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# Nuclear matter with off-shell propagation

11institutetext:  Institute of Nuclear physics, PL-31-342 Cracow, Poland

## Abstract

Symmetric nuclear matter is studied within the conserving, self-consistent $`T`$-matrix approximation. This approach involves off-shell propagation of nucleons in the ladder diagrams. The binding energy receives contributions from the background part of the spectral function, away form the quasiparticle peak. The Fermi energy at the saturation point fulfills the Hugenholz-Van Hove relation. In comparison to the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach, the binding energy is reduced and the equation of state is harder.

###### Keywords:

nuclear matter – saturation point – thermodynamic properties – Hugenholz-Van Hove theorem

The calculation of nuclear matter properties from the basic nucleon-nucleon interaction has been extensively studied using Brueckner type resummation of ladder diagrams. This resummation allows to rewrite the ground-state energy of nuclear matter using as an effective interaction, the $`G`$ matrix, which takes care of the short range repulsive core in the nucleon-nucleon interaction jlm . Calculations using realistic interactions lead to results, which lie along a line (the Coester line) shifted with respect to the phenomenological saturation point ($`\rho _0.16\mathrm{fm}^3`$, $`E/N16`$MeV). The remaining discrepancy can be attributed to relativistic effects and three-body forces contributions bhf .

The results on the binding energy depend on the single particle energies used in the kernel of the Bethe-Goldstone equation bg . The so called standard choice uses a self-consistent auxiliary potential defined by the $`G`$-matrix below the Fermi energy and the free dispersion relation above $`k_F`$. Another choice is to use the self-consistent potential also above the Fermi momentum which gives the so called continuous choice for the single-particle energies in the Bethe-Goldstone equation. In Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) calculations the hole line expansion, irrespective of the choice of the auxiliary potential, is believed to converge to values close to the BHF with the continuous choice for single-particle energies baldo .

Recently self-consistent approaches based on the in medium $`T`$-matrix approximation for nuclear matter have been studied di1 ; ja1 ; ja2 ; gent ; jc ; ja3 . In this way a spectral function for nucleons in nuclear matter including two-particle correlations is obtained. The ladder diagrams involved in the calculation of the in medium $`T`$ matrix include also hole-hole propagation. The $`T`$-matrix approximation takes into account some of the higher order hole line contributions as compared to the $`G`$-matrix approach. It would be instructive to study the saturation properties of nuclear matter for the self-consistent $`T`$-matrix approximation with realistic interactions.

The $`T`$-matrix approach is a $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-derivable approximation baym . The self-energy is constructed as a functional derivative of a set of two-particle irreducible diagrams. This assures the fulfillment of thermodynamical relations for the quantities obtained jc . The most famous such a relation is the equality of the Fermi energy and binding energy at the saturation point hvh

$$E_F=E/N.$$
(1)
The realization of the above relation is very important since it would give confidence to the single particle properties obtained in the calculations. In Ref. jc  we studied the self-consistent $`T`$-matrix approximation with a simple interaction confirming to a very good accuracy the fulfillment of thermodynamical relations by the numerical solutions. In BHF calculations the Hugenholz-Van Hove relation is badly violated. This discrepancy can be reduced by invoking rearrangement terms for the Fermi energy gmhvh ; jong ; molinari . By construction, the single-particle energies obtained in the $`T`$-matrix approximation come out consistently with thermodynamical observables. Thus we expect that single-particle energies, scattering width or spectral functions directly obtained from the self-consistent $`T`$-matrix approximation are meaningful ja3 .

For attractive interactions cold nuclear matter forms a superfluid. Calculations using dressed propagators in the superfluid phase show a strong reduction of the gap ja2 ; ja4 ; jc2 . We expect that around the saturation point the superfluidity is very weak ja4 . This means that the correction from the superfluid correlation energy to the binding energy is small. We restrict ourselves to normal nuclear matter for all densities studied here. It allows us to compare with BHF calculations which are performed exclusively in the normal phase of nuclear matter.

The results here presented are obtained using a separable parameterization of the Paris potential hp  for $`S`$, $`P`$, $`D`$ and $`F`$ partial waves, for symmetric nuclear matter. We use rank $`3`$ and rank $`4`$ parameterization for the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}S_{1}^{}^3D_1`$ partial waves. In the $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{0}^{}`$ partial wave we use Mongan I interaction, in order to avoid unphysical resonances far off-shell. In the numerical iteration the full spectral function is discretized. For momenta close to the Fermi momentum the spectral function is separated into a background part and a quasiparticle peak approximated by a delta function. The numerical treatment of the energy integrations for the spectral functions is done using convolution algorithms ja3 .

The $`T`$-matrix approximation resumes ladder diagrams with dressed particle-particle and hole-hole propagators

$`<𝐩|T(𝐏,\mathrm{\Omega })|𝐩^{^{}}>=V(𝐩,𝐩^{^{}})`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{d\omega _1}{2\pi }\frac{d\omega _2}{2\pi }\frac{d^3q}{(2\pi )^3}V(𝐩,𝐪)\frac{\left(1f(\omega _1)f(\omega _2)\right)}{\mathrm{\Omega }\omega _1\omega _2+iϵ}}`$
$`A(p_1,\omega _1)A(p_2,\omega _2)<𝐪|T(𝐏,\mathrm{\Omega })|𝐩^{^{}}>`$ (2)
where $`𝐩_{\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟐}}=𝐏/2\pm 𝐪`$ and $`f(\omega )`$ is the Fermi distribution. The imaginary part of the corresponding retarded self-energy can be obtained closing a pair of external vertices in the $`T`$-matrix with a fermion propagator

$`\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Sigma }(p,\omega )={\displaystyle \frac{d\omega _1}{2\pi }\frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}A(k,\omega _1)}`$
$`<(𝐩𝐤)/2|\mathrm{Im}T(𝐩+𝐤,\omega +\omega _1)|(𝐩𝐤)/2>_A`$
$`\left(f(\omega _1)+b(\omega +\omega _1)\right)`$ (3)
where

$$A(p,\omega )=\frac{2\mathrm{I}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{\Sigma }(p,\omega )}{\left(\omega p^2/2m\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }(p,\omega )\right)^2+\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Sigma }(p,\omega )^2}$$
(4)
is the self-consistent spectral function of the nucleon and $`b(\omega )`$ is the Bose distribution. The real part of the self-energy is related to $`\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ by a dispersion relation

$$\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }(p,\omega )=\mathrm{\Sigma }_{HF}(p)+𝒫\frac{d\omega ^{^{}}}{\pi }\frac{\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Sigma }(p,\omega ^{^{}})}{\omega ^{^{}}\omega }$$
(5)
with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{HF}(p)`$ the Hartree-Fock self-energy. Eqs. Nuclear matter with off-shell propagation, Nuclear matter with off-shell propagation, 5 and 4 are to be solved iteratively and at each iteration the chemical potential $`\mu `$ is adjusted to fulfill the condition on the density $`\rho `$

$$\frac{d\omega }{2\pi }\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}A(p,\omega )f(\omega )=\rho .$$
(6)
The spectral functions obtained in the self-consistent solution consist of a quasiparticle peak and a broad background (Fig. 1). As function of momentum the position of the peak in the spectral function follows approximately the quasiparticle dispersion relation

$$\omega _p=\frac{p^2}{m}+\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }(p,\omega _p).$$
(7)
The quasiparticle peak is very sharp for momenta close to the Fermi momentum. It is a manifestation of the quasiparticle nature of excitations close to the Fermi surface. Indeed we find that the single-particle width $`2\mathrm{I}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{\Sigma }(p,\omega _p)`$ is proportional to $`(pp_F)^2`$ close to the Fermi momentum. The background of the spectral functions extend far from the quasiparticle peak. The part of the spectral function below the Fermi energy leads to nonzero occupancy for momenta above $`p_F`$ and gives a large, negative contribution to the binding energy for all momenta.

The nucleon momentum distribution

$$n(p)=\frac{d\omega }{2\pi }A(p,\omega )f(\omega )$$
(8)
is very different different from the Fermi-Dirac distribution. Momentum states below the Fermi momentum are depleted and a tail in the distribution $`n(p)`$ for large momenta appears. The $`T`$-matrix approximation leads to a Fermi liquid behavior in the normal phase, with a jump in the fermion density of $`Z_{p_F}=\left(1\frac{\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }(p_F,\omega )}{\omega }|_{\omega =E_F}\right)^1.74`$ at the Fermi momentum. In the calculation the Fermi momentum is fixed by the constraint (6) on the total density. For a conserving approximation the Fermi momentum should be the same as the Fermi momentum of a free fermion gas lw ; baym . This thermodynamical consistency relation is verified to a good accuracy by our calculations for the range of densities studied.

