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# Dynamic Crossover to Tricriticality and Anomalous Slowdown of Critical Fluctuations by Entanglements in Polymer Solutions

## Abstract

We have performed accurate dynamic light-scattering measurements near critical demixing points of solutions of polystyrene in cyclohexane with polymer molecular weight ranging from 200,000 to 11.4 million. Two dynamic modes have been observed, ”slow” and ”fast”, that result from a coupling between diffusive relaxation of critical fluctuations of the concentration and visco-elastic relaxation associated with the entanglement network of the polymer chains. The coupling with the visco-elastic mode causes an additional slowdown of the critical mode on top of the uncoupled diffusion mode. By implementing crossover from critical to theta-point tricritical behavior for both static and dynamic properties, we are able to present a quantitative description of the phenomenon and to obtain a scaling of the visco-elastic parameters as a function of the molecular weight.

61.41.+e

Critical phenomena in high-molecular-weight polymer solutions differ from critical phenomena in simple fluids. In polymer solutions, the thermodynamic properties and the static correlations near the critical point of mixing are determined by a competition of two mesoscale lengths, namely, the correlation length of critical fluctuations of the concentration (tuned by the distance to the critical point) and the radius of gyration of the polymer molecules (tuned by the molecular weight) . In the asymptotic vicinity of the critical point, the correlation length becomes much larger than the radius of gyration and the polymer solution exhibits Ising critical behavior. With increase of the polymer molecular weight and, hence, of the radius of gyration, the range of asymptotic Ising critical behavior shrinks, ultimately yielding to theta-point tricritical behavior. This competition of two mesoscales arises from a coupling between two different order parameters belonging to two different static universality classes, namely, one associated with phase separation and another one with self-avoiding-walk singularities of long polymer chains . Such a competition of two mesoscales and, consequently, crossover from critical to multicritical behavior are expected to be a general feature of phase transitions with coupled order parameters . Hence, it is natural to expect that the dynamic critical behavior near the theta point will be affected by a coupling between two soft dynamic modes associated with the two order parameters .

In the present communication we report a study of dynamic correlations in near-critical solutions of polystyrene in cyclohexane at the critical volume fraction $`\varphi _\mathrm{c}`$ as a function of temperature and of polymer molecular weight, ranging from 200,000 to 11.4 million. Specifically, we have found that starting with a molecular weight of about one million, two effective dynamic modes emerge, that result from a coupling between two soft critical modes, a diffusion mode (association with the decay of critical fluctuations) and a visco-elastic mode (associated with entanglements of long polymer chains). Very close to the critical point, as expected, the slow mode becomes critical. However, we have found that this mode being trapped by the entanglements, may become an order slower as compared to uncoupled critical slowdown. Moreover, the diffusivity, like static properties , exhibits crossover from critical (Ising) to theta-point tricritical (mean-field) behavior, becoming almost “classical” at the highest molecular weight. In fact, the coupling of two modes and the crossover to tricriticality are just two sides of the same physical phenomenon, caused by an interaction of two order parameters resulting in the emergence of a tricritical point.

Coupling between diffusion and entanglement has been discussed in the literature for a long time. It was predicted by Brochard and De Gennes  and first detected with dynamic light scattering in non-critical polymer solutions by Adam and Delsanti  and later by Jian et al.  and Nicolai et al. . Ritzl et al.  observed two dynamic modes near the demixing critical temperature in a polystyrene-cyclohexane solution with a polystyrene molecular weight $`M_\mathrm{w}=0.96`$ million. Most recently, Tanaka et al. . observed two dynamic modes in near-critical solutions of high-molecular-weight nearly monodisperse polystyrene in diethyl malonate (explicitly shown for $`M_\mathrm{w}=3.84`$ million with a polydispersity index $`M_\mathrm{w}/M_\mathrm{n}=1.04`$, where subscripts “w” and “n” denote weight and number averaging). Our experiments reveal how the coupled critical dynamics in polymer solutions varies with increasing molecular weight. Moreover, making use of theoretical predictions previously developed for the static and dynamic crossover behavior from Ising to mean-field (tricritical) behavior, we are able to present a quantitative description of the phenomenon.

The original light-scattering setup as well as measurements for a moderate-molecular-weight sample PS1 ($`M_\mathrm{w}`$=1.96$``$105, $`M_\mathrm{w}/M_\mathrm{n}=1.02`$, $`\varphi _\mathrm{c}=0.066`$, $`T_\mathrm{c}=296.47`$ K) have been described in a previous publication . We have measured the intensity of scattering and the dynamic correlation function with a linear (PhotoCor-SP)  and a logarithmic (ALV-5000/E) correlator. The reduced distance of the temperature $`T`$ to the critical temperature $`T_\mathrm{c}`$, $`(TT_\mathrm{c})/T,`$ varied from 0.1 to 10-5. Four high-molecular-weight samples were studied: PS2: $`M_\mathrm{w}`$=1.12$``$106 ($`M_\mathrm{w}/M_\mathrm{n}=1.06`$, $`\varphi _\mathrm{c}=0.033`$, $`T_\mathrm{c}=303.09`$ K), PS3: $`M_\mathrm{w}`$=1.95$``$106 ($`M_\mathrm{w}/M_\mathrm{n}=1.04`$, $`\varphi _\mathrm{c}=0.024`$, $`T_\mathrm{c}=304.31`$ K), PS4: $`M_\mathrm{w}=3.910^6`$ ($`M_\mathrm{w}/M_\mathrm{n}=1.05`$, $`\varphi _\mathrm{c}=0.018`$, $`T_\mathrm{c}=304.80`$ K), and PS5: $`M_\mathrm{w}=11.410^6`$ ($`M_\mathrm{w}/M_\mathrm{n}=1.09`$, $`\varphi _\mathrm{c}=0.011`$, $`T_\mathrm{c}=305.95`$ K). The radii of gyration $`R_\mathrm{g}`$ of the polymers are 12 nm for PS1 (from a SANS experiment ), 28 nm, 37 nm, 52 nm, and 89 nm for PS2–PS5, respectively (extrapolated as $`R_\mathrm{g}M_\mathrm{w}^{0.5}`$). We used two scattering angles, $`30^{}`$and $`150^{}`$, which correspond to the wave numbers $`q=4\pi n/\lambda \mathrm{sin}^2(\theta /2)`$ ($`n`$ is the refractive index of the solution, $`\lambda `$ is the wave length of light, and $`\theta `$ is the angle of scattering) equal to $`7.2710^3`$ nm-1 and $`2.7310^2`$ nm-1, respectively. We have performed a Monte-Carlo simulation  of the intensity of the multiple scattering for our samples and found that at $`(TT_\mathrm{c})/T>10^5`$ double scattering accounts for almost the entire correction to static properties. The double-scattering correction to the dynamic correlation function at scattering angles of $`30^{}`$and $`150^{}`$ is expected to be relatively small  and, therefore, has been neglected.

The correlation function for PS1 was found to be a single exponential and no additional mode was detected . For this sample the values of $`qR_\mathrm{g}`$ for the two scattering angles of $`30^{}`$and $`150^{}`$ are 0.086 and 0.32, respectively. For all other samples with larger polymer molecules we have found the dynamic correlation function to be not a single exponential. The distributions $`H(\tau )`$ of decay-times $`\tau `$ have been extracted from the correlation functions with the ALV-5000/E built-in regularization procedure.

We show in Fig. 1a, as an example, a three-dimensional plot of this distribution for the sample PS5 and the angle of $`30^{}`$ ($`qR_\mathrm{g}=0.65`$) as a function of the distance to the critical temperature. All distributions are normalized by their integrals, thus the narrower the distribution, the higher the peak. One can clearly distinguish two modes that change significantly upon approach to the critical temperature. Far away from the critical temperature one can see a “fast” mode with a high peak and a “slow” mode with a low peak. Upon approaching the critical temperature, the intensity of the fast mode decreases and that of the slow mode rapidly increases. The shape of the corresponding dynamic correlation function in the near-vicinity of the critical point is again close to a single exponential and the characteristic correlation time exceeds one second. Two other examples, PS4 at $`150^{}`$ ($`qR_\mathrm{g}=1.42`$) and PS5 at $`150^{}`$ ($`qR_\mathrm{g}=2.43`$), shown in Figs. 2a and 3a, exhibit similar behavior with a more pronounced saturation of the intensity of the slow mode for larger $`qR_\mathrm{g}`$.

We have interpreted these results quantitatively in terms of a coupling between two original soft modes, namely, a viscoelastic mode associated with entanglements of polymer chains and the diffusion mode associated with the relaxation of critical fluctuations. Neither of the two effective modes actually observed is a pure viscoelastic or a diffusion mode. Instead, the observed modes emerge as a result of the interaction of the original uncoupled modes. Following Tanaka et al. , we use the theory of Brochard and De Gennes  to represent the two effective dynamic modes with corresponding characteristic times, “slow” $`\tau _{}`$ and “fast” $`\tau _+.`$ Then the normalized time-dependent intensity-correlation function, $`g_2(t)`$, can be approximated as

$$g_2(t)=1+\left[f_+\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{t}{\tau _+}\right)+f_{}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{t}{\tau _{}}\right)\right]^2$$
(1)
with decay times

$$\frac{1}{\tau _\pm }=\frac{1+q^2\xi _{\mathrm{ve}}^2+\frac{\tau _{\mathrm{ve}}}{\tau _q}\pm \sqrt{\left(1+q^2\xi _{\mathrm{ve}}^2+\frac{\tau _{\mathrm{ve}}}{\tau _q}\right)^24\frac{\tau _{\mathrm{ve}}}{\tau _q}}}{2\tau _{\mathrm{ve}}}$$
(2)
and amplitudes $`f_\pm =\pm \left[\frac{\tau _{\mathrm{ve}}}{\tau _\pm }\left(1+q^2\xi _{\mathrm{ve}}^2\right)\right]\left(\frac{\tau _{\mathrm{ve}}}{\tau _+}\frac{\tau _{\mathrm{ve}}}{\tau _{}}\right)^1`$.

In Eq. (2), $`\tau _{\mathrm{ve}}`$ is the $`q`$-independent visco-elastic relaxation time determined by entanglements of polymer chains, $`\tau _q`$ is the $`q`$-dependent diffusion relaxation time of critical concentration fluctuations, while $`\xi _{\mathrm{ve}}`$ is a mesoscopic visco-elastic length scale . We have calculated the temperature dependence of the critical diffusion mode with the help of dynamic scaling theory  accounting for a “background” (classical) contribution $`D_0q^2`$ to the diffusion coefficient and for a crossover behavior of the “critical” (scaling) term:

$$\tau _q^1=\frac{k_\mathrm{B}T}{6\pi \eta \xi }K(x)\left[1+\left(\frac{x}{2}\right)^2\right]^{z_\eta /2}\mathrm{\Omega }\left(q_\mathrm{D}\xi \right)+D_0q^2\text{ .}$$
(3)
In Eq. (3) $`K(x)`$ is Kawasaki’s function : $`K(x)=3/(4x^2)\left[1+x^2+\left(x^3x^1\right)\mathrm{arctan}(x)\right]`$; $`\mathrm{\Omega }\left(q_\mathrm{D}\xi \right)`$ is a dynamic crossover function approximated as $`\mathrm{\Omega }\left(q_\mathrm{D}\xi \right)=2/\pi \mathrm{arctan}\left(q_\mathrm{D}\xi \right)`$; and $`D_0`$ the classical diffusion coefficient: $`D_0=k_\mathrm{B}T\left[1+x^2\right](6\pi \eta _\mathrm{b}q_\mathrm{D}\xi ^2)^1`$, where $`k_\mathrm{B}`$ is Boltzmann’s constant, $`\eta `$ is the viscosity of the solution, $`\eta _\mathrm{b}`$ the regular part (background) of the viscosity; $`x=q\xi `$ with $`\xi `$ being the static correlation length measured independently ; $`z_\eta =0.065`$ is a universal dynamic scaling exponent; $`q_\mathrm{D}`$ is a characteristic cutoff wavenumber expected to be inversely proportional to the radius of gyration. It turned out that a good description of the experimental data is obtained if we adopt $`q_\mathrm{D}=\xi _{\mathrm{ve}}^1`$, which indeed scales approximately as $`R_\mathrm{g}^1`$.

