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# Confronting Neutron Star Cooling Theories with New Observations

## 1 Introduction

The launch of the Einstein Observatory gave the first hope for detecting thermal radiation directly from the surface of neutron stars (NSs). However, the temperatures obtained by the Einstein were only the upper limits (e.g., Nomoto & Tsuruta 1986). ROSAT offered the first confirmed detections (not just upper limits) for such surface thermal radiation from at least three cooling neutron stars, PSR 0656+14, PSR 0630+18 (Geminga) and PSR 1055-52 (e.g., Becker 1995). Very recently, the prospect for measuring the surface temperature of isolated NSs, as well as obtaining better upper limits, has increased tremendously, thanks to the superior X-ray data from Chandra and XMM/Newton, as well as the data in lower energy bands from optical-UV telescopes such as Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Consequently, the number of possible surface temperature detections has already increased to at least nine, by addition of RX J0822-4300 (Zavlin, Trümper, & Pavlov 1999), the Vela pulsar (Pavlov et al. 2001), RX J1856-3754 (Zavlin et al. 2002a), 1E 1027.4-5209 (Zavkin, Pavlov, & Trümper 1998), RX J0002+62 (Kaminker, Yakoblev, & Gnedin 2002), and RX J0720.4-3125 (Haberl, et al. 1997). Most recently Chandra offered an important upper limit to PSR J0205+6449 in 3C58 (Slane, Helfand and Murray 2002). It will be a matter of time when more detections, as well as better upper limits, will become available. These developments have proved to offer serious ‘turning points’ for the detectability of thermal radiation directly from NSs, because we can now seriously compare the observed temperatures with NS cooling theories (see., e.g., Tsuruta & Teter 2001a, 2001b, hereafter TT01a, TT01b). On the theoretical side, more detailed, careful investigations have already started. In this report we try to demonstrate that distinguishing among various competing NS cooling mechanisms already started to become possible, by careful comparison of improved theories with new observations.

## 2 Neutron Star Cooling Models

The first cooling calculations (Tsuruta 1964) showed that NSs can be visible as X-ray sources for about a million years. After a supernova explosion a newly formed NS first cools via various neutrino emission mechanisms before the surface photon radiation takes over (e.g., Tsuruta 1979). Among the important factors which seriously affect the nature of NS cooling are: neutrino emission processes, superfluidity of the constituent particles, composition, and mass. In this paper, for convenience, the conventional, slower neutrino cooling mechanisms, such as the modified URCA, plasmon neutrino and bremsstrahlung processes which were adopted in many of the earlier and subsequent cooling calculations, will be called ‘standard cooling’. On the other hand, the more exotic extremely fast cooling processes, such as the direct URCA processes involving nucleons, hyperons, pions, kaons, and quarks, will be called ‘nonstandard’ processes (see, e.g., Tsuruta 1998, hereafter T98).

The composition of the core is predominantly neutrons, with a small fraction of protons and electrons, if the density is moderate ($`<`$ 1015 gm/cm3). For higher densities hyperons, pions, kaons, quarks, etc., may dominate the central core. As the star cools after the explosion and the interior temperature falls below the superfluid critical temperature, Tcr, some hadronic components become superfluid. That causes exponential suppression of both specific heat (and hence the internal energy) and all neutrino processes involving these particles. The net effect is that the star cools more slowly (and hence the surface temperature and luminosity will be higher) during the neutrino cooling era. Very recently, the ‘Cooper pair neutrino emission’ (Flowers, Ruderman, & Sutherland 1976) was rediscovered to be also important under certain circumstances (see, e.g., Yakovlev, Levenfish, & Shibanov 1999). This process takes place right after the core temperature falls below Tcr, but it soon falls exponentially. The net effect is to enhance, for some superfluid models, the neutrino emission right after the superfluidity sets in.

We have calculated NS cooling adopting the most up-to-date microphysical input and the fully general relativistic, ‘exact’ evolutionary code (without making isothermal approximations) which was originally constructed by Nomoto & Tsuruta (1987) and has been continuously up-dated. All possible neutrino emission mechanisms both in the stellar core and crust, including the Cooper pair neutrino emission, are used. The results are summarized in Fig. 1, which shows the cooling curves of representative NSs with an equation of state (EOS) of medium stiffness, the FP Model constructed by Friedman & Pandharipande (1981). The solid curve refers to the standard cooling of a 1.2 M star which consists predominantly of neutrons (with proton fraction of $``$ 5 %). For this star the stellar core density, $`\rho _c`$, is below the critical density, $`\rho _{tr}`$, where the transition to the pion-condensed phase occurs. We adopt $`\rho _{tr}`$ = 2.5 $`\rho _0`$ taken from Umeda et al. 1994 (hereafter U94), where $`\rho _0`$ = 2.8 x 1014 gm/cm3 is the nuclear density. For this star we adopt the T72 superfluid model (Takatsuka 1972) which is based on the most realistic treatment available for the neutron-dominated matter. We find that the superfluid effect is minor. This is because the superfluid gap (which is proportional to Tcr) depends on density, and the gap disappears at the maximum density, $`\rho _{max}`$, which is less than $`\rho _c`$, the central density of the star. On the other hand, the 1.4 M star (dashed curve) cools by the pion cooling as the nonstandard case. This is because for this star the central density $`\rho _c`$ exceeds $`\rho _{tr}`$, and hence the central core consists of pion condensates. As the superfluid model for the pion-condensed phase we adopt a medium superfluid gap model, called the E1-0.8 Model (see U94), which is constructed from the microphysical superfluid gap models calculated for the pion matter (Takatsuka & Tamagaki 1982, hereafter TT82). For this superfluid model both enhanced Cooper pair neutrino emission right below Tcr and subsequent suppression are significant. As the stellar mass increases from 1.2 M to 1.4 M the central density increases, and the corresponding stars lie between the solid and dashed curves in Fig. 1. Further details are found in TT01a, TT01b, Teter 2001, and Teter & Tsuruta 2002 (hereafter TT02).

## 3 Comparing Neutron Star Cooling Models with New Observations

In Fig. 1 cooling curves are compared with the latest confirmed observational data. We may note that the data in Fig. 1 suggest the existence of at least two classes of sources, hotter stars (e.g., (1) RX J0822-4300, (3) PSR 0656+14, (5) PSR RXJ 1856-3754 and (6) PSR 1055-52), and cooler stars (e.g., (c) PSR J0205+6449, (2) the Vela pulsar and (4) Geminga). The hotter sources are consistent with the solid curve, the standard cooling of a 1.2 M star. The source (6) is somewhat above the solid curve, but that is easily explained when heating is included (see, e.g., Umeda, Tsuruta, & Nomoto 1994, hereafter UTN94) and when the age uncertainty, of a factor of $``$ 2, is taken into account. On the other hand, the cooler stars are consistent with the dashed curve, the pion cooling of a 1.4 M star with significant superfluid suppression. (The age uncertainty should not affect this conclusion for younger sources because the slope of the curves in these younger years is small.) The conclusion is that the observed data are all most naturally explained as the effects of stellar mass and superfluidity of the constituent core particles.

At least for binary pulsars, recent observations offer stringent constraints on the mass of a NS, to be very close to 1.4 M (e.g., Brown, Weingartner, & Wijers 1996). If this evidence extends to isolated NSs also, then the EOS should be such that the mass of the star whose central density is very close to the transition density (where the nonstandard process sets in) should be very close to 1.4 M. With the EOS of our current choice, medium FP Model, that transition takes place between 1.2 M and 1.4 M. Then if the deviation from the ‘magic number’ 1.4 M should be very small the correct EOS may have to be somewhat stiffer than medium. This is because a stiffer EOS corresponds to somewhat larger mass, for given transition density, and hence the corresponding mass for the solid and dashed curves will become, e.g., 1.35 M and 1.45 M, respectively, instead of 1.2 M and 1.4 M. In this way comparison of cooling curves with observation has a potential for determining the EOS and hence radius, if the mass is fixed. Note that comparison of this kind already eliminates very soft and very stiff EOS. The reason is that a very soft EOS will be so compact and the density so high that the phase transition will take place for stars of too small mass, e.g., $``$ 0.3 M. On the other hand, the central density of stars with a very stiff EOS will be below the transition density, meaning that the dashed curve can never exist.

The qualitative behavior of all nonstandard scenarios is similar if their transition density is the same (see, e.g., UTN94, T98). However, here we try to demonstrate that it is still possible to offer comprehensive assessment of at least which options are more likely while which are less likely. First of all, we note that all of the nonstandard mechanisms are too fast to be consistent with any observed detection data, even with heating (see, e.g., UTN94, T98). That means significant suppression of neutrino emissivity due to superfluidity is required. However, recently Takatsuka & Tamagaki (1997)(hereafter TT97) showed, through careful microphysical calculations, that for neutron matter with high proton concentration which permits the nucleon direct URCA, the superfluid critical temperature Tcr should be too low, $``$ several x 107 K, both for neutrons and protons. On the other hand, the observed NSs, which are to be compared with cooling curves, are all hotter (the core temperature being typically $``$ 108 K to several times 108 K). That means the core particles are not yet in the superfluid state in these NSs. The implication is that these sources would be too cold if nucleon direct URCA were in operation. The same argument applies to the kaon cooling also (Takatsuka & Tamagaki 1995, hereafter TT95).

Recently, Kaminker, Yakovlev, & Gnedin 2002 (hereafter KYG02) carried out cooling calculations similar to ours by adopting the nucleon direct URCA as the nonstandard option. However, as just pointed out, the observed NSs adopted for their comparison would be yet to be in the superfluid state, and hence these stars would be too cold if the nucleon direct URCA cooling were in operation. The calculations by KYG02 led to two important conclusions concerning the core superfluids: (i) proton superfluid critical temperature, T$`{}_{p}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{cr}`$, should be relatively high, $``$ 7 x 109 K, if the nucleon direct URCA is to be in operation in the observed cooler NSs; while (ii) the neutron superfluid critical temperature, T$`{}_{n}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{cr}`$, should be less than 108 K, for the same superfluid model to be consistent with the data of hotter NSs. The conclusion (ii) agrees with realistic microphysical calculations of the neutron matter with high proton concentration which allows the nucleon direct URCA (TT97), but the conclusion (i) contradicts with these microphysical results. We may note that KYG02 did not actually carry out microphysical calculations, but only assumed that the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ superfluid gap of neutrons and protons are similar and also that the proton effective mass is 0.7 mp (where mp is bare proton mass). Both assumptions, however, are not justified (see, e.g., TT95, TT97). Also, their empirically constructed T$`{}_{p}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{cr}`$ is based on the microphysical gap calculations carried out for ‘conventional’ neutron matter with only very small proton fraction. However, in order for the nucleon direct URCA to work, the proton fraction must be high, $``$ 15 % or more (Lattimer et al. 1991). Then, there will arise two important microphysical factors to suppress the realization of proton superfluidity. One is that the proton effective mass decreases with increasing $`\rho `$ and should be less than $`0.6m_p`$, even if such high proton concentration phase could be realized at rather low densities ($`\rho \text{ }>(23)\rho _0`$). The other is that the repulsive core effect in the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ pairing interaction, which grows with increasing proton fraction, becomes more significant. The growth of this effect means the reduction of attraction in the pairing interaction, and hence a smaller energy gap. These two factors indeed reduce T$`{}_{p}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{cr}`$ to below 108 K for the density regime where nucleon direct URCA can take place. We emphasize that this qualitative tendency is not model-dependent (TT97). Note that both effective mass and the attractive effect in the pairing interaction depend sensitively on composition, as well as density, – these values for neutron matter with low proton fraction (‘conventional’ neutron matter) and high proton fraction (the matter which permits nucleon direct URCA) should be quite different (TT97).

