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# Nanoengineered magnetic-field-induced superconductivity

## Abstract

The perpendicular critical fields of a superconducting film have been strongly enhanced by using a nanoengineered lattice of magnetic dots (dipoles) on top of the film. Magnetic-field-induced superconductivity is observed in these hybrid superconductor / ferromagnet systems due to the compensation of the applied field between the dots by the stray field of the dipole array. By switching between different magnetic states of the nanoengineered field compensator, the critical parameters of the superconductor can be effectively controlled.

When the applied magnetic field exceeds a certain critical value, superconductivity is suppressed due to orbital and spin pair breaking effects. This very general property of superconductors sets strong limits for their practical applications, since, in addition to applied magnetic fields, the current sent through a superconductor also generates magnetic fields, which can lead to a loss of zero resistance. Materials that are not only able to withstand magnetic fields, but in which superconductivity can even be induced by applying a magnetic field, are very rare and up to now only (EuSn)Mo6S8 Wolf et al. (1982); Meul et al. (1984), organic $`\lambda `$-(BETS)2FeCl4 materials Uji et al. (2001); Balicas et al. (2001) and HoMo6S8Giroud et al. (1987) show this unusual behavior. The appearance of magnetic-field-induced superconductivity (FIS) in the former two compounds was interpreted in terms of the Jaccarino-Peter effect Jaccarino and Peter (1962), in which the exchange fields from the paramagnetic ions compensate an applied magnetic field, so that the destructive action of the field is neutralized.
Here we report that FIS can also be realized in hybrid superconductor / ferromagnet nanostructured bilayers.

The basic idea is quite straightforward (see Fig. 1): a lattice of magnetic dots with magnetic moments aligned along the positive $`z`$-direction is placed on top of a superconducting film. The magnetic stray field of each dot has a positive $`z`$-component of the magnetic induction $`B_z`$ under the dots and a negative one in the area between the dots. Added to a homogeneous magnetic field $`H`$, see Fig. 1(b), these dipole fields enhance the $`z`$-component of the effective magnetic field $`\mu _0H_{eff}=\mu _0H+B_z`$ in the small area just under the dots and, at the expense of that, reduce $`H_{eff}`$ everywhere else in the Pb film, thus providing the condition necessary for the FIS observation. This new field compensation effect is not restricted to specific superconductors, so that FIS could be achieved in any superconducting film with a lattice of magnetic dots.
To implement the idea of the nanoengineered FIS, we have prepared a sample, which reminds us of other systems used during the last decade for studying flux pinning by periodic arrays of magnetic dots Geoffroy et al. (1993); Martín et al. (1997); Morgan and Ketterson (1998); Van Bael et al. (1999, 2000), and by magnetic domains Lange et al. (2002). The sample consists of a 85 nm superconducting Pb film evaporated on a 1 nm Ge base layer on an amorphous Si/SiO2 substrate, which is held at liquid nitrogen temperature during deposition. This thin Pb-film behaves as a type-II superconductor. For protection against oxidation, the Pb is covered by a 10 nm Ge layer that is insulating at low temperatures and thus prevents the influence of the proximity effect between Pb and Co/Pd. The Ge/Pb/Ge trilayer is patterned into a transport bridge (width 200 $`\mu `$m, distance between voltage contacts 630 $`\mu `$m) using optical lithography and chemical wet etching. The ferromagnetic dots are made by defining a resist mask on the transport bridge by electron-beam lithography and subsequent evaporation of a Pd(3.5 nm)/\[Co(0.4 nm)/Pd(1.4 nm)\]10 multilayer into the resist mask. The resist is finally removed in a lift-off procedure. The dots are arranged in a regular square array with period 1.5 $`\mu `$m. They have a square shape (side length about 0.8 $`\mu `$m) with slightly irregular edges.
The dots on the superconducting Pb film consist of Co/Pd multilayers having an easy axis of magnetization perpendicular to the sample surface Carcia et al. (1985). The hysteresis loop of the dots is measured with $`H`$ perpendicular to the surface by magneto-optical Kerr effect, revealing a high magnetic remanance of $`M_r=0.8M_s`$, where $`M_r`$ and $`M_s`$ are the remanent and saturation magnetization, respectively, and a large coercive field $`\mu _0H_{coe}=150`$ mT. This makes it possible to produce quite stable remanent magnetic domain states in the dots by using different magnetization procedures. These domain states were investigated by magnetic force microscopy (MFM) in a Digital Instruments nanoscope III.

After demagnetization, the signal from each of the dots consists of dark and bright spots, as shown in Fig. 2(a), indicating the presence of several magnetic domains in the dots, compare Ref. Hehn et al. (1996). The net magnetic moment $`m`$ of each dot in this state is approximately zero ($`m=|𝐦|=0`$). The demagnetization is carried out by oscillating $`H`$ (perpendicular to the sample surface) around zero with decreasing amplitude. Saturating the dots in a large positive perpendicular field aligns all $`m`$ along the positive $`z`$-direction ($`m_z>0`$), so that the dots appear brighter compared with the signal between the dots, see Fig. 2(b). In contrast to that, when the dots have been saturated in a large negative field, resulting in $`m_z<0`$, they give a darker contrast in the MFM image, as shown in Fig. 2(c). Simultaneous recording of magnetic and topographic images shows that the spots visible on dots in (b) and (c) are of topographic origin, and are not due to a magnetic signal.

The magnetic field ($`H`$)- temperature ($`T`$) - phase diagrams of the Pb film were constructed for the three magnetic states of the dots from $`\rho (T)`$-measurements carried out in a Quantum Design Physical Properties Measurement System applying a 4-probe ac technique with an ac-current of 10 $`\mu `$A at a frequency of 19 Hz. $`H`$ is applied perpendicular to the sample surface. We defined the critical temperature as $`T_c=T(\rho =50\%\rho _n)`$, with $`\rho `$ the resistivity and $`\rho _n`$ = 1.4 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$ cm the normal state resistivity at 7.3 K. We did not observe any indication that the small magnetic fields $`|H|H_{coe}`$ applied during these measurements altered the domain state of the dots, although minor microscopic changes cannot be excluded.
The $`H`$-$`T`$-phase boundary separating the normal (N) from the superconducting (S) state is clearly altered by changing the magnetic state of the dot array. A conventional symmetric (with respect to $`H`$) phase boundary is obtained when $`m=0`$, see Fig. 3(a). Two kinks in the curve can be seen at $`H=\pm H_1`$, with $`H_1`$ the first matching field $`\mu _0H_1=\varphi _0/(1.5\mu \text{m})^2=0.92`$ mT, at which the applied flux per unit cell of the dot array is exactly one superconducting flux quantum $`\varphi _0=2.07`$ mT $`\mu `$m2. In contrast to that, the $`H`$-$`T`$-phase boundary is strongly asymmetric with respect to $`H`$ when the dots are magnetized in positive or negative directions, see Figs. 3(b) and 3(c). Moreover, the maximum $`T_c`$ is shifted to $`+2H_1`$ when $`m_z>0`$ and to $`2H_1`$ when $`m_z<0`$. This shift gives rise to FIS when $`m_z>0`$ and $`m_z<0`$, as is demonstrated in Figs. 3(e) and 3(f). For instance, for $`m_z>0`$ and $`T=7.20`$ K, the sample is in the normal state in zero field, but when a positive field between $`+0.6`$ mT and $`+3.3`$ mT is applied, the Pb film becomes superconducting, as shown in Fig. 3(e). Similarly, when the magnetic state of the dots is switched to $`m_z<0`$, superconductivity is induced by applying a negative field between $`3.3`$ mT and $`0.6`$ mT, see Fig. 3(f). Contrary to that, the $`\rho (H)`$ curve shows the typical NSN transition of a conventional superconductor for $`m=0`$.

