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# Observations of Neutron-Capture Elements in the Early Galaxy

## 1 NEUTRON-CAPTURE ELEMENTS

Neutron-capture elements are those heavy elements whose isotopes are primarily synthesized in neutron bombardment reactions; these include all elements with Z $`>`$ 30. The relative rates of neutron ingestion by nuclei compete with $`\beta `$-decay rates to determine the final abundance distribution. If the neutron flux is small enough that all unstable nuclei may undergo $`\beta `$-decay between successive neutron captures, element synthesis proceeds up the valley of $`\beta `$ stability. This slow neutron addition is called the $`s`$-process, and occurs principally in the He-burning zones of low and intermediate mass AGB stars. If however the neutron flux is very large compared to $`\beta `$-decay rates, extremely neutron-rich nuclei are created which then rapidly undergo $`\beta `$-decay back toward stability. This rapid neutron-capture ($`n`$-capture) synthesis, called the $`r`$-process, can occur in several situations during supernova deaths of high-mass stars and their creation of neutron-star remnants.

Isotopes of the $`n`$-capture elements may be created by the $`s`$-process, the $`r`$-process, or both. The solar-system abundances of these isotopes have been built in roughly equal measure of products of the $`r`$\- and $`s`$-process. The manner in which isotopic (and hence elemental) abundance fractions are usually determined  deserves comment here. In the $`s`$-process the product of isotopic abundance and neutron-capture cross-section is a well-defined slowly varying function of atomic mass, which can be matched to the observed (meteoritic) abundances of isotopes that only can be made in the $`s`$-process. The $`s`$-process abundances of other isotopes can then be predicted from this match. Then the $`r`$-process abundances are either taken directly from meteoritic data for $`r`$-only isotopes, or computed by subtraction of the $`s`$-process amounts from the total abundances for those isotopes that can be synthesized in both $`n`$-capture processes. Finally, since only total elemental abundances may normally be determined from stellar spectra, the isotopic $`r`$\- and $`s`$-process isotopic abundances for each element are summed.

A recent re-assessment  of the solar-system elemental abundances is shown in Figure 1. With this figure a caution must be given. For those elements whose solar-system abundances are dominated by the $`s`$-process (e.g. Sr, Ba, La), the small $`r`$-process component obtained in the subtraction process carries with it the abundance uncertainty estimate of the $`s`$-process component, and this value can in extreme cases be as large as the inferred $`r`$-process abundance. Thus the solar-system $`r`$-process abundance set should be treated with some caution. But for the foreseeable future this distribution will remain the standard, because direct predictions of $`r`$-process abundances (e.g., ) must rely on mass models of extremely neutron-rich nuclei, almost none of which has ever been experimentally detected. Theoretical assessments of the solar-system $`s`$\- and $`r`$-process abundances have also been made (e.g. ), and these yield similar results to those displayed in Figure 1).

## 2 NEUTRON-CAPTURE ELEMENTS AT LOW METALLICITY

A dominant aspect of $`n`$-capture element abundances in very metal-poor halo stars is their extremely large variability “in bulk” with respect to the Fe-peak elements (for early indications compare the abundances reported for HD 122563  with those of HD 115444 , and for larger-sample surveys see, e.g., ). The observed star-to-star range in \[$`<n`$-capture$`>`$/Fe\] grows with decreasing metallicity, exceeding observational errors at \[Fe/H\] $``$ –2.0 and reaching a scatter factor of more than a thousand below \[Fe/H\] $``$ –2.5 (e.g., Figure 12 of ). The lowest metallicity stars are usually faint and high resolution spectra of them requires the use of 8m-class telescopes.

Proof of the star-to-star $`n`$-capture scatter can be had through simple spectrum comparisons of relatively bright stars, as has been done by , whose Figure 3 is adapted as our Figure 2. The two stars shown here have almost identical atmospheric parameters, and the spectral region of the top figure panel suggests that their metallicities and light element abundance ratios are about the same. But the $`n`$-capture element features have strengths that differ by nearly a factor of ten, and it is easy to show that derived abundances of these elements differ by the same amount with little dependence on atmospheric modeling uncertainties. And the large star-to-star scatter can probably have only one interpretation: the influence of individual and localized nucleosynthesis events in short-lived stars in a poorly-mixed early Galactic halo.

A second feature of $`n`$-capture elements in metal-poor stars is the general trend toward pure $`r`$-process signatures (at least for elements with Z $``$ 56) at lowest metallicities. Significant exceptions to this trend are known to exist. In particular there are some stars with \[Fe/H\] $`<`$ –2.0 with large overabundances of C and $`s`$-process-dominated elements such as Sr, Ba and even Pb (e.g. ). Such objects may have received these enhanced abundances via mass transfer from a former AGB companion star. A more thorough discussion of these important stars has been given by S. G. Ryan at this conference, and will not be commented upon further here.

For more “normal” low metallicity stars, a downward trend in \[Ba/Eu\] is observed with decreasing metallicity (the pioneering observational and theoretical work here were done by , and for a recent summary see Figure 3 of  and Figure 7 of ). This decrease, which tends toward \[Ba/Eu\] $``$ –1.0 below \[Fe/H\] $``$ –2.5, is qualitatively and quantitatively in agreement with essentially complete absence of products of $`s`$-process synthesis in the most metal-poor stars. The trend combined with the large star-to-star scatter in the bulk amounts of the $`n`$-capture elements noted above rounds out the suggested picture of $`r`$-process synthesis occurring in and around the supernova deaths of high mass, very low metallicity stars, and seeding their local ISM out of which quickly formed the metal-poor stars that we observe today.

Unfortunately another undeniable aspect of the \[Ba/Eu\] trend with metallicity is its large scatter at any \[Fe/H\] value. It is possible (even likely) that some of the scatter is intrinsic to the stars, caused by $`s`$-processing even in the early Galaxy. Some of the very metal-poor stars with \[Ba/Eu\] ratios much greater than the $`r`$-process value probably have undergone some a transfer episode from a higher mass companion which is now a compact object. But a lot of the \[Ba/Eu\] scatter must be due to observational and analytical uncertainties, particularly in the derivation of Ba abundances. Usually just the very few strong Ba II low-excitation lines are available for analysis, and these features are saturated in cool giants that are most often studied at low metallicities.

There are two approaches that can mitigate this problem. First, Ba abundances should be determined for main sequence stars, as has been recently done in . The Ba II lines are intrinsically much weaker in upper main sequence stars than they are in giants of similar metallicity. The problem with this approach lies in simultaneous detection of Eu II features, which become almost undetectably weak in very low metallicity main sequence stars. Second, instead of using Ba II lines, a switch could profitably be made to analyses of La II (which is also predominantly an $`s`$-process product in solar-system material). This species offers several analytical advantages: (a) La has just one stable isotope, compared with five abundant ones for Ba; (b) La II lines are more numerous and weaker than Ba II lines, and usually are of comparable strengths to those of Eu II; and (c) accurate transition probabilities and hyperfine structure parameters are known for many La II lines . Preliminary results of a new large-sample study of \[La/Eu\] have been given in , and they show a smaller star-to-star scatter than does \[Ba/Eu\] and the same trend to a pure $`r`$-process ratio at lowest metallicities. The use of La II instead of Ba II lines is recommended for judging the $`s`$-process contents of all stars where the $`n`$-capture features all are strong.

## 3 DETAILED ABUNDANCE DISTRIBUTIONS IN $`r`$-PROCESS-RICH STARS

A few very metal-poor stars have been discovered to have both very large overall $`n`$-capture element contents (here arbitrarily defined as \[Eu/Fe\] $``$ +1 or greater) and nearly pure $`r`$-process signatures among these elements. Such stars include HD 115444 (\[Fe/H\] = –2.9, \[Eu/Fe\] = +0.9 ), CS 22892-052 (\[Fe/H\] = –3.1, \[Eu/Fe\] = +1.6 ), BD+17 3248 (\[Fe/H\] = –2.1, \[Eu/Fe\] = +0.9 ), and CS 31082-001 (\[Fe/H\] = –2.9, \[Eu/Fe\] = +1.6 ). Such stars are excellent laboratories for the study of $`n`$-capture elements because their normally dominant Fe-peak transitions are very weak in these low metallicity stars, and the relative overabundances of the $`n`$-capture elements reveals many spectral features that are normally hidden in stellar spectra. For example, Tb II lines are much more readily identified in the spectrum of CS 22892-052 than they are in the solar spectrum .

In Figure 3 we summarize the current  CS 22892-052 $`n`$-capture elemental abundance set, comparing it to the scaled solar-system abundance distribution . The abundance matches shown here lead to the following brief comments, reemphasizing some conclusions from our previous contributions.

First, for the 17 observed stable elements with Z $``$ 56, a near-perfect match exists with the scaled solar-system $`r`$-process curve. The fit is good enough that elements which either deviate from the solar curve (e.g. Er) or have large line-to-line scatter (e.g. Nd) point to areas for further study in nuclear and atomic physics, respectively. Comparing the abundances shown here to those of the first large abundance study of CS 22892-052 , the major sharpening of the newer abundance results (smaller line-to-line scatters) may be traced to several recent extensive lab studies of rare-earth elements (for reviews and comments on recent work in this area see ). Note finally that the excellent agreement with scaled solar system abundances now has been extended to isotopic abundances for Eu in three $`r`$-process-rich stars .

Second, elements of the third $`n`$-capture peak (76 $``$ Z $``$ 82) have their transitions mainly below 3500 Å, and thus some of these abundances have been obtained from HST STIS observations. It is more difficult to derive reliable abundances in the UV because even very metal-poor giants have rich atomic and molecular line spectra in this wavelength regime. Even so, the abundances of this element group are consistent with the same scaled solar curve that matches the abundances of the rare-earth elements.

Third, the long-lived radioactive element Th is detected in CS 22892-052 and indeed it has been observed in many metal-poor giants . The derived Th abundance, when ratioed to the abundance of a stable $`n`$-capture element (usually taken to be Eu) can lead to age estimates for the oldest stars of the Galaxy. The prospects and problems of such nucleocosmochronology have been discussed in several papers (e.g. ) and space does not permit further discussion here. An exciting new development has been the detection of U, a second chronometer element, in CS 31082-001  and its ratio with respect to Th indicates a decay age of about 15 Gyr, in agreement with other kinds of Galactic age estimates. See also  for an additional tentative detection of U in a metal-poor halo star and a similar radioactive age estimate.