Furthermore, recent theoretical developments point to some additional theoretical problems concerning the realization of the nucleon direct URCA itself. For instance, Engvik, et al. (1997) (hereafter E97) and Akmal, Pandharipande and Ravenhall (1998) (hereafter APR98) studied the symmetry energy in nuclear matter adopting various new potentials (sometimes called the ‘modern potentials’), and have shown that the direct URCA cannot occur, at least below $``$ 5 times the nuclear density, for all potentials. (If the transition is to occur at such high density, the EOS will have to be too soft, to be consistent with observation.) See also the very recent paper by Heiselberg & Pandharipande (2000) (hereafter HP00), which reviews the current status of microphysical calculations of nuclear matter with the modern potentials, and points out the consistency among various results obtained by different methods, especially for neutron matter. For instance, the results by E97 which is based on the Brueckner theory, and those by APR98 which is based on a variational calculation, are consistent.

The difficulties with the nucleon and kaon direct URCA options just pointed out leave as still possible nonstandard options the direct URCA involving pions, hyperons or quarks. Hyperons may appear at densities as low as $`(23)\rho _0`$ (e.g., Prakash, et al. 1992). Recently, Takatsuka and Tamagaki (1999, 2001) and Takatsuka, et al. (2001) investigated hyperon superfluidity by using several hyperon-hyperon pairing interactions, and conclude that hyperon cooling may be consistent with the observed detection data of cooler stars. Therefore we are currently exploring the hyperon cooling option (Tsuruta et al. 2002). The problem for quarks, however, is that theoretically there are still too many unknown factors to offer the level of exploration possible for the other options (see Tsuruta, et al. 2002).

As to the pion direct URCA option, it has been already shown, through detailed microphysical calculations, that Tcr could be several times 109 K, higher than the nucleon and kaon direct URCA cases, and so quasi-baryons in the pion-condensed phase should safely be in the superfluid state for the observed cooler NSs. This is mainly because the effective mass of quasi-baryons is higher in the pion-condensed phase, $`(0.80.9)m_N`$, where $`m_N`$ is the bare nucleon mass (TT82). Note that the superfluid gap model adopted for the dashed curve in Fig. 1 is based on realistic microphysical theories (TT82, U94, TT02). The conclusion is that the pion cooling is consistent with both theory and observation.

It may be noted that very recent theoretical developments indeed assures the presence of pion condensates in the relatively low density regime which is consistent with our pion cooling models. For instance, Akmal & Pandharipande (1997) carried out a variational calculation of nuclear matter by using a modern potential, and found that both symmetric nuclear energy matter and pure neutron matter undergo transitions to pion condensed phase at relatively low densities. Furthermore, adopting the most recent experimental data on the giant Gamow-Teller resonance, Suzuki, Sakai & Tatsumi (1999) reexamined the threshold conditions for pion condensation, and reached similar conclusion. See also the review by HP00 which supports this conclusion.

## 4 Summary and Concluding Remarks

We have shown that the most up-to-date observed temperature data are consistent with the current NS thermal evolution theories if slightly less massive stars cool by standard cooling while slightly more massive stars cool with nonstandard cooling. Among various nonstandard cooling scenarios, both nucleon and kaon direct URCA cooling appears to be excluded due to the high proton concentration required, which lowers the critical superfluid temperature. Then, the cooler stars must possess a central core consisting of pions, hyperons or quarks. The pion cooling is already shown to be consistent with both observation and theory. Comparison of cooling curves with observations already eliminates both very stiff and very soft EOS if the stellar mass is close to 1.4 M. That means the radius should be around 10 – 12 km, but not $``$ 7 km (soft EOS) nor $``$ 16 km (stiff EOS).

The capability of constraining the composition of NS interior matter purely through observation alone will be limited, and hence it will be very important to exhaust all theoretical resources. Theoretical uncertainties can be large, especially in the supranuclear density regime, but here we emphasize that we should still be able to set acceptable ranges, at least to separate models more serious from those merely possible. More and better data expected soon from Chandra, XMM/Newton, HST, and the 3rd generation missions already scheduled for the near future, when combined with improved theories, should give still better insight to some fundamental problems in dense matter physics.

We thank Dr. Pavlov for helping us with obtaining the newest observational data, and the anonymous referee for helpful suggestions. ST’s contribution was supported in part by NSF grant PHY99-07949, NASA grant NAG5-3159, and a grant from the Yamada Foundation.

Figure Caption

Fig.1.– Cooling curves for stars with the medium FP EOS. The surface photon luminosity which corresponds to surface temperature (both to be observed at infinity) is shown as a function of age. The solid curve shows standard cooling of a 1.2 M NS with the T72 superfluid model, while the dashed curve is the nonstandard pion cooling of a 1.4 M star with the E1-0.8 superfluid model. (See the text for the definitions and further details.) The vertical bars refer to confirmed surface temperature detection with error bars, for (1) RX J0822-4300, (2) the Vela pulsar, (3) PSR 0656+14, (4) Geminga, (5) RX J1856-3754, and (6) PSR 1055-52. The downward arrows refer to the temperature upper limits for (a) Cas A point source, (b) Crab pulsar, (c) PSR J0205+6449, (d) PSR 1509-58, (e) PSR 1706-44, (f) PSR 1823-13, (g) PSR 2334+61, (h) PSR 1951+32, (i) PSR 0355+54, and (j) PSR 1929+10. The references are: Zavlin et al.1999 for (1), Pavlov et al. 2001 for (2), Zavlin et al. 2002b for (3), Halpern & Wang 1997 for (4), Zavlin et al. 2002a and Walter and Lattimer 2002 for (5), Pavlov et al. 2002 for (6), Pavlov et al. 2000 for (a), and Slane et al. 2002 for (c). The rest are taken from Becker 1995. In spite of possible positive detections, sources 1E 1027.4-5209, RX J0002+62, and RX J0720.4-3125 are not shown in Fig. 1 because currently there are still some uncertainties including the age estimate.


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# Molecular dynamics simulation of polymer insertion into lipid bilayers

## I  Introduction

Lipid bilayers are common frameworks of various biological membranes. Microscopic structures of the bilayers, molecular level understanding of their formation, various morphologies they exhibit, and their interactions or fusions, are all of fundamental importance in the studies of cell membranes membrane . Most of the exquisite functions of the cell membranes are, however, carried out by cooperative work of lipids and membrane proteins: receptors, ion channels, etc. In fact, proteins are actively moving even within the cell by inserting into or translocating across membrane systems between various organelles cell .

Peptides and proteins usually accomplish insertion or translocation either assisted by complex proteinacious machinery or through fusion of membranes cell . Relatively small peptides such as toxins and antimicrobial peptides, however, are known to insert themselves by physicochemical processes, in which four-stage or two-stage models have been proposed for the insertion and reorganization engel-1 ; engel-2 ; engel-3 . The peptides first get adsorbed to the membrane surface where they change their conformation into $`\alpha `$-helix due to large hydrophobic environment at the surface. Then they start insertion, whose molecular mechanism is least understood, followed by aggregation into an organized structure. The driving force easily think of is the hydrophobic nature of the peptide segments. In fact peptide insertions are usually discussed by use of the hydrophobicity scale of the component amino acids white ; blanco . Other factors that control insertion such as membrane curvatures are also very intriguing baum-1 ; baum-2 . We should have it in mind that the insertion process depends sensibly on the primary structure of the peptide such as the lengths of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic sequences as well as on the properties of the matrix lipid membrane such as surface charge distributions and their imbalance between extracellular and cytoplasmic sides.

Formations of various complexes in systems of water, surfactants, and amphiphilic block-copolymers are also of great interest from other points of view. The block-copolymers are known to stabilize bilayer structures of the Lα phase of lipids lig ; it is also found that small addition of the block-copolymer drastically increase the emulsification capacity of the surfactants endo . Of great biological and pharmaceutical interest is the finding that hydrophilic polymers with hydrophobic anchor greatly improve the stability the conventional liposome opening up new possibilities in drug delivery systems lasic .

Despite large academic interest and potential applications, complex cooperative actions of peptides (block-copolymers) and lipids that take place in local nanometer-sized space are often beyond the reach of experiments. Molecular simulation is now emerging as a very promising tool to study such complicated molecular processes. Molecular simulations of membrane proteins especially of their equilibrium structure and dynamics supporting biological functions have been investigated intensively md , but there are only few reports on the molecular simulation studies of peptide insertion leading finally to the folded structures milik ; baum-3 ; maddox ; bern . Successful works were made mostly by modeling the membrane as a continuum or an aggregation of rigid cylindrical rods, in which detailed cooperative motions of the lipids and the peptide were not questioned milik ; baum-3 ; maddox .

We here consider the lipid molecule with a water-like hydrophilic head group and a polymethylene-like hydrophilic tail, while the peptide is modeled as a block-copolymer made of hydrophobic and hydrophilic blocks of discrete hydrophobicity scales, though real peptides are made of amino acids having wide spectrum of hydrophobicity. Once such an approach is found successful, however, the elaboration of the model into more realistic ones may be straightforward.

## II  Model and method

We will investigate the molecular mechanism of insertion of a model peptide into lipid bilayers by use of molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. We here adopt psudoatomic models for water, lipids, and peptide; characteristic length scale is of atomic dimension but the molecular structures are considerably simplified to accelerate computation. Lipid molecules that constitute the cell membrane are amphiphilic molecules that have both hydrophilic head groups and the hydrophobic tails. We consider a model lipid with a head group made of three hydrophilic beads (P-beads), and a tail made of seven hydrophobic beads (H-beads) (Fig.1a). On the other hand the peptide is modeled as a block-copolymer made of hydrophilic blocks of the P-beads and hydrophobic blocks of the H-beads (Fig.1b). The block-copolymer is assumed to be made of 200 beads and have a sequence P5(H15P15)6H15; the length of the hydrophobic blocks of 15 H-beads is so selected to give nearly the same length as the thickness of the bilayer in order to facilitate incorporation into the membrane. The H-bead is here considered to be the usual united atom CH2 of mass 14, while the P-bead has also the same mass and interactions as the H-bead with only difference in the affinity to water. Each water molecule is represented by a single bead (W-bead) which has much larger interaction energy as described below.

The lipid and peptide molecules are assumed to be fully flexible, where following bond-stretching potential is only imposed neglecting the energies of distortions in the bond angles and dihedral angles,

$`U_{bond}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}k_b(r_{i,i+1}r_0)^2`$ (1)
where $`r_{i,i+1}`$ is a length of the i-th bond, $`r_0`$ is the equilibrium bond length, and $`k_b`$ is the spring constant. Following non-bonded interactions are considered between two beads of the same chain more than two bonds apart, and between those of different chains. Between the beads of the similar hydrophobicity (P-P, H-H, W-W, and P-W), we assume the conventional Lennard-Jones interactions of the type,

$`U_{vdW}=4ϵ[({\displaystyle \frac{\sigma }{r}})^{12}({\displaystyle \frac{\sigma }{r}})^6]`$ (2)
, while between the hydrophilic and hydrophobic beads (H-P, and H-W) we impose soft core repulsion

$`U_{sc}=4ϵ({\displaystyle \frac{\sigma }{r}})^9`$ (3)
Van der Waals attraction is here cut-off at a rather long distance as to assure the peptide’s approach to the membrane. The water molecules are modeled as beads but with four times larger attractive interaction $`ϵ`$ in equation (2) considering approximately four time higher boiling point of water than that expected for hypothetical CH2 liquid; the hydrophilic head of the lipid made of three beads is so constructed to have nearly the same total interaction with the water molecule. Present molecular model of lipid is largely based on a paper by Goetz and Lipowski goets-1 ; goets-2 , but the molecular model is slightly fine grained to assure better correspondence to the usual hydrocarbon chain which we have hitherto been studying. The potential parameters used in the present simulation is given in tabled I.

