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# Transverse Spin: HERMES Results and Future Plans

## 1 TRANSVERSITY AND FRIENDS

It has come to light that a complete description of the quark distributions in the proton at leading twist requires not only the structure functions $`f_1(x)`$ and $`g_1(x)`$, but also the transversity distribution $`h_1(x)`$. This new structure function represents the degree to which the quarks are polarized along the proton’s spin direction when the proton is polarized transversely to the virtual photon. The unique properties of $`h_1(x)`$ were beautifully presented by R. Jaffe at this conference. The majority of this report is devoted to recent data sensitive to $`h_1(x)`$.

However, one may place transversity in a larger context. In 1996, Mulders and Tangerman performed a complete tree-level analysis of the semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) cross-section, taking into consideration all measurable spin-degrees of freedom in the initial and final state . Their work identified a series of 8 structure functions of the proton at leading twist, along with an analogous set of 8 fragmentation functions. These functions are illustrated graphically in Fig. 1a. In each picture, the virtual photon probe is assumed to be incident from the left, the large and small circles represent hadrons and quarks respectively, and the arrows indicate their spin directions. The notation for the fragmentation functions is obtained by replacing the letters $`f`$, $`g`$, and $`h`$ with $`D`$, $`G`$, and $`H`$ respectively.

Each of these functions describes qualitatively different information about hadronic structure and formation. The functions $`f_1(x)`$, $`g_1(x)`$, and $`h_1(x)`$ are the only ones which survive on integration over transverse momentum $`k_T`$. (The same is true of the analogous fragmentation functions.) The other functions are all implicitly dependent on intrinsic quark transverse motion, which is necessarily related to the unknown orbital angular momentum of quarks in the nucleon. New data are providing first glimpses of several functions in this table, and much more can be expected in the near future.

The Mulders decomposition of the cross-section reveals that experiments may access these new structure and fragmentation functions by measuring azimuthal moments in spin-dependent SIDIS. Fig. 1(b) illustrates the HERMES definition of $`\varphi `$, the azimuthal angle of the measured final-state hadron, around the virtual photon direction, and relative to the lepton scattering plane. Specifically one must perform an azimuthal decomposition of various cross-section terms $`d\sigma _{\mathrm{ABC}}`$, where A, B, and C represent the spin-polarization of the lepton beam, proton target, and final-state hadron respectively. These subscripts take the values L, T, and U, denoting longitudinal, transverse, and no polarization. The spin of the final-state hadron can usually be accessed only by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-production measurements: the weak decay $`\mathrm{\Lambda }p\pi ^{}`$ allows the hyperon’s spin to be determined from the angular distribution of its decay products.

## 2 THE HERMES EXPERIMENT

The HERMES experiment has been taking data at the HERA accelerator in Hamburg, Germany since 1995. HERMES scatters longitudinally polarized electron and positron beams of 27.6 GeV from polarized gas targets internal to the beam pipe. Pure atomic H, D, and 3He have been used (as well as a variety of unpolarized nuclear targets). Featuring polarized beams and targets, and an open-geometry spectrometer with good particle identification (PID), HERMES is well suited to a study of the spin-dependent azimuthal moments of the SIDIS cross-section. The PID capabilities of the experiment were significantly enhanced in 1998 when the threshold Čerenkov detector (used to identify pions above a momentum of 4 GeV) was upgraded to a Ring Imaging system (RICH). This new detector provides full separation between charged pions, kaons, and protons over essentially the entire momentum range of the experiment.

In September 2000 HERMES completed its first phase of data taking, using longitudinally-polarized targets. The 1998-2000 period was particularly successful, yielding a very large data set ($`>`$ 8 million DIS events) from polarized deuterium. HERMES is now entering its second running phase which will continue until 2006. A cornerstone of this period will be measurements from transversely-polarized targets, with the specific goal of exploring the transversity structure function. Prospects for Run 2 were described in the talk of K. Rith at this conference.

## 3 HERMES MEASUREMENTS OF $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}(\varphi )`$

HERMES has measured the azimuthal distribution of charged  and neutral  pions in the scattering of “unpolarized” positrons from a longitudinally-polarized hydrogen target. (As the HERA beam is always polarized, an “unpolarized” sample was achieved by the helicity-balancing of data collected with opposite beam polarization.) The measured quantity is the following single-spin asymmetry (SSA):

$$A_{\mathrm{UL}}(\varphi )=\frac{1}{P_T}\frac{N^+(\varphi )N^{}(\varphi )}{N^+(\varphi )+N^{}(\varphi )}.$$
(1)
Here $`P_T`$ is the target polarization and $`\varphi `$ is the azimuthal angle of the pion described above. $`N^+`$ and $`N^{}`$ represent the pion yields in each of the two target spin orientations, with the superscript indicating the helicity of the target in the reaction’s center-of-mass frame (i.e. $`N^+`$ is collected when the target spin is antiparallel to the lepton beam momentum in the lab frame). This choice is motivated by the familiar definition of the double-spin asymmetry $`A_{\mathrm{LL}}`$. It is also important to note that the HERMES definition of $`\varphi `$ is not the same as that of the “Collins angle” $`\varphi _C`$ which appears in a number of publications.

The measured asymmetries show a significant $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi `$ moment in the case of $`\pi ^+`$ and $`\pi ^0`$ production, while no $`\varphi `$-dependence is seen in $`\pi ^{}`$ production. The $`\mathrm{sin}2\varphi `$ moments of the asymmetries were also analyzed and found to be consistent with zero in all cases. The mean $`Q^2`$ of these measurements is around 1.6 GeV2.

At “zeroth-order” in complexity, the asymmetry moment $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ (also termed analyzing power) is related to the product of transversity $`h_1(x)`$ and the Collins fragmentation function $`H_1^{}(z)`$. This latter function provides a “polarimeter” for initial-state quark polarization: it correlates the transverse spin of the struck quark with the angular distribution of hadrons in the jet it generates. Fig. 2 shows the dependence of $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ on the Bjorken scaling variable $`x`$, the energy fraction $`zE_h/\nu `$ of the pion, and its transverse momentum $`p_T`$ relative to the virtual photon direction. The dependences match the qualitative predictions of Collins  that the effect should peak in the valence region $`x0.3`$, rise with $`p_T`$ up to a maximum at some hadronic scale $`0.3\text{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.9}`$ GeV, and be larger for $`\pi ^+`$ than $`\pi ^{}`$ production.

The reason for this last expectation can be shown by a simple calculation. It is reasonable to guess that the transverse quark polarization ($`\delta qh_1^q`$) is similar to the longitudinal quark polarization ($`\mathrm{\Delta }qg_1^q`$) in the sense $`\delta d/\delta u\mathrm{\Delta }d/\mathrm{\Delta }u1/2`$. One may also estimate that the favoured and disfavoured Collins fragmentation functions have a similar ratio as in the unpolarized case ($`rD_d^{\pi ^+}/D_u^{\pi ^+}(1z)/(1+z)1/3`$). One then arrives at these simple estimates:

$$A_p^{\pi ^+}\frac{4\delta u+r\delta d}{4u+rd}\frac{\delta u}{u},A_p^{\pi ^0}\frac{4\delta u+\delta d}{4u+d}\frac{\delta u}{u},A_p^\pi ^{}\frac{4r\delta u+\delta d}{4ru+d}0$$
(2)
The expectation of similar $`\pi ^+`$ and $`\pi ^0`$ asymmetries is also supported by the data.

HERMES has recently completed an analysis of $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}`$ from the deuterium-target data collected in the years 1998 to 2000. In Fig. 3 preliminary results are presented for the analyzing power $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ for charged pion production. A simple calculation of the type given in Eq. 2 leads to the expectation that $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ from deuterium should be roughly the same for $`\pi ^+`$, $`\pi ^{}`$, and $`\pi ^0`$ production, and around half as large as for $`\pi ^+`$ production from hydrogen. These qualitative expectations are indeed borne out by the data. Spin-azimuthal asymmetries for charged kaon production have also been measured for the first time, as shown in the right-hand panel of Fig. 3.

### 3.1 Modelling $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}(\varphi )`$

For a more sophisticated interpretation of the data, one must consider in detail which terms in the SIDIS cross-section of ref.  contribute to the $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}(\varphi )`$ asymmetry. It is essential to realize that “longitudinal” and “transverse” target polarization have different meanings in experimental and theoretical contexts. In experimental papers, a longitudinal target is polarized along the lepton beam direction, but in theoretical contexts the relevant axis is the virtual photon direction. To distinguish the two, we use the notation $`A_{\mathrm{ABC}}^w`$ for moments $`w`$ of asymmetries in the experimental convention, and the notation $`w_{\mathrm{ABC}}`$ of ref.  to denote moments of the cross-section in the theoretical convention. The HERMES measurement of $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ can thus be expressed as follows:

$$A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }=\frac{S_L\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{\mathrm{UL}}+S_T\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{\mathrm{UT}}}{S1_{\mathrm{UU}}}.$$
(3)
Here $`S_L`$ and $`S_T`$ represent the longitudinal and transverse projections of the target polarization $`S`$ onto the virtual photon direction. At HERMES $`S_L/S1`$, and $`S_T/S1/Q`$.

The full theoretical decomposition of $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ and $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}2\varphi }`$ involves a number of functions at both leading and higher twist:

$$1_{\mathrm{UU}}f_1(x)D_1(z),\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{\mathrm{UT}}h_1(x)H_1^{(1)}(z),\mathrm{sin}2\varphi _{\mathrm{UL}}h_{1L}^{(1)}(x)H_1^{(1)}(z),$$

$$\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{\mathrm{UL}}\frac{1}{Q}[h_{1L}^{(1)}(x)H_1^{(1)}(z)\stackrel{~}{h_L}(x)H_1^{(1)}(z)h_{1L}^{(1)}(x)\stackrel{~}{H}]$$
(4)
All kinematic prefactors have been suppressed in these expressions for brevity. The superscript $`(1)`$ appearing on several of the functions denotes a $`k_T^2`$-weighted integral over transverse momentum.

The $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{\mathrm{UT}}`$ moment is directly proportional to the product of transversity and the Collins function. However the present HERMES measurement is most directly related to $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{\mathrm{UL}}`$, which is much more complex: it is sub-leading in $`Q`$, and contains the interaction-dependent twist-3 functions $`\stackrel{~}{h}_L`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{H}`$. In addition the as-yet-unknown leading-twist distribution function $`h_{1L}^{}(x)`$ makes an appearance (see Fig. 1).