Fourth, lighter $`n`$-capture elements, those with 38 $``$ Z $``$ 50, show some deviations from the scaled solar $`r`$-process distribution, particularly for Y, Mo, Pd, and Ag. One caution must be given here, that for most of these elements the number of lines participating in the derived abundance is significantly smaller than the number available for abundance determinations of rare earth elements; hence the generally larger error estimates that we attach to these points. Suggestions that the $`r`$-process nucleosynthetic history of the lighter $`n`$-capture elements may be complex began with  and has no clear resolution today. The deviations may signal the presence of a second type of $`r`$-process as proposed in . Alternatively, models have been suggested that can synthesize the whole range of these observed abundances in one site (e.g. )

Fifth, the lightest elements attributed mostly to $`n`$-capture processes cannot be detected on our CS 22892-052 spectra, and the derived upper limits to their abundances are more than an order of magnitude below the scaled solar $`r`$-process curve. Clearly these two elements either owe their origin to a different nucleosynthetic process or the $`r`$-process simply may have pushed beyond these elements.

## 4 SUMMARY

A rich variety of $`n`$-capture abundance distributions has been found in low metallicity Galactic halo stars, and discoveries of new stars with unique chemical composition mixes show no signs of abating. Early Galactic nucleosynthesis has littered the halo with many clues, and it will take the combined efforts of astronomers working with halo low resolution surveys, stellar spectroscopists, lab and theoretical atomic physicists, experimental and theoretical nuclear physicists, and supernova modelers to properly decode the messages contained in the $`n`$-capture abundances of metal-poor stars.


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# Possible pulsations of the M giant in MWC560

### Acknowledgments.

S.M.F. and T.T. are grateful to SOC and LOC for the support. This study was supported by Polish KBN Grant No. 5 P03D 003 20.

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# Interpretation of the Tadpole VV29 Merging Galaxy System using Hydro-Gravitational Theory

## 1 Introduction

The peculiar filamentary galaxy Tadpole (VV29=Arp 188=UGC 10214) at distance $`4\times 10^{24}`$ m and the similar merging galaxy system with a long luminous tail Mice (NGC 4676) at distance $`3\times 10^{24}`$ m were chosen to be among the first images obtained by the HST/ACS Hubble Space Telescope, taking advantage of the wide angle field of view of the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (April 30, 2002, press release) to provide better information about the origins of these distant mysterious systems. It was speculated (Trentham et al., 2001) that the long Tadpole tail might reflect the presence of a nearby, non-baryonic, cold-dark-matter (CDM) “Dark-Matter” halo by forming a tidal bridge of stars from VV29a extending toward a massive, but invisible, CDM halo object. However, “CDM Halos” are excluded by HGT cosmology because non-baryonic dark matter (NBDM) by its weakly collisional nature is highly diffusive with long mean free paths for collision so it cannot possibly form the gravitationally bound “CDM Halo” objects required by CDM cosmologies. According to HGT cosmology the NBDM diffuses to form outer halos of large galaxies or galaxy clusters. NBDM halos have smaller densities than inner baryonic-dark-matter (BDM) galaxy halos even though they have larger masses. Sand et al. 2002 have constrained the density profile of a lensing galaxy cluster within 100 kpc to a form that excludes the steep universal CDM density profiles predicted by CDM cosmological simulations at the 98$`\%`$ CL, strongly contradicting the CDM paradigm for galaxy formation.

The radio telescope measurements (Briggs et al., 2001) clearly demonstrate the existence of a blue dwarf galaxy VV29c embedded in the VV29a image with velocity different than the rapid VV29a rotation velocity of about 330 km s-1, so the massive CDM halo interpretation of VV29b (Trentham et al., 2001) becomes unnecessary. Briggs et al. 2001 propose a different (Toomre and Toomre, 1972) tidal tail interpretation of Tadpole where the blue dwarf galaxy VV29c enters from the Northwest, experiences a close encounter with VV29a, ejects (“slings”) the filamentary galaxy VV29b to the Southeast, and then departs away from the observer along the VV29a line of sight to a distance comparable to the length of VV29b about $`4\times 10^{21}`$ m. The CDM-halo tidal bridge interpretation (Trentham et al., 2001) is not excluded by the (Briggs et al., 2001) title, “Did VV 29 collide with a dark Dark-Matter halo?” Both of these “tidal tail” interpretations are based on the Toomre & Toomre 1972 collisionless gravity tidal force models, and are inconsistent with HGT and with numerous previously unseen details revealed by HST/ACS images such as Figure 1.

Thin tidal tails in frictionless tidal models are the result of thin galaxy disks ejected so that by coincidence some portion is edgewise to the observer, resulting in tidal lion or beaver tails that are bushy or paddle-like at one or both ends (Mihos, 2001) rather than the thin and pointed tadpole and mice tails observed in Tadpole, Mice and Antennae galaxy mergers which we interpret as star wakes of merging galaxy cores moving through each other’s baryonic-dark-matter halos. Random sprays of collisionless particles in N body computer simulations must be ignored in fitting tidal tail simulations to galaxy merger observations. No collisionless galaxy merger simulation that matches the Tadpole geometry is presented or referenced by Briggs et al. 2001. Furthermore, we see from the highest resolution HST/ACS images that the disk of VV29c is perpendicular to the VV29b tail rather than parallel as required, with VV29c embedded in VV29a, not far in the background as proposed (Briggs et al., 2001) assuming a frictionless galaxy interaction. The VV29c galaxy disk is intact and has not been flung forward edgewise to form VV29b as expected for a collisionless tidal tail model involving a merging galaxy with a thin disk.

From the HST/ACS images VV29c and its companions VV29def have been captured by frictional forces of VV29a, and the star-wake VV29b cannot be described by any version of the collisionless (Toomre and Toomre, 1972) ejected tidal tail model. The oval features previously interpreted as spiral arms of VV29a confute this pattern in the HST/ACS images and appear instead as cylindrical luminous star-wakes. The outermost star-wake shows a spiral path that wraps once around VV29a and terminates with VV29cf at half its initial distance from the VV29a center. A smaller and shorter star-wake splits into two fragments VV29de about half way around before these objects plunge toward VV29a at two thirds the way around and half way to the center. One of the fragments VV29e apparently possesses an active nucleus that creates a spray of star formation extending $`4\times 10^{20}`$ m to the Northeast, well away from the VV29a nucleus that lacks any such AGN signature. A similar spray of star formation from AGN radiation into a baryonic-dark-matter halo appears in a background galaxy $`2\times 10^{21}`$ m on the plane due East of VV29a to illustrate this phenomenon that is natural to assume from HGT but would otherwise be mysterious.

The present frictional accretion merger and star wake interpretation of the HST/ACS Tadpole images is explained by viscous-turbulent-diffusional hydro-gravitational fluid mechanics that excludes CDM cosmologies and collisionless fluid mechanics assumptions that are the basis of the frictionless flung disk (Briggs et al., 2001) and CDM dark halo (Trentham et al., 2001) tidal tail interpretations. In the following, we briefly review the hydro-gravitational theory and the evidence in its support and then compare its predictions with the HST/ACS images. Finally, some conclusions are provided.

## 2 Hydro-Gravitational Theory Prediction of the Baryonic Dark Matter Form

Detailed evidence and analysis (Gibson & Schild, 2003) supporting the hydro-gravitational theory (HGT) of self-gravitational structure formation (Gibson, 1996), and its prediction that the interstellar medium and baryonic dark matter masses of galaxies should be dominated by primordial-gas-planets (PFPs), are beyond the scope of the present paper. This prediction of HGT was reached as a conclusion independently (Schild, 1996) from observed twinkling frequencies of galaxy lensed quasar images, leading to the interpretation that the mass of the lensing galaxy was dominated by “rogue planets … likely to be the missing mass”. Length scales and acronyms relevant to self-gravitational structure formation are given in Tables 1 and 2. The Jeans length $`L_J`$ is the scale for which pressure gradients in a self-gravitating ideal gas are smoothed by acoustic wave propagation. It is not a minimum scale for structure formation. The “pressure support” argument used to bolster the Jeans 1902 gravitational instability criterion fails because pressure forces depend on pressure gradients, and these vanish by acoustic propagation on scales smaller than $`L_J`$. Non-acoustic density perturbations on scales smaller than the Jeans length are absolutely unstable to gravitational structure formation unless resisted by viscous forces, turbulence forces or diffusion of the fluid particles. Sub-Jeans scale self-gravitational instabilities appear in numerical simulations in a stagnant gas (Truelove et al., 1997). However, these are dismissed as numerical artifacts (“artificial fragmentation”) based on the erroneous Jeans 1902 criterion, and a Jeans scale digital filter is invented. Jeans number digital filters (with Jeans number $`J\mathrm{\Delta }x/L_J0.25`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ is the cell size) are recommended versus numerical viscosity normally used to suppress $`LL_J`$ instabilities in gravitohydrodynamic simulations. We believe that the calculations prove the HGT claim that a nearly stagnant gas is absolutely unstable to the formation of self-gravity driven condensations and voids on predictable sub-Jeans scales (Table 1).

As indicated in Table 1, magnetic and other forces were negligible in the viscous primordial plasma and buoyancy dominated gas (Gibson, 2000). The first structures appeared at $`L_{SV}L_{ST}`$ scales by gravitational fragmentation in the plasma epoch, soon after the energy density of the hot plasma matched the matter density ($`\rho _E\rho _M10^{15}`$ kg m-3) at $`t7.5\times 10^{11}`$ s (25,000 years) with small amplitude ($`\delta \rho /\rho 10^5`$) limited by the diffusive separation of the non-baryonic dark matter to fill the voids and cut off the gravitational forcing. The photon viscosity was so large ($`4\times 10^{26}`$ m2 s-1) that the plasma turbulence was weak or non-existent. The first structures were at the horizon scale $`L_HctL_{SV}L_{ST}3\times 10^{20}`$ m, where $`c`$ is the speed of light. The baryonic density was $`32\times 10^{17}`$ kg m-3 so the first objects to form were protosupercluster fragments. Further fragmentation continued to protogalaxy masses, just before the plasma to gas transition at 300,000 years. Turbulence was damped by buoyancy forces at the Ozmidov scale $`L_R[\epsilon /N^3]^{1/2}`$ of the self-gravitational structures, with stratification frequency $`N`$, starting at $`t10^{12}`$ s (30,000 years) and the density and rate-of-strain at that time were preserved as fossils of the earlier hydrodynamic state (Gibson, 1999), which determined the density of globular star clusters ($`10^{17}`$ kg m-3), $`L_{SV}`$, and the PFP masses. CDM condensations were impossible because $`L_{SD_{CDM}}L_H`$.

