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# Comment on ”Matter-Wave Interferometer for Large Molecules”

In a recent Letter  Brezgen et al. claim that a classical model of interactions is in principle unsuitable to reproduce interferometer experiments with C70 molecules, and that an optical model based on the de Broglie waves of the molecule explains the experimental data. In their Letter they clarify to a certain extent the objections raised by one of the authors  concerning their previous publication . The clarification is much appreciated. However, it is not fully convincing.

To support their claim Brezgen et al. compute the visibility of the interference fringes based on two separate models: (i) A ’classical’ model from geometrical optics, in which the movement of the molecules through a succession of optical gratings is described as rigid rays casting a shadow pattern at the detector plane; and (ii) a ’quantum’ model, where the scalar potential of the grating leads to a phase shift of the de Broglie wave associated with the molecule. Additionally, the consequences of including a van der Waals term which gives a shift in scalar potentials is analyzed within both models.

These models are simplistic for various reasons. Most importantly, the main conclusion that the visibility of the interference fringes depends on the quantum character of the description is only based on the observation that the classical model does not have any term depending on the velocity of the molecules. But this is a deficiency of the model rather than something characteristic for the movement of molecules on classical trajectories. When the temperature of a molecular beam is increased, its changed velocity and translational energy will change its spatial distribution. This statistical effect has been analyzed in . Fig. 1 (a) shows that it results in a velocity dependence of the visibility of the interference fringes of the earlier experiments in  within an entirely classical model as far as the movement of the atomic nuclei is concerned. This is no surprise for quantum chemists or theoretical solid state physicists, who are routinely using the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. In surface science or biochemistry such calculations have been successfully applied over the last decades to describe atomic movement with classical Lagrangians in the field of their electrons.

The description of van der Waals forces is problematic as well. In atom interferometry van der Waals forces are known to change the effective slit widths of diffraction gratings. But these descriptions can only be used as a good approximation for the long range forces, when there are no larger interaction terms. At high temperatures molecular vibrations lead to a fluctuating molecular dipole moment. We have computed the dipole moment of C60 molecules at the temperature of the experiments in  by first principles density functional theory (see Fig. 1 (b)). As can be seen, the molecular dipole moment oscillates periodically along its path. These fluctuations are much larger in their amplitudes and time periods than the also time-dependent polarizations of the electronic shells of atoms responsible for van der Waals interactions. Whether the interactions of these fluctuating molecular dipoles with the diffraction gratings have a significant effect on the visibility of the interference fringes can only be answered, when a detailed model of the electronic structure of the surface of these gratings is provided.

While Brezgen et al publish their visibility data, they do not publish another crucial information: the local distribution of maxima and minima with varying velocity. The omission does not help to make the paper convincing, because this is a decisive information for the discrimination between scattering and interference. If the velocity of the molecule is increased by 100%, then the number of visible interference peaks, given a constant grating, should be double the original number (see Fig. 2). It is difficult to obtain such a result, if the molecules are merely scattered.

We conclude that in order to really elucidate the physics behind these interference experiments with large molecules, an atomistic description of the molecular trajectories is needed, including all the interaction and excitation effects on their paths through the system, rather than just putting labels like ’classical’ or ’quantum’ on models based only on geometrical projections and wave propagation. We also conclude that crucial information is missing in the account of the experiments.

R. Stadler1 and W.A. Hofer1
1Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
University College London
Gower Street, WC1E 6BT, UK


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# References

## References

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* \] G. Hayderer, S. Cernusca, M. Schmid, P. Varga, HP. Winter, F. Aumayr, D. Niemann, V. Hoffmann, N. Stolterfoht, C. Lemell, L. Wirtz and J. Burgdörfer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3530 (2001).
* \] I. S. Bitenskii, M. N. Murakhmetov and E. S. Parilis, Sov. Phys. Tech. Phys. 24, 618 (1979).
* \] T. Schenkel, A. V. Hamza, A. V. Barnes, D. H. Schneider, J. C. Banks and B. L. Doyle, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 2590 (1998).
* \] Z. Šroubek and J. Lörinčík, Surface Review and Letters 6, 257 (1999).
* \] A. Wucher and Z. Šroubek, Phys. Rev. B 55, 780 (1997).
* \] M. L. Knotek, Phys. Today (Sept. 1984) 2.
* \] K. Mochiji, S. Yamamoto, H. Shimizu, S. Ohtani, T. Seguchi and N. Kobayashi, J. Appl. Phys. 82, 6037 (1997).
* \] S. K. Song, H. J. Jung, S. K. Koh and H. K. Baik, Appl. Phys. Lett. 71, 850 (1997).
* \] M. Avrekh, O. R. Monteiro and I. G. Brown, Appl. Surf. Sci. 158, 217 (2000).
* \] J. O. Stiegler and T. S. Noggle, J. Appl. Phys. 33, 1894 (1962).
* \] J. F. Ziegler, TRIM code, version SRIM-2000; described at http://www.research.ibm.com
* \] J. Burgdor̈fer and Y. Yamazaki, Phys. Rev. A 54, 4140 (1996).

## Figure captions

Fig. 1. Superimposed backscattering spectra of Pt from irradiated Pt/Si samples at various charge states of the incident Ar ion.

Fig. 2. Potential energy dependence of the erosion yield of Pt. $``$ \- experimental data points; solid line - CE model.


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# A Peculiar Linear Radio Feature In The Supernova Remnant N206

## 1 Introduction

Several studies of supernova remnants (SNRs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) have included the SNR located on the north-eastern edge of the H II region LH$`\alpha `$ 120-N206 (Henize 1956). In following common practice, we will henceforth use the name N206 for the SNR or use its coordinate designation B0532-710.

Radio observations were made at several frequencies, ranging from 0.4 to 14.7 GHz (Mathewson & Clarke 1973; Milne, Caswell, & Haynes 1980; Milne et al 1984) with resolutions on the order of a few arcminutes. The data showed a bright source with a relatively flat radio spectrum with an index of about -0.33 (Milne, Caswell, & Haynes 1980). However, the observations were complicated by the presence of the nearby H II region to the south-west of the SNR and were unable to resolve any structure in the interior of the remnant.

H$`\alpha `$ images of N206 show a roughly circular filamentary shell around the periphery (Williams et al 1999). Images taken in \[S II\] and \[O III\] (Lasker 1977) also show a shell structure with little central emission. When combined with the earlier radio data, the optical images indicate that the object could be considered a shell type SNR.

X-ray data have been obtained with both Einstein and ROSAT. These images show a centrally brightened morphology with no apparent edge brightening to denote an X-ray shell (Long, Hellfand, & Grabelsky 1981; Williams et al 1999). By X-ray morphology alone, the remnant is classified as centrally-brightened. However, when combined with the radio and optical morphology, the remnant has been suggested to be of the class called “mixed morphology” (Rho & Petre 1998), due to the disparity between the observed morphologies when viewed at different wavelengths. The centrally concentrated X-ray emission from mixed morphology remnants is thermal. Currently available X-ray data are insufficient to determine whether or not the emission is thermal.

In this paper, we present high resolution (Half-Power Beam Widths (HPBW) $`1.1^{\prime \prime }`$ and $`1.8^{\prime \prime }`$) radio images of N206 at 3 and 6 cm made with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). These images show no detailed structure in the remnant except for a linear feature that was previously undetected at radio wavelengths and is also absent from both optical and X-ray images of the SNR.

The observations and data reduction are discussed in Section 2 of this paper. Radio images and descriptions of the radio morphology, spectral information, and polarization measurements are presented in Section 3. A discussion of the observed features is in Section 4. Conclusions are in Section 5.

## 2 Observations

We observed N206 with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). Data were taken on five observing nights in late 1997. The observing parameters and observing dates are given in Table 1. The baselines were distributed between 31 m and 6 km, giving good coverage throughout that region of the spatial frequency plane. The observations were made at 4798 and 8638 MHz with bandwidths of 100 MHz in polarization mode, giving data on all four Stokes parameters.

For each observation, the flux calibrator source PKS B1934-638 was observed at the beginning and end of the run. The phase calibrator chosen was the point source, PKS B0454-810 for the first four data sets and PKS B0530-727 for the fifth data set. In all observations, the phase calibrator was observed at approximately 20 minute intervals to allow for proper phase correction. Flux densities for the calibrators are given in Table 1.

Data reduction was carried out with the MIRIAD package (Sault, Teuben, & Wright 1995). The data were calibrated and formed into dirty images before cleaning and restoring with circular beams. The circular HPBW sizes were $`1.1^{\prime \prime }`$ and $`1.8^{\prime \prime }`$ for the 3-cm and 6-cm images respectively. The images were made with ROBUST weighting (Briggs 1995) to maintain high angular resolution but provide as much sensitivity as possible.

Polarization maps were also made with the MIRIAD package. Dirty images were made in Stokes $`Q`$, $`U`$, and $`I`$, cleaned, and restored using the circular beams mentioned above. To reduce the noise level, each image was convolved with a 5” beam. The MIRIAD task IMPOL was then used to combine the convolved maps in the different Stokes parameters to make a polarized intensity map and a position angle map. These maps were used to determine the strength and direction of the magnetic field. The MIRIAD task IMRM was used to calculate the Faraday rotation measure across the SNR.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Morphology

#### 3.1.1 Overall SNR

The final radio images at 6 and 3 cm are shown in Figures 1a and 1b, respectively. The supernova remnant is 180 arcseconds $`\times `$ 195 arcseconds in size, slightly elongated in roughly the east-west direction. Throughout the paper, we will adopt a distance to the LMC of 50 kpc (Feast 1999). Using this, we find a linear size for the remnant of 44 pc by 47 pc (north-south and east-west respectively). At 6 cm, the remnant has diffuse emission across its entire face. The eastern side is twice as bright as the western edge, with a steady gradient showing decreasing emission from east to west. This brightness gradient can be seen in the one dimensional slices through the 6-cm image shown in Figure 2. Although the east-west slices may indicate the presence of a shell, they still show that the central emission from the remnant stays well above the background. Based solely on this morphology, the remnant may be classified as a filled or Crab-like or perhaps a composite remnant.

