmonic potential of scale $`10^3a`$pc, and this would have the effect of further softening the spike; note that annihilation softening occurs at $`10^6`$pc (Gondolo and Silk 1999)).

## 4 Annihilation radiation

The neutralino self-annihilation rate is very sensitive to the neutralino number density, namely

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{\sigma v}{m_x^2}_0^{\mathrm{}}\rho _{dm}^24\pi r^2𝑑r,$$
(5)
We therefore expect the annihilation signals coming from the neighborhood of the central black hole to greatly exceed the signals from other regions of the halo.

Among secondary products of neutralino annihilation, we study high energy photons, originating via neutral pion decays, and the synchrotron radiation of electron-positron pairs (originating from the decays of charged pions) in the Galactic magnetic field.

### 4.1 Synchrotron radiation

In the region of interest, the Galactic magnetic field can be roughly approximated using the ’equipartition assumption’ (see Melia, 1992), such that

$$B_{eq}(r)=1\mu G\left(\frac{r}{pc}\right)^{5/4}.$$
(6)
This value is obtained assuming equality between magnetic and gravitational energy density. In the case of accretion with conservation of mass flux $`\rho vr^2=`$constant, hence, for keplerian velocities, $`rhor^{3/2}`$ and the gravitational energy $`ϵ_{GR}r^{5/2}`$ (for more details see also Shvartsman, 1971).

In paper I, we estimated the synchrotron luminosity at a given frequency $`\nu `$ in such a magnetic field to be

$$L_\nu \frac{9}{8}\left(\frac{1}{0.29\pi }\frac{m_e^3c^5}{e}\right)^{1/2}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }Y_e(>E)}{\sqrt{\nu }}I$$
(7)
where

$$I=_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑r\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}4}\pi r^2f_e(r)B^{1/2}(r)$$
(8)
and the function $`f_e(r)`$ is defined as

$$f_e(r)=\frac{\rho _{sp}^2}{_0^{\mathrm{}}\rho _{sp}^24\pi r^2𝑑r}$$
(9)
Eq. 7 may appear to be counterintuitive, due to the presence of the factor $`B^{1/2}`$ in the integral defined in eq. 8. Indeed an increase of the magnetic field would produce a decrease of the expected flux for a given frequency, simply because the full spectrum would be ’shifted’ towards higher energies. The synchrotron flux (see e.g. Bertone, Sigl and Silk, 2001) is a growing function of frequency, roughly following a power law, until the cut-off frequency, which is the critical synchrotron frequency (see Rybicki & Lightman, 1979) of photons produced from the highest energy electrons (of energy $`m_x`$). The cut-off frequency can be expressed as

$$\nu 100\left(\frac{\mathrm{B}}{\mu G}\right)\left(\frac{m_x}{100\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}}\right)\mathrm{GHz}$$
(10)
An increase of the magnetic field would thus move the photons originated by the same electron population towards higher frequencies, thus reducing the flux for any given frequency, but extending it at higher frequencies, due to the increase of the cut-off frequency.

To obtain the observed radiation, one should multiply the luminosity $`L_\nu `$ for the synchrotron self-absorption coefficient, defined as (see Rybicki & Lightman, 1979)

$$A_\nu =\frac{1}{a_\nu }_0^{\mathrm{}}(1e^{\tau (b)})2\pi b𝑑b$$
(11)
where $`\tau (b)`$ is the optical depth as a function of the cylindrical coordinate b

$$\tau (b)=a_\nu _{d(b)}^{\mathrm{}}f_e(b,z)𝑑z$$
(12)
and the coefficient $`a_\nu `$ in our case is given by

$$a_\nu =\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }Y}{4\pi }\frac{c^2}{\nu ^3},$$
(13)
(see paper I for details about lower limit of integration in eq.12 and approximations introduced).

We found that synchrotron self-absorption can reduce the predicted radio flux by several orders of magnitude . We evaluated the synchrotron luminosity for a wide set of supersymmetric models (using the DarkSUSY code) and for different values of $`\gamma `$. We used, in particular, the expected luminosity at $`\nu =408MHz`$ to estimate the magnetic field required to reproduce the observed flux.

In figure 1 we show the value of the magnetic field, relative to the equipartition field of eq. 6 for a wide set of supersymmetric model and 4 different values of $`\gamma `$.

A value of $`\gamma `$ between 0.05 and 0.1 seems to reproduce the right normalization at radio wavelengths, if combined with a magnetic field close to equipartition. Other values of the density profile power law index would instead require unacceptable values of B.

### 4.2 Gamma-ray emission

As discussed above, neutralino annihilation produce a continuum $`\gamma `$-ray spectrum, originating from the decay of neutral pions, which in turn come from the hadronization process of quark-antiquark pairs.

Referring to the paper of Gondolo and Silk (1999) we write the contribution of the spike as

$$\mathrm{\Phi }^{\mathrm{spike}}=\frac{\rho _D^2Y_\gamma \sigma vD}{m_x^2}\left(\frac{R_{\mathrm{sp}}}{D}\right)^{32\gamma }\left(\frac{R_{\mathrm{sp}}}{R_{\mathrm{in}}}\right)^{2\gamma _{\mathrm{sp}}3},$$
(14)
where $`R_{\mathrm{in}}=1.5\left[(20R_\mathrm{S})^2+R_{\mathrm{core}}^2\right]^{1/2}`$ and $`Y_\gamma `$ is the number of photons produced per annihilation.

This formula is valid in the case of adiabatic accretion from an initial power law density profile. If one considers an initial isothermal profile (i.e. a profile with a flat central core), the enhancement of the flux in the Galactic Center would be negligible compared to radiation from annihilations along the line of sight (see Gondolo and Silk, 1999).

We show in figure 2 the expected fluxes for a subset of supersymmetric models and the same values of $`\gamma `$ as in figure 1. A value of $`\gamma `$ between 0.05 and 0.1 can reproduce the normalization of the observed flux. This is fully consistent with the result found in the previous section.

Larger values of $`\gamma `$ are also able to reproduce the EGRET normalization, as shown in figure 3. In particular we found that even if most of the models would require a $`\gamma `$ of the order of 0.1 or lower, some of them could go as high as $`\gamma 1`$. Those models correspond to very low predicted fluxes, and are thought to require an important level of fine-tuning of the seven input parameters. For comparison we also show the expected results in a scenario without the central spike, in which case a range of $`\gamma `$ between 1 and 2 is required.

Finally in figure 4 we show the required cross sections to reproduce the EGRET data normalization for all the supersymmetric models and four different values of $`\gamma `$ (in the case of presence of the central spike). Here again it is possible to read out the range of values of $`\gamma `$ which can reproduce the observed EGRET normalization with cross sections close to those predicted in our supersymmetric scenario.

## 5 Results and Conclusions

In the framework of a halo model with a spike around the central black hole, we showed that a consistent scenario can be built, reproducing at the same time both the radio and gamma-ray emission.

Observed radio emission can be explained by synchrotron emission of secondary e-e+pairs in the Galactic magnetic field. The enhancement of annihilation rate due to the central spike and synchrotron self-absorption were the two main ingredients of our calculation.

Despite the lack of distinctive features of continuum gamma-ray emission, we find full consistency of the results obtained with the radio emission, the EGRET flux normalization being reproduced with values of $`\gamma 0.1`$, when assuming profiles with a central spike.

The argument can also be turned the other way round and interpreted as a ’measure’ of the Galactic magnetic field: we can in fact decide to select the values of $`\gamma `$ reproducing the normalization of the observed gamma-ray emission (figure 3), and go back to figure 1 to read out the corresponding value of $`B^{}`$, which for most of the models is indeed of order the equipartition value, thus confirming the consistency of our scenario.

Forthcoming experiments, such as GLAST, will probe energies well above the EGRET measurements, up to 300 GeV. A sharp cutoff around the neutralino mass is predicted for this scenario, if the annihilation radiation gives the dominant contribution to normalization. Furthermore other ’smoking gun’ signatures, such as narrow high energy gamma ray lines could give further information and constraints on neutralino properties or halo profiles.

## Acknowledgments

We would like to thank J.Edsjo for enlightening discussions and help on the use of the DarkSUSY code. This activity was carried out in the framework of the ’Supersymmetry and Early Universe Network’ (HPRN-CT-2000-00152).


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# Spectroscopic detection of quasars in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey

## 1 Introduction

Very large surveys are playing an increasingly important role in the progress of observational astronomy, with all-sky photometric and spectroscopic data–sets particularly prominent. The most advanced surveys in the latter category are the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS; Colless et al. 2001) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; York et al. 2000), both of which already include well over $`10^5`$ spectra. A feature of many of the most ambitious surveys is the incorporation of the rapid release of survey data to the astronomical community, together with user-friendly tools and interfaces that allow exploitation of this resource. Indeed the 2dFGRS’s release of $`10^5`$ spectra111http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/2dFGRS/ is the largest catalogue of galaxy spectra available.

The 2dFGRS 100k Data Release has already formed the basis for investigations key to the primary goals of the survey, including constraints on the luminosity function of local galaxies (Sadler et al. 2001; Magliocchetti et al. 2002; Madgwick et al. 2002) and their correlation properties (Peacock et al. 2001; Percival et al. 2002; Norberg et al. 2001), as well as studies of the local cluster population (de Propris et al. 2001). Comparable results have also been obtained from the SDSS (e.g. Blanton et al. 2001; Connolly et al. 2002).