Because the transition viscosity $`\nu `$ decreased by a factor of $`10^{12}`$, the fragmentation length scale decreased by a factor of $`10^6`$ (Table 1), giving a primordial gas fragmentation mass of $`10^6M_{\mathrm{}}`$ to produce primordial fog particles. The gaseous proto-galaxies also fragmented at the Jeans scale to form proto-globular-cluster PGCs, but not for the reasons suggested by Jeans 1902. $`L_J`$ was considerably smaller than the proto-galaxy scale at decoupling, so pressures could not equilibrate as gravitational structures formed. The initially isothermal gas developed $`L_J`$ scale temperature fluctuations smoothed by radiative heat transfer, giving $`L_J`$ scale non-acoustic fragmentation sites. Thus the proto-galaxies fragmented into Jeans-mass PGC clouds of primordial-fog-particle (PFP) fragments that comprise the baryonic-dark-matter and ISM mass of all galaxies. Most of the BDM ($`97\%`$) remains dark, in $`10^6M_{\mathrm{}}`$ PGC clouds of frozen $`10^6M_{\mathrm{}}`$ PFP micro-brown-dwarf “rogue planets”. The present high resolution wide angle HST/ACS observations of the Tadpole galaxy merger provide excellent evidence of star wakes and YGCs triggered by objects merging through galactic baryonic dark matter halos comprised of PGC clumps of dark PFPs, as predicted by HGT. The observations contradict previous interpretations of Tadpole based on cold-dark-matter halos, collisionless mergers, collisionless tidal tails, and CDMHCC.

## 3 Tadpole Observations

Besides the eponymous tail, the most striking features of the very high resolution wide angle HST/ACS images of Tadpole are the two well defined luminous ovals around VV29a which we interpret as star formation wakes in the dark halo above and below the disk of VV29a (Figure 2) rather than ordinary spiral arms in the disk. The outermost star-wake is labeled VV29c at the bottom of Fig. 2 because it is a direct continuation of the VV29b star-wake and is readily extrapolated around VV29a to the embedded galaxy VV29c. The inner oval pattern extends the center of the West Plume (Briggs et al., 2001) of stars that apparently were triggered into formation by the merging galaxy components VV29def, and appears to terminate at VV29e and some sort of AGN plasma jet (labeled “Polar Stream” in the Briggs et al. 2001 inventory of structures Fig. 13).

The inferred galaxy component VV29d leaves a dark dust wake plunging toward the VV29a center in Figure 3. VV29e also leaves a dark dust wake, suggesting strong turbulence and short lived massive stars were triggered by its passage. Component VV29f entered the inner dark halo of VV29a closest to VV29c and left no stars small enough to remain luminous for more than the $`5\times 10^8`$ years since its passage. The dust trail of VV29f leaves a narrow shadow over the bright oval of VV29de and terminates with the bright clump of star clusters labeled VV29f in Fig. 2, maintaining a distance of about $`1.5\times 10^{20}`$ from VV29c throughout their spiral descent toward VV29a. This interpretation is supported by the radio telescope observations (Briggs et al., 2001) showing large integral HI (neutral hydrogen) column densities with velocity opposite to that of the VV29a rotation and VV29c star wake. The VV29c and VV29f objects are in front of and obscure the VV29b star-wake in the HST/ACS images, contrary to the (Briggs et al., 2001) interpretation that these objects are $`4\times 10^{21}`$ m in the background of VV29a using a frictionless tidal tail scenario.

The edge of the VV29a baryonic dark matter halo is clearly shown by the high resolution HST/ACS images, as in Figure 4 (dashed line at bottom right). Above the boundary we see numerous young globular clusters, especially along the star-wakes of VV29cdef but also all around them, but no stars and no YGCs below. A gas patch with $`0.6\times 10^{24}`$ H atoms m-2 and with the constant +100 km/s velocity measured for the gas of VV29b is shown in Fig. 1 of Briggs et al. 2001 at the beginning of the VV29cdef star-wakes shown in Fig. 4 for the present HGT interpretation. Another patch with double the column density is shown to the west of VV29a which can be identified with a patch of stars, presumably formed by halo-halo tides, in the high resolution HST/ACS images. Larger gas surface densities up to $`3.6\times 10^{24}`$ H atoms m-2 were reported near the cluster of YGCs shown near the top of Fig. 4, and even larger values at VV29a itself. Such high gas column densities in star wakes only about $`10^{20}`$ m wide suggest H-He mass densities $`4\times 10^{23}`$ kg m-3 exist in the dark baryonic halo of VV29a. This gives a total baryonic-dark-matter inner halo mass of order $`10^{43}`$ kg, which is an order of magnitude larger than the mass of the central galaxy. A similar conclusion results if one takes a typical PGC separation in the inner halo (within $`4\times 10^{21}`$ m) to be about $`3\times 10^{19}`$ m based on the separation of bright objects taken to be YGCs shown in the star-wake region of Fig. 4.

Keck telescope spectroscopy confirms our assumption that the bright blue objects in the VV29b filamentary galaxy are YGCs. Figure 5 shows the slit location for the 42 YGC candidates identified (Tran et al., 2003). The brightest clump is described as a super-star-cluster (SSC), but with such a large half light diameter ($`10^{19}`$ m) that it must either be unbound or very “cold”. The YGCs are aligned precisely (within $`1^o`$) with the track of VV29c toward the beginning of its spiral star-wake produced during capture by VV29a. Our interpretation from hydro-gravitational-theory is that the large clump of massive bright blue stars (SSC) represents the first stars of to be triggered into formation from PFPs in a clump of dark PGCs by the near passage of the dense central core of VV29c. Such massive stars likely form in PGC cores at large turbulent Schwarz scales, reflecting maximal dissipation rates $`\epsilon `$ in gas evaporated from PFPs by VV29c as it passed through a dense portion of the baryonic dark galaxy-halo of VV29a, revealing a dark galaxy-halo dwarf-galaxy. Frictional forces of the observed gas explain why the apparent SSC is bound. Our star formation process from pre-existing pre-stellar and proto-cluster condensations (PGCs), formed much earlier in the universe and constituting the BDM, also explains why such bright clusters of large stars can form, without any evidence in the HST/ACS images of the giant ($`10^6M_{\mathrm{}}`$) molecular clouds (GMCs) ordinarily seen in Galactic regions of star formation with ages of several million years (see the excellent summary of embedded cluster formation in GMCs by Lada & Lada, 2003), with the 3 – 10 million year ages estimated by Tran et al. (2003). From HGT, the mysterious GMCs, identified as the site of most star formation in our Galaxy (Lada & Lada, 2003), are PGCs captured by the Galaxy disk, with large stars of embedded clusters ($`50M_{\mathrm{}}`$) reflecting the large $`\epsilon `$ and $`L_{ST}`$ values of star formation determined by strong resulting turbulence. New infrared observational capabilities such as SIRTF will test our suggestion that star formation processes in dark PGCs and GMCs are closely related.

For comparison with the large gas concentrations in VV29, Briggs et al. 2001 point out that no gas is detectable in the near companion elliptical galaxy MCG 09-26-54. From HGT it is easy to understand why gas appears in merging galaxy systems like Tadpole as frozen PFP planetoids evaporate, and not in quiescent galaxy cores like MCG 09-26-54 where ambient gas freezes out on the same objects. It is also easy to understand the appearance of stars triggered by the passage of galaxy components through BDM halos if stars are formed by increased accretion rates of PFPs caused by increased levels of gas friction. It is impossible to understand how collisionless, frictionless, tidal tail ejections of any kind produced the high concentrations of gas observed in Tadpole, the spiral star trails, the narrow filaments of YGCs without OGCs, or YGCs clustered in straight lines pointing to the spiral star trails.

## 4 Conclusions

The wealth of morphological details in the high resolution HST/ACS images makes any frictionless tidal tail interpretation of the Tadpole system untenable. A tidal bridge to an invisible CDM halo (Trentham et al., 2001) as the explanation of VV29b would require that the CDM halo rotate precisely with VV29a and that the VV29c star-wake near VV29a be ignored. Tidal forces in this CDM scenario should expel a symmetric trail of stars on the opposite side of VV29a that is not observed. Similarly, the suggestion (Briggs et al., 2001) that VV29c entered from the Northwest rather than the Southeast and is far in the background moving away seems quite implausible in view of the HST/ACS images that show VV29c and other companion components VV29def are firmly embedded in, and merging with, VV29a. No evidence of dust extinction caused by the spiral arms of VV29a is seen on the face of VV29c in the HST/ACS images (eg Fig. 2) as one would expect if VV29c were far in the background. CDM halos smaller than 100 kpc are ruled out by hydro-gravitational-theory and cosmology, and are not supported by observations (Sand et al., 2002). Frictionless galaxy collisions and tidal tails are also ruled out by HGT, and are not supported by the great quantities of gas observed in Tadpole (Briggs et al., 2001). Spectroscopic observations using the Keck telescope (Tran et al., 2003) show dense concentrations of young globular clusters aligned closely in a star trail pointing toward the merging spiral star wake at the central galaxy. The 3-10 Myr ages of the YGCs found $`2\times 10^{21}`$ m from VV29a proves they were formed in place and not 300 Myr later by unknown processes after ejection at reasonable speed. Their precise alignment with the vector toward the merging spiral star-wake of VV29c around VV29a proves they were formed as a wake and not ejected.

From the HST/ACS images the Tadpole galaxy can best be interpreted as a frictional galaxy merger producing baryonic-dark-matter star wakes, young-globular-star-clusters, and dSphs (dwarf galaxies) from PFPs and PGCs rather than any sort of collisionless galaxy merger flinging out tidal tails. Gas that provides the friction and triggers the star formation is produced by evaporating frozen primordial-fog-particles in proto-globular-clusters comprising the baryonic-dark-matter halos of the merging galaxies in Tadpole, as in the BDM halos similarly revealed for the Mice and Antennae merging galaxy systems. The location of the edge of the VV29a baryonic dark matter halo is clearly shown by the HST/ACS images giving a Tadpole BDM halo radius of $`4\times 10^{21}`$ m (120 kpc). From the observed gas densities and velocities (Briggs et al., 2001) and the YGC separation distances it appears that the baryonic-dark-matter halo mass is at least an order of magnitude larger than the mass of the luminous stars of VV29a. Thus the HST/ACS images of Tadpole support the existence of massive baryonic-dark-matter galaxy halos composed of about a million dark proto-globular-clusters (PGCs) of dark primordial-fog-particles (PFPs), as predicted by the hydro-gravitational theory and cosmology of Gibson 1996-2000 and confirmed by the quasar microlensing interpretation of Schild 1996.