In the present system, the FIS can be explained by taking into account the local magnetic induction of the dots $`𝐁`$, see the discussion of Fig. 1. To support further these arguments, we give in Fig. 4(a) the distribution of $`B_z`$, the $`z`$-component of $`B`$ for $`m_z>0`$ in the $`x`$-$`y`$-plane, calculated by using a magnetostatic model (see, e.g., Ref. Jackson (1999)). In zero field (Fig. 4(a)) the magnetic dipoles generate stray fields exceeding the upper critical field of the Pb film when $`T>7.185`$ K, and, as a result, the Pb film is in the normal state. In an applied field of $`H=+H_2`$, the compensation of $`B_z`$ takes place in the interdot area where the Pb film is now in the superconducting state (see the blue color in Fig. 4(b)), thus providing the percolation through dominantly superconducting areas, and making possible the continuous flow of Cooper pairs and zero film resistance.
An important feature to note here is the appearance of periodic kinks in the $`H`$-$`T`$-phase boundary with a period coinciding with the first matching field $`H_1`$. These kinks are due to fluxoid quantization effects Little and Parks (1962), confirming that superconductivity indeed nucleates in multiply connected regions of the film, like in superconducting wire networks Pannetier et al. (1991) or thin films with periodic arrays of antidots Bezryadin and Pannetier (1995); Moshchalkov et al. (2000). The maximum $`T_c`$ at exactly $`H=+2H_1`$ can therefore be understood in terms of fluxoid quantization: the flux created by the stray field between the dots can be estimated from the magnetostatical calculations to be about $`2.1\varphi _0`$ per unit cell of the dot array. This makes $`H=+2H_1`$ a favorable field for fulfilling the fluxoid quantization constraint. Similar arguments can also be applied for the dots in the $`m_z<0`$ state to explain the shift of the maximum $`T_c`$ to $`H=2H_1`$. For $`m=0`$, $`𝐁`$ is strongly reduced due to the domain structure in the dots. This means that the stray field only weakly influences the Pb film, leading to a phase boundary without peculiarities except the weak kinks at $`H=\pm H_1`$. To understand all features in the phase boundaries in more details, one should solve the linearized Ginzburg-Landau (GL) equations, taking explicitly into account the additional vector potential created by the magnetic dots. This work has not been done yet, but the GL analysis of the flux distribution around magnetic dots has been already reported in Ref. Milosevic et al. (2002).
Moreover, the simple picture of field compensation is not applicable anymore deeper in the superconducting state. At zero applied field, the dipole stray field of a magnetic dot generates two vortex-antivortex pairs, with the vortices located on the dot sites, and the antivortices between the dots. When an external field is applied, vortices enter the sample and interact with the vortex-antivortex pairs associated with the dots. This process gives rise to interesting new effects dealing with vortex-antivortex patterns (see, e.g., Ref. Erdin (2002)). These novel effects cannot be described in more details here due to a lack of space, but will be reported elsewhere.
The field region in which FIS is observed can be tuned by changing the period of the dot array or the magnitude of the stray field. For instance, an increase of the fields emanating from the dots could be achieved by using magnetic dipoles with larger magnetic moments, shifting the maximum of $`T_c`$ to an even higher applied field. Good candidates for that are arrays of nanodots Ross et al. (2002) and nanopillars Chou et al. (1994). For instance, dot arrays with a period of 70 nm have been fabricated Koike et al. (2001), corresponding to $`H_10.4`$ T, which is already a remarkably high field. Besides improving the critical fields, the dipole array field compensator can also be used to design logical devices in which superconductivity is controlled by switching between the two polarities of the magnetized dot array.
In conclusion, we have shown that a nanoengineered lattice of magnetic dipoles can be used to selectively enhance the critical fields of superconducting films. Magnetic-field-induced superconductivity is observed due to the compensation of the applied field by the stray field of the dipoles.
The authors are thankful to E. Claessens for help with the measurements, and to S. Raedts, M. Morelle and K. Temst for their contribution to the sample preparation. This work was supported by the Belgian IUAP and the Flemish GOA programs, by the ESF ”VORTEX” program, and by the Fund for Scientific Research (F.W.O.) - Flanders. M.J.V.B. is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the F.W.O.-Flanders.


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# The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)

## 1 INTRODUCTION

In this paper we review ALMA goals, the chosen site at Chajnantor, the scope of the project, and a few of the technical hurdles and proposed solutions, as well as the ALMA schedule.

### 1.1 Goals: Science Aims and Drivers

Several publications1,2 contain contributions describing the science goals of ALMA. In its basic formulation, the ALMA goal is to provide images of unprecedented clarity and detail in the millimeter and submillimeter spectral range. This range contains two of the three primary peaks in the electromagnetic spectrum of the Universe; these are the two containing the preponderance of the observed energy in the Universe. The largest of these is the peak from the 3 K blackbody radiation relic of the Big Bang. That peak occurs in the millimeter range of the spectrum, as expected for any black body radiating at such a low temperature. The second strongest occurs at about 1.5 THz or 200 microns wavelength. Light of these wavelengths cannot penetrate the atmosphere, as it is absorbed by water and other molecules–this maximum was identified only recently through satellite observations. Alas, with a satellite one is limited as to the size of telescope with which one can observe and anything we can currently put into space is far too small to give good images of the energy sources comprising this second peak. From its characteristic blackbody temperature of $``$20 K we are led to suspect that it is comprised of emission from the cold molecular clouds from which stars and planets in the Universe have formed, and from the young galaxies full of dust which host those molecular clouds. Recently, some telescopes have made progress in identifying the sources of this unknown radiation. Much of it–perhaps most of it–appears to come from tremendous episodes of star formation in galaxies at the earliest stage of their creation. Unfortunately, many sources of submillimeter radiation have not been identified optically, at least in part because their spectrum has been wholly redshifted to wavelengths blocked by the terrestrial atmosphere and in part because of tremendous amounts of dust endemic to the source, which absorb optical light and re-emit it at longer wavelengths. The only way to tell for sure is to get precise images of these sources. An instrument to provide these images must provide high resolution–matching that which will be available at other wavelengths, or from 0.01” to 0.1” and it must provide the sensitivity to invest these images with high dynamic range. ALMA has been defined to achieve these goals. It is currently under construction by an international partnership.

With construction funding begun in FY2002, ALMA will be built over the coming decade in Northern Chile. ALMA will be a revolutionary telescope, operating over the entirety of the millimeter and submillimeter wavelength band observable from the Earth’s most lofty regions.

Table 1 summarizes the specifications for ALMA.

The ALMA specifications are described in more detail in the ALMA Construction Project Book, which like other project details may be found on the Worldwide Web at www.alma.nrao.edu. To fully enable the order of magnitude gain in resolution and two order of magnitude gain in sensitivity over existing instruments which are ALMA’s goal, it will be located at an elevation of 5000m on the Chajnantor Alitplano near San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile, as shown in Figure 1 and described below. Table 2 summarizes the sensitivity of ALMA in various modes and at various frequencies, given the atmosphere at the Chajnantor site. The calculations assume 1mm of preciptable water vapor above the site, observation at 1.3 air masses (40o zenith angle) and antenna performance as given in Table 1.

### 1.2 ALMA Partners

ALMA has gained widespread support as an instrument astronomy needs to develop astronomical ideas through observation in the twenty-first century. The project, previously known at the Millimeter Array (MMA), has been endorsed by both the 1991 and 2000 Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committees of the National Academy of Sciences (US) as among the highest priority items for astronomical facilities to be constructed. In France, at a colloquium at Arcachon in March 1998 organized by CNRS/INSU, French astronomers put construction of ALMA, in its interim form as the Large Southern Array (LSA), as highest priority for future instruments. In Canada, ALMA was identified as top priority by the National Research Council’s Long Range Planning Panel on Canada’s Future in Astronomy until 2015. Dutch astronomers likewise established ALMA as the top priority for instrumentation in the coming decade. In the U.K., the Astronomy Vision Panel of PPARC identified ALMA as the highest priority medium-term project.

This large set of astronomical community endorsements has gained ALMA a number of international partners. North American ALMA partner institutions include the United States National Science Foundation, through its National Radio Astronomy Observatory facility operated by Associated Universities, Inc., and the Canadian National Research Council. NRAO works in cooperation with a University consortium including the Owens Valley Radio Observatory of Caltech and the Berkeley Illinois Maryland Association. European partners include the European Southern Observatory; The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France; The Max Planck Gesellschaft (MPG), Germany; The Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy, (NFRA); Nederlandse Onderzoekschool Voor Astronomie, (NOVA); The United Kingdom Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, (PPARC); The Swedish Natural Science Research Council, (NFR); and the Oficina de Ciencia y Tecnologia and Instituto Geografico Nacional (IGN), Spain. Chile, as host nation for the ALMA project, participates through its presence on the ALMA Coordinating Committee, the ALMA Science Advisory Committee and by providing the excellent site high in the Andean Altiplano and support for it. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan may join the ALMA consortium soon.

### 1.3 Location: the Site at Chajnantor, Chile

In May 1998 NRAO recommended construction of the MMA on a site in Region II of northern Chile which lies on a high plain at the foot of three ancient volcanic peaks, Cerro Toco, Cerro Chajnantor and Cerro Chascon. The site (longitude 67d 45m W, latitude -23o 01’ S)lies near the Tropic of Capricorn, about 50 km east of the historic village of San Pedro de Atacama, 130 km southeast of the mining town of Calama, and about 275 km ENE of the coastal port of Antofagasta. It lies close to the border with Argentina and Bolivia beside the paved Paso de Jama road into Argentina and gas pipelines connecting Argentina sources with Chilean mines. The mean elevation is about 5000m (16400 ft). Several sites had been tested but as scientific interest increased for the highest frequencies, sites at the highest altitudes became favored. Testing of the Chajnantor site began in April 1995 and continues to the present, a joint effort of NRAO and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The Nobeyama Radio Observatory (NRO) operates a similar testing facility nearby at Pampa la Bola. The testing operations continue with the involvement of the Chilean university community. The land is administered by the Chilean Ministry of National Assets, having been set aside as a protected region for science by Presidential decree.