An additional benefit of these large databases is the presence of new and unusual objects, albeit in small numbers. The SDSS has already discovered several unusual dwarf stars (Strauss et al. 1999; Harris et al. 2001) and a large proportion of the highest-redshift quasars now known (Fan et al. 2001). The morphological selection involved in the definition of the 2dFGRS targets reduces the heterogeneity of the constituent object populations compared to the SDSS but the 100k Data Release should still include a variety of interesting objects.

In this paper we focus on the population of broad line quasars and active galactic nuclei (AGN) with redshifts essentially beyond the limit of the number–redshift selection function for the normal galaxies that dominate the sample. Such a census of quasars and AGN with redshifts $`z0.3`$ has a number of applications. Firstly, many of the quasars with redshifts $`z0.5`$ in the 2dFGRS will lie close in projection to lower redshift galaxies – the ‘composite’ quasar plus galaxy image having been classified as non-stellar. These quasar–galaxy pairs provide the opportunity to probe the physical conditions in the interstellar medium of the galaxies via absorption line studies of the background quasars. A smaller fraction of quasars, concentrated particularly at lower redshifts, $`z0.5`$, will show evidence for the presence of host galaxies. The sub-sample of such objects will include quasars with some of the most luminous hosts known. Secondly, a few objects may represent new examples of strong gravitational lensing, adding to the still very small number of multiply imaged quasars known. Finally, as the companion 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ; e.g. Croom et al. 2001) photometric catalogue deliberately includes only unresolved sources, the frequency and properties of quasars present in the 2dFGRS provides information relating to the completeness of the 2QZ as a function of image morphology and redshift.

Following a brief description of the 2dFGRS data (Section 2) the search methods employed are detailed in Section 3. Issues related to candidate selection are discussed in Section 4 and the resultant object catalogue is presented in Section 5, together with comments on individual objects. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the potential uses of the quasar sample in Sections 6 and 7.

## 2 The 2dFGRS

The 2dFGRS is, formally, a spectroscopic survey of $`2.5\times 10^5`$ apparently non-stellar objects to an isophotal magnitude limit of $`b_\mathrm{J}=19.45`$. Our search for quasars and broad line AGN is confined to the first subset of $`10^5`$ spectra made publicly available as the 100k Data Release (Colless et al. 2001).

The 2dFGRS spectra are obtained using the 2dF instrument on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) and represent $`45`$-minute integrations through fibres with an angular diameter on the sky of $`2.1`$arcsec (see Lewis et al., 2002). The wavelength coverage extends from approximately $`3700`$Å to $`8100`$Å. Strong night-sky emission lines, notably O i 5577Å, Na i 5890Å and O i 6300Å, effectively produce $`50`$Å-wide gaps in the spectra of all except the brightest objects. The nominal signal–to–noise (S/N) ratio for a continuum-dominated object at the survey limit is $`10`$ per 10Å bin, although many of the spectra are of significantly lower quality.

The majority of the targets are local galaxies, with an average redshift of $`z=0.1`$, although there is a $`5`$ per cent ‘contamination’ by Galactic stars. Morphological classification of the photometric input catalogue was taken from the Automatic Plate Measuring (APM) survey (Maddox et al. 1990) of United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope (UKST) photographic plates. The star–galaxy separation algorithm, described in detail by Maddox et al. (1990), is highly effective when applied to isolated images, and able to select galaxies with an efficiency (i.e. the fraction of selected objects which are galaxies) of $`97`$ per cent. Classification of ‘composite’ images, where the isophotal boundaries of two or more images overlap and the APM parameterises the resulting composite image, present a more difficult problem given the limited number of moment-based parameters provided by the APM to describe each image. For objects with magnitudes within the range included in the 2dFGRS essentially all close pairs of objects with angular separations $`8`$arcsec (depending on the quality of the plate material) are detected as composite images. The majority of such images have been eliminated from the 2dFGRS spectroscopic target catalogue through a selection according to image classification parameter and direct visual inspection (Colless et al. 2001; Section 5.4). However, a small fraction of star–galaxy and even star–star pairs are included in the 2dFGRS target list and such objects are responsible for the bulk of the contamination by Galactic stars.

The population of unresolved quasars and AGN is subject to exactly the same image blending that can occur with Galactic stars, but the surface density on the sky is much smaller and hence the predicted frequency in the 2dFGRS survey correspondingly lower. Nonetheless, adopting a surface density of $`10`$deg-2 for quasars with magnitudes $`b_\mathrm{J}19.5`$, simple geometric arguments predict that the 2dFGRS 100k Data Release should contain several tens of quasars.

## 3 Search Methodologies

Our search strategy involved a combination of visual inspection (Section 3.1), confined to the most extreme objects in the 100k Data Release, and the application of two automated routines (Sections 3.2 and 3.3). The combined results are presented in Section 4.

### 3.1 Visual inspection

Our starting point involved a simple query of the Data Release, selecting all objects with heliocentric redshifts $`z_{\mathrm{helio}}0.3`$. All 422 spectra satisfying the $`z_{\mathrm{helio}}0.3`$ constraint were inspected visually to identify objects with evidence of broad emission lines.

### 3.2 Matched filter-based search

The first of our automated routines adopts a ‘conventional’ approach to filtering the spectra before applying a matched filter detection procedure. A mask was defined to exclude pixels with wavelengths within the intervals $`5557`$$`5597`$Å, $`5870`$$`5910`$Å, $`6280`$$`6320`$Å, $`6340`$$`6380`$Å, $`6850`$$`6950`$Å, $`7150`$$`7350`$Å, $`7580`$$`7700`$Å and $`7880`$$`8500`$Å. These regions are dominated by either residual sky-subtraction errors in the vicinity of strong night-sky emission lines, e.g. O i $`\lambda `$5577, NaD $`\lambda `$5890, or suffer from strong absorption within the atmosphere or the 2dF fibres themselves. Pixels within $`40`$Å of the nominal start and end wavelengths of the spectra were also excluded to avoid a number of artifacts arising from the data reduction or the instrument.

A median filter with a box-length of 201 pixels ($`840`$Å) was then applied to the spectra. The resulting ‘continuum’ spectra retain any discontinuities present in the original spectra, e.g. the $`4000`$Å-break in many of the galaxies, but the presence of absorption and emission features with widths $`400`$Å is greatly reduced. The continuum spectra were then subtracted from the original spectra to produce ‘difference’ spectra. Further discussion and examples of the effect of median filters applied to low-resolution astronomical spectra can be found in Hewett et al. (1985).

The ‘matched filter’ was derived from the Francis et al. (1991) composite quasar spectrum, extended using additional data to $`7500`$Å. A low-order spline fit to the quasar continuum was subtracted from the composite spectrum to leave a residual spectrum dominated by prominent broad emission lines.

For each difference spectrum the template was redshifted and interpolated onto the same wavelength array. The template was then multiplied by an approximation to the wavelength-dependent sensitivity of the 2dFGRS observations. A variance array is provided for each 2dFGRS spectrum in the 100k Data Release and a straightforward cross–correlation between the difference spectrum and template spectrum was then performed to give a signal–to–noise ratio (Hewett et al. 1985; Equation 3). The template was incremented by $`\delta z=0.01`$ and the search performed over the redshift range $`0z3.5`$. The associated scale factor for the template spectrum is readily calculated to give the amplitude of the signal (Equation 2 of Hewett et al. 1985). A goodness–of–fit estimate was calculated from the fractional reduction in $`\chi ^2`$ between the difference spectrum alone and the difference spectrum after the subtraction of the scaled template. Thus, for each spectrum, ‘detections’, above some specified S/N-threshold, together with associated goodness–of–fit measures and redshifts are generated.

### 3.3 Wavelet search

In addition to the matched filter search we have also conducted an automated search of the spectra using a wavelet transform-based routine.

The distinguishing feature of quasars in spectra of low S/N ratio is the presence of broad emission lines. Wavelet transforms allow the separation of a spectrum into different (Fourier) frequency domains whilst preserving the spatial information (i.e. the emission line positions). This allows us to easily separate out broad from narrow features in each spectrum and hence make the identification of quasar emission signals more straight-forward. The key is the use of a localised filter kernel, the width of which varies according to the resolution being sampled. This contrasts with a conventional Fourier transform where the filter kernel is not localised and the spatial information is obscured during the transformation.

There are a variety of different implementations of the wavelet transform (e.g. Mallat 1998), each of which has its own particular benefits. For the analysis of the 2dFGRS the $`\stackrel{´}{a}`$ trous (‘with holes’) algorithm (Starck, Siebenmorgen & Gredel 1997 and references therein) was used because it has a particularly simple inverse, making the transformed spectra easy to interpret.

Using this transformation yields a set of different resolution domains $`W_k`$ for any given spectrum. An example of this is shown for a 2dF spectrum in Fig. 1. The kernel we have employed is a normalised Gaussian sampled at five equally spaced points. This process can be carried on for any number of steps $`k`$. In the case of the 2dFGRS galaxy spectra we find that there is no additional emission information left after about 7 or 8 steps.

#### 3.3.1 Detection

As illustrated in Fig. 1, the effect of the wavelet transform is to localise the broad emission line signature of any quasar in the low-resolution domains, which are free from most of the pixel–to–pixel noise and any spurious high frequency features that may be present.

Quasars can now be identified by cross-correlating these low-frequency resolution domains $`W_k`$ with the corresponding domains $`W_k^{}`$ of the transformed quasar template. This process is carried out in a similar fashion to the matched filter method, but with a few minor modifications.