The energy per particle, in the case of only two-body interactions, can be obtained from the single-particle spectral function

$$E/N=\frac{1}{\rho }\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{d\omega }{2\pi }\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{p^2}{2m}+\omega \right)A(p,\omega )f(\omega ).$$
(9)
The binding energy per nucleon as function of the Fermi momentum is presented in Fig. 2 for the self-consistent $`T`$-matrix approximation and compared to results from $`G`$-matrix calculations using the continuous choice of the auxiliary potential. The results of the $`T`$-matrix approach lie above to the BHF binding energy for densities close to the phenomenological saturation point. Since we know that further hole line corrections do not modify the continuous BHF results drastically, we get an assessment of the accuracy of the $`T`$-matrix approach. The higher the density the larger the discrepancy becomes. Correspondingly the saturation point in the $`T`$-matrix approach is shifted to lower densities ($`\rho =1.4\rho _0`$ instead of $`2.4\rho _0`$) and lower binding energies (the binding energy is reduced by $`4\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$ at $`\rho _0`$). Very similar results are found for the equation of state of pure neutron matter jc2 . We note the the Hugenholz-Van Hove condition (1) is very well satisfied.

The origin of the of the binding energy in the $`T`$-matrix approximation can be understood writing Eq. (9) as

$$E/N=\frac{1}{\rho }\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}n(p)\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{p^2}{2m}+\overline{\omega _p}\right)$$
(10)
with

$$\overline{\omega _p}=\frac{d\omega }{2\pi }\omega A(p,\omega )f(\omega )/n(p),$$
(11)
whereas in quasiparticle approaches it is

$$E/N=\frac{1}{\rho }\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}n(p)\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{p^2}{2m}+\omega _p\right).$$
(12)
In Fig. 3 we compare the removal energy $`\overline{\omega _p}`$ to the quasiparticle energy $`\omega _p`$. Due to a large contribution of the background strength of the spectral function lying below the quasiparticle peak the removal energy is much below the quasiparticle energy. On the other hand, the single-particle energy $`\omega _p`$ in the $`T`$-matrix approximation is generally above the one obtained from $`G`$-matrix calculations. It can be seen by comparing the Fermi energies in the two approximations in Fig. 2. These differences explain why the Fermi energy in the conserving $`T`$-matrix approximation is equal to the binding energy at the local saturation point, following the Hugenholz-Van Hove relation (1). The binding energy is determined by $`\overline{\omega _p}`$ and $`E_F=\omega _{p_F}`$ for the $`T`$-matrix calculation, whereas both quantities are determined by $`\omega _p`$ in the $`G`$-matrix scheme.

This paper presents the first results self-consistent $`T`$-matrix calculation of saturation properties of nuclear matter with a realistic potential. The binding energy obtained is smaller than the BHF result with the continuous auxiliary potential. We note that a very similar shift in binding energy is observed in a BHF calculation, when including the rearrangement terms contribution to the binding energy molinari . In Ref. molinari  by considering rearrangement term corrections to the single particle energies and to the binding energy an improvement of the fulfillment Hugenholz-Van Hove relation is found. The same can be observed in the $`T`$-matrix approach, we destroy a bit the binding energies and improve considerably the single particle energies from the BHF approach to get the relation (1) right. We expect that after inclusion of ring diagrams contributions, as well as higher partial waves and three body forces corrections, the results on the saturation properties of nuclear matter of modern BHF approaches will be recovered. The calculation of these corrections is standard and not related to the $`T`$-matrix approach. On the other hand, the real advantage of the self-consistent $`T`$-matrix approximation shows itself in the single-particle properties. The quasiparticle energies lead to a Fermi energy consistent with the Hugenholz-Van Hove relation. The spectral function for large negative and positive energies can be calculated, with implications for the binding energy and applications for electron scattering. We find at normal nuclear density an effective mass $`m^{}=.9m`$ and $`Z_{p_F}=.74`$. These numbers can be used in the estimation of reduced in medium cross sections and density of states at the Fermi energy. Generally, $`Z_p`$ does not change much with density or with the details of the potential used, provided the lowest partial waves are described reasonably. We confirm the thermodynamical consistency of the numerical solution of the $`T`$-matrix scheme jc  for realistic interaction with several partial waves also. Finally let us note that the self-consistent $`T`$-matrix calculation can be straightforwardly extended to finite temperatures.

This work was partly supported by the KBN under Grant No. 2P03B02019.


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# Luminous matter may arise from a turbulent plasma state of the early universe.

The almost perfect uniformity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, discovered by Penzias and Wilson in 1965 , appears to present clearcut evidence that the universe was uniform and in equilibrium at the decoupling transition when a plasma of protons and electrons condensed into a gas of Hydrogen. COBE indicates that only very small ripples of order $`10^5`$ existed at decoupling. Gravity then caused hydrogen to cluster and possibly reheat parts of the universe to form the luminous matter that we observe today.

We suggest an alternative scenario, where a spatially intermittent structure of extremely hot matter already existed in an otherwise uniform plasma state at the decoupling transition. The plasma was not in equilibrium but in a very high Reynolds number turbulent state. The sparse bursts would not affect the uniformity of the CMB radiation. Luminous matter originates from localized hot bursts already present in the plasma state prior to decoupling. No reheating, and no exotic matter is needed to get luminous matter.

The decoupling transition occurred when the temperature of the universe reached Hydrogen’s ionization energy, $`T_c=4,200K`$ degrees approximately 300,000 years after the Big Bang. Since radiation interacts with the electrons in the plasma, but not with the Hydrogen, the radiation thereafter simply cooled uniformly, reducing the temperature to the much smaller value $`T=2.736K`$ that we observe today. Since the radiation was in equilibrium with the plasma at $`T_c`$, the uniformity of the CMB radiation implies that the gas of Hydrogen was also almost perfectly uniform at that time.

In contrast, the observed structure of luminous matter is strongly clustered, intermittent, and fractal-like, with correlations over perhaps hundreds of millions of light years . Although some clustering is observed, computer simulations have been unable to explain the large scale structure of luminous matter using well-established physics, starting from a uniform equilibrium state with small perturbations or ripples. For instance, the Hubble Volume Project includes hypothetical Cold Dark Matter in order to obtain reasonable agreement.

Thinking about the problem inversely, there has not been time enough for the large scale geometry of luminous or hot matter at $`T_c`$ to differ very much from today’s. Thus, luminous or hot matter had to be present already at $`T_c`$, with an intermittent geometry. In fact, intensive luminous matter existed at least as early as fourteen billion years ago, only one billion years after $`T_c`$. How can that be reconciled with the observed uniformity of the CMB radiation?

It is enough to assume that the plasma before $`T_c`$ was in a turbulent state, with a very high Reynolds number. Actually, turbulent plasmas are plentiful in the universe, for instance in the sun. The properties of turbulent systems are determined by the dimensionless Reynolds number, $`R=Vl_0/\nu `$, where $`\nu `$ is the viscosity, $`V`$ the velocity difference over the integral scale $`l_0`$, which may be large, for instance the entire system.

For very large $`R`$, velocity gradients are extremely small almost everywhere. Regions with vanishingly small velocity gradients are in effective thermal equilibrium, since there is almost no dissipation or heating there. However, the energy injected at the scale $`l_0`$ is dissipated over extremely small scales, the Kolmogorov length $`l_0R^{3/4}`$, or even smaller length scales within the so-called intermediate dissipative range. The velocity gradients in these localized, sparse, filamentary regions are enormous. In the bursts, the plasma is heated to temperatures that are very much higher than the temperature in the surrounding ”equilibrium” plasma sea. The dissipative field is highly intermittent, with ”on” regions having a fractal or fractal-like structure , embedded in the ”off” background of no dissipation. Note that for smaller Reynolds number, there is no clear distinction between dissipating and nondissipating regions. The distinction becomes sharper and sharper as the Reynolds number increases. In particular the characteristic length scale of the regions with large dissipation (the bursts) decreases, and the amplitude of the dissipation in the background outside of the bursts decreases as well, approaching the equilibrium limit of no dissipation. Thus turbulence becomes an ”on/off” phenomena when the Reynolds number is very large.