It is necessary to make a few assumptions in order to proceed with modelling of the asymmetry. The unknown functions $`\stackrel{~}{h}_L`$ and $`h_{1L}^{}`$ are not unrelated; from Lorentz and rotational invariance one may derive the relation

$$h_{1L}^{(1)}(x)=x^2_x^1\frac{dy}{y^2}\left[h_1(y)+\stackrel{~}{h}_L(y)+\frac{m_q}{M_p}\frac{g_1(y)}{y}\right].$$
(5)
Two approximations are commonly made in the literature. The first is the “reduced twist-3 approximation”, which assumes that all twist-3 terms that are interaction-dependent or suppressed by the quark-mass $`m_q`$ are zero. The second choice is to set the distribution function $`h_{1L}^{}`$ to zero. This last option is motivated by the HERMES measurement of $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}2\varphi }0`$, as $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}2\varphi }`$ is proportional to $`h_{1L}^{}`$ (Eq. 4). With one of the functions $`h_{1L}^{}`$ or $`\stackrel{~}{h}_L`$ set to zero, the other can be calculated using Eq. 5 and a model for transversity.

The Collins fragmentation function is also unknown. Its kinematic shape is typically taken from the heuristic parametrization of ref. ,

$$\frac{H_1^{}(z,k_T)}{D_1(z)}=\eta \frac{M_CM_h|k_T|}{M_C^2+k_T^2},$$
(6)
with some normalization constant $`\eta `$ and hadronic scale $`M_C2m_\pi \text{}M_p`$. These parameters may be constrained using hadron-production data from DELPHI: a quark and antiquark produced from $`Z^0`$ decay carry small but highly-correlated transverse polarizations. A pioneering analysis of these data  has yielded the estimate $`|H_1^{}/D_1|=6.3\pm 1.7`$ %. (Very recently, the value has been amended to $`12.5\pm 1.4`$.) Unfortunately this result is an average value integrated over a rather poorly defined interval in $`z`$. Nevertheless, it provides an important indication of the size of the Collins function, and one which is independent of uncertainties in the distribution function sector. As presented by A. Ogawa at this workshop, high statistics data from the BELLE experiment will soon be analyzed in a similar fashion to yield much more precise results on $`H_1^{}`$.

### 3.2 Comparison with Model Calculations

A variety of theoretical calculations have been performed to address the HERMES measurements of $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}(\varphi )`$.

The work of ref.  attempts to explain the data with a range of simple ansätze. In Fig. 4(a) and (b), the solid curves correspond to the assumption that $`h_{1L}^{}=0`$, while the dashed curves correspond to the “reduced twist-3” approximation $`\stackrel{~}{h}_L=0`$. In each case, two guesses are made for the magnitude of the transversity distribution: $`h_1=g_1`$, and saturation of the Soffer bound $`h_1=(f_1+g_1)/2`$. The calculations show that the majority of the asymmetry (around 75%) originates from the subleading term $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{\mathrm{UL}}`$ associated with the longitudinal component of the target polarization, with only a quarter coming from the leading twist term $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{\mathrm{UT}}`$. This fact is reflected in the curves: $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ is more sensitive to the ansatz made for the higher-twist functions (solid vs dashed curves) than to the magnitude of $`h_1`$ itself. Also, the data appear to indicate that the interaction-dependent twist-3 function $`\stackrel{~}{h}_L`$ cannot be ignored, while the unknown twist-2 function $`h_{1L}^{}`$ is likely of small magnitude.

In ref. , $`h_1(x)`$ has been calculated directly in the Chiral-Quark Soliton Model ($`\chi `$QSM) and used to estimate the asymmetry moments $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ and $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}2\varphi }`$ in the reduced twist-3 approximation $`\stackrel{~}{h}_L=0`$. The calculations agree with the HERMES measurements for both charged and neutral pions, and also indicate that the longitudinal term $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{\mathrm{UL}}`$ makes the dominant contribution to the effect (see Fig. 4(c) for $`\pi ^0`$ production, taken from the corrected analysis of ref. ). A second $`\chi `$QSM calculation can be found in ref. . In this work, all distribution functions involved in the asymmetries were calculated: $`h_1`$, $`\stackrel{~}{h}_L`$, and $`h_{1L}^{}`$. The higher-twist function $`\stackrel{~}{h}_L`$ is found to be of significant magnitude, especially in the region $`x<0.2`$, while the unknown leading-twist distribution function $`h_{1L}^{}`$ is predicted to be small but non-zero. The calculations for $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ and $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}2\varphi }`$ are again in agreement with the HERMES data, within experimental accuracy.

Calculations in other models have been performed  and obtain reasonable agreement with the measurements. All calculations agree that $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ is dominated by higher-twist effects, due to the longitudinal target polarization. For a better understanding of transversity, the next step is clear: high precision SIDIS data on a transversely-polarized target are required.

## 4 GLOBAL ANALYSIS OF SINGLE SPIN ASYMMETRY DATA

Earlier data from the Fermilab E704 experiment, from DELPHI, and from SMC at CERN are also potentially related to transversity. It is worthwhile to consider whether a consistent picture has emerged from theoretical analyses of these data sets.

### 4.1 E704 and the Sivers Function

About 10 years ago, the Fermilab E704 experiment measured a large analyzing power $`A_N`$ in the inclusive production of pions from a transversely polarized proton beam of 200 GeV and an unpolarized target . Unexpectedly, positive and neutral pions displayed a pronounced tendency to be produced to “beam-left” (when looking downstream with the beam polarization pointing upwards). Negative pions showed a similar analyzing power, but in the opposite “beam-right” direction.

The observables $`A_N`$ and $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }`$ are odd under the application of naive time reversal, and must arise from the non-perturbative part of the cross-section. In the factorization picture of ref. , either a T-odd fragmentation function or a T-odd distribution function must play a role. In the first case, the E704 analyzing power is sensitive to the product of transversity $`h_1`$ and the T-odd Collins fragmentation function $`H_1^{}`$. The second possibility involves the unknown T-odd distribution function $`f_{1T}^{}(x,k_T)`$ first postulated by Sivers , together with the familiar unpolarized fragmentation function $`D_1`$. Fits performed in the Collins-only  and Sivers-only  scenarios demonstrate that the E704 data may be described with equal success by either picture.

Considerable discussion occurred at this workshop concerning the nature of the Sivers function $`f_{1T}^{}`$. Given the T-even nature of the strong and electromagnetic interactions, any T-odd function must involve an interference of amplitudes . The most obvious way to generate such an interference is via inital- or final-state interactions. Both are possible in a hadronic-beam experiment such as E704. In deep-inelastic scattering with lepton beams, initial state interactions (and so the Sivers mechanism) should be greatly suppressed. It may thus be said that the HERMES measurement of $`A_{\mathrm{UL}}`$ provides the first conclusive evidence that the Collins function and transversity are both non-zero and of significant magnitude.

However, other suggestions exist for the origin of $`f_{1T}^{}`$, including contributions from gluonic poles  and spin-isospin interactions . Further experimental and theoretical work is needed to determine the magnitude of this function, whether it plays any role in lepton DIS, and whether it exists at all at leading twist. As with all other distribution functions that vanish on integration over transverse momentum, the Sivers function must be related at some level to parton orbital motion. A tantalizing physical interpretation of this function in the context of the E704 asymmetry may be found in ref. .

Turning briefly to the fragmentation aspect of these measurements, the existence of the Collins function is deeply interesting in its own right. As it must arise from some interference mechanism, it teaches us that the fragmentation process possesses a large degree of phase coherence. Older data on transverse hyperon polarization from high-energy unpolarized experiments have already provided evidence that this is the case . They are sensitive to the “polarizing” fragmentation function $`D_{1T}^{}(z,k_T)`$ which is also T-odd. It is rather surprising that such interference effects persist at high energies, given the large number of amplitudes that must be involved in inclusive or semi-inclusive hadron production.

### 4.2 Global Analysis of Single-Spin Asymmetries

A tentative, qualitative concensus has begun to emerge among the various analyses of single-spin asymmetry data at high energies. The available data from HERMES, E704, and SMC may all be described by the transversity distribution calculated in the $`\chi `$QSM, a Sivers function of zero, and a Collins function of approximate magnitude $`|H_1^{}/D_1|`$ 7% . This apparent concensus is qualitative at best: the uncertainties on the present experimental data and the rather poorly defined $`z`$-ranges over which the data are integrated certainly leave room for the existence of the Sivers function, for example. Also, a pair of sign errors was recently uncovered in the analyses of the HERMES and DELPHI data . The updated estimates for the Collins function are larger than before: $`|H_1^{}/D_1|=12.5\pm 1.4`$ % from the DELPHI data and $`|H_1^{}/D_1|=13.8\pm 2.8`$ % from the HERMES data. It is presently unclear to what degree such sign errors affect other theoretical analyses of transversity-related measurements.

## 5 FUTURE MEASUREMENTS OF TRANSVERSITY

It is clear from Eq. 4 that the most direct access to transversity in SIDIS lies in measurements with transversely polarized targets. A precise measurement of $`A_{\mathrm{UT}}(\varphi )`$, sensitive at leading twist to the product of $`h_1(x)`$ and $`H_1^{}(z)`$, will form a cornerstone of HERMES Run 2. Besides $`A_{\mathrm{UT}}(\varphi )`$, HERMES has considered other observables that may be sensitive to $`h_1`$. A promising candidate is the correlation between the transverse polarization of the target and of final-state $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ baryons, described by the spin-transfer fragmentation function $`H_1(z)`$. If this function is of significant size, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ polarization can serve as a “polarimeter” for the quark spin distribution in the target. However results from HERMES indicate that the longitudinal spin-transfer from struck quark to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ ($`G_1(z)`$) is small in DIS at intermediate energies . This likely indicates that the transverse spin transfer will also be small and that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ polarization will not serve as a useful tactic for future transversity measurements.