The structure of the SNR is less obvious in the 3-cm image. The morphology of the remnant from this image may indicate edge-brightening on the north-eastern and south-western edges, similar to what is seem at 6 cm. Unfortunately, because of the smaller beamwidth, the surface brightness of the remnant at 3 cm is significantly lower than at 6 cm. The peak brightness of the map is just over the 3-$`\sigma `$ ($`\sigma _{3\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}=3.4\times 10^5`$ Jy beam-1) noise level, in contrast to over 6-$`\sigma `$ ($`\sigma _{6\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}=6.0\times 10^5`$ Jy beam-1) for the 6-cm image. The fainter emission is lost in the noise in the 3-cm image. Natural weighting was tried to increase sensitivity to the large-scale emission, but it also emphasized the side lobes and did not significantly improve the image quality. Therefore, nothing can be said about the morphology of the remnant’s interior at 3 cm.

Figures 3a and 3b show ROSAT HRI (Williams 1999) and H$`\alpha `$ (Magellanic Clouds Emission Line Survey; Smith 1999) images of N206, overlaid with 6-cm radio contours. The ROSAT HRI image shows a somewhat elliptical central brightening with a gradual and isotropic decrease in brightness with increasing radial distance from the remnant’s center. There is no apparent brightening on the eastern or western edges. In contrast, the radio image does not show strong emission from the remnant’s center; the brightest region is in the eastern half of the remnant.

The H$`\alpha `$ image shows a very filamentary structure and a distinct shell to the remnant. These filaments and shell are also prominent in images taken in \[S II\] and \[O III\] (Lasker 1977).

Although the optical emission is primarily in filaments, there is some diffuse optical emission in the center of the remnant in the H$`\alpha `$ image. As seen in echelle data, this central emission represents a stationary component (attributed to emission from the nearby H II region), whereas the emission from the expanding SNR has a velocity of around 250 km s-1 (Chu & Kennicutt 1988). To further test the nature of this central emission, we interpolated between the integrated radio and X-ray flux densities. We found that the estimated flux density from synchrotron emission in the optical is several orders of magnitude too low to appear in the H$`\alpha `$ image. Therefore, this diffuse optical emission does indeed seem to arise from the nearby H II region rather than from optical synchrotron emission from the SNR.

#### 3.1.2 Peculiar Linear Feature

In the eastern side of the remnant is a linear feature, oriented east-west and stretching from a point roughly 25 arcseconds west of the center of the remnant. This feature is approximately 55 arcseconds (13 pc) in length, ending approximately 20 arcseconds from the eastern edge of the SNR. The widest point of this feature is at its western end, narrowing steadily toward the east with a Full-Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) of less than 5 arcseconds at its eastern tip. Included in Figure 2 are two 1-D slices through the 6-cm data (slices 4 and 5). Once Gaussian profiles are fitted to each slice, the FWHM of the feature can be determined, along with the error of the fit. The results of this process are given in Figure 4, showing the FWHM of the linear feature as a function of distance from the remnant’s center.

This linear feature has never been detected before at any wavelength. Although the optical image shows that the remnant has a filamentary structure, there are no filaments that appear associated with the linear feature in the radio image. The X-ray image shows that the brightest emission is concentrated in the remnant’s center and appears to be reasonably spherically distributed. In addition, there is no point source located at either end of the feature in any of the wavelength bands. The origin of this linear structure is not known, but will be further examined below ($`\mathrm{\S }`$ 4).

While some other SNRs exhibit long thin features, they can be seen as parts of shell filaments visible in both radio and optical images. One structure that may be similar to what we see in N206 is a linear feature in G84.2$``$0.8, but that also has a point radio source at one end (Matthews and Shaver 1980). To our knowledge, the linear feature in N206 is the first such feature seen in an SNR without accompanying filamentary structure or a point source.

### 3.2 Spectral Index

Using the ATCA data, we obtained flux densities of 0.52 $`\pm `$ 0.07 Jy at 4798 MHz and 0.49 $`\pm `$ 0.12 Jy at 8638 MHz. There is a gradient in the background level due to contamination from the H II region located to the south-west of the remnant. Taking a mean value for the background led to the above flux density measurements. Although no integrated flux density measurements in the literature cite errors (with the exception of that by Mills et al 1984 who give an expected error of around 10%), we believe that our error at 6 cm should be comparable with the other measurements.

All flux density values available for N206 are listed in Table 2 and the spectrum of the remnant is shown in Figure 5. The flux density scale for all the given values, except the 843 MHz MOST result (Mills et al. 1984) has been checked and is found to agree with the current ATNF scale based on the calibration source PKS B1934-638 (Reynolds 1994). The calibration scale used for the MOST during the early commissioning phase when the measurement was made is somewhat uncertain but should be within 5% of the current one. A linear, unweighted regression to the data (i.e. a power law fit) with a slope of $``$0.20 $`\pm `$ 0.07 is also plotted. Such a value is typical for a spectral index expected from a filled center SNR ($`S\nu ^\alpha ,0.4<\alpha <0`$) but is flatter than is generally found for a shell-type remnant ($`0.8<\alpha <0.3`$) (Trushkin 2000).

The faintness of the 3 cm data makes it difficult to make a spectral index map of the remnant. To try to increase the sensitivity, both the 3-cm and 6-cm images were convolved with $`5^{\prime \prime }`$ circular beams. The convolved images were both masked at the 1-$`\sigma `$ level and the spectral index map shown in Figure 6 was made. Although the 3-cm image still suffers from low sensitivity, the resulting map does give reasonable results for the linear feature since the signal to noise ratio is considerably better in this region than in the rest of the remnant. In the vicinity of the linear feature, the spectral index is approximately $``$0.2, in good agreement with the results for the entire SNR from the previous figure.

### 3.3 Polarization

The polarization map of the region around the linear feature in N206 is shown in Figure 7. The vector length represents the 6-cm polarized intensity and the vector direction is that of the intrinsic magnetic field after correcting for the Faraday rotation. For this image, the polarized intensity at both wavelengths was greater than 1.5-$`\sigma `$. Although most of the vectors are associated with the peculiar linear feature, this is a brightness effect. The fractional polarization on the linear feature was approximately 15%. Unfortunately, the signal-to-noise ratio on the remainder of the remnant was insufficient to reliably determine the magnetic field direction or the fractional polarization, although it does appear that there is some polarization throughout the SNR.

The rotation measure determined from the position angle rotation between 6 and 3 cm is about +200 radians/m2, increasing slightly as you move from west to east along the linear feature. After correcting for the Faraday rotation, we find that the magnetic field at the location of the linear feature is aligned nearly along the feature. It seems likely that this direction is representative of the field in the feature itself and not of the remnant as a whole. However, without knowledge of the global magnetic field orientation in the SNR, we cannot be certain of this assessment.

Even more interesting is the hint of a twisting of the magnetic field near the center of the linear feature. This can be seen as a change in the direction of the vectors in Figure 7 where the magnetic field vectors are oriented roughly north-west to south-east. There is also a variation in the polarized intensity at this location in the center of the jet in the figure shown. This spot has brighter emission in the total radio intensity and approximately zero rotation measure. This leads us to believe that there could be some thermal emission at this spot from a dense clump with a field alignment which adds some negative Faraday rotation to bring the mean closer to zero. The material in the linear feature is apparently clumpy.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Classification of the Remnant

The classification of this SNR is not straight forward. The radio emission is nearly uniform with a smooth brightness gradient from east to west across the face of the remnant (Fig. 2). The X-ray emission is centrally peaked while the optical spectral lines indicate a shell structure. We await XMM-Newton spectra to see if the X-ray emission is thermal or non-thermal. The radio spectral index of $``$0.20 is typical of a Crab-like SNR and is lower than the value expected for a shell-type remnant (Trushkin 1999). It may be a composite remnant in which the plerion component has reached the shell or the shell may just be forming. In either case, we suggest that there is at least a component to the SNR that may be powered by an unseen pulsar. The lack of a detectable pulsar is true for several other Crab-like SNRs, e.g. 3C58 (Bocchino et al. 2001), G21.5-0.9 (Slane et al. 2000), and G328.4+0.2 (Gaensler, Dickel, & Green 2000).

The more rapid decay in X-ray brightness toward the edges of the remnant may be explained by the fact that the X-ray synchrotron emission would decay faster, leaving primarily radio synchrotron emission in the outer regions. A pulsar could still be bright in thermal X-rays, due to its high temperature, but available X-ray observations have insufficient spatial resolution to detect a possible X-ray point source in the SNR. The observed X-ray emission may be partly thermal as well. Additional observations are needed at higher spectral and spatial resolution.

If the remnant is indeed Crab-like, at 47 pc in diameter, it is the largest one known, almost twice the size of the previously largest known Crab-type remnant G328.4+0.2 (Gaensler, Dickel, & Green 2000). Following the method of Gaensler, Dickel, & Green to relate the pulsar spindown energy to the expansion of the surrounding wind nebula, we can estimate the age of the remnant based on the size of the apparent plerion. By taking the wind as a pressure source driving the swept-up material, one can relate the nebular age to its size, the energy injection rate, and the ambient density. Since a distinct separate radio shell is not observed, we will take the size of the plerion to be the entire measured size of the remnant, 23.5 parsecs in radius. Using the spectrum given above, we obtain a radio luminosity ($`L_r`$) for the remnant of $`9.25\times 10^{34}`$ erg s-1 when we integrate from 100 MHz to 100 GHz. We define $`ϵ=L_r/\dot{E}(15)\times 10^4`$ (Gaensler et al. 2000) for Crab-type remnants, where $`\dot{E}`$ is the pulsar energy loss rate. We will adopt the mean value, $`ϵ=3\times 10^4`$. Taking the initial ISM particle density prior to the supernova event of 0.003 cm-3, we obtain an age of 29,000 years for the remnant. As we would expect, N206 is probably the oldest of the Crab-like remnants.

This age is, of course, only a very rough estimate. For example, the density used may be an underestimate, especially considering the presence of an H II region southwest of the remnant. However, increasing the density would only lead to an increased estimate for the age.