For an example of intermittent structures with high Reynolds number, of order $`10^5`$, that can be achieved on earth, see the work by Meneveau and Sreenivasan on the atmospheric boundary layer. Or think of flying across the Atlantic on a clear calm day: suddenly and unpredictably the plane may enter a very violent burst. The burst ends as suddenly as it starts.

This might well describe the plasma before $`T_c`$. The Reynolds number would be huge even for a small value of $`V`$, because of the large value of $`l_0`$, being of order the size of the universe.It is, however very difficult to make numerical estimates; even on the more directly observable earthly conditions intermittent turbulence is difficult to calculate and descibe.

What happens as the plasma cools to $`T_c`$? Over the vast, almost space filling, equilibrium volume, the plasma suddenly condenses into a Hydrogen gas, decoupling mass and radiation, thereby creating the uniform CMB radiation. But the hot, sparse bursts pass through the transition without change, since their much higher temperatures prevent condensation. The CMB radiation is unaffected due to the sparsity of these hot bursts embedded in an equilibrium sea. For an analogous situation, consider the recent universe where the microwave field is certainly unaffected by the existence of the intermittent luminous matter. Gibson has suggested that turbulence existed in the very early universe, but there is no hot plasma at $`T_c`$ in his picture.

We suggest these hot intermittent bursts in the plasma at $`T_c`$ were responsible for the frenzied star formation soon after $`T_c`$, and evolved into the stars and galaxies that we see today, while the microwave field cooled to $`T=2.736K`$. The small fluctuations or ripples observed by COBE are insignificant for this scenario. The rarefied, intermittent bursts of hot matter in the equilibrium sea cannot affect the CMB radiation. Also, there is no reheating or exotic physics necessary in order to explain the existence of luminous matter.

Luminous matter may have evolved from rare, hot bursts already existing in the turbulent plasma of the early universe. It may be no accident that the current structure of luminous matter has close similarities with that of very high Reynolds number turbulence.


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# Small Angular Scale CMB Anisotropies from CBI and BIMA experiments: Early Universe or Local Structures?

## I Introduction

The high resolution, and high signal-to-noise, cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments like Boomerang , DASI , MAXIMA , and, more recently, VSA  have revolutionized the study of temperature anisotropies at arcminute scales. The multiple peaks observed by these experiments in the angular power spectrum of the CMB anisotropies have provided a strong evidence for inflationary models with adiabatic initial conditions for structure formation.

The recent results from the CBI interferometer  confirms the presence of multiple peaks in the angular power spectrum with an unambiguous detection of the damping tail as expected. At smaller angular scales beyond the damping tail, however, the CBI experiment in the ’deep field’ configuration  and the BIMA array  have both reported the presence of an ’excess’ in temperature power at a level of about $`500\mu K^2`$ with a detection confidence at the level of $`3\sigma `$ and above.

The presence of this excess is not consistent with the predicted damping of the primordial (primary) anisotropies  but can in principle be explained as due to a secondary effect . At angular scales corresponding to projected galaxy clusters extents of order few arcminutes and below, the Sunyave-Zel’dovich effect (SZ; ), in fact, produces a now well-known contribution. The SZ effect has now been directly imaged towards massive galaxy clusters , where temperature of the scattering medium can reach as high as 10 keV producing temperature changes in the CMB of order 1 mK at Rayleigh-Jeans (RJ) wavelengths and whose presence is a priori known based on optical data. These, and other unresolved, clusters contribute to the dominant anisotropy contribution at arcminute scales.

Even if the detection by the CBI and BIMA experiments marks an important milestone, however, it is still not clear if the excess can be easily explained by the SZ effect. There are several techniques, based on semi-analytic computations and numerical simulations, that can be used to predict the SZ signal from a population of clusters. The most recent numerical simulations (see e.g. ), assuming cosmological parameters consistent with the primary anisotropies and other observables, predict, in general, an amplitude for the SZ power spectrum at small angular scales which is roughly an order of magnitude lower than the observed by recent two experiments.

As discussed in the literature , the key parameter in fixing the amplitude of the SZ signal is the value of the rms mass fluctuations on spheres of 8 Mpc h-1 ($`\sigma _8`$). Due to the highly non linear behaviour, the SZ thermal contribution (see Fig.2 left panel) is strongly dependent on $`\sigma _8`$ with $`C_{\mathrm{}}^{SZ}\sigma _8^7`$. As we can see in Figure 2, right panel, the power spectrum associated with the SZ effect (calculated following the techniques described in ) is in agreement with the new CBI and BIMA data only for values of $`\sigma _81`$. This is consistent with the value of $`\sigma _8=1.05\pm 0.15`$ at $`95\%`$ c.l. recently found by Komatsu and Seljak  in a detail analysis and with the numerical results obtained by both Bond et al. , White et al.  and in Ref.  ($`\sigma _8=1.01.2`$).

A value of $`\sigma _81`$, while in agreement with cosmic shear data (see e.g. ) and the ’old’ cluster normalization , is in disagreement with new cluster abundances results  and the cluster mass function from early SDSS data  when combined with the latest CMB+Supernovae type Ia analysis $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.31\pm 0.05`$  (see Fig.1). Recent joint analysis from the mass function and power spectrum obtained from the REFLEX X-ray survey , confirm these values with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.34\pm 0.03`$ and $`\sigma _8=0.71\pm 0.04`$.

A value of $`\sigma _8`$ higher than one is also inconsistent with the $`\sigma _80.75\pm 0.05`$ results obtained by combined analysis of CMB and galaxy clustering data from the recent 2dF survey  A possible way to solve the tension with the CMB value is to advocate an early reionization of the intergalactic medium, such that the optical depth of the universe is $`\tau _c0.3`$  or a red-shift of reionization $`z_{re}2030`$. However, this is not in agreement with the observed evolution of the Ly-alpha transmitted flux in the spectra of four highest redshift quasars discovered by the Sloan survey, which suggests $`z_{re}=6\pm 1`$  that points to $`\tau _c0.05`$ (see e.g. ).

Even if is fair to say that most of the above measurements can be strongly affected by systematics, it appears that the cosmological informations obtained from the secondary anisotropies under the assumption of a pure SZ component are in tension with the same informations obtained by the primary anisotropies when combined with other cosmological observables.

A solution to this problem, however, is to postulate an extra contribution to the small scale anisotropies from some mechanism different from SZ. Additional contributions at these small scales like those from kinetic SZ effect, Ostriker-Vishniac effect  and from the patchy, or inhomogeneous, reionization . are generally expected much lower than the thermal SZ contribution ***We refer the reader to Ref.  and  for a detailed discussion of these contributions..

## II Beyond SZ: Contributions to Small Scale Power

In addition to such processes, the anisotropies at small angular scales can also be affected by the presence of foregrounds. At frequencies relevant to recent small scale anisotropy results at 30 GHz, a dominant contribution may come from extra-galactic radio point sources. The possible contamination involving radio point sources has been investigated in  with the conclusion that the contribution from point sources should not be significant. It has been recently noted , however, that if the excess power at small angular scales is to be explained by the SZ effect, then radio point sources at the observing frequencies of CBI and BIMA, 30 GHz, must be a surprisingly weak contaminant.

In this paper we want to point out that an extra contribution to temperature anisotropies at small angular scales can arise also in non-standard models of inflation. A strong possibility, for example, is the one that has recently been discussed in detail  involving the existence of primordial voids in the early universeFor the purpose of this discussion, note that we define early universe to be the era around, and before, recombination $`(z1000)`$, while the local universe is the era after reionization $`(z10)`$. . There is an important contribution from these voids to temperature anisotropies. Similar to the Sachs-Wolfe (SW; ) effect associated with the dark matter potential at the last scattering surface, these primordial voids also generate a SW contribution. The angular scale for this latter SW temperature fluctuations are consistent with the projected size of the void at the last scattering surface. Note that voids which are fully embedded in the primordial photon-baryon fluid do not generate a new anisotropy contribution via the SW effect.

Following the discussion presented in Ref.  and , for illustration purposes, we calculate the SW contribution associated with voids using parameters which are consistent with voids observed via red-shift surveys of the present day and a volume fraction, again, consistent with such observations . Between the last scattering surface and today, these voids also contribute to additional temperature anisotropies through frequency shifts, mainly the Rees-Sciama effect (RS; ) and effects such as gravitational lensing. For parameters on voids consistent with current observations, these latter low red-shift contributions are however smaller and can be ignored .