It is important to note that the next round of single-spin asymmetry measurements will be able to distinguish between the Collins and Sivers mechanisms. The SIDIS cross-section term $`d\sigma _{\mathrm{UT}}`$ has two contributions according to ref. : a $`\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _h^l+\varphi _S^l)`$ moment proportional to $`h_1H_1^{}`$, and a $`\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _h^l\varphi _S^l)`$ moment proportional to $`f_{1T}^{}D_1`$. The symbols $`\varphi _S^l`$ and $`\varphi _h^l`$ indicate the angle of the target spin and final-state hadron momentum respectively, with respect to the lepton scattering plane. The angular dependence of the Collins term may be understood by realizing that the spin directions of the struck quark ($`\varphi _q^l`$) and final-state quark ($`\varphi _q^{}^l`$) are related by $`\varphi _q^l=\pi \varphi _q^{}^l`$ : when the virtual photon is absorbed by the struck quark, the component of the quark’s spin parallel to the lepton scattering plane is flipped, while the perpendicular component is left unaffected. The Collins fragmentation function, which correlates hadron direction with the spin of the primary quark, produces a $`\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _h^l\varphi _q^{}^l)`$ behavior. Transversity relates $`\varphi _q^l`$ to $`\varphi _S^l`$, giving a net $`\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _h^l+\varphi _S^l)`$ dependence in the cross section. The Sivers function, on the other hand, correlates quark transverse (orbital) motion with target spin. This motion is transferred directly to the final-state hadrons by $`D_1`$, giving a net $`\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _h^l\varphi _S^l)`$ behavior.

Current HERMES data cannot distinguish between the two: $`\varphi _S^l`$ is always zero or $`\pi `$ for a target polarized longitudinally in the laboratory frame. Similarly, the E704 data could not distinguish between the moments as their experimental apparatus did not permit a measurement of the jet axis around which the pions were produced. But forthcoming HERMES data with a transversely-polarized target will permit the independent variation of the target spin angle $`\varphi _S^l`$ and the hadron angle $`\varphi _h^l`$.

In conclusion, data collected in recent years have provided a first glimpse of the transversity distribution and the Collins fragmentation function. The data are still of modest precision, but they “make sense”: the measurements can be described by a variety of theoretical models and resonable assumptions. This baseline understanding has provided clear guidance on which measurements to perform next. The upcoming round of results from HERMES, COMPASS, RHIC-spin, and BELLE will provide much more precise information on transversity and on other new structure and fragmentation functions.


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# High 𝑝_𝑇 𝜋⁰ Production and Angular Correlations in 158 𝐴GeV p+A and Pb+Pb Collisions

## 1 Introduction

The CERN experiment WA98  consisted of large acceptance photon and hadron spectrometers together with several other large acceptance devices which allow to measure various global variables on an event-by-event basis. The results presented here were obtained from an analysis of the data taken with p and Pb beams in 1995 and 1996 at 158 $`A`$GeV. The Pb-induced reactions have been subdivided into samples of different centrality using the transverse energy $`E_T`$ measured in the MIRAC calorimeter. Photons are measured with the WA98 lead-glass photon detector, LEDA, which consisted of 10,080 individual modules with photomultiplier readout. The detector was located at a distance of 21.5 m from the target and covered the pseudorapidity interval $`2.2<\eta <2.9`$. Details about the photon measurement can be found in .

## 2 Azimuthal $`\gamma `$-$`\gamma `$-Correlations

We attempt to use azimuthal correlations of photons, which mainly originate from decays of neutral hadrons, $`\pi ^0`$ or $`\eta `$, to gain information on the relative fraction of produced particles which still carry memory of the primary production process. Particles produced in a primary two-body collision of incoming nucleons must be correlated in transverse momentum due to local momentum conservation. Dominantly, especially if their individual transverse momenta are large, the particles will be anti-correlated in azimuthal angle. This is of course reminiscent of jet structure in the particle emission in high-energy physics. In fact, there is expected to be a smooth transition of this purely kinematical effect to mini-jet or jet production. At high enough transverse momenta, such an analysis should allow to study minijet or jet production and eventually allow to investigate effects such as jet quenching. If the particles undergo secondary and further rescatterings, as in an equilibrated system, the memory of the correlation discussed above will be lost. Of course, anti-correlation of particle pairs will also be generated by collective effects like hydrodynamical elliptic flow. One therefore has to check how much the measured effects might be altered by flow phenomena. The $`\gamma `$-pairs are characterized by the difference of their azimuthal angle $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$ and the so-called pseudo-mass $`M=p_{T1}+p_{T2}`$. The correlation function C$`(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )`$ is introduced:

$$C(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )=\frac{d^2N}{d\phi _1d\phi _2}|_{p_{T1}+p_{T2}}/\left(\frac{dN}{d\phi _1}\frac{dN}{d\phi _2}\right)|_{p_{T1}+p_{T2}}$$

The combinatorial background of uncorrelated pairs is obtained by event mixing taking into account different centrality and multiplicity classes. A clear correlation around $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =180^{}`$ can be seen for p+C (Fig 1a) and p+Pb reactions. It is assumed that the correlation originates from the direct production of $`\pi ^0`$’s in single binary collisions and that its strength therefore contains information about the ratio of directly produced to rescattered particles. The correlation function for the p+A data can be described by a Gaussian distribution, with the ratio $`R`$ of correlated to uncorrelated pairs at $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =180^{}`$ increasing exponentially with the pseudo-mass M as shown in Figure 1b. Peripheral Pb+Pb data show a similar behaviour. Semi-peripheral and semi-central Pb+Pb data show a correlation function that is dominated by elliptic flow. The flow effects are evaluated by means of a Fourier expansion .

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \frac{dN}{d(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )}}=1+2v_1^2\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi +2v_2^2\mathrm{cos2}\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi ,`$ (1)
The Fourier coefficient $`v_1`$ quantifies the directed flow, whereas $`v_2`$ quantifies the elliptic flow. The Fourier coefficients $`v_n(n=1,2)`$ can be extracted from the correlation function without determination of the reaction plane, and hence no event plane resolution correction has to be applied. Figure 2a shows $`v_2`$ for different cut-offs on the pseudo-mass as a function of different centralities in Pb+Pb with and without consideration of back-to-back effects. Especially in the more peripheral samples, elliptic flow does not describe the correlation completely. To compare the strength of an additional Gaussian-like correlation for different systems the ratio $`R`$ of correlated to uncorrelated pairs at $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =180^{}`$ is shown in Figure 2b as a function of the number of binary collisions. A parametrisation of the p+A data points with $`R(N_{Coll})=1/(aN_{Coll}1)`$ is extrapolated to the Pb+Pb data, which represents scaling of the number of correlated pairs with $`N_{Coll}`$. No deviation from this scaling is observed.

## 3 Centrality Dependence of $`\pi ^0`$-Production

Already from the experimentally determined shape of transverse mass spectra of hadrons it is evident that heavy ion reactions are not merely a superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions . In p+A collisions the flattening of the transverse mass spectra compared to p+p (Cronin effect ) has been attributed to initial state multiple scattering of partons . In the analysis of central reactions of Pb+Pb at 158 $`A`$GeV, however, it is seen that both predictions of perturbative QCD  and hydrodynamical parameterizations  can describe the measured neutral pion spectra reasonably well. The understanding of the relative contributions of the various soft and hard processes in particle production is especially important in view of the recent interest in the energy loss of partons in dense matter , generally referred to as *jet quenching*, as a possible probe for the quark gluon plasma. Since one of the suggested experimental hints of jet quenching is the suppression of particle production at high transverse momenta, it is important to understand other possible nuclear modifications of particle production in detail.

More information in this respect may be gathered from the variation of the particle spectra for different reaction systems or different centralities . Here we study the variations in absolute multiplicities. Especially at high transverse momentum one naïvely expects an increase of the multiplicity proportional to the number of collisions due to the importance of hard scattering. In fact, it was already observed in p+A collisions at beam energies of $`200400\mathrm{GeV}`$  that the increase in cross section at high transverse momenta is even stronger than the increase in the target mass. The ratios of the measured pion multiplicity distributions for two different samples (labeled X and Y) normalized to the number of collisions

$$R_{XY}(m_T)\frac{\left(E\frac{d^3N}{dp^3}(m_T)/N_{coll}\right)_X}{\left(E\frac{d^3N}{dp^3}(m_T)/N_{coll}\right)_Y}$$
(2)
is introduced.

The ratio of peripheral Pb+Pb collisions to p+p increases strongly with increasing transverse mass – this is in line with the Cronin effect discussed above. A similar trend is observed when going from peripheral to medium-central data. In addition, the pion production is seen to increase roughly proportional to the number of collisions even at low transverse mass. Going from medium central to central the trend is reversed: the ratio decreases with increasing transverse mass and the pion multiplicities increase more weakly than the number of collisions. The ratio of very central to central collisions shows an indication of a similar effect although not very significant.

Neither results of HIJING calculations nor a more refined pQCD calculation  can reproduce the experimental data. Here the ratios are all $`1`$ and thus do not explain the centrality dependence observed.


text:
# Self-compensation in manganese-doped ferromagnetic semiconductors

Permanent address: \]Dept. of Physics, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD 57701

## Abstract

We present a theory of interstitial Mn in Mn-doped ferromagnetic semiconductors. Using density-functional theory, we show that under the non-equilibrium conditions of growth, interstitial Mn is easily formed near the surface by a simple low-energy adsorption pathway. In GaAs, isolated interstitial Mn is an electron donor, each compensating two substitutional Mn acceptors. Within an impurity-band model, partial compensation promotes ferromagnetic order below the metal-insulator transition, with the highest Curie temperature occurring for 0.5 holes per substitutional Mn.

Ferromagnetism in dilute magnetic semiconductors is generally believed to be mediated by carriers—electrons or holes—originating from the magnetic dopants themselves. For example, an isolated Mn impurity in GaAs can substitute for Ga and contribute one hole, which is weakly bound to its acceptor core schneider87a . GaAs samples with Mn dopant concentrations in the range 1–2% are ferromagnetic insulators, while samples in the range 3–6% are ferromagnetic metals ohno99a . In the metallic phase the nominal hole concentration, $`p`$, is in principle equal to the number of Mn atoms per unit volume. Measured hole concentrations are much smaller, by factors ranging from $``$3 for MnGaAs ohno99a  to $``$10 or more for MnGe park01a . In most theories of ferromagnetism in dilute magnetic semiconductors, reduced hole concentrations suppress the Curie temperature dietl00a ; konig01a ; sanvito02a . The reverse scenario—raising the Curie temperature by increasing the hole concentration—is therefore of great current interest. For current theoretical reviews see Refs. konig01a ; sanvito02a .