Up-to-date details of the monitoring of a number of parameters critical to ALMA’s success continue and current details from the instrumentation may be found at the ALMA web site. Some salient characteristics include: the median annual temperature is -2.5oC with annual 50th percentile winds of 10.4 m s-1. The average barometric pressure is only 55 percent of the value at sea level. Humidity averages 39% and ultraviolet radiation is about 170% that at sea level. Transparency at 225 GHz has been monitored for several years; the 50th percentile zenith optical depth at this frequency is 0.061 corresponding to a column of precipitable water of a little more than 1mm3. With such a low water column, observations are possible at the atmospheric windows covered by ALMA Bands 9 and 10 (see Table 2) for roughly half of the time. Direct observations of atmospheric transparency including the supraterahertz windows at 1.035, 1.3 and 1.5 THz have been published4 showing transmission of up to 20% in the highest frequency window.

### 1.4 Science

The mission of ALMA is to produce detailed spectral line and continuum images of objects emitting radiation in the millimeter and submillimeter spectrum accessible from the surface of the Earth. These high dynamic range images, covering a wealth of spatial scales and featuring total flux recovery, will allow ALMA scientists to study the formation of galaxies, stars and planets and the distribution of the chemical precursors necessary for life. Specifically, ALMA will allow astronomers to address a number of topics of high interest.

As mentioned above, the photons comprising the visible/infrared and submillimeter portions of the spectrum arise from two distinct features in the overall spectrum of background radiation. Images of the sky in these two bands are therefore complementary. The distinct nature of the submillimeter sky far from the Galactic Plane is compellingly illustrated by comparing the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) imaged at optical or infrared wavelengths with a submillimeter view (SCUBA 850$`\mu `$m 5). As redshift increases, the volume of the Universe surveyed increases rapidly; this fact combined with an increasingly bright spectrum being brought into the observing band by higher redshifts (the so-called K-correction–$`S_\nu \nu ^{34}`$) ensures that the brightest sources at submillimeter wavelengths are distant (z$`>`$1) dusty galaxies. Furthermore, a generally higher star formation rate in the earlier epochs6 adds to the dominance of high redshift objects in the submillimeter. Comparison of the expected blackbody spectrum of the ultraluminous starburst galaxy Arp 220 as seen at high redshifts with the frequency coverage and the sensitivity of ALMA suggests that The Atacama Large Millimeter Array should be able to detect Arp 220-like dusty starburst galaxies out to a redshift of 10 or more. Galaxies like the present day Milky Way can also be detected out to z beyond 3.

Although continuum emission from dust holds great interest, ALMA will also provide spectral line images to detail the kinematics of the gas, its excitation and its chemical and isotopic composition throughout the history of the universe. In the submillimeter and millimeter bands, the gas and dust enveloping galactic nuclei may be imaged without the optical obscuration which affects optical or infrared observations; the kinematics may be measured on spatial scales less than 100 pc or so. Various redshifted spectral lines–for example, all rotational transitions of CO and infrared fine structure lines such as \[C II\], \[C I\], \[N II\] and \[O I\]–can be detected and studied to derive the molecular gas content and elucidate the character of star forming activity.

Millimeter/submillimeter astronomy has discovered most of the $`>`$120 known interstellar molecules. These molecules may be quite complex–up to 12 atoms have been found in those small dense regions whose imaging will be ALMA’s strength. ALMA offers complete coverage of the available windows from a site of unprecedented atmospheric clarity. ALMA improves currently available spectral sensitivity by more than an order of magnitude (the weakest lines detected today are of order 1 Jy km/s in strength; compare to the ALMA sensitivity in Table 2 above). But as sensitivity improves, understanding of an already crowded spectrum may not be possible without an accompanying increase in spatial resolution. This ALMA also improves, by nearly two orders of magnitude, reaching resolutions of 10 milliarcsec. Furthermore, the throughput, measured by the spectral bandwidth open to ALMA (16 GHz), exceeds by several times that available now. A recent spectral survey from the 12m telescope revealed some 15,000 lines in one spectral window toward the seven sources covered (Turner, private communication); ALMA’s potential is clearly tremendous.

As stars form from a mixture of these molecules and dust, disks remain to form planets. Most T Tau stars possess disks with masses from 0.1 to 0.001 solar masses and sizes of 100-500 AU. Similar masses and sizes of disks appear to be present in protostars, embedded in dense molecular cloud cores. As the disks evolve, the chemistry continues to evolve, adapting to local conditions. With resolution reaching 5AU in nearby (140 pc) systems, ALMA will observe the chemical makeup of the disks as a function of vertical height (the disk ‘atmosphere’, with ultraviolet processing important higher up and condensation onto icy dust grains important mid-plane) and of radial distance from the star. Jets driven by the young star generate shocks into a cocoon of material surrounding the jet, chemically processing that material. Dutrey7 has summarized ALMA’s contribution to molecular disk studies; many molecules have been observed in the disks about T Tau stars such as DM Tau and GG Tau, including CN, HCN, HNC, CS, HCO+, C2H and H2CO, suggesting a photon-dominated chemistry; even at 4” (600 AU) resolution changes in chemical structure of disks may be noted (e.g. LkCa15; Qi8). With ALMA, these structures will be more sensitively imaged; even time-resolved changes should be distinguished. ALMA will provide the sensitivity and resolution necessary to probe the planet-forming disk midplane.

Fairly complex molecules have been detected in the interstellar medium. The simple sugar glycolaldehyde, a building block for more complex sugars ribose and glucose, was recently detected. Detection of its chemically reduced form, the ten atom molecule ethylene glycol, has just been announced. Searches for the simplest amino acid, the ten atom molecule glycine (NH2CH2COOH) have proven negative, lacking sensitivity. Glycine has a complex spectrum, exhibiting about a dozen lines per GHz on average. The Green Bank Telescope offers the sensitivity and wide bandwidth for a renewed search; ALMA will add to these attributes directivity, reducing spectral confusion in the complex regions where large molecules congregate. Detection may also be possible of other prebiotic molecules, such as adenine or uracile.

Molecules formed in dense regions may become incorporated in subplanetary or planetary objects. In cold regions, dense gas becomes highly deuterated. Elevated deuterium levels have been observed in some disks, as well as in cometary comae, suggesting some dense gas maintains its identity as planetary systems form. Evidence from the solar system suggests that some organics remain, even in the inner solar system, as they have become incorporated into discrete bodies. Carbonate blebs in the ALH84001 Martian meteorite maintained a heterogeneous pattern of magnetization suggesting transfer of the meteorite from Mars to Earth did not result in heating above 40oC, Even after incorporation into larger bodies, organics may be transferred between bodies. Hence a direct connection may exist between complex molecules observable by ALMA in interstellar space and the complex prebiotic molecules found in small condensed objects in the solar system.

In solar system objects, ALMA will obtain unobscured subarcsecond images. As an example, the flow of sulfur oxides from the volcanoes on Io may be imaged to differentiate their origins.

ALMA will be able to detect wobbling motion in stars caused by planets orbiting them. ALMA will be able to detect planets in the process of formation. ALMA will only marginally detect thermal emission from nearby extrasolar large planets. Although it will not be able to image even nearby Earthlike planets, it will be able to detect the interstellar chemicals which are available for the nourishment of early life.

As stars evolve, nuclear processes in their interiors results in a striated structure. As their energy sources change according to local physical conditions, the star must adjust hydrodynamically, often shedding shells of processed material into the interstellar medium which cool and form dust and molecules. ALMA will image these shells to reveal the isotopic and chemical gradients that reflect the chronology of invisible stellar nuclear processing.

ALMA is the only instrument, existing or planned which provides the combination of sensitivity, angular resolution and frequency coverage to achieve these scientific goals. By providing high fidelity images at subarcsecond resolution ALMA will complement both the present generation of gound-based telescopes, such as VLT, Gemini and Keck and their successors, GSMT or CELT, and space telescopes such as the HST and NGST. ALMA’s images of cool thermal emission complements optical/infrared data provided by these telescopes to enable astronomers to explore all of the peaks of the electromagnetic spectrum at similar resolution and high sensitivity.

## 2  Technical challenges and proposed solutions, schedule

### 2.1  The Antenna: Mechanical Engineering at the Heart of the Array

Each of the two major partners plus Japan have contracted for construction of a 12m diameter prototype antenna meeting the specifications imposed by the scientific goals for ALMA. These prototype ALMA antennas will be delivered to The ALMA Test Facility at the NRAO’s Very Large Array (VLA) site near Socorro, N.M., for tests to ensure it meets the very demanding specifications of this project. VertexRSI of Santa Clara, California is the U.S. contractor for one antenna; this antenna is currently being assembled for tests to begin in November 2002. A second prototype design will be delivered to the same site in the spring of 2003 by a European consortium including Alcatel and European Industrial Engineering. These two antennas will be tested in order to determine which design is most appropriate for ALMA; both designs are the property of the ALMA project. The successful design will become the production design, to be built by the winner of a bidding process. A third prototype, built under contract with Mitsubishi, is expected to be delivered through an arrangement with the National Astronomical Observatories of Japan in 2003.

