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# The deconfined phase near 𝑇_𝑐 and its decay into hadrons

## 1 Introduction

High-energy inelastic processes provide the unique opportunity to recreate the high energy density state of QCD matter that presumably prevailed during the first microseconds of the evolution of the early universe: the so-called Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). Simply speaking, the QGP is the state of matter for which quarks and gluons are deconfined and chiral symmetry is restored. Even if produced, the QGP is a transient state of matter which can not be observed directly. Experimentally, one observes hadrons which are produced from the decay of the deconfined QGP state. The deconfined state at asymptotic temperatures can presumably be understood in terms of a weakly interacting gas of quasiparticles. It is rather crucial, however, to develop some understanding of QCD near the deconfinement temperature $`T_c`$ in order to be able to interpret its “fingerprints”.

## 2 Polyakov Loop Model

The basic idea behind the “Polyakov loop model” is that the free energy of the deconfined state of $`SU(3)`$ gauge theory is dominated by a condensate of gauge invariant Polyakov loops

$$\mathrm{}(\stackrel{}{x})\frac{1}{3}\mathrm{tr}L(\stackrel{}{x})=\frac{1}{3}\mathrm{tr}𝒫\mathrm{exp}\left(ig_0^{1/T}A_0(\stackrel{}{x},\tau )𝑑\tau \right).$$
(1)
It is based on the observation from the lattice that the Polyakov loop becomes light near $`T_c`$ . Here, $`A_0`$ is in the fundamental representation and so can not acquire an expectation value since that would break the gauge symmetry. In contrast, the Wilson line $`L`$ transforms as an adjoint field under the local $`SU(3)/Z(3)`$ gauge symmetry, and as a field with charge one under the global $`Z(3)`$ symmetry. Thus, it can acquire an expectation value within the center of the group and so represents an order parameter for deconfinement: $`\mathrm{}=0`$ corresponds to the confined phase in which the t’Hooft $`Z(3)`$ symmetry is restored, while $`\mathrm{}0`$ above $`T_c`$.

Near $`T_c`$, instead of dealing with $`A_0`$, we construct an effective Lagrangian directly for the Polyakov loop itself. The theory must be invariant under the global $`Z(3)`$ symmetry. For the present purposes, we take the effective Lagrangian to be

$$=|_\mu \mathrm{}|^2\left(\frac{b_2(T)}{2}|\mathrm{}|^2\frac{b_3}{3}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}^3+(\mathrm{}^{})^3}{2}\right)+\frac{1}{4}\left(|\mathrm{}|^2\right)^2\right)b_4T^4.$$
(2)
(Here, we have suppressed all renormalization constants for the wavefunction, mass and coupling constants.) The terms which only involve powers of $`|\mathrm{}|^2`$ are each invariant under a global symmetry of $`U(1)`$, and so is the kinetic term. The cubic term, $`b_3\mathrm{}^3`$, is only invariant under the global $`Z(3)`$ symmetry. We perform a mean field analysis, where all coupling constants are taken as constant with temperature, except for the mass term, $`b_2|\mathrm{}|^2`$. About the transition, condensation of $`\mathrm{}`$ is driven by changing the sign of $`b_2`$. Also, $`b_3>0`$ so that in the $`Z(3)`$ model, there is always one vacuum with a real, positive expectation value for $`\mathrm{}`$.

The couplings $`b_2(T/T_c)`$ and $`b_3`$ could, in principle, be computed on the lattice ($`b_4`$ is fixed by the asymptotic number of degrees of freedom) once the wavefunction renormalization for $`\mathrm{}`$ is known. Alternatively, they can be deduced by matching some physical observable, for example the pressure or the screening mass for $`\mathrm{}`$ as obtained from (2), to lattice data; for details we refer to .

Fermions in the fundamental representation break the global $`Z(3)`$ explicitly such that $`\mathrm{}0`$ below $`T_c`$. Assuming that those fields can be integrated out, a term linear in $`\mathrm{}`$, $`b_1(\mathrm{}+\mathrm{}^{})/2`$, arises in the effective Lagrangian. The lattice finds that near $`T_c`$, the temperature-susceptibility for the Polyakov loop peaks strongly , suggesting that $`b_1`$ is small. Further, the pressure appears to be “flavor independent”: $`p/p_{\mathrm{id}}`$, where $`p_{\mathrm{id}}`$ is the ideal-gas pressure, is a nearly universal function of $`T/T_c`$ . This also indicates that $`b_1`$ is small, and that $`b_2(T/T_c)`$ is a universal function. If so, correlation lengths in QCD increase near $`T_c`$.

## 3 Two-point functions of $`SU(3)`$ Polyakov Loops

In perturbation theory, the Polyakov loop is near unity, and can be expanded in powers of $`A_0`$. For example, if the $`A_0`$ field is purely static,

$$\mathrm{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}\frac{g^2}{3T^2}\mathrm{tr}\left(A_0^2\right)i\frac{g^3}{3T^3}\mathrm{tr}\left(A_0^3\right)+\mathrm{}$$
(3)
Thus the real part of the Polyakov loop starts out as a coupling to two $`A_0`$’s, and the imaginary part of the Polyakov loop, to three $`A_0`$’s. Thus to lowest order in perturbation theory, $`\mathrm{}_r(x)\mathrm{}_r(0)\mathrm{}^2\mathrm{exp}(2m_Dx)/x^2`$, $`\mathrm{}_i(x)\mathrm{}_i(0)\mathrm{exp}(3m_Dx)/x^3`$, with $`m_D=gT`$ the Debye mass. Thus, if one defines $`m_r`$ and $`m_i`$ from the exponential falloff of the two-point functions, we conclude that the masses for the real and the imaginary parts of $`\mathrm{}`$ behave as $`m_i/m_r=3/2`$ (this ratio is independent of the wavefunction renormalization of $`\mathrm{}`$ ). In turn, $`m_{i,r}(T)`$ can be obtained from the curvature of the effective potential (2), and thus can be related to the behavior of either the expectation value $`\mathrm{}`$ or the pressure $`p`$. For example, for very small $`b_3`$ one has the simple relation  $`(m_r/T)^2\mathrm{}^2\sqrt{p/p_{id}}`$, and so indeed the mass becomes small for $`TT_c^+`$. Moreover, for any $`b_3>0`$ and any function $`b_2(T/T_c)`$, at $`T_c^+`$ one finds $`m_i/m_r=3`$ (plus corrections from pentic and hexatic interactions of $`\mathrm{}`$ ). This prediction deviates strongly from the counting in perturbation theory, where three (exchanged) electric gluons are 3/2 times heavier than two gluons. From (2) though, at $`T_c^+`$ three gluons are three times heavier than two gluons. Recent lattice studies  in $`SU(3)`$ gauge theory do find that the mass ratio of a three versus a two-gluon state increases sharply from $`1.5`$ at high temperature to $`2.5`$ near $`T_c`$.

## 4 The decay of the Condensate for $`\mathrm{}`$ into hadrons

The effective Lagrangian now allows to study how the condensate for $`\mathrm{}`$ decays into hadrons at $`T_c`$. The potential becomes rather flat at $`T_c`$, as seen from the growth of the correlation length $`\xi _{\mathrm{}}`$. On the other hand, $`\xi _{\mathrm{}}`$ decreases rapidly both below and above $`T_c`$. Within the Polyakov loop model, this implies a rather small discontinuity of $`\mathrm{}`$ at $`T_c`$ followed by a rapid growth. Thus, the shape of the effective potential must change very rapidly near $`T_c`$ . Consequently, it is rather likely that the long wavelength modes of $`\mathrm{}`$ do not stay in equilibrium as the system cools through $`T_c`$ (for actual real-time numerical solutions of the dynamics see ). This leads to a rapid decay of the condensate for $`\mathrm{}`$ into hadrons, termed “explosive”  for the fact that the transition occurs in an “instant” throughout the entire volume (i.e., on a space-like surface). In contrast, if equilibrium were maintained during the transition, generic local conservation laws for energy and momentum demand that the deconfined phase be “consumed” by a propagating burning front (on a time-like surface) with a small velocity for either a first-order transition or a rapid crossover; this behavior was argued to be incompatible with RHIC HBT results . The only prediction of $`R_{out}R_{side}`$ is from a sudden time-like transition , which can be based on the above-mentioned behavior of the effective potential for the Polyakov loop .

Another interesting issue, besides real-time dynamics, is the chemical composition of the confined state, i.e. the relative yields of various hadron species. It is rather remarkable that the hadronic states appear to be populated statistically according to the available phase space . This could be due to rapid equilibration among the hadron species after hadronization. One would then naturally expect that the temperature for freeze-out is significantly lower than that for hadronization. However, thermodynamic fits to the measured hadron multiplicities at RHIC yield freeze-out temperatures essentially equal to the deconfinement temperature $`T_c`$. That is, the chemical composition is determined at hadronization, with little time for equilibration processes. This is confirmed by detailed studies of hadronic rescattering after hadronization within kinetic theory .

In contrast, in the Polyakov loop model, chemical composition is dynamically determined by the decay of the condensate for $`\mathrm{}`$ into hadrons . Coupling $`\mathrm{}`$ to some chiral multiplets $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, the occupation number of each state will be determined by the mass of that state relative to the mass of $`\mathrm{}`$ at (or near) $`T_c`$, when the expectation value $`\mathrm{}`$ in the block-spin averaged effective theory “rolls over” from $`\mathrm{}0`$ to $`\mathrm{}=0`$. Clearly, if say $`m_{\mathrm{}}<m_\pi `$, this will result in a vast suppression of all heavier states like the kaon relative to the pion. If, in turn, $`m_{\mathrm{}}>m_K`$, the phase space for the decay into pions and kaons will be similar, resulting in $`K:\pi `$ near unity. To reproduce the experimental result of $`K:\pi 1:10`$, one must have $`m_\pi <m_{\mathrm{}}<m_K`$. Indeed, this is the case: fixing $`b_2(T/T_c)`$ below $`T_c`$ from lattice data on the string tension in $`SU(3)`$ pure-gauge theory, and assuming $`b_10`$, $`m_{\mathrm{}}400`$ MeV just below $`T_c`$. (In  the mass shifts from fluctuations of the chiral fields where taken into account by means of a Hartree-type factorization but do not change the above ordering). On the other hand, assuming that the free energy near $`T_c`$ is dominated by quasi-gluons with masses $`5001000`$ MeV which then decay into $`\pi `$, $`K`$ etc. should lead to $`K:\pi 1`$ .