Recent experiments show a strong correlation between Curie temperature, carrier concentration, and the fraction of Mn found at interstitial sites yu02a . In this paper we address several questions not yet settled by experiment. (1) By what mechanism are interstitials formed, given that their calculated formation energies are considerably higher than substitutionals? (2) What determines the relative abundance of interstitials and substitutionals? (3) Under what (doping) conditions do interstitials act as compensators? (4) What role does compensation play in the ferromagnetism?

To answer these questions, we use density-functional theory (DFT) to establish the following: (i) During the MnGaAs growth, Mn adatoms follow a very simple low-energy pathway to directly form interstitial Mn near the surface. (ii) The deposition of additional As converts some of these interstitials to substitutional sites. (iii) The remaining interstitial Mn atoms act as donors, each compensating two substitutional acceptors. Finally, we show that within an impurity-band model, ferromagnetism below the metal-insulator transition is most favorable—in the sense of the highest Curie temperature—for 0.5 holes per substitutional Mn.

For MnGaAs grown by MBE, recent channeling Rutherford backscattering experiments show that as much as $``$15% of the total Mn may be interstitial yu02a . An open theoretical question is how interstitial Mn might be formed, under what conditions, and in what concentration. For a system in thermodynamic equilibrium, the concentration of each impurity species is determined by its formation energy. Our calculations (described below) show that the equilibrium concentration of interstitial Mn is negligible. But thermodynamic equilibrium can only be achieved if local metastable configurations can be readily overcome. We find that the energy barriers separating interstitial and substitutional configurations do not satisfy this criterion. Hence, equilibrium thermodynamics is not a reliable guide for studying the formation of interstitial Mn.

To investigate the incorporation of Mn under non-equilibrium conditions, one must identify specific reaction pathways and calculate their energy barriers. At low Mn concentrations, the growth of MnGaAs at low temperatures is governed by the potential-energy surface for individual Mn adatoms adsorbing and diffusing on the GaAs surface. We confine our attention to the GaAs(001) surface, the standard orientation for growing MnGaAs. Under As-rich conditions, the GaAs(001) surface can have several different reconstructions, all of which contain surface As dimers as a common building block. Thus we studied adsorption on a chemically reasonable model surface consisting of five layers of bulk GaAs plus a dimerized As top layer; the bottom layer was passivated. We calculated total energies and forces using pseudopotentials and the generalized-gradient approximation kresse93a ; kresse96a . To identify the lowest energy adsorption site we placed the Mn adatom at various surface sites in a (2$`\times `$2) supercell, then relaxed the height of the adatom and the positions of all atoms in the top five layers of the surface. By far the most stable adsorption site was the As-dimer bridge site, i.e., equidistant from the two As atoms in a dimer.

To identify specific adsorption pathways, we calculated the total energy on a grid of Mn positions in a plane normal to the surface and containing the As dimer. The resulting potential-energy surface and several possible adsorption pathways are shown in Fig. 1. Beginning from a height of several Å, Mn adatoms are attracted to the surface and at low kinetic energies will be “funneled” into one of two adsorption channels. The primary channel leads to the As-dimer bridge site. As shown in the inset to Fig. 1, there are two locally stable adsorption positions above the As dimer: a shallow metastable site 2 Å above the surface and a stable site 2 Å below the surface and more favorable by 0.8 eV. These two minima are separated by a small barrier of 0.2 eV, associated with the opening of the As dimer, which is easily overcome at normal growth temperatures. (In comparison, Ga adatoms also have two locally stable adsorption sites, in agreement with Ref. kley97a . However, for Ga the interstitial position is very unfavorable, and the stable site near the surface layer ultimately leads to completely substitutional incorporation kratzer02a .) Isolated Mn adatoms that are steered into this primary channel will generally reach their equilibrium position below the As dimer. This position corresponds to a bulk interstitial site with four neighboring As atoms. With the Mn atom at this position, the As dimer above it remains intact with a slightly strained bond. A secondary adsorption channel leads, with no energy barrier, to the cave site between adjacent dimer rows; upon continued growth of GaAs this site will also correspond to a bulk interstitial site. Thus we have identified a set of very low energy pathways which initially steer isolated Mn adatoms to interstitial sites.

Although the energetics of Mn on clean GaAs leads to incorporation only at interstitial sites, the subsequent deposition of additional GaAs can change this situation and lead to partial substitutional incorporation. To illustrate this, we computed the change in Mn binding energy resulting from an additional half monolayer of Ga or As on the surface. In the presence of either a Ga or As adlayer, the surface As-dimer bond breaks and the metastable Mn site above it then corresponds to a substitutional site in the zincblende lattice. The adlayer completes the fourfold coordination of this site and hence may change its stability relative to the interstitial site. The change depends on the type of adlayer: for a Ga adlayer, the Mn interstitial site remains 0.8 eV more favorable than the substitutional site, but for an As adlayer this difference is reduced to just 0.1 eV. This reduction reflects the crossover from the case of Mn adatoms on clean GaAs (which favors interstitials) to the thermodynamic limit of isolated Mn in bulk GaAs (which favors substitutionals), and suggests that during the growth Mn will be incorporated at both interstitial and substitutional sites.

The electrical activity of a Mn impurity is determined by its formation energy as a function of its charge state. We used DFT to calculate the formation energies of substitutional and interstitial Mn using supercells containing 54 atoms, with convergence checks using 128 atoms. We fixed the chemical potentials to correspond to the As-rich, Mn-rich conditions normally used in growth. Fig. 2 shows the resulting formation energies, as a function of the Fermi level, for charge states that are stable within the GaAs bandgap. Substitutional Mn is an acceptor, with stable 1$``$ and neutral charge states. The theoretical acceptor ionization energy is 100 meV, in good agreement with the experimental value of 113 meV schneider87a . Interstitial Mn is a deep donor, with stable 2$`+`$, 1$`+`$, and neutral charge states; its donor levels have not been measured experimentally. For $`p`$-type material, corresponding to the Fermi level near the valence band edge, each interstitial will compensate two substitutionals, in agreement with previous calculations chang01a ; masek02a . The resulting hole concentration is $`p=(x2y)(4/a^3)`$, where $`x`$ and $`y`$ are the number of substitutionals and interstitials per Ga site, and $`a`$ is the the GaAs lattice constant.

The consequences of partial compensation for ferromagnetism are different above and below the metal-insulator transition. In the metallic phase the Mn-induced impurity states broaden and merge with the GaAs valence band. Most current theories therefore consider the carriers as free holes in the valence band. In this picture the Curie temperature is proportional to $`p^{1/3}`$, and hence compensation can only reduce the Curie temperature. But the role of compensation is less obvious for Mn concentrations between 1 and 2%, where ferromagnetism persists experimentally even though transport data clearly show the samples to be insulating ohno99a . The nature of this insulating state is not currently understood. If the Coulomb $`U`$ is larger than the impurity band width, then this state is a Mott-Hubbard insulator and an impurity-band model with localized carriers is an appropriate starting point berciu01a . Below we show that within such a model, the compensation affects the magnetic interactions in a surprising way: the maximum Curie temperature is obtained not for zero compensation, but rather for a partially compensated system with 0.5 holes per substitutional Mn.

We derive this result starting from a Zener double-exchange Hamiltonian for the motion of holes in a narrow impurity band izyumov01a ,

$$H_{\text{DE}}=\underset{i\sigma }{}ϵ_ia_{i\sigma }^{}a_{i\sigma }+\underset{ij\sigma }{}t_{ij}a_{i\sigma }^{}a_{j\sigma }J_H\underset{i}{}\stackrel{}{s}_i\stackrel{}{S}_i.$$
(1)
The first term describes fluctuations in the on-site impurity levels caused by the random distribution of charged ($`A^{}`$) and neutral ($`A^0`$) Mn acceptors; the second term describes the hopping of holes between Mn spins; and the last term describes the exchange coupling between holes and Mn spins. The energies $`ϵ_i`$ are distributed within the disorder-broadened band width, $`W`$; $`a_{i\sigma }^{}`$ and $`a_{i\sigma }`$ are creation and annihilation operators for holes with spin $`\sigma `$ at site $`i`$; $`t_{ij}`$ are hopping integrals; $`J_H`$ is the exchange coupling constant; $`\stackrel{}{s}_i`$ and $`\stackrel{}{S}_i`$ are the operators for the hole and Mn ($`S=5/2`$) spins, respectively.

It is well established that the coupling between the hole and the Mn spin is antiferromagnetic, $`J_H<0`$, and that $`S|J_H|`$ is in the range 100–250 meV dietl00a ; matsukura98a . This is comparable to, or even larger than, the acceptor ionization energy. Hence the hole at site $`i`$ is always antiparallel to the Mn spin, and the Hamiltonian can be reduced to a spinless form with the hopping renormalized to $`t_{ij}\mathrm{cos}(\theta _{ij}/2)`$, where $`\theta _{ij}`$ is the angle between $`\stackrel{}{S}_i`$ and $`\stackrel{}{S}_j`$.

To second order in the hopping, $`H_{\text{DE}}`$ can be mapped to an effective Heisenberg Hamiltonian describing the interaction between Mn spins,

$$H_{\text{eff}}=\frac{1}{2}\underset{ij}{}\frac{\left|t_{ij}\right|^2}{ϵ_iϵ_j}\left(n_in_j\right)\left(1+\frac{\stackrel{}{S}_i\stackrel{}{S}_j}{S(S+1)}\right),$$
(2)
where $`n_i`$ is the number of holes at site $`i`$ (thus, $`n_i`$=0 and 1 correspond to $`A^{}`$ and $`A^0`$ acceptors, respectively). Two features of $`H_{\text{eff}}`$ are noteworthy. First, the effective coupling between spins falls off exponentially with their separation, $`r_{ij}`$, because the hopping integrals have the form $`t_{ij}=t_0(r_{ij})\mathrm{exp}(r_{ij}/a_0)`$, where $`t_0(r)r/a_0`$ for hydrogenic wavefunctions and $`a_0`$ is the effective Bohr radius of the Mn acceptor shklovskii84a . Second, because of the factor $`(n_in_j)`$, interactions occur only between Mn acceptors in different charge states, that is, between $`A^0`$ and $`A^{}`$. This implies that ferromagnetism is absent in the limiting cases of no compensation and complete compensation.