The ALMA prototype antenna makes extensive use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) technology in order for the antenna to maintain a stable parabolic shape in the harsh thermal and wind environment characteristic of the ALMA site at the 16,500 feet. The antenna surface accuracy must be better than 25 microns to enable efficient observations at the very highest frequency. Much of the time, ALMA will image fields larger than the primary beam, which means that multiple pointings of the antenna will be fed into a single image which will include interferometric and total power data alike. For accurate imaging, the antenna and its calibration must be quite stable. For example, this requires that the antennas maintain a pointing accuracy better than 0.6 arcseconds, despite breezy conditions (50 percentile 6.5 m s$`1`$). The Chajnantor site affords no vegetative cover of consequence, so windblown grit and dust will occur and must not degrade the performance of the antenna. At such an altitude, temperature extremes occur–the annual median temperature is below freezing and can range $`\pm `$ 20 C–yet antenna performance must be maintained. The ultraviolet radiation at this altitude is 170% of that at sea level, requiring construction of material robust to UV damage. All these factors provide a challenge to modern antenna design.

As the array is reconfigurable, the antennas must be transportable on an occasional basis by a transporter. The maximum baselines available are on the order of 14km. Current plans are to move antennas on a few-per-day basis along a self-similar configuration of roughly spiral geometry out to the largest configuration, where topography heavily constrains the design. This will provide images with a range of detail and a resolution of 0.015” $`\lambda _{mm}`$.

### 2.2  The receivers: The world’s largest superconducing array.

Many laboratories worldwide contribute to the ALMA receiver effort. The receivers will cover the entire observable submillimeter/millimeter spectrum observable from ALMA’s superb site. Eventually, ten receiver bands will span this region. Currently, receivers for the lowest two bands are planned to be transistor amplifiers. For frequencies above $``$80 GHz the receiver designs employ superconducting tunnel junction mixers cooled to below 4K with transistor amplifiers operating over a 4-12 GHz or 4-8 GHz range to provide the correlator with 16 GHz of data. During initial construction, four receiver bands will be built and deployed as identified in Table 2. Orthogonal polarizations will be received, bringing ALMA’s eventual total to over one thousand receivers–the most extensive superconducting electronic receiving system in astronomy. The complement is augmented by a system of radiometers operating at 183 GHz which will monitor water vapor in the atmosphere above each telescope for path length correction of the incoming signals in a fashion analogous to the use of adaptive optics used on telescopes at visual and infrared wavelengths.

To cover the observable spectrum in ten bands, radiofrequency bandwidths up to 30% will need to be covered by receivers at some bands. Below 350 GHz, the receivers will be constructed to operate in single sideband to lessen atmospheric noise contributions.

To achieve this performance, the receivers will be housed in cartridges of a modular design,with all ten bands enclosed within a dewar of roughly 1m diameter and stages cooled to 70, 15 and 4K. For each band, a modular cartridge will be developed which fits into the dewar from the bottom and which is held in place by flexible thermal links. Thus, all bands share the focal plane, and optics and calibration devices will sit atop the dewar.

### 2.3  The Correlator: Achieving 1.6 x 1016 multiply/add operations per second

The ALMA Correlator will be located at the Chajnantor site. The analog input from the receivers on 64 antennas–8 spectral windows, each of 2GHz bandwidth–will be digitized and transmitted at a rate of over 100 Gigabits per second from each antenna. The signal travels over fiber optic cables to digital filters, then to the correlator. The correlator must achieve 1.6 $`\times `$ 1016 multiply and add operations per second. It cross-correlates signals from 32$`\times `$63=2016 pairs of antennas on 16 msec timescales; it also autocorrelates signals from 64 antennas on 1 msec timescales, producing 32 Gbyte s-1 output. The correlator is currently under construction at the Central Development Laboratory of the NRAO on the University of Virginia grounds. Its design offers flexibility of selection of bandwidth, spectral window placement and a reasonably low power requirement of 150 kW.

Correlator design and construction require a particularly long lead time; given the pace of technology prudence requires that ALMA consider the next generation correlator as the current generation correlator is constructed. Therefore, ALMA has fostered the design of the ’G2X Correlator’ for possible deployment in the next decade. That design is currently scoped to provide twice as many channels in high dispersion mode as the ALMA Correlator; more than an order of magnitude more in low dispersion mode. Furthermore, the G2X Correlator concept improved sensitivity through three-bit digitization in all modes rather than in the high dispersion modes only as provided by the ALMA Correlator. The concept envisions twice as many spectral windows (16) as the ALMA Correlator.

### 2.4  Schedule

The current ALMA Schedule is based upon the European construction phase beginning in mid-2002. The first antennas would then arrive in Chile sometime in late 2005. Commissioning observations would then begin late in 2006 and early science operations late in 2007. Under this schedule construction would be finished at the end of 2011 with full operations commencing in 2012.

### 2.5  References

Alwyn Wootten & F. Schwab Science with a Millimeter Array NRAO Workshop Vol. No. 14, Charlottesville: National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), edited by A. Wootten and F. R. Schwab, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, W. Va., 1988.

Alwyn Wootten Science with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, ASP Conf. Ser. 235, edited by A. Wootten, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, 2001.

S. Radford & R. Chamberlin “Atmospheric Transparency at 225 GHz over Chajnantor, Mauna Kea, and the South Pole” ALMA Memo 334, 2000.

S. Matsushita, H. Matsuo, J. R. Pardo & S. J. E. Radford “FTS Measurements of Submillimeter-Wave Atmospheric Opacity at Pampa la Bola II: Supra-Terahertz Windows and Model Fitting” Publ. Ast. Soc. Japan, 51 pp. 603-610, 1999.

Hughes, D. et al., “High-redshift star formation in the Hubble Deep Field revealed by a submillimetre-wavelength survey”, Nature, 394 pp. 241-7, 1998.

Blain, A. W., Smail, I., Ivison, R. J. & Kneib, J,, “The history of star formation in dusty galaxies”, MNRAS, 302 pp. 632-648, 1999.

Dutrey, A. in Science with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, ASP Conf. Ser. 235, edited by A. Wootten, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, pp. 215-224, 2001.

Qi, Chunhua, Aperture synthesis studies of the chemical composition of protoplanetary disks and comets, Ph. D. Thesis, California Institute of Technology, 2001.


text:
# Two-proton overlap functions in the Jastrow correlation method and cross section of the 16O(𝑒,𝑒'𝑝𝑝)¹⁴Cg.s. reaction

## I Introduction

Since a long time electromagnetically induced two-nucleon knockout has been devised as the most direct tool to study the properties of nucleon pairs within nuclei at short distance and thus the dynamical SRC in a nucleus Gottfried ; Oxford .

Two nucleons can be naturally ejected by two-body currents, which effectively take into account the influence of subnuclear degrees of freedom like mesons and isobars. Direct insight into SRC can be obtained from the process where the real or virtual photon hits, through a one-body current, either nucleon of a correlated pair and both nucleons are then ejected from the nucleus. The role and relevance of these two competing processes can be different in different reactions and kinematics. It is thus possible to envisage situations where either process is dominant and various specific effects can be disentangled and separately investigated.

Various theoretical models for cross section calculations have been developed in recent years in order to explore the effects of ground-state $`NN`$ correlations on $`(e,e^{}NN)`$ GP91 ; RVH+95 ; RVH+97 ; GP97 ; GPA+98 ; GPM+99 ) and $`(\gamma ,NN)`$ GPR92 ; GP93 ; RVM+94 ; RMV+94 ; Ryc96 ; ic ; GP98  knockout reactions. It appears from these studies that the most promising tool for investigating SRC in nuclei is represented by the $`(e,e^{}pp)`$ reaction, where the effect of the two-body currents is less dominant as compared to the $`(e,e^{}pn)`$ and $`(\gamma ,NN)`$ processes. Measurements of the exclusive 16O$`(e,e^{}pp)^{14}`$C reaction performed at NIKHEF in Amsterdam Ond+97 ; Ond+98 ; Ronald  and MAMI in Mainz Ros99 ; Ros00  have confirmed, in comparison with the theoretical results, the validity of the direct knockout mechanism for transitions to low-lying states of the residual nucleus and have given clear evidence of SRC for the transition to the ground state of 14C. This result opens up good perspectives that further theoretical and experimental efforts on two-nucleon knockout will be able to determine SRC.

One of the main ingredients in the transition matrix elements of exclusive two-nucleon knockout reactions is the two-nucleon overlap function. The TOF contains information on nuclear structure and correlations and allows one to write the cross section in terms of the two-hole spectral function Oxford . The TOF’s and their properties are widely reviewed, e.g., in BGP+85 . In an inclusive reaction, integrating the spectral function over the whole energy spectrum produces the TDM.

In GP97  the TOF’s for the 16O$`(e,e^{}pp)^{14}`$C reaction are given by the product of a coupled and fully antisymmetrized pair function of the shell model and a Jastrow-type correlation function which incorporates SRC. Only the central term of the correlation function is retained in the calculation.