Asymptotically close to the critical temperature the classical term is negligible, the crossover function $`\mathrm{\Omega }\left(q_\mathrm{D}\xi \right)1`$, and $`\tau _q`$ is described by the standard theory developed for simple fluids . Incidentally, the static correlation length obeys the Ising asymptotic power law: $`\xi (TT_\mathrm{c})^{0.63}`$ . Further away from the critical temperature or with increase in the molecular weight, i.e., when $`R_\mathrm{g}/\xi `$ increases, $`\mathrm{\Omega }\left(q_\mathrm{D}\xi \right)`$ vanishes and $`\tau _q`$ is described by the classical diffusion term with the classical correlation length $`\xi (TT_\mathrm{c})^{0.5}`$. We have found that accounting for crossover to tricriticality in Eq. (3) is necessary to obtain quantitative description of the critical dynamics near the theta point. The shear viscosity, $`\eta `$, is expected to behave as $`\eta \eta _0\left[\left(TT_\mathrm{c}\right)/T\right]^{0.04}`$ . The coefficient $`\eta _0(T)`$ is proportional to $`\eta _\mathrm{b}(T)`$ for which we assumed the same Arhenius-type temperature dependence as that of the solvent, while treating $`\eta _0(T=T_\mathrm{c})`$ as an adjustable constant for each sample. With the crossover critical diffusion mode calculated from Eq. (3), we have obtained two $`q`$-independent parameters, namely, the visco-elastic time $`\tau _{\mathrm{ve}}`$ and the visco-elastic length $`\xi _{\mathrm{ve}}`$, by fitting two (experimentally obtained) dynamic modes to Eq. (2) simultaneously for both scattering angles.

The resulting temperature dependences of the characteristic times are shown on the projections of Figs. 1a-3a. (denoted as Figs. 1b-3b). As the visco-elastic time is proportional to $`\eta _\mathrm{s}/T`$ ($`\eta _\mathrm{s}`$ is the solvent viscosity) , it exhibits a slight temperature dependence. It is seen that neither the observed slow mode nor the observed fast mode can be associated with a pure critical diffusion mode or a pure visco-elastic mode. The assumption of a single relaxation time for the entanglements could be an over-simplification . Indeed, in the range of strong coupling the observed modes are broadened. Nevertheless, it is clearly seen that far above the critical temperature the fast mode is closely associated with the diffusion and the slow mode with the entanglements but that near the critical point the amplitude of the fast mode vanishes and the slow mode becomes critical. However, the position of the slow mode is shifted to larger times with respect to the uncoupled critical diffusion as $`\tau _{}=\tau _q\left(1+q^2\xi _{\mathrm{ve}}^2\right)`$, whereas the position of the fast mode is shifted to shorter times with respect to the uncoupled visco-elastic time as $`\tau _+=\tau _{\mathrm{ve}}\left(1+q^2\xi _{\mathrm{ve}}^2\right)^1`$.

In Fig. 4, we have plotted the visco-elastic time $`\tau _{\mathrm{ve}}`$, the visco-elastic length $`\xi _{\mathrm{ve}}`$, and the viscosity amplitude $`\eta _0`$ (normalized by the solvent viscosity $`\eta _\mathrm{s}`$) as functions of the molecular weight. We have found that these parameters apparently diverge along the critical line in the limit of infinite molecular weight (theta-point limit) as approximately $`M_\mathrm{w}^{1.3}`$, $`M_\mathrm{w}^{0.5}`$, and $`M_\mathrm{w}^{0.6}`$, respectively. We note that $`\tau _{\mathrm{ve}}`$ scales with $`M_\mathrm{w}`$ weaker than the theoretical prediction, $`M_\mathrm{w}^{9/4}`$, for the “disentanglement time” in theta solvents at overlap concentrations , while $`\xi _{\mathrm{ve}}`$ scales as the radius of gyration $`R_\mathrm{g}M_\mathrm{w}^{0.5}`$ . Experimental viscosity data are available only for $`M_\mathrm{w}=1.96\times 10^5`$ . The value of $`\eta _0(T_\mathrm{c})`$ obtained from our treatment of the light-scattering data is lower than that implied by the viscosity data. This fact, also reported in ref. , requires further investigation.

The phenomenon of coupling of soft modes has also been observed in polymer blends  and in sheared polymer solutions . In near-critical gas-liquid binary fluids, coupling of two diffusion relaxation modes associated with mass diffusivity and thermal diffusivity produce two effective dynamic modes, one of them becoming a critical mode . The difference with polymer solutions is that in simple fluid mixtures the two original uncoupled modes belong to the same dynamic universality class. A more straightforward analog of the dynamic coupling in polymer solutions near the theta point is expected to appear in 3He–4He mixture near its tricritical point.

We are indebted to I. K. Yudin for his help in setting up the light-scattering instrumentation. We acknowledge valuable discussions with H. Z. Cummins, J. F. Douglas and R. W. Gammon. The research is supported by the Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG02-95ER-14509.


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# Radio Luminosities and Classificatory Criteria of BL Lacertae Objects

## 1  Luminosity of BL Lac objects

We calculated the luminosities for the sample of RBLs and XBLs presented by Sambruna et al.(1996). We list the names, red-shifts, broad-band spectral indices, the energy fluxes at radio, optical and X-ray bands and peak frequencies of 23 XBLs in Table 1 and 29 RBLs in Table 2, respectively. Using the logrithmic parabolic form given by Laudau et al (1986) and the data of the energy fluxes at radio, optical and X-ray bands, Dong et al. (2002) calculated the peak frequencies of 23 XBLs in Table 1 which are used here. Sambruna et al.(1996) made a parabolic fit to the radio, millimeter, IR, optical, and X-ray fluxes data to obtain the peak frequency, $`\nu _p`$, of the spectral energy, where, for some XBLs, X–Ray data were not included in the fit. The data of peak frequency $`\nu _p`$, of the synchrotron emission in Table 2 are made use of Sambruna et al.(1996) except for objects 1652+398 and 2005-489, because the both sources are HBLs ($`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}<0.75`$). We use the $`\nu _p`$ data of two sources calculated by Dong, Mei & Liang (2002). Therefore, in our sample, there are 27 LBLs which consists of RBLs except for 1652+398 and 2005-489 in Table 2 and 25 HBLs which consists of 23 XBLs and two RBLs (1652+398 and 2005-489).

We calculated rest-frame luminosities of radio, optical and X-ray energy band using the fluxes of BL Lac objects in Table 1 and Table 2. For the K-correction, the flux densities were multiplied by $`(1+z)^{\alpha 1}`$, where $`\alpha `$ is the power-law spectral index in the appropriate energy band ($`F_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$). For RBLs , we used $`\alpha _r=0.2,`$ and $`\alpha _{opt}=1.05`$ (Falomo et al. (1994)), while for XBLs we used $`\alpha _r=0`$ and $`\alpha _{opt}=0.65`$(Falomo et al. (1994)). We used individual spectral indices in X-ray provided by Sambruna et al.(1996). The redshifts of 0048-097,1147+245 and 1519-273 presented in table 2 of Sambruna et al.(1996) are not available. A mean value of $`z=0.56`$ is accordingly adopted for these sources. The flux densities were converted to luminosities using $`H_0=75`$ Km S-1 Mpc-1 and $`q_0=0.5`$, assuming isotropic emission. We calculated the radio luminosity $`L_\mathrm{r}`$, optical luminosity $`L_\mathrm{o}`$ and X-ray luminosity $`L_\mathrm{x}`$ in rest frame.

## 2 Results

We now consider the relations among radio luminosity, broad-band spectral index and peak frequency. We plot $`L_\mathrm{r}`$ versus $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ in figure 1a, which shows that the radio luminosity increases as broad-band spectrum index increases. A linear regression analysis yields

$$\mathrm{log}L_r=(6.64\pm 0.49)\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}+(38.24\pm 0.37),$$
(1)
where the correlation coefficient is $`r=0.886`$ and the chance probability is $`p=2.26\times 10^{17}`$, n=52. Obviously, the correlation is very strong. From this figure, four different regions are divided by the lines $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}=0.75`$ and $`\mathrm{log}L_r=43.25`$ ($`\mathrm{ergs}^1`$), all LBLs are located in the upper-right region; all HBLs are inside the lower-left region(two RBLs, 1652+398 and 2005-489 are HBLs); no sources are in the lower-right region and the upper-left region. We plot $`L_\mathrm{r}`$ versus $`\nu _p`$ in figure 1b, which show that the radio luminosity $`L_\mathrm{r}`$ decreases as the peak frequency $`\nu _p`$ increases. The correlation analysis gives

$$\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{r}=(0.67\pm 0.06)\mathrm{log}\nu _p+(53.13\pm 0.92),$$
(2)
where the correlation coefficient is $`r=0.841`$ and the chance probability is $`p=4.42\times 10^{14}`$, n=52. The correlation is also very strong. In the four different regions divided by the lines $`\nu _p=14.7`$ and $`\mathrm{log}L_r=43.25`$, all LBLs are located in the upper-left region; all HBLs are inside the lower-right region(two RBLs, 1652+398 and 2005-489 are HBLs); no sources are in the lower-left region and the upper-right region.

In figure 2, we consider the correlation between the optical luminosity $`L_\mathrm{o}`$ and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ and that between $`L_\mathrm{o}`$ and $`\nu _p`$. The results are

$$\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{o}=(2.45\pm 0.45)\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}+(43.94\pm 0.33)$$
(3)
with $`r=0.614`$ and $`p=2.70\times 10^6`$, n=52 and

$$\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{o}=(0.28\pm 0.05)\mathrm{log}\nu _p+(49.93\pm 0.68)$$
(4)
with $`r=0.660`$ and $`p=2.52\times 10^7`$, n=52 respectively. It can be seen that (i)there are a positive correlation between $`L_\mathrm{o}`$ and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ and a negative correlation between $`L_\mathrm{o}`$ and $`\nu _p`$, and (ii)HBLs and LBLs can be distinguished by the line of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}0.75`$ (see Fig. 2a) or the line of $`\nu _p14.7`$ (see Fig. 2b), but they can not be distinguished by optical luminosity.

Finally, we study the relation of the X-ray luminosity $`L_\mathrm{x}`$ with $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ and $`\nu _p`$. The correlation analysis reads

$$\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{x}=(1.41\pm 0.43)\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}+(46.08\pm 0.32)$$
(5)
for $`L_\mathrm{x}`$ versus $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$, where $`r=0.42`$ and $`p=0.002`$.

$$\mathrm{log}L_X=(0.11\pm 0.05)\mathrm{log}\nu _p+(43.43\pm 0.73)$$
(6)
for $`L_\mathrm{x}`$ versus $`\nu _p`$, where $`r=0.30`$ and $`p=0.03`$. Obviously, there is no any correlation between $`L_\mathrm{x}`$ and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ as well as between $`L_\mathrm{x}`$ and $`\nu _p`$. We plot the results in Fig. 3. The distributions of HBLs and LBLs in plot of $`L_\mathrm{x}`$ versus $`\alpha _{rx}`$ ( Fig. 3a) and $`L_\mathrm{x}`$ versus $`\nu _p`$ (Fig. 3b) are confusion although the lines of $`\alpha _x0.75`$ and $`\nu _p14.7`$ can be drawn.

The results of the regression analysis are listed in Table 3.

