text:
# Tomographic-like reconstruction of the percolation cluster as a phase transition

## Abstract

We observed a phase transition-like behavior that is marked by the onset of the realization of the connectivity between two sites on a two-dimensional cross-section of a three-dimensional percolation cluster. This was found using contact-resistance atomic force microscopy on carbon black/polymer composites. The features in the current images, when presented as a function of the cut-off current, or as a function of the total area covered by the electrically connected objects, appear to obey a cluster statistics that is similar to the one predicted and observed in continuum percolation systems.

While the basic theory of percolation seems to be well understood,1  there are many aspects of classical percolation theory that have not been investigated intensively in spite of their fundamental importance and practical applications. In particular, there is a group of problems associated with the fact that usually one observes three-dimensional (3D) structures with methods that yield two-dimensional images. Such are the projection,2  the illumination 3  and the cross-section 4  of 3D percolation systems. Conspicuous applications are astrophysical maps 5 , biological 6  and medical scans,7  meteorological 3 ; 8  and hydrological 9 ; 10  information, and the determination of the structure of the percolating phase in binary inhomogeneous media.4 ; 10 ; 11 ; 12 ; 13  In particular, it was only very recently that the dynamic properties associated with these problems have been considered.10  This was the phenomenon of flow between two surface sites, that are connected by the underlying 3D percolation cluster. In this paper we report a manifestation of the above-mentioned problems in binary composites using an experimental method that depends on the dynamical aspects of flow within a percolation cluster. As we show below, the connection between the geometrical and dynamical aspects can be described by a percolation-type phase-transition-like behavior.

While manifestations of 3D properties in 2D data was found a long time ago13  (on composites in which the electrical properties have indicated a percolation behavior14 ; 15 ) the more recent development of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and its extensions, to stiffness microscopy,4  electrical force microscopy (EFM) 11  and contact-resistance microscopy 12  (C-AFM), have enabled more direct cross-section images of the percolation cluster. In particular, EFM images have been used for the experimental determination of the fractal dimension,16  $`D_f`$, of the 3D percolating conducting phase in composites made of carbon black (CB) particles embedded in an insulating polymer.11

The initial aim of our study was to reexamine the above EFM results using the superior 12  C-AFM method, since the results obtained in Ref. 11 were subjected to a significant uncertainty yielding 17  a $`D_f`$ value in the range 2.6 $`\pm `$ 0.6. This permits a $`D_f=3`$ value, which is in the homogeneous (3D) regime, and thus may shed doubt as to the validity of the underlying scaling assumption claimed in Ref. 11 (see below). The latter should yield the value borne out from percolation theory,1 ; 11  $`D_f=2.53`$.

Our samples, with CB fillings between 10 and 23 vol%, were prepared from a commercial grade polyethylene and Vulcan XC-72 carbon black 15 . This CB has 100-1000 nm-long aggregates that consist of fused spherical graphite particles that are 30 nm in diameter 14 ; 18 . The composites were prepared 11  in a common compounding and molding procedure, 19 ; 20  resulting in uniform plaques 0.25 mm thick. The plaques were cut to long strips for the macroscopic measurements, described previously, 15  and to squares of 12x12 mm2 for the present C-AFM study. A 5 mm wide silver-paint strip at the sample side served as a counter electrode to the local contact provided by the conducting tip. The C-AFM images were acquired more than 2 mm away from the strip, thus the current between the tip and the electrode is possible only if there is an ”infinite” conducting cluster in the system, i.e., the current must flow between the tip and a branch of this infinite cluster. We call a cross section of such a branch, as reflected in the surface image, a ”conducting island”.

Our measurements were performed using a commercial (NT-MDT Solver) Scanning Force Microscope in the constant-force mode, with 0.03 N/m cantilever stiffness. The current maps were measured along with the topography for a given tip-electrode voltage, $`V`$. The silicon cantilever tips had curvatures of less than 35 nm, and were coated by a 25 nm-thick titanium-nitride film. We thus estimate the resolution in the topographic images to be better than 60 nm. The spatial resolution of the current maps is, however, much better, and was limited by our pixel size, which is of the order of 10x10 nm2. This is important considering the size of the conducting particles (the CB aggregates, see above), since this means that we can assume that a pixel in an image belongs to a single particle. The noise level was around 0.02 nA in most measurements and thus in our image analysis we did not consider currents below 0.04 nA. The images discriminate between different current intensities (between and within islands) and thus enable statistical analysis of the current images taken with a constant voltage. In particular, we extract from each image the individual and inclusive areas of the islands for currents larger than a chosen cutoff current $`I_{\text{co}}`$.

Turning to the results, in Fig. 1 we show typical topographic and current images obtained by the C-AFM for two values of $`V`$. We found no correlation between the surface morphology and the distribution of the ”conducting islands”. This implies that the current maps reflect mainly the bulk sample properties, namely, the 3D percolation cluster. The increase of the number of islands and their individual areas with $`V`$ underlines the 3D nature of the system as more percolation cluster branches can be detected with increasing $`V`$. The increase of the bias appears then to be associated with ”deeper” cross sectioning of the conducting network of the bulk.

To check the fractal dimension of the islands area on the surface, $`D_s`$, we first considered samples with different CB contents. We measured the area covered by all the islands, $`A_t`$, as a function of the scanned area (”the window”), $`L^2`$. This was done first in the regime for which scaling behavior is expected,1  i.e., $`\nu `$ = 10 vol%, which is close to the percolation threshold, $`\nu _c`$ (= 9.3 vol%) 15 , and $`L`$ larger than the particle size ($``$ 0.5 $`\mu \text{m}`$ in our case) but smaller than the correlation length (which is of macroscopic order near the percolation threshold, 12  say, larger than 10 $`\mu \text{m}`$). The results of our measurements for various cutoff currents are shown in Fig. 2.

For all nine cutoff currents considered (in the range $`0.04I_{\text{co}}20`$ nA), the relation $`A_tL^{D_s}`$ (expected from percolation theory 1 ) was obeyed, as seen in Fig. 2 for four cutoff currents. The extracted exponent for each of the nine cutoff currents has a value within the interval $`1.35D_s1.65`$. Our $`D_s=1.5\pm 0.15`$ exponent has the same value as that obtained 11 ; 17  from EFM measurements, but it has, as explained above, a higher certainty which is very significant. Utilizing the expectation 11 ; 16  that the fractal dimension of the bulk cluster is given by $`D_f=D_s+1`$, we find that $`D_f=2.50\pm 0.15`$, in agreement with the value expected 1  for a 3D percolation cluster, 2.53. We have further established the validity of the above values, in addition to the smaller error bars and the fact that they were found for nine different cutoff currents, by an even more significant test. This is by performing the same measurements on a sample with $`\nu `$ well removed from $`\nu _c`$, where the ”normal” 3D dimensionality should be recovered. Three cutoff currents (0.5, 4, and 20 nA) were used in a measurement of a $`\nu =15`$ vol% sample, all yielding a value of $`D_s=2.00\pm 0.05`$. The clear distinction between the results for the 10 vol%, and the 15 vol% samples is very convincing evidence that our surface measurements reveal properties of the bulk percolation cluster. This behavior appears to be general, as it was found not only for the present ”high-structure” 14 ; 15 ; 18  CB/polymer composite but also for another, ”low-structure”, CB/polymer composite that we have studied 15 , as well as for granular Ni/SiO2 films. The CB system, however, is of particular interest, since it is not a ”true” percolation system, in the sense that conduction takes place via tunneling between the CB particles even in the percolation cluster. Nevertheless, it does conform with 3D continuum percolation behavior.21

The results shown in Fig. 2 have significant implications beyond the latter conclusion. We see that, systematically, the lower the value of $`I_{\text{co}}`$ the larger the value of $`A_t`$, for the same $`V`$ and $`L`$. Let us consider this significance. All the conducting islands on the surface belong to the percolation cluster, as otherwise, no current can flow between them and the counter-electrode. On the other hand, the value of $`I_{\text{co}}`$ determines the corresponding longest possible current paths that can participate in the conduction (see below). We can then interpret the values of $`I_{\text{co}}`$ in terms of connectivity. The higher the $`I_{\text{co}}`$, the smaller the ensemble of conductance paths between the observed islands and the electrode via the percolation cluster. But then, two islands that are seen at a given $`I_{\text{co}}`$ are also *connected among themselves* via the 3D percolation cluster. The lower the value of $`I_{\text{co}}`$, the longer the conductance paths included in the ensemble of possible paths and the larger the number of detected conducting islands that are interconnected via the percolation cluster. Thus the variation of $`I_{\text{c}o}`$ acts as an electrical cross-sectioning parameter of the *3D* percolation cluster. In other words, the lower the value of $`I_{\text{co}}`$, the ”deeper” the (electrically) added ”tomographic-like” section of this cluster. So, while it is obvious that all the conducting islands are connected, the electrical *realization* of this connectedness is limited in our measurements to part of the conductance paths in the system. This interpretation gives a meaning to the $`I_{\text{co}}0`$ limit as the $`I_{\text{co}}`$ value for which all available connecting paths between two islands are realized. We have then a *transition* from a *partially realized* (via the 3D percolation cluster) connectivity of the islands in the system to a *fully realized* connectivity of this system. Our experimental approach here is closely related to the well-known concepts of optimal and shortest paths.22  In fact, the higher the chosen current cutoff, the closer the collection of current paths to the shortest electrical (and statistically, probably also the geometrical ”chemical distance” 22 ) path. Our $`I_{\text{co}}`$ values then represent a hierarchy of collection of paths that deviate from the shortest electrical path. The $`I_{\text{co}}0`$ limit is associated with the collection of all possible paths.