A more sophisticated treatment is used in GPA+98 , where the TOF’s are obtained from an explicit calculation of the two-proton spectral function of 16O GAD+96 , which includes, with some approximations but consistently, both SRC and long-range correlations (LRC). The numerical predictions of this model are in reasonable and in some cases in good agreement with data Ond+98 ; Ronald ; Ros99 ; Ros00 .

Although satisfactory, these first comparisons with data have also raised problems that require further theoretical investigation and a more refined treatment of nuclear structure aspects in the calculation of the spectral function. The study of the two-hole spectral functions including different types of correlations, however, requires substantial efforts in computational many-body physics and represents a very difficult task.

A different method to calculate the TOF’s has been suggested in ADS+99  using the established general relationships connecting TOF’s with the ground state TDM. The procedure is based on the asymptotic properties of the TOF’s in coordinate space, when the distance between two of the particles and the center of mass of the remaining core becomes very large. This procedure can be considered as an extension of the method suggested in NWH93 , where the relationship between the one-body density matrix and the one-nucleon overlap function is established. The latter has been applied SAD96 ; NDW97 ; NDD+96 ; DGA+97 ; GPD97 ; GPA00 ; IGA01 ; IGA02  to calculate the one-nucleon overlap functions, spectroscopic factors and to make consistent calculations of the cross sections of one-nucleon removal reactions $`(p,d)`$, $`(e,e^{}p)`$, and $`(\gamma ,p)`$ SAD96 ; DGA+97 ; GPD97 ; GPA00 ; IGA01 ; IGA02  on 16O GPD97 ; GPA00 ; IGA02  and 40Ca IGA02 ; IGA01 . Various correlation methods, such as the Jastrow method, the Green function method, the correlated basis function method and the generator coordinate method have been used to obtain the one-nucleon overlap functions which are necessary for cross section calculations.

The first aim of the present paper is to apply the procedure suggested in ADS+99  to calculate TOF’s for 16O using the TDM calculated in DKA+00  with the Jastrow correlation method (JCM), which incorporates the nucleon-nucleon SRC. As a second aim, the resulting two-proton overlap functions are used to calculate the cross section of the 16O$`(e,e^{}pp)`$ reaction for the transition to the ground state of 14C. The cross sections are calculated on the basis of the theoretical approach developed in GP91 ; GP97 ; GPA+98 . The choice of the Jastrow TDM is determined by the convenience of its analytical form obtained in DKA+00 , which makes practically possible the calculation of the TOF’s. Of course, the reliability of the TOF’s obtained in our method depends strongly on the availability of realistic TDM’s. So, the usage in our work of the Jastrow TDM, though incorporating only SRC (and using harmonic-oscillator single-particle wave functions in the Slater determinant), must be considered as a first attempt to use an approach which fulfils the general necessity the TOF’s to be extracted from the TDM and to apply them to cross section calculations of two-nucleon knockout reactions.

The method to calculate the TOF’s on the basis of the TDM is briefly outlined in Section II. The results of the calculations of the TOF’s and the cross section of the 16O$`(e,e^{}pp)^{14}`$Cg.s. reaction are presented and discussed in Section III. Some conclusions are drawn in Section IV.

## II two-body density matrix and overlap functions

In this Section we present shortly the definitions and some properties of the TDM and related quantities in both natural orbital (geminal) and overlap function representations. The method to extract the TOF’s from the TDM ADS+99  used in this work is also given.

The TDM is defined in coordinate space as:

$$\rho ^{(2)}(x_1,x_2;x_1^{},x_2^{})=\mathrm{\Psi }^{(A)}|a^{}(x_1)a^{}(x_2)a(x_2^{})a(x_1^{})|\mathrm{\Psi }^{(A)},$$
(1)
where $`|\mathrm{\Psi }^{(A)}`$ is the antisymmetric $`A`$-fermion ground state wave function normalized to unity and $`a^{}(x)`$, $`a(x)`$ are creation and annihilation operators at position $`x`$. The coordinate $`x`$ includes the spatial coordinate $`𝐫`$ and spin and isospin variables. The TDM $`\rho ^{(2)}`$ is trace-normalized to the number of pairs of particles:

$$\mathrm{𝑇𝑟}\rho ^{(2)}=\frac{1}{2}\rho ^{(2)}(x_1,x_2)𝑑x_1𝑑x_2=\frac{A(A1)}{2}.$$
(2)
Since $`\rho ^{(2)}`$ is a Hermitian matrix its eigenstates $`\psi _\alpha ^{(2)}`$ form a complete orthonormal set in terms of which $`\rho ^{(2)}`$ can be decomposed as

$$\rho ^{(2)}(x_1,x_2;x_1^{},x_2^{})=\underset{\alpha }{}\lambda _\alpha ^{(2)}\psi _\alpha ^{(2)}(x_1,x_2)\psi _\alpha ^{(2)}(x_1^{},x_2^{}).$$
(3)
The eigenfunctions $`\psi _\alpha ^{(2)}(x_1,x_2)`$ are called natural geminals and the associated real eigenvalues $`\lambda _\alpha ^{(2)}`$ – natural geminal occupation numbers Pea75 . As a consequence of the antisymmetry of the nuclear ground state, the eigenvalues $`\lambda _\alpha ^{(2)}`$ obey the inequalities:

$$\begin{array}{ccc}0\lambda _\alpha ^{(2)}(A1)/2\hfill & & \mathrm{for}A\mathrm{odd},\hfill \\ 0\lambda _\alpha ^{(2)}A/2\hfill & & \mathrm{for}A\mathrm{even}.\hfill \end{array}$$
(4)
The upper bound in Eq. (4) is actually reached only for systems which are maximally correlated, as, e.g., the occupation number of zero-coupled pairs in the seniority formalism in the limit of large shell degeneracy.

Of direct physical interest is the decomposition of the TDM in terms of the overlap functions between the $`A`$-particle ground state and the eigenstates of the $`(A2)`$-particle systems, since TOF’s can be probed in exclusive knockout reactions.

The TOF’s are defined as the overlap between the ground state of the target nucleus $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{(A)}`$ and a specific state $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{(C)}`$ of the residual nucleus ($`C=A2`$) BGP+85 :

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha (x_1,x_2)=\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{(C)}|a(x_1)a(x_2)|\mathrm{\Psi }^{(A)}.$$
(5)
Inserting a complete set of $`(A2)`$ eigenstates $`|\alpha (A2)`$ into Eq. (1) one gets

$$\rho ^{(2)}(x_1,x_2;x_1^{},x_2^{})=\underset{\alpha }{}\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha ^{}(x_1,x_2)\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha (x_1^{},x_2^{}).$$
(6)
The norm of the two-body overlap functions defines the spectroscopic factors

$$S_\alpha ^{(2)}=\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha |\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha .$$
(7)
As in the case of the single-particle spectroscopic factors, where the latter cannot exceed the maximal natural occupation number NWH93 , one can find that $`S_\alpha ^{(2)}\lambda _{max}^{(2)}`$.

A procedure for obtaining the TOF’s on the basis of the TDM has been suggested in ADS+99 . It is due to the particular asymptotic properties of the TOF’s and is similar to the one suggested in NWH93  for deriving the one-body overlap functions from the one-body density matrix.

In the case when two like nucleons (neutrons or protons) unbound to the rest of the system are simultaneously transferred, the following hyperspherical type of asymptotics is valid for the two-body overlap functions BGP+85 ; Mer74 ; Ban80

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(r,R)N\mathrm{exp}\left\{\sqrt{\frac{4m|E|}{\mathrm{}^2}\left(R^2+\frac{1}{4}r^2\right)}\right\}\left(R^2+\frac{1}{4}r^2\right)^{5/2},$$
(8)
where $`r`$ and $`R`$ are the magnitudes of the relative and center-of-mass (CM) coordinates, $`𝐫=𝐫_1𝐫_2`$ and $`𝐑=(𝐫_1+𝐫_2)/2`$, respectively, $`m`$ is the nucleon mass and $`E=E^{(A)}E^{(C)}`$ is the two-nucleon separation energy.