## 3 Discussions and conclusions

Sambruna et al.(1996) have made the statistical analysis of the relations of bolometric luminosity $`L_B`$ (as estimated from parabolic fits to the multi-wavelength from radio to X-ray bands) with position of the peak frequency $`\mathrm{log}\nu _p`$ and with the broad-band spectral index $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ for the blazars. They found that (i)there is a correlation between $`L_B`$ and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ at $`>99`$% confidence, which may indicate that more luminous objects have steeper $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$, and (ii) more luminous sources have smaller peak frequencies, since the average bolometric luminosity increases from XBLs to RBLs to flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), on average, FSRQs are more luminous and have lower peak frequencies while XBLs are less luminous and have higher peak frequencies. In their analysis, the XBLs and RBLs are not distinguished very well in either $`L_B`$-$`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ plot or $`L_B`$-$`\nu _p`$ plot. In this paper, we have studied the relations of radio, optical and X-ray luminosities with broad-band spectral index ($`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$) and peak frequency ($`\nu _p`$) for 52 BL Lac objects (including 23 XBLs and 29 RBLs). It is different from the analysis of Sambruna et al. (1996), we analyzed the relation of luminosity at the each energy band with $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ and $`\nu _p`$, respectively.

From our analysis, we found that radio luminosity $`L_\mathrm{r}`$ can be used to distinguish HBLs and LBLs. Our results indicate that there is a very strong positive correlation between $`L_\mathrm{r}`$ and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ and a negative correlation between $`L_\mathrm{r}`$ and $`\nu _p`$, more importantly, HBLs and LBLs can be distinguished very well in both $`L_\mathrm{r}`$-$`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ plot (see Fig. 1a) and $`L_\mathrm{r}`$-$`\nu _p`$ plot (see Fig. 1b). We have also analyzed the relations of the optical and X-ray luminosities with $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ and $`\nu _p`$, respectively. We found that the optical luminosity has a good correlation with both $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ and $`\nu _p`$ (see Fig. 2a and 2b), but X-ray luminosity shows no any correlation with $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ or $`\nu _p`$ (see Fig. 3a and 3b). Obviously, either $`L_\mathrm{o}`$ or $`L_\mathrm{x}`$ cannot be used to distinguish HLBs and LBLs. Therefore, $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$, $`\nu _p`$ and $`L_\mathrm{r}`$ are equivalent in the classifications of HBLs and LBLs: HBLs fall in the region divided by the lines of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}0.75`$ (or $`\mathrm{log}\nu _p>14.7`$ Hz) and $`\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{r}43.25`$ erg s-1 while LBLs in the region divided by the lines of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}>0.75`$ (or $`\mathrm{log}\nu _p14.7`$ Hz) and $`\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{r}>43.25`$ erg s-1.

It has been known that the observed spectral energy distributions of BL Lac objects show a peak between IR and X-rays, and the possible radiation mechanism is synchrotron radiation. In Fig. 1a of $`L_\mathrm{r}`$ and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ plot, HBLs distribute in the region divided by the lines of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}0.75`$ and $`\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{r}43.25`$ erg s-1. Using the definition of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}0.75`$, we have $`\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{x}\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{r}+1`$ erg s-1 for HBLs where $`\nu _r=5`$ GHz and $`\nu _x=1`$ keV are used. Since $`\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{r}43.25`$ erg s-1, we have $`\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{x}44.25`$ erg s-1 for HBLs while $`\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{x}<44.25`$ erg s-1 for LBLs. Compared to the result shown in Fig. 3a, the observed X-ray luminosities of HBLs in our sample are above the lower limit of $`\mathrm{log}L_\mathrm{x}44.25`$ erg s-1, indicating that X-rays for HBLs are produced by the synchrotron radiation. From Fig. 3a, the observed X-ray luminosities for most LBLs do not satisfy the upper limit of $`L_\mathrm{x}<44.25`$ erg s-1. We believe that inverse Compton scattering have more important contributions to X-ray emission from these LBLs.

Finally, we would like to point out that we have made the analysis about the relation of energy fluxes at radio, optical and X-ray bands with $`\alpha _{\mathrm{rx}}`$ and $`\nu _p`$. We find that radio energy flux can be distinguish HBLs and LBLs very well.

###### Acknowledgements.

The Special Funds for Major State Basic Project of China(Grant No.2000077602),the National 973 project of China (Grant No.NKBRAFG19990754), the Natural Science Foundation of China and the Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan province of China are acknowledged for financial support. We would like to thank Dr. J.H.Fan for useful discussion.


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# On the Formation of Binary Stars and Small Stellar Groups in Magnetically Subcritical Clouds

## 1. Introduction

Over the last few decades, a basic framework has been developed for the formation of low-mass stars in relative isolation (Shu, Adams, & Lizano 1987). In this by now “standard” picture, a molecular cloud, which is initially supported by strong magnetic field against its self-gravity, gradually contracts as the magnetic support weakens by ambipolar diffusion. Magnetically supercritical cores are formed, which collapse to produce stars. Quantitative studies based on this scenario have been carried out by many authors. In most of such studies, axisymmetry has been adopted. However, observations have shown that binary and multiple stars are common product of star formation. We need to understand how such (non-axisymmetric) stellar systems are formed in magnetically supported clouds. To elucidate the formation mechanism of binary stars and stellar groups, we have begun a systematic numerical study of the non-axisymmetric evolution initially magnetically subcritical clouds, by removing the restriction of axisymmetry. In this contribution, we present some of our recent results on this investigation.

## 2. Model and Numerical Method

As a first step, we adopted the thin-disk approximation often used in axisymmetric calculations (e.g., Basu & Mouschovias 1994; Li 2001). The disk is assumed in hydrostatic equilibrium in the vertical direction. The vertically-integrated MHD equations are solved numerically for the cloud evolution in the disk plane, with a 2D MHD code (see Li & Nakamura 2002 for code description). The magnetic structure is solved in 3D space.

The initial conditions for star formation are not well determined either observationally and theoretically. Following Basu & Mouschovias (1994), we prescribe an axisymmetric reference state. See Nakamura & Li and Li & Nakamura (2002) for the details of the reference cloud model. The reference cloud is allowed to evolve into an equilibrium configuration, with the magnetic field frozen-in. Once the equilibrium state is obtained, we reset the time to $`t=0`$ and add a non-axisymmetric perturbation to the surface density distribution. Then, the cloud evolution is followed with the ambipolar diffusion turned on.

## 3. Numerical Results

From axisymmetric calculations, Li (2001) classified the evolution of magnetically subcritical clouds into two cases, depending mainly on the initial cloud mass and the initial density distribution. When the initial cloud is not so massive and/or has a centrally-condensed density distribution, it collapses to form a single supercritical core (core-forming cloud). On the other hand, when the initial cloud has many thermal Jeans masses and/or a relatively flat density distribution near the center, it collapses to form a ring after the central region becomes magnetically supercritical (ring-forming cloud). In the following, we show that the core-forming cloud doesn’t fragment during the dynamic collapse phase, but becomes unstable to the bar mode (bar growth), whereas the ring-forming cloud can break up into several blobs (multiple fragmentation).

### 3.1. Bar growth: Implication for Binary Formation

In Fig. 1 we show an example of the bar growth models. In this model, we adopted the reference density distribution of Basu & Mouschovias (1994), which is more centrally-condensed than the model to be shown in the next subsection, and the rotation profile of Nakamura & Hawana (1997). It has a characteristic radius of $`r_0=7.5\pi c_s^2/(2\pi G\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0,\mathrm{ref}})`$ (where $`c_s`$ is the effective isothermal sound speed and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0,\mathrm{ref}}`$ the central cloud surface density in the reference state), initial flux-to-mass ratio of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0=1.5B_{\mathrm{}}/(2\pi G^{1/2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0,\mathrm{ref}})`$ (where $`B_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the strength of the initially uniform background field), and a dimensionless rotation rate of $`\omega =0.1`$. We added to the equilibrium state an $`m=2`$ perturbation of surface density, with a fractional amplitude of merely 5%. During the initial quasi-static contraction phase, a central core condenses gradually out of the magnetically subcritical cloud, with no apparent tendency for the mode to grow. Rather, the iso-density contours appear to oscillate, changing the direction of elongation along $`x`$-axis in the disk plane to $`y`$-axis. After a supercritical core develops, the contraction becomes dynamic and the bar mode grows significantly. During the intermediate stages \[panels (c) and (d)\], the aspect ratio of the bar remains more or less frozen at $`R2`$. As the collapse continues, the growth rate of the bar increases dramatically by the very end of the starless collapse. The density distribution along the minor axis of the bar is well reproduced by a power-law profile of $`r^2`$, which is different from that of an isothermal equilibrium filament ($`r^4`$). When the volume density exceeds a critical value of $`10^{12}`$ cm<sup>-3</sup>, we changed the equation of state from isothermal to adiabatic, to mimic the transition to the optically thick regime. The bar is surrounded by an accretion shock, which is analogous to the first core of spherical calculations \[panel (f)\]. The aspect ratio of this “first” bar continues to increase during the early optically thick regime. The highly elongated first bar is expected to break up into two or more pieces. We suspect that bar fragmentation is an important, perhaps the dominant, route for binary and small multiple-star formation.

We have also followed the evolution of this model cloud perturbed by other (higher) $`m`$ modes ($`m3`$), and found no significant mode growth. The reason why the cloud is unstable only to the bar mode appears to be the following. In the absence of nonaxisymmetric perturbations, the supercritical collapse approaches a self-similar solution derived approximately by Nakamura & Hanawa (1997). In the self-similar solution, the effective radius of the central plateau is at most 3-4 times the effective Jeans length, making the cloud unstable to dynamic contraction but not to multiple fragmentation. Indeed, Nakamura & Hanawa (1997) showed that the self-similar solution is unstable only to the $`m=2`$ mode, consistent with our result. The tendency for the supercritical collapse to approach the self-similar solution is responsible for the bar formation during the dynamic collapse. Detailed numerical results on bar formation will appear elsewhere (Nakamura & Li 2002, in preparation).

### 3.2. Multiple Fragmentation and Formation of Small Stellar Groups

In Fig. 2 we show an example of the multiple fragmentation models. In this model, we adopted the reference density profile of Li (2001) with $`n=8`$, which is less centrally-condensed than the model shown in the previous subsection. The model has a characteristic radius of $`r_0=7\pi c_s^2/(2\pi G\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0,\mathrm{ref}})`$, initial flux-to-mass ratio of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0=1.5B_{\mathrm{}}/(2\pi G^{1/2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0,\mathrm{ref}})`$, and rotation rate of $`\omega =0.1`$. Random density perturbations are added to the axisymmetric equilibrium state. The maximum fractional amplitude of the perturbations is set to 10%. During the quasi-static contraction phase, the infall motions are subsonic, and there is no sign of fragmentation. Once the flux-to-mass ratio in the central high-density region drops below the critical value, the contraction is accelerated near the center. As the collapse continues, the central supercritical region begins to fragment into five blobs. By the time shown in panel (f), the blobs are well separated from the background material and are significantly elongated. Subsequent dynamic collapse of each blob is similar to that of the bar growth case. Individually, we expect each core to produce a highly elongated bar, which could further break up into pieces, producing perhaps binary or multiple stars. Together, the formation of a small stellar group is the most likely outcome. Detailed numerical results on multiple fragmentation are given in Li & Nakamura (2002).

## 4. Summary

Our main conclusion is that despite (indeed because of) the presence of the strong magnetic field, the initially magnetically subcritical clouds are unstable to non-axisymmetric perturbations during the supercritical phase of cloud evolution. The cloud evolution is classified into two cases, depending mainly on the initial cloud mass and density distribution. When the initial cloud is not so massive and has a centrally condensed density distribution, it doesn’t break into pieces but becomes unstable to a bar mode (bar growth). This bar is expected to fragment into two or more pieces to form binary or small multiple stars, when the bar becomes opaque to dust emission and is surrounded by an accretion shock. On the other hand, when the initial cloud has many Jeans masses and a relatively flat density distribution near the center, it can fragment into several or many cores after a supercritical region develops near the center (multiple fragmentation). This fragmentation may be responsible for small cluster formation in relatively isolated regions.

