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# Two spaces that already found their geometer in the thirties

## Abstract

Giorgio Parisi’s recent speculations on the concept of continuous dimension are compared with Von Neumann’s serious work

On a paper appeared recentely at the Arxiv Parisi-02  Giorgio Parisi expresses his opinion that some geometer has to mathematically formalize the concepts of non-integer-dimensional vector spaces and of matrix-action on them, euristically occurring many times in Physics, e.g. in the dimensional regularization usual in Quantum Field Theory Weinberg-96  or in the $`ϵ`$-expansion of Statistical Mechanics Fisher-99  and claimed to be important for Spin Glass Theory (perhaps also as to the serious literature Bolthausen-02 ).

As any serious physicist, mathematician or mathematical-physicist should know such a geometer has a name: John Von Neumann, who realized what Parisi is looking for yet in the thirties, in a way I will briefly review demanding to some serious literature for details Von-Neumann-88 , Petz-Redei-95 ,Redei-98 ,Redei-01 , Connes-94  Connes-98 ,Landi-97 , Gracia-Bondia-Varilly-Figueroa-01 , Segre-02 .

Given a D-dimensional linear space V on the field $`𝕂`$ let us define its projective geometry $`PG(V)`$ as the set of all its linear subspaces:

$$PG(V):=\underset{k=0}{\overset{D}{}}G_{k,D}(𝕂)$$
(1)
where $`G_{k,D}(V)`$ is the $`k^{th}`$ Grassmannian of V, namely the set of all the k-dimensional linear subspaces of V.

Introduced on $`PG(V)`$ the partial ordering relation:

$$ab:=aba,bPG(V)$$
(2)
the partially-ordered-set $`(PG(V),)`$ is an atomic lattice, with:

$`ab`$ $`:=a{\displaystyle b}`$ (3)
$`ab`$ $`:=a{\displaystyle b}`$ (4)
whose atoms are the one-dimensional subspaces, namely the elements of $`G_{1,D}(𝕂)`$, said the points of the projective geometry of V.

It may be easily verified that the following map:

$$d(a):=dim(a)aPG(V)$$
(5)
is a dimension function for the lattice $`(PG(V),)`$. Since:

$$\mathrm{}Range(d)=\{0,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1},\mathrm{},D\}$$
(6)
the lattice $`(PG(V),)`$ admits a finite dimension function and is, conseguentially, modular.

Indeed eq.6 completely characterizes the nature of the analyzed projective geometry:

* the discrete nature of Range(d), encoding the atomicity of PG(V), tells us that that it doesn’t admit ”intermediate subspaces” lying between points and lines, between lines and planes an so on
* the finite nature of Range(d), encoding the modularity of PG(V), tells us that that it doesn’t admit subspaces of arbitrary large dimensionality

Let us now suppose that V is an infinite-dimensional, separable vector space.

$`(PG(V),)`$ is again a lattice on which the map d defined in eq.5 is again a dimension function. In this case, anyway, such a map is no more finite:

$$\mathrm{}Range(d)=\{0,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1},\mathrm{},\mathrm{}\}$$
(7)
and the lattice $`(PG(V),)`$ is no more modular.

Indeed, again, eq.7 completely characterizes the nature of the analyzed projective geometry:

* the discrete nature of Range(d), encoding the atomicity of PG(V), tells us that that it doesn’t admit ”intermediate subspaces” lying between points and lines, between lines and planes an so on
* the nonfinite nature of Range(d), encoding the nonmodularity of PG(V), tells us that it admits subspaces of arbitrary large dimensionality

Let us observe, at this point, that in both the analyzed cases the structure of the projective geometry PG(V) rules the Representation Theory of Lie groups on G, as may be easily understood looking at reduction of representations.

The correct way of introducing ”intermediate subspaces” of suitable projective geometries lied at the heart of Von Neumann’s classification of factors (completed by Alain Connes):

the key ingredient is the notion of relative dimension:

given a noncommutative space, namely a Von Neumann algebra A acting on an Hilbert space $``$, two projectors $`p_1`$ and $`p_2`$ belonging to A are called equivalent w.r.t. A (this fact being denoted as $`p_1_Ap_2`$) if there exist in A a partial isometry between $`Range(p_1)`$ and $`Range(p_2)`$, a condition that may be intuitively seen as the requirement that, ”from the viewpoint of A”, the dimensionality of the spaces on which $`p_1`$ and $`p_2`$ project are equal.

Such a notion of relative equivalence of projections immediately induces a partial ordering $`_A`$ on the projections of A, according to which the projection $`p_1`$ is considered less or equal to another projection $`p_2`$ w.r.t. A if is has a dimension w.r.t. A less or equal to that of $`p_2`$.

The resulting notion of relative dimension $`d_A`$ w.r.t. a noncommutative space A allowed Von Neumann to introduce his celebrated classification of factors:

* A is of type n-dimensional, discrete ( $`Type(A)=I_n`$ ) iff $`Range(d_A)=\{0,1,\mathrm{}n\}`$
* A is of type infinite, discrete ( $`Type(A)=I_{\mathrm{}}`$ ) iff $`Range(d_A)=\{0,1,\mathrm{}\mathrm{}\}`$
* A is of type finite, continuous ( $`Type(A)=II_1`$ ) $`Range(d_A)=[0,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}]`$
* A is of type infinite, continuous ( $`Type(A)=II_{\mathrm{}}`$ ) iff $`Range(d_A)=[0,\mathrm{}]`$
* A is of type purely infinite ( $`Type(A)=III`$ ) iff $`Range(d_A)=\{0,\mathrm{}\}`$

As it has been strongly emphasized by Miklos Redei, Von Neumann explicitely realized that what he was doing was nothing but Theory of Noncommutative Cardinality, i.e. the theory of noncommutative cardinal numbers describing the ”sizes” (and ”infinity’s degrees”) of noncommutative sets:

$`\mathrm{}`$ the whole algorithm of Cantor theory is such that the most of it goes over in this case. One can prove various theorems on the additivity of equivalence and the transitivity of equivalence, which one would normally expect, so that one can introduce a theory of alephs here, just as in set theory. $`\mathrm{}`$ I may call this dimension since for all matrices of the ordinary space, is nothing else but dimension” (Unpublished, cited in Redei-98 )

”One can prove most of the Cantoreal properties of finite and infinite, and, finally, one can prove that given a Hilbert space and a ring in it , a simple ring in it, either all linear sets except the null sets are infinite (in which case this concept of alephs gives you nothing new), or else the dimensions, the equivalence classes, behave exactly like numbers and there are two qualitatively different cases. The dimensions either behave like integers, or else they behave like all real numbers. There are two subcases, namely there is either a finite top or there is not” (Unpublished, cited in Redei-98 )

This fact has induced me Segre-02  to suggest a notation remarking it by the explicit introduction of the following notion of noncommutative cardinality:

$$card_{NC}(A):=_{𝒵(A)}^{}card_{NC}(A_\lambda )𝑑\nu (\lambda )$$

where:

$$A=_{𝒵(A)}^{}A_\lambda 𝑑\nu (\lambda ),𝒵(A_\lambda )=\{𝕀\}\lambda 𝒵(A)$$

and:

* A HAS NONCOMMUTATIVE CARDINALITY EQUAL TO $`n`$:

$$cardinality_{NC}(A)=n:=Type(A)=I_n$$
(8)
* A HAS NONCOMMUTATIVE CARDINALITY EQUAL TO $`\mathrm{}_0`$:

$$cardinality_{NC}(A)=\mathrm{}_0:=Type(A)=I_{\mathrm{}}$$
(9)
* A HAS NONCOMMUTATIVE CARDINALITY EQUAL TO $`\mathrm{}_1`$:

$$cardinality_{NC}(A)=\mathrm{}_1:=Type(A)\{II_1,II_{\mathrm{}}\}$$
(10)
* A HAS NONCOMMUTATIVE CARDINALITY EQUAL TO $`\mathrm{}_2`$:

$$cardinality_{NC}(A)=\mathrm{}_2:=Type(A)=III$$
(11)

Let us consider now a noncommutative space A of noncommutative cardinality $`\mathrm{}_1`$:

all the category-equivalence’s theorems giving foundations to Noncommutative Geometry allow to look at the lattice of projections $`P(A)`$ as the projective geometry of A.

$`P(A)`$ is, anyway, nonatomic, i.e. it is a projective geometry without points, explicitely manifesting the phenomenon of continuous geometry: according to the basic ”noncommutative metaphore” (formalized by the mentioned category-equivalence’s theorems) looking at A ”as if it was an algebra of functions on a new kind of space” we can infer that, in this case ”such a strange kind of space ” has subspaces of any integer dimension $`ϵ`$ between zero and one.

If A is finite, furthermore, the geometric structure of these ”strange kind of subspaces of noninteger dimension ” is astonishing: considered a subfactor B of A the ratio between the relative dimension w.r.t. B  and the relative dimension w.r.t. A allows to define the Jones’ index of B w.r.t. A whose role in Knot Theory realizes a link to Algebraic Topology that has led to some of the more extraordinary results of the last decade both in Mathematics and in Physics Birman-97 , Murasugi-96 , Kodiyalam-Sunder-01 , Ohtsuki-02 .

As to the second mathematical object Parisi is looking for, namely a mathematical formalization of the action of matrices on noninteger-dimensional linear spaces, let us observe that the structure of the projective geometry PG(A) rules the Representation Theory of G by automorphisms.