For a target nucleus with $`J_{tar.}^\pi =0^+`$ the TOF in Eq. (5) can be written in the form

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu JM}(x_1,x_2)=\underset{LS}{}\left\{\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu JLS}(𝐫_1,𝐫_2)\chi _S(\sigma _1,\sigma _2)\right\}_{JM},$$
(9)
where $`\nu `$ is the number of the state of the residual nucleus with a given total momentum $`J`$,

$$\chi _{SM_S}(\sigma _1,\sigma _2)=\left\{\chi _{\frac{1}{2}}(\sigma _1)\chi _{\frac{1}{2}}(\sigma _2)\right\}_{SM_S}=\underset{m_{s_1}m_{s_2}}{}\left(\frac{1}{2}m_{s_1}\frac{1}{2}m_{s_2}|SM_S\right)\chi _{\frac{1}{2}m_{s_1}}(\sigma _1)\chi _{\frac{1}{2}m_{s_2}}(\sigma _2),$$
(10)
and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu JLSM_L}(𝐫_1,𝐫_2)`$ is the spatially dependent part of the overlap function. Performing a decomposition into angular momenta $`𝐥=𝐥_r`$ and $`𝐋_R`$ ($`𝐋=𝐥+𝐋_R`$) corresponding to the relative and CM coordinates one obtains:

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu JSLM_L}(𝐫,𝐑)=\underset{lL_R}{}\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu JSLlL_R}(r,R)\left\{Y_{L_R}(\widehat{R})Y_l(\widehat{r})\right\}_{LM_L}.$$
(11)
Then the TDM can be written as

$$\rho ^{(2)}(x_1,x_2;x_1^{},x_2^{})=\underset{JM}{}\underset{LS}{}_{L^{}S^{}}\underset{lL_R}{}_{l^{}L_R^{}}\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}{}_{S^{}L^{}l^{}L_R^{}}{}^{}(r,R;r^{},R^{})A_{SLlL_R}^{JM}(\sigma _1,\sigma _2;\widehat{r},\widehat{R})A_{S^{}L^{}l^{}L_R^{}}^{JM}(\sigma _1^{},\sigma _2^{};\widehat{r}^{},\widehat{R}^{}),$$
(12)
where the radial part of the density matrix is

$$\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}{}_{S^{}L^{}l^{}L_R^{}}{}^{}(r,R;r^{},R^{})=\underset{\nu }{}\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu JSLlL_R}^{}(r,R)\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu JS^{}L^{}l^{}L_R^{}}(r^{},R^{})$$
(13)
and the spin-angular function is

$$A_{SLlL_R}^{JM}(\sigma _1,\sigma _2;\widehat{r},\widehat{R})=\left\{\left\{Y_{L_R}(\widehat{R})Y_l(\widehat{r})\right\}_{LM_L}\chi _{SM_S}(\sigma _1,\sigma _2)\right\}_{JM}.$$
(14)
We will consider the diagonal part of the radial TDM in Eq. (13):

$$\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r,R;r^{},R^{})=\underset{\nu }{}\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu JSLlL_R}^{}(r,R)\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu JSLlL_R}(r^{},R^{}).$$
(15)
For large $`r^{}=a`$ and $`R^{}=b`$ a single term with $`\nu _0`$, corresponding to the smallest two-nucleon separation energy, will dominate the sum in the right-hand side of Eq. (15). Then, according to Eq. (8), the radial part of the TOF $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu _0JSLlL_R}(r,R)`$ can be expressed in terms of the TDM as

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu _0JSLlL_R}(r,R)=\frac{\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r,R;a,b)}{\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu _0JSLlL_R}(a,b)}=\frac{\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r,R;a,b)}{N\mathrm{exp}\left\{k\sqrt{\left(b^2+\frac{1}{4}a^2\right)}\right\}\left(b^2+\frac{1}{4}a^2\right)^{5/2}},$$
(16)
where $`k=(4m|E|/\mathrm{}^2)^{1/2}`$ is constrained by the experimental values of the two-nucleon separation energy $`E`$.

The relationship obtained in Eq. (16) makes it possible to extract TOF’s with quantum numbers $`JSLlL_R`$ from a given TDM. The coefficient $`N`$ and the constant $`k`$ can be determined from the asymptotics of $`\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r,R;r,R)`$.

## III Results

### III.1 The two-proton overlap functions

The procedure described in Section II has been applied to calculate the two-proton overlap functions in the 16O nucleus for the transition to the $`0^+`$ ground state of 14C. The TDM obtained in DKA+00  in the framework of the low-order approximation (LOA) of the Jastrow correlation method has been used. In DKA+00  the latter incorporates the nucleon-nucleon SRC in terms of the wave-function ansatz Jas55 :

$$\mathrm{\Psi }^{(A)}(𝐫_1,𝐫_2,\mathrm{},𝐫_A)=(C_A)^{1/2}\underset{1i<jA}{}f(𝐫_i𝐫_j)\mathrm{\Phi }_{SD}^A(𝐫_1,𝐫_2,\mathrm{},𝐫_A),$$
(17)
where $`C_A`$ is a normalization constant and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{SD}^A`$ is a single Slater determinant wave function built from harmonic oscillator (HO) single-particle wave functions which depend on the oscillator parameter $`\alpha _{osc.}`$, having the same value for both protons and neutrons. Only central correlations are included in the correlation factor $`f(r)`$, which is state-independent and has a simple Gaussian form

$$f(r)=1c\mathrm{exp}(\beta ^2r^2),$$
(18)
where the correlation parameter $`\beta `$ determines the healing distance and the parameter $`c`$ accounts for the strength of the SRC. The LOA keeps all terms up to the second order in $`h=f1`$ and the first order in $`g=f^21`$ in such a way that the normalization of the density matrices is ensured order by order GGR71 .

The values of parameters $`\alpha _{osc.}`$ and $`\beta `$ have been obtained SAD93  phenomenologically by fitting the experimental elastic formfactor data for 4He, 16O and 40Ca nuclei. The value of the parameter $`c`$ has been determined DKA+00  under the additional condition the relative pair density distribution

$$\rho ^{(2)}(𝐫)=\rho ^{(2)}(𝐫,𝐑;𝐫,𝐑)𝑑𝐑$$
(19)
to reproduce at $`r=0`$ the associated value obtained within the Variational Monte-Carlo approach PWP92 . Thus, in the present calculations the following values of the parameters are used for 16O: $`\alpha _{osc.}=0.61\mathrm{fm}^1`$, $`\beta =1.30\mathrm{fm}^1`$, $`c=0.77`$.

In order to obtain the radial part of the TDM, $`\rho ^{(2)}(r,R;r^{},R^{})`$ of Eq. (13), we use the analytical expression for the TDM obtained in DKA+00  substituting the coordinates of the two particles, $`𝐫_1`$ and $`𝐫_2`$, by the CM $`𝐑`$ and relative $`𝐫`$ coordinates. Then, the TDM is multiplied by $`A_{S^{\prime \prime }L^{\prime \prime }l^{\prime \prime }L_R^{\prime \prime }}^{JM}(\sigma _1,\sigma _2;\widehat{r},\widehat{R})A_{S^{\prime \prime \prime }L^{\prime \prime \prime }l^{\prime \prime \prime }L_R^{\prime \prime \prime }}^{JM}(\sigma _1^{},\sigma _2^{};\widehat{r}^{},\widehat{R}^{})`$ and the integration over the angles and summation over the spin variables lead to the radial part $`\rho _{JS^{\prime \prime }L^{\prime \prime }l^{\prime \prime }L_R^{\prime \prime }}^{(2)}{}_{S^{\prime \prime \prime }L^{\prime \prime \prime }l^{\prime \prime \prime }L_R^{\prime \prime \prime }}{}^{}(r,R;r^{},R^{}).`$

In order to obtain the values of the parameters $`k`$ and $`N`$ in Eq. (16) simultaneously, we look for such a radial contribution $`\rho _{\nu _0JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r,R;r^{},R^{})=\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu _0JSLlL_R}^{}(r,R)\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu _0JSLlL_R}(r^{},R^{})`$ whose diagonal part $`\rho _{\nu _0JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r,R)`$ minimizes the trace

$$\mathrm{Tr}\left[\left(\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r,R)\rho _{\nu _0JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r,R)\right)^2\right]=\mathrm{min}.$$
(20)
The correct determination of these parameters requires a proper definition of the asymptotic region where the trace in Eq. (20) has to be minimized. If we denote the point in which $`\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r,R)`$ has a maximum with $`(r_{max},R_{max})`$, the starting point of the asymptotic region $`(r_0,R_0)`$ is obtained looking for a point $`r_0`$, at $`R=R_{max}`$, for which $`\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r_0,R_{max})10\%`$ of $`\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r_{max},R_{max})`$. When $`r_0`$ has been determined, we look for a point $`R_0`$, at $`r=r_0`$, for which $`\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r_0,R_0)10\%`$ of $`\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r_0,R_{max})`$. The length of the asymptotic region over $`r`$ and $`R`$ is determined by the requirement to obtain the separation energy which is maximally close to the experimental one. The asymptotic point ($`a,b`$) is chosen to be that one which gives the minimal least-squared deviation expressed by Eq. (20).

When all the parameters are determined, Eq. (16) can be used to calculate the radial part $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu _0JSLlL_R}(r,R)`$. Then, including also the spin-angular part in Eqs. (11) and (9) we obtain the TOF’s.

For a given set of quantum numbers $`JSLlL_R`$ the TOF is calculated by minimizing the trace of the corresponding part of the TDM. Thus, for a particular final state $`J^\pi `$ of the residual nucleus, different TOF’s can be independently calculated using this procedure for each set of quantum numbers, and each one of them is fully responsible for the two-proton knockout process and the transition to the state $`J^\pi `$.