The authors are grateful for several excellent suggestions from the Editor and the Referee.


text:
# Ferromagnetism and Metal-Insulator Transition in the Disordered Hubbard Model

## Abstract

A detailed study of the paramagnetic to ferromagnetic phase transition in the one-band Hubbard model in the presence of binary alloy disorder is presented. The influence of the disorder (with concentration $`x`$ and $`1x`$ of the two alloy ions) on the Curie temperature $`T_c`$ is found to depend strongly on electron density $`n`$. While at high densities, $`n>x`$, the disorder always reduces $`T_c`$, at low densities, $`n<x`$, the disorder can even *enhance* $`T_c`$ if the interaction is strong enough. At the particular density $`n=x`$ (i. e. not necessarily at half filling) the interplay between disorder-induced band splitting and correlation induced Mott transition gives rise to a new type of metal-insulator transition.

In correlated electron materials it is a rule rather than an exception that the electrons, apart from strong interactions, are also subject to disorder. The disorder may result from non-stoichiometric composition, as obtained, for example, by doping of manganites (La1-xSrxMnO3) and cuprates (La1-xSrxCuO4) imada98 , or in the disulfides Co1-xFexS2 and Ni1-xCoxS2 disulfides . In the first two examples, the Sr ions create different potentials in their vicinity which affect the correlated $`d`$ electrons/holes. In the second set of examples, two different transition metal ions are located at random positions, creating two different atomic levels for the correlated $`d`$ electrons. In both cases the random positions of different ions break the translational invariance of the lattice, and the number of $`d`$ electrons/holes varies. As the composition changes so does the randomness, with $`x=0`$ or $`x=1`$ corresponding to the pure cases. With changing composition the system can undergo various phase transitions. For example, FeS2 is a pure band insulator which becomes a disordered metal when alloyed with CoS2, resulting in Co1-xFexS2. This system has a ferromagnetic ground state for a wide range of $`x`$ with a maximal Curie temperature $`T_c`$ of $`120`$ K. On the other hand, when CoS2 (a metallic ferromagnet) is alloyed with NiS2 to make Ni1-xCoxS2, the Curie temperature is suppressed and the end compound NiS2 is a Mott-Hubbard antiferromagnetic insulator with Néel temperature $`T_N=40`$K.

Our theoretical understanding of systems with strong interactions and disorder is far from complete. For example, it was realized only recently that in gapless fermionic systems the soft modes couple to order parameter fluctuations, leading to different critical behavior in the pure and the disordered cases belitz . A powerful method for theoretical studies of strongly correlated electron systems is the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) georges96 ; pruschke95 ; vollhardt93 . The DMFT is a comprehensive, conserving, and thermodynamically consistent approximation scheme which emerged from the infinite dimensional limit of fermionic lattice models metzner89 . During the last ten years the DMFT has been extensively employed to study the properties of correlated electronic lattice models. Recently the combination of DMFT with conventional electron structure theory in the local density approximation (LDA) has provided a novel computational tool, LDA+DMFT anisimov97 ; held01 , for the realistic investigation of materials with strongly correlated electrons, e. g. itinerant ferromagnets lichtenstein01 .

The interplay between local disorder and electronic correlations can also be investigated within DMFT VV+JV92 ; ulmke95 ; dobrosavljevic97 ; laad01 ; meyer01 . Although effects due to coherent backscattering cannot be studied in this way VV+JV92 , since the disorder is treated on the level of the coherent potential approximation velicky68 , there are still important physical effects remaining. In particular, electron localization, and a disorder-induced metal-insulator transition (MIT), can be caused by alloy-band splitting. In the present paper we study the influence of disorder on the ferromagnetic phase. We will show that in a correlated system with binary-alloy disorder the Curie temperature depends non-trivially on the band filling. In the disordered one-band Hubbard model we find that for a certain band filling (density) $`n=N_e/N_a`$, where $`N_e`$ ($`N_a`$) is the number of electrons (lattice sites), disorder can weakly *increase* the Curie temperature provided the interaction is strong enough. A simple physical argument for this behavior is presented. We also find that at special band fillings $`n1`$ the system can undergo a new type of Mott-Hubbard MIT upon increase of disorder and/or interaction.

In the following we will study itinerant electron ferromagnetism in disordered systems, modeled by the Anderson-Hubbard Hamiltonian with on-site disorder

$$H=\underset{ij,\sigma }{}t_{ij}c_{i\sigma }^{}c_{j\sigma }+\underset{i\sigma }{}ϵ_in_{i\sigma }+U\underset{i}{}n_in_i,$$
(1)
where $`t_{ij}`$ is the hopping matrix element and $`U`$ is the local Coulomb interaction. The disorder is represented by the ionic energies $`ϵ_i`$, which are random variables. We consider binary alloy disorder where the ionic energy is distributed according to the probability density $`P(ϵ)=x\delta (ϵ+\mathrm{\Delta }/2)+(1x)\delta (ϵ\mathrm{\Delta }/2)`$. Here $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the energy difference between the two ionic energies, providing a measure of the disorder strength, while $`x`$ and $`1x`$ are the concentrations of the two alloy ions. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }B`$, where $`B`$ is the band-width, it is known that binary alloy disorder causes a band splitting in every dimension $`d1`$, with the number of states in each alloy subband equal to $`2xN_a`$ and $`2(1x)N_a`$, respectively velicky68 .

We solve (1) within DMFT. The local nature of the theory implies that short-range order in position space is missing. However, all dynamical correlations due to the local interaction are fully taken into account.

In the DMFT scheme the local Green function $`G_{\sigma n}`$ is given by the bare density of states (DOS) $`N^0(ϵ)`$ and the local self-energy $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\sigma n}`$ as $`G_{\sigma n}=𝑑ϵN^0(ϵ)/(i\omega _n+\mu \mathrm{\Sigma }_{\sigma n}ϵ)`$. Here the subscript $`n`$ refers to the Matsubara frequency $`i\omega _n=i(2n+1)\pi /\beta `$ for the temperature $`T`$, with $`\beta =1/k_BT`$, and $`\mu `$ is the chemical potential. Within DMFT the local Green function $`G_{\sigma n}`$ is determined self-consistently by

$$G_{\sigma n}=\frac{D[c_\sigma ,c_\sigma ^{}]c_{\sigma n}c_{\sigma n}^{}e^{𝒜_i\{c_\sigma ,c_\sigma ^{},𝒢_\sigma ^1\}}}{D[c_\sigma ,c_\sigma ^{}]e^{𝒜_i\{c_\sigma ,c_\sigma ^{},𝒢_\sigma ^1\}}}_{\mathrm{dis}},$$
(2)
together with the k-integrated Dyson equation $`𝒢_{\sigma n}^1=G_{\sigma n}^1+\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\sigma n}`$. The single-site action $`𝒜_i`$ for a site with the ionic energy $`ϵ_i=\pm \mathrm{\Delta }/2`$ has the form

$`𝒜_i\{c_\sigma ,c_\sigma ^{},𝒢_\sigma ^1\}={\displaystyle \underset{n,\sigma }{}}c_{\sigma n}^{}𝒢_{\sigma n}^1c_{\sigma n}ϵ_i{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }𝑑\tau n_\sigma (\tau )`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{U}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle _0^\beta }𝑑\tau c_\sigma ^{}(\tau )c_\sigma (\tau )c_\sigma ^{}(\tau )c_\sigma (\tau ),`$ (3)
where we used a mixed time/frequency convention for Grassmann variables $`c_\sigma `$, $`c_\sigma ^{}`$. Averages over the disorder are obtained by $`\mathrm{}_{\mathrm{dis}}=𝑑ϵP(ϵ)(\mathrm{})`$.

Since an asymmetric DOS is known to stabilize ferromagnetism in the one-band Hubbard model for moderate values of $`U`$ ulmke98 ; wahle98 ; vollhardt00  we use the DOS of the fcc-lattice in infinite dimensions, $`N^0(ϵ)=\mathrm{exp}[(1+\sqrt{2}ϵ)/2]/\sqrt{\pi (1+\sqrt{2}ϵ)}`$ muller-hartmann91 . This DOS has a square root singularity at $`ϵ=1/\sqrt{2}`$ and vanishes exponentially for $`ϵ\mathrm{}`$. In the following the second moment of the DOS, $`W`$, is used as the energy scale and is normalized to unity comment2 . The one-particle Green function in Eq. (2) is determined by solving the DMFT equations iterativelyulmke98 ; wahle98  using Quantum Monte-Carlo (QMC) simulations hirsh86 . Curie temperatures are obtained by the divergence of the homogeneous magnetic susceptibility ulmke98 ; byczuk01 .

We find a striking difference in the dependence of the Curie temperature $`T_c`$ on disorder strength $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for different band fillings $`n<x`$ and $`n>x`$ (we chose $`x=0.5`$ for numerical calculations). At $`n=0.7`$, the critical temperature $`T_c(\mathrm{\Delta })`$ decreases with $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for all values of $`U`$ and eventually vanishes at sufficiently large disorder \[Fig. 1(a)\]. By contrast, at $`n=0.3`$, $`T_c(\mathrm{\Delta })`$ weakly decreases with $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ at small $`U`$, but *increases* with $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ at large values of $`U`$ \[Fig. 1(b)\].

As will be explained below, this striking difference originates from three distinct features of interacting electrons in the presence of binary alloy disorder:

i) $`T_c^\mathrm{p}T_c(\mathrm{\Delta }=0)`$, the Curie temperature in the pure case, depends non-monotonically on band filling $`n`$. Namely, $`T_c^\mathrm{p}(n)`$ has a maximum at some filling $`n=n^{}(U)`$, which increases as $`U`$ is increased ulmke98 ; see Fig. 2.

ii) In the alloy disordered system the band is split velicky68  when $`\mathrm{\Delta }W`$. As a consequence, for $`n<2x`$ and $`T\mathrm{\Delta }`$ electrons only occupy the lower alloy subband while the upper subband is empty. Effectively, one can therefore describe this system by a Hubbard model mapped onto the lower alloy subband. Hence, it corresponds to a *single* band with the *effective* filling $`n_{\mathrm{eff}}=n/x`$. It is then possible to determine $`T_c`$ from the phase diagram of the Hubbard model without disorder ulmke98 .

iii) The disorder leads to a reduction of $`T_c^\mathrm{p}(n_{\mathrm{eff}})`$ by a factor $`x`$, i. e. we find

$$T_c(n)xT_c^\mathrm{p}(n/x)$$
(4)
when $`\mathrm{\Delta }W`$ comment3 . Hence, as illustrated in Fig. 2, $`T_c`$ can be determined by $`T_c^\mathrm{p}(n_{\mathrm{eff}})`$. Surprisingly, then, it follows that, if $`U`$ is sufficiently strong, the Curie temperature of a disordered system can be higher than that of the corresponding pure system \[cf. Fig. 2\]!

