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# High frequency quasi-periodic oscillations in the black hole X-ray transient XTE J1650–500

## 1 Introduction

The majority of the known stellar mass black hole candidates (BHCs) are transient low-mass X-ray binaries. These systems remain in quiescence for periods of months to tens of years and occasionally show outbursts (X-ray novae) which are the result of a sudden increase in the mass accretion rate that generally lasts for a few months. During an outburst various spectral and variability properties are observed which seem to a great extent, but not uniquely, to be determined by the mass accretion rate (see e.g. Tanaka & Lewin, 1995; Homan et al., 2001; Nowak, 2002). Although the appearance of black hole X-ray binaries is often categorized into 4 to 5 canonical states, they in fact appear to go through a continuous range of states whose properties are determined by the interplay between the two dominating spectral components: a soft thermal disk component and a hard non-thermal power law component attributed to a Comptonizing medium (Sunyaev & Trümper, 1979) whose origin remains unclear but is often thought to be an outflow and/or corona surrounding the inner accretion disk.

The variability properties of BHCs are strongly related to the relative contribution of the disk and the non-thermal components. When the latter dominates (hard state), the power spectra of BHCs show a strong band limited noise component on which often are superposed one or more quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs). When the contribution of the non-thermal component to the spectrum decreases (intermediate state), the noise becomes weaker and the QPOs become more prominent, while their frequencies increase from typically 0.1 to 10 Hz. When the thermal component dominates the spectrum (soft state) variability is very weak.

In addition to low frequency QPOs (LF QPOs; $``$0.1–10 Hz) five BHC systems have also shown high frequency QPOs (HF QPOs) with frequencies of 40 Hz and higher (for a recent overview see Remillard et al., 2002b). They are mainly observed when neither the thermal nor the non-thermal component dominates the spectrum. Unlike the kHz QPOs that are observed in the neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (van der Klis, 2000) and whose frequencies are variable and correlated to those of QPOs at lower frequency, our view on HF QPOs in BHCs is less complete and has evolved considerably during the past six years. Currently, three of the five sources have shown pairs HF QPOs, sometimes simultaneously detected: GRO 1655–40 shows a pair at 300 and 450 Hz Strohmayer, 2001a; see also Remillard et al., 1999, GRS 1915+105 at 41 and 67 Hz Strohmayer, 2001b; see also Morgan et al., 1997 and another at 164 and 328 Hz (Remillard et al., 2002b, not detected simultaneously with the other pair), and XTE J1550–564 at 184 and 272 Hz (Miller et al., 2001; Remillard et al., 2002a). Note that in the case of XTE J1550–564 there is also evidence for a peak at 92 Hz (Remillard et al., 2002a) and that single peaks at intermediate frequencies are also found (Homan et al., 2001; Remillard et al., 2002a). The frequencies of the 102–284 Hz peaks in XTE J1550–564 reported by Homan et al. (2001) seemed to correlate with the frequency of the LF QPOs, although Remillard et al. (2002c) dispute this. In XTE J1859+226 (Cui et al., 2000; Markwardt, 2001) and 4U 1630–47 (Remillard & Morgan, 1999) only single peaks are detected that are consistent (at a $`3\sigma `$ level) with having a constant frequency.

Although several detailed models had already been proposed to explain the frequencies of the HF QPOs (some of which will be discussed in Section 4), recently much interest has been sparked by the apparent harmonic ratios of the frequencies in the HF QPO pairs (3:5 and 1:2 in GRS 1915+105, 2:3 in GRO J1650–40, and 1:2:3 XTE J1550–564), which, according to Abramowicz & Kluźniak (2001), might be suggestive of resonances between orbital and epicyclic motion in the Kerr metric. In any case, the frequencies of the HF QPOs strongly suggest that they find their origin in the inner parts of the accretion flow, close to the innermost stable orbit (ISCO). When eventually the mechanism behind these oscillations is understood, their properties can be used to study the effects of General Relativity and constrain the mass and spin of the black hole. Already now such constraints can be made; for example, assuming that the highest observed frequencies are caused by Keplerian motion at the ISCO, for at least two of the above sources, GRO J1655–40 and XTE J1550–564, the derived values of the masses of the black holes (5.5–7.9 $`M_{}`$ and 9.7–11.6, Shahbaz et al., 1999; Orosz et al., 2002) and the highest observed frequencies imply that the black holes must be spinning. The models proposed thus far to explain the frequencies of the HF QPOs have all in common that their interpretation of the highest observed frequency requires even larger spin values than the ones based on the above simple assumption.

In this paper we report our search for high frequency QPOs in the X-ray transient XTE J1650–500. This source was first detected with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) on September 5 2001 (Remillard, 2001). Follow up observations (Markwardt et al., 2001; Revnivtsev & Sunyaev, 2001; Wijnands et al., 2001) revealed a hard X-ray spectrum, strong variability and QPOs around a few Hz, marking the source as a black hole candidate. Optical and radio counterparts were identified by Castro-Tirado et al. (2001) and Groot et al. (2001). Optical follow-up observations performed when the source was close to quiescence, in October 2002, revealed an orbital period of 0.212 days and a mass function which requires an inclination $`<40^{}`$ for the black hole mass to be larger than 3 $`M_{}`$ (Sánchez-Fernández et al., 2002). XMM-Newton observations performed near the peak of the outburst revealed the presence of a broad, skewed Fe Kα emission line that suggests the compact object in this system may be a Kerr black hole (Miller et al., 2002). Kalemci et al. (2002) studied the variability properties during a $``$20 day interval centered around a transition from the soft to the hard state that occurred on 2001 November 18. In the power spectra they found LF QPOs between 4 and 9 Hz, but also broad bumps around 25 and 80 Hz. No HF QPOs were found, however. During the later stages of the outburst a 14-day period was found in the ASM light curves, which is probably the disk precession period (Tomsick et al., 2002). In this paper we report the detection of high frequency variability in this source and in particular the detection of a 250 Hz QPO. A more detailed spectral and variability study of the outburst will be presented elsewhere.

## 2 Observations and analysis

The data used in this paper were taken with the proportional counter array (PCA, Jahoda et al., 1996) onboard RXTE (Bradt et al., 1993). The observations of XTE J1650–500 were performed between 2001 September 6 and 2001 November 22. A total of 85 pointed observations were made, amounting to $``$185 ks. The data used in our analysis were in the following modes: Standard 2, which has a time resolution of 16 s and covers the 2–60 keV PCA effective energy range with 129 energy channels, and E\_125us\_64M\_0\_1s/E\_64us\_64M\_0\_1s (Event modes), which provide a time resolution of $`2^{13}`$ s or $`2^{14}`$ s in 64 energy channels covering the same energy range as the Standard 2 mode.

The Standard 2 data were used to create a light curve, a hardness-intensity diagram (HID) and a color-color diagram (CD). Only data from proportional counter units (PCUs) 0 and 2 were used since these were the only two (of the five) that were always operational during our observations. The observations were background subtracted, but no dead time corrections were applied ($`<`$3.6%). Two colors were defined; a soft color, which is the ratio of counts in the 5.8–10.0 keV and 2.5–5.8 keV bands (Standard 2 \[i.e. 0–128\] channels 10–19 and 2–9), and a hard color, which is the ratio of counts in the 13.8–18.4 keV and 2.5–5.8 keV bands (channels 29–39 and 2–9). The ’intensity’ used for the HID was the count rate in the 2.5–20.5 keV band (channels 2–44).

Fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) of the Event mode data (from all the active PCUs) were performed to create power spectra with a frequency range of 0.0625–4096 Hz in the 7.5–22.2 keV band (‘absolute’ \[i.e. 0–254\] channels 15-49). This energy range was chosen since high frequency variability in black hole LMXBs is in general most significantly detected in a similar energy range - an additional advantage of this energy range is that it does not introduce the instrumental broad high frequency features found by Klein-Wolt, Homan & van der Klis (in prep.) in the lowest energy channels. The data were not background subtracted and no dead time corrections were applied prior to the FFT; the effects of dead time were accounted for by our power spectral fit function (see below). Power spectra were averaged based on time, colors or count rate, and normalized according to the recipe described in van der Klis (1995). Prior to fitting the power spectra the dead time modified Poisson level was subtracted using the method of Klein-Wolt, Homan & van der Klis (in prep.), which uses the analytical function from Zhang (1995) and Zhang et al. (1995) as a basis. They found that this function often fails to describe the high frequency part of the power spectrum where no contribution from the source is expected and, instead of improving the fit at high frequencies by varying the parameters of this function (which leads to unacceptable values for e.g. the instrumental dead time and VLE window), the Zhang function is scaled to provide the best fit to the power spectrum in the 1000–4000 Hz range.

Following a current trend initiated by Olive et al. (1998) Nowak (2000) we fit the resulting power spectra with a sum of Lorentzians, each given by $`P(\nu )=(r\mathrm{\Delta }/\pi )[\mathrm{\Delta }^2+(\nu \nu _0)^2]^1`$, where $`\nu _0`$ is the centroid frequency, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ the half-width-at-half-maximum, and $`r`$ the integrated fractional rms (from $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$). Instead of $`\nu _0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ we will quote the frequency at which the Lorentzian attains its maximum in $`\nu P(\nu )`$, $`\nu _{max}`$, and the quality factor, Q, where $`\nu _{max}=\nu _0(1+1/4Q^2)^{1/2}`$ and $`Q=\nu _0/2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (Belloni et al., 2002). The fractional rms amplitudes quoted in this paper are the integrated power between 0 and $`\mathrm{}`$. Errors on fit parameters were determined using $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=1`$. Upper limits on the strength of the Lorentzians were determined by fixing the Q and/or $`\nu _{max}`$, but not the rms amplitude, to values similar to those obtained in another power spectrum and using $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=2.71`$ (95% confidence).

