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# Overview on All Reactions Linked to GPDs

## 1 Introduction

Generalized parton distributions (GPDs), are universal non-perturbative objects entering the description of hard exclusive electroproduction processes (see Refs.  for reviews and references). In leading twist there are four GPDs for the nucleon, i.e. $`H`$, $`E`$, $`\stackrel{~}{H}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{E}`$, which are defined for each quark flavor ($`u`$, $`d`$, $`s`$). These GPDs depend upon the different longitudinal momentum fractions $`x+\xi `$ ($`x\xi `$) of the initial (final) quark and upon the overall momentum transfer $`t=\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$ to the nucleon (see Fig. 1).

As the momentum fractions of initial and final quarks are different, one accesses quark momentum correlations in the nucleon. Furthermore, if one of the quark momentum fractions is negative, it represents an antiquark and consequently one may investigate $`q\overline{q}`$ configurations in the nucleon. Therefore, these functions contain a wealth of new nucleon structure information, generalizing the information obtained in inclusive deep inelastic scattering.
To access this information, a general parametrization for all four GPDs has been given in . For the GPDs $`H`$ and $`E`$, a two-component parametrization has been developed consisting of a double distribution  and a D-term  part. The latter is sensitive to scalar-isoscalar $`q\overline{q}`$ configurations in the nucleon. The parameters entering this parametrization can be related in a rather general way to such (not yet measured) quantities as the contribution of the nucleon spin carried by the quark total angular momentum ($`J^u,J^d`$, etc.), $`\overline{q}q`$ components of the nucleon wave function (in particular the D-term and the “vector meson” part of the GPD $`E`$), the strength of the skewedness effects in the GPDs (encoded in their $`\xi `$-dependence), the quark structure of $`NN^{},\mathrm{\Delta }`$ transitions, the weak electricity GPD in nucleon to hyperon transitions, flavor $`SU(3)`$ breaking effects, and others. Furthermore, it has been shown that by a Fourier transform of the $`t`$-dependence of GPDs, it is conceivable to access the distributions of parton in the transverse plane, see Refs. .
In this short paper, only a very limited selection of the above topics can be touched upon, and the reader is referred to the other contributions in these proceedings for more discussions on the above subjects.

## 2 Nucleon electromagnetic form factors

We start by discussing the $`t`$-dependence of the GPDs which is directly related to nucleon elastic form factors through sum rules. In particular, the nucleon Dirac and Pauli form factors $`F_1(t)`$ and $`F_2(t)`$ can be calculated from the GPDs $`H`$ and $`E`$ through the following sum rules for each quark flavor ($`q=u,d`$)

$`F_1^q(t)={\displaystyle _1^{+1}}𝑑xH^q(x,\xi ,t),F_2^q(t)={\displaystyle _1^{+1}}𝑑xE^q(x,\xi ,t).`$ (1)
We can choose $`\xi =0`$ in the previous equations, and model $`H(x,0,t)`$ and $`E(x,0,t)`$ subsequently. For the GPD $`H(x,0,t)`$, a plausible ansatz at low $`t`$ is a Regge form as discussed in . This leads to the following integrals to calculate the Dirac form factors for $`u`$\- and $`d`$-quark flavors :

$`F_1^u(t)={\displaystyle _0^{+1}}𝑑xu_v(x){\displaystyle \frac{1}{x^{\alpha _1^{^{}}t}}},F_1^d(t)={\displaystyle _0^{+1}}𝑑xd_v(x){\displaystyle \frac{1}{x^{\alpha _1^{^{}}t}}},`$ (2)
where $`u_v(x)`$ and $`d_v(x)`$ are the $`u`$\- and $`d`$-quark valence distributions, and where $`\alpha _1^{^{}}`$ is the slope of the leading Regge trajectory. The proton and neutron Dirac form factors then follow from

$`F_1^p(t)=e_uF_1^u(t)+e_dF_1^d(t),F_1^n(t)=e_uF_1^d(t)+e_dF_1^u(t),`$ (3)
where by construction $`F_1^p(0)`$ = 1, and $`F_1^n(0)`$ = 0.
Using the above ansatz, the Dirac mean squared radii of proton and neutron can be calculated as :

$`r_{1,p}^2`$ $`=`$ $`6\alpha _1^{^{}}{\displaystyle _0^{+1}}𝑑x\left\{e_uu_v(x)+e_dd_v(x)\right\}\mathrm{ln}x,`$ (4)
$`r_{1,n}^2`$ $`=`$ $`6\alpha _1^{^{}}{\displaystyle _0^{+1}}𝑑x\left\{e_ud_v(x)+e_du_v(x)\right\}\mathrm{ln}x,`$ (5)
which yields for the electric mean squared radii of proton and neutron :

$`r_{E,p}^2=r_{1,p}^2+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _p}{m_N^2}},r_{E,n}^2=r_{1,n}^2+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _n}{m_N^2}},`$ (6)
where $`\kappa _p`$ ($`\kappa _n`$) are the proton (neutron) anomalous magnetic moments.
In Fig. 2, we show the proton and neutron rms radii as function of the Regge slope $`\alpha _1^{^{}}`$, which is the only free parameter in the ansatz of Eq. (2). One notes that the neutron rms radius is dominated by the Foldy term (term proportional to $`\kappa _n`$ in Eq. (6)), which gives $`r_{E,n}^2`$ = - 0.126 fm2. Therefore, a relatively wide range of values $`\alpha _1^{^{}}`$ are compatible with the neutron data. However for the proton, a rather narrow range of values around $`\alpha _1^{^{}}=1.01.1`$ GeV-2 are favored. Such value is close to the expectation from Regge slopes for meson trajectories, therefore supporting the ansatz of Eq. (2).

To calculate the electric and magnetic form factors of the nucleon, one also needs to calculate the Pauli form factor $`F_2`$, besides $`F_1`$. For $`F_2`$, we use an ansatz which is based on a valence quark distribution for the valence part of $`E(x,0,t)`$ entering in Eq. (1). This leads to the following integrals for the proton and neutron Pauli form factors :

$`F_2^u(t)={\displaystyle _0^{+1}}𝑑x\kappa _u{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}u_v(x){\displaystyle \frac{1}{x^{\alpha _2^{^{}}t}}},F_2^d(t)={\displaystyle _0^{+1}}𝑑x\kappa _dd_v(x){\displaystyle \frac{1}{x^{\alpha _2^{^{}}t}}},`$ (7)
where $`\kappa _u`$ and $`\kappa _d`$ are given by $`\kappa _u=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\kappa _p+\kappa _n`$, and $`\kappa _d=\kappa _p+\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\kappa _n`$.
In Fig. 3, we show the predictions of the above discussed Regge ansatz for the proton and neutron form factors. For both proton and neutron magnetic form factors, one sees that the Regge forms reproduce the experimentally observed dipole behavior up to about $`t=0.5`$ GeV2. Such behavior follows in the present ansatz from the behavior of valence quark distributions at small/intermediate values of $`x`$. At larger values of $`t`$, the Regge form expectedly falls short of the data as one expects a transition to the perturbative behavior ($`1/t^2`$) of the magnetic form factors. For the ratio of electric to magnetic proton form factors, one interestingly sees that the Regge form leads to a decreasing ratio with $`t`$. Although the simple Regge model falls too fast with $`t`$, the decreasing trend is in qualitative agreement with the data at larger $`t`$ from JLab . For the neutron magnetic form factors, one obtains a remarkable good description up to $`t1`$ GeV2.

The simple Regge ansatz discussed here , catches the basic features of the nucleon electromagnetic form factors at $`t<0.5`$ GeV2. For $`t>1`$ GeV2, an overlap representation linking the nucleon Dirac form factor to GPDs has been given in Refs. , describing the trend of the data. A topic for further study is to incorporate both small-$`t`$ and large-$`t`$ regimes in a unified parametrization. This is needed to perform the Fourier transform for the $`t`$-dependence of GPDs in order to map out the distribution of partons in the transverse plane.