To illustrate the alloy band splitting in the presence of strong interactions discussed above \[see (ii)\] we calculate the spectral density from the QMC results by the maximal entropy method sandvik98 . The results in Fig. 3 show the evolution of the spectral density in the paramagnetic phase at $`U=4`$ and $`n=0.3`$. At $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$ the lower and upper Hubbard subbands can be clearly identified. The quasiparticle resonance is merged with the lower Hubbard subband due to the low filling of the band, and is reduced by the finite temperature. At $`\mathrm{\Delta }>0`$ the lower and upper alloy subbands begin to split off. A similar behavior was found at $`n=0.7`$. The separation of the alloy subbands in the correlated electron system for increasing $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is one of the preconditions \[cf. (ii)\] for the enhancement of $`T_c`$ by disorder when $`n<x`$, as discussed above.

The splitting of the alloy subbands and, as a result, the changing of the band filling in the effective Hubbard model implies that $`T_c`$ vanishes for $`n>x`$. Namely, in the ferromagnetic ground state each of the alloy subbands can accommodate only $`xN_a`$ and $`(1x)N_a`$ electrons, respectively. Therefore, if the ground state of the system were ferromagnetic the upper alloy subband would be partially occupied for all $`n>x`$. This would, however, increase the energy of the system by $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ per particle in the upper alloy subband. Therefore, in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }U`$ limit the paramagnetic ground state is energetically favorable. This explains why $`T_c`$ vanishes at $`n=0.7`$, as found in our QMC simulations \[Fig. 1(a)\]. Our conclusion that $`T_c`$ vanishes for $`n_{\mathrm{eff}}=n/x>1`$ when $`\mathrm{\Delta }W`$ is consistent with the observation in ulmke98  that there is no ferromagnetism for $`n>1`$ in the Hubbard model without disorder on fcc-lattice in infinite dimensions.

The filling $`n=x`$ is very particular because a new MIT of the Mott-Hubbard type occurs. Namely, when $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ increases (at $`U=0`$), the non-interacting band splits, leaving $`2xN_a`$ states in the lower and $`2(1x)N_a`$ states in the upper alloy subband. Effectively, it means that at $`n=x`$ the lower alloy subband is half filled ($`n_{\mathrm{eff}}=1`$). Consequently, a Mott-Hubbard MIT occurs in the lower alloy subband at sufficiently large interaction $`U`$ comment5 . In fact, for $`\mathrm{\Delta }U`$ we may infer a critical value $`U_c=1.47W^{}`$ at $`T=0`$ from the results of Refs. moeller95 ; bulla99 , where $`W^{}`$ is the renormalized bandwidth of the lower alloy subband. Furthermore, from the analogy of this MIT with that in the pure case bulla01  we can expect a discontinuous transition for $`TT^{}0.02W^{}`$, and a smooth crossover for $`TT^{}`$. From the results shown in Fig. 4 it follows that $`T^{}<0.071`$, since for $`T=0.071`$ and $`U=6`$ a gap-like structure develops in the spectrum at $`\mathrm{\Delta }1.6`$, implying a smooth but rapid crossover from a metallic to an insulator-like phase comment6 .

The MIT described above is not obscured by the onset of antiferromagnetic long-range order because in infinite dimensions the fcc-lattice is completely frustrated muller-hartmann91 . Hence the insulator is paramagnetic. The transition therefore occurs between a paramagnetic insulator (PI) at high $`T`$ and a *ferromagnetic metal* (FM) at low $`T`$, at least at large $`U,`$ as shown in the inset of Fig. 4. The actual boundary between the paramagnetic metal (PM) and the paramagnetic insulator-like phase has not yet been determined. The thick line in the inset of Fig. 4 indicates the approximate position of the phase boundary between the PM and PI phases. We note that at the point where this boundary meets the FM phase the slope of the transition line $`T_c(\mathrm{\Delta })`$ changes.

In summary, we showed within DMFT that the interplay between binary-alloy disorder and electronic correlation can result in unexpected effects, such as the enhancement of the transition temperature $`T_c`$ for itinerant ferromagnetism by disorder, and the occurrence of a Mott-Hubbard type MIT off half-filling. An observation of these effects requires good control of the system parameters over a wide range as was recently shown to be possible in experiments with optical lattices greiner02 .

We thank B. Velicky for valuable correspondence. KB is grateful to R. Bulla and K. Wysokiński for discussions, and to G. Keller for computer assistance. This work was supported by a Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation (KB), and through SFB 484 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.


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# Preliminary results of an aging test of RPC chambers for the LHCb Muon System

## Abstract

Abstract. The preliminary results of an aging test performed at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility on a single–gap RPC prototype developed for the LHCb Muon System are presented. The results are based on an accumulated charge density of 0.42 C/cm2, corresponding to about 4 years of LHCb running at the highest background rate. We observe a rise in the dark current and noise measured with source off. The current drawn with source on steadily decreased, possibly indicating an increase of resistivity of the chamber plates. The performance of the chamber, studied with a muon beam under several photon flux values, is found to still fulfill the LHCb operation requirements.

Keywords: rpc, aging

Introduction.  The LHCb experiment  has chosen to equip about 48% of the Muon System  with Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) detectors. These detectors will be subject to a very large particle flux, potentially dangerous from the point of view of detector aging 111 Aging in RPCs is due mostly to the current flowing through the resistive plates; it has been shown, indeed, that the irradiation of bakelite slabs with photons up to an integrated dose of 20 kGy does not produce any degradation in the bakelite properties .. In the regions covered by RPCs, the maximum particle rate is expected to vary between 0.19 in region 4 and 0.75 kHz/cm2 in region 3 (see  for a definition of the regions). This leads, under reasonable hypothesis 222 Namely: i) running at half maximum rate; ii) assuming an average avalanche charge of 30 pC ., to total integrated charge densities between 0.35 C/cm2 (region 4) and 1.1 C/cm2 (region 4) for 10 years running. These charge densities are significantly larger than those expected by ATLAS  and CMS experiments , whose aging tests accumulated at most about 0.3 C/cm2 , clearly insufficient to draw conclusions about LHCb RPCs. An extensive aging program has been therefore devised for the LHCb needs exploiting the large CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF) , where a 137Cs gamma source of about 655 GBq is available. This paper reports the preliminary results of the first part of the test performed with a prototype chamber during January-December 2001. The second part, currently under preparation, will be done with close-to-final LHCb chambers and is expected to start March 2002.

Setup of the aging test.  The prototype RPC used for the test (irradiated RPC) is a single gap oiled chamber, with active area 50x50 cm2, made with 2 mm thick phenolic bakelite plates with nominal resistivity $`\rho =910^9\mathrm{\Omega }`$ cm. This RPC was placed in front of the source at a distance varying between 0.5-1 m and a photon flux of about 1-2 kHz/cm2. To facilitate disentangling the effects due to variations in the environment parameters - such as temperature, pressure or gas quality - from those due to the irradiation, a second chamber (reference RPC), identical to the irradiated one, was placed just outside the irradiation area. The RPCs were operated with a gas mixture consisting of 95% $`\mathrm{C}_2\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{F}_4`$, 4% $`\mathrm{i}\mathrm{C}_4\mathrm{H}_{10}`$, 1% $`\mathrm{SF}_6`$. To simulate the LHCb conditions and perform the test in a reasonable amount of time, the applied voltage was chosen in such a way to have an average avalanche charge $`\mathrm{Q}_\gamma `$ of about 50 pC, which, at the rate quoted above, yields a current density of about 80 nA/cm2. All the relevant parameters of the test - temperature, pressure, high voltage and currents drawn by the chambers - were continuously recorded. In Fig. 1a the current drawn by the irradiated RPC and by the reference RPC during the aging test are shown as a function of time; these currents have been corrected for temperature variations, assuming I=I0 exp($`\alpha `$T) with $`\alpha `$ chosen such that intra-day fluctuations are eliminated. As it is clearly visible from the top plot, the current drawn by the irradiated RPC decreased with time. The current drawn by the reference RPC is reasonably stable and constant during the test. By integrating the measured current, the total charge accumulated by the irradiated RPC has been found to be 0.42 C/cm2, representing about 4 LHCb years in regions 3 and to more than 10 LHCb years in regions 4. The charge integrated by the reference RPC is 0.02 C/cm2.

Measurements after the aging test.  The general behavior and performance of the irradiated RPC has been checked using the source and the muon beam available at the GIF. The combined use of the gamma source and the beam allows a test of the chamber performance under background conditions very similar to the ones encountered in the experiment. Measurements were performed with different photon fluxes, ranging from zero (source off) up to a maximum of about 1 kHz/cm2. The chambers were operated in the same conditions as in the aging test. The efficiency was evaluated by tracking the beam particles with a scintillator hodoscope and with an additional $`10\times 10`$ cm2 RPC. The photon fluxes were estimated from the chamber counting rates measured during dedicated off-spill gates. Data were collected at three different source attenuation values, namely attenuation 1, 2 and 5 corresponding roughly to 1 kHz/cm2, 0.7 kHz/cm2 and 0.4 kHz/cm2 photon fluxes respectively.

The performances of the irradiated RPC are still very good and basically indistinguishable from the ones of reference chamber; as an example the efficiency curves are shown in Fig. 1b for different photon fluxes 333The shift in the plateau position was observed also before the irradiation test and is probably due to a relative mis-calibration of the two sets of readout electronics; it is also compatible with a difference in gap size within tolerances..

In Fig. 1c the dark currents drawn by the two RPCs as a function of the applied voltage - measured before, during and at the end of the aging test - are shown. A large increase of the dark current drawn by the irradiated RPC can be clearly observed. The effect of the irradiation amounts, at a possible working point, to about 1.5 nA/cm2. This increase is correlated with a corresponding increase in dark noise rate, but its origin is still under investigation. However, this increase in dark current density is still significantly below the limit of 3 nA/cm2 set in the LHCb-$`\mu `$ TDR .