In thermal QCD the mass of $`\mathrm{}`$ also has the meaning of an inverse correlation length $`\xi _{\mathrm{}}=1/m_{\mathrm{}}`$. From the above, $`\xi _{\mathrm{}}1/2`$ fm just below $`T_c`$, which is a relatively large correlation length on hadronic scales.

The above arguments could be tested in $`pp`$ collisions at RHIC. High-multiplicity $`pp`$ events can have energy and particle densities comparable to those of central $`Au+Au`$ collisions, as measured by $`dN_{ch}/d\eta /A^{2/3}`$. In $`pp`$ events, however, correlation lengths can not become large because the system is small. This will produce different relative hadron yields at hadronization. Thus, it would be interesting to know how the $`K:\pi `$ ratio etc. in high-multiplicity $`pp`$ collisions compares to that in $`Au+Au`$.


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# An exoplanet in orbit around 𝜏¹ Gruis

## 1 Introduction

The Anglo-Australian Planet Search (AAPS) is a long-term planet detection programme which aims to perform exoplanet detection and measurement at the highest possible precision. Together with programmes using similar techniques on the Lick 3 m and Keck I 10 m telescopes (Fischer et al. 2001; Vogt et al. 2000), it provides all-sky planet search coverage for inactive F, G, K and M dwarfs down to a magnitude limit of V=7.5. So far the AAPS has has published data for 17 exoplanets. (Tinney et al. 2001; Butler et al. 2001; Butler et al. 2002a; Jones et al. 2002a,b; Tinney et al. 2002a,b).

The AAPS is carried out on the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) using the University College London Echelle Spectrograph (UCLES), operated in its 31 lines/mm mode together with an I2 absorption cell. UCLES now uses the AAO’s EEV 2048$`\times `$4096 13.5$`\mu `$m pixel CCD, which provides excellent quantum efficiency across the 500–620 nm I2 absorption line region. Despite this search taking place on a common-user telescope with frequent changes of instrument, we achieve a 3 m s-1 precision down to the V = 7.5 magnitude limit of the survey (Butler et al. 2001; fig. 1, Jones et al. 2002a).

Our target sample, which we have observed since 1998, is given in Jones et al. (2002b). It includes 178 late (IV-V) F, G and K stars with declinations below $`20^{}`$ and is complete to V$`<`$7.5. We also observe sub-samples of 16 metal-rich (\[Fe/H\]$`>`$0.3) stars with V$`<`$9.5 and 7 M dwarfs with V$`<`$7.5 and declinations below $`20^{}`$. The sample is being increased to around 300 solar-type stars to be complete to a magnitude limit of V=8. Where age/activity information is available from log $`R`$’(HK) indices (Henry et al. 1996; Tinney et al. 2002c) we require target stars to have log $`R`$’(HK) $`<`$ –4.5 corresponding to ages greater than 3 Gyr. Stars with known stellar companions within 2 arcsec are removed from the observing list, as it is operationally difficult to get an uncontaminated spectrum of a star with a nearby companion. Spectroscopic binaries discovered during the programme have also been removed and will be reported elsewhere (Blundell et al., in preparation). Otherwise there is no bias against observing multiple stars. The programme is also not expected to have any bias against brown dwarf companions. The observing and data processing procedures follow those described by Butler et al. (1996, 2001).

## 2 Stellar Characteristics of $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis

The Bright Star Catalog assigns $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis a spectral type of G0V, compared to the Hipparcos spectral type of G3IV. Its parallax of 30.0$`\pm `$0.7 mas (ESA 1997) together with a V magnitude of 6.03 imples an absolute magnitude of MV = 3.42$`\pm `$0.03 and Mbol=3.20$`\pm `$0.05 (Cayrel et al. 1997). This absolute magntidue puts $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis a magnitude above the main sequence and explains the discrepancy between the literature assigned spectral types G0V and G3IV.

Figure 1 shows the Ca $`\mathrm{II}`$ H line for $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis (HD 216435, HIP113044, HR8700) and indicates it is chromospherically inactive, confirming the activity index log $`R`$’(HK) = –5.00 found by Henry et al. (1996). Furthermore there is no evidence for significant photometric variability in the 121 measurements made by the Hipparcos satellite. Combining Hipparcos astrometry of $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis with its SIMBAD radial velocity yields a space velocity with respect to the local standard of rest: U, V, W = –27.5, –21.7, –10.5. Its inferred age is 5 Gyr(Gonalez 1999). Favata, Micela & Sciortino (1996) report an equivalent width Li detection of 70 mÅ equating to an abundance of lithium N(Li) = 2.44, consistent with other similar metal-rich sub-giants (Randich et al. 1999). di Benedetto (1998) has calculated the effective temperature of $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis to be 5943$`\pm `$60 K as part of a substantial programme to apply the infrared flux method and angular diameters from interferometry experiments to ISO standard stars with V-K measurements. Like many of the stars found to have extra-solar planets, $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis is metal rich with \[Fe/H\] derived from high resolution spectroscopic analysis of Fe lines is +0.15$`\pm 0.04`$ (Favata, Micela & Sciortino 1997). Interpolation between the tracks of Fuhrmann, Pfeiffer & Bernkopf (1998) and Girardi et al. (2000) indicates a mass of 1.25$`\pm `$0.10 M.

## 3 Orbital Solution for $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis

The 40 Doppler velocity measurements of $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis, obtained between 1998 August and 2002 August, are shown graphically in Figure 2 and listed in Table 1. The third column labelled uncertainty is the velocity uncertainty produced by our least-squares fitting. This uncertainty includes the effects of photon-counting uncertainties, residual errors in the spectrograph PSF model, and variation in the underlying spectrum between the template and iodine epochs. All velocities are measured relative to the zero-point defined by the template observation. Only observations where the uncertainty is less than twice the median uncertainty are listed.

The data are well-fit by a Keplerian curve which yields an orbital period of $`1326\pm 300`$ d, a velocity amplitude of $`20\pm 2`$ m s-1, and an eccentricity of $`0.14\pm 0.14`$. The minimum (M sin $`i`$) mass of the planet is $`1.2\pm 0.1`$ MJUP, and the semi-major axis is $`2.6\pm 0.6`$ au. The RMS to the Keplerian fit is 6.92 m s-1, yielding a reduced chi-squared of 1.24. Since $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis is relatively bright (V=6.03) and inactive, the measured RMS seems a little high. We have investigated our data and find that the internal velocity errors correlate well with the number of photons per pixel. The velocity errors vary nearly as 1/$`\sqrt{(\mathrm{photons})}`$, as one would expect. We consider that there is some constant error of around $``$3 m s-1, probably caused by inadequate S/N in our template measurement. We also note that at the spectral type of $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis, G0V, our precision is limited by the smaller equivalent widths of stellar lines relative to later spectral types. Thus with our observing exposures adjusted to give S/N=200 per exposure our precision is probably limited to around 4 rather than 3 m s-1. The lack of any observed chromospheric activity or photometric variations gives us confidence that the radial velocity signature arises from an exoplanet rather than from long-period starspots or chromospherically active regions. The properties of the candidate extra-solar planet in orbit around $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis are summarised in Table 2.

## 4 Discussion

The companion to $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis announced here serves to further reinforce the predominantly metal-rich nature of stars with exoplanets. It also adds to the growing population of long period exoplanets with near-circular orbits. Now more than 20% of exoplanets have orbital parameters within those of the Solar System. It is notable that as the Anglo-Australian Planet Search becomes sensitive to longer periods, we are continuing to find objects with longer periods, but remain limited by our first epoch observations. $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis is a pleasing example. Within the errors its velocity amplitude is nearly as low as any long-period single exoplanet announced by radial velocity searches and the error on its period is dominated by our first epoch observation. Thus the detection of an exoplanet around $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis together with our long-term stable stars (e.g., Butler et al. 2001) gives us confidence in the stability of our search as we move to longer periods and the possibility of detecting Jupiter analogues.

The radial velocity signal we measure for $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis suggests a planet with a minimum mass around that of Jupiter. $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis b becomes the fifth exoplanet to be found with a mass around that of Jupiter with a period of greater than three years and indicates that radial velocity surveys now have significant sensitivity to Jupiter mass planets out to relatively large periods.

It is thus intriguing to look at the period distribution of exoplanets found by the AAPS and other radial velocity searches. In Butler et al. (2002b), we plotted a histogram of semimajor axes for exoplanets from the Lick, Keck and AAT searches. This showed a relatively large number of exoplanets at very short orbits and a tail of objects with longer orbits. The detection of long period planets and long-term stable stars indicated that the peak at short periods was a real feature. Two years later, with twice as many exoplanets known, Figure 3 shows the exoplanets that have been announced based on exoplanets.org by 2002 August 21. The bulk of known exoplanets now lie at relatively large periods. Although the AAPS has been operating for less time than other successful searches, Figure 3 also shows that the exoplanets published by the AAPS are dominated by companions at longer periods such as $`\tau ^1`$ Gruis b. The top part of Figure 3 shows a peak at shorter periods together with a substantial fraction at longer periods. Interestingly there appears to be a gap in the distribution between periods of around 7 and 50 days. The evidence for this gap is relatively poor when considering the AAT planets alone though striking when all exoplanets are considered.