Empirically, the most effective resolution domains to sample for quasar lines are $`W_3`$, $`W_4`$ and $`W_5`$. Because the wavelet transform of the quasar template is performed before redshifting, the width of the quasar features in a given resolution domain will increase with increasing redshift, introducing a bias against detecting the more distant quasars. For this reason two sets of cross-correlations were performed. In the first, domains $`W_3`$ and $`W_4`$ of the 2dF spectrum were cross-correlated with $`W_3`$ and $`W_4`$ of the quasar template (to detect low-$`z`$ objects). In the second, domains $`W_4`$ and $`W_5`$ of the 2dF spectrum were cross-correlated with $`W_3`$ and $`W_4`$ of the quasar template (to detect high-$`z`$ objects). The combined cross-correlation is then the sum of the four individual cross-correlations.

The goodness–of–fit for any quasar identifications is then determined as described for the matched–filter search.

## 4 Identification of high-redshift objects

### 4.1 Visual inspection

The 2dFGRS redshift-assignment for spectra in the survey has been undertaken using techniques that are highly effective for galaxies with absorption line or emission line spectra produced by stellar photospheres and H ii regions. Unsurprisingly, however, objects whose spectra are dominated by broad emission lines and/or possess redshifts $`z0.4`$ are not well suited to redshift determinations using template spectra of normal galaxies. Only 150 of the 422 spectra with $`z_{\mathrm{helio}}0.3`$ have redshift assignments of high confidence (quality = 4 or 5) and it is apparent that a number of the spectra have incorrect redshift assignments. Objects with erroneous redshifts include some spectra of high S/N ratio and some objects with high confidence redshift assignments. The limitations of the 2dFGRS redshift determination procedure are essentially irrelevant to the primary goals of the survey but care should be exercised when utilising this very small number of extreme objects from the 100k Data Release. The sample identified from the visual inspection consisted of 37 quasars and AGN with redshifts $`z_{\mathrm{helio}}0.3`$.

### 4.2 Automated searches

Both the automated routines described in the previous section were highly effective in identifying spectra that show broad emission lines. However, the limiting factor for the automated routines is the large number of false-positive detections that arise due to a wide variety of features and artifacts present in the 2dFGRS spectra.

A full description of the properties of the 2dFGRS spectra is beyond the scope of this paper, and the majority of the phenomena that affect a search for rare objects are described in the 2dF instrument on-line documentation222http://www.aao.gov.au/2df/. However, mention of some of the features in the context of searches for quasars is appropriate.

A variety of instrument-related phenomena can result in spurious detections. Prior to August 1999 the second 2dF spectrograph fed an engineering-grade CCD that possessed a significant number of cosmetic defects. The majority of the artifacts not removed during the data reduction procedure involve relatively narrow features and/or sudden discontinuities. The features themselves do not in general provide good mimics for broad emission lines but their presence can on occasion cause the filtering routines to behave unpredictably, resulting in numerous spurious detections. A number of spectra obtained through fibres 39–50 possess an apparent broad emission feature at a wavelength of $`5200`$Å (Fig. 2a). Examples include objects TGN403Z028, TGN420Z090, TGS181Z082, TGS181Z095 and TGS202Z267.

Contamination from light emitting diodes (LEDs), particularly broad features at $`6600`$Å and $`7100`$Å, creates a number of ‘emission’ features in some spectra acquired before about mid-1999. These features are often, quite correctly, identified as candidate lines by the automated routines. In addition a number of fibres are particularly prone to optical ringing which results in a strong modulation of the object spectrum that frequently results in spurious detections. It is believed that the ringing is due to an interference fringing effect resulting from small cracks at the input ends of the optical fibres (Lewis et al.2002). Examples of both LED contamination and optical ringing are shown in Fig. 2(b) and (c).

At low redshifts the very large number of spectra with narrow emission lines, the majority of which result from processes associated with star-formation, produce a large number of false detections (Fig. 2d). The low S/N of the majority of the spectra means that establishing the presence of broad wings to emission lines is not possible. At higher redshifts the difficulty is reduced dramatically as only a small number of star-forming galaxies are bright enough to be included within the 2dFGRS flux-limited sample. Indeed, we identified only 3 objects with narrow emission line spectra and redshifts $`z0.4`$.

Bright stars can result in very high S/N spectra (Fig. 2e) and filtering techniques that do not incorporate knowledge of stellar spectral energy distributions almost invariably leave apparent broad emission and absorption signatures in the filtered spectra.

The large number of false-positive detections resulting from the range of phenomena described above mean that the automated techniques are limited more by the swamping of the small number of real quasars than by the question of whether a detection at a given significance is real. Following some experimentation, candidates from the wavelet-based search were selected according to a fractional reduction in the goodness–of–fit of $`\delta \chi ^20.25`$, producing 711 objects. The cut-off values adopted for the matched filter-based search were $`S/N2.5`$ and $`\delta \chi ^20.2`$ producing 1277 candidates.

The candidate spectra were then inspected visually to eliminate the spurious detections that constitute the bulk of the candidates. Encouragingly, the automated techniques independently recover the majority of objects identified from the visual inspection of the $`z_{\mathrm{helio}}0.3`$ sample and the majority of candidate quasars are common to all three lists. The combined sample of candidate quasars consists of 55 objects, of which 37, 49 and 47 were identified in the visual, matched filter and wavelet searches respectively.

### 4.3 Observer Comments

To verify that the combination of visual inspection and the automated search was effective in identifying candidate quasars the ‘observer comments’ (Z\_COMM, Colless et al. 2001) were searched for references to possible quasar lines or otherwise unusual spectra. Of 124 such references, 29 were included in our candidate list and visual inspection of the remainder revealed no additional candidates.

## 5 High-redshift objects in the 100k Data Release

### 5.1 The Object catalogue

A total of 55 candidate quasars with redshifts $`z0.3`$ were identified using one or more of the three methods described in Section 4. Table 1 provides summary information for these objects. The 2dFGRS name, celestial coordinates and $`b_{\mathrm{J}(2\mathrm{d}\mathrm{F})}`$ magnitudes are all taken directly from the 100k Data Release. The quasar redshifts, $`z_{\mathrm{qso}}`$, are derived via cross-correlation of the quasar template (Section 3) with the individual spectra. The probability a candidate represents a quasar is quantified via a simple integer quality flag, $`ID`$:

1. $`ID=1`$, Possible quasar – spectrum contains only one broad emission feature detected at low S/N (5 objects);
2. $`ID=2`$, Probable quasar – spectrum contains only one broad emission feature detected at moderate S/N, or spectrum contains two or more broad emission features detected at low S/N (9 objects);
3. $`ID=3`$, Definite quasar – spectrum contains two or more broad emission features detected at moderate or high S/N (41 objects).

A high degree of confidence can be placed in the candidates with $`ID=3`$, while candidates with $`ID=1`$ certainly require further spectroscopic observations to clarify the reality of the putatitive broad emission features.

Figure 3 shows the 2dFGRS spectra together with the redshifted quasar template used to make the identification. Interpolation has been performed over strong sky emission lines and a few spurious features masked out. Also shown are $`30\times 30`$ arcsec postage stamp images, in conventional astronomical orientation, taken from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey (SSS; Hambly et al. 2001) scans of the UKST $`b_\mathrm{J}`$ survey plates. The scale of these postage stamp images is $`0.7^{\prime \prime }`$ per pixel.

### 5.2 Corrected magnitudes

The 2dFGRS $`b_\mathrm{J}`$ magnitudes are calculated assuming that the images do not contain unresolved point sources. However, the catalogue of candidate quasars includes objects that are only marginally resolved as well as objects that consist of two or more distinct components, at least one of which is unresolved. An automated scan of a UKST photographic plate shows a tight relation between the integrated brightness and the peak brightness of unresolved images. The relation arises because of the very similar profiles of the unresolved sources and the peak brightness of unresolved images with $`b_\mathrm{J}20.5`$ exceeds that of the majority of galaxies in the 2dFGRS. As a consequence, the peak brightness of marginally resolved or composite images, such as those of the candidate quasars, can be used to estimate the brightness of any unresolved component. The SSS has been used to provide magnitude estimates for the unresolved components present in each of the candidate quasar images. The SSS catalogues were integrated to provide the SuperCOSMOS $`b_\mathrm{J}`$ magnitudes and peak intensities ($`I_{\mathrm{PEAK}}`$) for all images classified as ‘stellar’ within a $`15`$arcmin radius of each candidate quasar. A low-order fit to the well-defined $`b_\mathrm{J}`$ vs $`I_{\mathrm{PEAK}}`$ relation was performed for objects surrounding each candidate and $`b_\mathrm{J}`$ for the candidate quasar, based on the value of $`I_{\mathrm{PEAK}}`$, calculated. The resulting $`b_\mathrm{J}`$ values are given in column 5 of Table 1. Seven candidate quasars do not appear in the SSS scans and one object has an $`I_{\mathrm{PEAK}}`$ value such that saturation effects preclude the calculation of a sensible magnitude.