We made MD simulations under NTV ensemble with MD cell size 20$`\sigma `$ in each direction and periodic boundary condition. We placed within the MD cell 305 lipids each made of 10 beads and a peptide molecule of 200 beads together with surrounding 3675 water molecules. We solved Newton’s equations of motion by the leapfrog method with temperature control at 300K by velocity scaling. We first confirmed that our present lipid model supports spontaneous formation of a bilayer membrane in water. Then we placed a model peptide molecule near the membrane and monitored the process of adsorption and insertion into the membrane.

## III Results and Discussions

### III.1 Spontaneous membrane formation

The mesoscopic structure formation of lipids is a result of subtle balance of interactions among the hydrophilic heads, the hydrophobic tails, and water molecules. Depending on the density of lipids, PH of the solvent, etc. various morphologies appear: micelles, vesicles, membranes, etc membrane . We first examined whether our molecular model supports the spontaneous formation of bilayer membrane in water. It is readily noticed that, due to the applied periodic boundary condition, the membrane formation is possible only when the natural lateral width of the membrane fits the size of the MD cell, otherwise they will form spherical micelles, cylindrical micelles, etc goets-1 . By proper choice of the MD cell size (20$`\sigma `$) and the number of lipids (305 chains), we could confirm a gradual formation of MD-cell-spanning bilayers out of random mixture of lipids and waters. In all the simulations that follow, we adopted this favorable lipid number and cell size that allow the membrane formation.

Typical snapshot of the bilayers (Fig.2a) obtained after 1.0 ns of simulation at 300K shows that the observed membrane has large dynamical disorder that makes the quick response to external perturbation possible. The density profiles of the atoms are given in Fig.2b, where both hydrophilic and hydrophobic atoms show rather wide distributions but still with a definite hydrophobic core.

### III.2 Peptide conformation before partitioning

A free amphiphilic block-copolymer in water is considered to have specific isotropic structure. Before discussing insertion into the membrane, we give a glimpse at the conformation of our model peptide in water. Shown in Fig.3 is a typical equilibrium conformation of the model peptide made of sequential hydrophilic and hydrophobic blocks. The peptide is stretching six hydrophilic block loops out into the water phase, while the hydrophobic blocks are segregated and shrunk to form spherical core. The amphiphilic peptide molecule is thus imagined as a unimolecular micelle with hydrophobic core segments surrounded by hydrophilic loops.

This characteristic initial conformation of our model peptide in water has been profoundly distorted when it comes close to touch the bilayer membrane. The isotropic distribution of the hydrophilic loops around the hydrophobic core is disrupted, and the hydrophobic core gets bared of the hydrophilic overcoat resulting in strong interactions with the hydrophobic tails of the membrane. This also gives larger perturbation to the integrity and the planarity of the membrane, which finally leads to a successful translocation of the hydrophilic blocks of the peptide against the hydrophobic barrier in the membrane core as described below (Fig.4).

### III.3 Peptide insertion into the membrane

When the peptide molecule is set free to interact with the membrane, the interaction gives strong perturbation to the structures of both peptide and membrane near the point of contact. The hydrophobic blocks of the peptide strongly favor intimate contact with the lipid tails when they come closer than the interaction cut-off 4$`\sigma `$, while the attraction between the hydrophilic blocks of the peptide and the lipid heads is moderated by the intervening water molecules.

The core of the unimolecular micelle peptide attracts lipid tails and tends to form even larger micelle resulting in depletion of the lipid molecules around the contact point (Fig.4c). Such large perturbation to the membrane often gives rise to the creation of a pore, though short-lived, in the membrane. Configuration of the chains around the pore is seen in Fig.4d, where lipid molecules tend to lie horizontally with their hydrophilic heads pointing outward into the water phase. We can notice that the side-surface of the pore is almost covered with the hydrophilic heads of the lipids, and this is considered to help the hydrophilic blocks of the peptide translocate across the membrane. The opening of the pore is only temporary and the membrane integrity is readily recovered in a very short time (Fig.4e). Finally the peptide acquires its stable position forming neat folded conformation within the membrane (Fig.4f).

Figure 4 shows a whole trajectory of the peptide and the membrane during a successful insertion, while Fig.5 shows the center-of-mass motion of the peptide. Around 0.2 ns, the peptide begins to contact the membrane and starts insertion, until it finally comes to stay in the middle of the membrane.

Typical peptide conformation after 1.0 ns of simulation is given in Fig.6a. The hydrophilic loops are translocated to the other side across the membrane and the hydrophobic blocks are nearly stretched perpendicular to the membrane, which is a typical conformation of the membrane peptide. The hydrophilic atoms of the peptide show nearly symmetric distribution (Fig. 6b), which indicates that about half of the hydrophilic blocks, two out of six in this case, are translocated across the membrane. We should here remark that the number of blocks that successfully penetrate the membrane is not always half the total hydrophilic blocks. Sometime only a small fraction of the blocks translocate the membrane resulting in quite asymmetric distribution. It is even the case when the peptide only adheres to the one side of the membrane and shows no sign of translocation.

Lipid chains in the bilayers are known to show active diffusion within the layer, and with much less frequency between the layers; the later mode of chain diffusion is accompanied by the inversion of the chain head and ta il and it is called flip-flop motion. The frequency of the flip-flop motion is usually very low, but recent fluorescence experiment has revealed that it is greatly enhanced during the process of peptide insertion matsuzaki-1 ; matsuzaki-2 . We here monitored the rate of chain inversion (flip-flop); we counted thefrequency of the chain inversion that the head-to-tail vectors of the chains change the sign of their z-component perpendicular to the membrane. Fig.7 clearly shows that the flip-flop motion shows marked increases at the onset of peptide contact and insertion around 0.2 ns. Most of the chain inversion is coupled withthe formation of the pore, the surface of which is covered with lipids pointing their hydrophilic heads perpendicularly toward the water phase within the pore.

The driving force for the insertion and translocation of peptides has in general many origins, and most of them require metabolic energy for specific machinery cell . Even the short peptides which insert spontaneously can be driven by both energy and entropy. We here monitored the energy during the insertion process and decomposed it into characteristic interaction energies: interactions between (b) lipid tails and protein H-beads @$`E_{tailH}`$, (c) lipid heads and protein P-beads $`E_{headP}`$, (d) lipid tails $`E_{tailtail}`$, (e) protein H-beads $`E_{HH}`$, (f) protein P-beads and water $`E_{Pwater}`$, as well as (a) total interaction energy $`E_{total}`$ (Fig. 8). Most conspicuous is the decrease in $`E_{tailH}`$ by the insertion of the peptide’s hydrophobic block into the hydrophobic membrane core. This energy decrease is, however, counterbalanced both by the increase in $`E_{tailtail}`$ (during the initial insertion up to 0.5 ns) which indicates the disordering in the membrane core region, and by the increase in $`E_{HH}`$ (during the late stage of insertion after 0.5 ns) which is due to a slightly relaxed chain packing of the hydrophobic blocks of the peptide in the hydrophobic environment in the membrane core. The overall energy change is only slightly negative, and this suggests the possible importance of the entropic contribution to the insertionprocess.

Taking all these discussions into account, the mechanism of spontaneous insertion of short peptide-like polymers can be described as follows. A free amphiphilic block-copolymer in water forms a unimolecular micelle with a collapsed hydrophilic core and extended hydrophilic arms, though real membrane peptides are know to be difficult to maintain such states in water due to their high hydrophobicity of the $`\alpha `$-helix forming stems. When the polymer approaches the bilayers, flexible hydrophilic arms give way to the hydrophobic core in contacting the membrane. Strong interactions between the core and the lipid tails perturb the membrane integrity resulting in a pore formation. The hydrophobic barrier to the peptide’s translocation across the membrane is thus alleviated, and some of the hydrophilic blocks succeed in penetrating the membrane. Such molecular picture may be a little bit far from conventional ones obtained from other molecular simulations. But nice correspondence with recent experiments seems to support the present scenario. Furthermore, it is quite reasonable to consider that the amphiphilic lipid molecules of the membrane act as surfactants for the hydrophobic core of the peptide forming larger micelle. Thus the lipids and the peptide are required to perform highly cooperative actions during initial insertion, and through considerable reorganization of the lipids-peptide complex the peptide molecule completes the insertion into the membrane.

###### Acknowledgements.

Present work was supported by the Grant-in-Aid of Scientific Research on Priority Areas, ”Mechanism of Polymer Crystallization” (No. 12127206), from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, Japan.


text:
# Dirac eigenvalues for generic metrics on three-manifolds

## 1. Introduction

The spectrum of the Dirac operator has been explicitly computed for quite a few compact spin manifolds, for example spherical space forms, flat manifolds, spheres with Berger metrics, see . These examples exhibit high multiplicities of the eigenvalues, coming from the high degree of symmetry of the spaces, a phenomenon one would not expect for general Riemannian manifolds. The purpose of this note is to prove the following theorem.

###### Theorem 1.1.

For a generic metric on a compact spin three-manifold the Dirac operator has only simple eigenvalues.

The Dirac operator $`D`$ (or $`D_g`$ to show its dependence on the Riemannian metric) is a first order elliptic operator acting on sections of the spinor bundle $`\mathrm{\Sigma }M=\mathrm{Spin}(M,g)\times _\rho \mathrm{\Sigma }`$. It is formally self-adjoint and on a compact manifold it has discrete real spectrum. Here $`\mathrm{Spin}(M,g)SO(M,g)`$ is a spin structure on $`M`$ and $`\rho :\mathrm{Spin}(n)\mathrm{End}(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=^{2^{[n/2]}}`$, is the spinor representation. In dimensions $`n3,4,5mod8`$ the spinor representation is quaternionic; there is an $``$-linear endomorphism $`J`$ of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ with $`J^2=1`$, $`Ji=iJ`$, which commutes with the action of $`\mathrm{Spin}(n)`$. In particular in three dimensions the spinor bundle is a quaternionic line bundle and the eigenspaces $`E_\lambda `$ of $`D`$ are quaternionic vectorspaces. So in three dimensions an eigenvalue $`\lambda `$ is simple if the quaternionic dimension $`dim_{}E_\lambda =1`$. For the details of the constructions of spin geometry here omitted see .

For a compact spin manifold $`M`$ denote by $`R(M)`$ the space of Riemannian metrics on $`M`$ equipped with the $`C^1`$-topology. Denote by $`S(M)`$ the subset consisting of Riemannian metrics for which all eigenvalues of the Dirac operator are simple. Recall that a subset of a topological space is called residual if it contains a countable intersection of open and dense sets. The precise theorem we will prove is the following.

###### Theorem 1.2.

Let $`M`$ be a compact spin manifold of dimension three. Then $`S(M)`$ is residual.

It is reasonable to conjecture that the conclusion of Theorem 1.2 holds in any dimension. The restriction to dimension three comes from using the simple approach of making conformal variations of the metric. Perhaps the techniques of  can be used to extend the result to higher dimensions.