The relative lack of exoplanet candidates from around 0.2 to 0.6 AU was noted by Cummings, Marcy & Butler (1999) and Butler et al. (2002b) and is also evident in fig. 2 of Heacox et al.(1999), fig. 5 of Rabachnik & Tremaine 2001, fig. 4 of Lineweaver & Grether (2002) and fig. 7 of Armitage et al. (2002). Armitage et al. interpret this feature as a slight excess of exoplanets at the shortest periods and attribute it to the completeness of radial velocity surveys falling off toward longer periods. However, the observed period distribution actually appears to rise toward longer periods where the incompleteness of the radial velocity surveys falls rapidly. To allow for this incompleteness introduced by including lots of low-mass short-period exoplanets we follow Armitage et al. (2002) and consider planets in a restricted mass and period range where the surveys can be judged to be more complete. Following the analysis of Cummings et al. (1999), Armitage et al. consider the known exoplanets to be complete in the mass range 0.6–10 MJUP sin $`i`$ for periods of less than 3 AU. In the middle plot of Figure 3 we show the period distribution for a 0.6–10 MJUP mass cut off as well as all announced planets. The removal of the lowest mass exoplanets reduces the peak of very short period planets, however, the peak at short periods remains an order of magnitude higher than would be expected from an extension of counts at longer periods. We have also looked at the CORALIE, Keck and Lick surveys in the same manner as for the AAPS. Despite different radial velocity surveys operating with different samples, sensitivities, instruments, scheduling, strategies and techniques we do find evidence for the gap in each of the major surveys. As mentioned above, this gap is evident in a number of works by other authors though is relatively less pronounced because of the substantially smaller number of exoplanets announced when those plots were made. The pronounced nature of this peak leads us to consider Fig. 4 to show evidence for two (or more) populations of exoplanets. That is, a population of exoplanets spanning a small range of short periods (3-7 days) and an separate population increasing with number towards larger periods.

From the lower part of Figure 3, it can be seen that there is no evidence for such a gap in the stellar binary distribution. The stellar companion period distribution plotted was determined by Duquennoy & Mayor (1991) using the same general radial velocity method to discover binary stars as used to discover the exoplanets. Duquennoy & Mayor find it necessary to make corrections to the stellar binary period distribution for incompleteness at longer periods, however, no such corrections are necessary for shorter periods and they find no gap in short-period stellar binaries. Overall Duquennoy & Mayor find that the period distribution of stellar binaries is well fit by a gaussian. Since stellar companions are expected to form via large-scale gravitational instabilities in collapsing cloud fragments or massive disks, whereas planets are expected to form by accretion in dissipative circumstellar disks it is not surprising that stellar and planetary companions should have different period distributions.

The period distribution for exoplanets has been investigated a number of times as the number of radial velocity exoplanets has grown. The existence of a peak at very short periods has been an important motivation in the development of migration theories for exoplanets (Lin et al. 1999; Murray et al. 1998; Trilling et al. 1998; Ward 1997; Armitage et al. 2002; Trilling, Lunine & Benz 2002). The trend toward finding an increasing number of exoplanets with large orbital separation runs counter to the selection effects inherent in radial velocity searches and has been well reproduced by migration theories (Armitage et al. 2002; Trilling et al. 2002). Whilst selection effects start to play an increasingly important role beyond around few hundred days (e.g. Duquennoy & Mayor 1991; Cummings et al. 1999; Butler et al. 2002b), we do not consider them to be significant between 7 and 50 days and thus consider the ’gap’ in exoplanet periods to be a feature of the period distribution not currently predicted by migration theories. It is interesting to speculate on the origin of the possible gap in the exoplanet period distribution.

The onset of the stellar wind in young stars and the magnetic clearing of a hole at the centre of the disk will lead to the evacuation of the circumstellar disk and prevent migration of planets. This is expected to happen sooner in stars of higher mass and suggests the exoplanets of stars with higher mass will lie at greater radii. So far the range of stellar masses yielding significant numbers of exoplanets is rather small and we find no clear difference in exoplanet properties for stars of different mass. Even without such evidence, migration theory does provide an attractive explanation for a range of exoplanet properties. Migration theory can already reasonably explain the progressively larger number of exoplanets at larger radii and with the inclusion of appropriate stopping mechanisms (e.g. Lin, Bodenheimer & Richardson 1996; Kuchner & Lecar 2002) may also be able to consistently produce the peak in the period distribution of short period planets.

## Acknowledgments

The Anglo-Australian Planet Search team would like to thank the support of the Director of the AAO, Dr Brian Boyle, and the superb technical support which has been received throughout the programme from AAT staff – in particular F.Freeman, D.James, S.Lee, J.Pogson, R.Patterson, D.Stafford and J.Stevenson. We gratefully acknowledge the UK and Australian government support of the Anglo-Australian Telescope through their PPARC and DETYA funding (HRAJ, AJP, CGT); NASA grant NAG5-8299 & NSF grant AST95-20443 (GWM); NSF grant AST-9988087 (RPB); and Sun Microsystems. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France


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# Quantum railroads and directed localization at the juncture of quantum Hall systems

## I Introduction

It was discovered by von Klitzing, Dorda and Pepper that the Hall conductance of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a magnetic field is quantized in integer multiples of the universal quantum $`e^2/h`$. This remarkable phenomenon was explained by Laughlin using a gauge invariance argument. Subsequently, however, Streda, Kucera and MacDonald,  Jain and Kivelson and Büttiker proposed an alternate point of view in which the integer quantum Hall effect (QHE) is explained on the basis of the Landauer theory of one-dimensional (1D) transport, within the framework of magnetic edge states introduced by Halperin.  These states which derive from the quantized Landau levels of the 2DEG in a strong magnetic field follow the edges of the sample and are the 1D transport channels of these theories. The electrons in these edge channels travel in the same direction and therefore cannot be backscattered. Thus as was elucidated by Büttiker,  they are immune from the effects of Anderson localization that normally inhibits propagation of waves or quantum particles through 1D wave-guides in the presence of disorder: They travel along the edge of a disordered sample over macroscopic distances without resistance or dissipation of energy.

Although the QHE and 1D Anderson localization (AL) are mutually antithetical in this fundamental way, it has been shown  that they are both special cases of a more general phenomenon, namely, directed localization (DL). This is a property of disordered 1D wave-guides called “quantum railroads”(QRR) that support arbitrary numbers of channels carrying electrons in opposite directions.  If $`L`$ channels carry electrons from New York to Los Angeles and $`M`$ in the opposite direction, it is predicted that for $`LM`$, none of the electrons leaving New York will reach Los Angeles: After multiple scattering events they all return to New York. However of $`M`$ electrons leaving Los Angeles on average $`ML`$ will reach New York while $`L`$ return to Los Angeles. Thus in such systems the physics of localization acquires a directionality: All electrons traveling in the minority direction behave as if they are localized while some of those traveling in the majority direction are transmitted through the macroscopic disordered system. AL and the QHE correspond to the special cases $`M=L`$ and $`L=0`$, respectively. These important effects have received much attention.  However, there have been no reports of experimental realizations of the general DL regime ($`M`$$`>`$$`L`$$`>`$$`0`$) that should unify them.  Recent measurements by Kang et al. of electron transfer between the edges of two 2DEG’s revealed a richness of unexpected and puzzling phenomena. In this article we use computer simulations to identify the physics behind these observations. We demonstrate that a consistent explanation of the experiment is possible only if the barrier between the 2DEG’s is surrounded by a potential well that supports QRR’s of edge channels exhibiting DL in the general $`M`$$`>`$$`L`$$`>`$$`0`$ regime. Interplay between DL and electron transfer is reflected directly in the data. Unlike previous theoretical work, the present theory accounts for all of the features of the data. It admits simple and direct experimental tests.

In Section II we outline some key puzzles posed by the experiment of Kang et al. and present a critique of an important assumption that has been made in previous theoretical attempts to explain the data. In Section III we examine the effects of disorder on electron transfer through the barrier. In Section IV we present self-consistent Hartree calculations of the edge channel energies in the presence of disorder and arrive at a model in which the barrier between the 2DES’s is surrounded by a strong potential well. In Sections V and VI we solve this model in the regime of finite applied bias voltages and show how the physics of directed localization in QRR’s in concert with the breakdown of the quantum Hall effect can account for all of the phenomena observed by Kang et al. under applied bias. Our concluding remarks are presented in Section VII.

## II Puzzles posed by the experiment

The energies of the 2DEG edge states near the barrier that separates the 2DEG’s are shown in Fig.1a for the simplest model of the experimental system in which disorder and interactions between electrons are neglected and no bias is applied between the 2DEG’s. Curves with positive and negative slope correspond to edge channels on opposite sides of the barrier, and electrons in these channels travel in opposite directions as shown in the left inset of Fig.1a. Due to conservation of energy and momentum only electrons at crossings of the curves in Fig.1a can transfer through the barrier. At the crossings themselves there are small energy gaps shown in the right inset of Fig.1a. There are no extended states at energies in the gaps. Therefore an electron in a gap cannot travel far along the barrier. Since it also cannot reverse its course it must pass through the barrier. Thus for a long, high barrier electrons with energies in the gaps should be transmitted perfectly through the barrier while electrons at other energies should hardly be transmitted at all. As was noted in Ref.  the predictions of this simple model disagree with the data: The differential conductance peaks at zero bias (that signal electron transfer through the barrier) persist over ranges of magnetic field far larger than expected from the small widths of the energy gaps. Also the peaks occur at magnetic fields larger than predicted by factors of 2-4. Kang et al. conjectured that these discrepancies may be due to disorder, unexpectedly strong spin polarization or a potential well near the barrier.