## 3 Results

Figure 1 shows the 2.5–20.5 keV light curve and HID of the outburst of XTE J1650–500. The first few observations were done during the final stages of the rise, when the source was very hard. After reaching a peak on September 10 (day 3) a more or less exponential decline followed, lasting for $``$8 days, during which the spectral hardness changed considerably. The period between September 25 (day 18) and October 7 (day 30), which clearly shows up as a dent in the light curve, marks a transition from the hard to the soft state - during this period the day to day variations in count rate and hardness were more erratic than before and after, while both show an overall decrease. After this transition the changes were smoother, and around October 17 (day 40) the count rate started to decline exponentially again. A minimum in the hardness was reached around November 1 (day 55). After November 16 (day 70) the source showed a remarkable hardening accompanied by a strong increase in count rate. Part of the decline ($``$20 days centered on our last observation) is discussed in Kalemci et al. (2002).

Our initial search for high frequency variability was conducted by selecting a few groups of power spectra based on their position in the HID with the aim to get an idea of how the variability changed along the track in the HID and also to increase the sensitivity to high frequency features. Six selections were made whose location in the light curve and HID is indicated by Roman numerals I–VI. The horizontal branch (hereafter hard branch) made up by groups I and II was split in two parts since power spectral properties are known to correlate well with spectral hardness and we wanted to avoid too much smearing of frequencies. Group III represents the transitional zone discussed above, which stands out clearly in both the light curve and HID. Group IV encompasses all the observations in the vertical soft branch and groups V and VI represent the last two observations. We note that, apart from the one between groups I and II, all the group boundaries in the HID coincide with considerable changes in the shape of the low frequency part of the power spectrum.

Figure 2 shows the power spectra of groups I–III and VI in a $`\nu P(\nu )`$ representation - the power spectra of groups IV and V are not shown since at high frequencies they were dominated by statistical errors. A summary of the fit parameters can be found in Table 1. The first three selections all show power at high frequencies, with the most eye-catching feature being the narrow QPO in selection III. The Lorentzian fit to this peak gives a $`\nu _{max}`$ of 250$`\pm `$5 Hz, a Q-value of 5.0$`\pm `$1.2, and an rms amplitude of 5.0$`\pm 0.4`$% (6.0$`\sigma `$ detection), making XTE J1650–500 the sixth black hole candidate to show such coherent high frequency variations. In selections I, II, VI high frequency variability is found at lower frequencies ($`\nu _{max}`$=53–139 Hz) with a lower coherence (Q=0.25–1.4), whereas only upper limits could be determined in selections IV and V. Note that for the power spectrum of selection II, two Lorentzians were needed to fit the high frequency part, one with properties similar to that of selection I, and one that was much narrower and at a considerably higher frequency. The properties of the $``$50 Hz and 250 Hz features do not change significantly when using the non-scaled Zhang function for the subtraction of the Poisson level.

To determine whether the frequency of the high frequency variability changed within our selections, we made additional selections on hard and/or soft color. Dividing group III in two parts, based on position in the CD (not shown), we found QPOs with frequencies of 245$`\pm `$5 Hz (Q$``$4.9) and 270$`\pm `$10 Hz (Q$``$5.3), for the spectrally hard and soft part, respectively. This frequency difference has a significance of 2.2$`\sigma `$. Dividing the hard branch, consisting of groups I and II, in four parts, reveals that the broad feature around 50 Hz has a frequency consistent ($`1\sigma `$) with being constant. The $``$140 Hz feature in group II seems to move from 109$`\pm `$9 Hz, in the hard part of that group, to 168$`\pm `$15 Hz in the soft part. Both these peaks are significantly detected ($`>3\sigma `$), have $`Q1`$, and have frequencies that are more than $`3\sigma `$ apart. Although this might suggest a continuous change in frequency from the hard part of group II to the soft part of group III, we note that the four frequencies detected in the subselections of groups II and III are consistent (within $`3\sigma `$) with frequencies that are 1/3, 1/2 and 1 times the frequency of the QPO detected in group III, i.e. 250 Hz. Unfortunately, dividing our data into smaller selections, to test the presence of intermediate frequencies did not result in significant detections. The 250 Hz QPO is only significantly ($`>3\sigma `$) detected in a few of the 33 observations of group III. Combining those individual observations leads to a detection with a significance that is lower than that of the detection in the whole group, suggesting the QPO is also present in (some of) the other observations.

The strength of the 250 Hz QPO seems to increase with energy; rms amplitudes of $`<`$0.85%, 4.5%, and $`<`$12.1% were found in, respectively, the 2–6.2 keV, 6.2–15.0 keV, and 15.0–60 keV bands.

The low frequency part of the power spectra also shows considerable changes between the different groups. Except for the first observations, all power spectra of groups I and II show low frequency QPOs, whose frequency smoothly increases with hardness from $``$1 Hz to $``$8 Hz. The low frequency part of group III generally show a QPO around 6 and/or 9 Hz, although in a few observations no QPO is detected at all. In groups IV and V no low frequency QPOs are detected - they reappear in group VI with a frequency of $``$5.5 Hz. In general the frequencies and Q values of the Lorentzians increase when the spectrum softens and decrease when the spectrum hardens, although there is clearly no one-on-one relation between hard color and frequencies (see Figures 1a and 2). Although there is a trend for both the high and low frequency QPOs to increase with hardness, the low number of simultaneous detections does not allow us to tell whether they show a tight correlation.

## 4 Discussion

Our detection of a 250 Hz QPO makes XTE J1650–500 the sixth BHC to show such high frequency variations. The properties like Q and rms amplitude fall in the range observed for other sources. As was already mentioned in Section 1, HF QPOs in black hole systems are predominantly observed when neither the non-thermal nor the thermal component completely dominates the energy spectrum - they have yet to be detected in the soft or hard state. XTE J1650–500 seems to be no exception to this; a preliminary analysis of the energy spectra shows that the 250 Hz QPO was detected when the contribution of the thermal component in the 2–200 keV range varied between $``$50% and $``$70% ($``$10–70% when including the marginal detections at $``$110 and $``$170 Hz). Interestingly, this group of observations also bridges the gap between two major branches in our HID, a hard branch (groups I and II) and a soft branch (group IV). The erratic changes in count rate and hardness in this transitional zone, as opposed to the smooth changes in the soft and hard branches, indicate that part of the accretion flow had become unstable. Although it is not clear from our analysis what part of the accretion flow this would be, our results suggest that the HF QPOs in XTE J1650–500 are enhanced when these instabilities in the accretion flow (with a time scale of apparently hours to days) occur.

In addition to the 250 Hz QPO we have also found a broad feature around 50 Hz. This feature is present in the hard branch where its frequency was consistent with being constant. At the moment that the 250 Hz QPO was detected this 50 Hz disappeared, suggesting that at least to some extent the mechanisms behind them are connected. Although the above might suggest that the broad 50 Hz peak had evolved into the QPO at 250 Hz, the two subselections of group II suggest otherwise; they show peaks at $``$110 and $``$170, which are present simultaneously with the 50 Hz peak. The constant frequency of this broad peak is remarkable though, especially since the LF QPOs (and possibly also the HF QPOs, see below) show clear changes in their frequency. Four of the eight power spectra of XTE J1650–500 shown in Figure 2 of Kalemci et al. (2002) also show broad peaks, three around 80 Hz and one around 25 Hz, and broad peaks at similar frequencies are also found in GX 339–4 and Cyg X-1 (Nowak, 2000). It is not clear whether these broad peaks are the same as the 50 Hz peaks we found.

The frequency behavior of the 250 Hz QPO itself is not clear either. There are indications that the frequency increased from $``$110 Hz to $``$270 Hz with decreasing spectral hardness, but the four independent frequencies that were measured ($``$110 Hz, $``$170 Hz, $``$245 Hz, and $``$270 Hz) are also consistent with being 1:2:3 harmonics of each other. In a sense this behavior is similar to what was found in XTE J1550–564; also in that source the frequency of the HF QPO seemed to increase with decreasing spectral hardness (Homan et al., 2001), while it was found later by Remillard et al. (2002a) that, when combining power spectra according to the type of LF QPO, the majority of the detected HF QPOs appeared to have frequencies that were consistent with being 1:2:3 harmonics of each other (with the relative strength of the harmonics being related to spectra hardness). However, in XTE J1550–564 HF QPOs were also found at frequencies that did not obey this harmonic relation. We also note that in the case of XTE J1650–500 the relation between HF QPOs and the type of LF QPO is not as strong as in XTE J1550–564, since the power spectra of group III showed considerable changes in the coherence and relative strength of the various low frequency components, while the frequency and harmonic content of the HF QPO did not change significantly.

Most models proposed to explain HF QPOs in black holes (Nowak et al., 1997; Stella et al., 1999; Cui et al., 1998; Psaltis & Norman, 2001; Abramowicz & Kluźniak, 2001) have in common that the oscillations are produced in the accretion disc. Some of them predict stable frequencies (Nowak et al., 1997), whereas others interpret them as the black hole counterparts of the kHz QPOs in neutron star sources, and try to predict and explain their frequencies with respect to those of the LF QPOs. Unfortunately, the limited number of detections of HF QPOs in this source does not allow us the make strong statements about any of the models. Stable frequencies are still possible, if one interprets the different frequencies as harmonics of each other as suggested by Abramowicz & Kluźniak (2001) for the pairs of peaks in GRS 1915+105 and GRO J1655–40. On the other hand, the different frequencies might also reflect real changes in the frequency. As noted by other authors it might well be possible that more than one of the above mechanism are at work at once. The broad and possibly stable feature around 50 Hz has not been specifically addressed by the current models.