The currents drawn by the two chambers under irradiation and different photon fluxes are shown in Fig. 1d: the irradiated RPC clearly draws less current than the reference one, indicating that $`\mathrm{Q}_\gamma `$, which can be obtained from the ratio of current to measured-hit-rate, is smaller in the irradiated RPC.

The effect can be interpreted within a model introduced in Ref.  in which it is assumed that, under a high particle flux, the RPC working point is determined by an effective voltage $`\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{gas}}=\mathrm{V}\mathrm{IR}`$ where V is the applied voltage, I the current drawn by the RPC and R the resistance of the resistive plates. Under these assumptions, quantities such as $`\mathrm{Q}_\gamma `$ are universal functions of the gas properties and of $`\mathrm{V}_{gas}`$. Figure 1e shows that this assumption works reasonably well when the appropriate value for R is used: $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{irr}}=23.1\mathrm{M}\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{ref}}=6.6\mathrm{M}\mathrm{\Omega }`$ respectively corresponding to equivalent bakelite resistivities $`\rho _{\mathrm{irr}}=1.4\times 10^{11}\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{cm}`$ and $`\rho _{\mathrm{ref}}=4.1\times 10^{10}\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{cm}`$. This model, therefore, suggests that the radiation caused a significant increase of resistance in the irradiated RPC.

An increase in resistivity would result in a limitation of the rate capability of the detectors. Figure 1f shows the efficiency of the two chambers, normalized to the value obtained with source off, as a function of the photon flux for three different high voltage values. No evidence of a different behavior between the two RPCs up to a flux of more than 1 kHz/cm2 is observed, showing that these RPC can satisfy the LHCb requirements at least for 4 years running in the worst expected background conditions.

Summary and conclusions.  A charge density of 0.42 C/cm2 has been accumulated on a single gap, oiled, low-resistivity RPC. Dark currents and noise rates, measured with source off, clearly rose. The current measured with source on steadily decreased, possibly indicating an increase of the bakelite resistivity. The performances of the chamber are not affected at least up to 1 kHz/cm2, still satisfying the LHCb requirements. The integrated charge corresponds to about 4 years of LHCb at the highest expected background rate.

Acknowledgments. We would like to thank V. Souvorov and T. Schneider for valuable help and suggestions during preparation and running of the test.


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# The statistics of the entanglement changes generated by the Hadamard-CNOT quantum circuit

## Abstract

We consider the change of entanglement of formation $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ produced by the Hadamard-CNOT circuit on a general (pure or mixed) state $`\rho `$ describing a system of two qubits. We study numerically the probabilities of obtaining different values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$, assuming that the initial state is randomly distributed in the space of all states according to the product measure recently introduced by Zyczkowski et al. \[Phys. Rev. A 58 (1998) 883\].

Pacs: 03.67.-a; 89.70.+c; 03.65.Bz

Keywords: Quantum Entanglement; Unitary Operations; Quantum Information Theory

Entanglement is one of the most fundamental phenomena of quantum mechanics . It is a physical resource, like energy, associated with the peculiar non-classical correlations that are possible between separated quantum systems. One needs entanglement so as to implement quantum information processes  such as quantum cryptographic key distribution , quantum teleportation , superdense coding , and quantum computation . Production of entanglement is the elementary prerequisite for any quantum computation. This basic task is accomplished by unitary transformations $`\widehat{U}`$ (quantum gates) representing quantum evolution acting on the space state of multipartite systems. $`\widehat{U}`$ should describe nontrivial interactions among the degrees of freedom of its subsystems.

One of the fundamental questions about quantum computation is then how to construct an adequate set of quantum gates, and a nice answer can be given: any generic two-qubits gate suffices for universal computation . One would then be legitimately interested in ascertaining just how efficient distinct $`\widehat{U}`$’s are as entanglers. In this respect, much exciting work has recently been performed (see, for instance, ).

A state of a composite quantum system is called “entangled” if it can not be represented as a mixture of factorizable pure states. Otherwise, the state is called separable. The above definition is physically meaningful because entangled states (unlike separable states) cannot be prepared locally by acting on each subsystem individually . A physically motivated measure of entanglement is provided by the entanglement of formation $`E[\rho ]`$ . This measure quantifies the resources needed to create a given entangled state $`\rho `$. That is, $`E[\rho ]`$ is equal to the asymptotic limit (for large $`n`$) of the quotient $`m/n`$, where $`m`$ is the number of singlet states needed to create $`n`$ copies of the state $`\rho `$ when the optimum procedure based on local operations is employed. The entanglement of formation for two-qubits systems is given by Wootters’ expression ,

$$E[\rho ]=h\left(\frac{1+\sqrt{1C^2}}{2}\right),$$
(1)
where

$$h(x)=x\mathrm{log}_2x(1x)\mathrm{log}_2(1x),$$
(2)
and $`C`$ stands for the concurrence of the two-qubits state $`\rho `$. The concurrence is given by

$$C=max(0,\lambda _1\lambda _2\lambda _3\lambda _4),$$
(3)
$`\lambda _i,(i=1,\mathrm{}4)`$ being the square roots, in decreasing order, of the eigenvalues of the matrix $`\rho \stackrel{~}{\rho }`$, with

$$\stackrel{~}{\rho }=(\sigma _y\sigma _y)\rho ^{}(\sigma _y\sigma _y).$$
(4)
The above expression has to be evaluated by recourse to the matrix elements of $`\rho `$ computed with respect to the product basis.

In the present effort we will concern ourselves with one particular quantum circuit: the Hadamard-CNOT circuit, that combines two gates: a single-qubit one (Hadamard’s) with a two-qubits gate (CNOT). Quantum logic gates are unitary evolution operators $`\widehat{U}`$ that act on the states of a certain number of qubits. If the number of such qubits is $`m`$, the quantum gate is represented by a $`2^m`$x$`2^m`$ matrix in the unitary group $`U(2^m)`$. These gates are reversible: one can reverse the action, thereby recovering an initial quantum state from a final one. We shall work here with $`m=2`$. The simplest nontrivial 2-qubits operation is the quantum controlled-NOT, or CNOT (equivalently, the exclusive OR, or XOR). Its classical counterpart is a reversible logic gate operating on two bits: $`e_1`$, the control bit, and $`e_2`$, the target bit. If $`e_1=1`$, the value of $`e_2`$ is negated. Otherwise, it is left untouched. The quantum CNOT gate $`C_{12}`$ (the first subscript denotes the control bit, the second the target one) plays a paramount role in both experimental and theoretical efforts that revolve around the quantum computer concept. In a given orthonormal basis $`\{|0,|1\}`$, and if we denote addition modulo 2 by the symbol $``$, we have

$$|e_1|e_2C_{12}|e_1|e_1e_2.$$
(5)
In conjunction with simple single-qubit operations, the CNOT gate constitutes a set of gates out of which any quantum gate may be built . In other words, single qubit and CNOT gates are universal for quantum computation .

As stated, the CNOT gate operates on quantum states of two qubits and is represented by a 4x4-matrix. This matrix has a diagonal block form. The upper diagonal block is just the unit 2x2 matrix. The lower diagonal 2x2 block is the representation of the one-qubit NOT gate $`U_{NOT}`$, of the form

$`\mathrm{0\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}1}`$ (6)
$`\mathrm{1\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}0}`$ (7)
Note that, of course, $`C_{12}^2=1`$. This gate is able to transform factorizable pure states into entangled ones, i.e.,

$$C_{12}:[c_1|0+c_2|1]|0c_1|0|0+c_2|1|1,$$
(8)
and this transformation can be reversed by applying the same CNOT operation once more .

The Hadamard transform $`T_H`$ ($`T_H^2=1`$) is given by

$$T_H=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}[\sigma _1+\sigma _3],$$
(9)
and acts on the single qubit basis $`\{|0>,|1>\}`$ in the following fashion

$`T_H|0>`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}[|1>|0>]`$ (10)
$`T_H|1>`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}[|0>+|1>].`$ (11)
Consider now the two-qubits uncorrelated basis $`\{|00>,|01>,|10>,|11>\}.`$ If we act with $`T_H`$ on the members of this basis we obtain

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left[|1>|0>\right]|0>`$ (12)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left[|1>|0>\right]|1>`$ (13)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left[|0>+|1>\right]|0>`$ (14)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left[|0>+|1>\right]|1>,`$ (15)
so that the posterior action of the CNOT gate yields

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}[|1>|1>|0>|0>]`$ (16)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}[|1>|0>|0>|1>]`$ (17)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}[|0>|0>+|1>|1>]`$ (18)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}[|0>|1>+|1>|0>],`$ (19)
i.e., save for an irrelevant overall phase factor in two of the kets, the maximally correlated Bell basis $`|\varphi ^\pm `$, $`|\psi ^\pm `$. We see then that the $`T_H`$-CNOT combination transforms an uncorrelated basis in the maximally correlated one.

Now, the two-qubits systems with which we are going to be concerned here are the simplest quantum mechanical systems exhibiting the entanglement phenomenon and play a fundamental role in quantum information theory. The concomitant space $``$ of mixed states is 15-dimensional and its properties are not of a trivial character. While the entanglement of pure states can be regarded as well understood, the entanglement of mixed states still has many properties that deserve further investigation. The reason for this state of affairs lies in the fact the quantum content of the associated correlations is somewhat obscured by the classical correlations in a mixed state. A mixed state which does not violate any Bell inequality can nonetheless exhibit quantum mechanical correlations, as one can distill from it pure maximally entangled states that violate Bell inequalities .

There are still then $``$-features, related to the phenomenon of entanglement, that have not yet been characterized in full detail. One such characterization problem will occupy us here. We shall perform a systematic numerical survey of the action of the $`T_H`$-CNOT circuit on our 15-dimensional space in order to ascertain the manner in which $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }E)`$ is distributed in $``$, with $`P`$ the probability of generating a change $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ associated to the action of this reversible quantum circuit. This kind of exploratory work is in line with recent efforts towards the systematic exploration of the space of arbitrary (pure or mixed) states of composite quantum systems  in order to determine the typical features exhibited by these states with regards to the phenomenon of quantum entanglement . It is important to stress the fact that we are exploring a space in which the majority of states are mixed. The exciting investigations reported in  address mainly pure states. We will try to answer the question: given an initial degree of entanglement of formation $`E`$, what is the probability $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }E)`$ of encountering a change in entanglement $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ upon the action of this circuit?