Boss (2000) showed the fragmentation of 3D magnetic clouds numerically, treating the magnetic forces and ambipolar diffusion in an approximate way (see also the contribution by Boss). He concluded that magnetic fields (magnetic tension force) can enhance cloud fragmentation by reducing the tendency for the development of a central singularity, which would make fragmentation more difficult. We also find that magnetic fields can have beneficial effects on fragmentation. Strong magnetic fields can support clouds with many Jeans masses and flatten mass distribution, both of which are conducive to fragmentation once the magnetic support weakens through ambipolar diffusion.

Numerical computations in this work were carried out at the Yukawa Institute Computer Facilities, Kyoto University. F.N. gratefully acknowledges the support of the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research Abroad.

## References

Basu, S. & Mouschovias, T.C. 1994, ApJ, 432, 720

Boss, A. 2000, ApJ, 545, L61

Li, Z.-Y. 2001, ApJ, 556, 813

Li, Z.-Y. & Nakamura, F. 2002, submitted to ApJ

Nakamura, F. & Li, Z.-Y. 2002, ApJ, 566, L104

Nakamura, F. & Hanawa, T. 1997, ApJ, 480, 701

Shu, F.H., Adams, F. C., & Lizano, S. 1987, ARA&A, 25, 23


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# Optimal scheme for estimating a pure qubit state via local measurements

## Abstract

We present the optimal scheme for estimating a pure qubit state by means of local measurements on $`N`$ identical copies. We give explicit examples for low $`N`$. For large $`N`$, we show that the fidelity saturates the collective measurement bound up to order $`1/N`$. When the signal state lays on a meridian of the Bloch sphere, we show that this can be achieved without classical communication.

State estimation is a central topic in Quantum Mechanics. Quantum measurements give only partial information about the state of the system under consideration. If an unlimited number of copies of a given state were available, one could in principle determine exactly this state provided an infinite number of measurements were performed. In the real world we have access to a limited number of copies and time for a finite number of measurements, and the best we can achieve is an estimate of the state. It is, thus, of great importance to design optimal strategies which maximize the knowledge one can acquire about a general quantum state.

Over the last few years a great deal of work has been devoted to the optimal estimation of states and many important features have been recognized peres1 ; mp ; state ; us-peres ; gm ; matsumoto , one of the most interesting ones being that collective measurements (CM) are more informative than individual ones peres1 ; mp . The experimental implementation of such measurements seems, though, quite involved. In practice, individual von Neumann measurements are far easier to perform. Moreover, one can show that optimal individual measurements are of this type in the situations considered in this letter prep . The most general individual measurement procedures come under the name of LOCC (local operations and classical communication) schemes. In this framework, one allows a wide class of local operations for which, depending on the outcome of the local measurement performed on a copy, appropriate transformations can be applied on the subsequent copies of the state before measuring again. We consider the general situation in which the copies of the system may have never interacted in the past and may be macroscopically separated. Thus, classical communication becomes essential in these schemes. This is in contradistinction to collective measurements, for which the role of classical communication is played by the quantum entanglement of the measuring devices. In this LOCC context, some numerical simulations and experimental tests have been performed recently fisher ; hannemann .

In this letter we will deal with pure states of a single qubit $`|\psi `$. To each one of these states it corresponds a unique unit vector $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ on the Bloch sphere; i.e., $`|\psi \psi |=(1+\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{\sigma })/2`$, where $`\stackrel{}{\sigma }`$ are the usual Pauli matrices. We will focus on two situations to which we will simply refer as 3D and 2D. In the former, no prior knowledge of $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ is assumed, whereas for the later (2D) $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ is known to lay on a meridian of the Bloch sphere. Our aim is to design LOCC measurements such that we can obtain the best estimate of $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ and, hence, of $`|\psi `$. We will investigate how good these LOCC measurements are as compared to the collective ones. For the latter, the mean fidelity $`F`$ is commonly used as a figure of merit and many results can be found in the literature —in particular, the large $`N`$ asymptotic behavior of $`F`$ is now known for the most interesting approaches mp ; us-peres .

For $`N`$ identical copies of $`|\psi `$ optimal CM lead to a fidelity that behaves as $`F_{\mathrm{CM}}11/N`$ for large $`N`$ in 3D mp . From holevo ; bu  one can likewise compute the asymptotic fidelity in 2D, which is $`F_{\mathrm{CM}}11/(4N)`$. These results are the absolute upper bound for any measurement scheme, therefore within the LOCC framework the fidelity $`F`$ can not approach unity at a rate larger than $`11/(4N)`$ in 2D ($`11/N`$ in 3D) gm . In this letter we demonstrate that, rather unexpectedly, this asymptotic behavior can be achieved in 2D with just local measurements and no classical communication. In 3D classical communication seems necessary to saturate the asymptotic CM bound, however, we have verified that for the optimal approach the fidelity reaches the CM regime very fast (for $`N12`$). Therefore, CM do not provide a significant improvement over local measurements.

The estimation procedure goes as follows. After the $`N`$ measurements (one on each copy) have been performed, a list of outcomes is obtained, which we symbolically denote by $`x`$. Based on $`x`$, an estimate for $`|\psi `$ can be guessed, $`|\psi _{\mathrm{guess}}(x)`$. The fidelity is then defined as the overlap

$$|\psi |\psi _{\mathrm{guess}}(x)|^2=\frac{1+\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{M}(x)}{2}f_n(x),$$
(1)
where, as above, $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ is the unit vector on the Bloch sphere corresponding to the state $`|\psi `$ and $`\stackrel{}{M}(x)`$ is that corresponding to $`|\psi _{\mathrm{guess}}(x)`$. The average fidelity can be written as $`Ff=_x𝑑nf_n(x)P_n(x)`$, where $`P_n(x)`$ is the probability of getting the outcome $`x`$ if the Bloch vector is $`\stackrel{}{n}`$, and $`dn`$ is the measure on the sphere in 3D (on the unit circle in 2D). Note that in both situations we have assumed no further prior knowledge of $`|\psi `$.

Any local von Neumann measurement is represented by two projectors $`O(\pm \stackrel{}{m})=(1\pm \stackrel{}{m}\stackrel{}{\sigma })/2`$, where $`\stackrel{}{m}`$ is a unit Bloch vector characterizing the measurement (in a spin system, e.g., $`\stackrel{}{m}`$ is the orientation of a Stern-Gerlach). We further note that for any unitary transformation $`U`$ and for any $`\stackrel{}{m}`$, there is always a vector $`\stackrel{}{m}^{}`$ such that $`O(\stackrel{}{m}^{})=UO(\stackrel{}{m})U^{}`$. So, any local operation on an individual copy of $`|\psi `$ may be viewed as a redefinition of the Bloch vector that characterizes the measurement which will be performed on that copy. We hereafter adopt this point of view. For von Neumann measurements, the set of outcomes $`x`$ can be expressed as a $`N`$-digit binary number $`x=i_Ni_{N1}\mathrm{}i_2i_1`$, were $`i_k`$ ($`=0,1`$) indicates that upon measuring on the $`k`$’th copy, this is projected on the $`O[()^{i_k}\stackrel{}{m}_k]`$ projection space. The most general local measurement is realized when we allow $`\stackrel{}{m}_{k+1}`$ to depend also on the list of previous outcomes $`i_ki_{k1}\mathrm{}i_2i_1x_k`$ (hence, $`x=x_N`$). We thus write $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_k)`$ instead of $`\stackrel{}{m}_k`$. Note that $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_k)`$ satisfy

$$\stackrel{}{m}(1x_{k1})=\stackrel{}{m}(0x_{k1}).$$
(2)
The fidelity of a general LOCC scheme can be written as

$$F=\underset{x=00\mathrm{}0}{\overset{2^N1}{}}𝑑n\frac{1+\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{M}(x)}{2}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{1+\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{m}(x_k)}{2},$$
(3)
where the last product is the probability $`P_n(x)`$.

The optimal LOCC scheme is the one that maximizes (3) over the Bloch vectors $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_k)`$ and $`\stackrel{}{M}(x)`$. Using the Schwartz inequality, it is straightforward to see that the best guess $`\stackrel{}{M}(x)`$ must be proportional to the vector

$$\stackrel{}{V}(x)=𝑑n\stackrel{}{n}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{1+\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{m}(x_k)}{2},$$
(4)
i.e., $`\stackrel{}{M}(x)=\stackrel{}{V}(x)/|\stackrel{}{V}(x)|`$. In this case, the maximum fidelity reads

$$F=\frac{1}{2}\left(1+\underset{x}{}|\stackrel{}{V}(x)|\right).$$
(5)
For a fixed set of measurements $`\{m(x_k)\}`$ (optimal or not) and a given set of outcomes $`x`$, the guess (4) provides the best estimate of the signal state. This simple and general result does not seem to be conveyed in the literature. We next show how (4) can be used to improve the quality of state estimation schemes based on local measurements.

Consider $`N=2𝒩`$ copies of the state $`|\psi `$ whose vector $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ is known to be on the equator ($`xy`$-plane) of the Bloch sphere (2D case). Since the expectation value of $`\stackrel{}{\sigma }`$ is $`\psi |\stackrel{}{\sigma }|\psi =\stackrel{}{n}`$, the central limit theorem strongly suggests to adopt the following scheme. Let $`\stackrel{}{e}_1`$, $`\stackrel{}{e}_2`$ be the two unit vectors pointing along the $`x`$ and $`y`$ axes respectively. For each $`i`$ ($`=1,2`$) perform $`𝒩`$ measurements of the observable $`\sigma _i=O(\stackrel{}{e}_i)O(\stackrel{}{e}_i)`$. Assume we have obtained $`𝒩\alpha _i`$ times the outcome $`+1`$ (consequently, $`𝒩(1\alpha _i)`$ times the outcome $`1`$). One is driven to propose $`\stackrel{}{M}_i\alpha _i\stackrel{}{e}_i+_i(1\alpha _i)(\stackrel{}{e}_i)`$ (the mean value of these outcomes) as the Bloch vector of $`|\psi `$. More precisely,

$$M_i(\alpha )=\frac{2\alpha _i1}{\sqrt{_j(2\alpha _j1)^2}}.$$
(6)
By doing so, the limiting behavior $`\stackrel{}{M}\stackrel{𝒩\mathrm{}}{}\psi |\stackrel{}{\sigma }|\psi =\stackrel{}{n}`$ is ensured by the central limit theorem. With the techniques described below one can show that the fidelity for the guess (6) has the asymptotic expression

$$F_{\mathrm{CL}}=1\frac{3}{8}\frac{1}{N}+\mathrm{},$$
(7)
where $`\mathrm{CL}`$ stands for central limit.