The usual application of Noncommutative Geometry as to Serious Quantum Statistical Mechanics and Serious Quantum Ergodic Theory Thirring-81 , Thirring-83 , Simon-93 , Ruelle-99 , Benatti-93 , Alicki-Fannes-01  could lead to think erroneously that the only role Noncommutative Geometry plays in Physics concerns its role as to Quantum Mechanics:

this is not, anyway, true since Noncommutative Geometry may be used also to analyze many mathematical structures appearing in Classical (i.e. non quantum) Physics, among which it has certainly to be mentioned the other great mathematical adventure concerning spaces with non-integer dimension: Fractal Geometry Falconer-90 :

as an example, introduced the spectral triple $`(A,,D)`$ of 1-dimensional noncommutative calculus:

* $$:=L^2(S^{(1)},d\stackrel{}{x}_{Lebesgue})$$
(12)
* $$A:=L^{\mathrm{}}(S^{(1)},d\stackrel{}{x}_{Lebesgue})$$
(13)
where a function $`fA`$ is seen as a multiplication operator:

$$(f\psi )(t):=f(t)\psi (t)fA,\psi $$
(14)
* D is the linear operator on $``$ defined by:

$$De_n:=sign(n)e_n,e_n(\theta ):=e^{in\theta }\theta S^{(1)}$$
(15)

and denoted by D the Hausdorff dimension of the Julia set $`J[p_c(z)]`$:

$$J[p_c(z)]=\{z:\underset{n}{sup}|p_c^{(n)}(z)|<\mathrm{}\}$$
(16)
of the quadratic maps on the complex plane $`p_c(z):=z^2+c`$, Alain Connes proved that:

1. $`|d_{NC}Z|`$ is an infinitesimal of order $`\frac{1}{D}`$
2. $$\lambda >0:(_{J[p_c(z)]}f𝑑\mathrm{\Lambda }_D)=\lambda _{NC}f(Z)|D|^1|d_{NC}Z|^DfC(J[p_c(z)])$$
(17)
where $`d\mathrm{\Lambda }_D`$ is the Hausdorff measure on $`J[p_c(z)]`$.

The eq.17 tells us that the integral w.r.t. the Hausdorff measure of continuous functions over the Julia set $`J[p_c(z)]`$ may be computed as a noncommutative integral in the spectral triple $`(A,,D)`$.

Since the Mandelbrot’s set $``$ is linked to the family of Julia sets $`J[p_c(z)]`$ by the condition:

$$=\{c:J[p_c(z)]\text{ is connected }\}$$
(18)
eq.17 could be useful to investigate some of the still unknown properties of one of the most precious diamonds of Fractal Geometry: Mandelbrot’s set $``$.

Beside all the mentioned reasons to think that the geometer Parisi is looking for was John Von Neumann in the thirties (together with his most prominent successor Alain Connes), let us observe that the notion of non-integer dimensional vector space obtained through Noncommutative Geometry strongly differs from the strategy Parisi himself proposes in order of obtaining a definition of a non-integral dimensional vector space, strategy consisting in:

1. considering a suitable family $`\{S_i\}`$ of submanifolds of the D-dimensional euclidean space $`(^D,\delta =\delta _{\mu \nu }dx^\mu dx^\nu )`$
2. making the analitical continuation in D of the formulas:

$$\mu (S_i)=f_i(D)$$
(19)
expressing the (induced)-measure of each submanifold $`S_i`$.

It is sufficient, anyway, to think just some minute to realize how sick is Parisi’s illusion that such a strategy could lead to characterize in a meaningful way a notion of non-integer dimensional linear space:

which is the family $`\{S_i\}`$ to be considered ?

and why, even before of taking any analytical continuation in D, one should think that their measures encode all the geometrical structure of $`(^D,\delta =\delta _{\mu \nu }dx^\mu dx^\mu )`$ such as, for example, the measure of a submanifold not belonging to the chosen family?


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# Perturbative approach to the hydrogen atom in strong magnetic field

## Abstract

The states of hydrogen atom with principal quantum number $`n3`$ and zero magnetic quantum number in constant homogeneous magnetic field $``$ are considered. The perturbation theory series is summed with the help of Borel transformation and conformal mapping of the Borel variable. Convergence of approximate energy eigenvalues and their agreement with corresponding existing results are observed for external fields up to $`n^35`$. The possibility of restoring the asymptotic behaviour of energy levels using perturbation theory coefficients is also discussed.

The own magnetic fields of some astrophysical objects reach very high values . If we are interesting of the atomic spectra in these external fields, it is convenient to introduce natural measure of field strength – the atomic magnetic field $`_0e^3m^2c/\mathrm{}^3=2.55\times 10^9`$ G. The fields $``$ up to one half of $`_0`$ are detected in vicinity of some white dwarfs. Neutron stars possess fields up to $`10^4_0`$. For correct interpretation of the observations results it is desirable to know the atomic hydrogen spectrum in this range of external fields. For this aim, computations based on adiabatic approach with Landau level as initial approximation were accomplished . It will be shown here which part of the desired external field range could be covered with the help of the usual expansion in powers of $``$, starting from the Coulomb levels of hydrogen atom. We involved in the computations many orders of perturbation theory (up to 75th order). Summation of the series was performed with the help of Borel transformation, supplemented by conformal mapping of Borel variable.

The Borel summation method was introduced into quantum field theory long enough (see e.g. ). It has been tested on some quantum-mechanical problems (one of many examples is described in ) and continues to find applications in modern works . Large hopes on the possibility to advance into strong coupling region were related with Borel summation of the perturbation series. Some rather simple problems, in which details can be traced and compared with corresponding exact results, supported this optimism. For example, for the funnel potential, $`V\left(r\right)=1/r+gr`$, by applying conformal mapping of the Borel variable and Padé-summation of the Borel transformant, the ground state energy at $`g\mathrm{}`$ was obtained in the form $`E\left(g\right)=Cg^\nu `$ with $`0.2`$ % precision for index $`\nu `$ and $`5`$ % precision for coefficient $`C`$ . It became clear later that such a successful summation presents a special but not the general case. One can guess that this success is a consequence of simplicity of this problem. In contrast, asymptotic behaviour of energy levels in Stark and Zeeman effects comes into action at very large external fields values. For the Stark effect it is practically impossible now to reach the region of true asymptotic by perturbation series summation. An intermediate linear asymptotic is observed instead .

To introduce notations and scale we write down the Hamiltonian

$$H=\frac{1}{2}^2\frac{1}{r}+\frac{1}{8}g\left(r^2z^2\right)\widehat{H}_0+g\widehat{H}_1.$$
(1)
Here $`g^2`$, and hereafter we use units $`\mathrm{}=c=m=e=1`$. In (1) we drop the elementary contribution of electron’s spin and consider only states with magnetic quantum number $`m0`$. We can expand $`E\left(g\right)`$ as a formal series in powers of $`g`$:

$$E\left(g\right)=\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}E_kg^k.$$
(2)
Now, we have to obtain hypersucceptibilities $`E_k`$. We could use the moment method for this aim. This method is especially useful in the cases when variables in the Schrödinger equation can not be separated. Obviously the Zeeman effect presents just such a problem. In the previous work  the moment method was applied to recurrent evaluation of hypersucceptibilities. Somewhat different version of the moment method was introduced in the work .

For the four lower ”isolated” hydrogen levels we immediately use here the results of ref. . Unfortunately the computer code, employed in the work  for the relatively more complicated case of degenerate $`3s`$ and $`3d`$ states, contained a mistake111We are thankful to Prof. V. D. Ovsyannikov for drawing our attention to this mistake.. Therefore we carried out new computation of $`3s`$ and $`3d`$ hypersucceptibilities. Results of computation for some orders are presented in Table 1. These results are in agreement with results of the work  where high-order hypersucceptibilities were obtained at the first time (but the method used in  is much more complicated than the moment method is).

Table 1

| Hypersucceptibilities of degenerate states | |
| --- | --- |
| $`k`$ | $`E_k`$ for 3s state |
| 1 | 19.57851476711195477229924488394 |
| 2 | -7992.558488642566993349104381687 |
| 3 | 9951240.466276842310264046307800 |
| 4 | -20931559882.53444368634980579917 |
| 5 | 58826900682409.79349115290157121 |
| 25 | 1.3793233851820609414463787913215$`\times 10^{94}`$ |
| 50 | -9.3227132696889616617788676903516$`\times 10^{211}`$ |
| 75 | 2.8053533970811704326574930831176$`\times 10^{340}`$ |
| $`k`$ | $`E_k`$for 3d state |
| 1 | 5.171485232888045227700755116050 |
| 2 | -1017.425886357433006650895618312 |
| 3 | 738127.8247387826897359536921995 |
| 4 | -923576528.5544112941189442008231 |
| 5 | 1677908319019.727217770438272530 |
| 25 | 1.0431217771758614011812311858395$`\times 10^{92}`$ |
| 50 | -6.0721978561446884300072726553011$`\times 10^{209}`$ |
| 75 | 1.7302552995055432680731087635037$`\times 10^{338}`$ |

As the order $`k`$ increases, hypersucceptibilities grow as a factorial

$$E_k\stackrel{~}{E}_k=\left(1\right)^{k+1}C_{nl}a_n^k\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(2k+\beta _{nl}\right),$$
(3)
where $`a_n=\left(n^2/\pi \right)^2`$, $`\beta _{nl}=2n1+\frac{\left(1\right)^l}{2}`$, and $`C_{nl}`$ are not essential for us; one can find values of them in  and references therein. Eq. (3) implies that series (2) is asymptotical and the formal sum of such a series is ambiguous. But in fact the choice of the summation method is restricted: physical considerations impose analytical properties of the function $`E\left(g\right)`$, which the true sum of series (2) is to reproduce. In the unphysical region, at $`g<0`$, the diamagnetic perturbation $`g\widehat{H}_1`$ changes its sign, the total Hamiltonian becomes ”open” and the possibility of a spontaneous ionization of the atom appears. Therefore energy eigenvalue should have imaginary part at $`g<0`$ and the function $`E\left(g\right)`$ should have a cut along real negative semi-axis of $`g`$ plane. Summation with the help of Borel transformation results in a function having the left cut, besides the discontinuity on this cut is a smooth function of $`g`$.