If we simply interpret the maximum observed frequency of 270 Hz QPO as being due to Keplerian motion at the ISCO of a Schwarzschild black hole, we derive a mass of 8.2 $`M_{}`$. For a black hole with a lower mass no spin is required (and the radius of the Keplerian orbit has to be larger than that of the ISCO), whereas for more massive black holes it is. Since the properties of the broad, skewed Fe K$`\alpha `$ line detected with XMM-Newton (Miller et al., 2002) suggest that the black hole has a near maximum angular momentum, the mass of the black hole might well be much larger than 8.2 $`M_{}`$. Assuming a mass ratio for the companion star and the black hole of 0.1, the derived mass function for the system (Sánchez-Fernández et al., 2002) would then imply an inclination lower than 27, which is considerably lower than the values derived for GRS 1915+105 ($`70^{}`$ Greiner et al., 2001), GRO J1655–40 ($`70^{}`$ Greene et al., 2001, and references therein), and XTE J1550–564 ($`72^{}`$ Orosz et al., 2002). If we assume that the non-modulated X-ray emission is isotropic, this suggests that the mechanism responsible for the HF QPOs in black hole X-ray binaries does not produce highly beamed modulated radiation.

JH acknowledges support from Cofin-2000 grant MM02C71842. JMM is grateful for the support of the NSF. MK acknowledges support from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). WHGL is grateful for support from NASA.


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# The Masses Of The B-Stars In The High Galactic Latitude Eclipsing Binary IT LibBased on observations made at the 2.1-m Otto Struve Telescope of McDonald Observatory operated by the University of Texas at Austin and also at the 2.1m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatories, operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation

## 1 Background

Faint blue stars at high galactic latitude were first detected in a survey conducted by Humason & Zwicky (1947). Soon after, Bidelman (1948) brought attention to a number of high velocity stars of early spectral type. The faint apparent magnitudes (sizable distances) and high velocities led to the conclusion that these objects, which appear at low spectroscopic dispersions to be Population I stars, were a part of the galactic halo. A debate has raged since about the origin and characteristics of these high galactic latitude B-stars. Uncertainty about the masses or true distances of these stars has left the door open to many different scenarios. The discovery that IT Lib (catalog HD 138503) is an eclipsing binary (Kazarovets et al., 1999) raises to three the number of known eclipsing binaries at least 1 kpc above the galactic plane whose components are B-type stars. The other two are V Tuc (Wood, 1958) and DO Peg (Hoffmeister, 1935). IT Lib is the brightest of the three and has light curve and radial velocity data gathered for it. As a result, IT Lib presents us with an excellent opportunity to directly measure the masses of a pair of high galactic latitude B-stars.

Photometric variability was first noted in IT Lib (HD 138503) (catalog HD 138503) by Strohmeier (1967). Hill (1970) noted variability on the order of 0.2 magnitudes. Houk & Smith-Moore (1988) classified the spectra of IT Lib (HD 138503) (catalog HD 138503) as B2/B3 (IV)(n) with a note that the lines appeared ”somewhat filled in.” Later observations by the Hipparcos satellite confirmed IT Lib’s (HIP 76161) (catalog HD 138503) photometric variability. The $`74^{th}`$ naming list of the IBVS (Kazarovets et al., 1999) assigned the designation IT Lib (catalog HD 138503) and classified it as a possible eclipsing binary.

Analysis of the Hipparcos photometry annex data yielded an ephemeris with the parameters: $`P=2.2674600`$ days, $`T_0=2448500.76777`$ JD (Turon et al., 1997). Unfortunately, there was a beat pattern between the period of IT Lib and the duty cycle of the Hipparcos satellite so substantial gaps were left in the phase coverage from phase 0.30 to 0.58 and phase 0.63 to 0.75. The Hipparcos data show a strong primary eclipse but the secondary eclipse falls in the gap of observations.

## 2 New Spectral Data

High resolution spectra were taken of IT Lib with the Sandiford Echelle Spectrograph (McCarthy et al., 1993) on the McDonald Observatory 82” Struve Reflector in March 1999, February 2001, and May 2002. A summary of the observations is given in Table 1. The spectra were reduced and extracted using IRAF and analyzed using the ASP software package of Luck (2001a).

H I lines, He I lines, and the Mg II 4481 line all have profiles with two well defined minima over most of the observed period (see Figure 1 for an example). The broadening due to rotation of the individual components is on the order of 100-150 km/s so that the lines from each component never completely separate from each other. This blending probably accounts for the line peculiarities noted by Houk & Smith-Moore (1988). As modeled in section 4 of this paper, the primary component is three to four times as bright as the secondary in the band-pass of these spectroscopic observations so that its spectral lines dominate the composite spectra. An assortment of N II, O II, Al III, Si III, and Fe III lines could be identified at the radial velocity of the primary component but no lines other than H I, He I, or Mg II 4481 could be positively identified and attributed to the secondary.

The minima of the He I line profiles were used to measure the radial velocity of each component. At some phases, the center of the contribution from the secondary could not be measured due to blending so that only the radial velocity of the primary was measured at those phases. Table 2 summarizes the radial velocity measurements made from the observations and Figure 2 shows them plotted by phase using the Turon et al. (1997) parameters.

For the analysis in section 4 the individual weights of each radial velocity measure are set equal to each other. The measurements of the radial velocity of the secondary are somewhat more uncertain than those of the primary’s velocity because the lines of the secondary are significantly weaker and often partially blended with the lines of the primary. The relative weighting of the two velocity curves is accounted for in the curve dependent weights assigned to each data set as discussed in section 4.

## 3 New Photometric Data

The photometric data for IT Lib from the Hipparcos Catalog Epoch Photometry Annex has substantial gaps in phase space. An effort was made to obtain more photometric observations of IT Lib at the unobserved phases in order to verify that the system does have a secondary eclipse and to provide more points for light curve fitting in order to determine the properties of the system. Two sets of additional data were obtained. Feldmeier & Mihos (2002) obtained observations with the 2048x2048 Tektronix CCD (T2KA) with a Johnson B filter on the Kitt Peak 2.1-m. Those observations were reduced using sky flats and the non-linearity correction of Mochejska et al. (2001). The bulk of the CCD observations were obtained using the 1024x1024 FLICam (SIA-003 AB SITe back-illuminated CCD) using Cousins R and I filters on the Warner & Swasey Observatory, Nassau Station 36” reflector. Table 3 gives a summary of the observations.

The data were reduced in IRAF and aperture photometry was done with the IRAF procedure QPHOT. The apertures for QPHOT were set to approximately 3 sigma the FWHM of the stellar profiles. Table 4 identifies the reference stars. All the reference stars are between three and five magnitudes fainter than the target. There are no brighter reference stars in the fields of view ($`10.4\mathrm{}\times 10.4\mathrm{}`$ for the 2.1-m data and $`5\mathrm{}\times 5\mathrm{}`$ for the 36” data). As a result, uncertainty in the background turned out to be the largest contributing factor to the photometry errors.

The simple average of the scaled relative magnitudes with respect to each reference star is taken to be the measured relative magnitude of IT Lib for each individual image. The sigma is taken as the random error of each individual measurement. The errors are higher for the measurements in Cousins R because the night sky is significantly brighter in that band-pass. Larger errors also occurred on nights where moon light and/or clouds and humidity made significant contributions to the sky brightness. Only data with errors smaller than 50 milli-magnitudes was used in the analysis (Figure 3).

There was no need for absolute calibration of the photometry gathered. The Wilson (2001) code used to perform the analysis is capable of performing a simultaneous solution to multiple light curves in multiple filters/band-passes. The relative magnitudes in each filter were converted to relative intensity normalized to phase 0.25 and inputted as four separated data sets (Johnson B, Cousins R, Cousins I, and Hipparcos V) along with the appropriate effective wavelength data for each filter. Individual data points were weighted by the inverse square of their error.

## 4 Analysis of Orbits and Masses of Components

The parameters of the IT Lib system were derived from the radial velocity and photometric data using the program of Wilson (2001). Wilson (2001) uses the model of Wilson & Devinney (1971) with some modifications. The following assumptions are used: synchronous rotation of the components, the components radiate as black bodies, an orbital period of 2.267460 days and a zero epoch of 2448500.76777 (Turon et al., 1997), and the luminosity of the secondary component is computed as a function of temperature and surface area of that component. The logarithmic limb darkening law was used. Limb darkening coefficients used in the models are taken from the tables of Van Hamme (1993) for stars of the appropriate mass and temperature. The gravity brightening and reflective albedo coefficients used are the ones suggested by Wilson (2001) for hot stars with radiative envelopes. While the temperature of the secondary component is allowed to float, the temperature of the primary component is held constant at 22000 K, which is consistent with the observed colors of the system and the mass of the primary component.

Curve dependent weights were applied in order to compensate for the differences in precision between the light and velocity data sets. The Wilson (2001) code allows the weighting of curves by the standard deviation of the curve ($`\sigma _c`$). The method of Kallrath & Milone (1999) using the differences between pairs of consecutive points in phase space was used for calculating the value of $`\sigma _c`$ for each light curve. In the case of the radial velocity curves, the values were not spaced close enough to evaluate differences between consecutive points in phase space so the truncated FFT method (Kallrath & Milone, 1999) was used instead by simulating the velocity curve to first order with a sine function. The curve dependent weights calculated from this method are listed in Table 5.

The $`\sigma _c`$ for each velocity curve, when normalized to the curve amplitude, is roughly 20 times larger than the $`\sigma _c`$ of each of the light curves, which translates to a relative weight in the total solution on the order of 400 times smaller than the light curve weights. Some parameters have no dependence on the light curves (such as the semi-major axis and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ velocity). Full simultaneous solutions of both light and velocity data together calculated errors for these parameters on order of 50 to 60 percent of the parameter values. Solutions performed using only the the velocity data produced parameters with almost the same values but with errors that were two to four times smaller than those obtained in the full simultaneous solution. This led to the conclusion that the weights of the velocity curves were probably understated relative to the light curves. It seems reasonable that the velocity data sets should have lower curve weights since they have significantly fewer data points. However, the velocity data is more evenly distributed in phase space than any of the light curves.

In order to rectify the difference between the errors in the full solution and the solution using only the velocity data, the calculated $`\sigma _c`$ values for the velocity curves were divided by a factor of ten. This change gave the velocity curves roughly the same but still less weight than each of the light curves. When these curve weights were applied to the full simultaneous solution none of the derived parameter values were significantly different from those obtained using the unaltered curve weights. However, using the altered curve weights did reduce the errors of the velocity dependent parameters to essentially the same error values given by the solution to the velocity data alone. These corrected $`\sigma _c`$ values were used in the analysis to obtain the best fit parameters.