This result can be easily understood within a simple toy model. Consider the Hamiltonian $`H_{\text{DE}}`$ applied to two Mn acceptors that share either zero, one, or two holes. In the case of zero holes (both $`A^{}`$ acceptors), there is no interaction at all. For one hole ($`A^0`$ and $`A^{}`$), the interaction is ferromagnetic, because the hole can lower its kinetic energy via hopping only for aligned spins. For two holes (both $`A^0`$), the interaction is always antiferromagnetic and scales as $`t_{ij}^2/J_H`$. In the real system, aligning the spins in the absence of compensation drives the Fermi level into the gap between spin-up and spin-down states, making ferromagnetism unfavorable.

To find the Curie temperature of the ferromagnetic phase transition, we first note that mean-field theory is not well justified because of the exponential dependence of the integrals $`t_{ij}`$ and because of the Mn positional disorder korenblit78a ; litvinov01a . Instead we represent the system as a percolation network of randomly distributed sites, each occupied by either $`A^0`$ or $`A^{}`$, with interactions only between sites with different charges. In the standard solution to this two-color percolation problem ioselevich95a , the critical percolation radius, $`R_c`$, depends on the solution of the one-color problem and on the maximum eigenvalue of the connectivity matrix for the two-color problem. In our case this leads to

$$R_c=a\left(\frac{B_c}{(16\pi /3)x\sqrt{q(1q)}}\right)^{1/3},$$
(3)
where $`B_c=2.7`$ is the average number of bonds within the critical radius for the one-color problem ioselevich95a , and $`q`$ is the number of holes per substitutional Mn. In general, $`q`$ must be found from the electroneutrality condition and the energy levels in Fig. 2, but at reasonable temperatures the approximation $`q=12y/x`$ is extremely accurate for $`y<x/2`$. Note that due to the factor $`\sqrt{q(1q)}`$, the critical radius diverges for both $`y=0`$ and $`y=x/2`$, consistent with our earlier conclusion that ferromagnetism vanishes at these limits.

The Curie temperature is given within percolation theory by

$$k_BT_c=\frac{1}{6}B_c\frac{n_in_j}{ϵ_iϵ_j}_{R_c}t_0(R_c)^2\mathrm{exp}(2R_c/a_0),$$
(4)
where $`k_B`$ is the Boltzmann constant. The angle brackets denote the most probable value among atoms within the critical radius. We estimate this value using a hydrogenic impurity wavefunction with effective Bohr radius $`a_0=7.8`$ Å berciu01a , and take the energy separation near the Fermi level to be the Coulomb gap shklovskii84a ; efros92a , given by $`|ϵ_iϵ_j|e^2/\kappa r_{ij}`$, where $`e`$ is the electron charge and $`\kappa =10.66`$ is the dielectric constant of GaAs berciu01a . This gives the Curie temperature simply as

$$k_BT_c=\frac{B_ce^2}{108\kappa a_0}\left(\frac{2R_c}{a_0}\right)^3\mathrm{exp}(2R_c/a_0).$$
(5)
We show in Fig. 3(a) the dependence of the Curie temperature on the number of holes per substitutional Mn and, equivalently for the case of pure self-compensation, on the fraction of interstitial Mn. The maximum Curie temperature is reached for $`q=0.5`$ holes per substitutional Mn, corresponding to an interstitial fraction $`y=x/4`$.

The above theory ignores the orbital degeneracy of the impurity band. This simplification is justified if the Coulomb energy, $`U`$, of two holes in different orbital states is larger than both the hopping integral and the impurity band width, $`W`$. For the case when $`U`$ is smaller than $`W`$, the resulting overlap of the two Hubbard bands will lead to a finite density of states at the Fermi level, even without compensation. For Mn concentrations between 1 and 2% the materials are nonetheless insulating, suggesting that the states are localized by an Anderson transition induced by strong disorder. In this case, hopping—and thereby also ferromagnetic coupling—can take place not only between $`A^0`$ and $`A^{}`$ but also between $`A^0`$ and $`A^+`$ acceptors. The percolation radius is still given by Eq. 3, but $`q`$ now must be replaced by the fraction of neutral acceptors, which must be calculated from the density of states. For a simple triangular density of states, the resulting Curie temperature is shown in Fig. 3(b). One significant new feature arises: ferromagnetism now persists even without compensation. Otherwise, the main features of the Mott-Hubbard case are obtained here as well, and the maximum Curie temperature is again reached for $`q=0.5`$.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research, the DARPA SpinS program, and NSF Grant DMR-0071823. We thank C.S. Hellberg and I.I. Mazin for helpful discussions.


text:
# Stochastic Field evolution of disoriented chiral condensates

## Abstract

I present a summary of recent work  where we describe the time-evolution of a region of disoriented chiral condensate via Langevin field equations for the linear $`\sigma `$ model. We analyze the model in equilibrium, paying attention to subtracting ultraviolet divergent classical terms and replacing them by their finite quantum counterparts. We use results from lattice gauge theory and chiral perturbation theory to fix nonuniversal constants. The result is a ultraviolet cutoff independent theory that reproduces quantitatively the expected equilibrium behavior of pion and $`\sigma `$ quantum fields. We also estimate the viscosity $`\eta (T)`$, which controls the dynamical timescale in the Langevin equation, so that the near equilibrium dynamical response agrees with theoretical expectations.

The relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC) is currently smashing nuclei together to produce the most extreme states of nuclear matter ever achieved in a controlled environment. Their cooling dynamics may then reveal collective properties of hot nuclear matter viz. its equation of state and the nature of the confining and chiral symmetry breaking transitions.

Extracting this information requires dynamical extrapolation from the final products that hit particle detectors, across possible critical points, up to the initial hot phase. This is practically impossible in general but the theory of critical dynamics, a byproduct of the renormalization group, tells us how it may be achievable by modeling the dynamics of light degrees of freedom as stochastic (classical) fields. In nuclear Physics these are the pion and $`\sigma `$ fields and the associated equations of motion are stochastic versions of the Euler-Lagrange equations for the linear $`\sigma `$-model.

The simplest Langevin prescription is to add stochastic sources $`\xi _a(x,t)`$ and dissipation terms to the classical field equations for $`\varphi _a=(\sigma ,\stackrel{}{\pi })`$

$`{\displaystyle \frac{^2\varphi _a}{t^2}}^2\varphi _a+\lambda \left(\varphi _a^2v^2\right)\varphi _aH\delta _{a0}`$ (1)
$`=\eta _{ab}{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi _b}{t}}+\xi _a.`$
The stochastic fields $`\xi _a`$ are taken to obey the fluctuation-dissipation relations

$$\xi _a(x)\xi _b(y)=2\eta _{ab}(x)T\delta ^4(xy),$$
(2)
with $`\xi _a(x)=0`$. Here, we shall always choose $`\eta _{ab}(x)=\eta (T)\delta _{ab}`$. This dynamics reduces to the classical microcanonical relativistic evolution for the pions and sigma as $`\eta 0`$.

In the limit of vanishing masses the long wavelength modes of the fields are effectively overdamped, and suffer critical slowing down . Then our equations correspond to Model A, in the classification of dynamical stochastic theories of Hohenberg and Halperin . Although Model A will be adequate for our purposes, a complete analysis of the universal $`O(4)`$ dynamics in the chiral limit of QCD requires coupling the order parameter (which is not conserved) to other conserved quantities in the theory, as in Hohenberg and Halperin’s Model G .

The long time Langevin dynamics takes the system to its (classical) canonical ensemble, at temperature $`T`$. This results in divergences of certain field expectation values as the lattice spacing $`a_s`$ is taken to zero. To make physical sense of the model in this limit requires a $`T`$ dependent renormalization scheme. This is achieved by making the replacement in the bare Eq. (1),

$`\lambda v^2\lambda v^2+\mathrm{\Delta }I_{\mathrm{tadpole}}+\mathrm{\Delta }I_{\mathrm{sunset}},`$ (3)
where

$`\mathrm{\Delta }I_{\mathrm{tadpole}}I_{\mathrm{tadpole}}^{\mathrm{B}\mathrm{E}}I_{\mathrm{tadpole}}^{\mathrm{cl}},`$
$`I_{\mathrm{tadpole}}^{\mathrm{cl}}={\displaystyle \frac{N+2}{2\pi ^2}}\lambda T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0.25}{\displaystyle \frac{(N+2)\lambda T}{a_s}},`$
$`I_{\mathrm{tadpole}}^{\mathrm{B}\mathrm{E}}={\displaystyle \frac{N+2}{12}}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda T^2}{\mathrm{}}},`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }I_{\mathrm{sunset}}\left[0.014\mathrm{ln}({\displaystyle \frac{Ta_s}{\mathrm{}}})0.037\right](N+2)\lambda ^2T^2.`$
This removes linear and logarithmic divergences in the self energy of pion and $`\sigma `$ fields.

In Fig. 1, we required that the order parameter $`\varphi `$ agrees with the expectations from chiral perturbation theory at low temperature ,

$$\varphi =f_\pi \left(1\frac{T^2}{12f_\pi ^2}\right),Tf_\pi .$$
(4)
In particular, we have enforced the absence of linear $`T`$-dependence at small $`T`$ by the addition of a further mass counterterm. This counterterm is not divergent as $`a_s0`$, but it does vary with $`a_s`$. We find that the linear $`T`$-dependence at small $`T`$ is removed by $`\lambda v^2\lambda v^2+b_1T`$, with $`b_1=0.425`$ in dimensionless units. Next, we fixed the finite counterterm $`T^2`$. We note that in the absence of any finite counterterm proportional to $`T^2`$ the second order phase transition (for $`H=0`$) occurs at $`T_c130`$ MeV, which is somewhat lower than that expected in QCD . We have pushed $`T_c`$ up to $`T_c150`$ MeV by introducing $`\lambda v^2\lambda v^2+b_1T+b_2T^2`$, with $`b_2=0.066`$ in dimensionless units. These values of $`b_1`$ and $`b_2`$ were obtained with a lattice spacing $`a_s=0.4`$ on a $`64^3`$ lattice, as shown by the filled symbols in Fig. 1. On a $`26^3`$ lattice with $`a_s=1`$ (with the same physical volume) we find that with $`b_2=0.084`$ and $`b_1`$ unchanged from above, the order parameter as a function of $`T`$ is the same as that for $`a_s=0.4`$ within error bars (open symbols in Fig. 1). We have also verified that the $`a_s`$-dependence of $`b_2`$ vanishes for small $`\lambda `$ and is non-divergent in the $`a_s0`$ limit.