### 5.3 Notes on individual objects

1. TGN172Z242: identification based on detection of a broad emission feature at $`4100`$Å which may well be spurious.
2. TGN200Z277: identification based on identification of $`4200`$Å feature as Mg ii $`\lambda `$2798. Any H$`\beta `$ emission would be difficult to detect because of a fibre absorption band affecting wavelengths $`7150`$$`7400`$Å.
3. TGS306Z029: redshift, based on \[O iii\] emission lines at $`6800`$Å is secure. Tentative quasar classification relies on detection of broad Mg ii $`\lambda `$2798 emission at $`3800`$Å but there is no evidence for the presence of broad H$`\beta `$.
4. TGS522Z221: unexplained emission feature exists in the spectrum at 7340Å. A higher signal–to–noise ratio spectrum is desirable in order to confirm the redshift identification.
5. TGS187Z041 a spectrum showing evidence for a low-redshift galaxy and a quasar at much higher redshift (see Table. 2 and Fig. 8). The quasar identification relies on the presence of a single emission line at $`5200`$Å and the redshift of $`z=0.87`$ is derived assuming the feature is Mg ii $`\lambda `$2798. Note that this spectrum was observed using the science-grade CCD1, whereas it was the engineering-grade CCD2 that produced spurious features at $`\lambda 5200`$Å. None the less, confirmation of the spectrum is required to establish TGS187Z041 as a strong lens candidate, particularly since ESO NTT $`V`$-band imaging obtained on February 2 2002, using the SUSI instrument in conditions with $`1`$arcsec seeing, showed no evidence of a morphology indicating the system is a gravitational lens.

## 6 Discussion

The sample of high-redshift quasars described in Section 5 is unique due to the parent survey’s explicit morphological selection of non-stellar objects. Indeed, most of the images shown in Fig. 3 are either noticeably extended or have distinct companions. From a more physical point of view the quasars fall into three distinct categories: those with visible host galaxies (Section 6.1); possible gravitational lenses (Section 6.2); and those with low-redshift galaxies along the line–of–sight (Section 6.3).

### 6.1 Quasar host galaxies

A significant proportion of the quasars in the sample (13 out of 55) have redshifts $`z0.5`$ and sufficiently non-stellar appearances to have entered the APM survey without any nearby companions (cf. the compound objects described in Sections 6.2 and 6.3). In several cases there is spectroscopic evidence for the presence of host galaxies in the form of common photospheric absorption lines, implying that it is the quasars’ hosts that are also responsible for the extended morphology. Although the discovery of this kind of low-redshift quasar was not a strong motivation for this search, imaging and spectroscopy of these objects, which would be difficult to find in any other way, could prove valuable in the understanding of the relationship between quasars and their host galaxies.

### 6.2 Gravitational lenses

One of the objects discovered in this survey, TGS187Z041 (Section 5.3; Fig. 8), is a possible gravitational lens, having the morphology of a low-redshift galaxy, but a spectrum that appears to be a combination of galaxy and quasar. Although higher resolution imaging is required to confirm the lensing hypothesis, such a discovery would not be entirely unexpected, and indeed the initial motivation for this project was to search for spectroscopic lenses (Mortlock, Madgwick & Lahav 2001).

To date Q 2237+0305 (Huchra et al. 1985) is the only quasar lens identified in this fashion333Related surveys for lensed emission line galaxies (Warren et al. 1996; Hewett et al. 2000; Hall et al. 2000) have resulted in a number of candidates, but only the first of these is confirmed at present., but theoretical calculations by Kochanek (1992) and Mortlock & Webster (2001, 2002) implied that $`10`$ lenses could be discovered in the (full) 2dFGRS. Thus $`4`$ would be expected in the 100k sample, which, given that the discovery of these systems is a Poisson process, is marginally consistent with the single (putative) lens identified. However the nature of the other quasars discovered during the search allows the models used in the above calculations to be reassessed.

In particular, the expected number of lenses increases rapidly with $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\mathrm{qg}}`$, the parameter which specifies how much fainter than the galaxy the quasar images can be whilst still being detectable. Mortlock & Webster (2001) estimated $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\mathrm{qg}}2`$ for the 2dFGRS, but the absence of galaxy-dominated spectra from the objects described in Section 6.1, together with Monte Carlo simulations, implies that a value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\mathrm{qg}}1`$ is more appropriate. It is also clear in some cases that the identification of the quasar emission lines is limited by the photon noise as well as the presence of galactic emission, a factor explicitly accounted for by neither Kochanek (1992) nor Mortlock & Webster (2000, 2001). The estimated SSS magnitudes of the high-redshift objects in Table 1 imply an effective limiting magnitude of $`b_\mathrm{J}20`$ for the quasars themselves, which would certainly remove some lenses from the sample if $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\mathrm{qg}}2`$. However the adjustment to $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\mathrm{qg}}1`$ also has the effect of excluding noise-limited detections, implying that the above models are adequate provided a value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\mathrm{qg}}`$ close to unity is adopted. Overall it seems that the results are consistent with this more conservative model of the 2dFGRS, which then implies a total yield of $`3`$ lenses from the full survey.

### 6.3 Absorption systems

Most of the redshift $`z0.5`$ quasars in the sample entered the 2dFGRS due to the presence of faint companion images – some classes of ‘star–galaxy’ mergers were selected into the parent APM survey (Maddox et al. 1990). In most cases the companions appear to be faint ($`b_\mathrm{J}19`$$`21`$) low-redshift galaxies, although this is in part due to the strong selection effect that the quasars be detectable in the 2dF spectra. (If there is significant angular separation between the quasar its companion this requires that the 2dF fibre was centred close to the quasar; in situations where the two components are coincident the quasar must be approximately as bright as its companion for its emission lines to be detectable; cf. Section 6.2.)

Confirmation imaging and spectroscopy of the quasar candidates with companion images should then provide a well characterised sample of redshift $`0.3`$ galaxies that possess background probes (the quasars) with impact parameters ranging from $`2`$ to $`30`$kpc. Such systems will be of value in studies of the interstellar medium of the foreground galaxies and for establishing the properties of inter-galactic absorption at low redshift (e.g. Bowen, Blades & Tytler 1997; Bowen, Blades & Pettini 1995; Chen et al. 1998, 2001).

## 7 Conclusions

We have conducted a spectroscopic search for quasars in the 2dFGRS 100k catalogue and generated a sample of 55 candidate objects. Two analysis techniques were used – a matched filter-based search and wavelet transforms – and both were successful in finding $`90`$ per cent of the candidates. The low-redshift quasars in the sample are typically extended (probably due to their host galaxies) and many of the high-redshift quasars have fainter companions (likely to be low redshift galaxies along the line–of–sight), including one which is a possible gravitational lens. We are currently in the process of obtaining confirmation spectroscopy of these objects (and imaging of the candidate lens). The next stage of this project will be to obtain high quality spectra of the galaxies with good background probes (i.e. the quasars with low impact parameters) with a view to performing absorption studies of their interstellar medium.

## Acknowledgments

The efforts of the 2dFGRS team in compiling the 100k Data Release are greatly appreciated. Terry Bridges, Russell Cannon and Karl Glazebrook provided valuable advice concerning features of the 2dFGRS spectra. In addition Russell Cannon also provided us with many valuable comments on improving the original draft of this paper. Tom Oosterloo and Lister Staveley–Smith contributed significantly to our understanding of wavelets and Mike Read provided invaluable assistance with the use of the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey. DSM was supported by an Isaac Newton Studentship from Trinity College and the University of Cambridge. DJM was supported by PPARC.


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# Comment: Anomalous Anisotropic Light Scattering in Ge-Doped Silica Glass

thanks: Corresponding author

An *anomalous anisotropic light scattering* which peaks in the plane of light polarization, the “propeller effect” named by authors, was observed in glass pumped by intense femtosecond laser radiation Kazansky . A quiver movement of photoelectrons in the light field was the key to an explanation of the effect. A blue emission pattern of a propeller shape was attributed to a defect-related photoluminescence (PL) and explained by its scattering. The emission follows the angular distribution of the photoelectrons given by $`\frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}(1+\mathrm{cos}^2\phi )`$, where the $`\frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ is the differential scattering cross section of electrons, $`\phi `$ is the angle between the field amplitude vector $`𝐄`$ and the electron momentum $`𝐤_e`$.

This is an interesting phenomenon relevant to a fast growing research on the interaction on ultra-short pulses with materials, in particular, with transparent solids. This is a field where some long-lasting controversies over generation of white-light continuum (super-continuum (SC)), self-focusing and dielectric breakdown (DB) mechanisms should be resolved. By this comment we intend to draw attention to the phenomenon of *bremsstrahlung* (German word for “braking radiation”), which escapes proper consideration and can explain, for example, emission spectra of dielectric breakdown and the above mentioned “propeller effect” Kazansky . In our judgement, the explanation of the “propeller effect” should take into account *bremsstrahlung*, transmission function of a measurement setup, and optical aberrations.

Once the optical excitation generates free electrons, this not only changes the dielectric function, which is usually considered in the SC and light-induced DB mechanisms from the point of view of nonlinear optics, but also inherently causes the light emission due to the *bremsstrahlung*. In a plasma state, after the dielectric breakdown, when free charges are available, the radiated energy, $`W`$, per unit angular frequency, $`\omega `$, in the nonrelativistic case is given by: Hutchinson

$$\frac{dW}{d\omega }=\frac{e^2}{6\pi ^2\epsilon _0c^3}\left|_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\dot{v}e^{i\omega t}𝑑t\right|^2,$$
(1)
where $`\dot{v}`$ is the acceleration of an electron, which has a charge of $`e`$, $`c`$ \- speed of light, and $`\epsilon _0`$ \- permittivity of vacuum. Spectral extent of *bremsstrahlung* depends on the type of electron-ion collisions (Fig. 1) and can be defined as a reciprocal of the collision time $`\tau `$. In the case of straight-line collisions $`\tau ^1v/(2b)`$ while for the parabolic ones $`\tau ^1(v/(2b))(2b_{90}/b)^2`$ Hutchinson , $`v`$ is the velocity of incoming electron. Emission spectrum of *bremsstrahlung* is continuous and spreads from X-rays-to-IR. For an external observer (on z-axis) its spectral content depends on the bandgap of the host material, defects’ absorption, PL, fractoluminescence, sonoluminescence, and a transmission function of a measurement setup. Time resolved spectroscopy could, e.g., distinguish among those different contributions. For an isotropic photoelectron distribution in plasma the eqn. 1 defines an emission spectrum integrated over all solid angles.