###### Remark 1.3.

1. The proof will show that in each conformal class the set of metrics for which all non-zero eigenvalues are simple is residual.
2. The proof will also show that in any dimension the set of metrics for which $`dimE_\lambda \mathrm{rank}\mathrm{\Sigma }M`$ for all non-zero $`\lambda `$ is residual. Only in dimension three is $`\mathrm{rank}\mathrm{\Sigma }M=1`$.

## 2. Conformal deformations and Dirac eigenvalues

Let $`M`$ be an $`n`$-dimensional manifold with a Riemannian metric $`g`$ and a spin structure $`\mathrm{Spin}(M,g)SO(M,g)`$. We are going to study the deformation of $`g`$ given by $`g^t=e^{2tf}g`$, where $`t`$ is a real parameter and $`f`$ is a function on $`M`$.

There is an isomorphism $`\gamma _{tf}:SO(M,g)SO(M,g^t)`$ given by

$$\gamma _{tf}(\{e_1,\mathrm{},e_n\})=\{e^{tf}e_1,\mathrm{},e^{tf}e_n\}.$$

Composition with $`\gamma _{tf}`$ turns the spin structure $`\mathrm{Spin}(M,g)SO(M,g)`$ for $`g`$ into a spin structure for $`g^t`$;

$$\mathrm{Spin}(M,g)SO(M,g)\stackrel{\gamma _{tf}}{}SO(M,g^t),$$

and the associated spinor bundle $`\mathrm{\Sigma }M=\mathrm{Spin}(M,g)\times _\rho \mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is independent of $`t`$ and $`f`$. Let $`D^t`$ denote the Dirac operator acting on sections of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }M`$ defined using the metric $`g^t`$. Then $`D^t`$ is related to $`D=D^0`$ by

$$D^t\phi =e^{tf}\left(D\phi +\frac{n1}{2}t\mathrm{grad}f\phi \right),$$

where the Clifford multiplication by the gradient of $`f`$ is defined using the metric $`g`$, see for instance section 3.2.4. in . Define the Hilbert space $`L^2(\mathrm{\Sigma }M,g^t)`$ as the completion of the smooth sections of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }M`$ with respect to the inner product

$$(\phi ,\psi )_{g^t}=_M\phi ,\psi 𝑑\mu _{g^t}=_M\phi ,\psi e^{ntf}𝑑\mu .$$

The proof of the following theorem is analogous to that of Theorem A.3 of , see also  and .

###### Theorem 2.1.

Suppose $`\lambda `$ is an eigenvalue of $`D`$ with $`dim_{}E_\lambda =p`$. Then there exist real analytic functions $`\lambda _1^t,\mathrm{},\lambda _p^t`$ and curves of smooth spinor fields $`\phi _1^t,\mathrm{},\phi _p^t`$ (defined for small $`t`$) such that

* $`D^t\phi _i^t=\lambda _i^t\phi _i^t`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},p`$,
* $`\lambda _i^0=\lambda `$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},p`$,
* $`\phi _1^t,\mathrm{},\phi _p^t`$ are real analytic as maps $`t\phi _i^tL^2(\mathrm{\Sigma }M,g)`$,
* $`\phi _1^t,\mathrm{},\phi _p^t`$ are orthonormal in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Sigma }M,g^t)`$.

###### Remark 2.2.

If the spinor representation is quaternionic $`dim_{}`$ can be replaced by $`dim_{}`$, in which case “orthonormal” should be interpreted as

$$(\phi _i,\phi _i)_g=1,(\phi _i,J\phi _i)_g=(\phi _i,\phi _j)_g=(\phi _i,J\phi _j)_g=0,ij.$$

Suppose that $`t(\lambda ^t,\phi ^t)`$ is a one-parameter family of eigenspinors as given by Theorem 2.1; $`D^t\phi ^t=\lambda ^t\phi ^t`$ and $`\phi ^t_{g^t}=1`$ for small $`t`$. Then

$`\lambda ^t`$ $`=`$ $`(D^t\phi ^t,\phi ^t)_{g^t}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _M}e^{tf}\left(D\phi ^t+{\displaystyle \frac{n1}{2}}t\mathrm{grad}f\phi ^t\right),\phi ^te^{ntf}𝑑\mu `$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _M}\left(D\phi ^t,\phi ^te^{(n1)tf}+{\displaystyle \frac{n1}{2}}t\mathrm{grad}f\phi ^t,\phi ^te^{(n1)tf}\right)𝑑\mu `$
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{Re}{\displaystyle _M}D\phi ^t,\phi ^te^{(n1)tf}𝑑\mu `$
where the last equality follows since the second term is purely imaginary. Set $`\lambda =\lambda ^0`$, $`\phi =\phi ^0`$ and denote by prime the derivative with respect to $`t`$ at $`t=0`$. We have

$`\lambda ^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{Re}{\displaystyle _M}D\phi ^{},\phi +D\phi ,\phi ^{}+D\phi ,\phi (n1)fd\mu `$
$`=`$ $`\lambda {\displaystyle _M}2\mathrm{Re}\phi ^{},\phi +(n1)f|\phi |^2d\mu `$
and differentiating $`\phi ^t_{g^t}^2=1`$ at $`t=0`$ we get

$$_M2\mathrm{Re}\phi ^{},\phi +nf|\phi |^2d\mu =0$$

which together give

(1)
$$\lambda ^{}=\lambda _Mf|\phi |^2𝑑\mu .$$

## 3. Proof of Theorem 1.2

Let $`(M,g)`$ be a three dimensional compact Riemannian spin manifold. The main technical point in the proof of Theorem 1.2 is the following lemma.

###### Lemma 3.1.

Let $`\lambda `$ be a non-zero eigenvalue of $`D_g`$ with $`dim_{}E_\lambda =p>1`$. Then there is a conformal deformation of $`g`$ for which $`E_\lambda `$ splits into lower-dimensional eigenspaces.

###### Proof.

For each conformal deformation $`g^t=e^{2tf}g`$ Theorem 2.1 provides real analytic parametrizations $`\lambda _1^t,\mathrm{},\lambda _p^t`$ of eigenvalues such that $`\lambda _i^0=\lambda `$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},p`$. If for some $`f`$, $`i`$ and $`j`$ we have $`\lambda _i^t\lambda _j^t`$ for all $`t0`$ we are done. Assume for a contradiction that this is not the case, but instead that $`\lambda _i^t`$ is independent of $`i`$, $`t`$ and $`f`$. Then for a given $`f`$ we can replace the eigenspinors $`\phi _i^t`$ from Theorem 2.1 by eigenspinors $`\overline{\phi }_i^t=_{j=1}^pU_{ij}\phi _j^t`$ where $`U_{ij}`$ is a (constant) unitary matrix, which have the same properties. We may thus assume that $`\phi _1^0`$ and $`\phi _2^0`$ are the same for all conformal deformations.

For fixed $`f`$ and $`p,q=0,1`$ let

$$\alpha _{p,q}^t=2^{1/2}(\phi _1^t+i^pJ^q\phi _2^t),\beta _{p,q}^t=2^{1/2}(\phi _1^ti^pJ^q\phi _2^t).$$

Then

$$D\alpha _{p,q}^t=\lambda ^t\alpha _{p,q}^t,D\beta _{p,q}^t=\lambda ^t\beta _{p,q}^t,$$

where $`\lambda ^t=\lambda _1^t=\lambda _2^t`$. By (1) we have

$$_Mf|\alpha _{p,q}^0|^2𝑑\mu =\lambda ^{}=_Mf|\beta _{p,q}^0|^2𝑑\mu .$$

Since by assumption this holds for all $`f`$ and $`\alpha _{p,q}^0`$ and $`\beta _{p,q}^0`$ are indedependent of $`f`$ we conclude that $`|\alpha _{p,q}^0|^2=|\beta _{p,q}^0|^2`$ at each point. It follows that

$$|\phi _1^0|^2+|i^pJ^q\phi _2^0|^22\mathrm{Re}\phi _1^0,i^pJ^q\phi _2^0=|\phi _1^0|^2+|i^pJ^q\phi _2^0|^2+2\mathrm{Re}\phi _1^0,i^pJ^q\phi _2^0$$

so $`\mathrm{Re}\phi _1^0,i^pJ^q\phi _2^0=0`$ for $`p,q=0,1`$, and thus $`\phi _1^0,\phi _2^0=\phi _1^0,J\phi _2^0=0`$ at each point. Since $`\mathrm{rank}_{}\mathrm{\Sigma }M=1`$ one of $`\phi _1^0`$ and $`\phi _2^0`$ has to vanish on an open set, and by unique continuation vanish identically. This is a contradiction which proves the lemma. ∎

Enumerate the non-zero eigenvalues of $`D_g`$ as

$$\mathrm{}\lambda _3\lambda _2\lambda _1<0<\lambda _1\lambda _2\lambda _3\mathrm{}$$

with repetitions according to quaternionic multiplicity. Let $`S^k(M)`$, $`k1`$, be the subset of $`R(M)`$ consisting of Riemannian metrics for which $`\lambda _{\pm 1},\lambda _{\pm 2},\mathrm{},\lambda _{\pm k}`$ are all different. 111Comment added July 2013: For Proposition 3.2 and its proof to hold one must add the condition that the metrics in $`S^k(M)`$ have no harmonic spinors. This assumption is formulated slightly later here, in the proof of Theorem 1.2 on the next page. The fact that there is a problem in the published version of this paper was pointed out by Y. Canzani and R. Ponge, see the preprint http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.0648. The author wishes to express his thanks to them for their interest and kind correspondence concerning this paper. Note that the argument works exactly as written to prove Remark 1.3; for perturbations within a conformal class the dimension of the kernel of $`D`$ is constant.

###### Proposition 3.2.

The sets $`S^k(M)`$, $`k1`$, are open and dense in $`R(M)`$.

###### Proof.

The eigenvalues of $`D_g`$ depend continuously on $`g`$, see Proposition 7.1 in . It follows that the $`S^k(M)`$ are open.

We prove that the $`S^k(M)`$ are dense by induction, for $`k=1`$ there is nothing to prove. Assume that $`S^k(M)`$ is dense in $`R(M)`$ and let $`U`$ be an open set in $`R(M)`$. We need to show that $`US^{k+1}(M)`$ is non-empty. By assumption we can find a metric $`gUS^k(M)`$. Consider first the positive eigenvalues of $`D_g`$. The first $`k`$ are distinct, denote the multiplicity of $`\lambda _k`$ by $`p`$ so that

$$0<\lambda _1<\mathrm{}<\lambda _{k1}<\lambda _k=\lambda _{k+1}=\mathrm{}=\lambda _{k+p1}<\lambda _{k+p}\mathrm{}.$$

If $`p=1`$ we are done with the first step, so assume $`p>1`$. Then by Lemma 3.1 there is a conformal deformation which decreases the multiplicity of $`\lambda _k`$. By choosing the deformation parameter $`t`$ small enough we can guarantee to get a metric in $`US^k(M)`$ for which $`dim_{}E_{\lambda _k}<p`$. Repeating this process we end up with a metric $`\widehat{g}US^k(M)`$ for which $`\lambda _k`$ has multiplicity $`1`$.