Can the above onset of realized connectivity at $`I_{\text{co}}0`$ be described as a percolation-type phase transition? A priori there is a difficulty in trying to examine this question, since we do not know the distribution of conductance paths in order to apply $`I_{\text{co}}`$ as a ”thermodynamic parameter” 23  of a phase transition. However, there is an obvious parameter that $`I_{\text{co}}`$ can be mapped to (see Fig. 2) and with which we are familiar from the theory of continuum percolation 21 ; 22 ; 24 . This parameter is the fractional ”covered” or ”occupied” area $`A_t/L^2`$ that can be simply mapped onto the site occupation probability $`p`$ in lattice percolation 21 . The choice of $`A_t/L^2`$ as a ”thermodynamic parameter” that describes the cross sectioning mentioned above also seems to suggest the value of its critical point, $`A_{tc}/L^2`$, as the value of $`A_t/L^2`$ when $`I_{\text{co}}0`$. We point out again that the value of $`A_{tc}/L^2`$ does not yield any particular feature in the observed image, and that the transition is ”hidden” here by the underlying 3D percolation cluster. The parameter $`(A_tA_{tc})/L^2`$ may then be, as in lattice or continuum percolation, the parameter that characterizes the proximity to the critical point 21 ; 24 . Having this parameter, it was natural to determine if cluster statistics such as in phase transitions in general,23  and in continuum percolation in particular,1 ; 22 ; 24  will be observed in the present case. For that purpose we examined the behavior of two quantities, that can be readily monitored and analyzed. To find whether they show the behavior of a ”phase transition” we have to check if they obey the corresponding power-law behaviors1 ; 22 ; 23  for the *same* $`A_{tc}`$.

Following the above considerations we have plotted the number of observed islands, $`n_s`$, as a function of the island area, $`S`$, and we found that, as shown in the inset of Fig. 3(a) for $`A_t/L^2=4.6`$ %, the results can be well fitted by a $`n_sS^\tau \mathrm{exp}(CS)`$ behavior (as in percolation theory 1 ; 22 ). The specific prediction of percolation theory is that $`C(A_tA_{tc})^{1/\sigma }`$ where $`\tau `$ and $`1/\sigma `$ are dimensional-dependent exponents. As shown in Fig. 3(a), very good fits to the data with that dependence are achieved for a sample of $`\nu =15`$ vol%. The best fit yielded $`A_{tc}/L^2=13`$%, $`\tau =0.25`$ and $`1/\sigma =2.65`$. An analysis of different areas of this same sample yielded $`A_{tc}/L^2`$ values in the range of $`13\pm 1`$ results were obtained for other values of $`\nu `$, and the corresponding values of $`A_{tc}`$ were found to increase with $`\nu `$.

The other dependence that we evaluated was that of the average size of the conducting islands (the cluster size in percolation theory 1 ; 22 ) $`<S>`$ on the above proximity parameter. $`<S>`$ is defined in percolation theory as $`\mathrm{\Sigma }n_sS^2/\mathrm{\Sigma }n_sS`$, and is predicted to behave as $`(A_tA_{tc})^\gamma `$. We checked then whether the data obtained for $`<S>`$ can be fitted by that power-law. The best fit for the 15 vol% sample yielded $`\gamma =1.9`$ and, *again*, $`A_{tc}/L^2=13`$%. This is shown in Fig. 3(b).

The important conclusion that can be derived from Fig. 3 is that the dependencies of $`C`$ and $`<S>`$ on $`(A_tA_{tc})`$ can be fitted very well to a power law, both with the same $`A_{tc}`$ and with percolation theory-like exponents. The quality of the data is not sufficient for obtaining exact values of the exponents, but the fact that the *same* $`A_{tc}`$ value is found with *reasonable exponents* does establish that we have here a behavior that can be well described as a phase transition. The interesting finding here is that while we do not have any ”visible” phase transition in the image (such as, say, 2D connectivity), the quantity $`A_t`$ (or the hidden variable $`I_{\text{co}}`$) serves as the ”thermodynamic parameter” of the phase transition in the *realization of the connectivity* of the underlying 3D system. The dynamic aspects, emphasized here by the dependence of the connectivity on $`V`$, are similar to the conduction under constant pressure difference in the case of flow between two sites in porous media.10  In fact, as will be described elsewhere, the values of $`A_t`$ that are determined for different values of $`V`$ exhibit a similar behavior to the one described here for different values of $`I_{\text{co}}`$.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors would like to thank M. B. Heaney and M. Wartenberg for the samples used in this study and A. Aharony, K. Schwartz and A. Drory for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation and the Niedersachsen Foundation.


format: text

text:
# Line-of-sight Effects on Observability of Kink and Sausage Modes in Coronal Structures with Imaging Telescopes

## 1 Introduction

In last few years, significant progress in the observational study of MHD wave activity of the solar corona has been achieved with SOHO/EIT and TRACE EUV imaging telescopes. Flare-generated decaying oscillations of coronal loops have been observed and interpreted as kink fast magnetoacoustic modes of the loops (Aschwanden et al. 1999; Nakariakov et al. 1999; Schrijver & Brown 2000; Aschwanden et al. 2002). Fast magnetoacoustic waves are possibly responsible for events such as coronal Moreton (or EIT) waves (Thompson et al. 1998, Ofman & Thompson 2002). Slow magnetoacoustic waves have been discovered in polar plumes (Ofman et al. 1997; DeForest & Gurman 1998; Ofman, Nakariakov & DeForest 1999) and in long loops (Berghmans & Clette 1999; De Moortel, Ireland, Walsh 2000; Nakariakov et al. 2000; De Moortel 2002 ). These observational breakthroughs give rise to the use of MHD coronal seismology (Nakariakov et al. 1999; Robbrecht et al. 2001; Nakariakov & Ofman 2001) and were interpreted to support the idea of wave-based theories of coronal heating (e.g., Tsiklauri & Nakariakov 2001), and the solar wind acceleration (e.g., Ofman, Nakariakov & Seghal 2000).

Slow and fast magnetoacoustic waves are compressive and cause perturbations of plasma density. As an emission depends upon the density, the waves can be detected as the emission variations by imaging telescopes. An important characteristic of the phenomenon is the angle between the direction of the wave propagation and the line of sight (LOS). Imaging telescopes allow us to observe magnetoacoustic waves propagating at sufficiently large angles to the LOS. In particular, this fact motivated the interpretation of the propagating EUV emission disturbances as slow magnetoacoustic waves (see the references above). In addition, Alfvén waves, which are linearly incompressible, as well as almost incompressible kink modes of coronal magnetic structures (e.g., Roberts 2000 and references therein), can also be detected with an imaging telescope with sufficient spatial and temporal resolution, if perturbations of the magnetic field have a component perpendicular to the LOS. Indeed, as the magnetic field is frozen into the coronal plasma, the perpendicular displacement of the field can be highlighted by variation of emission intensity.

In this paper we discuss an alternative method for the observational detection of kink modes of coronal magnetic structures oscillating in the plane containing the LOS. It is shown that this would lead to modulation of the intensity of the emission along the axis of the structure, produced by the change of the LOS column depth of the loop. We also demonstrate that this phenomenon is important for sausage modes.

## 2 Kink modes of cylindric magnetic structures

Kink modes of coronal loops, observed in particular, with the TRACE EUV imaging telescope (see the references above), are periodic transverse displacements of the magnetic flux tube forming the loop. They should be distinguished from sausage modes which do not perturb the tube axis. Modeling the loop tube as a straight magnetic cylinder uniform along the axis, Edwin & Roberts (1983) found that the kink modes can be either surface or body, depending upon the structure of the mode inside the tube. Also, the modes can be slow or fast, corresponding to fast and slow magnetoacoustic waves modified by the structuring of the medium. In particular, in the low-$`\beta `$ plasma of the solar corona, coronal loops can support fast and slow kink body modes.

In the case of a kink mode the loop tube oscillates almost as whole and the cross-section of the loop is practically not perturbed by the oscillation. Also, the density perturbation inside the loop is insignificant in this mode. Indeed, for fast magnetoacoustic waves in a low-$`\beta `$ coronal plasma, the field-aligned flows $`V_z`$ are much smaller than the transverse motions $`V_x`$. Consequently, from the continuity equation, one gets that the density perturbations $`\stackrel{~}{\rho }`$ are connected with the transverse perturbations by the expression

$$\frac{\stackrel{~}{\rho }}{\rho _0}\sqrt{1C_{A0}^2k^2/\omega ^2}\frac{V_x}{C_{A0}},$$
(1)
where $`\rho _0`$ and $`C_{A0}`$ are the density and the Alfvén speed inside the loop tube, respectively, and other notations are standard. As the frequency $`\omega `$ of the fast kink mode of a coronal loop tends to the value $`C_{A0}k`$ with the increase of the wave number $`k`$ (Edwin & Roberts 1983, Fig. 4), the coefficient on the right hand side of Eq. (1) tends to zero in the same limit. Consequently, the fast kink mode is almost incompressible. We would like to stress that the characteristic spatial scale of the mode inside the loop tube is quite different from the loop tube diameter. In the limit $`\omega /kC_{A0}`$, the characteristic transverse scale inside the tube tends to infinity, i.e., inside the tube diameter the density is not perturbed. Outside the tube, the scale is different and it determines the mode localization length, which is about $`\sqrt{\omega ^2/C_{Ae}^2k^2}`$, where $`C_{Ae}`$ is the Alfvén speed in the external medium. Consequently, outside the loop tube, the kink mode can be quite compressible.

The fast kink mode is often confused with the true incompressible Alfvén mode. However, the Alfvén mode modified by structuring is the torsional mode which, in the linear limit and cylindrical geometry, does not perturb the tube boundary.

Consider a kink mode which symmetrically perturbs the boundary of the loop tube. The wavelength is assumed to be much shorter than the loop length, so the loop can be considered as a straight cylinder. The plane of the transverse oscillations produced by the kink mode forms an angle $`\alpha `$ with the line-of-sight (LOS). In the following, we assume that the angle $`\alpha `$ is zero, i.e. LOS is co-planar with the plane of oscillation. The tube axis has an angle $`\theta `$ with LOS (see Figure 1). We neglect the perturbations of density by the mode, assuming that the density is equal to the unperturbed density $`\rho _0`$. The tube diameter is $`w`$. We also assume that the diameter of the tube does not change in time and space. The intensity of the emission $`I`$ produced by the loop is proportional to the LOS column depth of the loop tube $`l`$ and to the density of the plasma squared,

$$I\rho _0^2l.$$
(2)
In the absence of the perturbations, the intensity $`I`$ along a straight segment of the loop is constant, $`I\rho _0^2w/\mathrm{sin}\theta `$.