The actual polarization and angular dependence of the radiation of quiver photoelectrons is defined by $`𝐑\times (𝐑\times \dot{𝐯})`$ Hutchinson , here $`𝐑`$ is the vector from the charge to the field point (only a far-field contribution is considered). Figure 1(b-c) qualitatively shows the acceleration projections in the quiver plane of photoelectron oscillating, e.g., along $`𝐄_x`$. Obviously, there are considerable accelerations in the perpendicular directions to the $`𝐄_x`$ for straight-line and parabolic encounters. *Bremsstrahlung* due to the $`\dot{𝐯}_𝐱`$ will be projected into the $`𝐄_x𝐑_Z\times (𝐑_Z\times \dot{𝐯}_x)`$, the quiver direction, for an observer on z-axis ($`\stackrel{}{z}`$ is usually a direction along the illumination/observation). Thus, the xy-projection of *bremsstrahlung* exactly follows the angular distibution of photoelectrons and explains the “propeller effect”.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The classic no-hair theorems of black hole physics  are commonly interpreted as implying that (non-gauge) global conservation laws are inevitably violated in the process of black hole evaporation , even in the absence of any explicit microscopic mechanism for such violation . If black hole evaporation, and more generally quantum gravity does violate global conservation laws then this has many implications for the use of global symmetries in fundamental physics, including baryon and lepton-number violation, axion physics, the use of very light scalars in cosmology, and models of low-scale quantum gravity . But since the no-hair theorems are essentially classical, and they are derived strictly only for stationary geometries, which contain unresolved singularities, perhaps some doubt remains possible.

An interesting alternative perspective is afforded by passing to imaginary time, and considering Euclidean black holes. The Euclidean Schwarzschild metric

$$ds^2=\left(1\frac{2M}{r}\right)d\tau ^2+\left(1\frac{2M}{r}\right)^1dr^2+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }^2$$
(1)
appears to have a singularity at $`r=2M`$, but upon substituting $`v=\sqrt{8M}\sqrt{r2M}`$ one finds that near this limit

$$ds^2\frac{1}{16M^2}v^2d\tau ^2+dv^2+(2M)^2d\mathrm{\Omega }^2,$$
(2)
and by enforcing the periodicity $`\tau /4M=\tau /4M+2\pi `$ we match non-singular polar coordinates. Two consequences of this construction are that the region behind the horizon, $`r<2M`$, does not appear; and that we are describing an appropriate, non-singular background for quantum field theory at temperature $`T=(8\pi M)^1`$ .

Indeed, if one considers formally the thermal partition function

$$Z=𝒟g𝒟\phi e^{S_\beta }$$
(3)
including gravity and generic matter fields $`\phi `$, and integrating over fields periodic in the imaginary time period $`\beta `$, the Euclidean Schwarzschild solution appears as a stationary point.

Superficially it appears innocuous to add a chemical potential term, for any microscopically conserved global charge, into this definition. But if by doing so we found a meaningful partition function, depending on the chemical potential, we would be able to define a conserved charge on the black hole, and contravene the above-mentioned conventional wisdom . In the remainder of this note we shall consider two different sorts of global charge, topological and ordinary, and demonstrate that in both cases something goes wrong with this attempt – quite different things in the two cases.

## 2 Skyrmion Collapse

Let us briefly recall the construction of Skyrmions. Consider the non-linear $`\sigma `$ model defined by the four-component scalar field $`\phi ^a`$, $`a=0,\mathrm{},3`$ with $`\phi ^2=1`$; this defines a target space $`S^3`$. At spatial infinity the field approaches a uniform value, say $`\phi ^0=1`$, defining the normal vacuum. Field configurations approaching a constant at spatial infinity define maps $`S^3S^3`$. There is a topological current density

$$j^\mu =\frac{1}{3\pi }\epsilon ^{\mu \alpha \beta \gamma }\epsilon _{dabc}\phi ^d_\alpha \phi ^a_\beta \phi ^b_\gamma \phi ^c$$
(4)
which is identically conserved. The charge obtained by integrating the zero component of this current over space is the degree of the associated mapping. The static Skyrme textures

$`\phi ^0(\stackrel{}{r})`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}f(r),`$ (5)
$`\stackrel{}{\phi }(\stackrel{}{r})`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{sin}f(r)\widehat{r},`$ (6)
define a class of symmetrical mappings with

$$j^0(r)=\frac{2}{\pi }f^{}(\mathrm{sin}f)^2=_r\frac{1}{\pi }\left(f\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{sin}(2f)\right).$$
(7)
Regularity at the origin implies $`f(0)=n\pi `$. If $`f(r)0`$ at spatial infinity, arriving at the normal vacuum, then the charge is $`n`$.

Now let us consider the energetics, first with reference to flat space. If we use the standard non-linear $`\sigma `$ model Lagrangian $`=\sqrt{g}\frac{1}{2}g^{\mu \nu }_\mu \phi ^a_\nu \phi ^a`$ then the energy $`E_\lambda `$ of a re-scaled Skyrme texture $`f_\lambda (r)=f(\lambda r)`$ transforms as $`E(\lambda )=\lambda E(1)`$. Thus we have charged configurations with arbitrarily small energy, using singular maps whose structure is concentrated near the origin (Derrick’s theorem). The standard remedy is to supplement the Lagrangian with the higher-derivative Skyrme term

$$_{\mathrm{Skyrme}}\sqrt{g}g^{\mu \rho }g^{\nu \sigma }F_{\mu \nu }^{ab}F_{\rho \sigma }^{ab}$$
(8)
with $`F_{\mu \nu }^{ab}_\mu \phi ^a_\nu \phi ^b_\nu \phi ^a_\mu \phi ^b`$. A special property of this term is that it contains no higher than two powers of the time derivative, so that the action including it continues to define a normal dynamical system. The energy associated with this term scales as $`E_{\mathrm{Skyrme}}(\lambda )=\lambda ^1E_{\mathrm{Skyrme}}(1)`$, oppositely to the minimal term. Thus it is no longer favorable for field configurations to collapse. Indeed, in flat space one finds a non-trivial function $`f`$ with $`n=1`$ that satisfies the equation of motion and minimizes the energy.

In the Euclidean Schwarzschild background, both the topology and the energetics of the situation are altered. The topology of spatial sections (constant $`\tau `$) is $`S^2\times R^+`$ (a sphere times a half-line), and of the entire space-time is $`S^2\times R^2`$; in neither case is there a quantized degree defined. Indeed, in the Skyrme texture, the restriction $`f(0)=n\pi `$ is no longer required by continuity nor (for physical purposes, decisive) by demanding finite energy. This is because the factor multiplying the angular part of the metric does not degenerate at the origin, which is effectively the horizon $`r=2M`$.

In more detail, the energy near the horizon for a Skyrme texture parametrized by $`f(r)=h(v)`$ behaves as

$$E_0𝑑vv\left(c_1(h^{})^2+c_2(\mathrm{sin}h)^2+c_3(\mathrm{sin}h)^2(h^{})^2+c_4(\mathrm{sin}h)^4\right),$$
(9)
with numerical constants $`c_i`$. (Here and below we refer to the energy conjugate to Schwarzschild time, i.e. the action per unit $`\tau `$.) The first two terms arise from the minimal $`\sigma `$-model Lagrangian, the second two from the Skyrme term, for radial and angular derivatives respectively. To analyze this, it is convenient to switch to the tortoise coordinate $`s\mathrm{log}1/v`$, so

$$E^{\mathrm{}}𝑑s\left(c_1(h^{})^2+c_2e^{2s}(\mathrm{sin}h)^2+c_3(\mathrm{sin}h)^2(h^{})^2+c_4e^{2s}(\mathrm{sin}h)^4\right).$$
(10)
No divergence arises when $`h`$ approaches an arbitrary constant value at $`s\mathrm{}`$, so requiring finite energy does not quantize the charge . Much more is true. Consider a configuration with $`h`$ varying uniformly from $`0`$ to $`\zeta `$ over the interval $`[a,b]`$. The energy behaves as

$$Ec_1\frac{\zeta ^2}{ba}+c_2e^{2a}+c_3\frac{\zeta ^2}{ba}+c_4e^{2a}.$$
(11)
Since this can be made arbitrarily small by taking $`a`$ and $`b`$ suitably to infinity, the mass/charge ratio for Skyrmion charge is minimized at zero, by collapsing charge toward the horizon. Equivalently, defining $`u=r2M`$, and taking $`h(u)(\mathrm{log}u)^p`$ then gives a most singular contribution of the form

$$E𝑑u\frac{(\mathrm{log}u)^{2p2}}{u}$$
(12)
which is convergent for $`p<1/2`$. Thus a logarithmic divergence in the ansatz function $`h(r)`$ is can occur with finite action. This implies that the mass/charge ratio for Skyrmion charge is minimized at zero.