Another possibility, recently investigated by various authors (see e.g. ) but in different contexts, is the presence of a feature in the primordial spectrum of fluctuations, as expected, for example, in inflationary models with broken scale invariance. In Fig.1 we present the possible contribution to the small scale anisotropies from a feature in the spectrum modeled as gaussian centered at $`k0.20[hMpc^{}1]`$ with dispersion $`\mathrm{\Delta }k0.03[hMpc^{}1]`$ and amplitude $`A5`$. While this feature is not fully ruled out by results on the matter power spectrum from recent galaxy red-shift surveys such as the 2dF (see e.g. ), its width is still dangerously close to the observed spectral resolution around these scales. Though models involving primordial features only produce excess power over a limited range in multipolar space, in this case, only out to a $`l3000`$, the current small scale anisotropy observations are also limited in the coverage of the power spectrum complicating any identification of a feature. However, as we can see from Fig.2, the BIMA result is already strongly constraining this hypothesis.

In addition to all these possible contributions arising from modifications to the standard inflationary scenario, we also note that there may be additional possibilities to generate small scale anisotropies at the last scattering via modifications to recombination .

Given distinct possibilities for small scale temperature anisotropies, involving the large scale structure after reionization and the last scattering surface, and giving the difficulties in explaining the CBI effect as solely due to SZ, an important question is how to distinguish between them when interpreting any detection of power at smaller angular scales in current and future experiments.

In the rest of the discussion, we will therefore consider how likely we can distinguish between the two scenarios involving an early universe contribution or a local redshift contribution. For the purpose of this discussion we will assume potential low redshift contributions involving SZ and radio point sources.

## III Early Universe or Local Structures?

Note that a fundamental aspect related to the SZ contribution is its distinct frequency dependence. This spectrum can be utilized to separate its contribution from the dominant anisotropies associated with primary fluctuations at large scale and other thermal fluctuations, such as due to the SZ kinetic effects associated with the peculiar motions of clusters, as well as any void or non-standard contribution, at small angular scales . The current anisotropy observations at small scales, unfortunately, are limited at most to a single frequency and this limitation is unlikely to be improved significantly till the advent of next generation of experiments. In the case of CBI and BIMA, observations are limited to 30 GHz at the RJ part of the spectrum. We expect observations, at higher frequencies, such as at 150 GHz by the ACBAR instrument to see a contribution which is lower than at 30 GHz, by a factor of $``$ 0.22. Observations at and above the SZ null frequency of 217 GHz are clearly desirable since a contribution from radio point sources is also expected to be decreasing in frequency while an early-universe contribution is frequency independent.

An additional aspect of the SZ effect is its non-Gaussianity. It is now well established that contributions to the SZ effect primarily comes from massive galaxy clusters which are rare. Such a mass dependance makes the SZ effect highly non-linear. As illustrated in figure 2, for example, the SZ effect varies by a factor of $``$ 2 when the normalization of the matter power spectrum is changed by $``$ 10%. Another aspect of this non linearity is the increase in SZ variance when compared to the expected Gaussian variance contribution. In addition to SZ, point source contribution may also be non-Gaussian, especially, if point sources trace the non-linear large scale structure at low redshifts. Thus, non-Gaussian aspects are potentially common to all low red-shift contributions since they all tend to trace the local universe non-linear structures which are non-Gaussian distributed.

The non-Gaussianity alone, however, may not distinguish the nature of small scale anisotropy power as observed in current experiments as the non-standard modifications to the last scattering involving primordial voids also generate a highly non-Gaussian anisotropy contribution . A reliable approach to distinguish between a local, whether SZ or point sources, and an early contribution, voids and bumps in the primordial power spectrum, is to consider a combined study involving the large scale structure and CMB. Here, we suggest a cross-correlation of the CMB anisotropy data with a map of the large scale structure.

The correlation between CMB, mainly the best COBE DMR map, and large scale structure has already been considered to understand the extent to which the ISW effect contributes at large angular scales . As discussed in , this correlation, however, is dominated by the large cosmic variance at low multipoles corresponding to angular scales with tens of degrees on the sky. In the case of small scales anisotropies, the extent to which the correlation can be detected will be determined primarily by the instrumental noise contribution. For the purpose of this discussion, we introduce the correlation coefficient between, say, large scale structure contributions (SZ or point sources) and a tracer of the large scale structure as

$$\mathrm{Corr}(\mathrm{LSS},i)_l=\frac{C_l^{\mathrm{LSS}i}}{\sqrt{C_l^{\mathrm{LSS}}C_l^i}},$$
(1)
where $`C_l^{\mathrm{LSS}i}`$ is the cross power spectrum between large scale structure contributions and the tracer field. We write this as $`C_l^{\mathrm{LSS}i}=C_l^{\mathrm{SZ}i}+C_l^{\mathrm{PS}i}`$, where $`C_l^{\mathrm{SZ}i}`$ and $`C_l^{\mathrm{PS}i}`$ are the cross power spectra between SZ and the tracer field, and, point sources (PS) and the tracer field respectively. The cross correlation of SZ and the tracer field is described in Ref.  following the so-called halo model approach to large scale structure ; we note that a similar approach can be considered for $`C_l^{\mathrm{PS}i}`$. Given the poor knowledge of the statistical distribution of radio-galaxies, which could represent a different population from those observed in the optical, and the wide range of observed spectral energy distributions due to different synchrotron cut-offs, however, make the problem of predicting radio source clustering properties in a given band, as well as their correlation with other LSS tracers, a difficult, though interesting, task. We note that certain issues related to point sources are discussed in  to which we refer the reader for further details.

Note that the associated signal-to-noise for the detection of the cross-correlation is

$$\left(\frac{\mathrm{S}}{\mathrm{N}}\right)^2=f_{\mathrm{sky}}\underset{l}{}\frac{(2l+1)\mathrm{Corr}^2(\mathrm{LSS},i)_l}{\mathrm{Corr}^2(\mathrm{LSS},i)_l+\left(1+\frac{N_l^{\mathrm{LSS}}}{C^{\mathrm{LSS}}}\right)\left(1+\frac{N_l^i}{C_l^i}\right)},$$
(2)
where $`C^{\mathrm{LSS}}=C_l^{\mathrm{SZ}}+C_l^{\mathrm{PS}}+C_l^{\mathrm{SZ}\mathrm{PS}}`$, $`N_l^{\mathrm{LSS}}(=C_l^{\mathrm{CMB}}+C_l^{\mathrm{LSS}}+C_l^{\mathrm{noise}})`$ and $`N_l^i`$ are the total power spectrum contributions from large scale structure, noise contributions associated with small scale fluctuations and the power spectrum of the $`i`$ tracer field, respectively. Here, $`C_l^{\mathrm{SZ}\mathrm{PS}}`$ is the cross-power spectrum between SZ effect and contaminant point sources; the latter can again be calculated following models of Ref. . If $`i`$th field is galaxies (which may also contribute to radio background), then we note that $`C_l^{\mathrm{SZ}\mathrm{i}}C_l^{\mathrm{SZ}\mathrm{PS}}`$. Note that at small scales, $`C_l^{\mathrm{CMB}}C_l^{\mathrm{LSS}}`$.

In figure 3, we show the correlation coefficient of SZ and tracers of the large scale structure involving weak lensing convergence and the galaxy distribution. In the near future, a cross-correlation study of small scale anisotropies and a map of the galaxy distribution, such as from the Sloan survey, looks promising and should be considered. To calculate the expected signal-to-noise ratio for a detection of the correlation signal, we assume a noise contribution to the tracer field involving the shot-noise contribution arising from the finite number of galaxies and assume no point source contribution to small scale anisotropy signal. The latter is a safe assumption given that point source contributions have been found to be subdominant by various monitoring and analysis techniques considered by, at least, the CBI group. For a survey of 10 degrees2 and no noise contributions, we estimate the signal-to-noise ratio of order $``$ 100 while this drops to $``$ 10 when reasonable noise contributions are considered to both the temperature and galaxy tracer field. For example, the galaxy shot-noise considered in this involve a surface density of $`10^9`$ sr-1, which is the density of galaxies down to a R band magnitude of 25 . We note that the presence of point sources will likely increase this signal-to-noise estimate considerably since point sources may correlated between with tracers of the large scale structure, such as the galaxy distribution field. This increase clearly motivates attempts for such a combined study.

Thus, the extent to which small scale anisotropies correlate with large scale structure by it self does not determine the nature of the temperature fluctuation. Though it establishes that the local universe is partly responsible, it does not necessarily mean that SZ is the dominant contribution since fluctuations may contain a point source contribution. If one is interested in distinguishing between SZ and point sources, it is necessary to consider aspects beyond simple cross-correlations.