The Wilson (2001) code uses a least squares fit that is iterated to simultaneously solve the parameters of the system. The program was run in a mode reserved for detached binary systems. Table 6 lists the best fits to the parameters defining the IT Lib system. Figure 2 shows the fit to the radial velocity data and Figure 3 shows the fit to the light curve. The eclipses in the system are partial and the system is best modeled by stars of $`9.8\pm 0.7`$ $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`4.6\pm 0.3`$ $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ separated by $`17.6\pm 1.1`$ solar radii.

## 5 Distance from Photometry

The calculated masses of the components are consistent with main sequence stars of spectral class B2 and B7. The primary component is about three to four times as bright as the secondary, so its spectra dominates the observed composite spectra.

The photometric distance to the system can be found knowing the relative brightness of the components and the absolute magnitude of the primary component. It is possible to find the distance from the absolute magnitude of the combined system but this introduces additional uncertainties in the form of assumptions that would have to be made about the absolute properties of both the primary and secondary component. Since the light from the system is dominated by the primary, its absolute properties are better constrained. The relative brightness of the components is also well defined by the fit to the light curves. The absolute bolometric magnitude of the primary as calculated by the Wilson (2001) code is -5.20. The bolometric correction for a B2 V star is -2.35 (Cox, 2000) which yields an absolute V magnitude of -2.85 for the A component.

The apparent V magnitude of the primary ($`V_1`$) can be obtained from the apparent magnitude of the combined system ($`V_c`$) and the fraction of light from the primary relative to the combined system ($`F`$).

$`V_1=V_c+2.5\times log_{10}(1+F)`$

The calculation is carried out at maximum light in Johnson V (phase 0.271). The observed maximum apparent V magnitude of the combined system taken from Turon et al. (1997) is 9.09. The apparent magnitude comes from the maximum apparent magnitude of the system in the Tycho V filter, corrected to Johnson V by the method prescribed by Turon et al. (1997). The fraction of light from the primary relative to the combined system (F) is 0.7767 as calculated by the Wilson (2001) code. This yields a apparent V magnitude of 9.71 for the primary alone. The extinction factor ($`A_V`$) from Schlegel et al. (1998) is 0.702 (assuming $`A_V`$/E(B-V)=3.1). From the above quantities a distance of 2.4 kpc is obtained which places IT Lib 1.0 kpc above the galactic plane.

There are many sources of error to consider including the uncertainty in the physical parameters of the primary component, uncertainty in the extinction factor, and uncertainty in the relative brightness of the components. An error of a few tenths of a magnitude would translate into a twenty to thirty percent error in distance. The true errors in this case are unknown so a standard photometric distance error of $`30\%`$ is assumed in the following analysis.

## 6 Analysis of Age versus Kinematics

Knowing the distance, the systemic radial velocity, and the proper motions allow one to compute the true space velocity of the system. Proper motions for this system are present in Hipparcos (Turon et al., 1997), the ACT2000 (Urban et al., 1997), the Tycho-2 catalog (Hog et al., 2000), and the UCAC1 (Zacharias et al., 2000). These independent measures were averaged together by the method of Martin & Morrison (1998) to obtain a more accurate average proper motion of $`\mu _\alpha =1.82\pm 0.67`$ mas/yr and $`\mu _\delta =1.26\pm 0.76`$ mas/yr. The systemic radial velocity ($`50.9\pm 7.0`$ km/s) was taken from the analysis of the radial velocity curves.

The UVW space velocities were computed by the method of Eggen (1961). The UVW velocities were converted to $`V_\pi `$, $`V_\theta `$, $`V_z`$ assuming the solar motion of ($`V_\pi `$, $`V_\theta `$, $`V_z`$) = (-9 km/s, 232 km/s, 7 km/s) for an object in close proximity to the sun with (U,V,W)=(0,0,0) (Mihalas & Binney, 1981). IT Lib′s true space velocity was computed to be ($`V_\pi `$, $`V_\theta `$, $`V_z`$) = ($`1.6\pm 4.1`$ km/s, $`207.0\pm 13.3`$ km/s, $`35.9\pm 7.7`$ km/s). Errors are difficult to estimate for these velocities because the true error in the distance in unknown. For this analysis the distance error is assumed to be $`30\%`$ ($`\pm 0.7`$ kpc), which is reasonable for a photometric distance. $`V_\pi `$ are $`V_\theta `$ are consistent with a star within the rotating galactic disk. $`V_z`$ and the height above the plane lead to the conclusion that while components of IT Lib′s velocity are disk-like that it has been some how ejected out of the disk into the galactic halo. Of particular interest is that IT Lib is moving back toward the plane of the galaxy, presumably traveling on the down-hill side of a ballistic trajectory.

The average main-sequence lifetime of a ten solar mass star is about 22 million years (Iben, 1967). The orbital integrator of Harding et al. (2001) was used to estimate the number of years that have elapsed since IT Lib was last in the galactic plane (Z=0). By integrating the orbit backwards in time it is found that it took $`33\pm 4`$ million years for IT Lib to travel from Z = 0 to its present location. The maximum Z distance that IT Lib reaches from the disk on this trajectory is just over 1.1 kpc. We shall return to this apparent discrepancy after a discussion of the abundance analysis of the primary component.

## 7 Chemical Abundance Analysis

The spectrum used for the abundance analysis of IT Lib was taken at phase 0.829 (March 31, 1999, see Table 1). According to the model of the system, at this phase both stars are un-obscured so that the observed spectra is a straight blend of the light from both components. At this phase the lines of the primary and secondary component are near maximum separation, making it easier to measure the contribution to the line from each individual component. Equivalent widths of twelve lines identified with the primary component were measured. Because both stars are un-obscured at this phase the continuum contribution from the secondary could easily be removed from the measured equivalent widths. The continuum contribution of the secondary component was removed from the measured equivalent widths by calculating the ratio between the continuum flux of the primary versus the total combined flux of the system (F) and applying this ratio to the equivalent width in this manner:

$$W\mathrm{}=W\times (1/F),$$

The value of F is calculated for the appropriate band-pass and phase using the Wilson (2001) code (F=0.816 at phase 0.829). W is equivalent width measured from the composite spectra. And W′ is the re-scaled equivalent width used in the abundance analysis.

There were no lines (other than the H I, He I, and Mg II 4481 lines) that could be positively identified and attributed to the secondary. This is not surprising due to a combination of the signal to noise of the observation, the rotational broadening of the components, and the fact that the light from the primary component dominates the spectra.

The lines that were measured for the primary component are listed in Table 7 along with the atomic data for those lines. The computer program LINES (Sneden, 1973; Luck, 2001b) was used to calculate LTE abundances from the equivalent widths for individual lines. The primary broadening mechanism in these stars is the quadratic stark effect, for which this version of LINES uses the method of Cowley (1971). ATLAS9 (Kurucz, 1993) was used to build the stellar atmospheric models.

Because the primary is slightly distorted the gravity varies by a small amount over the surface. The mean surface gravity for the primary component as calculated by the Wilson (2001) code is log(g) = 3.75. The effective temperature of a $`9.8M_{\mathrm{}}`$ star is approximately 22000 K. The temperature/gravity relations of Napiwotzki et al. (1993) obtain the following values for the Strömgren photometry published by Hauck & Mermilliod (1998): T = 22060 K, log(g) = 3.62. This agrees well with the parameters obtained from the model of the system.

The microturbulence was determined using the lines of the $`4550\AA `$ Si III triplet. The relative GF values of the triplet are well known and the lines cover a range of equivalent widths making this triplet ideal for determining microturbulence. The microturbulence is calculated from the triplet by finding the value at which each line in the triplet gives the same abundance value so that there is no trend in abundance with respect to equivalent width. The microturbulence found for each model used is listed in Table 8. These are rather typical values for a B-star of this temperature under the assumption of LTE.

The results of the analysis over a range of temperatures and gravities are presented in Table 8. The favored model is 22000 K, log(g) = 3.75. The results for individual lines in the favored model are listed in Table 7. The results using other models over a range of temperatures and gravities are presented to demonstrate how differences in the atmospheric models effect the abundances. For comparison the solar abundance values (Grevesse & Sauval, 1998) and the average abundance values for a sample of Population I B-stars (Martin, 2003) are given. The sample of Population I B-Stars are twelve stars situated in the galactic plane covering the range of atmospheric parameters representative of B-stars. The abundances in these stars were analyzed in the same manner as IT Lib. The abundances of the primary component are consistent with those for a normal Population I B-Star over the entire range of temperatures and gravities explored. N II and Al III are a bit depressed; however, when the errors in the analysis are considered these anomalies are negligible.

## 8 Discussion

### 8.1 Main Sequence Lifetime versus Travel Time

The discrepancy between the main-sequence lifetime of the primary component (22 Myr) and the travel time back to the disk (33 Myr) may present a conundrum. Three possibilities exist to resolve the apparent conflict of facts: the travel time and main-sequence lifetime are not in conflict when all possible systematic errors are considered, the A component of the IT Lib system is somehow enjoying a prolonged main-sequence lifetime due to mass transfer or other method of rejuvenation, or the IT Lib system did not form in the galactic disk.