Next we measured the $`T`$ dependence of the masses and decay rates of the pion and $`\sigma `$ fields. These quantities follow from the dynamical response to small amplitude perturbations around equilibrium. Then the response takes the form

$`\varphi _a=\varphi _a(t=0)\mathrm{exp}[t/\tau ]\mathrm{cos}(\omega t),`$ (5)
with $`\omega =\sqrt{m^2(T)\tau ^2}`$, for the particular case of a spatially homogeneous perturbation. Results are shown in Fig. 2, together with the chiral perturbation theory prediction for the pion mass

$$m_\pi ^2(T)=m_\pi ^2(0)\left(1+\frac{T^2}{24f_\pi ^2}\right),Tf_\pi .$$
(6)
The $`\sigma `$ becomes lighter in medium as a result of symmetry restoration at high $`T`$. $`m_\sigma `$ has a minimum at $`T_{\mathrm{cross}}180`$ MeV, which defines the crossover temperature. At $`T_{\mathrm{cross}}`$, $`m_\pi 220`$ MeV and $`m_\sigma 280`$ MeV. The two masses are equal within error bars for $`T\stackrel{>}{_{}}220`$ MeV.

The timescale $`\tau (T)`$ for the decay of a region of disoriented chiral condensate in contact with an equilibrated gas of hadrons has been computed previously by Steele and Koch , using a hadron gas model and perturbatively (at 2-loops) by Rischke . We seek to choose $`\eta (T)`$ so that the $`\tau (T)`$ we measure reproduces their calculations.

A difficulty is that the classical thermal field theory already leads to long wave length decay. The associated time scale is much shorter (larger dissipation) than the target quantum $`\tau `$ at low $`T`$, because of the absence of Bose-Einstein suppression of short wave lengths in the classical case.

Because $`\eta 0`$ in the Langevin equation (1) we find that our model can only be used to describe the long wavelength dynamics in the presence of a heat bath with $`T\stackrel{>}{_{}}145`$ MeV, corresponding to about 80% of $`T_{\mathrm{cross}}`$. Above this temperature we can adjust our input bare $`\eta `$ to reproduce the DCC decay time computed by Steele and Koch, see Fig. 3. However, $`T145`$ MeV is large enough that the assumptions in the calculation of $`\tau `$ as in Ref.  may be starting to break down, which means that our estimate of the limit of validity of our analysis may have a little play in it. The same considerations apply to the perturbative 2-loop calculation, with the additional caveat that at $`\lambda =20`$ it may be unreliable.

In spite of these difficulties we are currently studying the non-equilibrium dynamics of the system induced by the combined effect of the cooling of the thermal bath and by volume expansion. The latter becomes the principal means of cooling at low $`T`$, which may help mitigate the problems associated with the choice of $`\eta `$.


text:
# TURBULENT DIFFUSION OF MAGNETIC FIELDS IN WEAKLY IONIZED GAS

## 1 INTRODUCTION

In the interstellar medium, where the bulk of fluid consists of neutral gas, magnetic fields appear to be constantly lost from the fluid—a phenomenon often referred to as ambipolar diffusion (Spitzer 1978). It is simply because magnetic fields move with (or are tied to) ionized gases while there is slippage between the motion of ionized and neutral gases. For parameter values typical of interstellar clouds, the ambipolar drift, however, appears to be too slow (roughly by two orders of magnitude) to explain the large dispersion in the correlation between density and magnetic field strength (Zweibel 2002). This naturally motivates the exploration of other transport processes. In particular, the interaction of nonlinear, ambipolar diffusion and turbulent advective mixing is a question of obvious relevance. In this Letter, we seek to examine the interplay of these two processes and to determine a bound on the turbulent transport of magnetic fields.

While it is well known that turbulent mixing leads to a rapid diffusion of passive scalar fields, this is no longer the case for the diffusion of even a weak magnetic field (far below equipartition) in a fully ionized gas (Cattaneo & Vainshtein 1991; Gruzinov & Diamond 1994), due to the backreaction of the Lorenz force. In a weakly ionized gas, such as in the interstellar medium, the problem becomes more complicated since turbulent mixing also depends on the collision frequency between ions and neutrals as well as on the strength of magnetic fields. It is because in a weakly ionized gas, ions undergo the frictional damping due to collisions with neutrals, which effectively reduces the effect of the Lorentz force (or Alfvén waves). In fact, the previous work by Kim (1997) demonstrated that in two spatial dimensions (2D), the diffusion is still reduced below its kinematic value, but the critical strength of a large–scale magnetic field above which the diffusion is reduced can be larger (by a factor of $`\sqrt{\nu _{in}\tau }`$, where $`\nu _{in}`$ and $`\tau `$ are the ion-neutral collision frequency and correlation time of neutrals) as compared to what happens in the case of a fully ionized gas.

For simplicity, in this Letter, we consider the mixing of uni-directional magnetic fields by two dimensional flows which are perpendicular to these fields. Note that this configuration is different from traditional 2D MHD, where the fields and flows are coplanar. To maintain this geometry, it is necessary to make the strong coupling approximation (Spitzer 1978; Shu 1983; Zweibel 1988), by assuming that the drift between ions and neutrals is balanced by the Lorentz force on ions due to frequent ion-neutral collisions (frictional damping). Our work is the generalization of Zweibel (2002) who considered the diffusion of magnetic fields by highly idealized flows made up of an ensemble of hyperbolic stagnation points. Since it is not altogether clear how to relate these flows to realistic turbulence models, we take a statistical approach here and rigorously derive the diffusion rate by assuming a standard scenario of Gaussian and homogeneous turbulence. Note that it is possible that this simplified statistical model may fail when the nonlinear, ambipolar diffusion is dominant, in which sharp front-like structures are generated (Brandenburg & Zweibel 1994).

Under the strong coupling approximation, magnetic fields are advected passively by neutral flows and diffused by nonlinear ambipolar drift (in addition to the usual Ohmic diffusion). Thus, in view of this nonlinear diffusion, one may naively expect that a large–scale magnetic field would decay at a rate which is significantly enhanced over the turbulent (kinematic) value. We show, however, that it is not the case, because of strong fluctuations (see §3). Specifically, in deriving a generalized Zeldovich theorem (which relates the macroscopic quantity (transport) to microscopic dissipation) for a weakly ionized gas in 2D motion but containing magnetic fields orthogonal to the plane of motion, we show that the flux transport due to the advection by neutral flows has an upper bound given by kinematic value while the nonlinear diffusion arising from ambipolar drift is insignificant. The remainder of the Letter is organized as follows. We present our model in §2 and derive a diffusion rate in §3. Section 4 contains the summary and discussion of the Letter.

## 2 MODEL

In a weakly ionized gas with $`\rho \rho _n\rho _i`$, $`\nu _{in}/\nu _{ni}`$ is large, i.e., $`\nu _{in}/\nu _{ni}=\rho _n/\rho _i1`$. Here, $`\rho `$, $`\rho _n`$, and $`\rho _i`$ are the density of the bulk of fluid, neutrals, and ions; and $`\nu _{in}`$ and $`\nu _{ni}`$ are ion-neutral and neutral-ion collision frequencies, respectively. Infrequent neutral-ion collisions permit us to prescribe the motion of neutral gas, provided that

$`{\displaystyle \frac{B^2}{4\pi \rho _i}}{\displaystyle \frac{\nu _{in}}{\nu _{ni}}}(v_A^2)v^2,`$ $`\tau \nu _{ni}1,`$ (1)
where $`vv_n`$ and $`\tau `$ are the neutral velocity and correlation time, and $`v_A=B/\sqrt{4\pi \rho }`$ is the Alfvén speed with respect to the bulk of the fluid (see Kim 1997). Given a neutral velocity, the ion velocity follows simply from the strong coupling approximation as $`𝐯_i=𝐯_n+[(\times 𝐁)\times 𝐁]/4\pi \rho _i\nu _{in}`$. Note here that the strong coupling approximation is valid when

$`\nu _{in}`$ $`>`$ $`\stackrel{~}{\nu }_A,`$ (2)
where $`\stackrel{~}{\nu }_A=kB/\sqrt{4\pi \rho _i}=kv_A\sqrt{\nu _{in}/\nu _{ni}}`$ is the Alfvén frequency defined by using the density of ion (cf. equation ), with $`k`$ being wave number. When this condition is violated, as is likely to be case on small scales due to the high frequency of Alfvén waves, the drift between ion and neutral motions is no longer balanced by Lorentz force, thereby requiring a self consistent treatment of ion dynamics (Kim 1997).

We consider the mixing of uni-directional magnetic fields (say, $`𝐁=B(x,y)\widehat{z}`$) by incompressible neutral flows $`𝐯(x,y)`$ in the $`x`$-$`y`$ plane perpendicular to these fields. Thus, we treat the 2D motions of 3D fields. Note that our problem is somewhat similar to that in the Goldreich-Sridhar model (Goldreich and Sridhar 1997), which also considers perpendicular mixing of anisotropic structures. The evolution equation for the strength of magnetic field in this geometry can be written in the following form (see also Zweibel 2002):

$`(_t+𝐯)Q`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha [Q^2Q].`$ (3)
Here, $`QB/\rho `$ and $`\alpha \rho /4\pi \nu _{ni}`$, and the (small) Ohmic diffusivity has been ignored. The second term on the left hand side of equation (2) represents the advection by neutral flow while the term on the right hand side is the nonlinear diffusion by ambipolar drift. The ratio of the effects of these two can be measured by ambipolar Reynolds number $`R_{AD}=vl/\lambda _T=(v^2/v_A^2)(\tau \nu _{ni})`$. Here, $`vl=\eta _k`$ is the kinematic diffusion rate, and $`\lambda _T=v_A^2/\nu _{ni}`$ is ambipolar drift due to total magnetic fields. Note that $`R_{AD}`$ can be larger or smaller than unity, while still being consistent with equation (1). The question is then what the total diffusion rate is in the presence of these two (advection and ambipolar drift) effects. Would they act together to significantly enhance the diffusion rate over the kinematic value $`\eta _k`$? To answer this question, we assume Gaussian, homogeneous turbulence and evaluate the diffusion rate by using a quasi-linear or ‘second order smoothing’ closure (for instance, see Moffatt 1978) in the next section. The observant reader is no doubt puzzled by the fact that equation (3) is two dimensional. The motivation for this simplification is that turbulence with $`𝐤𝐁_00`$ will bend magnetic field lines, resulting in its conversion to Alfvén waves and radiation along $`𝐁_0`$. Such fluctuations are intrinsically less effective at transporting $`Q`$, as much of their energy is expended on bending. However, flute-like eddys, with $`𝐤𝐁_0=0`$, are energetically favored for transport, and also remain correlated with the flux tube being transported for a longer time. Thus, the incorporation of eddys with finite wavenumber along $`𝐁_0`$ (i.e., $`𝐤𝐁_00`$) will reduce transport of magnetic fields.