## 3 DVCS beam-helicity asymmetry

We next turn to the DVCS observables and their dependence on the GPDs. At intermediate lepton beam energies, one can extract the imaginary part of the DVCS amplitude through the $`\stackrel{}{e}pep\gamma `$ reaction with a polarized lepton beam, by measuring the out-of-plane angular dependence (in the angle $`\varphi `$) of the produced photon . It was found in Refs.  that the resulting electron single spin asymmetry (SSA)

$`𝒜^{\mathrm{SSA}}={\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _{e,h=+1/2}\sigma _{e,h=1/2}}{\sigma _{e,h=+1/2}+\sigma _{e,h=1/2}}},`$ (8)
with $`\sigma _{e,h}`$ the cross section for an electron of helicity $`h`$, can be sizeable for HERMES ($`E_e`$ = 27 GeV) and JLab ($`E_e`$ = 4 - 11 GeV) beam energies. The SSA for the $`\stackrel{}{e}pep\gamma `$ reaction has recently been measured in pioneering experiments at HERMES  and JLab/CLAS , which are shown in Fig. 4. These experiments display already at the accessible values of $`Q^212.5`$ GeV2 predominantly a $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi `$ dependence, indicating a dominance of the twist-2 DVCS amplitude. Furthermore, the observed magnitude is in good agreement with the theoretical calculations of Refs.  in terms of GPDs. These first experiments give strong indication that the SSA is a promising observable to get access to GPDs. Once the leading order mechanism in terms of GPDs is confirmed by experiment, the measured helicity difference in Eq. (8) is directly proportional to the GPDs along the line $`x=\xi `$, and one may proceed to map out the ’envelope’ function $`H(\xi ,\xi ,t)`$, and analogously for $`E`$, $`\stackrel{~}{H}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{E}`$.
Dedicated experiments to measure the SSA with improved accuracy in a large kinematic range are already planned and underway both at JLab  and HERMES .

## 4 DVCS beam-charge asymmetry

Besides the beam-helicity asymmetry for the $`\stackrel{}{e}pep\gamma `$ reaction, which accesses the imaginary part of the DVCS amplitude, one gets access to the real part of the DVCS amplitude by measuring both $`e^+pe^+p\gamma `$ and $`e^{}pe^{}p\gamma `$ processes. In those reactions, besides the mechanism where the photon originates from a quark (handbag diagrams of Fig. 1, the photon can also be emitted by the lepton lines, in the so-called Bethe-Heitler (BH) process. Because the BH amplitude contains two lepton electromagnetic couplings in contrast to the DVCS process, the interference between BH and DVCS processes changes sign when comparing the $`e^+pe^+p\gamma `$ and $`e^{}pe^{}p\gamma `$ reactions. Therefore, in the difference of cross sections $`\sigma _{e^+}\sigma _e^{}`$, the BH drops out, and one measures the real part of the BH-DVCS interference

$$\sigma _{e^+}\sigma _e^{}\mathrm{}\left[T^{BH}T_{}^{DVCS}{}_{}{}^{}\right],$$
(9)
which is proportional to the real (principle value integral) part of the DVCS amplitude. In this way, the difference $`\sigma _{e^+}\sigma _e^{}`$ is sensitive to the GPDs away from the line $`x=\xi `$.
It has been shown in  that this beam-charge asymmetry gets a sizeable contribution from the D-term. The latter encodes $`q\overline{q}`$ scalar-isoscalar correlations in the nucleon as shown in Fig. 5 (left side), and has been estimated in the chiral quark soliton model .

The beam-charge asymmetry associated with DVCS has been accessed experimentally very recently at HERMES, as reported in this Workshop . The preliminary data are shown in Fig. 5, together with the theoretical predictions. The experimental asymmetry shows a $`\mathrm{cos}\varphi `$ dependence with magnitude $`0.100.15`$, and favors the calculations which include the D-term. This opens up the perspective to study (mesonic) $`q\overline{q}`$ components in the nucleon wavefunction in a systematic and model independent way. Further measurements of the beam-charge asymmetry associated with DVCS with improved statistics are planned at HERMES .

## 5 Hard meson electroproduction (HMP)

The GPDs reflect the structure of the nucleon independently of the reaction which probes the nucleon. In this sense, they are universal quantities and can also be accessed, in different flavor combinations, through the hard exclusive electroproduction of mesons \- $`\pi ^{0,\pm },\eta ,\mathrm{},\rho ^{0,\pm },\omega ,\varphi ,\mathrm{}`$ \- for which a QCD factorization proof was given in Ref. . This factorization theorem applies when the virtual photon is longitudinally polarized, which corresponds to a small size configuration compared to a transversely polarized photon.
In the following, we consider the vector meson electroproduction processes $`\gamma _L^{}+NV_L+N`$ at large $`Q^2`$ on the nucleon $`N`$, where $`V_L`$ ($`\rho _L^0`$, $`\rho _L^+`$, $`\omega _L`$, …) denotes the produced vector meson with longitudinal polarization. For $`\rho _L^0p`$ electroproduction on the proton, the leading order amplitudes involving no spin-flip of the nucleon ($`A`$) or involving a nucleon spin-flip ($`B`$) are proportional to the following combinations of GPDs  :

$`A_{\rho _L^0p}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _1^1}𝑑x{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(e_uH^ue_dH^d\right)\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{x\xi +iϵ}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{x+\xi iϵ}}\right\},`$ (10)
$`B_{\rho _L^0p}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _1^1}𝑑x{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(e_uE^ue_dE^d\right)\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{x\xi +iϵ}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{x+\xi iϵ}}\right\},`$ (11)
where $`e_u=+2/3`$ ($`e_d=1/3`$) are the $`u`$ ($`d`$) quark charges respectively.
Recently, $`\rho _L^0`$ data have been obtained at HERMES for $`Q^2`$ up to 5 GeV2, around c.m. energy $`W`$ 5 GeV . The calculations for $`\rho _L^0`$, including a model estimate for power corrections , point towards the dominance of the quark exchange mechanism in this intermediate $`W`$ range. However due to the large size of the power corrections at accessible values of $`Q^2`$, it would be too premature at the present stage to try to extract quark GPDs from these vector meson electroproduction cross sections. To reach this goal, one first needs to get a better theoretical control over the power (higher-twist) corrections, which is an important topic for future work.
Besides the cross section $`\sigma _L`$, the second leading order observable for HMP, is the transverse spin asymmetry, $`𝒜_{V_LN}`$ (TSA) for a proton target polarized perpendicular to the reaction plane. For the electroproduction of longitudinally polarized vector mesons, induced by a longitudinal virtual photon, the TSA is given by  :

$$𝒜_{V_LN}=\frac{2|\mathrm{\Delta }_{}|}{\pi }\frac{\mathrm{Im}(AB^{})/m_N}{|A|^2(1\xi ^2)|B|^2\left(\xi ^2+t/(4m_N^2)\right)\mathrm{Re}(AB^{})\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\xi ^2},$$
(12)
which is proportional to the modulus $`|\mathrm{\Delta }_{}|`$ of the perpendicular component of the momentum transfer $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, and with $`A`$ and $`B`$ given by Eqs. (10-11) in the case of $`\rho _L^0`$. One sees that the TSA is proportional to the imaginary part of the interference of the amplitudes $`A`$ and $`B`$, which contain the GPDs $`H`$ and $`E`$ respectively. Therefore, it depends linearly on the GPD $`E`$. Note that in contrast, both in the DVCS cross sections and SSA as well as in the cross sections for (longitudinally polarized) vector mesons, the GPD $`E`$ only enters besides a large contribution of the GPD $`H`$. Therefore, the transverse spin asymmetry of Eq. (12) provides a unique observable to extract the GPD $`E`$.
Besides, one may expect that the theoretical uncertainties and open questions for the meson electroproduction cross sections largely disappear for the TSA, suggesting that it is less sensitive to pre-asymptotic effects and that the leading order expression of Eq. (12) is already accurate at accessible values of $`Q^2`$ (in the range of a few GeV2). Due to its linear dependence on the GPD $`E`$, the TSA for longitudinally polarized vector mesons opens up the perspective to extract the total angular momentum contributions $`J^u`$ and $`J^d`$ of the $`u`$ and $`d`$-quarks to the proton spin. In the parametrization for the GPDs $`E^q`$ presented in Ref. , $`J^u`$ and $`J^d`$, enter as free parameters. Due to the different $`u`$\- and $`d`$-quark content of the vector mesons, the asymmetries for the $`\rho _L^0`$, $`\omega _L`$ and $`\rho _L^+`$ channels are sensitive to different combinations of $`J^u`$ and $`J^d`$, with $`\rho _L^0`$ production mainly sensitive to the combination $`2J^u+J^d`$, $`\omega _L`$ to the combination $`2J^uJ^d`$, and $`\rho _L^+`$ to the isovector combination $`J^uJ^d`$.
In Fig. 6, the sensitivity of the TSA for $`\rho _L^0`$ production on different values of $`J^u`$ is shown. The TSA for $`\rho _L^0`$ electroproduction displays a pronounced sensitivity to $`J^u`$ around $`x_B0.4`$, where asymmetries are predicted in the -15 % to -30 % range according to the value of $`J^u`$. It will therefore be very interesting to provide a first measurement of this asymmetry in the near future, for a transversely polarized target, such as is currently available at HERMES.