By way of contrast, in flat space the behavior of the energy near the origin is

$$E_0𝑑rr^2\left(\kappa _1(f^{})^2+\kappa _2\frac{1}{r^2}(\mathrm{sin}f)^2+\kappa _3\frac{1}{r^2}(f^{})^2(\mathrm{sin}f)^2+\kappa _4\frac{1}{r^4}(\mathrm{sin}f)^4\right).$$
(13)
Quantization of the charge and non-triviality of the mass/charge ratio are implicit in this form. Indeed, finiteness of the $`\kappa _4`$ term requires $`\mathrm{sin}f(0)=0`$; and some simple arguments using Schwarz’s inequality with the $`\kappa _3`$ term for small $`r`$ and the $`\kappa _1`$ term for large $`r`$ allow us to bound the charge in terms of the energy. It seems worth recording that without the Skyrme term there would be no physical quantization of charge, since the $`\kappa _1`$ and $`\kappa _2`$ terms permit non-zero $`\mathrm{sin}f(0)`$ at finite energy.

The possible accumulation of charge with zero energy near the horizon reminds us of the increasingly red-shifted image that remains, in real space-time, as a record of whatever has fallen into the hole. On the other hand, such charge leaves no long-time residue at any finite distance from the horizon, and in this sense it does not provide hair.

## 3 Scalar Field – Limiting Mass/Charge Ratio

Now let us consider the conserved charge associated with the phase symmetry of a complex scalar field $`\phi `$. For simplicity we specialize to factorized $`s`$-wave configurations $`\phi (\stackrel{}{r},\tau )=\eta (v)e^{in\tau /4M}`$, taking account of the periodicity in imaginary time. Near the horizon the charge behaves as

$`Q`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}g^{\tau \tau }\mathrm{Im}(\phi ^{}_\tau \phi )}`$ (14)
$`=`$ $`(4\pi (2M)^2){\displaystyle \frac{n}{4M}}{\displaystyle _0}𝑑v{\displaystyle \frac{1}{v}}(\eta (v))^2`$ (15)
$`=`$ $`(4\pi (2M)^2){\displaystyle \frac{n}{4M}}{\displaystyle ^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑s(\eta (s))^2.`$ (16)
Near the horizon the energy ($`\mathrm{action}/\mathrm{unit}\tau `$) behaves as

$`E`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}(g^{\tau \tau }_\tau \phi ^{}_\tau \phi +g^{vv}_v\phi ^{}_v\phi +m^2\phi ^{}\phi )}`$ (17)
$`=`$ $`(4\pi (2M)^2){\displaystyle _0}𝑑v\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{v}}\eta ^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{n}{4M}}\right)^2+v(\eta ^{})^2+vm^2\eta ^2\right)`$ (18)
$`=`$ $`(4\pi (2M)^2){\displaystyle ^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑s\left(\left({\displaystyle \frac{n}{4M}}\right)^2\eta ^2+(\eta ^{})^2+e^{2s}m^2\eta ^2\right).`$ (19)
By taking $`\eta \mathrm{const}.s^{\frac{1}{2}+\epsilon }`$ as $`s\mathrm{}`$, with small $`\epsilon `$, we can enhance the first term in the integrand relative to the other two. In the limit, the energy and charge become proportional, in the form

$$\frac{E}{Q}=\frac{1}{4M},$$
(20)
using $`n=1`$ (the most favorable). The peculiar appearance of this equation arises from the fact that we have put the Planck mass $`M_{\mathrm{Pl}}=1`$. Restoring units, we have $`E/Q=M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2/4M`$. For large black holes, this becomes small. Indeed, the ratio is of order the Hawking temperature. Thus $`E/Q`$ is equal to the electron mass for $`M2\times 10^{17}`$ gm; for a solar-mass black hole, the ratio is $`E/Q6\times 10^{16}m_e`$. So for macroscopic holes it becomes energetically favorable to hide quantum numbers in a singular manner near the horizon, similar to what we found in the Skyrme model. In any case, the charge near the horizon undergoes significant fluctuations due to the Hawking temperature. Without further analysis, however, it is not clear how this phenomenon addresses our problem of principle for small holes and heavy charge quanta.

## 4 Scalar Field – Charge Veto

Referring again to the energy (or action) expression, we see that there is a qualitative difference between the behavior of the $`n=0`$ and the $`n=1`$ (or higher) sectors near the horizon. In both cases the mass terms become negligible, and we are left to compare actions of the form $`^{\mathrm{}}𝑑s\kappa _2(\eta ^{})^2`$ versus $`^{\mathrm{}}𝑑s(\kappa _1\eta ^2+\kappa _2(\eta ^{})^2)`$. The first form permits asymptotics $`\eta s^{+\frac{1}{2}\epsilon }`$ while the second requires the much more stringent condition $`\eta s^{\frac{1}{2}\epsilon }`$, so we might expect that the class of configurations it supports has relatively small measure. To quantify this, consider the functional determinants accompanying integration over these sectors, concentrating on the contribution to the action from an interval $`[a,a+L]`$ in $`s`$. For simplicity, take $`\kappa _1=\kappa _2=1`$, remove the constant mode, and assume periodic boundary conditions. This is only a reasonable approximation to the contribution for short-wavelength modes, which decouple from other intervals. The relevant determinants involve the product of inverse square roots of the eigenvalues, so for their ratio $`r`$ we have the infinite product

$$r=\underset{1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{(\frac{2\pi n}{L})^2}{1+(\frac{2\pi n}{L})^2}.$$
(21)
This evaluates to $`\frac{L}{2\pi }(\mathrm{sinh}(\frac{L}{2\pi }))^1`$. The low eigenvalues are not to be taken seriously, as already mentioned. But the exponential falloff in $`L`$ arises from the high eigenvalues, and it indicates that the $`n0`$ sectors have zero measure relative to the $`n=0`$ sector. As we have seen in the previous section, the charge operator itself contains a term of the same asymptotic form as the $`\kappa _1`$ contribution. Thus a chemical potential can decrease the net numerical value of $`\kappa _1`$, or even reverse its sign. Therefore we arrive at two simple possibilities. If the chemical potential is less than the critical value $`1/4M`$, it has no effect. If it is greater than this value, the action becomes unbounded below. Neither of these possibilities yields a clear realization of a hairy black hole. Projection on charge eigenstates goes through the intermediary of partition functions with chemical potential , and so encounters the same singularity. We cannot, from this analysis, entirely preclude the possibility of some more delicate construction, somehow working with chemical potentials infinitesimally near the critical value, but it would require some additional ideas.

## 5 Conclusion

Straightforward attempts find thermal hair in canonical realizations of topological and non-topological global charges appear to go awry, for different and perhaps not entirely straightforward reasons. In both cases, special properties of the Euclidean black hole metric allow one to store charge in a singular fashion near the horizon of a large hole, with small cost in energy.

Throughout our discussion we have treated the background geometry as fixed, thus neglecting possibility of “back-reaction”. The crucial configurations for our arguments, in the Skyrmion case, involved fields varying rapidly near the horizon. Although their integrated action is small, they induce large local values of the energy-momentum tensor. Thus there is no guarantee that they will correspond to valid configurations of the full quantum gravity theory. Indeed, if they did we would appear to be in danger of providing an infinite entropy for the black hole, since there is at least one low-energy state for each value of the charge. (This is related to the phenomena discussed by ’t Hooft .)

Finally, let us venture a heuristic interpretation of the charge veto. The Schwarzschild temperature $`(8\pi M)^1`$ is appropriate for static frames far from the hole, but at finite distances the effective local temperature is $`\sqrt{g^{\tau \tau }}`$ larger, which diverges near the horizon. Thus the chemical potential becomes negligible compared to the local temperature, and loses its influence upon configurations concentrated near the horizon, unless it triggers an instability.

## Acknowledgements

JMR wishes to thank Arthur Hebecker for useful conversations. This work is supported in part by funds provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (D.O.E.) under cooperative research agreement #DF-FC02-94ER40818.


text:
# Quantum Impurities in the Two-Dimensional Spin One-Half Heisenberg Antiferromagnet

> The study of randomness in low-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets is at the forefront of research in the field of strongly correlated electron systems, yet there have been relatively few experimental model systems. Complementary neutron scattering and numerical experiments demonstrate that the spin-diluted Heisenberg antiferromagnet La2Cu1-z(Zn,Mg)zO4 is an excellent model material for square-lattice site percolation in the extreme quantum limit of spin one-half. Measurements of the ordered moment and spin correlations provide important quantitative information for tests of theories for this complex quantum-impurity problem.

published in Science 295, 1691 (2002)

The field of low-dimensional quantum magnetism has been of enormous interest to the condensed-matter physics community ever since the discovery that La2CuO4, the parent compound of the original high-temperature superconductor (La,Ba)2CuO4, is a model two-dimensional (2D) quantum (spin-1/2) antiferromagnet. Because the superconductivity occurs in the vicinity of an antiferromagnetic phase in these materials, it appears likely that antiferromagnetic fluctuations are at least partially responsible for their rich physics. One of the new frontiers in condensed-matter physics lies in the field of quantum critical behavior, especially of ”dirty” low-dimensional systems involving quantum impurities . Although there has been much progress in the experimental investigation of quantum impurities in the simpler 1D $`S=1/2`$ chain  and ladder compounds , experiments with the 2D analog have been restricted to low impurity concentrations because of the lack of suitable samples .