The Borel transformant $`B\left(w\right)`$ of function $`E\left(g\right)`$ is a series with coefficients $`B_k=E_k/\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(2k+b_0\right)`$:

$$B\left(w\right)=\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}B_kw^k,$$
(4)
where $`b_0`$ is an arbitrary constant. The choice of $`b_0`$ can affect, in principle, on the numerical results, but changing of its value within interval $`\left[0.5b_05\right]`$ reveals weakly, so the choice of $`b_0`$ was made rather by convenience. The numerical calculations in this work were performed at $`b_0=3`$. The series (4) converges, as usual, within the circle $`\left|w\right|<1/a_n`$. It is easy to check that the singularity of $`B\left(w\right)`$ is located at $`w=1/a_n`$, substituting asymptotical coefficients $`\stackrel{~}{E}_k`$ in place of $`E_k`$. Energy of the level is related with the function $`B\left(w\right)`$ by an integral transform

$$E\left(g\right)=_0^{\mathrm{}}e^xB\left(gx^2\right)x^{b_01}𝑑x.$$
(5)
For the numerical integration in the right hand side to be successful, an analytical continuation of $`B\left(w\right)`$ from its convergence circle on the domain, containing the image of the entire real positive $`w`$ semi-axis is required. For this aim we performed conformal mapping of the Borel variable $`w`$. Many sufficiently effective versions of this mapping are appropriate. The main point is that the nearest singularity of the Borel transformant should be removed to infinity. Here we used the mapping

$$y=\frac{a_nw}{1+a_nw}$$
(6)
which was employed in the work . As is explained in , this transformation is optimal in the sense that it diminishes the influence of all possible singularities of $`B\left(w\right)`$ from the unphysical region. Transformation (6) is equivalent to the following series rearrangement

$$B\left(w\right)=\underset{m=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}D_my^m,D_0=B_0,D_m=\underset{k=1}{\overset{m}{}}\frac{\left(m1\right)!}{\left(k1\right)!\left(mk\right)!}\frac{B_k}{a^k},m1.$$
(7)
To improve the convergence we applied Padé summation to rearranged series (7)

$$B\left(w\right)\left[M/N\right]\left(y\right)P_M\left(y\right)/Q_N\left(y\right),$$
(8)
where $`P_M`$ and $`Q_N`$ are polynomials of degree $`M`$ and $`N`$ respectively.

We performed computations using various Padé approximants and straightforward summation of the rearranged series (7). To illustrate the influence of computational accuracy on summation results we compared ones made in double precision (16 decimal digits) with these in quadruple precision (32 decimal digits).

Some graphs of the obtained binding energy $`\left(\right)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}E\left(^2\right)`$ as a function of parameter $`\gamma n^3`$ are given in Figs. 1-3. As compared with the previous work , the region of external field values for which these eigenvalues are successfully recovered is extended by a factor of about 5. As usual the precision of the sum considerably increases at lower $``$ values. For instance in the case of $`3d`$ state with the help of approximants \[N/N\](y) in the range $`27N32`$ we get binding energies with 4 stable decimal digits at $`\gamma =4`$, with 6 digits at $`\gamma =3`$ and with 12 digits at $`\gamma =1`$. Note that in the work  Padé approximants were applied immediately to summation of divergent series (2). These approximants imitate the discontinuity on the cut $`g<0`$ by a set of delta-functions, and it is a very rough approximation. At the same time as a result of Borel summation the same discontinuity is represented by a smooth function of $`g`$. Our calculations confirmed that mapping (6) is indeed very effective: after this mapping Padé summation of the Borel transformant improves the convergence only a little and for some cases its straightforward summation appears to be sufficient – see Figs. 1-3.

One technical detail is of principal importance for perturbation series summation by any method. The precision of the entire chain of computations must increase as the number of involved successive terms increases. This is simply a consequence of the fact that the sum, being of the order of unity, arises as a result of very large alternating sign terms compensation.

It seems at first sight that the requirement of high precision is not necessary for the Borel transformant: all essential alternating sign coefficients $`B_k`$ have about the same order. But any numerical procedure of analytical continuation usually requires high precision. Turning to series rearrangement (7) we see that binomial coefficients entering the sum for $`D_k`$ are changing 20 orders of magnitude (in the present case). Obviously, we have enormous loss of precision performing the sum for $`D_k`$ in (7). Therefore, if we want to use all $`B_k`$ up to 75th order, the precision of $`B_k`$ coefficients should be better than $`10^{20}`$. In our calculations, the precision of $`E_k`$ and, consequently, the precision of $`B_k`$ was $`10^{30}`$, so the precision of $`D_k`$ was decreasing from $`10^{30}`$ at $`k=0`$ to about $`10^{10}`$ at $`k=75`$.

Let us turn now to the problem of restoring of the $`E\left(g\right)`$ dependence at large $`g`$ values. We shall focus on the ground state. First of all we note that in work  an interpolation expression for the ground (tightly bound) state energy was obtained. In spite of the multiple anticrossings at $`300`$ and of the related computations complicating, the fit of  provides precision within $`10^3÷10^2`$ in the range of $``$ values $`0.110^4`$.

The ground level energy asymptotic at large $`g`$ (or, the same, at large $``$) is given by

$$E\left(\right)\frac{1}{2}\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{ln}^2\left(c\right)+\mathrm{}$$
(9)
(see, for example, ). Here $`c`$ is a dimensionless constant. First, we consider the possibility of restoring of the leading term parameters in (9) – the power index and the constant multiplier – using perturbation theory. Methods applicable to this problem are considered in . Note that for coming of the asymptotic into action the leading term in (9) should be large comparing with the correction term. One can look, for example, at the results of work  (where the values of $`\left(\right)`$ were obtained by variational procedure) and ensure that only if $`>10^2`$ then the binding energy will make less than 20% of $`\frac{1}{2}`$. So, we can speculate about restoring of asymptotic parameters only if we succeeded in summation of $`E\left(g\right)`$ in this region of external fields. But we failed to do this having used only 75 coefficients $`E_k`$, so the linear asymptotic couldn’t be restored. This was confirmed in our attempts to apply methods suggested in the works  – no plausible result was obtained. In the method of Ref. , parameters of asymptotic of the function $`E\left(g\right)`$ were linked to behaviour of coefficients $`D_k`$ in dependence of their number $`k`$ at large $`k`$. Namely, if $`E\left(g\right)Cg^\nu `$ at $`g\mathrm{}`$, then in our case we get similarly to

$$D_k\frac{Ck^{\nu 1}}{a_n^k\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(2\nu \right)\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(2\nu +b_0\right)}.$$

Then it was suggested to perform the fit of $`C`$ and $`\nu `$ using known $`D_k`$ and their errors by means of the $`\chi ^2`$ method. But in our case the value of $`\chi ^2`$ in its minimum was extremely large (about $`10^8`$ even if we tried to fit only 5 coefficients $`D_k`$ at statistical error $`\sigma =10^{10}`$, and we had no reason to increase this value of $`\sigma `$). This result indicates that the asymptotic of $`D_k`$ comes into action at values of $`k`$ much larger than 75.

The power index in $`E\left(g\right)`$ asymptotic could be traced also using the method of . This method concerns of taking of the limit of the expression $`{\displaystyle \frac{wB^{}\left(w\right)}{B\left(w\right)}}`$ at $`w\mathrm{}`$ (or, the same, the limit of $`{\displaystyle \frac{y\left(1y\right)B^{}\left(y\right)}{B\left(y\right)}}`$ at $`y1`$), that gives exactly the value of $`\nu `$. But numerical calculation showed that in the region where $`B\left(y\right)`$ was recovered (at $`y`$ close to $`1`$ we obviously should have increasing of error due to finite number of $`D_k`$ used) we did not get reasonable precision for the limit value.

Fig. 4 illustrates precision of the linear asymptotic. The curve plotted represents the binding energy (we used here formula (6) of Ref. ) divided by Landau energy versus external field. One can see that at $`100`$ error of asymptotic is more than 20%, and only at $`1000`$ precision reaches level of 1%. So, it appears to be impossible to obtain asymptotic parameters corresponding to Landau level for the Zeeman effect.

Now, the question arises, whether we can subtract Landau energy from $`E\left(\right)`$ and trace the second term of asymptotic. But this term doesn’t work even at $`10^5`$, which the graph of Fig. 5 is to explain. We plotted there the values of binding energy, and the value of its logarithmic asymptotic. We have chosen constant $`c`$ in such a way, that the value of logarithmic term $`\left(1/2\right)\mathrm{ln}^2\left(c\right)`$ of the asymptotic coincides with the data of  at $`=10^5`$. This occurs at $`c=0.010`$ and the smallness of this constant indicates that the value of $``$ is too small for speaking about asymptotic.

And one can see that asymptotic curve and curve of exact data have considerably different slopes. It means that we have to recover dependence of the energy at the values of external fields larger than $`10^5`$. But it is really impossible having known only 75 coefficients $`E_k`$. Thus, knowledge of 75 hypersucceptibilities did not allow to restore neither parameters of the Landau asymptotic nor logarithmic asymptotic of binding energy.


text:
# The Likely Near-Infrared Counterpart to the Anomalous X-Ray Pulsar 1E 1048.1-5937Based in part on observations from the 6.5 m Baade telescope operated by the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington for the Magellan Consortium, a collaboration between the Carnegie Observatories, the University of Arizona, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are a small group of neutron stars with spin periods falling in a narrow range (6–12 s), very soft X-ray spectra, and with no evidence of binary companions (see Mereghetti et al. 2002 for a recent review). Their X-ray luminosities greatly exceed the power available from spin-down of the pulsars. These objects are thus believed to be isolated neutron stars either having extremely strong ($`10^{14}`$ G) surface magnetic fields (“magnetars”) or accreting from a residual accretion disk. X-ray bursts detected from the AXPs 1E 1048.1$``$5937 (Gavriil, Kaspi, & Woods 2002) and 1E 2259+586 (Kaspi & Gavriil 2002) have strengthened an already suspected connection to the soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs). The recent identification of optical/infrared counterparts to the AXPs 4U 0142+61 (Hulleman, van Kerkwijk, & Kulkarni 2000) and 1E 2259+586 (Hulleman et al. 2001) and the discovery of optical pulsations from 4U 0142+61 (Kern & Martin 2002) favor the magnetar scenario for these objects. In this paper, we report on the detection of a third AXP counterpart, and the first measurement of infrared colors for one of these objects.

The AXP 1E 1048.1$``$5937 ($`l`$=288$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$3, $`b`$=$``$0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5) was discovered serendipitously in 1979 during an Einstein observation of the Carina Nebula (Seward, Charles, & Smale 1986). It has since been extensively observed by a series of X-ray missions including EXOSAT (Seward et al. 1986), Ginga (Corbet & Day 1990), ROSAT (Mereghetti 1995), ASCA (Corbet & Mihara 1997; Paul et al. 2000), RXTE (Mereghetti, Israel, & Stella 1998; Baykal et al. 2000; Kaspi et al. 2001; Gavriil et al. 2002), and XMM-Newton (Tiengo et al. 2002). These observations establish the source as a 6.4 s pulsar that is spinning down, with an absorbed power-law + blackbody X-ray spectrum and occasional SGR-like bursts. The high column density to the source indicates that it lies behind the Carina Nebula, setting a lower limit on its distance of $`d2.8`$ kpc (Seward et al. 1986; Özel, Psaltis, & Kaspi 2001). Previous searches for an optical counterpart have been unsuccessful (Seward et al. 1986; Mereghetti, Caraveo, & Bignami 1992) with the resultant limiting magnitudes $`BVR24.3`$ (Israel, Mereghetti, & Stella 2001).