In conclusion, we have seen some very promising first glimpses of GPDs entering hard exclusive reactions at the existing facilities. A dedicated program aiming at the extraction of the full physics potential contained in the GPDs will also require a dedicated facility combining high luminosity and a good resolution (in order to fully resolve the exclusive final state), as discussed at this Workshop, see .


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# Growth model with restricted surface relaxation

## I INTRODUCTION

Self-affine interfaces generated by nonequilibrium surface growth have been intensively studied in recent years \[1-3\]. Kinetic roughening models as ballistic deposition , Eden model , solid-on-solid model (SOS) with surface relaxation , SOS with refuse  and SOS with diffusion  are some examples of growth models that belongs to distinct universality classes. Theoretically, these growth processes are studied in three different schemes: through a continuum description using Langevin-like equation and renormalization group analisys for solving it; through numerical solutions of these equations; and through computer simulations of discrete models. The main goal is to obtain the universality class of a specific model and to get information about the presence of nonlinearities and broken symmetries.

In computer simulation of lattice growth models, interfaces are described by a discrete set $`\{h_i(t)\}`$ which represents the height of a site $`i`$ at the time $`t`$. Such an interface has $`L^d`$ sites, where $`L`$ is the linear size and $`d`$ is the dimension of the substrate. The roughness of the interface $`\omega `$ is defined as the root mean square of the $`\{h_i\overline{h}\}`$ distribution,

$$\omega ^2(L,t)=\frac{1}{L^d}\underset{i=1}{\overset{L^d}{}}(h_i\overline{h})^2,$$
(1)
where $`\overline{h}`$ is the mean height at time $`t`$ and the angular brackets means the average over independent samples.

The universality class of a discrete growth model is obtained through the temporal and spatial behaviors of roughness. In the most of kinetic roughening processes, which starts at $`t=0`$ from a flat substrate, the temporal behavior of roughness is described by the power law behavior, $`\omega (L,t)t^\beta `$, when $`1tt_\times `$, and its spatial behavior, in the steady state, is described by $`\omega _{sat}(L)L^\alpha `$, for $`tt_\times `$. The exponents $`\beta `$ and $`\alpha `$ are the growth and roughness exponents, respectivelly, and $`t_\times `$ is the saturation time. These two behaviors are joined at the Family and Vicsek dynamical scaling relation

$$\omega (L,t)L^\alpha f\left(\frac{t}{L^z}\right),$$
(2)
where the function $`f(x)`$ must be $`L`$-independent. This function scales as $`f(x)x^\beta `$ for short times and tends to a constant in the steady state. The dynamical exponent $`z`$ is related with $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ through the relationship $`z=\alpha /\beta `$ and it shows how the saturation time depends on the system size $`L`$: $`t_\times L^z`$. Two of these exponents predict which universality class a model belongs to.

These universality classes are related to the dominant term of the stochastic differential equation in the continuum limit. In the next section, we describe two stochastic differential equations which represent two distinct universality classes. The first is a linear equation proposed, in 1982, by Edwards and Wilkinson (EW equation) . The second is a nonlinear equation, introduced by Kardar, Parisi and Zhang in 1986 (KPZ equation) . When the nonlinear term of this equation is null, the EW linear equation is recuperated.

In this article, we report on simulations of a growth model with restricted relaxation process (called RR model), which was proposed in order to study the crossover between the linear and nonlinear regimes of the KPZ equation. The RR combines features of the Edwards-Wilkinson (EW) model , related to the EW linear equation, and the Kim-Kosterlitz (KK) model , related to the KPZ nonlinear equation. The crossover between linear and nonlinear regimes of the KPZ equation was studied numerically in $`d=1`$ and $`d=2`$ through numerical solutions of this equation where variations of the amount of nonlinearity was allowed. Moser and Kertész  found, in $`d=1`$, the growth exponent $`\beta =1/3`$ for all values of the nonlinearity. In $`d=2`$, the authors have found $`\beta =0.240`$, close to the Kim and Kosterlitz value . So, a crossover between linear and nonlinear regimes was not verified. Grossmann, Guo and Grant  also have obtained numerical solutions of KPZ equation where the surface tension was fixed and the nonlinear parameter was continuously changed. For small systems, the authors have found growth exponents in the interval $`1/4<\beta <1/3`$. So, the crossover was characterized by a continuum change in the growth exponent, which in $`d=1`$ means that the dynamical exponent $`z`$ depends on the amount of the nonlinearity. This continuous crossover in $`d=1`$ was also verified by simulations on growth models . Theoretically, in $`d=1`$, Nattermann and Tang  have studied the KPZ equation in the low nonlinear limit through renormalization group analisys and they have obtained a different result: two behaviors separated by a characteristic time $`t_c`$. For $`tt_c`$, the linear behavior of roughness was found, while for $`tt_c`$, the nonlinearity dominates.

This article is organized in sections. The next section presents the general approach for kinetic roughening and describes the EW and KK models. In section III, we introduce the RR model and we show our results which confirm the theoretical previsions of Natterman and Tang  and, in section IV, we finally show our conclusions.

## II THEORY AND DISCRETE MODELS

In the continuum (coarse-grained) description, the interface motion is described through Langevin-like equations \[1-3\],

$$\frac{h(𝐱,t)}{t}=v_0+\eta (𝐱,t)+\mathrm{\Phi }\left[h(𝐱,t)\right].$$
(3)
In this equation, $`v_0`$ and $`\eta (𝐱,t)`$ are the deposition rate and its noise, respectively. This white noise has zero mean and variance given by

$$\eta (𝐱,t)\eta (𝐱^{^{}},t^{^{}})=D\delta ^d(𝐱𝐱^{^{}})\delta (tt^{^{}}).$$
(4)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }\left[h(𝐱,t)\right]`$ is the term related to the correlations between neighbors which can have linear and nonlinear functions of $`h(𝐱,t)`$.

Our interest is focused on the SOS model with surface relaxation  and at the SOS model with restriction . The SOS model with surface relaxation, introduced by Edwards and Wilkinson  in 1982, is a random deposition of particles where the difference of height constraint between the neighbors $`\{j\}`$ of a site $`i`$ is given by

$$h_ih_{\{j\}}<M,$$
(5)
where $`M`$ is the parameter that controls the roughness. In this work, we always use $`M=1`$. If the height of the deposited particle on the site $`i`$ does not satisfy the height constraint, this particle must be moved to a local miminum. Family  have obtained for this model, in $`d=1`$, the exponents $`\beta =0.25(1)`$ and $`\alpha =0.48(2)`$. This result indicates that this model, in a coarse-grained limit, belongs to the universality class defined by the EW equation

$$\frac{h(𝐱,t)}{t}=v_0+\eta (𝐱,t)+\nu ^2h(𝐱,t),$$
(6)
where the laplacian term is related to the surface relaxation process. The exponents of this linear equation, obtained through Fourier analysis , are $`\beta =1/4`$, $`\alpha =1/2`$ and $`z=2`$ for $`d=1`$. For $`d=2`$, which is the critical dimension of Eq.6, these exponents are $`\beta =\alpha =0`$ which means that the roughness has logarithimic behavior in space and time ($`\omega ^2\mathrm{log}t`$, for $`tL^z`$, and $`\omega _{sat}^2\mathrm{log}L`$, for $`tL^z`$). Both, the EW model and the EW equation, generate gaussian height distributions as well.