Pioneering theoretical studies based on more detailed models have addressed the roles of transport and electron-electron interactions in this system. In these theories, in order to account for the observed positions of the zero-bias conductance peaks, the 2DEG’s were assumed to be fully spin-polarized, at least in the range of Landau level filling factors $`\nu `$ between 1.1 and 1.5 where the first zero-bias conductance peak was observed. However this assumption is difficult to reconcile with the absence of features due to spin in the data and also with the presence in the data of a prominent feature that will be discussed in Section VI. Physically the assumption means that the second 2DEG Landau level must be partly occupied by electrons having one spin orientation before electrons with the opposite spin orientation begin to occupy their lowest Landau level. A necessary (although not sufficient) condition for this to occur is that the electron spin splitting energy must be larger than the Landau level splitting, i.e., $`g\mu _BB/\mathrm{}\omega _c>1`$. But this condition is not satisfied by the values of the 2DEG g-factors that have been measured experimentally: The measured values of the exchange-enhanced Landé factor $`g`$ in 2DEG’s in GaAs have ranged up to a maximum value of approximately 6 that corresponds to $`g\mu _BB/\mathrm{}\omega _c=0.2`$. Larger $`g`$-factors have been reported in quasi-one-dimensional quantum wires but the the largest measured $`g`$ values even in those systems have not been large enough to be consistent with a fully spin-polarised system with more than one occupied Landau level.  Thus it seems unlikely that the 2DEG’s of Kang et al. were fully spin polarized when more than one Landau level was occupied. Therefore, in this article we explore an alternate possibility that is consistent with the experimentally established properties of the $`g`$-factors of 2DEG’s that were summarized above. Namely, we assume that the spin splitting in the experiment of Kang et al.  was considerably smaller than $`\mathrm{}\omega _c`$ and also smaller than the Landau level broadening (that is due to disorder) so that the spin splitting can be neglected as a first approximation. We will show in Section IV that if this assumption applies then the zero bias data of of Kang et al.  can be explained only if the barrier in their device was strongly charged. However, in that case we are able to explain not only the observations of of Kang et al. at zero bias,  but also all of their results at finite bias  including those that have not been accounted for by any previous model.

On the basis of their theoretical analysis Mitra and Girvin have argued that in order to account for the persistence of the experimentally observed zero-bias conductance peaks it is necessary to consider the effects of disorder on electron transfer through the barrier. However, they did not address this issue quantitatively. We shall do this in the next Section.

## III Electron transfer through the barrier in the presence and absence of disorder

Fig.2 shows results of our computer simulations of electron transfer through the barrier obtained using a recursive Green’s function technique.  The solid curve in Fig.2a is the transfer probability $`T`$ in absence of disorder and e-e interactions. It confirms the paradoxical predictions of the simple model that were outlined at the beginning of Section II: At energies in the gap (shown in the inset, Fig.1a), electrons are transmitted perfectly through the barrier and $`T=1`$. Elsewhere $`T`$ is near zero except for oscillations due to quantum interference near the main peak; see the inset Fig.2a. The period of the oscillations is two orders of magnitude smaller here than in Ref. due to the much longer barrier in our simulations. Fig.2b shows $`T`$ for the same system but with an additional smooth random potential that models the electron Coulomb interaction with donor ions in the doped layer adjacent to the 2DEG’s. Comparing Fig.2b and 2a shows that even a weak, smoothly varying disordered potential alters the electron transfer mechanism dramatically: $`T`$ now takes the form of a dense array of extremely narrow resonances associated with electron states in the random potential. The dashed curve in Fig.2a shows the combined effect of finite temperature and disorder on the transfer for the same potential as in Fig.2b: The transmission peak is now sufficiently broad to explain the observed persistence of the conductance peaks, and also the absence of features due to spin in the data if the spin-splitting is small as in our theory. However it has not shifted significantly from its position in the absence of disorder. Our simulations for other types of disorder and barrier profiles confirmed that the positions of thermally broadened transmission peaks coincide with the energy gaps of the electron edge channels at the barrier, regardless of the nature of the disorder. Thus the explanation of the observed locations of the conductance peaks must involve other properties of the 2DEG and barrier that control the energies at which the gaps occur.

## IV Electron-Electron Interactions and Charging at the Barrier

To explore this further we performed self-consistent Hartree calculations of the edge channel energies, treating the effects of disorder in a mean-field approximation: We assumed that disorder broadens the density of states of each Landau level into a Gaussian distribution whose center tracks the position-dependence of the Hartree potential.  This resulted in a downward shift of the edge channel energies and gaps relative to their positions in Fig.1a due to the electron density in the barrier being depleted relative to the 2DEG outside the barrier and this depletion resulting in an electrostatic well around the barrier. However, the size of the shift was insufficient to explain the observed positions of the zero bias conductance peaks.

To characterize the size of the discrepancy physically, we repeated our calculation assuming an additional positive charge density $`\rho `$ to be present inside the barrier such as might be introduced by doping the barrier in the plane where it was cleaved during fabrication of the sample. This yielded a downward shift of the energy gaps sufficient to explain the observed positions of the conductance peaks (for spin-unpolarized 2DEG’s) for $`\rho =11\times 10^{11}e`$ cm-2. This value of $`\rho `$ is so much (5.5$`\times `$) larger than the charge density of the 2DEG that it is unreasonable to expect any electronic many-body effect (i.e., correction to Hartree theory) to result in an effective potential well (whether spin-dependent or not) that could mimic the electrostatic well associated with this large positive charge that is required to account for the experimental data. We believe that this rules out all potential explanations of the observed positions of the conductance peaks that rely primarily on many-body corrections, including any explanation that involves strongly spin-polarized electron systems. Since the sample was made using a new, still incompletely understood process we consider the possibility of a materials-related potential well that we have modeled by the above charge density $`\rho `$ to be reasonable. This potential well is an important part of our model of the device of Kang et al. that we solve below. (Recall that previous theories  relied instead on the assumption that the 2DEG’s are fully spin polarized in a range of values of $`\nu >1`$ to explain the observed positions  of the conductance peaks at zero bias. That assumption, as was explained in Section II, is not consistent with the experimental literature on spin polarization in 2DEG’s and has other drawbacks.) We note that the possibility that some inadvertent doping may have occurred at the cleaved interaface is consistent with the measured mobility ($`10^5`$ cm2 V-1 s-1) of the 2DEG’s that is unexpectedly low for a state of the art GaAs device today. The disordered potential associated with such doping would contribute to the Landau level broadening discussed in Section III to which we and others have attributed the experimentally observed persistence of the differential conductance peaks at zero bias. Furthermore disorder near the barrier plays a key role in the physics of directed localization that as we show in Section V is able to account for the fact that tunneling between some pairs of Landau levels is observed experimentally while for other pairs it is not observed. This is an important feature of the data that to date has not been explained in any other way.

## V Electronic Structure and the Physics of Directed Localization at Finite Applied Bias

The theories proposed to date have either not treated the case where a finite bias voltage was applied across the barrier in the experiment of Kang et al.  at all or have yielded qualitative inconsistencies with the data  in that regime. Here we shall apply the model with the charged barrier proposed in Section IV to the case of finite applied bias voltages. We shall show that this model is able to account for all of the features of the data.

Examples of our self-consistently calculated edge channel Hartree energies under applied bias are shown in Fig.1b,c. The bias $`V`$ results in a difference $`eV`$ between the Fermi levels $`E(S)`$ and $`E(D)`$ on the source and drain side of the barrier. The energy of each edge channel now exhibits a minimum due to the potential well near the barrier. Since the electron velocity is $`v=dE/d(\mathrm{}k)`$ this means that edge channels can carry electrons in opposite directions along the same side of the barrier. Thus QRR’s in the general ($`M`$$`>`$$`L`$$`>`$$`0`$) DL regime are realized. Two examples are the QRR’s near $`E(S)`$ on the source side in Fig.1b and c. In both cases there are 2 forward moving channels (the $`N=0`$ and 1 channels at $`w,x,u`$ and $`f`$) and 1 backward channel (the $`N=1`$ channels at $`z`$ and $`b`$). Thus for an impenetrable barrier, DL theory would predict half of the electrons entering the QRR in the forward direction to be reflected and half to be transmitted through the QRR. However, at edge channel crossings transfer through the barrier competes with the forward and back-scattering alternatives of DL. As will be explained below, this competition results in selective suppression of the transfer at certain edge channel crossings, in agreement with the conductance data.  For example, transfer is suppressed at crossing $`x`$ (denoted 1,0 in Fig.3) but not at $`u`$ (0,1 in Fig.3). This difference can be understood physically in terms of the unitarity of the scattering matrix that underpins the predictions of DL theory: Electrons enter the QRR in the two forward channels. If the barrier is impenetrable, then after multiple scattering events these electrons fill a single effective forward channel and a backward channel. However the $`N=1`$ forward edge states near $`f`$ and $`x`$ and the backward edge states near $`b`$ and $`z`$ have low velocities and are thus strongly mixed and localized by disorder. Therefore the effective forward channel of DL theory consists, for the most part, of the $`N=0`$ edge state at $`u`$ or $`w`$. Now consider a barrier that is not impenetrable. Then it is crucial whether an energy gap opens in the $`N=0`$ edge channel at $`E(S)`$, blocking propagation through the forward DL channel. This happens in Fig.1c (the gap is at $`u`$) so that electrons in the forward DL channel are blocked and must transfer through the barrier. But in Fig.1b the gap is at $`x`$ so the forward DL channel is still open (at $`w`$) and forward propagation dominates over transfer through the barrier which is only weakly transmitting. Thus transfer at crossing $`x`$ is suppressed. The absence of the associated conductance peak in the data of Kang et al. is evidence of a QRR in the general ($`M`$$`>`$$`L`$$`>`$$`0`$) DL regime: It is inconsistent with models in which all edge states on the same side of the barrier travel in the same direction because for such models unitarity requires that transfer through the barrier not be suppressed at any edge channel crossing. This is why the absence of this peak in the data could not be explained by previous theoretical work.

Backscattering also occurs at the crossing of the two $`N=0`$ channels in Figs.1b and c. However this crossing is well below the source 2DEG Fermi level. Thus, if the bias is somewhat larger than in Fig.1b so that the crossing is above $`E(D)`$, electrons from occupied states at higher energies along the entire length of the source side of the barrier can decay to states at this crossing and then transfer through the barrier. Thus we do not expect the conductance peak associated with this crossing to be suppressed by localization effects.