When the loop experiences kink perturbations, the column depth $`l(d,t)`$ of the loop tube depends upon the coordinate $`d`$ along the loop (taking into account the effect of projection, see Fig. 1) and changes with time $`t`$. As, in the optically thin medium, the intensity of the emission is proportional to thickness of the volume of plasma emitting the radiation, the variation of the LOS column depth causes the variation of the intensity. Thus, the emission intensity variations can be produced even by entirely incompressible kink waves, and consequently, by the almost incompressible kink modes of coronal loops.

Note that the density perturbations produced by the wave outside the loop are ignored in Eq. (2), as the external plasma is observed to be much more rarefied.

## 3 Parametric studies

### 3.1 Kink modes

Consider a snapshot of a harmonic kink perturbation of a straight tube modeling a segment of a coronal loop. At a given time, boundaries of the tube are given by the equations

$$x=a\mathrm{sin}\left(kz\right)\pm \frac{w}{2},$$
(3)
where $`a`$ is the perturbation amplitude and $`k`$ is the wave number ($`k=2\pi /\lambda `$ where $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength), and the plus and minus signs correspond to the upper and lower boundaries, respectively. The geometry of the problem is shown in Fig. 1. Observing the tube at an angle $`\theta `$, we see that the LOS column depth of the tube is modulated by the kink perturbation. The family of parallel LOS is given by the equation

$$x=z\mathrm{tan}\theta d/\mathrm{cos}\theta ,$$
(4)
where the parameter $`d`$ represents the coordinate across the LOS and, consequently, along the image (see Fig. 1).

Solving the set of equations (3) and (4), we find the intersections of the LOS with the tube boundaries. We then have two points, one where the LOS enters the tube and one where it exits. Using these points we can determine the column depth of the tube along a given LOS as a function of the coordinate $`d`$ along the image. Note that the line of sight may pass into and out of the flux tube more than once for certain amplitudes, LOS angles and wave numbers. We must therefore take into account all solutions of the set (3)-(4) and whether the line of sight is inside or outside of the tube. The LOS passing through the tube more than once only occurs if the gradient of the normal to the LOS is greater than the minimum gradient of equations (3), i.e.

$$ak>\frac{1}{\mathrm{tan}\theta }.$$
(5)
Thus, we determine the LOS column depth of the tube as a function of the position on the image, which, if the density of plasma inside the tube and the width of the tube across the LOS remain constant, is proportional to the intensity of the emission coming from the tube. The intensity is normalized to the intensity given by a tube at the same angle to the LOS but with zero amplitude waves, $`a=0`$. This measures the effect the presence of waves have on intensity.

Figures 2–4 demonstrate how the effect discussed depends upon the parameters of the problem. Fig. 2 shows the distribution of the emission intensity along the tube on an image for different wavelengths and amplitudes of the kink mode and the observation angles $`\theta `$. Obviously, the observed variation of the emission intensity is proportional to the amplitude of the wave and it decreases with the increase of the wavelength. Indeed, in the limiting case when the wavelength tends to infinity, the LOS column depth of the tube does not change and the effect vanishes. The observed amplitude is calculated as the difference between the maximum and the minimum values of the observed intensity, divided by two. The dependence of the observed amplitude of the intensity perturbations upon the wave number of the kink wave is shown in Fig. 3. We gather from this graph that: For the $`75\mathrm{°}`$ dotted line there is a decrease in the attenuation with increasing $`k`$ for $`0<k<2`$; for the $`45\mathrm{°}`$ solid line, for $`0<k1`$, there is a decrease in the attenuation with increasing $`k`$, while for $`1k<2`$ there is an increase in the amplification; for the $`20\mathrm{°}`$ dashed line, for the range of $`k`$’s conisdered, there is an optimal wave number corresponding to the maximum amplification. To graphical accuracy the $`75\mathrm{°}`$ and $`45\mathrm{°}`$ curves with amplitudes $`a=0.02`$ and $`a=0.1`$ are identical to the $`a=0.05`$ curves and the $`a=0.02`$ and $`a=0.1`$, $`20\mathrm{°}`$ curves (not plotted) lie very close to the $`a=0.05`$ dashed curve. Therefore non-linear amplitude effects within the parameter regimes considered are small to observational accuracy and not considered further here.

According to the right panel of Fig. 2 and Fig. 4, the dependence of observed amplitude of the intensity variations upon the angle $`\theta `$ has a pronounced maximum, corresponding to an optimal angle of the wave detection. Indeed, the effect of the modulation of the observed intensity by a kink wave vanishes when the angle tends to $`\pi /2`$, while the whole approach fails when $`\theta 0`$ (the leftmost data points in Fig. 4 correspond to $`\theta =3^{}`$). Fig. 4 clearly demonstrates, however, that there is an optimal angle which yields the maximum observed amplitude. Thus, this phenomenon would make it possible to observe kink modes in a certain segment of a coronal loop (in the realistic curved geometry), where the angle $`\theta `$ is optimal. This optimal angle varies with $`k`$ and weakly with $`a`$, figure 5. It corresponds closely to a LOS passing through a maximum of the upper curve and a neighboring minimum of the lower curve (see equations (3)). Similarly, there can be other optimal angles, if the LOS passes through a maximum of the upper curve and another minima of the lower curve. This estimation for the optimal angles $`\theta _{max}`$ gives

$$\theta _{max}=\mathrm{arctan}\left[\frac{k\left(w+2a\right)}{2\pi \left(n\frac{1}{2}\right)}\right],$$
(6)
where $`n=1,2,3\mathrm{}`$ is the peak number with decreasing $`\theta `$. The highest three rightmost peaks (for the same $`\theta `$, but different amplitudes) in figure 4 correspond to $`n=1`$. Peaks corresponding to the higher values of $`n=2`$ and $`3`$ are progressively smaller than the peaks at $`n=1`$. It is possible that the optimal angles smaller than this one corresponding to $`n=1`$ are not relevant to coronal applications, as for sufficiently small angles the curvature of the loop plays an important role. The loop may only be modeled by a straight cylinder if the approximately straight loop section is sufficiently long.

There are also angles corresponding to zero intensity variation, the first is at $`\theta =90\mathrm{°}`$ (see Fig. 4). Here a LOS passes through the maxima of both curves and the angles are given by

$$\theta _{min}=\mathrm{arctan}\left[\frac{kw}{2\pi n}\right].$$
(7)
When the angle is about these values the observed amplitude is attenuated and at these zero points kink waves may not be detected at all. Note that these points do not depend on amplitude. In figure 4 the straight horizontal lines at the respective wave amplitudes divide the graph into two regions; above, where the observed signal is amplified, and below, where it is attenuated. If these curves are normalized to the amplitude, $`a`$, then to graphical accuracy they collapse on top of each other everywhere except for the vicinity of the peaks where they are still close.

### 3.2 Sausage modes

Similarly, the effect discussed above should be important for sausage modes too. Indeed, as the sausage modes are the propagating perturbations of the loop tube cross-section, the LOS column depth of the loop is modulated by these waves too. To complete the picture, we now perform a study of the LOS effect on observability of sausage waves.

The boundaries of a straight tube exhibiting sausage oscillations can be given by the equations

$$x=a\mathrm{sin}\left(kz+\frac{\pi }{2}\right)+\frac{w}{2}$$
(8)
corresponding to the upper boundary and

$$x=a\mathrm{sin}\left(kz+\frac{3\pi }{2}\right)\frac{w}{2}$$
(9)
corresponding to the lower boundary. The family of parallel LOS is given by equation (4). We solve these equations in the same way as for the kink oscillations. Figure 6 shows the distribution of emission intensity along the tube for the same parameters as those given in figure 2. The wavelength, $`k`$, and angle, $`\theta `$, at high angles have the opposite effect of kink oscillations on the amplitude intensity, figures 7 and 8. The best observation angle is $`\theta =90\mathrm{°}`$ as expected. Note that the analysis here is two dimensional and the observed intensity amplitude would be increased for a three dimensional tube if the telescope pixel size is of the order of the tube width. However only the intensity scale of figures 6 to 8 would change and not the form. The optimum angle for the detection of sausage modes is still $`90\mathrm{°}`$. The LOS only passes into and out of the tube once for the angles considered.

## 4 Conclusions

The phenomenon of the modulation of the emission intensity by kink modes polarized in the plane formed by the loop axis and the LOS provides a possibility for the observational detection of the kink modes in coronal structures. According to the discussion above, the LOS effect at an optimal angle, $`\theta _{max}`$, can amplify the kink perturbations by a factor of 2 (cf. Fig. 4). For example, if the boundary perturbation is produced by a kink mode of a relatively modest amplitude of about 5%, which corresponds to the typical coronal wave amplitudes detected by SOHO/EIT (DeForest & Gurman 1998) and by TRACE (e.g. De Moortel et al. 2002 and references therein), the observed perturbation of the intensity produced by the kink wave can reach 10%, which would make the wave easily observable. In contrast, the optimal observation angle for the sausage modes is simply $`90\mathrm{°}`$ (cf. Fig. 8). Consulting figures 3 and 4 we can see parameter regimes for both amplification and attenuation of the kink mode observations. Figures 7 and 8 demonstrate that relative to $`90\mathrm{°}`$ observations there is only attenuation of sausage modes. Additional observability constraints are connected with the wave period and length. In the case of EUV imaging coronal telescopes, such as EIT and TRACE, the observability of the waves is limited by the telescope time resolution. For example, taking the kink speed inside a loop to be 1000 km/s, which corresponds to the estimations in Nakariakov et al. 1999, Nakariakov & Ofman 2001, the time resolution of about 30 s does not allow us to observe wavelengths shorter than 30 Mm.