In the SOS model with restriction, particles are also randomly deposited onto a substrate and the difference of height constraint is the same of the EW model, Eq.5, but any kind of relaxation is allowed. If the height of a deposited particle does not satisfy Eq.5, this choice must be refused, that is, the particle evaporates. This model was proposed in 1989 by Kim and Kosterlitz  in order to study nonlinear kinetic roughening in high dimensions. They numerically showed, in $`d=1`$, that this model, named KK model, belongs to the universality class of the well known KPZ equation, proposed by Kardar, Parisi and Zhang

$$\frac{h(𝐱,t)}{t}=v_0+\eta (𝐱,t)+\nu ^2h(𝐱,t)+\frac{\lambda }{2}\left[h(𝐱,t)\right]^2.$$
(7)
The appearance of the nonlinear term $`\left[h(𝐱,t)\right]^2`$ is due to the lateral growth, that is, the dependence of the growth velocity on a local normal of the growing interface, or to the appearance of a perpendicular driven force that leads to a growth velocity greater or smaller than the deposition rate $`v_0`$. In the case of the KK model, for example, the refuse mechanism makes the growth velocity smaller than the deposition rate. In $`d=1`$, the exponents of this equation  are $`\beta =1/3`$, $`\alpha =1/2`$ and $`z=3/2`$. In $`d=2`$, the analytical solution is not known. In $`d=1`$, numerical simulations of the KK model  indicate $`\beta =0.332(5)`$ and the $`\alpha `$-exponent close to the expected value $`(\alpha =1/2)`$ and, in $`d=2`$, $`\beta =0.250(5)`$ and $`\alpha =0.40(1)`$.

Eq.7 is not invariant under the $`hh`$ transformation, which means that the up-down symmetry is broken in surfaces generated by a KPZ process. This fact leads to deviations in the gaussian caracter of the height distributions which can be measured using other moments of the distribution. The Eq.1 can be generalized for any moments of height distribution as

$$W_q(L,t)=\frac{1}{L^d}\underset{i=1}{\overset{L^d}{}}(h_i\overline{h})^q,$$
(8)
where $`q`$ is the order of the moment. Note that the roughness $`\omega (L,t)`$ is related to the second moment: $`\omega ^2(L,t)=W_2(L,t)`$. A growing profile has up-down symmetry when positive and negative local curvatures are equals, and, in this case, $`W_3(L,t)`$ vanishes. On the other hand, when asymmetries are present, $`W_3(L,t)0`$. The skewness, defined by

$$S(L,t)=\frac{W_3(L,t)}{W_2^{3/2}(L,t)},$$
(9)
is the ideal measurement of deviations from gaussian behavior. In the case of the EW model, $`S(L,t)=0`$ always. For systems in KPZ class in $`d=1`$, Krug et al.  have indicated $`|S(L,t)|0.28`$ as an universal value in the transient state. In the steady state, the profile shows a random-walk character, that is, the height distribution is gaussian and $`S_{sat}(L,tt_\times )=0`$. In $`d=2`$, numerical simulations of the KK model indicate $`S0.40`$, in the transient state, and $`S_{sat}0.28`$, in the steady state .

## III MODEL DESCRIPTION AND RESULTS

In this article, we report on simulations of the growth model with restricted surface relaxation model (RR model). In the EW model, each incoming particle must search the local minima when the height constraint (Eq.5) is not satisfied. We introduce a parameter $`s`$ that is the number of lattice units allowed for the relaxation process. If the deposited particle does not find the minimum after $`s`$ relaxations, then this choice must be refused, as in KK model. For $`s=0`$, the KK model is recuperated and $`s\mathrm{}`$ yields the EW model.

### A $`d=1`$ Results

Figure 1 shows the log-log plot of roughness $`\omega (L,t)`$ vs time $`t`$ for a system with $`L=10^5`$ sites and $`s=2`$. The time unity means $`L^d`$ attempts of deposition. The two straight lines in the figure are showing the power-law fits with $`\beta =0.249(1)`$ $`(1<t<10^3)`$ and $`\beta =0.332(1)`$ $`(10^3<t<10^5)`$. The intersection of these two lines define the crossover time $`t_c`$. This crossover is easy to understand considering the increase of roughness: in short times, when the roughness is still small, particles do not need to relax very much for seaching local minima, so the linear behavior might dominate. In large times, on the other hand, we note the appearance of relaxation lenghts bigger than those observed in short times. As relaxation processes are linked to refuse processes in this model, the system undergoes a crossover to the nonlinear behavior. The crossover time $`t_c`$ is independent of the system size $`L`$ and it is only a function of the parameter $`s`$.

For a better understanding of this crossover we study the statistics of relaxations in the EW model, where relaxations of all sizes can occur. At the time $`t`$, be $`N_k(t)`$ the mean number of particles which diffused $`k`$ sites searching local minima. So, $`k`$ relaxations occur with probability

$$P_k(t)=\frac{N_k(t)}{L^d}.$$
(10)
These probabilities have an initial temporal dependence and a steady state $`P_k(\mathrm{})`$, whose values are shown in Table 1. We note a strong decrease of the probability with the number of sites diffused, which shows the rare ocurrences of the relaxation with large relaxation lenghts.

It is interesting to analyse the approach of this probability to the steady state because each $`P_k(t)`$ has different convergence times. For doing this, we define a normalised probability of $`k`$ relaxations as

$$p_k(t)=\frac{P_k(t)}{P_k(\mathrm{})}.$$
(11)
Figure 2 shows the plots of $`p_k(t)`$ vs $`t`$ for $`k=0;1;2;3;4`$ for the EW model with $`L=10^5`$. Note the differences among the convergences to each steady state: the temporal behaviors of $`p_0`$ and $`p_1`$ quickly go to its steady values, while $`p_2`$ and $`p_3`$ tend to unity only at $`t10^3`$ and $`t10^4`$, respectively. This fact suggests that large relaxation lenghts might occur at large deposition times with small probabilities. So, drawing attention to the curve $`p_2(t)`$ vs $`t`$, we observe that the saturation occurs at $`t10^3`$. In the RR model with $`s=2`$, we estimate $`t_c10^3`$, which indicates that the crossover from linear to nonlinear behaviors of the RR model occurs, for a value of $`s`$, when $`p_{k=s}(t)`$ is time independent.

This behavior of $`p_k`$ is responsible for the dependence of the crossover time $`t_c`$ with the parameter $`s`$ in the RR model. Figure 3 shows clearly this dependence with the plots of $`\omega (L,t)/t^\beta `$ vs $`t`$ for: (a) $`\beta =1/4`$ and (b) $`\beta =1/3`$, with $`s=0,2,4`$ and $`L=10^5`$. In (a), the curve with $`s=0`$ always grows, while the curve for $`s=4`$ remains constant, indicating that $`\beta =1/4`$, for this value of $`L`$, is the correct value for $`s=4`$ (EW behavior) and a noncorrect for $`s=0`$ (KK nonlinear behavior). In (b) similar conclusions are obtained with $`\beta =1/3`$. For $`s=2`$, the initial linear and the asymptotic KPZ behaviors are well observed in (a) and (b), respectively. Note that the crossover for $`s=2`$ occurs when the $`p_2(t)`$ is time independent, that is, when $`p_2(t)1`$, in Figure 2. For $`s=4`$, we observe only the linear behavior because the total deposition time is smaller than the crossover time $`t_c`$.

In order to do a more complete characterization of this crossover, we also analyse the temporal behavior of the skewness $`S(L,t)`$. Figure 4 shows plots of $`S(L,t)`$ vs $`t`$ for $`L=10^5`$ and several values of the parameter $`s`$. For $`s=0`$, the skewness $`S(t)`$ goes quickly to the KPZ transient value $`S=0.28`$. As we have explained, $`S0`$ means that the interfaces have not up-down symmetry. We find for $`s=2`$, a slower approach to the KPZ value, than observed for $`s=0`$, indicating that the up-down symmetry is gradually lost when $`s>0`$. In particular, for $`s=3`$, we clearly observe an initial behavior where $`S0`$ and an approach faster to the KPZ value at $`t10^4`$. The temporal dependence of $`S(L,t)`$, which is an independent measurement of the universality class, also indicates an initial linear behavior and the KPZ behavior in asymptotic times.