In general, the extent to which SZ thermal effect contributes at small angular scales can be established more reliably based on its spectral dependence relative to thermal CMB than any correlation associated with the large scale structure alone. The SZ frequency spectrum is unique and is unlikely to be mimicked by other sources of contributions. To determine the SZ contribution and to separate it from other thermal fluctuations at small angular scales, the future experiments should be equipped with multifrequency capabilities that expands from low RJ frequencies to $``$ 300 GHz; the low frequencies help determine the radio source contribution while high frequencies determine the confusion from mid-infrared/submm point sources. The observations at SZ null of 217 GHz determine the extent to which other thermal fluctuations are significant as a source of small scale anisotropies.

Though to a certain extent current and upcoming detection of small scale power may be important as a first detection, dedicated small angular scale experiments with multifrequency coverage is clearly needed to fully understand the nature of fluctuations at these small scales. Just as anisotropy studies at degree angular scales involving the acoustic peak structure have been successful as a strong probe of cosmology, the small-scale anisotropies open the window to understand both the large scale structure and important subtle effects involving the last scattering surface.

###### Acknowledgements.

We wish to thank Martin Kunz, Louise Griffiths and Joe Silk for helpful comments. This work was supported at Caltech by the Sherman Fairchild foundation and the DoE grant DE-FG03-92-ER40701. AM is supported by PPARC.


text:
# Loading of a Rb magneto-optic trap from a getter source

## I Getter source details

The getter source is a commercially available dispenser of alkali atoms designed for industrial applications. The source we use contains a Rb compound and a reducing agent enclosed in a stainless steel boat. The compound is stable at room temperature and the boat can be handled easily without fear of contamination. When a few A of current is passed through the boat, its temperature rises to several hundred degrees C. At these high temperatures, the Rb compound undergoes a reduction reaction and atomic Rb is released. Since the reaction is a threshold process, no Rb vapor is released below a threshold value of current, typically about 2.7 A.

We have installed the source in our vacuum system by attaching it to a UHV feedthrough using Cu-Be screw-type connectors. We have also tried spot welding the source to the feedthrough leads to reduce contact resistance, and find no significant difference in its performance. We prefer the screw-type connectors since this makes replacement of the source easier. Once inside the vacuum system, it is important to degas the source very well because this limits the ultimate base pressure in the chamber. We therefore operate the source at a current just below threshold for several hours during the initial bakeout of the system. When we first start using the source after bakeout, we find that no Rb is released even up to a current of 5 A. To get it started, we need to raise the current to about 8 A for a short duration of 2–5 s. After several such high current pulses, the source becomes very reproducible and has a well defined threshold current of 2.7 A. We speculate that these pulses are essential to get rid of a surface crust that forms during storage and bakeout.

We have probed the Rb vapor density inside the vacuum system at different source currents using near-resonant laser light. Above the threshold current of 2.7 A, the fluorescence signal from the vapor increases rapidly with source current. At a current of 4 A, the vapor becomes optically dense. Around 4.5 A, the boat starts to glow red indicating a temperature near 600oC. Above 8 A, so much Rb is released that the walls of the chamber get a metallic coating visible to the naked eye. We therefore load the MOT at source currents in the range of 3.0 to 3.8 A, which gives us an adequate flux of atoms without overloading the vacuum system. The fast turn-off capability of the source is seen in Fig. 1, where we plot the decay of the background fluorescence after the current is turned off. The $`1/e`$ time constant is only about 3 s and is independent of source current in the wide range of 3 to 4 A. This indicates that the cooling of the source is very rapid and the time constant is probably limited by the pumping speed near the trapping region.

We find the source to be very robust. There is no noticeable change in the Rb flux at a given current even after a year of regular use. Though the supplier specifies a “use before” date of one year from the date of manufacture, we have installed it in our system even after three years without any problems. Contrary to what is reported in Ref. 5, the source does not appear to undergo “irreversible contamination” if the pressure rises by several orders of magnitude during initial degassing. Perhaps what they call irreversible contamination is similar to our observation that Rb atoms are not released even at currents of 5 A when the source is operated the first few times after bakeout. But, as mentioned earlier, this can be reversed by applying high current pulses to evaporate any surface layer that might have formed.

## II Experimental details

The experiments are done in a vacuum chamber consisting of a 100 mm O.D. stainless steel tube with ten intersecting 38 mm O.D. ports, as shown schematically in Fig. 2. Nine of the ten ports have commercial glass viewports for optical access, and one port holds the feedthrough for the getter source. The source is located about 90 mm from the center of the MOT. The chamber is pumped by a 300 $`\mathrm{}`$/s ion pump through a 100 mm O.D. port. The ion pump has a liquid nitrogen cooled cryo-panel to get better base pressure. Under normal conditions, the pressure inside the chamber is about $`1\times 10^8`$ torr, which goes down to about $`1\times 10^9`$ torr with the cryo-panel cooled to 77 K.

The MOT laser beams are derived from two home-built grating feedback stabilized diode lasers operating at 780 nm. The first laser is the cooling laser which is locked near the $`5S_{1/2},F=25P_{3/2},F^{}=3`$ cycling transition in 87Rb using saturated absorption spectroscopy in a room temperature vapor cell. The error signal is obtained by passing the laser beam through an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) and dithering the frequency shift in the AOM. The center frequency of the AOM is used to get variable detunings in the range of $`0.5\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ to $`4\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2\pi \times 6.1`$ MHz is the natural linewidth of the transition. Each of the three beams for the MOT is circularly polarized with a power of around 4 mW and a $`1/e^2`$ radius of 9 mm. The hyperfine repumping beam is derived from a second stabilized diode laser which is locked to the $`5S_{1/2},F=15P_{3/2},F^{}=2`$ transition in a vapor cell. The error signal for this laser is obtained by modulating the diode injection current. The resulting variation of a few MHz in the repumping frequency is inconsequential for operation of the MOT. About 2 mW/cm2 of repumping light is mixed with the cooling beams in a polarizing beamsplitter cube. The six laser beams intersect over a volume of 3 cm3. A spherical quadrupole magnetic field is superposed on the intersection region using a pair of anti-Helmholtz coils (10 cm dia, 60 turns each) placed 10 cm apart. The field gradient at the center can be varied from 5 to 17 G/cm by varying the current through the coils in the range of 2 to 7 A.

The fluorescence from the trapped cloud of atoms is imaged on to both a CCD camera for viewing, and a calibrated silicon photodiode for quantitative measurements. To estimate the number of trapped atoms $`N`$, we fit the total optical power $`P`$ at the photodiode to the following expression:

$$P=\frac{hc}{\lambda }\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{4\pi }N\gamma _{\mathrm{sc}}$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the solid angle subtended by the detector at the cloud and $`\gamma _{\mathrm{sc}}`$ is the photon scattering rate given by:

$$\gamma _{\mathrm{sc}}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{2}\frac{I/I_0}{1+I/I_0+(2\mathrm{\Delta }/\mathrm{\Gamma })^2}$$
(2)
with $`I`$ the total beam intensity from the six trapping beams, $`I_0`$ the saturation intensity for the transition (1.6 mW/cm2), and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ the detuning.

## III Results

We have studied the loading characteristics of the MOT by measuring the trap fluorescence as a function of time after the laser beams are turned on. The source is turned on a few minutes before the light beams so that the flux of Rb atoms reaches a steady state. The loading of atoms into the trap is determined by a balance between the capture rate and the loss rate. This results in the following rate equation:

$$\frac{dN}{dt}=R\frac{N}{\tau }$$
(3)
where $`N`$ is the number of atoms in the trap, $`R`$ is the rate at which atoms are captured from the background vapor, and $`\tau `$ is the loading time constant determined by losses due to collisions . The loss rate depends both on collisions with background atoms as well collisions with hot, untrapped Rb atoms:

$$\frac{1}{\tau }=n_\mathrm{b}\sigma _\mathrm{b}\overline{v}_\mathrm{b}+n_{\mathrm{Rb}}\sigma _{\mathrm{Rb}}\overline{v}_{\mathrm{Rb}}$$
(4)
where $`n`$ is the density of scattering particles, $`\sigma `$ is the collisional scattering cross section and $`\overline{v}`$ is the average velocity. The subscript indicates whether the scattering is from the background (b) or from the Rb source. The solution to Eq. 3 is an exponential growth in the number of trapped atoms:

$$N=N_s[1\mathrm{exp}(t/\tau )]$$
(5)
with a steady state value of $`N_s=R\tau `$. Since the trap fluorescence is directly related to the number of trapped atoms (from Eq. 1), the photodetector signal after the laser beams are turned on is of the above form. The trap lifetime $`\tau _\mathrm{d}`$ after the source is shut off is determined solely by losses due to collisions with non-Rb background atoms. Therefore, the photodetector signal after the source is turned off shows an exponential decay with a time constant independent of the steady state population. A typical trap loading and decay curve taken at a source current of 3.8 A is shown in Fig. 3.