## 2 OPTICAL AND INFRARED OBSERVATIONS

We obtained optical images of the field around 1E 1048.1$``$5937 on 2001 March 24 using the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Magellan Instant Camera (MagIC) at the west f/11 Nasmyth focus of the 6.5 m Baade (Magellan I) telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. MagIC is a 2048$`\times `$2048 SITe CCD with a 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$069 pixel-1 plate scale and a 142″ field of view. Our observations were made using the Sloan filter set (Fukugita et al. 1996). We obtained 10 min exposures in the $`r^{}`$ and $`i^{}`$ bands. The seeing during the night was around 1″. The limiting magnitudes (3$`\sigma `$) reached were $`r^{}=24.8`$ and $`i^{}=24.4`$. Photometric standards GD 108 and RU 152F were observed at various airmasses for calibration (Landolt 1992)

We also obtained $`JHK_s`$ near-infrared images of the 1E 1048.1$``$5937 field on 2002 February 25 using the Ohio State Infrared Imager/Spectrometer (OSIRIS; Depoy et al. 1993) at the f/14 tip-tilt focus of the 4 m Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. The detector in OSIRIS was a Rockwell HAWAII HgCdTe 1024$`\times `$1024 array. We used the OSIRIS f/7 camera, which had a 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$161 pixel-1 plate scale and a 93″ field of view. For each wavelength band, we obtained nine images in a 3$`\times `$3 grid with offsets of about 10″ to allow for correction of the rapidly varying infrared sky background and to minimize the effect of bad

pixels. These individual images were shifted and combined in the course of the data reduction. Our total exposure in each band was 4.5 min in $`J`$, 9 min in $`H`$, and 4.5 min in $`K_s`$. During the night the seeing was good, varying from 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$8 to 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$2. The limiting magnitudes (3$`\sigma `$) reached were $`J=21.3`$, $`H=20.2`$, and $`K_s=19.3`$. The near-IR photometric standards 9136 and LHS 2397a of Persson et al. (1998) were observed for calibration.

We obtained deeper $`JHK_s`$ images of the target field on 2002 April 8 with the “Classic Cam” near-infrared imager (Persson et al. 1992, 2001) at the west f/11 Nasmyth focus on the 6.5 m Baade telescope. The detector was a Rockwell NICMOS3 HgCdTe 256$`\times `$256 array. We selected the camera in its low-resolution mode, with a 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$112 pixel-1 plate scale and a 29″ field of view. The total exposure for 1E 1048.1$``$5937 in each band was 10.5 min in $`J`$, 18 min in $`H`$, and 15 min in $`K_s`$. The same dithering and data reduction scheme was employed as with the CTIO observations. The conditions were good, with the seeing around 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$8. The limiting magnitudes (3$`\sigma `$) reached were $`J=21.7`$, $`H=20.8`$, and $`K_s=19.7`$. The same IR standards were used as in the CTIO observations.

We used the IRAF data analysis package to reduce our data, including the DAOPHOT routines for crowded field photometry.

## 3 X-RAY POSITION AND ASTROMETRY

We derived the position of 1E 1048.1$``$5937 using data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory public data archive. The source was observed with the imaging detector of the Chandra High-Resolution Camera (HRC-I; Zombeck et al. 1995) on 2001 July 4 for 9.87 ks. We analyzed these data using the CIAO v2.2 data analysis package.111See http://asc.harvard.edu/ciao/ To maximize the absolute positional accuracy of the data, we used the CIAO thread (processing recipe) fix\_offset to check for systematic aspect offsets and apply the latest alignment file (2002 May 2) as necessary. Using the CIAO tool celldetect, we obtained the following source position: R.A. = 10h50m07$`\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}`$14 and Decl. = $``$59°53′21$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$4 (equinox J2000.0), with an error radius of $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}6`$ (90% confidence) dominated by the spacecraft attitude uncertainty. No other sources were detected in the Chandra image.

We note that our Chandra position differs significantly (7$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6) from the position reported by Tiengo et al. (2002) from XMM-Newton observations: R.A. = 10h50m06$`\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}`$3, Decl. = $``$59°53′17″ (equinox J2000.0), with an error radius of 4″. We reanalyzed these data and obtained a position consistent with that of Tiengo et al. (2002). However, an examination of the XMM-Newton spacecraft attitude history during this observation indicates an unusually large and oscillating offset between the commanded and attitude-reconstructed viewing directions, with a mean value of 10$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 and an amplitude of 2″. In consulting with the XMM-Newton User Support Group, we learned that such offsets usually (but not always) reflect problems with the attitude measurement accuracy rather than a pointing error, resulting in an erroneous reconstruction of the spacecraft attitude and the source coordinates (M. Santos-Lleo 2002, private communication). We were later informed by the XMM-Newton project that they have revised their attitude determination algorithm, placing less emphasis on the satellite pitch angle as determined from the fine sun sensor in the unusual case of tracking on a single guide star, as in this observation (F. Jansen 2002, private communication). This has led to a revised XMM-Newton position: R.A. = 10h50m07$`\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}`$31, Decl. = $``$59°53′23$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1, equinox J2000.0, error radius 4″. This is consistent with the Chandra position. We show both the original and the revised positions in Figure 1. We thus disregard the XMM-Newton position reported by Tiengo et al. (2002).

An astrometric solution for the optical images was derived by matching about 20 unsaturated field stars with the USNO-A2.0 catalog of astrometric standards (Monet et al. 1998). Since the field of view of our infrared images is too small to allow a direct tie to the USNO-A2.0 system, we derived an astrometric solution for these images indirectly by matching stars with our optical images. The total nominal uncertainty for locating the Chandra source position on our optical/infrared images is 1″

(90% confidence), which includes the systematic uncertainty of the USNO-A2.0 catalog (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$25; Monet et al. 1998), the transformation uncertainty between the optical image and the USNO-A2.0 catalog (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$4), and the uncertainty of Chandra observation. For the XMM-Newton position, the quoted 4″ uncertainty dominates. In Figure 1, we show our $`i^{}`$ and $`K_s`$ images of the field of 1E 1048.1$``$5937 with the error circles of both Chandra and XMM-Newton plotted.

## 4 RESULTS

As seen in the top panel of Figure 1, no objects were detected within the Chandra error circle in our optical images, although two objects (labeled X5 and X8) were detected within the revised XMM-Newton error circle. Also indicated in that panel are the candidates ($`A`$, $`B`$, $`C`$, and $`D`$) previously studied by Mereghetti et al. (1992). In the bottom panel of Figure 1, we detected one object (X1) within the Chandra error circle in our deep infrared images and another (X2) just outside. In addition,

we detected six other objects (labeled as X3–X8) within the revised XMM-Newton error circle. Object X3 was detected only in the $`K_s`$ band; since we cannot derive colors for this object, it is excluded from further consideration below. The faint objects X3, X4, and X1 were not detected in our CTIO $`JHK_s`$ observations, which were not as deep as the Magellan observations. The positions and optical/infrared magnitudes of our candidates are summarized in Table 1.

Figure 2 shows color-color diagrams for our seven candidates as well as all other field stars in our Classic Cam images. We note that the inferred hydrogen column density to 1E 1048.1$``$5937, $`N_\mathrm{H}=1.04(8)\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 (Tiengo et al. 2001), implies a visual extinction of $`A_V5.8`$ for a typical dust-to-gas ratio (Predehl & Schmitt 1995). For comparison in Figure 2, we also show the expected colors for main sequence and giant stars (Bessell & Brett 1988; Cox 2000) reddened by $`A_V=5.8`$ (Rieke & Lebofsky 1985; Fan 1999). The reddening vector lies roughly parallel to this locus of points. Most of our candidates (as well as the other field stars) have colors consistent with those of normal stars. However, two objects, $`f`$ and $`X1`$, stand out with unusual colors. Assuming that the counterpart of 1E 1048.1$``$5937 is similar to those of the AXPs 4U 0142+61 ($`V=25.62\pm 0.08`$, $`R=24.99\pm 0.07`$, $`I=23.84\pm 0.06`$, $`K=19.6`$, $`A_V=5.4`$; Hulleman et al. 2000; Hulleman 2002) and 1E 2259+586 ($`R>26.4`$, $`I>25.6`$, $`J>23.8`$, $`K_s=21.7\pm 0.2`$, $`A_V=5.2`$; Hulleman et al. 2001), we have also indicated in Figure 2 the region of color-color space in which we would expect to find the counterpart. Only candidate X1 has colors consistent with these predictions. We further note that X1 is the only object detected within the Chandra error circle. We therefore conclude that this object is the near-infrared counterpart to 1E 1048.1$``$5937.

## 5 SUMMARY

We have identified the likely near-infrared counterpart to 1E 1048.1$``$5937, on the basis of coincidence with the Chandra X-ray source position, unusual colors, and similarity to the

two other known AXP counterparts. We note, however, that this conclusion relies strongly on our $`i^{}`$ non-detection. A sufficiently faint $`i^{}`$ magnitude could push this candidate out of the expected AXP region in the bottom panel of Figure 2. This is the first AXP counterpart with infrared detections in more than one band, allowing the intrinsic infrared colors to be inferred. Assuming $`A_V=5.8`$ as determined in §4, the dereddened infrared magnitudes of the counterpart are $`J_0=20.1`$, $`H_0=20.0`$, and $`K_{s0}=18.8`$. We plot these magnitudes and limits in Figure 3. For comparison, we plot the inferred spectral shape of the 4U 0142+61 counterpart (Hulleman et al. 2000; Hulleman 2002). While there is marginal evidence for a spectral flattening or even a turnover at the $`K_s`$ band, the data are also consistent with a flat $`\nu F_\nu `$ infrared spectrum at the 1$`\sigma `$ level. We note that there is clear evidence for spectral flattening in the infrared in the spectrum of 4U 0142+61 (Hulleman 2002). It would thus be of great interest to search for emission at longer wavelengths to constrain the spectral shape of AXPs further. While there has been relatively little theoretical work presented on the expected AXP optical/infrared emission in the magnetar scenario, we note that models involving X-ray illumination of a “fallback” accretion disk predict a spectral turnover leading to strong emission in the infrared and submillimeter bands (e.g., Chatterjee, Hernquist, & Narayan 2000; Perna, Hernquist, & Narayan 2000).