### B $`d=2`$ Results

It is also interesting to study this crossover in $`d=2`$, because changes in the morphology are expected in this dimension. For the KK model, we have power-law divergencies of roughness ($`\omega ^2t^{0.50}`$ and $`\omega ^2L^{0.78}`$), while the EW model shows logarithmic divergences ($`\omega ^2\mathrm{ln}t`$ and $`\omega ^2\mathrm{ln}L`$.

In order to avoid saturation effects, we work with $`L=2000`$ (4$`\times 10^6`$ sites), and we do simulations until $`t=10^4`$. Due to the computational cost, we perform only two samples for each value of the parameter $`s`$ and, consequently, the data quality in this section is poorer than in the previous subsection. The crossover is analysed through a similar process done in $`d=1`$. We expect logarithmic behavior when the linear term dominates, so we define

$$Y_s(t)=\frac{\omega ^2(t)B_s}{A_s\mathrm{ln}(t)},$$
(12)
where $`A_s`$ and $`B_s`$ are the $`s`$-dependent coefficients obtained through a logarithmic regression in the interval $`2<t<100`$. In Figure 5, we plot the temporal behavior of the function $`Y_s(t)`$, in a semi-logarithmic scale. If the temporal behavior of the roughness is logarithmic, $`Y_s(t)`$ must be a constant, equal to one. We note that this occurs for $`s=\mathrm{}`$, but, for $`s=1`$, this constant behavior remains until $`t10^2`$. After this time, there is a crossover to the power law behavior. However, until the studied time, it is not possible to determine the exponent.

In order to verify the existence of a power law behavior with the KPZ exponent $`\beta `$, we need to analyse values of the parameter $`s`$ smaller than $`s=1`$, that is, we need to do continuum variations in $`s`$. So, we do this by assinging a probability $`s`$ for the particle relax one lattice unit and a probability $`(1s)`$ for the particle be evaporated. In figure 6, we show the graph of $`\omega /t^\beta `$ vs $`t`$, for $`s=0`$ (KK model) and $`s=0.1,0.3,0.5`$. In this graph, it was used $`\beta =1/4`$ which is the exponent for the KK model in $`d=2`$ . If the temporal behavior of the roughness has a power law behavior with this exponent, the curves must be horizontal. For the RR model ($`s0`$), the curves show asymptotic approaches to this nonlinear behavior. For greater values of the parameter $`s`$, the crossover time to this behavior occurs for times greater than the time studied ($`t=10^4`$).

## IV Conclusions

We have studied the model with restricted surface relaxation which combines the main features of the model with surface relaxation (EW model) and the model with refuse (KK model). A power-law temporal behavior of roughness with two growth exponents was observed in $`d=1`$: The linear growth exponent, $`\beta =1/4`$, occurs in short times and the nonlinear one, $`\beta =1/3`$, appears in the asymptotic limit. This result suggests the following description: the linear term of the KPZ equation (Eq.7) dominates in short times and the nonlinear term dominates in asymptotic times. We also noted that the crossover time $`t_c`$ is independent of the system size $`L`$ and it is only function of the parameter $`s`$. This result corroborates the renormalization group solution made by Nattermann and Tang , where the KPZ equation with small nonlinear term was considered. In $`d=2`$, we have found indications of the same kind of crossover: A logarithmic temporal behavior of roughness in short times, which is related to the linear EW equation, and a power-law behavior with $`\beta =0.25`$ in asymptotic times, related to the nonlinear KPZ equation.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Rogério Magalhães Paniago for a critical reading of the manuscript. The simulations were made at an ensemble of Digital Alpha 500 Au of the Departamento de Física -UFMG and at a Sun HPC 10000 of the CENAPAD MG-CO. This work was supported by CNPq, Fapemig and Finep/Pronex, Brazilian agencies.

Figure captions

Figure 1

The temporal behavior of the roughness $`\omega (L,t)`$ for the RR model simulated at a substrate with $`L=10^5`$ sites and $`s=2`$, in a log-log plot. The two straight lines are showing the power-law fit results with $`\beta =1/4`$ (short times) and $`\beta =1/3`$ (asymptotic times). The crossover time $`t_c`$ is defined as the intersection of these two lines, as indicated in the figure.

Figure 2

The temporal behavior of normalised probability of $`k`$ relaxations $`p_k(t)`$ for the EW model with $`L=10^5`$ sites for $`k=0;1;2;3;4`$, from top to below.

Figure 3

The log-log plots of temporal behaviors of: (a) $`\omega /t^{1/4}`$ and (b)$`\omega /t^{1/3}`$ for $`s=0;2;4`$ and $`L=10^5`$. We might observe, for $`s=2`$, when the system drives away from the linear behavior in (a) and, the arrival at the nonlinear KPZ behavior in (b). For $`s=4`$, the system must approach to the KPZ behavior at deposition time greater than $`t=10^5`$.

Figure 4

The temporal behavior of the skewness $`S(L,t)`$ for $`L=10^5`$ for several values of the parameter $`s`$. The two horizontal lines show the value $`S=0`$ (EW value) and $`S=0.28`$ (KPZ value).

Figure 5

The temporal behavior, in a semi-logarithmic scale, of the function $`Y_s(t)`$ for $`s=1`$ and $`s=\mathrm{}`$ (EW) with $`L=2000`$. The dashed horizontal line indicates the constant value $`Y_s(t)=1`$.

Figure 6

The semi-logarithmic graph of $`\omega (L,t)/t^{1/4}`$ in function of the time $`t`$ for $`L=2000`$ and some values of the parameter $`s`$.

TABLE 1

| $`k`$ | $`P_k(\mathrm{})`$ |
| --- | --- |
| $`0`$ | 0.5813(3) |
| $`1`$ | 0.3481(3) |
| $`2`$ | 0.0616(1) |
| $`3`$ | 0.00812(2) |
| $`4`$ | 0.00085(1) |
| $`5`$ | 7(5)$`\times 10^5`$ |

The steady state values of probability of diffusion $`k`$ sites determined as the mean value in the interval $`10^4t10^5`$ for a EW system with $`L=10^5`$.


text:
# Dynamic Fracture Model for Acoustic Emission

## Abstract

We study the acoustic emission produced by micro-cracks using a two-dimensional disordered lattice model of dynamic fracture, which allows to relate the acoustic response to the internal damage of the sample. We find that the distributions of acoustic energy bursts decays as a power law in agreement with experimental observations. The scaling exponents measured in the present dynamic model can related to those obtained in the quasi-static random fuse model.

Crackling noise SET-01  is widely observed in systems as different as superconductors flux , magnets DUR-01  or plastically deforming crystals MIG-01 . A typical example is the acoustic emission (AE) recorded in a stressed material before failure. The noise is a consequence of micro-cracks forming and propagating in the material and should thus provide an indirect measure of the damage accumulated in the system. For this reason, AE is often used as a non-destructive tool in material testing and evaluation. Beside these practical applications, understanding the statistical properties of crackling noise has become a challenging theoretical problem. The distribution of crackle amplitudes follows a power law, suggesting an interpretation in terms of critical phenomena and scaling theories. This behavior has been observed in several materials such as wood ciliberto , cellular glass strauven , concrete ae  and paper paper  to name just a few.

The statistical properties of fracture in disordered media are captured qualitatively by lattice models, describing the medium as a discrete set of elastic bonds with randomly distributed failure thresholds hr ; fuse ; duxbury . After each crack the stress is redistributed in the lattice in a quasi-static approximation: i.e. the crack velocity is much slower than stress relaxation. Thus acoustic waves are not taken into account and the activity is monitored by the damage evolution or by the dissipated elastic energy. Numerical simulations indicate that micro-cracks propagate in avalanches giving rise to an heterogeneous response. The avalanche distribution is typically described by power law distributions and the results are usually interpreted in the framework of phase transitions hansen ; zrvs ; zvs ; gcalda ; alava . Despite the fact that critical phenomena are normally associated with a certain degree of universality (i.e. the scaling exponents should not depend on micro-structural details), there has been so far no quantitative agreement between models and experiments. A reason that could account for this discrepancy is the absence of acoustic waves in most models. It is then not obvious how to relate AE activity to internal avalanches.