The TOF’s obtained in the JCM for the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ states are presented in Figs. 1 and 2, respectively. They are compared with the uncorrelated TOF’s obtained applying the same procedure to the uncorrelated TDM, i.e. with $`c=0`$ in the correlation factor of Eq. (18). The notation for the partial waves in our case is $`{}_{}{}^{2S+1}l_{L}^{}`$. It differs from the generally accepted one $`{}_{}{}^{2S+1}l_{j}^{}`$ because we have a different coupling scheme of spin and angular momenta.

SRC depend on both relative and CM coordinates and it can be seen from the figures that they affect both size and shape of the TOF’s. Their role, however, is different in the two states and, as it was already found in previous and different calculations (see, e.g., GAD+96 ; GPA+98 ), are much more important when the two protons are in the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ than in the $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ state.

The spectroscopic factors corresponding to the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ overlap functions are 0.958 and 0.957, respectively. Also the $`D`$ wave can contribute for the transition to the $`0^+`$ ground state of 14C, but the corresponding TOF is very small and is not considered in the present study.

As a next step, we derive the total TOF $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu JM}(x,X)`$ in terms of a sum over different partial components, i.e.

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu JM}(x,X)=\underset{LSlL_R}{}\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu JSLlL_R}(r,R)A_{SLlL_R}^{JM}(\sigma _1,\sigma _2;\widehat{r},\widehat{R}).$$
(21)
We integrate the squared modulus of the total TOF in Eq. (21) over the angles and sum over the spin variables. The result can be written in the form (for the smallest value of $`\nu =\nu _0`$):

$$\overline{|\mathrm{\Phi }_{JM}(x,X)|^2}|\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}_{JM}(r,R)|^2=\underset{LSlL_R}{}\rho _{JLSlL_R}^{(2)}(r,R),$$
(22)
where the bar denotes the integration over the angles and summation over the spin variables, and $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}_{JM}(r,R)`$ is the radial part of the total TOF obtained after the integration and summation. Using the asymptotics of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}_{JM}(r,R)`$ at $`ra`$, $`Rb`$ one can write:

$$\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}_{JM}(r,R)=\frac{{\displaystyle \underset{LSlL_R}{}}\rho _{JSLlL_R}^{(2)}(r,R;a,b)}{N\mathrm{exp}\left\{k\sqrt{\left(b^2+\frac{1}{4}a^2\right)}\right\}\left(b^2+\frac{1}{4}a^2\right)^{5/2}}.$$
(23)
The parameters $`N`$, $`k`$, $`a`$, $`b`$ in Eq. (23) can be redetermined from the asymptotics of $`_{LSlL_R}\rho _{JLSlL_R}^{(2)}(r,R;r,R)`$ using the procedure already explained in the first part of this Section. Then, each partial radial component $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{JSLlL_R}(r,R)`$ in Eq. (21) can be separately calculated from Eq. (16) using for each one of them the same coefficients $`N`$, $`k`$, $`a`$, $`b`$ which correspond to the asymptotics of the total TOF. The asymptotic point ($`a`$,$`b`$) determines the individual contribution of each partial overlap function to the total TOF. This prescription allows us to combine, with some approximations, the different radial components in Eq. (21).

The results for the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ partial components have a similar behaviour as in Figs. 1 and 2, the main difference is that they are somewhat reduced in magnitude. The reduction is determined by the contribution of each component to the total TOF. The spectroscopic factor corresponding to the total TOF is equal to unity in the uncorrelated case and 0.965 in the Jastrow case.

### III.2 The 16O$`(e,e^{}pp)^{14}`$Cg.s. reaction

The TOF’s obtained from the TDM within the Jastrow correlation method have been used to calculate the cross section of the 16O$`(e,e^{}pp)^{14}`$Cg.s. knockout reaction.

Calculations have been performed within the theoretical framework of GP91 ; GP97 ; GPA+98 . In this model the nuclear current operator is the sum of a one-body and a two-body part. The one-body part contains a Coulomb, a convective and a spin term. For $`pp`$ knockout the two-body current contains only the contributions of non charge-exchange processes with intermediate $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-isobar configurations GPA+98 ; ic . In the final state the mutual interaction between the two outgoing nucleons is neglected and the scattering state is given by the product of two uncoupled single-particle distorted wave functions, eigenfunctions of a complex phenomenological optical potential which contains a central, a Coulomb and a spin-orbit term Nad .

Numerical results are shown in Figs. 3 and 4 for two kinematical settings considered in the experiments performed at NIKHEF Ond+97 ; Ond+98 ; Ronald  and MAMI Ros99 ; Ros00 . In Fig. 3 the cross section is calculated in the super-parallel kinematics of the MAMI experiment, where the two nucleons are ejected parallel and anti-parallel to the momentum transfer and, for a fixed value of the energy $`\omega `$ and momentum transfer $`q`$, it is possible to explore, for different values of the kinetic energies of the outgoing nucleons, all the possible values of the recoil momentum $`p_\mathrm{B}`$ of the residual nucleus. In the calculations the incident electron energy is fixed at $`E_0=855`$ MeV, $`\omega =215`$ MeV and $`q=316`$ MeV/$`c`$. In Fig. 4 a specific kinematical setting included in the experiments carried out at NIKHEF is considered, with $`E_0=584`$ MeV, $`\omega =212`$ MeV and $`q=300`$ MeV/$`c`$. The kinetic energy of the first outgoing proton $`T_1^{}`$ is 137 MeV and the angle $`\gamma _1`$, between the outgoing proton and $`𝐪`$, is $`30^\mathrm{o}`$ on the opposite side of the outgoing electron with respect to the momentum transfer. Changing the angle $`\gamma _2`$ on the other side, different values of the recoil momentum $`p_\mathrm{B}`$ are explored in the range between $`250`$ and $`300`$ MeV/$`c`$, including the zero values at $`\gamma _2120^\mathrm{o}`$.

The cross sections calculated with the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ TOF’s as independent and fully responsible for the knockout process are displayed in the left panels of Figs. 3 and 4. In the right panels the cross sections obtained with the total TOF from the Jastrow TDM are plotted and compared with the contributions given by the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ partial components.

These results are compared in the figures with the cross sections already shown in GPA+98 , where the TOF is taken from a calculation of the two-proton spectral function (SF) GAD+96 , where a two-step procedure has been adopted to include both SRC and LRC. LRC are calculated in a shell-model space large enough to incorporate the corresponding collective features which influence the pair removal amplitude. The single-particle propagators used for this dressed random phase approximation (RPA) description of the two-particle propagator also include the effect of both LRC and SRC. In the second step that part of the pair removal amplitudes, which describes the relative motion of the pair, is supplemented by defect functions obtained from the same G-matrix which is also used as the effective interaction in the RPA calculation. Different defect functions are produced by different realistic $`NN`$ potentials. The results shown in Figs. 3 and 4 are obtained with the Bonn-A potential. The explicit expression of the TOF’s is given in a form of the same kind as in Eq. (21), in terms of a combination of CM and relative wave functions. The $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ relative waves give the main contribution for the transition to the $`0^+`$ ground state, while only a negligible contribution is given by the $`D`$ wave. The results of this model are able to give a proper description of available data Ond+98 ; Ronald ; Ros99 ; Ros00 .

In the figures are also shown for a comparison the results obtained with a simpler approach, where the two-nucleon wave function is given by the product of the pair function of the shell model and of a Jastrow type central and state independent correlation function. In this approach (SM+CORR) the ground state of 14C is described as a pure $`(1p_{\frac{1}{2}})^2`$ hole in 16O. In order to allow a more direct and clear comparison with the TOF’s from the Jastrow TDM, HO single-particle wave functions and the same correlation function as in Eq. (18), with the same parameters as in the calculation of the TDM, have been adopted.

The shape of the calculated cross sections is determined by the value of the CM orbital angular momentum $`L_R`$, that is $`L_R=0`$ for $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ and $`L_R=1`$ for $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$. When the two components are combined in the TOF the shape is driven by the component which gives the major contribution, that is $`L_R=0`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ at lower values and $`L_R=1`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ at higher values of the recoil momentum.

The role of correlations and two-body currents is different in different relative states. SRC are quite strong and even dominant for the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ state and much weaker for the $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ state. Moreover, the role of the isobar current is strongly suppressed for $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ $`pp`$ knockout, since there the generally dominant contribution of that current, due to the magnetic dipole $`NNN\mathrm{\Delta }`$ transition, is suppressed GP98 ; delta . Thus, the role of SRC is emphasized in $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ knockout, while the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ current is emphasized in $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ knockout. These general features, which have been found in all the previous studies of the exclusive 16O$`(e,e^{}pp)^{14}`$C reactions, are confirmed, for both kinematical settings here considered, also in the present calculations. The $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ results shown in the figures are dominated by the one-body current and thus by SRC, while the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ current gives the main contribution to the $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ results.