The error budget for calculating the orbit of IT Lib does not allow for the possibility that IT Lib was in the galactic plane 22 million years ago or less. Each component of the true space velocity is the sum of a term including the radial velocity and a term with a linear dependence on the distance to the star. The radial velocity term is well determined compared to the second term which is perturbed by the error in the proper motion and multiplied by the uncertainty in the distance. Recall that the error in the distance is unknown, so in the Monte-Carlo error simulation a distance error of $`30\%`$ was assumed. A change in the distance would effect the U, V, and W velocities in a linear manner by -4.9 km/s/kpc, 1.6 km/s/kpc, and -9.2 km/s/kpc. If IT Lib is further away then it takes even longer for it to journey from the galactic plane to its present location so we are only concerned with the possibility that the distance has been overestimated. Because of the way that the velocity vector of IT Lib is oriented with respect to the plane of the sky, a large change in distance does not have a significant effect on the velocity vector of the star. If the distance to IT Lib is taken to be only 1 kpc then it still takes about 28 million years to return to the galactic plane. The likelihood is that there is not enough room in the error budget of the true velocity to put IT Lib in the plane any sooner than 28 million years ago.

The galactic potential model and integrator used to calculate the trajectory of IT Lib are described in detail in Harding et al. (2001). This model contains disk, halo, bulge, and dark halo components which are able to reproduce the observed motions of stars both in the disk and the halo under the most rigorous testing. The model assumes a smooth distribution of matter in the galactic disk which is a good approximation for our purposes since the gravitational influence of inhomogeneities in the disk only becomes significant within a few hundred parsecs of the galactic plane. Stars on orbits that take them kiloparsecs out of the plane spend very little of their time that close so for all intents and purposes the potential they experience is not significantly perturbed from the smooth approximation. It is reasonable to assume that this is a robust model that does not significantly contribute to the errors associated with the travel time back to the disk.

There is probably more uncertainty in the main-sequence lifetime of the primary component than in the travel time back to the disk. The main-sequence lifetime of a star is a simple relation between the luminosity of the star and the amount of hydrogen available to undergo fusion in the core. Mixing (by rotation, convection, or other means) can lengthen the main sequence lifetime of a star by increasing the amount of hydrogen available for burning in the core. Modeling the evolution of massive stars becomes a complicated problem requiring the accounting of many processes, some of which are only known to an order of magnitude (Heger et al., 2000). Talon et al. (1997) demonstrated for a model of a 9 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ star the time to hydrogen depletion in the core can vary as much as 4 million years just by including or excluding convective overshooting from the model. Stellar rotation also influences mixing. Heger & Langer (2000) calculated that a 10 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ star rotating at 200 km/s has a main sequence lifetime of 25 million years versus only 19 million years for the same model without rotation. In the IT Lib system there is the additional consideration of the mixing effects that may be induced in one component through tidal interaction with the other component. It is difficult to estimate the effect of all these factors on the main-sequence lifetime of IT Lib A but it seems reasonable to assume that the main-sequence lifetime falls in the range from 22 to 32 million years.

Taking all factors into account it would be reasonable to say that IT Lib was formed in the galactic disk just over 30 million years ago and that the primary component is still on the hydrogen burning main sequence. When the uncertainty in the main sequence lifetime of a 10 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ star in a close binary system is combined with uncertainty in the travel time back to the disk this becomes a plausible explanation for IT Lib.

### 8.2 Ejection From The Disk And Rejuvenation Through Mass Transfer

Hoogerwerf et al. (2001) cite two mechanisms that are thought to produce a majority of run-away O and B-type stars: the binary-supernova scenario (BSS) and the dynamical ejection scenario (DES). Stars ejected by the DES mechanism should not show any discrepancy between their actual and apparent ages. The problem remains of how one might eject a binary star system from the disk. While ejection scenarios may favor single stars it still is possible, however unlikely it may be, that close binaries could also be ejected. IT Lib is a unique system and may well be one of those rare binaries that undergo DES ejection.

Stars ejected from the disk by BSS once had a close companion, which exploded in a supernova. When the shell from the explosion passes the secondary, the system becomes unbound and the companion flies off with a velocity comparable to its original orbital velocity. Because mass transfer would occur in such a system prior to and as a result of the supernova explosion the ejected companion is “rejuvenated.” Hoogerwerf et al. (2001) show by tracing BSS candidates back to their star cluster of origin that run-aways produced by BSS are probably blue-stragglers, appearing younger than they really are. If IT Lib were ejected by BSS then it would have probably originated in a ternary system with the current components orbiting the more massive supernova progenitor at a distance greater than the distance between the remaining components. The mass transfer from the supernova progenitor to the remaining components could possibly explain the discrepancy between their main-sequence lifetimes and travel time back to the disk.

There is probably not any appreciable mass transfer occurring in the system now because the model shows it is fully detached and there are no spectral emission features (particularly $`H\alpha `$) that could be associated with a mass stream or accretion disk. It is probable that a mass transfer event large enough to influence the evolution of either component in the system would manifest itself as photospheric abundance anomalies. In order to move enough mass to have a significant impact one would have to dredge deep enough to involve processed material in the mass transfer that would end up in the outer layers of the component receiving the transfer.

### 8.3 In Situ Halo Star Formation

Another possibility is that the IT Lib system did not form in the galactic disk at all. The apex of the trajectory followed by IT Lib occurred 10 million years ago at a height of 1.1 kpc. Assuming that IT Lib formed in a high velocity cloud (HVC) or intermediate velocity cloud (IVC) at that time there would be no conflict between the main-sequence lifetime of the primary and the travel time from its position at birth to its current location. The motions of molecular clouds are influenced by magnetic and hydrodynamic forces that do not affect the motions of individual stars (Binney & Merifield, 1998). As a result it seems possible to form a close binary pair and drop it out of a cloud on a trajectory toward the disk without invoking any binary star ejection mechanism.

Van Woerden (1993) and Christodoulou et al. (1997) report that the conditions thought to exist in HVCs are conducive to the formation of individual massive stars. Even though the conditions appear to exist in the HVCs for star formation to theoretically occur, no observational evidence of star formation in these clouds has been found (Willman et al., 2002; Ivenzic & Christodoulou, 1997; Hambly et al., 1996). Star formation apparently is occurring under what are thought to be similar environmental conditions in the HI bridge between the LMC and SMC (Christodoulou et al., 1997). Comerón et al. (2001) report signs of star formation occurring in the halo of edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 253, which they conclude shows it is possible for star formation to currently be occurring in the HVCs of the Milky Way. While the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, it would be easier to accept the scenario of IT Lib forming in an HVC or IVC if there was other, more compelling, evidence. Due to uncertainties in the distances and trajectories of the IVCs and HVCs it is not possible to determine if any known HVC or IVC clouds intersect the orbit of IT Lib at any time in the past.

### 8.4 Evidence From Abundances

The results of the abundance analysis could provide additional information that would favor one scenario over another. If IT Lib were rejuvenated and ejected in a BSS ejection then it is expected that the elemental abundances observed in the photospheres of the components should be enhanced, particularly those abundances of helium and nitrogen (Hoogerwerf et al., 2001; Heger & Langer, 2000). Likewise, if IT Lib had undergone mass transfer between components in its past then the abundances might reflect this activity. If IT Lib were formed in an HVC or IVC we would expect the abundances of the components to be compatible with those observed by Wakker (2001) for those clouds.

The analysis of the lines associated with the primary component of IT Lib show abundances that are in line with those expected for a Population I B-star found in the galactic disk. Nitrogen does not appear to be significantly enhanced as would be expected in the BSS scenario. There are no other obvious abundance anomalies as would be expected if processed material had been accreted onto the primary. Even if the atmospheric parameters of the primary are varied over a range of gravities and temperatures, the derived photospheric abundances are consistent with what would be expected for a “normal” Population I B-star found in the galactic disk. The abundances of the primary do not lend weight to any of the scenarios involving rejuvenation of the system through mass transfer nor does IT Lib A appear to be markedly metal poor as might be expected from a star formed in an HVC or IVC in the galactic halo.

### 8.5 Conclusion

There does seem to be enough evidence to suggest that there is actually no discrepancy between the main-sequence lifetime of the primary and the travel time back to the disk. When accounting for possible errors, particularly those associated with the main-sequence lifetime of a massive star, it becomes evident that there is probably no discrepancy at all. It seems most likely that IT Lib is a pair of Population I B-stars that were ejected from the star forming regions of the galactic disk by DES about 30 million years ago.

It is important to recognize that conclusions reached about the IT Lib system do not automatically apply to any other high galactic latitude B-Stars. The careful analysis of full space velocities (radial velocities and proper motions) using a comprehensive model of the galactic potential will help identify more Population I B-Stars that have been ejected from the disk. The reasons to study a sample of normal Population I B-stars at large distances may not be obvious, when their nearby cousins are easier to study at high precision. Population I B-Stars that have been ejected from the disk have a lower limit set on their ages by the analysis of their trajectory, constraining their ages better than their disk-bound counter parts. As a result these stars might be used to start to piece together an observational picture of the evolution of high mass B-stars on the main-sequence. This would be of great benefit to those that model these stars and may help enhance our understanding of stellar energy generation and energy transport processes in general.

## 9 Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge R. Earle Luck for his continued assistance and support. I also wish to acknowledge John Feldmeier and Chris Mihos for their efforts obtaining photometric observations of IT Lib and John Feldmeier for useful conversations concerning this research and reducing the 2.1-m data. Finally, I want to thank the anonymous referee for the time and effort they gave to contribute many insightful comments and suggestions that had a positive impact on this paper. This work was supported in part by the Jason J. Nassau Scholarship Fund and the Townsend Fund.


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# Butterfly hysteresis loop at non-zero bias field in antiferromagnetic molecular rings: cooling by adiabatic magnetization

## Abstract

At low temperatures, the magnetization of the molecular ferric wheel NaFe6 exhibits a step at a critical field $`B_c`$ due to a field-induced level-crossing. By means of high-field torque magnetometry we observed a hysteretic behavior at the level-crossing with a characteristic butterfly shape which is analyzed in terms of a dissipative two-level model. Several unusual features were found. The non-zero bias field of the level-crossing suggests the possibility of cooling by adiabatic magnetization.

preprint: Ver 3.0

One of the most exciting recent discoveries in magnetism is that of magnetic hysteresis of purely molecular origin in metal complexes like Mn12 or Fe8 Ses93 ; Gat94 ; Tho96 ; Fri96 ; San97 ; Gat00 . In these large-spin molecules spin reversal is blocked at low temperatures due to an energy barrier. Recently, a different type of molecular hysteresis has been observed in the molecule called V15 Chi00 . Here, the spin system is dynamically driven out of equilibrium leading to hysteresis loops with a characteristic butterfly shape. The relevant time scale is on the order of seconds because of the phonon bottleneck effect. All in all, V15 is an experimental realization of a two-level system with dissipation Chi00 .