We thank Paul Schechter for obtaining the 2001 March Magellan data for us; Jim Elliot, Mauricio Navarrete, Hernán Nuñez, Patricio Jones, Geraldo Valladanes, and the LCO staff for their help during the 2002 April Magellan run; Eric Persson for advice on obtaining and analyzing Classic Cam data; and Nicole van der Bliek, Robert Blum, Angel Guerra, Sergio Pizarro, and the CTIO staff for their assistance during our CTIO run. We also thank Scott Burles for useful discussions, Adrienne Juett for assistance in analyzing the X-ray data, and Maria Santos-Lleo of the XMM-Newton User Support Group for guidance in understanding the XMM-Newton aspect determination problem. Finally, we thank the referee for a careful review of our paper.


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# Origin of the Universal Roughness Exponent of Brittle Fracture Surfaces: Correlated Percolation in the Damage Zone

## Abstract

We suggest that the observed large-scale universal roughness of brittle fracture surfaces is due to the fracture process being a correlated percolation process in a self-generated quadratic damage gradient. We use the quasi-static two-dimensional fuse model as a paradigm of a fracture model. We measure for this model, that exhibits a correlated percolation process, the correlation length exponent $`\nu 1.35`$ and conjecture it to be equal to that of uncorrelated percolation, 4/3. We then show that the roughness exponent in the fuse model is $`\zeta =2\nu /(1+2\nu )=8/11`$. This is in accordance with the numerical value $`\zeta =0.75`$. As for three-dimensional brittle fractures, a mean-field theory gives $`\nu =2`$, leading to $`\zeta =4/5`$ in full accordance with the universally observed value $`\zeta =0.80`$.

Fracture surfaces in brittle materials show surprising scaling properties b97 . These were first seen in the mid-eighties mpp84-bs85 . They manifest themselves through self-affine long-range height correlations. That is, the conditional probability density $`p(x,y)`$, i.e. the probability that the crack surface passes within $`dy`$ of the height $`y`$ at position $`x`$ when it had height zero at $`x=0`$, shows the invariance

$$\lambda ^\zeta p(\lambda x,\lambda ^\zeta y)=p(x,y),$$
(1)
where $`\zeta `$ is the roughness exponent. In the early nineties increasing experimental evidence hinted at the roughness exponent not only existed, but had a universal value of about 0.80 blp90-mhhr92-sgr93-cw93-sss95 . The experimental picture today is even more complex: a) a second, smaller roughness exponent, approximately equal to 0.5 has been observed on small length scales, with a clear crossover length between the two regimes dhbc96-dnbc97 ; b) the growth of the roughness from an initial straight notch shows anisotropy srb94  and a two-regime process in case of quasi-brittle material such as wood mslv98 ; c) materials like sandstone for which the fracture is strongly transgranular, show only a $`\zeta =0.5`$ self-affine scaling bah98-m02 . Simultaneously with these experiments, theoretical and numerical work have been produced at a steady rate with the aim of: (1) understanding why there is a self-affine scaling of the roughness, (2) why there should be universality of the roughness exponent and (3) how to unify observations and modelling hhr91 ; bblp93-m93-bb94-ref97-bh98-rsad98-ran98-ljtz99-sra00-shh01-bhlp02 .

It is the aim of this letter to present a new possible explanation for the observed universal roughness of brittle fracture surfaces at larger scales. We present our ideas using a paradigm of fracture model: the quasi-static fuse model hr90 . Dynamical fuse models have been proposed and studied in the work of Sornette and Vaneste sv92-lcs97 . The quasi-static fuse model consists of a lattice where each bond is an ohmic resistor as long as the electrical current it carries is below a threshold value. If the threshold is passed, the bond burns out irreversibly. The threshold $`t`$ of each bond is drawn from an uncorrelated distribution $`p(t)`$. The lattice is placed between electrical bus bars and an increasing current is passed through it. Numerically, the Kirchhoff equations are solved with a voltage difference between the bus bars set to unity. The ratio between current $`i_j`$ and threshold $`t_j`$ for each bond $`j`$ is calculated and the bond having the largest value, $`\mathrm{max}_j(i_j/t_j)`$ is identified and subsequently irreversibly removed.

In the limit of inifinite disorder — i. e. when the threshold distribution is on the verge of becoming non-normalizable, e. g. $`p(t)t^{\alpha 1}`$, where $`1t<\mathrm{}`$ in the limit of $`\alpha 0`$, the fuse problem becomes equivalent to a bond percolation problem rhhg88 . At more narrow disorders, a rich phase diagram appears which is controlled by two parameters, the exponent $`\alpha `$ which controls the threshold distribution tail towards infinitely large threshold values and the exponent $`\beta `$ which controls the tail of the threshold distribution towards zero: $`p(t)t^{1+\beta }`$ where $`0t1`$ hhr91a . For smaller values of either $`\alpha `$ or $`\beta `$, the fuse model still shows behavior very similar to percolation: The lattice stops conducting after a finite percentage of bonds have burned out even when the lattice size is extrapolated to infinity. Close to breakdown, critical exponents may be defined precisely as in the percolation problem. However, as the breakdown process in the fuse model is highly correlated, there is no reason to expect these exponents to be equal to those found in the percolation problem. At even smaller disorders, localization sets in.

When the disorder is broad enough so that the fuse model behaves in a percolation-like like manner, there is a diverging correlation length $`\xi |pp_c|^\nu `$, where $`p`$ is the density of broken bonds and $`p_c`$ is the density at which an infinite lattice breaks down. For classical percolation, $`\nu =4/3`$ sa92 . For the fuse model away from the infinite-disorder limit, $`\nu `$ has not been measured. Three scenarios are possible for the value of $`\nu `$: (1) $`\nu `$ depends on the disorder. Hence, it is not a universal quantity. (2) $`\nu `$ is independent of the disorder but is different from 4/3. In this case, the fuse model defines a new universality class different from standard percolation. (3) $`\nu `$ is the same in the fuse model as in standard percolation. Thus, the fuse model is in the universality class of percolation.

In order to determine which of these three scenarios is correct for the two-dimensional fuse model, we studied the survival probability of lattices for different system sizes and different disorders. In Fig. 1, we show survival probability for the threshold distribution $`p(t)t^{1+\beta }`$ when $`0t1`$, where $`\beta =1/10`$ as a function of density of broken bonds for different lattice sizes. The collapse of the curves obtained for differents sizes shows both that the survival probability is converging on a step function at a finite $`p=p_c`$, and that an estimate of the coefficient $`1/\nu =0.75`$. Indeed, we expect the survival probability to scale as $`L^{1/\nu }`$. In Fig. 2, we confirm the estimate of $`\nu `$ by showing the 50% survival probability, as a function of lattice size for this threshold distribution and for the threshold distribution $`p(t)t^{1+\beta }`$ on the unit interval, where $`\beta =1/3`$. Finite size scaling dictates that the effective density at which 50% of the lattices survive, $`p_s`$, behaves as

$$p_s=p_c\frac{c}{L^{1/\nu }},$$
(2)
where $`c`$ is a constant. By adjusting the value of $`\nu `$ until a straight line ensues, we determine the value of $`\nu `$. We find $`\nu =4/3`$ fits the data very well. These results are consistent with scenario (3) above: The two-dimensional fuse model is in the same universality class as classical two-dimensional percolation.

If one tries to determine the scaling properties of the final crack for disorders that are so broad that the system behaves as regular percolation, the roughness exponent will be one, since the final crack will be fractal with no anisotropy and so the width of the crack will essentially be that of the lattice itself. However, with more narrow threshold distributions, a non-linear gradient develops in the damage profile in the average current direction. That is, if $`y`$ is the average current direction (which is normal to the two bus bars), then damage density averaged in the orthogonal $`x`$ direction, $`p(y)`$ takes the form

$$p(y)=p_fA\left(\frac{yy_c}{l_y}\right)^2,$$
(3)
where $`A`$ is a positive constant that depends on the width of the threshold distribution and $`l_y`$ is the width of the damage distribution. The damage profile must surely be quadratic as the system must be statistically mirror symmetric about $`y_c`$, where the maximum damage occurs. At breakdown, the maximum damage $`p_f`$ is equal to the critical damage density $`p_c`$ and can be expressed in terms of the correlation length $`\xi `$: $`(pp_c)\xi ^{1/\nu }`$. As proposed by Sapoval et al. for percolation in a gradient srg85 , we suggest to consider the region along the damage zone that is at a distance corresponding to the correlation length: $`(yy_c)\xi `$. Stating that the crack roughness is proportional to the correlation length: $`\xi w`$ and solving Eq. (3) with the above conditions yield

$$wl_{y}^{}{}_{}{}^{2\nu /(1+2\nu )}.$$
(4)
The width of the damage profile, $`l_y`$, must be proportional to the length of the system $`L`$. The reason for this is that each broken bond creates a disturbance in the average current field that enhances the probability for a new bond to break in a finite-width cone which stretches out from each side of the bond in the direction approximately orthogonal to the average current direction. Hence, as long as the current enhancement is not sufficient to induce crack coalescence and create an unstable crack tip, the damage zone will spread in the new cones in a random fashion. This leads to

$$l_yL.$$
(5)
In Fig. 3, we show the damage profile averaged over many samples and for many lattice sizes plotted against $`y/L`$. We note from Fig. 3 that the profiles clearly follow Eq. (3). The collapse of the damage profiles shows that they are functions of the combination $`y/L`$ and $`L`$ does not enter in any other way. This results is confirmed in Fig. 4 where the width of the damage zone $`l_y`$ is plotted versus the system size $`L`$ for two different threshold distributions. Both show a good linear behavior in accordance with Eq. (5). Hence, the width of the crack scales as

$$wL^{2\nu /(1+2\nu )}.$$
(6)
We therefore conclude that the fracture rougness exponent of the fuse model is

$$\zeta =\frac{2\nu }{1+2\nu }=\frac{8}{11}0.73,$$
(7)
where we have on the right hand side assumed that $`\nu =4/3`$, the standard percolation value. In Ref. hhr91 , $`\zeta `$ was measured to be about 0.75 in the two-dimensional fuse model. Hence, there is very good agreement with Eq. (7).