The locations of the conductance maxima predicted by our calculations of the edge channel crossings are compared with the observed positions of the conductance peaks in Fig.3. Blue (red) curves indicate edge channel crossings at which transfer is (not) expected to be suppressed according to the above considerations. There is an obvious one-to-one correspondence between the red curves and the loci of experimental conductance maxima and good quantitative agreement at Landau level fillings $`>`$1.14 for positive and small negative bias. However the red curves do not follow the bell-shaped structure at lower Landau level fillings or exhibit the asymmetry seen experimentally between positive and negative bias. In Section VI we explain these deviations as manifestations of the breakdown of the quantum Hall effect (QHE).

## VI Breakdown of the quantum Hall effect

The bias voltage in our self-consistent calculations is evaluated between points in the vicinity of the barrier. In the quantum Hall regime the 2DEG’s are perfect conductors. Therefore the measured bias is equal to the bias voltage in our theory. When the QHE breaks down, the 2DEG’s become resistive and the measured bias acquires a contribution due to potential differences within the 2DEG’s in addition to the potential drop across the barrier; thus the magnitude of the experimentally measured bias voltage should exceed the theoretical value. If the magnetic spin-splitting is small (as in our theory), the QHE breaks down at zero bias when the Landau level filling falls below a value somewhat larger than 1 that depends on the 2DEG mobility.  Thus we explain the bell-shaped structure in the experimental data below the Landau level filling of 1.14 where the magnitude of the experimental bias voltage at the conductance peak abruptly begins to exceed the theoretical one as a manifestation of the breakdown of the QHE. We note that no explanation of the bell-shaped structure was offered by previous theories. The present explanation is not compatible with their assumption that the 2DEG is fully spin-polarized since in that case the QHE would break down at a quite different value of the Landau level filling. The value of the Landau level filling at which the QHE breaks down can be determined independently by resistance measurements of the 2DEG; our explanation of the bell-shaped feature can be tested directly in this way. This is an important experimental test of the assumptions underlying all of the theories that have been proposed to date since it should be able to determine whether the system is fully spin polarised as has been assumed previously or weakly spin polarised as we have suggested here. We also predict similar behavior at Landau level fillings below 3 (outside the range of the data in Ref. ) where the QHE should also break down. That the experimental features at higher bias are asymmetric and occur at somewhat larger bias values than the theoretical ones can also be understood within our framework since the QHE breaks down eventually with increasing bias at all Landau level fillings and does so in a sample-dependent way.

## VII Conclusions

In conclusion, we have presented a theory that offers a resolution of all of the puzzles posed by recent measurements of electron transfer between the edges of two-dimensional electron systems and have identified the first experimental evidence of the general directed localization regime that unifies the integer quantum Hall effect and one-dimensional Anderson localization. We have also proposed a simple measurement that should be able to settle unambiguously the important issue of the role that spin plays in this system.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank W. Kang for correspondence and G. Narvaez and S. Watkins for discussions. This work was supported by the Yamada Foundation (S.N.) and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and NSERC (G.K.)


text:
# Inflection point in the magnetic field dependence of the ordered moment of URu2Si2 observed by neutron scattering in fields up to 17 T

(12 August 2002; printed )

## Abstract

We have measured the magnetic field dependence of the ordered antiferromagnetic moment and the magnetic excitations in the heavy-fermion superconductor URu2Si2 for fields up to 17 Tesla applied along the tetragonal $`c`$ axis, using neutron scattering. The decrease of the magnetic intensity of the tiny moment with increasing field does not follow a simple power law, but shows a clear inflection point, indicating that the moment disappears first at the metamagnetic transition at $``$40 T. This suggests that the moment $`m`$ is connected to a hidden order parameter $`\psi `$ which belongs to the same irreducible representation breaking time-reversal symmetry. The magnetic excitation gap at the antiferromagnetic zone center Q=(1,0,0) increases continuously with increasing field, while that at Q=(1.4,0,0) is nearly constant. This field dependence is opposite to that of the gap extracted from specific-heat data.

One of the most enigmatic problems in heavy-fermion physics is to reconcile the smallness of the ordered antiferromagnetic (AFM) moment of URu2Si2 with the huge $`\lambda `$-anomaly in the specific heat, $`C_p`$, at $`T_N=17.5`$ K. Neutron broholm ; mason1 ; walker ; mason ; fak ; nse ; honma  and resonant X-ray isaacs  scattering experiments have shown that a weak static antiferromagnetic dipolar order with the moment along the $`c`$ axis of the body-centered tetragonal structure (space group I4/mmm) of the heavy-fermion superconductor ($`T_c=1.2`$ K) URu2Si2 is established below $`T_N`$. The magnitude of the moment (0.03 $`\mu _B`$/U-atom) is too small to reconcile with the jump in $`C_p`$. The specific-heat anomaly suggests the opening of an energy gap over part of the Fermi surface palstra ; dijk . Inelastic neutron-scattering measurements below $`T_N`$ show well-defined dispersive magnetic excitations polarized along the $`c`$ axis, which are consistent with a singlet-singlet crystal-field model broholm . However, such a model predicts an ordered moment much stronger than that observed. Recent reports matsuda ; amitsuka0  on that URu2Si2 samples are inhomogeneous with a larger moment in small regions are not yet experimentally confirmed and are still a matter of controversy and debate bernal . Also, they do not resolve the discrepancy between the small moment and the specific-heat anomaly.

In this Letter we present the magnetic field dependence of the AFM component of the ordered moment and of the gaps in the magnetic excitation spectrum for fields $`H`$ up to 17 T applied along the $`c`$ axis. The high magnetic fields now available for neutron scattering experiments at the HMI made it possible to observe that the magnetic moment in URu2Si2 does not vanish at $``$15 Tesla as was suggested from earlier measurements using a simple power-law extrapolation mason ; santini . Instead, we observe a clear inflection point of the magnetic intensity near a field of 7 T and a finite moment at 17 T. Such a behavior can be obtained if there is a linear coupling between a hidden primary order parameter and the magnetic moment shah . Inflection points have also been suggested in other theoretical schemes, which will be discussed. The gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in the magnetic excitation spectrum at the antiferromagnetic zone center Q=(1,0,0) increases strongly with $`H`$. The second gap $``$ at Q=(1.4,0,0) is nearly field independent.

Magnetic fields up to 17 T at low temperatures were obtained by mounting the sample between two dysprosium rods in a 14.5 T superconducting magnet Dy . A high-quality cylindrical URu2Si2 single crystal of diameter 6 mm and height 3.8 mm was cut by electroerosion from a larger well-characterized and annealed crystal already used in previous work santini  and mounted with the $`c`$ axis parallel to the vertical field of the magnet. The neutron scattering experiment was made on the FLEX triple-axis spectrometer of HMI, using pyrolytic graphite as vertically focusing monochromator and horizontally focusing analyzer. Measurement of the magnetic moment was done using the spectrometer in W (RLR) configuration with a wave vector of 1.48 Å-1. To remove the higher-order harmonic contribution from the monochromator, we used a 10-cm thick liquid-nitrogen cooled Be filter in the incident beam and a graphite filter in the scattered beam, the latter oriented to reflect out the 2nd order harmonics. The inelastic measurements were done with the spectrometer in a “long-chair” (RRL) configuration, a fixed final wave vector of 1.55 Å-1, and the Be filter in the scattered beam. The energy resolution at elastic energy transfer was 0.14 meV at full width at half maximum. Most of the elastic and inelastic data were collected at a temperature of $`T=2`$ K for magnetic fields $`H`$ between 0 and 17 T.

The integrated intensity of the AFM Bragg peak, which is proportional to the square of the ordered magnetic moment, $`m^2`$, was measured by rocking scans at Q=(1,0,0), as illustrated in Fig. 1. Measurements above $`T_N`$ (at high fields) show clearly the absence of any second-order contamination. The finite correlation length is field independent, as reported in earlier measurements santini . Figure 2 shows the integrated Bragg peak intensity as a function of applied field $`Hc`$. The figure combines the present data from HMI with earlier measurements at fields up to 12 T from the IN14 spectrometer at the ILL santini , using the field points at 0 and 8 T to scale the results. The magnetic moment decreases with increasing field, but clearly deviates at higher fields from the standard expression

$$m^2=m_0^2[1(H/H_m)^\gamma ]$$
(1)
with $`\gamma =2`$. Equation (1) describes the magnetic field dependence at $`T=0`$ of a (single) order parameter $`m`$ (the magnetic moment) for a second-order phase transition, and is easily derived in Ginzburg-Landau theory using a free energy of the form

$$F=\alpha (h^2t)m^2+\beta m^4$$
(2)
with $`t=1T/T_N`$ and $`h=H/H_m`$, where $`T_N`$ and $`H_m`$ are the critical temperature and field for the magnetic order, respectively, and $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are constants. The critical field $`H_m`$ was extrapolated to $``$15 T in earlier low-field work mason ; santini . Modifying the $`\gamma `$ exponent (a value of 3/2 was used in Ref. mason ) improves the fit but does not remove the disagreement with the data, which shows a clear inflection point at $``$7 T.

An inflection point in $`m(H)`$ was obtained in a model proposed by Shah et al. shah , where the magnetic moment $`m`$ is a secondary order parameter, which is coupled linearly to a hidden primary order parameter $`\psi `$, which breaks time reversal symmetry. The magnetic intensity can in this case be written as

$$m^2=m_0^2\frac{t(H/H_C)^2}{[1+\delta (H/H_C)^2]^2},$$
(3)
where $`H_C`$ is the metamagnetic field above which the heavy-fermion state is suppressed ($`H_C`$=35.8–39.4 T meta ; we use $`H_C`$=40 T) and $`\delta `$ is a parameter. Shah et al. introduces a characteristic field $`H_M`$ for the magnetic moment through $`H_M=H_C/(1+2\delta )^{1/2}`$. Equation (3) gives an excellent description of the observed field dependence, as illustrated in Fig. 2, with $`H_M=10.4\pm 0.2`$ T as the only adjustable parameter. The linear coupling term $`m\psi `$ was originally suggested in Ref. agterberg, . Symmetry arguments shah ; agterberg  show that $`\psi `$ must have the same symmetry as $`m`$, i.e. $`\psi `$ belongs to the $`A_{2g}`$ irreducible representation (IR). The physical interpretation of $`\psi `$ is either in terms of triple-spin correlators (octupolar moments or couplings between dipolar and/or quadrupolar moments) or a dipolar moment of the conduction electrons, which have such a rapidly decreasing form factor that the magnetic intensity is negligibly small already at the first observable magnetic Bragg peak agterberg .