We have investigated the properties of the spin-1/2 square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet (SLHAF) in the presence of a significant density $`z`$ of quenched, spinless quantum impurities, up to and through the percolation threshold. Specifically, the combined experimental and numerical results for the ordered moment $`M_{st}(z)`$ and spin correlations $`\xi (z,T)`$ demonstrate that La2Cu1-z(Zn,Mg)zO4 is well described by the Hamiltonian

$`=`$ $`J`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i,j}{}}p_ip_j𝐒_i𝐒_j,`$ (1)
where the sum is over nearest-neighbor (NN) sites, $`J`$ is the antiferromagnetic Cu-O-Cu superexchange, $`𝐒_i`$ is the $`S=1/2`$ operator at site $`i`$, $`p_i=1`$ on magnetic sites, and $`p_i=0`$ on non-magnetic sites.

In the absence of quantum fluctuations, the NN square lattice undergoes a geometric transition with site dilution $`z`$ at the percolation threshold $`z_p40.725`$% . As indicated in Fig. 1, below this concentration there is always one cluster of connected sites that spans the infinite lattice. Above $`z_p`$, the lattice consists entirely of finite-sized clusters. In studies of site-diluted $`S=5/2`$ Heisenberg and Ising antiferromagnets, long-range order was found to disappear only above $`z_p`$ . However, in the extreme quantum limit of $`S=1/2`$, previous measurements of the Néel temperature $`T_N`$ extrapolated to $`T_N=0`$ well below $`z_p`$ , and the possible existence of a new quantum critical point at $`z_{S=1/2}<z_p`$ has also been raised based on theoretical  and numerical  considerations. Recent Monte Carlo simulations of Eq. 1 suggest that the site-diluted $`S=1/2`$ SLHAF remains ordered up to the percolation threshold , but possibly with new, non-classical critical exponents . Our experimental data allow us to rule out the existence of a quantum critical point significantly below $`z_p`$, and we find that $`M_{st}(z)`$ is reasonably well described, up to $`z30\%`$, by a recent combined spin-wave theory and $`T`$-matrix approach .

In addition to information about the ground state properties, knowledge of the temperature and doping dependence of the 2D instantaneous spin-spin correlation length, $`\xi (z,T)`$, provides valuable information about the dynamics of the spin degrees of freedom. Neutron scattering studies of the spin correlations of La2CuO4  and related materials , as well as numerical results , have served as important tests of theories for Eq. 1 in the absence of quantum impurities . Remarkably, even though the quenched disorder leads to the loss of Lorentz invariance, a quantum non-linear sigma model approach developed for Eq. 1 in the absence of disorder is found to give an excellent effective description of $`\xi (z,T)`$ up to at least $`z=35\%`$. Our experimental and numerical results can help guide the development of an underlying theory for the randomly diluted system.

Several experimental difficulties have previously prevented quantitative experimental studies of randomly diluted La2CuO4. First, the highest reported concentration of non-magnetic ions is 25% , still well below $`z_p`$. Second, single crystal results have been limited even further, to $`z15`$% . Third, the excess oxygen typically found in as-grown samples introduces holes into the copper-oxygen sheets, which frustrate the antiferromagnetism and quickly destroy magnetic order . Differing values for $`T_N(z)`$ indicate that this problem has not been fully resolved .

By jointly substituting Zn and Mg on the Cu site, we were able to growLa2Cu1-z(Zn,Mg)zO4+δ crystals by the traveling-solvent floating-zone method. The Zn content was approximately $`10`$% whereas the Mg content varied. Typical single grain sections were 40 mm long and 4 mm in diameter. Both Zn2+ and Mg2+ are non-magnetic, effectively removing a magnetic site without introducing charge carriers. Zn2+ has a larger ionic radius than Cu2+, and Mg2+ has a smaller ionic radius than Cu2+. Compositional analysis was carried out by electron probe microanalysis on end sections of the crystals. The samples were carefully reduced at $`T=900`$ to $`950`$ C in Ar flow. Several crystals used for neutron scattering had a small Cu/Zn/Mg concentration gradient, typically 1 to 2% dilution, along the full length of the crystal. Mosaic widths were very good, 15’ full width at half maximum (FWHM) or less. Small, very homogeneous sections a few cubic millimeters in size were cut from the larger crystals for magnetometry. Polycrystalline samples, with concentrations assumed to be equal to their nominal values, yielded similar magnetometry results.

Elastic scattering at the $`(1,0,0)`$ Bragg peak (orthorhombic notation), shown in Fig. 2A, was used to determine $`T_N`$ and $`M_{st}(z)`$. We find long-range Néel order even at $`z=39`$%, where $`T_N`$ is only 8 K. Figure 2B shows our result for $`T_N(z)`$. Below $`z20`$%, the data agree well with the linear behavior found in previous experimental  and recent theoretical  work. However, we find that $`T_N`$ falls off more gradually at higher concentrations. Quantum fluctuations for $`S=1/2`$ apparently are not strong enough to noticeably shift the critical point: $`z_{S=1/2}=z_p`$, within the uncertainty of our experiment.

In order to probe the ground state properties of La2Cu1-z(Zn,Mg)zO4 we have extracted $`M_{st}(z)`$ from the low-temperature (1,0,0) intensity. To facilitate normalization between samples, we measured the intensity of a standard phonon for each sample to determine the illuminated volume; normalizing by sample mass gives the same result within the errors. The resulting normalized moment per Cu atom is plotted in Fig. 2C. Our data are consistent with previous nuclear quadrupole resonance(NQR) measurements below $`z=15\%`$ . Numerical results for Eq. 1 deviate somewhat in their magnitude, but also suggest that $`z_{S=1/2}=z_p`$ . Recent theory , which uses a spin-wave theory and $`T`$-matrix approach and is expected to be valid at low and intermediate concentrations, gives a good description of our data up to $`z30\%`$. The classical ($`S\mathrm{}`$) behavior is significantly different, because the reduction of the moment is attributed only to Cu sites being disconnected from the infinite cluster. It should be noted that already $`M_{st}(0)`$ is reduced from the classical value $`M_{st,cl}(0)=1/2`$ by about 40% because of quantum fluctuations . These fluctuations evidently increase with dilution, further weakening the ordered moment, but not sufficiently to disorder the system below $`z_p`$. The experimental data are well described by a power law with $`z_{S=1/2}=z_p`$ and an effective exponent $`\beta _{eff}=0.45(3).`$ In their finite-size scaling analysis, Kato et al.  extracted spin-dependent critical exponents, with $`\beta =0.46`$ for $`S=1/2`$, which is substantially different from the classical value $`\beta _{cl}=5/36`$ . However, it has been argued that these are not the true critical exponents, which should equal the classical values .

We also performed a systematic study of the instantaneous 2D spin-spin correlation length $`\xi (z,T)`$ in the paramagnetic phase of La2Cu1-z(Zn,Mg)zO4. The equal-time structure factor was measured in two-axis, energy-integrating mode . Figure 3A shows representative data for $`z=19\%`$ at $`T=200`$ K. The scattering broadens as $`\xi `$ decreases, both with increasing temperature and increasing dilution. Correlation lengths were obtained from fits to a Lorentzian, $`1/(1+q_{2D}^2\xi ^2)`$, where $`q_{2D}`$ is the 2D momentum transfer component in the CuO2 sheets relative to the zone center at $`H=1`$, convoluted with the instrumental resolution. The extracted lengths are plotted versus $`J/T`$ in Fig. 3B. The data shown were cut off above $`T_N`$ by 1 SD ($`4`$ K), as obtained from fits of the order parameter assuming a Gaussian distribution in $`T_N`$ (Fig. 2A). Temperature is scaled by $`J=135`$ meV, the antiferromagnetic superexchange energy of the pure system . The data reveal that doping significantly decreases the rate at which correlations grow as the system is cooled. Specifically, at high concentrations $`\xi (z,T)`$ crosses over from exponential to power-law behavior. We note that the $`z=40(2)`$% and 43(2)% samples do not exhibit Néel order at 1.4 K ($`J/T1100`$), and the spin correlations appear to approach a constant zero-temperature value, as expected for $`z>z_p`$.

In order to test the degree to which the experimental system is described by Eq. 1, we have performed quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations to calculate $`\xi (z,T)`$. We used the loop-cluster algorithm, which is suited to study the randomly diluted Heisenberg model . Lattice sizes 10 to 20 times larger than the correlation length were used in order to avoid finite-size effects. We were able to perform our calculations on very large lattices of up to $`1700\times 1700`$ sites and to temperatures as low as $`T=J/100`$. Previous numerical work involved system sizes as large as $`20\times 20`$  and reached $`T=J/2`$  and $`T=J/20`$ . Between 5 and 200 configurations were averaged for each temperature and concentration, and we chose $`10^4`$ to $`10^5`$ equilibrations and $`10^4`$ to $`10^5`$ measurements per configuration. The QMC results (Fig. 3B) extend to higher temperatures and thus complement the experiment, covering a combined three orders of magnitude in temperature. We emphasize that this comparison contains no adjustable parameters, because $`J`$ is known rather well for the experimental system. We find excellent quantitative agreement up to the percolation threshold.