We now extend our argument to the general case of quasi-static 3D brittle fractures in heterogeneous materials. No measurements of $`\nu `$ exist for the brittle fracture problem. However, a recent mean-field theory obtained: $`\nu =2`$ tp02 , making $`\nu `$ very different from the value found in standard three-dimensional percolation, $`\nu =0.88`$. Using Eq. (7), we arrive at

$$\zeta =\frac{4}{5},$$
(8)
which is indeed in excellent agreement with the experimentally observed roughness exponent for large scales, $`\zeta =0.80`$.

Why should this theory be applicable only to the large-scale exponent observed in brittle fracture, and not the exponent seen at small scales? It is the large-scale exponent that describes the correlated behavior of the damage field which finally will lead to the large-scale properties of fracture surface. The smaller exponent, which is close to 0.5, describes opening of small cracks, and may be caused by corrugation waves propagating elastically along the crack front bbfrr02 . At larger scales, where a roughness exponent equal to 0.8 is observed, these waves are too weak to influence the system. At this larger scale, we propose that it is a correlated gradient percolation process which is responsible for the value of the roughness exponent.

This work was partially funded by the CNRS PICS contract $`\mathrm{\#}753`$ and the Norwegian Research Council, NFR. We thank Fernando Oliveira and the ICCMP for financial support during our stay in Brasília. Discussions with K. J. Måløy and G. G. Batrouni are gratefully acknowledged.


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# Collective density wave excitations in two-leg Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 ladders

\[

## Abstract

Raman measurements in the $`1.520`$ cm-1 energy range were performed on single crystals of Sr14-xCaxCu24O41. A quasielastic scattering peak (QEP) which softens with cooling is observed in the polarization parallel to the ladder direction for samples with $`x=0`$, 8 and 12. The QEP is a Raman fingerprint of pinned collective density wave excitations screened by uncondensed carriers. Our results suggest that transport in metallic samples, which is similar to transport in underdoped high-Tc cuprates, is driven by a collective electronic response.

\]

Competing ground states in low dimensional doped Mott-Hubbard systems have been the subject of extensive research in recent years . Two-leg Cu-O based ladder materials like Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 provide the opportunity to study not only magnetism in quasi one-dimensional (1D) quantum systems but also charge carrier dynamics in an antiferromagnetic environment, with relevance to the phase diagram of high-Tc cuprates . Magnetic correlations which give rise to a finite spin gap were predicted to generate an attractive interaction between doped carriers leading to superconductivity with a $`d`$-wave like order parameter. Due to the quasi-1D nature of these systems, ground states with broken translational symmetry in which single holes or hole pairs can order in a crystalline pattern are also possible. The balance between superconducting and spin/charge density wave (DW) ground states is ultimately determined by the microscopic parameters of the theoretical models .

The single crystals of Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 contain quasi-1D two-leg Cu2O3 ladder planes which are stacked alternately with planes of CuO2 chains along the $`b`$ crystallographic axis . The ladder direction defines the $`c`$ axis and the lattice constants of these two sub-systems satisfy 10$`c_{chain}`$ $``$ 7$`c_{ladder}`$. The nominal Cu valence in Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 is +2.25, independent of Ca concentration. In the insulating Sr14Cu24O41 crystals most of the carriers are believed to be confined in the chains. Transport and optical conductivity data suggest that Ca substitution induces a transfer of holes from the chains to the more conductive ladders . The ladder carrier density was estimated from the optical spectral weight to increase from 0.07 for $`x=0`$ to about 0.2 for $`x=11`$ Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 . A crossover to metallic conduction at high temperatures takes place around $`x=11`$  and for $`x=12`$ the $`c`$-axis $`dc`$ resistivity has a minimum around T = 70 K separating quasi-linear metallic and insulating behavior similar to the case of high-Tc cuprates in the underdoped regime . As opposed to Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 , the isostructural compound La6Ca8Cu24O41 contains no holes per formula unit. At high Ca concentrations superconductivity under pressure has been observed in Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 crystals with x $``$ 11.5 .

In the case of a DW instability, theory predicts the existence of phase and amplitude collective modes of the DW order parameter . The amplitude excitation is Raman active and the phase mode should be seen in optical absorption . In an ideal system the current carrying phase mode can slide without friction , while impurities or lattice commensurability destroy the infinite conductivity and shift this mode to finite frequency as has been experimentally observed . In addition, many well established DW compounds display a loss peak that has strongly temperature dependent energy and damping relating to the $`dc`$ conductivity of the material . This screened longitudinal excitation has been observed in the transverse response by measurements of the complex finite frequency dielectric constant $`ϵ(\omega )`$. Electronic Raman scattering can probe the longitudinal electronic channel, essentially the response of the charge density because the Raman response function $`\chi ^{\prime \prime }(\omega )Im(1/ϵ(\omega ))`$ . The existence of collective DW excitations is clearly established for Sr14Cu24O41  by measurements of non-linear conduction and the relaxational dielectric response in the 10 - 106 Hz region displaying a scattering rate that scales with the $`dc`$ conductivity.

One important question is what are the Raman signatures of these collective modes and whether DW correlations still persist at higher carrier dopings in ladder systems. Here we present low frequency Raman scattering results that reveal longitudinal (screened) collective charge density oscillations between 250 and 650 K in Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 crystals within a wide concentration range, $`0<x<12`$. The characteristic quasi-elastic scattering peak (QEP) we observed in the 1.5 - 8 cm-1 range above 300 K softens with cooling and is present only for polarization parallel the ladder direction. A hydrodynamic model  quantitatively accounts for the collective excitations seen in the Raman response for Sr14Cu24O41 compound. The presence of the QEP in Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 demonstrates that density wave correlations are present, at least for temperatures above 250 K, even in superconducting (under pressure) crystals.

We measured Raman scattering from freshly cleaved $`ac`$ surfaces of Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 and La6Ca8Cu24O41 single crystals grown as described in . Excitation energies of 1.55 and 1.65 eV from a Kr+ laser were used. The spectra were taken using a custom triple grating spectrometer and corrected for the spectral response of the spectrometer and detector. For measurements below T = 300 K the samples were mounted in a continuous flow optical cryostat and for above room temperature in a TS1500 Linkam heat stage. Stokes and anti-Stokes spectra were taken for all data above 300 K to determine the temperature in the laser spot.

Fig. 1 shows temperature dependent Raman spectra for Sr14Cu24O41 and Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 in $`cc`$ polarization. The low frequency Raman spectra at high temperatures in both crystals look qualitatively similar. They are dominated by the presence of strong quasi-elastic scattering rising from the lowest measured energy of about 1.5 cm-1 and peaked about 7 cm-1 for temperatures around 620 K. With cooling the QEP shifts to lower frequencies and it gains spectral weight. Below $`T450`$ K the peak position moves below the instrumental cut-off energy and only the high frequency tail of the peak is observed.

The polarization dependence of the QEP are summarized in Fig. 2. For Sr14Cu24O41 (Fig. 2a) the QEP is present in $`cc`$ and absent in $`aa`$ polarization. We do not observe the QEP in $`cc`$ polarization for La6Ca8Cu24O41 (Fig. 2b) which contains no holes per formula unit. The presence of quasi-elastic scattering for $`x>0`$ Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 exhibiting the same polarization selection rules as shown in panels $`c`$ and $`d`$ of Fig. 2 proves that this feature is a characteristic of these compounds at all Ca substitution levels. Applied magnetic fields up to 8 T influenced neither the energy of the QEP nor the modes seen in Fig. 2a and b at 12 cm-1 in Sr14Cu24O41 and about 15 cm-1 in La6Ca8Cu24O41. We can conclude that the latter features are phonons. The unusually low energy of these modes which points towards a very high effective mass oscillator is interesting. These ’folded’ phonons appear as a result of chain-ladder incommensurability  that gives rise to a big unit cell.

The inset in Fig. 1 shows a typical deconvolution of the Raman data by a fit to a relaxational form:

$$\chi ^{\prime \prime }(\omega )=A(T)\frac{\omega \mathrm{\Gamma }}{\omega ^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }^2}.$$
(1)
A second phenomenological term accounting for a small underlying electronic background was also used. The temperature dependent fitting parameters are shown in the Fig. 3. An Arrhenius plot for the damping parameter $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ reveals an activated behavior of the form $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(T)`$ exp $`(\mathrm{\Delta }/T)`$ with $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ 2100 K and 2180 K for Sr14Cu24O41 and Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 respectively. These energies are very close to the activation energy displayed by the $`c`$ axis $`dc`$ conductivity for Sr14Cu24O41 crystal  shown in the inset of Fig. 3. The Raman QEP traces to high temperatures the relaxational peak seen in transport , suggesting their common origin. Also, the frequency of the QEP, which is much lower than the thermal energy, the magnetic or $`dc`$ activation gaps, points toward a collective rather than a single particle excitation. For Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 the QEP is also present (Fig. 1b). The relaxation parameter $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is slightly higher than for Sr14Cu24O41 sample while the spectral weight is lower. However, for Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 the c-axis $`dc`$ conductivity above T $``$ 70 K shows a metallic behavior.