The present finding of an inflection point in $`m(H)`$ rules out the possibility that the primary order parameter is even under time reversal. Taking the simplest coupling term $`m^2\psi ^2`$ with the right AFM symmetry shah ; agterberg , the field dependence of $`m`$ is the same as in Eq. (1) shah , and hence in contradiction with the present results. Recent 21Si NMR data suggest in fact that $`\psi `$ breaks time-reversal symmetry bernal . The existence of an inflection point in $`m(H)`$ also excludes the scenario with two decoupled order parameters and accidentally close transition temperatures paolo , since $`m(H)`$ would then follow Eq. (1).

While a hidden order parameter that breaks time-reversal symmetry is the most likely scenario, an inflection point in $`m(H)`$ can also be obtained in a strong coupling model with the magnetic moment as the only order parameter mineev . If the total moment changes between the normal and the magnetically ordered state due to an increase of the magnetic coupling below $`T_N`$, then the $`\beta `$ term will depend on the external field $`h`$ and is replaced by $`\beta (1+\eta h^2)`$ in Eq. (2), which leads to

$$m^2=m_0^2\frac{1h^2}{1+\eta h^2}.$$
(4)
Equation (4) provides a good description of the present neutron data, with $`\eta =17.4\pm 0.7`$, as seen in Fig. 2. However, the model does not resolve the discrepancy between the small moment and the specific-heat anomaly.

Okuno and Miyake okuno  have proposed a model which combines the localized character of a the singlet-singlet crystal-field scheme with an itinerant character of the 5$`f`$ electrons. They assume further that there is a perfect nesting at the AFM zone center Q=(1,0,0). For a suitable parameter set, they obtain an inflection point in the field dependence of the magnetic moment whose shape resembles that of the present results. However, for the parameter sets they employ, the inflection point occurs at magnetic fields several times higher than the observed inflection point and it seems difficult to obtain a semi-quantitative agreement with experimental values of the size of the ordered moment, the transition temperature, and the inflection point, simultaneously.

We note in passing that a magnetic field applied along the $`c`$ axis induces a localized ferromagnetic component, resulting in a ferrimagnetic structure with two different moments on the uranium-ion sites. The magnitude of the ferromagnetic moment at the metamagnetic transition can be estimated to 0.32 $`\mu _B`$, based on an extrapolation of low-field polarized neutron diffraction measurements schweizer .

The magnetic excitations at the local minima Q=(1,0,0) and (1.4,0,0) of the dispersion curve have been measured at low temperature ($`T=2`$ K) for magnetic fields up to 17 T using the FLEX spectrometer of HMI. These data have been combined with earlier measurements at $`H12`$ T using the IN14 spectrometer of ILL santini . The results are shown in Fig. 3. The measurements on IN14 have better statistics, due to higher flux and a larger sample volume (the sample volume is very limited in the 17 T magnet). Instrumental resolution effects in combination with the steep dispersion introduce an asymmetric high-energy tail of the sharp excitation at the magnetic zone center Q=(1,0,0). In such a case, the excitation energy can be extracted by fitting the convolution of a Gaussian function, which describes the energy resolution, with an exponential saw tooth function $`\mathrm{exp}[(E\mathrm{\Delta })/ϵ]`$, which describes how the higher-energy excitations are coupled into the measured spectrum via the finite $`Q`$ resolution. The field dependence of the parameter $`ϵ`$, which has no physical meaning, was determined from measurements at high energy transfers on IN14, and extrapolated to higher field values. This method gives a very accurate description of the measured spectra, as shown in Fig. 3(a), and the obtained excitation energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ lies, as expected, at approximately the half-height of the leading (low-energy) edge of the measured intensity. The peak shape of the excitation at the second minima, Q=(1.4,0,0), is symmetric \[see Fig. 3(b)\] because of the smaller dispersion, and a Gaussian fit is sufficient to extract the corresponding excitation energy $``$.

The magnetic field dependence of the gap energies $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $``$ are shown in Fig. 4. The gap at the AFM zone center increases rather strongly with applied field, without any sign of saturation at higher fields. It is well described by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(H)=[\mathrm{\Delta }_0^2+(bH)^2]^{1/2}$$
(5)
with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0=1.59`$ (2) meV and $`b=0.114`$ (1) meV/T. The gap $`=4.51`$ (2) meV at Q=(1.4,0,0) is nearly constant, with only a slight linear decrease in energy with increasing field, with slope 5.4 $`\pm `$ 2.7 $`\mu `$eV/T. It is interesting to note that the high-field extrapolation of the energy gaps $`\mathrm{\Delta }(H)`$ and $`(H)`$ crosses at a field close to the metamagnetic transition $`H_C`$. This is very interesting in the light of the appearance of a new high-field phase above 36.1 T jaime , which could be due to Fermi surface effects requiring a different nesting vector, such as the one corresponding to Q=(1.4,0,0).

Specific heat dijk  and electrical resistivity mentink  data taken with a magnetic field $`Hc`$ up to 17.5 and 16 T, respectively, have been analyzed in terms of a field-dependent energy gap related to the excitation gap observed in neutron scattering measurements. In both cases, the Néel temperature and the gap energy decrease quadratically with the field, following the relations $`T_N(H)=T_N(0)[1(H/H_0)^2]`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(H)=\mathrm{\Delta }(0)[1(H/H_0)^2]`$, respectively, with $`H_0`$ being close to the metamagnetic field. Very recent specific-heat measurements at fields up to 45 T jaime  show that $`T_N`$ vanishes at a critical field of 35.9 T. The field dependence of $`T_N`$ is essentially quadratic. Thermal expansion data vistink  with a magnetic field $`Hc`$ up to 25 T have been fitted by the empirical function $`A\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Delta }/T)`$ for the magnetic contribution. A quadratic decrease of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`T_N`$ was found with an extrapolated critical field of 37 T and a gap energy of 115 K at zero field.

The important point is that the energy gap extracted from different bulk measurements has the opposite magnetic field dependence to the gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ observed directly by neutron scattering at the AFM zone center. This low-energy gap actually increases strongly with field. The second gap $``$ shows a very slight linear decrease, much slower than a quadratic decrease observed in macroscopic measurements. While specific heat and electrical resistivity measure some average gap energy, it is difficult to imagine how an average of a strongly increasing low-energy gap and a nearly field-independent high-energy gap would give rise to a decreasing gap. It is therefore clear that the gap from bulk measurements is unrelated to the gap(s) in the magnetic excitation spectra. This is in stark contrast to the transition temperature, which has the same field dependence in specific heat vistink ; dijk ; jaime , electrical resistivity mentink ; jaime , thermal expansion vistink , and neutron scattering mason ; in8  measurements. Unfortunately, due to the difficulty to measure $`T_N`$ accurately for small moments with neutron scattering, there are no systematic neutron measurements of $`T_N(H)`$. It is interesting to note that the height of the anomalies in the specific heat $`\mathrm{\Delta }C_p`$ dijk  and resistivity $`\mathrm{\Delta }\rho `$ mentink  as well as the intensity of the magnetic gaps $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $``$ (see Fig. 3) are field independent.

In conclusion, our neutron scattering measurements on the heavy-fermion superconductor URu2Si2 show that the magnetic field dependence of the antiferromagnetically ordered moment $`m`$ has a clear inflection point at $`7`$ T and remains finite even at 17 T for fields applied along the $`c`$ axis. This strongly suggests the existence of a hidden order parameter $`\psi `$ that breaks time-reversal symmetry. Symmetry arguments show that the hidden order parameter belongs to the same irreducible representation $`A_{2g}`$ as $`m`$ and corresponds to (ordinary) dipolar moments of the conduction electrons or triple-spin correlators of the 5$`f`$ electrons. Our neutron scattering measurements of the (gapped) magnetic excitations show that they are not related to the gap extracted from e.g. specific heat measurements, since the magnetic field dependence of these gaps is completely different. Instead, it is the hidden order parameter that gives rise to the large anomaly in specific heat and other macroscopic properties. The extrapolated crossing of the two magnetic gaps might explain the new phase recently discovered jaime  above the metamagnetic transition.

We acknowledge fruitful discussions with G. Amoretti, N.H. van Dijk, J. Flouquet, I. Fomin, V.P. Mineev, K. Miyake, P. Santini, J. Schweizer, M.B. Walker, and M.E. Zhitomirsky. A.A. Menovsky, P. Lejay, and A.D. Huxley contributed to sample growth and preparation. We thank M. Jaime for giving us access to his high-field specific-heat data prior to publication.


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# Analytic Amplitudes for Hadronic Forward Scattering : COMPETE update

## Abstract

We consider several classes of analytic parametrizations of hadronic scattering amplitudes, and compare their predictions to all available forward data ($`pp,\overline{p}p,\pi p,Kp,`$ $`\gamma p,\gamma \gamma ,\mathrm{\Sigma }p`$). Although these parametrizations are very close for $`\sqrt{s}9`$ GeV, it turns out that they differ markedly at low energy, where a universal Pomeron term $`\mathrm{ln}^2s`$ enables one to extend the fit down to $`\sqrt{s}=4`$ GeV. We present predictions on the total cross sections and on the ratio of the real part to the imaginary part of the elastic amplitude ($`\rho `$ parameter) for present and future $`pp`$ and $`\overline{p}p`$ colliders, and on total cross sections for $`\gamma p`$ hadrons at cosmic-ray energies and for $`\gamma \gamma `$ hadrons up to $`\sqrt{s}=1`$ TeV.