To estimate the values of $`\sigma _\mathrm{b}`$ and $`\sigma _{\mathrm{Rb}}`$ in Eq. 4, we have studied the trap loading and decay properties at different source currents and two values of background pressure, namely $`1.5\times 10^8`$ torr and $`1.3\times 10^9`$ torr. The results are listed in Table I. Several features of the data are to be noted. First of all, at the higher pressure the loading time $`\tau `$ is 1 s independent of the source current, indicating that background gas collisions dominate the loss rate. Next, at the lower pressure, $`\tau `$ goes down from 4.6 s at 3.0 A to 3.3 s at 3.8 A as the flux of atoms from the source increases. The steady state trap population $`N_s`$ increases correspondingly from $`1.1\times 10^7`$ to $`1.1\times 10^8`$. Finally, the trap lifetime $`\tau _\mathrm{d}`$ is independent of source current (and $`N_s`$) at both values of pressure. This is consistent with the fact that the lifetime depends only on background gas collisions. However, at the higher pressure, one would expect that background collisions would limit the lifetime to a value around 1 s in order to be consistent with the background limited loading time of 1 s, but the measured value is actually 5.5 s. This difference arises because the source has a decay constant of 3 s after turn-off (see Fig. 1) and the trap continues to be loaded even after the source is off. At lower pressure, the measured lifetime of the trap is 13.3 s; here the 3 s decay of the source can be neglected and the turn off can be assumed to be instantaneous.

We use the values of $`\tau `$ for different pressures at the same source current to eliminate the effect of the Rb term in Eq. 4 and obtain the cross section for background gas collisions from the following expression:

$$\frac{1}{\left(\tau \right)_\mathrm{h}}\frac{1}{\left(\tau \right)_\mathrm{l}}=\left[(n_\mathrm{b})_\mathrm{h}(n_\mathrm{b})_\mathrm{l}\right]\sigma _\mathrm{b}\overline{v}_\mathrm{b}$$
(6)
where the subscripts h and l indicate higher and lower pressure respectively. Assuming the background is predominantly nitrogen, which seems reasonable given the considerable drop in pressure when the cryo-panel is cooled to 77 K, we can calculate the values of $`n_\mathrm{b}`$ and $`\overline{v}_\mathrm{b}`$ at room temperature for a given pressure. The above equation then yields the value of $`\sigma _\mathrm{b}`$. The average value of $`\sigma _\mathrm{b}`$ obtained from the values of $`\tau `$ at source currents of 3.0 A and 3.3 A is $`3.5(4)\times 10^{14}`$ cm2. We can also obtain the value of $`\sigma _\mathrm{b}`$ from the 13.3 s trap lifetime at lower pressure assuming that the loss is solely due to background gas collisions. This yields a value of $`3.8\times 10^{14}`$ cm2, consistent with the above result. These values are also comparable to the cross section of $`3.3\times 10^{14}`$ cm2 for Na–N2 collisions reported in Ref. 7.

Using the above value of $`\sigma _\mathrm{b}`$, we obtain the value of $`\sigma _{\mathrm{Rb}}`$ in the following manner. We first calculate the capture rate $`R`$ by assuming, for simplicity, that all atoms entering the trap volume with a velocity less than a critical velocity $`v_c`$ are slowed by the laser beams and captured. If we further assume that the background vapor has a thermal distribution, the number of such atoms per unit time can be calculated from kinetic theory , which yields:

$$R=\frac{2}{\pi ^2}n_{\mathrm{Rb}}A\frac{v_c^4}{\overline{v}_{\mathrm{Rb}}^3}$$
(7)
where $`A`$ is the surface area of the trapping region determined by the overlap of the laser beams (10 cm2 in our trap). From a one-dimensional laser cooling model, $`v_c`$ is the velocity at which the Doppler shift takes the atom out of resonance by one linewidth, therefore it is given by $`(|\mathrm{\Delta }|+\mathrm{\Gamma })\lambda /2\pi `$, about 14 m/s for a typical detuning of $`2\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Using Eq. 4 for $`\tau `$, and Eq. 7 for $`R`$, we obtain:

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{Rb}}=\frac{2}{\pi ^2}\frac{A}{N_s}\left(\frac{v_c}{\overline{v}_{\mathrm{Rb}}}\right)^4\left[1\tau \left(n_\mathrm{b}\sigma _\mathrm{b}\overline{v}_\mathrm{b}\right)\right]$$
(8)
which can be used to calculate $`\sigma _{\mathrm{Rb}}`$ if $`\overline{v}_{\mathrm{Rb}}`$ is known. Assuming a value of 355 m/s for $`\overline{v}_{\mathrm{Rb}}`$ (corresponding to a temperature of 250oC), we determine a value of $`3\times 10^{13}`$ cm2 for $`\sigma _{\mathrm{Rb}}`$ from the data at 3.0 A. This value compares well with the following theoretical estimate for the scattering cross section which assumes that the dominant scattering mechanism is resonant dipole-dipole scattering :

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{Rb}}=\pi \left(\frac{4C_3}{m_{\mathrm{Rb}}v_{\mathrm{esc}}\overline{v}_{\mathrm{Rb}}}\right)^{2/3}$$
(9)
where $`C_3=5.8\times 10^{48}`$ Jm3 for Rb. Using $`v_c=14`$ m/s for $`v_{\mathrm{esc}}`$ and 355 m/s for $`\overline{v}_{\mathrm{Rb}}`$ yields a value of $`3.2\times 10^{13}`$ cm2 for $`\sigma _{\mathrm{Rb}}`$. Therefore, our assumption that the temperature of the vapor is around 250oC seems reasonable. At higher currents of 3.3 A and 3.8 A, the measured values of $`\tau `$ lead to smaller estimates of $`\sigma _{\mathrm{Rb}}`$. This is probably because nonlinear loss terms  become important at high atom densities and Eq. 3 is no longer valid. It is difficult to extract better estimates of the Rb–Rb cross section without a more complete knowledge of the distribution of atoms coming out of the source at different currents.

The velocity distribution of atoms emanating from the source is also important in determining optimal values of detuning and magnetic field gradient for the MOT. This is because the detuning determines the capture velocity, and, as we will see below, the field gradient determines the effective slowing distance. We have therefore studied the steady state trap population $`N_s`$ as a function of these parameters. The dependence on detuning is shown in Fig. 4. The number of trapped atoms is maximized at a detuning of $`2.5\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ for a field gradient of 10 G/cm. The dependence can be understood from the following physical picture. At low values of detuning, the critical velocity $`v_c`$ for slowing is small, and fewer atoms are captured since $`R`$ varies as $`v_c^4`$ (see Eq. 7): for example, when $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, $`v_c`$ is only 9.5 m/s. At high values of detuning, even though $`v_c`$ increases, the slowing distance also increases and atoms are not slowed within the 9 mm size of the laser beams. Thus, when $`\mathrm{\Delta }=4\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, $`v_c`$ increases to 24 m/s but the slowing distance is about 11 mm. The optimal value of detuning that we measure is similar to what is observed in a MOT loaded from room temperature vapor .

The dependence of $`N_s`$ on the magnetic field gradient for a fixed detuning is shown in Fig. 5. The trap population is again maximized at an optimum value of field gradient. The trend can be understood as follows. At low values of the field gradient, the trap is shallow and atoms leave the trap easily. At high values of the gradient, the Zeeman shift, which increases rapidly away from the trap center, makes laser cooling ineffective because it changes the effective detuning to a smaller value that is less optimal for cooling. For example, the Zeeman shift for $`F=2F^{}=3`$ transitions driven by circularly polarized light is 1.4 MHz/G. If the detuning is $`2\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and the field gradient is 17 G/cm, the atoms become resonant with the laser at a distance of 5 mm from the trap center and atoms are not cooled beyond this point. The optimal value of field gradient we measure is comparable to values obtained in vapor cell MOTs . The consistency of optimal values of detuning and field gradient with results from vapor cell traps indicate that the velocity distribution emanating from the source is thermal.