The second step is to go through the same procedure with the negative eigenvalues of $`D_{\widehat{g}}`$. When we do this we get a metric $`\stackrel{ˇ}{g}`$ in $`US^k(M)`$ for which both $`\lambda _k`$ and $`\lambda _k`$ have multiplicity $`1`$. The metric $`\stackrel{ˇ}{g}`$ is thus in $`US^{k+1}(M)`$ and we have proved that $`S^{k+1}(M)`$ is dense in $`R(M)`$. ∎

###### Proof of Theorem 1.2.

Let $`S^0(M)`$ denote the set of metrics on $`M`$ for which $`\mathrm{ker}D=0`$. Then $`S(M)`$ contains the intersection $`_{i=0}^{\mathrm{}}S^i(M)`$. By Theorem 1.2 in  we know that $`S^0(M)`$ is open and dense in $`R(M)`$ and together with Proposition 3.2 we conclude that $`_{i=0}^{\mathrm{}}S^i(M)`$ is a residual set. ∎

###### Proof of Remark 1.3.

We know from Lemma 3.1 that we can split multiple eigenvalues within a conformal class. It follows that the intersection of $`S^k(M)`$ with a given conformal class is open and dense in the conformal class. This proves the first statement. For the second statement note that with the assumption $`dimE_\lambda >\mathrm{rank}\mathrm{\Sigma }M`$ the conclusion of Lemma 3.1 holds in any dimension. ∎


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# Demonstration of Feed-Forward Control for Linear Optics Quantum Computation

## I Introduction

In a recent paper, Knill, LaFlamme, and Milburn (KLM) showed that efficient quantum computation is possible using only linear optical elements, ancilla photons, and post-selection based on the outcome of single-photon detectors . Roughly speaking, measurements made on the ancilla photons will project out the desired logical output state provided that certain measurement results were obtained, which only occurs for some fraction of the events. Additional events can be accepted as well if single-bit corrections (phase shifts and bit-flips) are applied to the output qubits based on the results of the ancilla measurements, which increases the overall probability of success. Here we report the experimental demonstration of feed-forward control operations of this kind that were used to increase the probability of success of a simple quantum logic operation from $`\frac{1}{4}`$ to $`\frac{1}{2}`$.

An example of a simple feed-forward control process is illustrated in Figure 1. Here the results of measurements made on a single ancilla photon are used to apply one of two possible single-qubit transformations to the output. It can be seen that the feed-forward control process required for probabilistic quantum logic gates is similar to the unitary transformations that would be required for a complete implementation of conventional quantum teleportation , given the results of a Bell-state measurement. Feed-forward control would also be needed for a variety of other quantum optics proposals (see, for example, ).

The original proposal  for a non-deterministic gate was based on an interferometer arrangement whose stability was subsequently improved by Ralph et.al. . The experiments reported here are based on the use of polarization-encoded qubits and polarizing beamsplitters , which we previously used to demonstrate several non-deterministic quantum logic devices . A variety of other types of probabilistic quantum logic operations have also been described , and schemes which illustrate the basic properties of non-deterministic logic gates in the coincidence basis have also been proposed .

The non-deterministic logic operation chosen for this particular demonstration was a probabilistic quantum parity check , but the techniques and results presented here are expected to apply to other non-deterministic logic devices as well. The quantum parity check was chosen because of its relatively simple structure, which involves an input of only one target qubit and one ancilla qubit in analogy with the example shown in Figure 1. In our experiment, these two qubits are derived from a parametric down-conversion pair, and the detection of the ancilla photon by one of two detectors determines which single-qubit operation needs to be applied to the output photon. The output photon was stored for roughly 100 ns using a fiber optic delay line while the classical detection signal was amplified and fed forward to a Pockels cell that was used to apply a state-dependent phase shift.

The remainder of the paper is outlined as follows: in Section II we review the goals and theory of operation of the quantum parity check, highlighting the need for feed-forward controlled single-qubit operations. In Section III we describe the details of the experiment and present the results. In Section IV we summarize and discuss the need for feed-forward control for more general applications in a linear optics quantum computing protocol.

## II Probabilistic Quantum Parity Check

The implementation of a probabilistic quantum parity check is shown in Figure 2. The basic theory of its operation has been presented elsewhere , but will be briefly reviewed here for self-consistency and to emphasize the use of classically controlled single-qubit operations.

The quantum parity check utilizes polarization-encoded qubits , where the logical values $`0`$ and $`1`$ are represented by the horizontal and vertical polarization states of a single photon. When the qubits have values of either $`0`$ or $`1`$, the goal of the quantum parity check is to transfer the value of the qubit in mode $`1`$ to the output, provided that its value is the same as that of an ancilla qubit in mode $`2`$ (even parity). The device fails and produces no output if these two qubits have opposite values (odd parity). Basis-state parity checks of this kind have been found to be extremely useful in a variety of quantum information processing applications (see, for example, ). In particular, we have shown that the probabilistic quantum parity check shown in Figure 2 can form the basis of a quantum encoding operation and a non-deterministic controlled-NOT gate .

The operation of the parity check is more subtle when the two input states are superpositions of $`0`$ and $`1`$. In particular, the case in which the ancilla photon is prepared in an equal superposition of the computational basis states, $`|\psi _{anc}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|H_2+|V_2)`$ is of special interest. In this case, the quantum parity check is able to coherently transfer any arbitrary superposition state of the input qubit, $`|\psi _{in}\alpha |H_1+\beta |V_1`$, into the output. This aspect of the quantum parity check device will be used for the demonstration of our feed-forward control system.

As shown in Figure 2, the operation of the non-deterministic quantum parity check consists of mixing the target photon and the ancilla photon in a polarizing beamsplitter ($`PBS`$), and the post-selection process involves accepting the output if and only if exactly one photon is received by one of the two single-photon detectors in modes $`2a`$ and $`2b`$. Note that the $`PBS`$ would ordinarily transmit only the horizontal component $`\alpha |H_1`$ of the input state into the output (the vertical component is reflected into mode $`2`$). However, the use of the prepared ancilla photon and the post-selection process essentially render the $`PBS`$ “transparent” to the entire target state. This nonclassical action can be understood by considering the transformation of the total state, $`|\psi _T|\psi _{in}|\psi _{anc}`$, by the $`PBS`$:

$$|\psi _T\frac{\alpha }{\sqrt{2}}|H_1|H_2+\frac{\beta }{\sqrt{2}}|V_1|V_2+\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}|\psi _{}$$
(1)
where $`|\psi _{}\alpha |H_1|V_1+\beta |H_2|V_2`$ includes amplitudes which cannot satisfy the post-selection criterion and are therefore rejected.

From equation (1) we see that direct measurement of the polarization of the photon in mode $`2`$ would determine the value of the input qubit and destroy the coherence of any subsequent operations. For this reason, an additional polarizing beamsplitter ($`PBS^{}`$) is placed in mode $`2`$ and oriented in a basis that is rotated by $`45^o`$ from the horizontal-vertical basis. In this way the detection of the photon in modes $`2a`$ or $`2b`$ provides no information regarding its origin.

Expanding the relevant terms of equation (1) in the $`45^o`$ basis of the detector modes shows that:

$$|\psi _T\frac{1}{2}\left[|D_{2a}(\alpha |H_1+\beta |V_1)+|D_{2b}(\alpha |H_1+\beta |V_1)\right]$$
(2)
where, for example, $`|D_{2b}`$ represents a single photon in detector mode $`2b`$. This state is unnormalized due to the rejection of $`|\psi _{}`$, which is responsible for the probabilistic nature of the device.

Equation (2) illustrates the need for feed-forward and classically controlled single-qubit operations. Note that if the ancilla photon is registered by the detector in mode $`2a`$ then the output is projected into the desired state, whereas if the photon is found in mode $`2b`$ the projected output state requires a $`\pi `$ phase shift on the $`|H_1`$ component relative to the $`|V_1`$ component:

$`D_{2a}|\psi _{out}=\alpha |H_1+\beta |V_1`$
$`D_{2b}|\psi _{out}=\alpha |H_1+\beta |V_1`$ (3)
This state-dependent $`\pi `$ phase shift is equivalent to applying the Pauli $`\widehat{\sigma }_z`$ spin operator and is often referred to as a single-qubit $`Z`$ operation .

Each of the outcomes described in equation (3) is equally likely and occurs with a probability of $`\frac{1}{4}`$. Therefore, if the device is passively run such that only detections in mode $`2a`$ are accepted, the success probability of the logic operation is $`\frac{1}{4}`$. This aspect of the quantum parity check has been experimentally verified . However, if the other detection outcome is also accepted, and the classically controlled single-qubit $`Z`$-operation is successfully implemented, the overall success probability of the gate is increased to $`\frac{1}{2}`$. As will be described in the next section, an experimental implementation of this procedure is the main result of this paper.

## III Experiment and Results

### III.1 Experimental Design

A schematic of the experimental set up used to demonstrate the use of feed-forward and classically controlled single-qubit operations in the non-deterministic quantum parity check is shown in Figure 3. As mentioned earlier, the target and ancilla photons are derived from a conventional parametric down-conversion photon pair source  which is not shown in Figure 3, but is described in detail in reference .

To briefly review, the down-conversion source consisted of a 1.0 mm BBO crystal pumped by roughly 30 mW of the 351.1 nm line of a continuous-wave Argon-Ion laser. The crystal was cut for degenerate Type-II collinear phase matching and produced pairs of co-propagating, but orthogonally polarized photons at 702.2 nm . The two photons were separated with an initial polarizing beamsplitter (not shown) and sent along input modes $`1`$ and $`2`$ of the $`PBS`$ shown in Figure 3, where the parity check was performed. In preparation for data collection, the input path lengths and various mode-matching criteria were tested and optimized by studying a variety of standard Shih-Alley  and Hong-Ou-Mandel  two-photon interference effects. Typical interference visibilities in this set-up ranged from 75 to 80$`\%`$.

The horizontal-vertical computational basis was defined by the main $`PBS`$, and a half-wave retardation plate in input mode $`2`$ was used to prepare the ancilla photon in the required state $`|\psi _{anc}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|H_2+|V_2)`$ described in Section II. An additional rotatable half-wave plate in input mode $`1`$ was used to prepare an arbitrary state of the target photon, $`|\psi _{in}\alpha |H_1+\beta |V_1`$.

Note that the polarizing beamsplitter $`PBS^{}`$ in the detector package, which was oriented at $`45^o`$ in Figure 2, was implemented in the actual experiment by a conventionally oriented polarizing beamsplitter preceded by a half waveplate used to rotate the reference frame by $`45^o`$.

As described in the theory of Section II, the post-selection process consisted of accepting the output in mode $`1`$ only when exactly one photon was found by one of the two detectors $`D_{2a}`$ or $`D_{2b}`$. When this condition was met, the state of the output photon was measured using a polarization analyzer $`\theta _1`$ and an additional single-photon detector $`D_1`$. Since the probability of having more than two photons in the system at any given time was negligible, the post-selection procedure was equivalent to monitoring the coincidence counting rate between the output ports of the main $`PBS`$ as a function of $`\theta _1`$.

A conventional TTL logical OR-gate was used to enable coincidence counting between $`D_1`$ and either $`D_{2a}`$ or $`D_{2b}`$, as shown in the upper portion of Figure 3. This OR-gate was part of a custom designed logic board which also enabled the classical information from $`D_{2b}`$ to control the application of the single-qubit $`Z`$-correction in output mode $`1`$. In our experiment, the $`Z`$-operation (ie. state-dependent $`\pi `$-phase shift) required by equation (3) was implemented on the output mode by a transverse electro-optic modulator (ConOptics Inc. model 360-80/D25 Pockels cell) oriented with its fast and slow axes in the horizontal-vertical basis. The Pockels cell was first DC-biased in such a way that the state of any photons passing through it would remain unchanged. Therefore, if the ancilla photon was detected by $`D_{2a}`$, the Pockels cell bias voltage was not changed. If, however, the ancilla photon was detected by $`D_{2b}`$, an accurately amplified TTL signal was used to apply the measured half-wave voltage (roughly 115 V at 702.2 nm) to the unit. By definition, this half-wave voltage imparts a $`\pi `$-phase shift on the horizontal polarization component of the state with respect to the vertical component, as required by equation (3).