In the analysis of the Raman spectra shown in Fig. 1 we interpret the low frequency overdamped excitation as a DW relaxational mode in the longitudinal channel. The interaction of longitudinal DW modes with normal (uncondensed) carriers resembles to some degree the problem of coupling of plasma oscillations to the longitudinal optical (LO) vibrations in doped semiconductors . The longitudinal modes of one excitation interact with the electrostatic field produced by the other and as result their bare energy gets renormalized due to screening effects. Essentially a feature which should be observed only in the longitudinal channel, the DW mode leaks into the transverse response due to the non-uniform pinning which introduces disorder mixing the pure transverse and longitudinal character of the excitations . This was seen for Sr14Cu24O41  as well as for other DW compounds . Modelling the DW contribution to the dielectric function by an oscillator, we have:

$$ϵ_{DW}(\omega )=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_p^2}{\omega ^2i\gamma _0\omega \mathrm{\Omega }_0^2}.$$
(2)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ is the characteristic pinning frequency, $`\gamma _0`$ an intrinsic damping coefficient and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_p^2=4\pi \rho _c^2/m^{}`$ is the spectral weight of the DW given in terms of $`\rho _c`$ and $`m^{}`$ which are the associated charge and effective mass densities. A more realistic model would allow for a broad distribution of pinning frequencies, extending over several decades, as inferred from the low frequency response. Within a two-fluid model, assuming that the only coupling between condensed and normal electrons is by an electric field due to density fluctuations, the longitudinal response which accounts for the screening effects and is relevant for Raman scattering can be written as :

$$ϵ_L=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_p^2}{\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2\omega ^2i\gamma _0\omega \frac{i\omega \mathrm{\Omega }_p^2}{4\pi \sigma _{dc}i\omega ϵ_{\mathrm{}}}}$$
(3)
Here $`\sigma _{dc}`$ is the ’quasiparticle’ conductivity and $`ϵ_{\mathrm{}}`$ takes into account the contribution of high frequency interband transitions to the polarization. Note that in the low frequency limit, Eq. (3) reduces to the relaxational form of Eq. (1), with a weight A(T) = $`\mathrm{\Omega }_p^2/\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2`$ and a damping

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }\text{ (T) = 4}\pi \sigma _{dc}\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2/\mathrm{\Omega }_p^2.$$
(4)
The proportionality between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and the the $`dc`$ conductivity, which is clearly seen in Fig. 3 for Sr14Cu24O41 , is the result of normal carrier backflow which screens the collective polarization and dissipates energy, suffering lattice momentum relaxation .

Extrapolating the activated fit for the conductivity in between 150 and 300 K for Sr14Cu24O41 to temperatures higher than 450 K, where the QEP was still seen in Raman spectra, we calculated the values for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(T)`$ from Eq. (4) using $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ 1-4 cm-1 and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_p`$ 3300 cm-1 as determined from low temperature microwave data  and the $`c`$-axis loss function . This independent calculation yields values which are lower by a factor of 25 than the Raman data suggests. There are two reasons which can explain this discrepancy. One is related to the reduction in the density of condensed carriers in close proximity to the DW transition. The second is that the distribution of pinning frequencies is in the range of measured Raman shifts, so that we obtain a contribution to a Raman response of the form of Eq. (1) only from the higher part of the distribution. Furthermore, above T $``$ 150 K the width of the pinning frequencies distribution increases. Although $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ might still be centered around 1-4 cm-1 , the mode becomes strongly broadened at high temperatures. Eq. (3) also predicts a charge DW plasmon at the frequency $`(\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2+\mathrm{\Omega }_p^2/ϵ_{\mathrm{}})^{1/2}`$ 1500 cm-1. We do not observe this feature in our spectra due to the strong damping and the fact that it lies in the midst of a strong multi-phonon scattering region.

For Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 above 70 K the $`dc`$ conductivity is metallic . However, the Raman response in the 2 - 8 cm-1 region (Fig. 1) is qualitatively similar to the Sr14Cu24O41 crystal. The similarity of the results allows us to conclude that DW correlations are also present at high Ca substitution levels. We propose that the metallic behavior for Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 is due to a partially gapped Fermi surface. Support for this conjecture comes from an angle resolved photoemission study  which shows that while for Sr14Cu24O41 the gap is finite, for Sr5Ca9Cu24O41 the density of states rises almost to the chemical potential. This spectral weight transfer is enhanced with further increase in the ladder hole concentration . The observation of an activated relaxation rate in the metallic x = 12 compound is not consistent with Eq. (3), based on a simple two-fluid assumption. Note however that by room temperature the x = 0 and x = 12 compounds have comparable conductivities, suggesting that the contribution of the remnant Fermi surface to the overall carrier density is quite small. Similar relaxation rates for Sr14Cu24O41 and Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 might be reconciled with different transport properties assuming a strongly momentum dependent scattering rate. Carrier condensation in the DW state leads to a completely gapped Fermi surface resulting in an insulating behavior below T = 70 K. In addition, the DW dynamics in Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 is influenced by the random potential introduced in the system because of cation substitution which affects the pinning mechanism . Another more speculative explanation for the metallic like conductivity in Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 could be that in the presence of a very broad distribution of pinning frequencies $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ as a result of Ca substitution, not all the collective contribution gets pinned, and we still have a Fröhlich type component  contributing to the $`dc`$ conductivity. Irrespective of the exact microscopic model, strong similarities between local structural units and transport properties in Cu-O based ladders and underdoped high Tc materials suggest that carrier dynamics in 2D Cu-O sheets at low hole concentration could be also governed by a collective DW response.

In conclusion we demonstrated the existence of DW correlations in doped two-leg Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 ladders. We found Raman fingerprints of screened longitudinal collective modes in crystals with Ca concentrations from $`x=0`$ to 12. A hydrodynamic model was used to quantitatively account for the existence of the charge collective mode in the insulating Sr14Cu24O41 compound whose damping scales with the activated conductivity. This mode is also present in the superconducting (under pressure) Sr2Ca12Cu24O41 ladder. Our results demonstrate that the paired superconducting state competes in these materials with a crystalline charge ordered ground state.


text:
# Discovery of an ionized Fe-K edge in the z=3.91 Broad Absorption Line Quasar APM 08279+5255 with XMM–Newton

## 1 Introduction

Absorption Line (BAL) Quasi-stellar Objects (QSOs) are a key to understand the geometry and physical state of the medium in the immediate vicinity of accreting supermassive black holes. A new unified model (Elvis 2000) indicates that a significant fraction of the matter accreted into the region of the compact object is flowing out again. On either side of the accretion disk it should form a funnel- shaped shell, in which the outflowing gas is ionized and accelerated to velocities of 0.05-0.1$`c`$ by the powerful radiation force of the central object. If the observer’s inclination is favorable, this flow intercepts the line of sight with a large column density and produces the blue-shifted broad UV absorption line features observed in about 10% of all QSOs. However, the UV/optical spectra sample only a minor fraction of the total column density of the flow, which is predicted to be highly ionized so that it mainly absorbs X–rays.

APM 08279+5255 is an exceptionally luminous Broad Absorption Line (BAL) QSO at redshift z=3.91 (Irwin et al., 1998), coincident with an IRAS Faint Source Catalogue object and was also detected at 850 $`\mu `$m with SCUBA, implying an apparent far-infrared luminosity of $`>5\times 10^{15}L_{}`$ (Lewis et al., 1998). The object is strongly lensed (Ledoux et al., 1998; Ibata et al., 1999; Egami et al., 2000), with a magnification factor of 50-100, but even taking this magnification factor into account, the object is still among the most luminous in the Universe. The low resolution discovery spectrum of APM 08279+5255 showed a broad absorption trough (BAL) on the blue side of Lyα. An excellent high resolution optical spectrum was obtained with HIRES at the Keck telescope (Ellison et al., 1999) and a detailed study of the physical conditions in the broad absorption line flow of the QSO (Srianand & Petitjean, 2000) came to the conclusion, that the corresponding gas stream, outflowing with velocities up to 12000 km s-1, is heavily structured and highly ionized.

In this paper we report X–ray observations of APM 08279+5255 with XMM–Newton obtained in October 2001 and April 2002, where we detected an ionized Fe K edge in the continuum of the QSO which is very likely related to the UV broad absorption line flow. In section 2 we present the X–ray observations and analysis. In section 3 we discuss the results. Throughout this paper we use a Hubble constant of 50 km s-1 Mpc-1 and a deceleration parameter $`q_0=0.5`$.

## 2 X–ray Observations and analysis

The first X–ray observation of APM 08279+5255 was taken on October 11, 2000 with the Chandra observatory (Gallagher et al., 2002). XMM-Newton observed APM 08279+5255 for 15 ksec on October 30, 2001 in good background conditions. The EPIC spectrum revealed a tantalizing absorption feature around 1.5 keV, close to the energy expected from highly redshifted iron, either associated with the object itself or with intervening material. Unfortunately the statistical quality of the data did not allow more quantitative analysis. A proposal for director’s discretionary time for a significantly longer observation (100 ksec) was accepted by the XMM–Newton project scientist and executed on April 28–29, 2002. Table 1 gives details for the XMM–Newton and Chandra observations.

The XMM data were analyzed using the latest version of the standard analysis software SAS 5.0. The EPIC pn–CCD detector detected the source with an average count rate of $`0.19`$ cts s-1 and $`0.15`$ cts s-1, in the XMM1 and XMM2 observation, respectively. Within each of the observations there is no significant time variability detected. Fig. 1 shows the normalized pn–CCD counts spectrum of the source from the 100 ksec XMM2 observation. The source is clearly detected out to 12 keV (almost 60 keV in the restframe of the quasar!). Using xspec version 11.1.0, we fitted the combined pn–CCD and MOS–CCD spectra and in all fits included a neutral absorption with the Galactic $`N_H`$ value fixed to $`4\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2. Following Gallagher et al. (2002), we first assumed a simple power law spectrum with an intrinsic cold gas absorber in the rest frame of the QSO (z=3.91). The two XMM–Newton (EPIC pn+MOS) and one Chandra (ACIS-I) dataset can be fit with the same model and, apart from a $`20\%`$ flux decrease between the first and the last observation, the spectral fit parameters are consistent between the three datasets. The best fit values for all three datasets are given in Table 2.

The spectral fit residuals of the 100 ksec XMM2 observation, however, show systematic deviations across the whole spectral range (Fig. 1). The fit is statistically unacceptable (reduced $`\chi ^2`$ = 1.45 for 126 degrees of freedom), the most significant deviation is an edge-like feature around 1.55 keV, corresponding to roughly 7.7 keV in the rest frame of the object. There is no evidence for an emission line associated with the K edge: the upper limit for the equivalent width of a narrow emission line in the rest-frame energy range 6.4-6.9 keV is about 110 eV, much lower than those found e.g. from ionized reflection disk models. We therefore interpret the observed spectral feature as an absorption edge due to ionized iron in the BAL flow of APM 08279+5255. Indeed, if we include an additional absorption edge in the spectral model we obtain a highly significant improvement of the fit ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=87`$ for two additional parameters) for the XMM2 dataset with an edge energy of $`E_{edge}=7.7\pm 0.1`$ keV and an optical depth of $`\tau =0.46\pm 0.07`$. An improved fit is also obtained for the XMM1 observation, with independently determined edge parameters consistent with the XMM2 dataset. The Chandra spectrum (CXO1), which is of lower signal to noise, does not require an edge, but if it is included, the energy and depth are fully consistent with the XMM values (see Table 2).