According to (4), however, this guess cannot be optimal. Let us show that indeed this scheme can be improved using (4) instead of (6). In this particular situation Eqs. 5 and 4 read $`F_{\mathrm{OG}}=(1+_\alpha |\stackrel{}{V}(\alpha )|)/2`$ (OG stands for optimal guess) and

$`\stackrel{}{V}(\alpha )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{2}{}}}\left(\begin{array}{c}𝒩\\ 𝒩\alpha _i\end{array}\right){\displaystyle 𝑑n\stackrel{}{n}}`$ (8)
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{2}{}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1+n_j}{2}}\right)^{𝒩\alpha _j}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1n_j}{2}}\right)^{𝒩(1\alpha _j)},`$
where we have used the shorthand notation $`\alpha =(\alpha _1,\alpha _2)`$. To obtain the large $`N`$ limit of $`F_{\mathrm{OG}}`$ we use the formula

$`\left(\begin{array}{c}𝒩\\ \alpha 𝒩\end{array}\right)q^{\alpha 𝒩}(1q)^{(1\alpha )𝒩}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi 𝒩q(1q)}}}`$
$`\times \mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{𝒩}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{(\alpha q)^2}{q(1q)}}\right)\left\{1+O(1/\sqrt{𝒩})\right\},`$ (9)
with $`q=(1+n_j)/2`$, and approximate the sum over the outcomes $`\alpha `$ by an integral. Performing the change of variables $`r_i=2\alpha _i1`$, we get

$$\underset{\alpha }{}|\stackrel{}{V}(\alpha )|d^2r\left|\stackrel{}{V}\right|d^2r\left|𝑑n\stackrel{}{Q}\mathrm{e}^{\frac{𝒩}{2}E}\right|,$$
(10)
with $`E=_{i=1}^2(n_ir_i)^2/(1n_i^2)`$ and $`\stackrel{}{Q}=P\stackrel{}{n}=(𝒩/2\pi )_{i=1}^2(1n_i^2)^{1/2}\stackrel{}{n}`$. As it will become clear below, the terms of order $`1/\sqrt{𝒩}`$ neglected in these approximations give no contribution to the final answer. The integral (10) will now be evaluated with the aid of the saddle point technique. We use spherical coordinates and write $`\stackrel{}{n}=(\mathrm{cos}\varphi ,\mathrm{sin}\varphi )`$, $`\stackrel{}{r}=r(\mathrm{cos}\gamma ,\mathrm{sin}\gamma )`$. For large $`𝒩`$, the integrand peaks at $`r=1`$, which suggests to write $`r=1+\xi `$. We denote by $`\varphi _m`$ or, equivalently, by $`\stackrel{}{n}_m`$, the location of the minimum of $`E`$, which can be computed as a power series in $`\xi `$ of the form $`\varphi _m=\gamma +\lambda _1\xi +\lambda _2\xi ^2+\mathrm{}`$. We next expand $`E`$ and $`\stackrel{}{Q}`$ as a power series in $`t\varphi \varphi _m`$ and write $`\stackrel{}{Q}=\stackrel{}{L}+\stackrel{}{M}t+\stackrel{}{R}t^2+\mathrm{}`$. The exponential in (10) is seen to have the form

$$\mathrm{e}^{\frac{𝒩}{2}E}=\mathrm{e}^{\frac{𝒩}{2}A}\mathrm{e}^{\frac{𝒩}{2}Bt^2}\mathrm{e}^{\frac{𝒩}{2}\times O(t^3)},$$
(11)
where $`2B`$ is the second derivative of $`E`$ with respect to $`t`$, and the last exponential factor can also be expanded in powers of $`t`$. Neglecting contributions which vanish exponentially in $`𝒩`$, one has

$$\stackrel{}{V}=𝑑n\stackrel{}{Q}\mathrm{e}^{\frac{𝒩}{2}E}=\frac{\mathrm{e}^{\frac{𝒩}{2}A}}{\sqrt{2\pi 𝒩B}}\left(\stackrel{}{L}+\frac{\stackrel{}{R}}{𝒩B}+\mathrm{}\right),$$
(12)
where $`dn=d\varphi /(2\pi )=dt/(2\pi )`$. At this point all the coefficients can be expanded in powers of $`\xi `$, e.g., $`B=B_0+B_1\xi +\mathrm{}`$, $`R=R_0+R_1\xi +\mathrm{}`$, and so on. Note however that the expansion of $`A`$ starts at order $`\xi ^2`$, i.e., $`A=A_2\xi ^2+A_3\xi ^3+\mathrm{}`$. For $`\stackrel{}{Q}=\stackrel{}{n}P=\stackrel{}{n}_mP+(\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{n}_m)P`$, we readily note that (12) yields

$$\stackrel{}{V}=\stackrel{}{n}_m𝑑nP\mathrm{e}^{\frac{𝒩}{2}E}+\frac{\stackrel{}{I}}{𝒩},$$
(13)
where $`\stackrel{}{I}/𝒩`$ is given by (12) with $`\stackrel{}{Q}=(\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{n}_m)P`$. We have written a factor $`1/𝒩`$ in the last term to make explicit that this contribution is of order $`𝒩^1`$. Hence

$$\left|\stackrel{}{V}\right|=𝑑nP\mathrm{e}^{\frac{𝒩}{2}E}+\frac{\stackrel{}{n}_m\stackrel{}{I}}{𝒩}+O\left(\frac{1}{𝒩^2}\right)$$
(14)
and we finally have up to $`O(1/𝒩^2)`$

$$d^2r|\stackrel{}{V}|=1d^2r𝑑nP(1\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{n}_m)\mathrm{e}^{\frac{𝒩}{2}E}.$$
(15)
The leading term (unity) comes from the first integral in (14), which is straightforward to compute exchanging the order of integration. Note also that the integral of the leading term on the right hand side of (9), $`d^2rP\mathrm{exp}(𝒩E/2)`$, is one, and so is the sum over $`\alpha `$ on the left hand side *independently of $`𝒩`$*. This shows that the terms of order $`1/\sqrt{𝒩}`$ neglected in (10) indeed cancel. The subleading term in (15) can be computed using the general expression (12) where now $`Q=(1\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{n}_m)P=Rt^2+O(t^3)`$ (i.e., $`L=M=0`$). Moreover, only the leading terms in powers of $`\xi `$ have to be retained, namely, $`A_2`$, $`B_0`$ and $`R_0`$ (in particular, we just need $`\lambda _1`$). This is so because effectively $`O(t^2)=O(\xi ^2)=O(1/𝒩)`$. The integral in (15) is then

$`{\displaystyle _0^{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{d\gamma R_0}{\sqrt{2\pi 𝒩^3B_0^3}}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑rr\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{𝒩A_2}{2}}(r1)^2\right\}`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{2\pi }{𝒩}}{\displaystyle _0^{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{d\gamma }{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{R_0}{𝒩\sqrt{A_2B_0^3}}},`$ (16)
where again terms vanishing exponentially as $`𝒩\mathrm{}`$ have been neglected. The coefficient $`\lambda _1`$ is computed to be $`\lambda _1=\mathrm{cot}2\gamma `$. With this, $`B_0=2`$, $`R_0=(𝒩/2\pi )\mathrm{csc}2\gamma `$ and $`A_2=2\mathrm{csc}^22\gamma `$. The subleading term in (15) yields $`1/(4𝒩)`$, and substituting back in (5) we finally obtain

$$F_{\mathrm{OG}}=1\frac{1}{4}\frac{1}{N}+\mathrm{}$$
(17)
(recall that $`N=2𝒩`$). As announced, this fidelity is larger than $`F_{\mathrm{CL}}`$. Moreover, it saturates the absolute upper bound given by CM even though classical communication has not been used. In this sense, the behavior of the most basic local scheme (without classical communication) in 2D is qualitatively similar to that obtained from CM provided the optimal guess (4) is used. Working along the same line, we have computed the asymptotic fidelities $`F_{\mathrm{CL}}`$ and $`F_{\mathrm{OG}}`$ in 3D. One has

$$F_{\mathrm{CL}}=1\frac{6}{5}\frac{1}{N}+\mathrm{};F_{\mathrm{OG}}=1\frac{13}{12}\frac{1}{N}+\mathrm{},$$
(18)
where again we note that $`F_{\mathrm{OG}}>F_{\mathrm{CL}}`$. Despite this improvement, the CM bound $`F_{\mathrm{CM}}=11/N`$ is not saturated, although the subleading term of $`F_{\mathrm{OG}}`$ is only 8% less than that of $`F_{\mathrm{CM}}`$.

So far classical communication has not been exploited, i.e., the Bloch vectors $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_k)`$ were both $`x`$-independent and non-optimal. We now turn to the full-fleshed LOCC schemes. Hereafter only the general case 3D will be considered.

The first non trivial case is $`N=2`$. Here, $`x`$ takes four possible values, $`00`$, $`01`$, $`10`$ and $`11`$. There are three independent vectors, namely, $`\stackrel{}{m}(0),\stackrel{}{m}(00),\stackrel{}{m}(01)`$ (the other three are obtained using Eq. 2). The first vector, $`\stackrel{}{m}(0)`$, is arbitrary and we take $`\stackrel{}{m}(0)=\stackrel{}{z}`$. The optimal fidelity is obtained by maximizing (5) with respect to $`\stackrel{}{m}(00)`$ and $`\stackrel{}{m}(01)`$. A straightforward calculation gives

$$\underset{x}{}|\stackrel{}{V}(x)|=\frac{1}{6}\underset{k=0,1}{}\left(\left|\mathrm{sin}\frac{\theta _{0k}}{2}\right|+\left|\mathrm{cos}\frac{\theta _{0k}}{2}\right|\right),$$
(19)
where $`\theta _x`$ is the polar angle of the vector $`\stackrel{}{m}(x)`$. The maximal value of (19) is attained for $`\theta _{00}=\theta _{01}=\pi /2`$. Notice that $`\theta _{00}`$ and $`\theta _{01}`$ are maximized independently, so $`\stackrel{}{m}(00)`$, $`\stackrel{}{m}(01)`$ do not need to be equal; they are only required to be orthogonal to $`\stackrel{}{m}(0)`$. Substituting back in (5) we find $`F^{(2)}=(3+\sqrt{2})/6`$ (see also fisher ). From Eq. 4 we obtain the optimal guess

$$\stackrel{}{M}^{(2)}(x)=\frac{\stackrel{}{m}(x_2)+\stackrel{}{m}(x_1)}{\sqrt{2}}=\stackrel{}{s}(x),$$
(20)
hence, e.g., $`\stackrel{}{M}^{(2)}(01)=[\stackrel{}{m}(01)+\stackrel{}{m}(1)]/\sqrt{2}=[\stackrel{}{m}(01)\stackrel{}{m}(0)]/\sqrt{2}`$.

The case $`N=3`$ is very similar. The optimal Bloch vectors, $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_1)`$, $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_2)`$, $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_3)`$, are found to be mutually orthogonal. Since there is no further constrain, one can choose the three fixed (i.e., independent of $`x`$) vectors $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_k)=\stackrel{}{e}_k`$, $`k=1,2,3`$. This shows that for $`N=3`$ (as well as for $`N=2`$) the optimal estimation schemes based on local measurements do not require classical communication. For each outcome $`x`$ the optimal guess is $`\stackrel{}{M}^{(3)}(x)=[\stackrel{}{m}(x_3)+\stackrel{}{m}(x_2)+\stackrel{}{m}(x_1)]/\sqrt{3}`$, which is a straightforward generalization of $`\stackrel{}{M}^{(2)}(x)`$, and yields $`F^{(3)}=(3+\sqrt{3})/6`$. These results could somehow be anticipated: if $`O(\stackrel{}{m})|\psi 0`$ we can only be sure that the Bloch vector of $`|\psi `$ is not $`\stackrel{}{m}`$. Intuition suggest to use the subsequent copies of $`|\psi `$ to explore the plane orthogonal to $`\stackrel{}{m}`$. Thus, the optimal Bloch vectors $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_k)`$ tend to be mutually orthogonal.