Our answer will arise from a Monte Carlo exploration of $``$. To do this we need to define a proper measure on $``$. The space of all (pure and mixed) states $`\rho `$ of a quantum system described by an $`N`$-dimensional Hilbert space can be regarded as a product space $`𝒮=𝒫\times \mathrm{\Delta }`$ . Here $`𝒫`$ stands for the family of all complete sets of orthonormal projectors $`\{\widehat{P}_i\}_{i=1}^N`$, $`_i\widehat{P}_i=I`$ ($`I`$ being the identity matrix). $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the set of all real $`N`$-uples $`\{\lambda _1,\mathrm{},\lambda _N\}`$, with $`0\lambda _i1`$, and $`_i\lambda _i=1`$. The general state in $`𝒮`$ is of the form $`\rho =_i\lambda _iP_i`$. The Haar measure on the group of unitary matrices $`U(N)`$ induces a unique, uniform measure $`\nu `$ on the set $`𝒫`$ . On the other hand, since the simplex $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is a subset of a $`(N1)`$-dimensional hyperplane of $`^N`$, the standard normalized Lebesgue measure $`_{N1}`$ on $`^{N1}`$ provides a measure for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. The aforementioned measures on $`𝒫`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ lead to a measure $`\mu `$ on the set $`𝒮`$ of quantum states ,

$$\mu =\nu \times _{N1}.$$
(20)
We are going to consider the set of states of a two-qubits system. Consequently, our system will have $`N=4`$ and, for such an $`N`$, $`𝒮`$. All our present considerations are based on the assumption that the uniform distribution of states of a two-qubit system is the one determined by the measure (20). Thus, in our numerical computations we are going to randomly generate states of a two-qubits system according to the measure (20) and study the entanglement evolution of these states upon the action of our $`T_H`$-CNOT quantum circuit.

As a first step, we suggest that the reader take a look at Fig. 4a of Ref. . There one finds a plot of the probability $`P(E)`$ of finding two-qubits states of $``$ endowed with a given amount of entanglement $`E`$. In this graphs, the solid line corresponds to all states (pure and mixed), while the dashed curve depicts pure state behaviour only. We clearly see that our probabilities are of a quite different character when they refer to of pure states than when they correspond to mixed ones. Most mixed states have null entanglement, or a rather small amount of it (see the enlightening discussion in ). For pure states it is more likely to encounter them endowed with an intermediate (between null and total) amount of entanglement. It is then important to ascertain how much entanglement the $`T_H`$-CNOT quantum circuit is able to generate on our 15-dimensional two-qubits space.

We deal with pure states only in Fig. 1. Fig. 1a plots the probability $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }E)`$ of obtaining via the $`T_H`$-CNOT quantum circuit a final state with entanglement change $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=E_FE_0`$. In 1b we are concerned with the average value $`E_F`$ pertaining to final states that result from the gate-operation on initial ones of a given (fixed) entanglement $`E_0`$ (solid line). The horizontal line is plotted for the sake of reference. It corresponds to the average entanglement of two-qubits pure states, equal to $`1/(3\mathrm{ln}2)`$. The diagonal line $`E_F`$ = $`E_0`$ is also shown (dashed line). $`E_F`$ is a decreasing function of $`E_0`$ although the quantum circuit considered increases the mean final entanglement approximately up to 0.5 for states with $`E_0`$ lying in the interval $`[0,0.5]`$.

The same analysis, but involving now all states (pure and mixed), is summarized in Fig. 2. The graph 2a is the counterpart of 1a, while 2b is that of 2a. The dashed line of 2b, given for the sake of visual reference, if just the line $`E_F=E_0`$. The two Figs. allow one to appreciate the fact that it is quite unlikely that we may generate, via the $`T_H`$-CNOT quantum circuit, a significant amount of entanglement if the initial state is separable. In Fig 2 we see that the mean final entanglement $`E_F`$ rises rapidly near the origin, from zero, with $`E_0`$ . The rate of entanglement-growth decreases steadily with $`E_0`$ and the interval in which $`E_F`$ is greater than $`E_0`$ is significantly smaller that the one corresponding to pure states (Fig. 1b).

The $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }E)`$ vs. $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ plots exhibit a nitid peak at $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=0`$. The peak is enormously exaggerated if mixed states enter the picture (2a). Thus, if the initial state has null entanglement, our survey indicates that the most probable circumstance is that the circuit will leave its entanglement unchanged.

We performed a systematic survey, in the space of all two-qubits states, concerning the entanglement changes associated with the action of the $`T_H`$-CNOT circuit. We found that the probability distribution of entanglement changes obtained when the circuit acts on pure states is quite different from the distribution obtained when the circuit acts on general mixed states. The probability of entangling mixed states turns out to be rather small. On average, the $`T_H`$-CNOT transformation is more efficient, as entangler, when acting upon states with small initial entanglement, specially in the case of pure states.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was partially supported by the DGES grant PB98-0124 (Spain), and by CONICET (Argentine Agency).

FIGURE CAPTIONS

Fig. 1-a) $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }E)`$ vs. $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ for pure states. The change of entanglement $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ arises as a result of the action of the $`T_H`$-CNOT quantum circuit. b) Probability of obtaining, via the $`T_H`$-CNOT transformation, a final state with entanglement $`E_F`$, when the initial state is endowed with a given entanglement $`E_0`$ (solid line). The horizontal line depicts the mean entanglement of all pure states. The diagonal (dashed line) is drawn for visual reference.

Fig. 2 The same as in Fig. 1 for all states (pure and mixed).


text:
# Coexistence of pion condensation and color superconductivity in two flavor quark matter

## I Introduction

In QCD with two flavors at high baryon density the superconducting phase is the lowest energy state . In this phase $`u,d`$ quarks with two different colors (say ”red”, ”green”) create Cooper pairs whereas the ”blue” quarks remain free. The chiral symmetry $`SU(2)\times SU(2)`$ is restored and only gauge color group is broken. On the other hand at lower density one expects the state with broken chiral symmetry. This can be a hadronic phase but the free quark plasma is not ruled out. In such a situation the sequence of the phase transitions along the density line (at zero or very low temperature) follows the chain: hadronic phase/quark phase/superconducting phase. All the phase transitions are expected to be first order. In this letter we present an explicit model describing the transition between the normal quark and the superconducting phases. It occurs that the transition actually goes through the mixed state which consists of the non-uniform chiral phase and superconducting phase.

The non-uniform chiral phase had been introduced in the context of the non-relativistic nuclear physics  and then was extended for the systems of high density plasma of quarks . In this new phase the chiral fields condense in both scalar and pseudoscalar channels creating a static chiral wave along one direction in space with the wavelength $`2\pi /|\stackrel{}{q}|`$ where $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ is a wave vector. It was shown that in some temperature - density range this configuration has lower energy then the uniform quark phase. On the other hand we have learned from the studies  that at higher densities one should compare the non-uniform quark phase with the superconducting phase rather then with the uniform quark phase. As a result one can show that the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter is more complicated and contains a region of the mixed state.

The high density matter exists in the Neutron Stars. If the density is high enough then the superconducting phase resides in their cores. In this situation one can also expect the mixed phase to be present there - the mixed state which separates uniform chiraly broken phase from the superconducting phase. We cannot prove that this mixed state is the same as the one considered in this paper but we provide an explicit realization of such a scenario.

In the next section we introduce a thermodynamic potential describing all the interesting phases. In the third section we present the numerical analysis and finaly we discuss the results in the Conclusions.

## II Model of chiral and 2SC phases

Let us consider the NJL model :

$$H=d^3x\left\{\overline{\psi }(i\stackrel{}{\gamma }\stackrel{}{}\mu \gamma _0)\psi G\left[(\overline{\psi }\psi )^2+(\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\stackrel{}{\tau }\psi )^2\right]G^{}(\psi \tau _2t^AC\gamma _5\psi )^{}(\psi \tau _2t^AC\gamma _5\psi )\right\}$$
(1)
where $`\psi `$ is the quark field, $`\mu `$ the quark chemical potential and the color, flavor and spinor indices are suppressed. The vector $`\stackrel{}{\tau }`$ is the isospin vector of Pauli matrices and $`t^A`$ are three color antisymmetric group generators. The coupling constant $`G`$ describes the interaction in the isospin singlet, Lorentz scalar and the isospin triplet, Lorentz pseudoscalar, quark-antiquark channels whereas $`G^{}`$ describes the interaction in the color $`\overline{\text{3}}`$, flavor singlet, Lorentz scalar diquark channel. Both couplings are related through the Fierz transformation but we treat them as the independent parameters. There is an additional parameter (or function) which regularize infinities in the model. In our case we use the simplest momentum cut-off $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Our main results are independent of this choice. We analize the four-fermion point interactions in the mean field approximation using the general anstaz:

$`\overline{\psi }\psi ={\displaystyle \frac{M}{2G}}\mathrm{cos}\stackrel{}{q}\stackrel{}{x}`$ (2)
$`\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\tau ^a\psi ={\displaystyle \frac{M}{2G}}\delta _{a3}\mathrm{sin}\stackrel{}{q}\stackrel{}{x}`$ (3)
$`\psi \tau _2t^AC\gamma _5\psi ={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{2G^{}}}\delta _{A1}`$ (4)
where the directions of symmetry breaking in the isospin and color spaces are chosen arbitrarily. The wave vector $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ describes the chiral wave along some arbitrary direction in space. In the limit of vanishing $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ we recover usual uniform chiral phase. The gap parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ describes the superconducting phase. Let us notice that (2) is not the analog of the LOFF phase in the superconductivity  which arises due to the difference in the chemical potentials of the pairing species. In our case it is rather the dynamical interaction between the spin and isospin degrees of freedom which effectively lower the energy .