In the case of ground-based observations, when the loop is observed in the green line bandpass, the observability is limited by the spatial resolution of the telescope, which is usually over a few arcsec, as the time resolution of such observations is usually less then 1 sec (e.g, the cadence time of SECIS is 2.25$`\times 10^2`$ s and the pixel size is 4.07 arcsec, Williams et al. 2001). In particular, this effect can be responsible for propagating 6 second disturbances of the Fe xiv green line, discovered by the stroboscopic method in a solar eclipse data and interpreted as fast magnetoacoustic waves (Williams et al. 2002, see also Williams et al. 2001). Indeed, estimating the wavelength of the perturbations at about 18 Mm (for the wave period of about 6 s and the propagation speed of about 2 Mm/s), we conclude that the waves are detectable with the time and spatial resolution of the telescope. For loop widths of about 3-6 Mm, the normalized wavelength is about 3-6, which gives the wavenumber $`k`$ of about 1-2. According to Fig. 3, the LOS effect discussed in this paper could amplify the observed amplitude of the wave, optimizing the observability of the modes. According to figure 5, for the parameters discussed, the optimal angle would be about $`20\mathrm{°}40\mathrm{°}`$. This makes the phenomenon discussed here relevant to the interpretation of Williams et al. (2002)’s results. However, the confident interpretation of the propagating disturbances in terms of the kink waves requires detailed comparison of the observed results and theoretical predictions. Also, interpretation of these observations in terms of propagating kink modes should be tested against another possible interpretation of the waves as sausage modes. The study of the possible relevance of the LOS effect to the interpretation of short wavelength propagating waves observed in the corona by Williams et al. (2002) is now in progress and will be presented elsewhere.

Also, this phenomenon should be taken into account in the analysis of other examples of coronal wave activity, in particular the slow waves in loops and polar plumes, discussed in Introduction. However, direct application of the results presented in this paper to the coronal slow magnetoacoustic waves is not possible as the slow waves are essentially compressible, and the density variation should be taken into account in Eq. (2). This phenomenon should also be taken into account in interpretation of intensity oscillations observed in prominence fine structures (e.g. Joarder, Nakariakov & Roberts 1997; Diaz et al. 2001). This suggests another possible development of this study.

###### Acknowledgements.

FCC and DT acknowledge financial support from PPARC. The authors are grateful to M.J. Aschwanden, L. Ofman, B. Roberts and the anonymous referee for valuable comments.


text:
# SU(3) versus deformed Hartree-Fock

## I Introduction

Deformation is one of the most salient features of atomic nuclei. The Bohr-Mottelson model, a quantum realization of the ellipsoidal surface of a liquid drop, was a major triumph in understanding nuclear structure BM . The other major fundamental nuclear structure theory is, of course, the independent-particle or shell model, which is usually realized in a spherical basis. Elliott combined these two paradigms in the SU(3) model Ell58 : the antisymmetric (fermionic) irreducible representations (irreps) of SU(3) in a spherical shell-model basis give rise to band structures associated with quadrupole deformed shapes.

The nuclear Hamiltonian is not invariant under SU(3), however. Important parts of the nuclear Hamiltonian mix SU(3) irreps, like pairing and the single-particle spin-orbit splitting. To include symmetry breaking realistic interactions requires a more sophisticated version of the SU(3) model Bah95 ; Esc98 ; Gue00 . The Nilsson model BM ; Nilsson  of deformation describes single-particle levels by including quadrupole deformation and spin-orbit splitting, but one can think of Nilsson levels as a simplified version of deformed mean-field, or Hartree-Fock, levels.

It is commonly accepted that the simplest SU(3) theory, one that takes only the leading SU(3) irrep into account, is a reasonable approximation to the exact ground state wavefunction of light $`sd`$-shell nuclei and not an unreasonable first approximation as one moves to mid and upper $`sd`$-shell nuclei and on into the lower $`fp`$-shell. This understanding provided motivation for a recent proposal for a “mixed-mode” approach to the selection of shell-model basis states, combining a few irreps of SU(3) to account for deformation with spherical configurations favored by pairing-like modes and single-particle degrees of freedom, keeping the combined total number of basis states well-below that of the full space Gue02 .

While the mixed-mode approach has tremendous promise, SU(3) irreps are not the only means of realizing deformation. Projected Hartree-Fock states would be an obvious alternative. In fact, both SU(3) and projected Hartree-Fock have been made the basis of shell-model calculations SU3shell0 ; faessler ; projshell . However, a systematic comparison of SU(3) and Hartree-Fock as starting points for shell-model calculations has not beem made. This paper addresses that issue. Specifically, setting aside questions related to the advantages or disadvantages of algebraic versus numeric methods, we compare the leading SU(3) irrep and the angular-momentum-projected, deformed Hartree-Fock state as approximations to “exact” shell-model ground state wavefunctions for $`sd`$\- and lower $`fp`$-shell nuclei for “realistic” interactions.

We find that projected Hartree-Fock is a better first approximation to the exact solution than the single leading SU(3) irrep. Upon further investigation, however, we find that by removing the spin-orbit splitting of single-particle energies, the differences become almost negligible, similar to the results found in Gue00 . So although SU(3) has many advantages, being an algebraic theory, the results of in this paper serve as a useful caveat. We also discuss some technical details of SU(3) versus projected Hartree-Fock, especially with regards to computational burden, in the concluding section.

## II Method of calculation

We start with a shell-model Hamiltonian which for the purposes of this paper we consider to be the true interaction. We compare the full numerical solution from shell-model diagonalization, $`|SM`$, against two approximate wavefunctions: a state from the leading SU(3) irrep, $`|SU(3)`$, and the projected Hartree-Fock state $`|PHF`$. We consider only even-even nuclei.

### II.1 The model spaces

We work in complete $`0\mathrm{}\omega `$ model spaces, either the $`1s_{1/2}`$-$`0d_{3/2}`$-$`0d_{5/2}`$ (or $`sd`$) shell or the $`1p_{1/2}`$-$`1p_{3/2}`$-$`0f_{5/2}`$-$`0f_{7/2}`$ ($`pf`$) shell. This means there is an inert core, 16O for the $`sd`$-shell and 40Ca for the $`pf`$ shell. Valence particles are restricted to the single-particle states of a single major harmonic oscillator shell.

### II.2 The interactions

We use general one+two-body interactions which conserve angular momentum and isospin. For the “true” interaction we use semi-empirical interactions such as the Brown-Wildenthal USD interaction for the $`sd`$ shell wildenthal  and the modified Kuo-Brown (KB3) interaction for the $`pf`$ shell KB3 . These interactions were derived by taking a realistic G-matrix interaction computed from NN phase shifts, and then adjusting matrix elements to fit to a large number of levels over a wide range of $`A`$; for the USD interaction, this includes a phenomenological scaling of the two-body matrix elements by $`A^{0.3}`$ (if one does not scale, the results below are qualitatively similar but quantitatively slightly weaker). What is important for our purposes is that these interactions describe very well the binding energies for a large number of nuclei and aside from the restriction to two-body, rotationally and isospin invariant interactions, were not restricted, that is, not assumed to have some schematic form such as quadrupole + pairing. Although less directly relevant to this paper, these interactions describe well excitation spectra and transition matrix elements. (Despite their general success, these general interactions are not perfect. For example, they have great difficulty in satisfactorily reproducing K-band splitting, something that is easily accomplished in an SU(3) basis by using a special scalar interaction that is of third+fourth order in the generators of SU(3) Dra85 .)

In the $`pf`$ shell we also investigated the Brown-Richter interaction Ric91 . The results were qualitatively the same, although the effect of spin-orbit splitting was smaller. For this paper we present only the KB3 results for the $`pf`$ shell.

Gueorguiev et al Gue00  projected exact shell-model wavefunctions in the $`pf`$-shell onto SU(3) irreps and found that single-particle spin-orbit splitting made a significant contribution to mixing of SU(3) irreps in exact shell-model wavefunctions. Therefore for this study, analogous to Gue00 , we removed the spin-orbit splitting of the single-particle energies for both the USD and KB3 interactions.

Pairing also contributes to mixing of SU(3) irreps Bah95 . Unlike single-particle spin-orbit splitting, however, pairing and $`QQ`$ interactions share matrix elements in common, so it is not trivial to disentangle pairing from $`QQ`$ in realistic interactions such as USD and KB3. Therefore in this paper we focus only on the simpler case of spin-orbit splitting.

### II.3 “Exact” solutions

The many-body Hamiltonians were constructed from the one+two-body interactions and diagonalized using a descendent of the Glasgow shell-model code Whi77 .

In principle we allow all possible many-body configurations within that space; but because the Hamiltonian is rotationally invariant, we can without loss of generality restrict ourselves to those many-body states with $`M=0`$, the so-called M-scheme basis.

### II.4 SU(3) solutions

To construct the leading irreps of SU(3), we diagonalized the SU(3) two-body Casimir $`C_2=QQ+3L^2`$ (subtracting a small amount of $`L^2`$ in order to split states with the same $`(\lambda ,\mu )`$ but different $`L`$). Because this is a two-body, real Hermitian operator, it can be treated as a Hamiltonian and therefore diagonalized by the same code that handles the realistic Hamiltonian. Unfortunately, because the shell-model code we used cannot handle three-body operators, we could not use the third-order SU(3) Casimir to split states with different $`(\lambda ,\mu )`$ but with degenerate values of $`C_2`$. Fortunately, for the leading irrep this was not a problem.

### II.5 Hartree-Fock solutions

To construct the Hartree-Fock solutions, we took a Slater determinant wavefunction, and minimized the expectation value of a given Hamiltonian using gradient descent. We then projected the Hartree-Fock Slater determinant onto the $`M=0`$ shell-model basis states used in computing the ‘exact’ and SU(3) solutions. This state did not have good angular momentum, but we projected out the $`J=0`$ part of the wavefunction. (We projected onto states of good angular momentum by a Lanczos moment method similar to that used in Gue00  to project onto SU(3) states and in Cau90  to generate Gamow-Teller strength distributions. The unprojected state is used as the starting Lanczos vector, or “pivot,” and then one peforms a few Lanzos iterations using $`J^2`$ as the Hamiltonian, splitting the pivot into components with good $`J`$. Although Ref. Gue00  used this technique to decompose shell-model wavefunctions among SU(3) irreps, for this paper we computed the wavefunction for the leading SU(3) irrep in the same shell model basis, as described in the previous subsection, and computed the overlap as a simple dot product, the wavefunctions being vectors in the M-scheme basis.)

Our results for the ground state were insensitive to the orientation of the HF state. Results for excited states for triaxial nuclei were, however, sensitive to the orientation of the HF state. In general, results for excited states were qualitatively similar to the ground state, although quantitatively less pronounced, so we do not present results for excited states here.