## IV Conclusions

We have demonstrated that a MOT can be loaded efficiently from a getter source. The source combines the advantages of providing a large flux of atoms that can be captured by the MOT with a fast turn-off necessary for getting a long trap lifetime. The loading rate is determined both by collisions with background atoms and hot untrapped Rb atoms. We have estimated the cross section for Rb–N2 and Rb–Rb collisions by measuring the trap properties at two values of background pressure. The value of $`\sigma _\mathrm{b}`$ is $`3.5(4)\times 10^{14}`$ cm2, comparable to a value reported for Na–N2 collisions, and the value of $`\sigma _{\mathrm{Rb}}`$ is of order $`3\times 10^{13}`$ cm2 consistent with a theoretical estimate based on resonant dipole-dipole scattering. At a pressure of $`1.3\times 10^9`$ torr, we load more than $`10^8`$ atoms into the MOT with a time constant of 3.3 s. At a background pressure of $`1.5\times 10^8`$ torr, the loading time constant is 1 s independent of the source current, indicating that collisions with the background are dominant. We have also measured optimal values of detuning and magnetic field gradient which maximize the trap population. These values are consistent with observations in vapor cell MOTs, indicating that the velocity distribution of Rb atoms from the source is thermal. The trap lifetime at a pressure of $`1.3\times 10^9`$ torr is 13 s and is limited only by the background pressure since the supply of Rb atoms stops almost instantaneously. We are in the process of changing over to a new vacuum system with a Ti-sublimation pump that should give us base pressure in the range of $`10^{11}`$ torr where we estimate that the trap lifetime will be a few minutes.

###### Acknowledgements.

We gratefully acknowledge the help of machinists at the Tool Room of the Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing, Indian Institute of Science, for fabricating the optical mounts and diode laser system hardware. This work was supported by a research grant from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. One of us (AW) acknowledges financial support from a CSIR post-doctoral fellowship.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

In vertically shaken granular material one observes various macroscopic effects, such as convection , surface fluidization , spontaneous heap formation , surface patterns , oscillons  and others. The common feature of all these effects is that particles change their position with respect to each other. If a single hard particle is shaken, one agrees that it cannot move as long as during the entire period of shaking the acceleration due to gravity $`g`$ exceeds the upwards acceleration of the shaker. For the case of sinusoidal motion $`z(t)=A_0\mathrm{cos}(\omega _0t)`$ with amplitude this condition is given if $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=A_0\omega _0^2/g<1`$.

We want to discuss the problem whether in a granular material particles at the surface can separate from each other even if $`\mathrm{\Gamma }<1`$. At first glance the problem seems to be trivial, however, one has to take into account that there is a nonlinear interaction of touching grains.

There is a controversial discussion in the literature whether there is a critical value of Froude number $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c=\left|A_0\right|\omega _0^2/g`$ below which the above mentioned effects vanish. In many experimental observations (e.g. ) and computer simulations (e.g. ) such a critical number $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c`$ was found. Several authors believe that the value is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c=1`$. In numerical simulations, however, some authors have found surface fluidization and convection for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }1`$ . Gallas, Herrmann and Sokołowski  concluded already 1992 from their numerical results “…that the current belief that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ determines the degree of fluidization is incorrect”.

## 2 A one dimensional continuum model

We discuss the response of granular material with respect to vertical oscillation in the limit of a one dimensional approach: the lowest bead of a vertical column of $`N`$ identical spherical beads is shaken with $`z_0=A_0\mathrm{cos}\omega _0t`$ and the other beads move due to their interaction force and gravity $`g`$. Adjacent spheres interact with their next neighbors by the force

$$F_{k,k+1}=\sqrt{R}\left(\mu \xi _{k,k+1}^{3/2}+\alpha \dot{\xi }_{k,k+1}\sqrt{\xi _{k,k+1}}\right),$$
(1)
with $`\mu `$ and $`\alpha `$ being elastic and dissipative material constants, i.e. functions of Young modulus, Poisson ratio and dissipation rate (for details see ). $`\xi `$ is the overlap $`2R\left|z_kz_{k+1}\right|`$ of adjacent spheres of radius $`R`$ and mass $`m`$ at positions $`z_k`$, $`z_{k+1}`$. The height of the column is $`L=2NR`$. The net force experienced by the $`k`$-th bead reads, therefore

$`F_{k,k+1}F_{k1,k}=m\ddot{z}_k=`$
$`\sqrt{R}\mu \left[\xi _{k1,k}^{3/2}\xi _{k,k+1}^{3/2}\right]+\sqrt{R}\alpha \left[\dot{\xi }_{k1,k}\sqrt{\xi _{k1,k}}\dot{\xi }_{k,k+1}\sqrt{\xi _{k,k+1}}\right]`$ (2)
Introducing new coordinates $`u_k=z_k2Rk`$ ($`k=0\mathrm{}N`$) the overlap of two adjacent spheres can be written as

$`\xi _{k,k+1}`$ $`=`$ $`2Rz_{k+1}+z_k=u_ku_{k+1}=u(2Rk)u(2R(k+1))`$ (3)
$`=`$ $`u(2Rk)u(2Rk)2R{\displaystyle \frac{u}{z}}|_{z=2Rk}=2R{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u_k.`$ (4)
In (3) the discrete value $`u_k`$ has been replaced by $`u(2Rk)`$ which allows for a Taylor expansion. Eq. (2) turns into

$`m\ddot{u}_k`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}\pi R^3\rho \ddot{u}_k=\mu \sqrt{R}(2R)^{\frac{3}{2}}A\alpha \sqrt{R}\left(2R\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}B`$ (5)
$`\ddot{u}_k`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{\sqrt{2}\pi \rho R}}\left(A\mu +B\alpha \right)`$ (6)
$`A`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u_k\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u_{k1}\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}`$ (7)
$`B`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\dot{u}_k\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u_k}+{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\dot{u}_{k1}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u_{k1}}`$ (8)
$`A`$ and $`B`$ can be evaluated by Taylor expansion

$`A`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{}{_z}}u_k\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u_k+2R{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{z^2}}u_k\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}=2R{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u_k\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}`$ (9)
$`B`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\dot{u}_k\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u_k}\left({\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\dot{u}_k+2R{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{z^2}}\dot{u}_k\right)\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u_k+2R{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{z^2}}u_k}`$ (10)
$``$ $`2R{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\dot{u}_k{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u_k}2R{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{z^2}}\dot{u}_k\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u_k}`$
$`=`$ $`2R{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\dot{u_k}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u_k}\right)`$ (11)
Eqs. (9) and (11) contain only local variables, therefore we can drop the index $`k`$ and the equation of motion (5) in continuum approximation including gravity reads

$`\ddot{u}`$ $`=`$ $`g{\displaystyle \frac{3\sqrt{2}}{\pi \rho }}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\left[\mu \left({\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}+\alpha \left({\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\dot{u}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u}\right)\right]\right\}`$ (12)
$`=`$ $`g{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\left[\kappa \left({\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}u\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}\beta {\displaystyle \frac{^2}{tz}}u\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{u}{z}}}\right].`$ (13)
Eq. (13) defines the abbreviations $`\kappa `$ and $`\beta `$. We are interested in the critical parameters of driving ($`A_0`$, $`\omega _0`$) when the $`N`$-th particle loses contact, i.e. when $`u_N>u_{N1}`$. According to the nonlinear interaction of the particles the motion of all other spheres is not sinusoidal anymore, instead one finds a superposition of many frequencies. We define the “response” $`R(\omega _0)`$ as the ratio $`A_N/A_0`$ where $`A_N`$ is the amplitude of the $`N`$-th particle at frequency $`\omega _0`$ which can be calculated by convoluting the motion $`z_N(t)`$ with $`\mathrm{exp}(i\omega _0t)`$ and $`A_0`$ is the amplitude of the driving vibration. Suppose $`A_N\omega _N^2/g1`$ the $`N`$-th particle separates from the $`N1`$-st. If we would find $`A_0<A_N`$ the critical Froude number $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c=A_0\omega _0^2/g`$ would be less than 1. We will show that there is a range for $`\omega _0`$ where this is the case.