Dynamic lattice models have been widely used in the past to analyze fracture processes dyn ; marder ; RAU ; mar , but although acoustic waves are explicitly included, the AE signal is usually not analyzed. Here we use a lattice model for dynamic fracture in a disordered medium, to obtain a direct correspondence between the recorded AE activity and the internal damage evolution. We find that the cumulative AE amplitudes are directly related — by a power law — to the cumulative damage. Next, we measure the distribution of the AE burst energies and find a power law with an exponent $`\beta 1.7`$ independent on the loading rate. This exponent can be related to the exponent describing failure avalanches in quasi-static models hansen ; zrvs ; zvs ; gcalda ; alava .

We consider a scalar model of dynamic fractures where a two-dimensional lattice is loaded in mode III marder : the lattice lies in the $`(x,y)`$ plane and deformation occurs along the $`z`$ axis, so that the equations of elasticity become scalar. The equation of the motion for the anti-planar displacement $`u`$ of a site with coordinate $`i,j`$ is

$$\rho \ddot{u}_{i,j}=K\underset{(l,m)}{}(u_{i,j}u_{l,m})\mathrm{\Gamma }\dot{u}_{i,j},$$
(1)
where the sum runs over the nearest neighbors $`(l,m)`$ of site $`(i,j)`$, $`K`$ is the elastic constant, $`\rho `$ is the density and dissipation is simulated by a viscous damping with a constant $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. In order to suppress some lattice effects, we use a 45 degree tilted square lattice. A constant strain rate is imposed to the model, by moving the boundary sites on two opposite boundaries at constant velocity $`V`$ and $`V`$, respectively. Periodic boundary conditions are imposed in the other direction. Disorder is simulated assigning randomly distributed failure threshold: a bond is removed (i.e. $`K`$ is set to zero) when $`\mathrm{\Delta }u>f_c`$, and $`f_c`$ is uniformly distributed in $`[0,1]`$. Notice that in the quasi-static limit ($`V0`$, $`\rho 0`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }0`$) the model reduces to the random fuse model (RFM), where a lattice of fuses with random threshold are subject to an increasing voltage fuse ; duxbury . Due to the scalar nature of our model there is a direct mapping between elastic and electric parameters hr .

The equation of motion (Eq. 1) is integrated numerically using a fourth order Runge-Kutta method. We work with a lattice of linear size $`L=80`$ and chose the units of space and time so that $`\rho =K=1`$. Each time a bond is stretched beyond its threshold the lattice constant is set to zero and an elastic wave is emitted. Due to the anti-plane constraint for the displacements, we only have transverse wave propagation with sound speed $`c=\sqrt{K/\rho }=1`$ in our units. The damping constant is chosen to be $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.1`$ so that typical length traveled by a wave is a little smaller than the lattice size. For smaller values of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ ringing effects and reflected waves do not allow to separate the single pulses and the lattice breaks at once. On the other hand, excessive damping leads to very small acoustic activity and the sample breaks suddenly at the edges. Even if the damping constant is small reflected waves can induce boundary failure, due to the rigidity of the loaded edge. Thus we do not allow that bonds fail in two boundary layers of length $`l=5`$ close to the loaded edges. This corresponds to apply a load through a soft contact. The model is simulated for a variety of loading velocities all much lower than the sound speed $`Vc`$.

Measuring the displacements of every lattice site and calculating the forces for every time steps, we have obtained the stress-strain curve for four different value of the applied strain rate. In Fig. 1 we show that the stress is a linear function of the strain up to the yield point, which precedes the total failure of the sample. The applied strain rate has little effect on the linear part of the curve, while it influences the curve after the yield point.

Monitoring the activity of some particular lattice sites we have direct access to the AE signal. These sites mimic the effect of transducers coupled to the material in a typical AE experiment. In a typical run, we record the displacements, velocities and accelerations of four sites in the boundary layer and two sites in the interior. Typically, AE distributions are recorded from a single site and averaged over ten realizations of the disorder. We have tested that the statistical properties of the signal do not vary for different boundary sites, while there is a clear difference between boundary and inner sites. In the following, we concentrate on sites in the boundary layer, in order to avoid excessive fluctuations due to failures occurring on neighboring bonds in the inner region.

An example of the typical signals recorded with our model are reported in Fig. 2. A large acoustic activity is visible in the upper panel where we show the local acceleration $`a`$ of a boundary site as a function of time. We can also monitor the velocity signal which is simply related to the acceleration and display the same features. In the present model, it will be convenient to use the acceleration as a AE monitoring tool, since the velocity has a bias induced by the external loading: even in the absence of cracking the lattice has a non-vanishing velocity. We define the associated cumulative energy as

$$E(t)_0^t𝑑t^{}a^2(t^{}).$$
(2)
The behavior of the cumulative acoustic energy $`E(t)`$ is typically monitored in AE experiments. In some cases, $`E(t)`$ is found to increase as a power law ciliberto , or exponentially in other cases paper . In general one expects a marked peak close to failure, as we also observe in Fig 2, obtained for $`V=10^3`$. The curve is well fitted by cubic law, $`Et^3`$.

A central problem in AE measurements is to correlate the recorded acoustic activity with the internal damage state. In this way, AE can be used as a tool for damage evaluation. In our model, we have a direct access to the internal damage $`D`$ that can be defined as the total number of failed bonds. We find that $`D`$ increases linearly with time (see Fig. 3) apart from a rapid increase very close to failure. Rescaling the curves with the loading rate one sees that $`D`$ is in fact a linear function of the applied strain $`\gamma (Vt)/L`$ (see the inset of Fig. 4).

These observations thus lead to a direct scaling relation between internal damage and released acoustic energy: Fig. 4 shows that $`E`$ scales as expected as $`D^3`$. A direct consequence of this result is that the measured acoustic energy is proportional to the released elastic energy $`E_{el}KD\gamma ^2D^3E`$.

A large amount of theoretical activity has been devoted in the past to understand the origin of power law distributions of AE amplitudes widely observed in material fracture. Most of the analysis was devoted to quasi-static models, such as the the RFM, where fracture was shown to occur in damage burst, distributed as $`P(D)D^\tau `$ with $`\tau 2.5`$ hansen ; zrvs . This value is in perfect agreement with the result $`\tau =5/2`$ obtained exactly hansen1  for the exponent of the avalanche distribution of the fiber bundle model (FBM) dfbm , where $`N`$ fibers with random failure threshold are loaded in parallel. It was thus conjectured that the long-range stress transfer present in the RFM was equivalent to the infinite range load redistribution of the FBM, placing the two models into the same universality class hansen ; zrvs . A similar exponent was found in a vectorial fracture model, so that this class could be even broader zrvs . Comparing this result with AE experiments is problematic since quasi-static models do not account for wave propagation.

Here we can directly measure the distribution of pulse sizes due to the acoustic activity. In Fig. 5 we report the distribution of energies for the acceleration signal, defining $`ϵa^2`$. In both cases the distribution decays as power law with an exponent $`\beta =1.7\pm 0.1`$, independent on the loading rate, which only affects the low part of the distribution. The same law is found in the case of the velocity signal. Experimental results report an exponent value in the same range, even if it differs a little from one material to another: for wood the exponent is $`\beta =1.51\pm 0.05`$, for fiberglass $`\beta =2.0\pm 0.01`$ ciliberto , $`\beta =1.30\pm 0.1`$ for paper paper , $`\beta =1.5\pm 0.1`$ for experiments on cellular glass strauven .

Using the scaling relation between released acoustic energy and damage discussed above, we can relate the exponent $`\beta `$ to $`\tau `$. From $`ED^3`$ and $`Dt`$, we expect $`ϵD^2`$. Substituting this expression in the equation for the probabilities $`P(ϵ)dϵ=P(D)dD`$, we obtain $`\tau =1+2(\beta 1)=2.4`$, which is very close to $`\tau =5/2`$ measured in the RFM. Thus we conjecture that the acoustic energy exponent measured in our dynamic model is directly related with the damage exponent measured in the corresponding quasi-static model nota .