## III Results

### III.1 Energies

In Table 1 we compare the ground state energies, relative to the exact (diagonalization of all valence configurations) ground state energy. That is, we compute

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E=\mathrm{\Psi }|\widehat{H}|\mathrm{\Psi }SM|\widehat{H}|SM,$$

where $`|SM`$ is the exact shell model wavefunction, and $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ = projected Hartree-Fock (PHF) or leading SU(3) irrep. We also show the energy of the unprojected Hartree-Fock (HF) for comparison.

The expectation value of the exact Hamiltonian, with spin-orbit splitting, is considerably lower for the PHF state than for the SU(3) state, in one case by nearly 7 MeV. When spin-orbit splitting is removed, the difference becomes much smaller, nearly vanishing for nuclei with axial symmetry.

### III.2 Wavefunctions

In addition to computing the energies, we calculated the overlap of wavefunctions, shown in Table 2. The trends from the energies continue. For realistic interactions, the leading SU(3) has a smaller overlap with the exact shell model wavefunction than the projected Hartree-Fock state. When single-particle splitting is removed, the SU(3) state and the projected Hartree-Fock state come much closer to one another. The remaining difference may be due to pairing or other pieces of the realistic interaction.

Note: the small overlap between the 32S PHF state and the leading SU(3) irrep is due to the large fragmentation of the exact-shell model wavefunction over SU(3), confirmed by spectral decomposition as in Gue00 . This fragmentation is very sensitive to the single-particle spin-orbit splitting: a reduction of the spin-orbit splitting by merely 15% will nearly triple $`SU(3)|PHF`$.

### III.3 Ground state geometry

In addition to computing the overlap probabilities of wavefunction, it is useful to analyze the wavefunctions in terms of quadrupole deformation, i.e., the classic deformation parameters $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$.

We computed the deformation parameters $`\beta ,\gamma `$ for the unprojected Hartree-Fock state by diagonalizing the mass quadrupole tensor of the valence particles, as described by Ormand et al Orm94 . For the interactions we chose the exact Hamiltonians (USD and KB3), the exact Hamiltonians with the single-particle spin-orbit splitting removed (USD-nls and KB3-nls), and the SU(3) second-order Casimir. (Note: although in principle one can compute deformation of SU(3) wavefunctions directly from $`(\lambda ,\mu )`$ Bah95 ; Esc98 , for consistency we also also applied Hartree-Fock to the SU(3) Hamiltonian.)

Table 3 shows that all three interactions yield similar results, but in particular the removal of spin-orbit splitting makes the deformation geometry nearly identical to that of SU(3). This supports the overlap results from section III.2. We also see that inclusion of the spin-orbit force “softens” the deformation of the Hartree-Fock state, presumably through mixing of SU(3) irreps and similar to that seen in Esc98 .

## IV Discussion and Conclusions

In phenomenological but high-quality shell-model interactions, meaning that the one- and two-body matrix elements are fit to a large number of levels over a substantial range of $`A`$, a $`J`$-projected Hartree-Fock state does a nontrivially better job of approximating the “exact” ground state wavefunctions and binding energies derived from diagonalization in a full $`0\mathrm{}\omega `$ shell-model space, than does the leading SU(3) irrep. The difference is driven almost entirely by the single-particle spin-orbit splitting, similar to that seen in previous work Esc98 ; Gue00 .

Does this mean that Hartree-Fock is necessarily superior to SU(3)? The short answer is no; for a longer answer we compare HF and SU(3) along two axes: analytic insight and computational burden.

SU(3) allows a tremendous degree of analytic insight into the structure of nuclear wavefunctions: for rotational nuclei both the ground state and excited states are often dominated by just a few SU(3) irreps, which can then illuminate the structure of band spectra including E2 transition strengths. SU(3) is especially useful for systems such as the rare earths rareearth , where a full spherical shell-model calculation would be prohibitive.

The computational burden can best be expressed by the number of basis Slater determinants needed to project out a good quantum number (such as $`J`$, $`M`$, $`\lambda `$ or $`\mu `$), because modern shell-model codes use occupation-representation Slater determinants. In other words, one defines a single-particle basis and represents a many-body basis state as a binary word (1=occupied single particle state and 0=unoccupied). Much of the physics is contained by the choice of the single-particle basis.

In a $`j`$-$`j`$ coupled codes, such as Glasgow Whi77 , OXBASH oxbash , ANTOINE antoine , or REDSTICK/ELDORADO eldorado , the single-particle states couple $`l`$ and $`s`$ up to good $`j`$ and $`m`$. An important advantage of $`j`$-$`j`$ coupling is that spin-orbit splitting is trivial. The many-body basis states such single-particle states individually have good total $`M`$, and hence are called an M-scheme basis, but generally do not have good $`J`$. However one generally only needs a few hundred $`M`$-scheme Slater determinants to project out good $`J`$, as $`J^2`$ is block-diagonal in $`j`$-$`j`$ basis. Deformation is harder, however: to project out good $`\lambda `$ or $`\mu `$ usually requires the entire many-body basis, which can be of order $`10^410^5`$ in the $`sd`$-shell and larger in the $`pf`$-shell.

SU(3) shell model codes SU3shell  use $`L`$-$`S`$ coupling built upon a cylindrical single-particle basis. In this basis spin-orbit splitting is hard (=requires many irreps) but deformation is simple. For the leading irrep, to construct states of good $`\lambda ,\mu `$ one needs exactly one determinant, for the next-to-leading irrep the number is typically two or four depending upon whether the irrep occurs once or twice, and so on. Thus, because higher-weight irreps dominate the low-lying spectra, deformation is very simple. In fact most of the computational burden lies again in projecting out states of good $`J`$, and is roughly similar to that for the spherical ($`j`$-$`j`$ coupled) shell model.

Finally we consider the Hartree-Fock state, which in principle incorporates both deformation and spin-orbit splitting. The HF state is not an exact eigenstate of SU(3) Casimirs, but that is not troubling as SU(3) is not an exact symmetry. Instead, as with other bases, the computational burden arises from projection of angular momentum. Formally one projects out states of good $`J`$ by integrating over wavefunctions rotated by the Euler angles weighted by Wigner D-functions. If, however, the HF state has axial symmetry (that is, good $`M`$) then one can project out a state of good $`J`$ with just $`J_{max}+1`$ Slater determinants, where $`J_{max}`$ is the largest total angular momentum possible. For the $`sd`$-shell this is 14; for the $`pf`$-shell, this is 30. That is, one could get deformation, spin-orbit splitting, and rotational invariance with just a handful of Slater determinants. One could also imagine using particle-hole excitations on top of the Slater determinants and projecting onto good angular momentum, and indeed this approach has been used faessler ; projshell .

Unfortunately, for triaxial HF states one must in addition project out states of good $`M`$; the number of states required goes from 10-30 to a few thousand. Furthermore, HF states present additional difficulties when one considers multi-$`\mathrm{}\omega `$ shells, where center-of-mass motion comes into play. Projection of a Hartree-Fock state onto a nonspurious state is difficult because the generators of center-of-mass motion are complicated and incomplete in a Hartree-Fock single-particle basis. The generalization of SU(3) to multi-$`\mathrm{}\omega `$ shells, the symplectic model symplectic , automatically separates out spurious from nonspurious states. Therefore, while projected Hartree-Fock has some computational advantages, for multi-shell calculations the symplectic extension of SU(3) may still be the method of choice.

We thank C. Bahri for useful conversations. The U.S. Department of Energy supported this investigation through grant DE-FG02-96ER40985, and the National Science Foundation through grant 9970769.


text:
# Quantum interference between non-magnetic impurities in 𝑑_{𝑥²-𝑦²}-wave superconductors

## Abstract

We study quantum interference of electronic waves that are scattered by multiple non-magnetic impurities in a $`d_{x^2y^2}`$-wave superconductor. We show that the number of resonance states in the density-of-states (DOS), as well as their frequency and spatial dependence change significantly as the distance between the impurities or their orientation relative to the crystal lattice is varied. Since the latter effect arises from the momentum dependence of the superconducting gap, we argue that quantum interference is a novel tool to identify the symmetry of unconventional superconductors.

Over the last few years, the study of impurities in unconventional superconductors has attracted considerable theoretical Bal95 ; Fla97 ; Haas00 ; Pol01  and experimental Pan00 ; Hud01 ; Der02  attention. In particular, a series of groundbreaking scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments has provided detailed information on the density-of-states (DOS) near single non-magnetic Pan00  and magnetic Hud01  impurities in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ, a high-temperature superconductor (HTSC). Of particular interest is the experimentally observed emergence of resonance states near the impurities. Several theoretical scenarios have been proposed that ascribe the origin of these resonances to electronic scattering off classical impurities with magnetic and non-magnetic scattering potentials Bal95 ; Fla97 ; Haas00  or to the Kondo-screening of a local spin polarization that is induced by non-magnetic impurities Pol01 . At the same time, a different line of beautiful experiments studied quantum interference of electronic waves that are scattered by multiple impurities. In particular, Manoharan et al. Man00  demonstrated that quantum interference in a corral of magnetic impurities arranged on the surface of a metallic host leads to the focusing of electronic waves into a quantum image; a result that has recently been addressed in several theoretical studies QCtheory . Similar quantum interference experiments using unconventional superconductors can be expected in the future. First evidence for quantum interference in the HTSC was recently reported by Derro et al. Der02  in the one-dimensional chains of YBa2Cu3O6+x.

Motivated by the experimental progress in this field, we present in this article a theoretical model which combines the study of impurities in unconventional superconductors with that of quantum interference effects. In particular, generalizing the formalism presented in Bal95 ; Fla97 ; Morr01 , we investigate the electronic structure in the vicinity of two non-magnetic impurities in a $`d_{x^2y^2}`$-wave superconductor. We show that quantum interference due to the presence of a second impurity dramatically changes the DOS obtained near a single impurity. In particular, we demonstrate that the number of resonance states in the DOS, as well as their frequency and spatial dependence change significantly as the distance between the impurities or their orientation relative to the crystal lattice is varied. Since the latter effect arises from the momentum dependence of the superconducting gap, we argue that quantum interference is a novel tool to identify the symmetry of unconventional superconductors. This result might be of particular importance for Sr2RuO4, an unconventional superconductor whose symmetry is still a topic of controversy Maeno01 . While the study of quantum interference is not only of fundamental importance for our understanding of complex impurity structures, it can also clarify the origin of the resonances observed in the HTSC. In particular, we expect that the form of the resonances arising from Kondo-screening of two magnetic impurities is different from those discussed below; work is currently under way to verify this conjecture Morr02b .