Analytic parametrizations of forward $`(t=0)`$ hadron scattering amplitudes is a well-established domain in strong interactions.

However, in the past, the phenomenology of forward scattering hadquite a high degree of arbitrariness : i) Excessive attention was paid to $`pp`$ and $`\overline{p}p`$ scattering ; ii) Important physical constraints were often mixed with less general or even ad-hoc properties ; iii) The cut-off in energy, defining the region of applicability of the high-energy models, differed from one author to the other ; iv) The set of data considered by different authors was often different ; v) No rigorous connection was made between the number of parameters and the number of data points ; vi) No attention was paid to the necessity of the stability of parameter values ; vii) The experiments were performed in the past in quite a chaotic way : huge gaps are sometimes present between low-energy and high-energy domains or inside the high-energy domain itself.

The COMPETE (COmputerized Models and Parameter Evaluation for Theory and Experiment) collaboration has cured as much as possible the above discussed arbitrariness.

The $`\chi ^2/dof`$ criterium is not able, by itself, to cure the above difficulties : new indicators have to be defined. Once these indicators are defined, it is possible to estimate the overall performance of each model, and to establish a ranking : the highest the numerical value of the rank the better the model under consideration.

The final aim of the COMPETE project is to provide our community with a periodic cross assessments of data and models via computer-readable files on the Web .

We consider the following exemplar cases of the imaginary part of the scattering amplitudes :

$$ImF^{ab}=s\sigma _{ab}=P_1^{ab}+P_2^{ab}+R_+^{ab}\pm R_{}^{ab}$$
(1)
where :
\- the $`\pm `$ sign in formula (1) corresponds to antiparticle (resp. particle) - particle scattering amplitudes.
\- $`R_\pm `$ signify the effective secondary-Reggeon ($`(f,a_2),(\rho ,\omega )`$) contributions to the even (odd)-under-crossing amplitude

$$R_\pm (s)=Y_\pm \left(\frac{s}{s_1}\right)^{\alpha _\pm },$$
(2)
where $`Y`$ is a constant residue, $`\alpha `$ \- the reggeon intercept and $`s_1`$ \- a scale factor fixed at 1 GeV2 ;
\- $`P_1(s)`$ is the contribution of the Pomeron Regge pole

$$P_1^{ab}(s)=C_1^{ab}\left(\frac{s}{s_1}\right)^{\alpha _{P_1}},$$
(3)
$`\alpha _{P_1}`$ is the Pomeron intercept $`\alpha _{P_1}=1,`$ and $`C^{ab}`$ are constant residues.
\- $`P_2^{ab}(s)`$ is the second component of the Pomeron corresponding to three different $`J`$-plane singularities :

* a Regge simple - pole contribution

$$P_2^{ab}(s)=C_2^{ab}\left(\frac{s}{s_1}\right)^{\alpha _{P_2}},$$
(4)
with $`\alpha _{P_2}=1+ϵ,ϵ>0,`$ and $`C_2^{ab}`$ constant ;
* a Regge double-pole contribution

$$P_2^{ab}(s)=s\left[A^{ab}+B^{ab}\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{s}{s_1}\right)\right],$$
(5)
with $`A^{ab}`$ and $`B^{ab}`$ constant ;
* a Regge triple-pole contribution

$$P_2^{ab}(s)=s\left[A^{ab}+B^{ab}\mathrm{ln}^2\left(\frac{s}{s_0}\right)\right],$$
(6)
where $`A^{ab}`$ and $`B^{ab}`$ are constants and $`s_0`$ is an arbitrary scale factor.

We consider all the existing forward data for $`pp,\overline{p}p,\pi p,Kp,\gamma \gamma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }p`$ scatterings. The number of data points is : 904, 742, 648, 569, 498, 453, 397, 329 when the cut-off in energy is 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 GeV respectively. A large number of variants were studied. All definitions and numerical details can be found in Ref. 1.

The 2-component Pomeron classes of models are RRPE, RRPL and RRPL2, where by RR we denote the two effective secondary-reggeon contributions, by P - the contribution of the Pomeron Regge-pole located at $`J=1`$, by E - the contribution of the Pomeron Regge-pole located at $`J=1+ϵ`$, by L - the contribution of the component of the Pomeron, located at $`J=1`$ (double pole), and by L2 - the contribution of the component of the Pomeron located at $`J=1`$ (triple pole). We also studied the 1-component Pomeron classes of models RRE, RRL and RRL2.

The highest rank are get by the RRPL2u models (see Table 1), corresponding to the $`\mathrm{ln}^2s`$ be-

haviour of total cross sections first proposed by Heisenberg 50 years ago . The $`u`$ index denotes the universality property : the coupling $`B`$ of the $`\mathrm{ln}^2s`$ term is the same in all hadron-hadron scatterings and $`s_0`$ is the same in all reactions.

We note that the familiar RRE Donnachie-Landshoff model is rejected at the 98% C.L. when models which achieve a $`\chi ^2/dof`$ less than 1 for $`\sqrt{s}5`$ GeV are considered.

The predictions of the best RRPL2u model, adjusted for $`\sqrt{s}5`$ GeV, are given in Tables 2-4.

The uncertainties on total cross sections, including the systematic errors due to contradictory data points from FNAL (the CDF and E710/E811 experiments, respectively), can reach $`1.9\%`$ at RHIC, $`3.1\%`$ at the Tevatron, and $`4.8\%`$ at the LHC, whereas those on the $`\rho `$ parameter are respectively $`5.4\%`$, $`5.2\%`$, and $`5.4\%`$. The global picture emerging from fits to all data on forward observables supports the CDF data and disfavors the E710/E811 data at $`\sqrt{s}=1.8`$ TeV.

Any significant deviation from the predictions based on model RRPL2u will lead to a re-evaluation of the hierarchy of models and presumably change the preferred parametrisation to another one. A deviation from the “allowed region” would be an indication that strong interactions demand a generalization of the analytic models discussed so far, e.g. by adding Odderon terms, or new Pomeron terms, as suggested by QCD.


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# Energy transmission in the forbidden bandgap of a nonlinear chain

## Introduction.

A nonlinear chain of oscillators has a few striking fundamental properties, the first of which, known as the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam recurence phenomenon fpu  is the spectral localization of energy: injected initially in one given eigenmode energy does not eventually distributes amongst higher modes (as one would normally expect from a quasi linear approach). The FPU discovery has been at the origin of nonlinear studies all over the world and led to the birth of the soliton concept zabusky , soon followed by the creation of the inverse spectral tranform (IST) and the concept of integrability kruskal  zakshab  akns .

A nonlinear chain also shows up spatial localization of energy in the form of nonlinear coherent structures, the solitons solitons . This universal behavior is well understood in the concept of integrability: any localized bounded initial condition eventually evolves to a number of isolated solitons and a vanishing background of quasi-linear radiation.

Nonlinear energy localization is now deeply studied in the context of discrete systems where intrinsic nonlinear modes (breathers for short) have been shown to be the fundamental basic objects discrete ; aubry , and have been experimentally observed in Josephson ladders ladder . Moreover, as an effect of non-integrability, nonlinear modes do exchange energy and the spatial localization acquires novel quite interesting features peyrard .

The behavior of a nonlinear medium submitted to boundary data, as opposed to initial conditions, is also of fundamental interest. One famous instance is the project of data transmission in optical fibers in nonlinear Kerr regime for which the basic model is the nonlinear Schrödinger equation has-moll . Another instance is the nonlinear property of self-induced transparency (SIT) of a two-level system submitted to high-energy incident (resonant) laser pulse machan  akn . In those two cases the concept of integrability has proved its efficiency as the physical boundary value problem maps to a well posed Cauchy (initial value) problem.

There, the nonlinear coherent structures emerge from sufficiently energetic localized input pulse. Another fundamental question is then the behavior of a medium submitted to continuous wave radiation. Such problems have been studied so far mainly through peturbation of integrable models by external driving, see e.g. kivshar  for a review and ext-dr  for interesting recent developpments. But the more basic problem of scattering of continuous wave onto nonlinear media has not been much studied. Preliminary numerical results have been obtained recently in jg-alex , where a linear monochromatic wave is scattered on a nonlinear medium. The nonlinearity allows then wave transmission under nonlinear modes generation, with a threshold which was not given a theoretical ground.

Those problems share a common basic question: the response of a nonlinear medium to periodic boundary data. We demonstrate here the existence of a bifurcation of wave transmission within a forbidden band gap (FBG) in a nonlinear chain forced (periodically) at one end. The related brutal energy flow through the medium is illustrated on figure 1 where the energy $`E`$ penetrating the medium is plotted as a function of the amplitude $`A`$ of the boundary driving at a frequency in the FBG (see later for details).

The mechanism of this bifurcation takes its origin in nonlinear modes generation by the periodic forcing and allows for energy injected at one end of a chain to penetrate a medium by an intrinsic nonlinear process. This is called nonlinear supratransmission and it is illustrated both by numerical simulations of sine-Gordon and of nonlinear Klein-Gordon equations, and by experiments on a mechanical chain of pendula.

We shall first prove that, for sine-Gordon, the mechanism for nonlinear modes generation follows a very simple rule providing an explicit formula for the bifurcation diagram in the parameter space $`\{A,\mathrm{\Omega }\}`$ where $`A`$ is the amplitude of the driving and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ its frequency. The rule states that energy penetrates the medium as soon as the amplitude $`A`$ of the harmonic driving at frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ exceeds the maximum amplitude of the static breather of same frequency. Then the system adapts to the driving boundary by means e.g. of a 2-breather solution whose second component cannot be also static (a 2-breather solution of sine-Gordon is made of 2 breathers of different velocities) and hence propagates in the medium. The whole process eventually repeats itself.

Nonlinear supratransmission holds also for the nonlinear Klein-Gordon chain obtained by Taylor expansion of sine-Gordon. Then this process does not relie on integrability and is expected to be generic as soon as the model possess a natural forbidden band gap.