In conclusions, we have introduced a lattice model of dynamic fracture which can be used to model AE experiments. The model allows to clarify important issues in the interpretation of the experiments, namely the relation between internal damage and released acoustic energy. In particular, we derive direct relations between the scaling behavior of failure avalanches and acoustic bursts. It would be interesting to generalize this analysis to more realistic situations, exploring the role of dimensionality, load conditions and lattice anisotropy. However, in comparing the simulated signal with experiments, we should be careful about the definition of the events in the time series, since the amplifier and the AE sensors could bias the recorded waveform, introducing a systematic error in the data.

This work has been supported by the European Network contract FMRXCT980183 and the INFM center SMC.


text:
# Cosmic Radiation Constraints on Low String Scale and Extra Dimension Cross Sections

## Abstract

The observed interaction energy of cosmic rays with atmospheric nuclei reaches up to a PeV in the center of mass. We compute nucleon-nucleon and nucleon-neutrino cross sections for various generic parton cross sections appearing in string and brane world scenarios for gravity and compare them with cosmic ray data. Scenarios with effective energy scales in the TeV range and parton cross sections with linear or stronger growth with the center of mass energy appear strongly constrained or ruled out. String-inspired scenarios with infinite-volume extra dimensions may require a fundamental scale above $`100`$eV for which they are probably in conflict with gravity on parsec scales.

Introduction: The idea that new physics will appear at an energy of $`1`$TeV is currently very popular. Many of the scenarios discussed in the literature involve extra dimensions and aim at unifying gravity with the Standard Model interactions, see, e.g. Ref. add . Scenarios with a quantum gravity/string scale as small as in the sub-eV range have been proposed to explain the smallness of the observed cosmological constant in consistency with collider experiments, cosmology, and gravity measurements dgln ; dgs .

On the other hand cosmic ray interactions have been observed up to a PeV in the center of mass (CM) uhecr , about a factor thousand higher than reached in accelerator experiments. Although rather indirect, these observations are consistent with interactions extrapolated from their Standard Model description and thus suggest the absence of dramatic new effects at a TeV. Since new interactions above a TeV are usually weak, this does not necessarily put strong constraints on new physics. However, there are two effects that can act as “magnifiers” of weak individual interactions: First, when probed at very high energies, the nucleons appear to consist of partons each of which acts as a target for new interactions and whose numbers grow with energy roughly as $`E^{0.4}`$. Second, theories in which the fundamental constituents are not described as point particles but as extended objects such as strings, often predict numbers of excitable states that increase as power laws or even exponentially with energy.

In the present paper we parametrize new parton level cross sections by a mass scale $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, an integer $`n`$ characterizing the spin of possible new states produced in the interactions, and a maximal squared 4-momentum transfer $`t_{\mathrm{max}}`$. We then establish constraints on these parameters from data on ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CR) and neutrinos.

New Fundamental Cross Sections: We parametrize the fundamental cross section between Standard Model elementary particles of type $`i`$ and $`j`$ involving other Standard Model particles and at least one bulk state by

$$\sigma _{ij}(s)\frac{t_{\mathrm{max}}}{s^2}\left(\frac{s}{M_{\mathrm{eff}}^2}\right)^{1+n/2}.$$
(1)
Here, $`n`$ is a constant, $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is the effective mass scale, and $`s`$ and $`t`$ with $`|t|t_{\mathrm{max}}`$ are the usual Mandelstam variables.

There are several scenarios for which expressions such as Eq. (1) appear. In the case of $`n`$ large compact extra dimensions add  Kaluza-Klein (KK) gravitons can be produced with cross sections $`\sigma _gM_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2`$, where $`M_{\mathrm{Pl}}1.72\times 10^{18}`$GeV is the reduced Planck mass grw . For flat extra dimensions the total number of KK states is $`s^{n/2}V_n`$, where $`V_n`$ is the volume of the extra dimension. Using the relation $`M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2=M_{\mathrm{eff}}^{n+2}V_n`$, this leads to Eq. (1) with $`n`$ interpreted as the number of extra dimensions and $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ the $`4+n`$ dimensional fundamental gravity scale. Above $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ the growth of the cross section Eq. (1) for gravitational scattering is softened by unitarity effects eikonal  within scenarios involving point particles. To obtain conservatively low cross sections we will assume an exponential cut-off $`\mathrm{exp}(s^{1/2}/M_{\mathrm{eff}})`$ in such scenarios, whereas $`t_{\mathrm{max}}s`$.

It has been realized that in extra dimension scenarios the largest contribution to the cross section for collisions above $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ may be the production of $`3+n`$ dimensional black holes bh . The corresponding cross sections have been estimated by the geometric cross section $`\pi r_s(s)^2`$ defined by the Schwarzschild radius in $`3+n`$ spatial dimensions $`r_s(s)s^{\frac{1}{2(1+n)}}`$. This is also of the form Eq. (1) with $`n`$ substituted by $`2/(1+n)`$. It has further been argued that semi-classical p-branes completely wrapped around $`p`$ small extra dimensions leads to cross sections with the scaling $`s^{\frac{1}{(1+n)}}`$ where $`n`$ is now interpreted as the number of large extra dimensions around which the p-brane is not wrapped aco .

Recently scenarios have been discussed where the fundamental quantum gravity scale is as low as $`M_\mathrm{s}10^3`$eV dgln . Such scenarios can be realized, for example, if the Standard Model lives on a 3-brane and is coupled to gravity propagating in 5 or more infinite-volume space-time dimensions with a fundamental scale $`M_\mathrm{s}`$. Thus, gravity is strong in the bulk but non-gravitational interactions on our 3-brane induce the observed Planck scale $`M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$ and thus shield strong gravity from the bulk. Above the fundamental scale $`M_\mathrm{s}`$ gravity is assumed to be regularized and thus has its effective coupling unaffected dgln . This is the case in string theory where $`M_\mathrm{s}`$ is identified with the string scale and excitations of mass $`m^2=4(N1)M_\mathrm{s}^2`$ appear at integer levels $`N1`$ polchinski  with spin $`j2N`$ (for closed strings). Interactions of Standard Model particles on the brane can then lead to stringy bulk states of spin $`j`$ with $`2js/M_\mathrm{s}^2`$. The cross section for each of these states is $`\sigma (t_{\mathrm{max}}/s^2)(s/M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2)^{j1}`$ \[see Eq. (6.6) in Ref. dgln \], but the number of states grows as $`(s/M_\mathrm{s}^2)^{j1}`$. Thus, the intermediate scale in Eq. (1) arises as

$$M_{\mathrm{eff}}=(M_{\mathrm{Pl}}M_\mathrm{s})^{1/2},$$
(2)
with $`n=4j6`$, and this scaling reflects the usual Regge behavior. To recover the correct graviton zero-mode coupling we have to use $`t_{\mathrm{max}}=s`$ for $`n=j=2`$ in Eq. (1). In the string theory context the scaling Eq. (1) is not expected to be strongly modified above $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. The usual unitarity bound for point particles, $`\sigma _{ij}s^1`$, does not apply to extended strings.

Nucleon-Nucleon and Neutrino-Nucleon Cross Sections: Total cross sections are obtained by folding Eq. (1) with the parton distributions $`f_i(x,Q)`$ in the nucleon. We neglect factors from the spin structure and follow an approach similar to Ref. rt  leading to

$`\sigma _{NN}(s)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{ij}{}}{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑x_1𝑑x_2f_i(x_1,Q)f_j(x_2,Q)\sigma _{ij}(x_1x_2s),`$
$`\sigma _{\nu N}(s)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑xf_i(x,Q)\sigma _{\nu i}(xs).`$ (3)
Here, the sums run over gluons and quarks. Note that in principle there is another integral $`_0^{\widehat{s}}𝑑Q^2(d\sigma _{ij}(\widehat{s},Q^2)/dQ^2)\mathrm{}`$ over the four-dimensional energy-momentum transfer $`Q^2=t`$, where $`\widehat{s}=x_1x_2s`$ or $`\widehat{s}=xs`$, respectively. We assume $`t_{\mathrm{max}}s`$ in Eq. (1) and have approximated this integral by the total parton cross section $`\sigma _{ij}(\widehat{s})`$ multiplied by the parton distributions taken at $`Q^2=\widehat{s}`$ which is justified within an order of magnitude estimate in the absence of concrete models. For the parton distributions we use the CTEQ6 distributions in electronic form from Ref. cteq .