Starting point for our calculations is the $`\widehat{T}`$-matrix formalism Shiba68  which we extended to treat scattering off multiple impurities Bal95 ; Morr01  in a $`d_{x^2y^2}`$-wave superconductor. Quantum interference in $`s`$-wave superconductors was recently discussed in Refs.Fla00 ; Morr02a . For simplicity we restrict our considerations to two non-magnetic impurities; our formalism, however, allows the study of an arbitrary, but finite number of impurities. The study of more complex impurity structures, as well as that of magnetic impurities, will be the focus of future work Morr02b . Within the Nambu-formalism and for Matsubara frequencies, $`\omega _n`$, the electronic Greens function in the presence of $`N`$ impurities is given by

$`\widehat{G}(r,r^{},\omega _n)`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{G}_0(r,r^{},\omega _n)`$ (1)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{i,j=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\widehat{G}_0(r,r_i,\omega _n)\widehat{T}(r_i,r_j,\omega _n)\widehat{G}_0(r_j,r^{},\omega _n),`$
where the $`\widehat{T}`$-matrix is obtained from the Bethe-Salpeter equation

$`\widehat{T}(r_i,r_j,\omega _n)`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{V}_{r_i}\delta _{r_i,r_j}`$ (2)
$`+\widehat{V}_{r_i}{\displaystyle \underset{l=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\widehat{G}_0(r_i,r_l,\omega _n)\widehat{T}(r_l,r_j,\omega _n).`$
For two non-magnetic impurities located at $`𝐫_i`$ ($`i=1,2`$) with $`\mathrm{\Delta }r=|𝐫_2𝐫_1|`$, the scattering matrices are given by $`\widehat{V}_{r_i}=U_i\tau _3/2`$ with $`U_i`$ being the non-magnetic scattering potential and $`\tau `$ the Pauli-matrices in Nambu-space. The Greens function of the unperturbed (clean) system in momentum space is given by

$$\widehat{G}_0^1(𝐤,i\omega _n)=\left[i\omega _n\tau _0ϵ_𝐤\tau _3\right]\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐤\tau _1.$$
(3)
For the electronic excitation spectrum in the normal state we take a form that is characteristic of an optimally doped HTSC JC ; Mes99 ; ZX  and given by

$$ϵ_𝐤=2t\left[\mathrm{cos}(k_x)+\mathrm{cos}(k_y)\right]4t^{}\mathrm{cos}(k_x)\mathrm{cos}(k_y)\mu ,$$
(4)
with $`t=300`$ meV, $`t^{}/t=0.4`$ as the nearest and next-nearest neighbor hopping integrals, respectively, and a chemical potential $`\mu /t=1.18`$, corresponding to $`14\%`$ hole doping. Moreover, the superconducting gap with $`d_{x^2y^2}`$-symmetry is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐤=\mathrm{\Delta }_0\left[\mathrm{cos}k_x\mathrm{cos}k_y\right]/2`$ with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0=25`$ meV Mes99 . Our results presented below are qualitatively robust against changes in the form of $`ϵ_𝐤`$, or the size of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\mathrm{𝟎}`$. We obtain the DOS, $`N(𝐫,\omega )`$, from a numerical evaluation of Eqs.(1)-(3) with $`N(𝐫,\omega )=A_{11}+A_{22}`$ and $`A_{ii}(𝐫,\omega )=\mathrm{Im}\widehat{G}_{ii}(𝐫,\omega +i\delta )/\pi `$.

We briefly review some important features in the DOS near a single non-magnetic impurity in a $`d_{x^2y^2}`$-wave superconductor Bal95 ; Fla97 . The resulting diagonal $`\widehat{T}`$-matrix

$$\widehat{T}_{11,22}=\frac{\pm U_0}{1U_0G_0(r=0,\pm \omega )}$$
(5)
where the upper (lower) sign applies to $`\widehat{T}_{11}(\widehat{T}_{22})`$ and $`G_0=[\widehat{G}_0]_{11}`$, exhibits a particle- ($`\omega _{res}<0`$) and hole-like ($`\omega _{res}>0`$) resonance. These resonances give rise to sharp peaks in the DOS only in the unitary limit ($`|\omega _{res}|/\mathrm{\Delta }_01`$) where $`U_0^1=\mathrm{Re}G_0(0,\pm \omega _{res})`$.

In the presence of two impurities, the $`\widehat{T}`$-matrix, Eq.(2), is rather complex. However, in the limit $`F_0(\mathrm{\Delta }r,\omega )G_0(\mathrm{\Delta }r,\omega )`$, where $`F_0=[\widehat{G}_0]_{12}`$ and for identical impurities with $`U_{1,2}=U_0`$, the $`\widehat{T}`$-matrix simplifies considerably and is again diagonal. Defining

$$S_\pm (\omega )=\left\{1U_0\left[G_0(0,\omega )\pm G_0(\mathrm{\Delta }r,\omega )\right]\right\}^1$$
(6)
one obtains ($`ij`$)

$`\widehat{T}_{11,22}(r_i,r_i)`$ $`=`$ $`U_0\left[S_+(\pm \omega )+S_{}(\pm \omega )\right]/2`$
$`\widehat{T}_{11,22}(r_i,r_j)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{U_0G_0(\mathrm{\Delta }r,\pm \omega )}{1U_0G_0(0,\pm \omega )}}\widehat{T}_{11,22}(r_i,r_i)`$ (7)
where the upper (lower) sign applies to $`\widehat{T}_{11}(\widehat{T}_{22})`$. By comparing the $`\widehat{T}`$-matrices in Eqs.(5) and (7), we find that the presence of a second impurity splits the resonances of the single impurity case by $`U_0G_0(\mathrm{\Delta }r,\omega )`$. Note that $`G_0(\mathrm{\Delta }r,\omega )`$ does not only change with varying $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$, but also with the angle, $`\alpha `$, between $`𝐫_2𝐫_1`$ and the crystal $`\widehat{x}`$-axis, due to the momentum dependence of the superconducting gap. Consequently, the energy and lifetime of the resonances depend on $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$ and $`\alpha `$. While all four $`S_\pm `$-terms in Eq.(7) can possess resonances, those that are shifted to higher energies are highly overdamped and give rise only to oscillations in the DOS without the signature of a sharp peak.

In what follows, we consider two identical impurities with scattering potential $`U_{1,2}=U_0=700`$ meV, corresponding to the unitary limit, in agreement with Refs.Bal95 ; Fla97 . While the specific form of the DOS changes with $`U_0`$, its qualitative features remain unchanged. To study the effects of $`\alpha `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$ on the DOS separately, we first consider for definiteness two impurities located along the crystal $`\widehat{x}`$-axis at $`𝐫_1=(0,0)`$ and $`𝐫_2=(\mathrm{\Delta }r,0)`$ with $`\alpha =0`$. In Fig. 1, we present the DOS at $`𝐑=(0,0)`$, i.e., at one of the impurity sites, as a function of $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$. For comparison, we note that for a single impurity with $`U_0=700`$ meV, the resonances are located $`\omega _{res}=\pm 1.5`$ meV. As $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$ is varied, the DOS undergoes strong modifications. In particular, the frequency of the resonances oscillates and at the same time, their energy width, or lifetime, changes. For a single impurity, the resonance frequency and width are correlated, such that as $`|\omega _{res}|`$ decreases, the frequency width decreases as well Bal95 ; Fla97 . In the case of two impurities, we find that $`|\omega _{res}|`$ and the lifetime of the resonances are not necessarily correlated. For example, the resonance frequencies for both $`\mathrm{\Delta }r=2.0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }r=3.5`$ are $`\omega _{res}=\pm 4.0`$ meV, but the width of the resonances are considerably larger in the second case. Moreover, for some values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$, all resonances are very weak and, e.g., for $`\mathrm{\Delta }r1`$ disappear almost completely. Note, that even for rather large values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }r10`$, the DOS at $`𝐑=(0,0)`$ is still affected by quantum interference and thus different from that obtained in the single impurity case. This result bears important implications for the interpretation of recent STM experiments Pan00 ; Hud01 ; Der02  since it implies that the DOS near impurities in the two-dimensional HTSC can only be described within the single impurity framework if the impurity concentration is well below 1%.

An additional important result of Fig. 1 is that the number of observable low-energy resonances changes with $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$. In particular, for $`\mathrm{\Delta }r6`$, only two sharp low-energy resonances can be clearly identified. This effect becomes particularly evident when one considers the spatial dependence of the DOS for fixed $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$, as shown in Fig. 2. Here, we plot the DOS as a function of $`𝐑=(R,0)`$ for two impurities located at $`𝐫_1=(0,0)`$ and $`𝐫_2=(\mathrm{\Delta }r,0)`$. The uppermost curve corresponds to the midpoint between the two impurities, the dashed line represents the DOS at $`𝐫_2`$.

For $`\mathrm{\Delta }r=2`$ (Fig. 2a), there exist only two low-energy resonances at $`\omega _{res}\pm 4`$ meV. In contrast, for $`\mathrm{\Delta }r=7`$ (Fig. 2b), we find two broader resonances at $`\omega _{res}=\pm 3`$ meV, and two sharper resonances at $`\omega _{res}=\pm 0.25`$ meV. Note, that the resonances for $`\mathrm{\Delta }r=2`$ at $`\omega _{res}\pm 4`$ meV have a considerably larger amplitude than those for $`\mathrm{\Delta }r=7`$ at $`\omega _{res}=\pm 3`$ meV. This result again differs from the single impurity case, where the resonance with the smaller $`|\omega _{res}|`$ always possesses a larger amplitude in the DOS.

While sharp resonances can only be identified for $`\omega _{res}\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, oscillations in the DOS exist for basically all energies $`|\omega |\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$. To study these oscillations in more detail, we present in Fig. 3 the DOS along $`𝐑=(R,0)`$ for various frequencies and the same impurity arrangement as in Fig. 2a; the locations of the impurities are indicated by arrows.