### 4.2 Peculiar Linear Feature

The linear feature seen in both the 3 and 6-cm images is unusual. It is bright and present in both the 3 and 6-cm images, and it is not associated with any filaments in the remnant. The data used to create the maps shown in Figures 1a and 1b were taken on five separate observing nights, spaced over a three month time period and when maps were made from each individual data set, the linear feature appeared in every one. Thus, it is extremely unlikely that it could be an instrumental problem. Our conclusion is that it is a real feature that requires explanation.

One question that needs to be addressed is whether the feature is actually associated with the remnant or is the result of a line of sight coincidence. Recall that the data indicate a shallow spectral index for the feature, similar to the spectral index for the whole remnant. If the linear feature were a jet, as from a radio galaxy along the line of sight, one would expect to find a much steeper spectral index (e.g. Jarvis et al 2001). Also, if a radio galaxy were responsible for the linear feature, we might expect the galaxy itself to appear in the images. There is no evidence for a point or extended source at either end of the linear feature in either the radio or the optical images. In addition, the linear feature is aligned radially with the center of the remnant. Such a chance alignment is unlikely unless the feature is physically associated with the SNR.

We conclude that this linear feature is most likely to be physically associated with the remnant. If indeed this is true, the mechanism by which this emission is created must be energetic enough to account for the observed radio emission while low enough in energy to not produce detectable optical or X-ray emission. Other key constraints are: the lack of a point source anywhere along the linear feature, the centrally-concentrated nature of the emission at all wavelengths, and the wedge-like morphology of the linear feature.

#### 4.2.1 Constraints on the Physical Origin of the Linear Feature

We have considered several possible mechanisms that might give rise to the linear feature, and find that the available data powerfully constrain these scenarios. For example, a key constraint arises from the spectral index information and the filled radio morphology, which lead us to classify the remnant as Crab-like. The synchrotron emission from Crab-like remnants is powered at least in part by a pulsar, although the pulsar is often not detected. Thus, any explanation of the remnant should include a pulsar. Moreover, the central X-rays and the filled-center radio morphology seem to require that the pulsar remains near the center of the remnant.

The data thus drive us to explain the linear feature in a model with a centrally located pulsar. The first possibility is that the feature is a radio jet from the central pulsar. There are two major problems with this notion. First, the feature is widest near the center and is very narrow at its farthest end (cf Figure 4), the opposite of what would be expected from a jet emanating from a central pulsar. Also, the feature appears to start at approximately 6 parsecs (25 arcseconds) from the center of the remnant, which is unlikely for a jet created by a pulsar that originated in the center of the SNR. If it is indeed a jet, it must be rather energetic to be bright out to approximately 13 parsecs away from the emitting source. Such a bright emitting source aligned in the plane of the sky should have an equally bright jet on the opposite side; such emission is not observed. If the jet is not aligned in the plane of the sky, the opposite jet may not be visible due to Doppler beaming; yet there might still be emission from any material that interacts with the relativistic particles in the jet, which is not observed. It is also unlikely that the relativistic expansion of material needed for Doppler beaming would exist that far from the emitting source. In addition, any inclination to the plane of the sky would mean that the size of the jet is greater than 13 parsecs, and thus it would have to be more energetic. The more energetic the feature, the more likely it would be to appear in optical and X-ray bands.

Another alternative to account for the enhanced synchrotron emission is shock excitation. A shock wave can create a density enhancement in the remnant’s material. This density enhancement will also cause an enhancement in the magnetic field as the field lines are compressed. The shape of the linear feature supports the notion that it was created by an object moving supersonically through the ambient interior of the SNR and creating shock waves. Figure 4 shows that there is a correlation between the FWHM of the linear feature and its distance from the remnant’s center. If indeed the object originated in the center and moved toward the edge of the remnant at greater than the sound speed, we would expect to see a feature with this shape.

From the opening angle of the feature, we can determine the Mach number at which the object is travelling and compare the resulting length and time scales with the estimated lifetime stated previously. If this is a bow shock (due to motion in the plane of the sky), then the Mach number, M, is M $`=[\mathrm{sin}(\theta /2)]^1`$, where $`\theta `$ is the full opening angle. From a linear regression, $`\theta `$ = 0.222 $`\pm `$ 0.013 radians, giving a Mach number of 9.0 $`\pm `$ 0.5. If we use $`10^6`$ K as a representative temperature for the remnant, this leads to a spatial velocity for the moving object of around 800 km/s. (If the jet is inclined to the plane of the sky, the Mach number and velocity increase by roughly a factor of $`(\mathrm{sin}i)^1`$, where $`i`$ is the inclination angle measured relative to the line of sight.) The eastern edge of the feature is 80 arcseconds from the remnant’s center, corresponding to a linear distance of 19.4 pc. This leads to an age of 23,000 years for the remnant if the object originated in the center and maintained a nearly constant velocity. Given the uncertainties, this estimate is consistent with that found above for the SNR expansion.

Since there is consistency between the shape and the likely dynamical age for the feature, we proceed by speculating what type of object was responsible for its creation. If a pulsar is not responsible for creating the linear feature, then from the arguments made above, the most likely candidate is a companion star. From the nearly circular shape of the remnant, we make the assumption that the explosion site was very near the geometrical center of the radio emission. The inferred companion velocity of 800 km/s places strong constraints on the binary system. Since the kick velocity of the pulsar must be small, the companion velocity must be due to its orbital motion. But in this case, the separation between the stars is very close: $`a3R_{}(M_1/10M_{})`$, and thus we demand a very tight binary system. To avoid tidal destruction of the stars requires that they be relatively dense, with a massive primary having $`\rho 5\mathrm{g}/\mathrm{cm}^3`$, which is far higher than in a normal supergiant. We are thus forced to require that the pre-supernova be in a dense form of a bare helium (or CO) core, and thus we also demand a relatively dense companion – either a low-mass main sequence star or a compact object.

In fact, Nomoto et al. (1994) have proposed an evolutionary path that would lead to such systems and suggest that these might be the progenitors of Type Ic supernovae. Nomoto et al. estimate that the frequency of such events is about $`9\%`$ the rate of Type II events. Thus, while these systems would be rare, they would not be inordinately so. Consequently, we speculate that N206 could be the remnant of a binary system that led to a Type Ic supernova, with a low-mass main sequence or compact companion (white dwarf or neutron star) that has led to the peculiar linear feature.

While this model is able to explain the X-ray and radio morphologies, it is unfortunately not yet adequate to reproduce all of the observational results. The passage of the star will produce shock waves analogous to those in a shell-type supernova remnant, in which the shock waves will propagate through the surrounding material, causing compression of that material and increased synchrotron emission. Typically, the brightest emission is expected from the shock front. Thus we would expect the production of a conical structure whose point is located at the position of the moving star. The propagating shock wave marks the outer surface of the cone. Since the cone would have a relatively evacuated center and a density enhancement behind the shock, we would expect to see an edge-brightened morphology, as in a shell-type supernova remnant. However, the brightest part of the linear feature is along the central line of the feature rather than at the edge of the wedge shape (center-brightened rather than edge-brightened). Possibly the interaction of the moving star with the supernova remnant’s material causes a large portion of the particles to become trapped at or near the center of the conical feature, rather than being carried along by the shock front, or the particles are allowed to diffuse back into the center of the cone. Perhaps the non-uniform magnetic field pattern and possible clumping found from the polarimetry data above can help to diffuse the particles back into the center of the linear feature, creating the center-brightening. This line of reasoning requires further study.

## 5 Conclusions

We present high-resolution ATCA images of the LMC supernova remnant N206 at 3 and 6-cm wavelengths. The remnant is roughly circular and centrally brightened in the radio, with a possible radio shell. Observations at X-ray wavelengths show a centrally-filled morphology. The optical observations show bright filaments around the edges, forming a full optical shell.

We found integrated flux densities of 0.52 and 0.49 Jy at 6 and 3-cm respectively. These values are consistent with previous radio measurements. Overall, the radio data indicate a spectral index $``$0.20 $`\pm `$ 0.07 for the remnant, typical of a Crab-type SNR.

Most peculiar to this SNR is the detection of a narrow linear feature seen in radio but undetected at other wavelengths. The feature has a roughly constant opening angle of 12 degrees, stretching from inside of the eastern edge of the remnant and becoming lost in the noise near 25 arcseconds from the center of the remnant. Taking 50 kpc as the distance to the LMC, the feature is 13 parcsecs in length.

The first polarimetric maps were made for the remnant. We found linear polarization on the linear feature, the only region bright enough for reliable measurements. The polarized intensity was roughly 15% over the linear feature where the signal to noise ratio was larger than 3-$`\sigma `$. The magnetic field seems to be aligned along the feature with a twist in the center. The polarimetry map is only reliable in the vicinity of the linear feature so a magnetic field map for the entire remnant could not be made.

From the observational data, we were able to place several constraints on our proposed model for the linear feature. From the center-filled radio morphology and spectrum, we conclude that a pulsar should exist in the SNR. Since bright X-ray emission is generally associated with a pulsar, the pulsar is not likely to be located at either end of the linear feature where little X-ray emission is detected. Rather, the X-ray emission near the center of the remnant led us to choose a model which had the pulsar spatially coincident with the strongest X-ray emission.

To satisfy the above constraints, our proposed model to explain the presence of the linear feature is the passage of a low-mass stellar object through the remnant’s material at approximately Mach 9.0, which corresponds to 800 km/s for a medium at 106 K. The resulting shock waves produce density and magnetic field enhancement behind the object, causing the enhanced synchrotron emission. From the lack of X-ray emission associated with the feature, we speculate that the object responsible is a low-mass companion star to the supernova progenitor that was ejected from the tight binary system at the time of the explosion. Such a scenario has been proposed for Type Ic supernovae. This model is still insufficient to properly explain all of the observations, particularly the lack of limb brightening in the wedge-shaped feature.

Better constraints on the proposed model can be made when higher resolution X-ray images and X-ray spectra become available for the remnant. The discovery of a pulsar in the remnant may clarify the situation and should help to constrain the model discussed above.