Fig. 2 shows $`\chi ^2`$ confidence contours for the edge energy versus the optical depth derived from the XMM2 data in comparison with the K edge energy expected for different ionic species of Fe. The best-fit parameters are compatible with Fe XVII, with a range from Fe XV to Fe XVIII, indicating significant ionization of iron. Assuming the absorption cross section of the Fe XVII K edge ($`2.7\times 10^{20}`$ cm2), computed using the analytical fits of Verner & Yakovlev (1995), we can determine the column density of ionized Fe to $`N_{Fe}1.7\times 10^{19}`$ cm-2, relatively independent of the ionization state of iron. Assuming solar abundances, this would correspond to an effective hydrogen column density of $`N_H6\times 10^{23}`$ cm-2, about a factor of 7 larger than the hydrogen column density derived by fitting a cold, neutral absorber to the low–energy cutoff of the spectrum.

The fit of a neutral absorber in conjunction with a highly ionized Fe-K edge is, however, physically not meaningful. If Fe is partly ionized, most of the lighter elements will also be ionized and therefore will absorb the X–ray continuum less strongly. Indeed, the detailed treatment of the high resolution UV/optical spectrum of this source indicates a total neutral hydrogen column density not much larger than several times $`10^{18}`$ cm-2 (Srianand & Petitjean, 2000). However, edges of hydrogen- and helium-like ions of lower-Z elements (O, Ne, Mg, Si and S) as well as the Fe L edge will absorb lower energy photons and can mimic a cold gas absorber (Schartel et al. 1997, Komossa 1999). To estimate their effect, we have scaled the column density for these elements to the measured $`N_{Fe}`$, assuming solar abundance ratios. Including these edges into the model spectrum produces significantly more low–energy absorption than observed in the data. Indeed, reducing the K edge depth of lower–Z elements by a factor of 5, while leaving the depth of the Fe L edge at the predicted depth of 8.7 gives a very good approximation to the lower–energy absorption observed in APM 08279+5255. This indicates a high overabundance of iron with respect to lower-Z elements.

A more quantitative treatment has to include the photoionization of the BAL flow and the balance between different ionization states of the elements. Therefore we fitted a power law model, folded through the Galactic $`N_H`$ and an ionized absorber (model absori contained in xspec, Done et al., 1992). We obtain an excellent fit to the XMM2 data with a reduced $`\chi ^2`$ of 1.09. Fig. 3 shows confidence intervals for the interesting parameters in the absori fit. The equivalent hydrogen column density is in the range $`N_H=(1.0\pm 0.2)\times 10^{23}`$ cm-2 somewhat higher than the neutral hydrogen column densities in Table 1, but an iron overabundance of $`Fe/O`$=2–5 is required to take care of the observed Fe-K edge in relation to the lower-energy absorption by O, Ne, Mg K edges and the Fe L edge. There is a correlation between these two parameters in the sense that the total Fe column density can be determined to $`N_{Fe}1.5\times 10^{19}`$ cm-2, rather independent from the Fe overabundance and consistent with the value obtained by just fitting an edge (see above).

For a more detailed study, we have constructed grids of photoionization models using the code Cloudy (Ferland 1993), varying the gas column density $`N_{Fe}`$ and the ionization parameter $`U`$ until we obtain an Fe-K ionization level and optical depth consistent with the observed edge (see below). $`U`$ is defined as $`U=\frac{Q}{4\pi r^2n_\mathrm{H}c}`$, where $`Q`$ is the rate of ionizing photons above the Lyman limit. As input continuum we chose a mean AGN continuum spectrum, consisting of piecewise powerlaws from the radio to the gamma-ray region with, in particular, $`\alpha _{\mathrm{uv}\mathrm{x}}`$=–1.4 in the EUV and an observed $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{x}=2.0`$. The results of this analysis are discussed in section 3.1.

## 3 Discussion

For the first time, we have reported the detection of a highly ionized iron edge in the spectrum of a high-redshift BAL quasar. This indicates a very high column density, ionized absorber in the line of sight. Compared to the warm absorbers typically observed in Seyfert galaxies, which are dominated by OVII – OVIII edges of optical depth around unity (see Komossa 1999 and references therein), where strong Fe K edges have not been seen so far, the column density of ionized Fe is considerably higher here and the absorption is very likely associated with the highly ionized BAL flow observed in the UV spectrum of the source.

For the quasar 3C 351 it has been shown, that the associated absorption lines observed in the UV spectrum are most likely produced by the same highly ionized material that is also responsible for the moderate X–ray warm absorber (Mathur et al., 1994). In case of BAL systems, however, interpretation is complicated by the uncertainties in optical depth measurements of the lines: the broad, saturated UV absorption lines from different atomic species do not allow an unambiguous column density determination (e.g., Hamann 1998).

### 3.1 Implications for X–ray Broad Absorption Line Models

Murray & Chiang (1995) constructed a model in which the BALs arise in an accretion-disk wind driven by line pressure. They predicted that objects with very broad CIV absorption ($`>`$ 5000 km s-1) should also show Fe absorption edges in the X-ray regime. This is similar to what we now observe.

The high column density inferred for the X-ray absorber in APM 08279+5255 is also consistent with predictions of the unified model by Elvis (2000). In that model, the UV broad absorption lines occur, when the line of sight to the central object grazes along the funnel–shaped shell of ionized matter thought to constitute the BAL outflow. Using NGC 5548 as reference object in constructing his new unified model, Elvis (2000) predicted a column density of a few 1023 cm-2 for an NGC 5548-like object viewed along the funnel. We find $``$1023 cm-2 for APM 08279+5255.

The ionization state of the warm absorber is characterized by the ionization parameter $`U`$. The number rate of ionizing photons, $`Q`$, was estimated from our piecewise powerlaw spectrum with $`\alpha _{\mathrm{uv}\mathrm{x}}`$=–1.4 in the EUV and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{x}`$ as observed, normalized to the observed X–ray flux. We then find $`Q=1.2\times 10^{58}k^1`$ s-1, $`k`$ being the lensing magnification factor. Given the best estimate of the ionization parameter (log U = 0.4) and assuming a density of the absorber of log $`n`$ = 9.5 – this is similar to the value suggested by Elvis (2000) to ensure pressure equilibrium with the BELR clouds – we expect a lower limit on the location of the absorber of $`r2\times 10^{18}k^{1/2}`$ cm. A more detailed discussion of the ionized gas properties and consequences for BAL models will be given in a forthcoming paper (G. Hasinger et al. 2002, in prep.).

### 3.2 Relation of X–ray and UV Absorbers and Metal Abundances

Comparison with UV data immediately implies that the X–ray absorber must be dust-free, else the UV continuum would be heavily extincted. The high degree of ionization of the X–ray absorber is consistent with the UV spectrum which shows strong high-ionization BAL lines including OVI, but relatively weak neutral H absorption.

The UV absorption line data show that the BAL flow is highly structured with saturated absorption bands and thus, contrary to the X–ray absorption edge, cannot determine the total column density in the flow. Based on our best-fit Cloudy model, we expect to see UV absorption in e.g., HI, CIV, NV, OVI and NeVIII with column densities on the order of $`N_{\mathrm{HI}}\mathrm{4\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}10}^{16}`$cm-2, $`N_{\mathrm{CIV}}10^{16}`$cm-2, $`N_{\mathrm{NV}}\mathrm{7\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}10}^{17}`$cm-2, $`N_{\mathrm{OVI}}\mathrm{6\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}10}^{17}`$cm-2, and $`N_{\mathrm{NeVIII}}\mathrm{7\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}10}^{17}`$cm-2. The higher metal column densities compared to HI can be traced back to the high degree of ionization of the absorber and do therefore not necessarily indicate chemical overabundances. For a detailed comparison with the UV data, simultaneous multi-wavelength observations are required.

No diagnostically valuable, strong Fe lines are present in the UV spectra of BALs. Thus, iron abundance determinations for BALs are still scarce. Fe-K edge X-ray observations therefore nicely supplement UV measurements of other metal species, and allow tests of different scenarios for the origin of the BAL gas.

We find an overabundance of iron of 2–5 times the solar abundance (see Fig. 3). Due to the fact that the measured X–ray absorption is produced mainly by O, Ne, Mg, Si and Fe, this iron overabundance is actually an estimate of $`Fe/O`$. The outflowing material must therefore have already been processed in a starburst environment. Detailed chemical evolutionary scenarios of the emission-line gas in quasars (Hamann & Ferland 1993) predict the iron enrichment that depends mostly on the lifetime of supernova Type Ia precursors, leading to an expected delay of $``$1 Gyr until $`Fe/O`$ reaches solar values. Fe measurements in high-$`z`$ objects, like APM 08279+5255, therefore (1) are of profound relevance for understanding the early star formation history of the universe and (2) provide important constraints on cosmological models. Assuming an Fe abundance of APM 08279+5255 of at least solar, we can place severe constraints on some of the enrichment models of Hamann & +Ferland (1993; their Fig. 1). Furthermore, at the redshift of $`z4`$ the age of the universe is a little less than 1 Gyr (for $`q_\mathrm{o}`$=0.5), which compares to the timescale of $``$1 Gyr necessary to enrich $`Fe/O`$ up to the solar value. Given that we find strong indications of a supersolar $`Fe/O`$ abundance, we are beginning to constrain cosmological models, favoring those which predict larger galaxy ages at a given $`z`$.

In the near future, Fe abundance measurements of larger samples of high-$`z`$ quasars may provide another valuable path to measure cosmological parameters (Hamann & Ferland 1993).

This work is based on observations obtained with XMM–Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and the USA (NASA). We thank the project scientist, Fred Jansen, for granting directors discretionary time for the long observation presented here, and the Science Operation Center in Villafranca for carrying out the observations efficiently. On the German side, the XMM–Newton project is supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung/Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (BMBF/DLR), the Max-Planck Society and the Heidenhain-Stiftung. We thank Sarah Gallagher for making available to us the Chandra spectrum of APM 08279+5255, and Gary Ferland for providing Cloudy. We acknowledge helpful discussions with H. Böhringer, C. Done, P. Petitjean, Th. Boller, W. Brinkmann, D. Porquet and Weimin Yuan. We thank the referee, Martin Elvis, for very helpful comments.