The solid and dashed lines in Fig. 3a represent the DOS at $`\omega _{res}=\pm 4`$ meV, corresponding to peak (1) and (2) in Fig. 2a. The DOS at $`|\omega _{res}|`$ but along the lattice diagonal, i.e., for $`𝐑=(R,R)`$, is shown as open and filled squares. Similar to the single impurity case, the amplitude of the resonances is much weaker along the direction of the superconducting gap nodes, than along the anti-nodal direction. The inset shows the DOS along $`𝐑=(R,0)`$ for a single impurity with $`U_0=700`$ meV and resonance energy $`\omega _{res}=\pm 1.5`$ meV. A comparison shows that the amplitude of the DOS oscillations induced by two impurities is much larger than those induced by a single impurity (the overall scale in the inset is three times smaller than in the main figure). Moreover, in the two impurity case, the DOS exhibits significant oscillations at much larger distances from the impurities than in the single impurity case. This is particularly evident when comparing the particle-like resonances, where in the two impurity case, the amplitude of the oscillations is still large at a distance to the nearest impurity, $`r_n`$, of about $`r_n45`$, while in the single-impurity case, the oscillations are already substantially reduced at $`r_n2`$. In Fig. 3b we present the DOS along $`𝐑=(R,0)`$ for several frequencies with $`|\omega _{res}|<|\omega |<\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$. While there exist no evidence for a resonance at higher energies, we still find considerable oscillations in the DOS. As $`|\omega |`$ decreases, the wave-vectors of these oscillations decreases, as can clearly be seen from the shift of the peaks around $`R=3`$ and $`4`$. Thus, the DOS oscillations exhibit a dispersion, similar to the results obtained in Ref. Der02 .

Due to the momentum dependence of the superconducting $`d_{x^2y^2}`$-gap, the DOS changes when the orientation of the two impurities with respect to the crystal lattice is varied. In particular, since the gap vanishes along the lattice diagonal, we expect the largest deviations from the results for $`\alpha =0`$ shown in Figs. 1-3 when the impurities are located along the lattice diagonal, i.e., for $`\alpha =\pi /4`$. To study the changes in the DOS due to variations in $`\alpha `$ and to eliminate effects due to a varying $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$, we chose two different impurity arrangements which can be realized experimentally, and possess almost identical values for $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$. In the first case, the impurities are located along the lattice diagonal ($`\alpha =\pi /4`$) at $`𝐫_1=(0,0)`$ and $`𝐫_2=(3,3)`$ (dotted line, $`\mathrm{\Delta }r4.2`$). In the second arrangement, the impurities are aligned along the crystal $`\widehat{x}`$-axis ($`\alpha =0`$) at $`𝐫_1=(0,0)`$ and $`𝐫_2=(4,0)`$ (dashed line, $`\mathrm{\Delta }r=4`$). We verified that the DOS for $`𝐫_2=(4.2,0)`$, which would yield identical values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$, but is experimentally not realizable, differs only slightly from that for $`𝐫_2=(4,0)`$. The DOS at $`𝐑=(0,0)`$ and $`𝐑=(1,0)`$ is shown in Fig. 4. While the DOS for $`\alpha =\pi /4`$ possesses three distinct resonances, only two resonance peaks are observable for $`\alpha =0`$. Moreover, for $`\alpha =0`$, the resonance states are located at higher frequencies and are much broader. The qualitative differences in the DOS between these two different impurity arrangements can be directly traced back to the vanishing of $`F(\mathrm{\Delta }r,\omega )`$ for $`\alpha =\pi /4`$, and its finite, complex value for $`\alpha =0`$. Thus, the symmetry of the superconducting gap is directly reflected in the changes which the DOS undergoes when the orientation of the impurities relative to the crystal lattice is varied. This dependence provides a new tool to identify the symmetry of unconventional superconductors.

In summary, we studied quantum interference of electronic waves that are scattered by two non-magnetic impurities in a $`d_{x^2y^2}`$-superconductor. We show that the number of resonance states in the DOS, as well as their frequency and spatial dependence changes significantly as the distance between the impurities or their orientation relative to the crystal lattice is varied. The latter result provides a novel tool to identify the symmetry of unconventional superconductors, such as Sr2RuO4, where the symmetry of the superconducting state is still a topic of controversy.

We would like to thank J.C. Davis and A. de Lozanne for stimulating discussions.


text:
# The Primary Pretenders

## Reference

The paper was prompted by the table of pseudoprimes to various bases given by Albert H. Beiler on p. 42 of his Recreations in the Theory of Numbers, Dover, New York, 1964.

| J. H. Conway |
| --- |
| Dept. of Mathematics, |
| Princeton University, |
| Princeton NJ, 08544 |
| conway@math.princeton.edu |
| R. K. Guy |
| Dept. of Mathematics, |
| The University of Calgary, |
| Calgary, Alberta, |
| Canada T2N 1N4. |
| rkg@cpsc.ucalgary.ca |
| W. A. Schneeberger |
| Dept. of Mathematics, |
| Princeton University, |
| Princeton NJ, 08544 |
| william@math.princeton.edu |
| N. J. A. Sloane |
| AT&T Bell Laboratories |
| Mathematical Sciences Research Center |
| Murray Hill NJ, 07974 |
| njas@research.att.com |


text:
# 1 States, Transitions, & Hysteresis

## 1 States, Transitions, & Hysteresis

BHC states can be broadly classified into two categories: hard with high variability (typically low luminosity), and soft with weak to moderate variability (typically high luminosity). Historically, these have been classified as “low” and “high” states, respectively, with radio observations showing the former to be radio loud, and the latter to be (mostly) radio quiet (e.g., ). Examples of transitions between states are shown in Fig. 1. The “off” state appears to be a low luminosity hard state , and not necessarily a distinct state. The “very high state” is a high luminosity soft state wherein the flux of the hard tail, the X-ray variability, and the radio emission are elevated from the very low levels observed in moderate luminosity soft states. Compared to the hard state, the very high state radio emission is more episodic and its spectrum is steeper, evocative of the “ejection” behavior seen in GRS 1915+105 (e.g., ). It is interesting to note that the very high state of GX 339$``$4, based solely on the X-ray observations, was suggested to be a jet-ejection state . The “intermediate state” is somewhat ill-defined, and is similar to a very high state (i.e., increased hard tail and X-ray variability, with variable radio). This label has been applied to spectra intermediate between “high” and “very high” states, as well as to spectra occurring inbetween “hard/low” and “soft/high” states. The behavior exhibited by Cyg X-1 during its state transitions and “failed” transitions  may also qualify as an “intermediate state”. (The canonical soft state of Cyg X-1, however, is itself in many ways reminiscent of definitions of the “intermediate state”.) In this review, I will primarily refer to states as being “hard” or “soft”, rather than use the labels of off/low/intermediate/high/very high.

X-ray spectra of low variability soft states are in fact remarkably well-described by simple disk models (with fitted inner disk radii comparable to the expected marginally stable orbit radii), and do not show any of the variability seen in MHD simulations. Nor do they exhibit the instability behavior normally associated with $`\alpha `$-disks , despite the fact that their luminosities can be $`5`$$`10\%`$ of their Eddington luminosity. Although transitions between extremes of the soft state and extremes of the hard state appear to track accretion rate, the luminosity at which these transitions occur is not fixed, and in fact exhibits evidence of hysteresis . That is, a state tends to remain soft to lower luminosity levels, or hard to higher luminosity levels, if it began in a soft or hard state, respectively. This is observed in recent state transitions of GX 339$``$, as well as for numerous other BHC and neutron star X-ray binaries (; Maccarone et al., in prep.). Very complex behavior can be seen (e.g., the “comb-like” color-intensity diagrams of XTE J1550$``$564; ), and it is unlikely that accretion rate, even accounting for hysteresis, is the sole-determinant of state transition behavior. As I further discuss below, even for a given luminosity *and* spectral hardness, it is not clear that any remaining spectral features (e.g., line strengths or widths) remain uniform from one instance of a given state to another.

## 2 Theoretical Prejudices

The observational features that seem to be of the most fundamental importance in the definitions of BHC states are the presence (or lack thereof) of hard X-ray and radio emission. The former has been appreciated for nearly 30 years; however, the intimate coupling of the radio and hard X-ray emission is something that has been appreciated for only the past 6 years or so. (See the review by Fender in these proceedings.) Theoretical models translate the presence/absence of radio/hard X-ray emission into the presence/absence of either a Comptonizing corona and/or a synchrotron emitting jet. The latter possibility is more thoroughly discussed in the reviews of Falcke and Markoff (these proceedings; see also ). Here I shall predominantly focus on coronal models, especially as they relate to models of the hard state. (It should be noted that a Comptonizing corona and synchrotron emitting jet are not necessarily mutually exclusive; however, such “hybrid” models are only now beginning to receive theoretical attention.)

Coronal models are promising in that they can produce naturally both the power law photon index as well as the sharp cutoff at energies of $`100`$ keV that are typically observed in hard state BHC. Debate, however, centers around the geometry of the disk/corona system. Several suggested geometries are shown in Fig. 2. The “sandwich geometry”, shown in the upper left, had been considered by numerous authors ; however, as 100% of the downward directed hard photons interact with the disk, most of which are then thermalized and re-radiated as soft photons into the corona, it is impossible to create a corona hot enough to produce sufficiently hard spectra as seen in BHC . This has led researchers to postulate more “photon starved” geometries, such as the bottom three geometries on the left. In these geometries, a relatively small fraction of the hard photons intercepted by the disk are re-radiated into the corona as soft photons. The degree to which a “reflection component” is generated also varies with these geometries. The bottom left model (“pill box” or “patchy corona” geometry) yields a large amount of reflection (all the downward directed photons are intercepted by the disk), with little soft photon-cooling of the corona .

The spectral hardness, as represented by the photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, produced within these models is determined by temperature and optical depth of the corona, as well as by the geometry. For example, for the geometry with a spherical corona overlapping an outer disk shown in Fig. 2, the spectral hardness is partially governed by the degree of overlap between corona and disk, with greater overlap yielding softer spectra (e.g.,). Instead of describing spectral hardness via $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, one can instead refer to the coronal compactness, $`\mathrm{}_c`$. Here I define this as the ratio of energy generation within the corona divided by its characteristic radius, to energy generation within the disk divided by its characteristic radius. As an example I shall return to below, for the inner corona/outer disk model shown in Fig. 2, if the disk *specific energy* goes as the inverse of the disk inner radius (i.e., gravitational energy), and the coronal specific energy is a fixed quantity (e.g., gravitational for a fixed inner boundary), then the compactness scales as the inner disk radius . Higher compactnesses yield harder spectra. Again, one sees that variations of the coronal geometry can regulate the spectral hardness.