Fig. 1 shows the neutrino-nucleon neutral current cross section for spin-2 emission into the bulk obtained for the two scenarios. Here, $`s=2Em_N`$, where $`E`$ is the incoming neutrino energy and $`m_N`$ is the nucleon mass. We stress that in the absence of a concrete model the uncertainties due to the exact form of the coupling, the spin structure etc. can be of the order 100. Also the observable signatures of such reactions depend on the energy fraction $`f_v`$ going into visible Standard Model particles and thus on currently unknown details. Assuming, for example, that observable particle production is cut off at $`Q^2M_{\mathrm{eff}}^2`$ where most of the energy goes into invisible bulk states, results in $`f_v0.1`$ for a $`10^{19}`$eV neutrino interacting with a nucleon. Nevertheless the results in Fig. 1 provide qualitative indications. Note that the cross section can be scaled by $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}^2`$ for different effective mass scales.

Phenomenological Consequences: Fig. 1 implies neutrino-nucleon cross sections significantly higher than in the Standard Model at energies above $`1`$PeV which would make neutrinos easier to detect. Specifically, cross sections $`\sigma _{\nu N}1`$mb would give rise to deeply penetrating atmospheric air showers. Neutrinos are expected to be produced by UHECR which produce pions on the cosmic microwave background every few Mpc above $`4\times 10^{19}`$eV gzk . The observation of such energetic UHECR which are believed to have an extragalactic origin bs , allows to estimate the resulting secondary flux of “cosmogenic” neutrinos between $`10^{17}`$eV and $`10^{19}`$eV within a factor $`100`$ stecker ; nu\_fluxes ; kkss . For a differential neutrino flux $`\varphi _\nu (E)`$, a detector whose sensitivity to deeply penetrating showers of energy $`E`$ effectively corresponds to $`N(E)`$ target nucleons would see a rate of such showers per solid angle given by $`R(E)\varphi _\nu (E)\sigma _{\nu N}(E)N(f_vE)`$. No such showers consistent with weakly interacting primaries have been observed yet which, for a given cosmogenic flux $`\varphi _\nu (E)`$, lead to upper limits on $`\sigma _{\nu N}(E)`$ mr ; tol ; rt . Fig. 1 shows the resulting excluded range of cross sections, assuming $`f_v1`$, for a conservative and an optimistic neutrino flux estimate tol ; rt . The optimistic flux assumes that the neutrino energy fluence is comparable to the isotropic $`\gamma `$ray energy fluence in the Universe kkss .

Thus, cross sections that are larger than the Standard Model cross section by a factor 10-1000 and smaller than $`1`$mb for $`10^{17}\mathrm{eV}E10^{19}`$eV would imply neutrino fluxes smaller than expected. The projected sensitivity of future experiments kkss  indicate that these limits could be lowered down to the Standard Model cross section. We conclude that parton cross sections with $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}1`$TeV, $`t_{\mathrm{max}}s`$, and $`n2`$ in Eq. (1) are most likely in conflict with the non-observation of deeply penetrating air showers, especially in the stringy context where no strong unitarization cut-off above $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is expected. In this latter scenario, Eq. (2) implies the limit $`M_\mathrm{s}10^3`$eV independent of similar limits from other considerations dgln .

In the string context the $`j=n=2`$ (graviton) contribution considered above in Fig. 1 provides a lower limit to the total cross section. The contribution of spin $`j2`$ state production leads to a threshold behavior: The behavior of the Veneziano amplitude in the hard scattering limit, $`s,tM_\mathrm{s}^2`$, $`t/s=`$const., implies that individual amplitudes for $`j1`$ are usually suppressed by $`\mathrm{exp}[|t|/M_\mathrm{s}^2]`$ polchinski , and thus $`t_{\mathrm{max}}M_\mathrm{s}^2`$ in Eq. (1). Now summing over all $`js/M_\mathrm{s}^2`$ results in an exponential growth of the form $`\sigma _{ij}(s)s^1\mathrm{exp}\left[(s^{1/2}M_{\mathrm{eff}})/M_\mathrm{s}\right]`$ kovesi-domokos , and similarly for cross sections involving nucleons. This leads to Hagedorn-like saturation at $`sM_{\mathrm{eff}}^2`$, both at the parton level and after folding in Eq. (3). However, air showers with energies up to a few times $`10^{20}`$eV, or $`s(1\mathrm{PeV})^2`$ have been observed uhecr . The shape and starting point in the atmosphere of these showers are consistent with nucleon primaries and cross sections with atmospheric nuclei that are within about a factor 2 of the expected Standard Model hadronic cross sections. Therefore, models with $`M_\mathrm{s}M_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}1`$PeV should be ruled out. Furthermore, observation of an air shower of energy $`E`$ would require a primary of energy $`E/f_v`$. If visible particles are only produced for $`Q^2M_{\mathrm{eff}}^2`$, for $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}1`$TeV Eq. (3) leads to $`f_v10^3`$ for an incoming nucleon energy $`E10^{20}`$eV, and thus much higher energy primaries would be necessary to explain the observations.

This has important phenomenological ramifications for scenarios with a quantum gravity/string scale in the sub-eV range which has recently been proposed to explain the smallness of the observed cosmological constant dgs . There, the above argument together with Eq. (2) implies $`M_\mathrm{s}100`$eV. In these scenarios Newtonian gravity is modified on scales $`rM_\mathrm{s}^12\mu \mathrm{m}(M_\mathrm{s}/100\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^1`$, where massive graviton exchange becomes relevant. This is consistent with gravity measurements on sub-mm scales submm . At very small momenta $`pM_\mathrm{s}^2/M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$, the propagator for the zero-mode graviton in four dimensions is modified to $`(M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2p^2+aM_\mathrm{s}^4)^1`$ dghs  in case of at least two infinite-volume extra dimensions, where $`a`$ is a constant of order unity. This makes gravity appear higher-dimensional, i.e. decreasing with a higher power of distance than Newtonian gravity, on scales $`rM_{\mathrm{Pl}}/M_\mathrm{s}^21\mathrm{pc}(M_\mathrm{s}/100\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^2`$ dvali . The above bound would thus imply modifications of gravity on parsec scales which seems phenomenologically unviable. This problem can be avoided for only one extra dimension where gravity is modified only at much larger scales $`rM_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2/M_\mathrm{s}^3`$ dghs , however, this does not allow to explain the smallness of the cosmological constant dgs . An unlikely loop-hole consists of UHECR primaries consisting of $`10^3`$ nucleons.

Conclusions: Parton cross sections involving an effective mass scale $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}1`$TeV and growing linearly or faster in the squared CM energy are likely in conflict with the non-observation of deeply penetrating air showers. Extra-dimensional black hole or p-brane production cross sections increase more slowly than $`s`$ and are thus not strongly constrained yet above a TeV, consistent with findings in the literature rt . We further argued that in scenarios with a Hagedorn-like saturation at $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ due to an exponential increase of states, this mass scale should be larger than the largest CM energies observed in interactions with hadronic or smaller cross sections, which is currently about a PeV.

In possible string theoretic descriptions of quantum gravity with a scale $`M_\mathrm{s}1`$TeV, the lower limit on $`M_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ translates into $`M_\mathrm{s}100`$eV via Eq. (2). This bound could further increase proportional to the maximal UHECR energy that may be seen with much bigger experiments now under construction such as the Pierre Auger project auger .

In scenarios which also explain the smallness of the cosmological constant with more than two infinite-volume extra dimensions the lower bound on $`M_\mathrm{s}`$ would lead to modifications of Newtonian gravity on scales $`r1\mathrm{pc}(M_\mathrm{s}/100\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^2`$. Such scenarios thus appear to be in conflict either with UHECR observations or with gravity on parsec scales.

Acknowledgements: We thank Gia Dvali, David Langlois, Karim Malik, and Lorenzo Sorbo for illuminating discussions.