We would like to thank Miroslav Filipovic for contributing the fifth data set for our images. We would also like to thank Rosa Williams and Chris Smith for providing the Rosat and H$`\alpha `$ images. Thanks also to Ronak Shah for help with gaussian fitting and error analysis, to Martin Guerrero for help with determination of the feasibility of optical detection, and to Ron Webbink for enlightening discussions on binary systems. Finally, we are grateful to the anonymous referee for comments that led us to improve the paper. JRD was supported, in part, by the Campus Honors Program at UIUC, and the work of BDF was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant AST-0092939.


text:
# Sub-natural linewidth in room-temperature Rb vapor using a control laser

## Abstract

We demonstrate two ways of obtaining sub-natural linewidth for probe absorption through room-temperature Rb vapor. Both techniques use a control laser that drives the transition from a different ground state. The coherent drive splits the excited state into two dressed states (Autler-Townes doublet), which have asymmetric linewidths when the control laser is detuned from resonance. In the first technique, the laser has a large detuning of 1.18 GHz to reduce the linewidth to 5.1 MHz from the Doppler width of 560 MHz. In the second technique, we use a counter-propagating pump beam to eliminate the first-order Doppler effect. The unperturbed probe linewidth is about 13 MHz, which is reduced below 3 MHz ($`0.5\mathrm{\Gamma }`$) at a detuning of 11.5 MHz.

Laser spectroscopy in a room-temperature gas is often limited by Doppler broadening due to the thermal velocity of gas particles. However, techniques such as saturated-absorption spectroscopy using counter-propagating pump and probe beams can be used to eliminate the first-order Doppler effect and linewidths close to the natural linewidth can be obtained. But overcoming the natural linewidth is not easy and it appears as a fundamental limit to the resolution that can be achieved in precision spectroscopy. The natural linewidth also plays a role in other areas. For example, in laser cooling of atoms and ions, the lowest attainable temperature (Doppler limit) is determined by the natural linewidth of the cooling transition. In addition, when lasers are locked to atomic transitions, the natural linewidth determines the tightness of the lock. It is therefore desirable to develop techniques for getting below the natural linewidth.

In this Letter, we demonstrate two techniques to obtain sub-natural linewidth in a room-temperature vapor of Rb atoms. The techniques have been adapted from recent developments in the use of control lasers in three-level systems as a means of modifying the absorption properties of a weak probe beam . For example, in electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), an initially absorbing medium is made transparent to the probe when a strong control laser is turned on . We use a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-type system, where the control laser drives the transition from one ground state, and the probe laser measures absorption from the other ground state. The control laser creates two dressed states  and the probe absorption splits into an Autler-Townes doublet. The key idea is that, when the control laser is detuned from resonance, the two dressed states have asymmetric linewidths, such that their sum is the unperturbed linewidth . This asymmetry persists even when the peaks are inhomogeneously broadened. Thus, for suitable detuning, the width of one state can be much smaller than the unperturbed linewidth.

There have been previous experimental studies on linewidth narrowing using a control laser, but this was in the spontaneous-emission spectrum of a three-level V system . The experiments were done using an atomic beam where the Doppler broadening was negligible. By contrast, our experiments show sub-natural linewidth in the absorption spectrum and are done in room-temperature vapor with Doppler broadening of 560 MHz. Furthermore, we use a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ system and the basic mechanism for linewidth narrowing is different. In the V system, the ground state is coupled by the control laser to a weak auxiliary transition. Spontaneous emission from the excited state is suppressed because the quantum fluctuations in the ground state are stabilized by the control laser, as shown by Narducci et al. . In our case, linewidth narrowing occurs because of quantum coherences in the excited state created by the control laser.

To understand these ideas more clearly, let us consider the three-level $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ system in 87Rb in greater detail. The relevant energy levels are shown in Fig. 1. The lower levels $`|1`$ and $`|2`$ are the $`F=1`$ and $`F=2`$ hyperfine levels in the $`5S_{1/2}`$ ground state, while the upper level $`|3`$ is the $`5P_{3/2}`$ excited state. The excited state has four hyperfine levels; of these, only the levels with $`F^{}=1`$ and 2 couple to both the lower levels and can act as level $`|3`$. The control laser drives the $`|1|3`$ transition with Rabi frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_R`$ and detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }_c`$. The weak probe laser measures the absorption on the $`|1|2`$ transition at a detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. The excited state lifetime is 26 ns, threfore the spontaneous decay rates $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{31}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{32}`$ are both equal to $`2\pi \times 6.1`$ MHz.

The absorption of the weak probe in the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ system has been derived previously . As is well known, the control laser splits the upper level into two dressed states due to the ac Stark shift. The probe absorption gets modified due to this and shows peaks at the location of the two dressed states (Autler-Townes doublet), given by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_\pm =\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_c}{2}\pm \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }_c^2+\mathrm{\Omega }_R^2}.$$
(1)
Here $`\mathrm{\Delta }_+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{}`$ are the values of the probe detuning where the peaks occur. The corresponding linewidths ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\pm `$) of these peaks are different because of the coherence between the two dressed states, and given by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\pm =\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{31}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{32}}{4}\left(1\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_c}{\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }_c^2+\mathrm{\Omega }_R^2}}\right).$$
(2)
It is clear from the above expression that, if $`\mathrm{\Delta }_c=0`$, the two peaks are symmetric and have identical linewidths of $`\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{31}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{32}\right)/4`$. However, for any non-zero detuning, the peaks have asymmetric linewidths. The first peak has larger linewidth while the second peak has smaller linewidth by precisely the same factor, in such a way that the sum of the two linewidths is equal to the unperturbed linewidth, $`\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{31}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{32}\right)/2`$.

The above analysis is for a stationary atom. If the atom is moving, the laser frequency and detuning as seen by the atom are velocity dependent. To obtain the probe absorption in a gas of moving atoms, the above expressions have to be corrected for the velocity of the atom and then averaged over the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of velocities. Such an analysis has been done in Ref. , and the important conclusion is that the location of the peaks given in Eq. (1) does not change, but the linewidths are now given by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\pm =\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{31}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{32}+2D}{4}\left(1\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_c}{\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }_c^2+\mathrm{\Omega }_R^2}}\right).$$
(3)
Here, $`D`$ is the usual Doppler width, which is 560 MHz for room-temperature Rb atoms. Thus, the earlier conclusions are still valid, except that the unperturbed linewidth is now $`\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{31}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{32}+2D\right)/2`$, which includes a Doppler broadening term.

The main idea for our experiment is clear from Eq. (3). For $`\mathrm{\Delta }_c\mathrm{\Omega }_R`$, the peak at $`\mathrm{\Delta }_c/2+\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }_c^2+\mathrm{\Omega }_R^2}`$ has significantly smaller linewidth than the unperturbed value. Indeed, this was proposed by Vemuri et al.  as a means of achieving sub-Doppler resolution when Doppler broadening dominates the linewidth. Sub-Doppler linewidths were subsequently observed by Zhu and Wasserlauf  in a Rb vapor using an intense control beam from a Ti-sapphire laser. Our work extends this to sub-natural linewidths and requires only about 25 mW of control-laser power, which is easily available from diode lasers. In our second technique, the unperturbed linewidth is close to the natural linewidth and even smaller powers of $``$1 mW are enough to observe sub-natural linewidth.

The experimental set up is shown schematically in Fig. 2. The probe and control beams are obtained from two frequency-stabilized diode laser systems operating near the 780 nm $`D_2`$ line in Rb. The linewidth of the lasers after stabilization has been measured to be below 1 MHz. The two beams co-propagate through the cell with orthogonal polarizations. For the second set of experiments, a counter-propagating pump beam is generated from the probe laser using a beamsplitter.

For the first set of experiments, we used a control beam with power of 25 mW, corresponding to a Rabi frequency of about 200 MHz. Its detuning, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_c`$, was varied from 0 to $`1.18`$ GHz. Probe-absorption spectra at different values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_c`$ are shown in Fig. 3(a). The unperturbed probe absorption is Doppler broadened to 560 MHz, as shown in the top trace. Therefore, the Doppler width dominates the linewidth. As expected from Eq. (1), there are two peaks in each spectrum. The first peak is near $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$, and its width is close to the Doppler width, while the second peak lies near $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\mathrm{\Delta }_c`$ and is much narrower. At small values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_c`$, the second peak lies within the Doppler profile of the first peak. According to Eq. (3), the width of the second peak decreases as the detuning is increased. This is indeed what we observe in Fig. 3(b) where the detuning is $`1180`$ MHz. The peak lies well outside the Doppler profile of the first peak (not shown) and has a sub-natural linewidth of only 5.1 MHz. However, a quantitative comparison of this linewidth to that in Eq. (3) is not justified because, as mentioned before, there are two levels in the excited state, $`F^{}=1`$ and 2, that can act as level $`|3`$ of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ system. The control laser dresses both these levels and, since the levels are separated by 157 MHz, the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_c`$ for each level is different. Thus, the probe absorption is a convolution of these two absorption profiles. This is evident from Fig. 3(a) where the lower traces have non-Gaussian lineshapes. At larger detunings, the two levels act as an effective single level, but the linewidth is still probably limited by the difference in detuning.

For the second set of experiments, we used a counter-propagating pump beam with a power of 100 $`\mu `$W, compared to the probe power of 10 $`\mu `$W. In this configuration, the zero-velocity group of atoms preferentially absorbs from the pump beam and the probe gets transmitted. This is a standard technique to overcome the first-order Doppler effect, and the probe transmission shows narrow peaks at the location of the excited-state hyperfine levels, as seen in the middle trace of Fig. 4(a). Ideally, the linewidth of the hyperfine peaks should be the natural linewidth, but our observed linewidth is increased to about 13 MHz. There are several effects that contribute to this increase; the most important are power broadening due to the pump beam and a small misalignment angle between the counter-propagating beams .

For the bottom trace in Fig. 4(a), the control laser is also turned on. The laser is detuned by +11.5 MHz from the $`5P_{3/2},F^{}=2`$ level. It creates two dressed states near this level, and the $`F^{}=2`$ peak in the probe spectrum splits into an Autler-Townes doublet. In Fig. 4(b), we zoom into this region. The control-laser power is 3 mW, corresponding to a Rabi frequency of 25 MHz. The doublet peaks are well separated and show linewidths of 9.1 MHz and 3.7 MHz, respectively. As expected from Eq. (2), the sum of the two linewidths is equal to the unperturbed linewidth of $``$13 MHz. In fact, with a value of 12.8 MHz for the unperturbed linewidth, the widths of the two peaks calculated from Eq. (2) are exactly equal to the observed values. At lower powers (corresponding to smaller values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_R`$), the linewidth is still smaller and we have observed linewidths down to 2 MHz. However, the lineshape is not perfectly Lorentzian, partly because the peaks lie on the side of the Doppler profile. It is possible to remove the Doppler profile using several methods, such as by subtracting the absorption of a second identical probe beam, but we have not attempted this so far.