In this work, we investigated the molecular ferric wheel \[NaFe6L6\]Cl$``$6CHCl3 with L = N(CH2CH2O)3, or NaFe6 in short Sal97 . Ferric wheels attracted much interest because of the possibility of coherent quantum tunneling Taf94 ; Chi98 . In NaFe6, the six iron(III) ions form a ring of spin-5/2 centers with dominant antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbor Heisenberg interactions XFe6 . At zero field the ground state is nonmagnetic ($`S=0`$), but application of a magnetic field leads to a level-crossing at a critical field $`B_c`$ where the ground states changes abruptly to the first excited $`S=1`$, $`M=1`$ level \[inset of Fig. 1(a)\] Cor99 ; CsFe8 . Thus, from a general point of view, NaFe6 represents a two-level system for fields close to $`B_c`$. We will show that, for appropriate conditions, NaFe6 exhibits a butterfly hysteresis similar to that observed in V15. This allows for important conclusions concerning fundamental physical aspects of ferric wheels. Furthermore, we found several striking features of the spin reversal process, demonstrating that the dissipative two-level system realized in NaFe6 is actually a very distinctive one.

The magnetic properties of single crystals of NaFe6 were investigated by high-field torque-magnetometry. The single crystals were prepared as reported Sal97 . They crystallize in the space group $`R\overline{3}`$. The cation \[NaFe6L6\]+ exhibits $`S_6`$ molecular symmetry with the $`S_6`$ symmetry axis oriented perpendicular to the plane of the cluster. The complex shows strict uniaxial magnetic behavior XFe6 ; CsFe8 . The uniaxial axis coincides with the molecular $`S_6`$ symmetry axis. The torque was detected with homemade cantilever devices micromachined from crystalline silicon CsFe8 . Resolution was typically 10-11 Nm. For measurement, a single crystal was selected by light microscopy in the mother liquor, was directly put from the solution into Apiezon grease and mounted on the cantilever. The weight of the crystals investigated was typically 20 $`\mu `$g, non-linearity was less than 1%. The torquemeter was inserted into a 17 T cryomagnet with a vacuum loading 3He insert. The angle between the crystal’s uniaxial axis and magnetic field could be aligned in situ with an accuracy of $`0.3^{}`$. Calibration of the torque signal is accurate to $`\pm `$15%. Temperature was measured with a RuO2 thick film resistor to within $`\pm `$30 mK.

A typical result for the field dependence of the torque at $`T=0.32`$K is shown in Fig. 1. The negative sign of the torque manifests the hard axis anisotropy of NaFe6 XFe6 . The torque signal exhibits a steplike field dependence at $`B_c`$ due to the abrupt switch of the ground state from the zero-field $`S=0`$ ground state to the first excited $`S=1`$ state \[inset of Fig. 1(a)\]. This phenomenon is well known for ferric wheels Cor99 ; XFe6 ; CsFe8 , but for the first time we also observed a pronounced hysteresis of the torque signal for fields close to $`B_c`$, as shown in more detail in Fig. 1(b). The dependence of the butterfly curves on the sweep rate of the field and on temperature is presented in Fig. 2. The field position of the curves, i.e. the value of $`B_c`$, showed the expected angular dependence XFe6 , but otherwise we didn’t observe an effect of the angle.

The underlying physics is quickly identified. Measurements performed with torque sensor and crystal immersed in 3He exchange gas resulted in perfectly reversible torque curves. In this work, however, we used a vacuum loading 3He insert and thermal contact between crystal and bath was established via the silicon cantilever. In this configuration, thermal coupling should be weaker than with exchange gas. Obviously, the hysteretic behavior shown in Fig. 1 reflects a non-equilibrium state due to limitations in heat flow indicating that phonons play an important role in the process of changing the spin state at the level-crossing.

Similar butterfly hysteresis curves were observed recently for the molecular cluster V15 and were successfully described in terms of a phonon bottleneck scenario (PBS) Chi00 ; Compare . The essence of the PBS is that energy exchange between spin system and bath occurs via phonons Abr70 . The phonon bottleneck arises because the number of spins is much larger than the number of available resonant phonon modes at low temperatures. That is, the heat capacity of the spins $`C_s`$ is much larger than that of the phonons $`C_p`$ ($`b=C_s/C_p1`$). Therefore, the phonon temperature $`T_p`$ follows that of the spin system $`T_s`$ very quickly (on times $`t_1b^1t_s`$) while energy transfer from the phonons to the bath is drastically delayed (time scale $`t_2bt_p`$). Here, $`t_s`$ and $`t_p`$ denote the spin-phonon and phonon-bath relaxation times, respectively. For the time scales of the present experiments, the spins and phonons may be regarded as a single coupled system ($`T_s=T_p`$) which is weakly coupled to the bath ($`T_sT`$).

The butterfly hysteresis curves reflect the behavior of the spin temperature in the PBS. Spin temperature and torque are monotonously related: for a given magnetic field, $`|\tau |`$ is the larger the smaller $`T_s`$ if $`B>B_c`$, and vice versa if $`B<B_c`$. Approaching the level-crossing from a starting field of e.g. $`B>B_c`$, the spin temperature first decreases since the spin-phonon system cannot pick up heat quickly enough from the bath \[inset of Fig. 1(b)\]. Thus, for sufficiently fast sweeping rates, the spin-phonon system is virtually decoupled from the bath resulting in a (quasi) adiabatic demagnetization process. At $`BB_c`$, the spin system reaches a minimal temperature $`T_{s,min}`$. With further decreasing field, the spin system heats up (reverse of adiabatic demagnetization) but overshoots the bath temperature since it now receives heat from the bath which started to flow to reestablish equilibrium but reaches the spin system delayed due to the finite relaxation time $`t_2`$.

The phonon bottleneck effect is obviously the underlying physical mechanism for the observed hysteresis in NaFe6, and in so far the situation is analogous to that of a conventional two-level system. However, there are some particular characteristics to be noted, some of which are quite striking:

(1) With our setup we observed ”heat-flow” hysteresis effects only for NaFe6 (and related ferric wheels). We have investigated quite a number of different molecular spin clusters, but for them the thermal coupling provided by our silicon sensors was sufficient to achieve reversible torque curves. In this respect, the observation of hysteresis in NaFe6 is notable.

(2) A distinctive feature of the two-level system realized in NaFe6 is that the two states involved belong to different spin and spatial quantum numbers. In NaFe6 the strong exchange limit is realized and the total spin quantum number $`S`$ is a good (though not exact) quantum number XFe6 ; CsFe8 . Additionally, the cyclic molecular symmetry implies a spin permutational symmetry Symmetrie  and states may be classified by the wave vector $`k`$ CsFe8 ; Spindynamik . The two states relevant in this work belong to $`S=0`$, $`k=\pi `$ and $`S=1`$, $`k=0`$, respectively, so that phonon absorption/emission is constrained by $`|\mathrm{\Delta }S|=1`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }k|=\pi `$. To the best of our knowledge, the effects of these restrictions for the energy exchange between spins and bath have not been investigated so far. But conceivably the number of available phonons may be further reduced by these constraints. The $`\mathrm{\Delta }k`$ selection rule may be of particular relevance since it holds exactly as long as the molecular symmetry exhibits a $`C_2`$ symmetry axis.

(3) With a numerical analysis of the hysteresis curves based on the PBS, Chiorescu et al. evidenced a zero-field splitting for the molecule V15 Chi00 . In the case of ferric wheels, within a description in terms of a spin Hamiltonian consisting of terms related to the electronic spins only, the level-crossing at $`B=B_c`$ is a true crossing by virtue of translational symmetry CsFe8 ; Spindynamik . However, interactions with e.g. the nuclear spins may lead to a splitting of the levels at the crossing point Nor01 ; Mei01 . Their identification would be of considerable importance for the issue of quantum coherence in antiferromagnetic rings since they may act as sources of decoherence Mei01 . But so far, no clear evidence for a splitting of the level-crossings, i.e. for anti-crossings, has been reported.

We thus analyzed our data with the numerical procedure developed in Ref. \[Chi00, \] as adapted to torque measurements. Although we could generate curves which roughly resembled the experimental ones, we could not reproduce the data for different temperatures and sweeping rates satisfactorily. Values for e.g. $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, the splitting of the level-crossing at $`B=B_c`$ (inset of Fig. 3), showed unphysical scattering. This indicates, that the PBS as outlined above is a too simple picture.

Therefore, we considered the dependence of the minimal spin temperature $`T_{s,min}`$ as function of the sweep rate of the magnetic field. In conjunction with a model Hamiltonian, $`T_{s,min}`$ could be determined reliably from the slope of the torque curves at $`B=B_c`$ as the curves are essentially reversible in this field regime. In this way, $`T_{s,min}`$ could be estimated with a reproducibility of 5 mK, but the values are subject to a systematic error of about $`\pm `$15 mK due to inaccuracies in the calibration of the torque signal. The results for two samples are shown in Fig. 3. For sample $`A`$, $`T_{s,min}`$ first decreases linearly with increasing sweep rate and then saturates at about 0.17 K. It should be noted, that the value of $`T_{s,min}`$ = 0.325 K extrapolated to zero sweep rate agrees well with the bath temperature as measured with the RuO2 sensor. In the saturation regime, the spin system obviously behaves quasi adiabatically and it is thus very suggestive to identify the saturation temperature as a level-splitting, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ = 0.17 K.

We have also analyzed the broadening of the torque step as measured under reversible conditions for various temperatures down to 0.4 K. This method provides an alternative way to estimate $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ Cor99 ; Nor01 . However, even at the lowest temperatures the width of the step is in full accord with thermal broadening resulting in an upper limit of 0.05 K for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$.