We discover then that harmonic phonon quenching enhances nonlinear penetration : when the first significant harmonic generated by the nonlinearity (the third one in sine-Gordon) falls inside the FBG, the related phonons stick on the boundary and contribute to the driving allowing supratransmission at lower amplitude. This is an interesting property in view of experimental applications.

Last the energy transmission by means of nonlinear modes generation is explored and the bifurcation is described by expressing the energy injected in the medium in terms of the driving amplitude, hence furnishing a striking view of the supratransmission process.

## Model.

Consider the discrete sine-Gordon chain of coupled oscillators $`u_n(t)`$ (time is normalized to the eigenfrequency of the individual oscillator)

$$\ddot{u}_nc^2(u_{n+1}2u_n+u_{n1})+\mathrm{sin}u_n=0,$$
(1)
on a semi-infinite line $`n>0`$ with given initial-boundary value problem, namely the data of the driving boundary $`u_0(t)`$, the initial positions $`u_n(0)`$, initial velocities $`\dot{u}_n(0)`$ and boundary condition at the chain end. The linear dispersion relation $`\omega (k)`$ is given by

$$\omega ^2=1+2c^2(1\mathrm{cos}k).$$
(2)
The chain will be submitted to external harmonic forcing $`u_0(t)=A\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Omega }t`$ on a medium initially at rest. For a frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ in the phonon band, quasi-linear waves are generated in the medium and, for large enough amplitude, these waves will undergo Benjamin-Feir instability hence creating localized excitations. These nonlinear modes have a very important role in the large time asymptotic properties of a nonlinear system and are suspected to be responsible for turbulent-like behavior michel .

We consider here a driving frequency in the FBG, namely $`\mathrm{\Omega }<1`$, for which the linear theory would lead to the evanescent wave $`A\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Omega }t)\mathrm{exp}[\lambda n]`$ with $`\lambda `$ given by

$$\lambda =\mathrm{arccosh}\left(1+\frac{1\mathrm{\Omega }^2}{2c^2}\right).$$
(3)
In the nonlinear case, in order to fit the boundary condition (6), the medium adjusts a static breather

$$u_b(n,t)=4\mathrm{arctan}\left[\frac{\lambda c\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Omega }t)}{\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{cosh}(\lambda (n+n_0))}\right]$$
(4)
which is an exact solution in the continuous limit only but works well for strong coupling (the fully discrete case $`c1`$ will be considered separately).

## Bifurcation process.

Adjusting a static breather actually means to adjust the value of the breather center $`n_0`$ such that the oscillation amplitude at the boundary $`n=0`$ matches the forcing amplitude. This works up to the maximum value $`A_s`$ of the breather amplitude realized for $`n_0=0`$. Hence from (4), the threshold $`A_s`$ reads as the following function of the frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$

$$A_s=4\mathrm{arctan}\left[\frac{c}{\mathrm{\Omega }}\mathrm{arccosh}\left(1+\frac{1\mathrm{\Omega }^2}{2c^2}\right)\right],$$
(5)
which has the accurate simplified continuous approximation $`4\mathrm{arctan}[\sqrt{1\mathrm{\Omega }^2}/\mathrm{\Omega }]`$.

This bifurcation threshold is now checked on numerical simulations of (1) with the following initial-boundary conditions

$$u_0(t)=A\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Omega }t,u_n(0)=0,\dot{u}_n(0)=A\mathrm{\Omega }e^{\lambda n}.$$
(6)
The initial velocities are those of an evanescent wave such as to partly avoid the shock wave generated by vanishing initial velocities (the same results, but time consuming, are obtained for vanishing initial velocities and a driving amplitude smoothly growing from the value $`0`$ to $`A`$). Finally, an infinite medium is simulated by an absorbing boundary. The simulations are made with the dsolve routine in MAPLE with $`10^5`$ maximum iterations. The absorbing end consists in adding a damping $`\gamma \dot{u}_n`$ in the model, with intensity $`\gamma `$ slowly varying from 0 to 2 on the last 50 particules.

## Results.

In order to generate a bifurcation diagram one has to compare between simulations where the nonlinear supratransmission does or does not occur, as illustrated on figures 2 where the motion of one particule of the chain is plotted for driving amplitudes just below and just above the threshold. The simulation is performed with $`200`$ particles with a coupling $`c=4`$. Each large oscillation in the secong figure corresponds to a breather (constituted of a single hump oscillating and propagating) passing by. Two of them are generated and cross the site $`60`$ at times $`120`$ and$`160`$. The small oscillation seen between the humps are the harmonic phonons, mainly of frequency $`3\mathrm{\Omega }`$.

We may now proceed with a systematic exploration of the chain response. The result is presented on figure 3 obtained for $`200`$ particles with a coupling $`c=10`$ (some experiments have been actually made with smaller coupling and less number of points to shorten computation times) for a typical time of $`200`$ (for frequencies close to the gap value $`1`$, time had to be increased up to $`500`$). The points on figure 3 are obtained with an absolute precision of $`10^2`$ for the amplitude $`A`$. They are compared to the theoretical threshold expression (5) (continuous curve).

## Harmonic phonon quenching.

The figure 3 shows excellent agreement to formula (5) at least in the region $`0.34<\mathrm{\Omega }<1`$. Discrepencies are seen to occur starting below $`0.33`$ and $`0.18`$. This results from the driving which, thanks to the nonlinearity, generates phonons at multiple frequencies (here third and fifth). If these frequencies lie in the phonon band, the phonons move away from the boundary and have no effect on the forcing. If however they lie in the FBG, the related phonons do not propagate (which we call phonon quenching) and stick on the boundary where they add contribution to the driving.

This effect should thus disappear if the phonons are eliminated by driving the boundary with the exact breather expression (4) used to calculate $`u_0(t)`$, $`u_n(0)`$ and $`\dot{u}_n(0)`$. In that case we have checked that nonlinear supratransmission never occurs at an amplitude $`A<A_s`$, while it occurs for very small deformation of the perfect breather. For instance, by using $`(1+ϵ)u_b(0,t)`$ as driving boundary, in the case $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.30`$, supratransmission occurs for $`ϵ=\mathrm{6\; 10}^4`$, i.e. for a driving amplitude $`A=5.0674`$ instead of the threshold $`A_s=5.0644`$.

## Energy transmission.

The nonlinear supratransmission allows energy to flow through the medium and we compare here this energy flow below and above the threshold. The energy injected in the medium by the driving boundary is given at time $`T`$ by

$$E=c^2_0^T𝑑t\dot{u}_0(t)[u_1(t)u_0(t)].$$
(7)
In our case $`u_0(t)`$ is the driving (6) and the chain is supposed infinite with $`u_n(t)0`$ as $`n\mathrm{}`$. Chosing for $`T`$ an integer multiple of the period of excitation makes this energy to vanish identically in the linear case if the driving frequency falls in the FBG.

In the nonlinear case, expression (7) is computed numerically. For a driving frequency $`0.9`$ and amplitudes running from $`1.5`$ to $`2.0`$, we obtain the figure 1 where the bifurcation is seen to occur for $`A=1.80`$, the value predicted by fromula (5). This simulation has been runned for frequencies in the range $`[0.2,0.9]`$, with expected results.

## Nonlinear Klein-Gordon.

The approach stems from the existense of a breather solution of the model equation, allowing to determine the threshold amplitude. Then a fundamental question is the dependence of nonlinear supratransmission on some integrability property of the equation. To give an indication that this process is generic (with a stop gap), we have performed numerical simulations of the following nonlinear Klein-Gordon chain:

$$\ddot{u}_nc^2(u_{n+1}2u_n+u_{n1})+u_n\frac{1}{3!}u_n^3+\frac{1}{5!}u_n^5=0,$$
(8)
the Taylor truncated expansion of sine-Gordon (the fifth order is kept to ensure a confining potential at large $`u_n`$).

Then this system is solved with the boundary driving (6) and the energy (7) is computed for the same parameter values as for figure 1. The result is displayed on figure 4. Nonlinear supratransmission is seen to still occur, though a nonlinear mode solution of the model does not exist. By scanning the frequency range in the gap, we have obtain that the process occurs down to $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.7`$ and then disappears.

## Experiment.

The phenomenon of nonlinear supratransmission can be experimentaly realized on a mechanical pendula chain driven at one end by a periodic torque alexandra . The detail analysis of such experiments will be published later, but it is worth showing here a picture of a breather generated by the boundary driving at a frequency inside the FBG. The breather on picture 5 has been obtained with a chain of 30 pendula of angular eigenfrequency $`\omega _0=15Hz`$ (upper value of the FBG) by driving at (angular) frequency $`12.7Hz`$, which in the normalized units used here corresponds to $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.85`$. The coupling constant has been measured to be $`c=32`$.

## Conclusion.

A novel fundamental property of a nonlinear medium has been unveiled, namely the capacity to transmit energy under irradiation in a forbidden band gap by means of nonlinear mode generation. Theoretical construction of the bifurcation diagram is extremely simple when the one-breather solution is known and the numerical simulations fit strikingly well the theory.

There remain of course many interesting open questions and currently under study are the modulation of the driving signal, the effect of damping, viscosity, disorder, external bias, discreteness, etc… Another essential point is the search of nonlinear supratransmission in others physical situations. For instance this result might provide understanding of the very mechanism of the generation of gap solitons in photonic band gap materials mills ; sterke .

Last but not least, as the sine-Gordon chain is a model for discrete Josephson transmission lines ustinov , we expect interesting applications in this field. There, the boundary driving is realized by microwave irradiation through a finline antenna ust-myg , and it actually corresponds to prescribing the derivative at the origin (Neuman condition). Preliminary numerical simulations has shown that nonlinear supratransmission also works and that the bifurcation process obeys the same type of simple rule. Detailed results on this question wil be published later.

## Aknowledgements.

It is a pleasure to aknowledge enlightening discussions with M.J. Ablowitz, S. Aubry, G. Kopidakis, M. Schuster and A.V. Ustinov. This work has received support of contract INTAS 99-1782.