One of the main results of the previous theoretical investigations is the dominance of $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ $`pp`$ knockout in the 16O$`(e,e^{}pp)^{14}`$Cg.s. reaction. These theoretical predictions have been clearly confirmed in comparison with data. Even though the contribution of $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ $`pp`$ knockout can become important and even dominant at large values of $`p_\mathrm{B}`$, it is clear that a TOF where only the $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ state is included is unable to give a reliable description of the two-proton knockout process. In contrast, it can be seen from Fig. 3 that the cross section calculated with the Jastrow TOF for the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ state is close to the SF and also to the SM+CORR results at low values of $`p_\mathrm{B}`$, up to $`150200`$ MeV/$`c`$, that is just in the region where the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ contribution is dominant. For $`p_\mathrm{B}200`$ MeV/$`c`$ $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ knockout becomes dominant with all the different treatments of the TOF. The results with the $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ TOF from the Jastrow TDM is however much larger than the SF result and also larger than the SM+CORR cross section. It can be noted that even the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ curve in Fig. 3 is, at large values of the momentum, higher that the SF result. This is an indication that SRC in the JCM produce a stronger enhancement of the high-momentum components.

The behaviour of the pure $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ result in the left panel of Fig. 4 is somewhat similar to that of the SF and SM+CORR cross sections, which appear driven by the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ contribution. There are anyhow significant differences in the shape and large differences in the size of the various results.

The cross sections calculated with the total TOF, where the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ partial components from the Jastrow TDM are combined, are shown in the right panels of Figs. 3 and 4. It can be seen that in both kinematical settings the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ component dominates at low values of $`p_\mathrm{B}`$, while the $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ component produces a strong enhancement of the cross sections at high momenta. The contribution of the partial $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ component is reduced with respect to the results in the left panels, where $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ is fully responsible for the knockout process. Thus, the cross sections calculated with the total TOF from the Jastrow TDM are somewhat reduced at low recoil momenta. Also the contribution of the partial $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ component is slightly reduced with the respect to the $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ results displayed in the left panels. The contribution of the $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ component to the total TOF is, however, much more relevant than with the other theoretical treatments considered in the figures and the enhancement at high momenta turns out to be much larger. Thus, the shape of the cross sections with the total TOF from the JCM is flatter than with the SF and SM+CORR results.

In comparison with the SF calculations, the cross sections with the Jastrow TOF are lower at low recoil momenta and much larger at high momenta, due to the larger contribution of the $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ component in the TOF. The SM+CORR cross sections are higher than the other results at low recoil momenta. This is an indication of a stronger contribution of SRC in this calculation. This contribution, however, depends on the particular expression adopted for the correlation functions, that in the calculations of Figs. 3 and 4 is exactly the same as in the calculation of the TDM. At high momenta the SM+CORR cross sections remain always higher than the SF results, but generally lower than the results given by the TOF from the JCM.

Although obtained from a calculation of the TDM within the JCM where only SRC are included the TOF used in our calculations are able to reproduce the main qualitative features of the 16O$`(e,e^{}pp)^{14}`$Cg.s. cross sections which were found in previous theoretical investigations and also in the analysis of the available data. This means that the procedure suggested in ADS+99  to calculate the TOF’s from the TDM can be applied and exploited in the study of two-nucleon knockout reactions.

The large differences found in Figs. 3 and 4 indicate that the calculated cross sections are very sensitive to the different approaches used and to the theoretical treatment of nuclear structure and correlations in the TOF. It would be interesting to apply the procedure used in this work for the calculation of the TOF’s to more refined treatments of the TDM.

## IV Conclusions

The results of the present work can be summarized as follows:

* The two-nucleon overlap functions (and their norms, the spectroscopic factors) corresponding to the knockout of two protons from the ground state of 16O and the transition to the ground state of 14C are calculated using the recently established relationship ADS+99  between the TOF’s and the TDM. In the calculations the TDM obtained within the JCM DKA+00  is used. Though only SRC are accounted for in the Jastrow TDM, the results can be considered as a first attempt to use an approach which fulfils the general necessity the TOF’s to be extracted from theoretically calculated TDM’s corresponding to realistic wave functions of the nuclear states. Of course, the quality of the results will depend heavily on the availability of a realistic TDM incorporating all necessary types of $`NN`$ correlations.
* The contributions of the two-proton overlap functions corresponding to the removal of $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ $`pp`$-pairs from 16O are calculated in two manners: 1) when each one is fully responsible for the knockout process, and 2) when they are partial components of the total TOF. The $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ results obtained in the two manners are similar, the main difference being that the partial components in case 2) are reduced in magnitude. The comparison between the results of correlated (Jastrow) and uncorrelated TOF’s shows that SRC depend on both relative and CM coordinates and affect the size and the shape of the $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ overlap functions. The effects of SRC, however, are much stronger when the two protons are in an $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ state.
* The TOF’s obtained from the Jastrow TDM are included in the theoretical approach of GP91 ; GP97 ; GPA+98  to calculate the cross section of the 16O$`(e,e^{}pp)^{14}`$Cg.s. knockout reaction. Calculations are performed in two different kinematics that have been realized for the cross section measurements at NIKHEF and MAMI. The results are compared with the cross section calculated, within the same theoretical model for the reaction mechanism, with different treatments of the TOF, in particular with the TOF obtained from a calculation of the two-proton spectral function of 16O GPA+98 ; GAD+96  where both SRC and LRC are included. The calculated cross sections are very sensitive to the theoretical treatment and different results are produced by the different TOF’s. The cross sections calculated in the present work, where the TOF’s are extracted from the Jastrow TDM, confirm the dominant contribution of $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ $`pp`$ knockout at low values of recoil momentum up to $`150200`$ MeV/$`c`$. The $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ contribution is mainly responsible for the high-momentum part of the cross section at $`p_\mathrm{B}200`$ MeV/$`c`$.
* Our method is applied in the present work only to the ground state of 14C. It can be used also for the excited states. Our main aim was to check the practical application of all steps of the method for a given state of the residual nucleus. Therefore, the results obtained for the 16O$`(e,e^{}pp)^{14}`$Cg.s. reaction, which are able to reproduce the main qualitative features of the experimental data and of the cross sections calculated with different treatments of the TOF’s, can serve as an indication of the reliability of the method, that can be applied in a wider range of situations and to more refined approaches of the TDM.

## V Acknowledgments

One of the authors (D. N. K.) would like to thank the Pavia Section of the INFN for the warm hospitality and for providing the necessary fellowship. The work was partly supported by the Bulgarian National Science Foundation under Contracts $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-809 and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-905.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The chronology of star formation is recorded in the white dwarf luminosity function (WDLF). White dwarf (WD) structure implies a relatively simple connection between WD luminosity and age. First attempts to exploit WDs as chronometers  showed that the WDLF was a map of the history of star formation in the disk, and a significant shortfall of low-luminosity degenerates–the inevitable consequence of the finite age of the disk. The shortfall near log$`(L/L_{})`$$``$$``$4.5 implies a disk age of 6.5–9.5 Gyr . The WDLF from wide common proper motion binaries  does not show the shortfall seen by Liebert et al. (1988). This suggests that the disk is at least $``$10.5 Gyr old. Both Liebert et al. (1988) and Oswalt et al. (1996) WDLFs were derived from proper motion catalogs, hence may be affected by significant kinematical bias as well as incompleteness. The simple fact is, the faintest, age-dependent end of the WDLF is not yet reliably determined.

## 2 Identification of White Dwarfs

The broadband photometric system has a limited capacity to distinguish metal poor subdwarfs from cool WDs. In the absence of significant line blanketing, both the subdwarfs and WDs have broadband colors which closely approximate those of a blackbody. However, by comparing the flux through a Mg absorption line–centered filter, e.g., DDO51, Claver (1995) has shown that cool WDs separate from other field stars of similar $`T_{eff}`$ (Fig 1a). This is because the majority of cool WDs have essentially featureless spectra around $`5150\AA `$, where even subdwarfs show significant absorption from the Mgb triplet and/or MgH. The uncertainties in the WDLF can be reduced by the extension of the sample of cool WDs through supplementing the existing depth-oriented surveys i.e. the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey. This survey would be free from the kinematic biases mentioned above.

Figure1. a)Isolation of cool WDs in synthetic color-color diagram. b) Observed diagram.

## 3 Observations and Results

The NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey is a deep optical and IR imaging survey of two 9 square degree fields. We have obtained DDO51 filter photometry of the northern survey field at Kitt Peak National Observatory in April 2002 using the 4m-Mayall Telescope and the MOSAIC imager. Figure 1b presents the observed color-color diagram for one of the fields.

A comparison of figures 1a and 1b shows that there are cool WD candidates in this field. These data, along with the follow-up spectroscopy with 9.2m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET), will ultimately resolve the controversies of the shape of the WDLF. Low resolution spectra for four WD candidates were obtained at HET using the LRS. We have discovered 2 cool WDs as companions to M dwarfs.

This work has been supported by NSF grant AST-9876730 and NASA grant NAG5-9321. M.K. acknowledges support from the AAS Travel Grant.