The configuration with the pump beam has the advantage that the control laser, because of its small detuning and Rabi frequency, only dresses one of the hyperfine levels in the excited state. Thus, this is closer to an ideal three-level system and the theoretical predictions can be applied with greater confidence. To test this, we have studied the separation of the two dressed states as a function of control-laser power at a fixed detuning of +11.5 MHz. The results are shown in Fig. 5. The solid line is the predicted variation from Eq. (1) and the measured separation agrees very well with the prediction. The linewidths of the two peaks also follow the dependence given in Eq. (2), with the correction that the unperturbed linewidth is broadened to about 13 MHz.

In conclusion, we have demonstrated that it is possible to get sub-natural linewidth for probe absorption through a room temperature atomic gas. The Doppler width is reduced by more than a factor of 100 using a control laser that drives the excited state on a second transition of the three-level $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ system. The basic mechanism that modifies the probe absorption is the quantum coherences in the excited state created by the control laser. The creation of resonances with sub-natural linewidth may have immediate applications in precision spectroscopy and better stabilization of lasers on atomic transitions. It could also be used to achieve sub-Doppler temperatures in laser cooling of ions. Such low temperatures are important for future applications in quantum computing using trapped ions where the ion needs to be cooled to the quantum-mechanical ground state.

We thank Hrishikesh Kelkar for help with the measurements. This work was supported by a research grant from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.


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# Mean-field scaling function of the universality class of absorbing phase transitions with a conserved field

## 1 Introduction

The scaling behavior of directed percolation is recognized as the paradigmatic example of the critical behavior of several non-equilibrium systems which exhibits a continuous phase transition from an active state to an absorbing non-active state (see for instance ). The widespread occurrence of such systems in physics, biology, as well as catalytic chemical reactions is reflected by the well known universality hypothesis of Janssen and Grassberger that models which exhibit a continuous phase transition to a single absorbing state generally belong to the universality class of directed percolation . Introducing an additional symmetry the critical behavior differs from directed percolation. In particular particle conservation leads to a new universality class of absorbing phase transitions with a conserved field as pointed out in . In this work the authors introduced two models, the conserved lattice gas (CLG) as well as a conserved threshold transfer process (CTTP). The latter one is a conserved modification of the threshold transfer process introduced in . Both models display a continuous phase transition from an active to an inactive phase. The density of active sites $`\rho _\mathrm{a}`$ is the order parameter of the phase transition controlled by the total density of particles $`\rho `$, i.e., $`\rho _\mathrm{a}>0`$ if the density exceeds the critical value $`\rho _\mathrm{c}`$ and zero otherwise. As usual in second order phase transitions the order parameter vanishes algebraically at the transition point. The corresponding order parameter exponent as well as the exponent of the order parameter fluctuations of the CLG are determined in  for various dimensions.

The scaling behavior of the CLG model in an external field conjugated to the order parameter was considered recently . The external field is realized by movements of inactive particles which may be activated in this way. Thus the field creates active particles without violating the particle conservation. Taking into account this additional scaling field the order parameter obeys the scaling ansatz

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}(\delta \rho ,h)\lambda \stackrel{~}{r}(\delta \rho \lambda ^{1/\beta },h\lambda ^{\sigma /\beta })$$
(1)
with the critical exponents $`\beta `$ and $`\sigma `$, the scaling function $`\stackrel{~}{r}`$, the reduced control parameter $`\delta \rho =\rho /\rho _\mathrm{c}1`$, and the external field $`h`$. Choosing $`\delta \rho \lambda ^{1/\beta }=1`$ one gets for zero fields $`\rho _\mathrm{a}\stackrel{~}{r}(1,0)\delta \rho ^\beta `$, whereas $`h\lambda ^{\sigma /\beta }=1`$ leads at the critical density to $`\rho _\mathrm{a}\stackrel{~}{r}(0,1)h^{\beta /\sigma }`$. Except of the critical point $`(\delta \rho =0,h=0)`$ the scaling function $`\stackrel{~}{r}(x,y)`$ is smooth and analytic but it is not universal since it may depend, like the value of $`\rho _\mathrm{c}`$, on the details of the considered systems (here e.g. the lattice structure, the update scheme, etc.).

A universal scaling function $`\stackrel{~}{R}`$ can be introduced if one allows non-universal metric factors $`c_i`$ for the scaling arguments $`\delta \rho `$ and $`h`$ (see for instance ), i.e.,

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}(\delta \rho ,h)\lambda \stackrel{~}{R}(c_1\delta \rho \lambda ^{1/\beta },c_2h\lambda ^{\sigma /\beta }),$$
(2)
and the scaling function is normed by the conditions $`\stackrel{~}{R}(1,0)=\stackrel{~}{R}(0,1)=1`$. Then the function $`\stackrel{~}{R}(x,y)`$ is universal, i.e., similar to the critical exponents $`\stackrel{~}{R}(x,y)`$ is identical for all models which belong to the same universality class. But the non-universal metric factors differ again between the models and may depend on the lattice structure, the used update scheme etc.

The non-universal metric factors can be easily determined by the scaling behavior of the order parameter at zero field and at the critical density, respectively. Choosing $`c_1\delta \rho \lambda ^{1/\beta }=1`$ one gets for zero fields ($`h=0`$)

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}(\delta \rho ,0)(c_1\delta \rho )^\beta $$
(3)
whereas $`c_2h\lambda ^{\sigma /\beta }=1`$ leads at the critical density ($`\delta \rho =0`$) to

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}(0,h)(c_2h)^{\beta /\sigma }.$$
(4)
In this work we derive the universal scaling function $`\stackrel{~}{R}`$ of the mean-field solution of the universality class of absorbing phase transitions with a conserved field. In particular we consider analytically the CLG and the CTTP with particle hopping to randomly chosen sites on the whole lattice. This unrestricted particle hopping breaks long range correlations and the scaling behavior is characterized by the mean-field exponents (see ). Neglecting correlations it is possible to derive analytically the order parameter as a function of the control parameter and of the external field. The obtained universal function is in perfect agreement with recently obtained numerical data of the five and six dimensional CLG and CTTP in an external field.

## 2 The conserved lattice gas

We consider the CLG model on a chain with $`L`$ sites and periodic boundary conditions. At the beginning one distributes randomly $`N=\rho L`$ particles on the system where $`\rho `$ denotes the particle density. A particle is called active if at least one of its two neighboring sites is occupied. In the original CLG model active particles jump in the next update step to one of their empty nearest neighbor site, selected at random . In the steady state the system is characterized by the density of active sites $`\rho _\mathrm{a}`$ which depends on $`\rho `$. The density of inactive sites is given by $`\rho _\mathrm{i}=\rho \rho _\mathrm{a}`$ and $`1\rho `$ is the density of empty sites.

We introduced in  a modification of the CLG model where active particles are moved to a randomly chosen empty lattice site which suppresses long range correlations. A given lattice site is active with a probability $`\rho _\mathrm{a}`$ and with the probability $`1\rho `$ it may be moved to an empty lattice site. Depending on the neighborhood of this new lattice site the number of active sites may change. For instance if both new neighbors of the moved particle are empty the number of active particles is reduced by one, $`\mathrm{\Delta }n=1`$. Without correlations the corresponding probability for this process is $`\rho _\mathrm{a}(1\rho )^3`$. In the case that one of the new neighbors of the moved particle is occupied by an inactive particle ($`\rho _\mathrm{i}`$) and the second neighbor is empty ($`1\rho `$), the number of active sites is increased by one ($`\mathrm{\Delta }n=1`$). The corresponding probability is given by $`p=2\rho _\mathrm{a}\rho _\mathrm{i}(1\rho )^2`$. All other possible configurations and the corresponding probabilities are listed in table 1.

The probabilities that the number of active particles are changed by $`\mathrm{\Delta }n`$ are given by

$$\begin{array}{ccc}p_{\mathrm{\Delta }n=1}\hfill & =& (1\rho )\rho _\mathrm{a}(1\rho )^2,\hfill \\ & & \\ p_{\mathrm{\Delta }n=0}\hfill & =& (1\rho )\rho _\mathrm{a}[2\rho _\mathrm{a}(1\rho )+\rho _\mathrm{a}^2],\hfill \\ & & \\ p_{\mathrm{\Delta }n=1}\hfill & =& (1\rho )\rho _\mathrm{a}[2\rho _\mathrm{i}(1\rho )+2\rho _\mathrm{a}\rho _\mathrm{i}],\hfill \\ & & \\ p_{\mathrm{\Delta }n=2}\hfill & =& (1\rho )\rho _\mathrm{a}\rho _\mathrm{i}^2.\hfill \end{array}$$
(5)
The expectation value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }n`$ is

$$E[\mathrm{\Delta }n]=\underset{\mathrm{\Delta }n=1}{\overset{2}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }np_{\mathrm{\Delta }n}=(1\rho )\rho _\mathrm{a}[12\rho _\mathrm{a}+4\rho \rho ^2].$$
(6)
As pointed out in  the average number of active sites is constant in the stationary state, i.e., the expectation value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }n`$ should be zero in the steady state. Using the constraint $`E[\mathrm{\Delta }n]=0`$ one gets

$$\rho =1\rho _\mathrm{a}=012\rho _\mathrm{a}+4\rho \rho ^2=0.$$
(7)
The first equation corresponds to a system were all sites are occupied ($`\rho _\mathrm{a}=1`$) and no dynamics can take place whereas the absorbing state is reflected by the second equation. The non-trivial third equation corresponds for $`\rho _\mathrm{a}>0`$ to the active phase and one gets for the order parameter in leading order

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}=\frac{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}\rho \rho ^21}{2}=(2\sqrt{3}3)\delta \rho +\mathrm{O}(\delta \rho ^2)$$
(8)
with the critical density $`\rho _\mathrm{c}=2\sqrt{3}`$ . Thus we have obtained the critical exponent $`\beta =1`$ as well as the non-universal metric factor $`c_1=2\sqrt{3}3`$.