We have no explanation for this serious discrepancy. It suggests that the minimal spin temperature in the limit of infinite sweep rates exceeds the thermodynamically determined splitting of the level-crossing. The PBS in the present form obviously does not account for all the effects responsible for limiting $`T_{s,min}`$ and/or broadening the torque step. It should be noted that the discrepancy cannot be explained by ”extrinsic” effects as e.g. crystal imperfections (twinning, mosaicity, etc.) Nor01 .

Incidentally, Fig. 3 demonstrates the role of the thermal coupling between crystal and bath. In case of sample $`B`$ it is obviously better than for sample $`A`$ as the crossover is shifted to larger sweep rates.

(4) As mentioned already, $`T_{s,min}`$ as function of the sweep rate exhibits a crossover from a linear regime to a saturation regime (Fig. 3). This is readily understood within the PBS. However, in the case of NaFe6 the crossover is accompanied by a striking change of the hysteretic behavior. In the saturation regime the curves are symmetrical around $`B_c`$ \[Fig. 1(b)\], but in the linear regime the hysteresis becomes clearly asymmetric. Two example curves are shown in Fig. 4. The asymmetry is more pronounced the slower the sweep rate or the higher the (bath) temperature and was always found to be such that the hysteresis is larger for $`B>B_c`$ than for $`B<B_c`$.

It seems as if energy exchange between spin system and bath is different for $`B<B_c`$ and $`B>B_c`$. This is not easily explained. It is hardly conceivable that the thermal coupling between phonons and bath depends on magnetic field. But then one has to conclude that the asymmetry is related to peculiarities of the spin-phonon coupling in NaFe6. However, the arguments presented above and in Refs. \[Abr70, \], \[Chi00, \] aim to show that spin-phonon coupling is so fast that in our experiments $`T_s=T_p`$ is always maintained so that any details of the spin-phonon coupling are indiscernible! As demonstrated by the symmetry of the curves for large sweep rates and under reversible conditions \[Fig. 1(b)\], an asymmetry of the energy levels is not an issue.

(5) The most obvious distinctive feature of the NaFe6 two-level system is the non-zero bias field of the crossing, i.e. of $`B_c>0`$. As shown in the above, the spin system cools down by approaching the critical field $`B_c`$ as it is quasi adiabatically decoupled from the environment for large enough sweep rates. If one starts at $`B>B_c`$ and decreases field, the situation corresponds to cooling by adiabatic demagnetization. However, if one starts at $`B<B_c`$ (e.g. $`B=0`$) and increases field, the reverse situation is realized, namely that of cooling by adiabatic magnetization. Of course, in the present work no real adiabatic conditions were realized - but the effect is clearly evident from Fig. 1.

In summary, we observed a butterfly hysteresis loop of the torque at the first ground state level-crossing in the molecular ferric wheel NaFe6. The results show that phonons are mostly responsible for transitions between the two states near the level-crossing. This clarifies a recent proposal where it has been argued (as hysteresis was not yet observed) that dipole-dipole coupling between nuclear and electronic spins plays an important role Cor00 . The minimal spin temperature $`T_{s,min}`$ achieved during the hysteresis loop was found to saturate for large sweep rates of the magnetic field - the first direct experimental evidence for interactions of the electronic spins with the environment in ferric wheels. A detailed analysis of the processes determining $`T_{s,min}`$ should provide deep insight into the conditions for quantum coherence in ferric wheels. The present work suggests a novel experimental route to measure them.

For slow sweep rates the hysteresis loop exhibited a striking asymmetry which is unexplainable within a standard phonon bottleneck scenario. One may only speculate about the role played by the unusual quantum numbers of the states involved in the level-crossing. It also has been demonstrated that the NaFe6 system allows for cooling by adiabatic magnetization, i.e. for the opposite of what is generally known. At the level-crossing the ferric wheel NaFe6 represents a dissipative two-level system - but with quite unusual properties sheding new light on a model of which one thought to know all.

###### Acknowledgements.

OW would like to thank I. Chiorescu for fruitful comments concerning the numerical simulation of the phonon bottleneck effect. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Sonderforschungsbereich 583, and the Bayerisches Langzeitprogramm ”Neue Werkstoffe”.


text:
# Rapid Adiabatic Passage from an Atomic to a Molecular Condensate

## Abstract

We examine collective magnetoassociation of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), focusing on rapid adiabatic passage from atoms to molecules induced by a sweep of the magnetic field across a wide ($`\stackrel{>}{}10\text{ G}`$) Feshbach resonance in 85Rb. This problem raises an interest because strong magnetoassociation is expected to favor the creation of molecular-dissociated atom pairs over the formation of molecular BEC \[Javanainen and Mackie, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 090403 (2002)\]. Nevertheless, the conversion to atom pairs is found to depend on the direction of the sweep, so that a system initially above threshold (open dissociation channel) may in fact give efficient conversion to molecules.

Photoassociation occurs when a laser is on resonance with a transition from the collisional state of an atom pair to the bound state of a molecule. The analogous process of magnetoassociation, which involves a Zeeman-shifted molecular level on Feshbach resonance with a colliding atom pair, has an identical formalism, and intuition developed in one case is applicable to the other. Specifically, the probability of photoassociation in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) was found to approach unity , which opened the door to the possibility of using coherent magnetoassociation  or photoassociation  of already-Bose-condensed atoms to create a molecular BEC.

Early theory of coherent association was implicitly based on few-mode models that neglect transitions to noncondensate modes . Such “rogue” , or unwanted , transitions to noncondensate modes occur because the dissociation of a zero-momentum ($`𝐤=0`$) BEC molecule need not take the atoms back to the zero-momentum atomic condensate, but may just as well end up with two atoms with opposite momenta ($`\pm 𝐤`$). Since the coherent condensate coupling scales like the square root of the laser intensity (Feshbach-resonance width) and the noncondensate coupling scales like the intensity, rogue dissociation is expected to play a dominant role in strongly coupled atom-molecule systems .

Pioneering experiments  with photoassociation of 87Rb BEC were found to be just on the verge  of coherent atom-molecule conversion. Next-generation Na  and 7Li  experiments were aimed at the strongly interacting regime, and probed the potential photoassociation rate limit. Meanwhile, experiments on magnetoassociation in 85Rb have led to dramatic losses of BEC atoms for a sweep of the magnetic field across resonance , a collapsing condensate with bursts of atoms emanating from a remnant condensate , a counterintuitive decrease in condensate losses for an increasing interaction time , and collective burst-remnant oscillations .

Rogue dissociation is the key to an overall understanding of these experimental results. First, although the experiments remain inconclusive on this score , a rate limit is to be expected when the conversion to rogue-dissociated atom pairs dominates over the formation of molecular condensate . Similarly, the losses for across-resonance sweeps , and the counterintuitive losses , can be viewed as rapid adiabatic passage from BEC to rogue-dissociated atoms pairs . The remnant-burst oscillations  are identified as Ramsey fringes in the evolution between an atomic condensate and a molecular condensate dressed by noncondensate atom pairs .

There remains the matter of the formation of a molecular condensate. In magnetoassociation experiments, the sum of the remnant and burst atoms does not entirely account for the initial condensate, and the missing atoms are roughly consistent with calculations  of the number of molecules formed, thus indirectly confirming the realization of molecular BEC. Either way, the (measured) calculated fraction of (atom loss) molecular condensate is small ($`\stackrel{<}{}`$ 10%).

The question is whether an improvement of the $`{}_{}{}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}_{2}^{}`$ conversion efficiency is possible. Given the existing results , the immediate answer is no. The 155 G magnetoassociation resonance in 85Rb is exceptionally strong, and rogue dissociation is apparently prominent. Indeed, the qualitative agreement between experiment  and theory  indicates that the obvious solution, a $``$ 1 ms sweep of the magnetic field across resonance, merely causes rapid adiabatic passage from the initial atomic condensate to rogue-dissociated atoms, with very little molecular BEC formed. The present Letter reports our startling observation that, simply by reverting the direction of the sweep of the magnetic field from the experiments of Ref. , rapid adiabatic passage  may nonetheless efficiently convert from an atomic to a molecular condensate.

We continue to refine our mean-field model for photoassociation and Feshbach resonance  in an attempt to extract as much quantitative accuracy out of it as possible. Since Bose enhancement favors the return of dissociated atoms back to the molecular BEC, we ignore all noncondensate modes of the molecule. The model thus includes an atomic condensate \[described by the complex amplitude $`\alpha `$\], a molecular condensate \[$`\beta `$\], and noncondensate atom pairs with zero total momentum \[$`C(ϵ)a_𝐩a_𝐩`$, $`ϵ=\mathrm{}𝐤^2/m`$\]. As new features we now incorporate possible Bose enhancement in the conversion of molecules to noncondensate atom pairs, conversion of the “anomalous” atom pair amplitudes \[$`a_𝐩a_𝐩`$\] to usual atomic probabilities \[$`P(ϵ)=a_𝐩^{}a_𝐩`$\], and a gradual high-energy cutoff of the coupling of molecules to atom pairs \[$`f(ϵ)`$\]. The system to be solved reads

$`i\dot{\alpha }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{\sqrt{2}}}\beta \alpha ^{},`$ (2)
$`i\dot{\beta }`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _0\beta {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{\sqrt{2}}}\alpha \alpha `$ (4)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\xi }{\sqrt{2\pi }}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑ϵ\sqrt[4]{ϵ}\sqrt{2P(ϵ)+1}f(ϵ)C(ϵ),`$
$`i\dot{C}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`ϵC(ϵ){\displaystyle \frac{\xi }{\sqrt{2\pi }}}\sqrt[4]{ϵ}\sqrt{2P(ϵ)+1}f^{}(ϵ)\beta ,`$ (5)
$`i\dot{P}(ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2(2\pi )^{3/2}\sqrt{2P(ϵ)+1}}{\sqrt[4]{ϵ}}}\mathrm{}[\xi f(ϵ)C(\epsilon )\beta ^{}].`$ (6)
The “bare” energy of the bound molecular state referenced to the dissociation threshold is $`\mathrm{}\delta _0`$, the coupling between atomic and molecular condensates is $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and the coupling for dissociation of molecules into noncondensate atom pairs is $`\xi `$. The couplings are related in a density-dependent manner: $`\xi =\mathrm{\Omega }/(2\sqrt{\pi }\omega _\rho ^{3/4})`$, $`\omega _\rho =\mathrm{}\rho ^{2/3}/m`$. The atom pair amplitude $`C(ϵ)`$ is scaled so that Eqs. (Rapid Adiabatic Passage from an Atomic to a Molecular Condensate) preserve the norm $`|\alpha |^2+|\beta |^2+𝑑ϵ|C(ϵ)|^2=1`$. Also new is an average over the density profile of trapped atoms, which is identical for all three-dimensional Gaussian distributions with the same peak density $`\rho _0`$.