The ground state of the pure SLHAF is ordered, but quantum fluctuations renormalize the spin-wave velocity, $`c=2\sqrt{2}SZ_cJa`$, and spin-stiffness, $`\rho _s=S^2Z_\rho J`$, from their classical values (we use units in which $`g\mu _B=k_B=\mathrm{}=1`$). For $`S=1/2`$ and $`z=0`$, the quantum renormalization factors $`Z_c`$ and $`Z_\rho `$ are known from various theoretical and numerical studies. Using these quantities, $`\xi (z=0,T)`$ is quantitatively given by

$$\frac{\xi }{a}=\frac{e}{8}\frac{c/a}{2\pi \rho _s}e^{2\pi \rho _s/T}\left[1\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{T}{2\pi \rho _s}\right)+𝒪\left(\frac{T}{2\pi \rho _s}\right)^2\right].$$
(2)
Even though Eq. 2 is strictly valid only at asymptotically low temperatures , it agrees remarkably well with experiment  and numerics  for $`S=1/2`$ in the range $`2<\xi /a<200`$ shown in Fig. 3B. The derivation of Eq. 2 involves a mapping of the discrete Heisenberg Hamiltonian Eq. 1 to a quantum non-linear sigma model (QNL$`\sigma `$M), and it is based on the assumptions of an ordered ground state and of translational invariance. Random dilution breaks translational invariance of the SLHAF and leads to defect rods in the time-like direction of the effective QNL$`\sigma `$M. The latter implies the loss of Lorentz invariance, and a QNL$`\sigma `$M description may no longer remain valid . Nevertheless, it is valuable to test the extent to which this description may hold. Because there exist no accurate predictions for $`c(z)`$ and $`\rho _s(z)`$, such a test requires us to treat these zero-temperature quantities as fit parameters. A modified form of Eq. 2,

$$\frac{\xi }{a}=\frac{e}{8}\frac{c/a}{2\pi \rho _s}\frac{e^{2\pi \rho _s/T}}{1+(4\pi \rho _s/T)^{\nu _T}}$$
(3)
with $`\nu _T=1`$, has been suggested for disorder-free systems approaching a quantum critical point , where $`\rho _s=0`$ and $`\xi 1/T`$ . Even though $`z_{S=1/2}=z_p`$ may not be a quantum critical point, random dilution reduces the spin stiffness and may be viewed as bringing the system closer to such a point in an extended parameter space. In a classical picture, $`z=z_p`$ is a (geometric and thermal) multi-critical point, and $`\rho _s=0`$ as well as power-law behavior are expected. The thermal correlation length exponent $`\nu _T=0.90(5)`$ was previously determined for the $`S=5/2`$ system Rb2(Mn,Mg)F4 . Furthermore, for $`z>z_p`$ it was found that the data were well described by the form

$$\frac{1}{\xi (z,T)}=\frac{1}{\xi _0(z)}+\frac{1}{\xi _T(T)}$$
(4)
where $`\xi _0`$ is a zero-temperature length, possibly reduced from the geometric length of the percolation problem by small quantum fluctuations, and $`\xi _TT^{\nu _T}`$.

We find that Eq. 2 gives a very good description of our data, especially at lower concentrations, and for $`\xi /a>8`$ to $`10`$ at $`z=31\%`$ and 35%. The modified form Eq. 3, however, even captures the high-temperature power-law behavior at the higher concentrations. Results of fits to Eq. 3 of our QMC data for $`z<z_p`$ are shown in Fig. 3B and summarized in Table I. Fits to Eq. 2 result in large uncertainties in the value of the spin-wave velocity, but $`\rho _s(z)`$ and $`c(z)`$ extracted using these two forms agree within the errors. For the pure system, a fit of numerical data  below $`\xi /a=200`$ yields $`2\pi \rho _s(0)=1.18(1)J`$ and $`c(0)=1.33(3)Ja`$, about 4% higher and 20% lower, respectively, than the most accurate estimate . A recent combined QNL$`\sigma `$M, and percolation theory approach  resulted in

$$\frac{\rho _s(z)}{\rho _s(0)}=A(z)\left[1\frac{\overline{g}(0)}{P_{\mathrm{}}(z)}\right]\frac{1}{1\overline{g}(0)},$$
(5)
where $`\overline{g}(0)=0.685`$ is the coupling constant corresponding to the $`S=1/2`$ SLHAF at $`z=0`$ , and $`A(z)`$ and $`P_{\mathrm{}}(z)`$ are the bond dilution factor and the probability of finding a spin in the infinite cluster. The latter two quantities are well described up to $`z37\%`$ and $`z30\%`$, respectively, by $`A(z)1\pi z+\pi z^2/2`$ and $`P_{\mathrm{}}(z)1z`$ . Equation 5 incorrectly predicts $`\rho _s(z30\%)=0`$, and hence a quantum critical point well below the percolation threshold . To our surprise, we find that substituting $`1+z`$ for $`1/P_{\mathrm{}}(z)`$ quantitatively describes $`\rho _s(z)/\rho (0)`$ even at $`z=35\%`$, as shown in Table 1. This substitution is correct at low concentrations and prevents the second term in Eq. 5 from going to zero below $`z_p`$. We note that Eq. 5 is a one-loop renormalization-group result, and higher-order terms can be expected to improve agreement with our observations. The expression for the spin-wave velocity that corresponds to Eq. 5 , $`c(z)/c(0)=A(z)(1+z/2)`$, decreases monotonically with dilution, and hence does not describe the behavior found from our fits (see Table 1).

For $`z>z_p`$, the joint experimental ($`z=40(2)\%`$ and $`z=43(2)\%`$) and numerical ($`z=41\%`$ and $`z=46\%`$) data are fit to Eq. 4. Better results are obtained if $`1/\xi _0`$ is allowed to be non-zero: $`\xi _0(z41\%)/a=50(20)`$ and $`\nu _T(z41\%)=0.72(7)`$. A value of $`\nu _T0.7`$, together with $`z_{S=1/2}=z_p`$, is also obtained in a scaling analysis of our numerical data. We note that this value lies below $`\nu _T=0.90(5)`$ for the $`S=5/2`$ system Rb2(Mn,Mg)F4 . Fits to the data at the highest concentration give $`\nu _T=0.70(7)`$ and $`\xi _0/a=7(1)`$.

The percolation threshold $`z_p40.7\%`$ is for the NN square lattice, and a non-zero frustrating next-NN (NNN) exchange could, in principle, shift $`z_p`$ and lead to low-temperature spin-glass physics. The NNN exchange in La2CuO4 is expected to be frustrating and may be as large as $`8\%J`$ , which would lead to a small reduction of the ordered moment, but should not shift the critical point . The dominant further-neighbor interaction may actually be a ring exchange among the four Cu sites on a square , which cannot extend connectivity beyond the NN percolation threshold. In any case, further-neighbor interactions do not seem to noticeably affect the nature of the transition in La2Cu1-z(Zn,Mg)zO4, , $`z_{S=1/2}=z_p`$ within the uncertainty of our experiment, and we find no evidence of spin-glass behavior.

The correction terms to Eq. 1 can be expected to change as a result of the observed evolution of the low-temperature structure. Above $`z25`$%, Néel order occurs in a low-temperature tetragonal phase. Nevertheless, we find that $`T_N(z)`$ evolves smoothly. Interestingly, our QMC data for Eq. 1 indicate that, as for undoped La2CuO4 , $`T_N(z)`$ corresponds very well to the temperature at which $`\xi _{2D}/a=100`$, as shown in Fig. 2B. This suggests that any changes in the correction terms in the full spin Hamiltonian must be very subtle.

Assuming that quantum fluctuations do not alter the classical $`T=0`$ correlation length exponent, $`\nu _0=\nu _{cl}=4/3`$ , our result of $`\nu _T0.7`$ suggests a crossover exponent $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\nu _0/\nu _T1.9`$, which is larger than the values $`\mathrm{\Phi }=1.43`$ to $`1.7`$ predicted theoretically . On the other hand, if $`z=z_p`$ is a quantum critical point, it would suggest a dynamical critical exponent of $`z=1/\nu _T1.4`$. Series expansion and numerical approaches for the $`S=1/2`$ bond percolation problem, which is closely related to the site percolation problem of the present study, predict $`z=1.7`$ to $`2`$ , whereas recent QMC work for the site-diluted $`S=1/2`$ SLHAF arrives at $`z2.5`$ . Our value is lower than these results, but also lies significantly above $`z=1`$ for the Lorentz-invariant QNL$`\sigma `$M , implying that the QNL$`\sigma `$M fixed point is unstable to randomness.

Recent theoretical work for the randomly diluted $`S=1/2`$ SLHAF has led to some exact results in the dilute limit of quantum impurities , and to interesting new predictions at higher concentrations . It has been argued that the presence of impurities should lead to localized spin excitations and to the breakdown of the classical hydrodynamic description of excitations in terms of spin waves above a characteristic length scale . In this picture, the spin-wave velocity $`c(z)`$ is not a well-defined quantity, but there is no instability toward a disordered phase. Unlike dynamic observables, static properties such as the staggered magnetization and $`T_N`$ remain well defined throughout the ordered phase. Because the spin-stiffness also remains well defined in this theory, one continues to expect the correlation length to have the low-temperature form $`\xi e^{2\pi \rho _s/T}`$ as for the pure system. We have been able to determine $`\xi (z,T)`$ over a very wide range of impurity concentrations and temperature, and arrive at the unexpected conclusion that Eq. 2, and especially the heuristic crossover form Eq. 3, provide an excellent description of our data.

* O.P.V. and M.G. thank A. Aharony, A. H. Castro Neto, A. L. Chernyshev, A. W. Sandvik, and E. F. Shender for helpful discussions. The work at Stanford was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract nos. DE-FG03-99ER45773 and DE-AC03-76SF00515, by NSF CAREER Award no. DMR9400372, and by the by the A.P. Sloan Foundation.