In the case that an external field is applied non-active sites may be activated (see ). The probability that a site is occupied and has two empty neighbors is $`\rho (1\rho )^2`$. These particles are activated with probability $`h`$, where $`h`$ denotes the strength of the applied field. In this process the number of active sites is increased ($`\mathrm{\Delta }n=1`$) and the probability $`p_{\mathrm{\Delta }n=1}`$ is modified to be

$$p_{\mathrm{\Delta }n=1}=(1\rho )\rho _\mathrm{a}[2(1\rho )\rho _\mathrm{i}+2\rho _\mathrm{i}\rho _\mathrm{a}]+(1\rho )^2\rho h.$$
(9)
Using again the steady state condition $`E[\mathrm{\Delta }n]=0`$ one gets the equations

$$\rho =1\rho _\mathrm{a}[12\rho _\mathrm{a}+4\rho \rho ^2]+(1\rho )\rho h=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0}.$$
(10)
The first equation corresponds again to the trivial case of a totally occupied lattice whereas the second equation yields the solutions

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}=\frac{1}{4}\left(1+4\rho \rho ^2\pm \sqrt{8h(1\rho )\rho +(1+4\rho \rho ^2)^2}\right).$$
(11)
The solution with the $`+`$ sign describes the order parameter $`\rho _\mathrm{a}(\rho ,h)`$ as a function of the density and of the external field whereas the $``$ sign solution yields negative densities for the order parameter for all values of $`\rho `$ and $`h`$. A sketch of the order parameter for various fields is presented in figure 1.

At the critical density $`\rho _\mathrm{c}=2\sqrt{3}`$ the order parameter is given by

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}(\rho _\mathrm{c},h)=\sqrt{\frac{3\sqrt{3}5}{2}}\sqrt{h}$$
(12)
i.e., the field scaling exponent is $`\sigma =2`$ and the non-universal metric factor is $`c_2=(3\sqrt{3}5)/2`$.

In the following we derive the universal scaling function $`R(x,y)`$ of the mean-field solution. Therefore we write the order parameter \[equation (11)\] as a function of the reduced control parameter $`\delta \rho `$ and consider the function $`\rho _\mathrm{a}(\delta \rho ,h)/\sqrt{h}`$. Since we are interested in the scaling behavior in the vicinity of the critical point we perform the limits $`\rho _\mathrm{a}0`$, $`\delta \rho 0`$ and $`h0`$ with the constraint that $`\rho _\mathrm{a}/\sqrt{h}`$ and $`\delta \rho /\sqrt{h}`$ are finite. Thus all terms which scales as $`\delta \rho ^2/\sqrt{h}`$ or $`\delta \rho \sqrt{h}`$ vanishes and in leading order and we get

$$\frac{\rho _\mathrm{a}(\delta \rho ,h)}{\sqrt{h}}=\frac{2\sqrt{3}3}{2}\frac{\delta \rho }{\sqrt{h}}+\sqrt{\frac{3\sqrt{3}5}{2}+\left(\frac{2\sqrt{3}3}{2}\frac{\delta \rho }{\sqrt{h}}\right)^2}.$$
(13)
Introducing the non-universal metric factors $`c_1=2\sqrt{3}3`$ and $`c_2=(3\sqrt{3}5)/2`$ one gets the universal function

$$\stackrel{~}{R}(c_1\delta \rho ,c_2h)=\frac{c_1\delta \rho }{2}+\sqrt{c_2h+\left(\frac{c_1\delta \rho }{2}\right)^2}.$$
(14)
Equations (8,12) are recovered from this result by setting $`h=0`$ and $`\delta \rho =0`$, respectively. Furthermore we get $`\stackrel{~}{R}(1,0)=\stackrel{~}{R}(0,1)=1`$ as required above.

As usual in scaling analysis (see for instance ) the order parameter as well as the control parameter are rescaled by the field in order to obtain a data collapse \[setting $`c_2h\lambda ^{\sigma /\beta }=1`$ in equation (2)\]. In this case one gets the universal function

$$\frac{\rho _\mathrm{a}(\delta \rho ,h)}{\sqrt{c_2h}}\stackrel{~}{R}(x,1)=\frac{x}{2}+\sqrt{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}+\left(\frac{x}{2}\right)^2}$$
(15)
where the scaling argument is given by $`x=c_1\delta \rho /\sqrt{c_2h}`$.

For the sake of simplicity we derived the scaling function of the one-dimensional CLG model only. A straight forward extension to higher dimensional systems for $`h=0`$ was already presented in . The increased number of nearest neighbours in higher dimensions affects the non-universal quantities $`\rho _\mathrm{c}`$, $`c_1`$, and $`c_2`$ only, but not the critical exponents and the universal scaling function.

## 3 The conserved threshold transfer process

A similar analysis can be performed for the CTTP with random neighbor hopping. In the CTTP lattice sites may be empty, occupied or double occupied. Double occupied lattice sites are considered as active and one tries to transfer both particles of each active site to randomly chosen lattice sites. Recently performed numerical investigations in dimensions $`d=2,3,4,5,6`$ confirm the conjecture of  that the CLG and the CTTP belong to the same universality class . Analogous to the above presented analysis we derive the mean-field critical behavior of the order parameter of the CTTP with random neighbor hopping.

In the following we denote the densities of sites with $`\rho _\mathrm{a}`$ (double occupied and active), $`\rho _\mathrm{i}`$ (single occupied and inactive), and $`\rho _\mathrm{e}`$ (empty). Normalization requires $`\rho _\mathrm{e}+\rho _\mathrm{i}+\rho _\mathrm{a}=1`$ and the particle conservation is reflected by the equation $`\rho _\mathrm{i}+2\rho _\mathrm{a}=\rho `$ where the control parameter $`\rho `$ denotes again the density of particles on a $`D`$-dimensional lattice, i.e., $`\rho =N/L^D`$. The probability that a given lattice site $`s`$ is active is therefore $`\rho _\mathrm{a}`$. In this case the two active particles are tried to transfer to two randomly chosen lattice sites $`t_1`$ and $`t_2`$. In the case that both sites are empty the two particles are moved to the empty sites and the number of active sites is decreased by one ($`\mathrm{\Delta }n=1`$). The probability for this process is $`\rho _\mathrm{a}\rho _\mathrm{e}^2`$. All other possible configurations and the corresponding probabilities are listed in table 2. The probabilities that the number of active particles are changed by $`\mathrm{\Delta }n`$ are thus given by

$$\begin{array}{ccc}p_{\mathrm{\Delta }n=1}\hfill & =& \rho _\mathrm{a}[\rho _\mathrm{e}^2+\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\rho _\mathrm{e}\rho _\mathrm{a}]\hfill \\ & & \\ p_{\mathrm{\Delta }n=0}\hfill & =& \rho _\mathrm{a}[2\rho _\mathrm{e}\rho _\mathrm{i}+2\rho _\mathrm{i}\rho _\mathrm{a}+\rho _\mathrm{a}^2]\hfill \\ & & \\ p_{\mathrm{\Delta }n=1}\hfill & =& \rho _\mathrm{a}\rho _\mathrm{i}^2.\hfill \end{array}$$
(16)
The steady state condition $`E[\mathrm{\Delta }n]=0`$ leads to the equations

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}=01+2\rho 4\rho _\mathrm{a}+\rho _\mathrm{a}^2=0.$$
(17)
Again the first equation corresponds to the absorbing state and the second equation yields the order parameter as a function of the particle density

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}\pm \sqrt{52\rho }.$$
(18)
Here, the $`+`$ solution can be neglected ($`\rho _\mathrm{a}>1`$) and the $``$ solution describes the order parameter behavior above the critical density $`\rho _\mathrm{c}=1/2`$. Close to this critical point the order parameter scales in leading order as

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}=\frac{1}{4}\delta \rho +\mathrm{O}(\delta \rho ^2),$$
(19)
i.e., the non-universal metric factor of the CTTP is $`c_1=1/4`$ and the critical exponent is in agreement with the CLG model $`\beta =1`$.

Similar to the CLG model we now apply an external field which activates single occupied sites. The probability that the external field $`h`$ acts to a given site is $`\rho _\mathrm{i}h`$ and one tries to transfer this particle to a randomly chosen lattice site. In the case that the activated particle is moved to an empty lattice site the number of active site is unchanged by this field induced process ($`\mathrm{\Delta }n=0`$). The number of active sites is increased only if the particle is moved to a single occupied lattice site ($`\mathrm{\Delta }n=+1`$). The probability for this process is $`\rho _\mathrm{i}^2h`$. In order to incorporate the external field into the dynamics one has to modify $`p_{\mathrm{\Delta }n=1}`$ accordingly and the steady state condition yields

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}(1+2\rho 4\rho _\mathrm{a}+\rho _\mathrm{a}^2)+h(\rho 2\rho _\mathrm{a})^2=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0}.$$
(20)
At the critical density $`\rho _\mathrm{c}=1/2`$ the order parameter scales with the external field according to

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}=\frac{1}{4}h^{1/2}+\mathrm{O}(h),$$
(21)
i.e., the critical exponent is again $`\sigma =2`$ and the non-universal metric factor of the CTTP is given by $`c_2=1/16`$.