## 3 Diffusion rate

We employ the decomposition of $`Q`$ into large–scale $`Q`$ and small–scale components $`Q^{}`$ and assume that flows are on small–scales ($`𝐯=0`$). The equations for $`Q`$ and $`Q^{}`$ are then easily obtained as follows:

$`_tQ+𝐯Q^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha Q^2Q,`$ (4)
$`_tQ^{}+𝐯Q`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha 𝐅,`$ (5)
where

$`𝐅`$ $``$ $`[Q^2Q^2]Q+2Q^{}QQ+Q^2Q^{}`$
$`+Q^2Q^{}Q^2Q^{}+2Q[Q^{}Q^{}Q^{}Q^{}].`$
As can be seen from equation (4), the determination of the diffusion rate requires the computation of the flux $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i=v_iQ^{}`$ and the cubic nonlinear term in $`Q`$. To compute the cubic nonlinear term, as well as other nonlinear terms that appear in the following analysis, we assume that the statistics of fluctuations are Gaussian and that the turbulence is homogeneous. Then,

$$Q^2Q=[Q^2+Q^2]Q.$$
(6)
On the other hand, the flux $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i`$ is evaluated by assuming stationary turbulence. We first multiply equation (5) by $`v_i`$, and then take the average to obtain,

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\eta _k}{1+\alpha \tau k_{eff}^2Q^2}}_iQ={\displaystyle \frac{\eta _k}{1+R_{AD}^1}}_iQ.`$ (7)
Here, $`\eta _k=\tau v^2/2vl`$ is the kinematic diffusion rate; $`k_{eff}1/l`$ is the inverse of the characteristic scale of fluctuating magnetic fields; $`R_{AD}=\eta _k/\lambda _T`$ where $`\lambda _T=[v_A^2+v_A^2]/\nu _{ni}`$; $`\tau `$ is the correlation time of fluctuating magnetic fields, which is assumed to be comparable to that of neutral velocity. Note that $`\lambda _T`$ and $`R_{AD}`$, now defined in terms of averaged quantities, include both mean and fluctuating components. In deriving equation (7), we used $`vQ^2=0`$ and $`v_iv_j=\delta _{ij}v^2/2`$ by assuming an isotropic turbulence. Equation (7) states how much flux is transported from large to small scales, thereby leading to the decay of $`Q`$. Interestingly, the diffusion rate by advection, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i/_iQ`$, has an upper bound given by kinematic diffusion $`\eta _k`$, and becomes smaller as $`R_{AD}`$ decreases. This is because that ambipolar drift ‘renormalizes’ the correlation time so as to reduce the transport. Thus, it is clear that the kinematic turbulent flux is an upper bound on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i`$.

In the case of stationary turbulence, the flux transport is balanced by dissipation on small scales as:

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i_iQ`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha [Q^2+Q^2](_iQ^{})^2=\lambda _T(_iQ^{})^2.`$ (8)
This was obtained by multiplying equation (5) by $`Q^{}`$ and then taking the average. Equation (8), together with (7), establishes the relation between small and large scale fields as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\eta _k}{1+R_{AD}^1}}(_iQ)^2`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda _T(_iQ^{})^2.`$ (9)
Equation (9) is a generalized Zeldovich theorem for a weakly ionized, strongly coupled gas. It gives the relation between mean field and its gradient and relates the macroscopic quantity (i.e., flux transport) to microscopic dissipation. Note that the original Zeldovich theorem in a fully ionized gas can be recovered by replacing the ambipolar drift by Ohmic diffusion $`\eta `$ ($`\lambda _T\eta `$) and by taking $`R_{AD}^1=0`$, which gives $`(_iQ^{})^2/(_iQ)^2=\eta _k/\eta =R_m`$ ($`R_m`$ is the magnetic Reynolds number). Of course, the situation discussed here is 3D, with fields orthogonal to the plane of 2D motion.

Finally, the (total) diffusion rate of $`Q`$ follows from equations (5)—(7) and (9) as

$`\eta _T`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\eta _k}{1+R_{AD}^1}}\left[1+{\displaystyle \frac{|Q|^2}{(Q^{})^2}}\right].`$ (10)
$`\eta _T`$ given in this form illustrates the two complementary effects of ambipolar drift on diffusion—the first is the reduction of $`\eta _T`$ by renormalization of $`\tau `$ (the term $`R_{AD}^1`$) and the second the enhancement of $`\eta _T`$ by nonlinear diffusion (the second term in the square brackets). Due to the second effect, it is, in principle, possible that $`\eta _T\eta _k`$. This, however, turns out to be very unlikely. To see this, we first estimate $`\eta _T`$ in an interesting and more relevant case where $`R_{AD}>1`$.

When $`R_{AD}>1`$, equation (9) leads to

$`{\displaystyle \frac{(Q^{})^2}{|Q|^2}}`$ $``$ $`R_{AD}(>1),`$ (11)
suggesting strong fluctuations. Equation (10) then becomes

$$\eta _T\eta _k.$$
(12)
Thus, $`\eta _T`$ approaches the kinematic value $`\eta _k`$. That is, the diffusion cannot exceed the kinematic rate, because of strong fluctuations. Note that in this limit, the field is transported as an effectively passive scalars!

We now look at a less interesting limit $`R_{AD}<1`$ where the effect of turbulence does not play an important role. Note that in this limit, the strong coupling approximation can easily break down. This can be seen by rewriting the validity condition for the strong coupling approximation (equation ) as $`R_{AD}>1/(\tau \nu _{in})`$. That is, the smaller $`R_{AD}`$ (the stronger magnetic field), the easier it is to violate the strong coupling approximation. Thus, the results obtained in the limit $`R_{AD}1`$ may not be consistent with this approximation. With this in mind, we reduce equation (9) to

$`{\displaystyle \frac{(Q^{})^2}{|Q|^2}}`$ $``$ $`R_{AD}^2(<1),`$ (13)
for $`R_{AD}<1`$. Equation (13) indicates that to satisfy the stationarity condition (equation ), $`Q^2>Q^2`$. This follows because the dissipation due to ambipolar drift on small scales is too large to be balanced by flux transport. However, as noted previously, the strong coupling approximation (which leads to the nonlinear diffusion) is likely to be invalid on small scales, especially when magnetic fields are strong. What should happen on small scales is propagation of Alfvén waves, rather than nonlinear diffusion. Alternatively put, when the full dynamics of ions is taken into account, stationary turbulence may still be possible even when $`Q^2>Q^2`$. Now, the diffusion rate in this case ($`R_{AD}<1`$) follows from equations (10) and (13) as

$$\eta _T\eta _k/R_{AD}=\lambda _Tv_A^2/\nu _{ni}.$$
(14)
This is a somewhat expected result in the sense that for small $`R_{AD}`$, the diffusion rate is set by the ambipolar drift. Our non-trivial result is the observation that in this case, though the ambipolar drift due to fluctuating magnetic fields must be negligible in order to maintain stationarity.

## 4 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

The problem of transport of magnetic fields in the interstellar medium is studied by incorporating the effect of turbulence. Specifically, we consider the diffusion of uni-directional magnetic fields in the presence of 2D incompressible, turbulent (neutral) flows perpendicular to these magnetic fields, embedded in a weakly ionized gas. By assuming that the strong coupling approximation is valid on all scales, we compute the total diffusion rate of a large–scale magnetic field through a quasi-linear analysis. When the turbulence is homogeneous, stationary, and Gaussian, the diffusion rate $`\eta _T`$ is found to depend on $`R_{AD}`$ and the level of fluctuations (see equation ), with ambipolar drift playing two complementary roles (see §3). In particular, when $`R_{AD}>1`$, $`\eta _T`$ is shown to be at most of order the turbulent rate $`\eta _k=vl`$. In this case, the field is effectively a passive scalar. Interestingly, this suggests that even in the strong coupling regime, it is unlikely that magnetic fields will diffuse at a rate faster than the simple kinematic value, in spite of the nonlinear diffusion operator. In the opposite case ($`R_{AD}<1`$), we demonstrated $`\eta _T\lambda _T`$ as long as fluctuations are negligible compared to the mean field. Note, however, that this limit may not be consistent with the strong coupling approximation. Therefore, our result not only confirms the main point of Zweibel (2002) but also puts it on a simple, rigorous foundation.

The results of this Letter are applicable to any system with a neutral populations and weak magnetic field, such that the strong coupling approximation ($`𝐯_i=𝐯_n+[(\times 𝐁)\times 𝐁]/4\pi \rho _i\nu _{in}`$) is valid. However, because of the assumed incompressibility of neutral flows, a more uniform loading of magnetic fields discussed in the paper is basically due to the diffusion of magnetic fields in a constant density background. As the magnetic field diffuses while the density remains constant, system progresses toward a state of more uniformly loaded magnetic fields. In the turbulent case with $`R_{AD}>1`$, this mass loading uniformization occurs by turbulent cascade of magnetic energy (by diffusive mixing) to small scale, where it is eliminated by Ohmic dissipation. This uniformization occurs in one large eddy turnover time, as one expects, since $`\tau _{un}=_n\tau _n=_nl_n/v_n=_n(l_n/ϵ^{1/3}l_n^{1/3})=(l_0^{2/3}/ϵ^{1/3})(1/(1\alpha ^{2/3}))\tau _0`$. Here, $`ϵ`$ is the energy dissipation rate, and $`l_n=\alpha ł_{n1}`$ with $`\alpha 1/2`$ was used. It is important to realize that the breakdown of flux freezing on small scales due to Ohmic diffusion is critical to the uniformization of loading. Strictly speaking, our results cannot be directly applied to star forming regions, where the compressibility of flows and gravity are crucial. Nevertheless, our results imply that the ambipolar drift in turbulent medium can make magnetically subcritical clouds supercritical and also that the turbulent mixing can uniformize the loading of magnetic field lines on a large eddy turnover time scale.