One of the key features of this experiment was a method for storing the output photon while the classical detection signal from $`D_{2b}`$ was amplified and processed by the Pockels cell driver. As shown in Figure 3 this delay, $`\tau `$, in output mode $`1`$ of the quantum parity check was implemented by using a single mode fiber optic delay line (3M Inc. FS-3224). As will be seen in the next subsection, the required time delay of roughly 100 ns was large enough that a free-space delay line would have been impractical in our simple set-up. The output of the main $`PBS`$ was launched into and out of the fiber delay line using suitable microscope objectives (fiber couplers) mounted on micro-translation stages, and the coupling efficiency was found to be roughly $`50\%`$. A standard paddle-wheel polarization controller was used to negate the effects of birefringence induced by the fiber delay line.

### III.2 Required Time Delays

In the set-up shown in Figure 3, the total time $`\tau _z`$ required to process the classical signal from $`D_{2b}`$ and apply the $`Z`$-operation correction was determined by the operating parameters of the commercially available equipment used in the experiment. Therefore, the length of the fiber optic cable determining the delay time $`\tau `$ needed to be carefully chosen. If $`\tau `$ was much shorter than $`\tau _z`$ the output photon would pass through the Pockels cell before the half-wave voltage was applied, while if $`\tau `$ was too long, the half-wave voltage would have been applied and reset before the photon arrived at the Pockels cell.

The total system delay $`\tau _z`$ was measured by initially installing a fiber delay line which gave a known optical delay much longer than the expected value of $`\tau _z`$. The state-preparation waveplates and polarizer $`\theta _1`$ were then oriented so that a down-conversion coincidence detection between $`D_1`$ and $`D_{2b}`$ was only possible if the half-wave voltage was applied to the Pockels cell at the correct time. Therefore, a plot of the coincidence counting rate as a function of additional electronic delay placed in the Pockels cell driver input channel provided a measure of $`\tau _z`$, as well as an indication of the total system response behavior. The results of this test are shown in Figure 4. Since the temporal width of the down-converted photon wavepackets and their propagation time through the 10 cm long Pockels cell can be considered negligible, the results of Figure 4 indicated the need for a minimum delay $`\tau `$ of roughly 100 ns for our system. This corresponds to a 20 m long fiber optic delay cable, which was subsequently used in the experiments.

The results of tests of the delay times of the individual devices used in our experiment were consistent with total delay indicated in Figure 4. The single photon avalanche-photodiode detectors used (Perkin Elmer, SPCM-AQR-12) have built in pre-amplifiers which output a TTL pulse whose width is roughly 33 ns. The time required to produce the leading edge of the output pulse was measured using a triggered high-speed pulsed diode laser and was found to be roughly 18 ns. The overall delay of the Pockels cell, including the driver amplifiers and 3 m triaxial connecting cables, was found to be roughly 38 ns by using a cw light source, crossed polarizers, and a high speed photo-receiver. The delay induced by our TTL logic board was electronically measured to be 18 ns, and miscellaneous coaxial cables used to connect the devices contributed an extra 26 ns of delay.

For future linear optics quantum computing protocols involving the use of many non-deterministic logic gates in series, one would obviously want to minimize the value of $`\tau _z`$. This can be done by using custom-made high-speed electronics rather than the relatively slow, but commercially available devices used here. In any event, the results of our tests provide a clear demonstration of the capabilities of a practical feed-forward control system.

### III.3 Results

The results of our demonstration of the use of feed-forward control to increase the success probability of a basic non-deterministic quantum logic operation are summarized in Figures 6 through 8. For these tests of the quantum parity check device, the coefficients $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ defining the state of the input qubit were arbitrarily chosen to be:

$$|\psi _{in}=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}|H_1+\frac{1}{2}|V_1$$
(4)
which corresponds to a linear polarization state of $`30^o`$. The output states predicted by equation (3) for this choice of the input state are illustrated in Figure 5.

The data displayed in Figure 6 shows the coincidence counting rate between detectors $`D_1`$ and $`D_{2a}`$ as a function of the setting of the polarization analyzer $`\theta _1`$. The results clearly show the expected Malus’ law dependence on the analyzer setting which is consistent with an output state polarized at $`30^o`$. Results of this kind were presented in reference  and indicate the non-classical ability of the parity check to coherently transfer the value of the input qubit into the output.

The data shown in Figure 7 is analogous to that of Figure 6, but displays the coincidence counting rate between detectors $`D_1`$ and $`D_{2b}`$. For this data run, the TTL input to the Pockels cell driver was intentionally disconnected so that the classically controlled $`Z`$-correction was not applied. As shown in the illustration of Figure 5, an uncorrected output state linearly polarized at $`150^o`$ is expected in this case, and the results of Figure 7 are consistent with this prediction.

The coincidence counting rates at the relevant $`\theta _1`$ settings of $`30^o`$ and $`150^o`$ in Figures 6 and 7 average to 131 coincidences per minute (the difference in the maxima of the two plots is due to different overall detection efficiencies in the $`D_{2a}`$ and $`D_{2b}`$ channels). By setting the state-preparation waveplates and $`\theta _1`$ to register the maximum coincidence counting rate for otherwise identical experimental conditions, the coincidence rate was found to average 440 coincidences per minute. This number provides an estimate of the total rate of detectable down-conversion pairs entering the system and is in qualitative agreement with the theoretically predicted success probabilities of $`\frac{1}{4}`$ described in equation (3). The discrepancy from the expected value of $`\frac{1}{4}`$ is due to the effects of birefringence and alignment errors.

Figure 8 shows the data obtained with the feed-forward control system in full operation, which represents the main result of the paper. The data shows the coincidence counting rate between $`D_1`$ and the output of the TTL OR gate which has $`D_{2a}`$ and $`D_{2b}`$ inputs as shown in Figure 3. The data clearly indicates that for those cases in which the ancilla photon was registered by $`D_{2b}`$, the Pockels cell was able to successfully perform the $`Z`$-correction in real-time. As in Figure 6, the data shown in Figure 8 is consistent with an output state polarized at $`30^o`$, indicating the correct operation of the quantum parity check. In addition to the correct output state, note that the average coincidence counting rate at $`\theta _1=30^o`$ is 247 counts per minute. This data was obtained under the same experimental conditions of that shown in Figure 6, and indicates that the success probability of the device was approximately increased from $`\frac{1}{4}`$ to $`\frac{1}{2}`$.

## IV Summary and Conclusions

In summary, we have experimentally demonstrated the use of feed-forward control to increase the success probability of a basic non-deterministic quantum logic operation. The experiment involved the use of two polarization-encoded photonic qubits derived from a parametric down-conversion pair. Classical information describing the detection of one of the photons was fed forward in real-time to a device which then either performed a $`Z`$-correction or the identity operation to the state of the other photon . In our system, this feed-forward and correction process was accomplished on a time scale of roughly 100 ns. This particular demonstration involved the use of a probabilistic quantum parity check , but the techniques presented here are expected to be of general use in many non-deterministic quantum logic operations, as well as a variety of other quantum information processing tasks.

For example, the use of fast feed-forward control is essential in discrete-variable quantum teleportation systems involving parametric down-conversion sources , and significant progress in this direction has recently been made by DeMartini’s group . The techniques presented here may also be useful in, among other things, linear optics based error-correction , entanglement purification , quantum repeaters , and quantum relays .

Within the context of a complete linear optics quantum computing procedure, the most significant use of feed-forward systems of this type may be for output mode-selection and phase-corrections in a generalized teleportation scheme. Roughly speaking, one of the basic steps in the original KLM program involves an ingenious generalization of the Gottesman-Chuang protocol  for implementing universal quantum logic gates through teleportation. In this procedure , the standard two-photon Bell-state teleportation resource is replaced by an $`n`$-photon entangled state, $`|t_n`$, and the Bell-state measurements  are generalized by a linear optics based Fourier transform operation followed by single-photon detections. Classical information from the single-photon detectors is fed forward and used to post-select the output mode that contains the correct output state, as well as to apply pre-determined single-qubit corrections such as the $`Z`$-operation demonstrated here. The probability of an error in the gate operation using teleportation in this way scales as $`\frac{1}{n+1}`$, which may allow a scalable approach to quantum computing. A recent “high-fidelity” approach  reduces the probability of an error to roughly $`\frac{2}{n^2}`$ by using a more optimal entangled ancilla state $`|t_n`$ and eliminating the use of post-selection (all of the events are accepted). Feed-forward techniques similar to those presented here will play an essential role in either approach.

The eventual implementation of a linear optics quantum computing procedure will require a system where the number of ancilla is sufficiently large that quantum error correction techniques can be used. In addition to large numbers of single photons on demand and efficient single photon detectors, it is clear that this procedure will heavily rely on the use of feed-forward control systems of the kind presented here. Larger scale systems will necessarily involve the use of complicated sequences of classically controlled single-qubit operations and time scales significantly shorter than those described in this basic demonstration. Nonetheless, the techniques and results presented here provide a significant step in that direction.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by in part by ONR, ARO, NSA, ARDA, and Independent Research and Development funds. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of M.J. Fitch and useful discussions with M.M. Donegan.


text:
# Red-shifted H2O emission in NGC 3079: More evidence for a pc-scale circumnuclear torus? Based on observations with the 100-m telescope of the MPIfR (Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie) at Effelsberg

## 1 Introduction

Recent single-dish and VLBI observations of luminous H2O megamasers have been motivated by the discovery of an edge-on Keplerian sub-pc scale maser disk enshrouding a compact supermassive object at the nucleus of the LINER galaxy NGC 4258 (e.g. Nakai et al. 1993, 1995; Haschick et al. 1994; Greenhill et al. 1995; Miyoshi et al. 1995; Herrnstein et al. 1999). Circumnuclear disk structures traced by H2O are also seen towards NGC 1068, NGC 4945, and the Circinus galaxy (e.g. Gallimore et al. 2001; Greenhill et al. 1997, 2000). H2O megamasers therefore provide a unique probe to study the kinematics and the dynamical structure of the innermost regions of active galactic nuclei.

For the LINER or Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 3079 (see Sawada-Satoh et al. 2000) that contains one of the most luminous H2O megamasers known to date (e.g. Henkel et al. 1984; Haschick & Baan 1985; Haschick et al. 1990), arguments in favor of a circumnuclear disk have been less compelling. While the known maser components arise in the inner few parsecs of the galaxy, they do not align at right angles to the radio jet(s), almost all the detected emission is blue-shifted relative to the systemic velocity, and any velocity drift of individual H2O features must be small ($``$4.0 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ yr-1; Nakai et al. 1995; Baan & Haschick 1996; Trotter et al. 1998; Satoh et al. 1999; Sawada-Satoh et al. 2000).

In this letter we therefore report single-dish observations of the 22 GHz water vapor line from NGC 3079, (1) to look for the missing red-shifted velocity components and (2) to search for velocity drifts in the near systemic features that would indicate centripetal acceleration in a rotating circumnuclear disk.