In order to obtain the universal scaling function $`\stackrel{~}{R}`$ we set $`\rho =\rho _c+\rho _c\delta \rho `$ and transform equation (20) to

$$\frac{\rho _\mathrm{a}}{\sqrt{h}}\left(\frac{\delta \rho }{\sqrt{h}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}\frac{\rho _\mathrm{a}}{\sqrt{h}}+\frac{\rho _\mathrm{a}^2}{\sqrt{h}}\right)+\left(\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{2}\delta \rho 2\rho _\mathrm{a}^2\right)^2=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0}.$$
(22)
Focusing to the critical scaling behavior ($`h0`$, $`\delta \rho 0`$, $`\rho _\mathrm{a}0`$ where again $`\rho _\mathrm{a}/\sqrt{h}`$ as well as $`\delta \rho /\sqrt{h}`$ is kept constant) we can neglect all irrelevant terms and get in leading order

$$\frac{\rho _\mathrm{a}}{\sqrt{h}}\left(\frac{\delta \rho }{\sqrt{h}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}\frac{\rho _\mathrm{a}}{\sqrt{h}}\right)+\frac{1}{4}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0}.$$
(23)
This equation can be easily solved and one gets

$$\rho _\mathrm{a}(\delta \rho ,h)=\frac{\delta \rho }{8}\pm \sqrt{\frac{h}{16}+\left(\frac{\delta \rho }{8}\right)^2}$$
(24)
where the $``$ sign can be neglected since it yields negative values of the order parameter. Using the non-universal metric factor $`c_1=1/4`$ and $`c_2=1/16`$ we get eventually again equation (14), i.e. both models the CLG as well as the CTTP are characterized by the same universal function $`\stackrel{~}{R}(x,y)`$ in the mean-field solution. Furthermore, the obtained universal function $`\stackrel{~}{R}`$ agrees with that of the mean-field solution of directed percolation (see for instance ), i.e., although the CLG and CTTP differ from the directed percolation scaling behavior in low dimensions they coincide on the mean-field level.

## 4 Numerical simulations

In the following we compare our results with those obtained from numerical simulations. The upper critical dimension of the universality class of absorbing phase transitions with a conserved field is $`D_\mathrm{c}=4`$ . Thus we compare our results with the scaling behavior of the CLG in $`D=5`$ , the CTTP in $`D=5`$ and $`D=6`$ , as well as with the scaling behavior of a two-dimensional CLG on a square lattice where active particles are moved to randomly chosen lattice sites . In all models the order parameter is determined as a function of the control parameter for various fields and the data are rescaled according to equation (15). Varying the non-universal metric factors we observe a data-collapse with the universal function $`\stackrel{~}{R}(x,1)`$. The corresponding curves are presented in figure 2. As one can see, all numerically obtained curves fits well with the derived universal function. Furthermore the perfect data collapse of the curves for different dimensions, as well as for a mean-field model clearly confirms that four is the upper critical dimension.

Notice that the mean-field behavior of the CTTP order parameter was recently considered in . Using a cluster approximation method the authors obtained equation (18) that describes the zero-field behavior of the order parameter.

S. Lübeck wishes to thank the Minerva Foundation (Max Planck Gesellschaft) for financial support.

## References


text:
# Phys. Rev. E., Vol. 50, 2654–2659 (1994). Synchronization effects in the dynamical behavior of elevators

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Profs. Werner Ebeling and Kunihiko Kaneko for helpful discussions and for their kind interest in this work.


text:
# Josephson effect in superfluid atomic Fermi-gases

also at the \]Department of Theoretical Physics, National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, PO BOX MG-6, R-76900, Bucharest, Romania.

## Abstract

We consider an analog of the internal Josephson effect in superfluid atomic Fermi-gases. Four different hyperfine states of the atoms are assumed to be trapped and to form two superfluids via the BCS-type of pairing. We show that Josephson oscillations can be realized by coupling the superfluids with two laser fields. Choosing the laser detunings in a suitable way leads to an asymmetric below-gap tunneling effect for which there exists no analogue in the context of solid-state superconductivity.

Cooling of trapped gases of Fermionic atoms well below the Fermi temperature Debbie ; Hulet ; Salomon ; Thomas ; KetterleF  makes it reasonable to anticipate the achievement of the predicted BCS-transition Stoof ; Holland ; Zoller ; Pethick . The existence of a gap in the excitation spectrum of the superfluid Fermi-gas will be the first issue to address, and several methods for detecting it have already been proposed alli ; ours . Trapped atomic Fermi-gases will allow to study and test fermion-fermion pairing theories in a tunable, controlled manner. For example the classic problem of the BCS-BEC crossover when the interparticle attraction varies bcsbec  could be studied using the possibility of tuning the interatomic scattering length using Feshbach resonances Holland ; feshbach . Besides the standard superfluid phenomenology, gases of Cooper-paired atoms are expected to have properties which are specific to atomic gases only and not present, or not easily realizable, in metallic superconductors or Helium. For instance, the trapping potential has a major effect on the characteristic lengths of the superfluid Fermi-gas vortex .

In this paper we propose a way to investigate the Josephson effect in trapped superfluids of Fermionic atoms. We find a phenomenon that is unique to atomic Fermi-gases, namely an asymmetry in the Josephson currents corresponding to the ”up” and ”down” spin states. We assume that Fermionic atoms in four different hyperfine states (we label them $`|g`$, $`|g^{}`$, $`|e`$ and $`|e^{}`$) are trapped simultaneously in an optical trap — recently all-optical trapping and cooling below the degeneracy point of the two lowest hyperfine states of 6Li has been demonstrated Thomas . The s-wave scattering lengths are assumed to be large and negative between atoms in states $`|g`$ and $`|g^{}`$, as well as between those in $`|e`$ and $`|e^{}`$, and the chemical potentials $`\mu _g\mu _g^{}`$ and $`\mu _e\mu _e^{}`$. For all other combinations of two atoms in different states the scattering length is assumed to be small and/or the chemical potentials unequal. This leads to the existence of two superfluids, one consisting of Cooper pairs of atoms in the states $`|g`$ and $`|g^{}`$, and the other of $`|e`$$`|e^{}`$ pairs. The configuration is experimentally challenging, but in principle possible by the choice of right atoms and hyperfine states, adjusting the number of atoms, and tuning the scattering lengths in magnetic fields by using Feshbach resonances Holland ; feshbach .

The two superfluids are coupled by driving laser-induced transitions between the states $`|g`$ and $`|e`$ with the laser Rabi frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and detuning $`\delta `$, and between the states $`|g^{}`$ and $`|e^{}`$ with the Rabi frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ and detuning $`\delta ^{}`$. For a Raman-process these are effective quantities. If several lasers are used then in order to be able to see the Josephson oscillations they should maintain their phase coherence for a time much longer than the inverse of the detunings. In the case of metals, the two superconductors are spatially separated and connected by a tunneling junction. In our scheme, the superfluids share the same spatial region and are connected by the laser-coupling of the atoms’ internal states; this resembles the internal Josephson effect in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates internal  or in superfluid 3He-A leggett .

For metallic superconductors the a.c. Josephson current is driven by applying a voltage over the junction – here the role of the voltage is played by the laser detunings. The difference is that the detunings can be different for the two states forming the pair; in the metallic superconductor analogy this would mean having a different voltage for the spin-up and spin-down electrons, a situation which has not been investigated in the context of metallic superconductors. There is an interesting connection to recent experiments on superconductor-ferromagnet proximity effects, where the chemical potentials of the spin up and down electrons are slightly different in the ferromagnet due to the exchange interaction ferro .

We consider a system described by the standard BCS-theory. The laser interaction is assumed to be a small perturbation and its effect is calculated using linear response theory. The observable of interest is the change in the number of particles in one of the states, say $`|e`$ or $`|e^{}`$.

In the rotating wave approximation the interaction of the laser light with the matter fields can be described by a time-independent Hamiltonian in which the detunings $`\delta `$ and $`\delta ^{}`$ play the role of an externally imposed difference in the chemical potential of the two states. The total Hamiltonian becomes then $`\widehat{H}=\widehat{H_0}+\widehat{H}_T`$, where

$`\widehat{H_0}`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{H}_{BCS}+\left(\mu _e+{\displaystyle \frac{\delta }{2}}\right){\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\widehat{\psi }_e^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_e(\stackrel{}{r})}+\left(\mu _g{\displaystyle \frac{\delta }{2}}\right){\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\widehat{\psi }_g^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_g(\stackrel{}{r})}`$
$`+\left(\mu _e+{\displaystyle \frac{\delta ^{}}{2}}\right){\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\widehat{\psi }_e^{}^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_e^{}(\stackrel{}{r})}+\left(\mu _g{\displaystyle \frac{\delta ^{}}{2}}\right){\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\widehat{\psi }_g^{}^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_g^{}(\stackrel{}{r})}.`$
Here $`\mu _e`$ and $`\mu _g`$ are the chemical potentials of the Fermi gases before the laser was turned on, $`\mu _g=\mu _g^{}`$ and $`\mu _e=\mu _e^{}`$ in order to allow standard BCS pairing. The Hamiltonian $`\widehat{H}_{BCS}`$ is the BCS-approximation of the matter Hamiltonian with the chemical potential included boogie . Figure 1 presents a schematic view of what happens in this case: the laser detunings shift the chemical potentials of the four hyperfine states.

The transfer Hamiltonian is given by

$`\widehat{H}_T`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\mathrm{\Omega }(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_e^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_g(\stackrel{}{r})}+\mathrm{\Omega }^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_g^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_e(\stackrel{}{r})`$ (1)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\mathrm{\Omega }^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_e^{}^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_g^{}(\stackrel{}{r})}+\mathrm{\Omega }^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_g^{}^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_e^{}(\stackrel{}{r}),`$
with $`\mathrm{\Omega }(\stackrel{}{r})`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}(\stackrel{}{r})`$ characterizing the local strength of the matter-field interaction.

The main observable of interest, the rate of transferred atoms from, say, state $`|g`$ to state $`|e`$, is defined by

$$I_e=\frac{}{t}𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\mathrm{\Psi }(t)|\widehat{\psi }_e^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_e(\stackrel{}{r})|\mathrm{\Psi }(t)$$
(2)
(the definition for $`I_e^{}`$ is similar) and can be further evaluated with the help of the Schrödinger equation $`i\mathrm{}\frac{}{t}|\mathrm{\Psi }(t)=\widehat{H}|\mathrm{\Psi }(t)`$ as

$$I_e=i𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\mathrm{\Psi }(t)|\mathrm{\Omega }^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_g^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_e(\stackrel{}{r})\mathrm{\Omega }(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_e^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\widehat{\psi }_g(\stackrel{}{r})|\mathrm{\Psi }(t).$$
(3)
In the following we call $`I_e`$ the current in analogy to metallic superconductors where the flux of electrons out of the superconductor constitutes the electrical current.