In the interstellar medium, the diffusion rate due to ambipolar drift alone is too small (by a few orders of magnitude) to explain the observations. Given that $`R_{AD}`$ based on a large–scale magnetic field seems to be larger than unity, turbulent mixing perhaps provides a mechanism by which uniformity of the density and the strength of magnetic fields is achieved on the eddy turnover time scale. However, ions and neutrals are unlikely to be strongly coupled on small scales due to the high frequencies of Alfvén waves, thereby invalidating the strong coupling approximation. Therefore, the complete answer to the problem ultimately requires the self–consistent treatment of ion dynamics. Furthermore, for a better estimate on $`R_{AD}`$, some information on the strength of fluctuating magnetic fields is needed. For instance, when fluctuations are much stronger than mean fields, $`R_{AD}`$ based on fluctuations may be smaller than the unity, and thus ambipolar drift alone may lead to a fast diffusion. Of course, even in this case, the validity of the nonlinear (ambipolar) diffusion may become questionable due to the breakdown of the strong coupling approximation. In either cases, the relaxation of strong coupling approximation is expected to bring in the reduction of the diffusion as magnetic fields are no longer passively advected/distorted (Kim 1997). Of course, other effects, such as gravity, the detailed microscale mechanism for dissipating magnetic energy, and turbulence intermittency must be considered as well. A detailed study of this issue will be addressed in a future work.

We thank E.G. Zweibel for helpful comments. EK and PHD are supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant No. FG03-88ER 53275.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Dynamical maps (also known as superoperators) describe generalized linear transformations that can be performed on density matrices. It has been shown that dynamical maps that preserve the trace of density matrix can be performed by an unitary transformation by adding an ancillary system of a given size .

In the related problem of measurement, generalized measurements would be described by a set of linear maps, where each individual map acting on the density matrix would not preserve its trace, much like a projection acting on a Hilbert space ray would not preserve its norm. It has been shown that if the maps can be described by one-dimensional operations, then it can always be performed as a projection in a larger system (ie. with a suitable ancillary system).

In this paper, we show that any set of non-trace preserving maps can be performed by making unitary transformations and von-Neumann (projective) measurements in a larger system. This result shows that all linear transformations and measurements on density matrices can always be performed by unitary transformations and von-Neumann measurements, by coupling an ancillary system of appropriate size to the original system.

We will begin by re-deriving the result that a dynamical map can be performed by a unitary transformation in a larger system, and we will show that this proof can be easily extended to a set of maps.

## 2 A dynamical map

A dynamical map is linear and maps valid density matrices to valid density matrices:

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }:\rho \mathrm{\Lambda }_{rr^{},ss^{}}\rho _{r^{},s^{}}=\rho _{r,s}^{}`$ (1)
$`\text{Hermiticity}\rho _{r,s}^{}=\rho _{s,r}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{\Lambda }_{rr^{},ss^{}}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_{ss^{},rr^{}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}`$ (2)
$`\text{Preserves trace}Tr[\rho ^{}]=Tr[\rho ]{\displaystyle \underset{r}{}}\mathrm{\Lambda }_{rr^{},rs^{}}=\delta _{r^{},s^{}}`$ (3)
The map should also be completely positive to preserve the positivity of the density matrix.

A map acting on a $`N\times N`$ density matrix can be written as a $`N^2\times N^2`$ hermitian matrix, and therefore it has a canonical decomposition with $`\nu N^2`$ eigen-operators and real eigenvalues (see ):

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }:\rho \underset{\alpha }{}\lambda _\alpha L_\alpha \rho L_\alpha ^{}$$
(4)
The condition that the map preserves the trace requires:

$$\underset{\alpha }{}\lambda _\alpha L_\alpha ^{}L_\alpha =I$$
(5)
Let us consider a transformation $`U`$ acting on a larger system, which consists of the original system coupled with an ancillary system of $`\nu `$ dimensions. This larger Hilbert space is spanned by a basis $`\{|r^A|\alpha ^B;0rN1,0\alpha \nu 1\}`$. Let $`U`$ be given by:

$$U:|r^A|0^B\underset{r\alpha }{}\sqrt{\lambda _\alpha }\left[L_\alpha \right]_{rr^{}}|r^A|\alpha ^B$$
(6)
The superscript $`A`$ labels the original system, and the superscript $`B`$ labels the ancillary system. At this point, we have not yet specified how $`U`$ transforms the states $`|r^A|\alpha ^B`$ for $`\alpha 0`$, however we notice that $`U`$ preserves the orthornormality between states $`|r^A|0^B`$ and $`|s^A|0^B`$ if:

$$\underset{r\alpha }{}\lambda _\alpha \left[L_\alpha ^{}\right]_{s^{}r}\left[L_\alpha \right]_{rr^{}}=\delta _{r^{},s^{}}$$
(7)
This is nothing more than the condition that the map preserves the trace, equation 5. So $`U`$ can be easily ”completed” into a unitary transformation by simply making sure that the states $`\{|r^A|\alpha ^B;\alpha 0\}`$ are unitarily transformed into the space orthorgonal to the space spanned by $`\{U|r^A|0^B\}`$. Exactly how $`U`$ transforms those states is unimportant, so many choices of $`U`$ exist.

Now if we take our original density matrix $`\rho `$ and couple it to an ancillary system of dimensions $`\nu `$, initially in the state $`|0^B0^B|`$, the unitary transformation $`U`$ acting on this overall state gives:

$$\underset{rs\alpha \beta }{}\sqrt{\lambda _\alpha }\sqrt{\lambda _\beta }\left[L_\alpha \right]_{rr^{}}\rho _{r^{}s^{}}\left[L_\beta ^{}\right]_{s^{}s}|r^As^A||\alpha ^B\beta ^B|$$
(8)
Tracing over the ancillary system $`B`$ will give us the desired transformation $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\rho `$. Therefore, we see that any trace-preserving map can be thought of as the contraction of a unitary transformation acting on a larger system, by suitably coupling an ancillary system of dimension $`\nu N^2`$ to the original system.

## 3 Sets of maps

A generalized measurement can be described by a set of maps $`\{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}\}`$, where the probability of the ith outcome is $`Tr[\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}\rho ]`$ and the state of the system if the ith outcome is obtained (post-selection) is $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}\rho /Tr[\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}\rho ]`$. Individually, the maps $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}`$ would not preserve the trace of density matrix, but if the measurement is complete (ie. total probability is 1) then the overall map $`_i\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}`$ will preserve the trace of the density matrix.

Let us decompose the maps into their eigen-operators and eigenvalues:

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}:\rho \underset{\alpha }{}\lambda _{}^{(i)}{}_{\alpha }{}^{}L_{}^{(i)}{}_{\alpha }{}^{}\rho L_{}^{(i)}{}_{\alpha }{}^{}$$
(9)
The condition that the trace is preserved gives:

$$\underset{i\alpha }{}\lambda _{}^{(i)}{}_{\alpha }{}^{}L_{}^{(i)}{}_{\alpha }{}^{}L_{}^{(i)}{}_{\alpha }{}^{}=I$$
(10)
Let us define a transformation $`V`$ in a larger space:

$$V:|r^A|(0,0)^B\underset{r(i,\alpha )}{}\sqrt{\lambda _\alpha ^{(i)}}\left[L_\alpha ^{(i)}\right]_{rr^{}}|r^A|(i,\alpha )^B$$
(11)
The ancillary system here is now labelled with 2 indices $`(i,\alpha )`$, and its size is given by the number of operators $`Ł_\alpha ^{(i)}`$. This size is bounded by $`\mu N^2`$, where $`\mu `$ is the number of maps $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}`$, since each map $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}`$ has at most $`N^2`$ eigen-operators.

As in the previous section, we have not defined the transformation on a complete set of states, but it preserves the orthornormality between the states $`|r^A|(0,0)^B`$ and $`|s^A|(0,0)^B`$:

$$\left(V|r^A|(0,0)^B\right)^{}\left(V|s^A|(0,0)^B\right)=\underset{ri\alpha }{}\lambda _\alpha ^{(i)}\left[L_\alpha ^{(i)}\right]_{rr^{}}^{}\left[L_\alpha ^{(i)}\right]_{rs^{}}=\delta _{r^{}s^{}}$$
(12)
The last equality is obtained by applying equation 10. We can therefore complete $`V`$ into a unitary transformation as in the previous section. Now $`V`$ acting on the initial state $`\rho |(0,0)^B(0,0)^B|`$ will give:

$$\underset{ij\alpha \beta }{}\sqrt{\lambda _\alpha ^{(i)}}\sqrt{\lambda _\beta ^{(j)}}\left[L_\alpha ^{(i)}\right]_{rr^{}}\rho _{r^{}s^{}}\left[L_\beta ^{(j)}\right]_{ss^{}}^{}|r^As^A||(i,\alpha )^B(j,\beta )^B|$$
(13)
If we make a von-Neumann measurement on the ancillary system, given by the projections $`\{\left(_\alpha |(i,\alpha )^B(i,\alpha )^B|\right)\}`$, the ith outcome would give $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}\rho `$.

## 4 Non trace preserving maps and sets of maps

We had required in the last section that the combination of all the maps, $`_i\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}`$, preserves the trace of the quantum state, so it would represent a complete measurement. If $`_i\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}`$ does not preserve the trace, we need only add a map $`I_i\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(i)}`$ into the set of maps to be performed. Any outcome due to this extra map is discarded, this has the effect of reducing the trace of the quantum state.

In the case where we want to perform a dynamical map $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ that does not preserve the trace, we can perform the measurement procedure as outlined in the last section on the set of maps $`\{\mathrm{\Lambda },I\mathrm{\Lambda }\}`$, and discard the outcome if $`I\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is obtained.

## 5 Conclusions

We have shown that all linear measurements and transformations on density matrices can be accomplished by ”traditional” von-Neumann measurements and unitary transformations, when performed in a suitably large system.

## 6 Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Anil Shaji and Todd Tilma, for their help and insightful discussions.