## 3 Correlations

It is fairly easy for a number of the above coronal models to fit a single, given observation of a hard state BHC. More stringent tests occur when multiple observations of the same, or similar, hard state BHC are considered. A number of interesting correlations arise that must be addressed by any theoretical model of these systems. Here I discuss what I consider to be among the most important of these correlations.

### 3.1 Flux/Spectra Correlations

Over a wide range of hard state flux, higher flux typically means *softer* spectra, as seen in GX 339$``$ and Cyg X-1 . Such a correlation naturally occurs in ‘sphere+disk’ coronal models if the inner edge of the disk moves inward as accretion rate increases. The corona is more effectively cooled as the disk moves inwards, which also fits in neatly with the presumption that the moderate luminosity soft state represents a “classic” Shakura-Sunyaev type disk.

As discussed in the reviews of Falcke and Markoff, however, there is a correlation between the X-ray and radio flux, approximately given by $`F_XF_{radio}^{1.4}`$, i.e., the radio flux decreases more slowly than the X-ray flux. This is not currently accounted for in coronal models, although it can be accounted for if jet synchrotron radiation produces both the radio *and* X-ray flux (see the above cited articles).

### 3.2 $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$:$`\mathrm{\Omega }/2\pi `$ *or* $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$:$`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }`$

Phenomenologically, a good description of RXTE spectra of hard state BHC is given by a cutoff broken power law plus Fe line. The break energy is at $`10`$ keV, and the power law *hardens* above the break . Using more physical models, these spectra instead can be described by an underlying power law being reflected from a cold slab, which yields a fluorescent Fe line, an Fe edge, and a reflected continuum (e.g.,). The degree of reflection is determined by the solid angle, $`\mathrm{\Omega }/2\pi `$, subtended by the cold medium as seen by the hard tail. By considering multiple observations of multiple hard state objects (including Seyfert galaxies), it has been claimed that a correlation exists between the photon index of the underlying power law, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, and the degree of reflection, $`\mathrm{\Omega }/2\pi `$, with softer spectra showing greater reflection. This effect can also be seen with broken power law fits of multiple observations of a *single* object . The shape of the spectrum above 10 keV changes only slightly while the soft spectral index shows a strong variation, yielding a positive $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{low}\mathrm{E}}`$:$`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ correlation, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{low}\mathrm{E}}`$ is the photon index of the low energy power law, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{low}\mathrm{E}}`$ -$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{high}\mathrm{E}}`$ .

The ability of a reflected component to phenomenologically harden a soft power law has caused some, including myself , to question whether or not the putative $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$:$`\mathrm{\Omega }/2\pi `$ correlation is in fact a systematic effect. The correlation, however, appears robust and does appear in ratios of hard state BHC data to Crab nebula+pulsar observations (i.e., there is less worry about systematic uncertainties in the RXTE response matrices, or about the interdependencies of the model fit parameters; ). The $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$:$`\mathrm{\Omega }/2\pi `$ correlation is implicitly assigning a theoretical interpretation, albeit a very plausible one in the context of some of the coronal models described above. The purely phenomenological $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$:$`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ correlation, however, does need to be addressed by any model of BHC hard states.

Even within the context of reflection, the correlation is not simple. Fig. 3 shows RXTE observations of GX 339$``$4 where the correlation appears only when considering greatly different hardnesses. If one had analyzed only the data with mid-range hardness circled in Fig. 3, the correlation would not have been seen, despite the fact that these observations span a factor of two in 3–9 keV flux and compactness. If one instead had analyzed only the three hardest (and faintest) spectra, *exactly the opposite* correlation would have been detected. I note that most of the circled observations in the mid-range of compactness are hard state spectra in a high flux regime dominated by “hysteresis” , and show a number of other properties that are “flat” on various correlation curves (see Fig.4). GX 339$``$4 also provides an example of how spectral properties can apparently change for different instances of a given state. Prior to the 1998 soft state, the 1997 hard state showed the Fe line equivalent width to be linearly correlated with reflection fraction, whereas the 1999 hard state showed the Fe line equivalent width to be nearly uniform all the way into quiescence111It has been recently pointed out that for RXTE observations, galactic ridge emission can contribute a 6.7 keV line with flux of approximately $`3\times 10^5`$ photons/cm2/s ; however, here the *lowest flux* line has $`2.7\times 10^4`$ photons/cm2/s, and has a substantial *red wing* (Fig. 5). Thus contribution from the galactic ridge is unlikely to account for the majority of the differences between the 1997 and 1999 hard states. (Fig. 5; ).

### 3.3 $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$:$`f`$:$`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$

Correlations also exist between spectra and variability properties, with harder spectra typically showing *lower frequency* X-ray variability, both within a given source and across sources . Taking the power spectral density (PSD) of X-ray variability and multiplying by Fourier frequency, these data often can be well-described by the sum of broad Lorentzians (Fig. 4). In the hard state, peak frequencies scale as a function of spectral hardness (Fig. 4; ). Again, increased frequency with softer spectra naturally fits in with the concept of transiting from a radially extended corona to a Shakura-Sunyaev type disk. In GX 339$``$4 the frequencies approximately scale as $`lc^{3/2}R_{\mathrm{corona}}^{3/2}`$, consistent with naive expectations of disk time scales being proportional to Keplerian . Complications with such a simple interpretation arise, however, when considering time delays between X-ray variability in soft and hard bands. Typically, the hard variability lags behind the soft variability, with this difference *decreasing* for *lower* Fourier frequency, as shown for RXTE observations of Cyg X-1 in Fig. 4 (; see also the paper by Wilms et al., these proceedings). This is exactly opposite our naive expectations of time scales increasing with either the size of our hypothesized corona, or with the characteristic time scales of the disk/corona transition region. Any theoretical model must address the simultaneous correlation of spectral hardness/X-ray variability frequency/X-ray variability time lags.

## 4 The Fender Conjecture

One of the most important questions in black hole research is, what are the spin parameters of astrophysically observed black holes? Since the seminal work of Blandford & Znajek , speculation has centered around whether or not rapid (i.e., near maximal) black hole spin is *required* to produce a jet. The seeming ubiquity of radio jets in BHC systems, predominantly correlated with spectral state (hard spectral states appear to *always* produce jets), has led to what I shall call the Fender Conjecture222The person for whom this conjecture is named in no way endorses said appellation. I have, however, heard him make this suggestion in numerous talks; it is an interesting and important scientific point; and “The Fender Conjecture” has at least as much ring to it as “The Bourne Identity” or “The Corbomite Maneuver”.: If rapid black hole spin is required for producing a jet, then all black holes are rapidly spinning. Clearly, an independent measurement of spin is required to verify whether or not jetted BHC do in fact have rapid spin. One diagnostic that has been suggested is the relativistic broadening of fluorescent Fe lines .

As shown in Fig. 5, broad lines can be found in BHC hard states. If such hard states do indeed represent an extended corona with a truncated disk, however, they do not give the best indication of spin via their line diagnostics. Conversely, if soft state spectra represent disks extending down to, or even within, their marginally stable orbit, they may offer better line diagnostics. This, unfortunately, is not without its own problems. Specifically, if one models soft state spectra with a combination of a multi-temperature blackbody for the soft excess and a power law for any hard tail, these two fit components tend to cross one another in the Fe line region (see Fig. 5). This leads one to worry that any fitted broad line is in fact a systematic artifact of these fits. That being said, a number of soft state BHC spectra do indeed show very strong and broad lines, so skewed to the red that they are indicative of a nearly maximally rotating hole. This can be true even when Comptonization codes are used to model the hard tail as an upscattered multi-temperature disk component. (This alleviates some of the concerns that the broad line is a systematic effect.) Fig. 5 shows such a fit to soft state spectra of GX 339$``$. A clearer example of an extremely broad Fe line, again consistent with rapid spin, comes from XMM-Newton observations of the very high state of XTE J1650$``$500 . Although at this point there have been few careful line analyses of soft state BHC spectra, there is at least a hint of rapid spin in several BHC systems.

## 5 Models and Prospects

A primary theoretical question is why are there two (broadly defined) states: soft and hard? As mentioned above, MHD codes show rapid variability, jets, and magnetic energy dissipation occurring high in the disk atmosphere . Although observations seem to show more “regular structure” (as evidenced by the correlations, the structured PSD, etc.) than simulations, one still is led to ask why hard states collapse into structures more quiet, stable, and like a “standard” accretion disk as they enter the soft state? Advection Dominated Accretion Flow (ADAF) models of hard states (, and references therein) only exist below $`10\%`$ Eddington luminosity, so they naturally cannot be sustained at high luminosity. This, however, does not answer why ADAFs would form at low luminosity. Advocates of ADAFs essentially have postulated what Svensson has dubbed the “Strong ADAF Principle”: ADAF solutions are preferred whenever they are physically achievable, and hence *always* arise at low luminosity. Taking inspiration instead from the MHD simulations, Merloni & Fabian  postulate that the rate of magnetic energy deposition into the corona is strongly dependent upon the *gas pressure*. Given their assumptions, they show that the fraction of accretion energy deposited into the corona scales as $`(P_{\mathrm{gas}}/P_{\mathrm{total}})^{1/4}`$. Low luminosity, gas pressure disks therefore have strong coronae that collapse as the disk becomes radiation pressure dominated at high accretion rates. Two interesting points are raised here: state transitions might be most intimately tied to whether or not the accretion flow is radiation pressure dominated; here the distinction bewtween “corona” and “jet” is not strong, possibly leading the way to consideration of hybrid models.

## Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges numerous helpful conversations with O. Blaes, J. Chiang, P. Coppi, S. Corbel, R. Fender, T. Maccarone, S. Markoff, J. Miller, K. Pottschmidt, C. Reynolds, and J. Wilms, as well as support from the MIT-Chandra X-ray Science Center via NASA Grant SV1-61010.