We introduce an interaction representation with respect to $`\widehat{H_0}`$ and use linear response theory with respect to $`\widehat{H}_T`$. Validity of the linear response theory requires that the laser intensity is small and the transfer of atoms can be treated as a perturbation.

We split the result for the current $`I_e`$ into a part which corresponds to the Josephson current $`I_{eJ}`$ and to the part which describes normal single-particle current $`I_{eS}`$, $`I_e=I_{eJ}+I_{eS}`$. The single-particle current can be evaluated at finite temperature using the standard techniques of superconducting Green’s functions; we present however only the result for $`T=0`$ and positive detunings:

$`I_{eS}`$ $`=`$ $`2\pi {\displaystyle \underset{n,m}{}}\left|{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\mathrm{\Omega }(\stackrel{}{r})v_n^e(\stackrel{}{r})u_m^g(\stackrel{}{r})}\right|^2\delta (ϵ_n^e+ϵ_m^g\stackrel{~}{\delta }).`$
Here the triplet $`(u_n,v_n);ϵ_n`$ is a solution of the (nonuniform) Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations for superconductors boogie  and $`\stackrel{~}{\delta }=\mu _e\mu _g+\delta `$. This is the standard Fermi Golden rule result and very similar to the ones obtained in ours . The current $`I_{eS}`$ is zero when $`\delta <2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ since pair breaking is required for single particle excitations. Next we concentrate on the Josephson current – this is non-zero also for detunings $`\delta `$ that are smaller than twice the gap energy.

The Josephson current becomes

$$I_{eJ}=2\mathrm{I}\mathrm{m}\left[e^{i(\stackrel{~}{\delta }+\stackrel{~}{\delta }^{})t}\underset{n,m}{}𝑑\stackrel{}{r}𝑑\stackrel{}{r}^{}\mathrm{\Omega }^{}(\stackrel{}{r})\mathrm{\Omega }^{}(\stackrel{}{r}^{})u_n^g(\stackrel{}{r})u_m^e(\stackrel{}{r}^{})v_m^e(\stackrel{}{r})v_n^g(\stackrel{}{r}^{})\left(\frac{1}{\stackrel{~}{\delta }^{}+ϵ_n^g+ϵ_m^e+i\eta }\frac{1}{\stackrel{~}{\delta }^{}ϵ_n^gϵ_m^e+i\eta }\right)\right].$$
(4)
The current $`I_{e^{}J}`$ is the same only that $`\stackrel{~}{\delta }`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\delta ^{}}`$ are interchanged. Note that the oscillating term is proportional to both of the detunings whereas the rest of the expression is proportional only to $`\stackrel{~}{\delta ^{}}`$. For the choice of a homogeneous system (large trap, local density approximation) and a constant laser profile the expression simplifies into

$`I_{eJ}`$ $`=`$ $`I_0(\stackrel{~}{\delta }^{})\mathrm{sin}[(\stackrel{~}{\delta }+\stackrel{~}{\delta }^{})t]`$ (5)
$`I_{e^{}J}`$ $`=`$ $`I_0(\stackrel{~}{\delta })\mathrm{sin}[(\stackrel{~}{\delta }+\stackrel{~}{\delta }^{})t].`$ (6)
Both partners of the pair thus oscillate in phase, with the same frequency $`\stackrel{~}{\delta }+\stackrel{~}{\delta }^{}`$. But the amplitudes are different whenever the detunings $`\stackrel{~}{\delta }`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\delta }^{}`$ differ. This means that more atoms are transferred, say, in the $`|g|e`$ oscillation than in the $`|g^{}|e^{}`$ one.

A simple expression for $`I_0(\delta )`$ can be derived when we assume identical superfluids, that is $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ and $`\mu _g=\mu _e\mu `$:

$`I_0(\delta )={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2m^3}V}{\pi ^2}}\mathrm{\Delta }^2\mathrm{\Omega }^2{\displaystyle _\mu ^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\xi \sqrt{\mu +\xi }}{\sqrt{\xi ^2+\mathrm{\Delta }^2}(4\xi ^2+4\mathrm{\Delta }^2\delta ^2)}},`$
where $`V`$ is the volume of the sample and the variable $`\xi `$ is the continuous version of $`\xi _k=\frac{k^2}{2m}\mu `$. Since $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu `$, the result can also be written as

$`I_0(\delta )={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2m^3\mu }V}{\pi ^2}}\mathrm{\Delta }^2\mathrm{\Omega }^2{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\xi }{\sqrt{\xi ^2+\mathrm{\Delta }^2}(4\xi ^2+4\mathrm{\Delta }^2\delta ^2)}}.`$
A plot of the intensity $`I_0`$ as a function of the detuning $`\delta `$ is shown in Fig. 2. This result shows a divergence at $`\delta =2\mathrm{\Delta }`$, which reflects the divergence of the density of states for the two superconductors at the gap. For quite a large range of detunings, the amplitude $`I_0`$ of the Josephson current is approximately constant — thus no asymmetry effect will be visible. The asymmetry is most pronounced when the timescale of the oscillation, that is, $`1/(\delta +\delta ^{})`$ is close to $`1/(2\mathrm{\Delta })`$. Note that $`1/(2\mathrm{\Delta })`$ can also be understood as the Cooper pair correlation time based on the uncertainty principle.

According to the conventional intuitive picture of the Josephson effect, the particles forming a Cooper-pair tunnel “together” through the junction. Therefore our result seems counterintuitive at first glance. The physics becomes, however, more transparent by a closer look at the equation (4). For simplicity, we consider here the transfer process to one direction only, from the superfluid $`(gg^{})`$ to $`(ee^{})`$, which corresponds to the first denominator in (4). In the initial state $`|g`$ is paired with $`|g^{}`$, in the final state $`|e`$ with $`|e^{}`$. The process has, however, an intermediate state as indicated by the second-order form of the observable, and the intermediate states corresponding to the observables $`I_{eJ}`$ and $`I_{e^{}J}`$ are different: For $`I_{eJ}`$, $`|g^{}`$ has been transferred into $`|e^{}`$. Therefore its pairing partner $`|g`$ is left as an excitation in the superfluid $`(gg^{})`$ with the energy $`ϵ_n^g`$ and $`|e^{}`$ becomes an excitation in the superfluid $`(ee^{})`$ with the energy $`ϵ_m^e^{}=ϵ_m^e`$. In contrast, for $`I_{e^{}J}`$, the atom in $`|g^{}`$ remains as a quasiparticle of the energy $`ϵ_n^g^{}=ϵ_n^g`$ in the superfluid $`(gg^{})`$ and $`|e`$ becomes an excitation in the superfluid $`(ee^{})`$. For $`I_{eJ}`$, the initial energy of the Cooper pair was $`\left(\mu _g\frac{\delta }{2}\right)+\left(\mu _g\frac{\delta ^{}}{2}\right)`$ and the energy of the intermediate state is $`\left[\left(\mu _g\frac{\delta }{2}\right)+ϵ_n^g\right]+\left[\left(\mu _e+\frac{\delta ^{}}{2}\right)+ϵ_m^e\right]`$ (for explanation, see Fig.1). The relative energy of the intermadiate state with respect to the initial state is $`ϵ_n^g+ϵ_m^e+\stackrel{~}{\delta }^{}`$, which is precisely the first denominator in (4). For $`I_{e^{}J}`$, the initial energy of the pair is again $`\left(\mu _g\frac{\delta }{2}\right)+\left(\mu _g\frac{\delta ^{}}{2}\right)`$, but the intermediate state has an energy $`\left[\left(\mu _g\frac{\delta ^{}}{2}\right)+ϵ_n^g\right]+\left[\left(\mu _e+\frac{\delta }{2}\right)+ϵ_m^e\right]`$, or a relative energy $`ϵ_n^g+ϵ_m^e+\stackrel{~}{\delta }`$. In summary, the intermediate states of the transfer processes for “spin up” and “spin down” atoms have different energies and this results in different amplitudes for $`I_{eJ}`$ and $`I_{e^{}J}`$.

The asymmetry in the currents implies the existence of excitations in the superfluids. We have analyzed the many-body wavefunction of the system in the Schrödinger picture and indeed it contains excitations corresponding to the asymmetry. Specifically, the analysis confirms that the so called Fermi surface polarization $`(N_eN_e^{})/(N_e+N_e^{})(N_eN_e^{})/(N_e_0+N_e^{}_0)`$ is non-zero and oscillates as $`f(\delta ,\delta ^{})\mathrm{cos}((\delta +\delta ^{})t)`$ where $`f(\delta ,\delta )=0`$. We also found that time-independent perturbation theory is not sufficient to reveal the asymmetry in the amplitudes: the simple treatment of timeind  applied to our system results in symmetric currents because the ansatz used does not allow any excitations. This and the fact that the oscillation is most pronounced for timescales of the order of the Cooper-pair correlation time indicates that the effect is related to the dynamics of the superfluid state.

To observe the Josephson effect one should be able to measure the number of particles in two of the states, e.g. $`|e`$ and $`|e^{}`$, at different stages of the oscillations, either destructively or non-destructively. The scale of the gap energy is for typical systems 1-100kHz, which means that the highest time resolution needed should be just somewhat above $`10\mu s`$. Measuring the number of particles accurately is the more challenging part of the observation. In ours  we considered laser probing of the superfluid Fermi-gas, where the laser was creating excitations in the BCS state. The number of particles transferred was directly reflected in the absorption of the light. Here one can use similar techniques to detect the Josephson oscillations in a simple way.

In summary, we propose a method to realize Josephson oscillations in superfluid atomic Fermi-gases. The coupling between two superfluids is provided by laser light, and the laser detuning plays the same role as voltage over metallic superconductor junctions. Detunings that affect the two atomic internal states involved in pairing can be chosen to be different – this would correspond to different voltage for spin-up and spin-down electrons. This leads to asymmetry in the oscillation amplitudes of the two states. The asymmetry is pronounced when the time-scale of the oscillation is the same order of magnitude as the Cooper-pair correlation time. This is an effect unique to atomic Fermi-gases in the superfluid state.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the Academy of Finland for support (projects 42588, 48845, 47140 and 44897). Gh.-S. P. also acknowledges the grant NSF DMR 99-86199. We wish to thank Prof. G. Baym and Prof. A. J. Leggett for useful discussions.