The case $`N=4`$ is more complex, since four mutually orthogonal vectors cannot fit onto the Bloch sphere. The solution exhibits some interesting features. First, the optimal Bloch vectors now depend on the outcomes of the previous measurements. Therefore classical communication does play a crucial role for $`N>3`$. However, $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_1)\stackrel{}{m}(x_2)`$ and, as before, one can choose $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_i)=\stackrel{}{e}_i`$, for $`i=1,2`$. Only for the third and fourth measurement one really has to take different choices in accordance to the sequence of the preceding outcomes. The Bloch vectors of the third measurement can be parametrized by a single angle $`\alpha `$ as $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_3)=\mathrm{cos}\alpha \stackrel{}{u}_1(x)+\mathrm{sin}\alpha \stackrel{}{v}_1(x)`$, where $`\stackrel{}{u}_1(x)=\stackrel{}{m}(x_1)\times \stackrel{}{m}(x_2)`$ and $`\stackrel{}{v}_1(x)=\stackrel{}{u}_1(x)\times \stackrel{}{s}(x)`$ and $`\stackrel{}{s}(x)`$ is defined in (20). The optimal value of this angle is $`\alpha =0.502`$. We cannot give any insight as to why this value is optimal. However, in agreement with our intuition, $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_3)\stackrel{}{s}(x)`$, i.e., the third measurement probes the plane orthogonal to the Bloch vector one would guess from the first two outcomes. Two angles are required to parametrize the vectors of the fourth measurement. They are given by $`\stackrel{}{m}(x_4)=\mathrm{cos}\gamma \stackrel{}{u}_2(x)+\mathrm{sin}\gamma \stackrel{}{v}_2(x)`$, where $`\stackrel{}{u}_2(x)=\stackrel{}{s}(x)\times \stackrel{}{m}(x_3)`$, $`\stackrel{}{v}_2(x)=\mathrm{cos}\beta \stackrel{}{m}(x_3)\mathrm{sin}\beta \stackrel{}{s}(x)`$. The optimal values of these angles are $`\beta =0.584`$, $`\gamma =0.538`$, and the corresponding fidelity is $`F^{(4)}=0.8206`$. This is just $`1.5\%`$ lower than the absolute bound $`F_{\mathrm{CM}}^{(4)}=5/6=0.8333`$ attained with CM. We also give the values of the maximal LOCC fidelities for $`N=5,6`$. They are $`F^{(5)}=0.8450`$ and $`F^{(6)}=0.8637`$. It is interesting to note that for $`N>3`$, it pays to relax optimality at each step. Hence, one-step adaptive schemes fisher ; hannemann  are not optimal, though the differences are very small; e.g., for $`N=4`$, $`F^{(4)}>F_{\text{adaptive}}^{(4)}=(15+\sqrt{91})/300.8180`$.

Having learnt from the low $`N`$ cases, we are in the right position to compute the asymptotic fidelity of this scheme. For that, we take inspiration in variational methods as follows. Suppose we have performed a large number $`N_0=\sqrt{N}`$ of measurements and obtained the guess $`\stackrel{}{M}_0`$. It is clear that the subsequent $`2\overline{N}=NN_0`$ guesses will hardly differ from $`\stackrel{}{M}_0`$. We hence substitute in (3) the ansatz $`\stackrel{}{M}(x)\stackrel{}{M}_0\mathrm{cos}\omega +\mathrm{sin}\omega (\stackrel{}{u}\mathrm{cos}\tau +\stackrel{}{v}\mathrm{sin}\tau )`$, where $`\stackrel{}{u}`$, $`\stackrel{}{v}`$ are two unit vectors which along with $`\stackrel{}{M}_0`$ form an orthogonal bases, $`\omega =\lambda \sqrt{(2\alpha _u1)^2+(2\alpha _v1)^2}`$, $`\mathrm{tan}\tau =(2\alpha _v1)/(2\alpha _u1)`$, and $`\lambda `$ is a variational parameter. As above, $`\overline{N}\alpha _u`$ ($`\overline{N}\alpha _v`$) is the number of times we obtain the outcome $`+1`$ when we measure $`\stackrel{}{\sigma }\stackrel{}{u}`$ ($`\stackrel{}{\sigma }\stackrel{}{v}`$). Note that in average $`\omega `$ will be small since we expect $`\alpha _{u,v}1/2`$, and we need to retain terms up to order $`\omega ^2`$. Putting all this together one gets from (3)

$$F1(1\lambda )^2(1F_0)\frac{\lambda ^2}{NN_0}+\mathrm{},$$
(21)
where $`F_0`$ is the optimal fidelity for $`N_0`$ measurements and the dots stand for subleading terms in inverse powers of $`N`$ and $`N_0`$. We readily see that the optimal choice is $`\lambda =1`$, which leads to $`F11/N`$ gm2 . Hence, our LOCC scheme does saturate the CM bound. Furthermore, numerical analysis reveals that the CM regime is reached for values of $`N`$ as low as $`12`$.

In summary, we have obtained the optimal LOCC estimating scheme for general qubit (pure) states and shown that its fidelity saturates the collective measurement bound. For states that are known to lay on a meridian of the Bloch sphere (2D case) we have explicitly given a scheme whose fidelity saturates this bound without invoking classical communication.

We acknowledge financial support from CIRIT project SGR-00185, Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology project BFM2002-02588, and the European Funds for Regional Development (FEDER). .


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# Impossibility of Spin Polarized States for Neutron Star / Proto-neutron Star Matter in 𝛽-Equilibrium Condition

## Abstract

It is shown explicitly that a ferromagnetic transition of neutron star (NS) / proto-neutron star (PNS) matter in the $`\beta `$-equilibrium condition with $`\sigma \omega \rho `$ exchange type of mean field approximation can actually occur if and only if the neutrinos remain trapped within the system, and perhaps it is also necessary for the neutrinos / anti-neutrinos to carry some finite non-zero mass. It is further shown that the electrons also play a significant role in this transition process. It is therefore, very much unlikely that such a transition of spin polarization can really take place in old neutron stars of very low temperature, whereas, the possibility of spontaneous ferromagnetic transition cannot be ruled out in a newly born PNS.

PACS:97.60.Jd, 97.60.-s, 75.25.+z
Key Words: Ferro-magnetic transition, Neutron stars, Proto-neutron stars, Millisecond pulsars.

The origin of strong magnetic field of pulsars, which are also believed to be the rotating neutron stars, is not exactly known till today . There are so many models of which the idea of flux conservation during collapse gives rise to a field strength of $`10^{12}`$G for some class of neutron stars. This field is known as fossil remnant from the progenitor star, with a typical magnetic field strength of $`10^4`$G. The other alternative model for the generation of magnetic field is by some kind of dynamo process or electric current flowing in highly conducting material of the neutron stars after their formation . Now the studies on magnetic field evolution of neutron stars by population synthesis codes show that the magnetic field decay time scale for typical neutron stars (not the magnetar like exotic objects) is $`10^710^9`$yrs and the residual magnetic field $`10^8`$G  (see also ). This is also the order of magnitude of magnetic field strength for the millisecond pulsars, which are believed to be re-generated and started their rotations with very high angular velocity after crossing the death line from pulsar graveyard by the accretion of matter , i.e., such objects are very old (and also cold) neutron stars. If this residual magnetic field is assumed to be permanent and not generated by some dynamo process (the assumption is possibly true in the case of very old neutron stars) within the star, one of the possibility of such permanent magnetic field is a spontaneous ferromagnetic transition by the spin alignment of permanent elementary magnetic dipoles of neutrons, protons etc. Since it is generally believed that such a transition may be the origin of magnetic field, in particular the remnant magnetic field of millisecond pulsars which are assumed to be very old neutron star, we have considered it to be an important issue. Of course, if a spontaneous ferro-magnetic transition is not possible in neutron star matter in $`\beta `$-equilibrium in presence of non-degenerate neutrinos, in spite of that we realized that this very old problem of spontaneous ferro-magnetic transition has become extremely interesting by itself (also has some academic importance). To the best of our knowledge such studies have not been done before and this is the first attempt to investigate this anomaly.

In this article we shall show that a spontaneous ferromagnetic transition is completely forbidden in a NS if the matter is in $`\beta `$-equilibrium and neutrinos leave the system immediately after their formation (i.e., non-degenerate). However, such a transition is possible if the produced neutrinos remain trapped within the neutron matter system (i.e. in PNS) for quite a long time at the initial stage of evolution. Now the ferromagnetic materials are paramagnetic but, because of interactions between atoms, show drastically different behavior. Below the Curie temperature, ferromagnetic substance show spontaneous magnetization, that is all the magnetic moments in a microscopically large region called a domain are aligned. The application of an external field tend to cause the domains to change and the moments in different domains to line up together leading to the saturation of the bulk magnetization. Removal of the field leaves a considerable fraction of the moments still aligned, giving a permanent magnetization. We further assume a $`\sigma \omega \rho `$ meson type of mean field interaction picture in the hadronic sector, whereas, electrons and neutrons are assumed to be non-interacting.

In a NS / PNS the dynamic nature of chemical equilibrium among the constituents is mainly dominated by the following weak interaction processes (URCA processes)

$`n`$ $``$ $`p+e^{}+\overline{\nu }_e`$ (1)
$`p+e^{}`$ $``$ $`n+\nu _e`$ (2)
Now in a typical neutron star, considering the spontaneously spin polarization of hadronic matter, in which neutrinos leave the system as soon as they are produced, the conditions for dynamical $`\beta `$-equilibrium is given by

$`\mu _n`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _p+\mu _e`$ (3)
$`=`$ $`\mu _p+\mu _e`$ (4)
$`=`$ $`\mu _p+\mu _e`$ (5)
$`\mu _n`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _p+\mu _e`$ (6)
$`=`$ $`\mu _p+\mu _e`$ (7)
$`=`$ $`\mu _p+\mu _e`$ (8)
where up and down arrows indicate two directions of spin. In this case, the neutrinos which leave the system without delay, carry the spin signature of the processes. Of course, the neutrinos (anti-neutrinos) are assumed to be massless and left-handed (right-handed), i.e. they have definite helicity states. Now the general expression for the chemical potential for proton or neutron is given by

$`\mu _p`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ_f^p+g_\omega \omega _0+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g_\rho \rho _3^0`$ (9)
$`\mu _n`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ_f^n+g_\omega \omega _0{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g_\rho \rho _3^0`$ (10)
where the first terms in these equations are given by $`ϵ_f^i=(k_f^{i^2}+m^^2)^{1/2}`$, the neutron-proton effective single particle energy, $`m^{}=mg_\sigma \sigma _0`$ is the hadronic effective mass, $`g_i`$’s are the coupling constants, and

$$g_\sigma \sigma _0=\left(\frac{g_\sigma }{m_\sigma }\right)^2\underset{i=n,p}{}\frac{g_im^{}}{2\pi ^2}\underset{\tau =}{\overset{}{}}_0^{k_{F_i}^{(\tau )}}\frac{k^2dk}{(k^2+m^^2)^{1/2}}$$
(11)
Since there are sum over both iso-spin and spin, the explicit spin dependence of hadronic effective mass will not there, however there is an indirect spin dependence through the fermi momenta ($`k_{F_i}^{(\tau )}`$). The degeneracy parameter $`g_i=1`$ for both $`i=n`$ and $`p`$. Now only the iso-spin $`3`$-component of the iso-vector meson field has finite mean value, i.e., the neutral $`\rho `$ meson ($`\rho _3^\mu `$). The Lorentz three-current part must vanish in the static ground state of matter, just as the vector meson $`\omega ^\mu `$, leaving only $`\rho _3^0`$. Since we are interested in spontaneous ferro-magnetic transition at low temperature (old neutron stars) in absence of external magnetic field, we have not considered the anomalous magnetic moments of the constituents. It is necessary to take into account the effect of anomalous magnetic moments to study the properties of nuclear matter in presence of strong magnetic field. From the above two sets of equations it is very easy to establish the following relations (since the spin dependence in chemical potentials come from the anomalous magnetic moments and is given by $`s\delta _iB`$, where $`i=p`$, $`n`$ or $`e`$, $`s=+1`$ for spin up and $`s=1`$ for spin down cases, $`\delta _i`$ is related to the anomalous magnetic moment and finally $`B`$ is the strength of magnetic field).