## 3 Solution of (13) in the limit of frictionless motion

The boundary condition for Eq. (13) is $`(u/z)_{z=L}=0`$. To find the strain of the material without external forcing (shaking) we consider the limit of no damping ($`\alpha =0`$). With

$$x=1\frac{z}{L},\tau =\left(\frac{g\kappa ^2}{L^5}\right)^{\frac{1}{6}}t,\mathrm{\Omega }=\left(\frac{L^5}{g\kappa ^2}\right)^{\frac{1}{6}}\omega ,$$
(14)
Eq. (13) turns into

$$\frac{^2u}{\tau ^2}=\gamma ^2+\frac{1}{\gamma }\frac{}{x}\left[\left(\frac{u}{x}\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}\right]\text{with}\left(\frac{u}{x}\right)_{x=0}=0,\gamma =\left(\frac{g^2L^5}{\kappa ^2}\right)^{\frac{1}{6}}.$$
(15)
Eq. (15) is defined for $`x[0,1]`$, its time independent solution $`U(x)`$ is

$$U(x)=\frac{3}{5}\gamma ^2\left(x^{\frac{5}{3}}1\right)$$
(16)
The solution of (15) can be considered as a superposition of the static solution (16) and a perturbation $`w(x,\tau )`$. Inserting $`u=U+w`$ in (15) yields

$`{\displaystyle \frac{^2w}{\tau ^2}}`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\gamma }}{\displaystyle \frac{}{x}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{U}{x}}+{\displaystyle \frac{w}{x}}\right]^{\frac{3}{2}}`$ (17)
$`=`$ $`\gamma ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\gamma }}{\displaystyle \frac{}{x}}\left[\left({\displaystyle \frac{U}{x}}\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{U}{x}}}{\displaystyle \frac{w}{x}}\right]`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{}{x}}\left[x^{\frac{1}{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{w}{x}}\right]`$
We are interested in standing wave solutions $`w=T(\tau ,\mathrm{\Omega })X(x,\mathrm{\Omega })`$ of Eq. (17) and obtain

$$\frac{\ddot{T}}{T}=\frac{3}{2X}\frac{}{x}\left(x^{\frac{1}{3}}\frac{X}{x}\right)=\mathrm{\Omega }^2$$
(18)
with $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ being a real number. Obviously for $`T(\tau ,\mathrm{\Omega })`$ one gets $`T\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{\Omega }\tau )`$. The solution of the spatial equation

$$\frac{3}{2}\frac{}{x}\left(x^{\frac{1}{3}}\frac{X}{x}\right)+\mathrm{\Omega }^2X=0$$
(19)
can be found using the Ansatz

$$X(x,\mathrm{\Omega })=x^{\frac{1}{3}}f(y),y=\frac{2}{5}\sqrt{6}\mathrm{\Omega }x^{\frac{5}{6}}$$
(20)
which yields

$$y^2\frac{^2f}{y^2}+y\frac{f}{y}+\left(y^2\frac{4}{25}\right)f=0.$$
(21)
Eq. (21) is the Bessel equation of order $`2/5`$. Hence, the solution of (19) is

$$X(x,\mathrm{\Omega })=\left(\frac{6}{25}\right)^{\frac{1}{5}}\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(\frac{3}{5}\right)\mathrm{\Omega }^{\frac{2}{5}}x^{\frac{1}{3}}J_{\frac{2}{5}}\left(\frac{2}{5}\sqrt{6}\mathrm{\Omega }x^{\frac{5}{6}}\right)$$
(22)
An expression containing $`J_{2/5}`$ would be a solution too, however, it does not satisfy the boundary condition of (15). The factor has been chosen in order to assure $`X(0,\mathrm{\Omega })=1`$.

## 4 The criterion for the onset of surface motion

The above defined response $`R`$ is the ratio $`A_N/A_0`$ for given driving frequency $`\omega _0`$, or $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$, respectively. Since the zeroth particle corresponds to $`x=1`$ and the $`N`$-th to $`x=0`$ we can write

$$R^1(\mathrm{\Omega })=\frac{X(1,\mathrm{\Omega })}{X(0,\mathrm{\Omega })}=X(1,\mathrm{\Omega })=\left(\frac{6}{25}\right)^{\frac{1}{5}}\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(\frac{3}{5}\right)\mathrm{\Omega }^{\frac{2}{5}}J_{\frac{2}{5}}\left(\frac{2}{5}\sqrt{6}\mathrm{\Omega }\right)$$
(23)
The response $`R`$ is an amplification factor, therefore, the value $`g/R(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ is the critical acceleration of the driving vibration. $`R`$ is larger than 1 for all driving frequencies $`\omega `$. This means that for any driving frequency $`\omega _0`$ and driving amplitude $`A_0`$ the amplitude of the top particle of the column $`A_N`$ at frequency $`\omega _0`$ will be larger than $`A_0`$. Hence, for $`A_N\omega _0^2/g=1`$, i.e. when the $`N`$-th particle separates from the $`N1`$-st, we find $`A_0\omega _0^2/g=\mathrm{\Gamma }_c<1`$.

Therefore, we replace the condition $`\mathrm{\Gamma }1`$ which was supposed to be the precondition for surface fluidization, convection etc., by

$$\frac{A_0\omega _0^2}{g}=\mathrm{\Gamma }R^1\left(\omega _0\right).$$
(24)
The function $`R^1(\omega )`$ over $`\omega `$ is drawn in Fig. 1 (full line). The curve reveals pronounced resonances at Eigenfrequencies $`\omega _k`$ where $`R^1`$ becomes minimal. All experiments on surface fluidization and convection which can be found in literature have been performed far below the first resonance. Therefore, of particular interest to practical purposes is the limit of small frequency $`\omega _0`$, i.e. below the first Eigenvalue. The Taylor expansion of $`R^1(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ for small $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ yields

$`R^1`$ $`=`$ $`1{\displaystyle \frac{2}{5}}\mathrm{\Omega }^2+𝒪(\mathrm{\Omega }^4)=1{\displaystyle \frac{2}{5}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{L^5}{g\kappa ^2}}\right)^{\frac{1}{3}}\omega ^2+𝒪(\omega ^4).`$ (25)
Given the container vibrates with frequency $`\omega _0`$. Then for the critical amplitude $`A_0`$ of the vibration when the top particle separates, i.e. when the material starts to fluidize one finds

$$A_0=\frac{g}{\omega _0^2}\frac{2}{5}\left(\frac{L^5}{g\kappa ^2}\right)^{\frac{1}{3}}.$$
(26)
Surprisingly even for very small frequencies where $`R^11`$ one finds that the critical amplitude is reduced by a constant as compared with $`g/\omega _0^2`$.

## 5 Numerical solution including damping

Eq. (22) describes the behavior of the column of grains for the case of purely elastic contact ($`\alpha =0`$). We have not been able to solve the full Eq. (13) including damping in closed form, therefore we have solved Eq. (2) numerically for different values of damping. The dashed lines in Fig. 1 display the reciprocal response $`R^1`$ over $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ with fixed amplitude $`A=0.1`$ mm, elastic constant $`\kappa =2000\mathrm{m}^{7/2}/\mathrm{s}^2`$ and $`L=50`$ m. Fig. 1 shows that for small frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ and small damping $`\alpha `$ the theoretical curve (full line) agrees well with numerical data.

Hence, we believe that at least for small enough damping the results of the previous section remain correct, i.e. there is a region where one can find surface fluidization, convection and other macroscopic effects even if the maximum acceleration lies significantly below $`g`$.

## 6 Conclusion

We derived an equation of motion for a column of spheres on a vertically vibrating table, representing a granular material in one dimensional approximation. It is shown that the sphere on top of the column $`N`$ can separate from the $`N1`$-st even if the table oscillates with $`\left|A_0\right|\omega _0^2/g=\mathrm{\Gamma }<1`$. In agreement with numerical simulations by Gallas et al.  we came to the result that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is not the correct criterion for classification of phenomena which occur in vibrated granular material.

We could show that instead of the widely accepted condition $`A_0\omega _0^2/g>1`$ one has to satisfy $`A_0\omega _0^2/g>R^1`$ where $`R^1`$ is a function of $`\omega `$ which is always less than one. Numerical calculations with low damping agree well with analytic results.

The described result is in contrast with several experimental investigations where a critical Froude number $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c1`$ has been measured. Whereas the Froude number is certainly the proper criterion to predict whether a single particle will jump on a vibrating table we suspect that this number is not suited to be a criterion for surface fluidization of a column of spheres, and the more not for a three dimensional granular material.

Acknowledgements. The authors wish to thank E. Clément, N. Gray, H. J. Herrmann, H. M. Jaeger, S. Luding, S. Roux and L. Schimansky-Geier for helpful discussions.