## 2 Observations

Observations of the $`J_{\mathrm{K}_\mathrm{a}\mathrm{K}_\mathrm{c}}=6_{16}5_{23}`$ H2O maser line (rest frequency: 22.23508 GHz) were made with the MPIfR 100-m radio telescope at Effelsberg between February 1994 and December 2001. Until 1998, a single channel K-band maser receiver was employed in a position switching mode with a system temperature of $`T_{\mathrm{sys}}`$ $``$ 225 K on a main beam brightness temperature ($`T_{\mathrm{mb}}`$) scale. An autocorrelator provided bandwidths of 50, 25 or 12.5 MHz with 1024 spectral channels, yielding channel spacings of 0.66, 0.33 or 0.16 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Since 2000, we used a dual channel K-band HEMT receiver in a dual beam switching mode with a beam throw of 2 and a switching frequency of 1 Hz. After averaging the two orthogonally polarized signals, $`T_{\mathrm{sys}}`$ $``$ 180 K. Four autocorrelator backends were employed for each receiver channel. Each spectrum had a bandwidth of 40 MHz and 512 channels, yielding a channel spacing of 1.05 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$.

Amplitude calibration was based on measurements of the 22 GHz continuum flux of 3C 286 (see Baars et al. 1977; Ott et al. 1994). Pointing measurements toward nearby sources (in most cases DA 251) were made once per hour. The resultant pointing accuracy was $`<`$ 8”, that should be compared with the full width to half power beam size of 40′′. Calibration uncertainties are estimated to be $`\pm `$15%.

## 3 Results

H2O spectra were taken during 16 epochs (Table 1; no changes in the maser profiles were seen within any of these observing periods). Several H2O features could be traced over the entire monitoring period. The most prominent component, detected at $``$956 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, showed a peak flux density of 2.5–4.5 Jy. While the peak velocity is observed to drift from about 955.0 to 956.8 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (estimated error of individual measurements: 0.3 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$), this drift is not systematic and appears to be caused by a multitude of individual, variable subcomponents. During times with lower peak velocity, the profile tends to show a ‘shoulder’ at the high velocity wing of the line (e.g., on Nov. 5, 1997 and Feb. 1, 1998) and vice versa (Dec. 21, 2000, and Apr. 22, 2001). Notable were two flares of more red-shifted components that exceeded 2 Jy: The 979 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ component with 0.7 Jy during Feb. 1994 to Apr. 1997 (see Nakai et al. 1995 for earlier spectra) reached 0.9 Jy in Nov. 1997, 1.5 Jy in Feb. 1998, and 2.2 Jy in May 1998 (Fig. 1a); it then decreased to 1.8 Jy in June 1998, 1.25 Jy in Aug. 1998, and 0.35 Jy since Oct. 2000. The 1017 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ velocity component, observed between Sep. 1996 and Nov. 1997 at 0.1–0.5 Jy, reached a peak flux density of 2.5 Jy in Mar. 2000 (Fig. 1b); flux densities decreased to 1.0 Jy in Oct. 2000 and to 0.1 Jy in May 2001. Emission near the systemic velocity of the galaxy (1080 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ $`<`$ $`V_{\mathrm{LSR}}`$ $`<`$ 1160 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) remained faint and not a single narrow velocity component could be traced during several consecutive observing epochs.

Fig. 2 shows a spectrum of near systemic ($`V_{\mathrm{sys}}`$$``$1120 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) and red-shifted ($`V`$$`>`$$`V_{\mathrm{sys}}`$) features that were detected since March 2000. More than 10 distinct narrow components appear at velocities in excess of 1100 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Table 2). We conclude that the H2O maser emission extends over a radial velocity range of $``$450 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The integrated luminosity of the previously known blue-shifted components remains approximately constant. This may also hold for the systemic and red-shifted features shown in Fig. 2. A detection of these prior to 2000 would have been difficult in view of technical improvements that occurred at Effelsberg in 1999. Sensitivity also limits the studies by Nakai et al. (1995; we do not confirm the weak 764 and 791 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ components) and Baan and Haschick (1996). However, the 1123 and 1190 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ components observed by Trotter et al. (1998) in Jan. 1995, the flaring 1192 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ feature ($``$0.4 Jy) detected by Nakai et al. (1995) in Apr.-May 1995, and a 1201 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ feature detected by us in Sept. 1995 (Fig. 3) indicate the presence of isolated red-shifted maser features as early as half a dozen years ago.

## 4 Discussion

In NGC 4258, Nakai et al. (1993) detected red- and blue-shifted H2O ‘satellites’ symmetrically displaced by approximately $`\pm `$900 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ from the systemic velocity. This suggested the presence of a circumnuclear disk that was later confirmed (see Sect. 1). Is the discovery of a multitude of near systemic and red-shifted features in NGC 3079 also hinting at a circumnuclear disk? Emission is seen at least between 928 and 1352 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Fig. 3). Assuming the presence of a symmetric edge-on circumnuclear disk, the systemic velocity of the nuclear region then is $``$1140 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Including the 896 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ feature apparent in the early spectra of Henkel et al. (1984) and Haschick & Baan (1985) and tentatively also seen in Dec. 2000 and Dec. 2001, $`V_{\mathrm{sys}}`$ $``$ 1124 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Is this consistent with the systemic velocity of the galaxy?

From the nuclear molecular gas traced by the CO $`J`$ = 1–0 line, Irwin & Sofue (1992) deduced a systemic velocity of $`V_{\mathrm{sys}}`$ = 1050$`\pm `$10 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. From an H i line profile, Irwin & Seaquist (1991) obtained a midpoint at the 20% peak level of 1123$`\pm `$10 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and 1126 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ from a fit to the moment map. Three dimensional modeling of their H i data cube yields $`V_{\mathrm{sys}}`$ = 1116 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The rough agreement of CO, H i, and H2O velocity centroids implies a nuclear systemic velocity of $``$1120 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and suggests that we have seen, for the first time, all the stronger 22 GHz H2O maser components in NGC 3079. A nuclear systemic velocity of 1230 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ as suggested by Satoh et al. (1999) is not supported by our H2O data.

Nevertheless, the maser emission is far from perfectly symmetric: (1) All bright components ($`>`$0.5Jy) are blue-shifted with respect to the systemic velocity which is inconsistent with the situation in NGC 4258 and NGC 1068 as well as with the spiral shock model proposed by Maoz & McKee (1998). (2) The systemic velocity obtained from model fits (Irwin & Seaquist 1991) lies at the edge of that narrow velocity interval ($`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$$``$20 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, see Fig. 2) that appears to be devoid of H2O emission (the only such interval over the entire H2O velocity range observed by us). Interpreted in terms of the paradigm established for NGC 4258, this may hint at a lack of nuclear 22 GHz radio continuum emission at the very center of the putative masering torus. (3) In a well ordered edge-on circumnuclear disk, small line-of-sight velocity gradients that stimulate maser emission should only be present near the tangential points and near the front and back side of the disk. A continuous coverage of the velocity range as observed in NGC 3079 is not expected. (4) None of the four systemic velocities quoted above provides a particularly high number of red- and blue-shifted components that match each other with respect to velocity ($`|V_{\mathrm{red}}V_{\mathrm{sys}}|`$ $``$ $`|V_{\mathrm{blue}}V_{\mathrm{sys}}|`$). Note that the following discussion, does not sensitively depend on the exact choice of $`V_{\mathrm{sys}}`$ as long as it is in the range 1100–1150 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$.

Most blue-shifted 22 GHz H2O velocity components of NGC 3079 are already known to show no significant velocity drift (e.g. Fig. 7 of Nakai et al. 1995; Fig. 6 of Baan & Haschick 1996). The slow drift of $``$0.4 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ yr-1 suggested by Baan & Haschick (1996) for the 945, 951, and 1015 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ components ($`V`$ refers to epoch 1994.0) is not expected if a circumnuclear torus is present (e.g. Miyoshi et al. 1995). Our data for the 945 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ component (945.7 and 946.2 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in Feb. 1994 and 1998, and 946.6 and 946.5 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in May and June 1998; errors derived from Gaussian fits are $``$0.3 kms) are not contradicting Baan & Haschick (1996), although a group of features with varying amplitudes could also simulate the drift. The 1017 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ component (Fig. 1b) fluctuates between 1014 and 1018 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and does not support a regular drift, although it is likely related to the 1015 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ component of Baan and Haschick (1995). The 951 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ component was not seen by us. Satoh et al. (1999) and Sawada-Satoh et al. (2000) report a drift of 3.7$`\pm `$0.6 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ yr-1 for a maser feature near 1190 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. We find a group of features (total width: $`V_{\mathrm{tot}}`$$``$5–6 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) centered at 1192.9 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, both on Mar 3. and Dec. 5, 2001. Thus the drift appears to be well below our estimated detection level of 1.5 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ yr-1 for a time interval of 9 months. In view of the long lifetime inferred for some of the blue-shifted maser lines (Sect. 3 and Fig. 3), the 1192 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ feature reported by Nakai et al. (1995) is likely part of this component, reducing the velocity drift to well below 1.0 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ yr-1.

The overall lineshape of the H2O profile is quite distinct from that of NGC 4258 and the morphology of the radio continuum (T. Krichbaum, priv. comm.) is more complex. In spite of the presence of a roughly linear ridge of blue-shifted H2O masers, the existence of an associated nuclear disk is thus not certain (see e.g. Trotter et al. 1998 for alternative scenarios). Sawada-Satoh et al. (2000) proposed a thick maser disk with continuum source ‘B’ at the nucleus and the 1190 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ feature on its near side (their Fig. 6). Since we see no velocity drift near 1190 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and since this is not the systemic velocity, however, there is no need to put this component at the near side of the putative disk. We therefore tend to favor the disk scenario outlined by Trotter et al. (1998) with the nucleus of the galaxy being located between continuum components A and B (their Fig. 7). In this latter scenario, expected velocity drifts would be consistent with our upper limits. The nucleus would contain a few 106 M within $`R`$ $``$ 10 mas ($``$0.7 pc; assumed rotation velocity $`V_{\mathrm{rot}}`$$``$100–225 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$), the centripetal acceleration and proper motion of the near-systemic components would be difficult to detect ($`<`$0.1 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ yr-1 and $``$1 $`\mu `$as yr-1), and most of the red-shifted masers would be located 10–15 mas south of the blue-shifted ones (some masers may be associated with the jet (e.g. Trotter et al. 1998)). Sensitive VLBI data are needed to examine this picture and to obtain definite information on the relative location of blue- and red-shifted maser features and continuum sources in the very center of NGC 3079.

###### Acknowledgements.

We wish to thank M. Inoue and L.J. Greenhill for critically reading the manuscript.


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# Projective normality of special scrolls II.

## 1 Preliminaries.

A geometrically ruled surface, or simply a ruled surface, will be a $`𝐏^1`$-bundle over a smooth curve $`X`$ of genus $`g>0`$. It will be denoted by $`\pi :S=𝐏(_0)X`$. We will suppose that $`_0`$ is a normalized sheaf and $`X_0`$ is the section of minimum self-intersection that corresponds to the surjection $`_0𝒪_X(\text{e})0`$, $`^2𝒪_X(\text{e})`$ and $`e=deg(\text{e})`$ (see ,V, §2 and ).

If $`|H|=|X_0+\text{b}f|`$ is a base-point-free linear system on a ruled surface $`S`$, $`|H|`$ defines a regular map $`\varphi _H:S𝐏(H^o(𝒪_S(H)^{}))`$. The image of $`S`$ is a scroll $`R`$. If $`\varphi _H`$ is a birational map we say that $`S`$ and $`H`$ are the ruled surface and the linear system associated to the scroll $`R`$. We denote de image of a curve $`CS`$ by $`\overline{C}R`$. The curve $`\overline{X_0}`$ is the curve of minimum degree of $`R`$. It is embedded by the linear system $`|\text{b}+\text{e}|`$ on $`X`$.