The energy profile $`f(ϵ)`$ is the most significant new addition. The default shape is such that $`f(ϵ)`$ starts as $`f=1`$ at $`ϵ=0`$, and falls off smoothly with energy over a characteristic scale $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ`$. Physically, this high-energy (-momentum) cutoff accounts for the fact that the atom-molecule coupling is not a contact interaction, but has a nonzero range. We use simple Fourier transform methods  to study the coupling-induced renormalization of the detuning, $`\delta _0\delta `$, and the binding energy $`E_B`$ of the dressed molecules consisting of a coherent superposition of the bare molecules \[$`\beta `$\] and correlated atom pairs \[$`C(ϵ)`$\]. The physical detuning varies with the magnetic field applied on the sample as $`\mathrm{}\delta =(B_0B)\mathrm{\Delta }\mu `$, where $`B_0=154.9\mathrm{G}`$ is the position of a particular Feshbach resonance in 85Rb, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu =2.23\mu _B`$  is the difference in the magnetic moments of the participant atomic and molecular states.

To compare with close-coupled calculations, we have tried a number of different coupling functions $`f(ϵ)`$, both ad-hoc and forms originating from square-well and Lennard-Jones models. For the generic $`f(ϵ)`$, there is little qualitative difference between various choices. So far, the best match is for the ad-hoc profile $`|f(ϵ)|^2=\theta (ϵ_Mϵ)\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ/(\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ+ϵ)`$. The abrupt cutoff at $`ϵ_M=20(\mu \mathrm{s})^1`$ is for numerical purposes only, and was set high enough so that it has a minor effect on the results. The remaining parameter $`\xi `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ`$ are chosen in such a way that the desired binding energy is obtained at two widely spaced magnetic fields. The parameter values used here are $`\xi =19.32(\mu \mathrm{s})^{1/4}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ=0.9537(\mu \mathrm{s})^1`$. Comparison with Ref. shows a maximum mismatch of about 9% around 160 G, which occurs because the close-coupling calculations were matched at the end points of the magnetic-field range considered ($``$ 157-162 G).

In Ref. , an explicit sequence of two magnetic field pulses is specified with the implication that it was used to simulate a Ramsey-fringe experiment . The fraction of condensate atoms, noncondensate atoms, and the sum thereof at the end of the pulse sequence are given as a function of the time that the magnetic field is held at a constant value between the pulses. However, the results in Ref.  are not consistent with the magnetic field during the holding period displayed in the pulse sequence, 160 G, and we replace this by the value used in the experiment being simulated, 159.84 G. We have thus carried out the same calculations using the present methods. In Fig. 1 we have copied the results from Ref. , and overlaid our calculations as plus signs. Though the comparison may look alarming, the apparent discrepancy originates from an about 10% difference in the frequency of the Ramsey fringes, exactly as expected based on the binding energy difference discussed above. Given that the two approaches are seemingly quite different, the match of the Ramsey fringes per se is excellent.

Unfortunately, when we turn to quantitative comparisons with experimental results, we still  receive a mixed message. For instance, let us revisit the experiment of Ref. . The magnetic field is swept from 162 G to 132 G, so that the molecular dissociation channel is initially closed and opens when resonance is crossed. In Fig. 2, we borrow Fig. 2 from Ref.  showing the experimental fraction of atoms remaining in the atomic condensate after the magnetic field sweep as a function of the inverse of the sweep rate, and overlaid our results as crosses. The agreement would be excellent, had we not used the peak density $`\rho _0=1.1\times 10^{13}\mathrm{cm}^3`$ (the same as in Fig. 1) whereas Ref. reports $`\rho _0=1.0\times 10^{12}\mathrm{cm}^3`$.

Let us continue just the same to use the peak density $`\rho _0=1.1\times 10^{13}\mathrm{cm}^3`$, and ask what happens if the magnetic field is swept in the opposite direction, e.g., $`142172`$ G. At first blush, not much; overlaying the lost-atom fraction on Fig. 2 would give agreement with the crosses for all but the fastest-sweep data point.

However, a profound difference emerges when the progress of sweeps is followed in time. In Fig. 3 we show the fractions of atomic and molecular condensate, and noncondensate atoms, as a function of the magnetic field. Pane (a) is for a $`172142`$ G sweep, pane (b) for the opposite sweep, and both inverse sweep rates are 20 $`\mu `$s/G. In a Cornish-type  sweep, condensate atoms are unceremoniously converted to rogue atoms, and the molecular fraction remains negligible . An opposite sweep begins the same; but, as the system moves well past the resonance, nearly all noncondensate atom pairs are converted into molecules. This conclusion is independent of sweep rate, and survives the density averaging. For the slowest sweep rate, 85% of the atoms would have been converted to molecules and 1% to noncondensate atoms.

To intuitively understand the double-adiabatic process that takes place here, consider a two-level system comprised of an atomic BEC (state 1) and a molecular BEC dressed by noncondensate atom pairs (state 2). Near resonance state 2 is primarily atom pairs, and so an adiabatic sweep of the detuning into the neighborhood of the threshold will necessarily convert the initial BEC into noncondensate atom pairs, regardless of direction of the sweep. The asymmetry arises because far below threshold state 2 is primarily molecular BEC. A sweep from above to below threshold will eventually convert the noncondensate pairs into molecular condensate. There is no such possibility for a sweep going the opposite way.

More precisely, our hypothesis for a sweep of the detuning from an initially-open to a finally-closed dissociation channel is as follows. The molecule may be strongly mixed with the atom pairs; but, the zero-energy atomic condensate holds the initial probability, and is off resonance from the dressed eigenstates with any substantial molecular component. As the detuning is swept, eventually eigenstates with a significant molecular amplitude are sufficiently close to resonance with the atomic condensate for transitions to take place. Transitions go mainly to the dressed molecule, the negative-energy eigenstate of the system. Continuing the sweep then gives adiabatic conversion from dressed to bare molecules. When the detuning is swept in the opposite direction (say, $`162132`$ G), so that a dissociation channel opens for molecules after the resonance, the initial events are similar as in a sweep going the other way. However, after the resonance is crossed, the bare molecules will not separate as an eigenstate of their own but remain diluted by the atom pairs.

Whereas detuning-sweep conversion in a two-mode model is independent of sweep direction, strong rogue dissociation implies that transfer to molecules only happens for a sweep in which the molecular dissociation channel closes after the resonance. Past rate theory reasonably surmises that, after the dissociation channel closes, the molecules should not dissociate anymore ; however, while this serves as a convenient mnemonic, our present result is about coherent evolution, and at least directly is not about rates or a closing dissociation channel.

While excellent quantitative agreement with the Ref.  calculations is found, we are experiencing persistent problems when trying to match experiments . Missing are both quenching of the molecules and collisional decoherence of atom pairs. No quantitative data on such processes are available at this time, but we have been experimenting by adding relaxation mechanisms into our calculations. With a hand-picked model for collisions, an adequate agreement with the experimental data in Fig. 2 is reached without adjusting the density in the calculations. The problem is that a universal model for collisions that would lead to an agreement between theory and all of the experimental data at once is elusive.

Nevertheless, we propose making a $`{}_{}{}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}_{2}^{}`$ condensate simply by asymmetric adaptation of the single-pulse experiments of Claussen et al. : form a BEC at 166 G; sweep fast ($``$ 1 G/$`\mu `$s) to 142 G, losing a negligible number of atoms ($``$ 1 %); sweep slowly ($`5\times 10^3`$ G/$`\mu `$s) back to 172 G, efficiently converting the atoms to molecules. For modest densities ($`\rho \stackrel{<}{}10^{12}\mathrm{cm}^3`$), ro-vibrational quenching at a rate comparable to Na  should be tolerable on millisecond timescales , and the efficient production of a molecular BEC ought to be within easy reach of experiments.

We have come full circle. In our earliest publication on coherent photoassociation (and, by formal equivalence, on magnetoassociation) of a BEC, we predicted rapid adiabatic passage from an atomic to a molecular condensate induced by a sweep of the detuning $`\delta `$ across the resonance . Those arguments were based on a two-mode model, i.e., atomic and molecular condensates only. In the interim it has become evident  that rogue dissociation to noncondensate atoms is a dominant factor in the dynamics whenever $`\mathrm{\Omega }\stackrel{>}{}\omega _\rho `$, a condition met by two orders of magnitude in the JILA experiments . Hence, rapid adiabatic passage was not a leading possibility for creating a $`{}_{}{}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}_{2}^{}`$ molecular condensate. Now it has made a comeback with a vengeance.

While preparing this manuscript, we became aware of similar Na work by Yurovsky and Ben-Reuven .

Support: Academy of Finland (projects 43336 and 50314: MM and KAS); NSF and NASA (PHY-0097974, and NAG8-1428: AC, MK, CX, YZ, and JJ); and NSF REU program (RJP); express thanks (from JJ) to the Helsinki University of Technology and Matti Kaivola for support and hospitality during completion of this work.