$$\mu _n\mu _n=\mu _p\mu _p=\mu _e\mu _e=0$$
(12)
which further means

$$ϵ_f^p=ϵ_f^p;ϵ_f^n=ϵ_f^n;ϵ_f^e=ϵ_f^e$$
(13)
Hence it is extremely trivial to show from the definition of number density, that each species with up and down spins are equal in number, i.e. $`n_p=n_p`$, $`n_n=n_n`$, and $`n_e=n_e`$. This is absolutely independent of the conventional models generally used to obtain the equation of states of NS matter. Therefore, it is unlikely to have a spin polarized NS matter or a spontaneous ferromagnetic transition in NS, in which neutrinos flow out of the system as soon as they are created. Next we consider the case of a PNS, which is the very early stage of evolution of a typical NS, neutrinos remain trapped within the matter and it requires a finite duration of time (a few ms) to make the system neutrino free. In the case of PNS, since neutrinos are degenerate, their chemical potentials cannot be neglected in the dynamic equilibrium conditions as mentioned above (eqns.(2) and (3)). Therefore, the modified form of these two sets of equations are given by

$`\mu _n`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _p+\mu _e\mu _\nu `$ (14)
$`=`$ $`\mu _p+\mu _e\mu _\nu `$ (15)
$`=`$ $`\mu _p+\mu _e\mu _\nu `$ (16)
$`\mu _n`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _p+\mu _e\mu _\nu `$ (17)
$`=`$ $`\mu _p+\mu _e\mu _\nu `$ (18)
$`=`$ $`\mu _p+\mu _e\mu _\nu `$ (19)
From these two sets of conditions, it is very easy to show

$$\mu _n\mu _n=\mu _p\mu _p=\mu _e\mu _e=\mu _\nu \mu _\nu =S(\mathrm{say})$$
(20)
where $`|S|0`$. This parameter determines the degree of polarization of the system, i.e. it controls the ferromagnetic transition of the system. In the case of unpolarized matter, $`|S|0`$, whereas for the spontaneously created ferromagnetic system, it is extremely large. From eqn.(10), it is also obvious that the magnitude of the factor $`S`$ also significantly depends on the degree of polarization of both electrons and neutrinos / anti-neutrinos. In the case of electrons, the kinetic energy is found to be very high; therefore, the temperature of the system should be low enough to make them align. Since the main mechanism of NS/PNS cooling is by the emission of neutrinos, which in turn makes the neutrinos non-degenerate, and as a consequence the condition as shown above in eqn.(10) will no longer be valid. Instead, one has to consider eqn.(6), for which there will be no spontaneous magnetization, i.e., the process of alignment of electrons by reducing the temperature of the system through neutrino emission destroys the possibility of ferromagnetic transition. Therefore, it is very difficult to have a ferromagnetic phase transition even in PNS if the kinetic energy of the electronic part is high enough, which is sufficient to prevent spin alignment. If we concentrate on neutrino components, again there will be more serious problem than the electronic sector, when we consider the spin alignment of neutrinos. In the case, when the decaying neutron has spin up (down) and the recoiled proton has spin down (up), there will be some directional constraint on the motion of trapped neutrino / anti-neutrino (analogous to the famous $`{}_{}{}^{60}Co`$ experiment) sum of electron and anti-neutrino spins should be $`+1`$ ($`1`$). There will also be left-handed to right-handed and vice-versa flipping problem, unless the neutrinos / anti-neutrinos carry some non-zero mass.

Therefore, we conclude that in a very old neutron star, whose temperature is low enough and the neutrinos are non-degenerate, the spontaneous ferromagnetic transition is absolutely forbidden. On the other hand, in a PNS, where the neutrinos remain trapped within the matter for quite a long duration, are degenerate, both the electronic and neutrino components play major roles in ferromagnetic phase transition. The electron kinetic energy should be extremely low for their spin alignment, whereas, the neutrinos should have some finite non-zero mass (no definite helicity state) to have left-handed to right-handed spin flip and vice versa to make neutrinos / anti-neutrinos also spin aligned. Therefore, the final conclusion is that the neutrino mass has a significant role in spontaneous ferromagnetic phase transition in PNS. There will be no such transition if the neutrinos are mass less.

On the other hand for NS matter with arbitrary ISO-spin asymmetry parameter $`x=(n_nn_p)/n_B`$, where $`n_B=n_n+n_p`$, the total baryon number density of the system, there could be a spontaneous ferromagnetic transition , however, the system will again become unpolarized as soon as $`\beta `$-equilibrium is reached, which we cannot avoid as the NS matter in $`\beta `$-equilibrium is the only stable configuration.

Therefore, if by some means a ferromagnetic transition occurs in PNS, then in the latter stage of evolution, when neutrinos become non-degenerate, there will be a spontaneous spin symmetry restoration. We may therefore conclude that the origin of residual magnetic field or the magnetic field of millisecond pulsars, which are believed to be very old neutron stars ($`10^8`$G), is not ferromagnetic transition. Now it is quite possible to have a crust of magnetic materials (e.g., iron) in such cold objects. To get an idea of what is the contribution of such magnetic materials on the bulk magnetic field of the object, we proceed in the following simplified manner. We give an estimate on the upper limit of polar magnetic field strength. If $`\stackrel{}{m}`$ is the total effective magnetic dipole moment of the crustal matter due to tiny atomic magnets (which are assumed to be aligned), we have the field strength at the pole

$$B_p=\frac{2\stackrel{}{m}}{R^3}$$
(21)
where $`R`$ is the radius of the star (assuming spherical). Assuming maximal projection of the total magnetic moment in unit of $`\mu _B`$, the Bohr magneton, we have

$$B_p=\frac{8\pi }{3}gJ\mu _Bn\left[1\left(\frac{R^{}}{R}\right)^3\right]$$
(22)
where $`R^{}`$ is the thickness of the spherical crustal shell, $`g`$ is the Lande $`g`$-factor and $`J`$ is the total angular momentum of the electron and $`n`$ is the density of tiny magnets. Then for iron $`n=\rho /M`$ and $`gJ=6`$, where $`\rho `$ is the density of crustal matter, which is assumed to be $`10^{10}`$gm cm<sup>-3</sup> and $`M`$ is the mass of tiny atomic magnets. Putting all these numerical numbers, we have seen that $`B_p10`$Tesla, which is of course too low. Again, this is the upper limit of polar magnetic field strength due to ferromagnetic transition of crustal magnetic material. Therefore, the ferromagnetic transition in the crustal matter can not produce magnetic field of the order $`10^710^8`$G.

Acknowledgment: SC is thankful to the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, for partial support of this work, Sanction number:SP/S2/K3/97(PRU). SC is also acknowledges Kamales Kar and Palas Pal of SINP for some useful discussions and comments.


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# B1524-136: A CSS quasar with two-sided radio jets

## 1 Introduction

Although most high-luminosity, extragalactic radio sources belonging to Fanaroff-Riley class II (FRII) have two reasonably symmetric lobes of radio emission on opposite sides of the parent optical object, the radio jets in these sources are overwhelmingly one-sided (cf. Bridle & Perley 1984). This is particularly true for quasars where radio jets are detected much more frequently than in radio galaxies. For example, in a study of 12 extended 3CR quasars with the Very Large Array (VLA), Bridle et al. (1994) made deep images with typical rms noises of 20$`\mu `$Jy/beam. They detected jets in all 12 sources and candidate counter-jets in 7. However, there is no unambiguous counter-jet in any of these sources. In a similar study of a sample of 13 radio galaxies by Fernini et al. (1993, 1997), only two have radio jets and neither of these show evidence of any counter jet. Although radio jets are not frequently detected in FRII radio galaxies, two of the good examples of counter-jets seen in FRII radio sources are associated with relatively nearby radio galaxies. One of these is the well-studied classical double-lobed source, Cygnus A, which is at a redshift of 0.056. A jet towards the north-west from the nucleus and a faint counter-jet towards the south-east can be seen on both parsec and kiloparsec scales along a position angle, PA$`=`$284$`\pm `$2 (Perley, Dreher & Cowan 1984; Linfield 1985; Carilli et al. 1996; Krichbaum, Alef & Witzel 1996; Sorathia et al. 1996). Another FRII radio galaxy where a well-collimated jet and counter-jet have been detected is 3C353, which is also at a relatively small redshift of 0.03 (Swain, Bridle & Baum 1998).

Radio jets are believed to be signatures of the beams carrying energy from the nucleus to the outer lobes, and there have been a number of suggestions to explain the apparent asymmetry of the jets despite the outer lobes being reasonably symmetric. These include the possibilities that (i) the jets are intrinsically symmetric but appear one-sided or highly asymmetric because the brightness of the receding one is diminished due to bulk relativistic motion while the approaching jet is boosted for the same reason (Rees 1978; Blandford & Königl 1979; Scheuer & Readhead 1979); (ii) the active beam on the counter-jet side has a low synchrotron emissivity and (iii) the energy supply is intrinsically asymmetric, but supplies energy alternately on opposite sides of the nucleus (cf. Saikia & Wiita 1982; Rudnick & Edgar 1984).

There appears to be a consensus of opinion that the observed asymmetry or one-sidedness of the jets is due to bulk relativistic motion. Although early arguments relied on the strong correlation of jet detection with core strength (cf. Saikia 1984) and the parsec- and kiloparsec-scale jets being on the same side (cf. Bridle & Perley 1984), the strongest evidence comes from the correlation of depolarization asymmetry with jet sidedness (Laing 1988; Garrington et al. 1988; Garrington, Conway & Leahy 1991). This would also be consistent with jets being seen more frequently in quasars and also being very asymmetric and one-sided in these, since quasars are believed to be inclined at smaller angles to the line of sight than radio galaxies (cf. Barthel 1989).

In this paper, using observations made with milliarcsec resolution, we report the detection of two-sided jets in a compact steep-spectrum (CSS) quasar. The CSSs are defined to be of subgalactic dimensions, with an overall size $`\stackrel{<}{}`$20 kpc and a steep high-frequency spectrum having $`\alpha `$0.5, where S$`\nu ^\alpha `$. They are believed to be young sources at an early stage of evolution (Fanti et al. 1995; Readhead et al. 1996a,b; O’Dea 1998; Owsianik & Conway 1998). We present below the results of our observations of the CSS quasar B1524$``$136 and discuss their implications.

### 1.1 B1524$``$136

The radio source B1524$``$136 is associated with a quasar at a redshift of 1.687, so that 1′′ corresponds to 8.44 kpc in a Universe with Ho= 50 km s-1 Mpc-1 and qo=0.5. It has a steep radio spectrum ($`\alpha _{750}^{5000}`$ $``$ 0.64) which appears to flatten below a few hundred MHz (cf. Steppe et al. 1995). It is a well-known low-frequency variable source (Bondi et al. 1996 and references therein), although it does not exhibit significant variations at cm wavelengths (Padrielli et al. 1987). VLA observations at 5 GHz find B1524$``$136 to be slightly extended, while at 15 GHz it is resolved into a double source (Mantovani et al. 1994). Interplanetary scintillation observations at 327 MHz show that about 50 per cent of the total flux density is from a compact structure with a size of $`\stackrel{<}{}`$100 milliarcsec (Jeyakumar et al. 2000).

## 2 Radio observations

MERLIN The source was observed with MERLIN on 1995 May 06 at 5 GHz for $``$8 hr using a bandwidth of 28 MHz. Initial values for the telescope and correlator gains were determined from a short observation of the bright unresolved calibrator B0552+398 (DA193). The primary flux density and polarization calibrator was 3C286 and the secondary calibrator was B1511$`+`$100.

Global VLBI MK2 The global VLBI MK2 observations were made on 1992 September 21 with a central frequency of 1663.99 MHz and a 2-MHz bandwidth. The array consisted of antennas at Onsala, Effelsberg, Westerbork, Jodrell Bank (the Lovell telescope), Medicina, Green Bank, Haystack, VLBA-KP, VLBA-PT, VLBA-LA, VLBA-NL, VLBA-BR and VLBA-OV. The source was tracked for a total of 7.5 hr in a snap-shot observing programme. The data were processed at the Caltech Block2 correlator.