Let $`X`$ be a smooth curve of genus $`g2`$. Let $``$ be a line bundle on $`X`$. We define de Clifford index of $``$ by:

$$Cliff()=deg()2(h^0()1)$$

The Clifford index of the curve $`X`$ is defined by:

$$Cliff(X)=min\{Cliff()/h^0()2,h^1()2\}$$

From this we have the following formula:

###### Lemma 1.1

If b is an effective special divisor such that $`h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}))2`$ and $`h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}))2`$ then

$$h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}))\frac{deg(\text{b})Cliff(X)}{2}+1$$

By the Clifford Theorem, $`Cliff(X)0`$ with equality if and only if $`X`$ is hyperelliptic; $`Cliff(X)=1`$ if and only if either $`X`$ is trigonal or a smooth plane quintic. Furthermore, if $`X`$ is a general curve of genus $`g`$ then $`\gamma =[\frac{g1}{2}]`$, and in any event $`\gamma [\frac{g1}{2}]`$.

Note that if b is a divisor such that $`𝒪_X(\text{b})`$ provides the Clifford index of $`X`$, the linear system $`|\text{b}|`$ is base-point-free. In other case, if $`P`$ is a base point of $`|\text{b}|`$, then $`\text{b}P`$ is a divisor with a Clifford index less than $`Cliff(𝒪_X(\text{b}))`$.

## 2 Projective normality of a special scroll.

###### Proposition 2.1

Let $`R𝐏^N`$ be a special linearly normal scroll of genus $`g`$, degree $`d`$ and speciality $`i3`$. Suppose that $`R`$ is not a cone. Let $`X`$ be the base curve of the scroll.

If $`d4g2iCliff(X)+1`$, then $`R`$ has an unique special directrix curve $`\overline{X_0}`$. Moreover, $`\overline{X_0}`$ is the curve of minimum degree, it is linearly normal and it has the speciality of $`R`$.

Proof: Let $`S`$ be the ruled surface and $`|H|=|X_0+\text{b}f|`$ the linear system corresponding to the scroll $`R`$. Let $`\gamma =Cliff(X)`$ be the Clifford index of $`X`$.

Since $`R`$ is special, it has a special directrix curve (see ) so the curve $`\overline{X_0}`$ of minimum degree of the scroll verifies $`deg(\text{b}+\text{e})2g2`$. Furthermore, we know that:

$$d2g+2+i=h^0(𝒪_S(H))h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))+h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}))$$
$`(1)`$
and

$$i=h^1(𝒪_S(H))h^1(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))+h^1(𝒪_X(\text{b}))$$
$`(2)`$
Because $`R`$ is not a cone, $`h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))2`$. We will prove that $`deg(\text{b})2g+1`$ and then we will apply the Proposition $`2.3`$ of .

1. Suppose that $`h^1(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))2`$. Then we can apply the formula of Lemma 1.1 to the divisor $`\text{b}+\text{e}`$.

If $`deg(\text{b})2g`$, then we also can apply the Clifford Theorem (, page 343) to the divisor b. From the inequality $`(1)`$ we obtain:

$$d2g+2+i\frac{deg(\text{b}+\text{e})\gamma }{2}+1+\frac{deg(\text{b})}{2}+1=\frac{d\gamma }{2}+2$$

and then $`d4g2i\gamma `$ which contradicts the hypothesis.
2. Suppose that $`h^1(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))1`$. By hypothesis $`i3`$, so $`h^1(𝒪_X(\text{b}))2`$.

1. If $`h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}))2`$ we can apply the formula of Lemma 1.1 to the divisor b and the Clifford Theorem to the divisor $`\text{b}+\text{e}`$. From the inequality $`(2)`$ we obtain $`d4g2i\gamma `$ which contradicts the hypothesis.
    2. If $`h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}))1`$, we have that:

    $$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill 1& h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}))=deg(\text{b})g+1+h^1(𝒪_X(\text{b}))\hfill \\ & deg(\text{b})g+i\hfill \end{array}$$

    Furthermore, by Nagata Theorem  we know that $`deg(\text{e})g`$, so:

    $$deg(\text{b}+\text{e})deg(b)+g2gi+1$$
    $`(3)`$
    On the other hand, from the inequality $`(1)`$ we have:

    $$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill d2g+2+i& 1+deg(\text{b}+\text{e})g+1+h^1(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))\hfill \\ & 1+deg(\text{b}+\text{e})g+1+1\hfill \end{array}$$

    and because $`d4g2i\gamma +1`$,

    $$deg(\text{b}+\text{e})3gi\gamma $$

    Now, replacing the above expression at inequality $`(3)`$ we obtain:

    $$2gi+13gi\gamma \gamma g1$$

    but the Clifford index verifies $`\gamma [\frac{g1}{2}]`$.

###### Remark 2.2

The inequality and the condition $`i3`$ are optimal in the following way:

Given a non hyperelliptic smooth curve $`X`$, let a be a divisor such that $`𝒪_X(\text{a})`$ provides the Clifford index $`\gamma `$ of $`X`$. Let us consider the ruled surface $`S=𝐏(𝒪_X𝒪_X(\text{a}𝒦))`$. The linear system $`|X_0+𝒦f|`$ on $`S`$ is base-point-free and defines a birrational map $`\varphi _H`$. Let $`R`$ be the image of $`S`$ by the map $`\varphi _H`$. The degree of $`R`$ is $`d=2g2+deg(\text{a})`$ and the speciality is $`i=1+g\frac{deg(a)+\gamma }{2}3`$. From this:

$$4g2i\gamma =4g22g+deg(a)+\gamma \gamma =d$$

However, the scroll $`R`$ has two special directrix curves: $`\overline{X_0}`$ and $`\overline{X_1}`$ defined by the linear systems $`|\text{a}|`$ and $`|𝒦|`$ respectively.

On the other hand, we can also take the ruled surface $`S=X\times P^1`$ and the linear system $`|X_0+𝒦f|`$. In this case, the corresponding scroll $`R`$ has degree $`d=4g4`$ and speciality $`2`$. Since $`X`$ is non hyperelliptic, $`\gamma =Cliff(X)1`$ and $`d4g2i\gamma `$+1, but the scroll $`R`$ has a one dimensional family of special directrix curves.

###### Proposition 2.3

Let $`R𝐏^N`$ be a special linearly normal scroll of genus $`g`$, degree $`d`$ and speciality $`i3`$. Suppose that $`R`$ is a cone. Let $`X`$ be the base curve of the scroll.

If the unique singular point of $`R`$ is the vertex and $`d4g2iCliff(X)+1`$, then $`R`$ is projectively normal.

Proof: We know that $`S=𝐏(𝒪_X𝒪_X(\text{b}))`$ is the ruled surface associated to $`R`$ and $`R`$ is given by the linear system $`|X_1|=|X_0+\text{b}f|`$. Moreover, the degree of $`R`$ is $`d=deg(\text{b})`$ and the speciality is $`i=g+h^1(𝒪_X(\text{b}))`$ (see ).

It is clear that $`R`$ is projectively normal iff $`𝒪_X(\text{b})`$ is normally generated (see ). Since the unique singular point of $`R`$ is the vertex, the linear system $`|\text{b}|`$ is very ample. Moreover,

$$deg(\text{b})=d4g2iCliff(X)+1=2g2h^1(𝒪_X(\text{b}))Cliff(X)+1$$

Thus, we can apply the Green-Lazarsfeld Theorem (see ) to the divisor b and we deduce that the cone is projectively normal.

###### Remark 2.4

Note that the condition $`d4g2iCliff(X)+1`$ is optimal, because it is equivalent to the inequality $`d2g2h^1(𝒪_X(\text{b}))Cliff(X)+1`$ for the hyperplane section of the cone. This condition is the best possible for the projective normality of line bundles on curves (see ).

###### Theorem 2.5

Let $`R𝐏^N`$ be a smooth special linearly normal scroll of genus $`g`$, degree $`d`$ and speciality $`i3`$. Let $`X`$ be the base curve of the scroll.

If $`d4g2iCliff(X)+1`$, then:

1. $`R`$ has an unique special directrix curve $`\overline{X_0}`$. Moreover, $`\overline{X_0}`$ is the curve of minimum degree, it is linearly normal and it has the speciality of $`R`$.
2. $`R`$ and $`\overline{X_0}`$ have the same speciality respect to hypersurfaces of degree $`m`$. In particular the scroll is projectively normal if and only if the curve of minimum degree is projectively normal.

Proof: Let $`S`$ be the ruled surface and $`|H|=|X_0+\text{b}f|`$ the linear system corresponding to the scroll $`R`$. Let $`\gamma =Cliff(X)`$ be the Clifford index of $`X`$.

The first assertion is the Proposition 2.1. From the proof of this Proposition we also know that $`deg(\text{b})2g+1`$.

To prove the second statement we will apply the Proposition $`2.1`$ of . We will see that:

$$s(\text{b}+\text{e},\stackrel{i}{\mathrm{}},\text{b}+\text{e},\text{b},\stackrel{ki}{\mathrm{}},\text{b})=0\text{ for all }i\text{, with }0ik1$$

Reasoning as in the proof of the Theorem $`2.4`$ of  it is sufficient to see that $`s(\text{b},\text{b}+\text{e})=0`$ and in particular we only have to prove that (see Lemma $`1.5`$ in ):

$$h^1(𝒪_X(\text{b}(\text{b}+\text{e})))<h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))1$$

We distinguish two cases:

1. Suppose that $`h^1(𝒪_X(\text{e}))1`$. It is sufficient to prove that $`h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))3`$. But this follows from the smoothness of the scroll:

1. If $`h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))=0`$ the scroll is a cone.
    2. $`h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))=1`$ can not occur, because $`\text{b}+\text{e}`$ is base-point-free.
    3. If $`h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))=2`$ the directrix curve of minimum degree is a line. Since the scroll is not rational, it must be a singular curve of the scroll.
2. Suppose that $`h^1(𝒪_X(\text{e}))2`$:

1. If $`h^0(𝒪_X(\text{e}))1`$, then by Riemann-Roch Theorem $`h^1(𝒪_X(\text{e}))ge`$. Moreover, we know that $`deg(\text{b})2g+1`$ and from this:

    $$h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))1=beg+i2g+1eg+i>geh^1(𝒪_X(\text{e}))$$
    2. If $`h^0(𝒪_X(\text{e}))2`$ we can apply the formula of Lemma 1.1 to the divisor $`\text{e}`$:

    $$h^0(𝒪_X(\text{e}))\frac{e\gamma }{2}1\text{, or equivalently, }h^1(𝒪_X(\text{e}))g\frac{e+\gamma }{2}$$

    Furthermore,

    $$h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))1=deg(\text{b})eg+1+i1=deg(\text{b})eg+i$$

    By hypothesis $`d4g2i\gamma +1`$, so $`2deg(\text{b})e4g2i\gamma +1`$ and $`deg(\text{b})\frac{4g2i\gamma +1+e}{2}`$. Then:

    $$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill h^0(𝒪_X(\text{b}+\text{e}))1& \frac{4g2i\gamma +1+e}{2}eg+ig\frac{e+\gamma }{2}+\frac{1}{2}\hfill \\ & \\ & h^1(𝒪_X(\text{e}))+\frac{1}{2}>h^1(𝒪_X(\text{e}))\hfill \end{array}$$