VLBA These observations were carried out on 1996 Feb 04 with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and one antenna of the VLA recording both right- and left-circular polarization (RCP, LCP) using one-bit sampling. The source was observed at 8.4 GHz for 4.3 hr with a bandwidth of 32 MHz. Amplitude calibration was derived from measurements of the system temperature during the observations and the known antenna gain of each element of the array. Complex correlation coefficients were recovered at the Array Operations Center in Socorro. Phase gradients in frequency and time were corrected by the use of global fringe fitting (Schwab & Cotton 1983).

## 3 The radio images

Earlier VLA A-array observations of B1524$``$136 at 5 GHz show the source to be slightly extended, while the 15-GHz observations show it to be clearly double-lobed with an angular size of 0.32 arcsec along a PA of 30. The weaker southern component is 4.3 per cent polarized at 15 GHz compared to 2.5 per cent for the northern component (Mantovani et al. 1994). Recent polarization observations with the VLBA show the northern jet and hot-spot to have very high rotation measures (RMs) in the range of $``$3000 to $``$10,000 rad m-2 in the rest frame of the source (Mantovani et al. 2002).

The MERLIN 5-GHz image with an angular resolution of 133$`\times `$41 mas along a PA of 16 and an rms noise of 0.3 mJy/beam is shown in Fig. 1. This image is of higher resolution than the VLA images and reveals greater details of the structure. The two main components, northern and southern, are clearly seen and are 4.4 and 7.9 per cent polarized respectively. The peak brightness of the northern component is higher than the southern one by a factor of about 7. In addition, there is a barely-resolved component south of the northern component which does not show signficant polarized emission, the degree of polarization being $`\stackrel{<}{}`$1 per cent. This suggests that this component is likely to be the nucleus of the active galaxy.

The global MK2 VLBI image at 1.7 GHz (Fig. 2), with an angular resolution of 22$`\times `$9 mas along a PA of $``$4 and an rms noise of 1.3 mJy/beam, reveals the core clearly, making B1524$``$136 a highly non-collinear radio source. The supplement of the angle formed at the core by the outer hotspots is 62. Such distorted structures are not uncommon among CSS objects (cf. Saikia et al. 1995, 2001) and are perhaps caused by deflection of one or both jets by dense clouds of gas. However, intrinsic distortions may appear amplified by projection effects since the object is associated with a quasar and may thus be inclined at a relatively small angle to the line of sight. The peak and total core flux density estimated by fitting a two-dimensional Gaussian are 128 mJy/beam and 140 mJy respectively. At this resolution, the northern hot-spot is brighter than the southern one by a factor of about 25. In addition to the core and the hot-spots there is evidence of a jet which connects the core to the northern hotspot. By fitting two-dimensional Gaussians to the hot-spot and jet, and taking slices across the jet, we estimate the width of the jet to be about 7 mas and its length to be about 35 mas. This qualifies it to be called a jet using the definition of Bridle & Perley (1984). There is, however, a gap or region of very low emission between the core and the beginning of the radio jet. The hot-spot has a size of about 7 mas and an integrated flux density of 1400 mJy, and it must be the dominant component contributing to the scintillating flux density at 327 MHz (Jeyakumar et al. 2000) and low-frequency variability at 408 MHz (Bondi et al. 1996).

The VLBA image at 8.4 GHz has the highest resolution of our images, 6 mas, and is also the most sensitive one with an rms noise of 100 $`\mu `$Jy/beam. It shows a couple of prominent knots in the jet, which appears to bend by about 40 before entering the hot-spot (Fig. 3). The core is clearly extended to the north along the direction of the jet. A two-dimensional Gaussian fit shows the core to have peak and total flux densities of 40 mJy/beam and 48 mJy respectively, and the deconvolved size to be about 4 mas along a PA=165. The core is unresolved in the orthogonal direction. The peak flux density of the core at 1.7 GHz and its total flux density at 8.4 GHz yields a spectral index of 0.6. However, the spectrum is likely to be flatter than this because of the coarser resolution at the lower frequency and the presence of a jet-like structure close to the nucleus. There is a gap of emission of about 50 mas between the nuclear jet and the beginning of the more extended one which connects to the dominant hot-spot.

The most striking feature of the VLBA image is the dectection of a well-defined counter-jet which exhibits some three cycles of oscillation before entering the southern hot-spot. Here too there appears to be a gap of about 60 mas between the core and the beginning of the counter-jet. This is perhaps the clearest detection yet of a jet and a counter-jet in a quasar. The mean brightness of the knots in the counter-jet is weaker than the main jet by a factor of about 11, while the peak brightness of the jet-side hot-spot is brighter than the one on the counter-jet side by a factor of about 70.

## 4 Discussion

The most striking result of these observations of B1524$``$136 is the detection of both a jet and a counter-jet in a quasar. Assuming that the unified scheme for powerful radio galaxies and quasars is broadly correct (cf. Barthel 1989), the object should be inclined at less than about 45 to the line of sight. The fraction of emission from the radio core, fc, at an emitted frequency of 8 GHz is 0.09, assuming a spectral index of 0 for the core and 0.7 for the extended emission. The equivalent value of R, the ratio of the core to the extended flux density, is 0.10. Adopting the values of RT=0.0008 and $`\gamma `$=10, which give a reasonable fit to the observed distribution of R in FRII 3CR sources (cf. Saikia & Kulkarni 1994), the observed value of R for B1524$``$136 implies an angle of inclination to the line of sight, $`\theta `$20. This value does not change significantly even if we assume the core spectral index to be 0.5. Here RT is the value of R transverse to the line-of-sight and $`\gamma `$ is the bulk Lorentz factor. The ratio of the mean brightness of the knots in the jet to those in the counter-jet is 11, which implies a bulk velocity for the jet of $``$0.5c if the apparent brightness asymmetry is entirely due to relativistic beaming. This velocity estimate increases by only about 15 per cent even if the counter-jet is bent away from the jet axis by as much as 40.

The jetted side is closer to the nucleus, which is not consistent with expectations of a symmetric external environment (cf. Saikia 1981; Scheuer 1995). This hot-spot being closer and brighter is possibly due to a higher dissipation of energy on the jetted side due to interaction with a much denser external medium on the northern side. Although we do not have information to determine the RM of the southern hot-spot, evidence of such a dense medium on the northern side can be seen in the RM of this region which ranges from $``$3000 to $``$10000 rad m-2 in the rest frame of the source (Mantovani et al. 2002). The brightness asymmetry of the hot-spots in the VLBA image is higher than that of the jets by a factor of about 6. Even if the hot-spots are travelling close to the speed of the jets, the additional asymmetry in brightness would require the density in the northern side to be higher than the southern one by about 40 using a model for the propagation of jets in an asymmetric environment (Eilek & Shore 1989; Gopal-Krishna & Wiita 1991; Saikia et al. 1996).

The oscillations seen in the counter-jet are reminescent of the development of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (cf. Hardee 1987). For a helical oscillation (n=1), we can estimate the Mach number of the jet using the relation for the fastest growing oscillation or resonant wavelength given by $`\lambda _h/r5.2M/(0.66+\eta ^{1/2})`$ where $`\lambda _h`$ is the wavelength of the helical oscillations, $`r`$ is the jet radius, $`M`$ is the Mach number and $`\eta `$ is the ratio of the jet density to the density of the external medium. Estimating the average jet radius to be 3.5 mas by fitting two-dimensional Gaussians to the brighter knots in the counter-jet, we find the Mach number to be 2.5 for a light jet ($`\eta `$0) and 6.3 in the highly entrained limit ($`\eta `$1).

The gaps in emission between the core and both the jet and counter-jet could be due to quasi-continuous activity in the nucleus. The gap of about 50 mas, a jet speed of 0.5c and an angle of inclination of 20 indicates a time scale of $``$104 yr for this quasi-continuous activity. This discontinuity is on a much smaller time scale than the repeated encounters with external galaxies or mergers which may completely re-ignite radio activity in the nucleus leading to the formation of double-double radio sources. The typical time scale for these events is several Myr (cf. Schoenmakers et al. 2000, and references therein).

Although we have considered just a simple scenario above to explain the large-scale properties of the source, the situation could be far more complicated. The large projected misalignment between the two jets, plus the oscillations in the counter-jet, suggest that the bending is three-dimensional, and that different sections of both jets could be inclined at different angles to the line of sight. Also, the jets could decelerate as they traverse outwards from the nucleus, and the degree of deceleration could be different on opposite sides of the nucleus. These would all affect the observed brightness ratio of the jets.

Considering the main jet, its PA is aligned within a few degrees of the extension seen in the core and it is reasonable to assume that the jet is straight till it bends by about 40 before entering the hotspot. For a jet traversing outwards with a velocity $`v=\beta c`$, corresponding to a Lorentz factor, $`\gamma `$, the observed flux density of even the approaching jet will be Doppler diminished when $`\gamma (1\beta \mathrm{cos}\theta )>`$1. As noted earlier, the 3CRR radio sources suggest a bulk Lorentz factor, $`\gamma `$10. The observed flux density of the approaching jet would then be Doppler diminished for an angle of inclination $`\theta \stackrel{>}{}`$25; the corresponding brightness ratio being $`>`$2000. A deceleration of the jets to about 0.5c by the region where the jets are first detected would result in a decrease in Doppler dimming and might provide a viable explanation of the existence of gaps and the detection of the radio jets at about 50 mas from the nucleus.

We can test this scenario further by examining whether it provides a satisfactory explanation to the ratios of the brightnesses of the outer jets to about 3 times the rms noise in the gaps of emission. The observed ratio is $`\stackrel{>}{}`$35 for the approaching jet, and $`\stackrel{>}{}`$3 for the counter-jet. Assuming the jets to be intrinsically of reasonably uniform brightness along their lengths, the velocities discussed earlier would require the angle of inclination to be about 45, which is the dividing line between radio galaxies and quasars in the unified scheme (Barthel 1989). However, although this is consistent with the unified scheme, the observed value of core prominence would imply that the intrinsic value, RT would have to be about 20 times greater than the canonical value of 0.0008 mentioned above. It is therefore conceivable that the intrinsic brightness of the jet is lower in the gaps, and this could be further diminished by the effects of relativistic beaming.

A plausible scenario is one in which the jet is inclined at about 25 to the line of sight, and the counter-jet is bent by about 50 such that it is about 75 to the line of sight. This will decrease the degree of Doppler dimming, making the counter-jet visible, and will also help explain the large observed misalignment of the source. The velocity required to explain the brightness asymmetry of the jets is then $``$0.6c. Although this does not exhaust the range of scenarios that might explain the situation, it provides a reasonable explanation of the large-scale features of the source. A deeper image to detect radio emission in the gaps between the nucleus and the jets, and proper motion studies of the knots should enable us to build a better model for the source.

## 5 Concluding remarks

We report the detection of a well-defined radio jet and a counter-jet in the compact steep-spectrum quasar B1524$``$136, which is almost unique in a radio quasar. We present MERLIN, global VLBI and VLBA observations of the source. The radio source is highly non-collinear and asymmetric, and was reported recently to have a high RM of several thousand rad m-2 on the northern side. An angle of inclination of about 25, a jet speed of about 0.6c, an intrinsic misalignment of about 50, such that the counter-jet is at about 75 to the line of sight, and a density asymmetry on opposite sides of the nucleus by a factor of $``$40 provides a consistent explanation of the observed large-scale properties of the source.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank an anonymous referee for his valuable suggestions to widen the scope of the discussions. The Very Long Baseline Array and the Very Large Array are facilities of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA, operated by Associated Universities, Inc., for the National Science Foundation. MERLIN is a UK national facility operated by the University of Manchester on behalf of PPARC. We thank the staff of the different observatories which made these observations possible. We have made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.