Using formulae (1), (2) in the mean-field approximation we get:

$$H_{MF}=d^3x\left\{\overline{\psi }(i\stackrel{}{\gamma }\stackrel{}{}+MU\mu \gamma _0)\psi \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{2}(\psi \tau _2t^1C\gamma _5\psi )^{}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }^{}}{2}(\psi \tau _2t^1C\gamma _5\psi )+\frac{M^2}{4G}+\frac{|\mathrm{\Delta }|^2}{4G^{}}\right\}$$
(6)
where the Dirac operator is now space dependent $`U=\mathrm{cos}\stackrel{}{q}\stackrel{}{x}+i\gamma _5\tau _3\mathrm{sin}\stackrel{}{q}\stackrel{}{x}`$. One can eliminate this dependence by the unitary transformation to the new fermi fields $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }=U^{1/2}\psi `$ which gives the free energy in the form:

$$\stackrel{~}{H}_{MF}=d^3x\left\{\stackrel{~}{\psi }^{}(i\stackrel{}{\alpha }\stackrel{}{}\frac{1}{2}\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}\stackrel{}{q}\tau _3+M\gamma _0\mu )\stackrel{~}{\psi }\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{2}(\stackrel{~}{\psi }\tau _2t^1C\gamma _5\stackrel{~}{\psi })^{}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }^{}}{2}(\stackrel{~}{\psi }\tau _2t^1C\gamma _5\stackrel{~}{\psi })+\frac{M^2}{4G}+\frac{|\mathrm{\Delta }|^2}{4G^{}}\right\}$$
(7)
where $`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}`$ is the vector of Dirac spin matrices. The hamiltonian (7) describes two kinds of interactions: the ”chiral” part and the ”superconducting part”. The chiral part mixes particles and antiparticles leaving color and isospin structure untouched. On the other hand the ”superconducting” part mixes colors and isospins of particles. To be more precise, one can introduce the plane wave basis

$$\stackrel{~}{\psi }_\alpha ^j(t,\stackrel{}{x})=\underset{s=1,2}{}\frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3\sqrt{2E(\stackrel{}{k})}}\left\{u_s(\stackrel{}{k})a_{\alpha ,s}^j(\stackrel{}{k})\mathrm{exp}(ikx)+v_s(\stackrel{}{k})b_{\alpha ,s}^j(\stackrel{}{k})\mathrm{exp}(ikx)\right\},$$
(8)
where $`E(\stackrel{}{k})=\sqrt{\stackrel{}{k}^2+M^2}`$, $`u_s,v_s`$ are Dirac bispinors, $`a_{\alpha ,s}^i(\stackrel{}{k})`$ $`(b_{\alpha ,s}^i(\stackrel{}{k}))`$ is an annihilation operator of quark (antiquark) of color $`\alpha `$, flavor $`j`$, spin $`s`$, and momentum $`\stackrel{}{k}`$, satisfying usual anticommutation relations. In this basis hamiltonian (7) creates the $`24\times 24`$ matrix which decays into three independent diagonal $`8\times 8`$ blocks. Two of them are related to pairing between ”red”, ”green” $`u,d`$ quarks and antiquarks whereas the third one describes the pairing between ”blue” quarks and antiquarks (which do not create Cooper pairs). The hamiltonian (7) can be diagonalized with the positive energy eigenvalues :

$`\lambda _{1,\pm }(\stackrel{}{k})=\sqrt{(E_\pm (\stackrel{}{k})\mu )^2+|\mathrm{\Delta }|^2},\lambda _{2,\pm }(\stackrel{}{k})=\sqrt{(E_\pm (\stackrel{}{k})+\mu )^2+|\mathrm{\Delta }|^2}`$ (9)
$`E_\pm (\stackrel{}{k})=\sqrt{\stackrel{}{k}^2+M^2+{\displaystyle \frac{q^2}{4}}\pm \sqrt{q^2M^2+\stackrel{}{k}\stackrel{}{q}}}`$ (10)
for $`u,d`$, ”red”, ”green” quarks and $`\lambda _{3,\pm }(\stackrel{}{k})=E_\pm (\stackrel{}{k})`$ for ”blue” $`u,d`$ quarks. The negative eigenvalues has opposite signs. After diagonalization the hamiltonian (7) takes the general form $`\stackrel{~}{H}_{MF}=\widehat{H}+H_0`$. The first term is a diagonal operator and the second term defines the energy of the ground state as a function of chemical potential. The vacuum expectation value $`\stackrel{~}{H}_{MF}=H_0`$ and

$`H_0={\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Delta }|^2}{4G^{}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{4G}}2{\displaystyle \underset{s=\pm }{}}{\displaystyle ^\mathrm{\Lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}}(\lambda _{1,s}+\lambda _{2,s})2{\displaystyle \underset{s=\pm }{}}{\displaystyle ^\mathrm{\Lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}}\lambda _{3,s}+2{\displaystyle \underset{s=\pm }{}}{\displaystyle _{E_s<\mu }}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}}(\lambda _{3,s}\mu )`$ (11)
The first integral describes the contribution from the quarks which create the chiral condensate as well as Cooper pairs. The factor 2 is the number of colors minus one (”red”, ”green”). The parameter $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ reminds of the momentum cut-off of the divergent integral. The last two terms are connected to ”blue” quarks which build only chiral condensate. The factor of 2, this time, describes the number of flavors. Let us rewrite (11) in the form:

$`H_0={\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Delta }|^2}{4G^{}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{4G}}6{\displaystyle \underset{s=\pm }{}}{\displaystyle ^\mathrm{\Lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}}\lambda _{3,s}2{\displaystyle \underset{s=\pm }{}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}(\lambda _{1,s}+\lambda _{2,s}2\lambda _{3,s})}+{\displaystyle \underset{s=\pm }{}}{\displaystyle _{E_s<\mu }}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}}(\lambda _{3,s}\mu )\right\}`$ (12)
which distinguishes explicitly between the vacuum contribution - the first integral, and the finite density contributions - the last two integrals. The vacuum contribution can be expanded in the power of the wave vector $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ (nothing more but the gradient expansion in mesonic fields) and we arrive at the final result:

$`H_0^{njl}={\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Delta }|^2}{4G^{}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{4G}}+{\displaystyle \frac{M^2F_\pi ^2\stackrel{}{q}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}}{2M_0^2}}12{\displaystyle ^\mathrm{\Lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}}E(\stackrel{}{k})`$ (13)
$`2{\displaystyle \underset{s=\pm }{}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}(\lambda _{1,s}+\lambda _{2,s}2\lambda _{3,s})}{\displaystyle _{E_s<\mu }}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}}(\lambda _{3,s}\mu )\right\}`$ (14)
The coefficient at $`\stackrel{}{q}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}`$ is model independent and it is related to the pion decay constant with its vacuum value $`F_\pi =93`$ MeV. $`M_0`$ is the constituent quark mass at zero density. Let us notice that in the limit of vanishing $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|`$ we recover the chiral hamiltonian  whereas in the limit of vanishing $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ we can find the hamiltonian describing Cooper pairing . Let us also mention that from the formula (13) one can easily guess the linear sigma model version of the hamiltonian. Indeed the NJL and linear sigma models at the mean-field level are different only with respect to the description of the vacuum contribution to the energy. Thus instead of the formula (13) one can write in the linear sigma model:

$`H_0^{l\sigma }={\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Delta }|^2}{4G^{}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{4G}}+{\displaystyle \frac{M^2F_\pi ^2\stackrel{}{q}^2}{2M_0^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{m_\sigma ^2}{8F_\pi ^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{m^2}{g^2}}F_\pi ^2\right)^2`$ (15)
$`2{\displaystyle \underset{s=\pm }{}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}(\lambda _{1,s}+\lambda _{2,s}2\lambda _{3,s})}{\displaystyle _{E_s<\mu }}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}}(\lambda _{3,s}\mu )\right\}`$ (16)
where $`g`$ is dimensionless coupling constant and $`m_\sigma `$ is a mass of sigma meson. However in the numerical calculation we only use the formula (13).

## III Chiral/2SC phase transition

The model parameters can be fitted to the values of the chiral condensate and the pion decay constant which give $`G=5.01`$ GeV<sup>-2</sup> and the cut-off $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.65`$ GeV . For this set of parameters the chiral phase transition at $`\stackrel{}{q}=0`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|=0`$ takes place at the chemical potential $`\mu =0.316`$ GeV and the value of the constituent quark mass at zero density is $`M_0=0.301`$ MeV. The coupling constant $`G^{}`$ we treat as the additional model parameter. The main results which are robust against the change in $`G^{}`$ are:

* there is the first order phase transition from the homogeneous chiraly broken phase $`M=M_0`$, $`\stackrel{}{q}=0`$, $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|=0`$ to the mixed phase $`MM_00`$, $`\stackrel{}{q}0`$, $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|0`$.
* by increasing chemical potential one decreases constituent mass $`M`$ and increases $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|`$.
* there is additional first order phase transition from the mixed phase to the 2SC phase ($`M=0`$, $`\stackrel{}{q}=0`$, $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|0`$).

From the above points one can see that the 2SC phase is separated from the chiraly broken phase by the the non-uniform mixed state. This conclusion is still valid for non-zero temperatures. We discuss this feature in the last section. On the other hand the numerical details depend on the choice of $`G^{}`$. In particular for the range $`G/2G^{}G`$ we can find:

* The transition to the mixed phase appears in the band of 10 MeV around $`\mu =0.29`$ MeV (smaller $`G^{}`$ larger critical chemical potential) .
* The values of the gap parameter $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|`$ can vary by a factor of two (smaller $`G^{}`$ larger $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|`$).
* The values of the wave vector $`|\stackrel{}{q}|`$ can change by 40-50 per cent (smaller $`G^{}`$ larger $`|\stackrel{}{q}|`$).
* The range of the mixed phase along $`\mu `$-axis can change from 10 to 100 MeV (smaller $`G^{}`$ longer the range).

In the Fig. 1 we present the values of $`M`$, $`|\stackrel{}{q}|`$, $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|`$ for $`G^{}=G/2`$ as a function of chemical potential $`\mu `$. The first order phase transition takes place at $`\mu =0.301`$ GeV. The constituent mass drops to around half of its vacuum value (Fig. 1a), the wave vector $`|\stackrel{}{q}|=0.34`$ GeV (Fig. 1b) and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|=0.004`$ GeV (Fig. 1c). The mixed phase exists up to the second critical point $`\mu =0.396`$ GeV where another first order phase transition appears. The values of $`M`$, $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ drop to zero and the value of the gap $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|=0.039`$ GeV. For larger $`\mu `$ we enter the homogeneous 2SC phase.

## IV Conclusions

In this letter we showed that the high density superconducting phase 2SC is separated from the low density chiraly broken phase by the region of the mixed non-homogeneous phase. This mixed state consists of the chiral waves with non-zero expectation values in the scalar and pseudoscalar channels $`\overline{\psi }\psi ,\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\tau _a\psi `$ described by the wave vector $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ which points at arbitrary direction is space. In addition there is a non-zero value of the superconducting gap parameter $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|`$. We cannot prove that this mixed state is the lowest energy state however we showed that its energy is lower then that of the homogeneous phases. Similar questions was already addressed in the context of the Overhauser effect  versus BCS pairing. It was shown that both types of pairing can be competitive  with each other. However it was also shown that within the NJL-type of models BCS state is favoured over the Overhauser state  which suggests that the non-homogeneous phase (2) is lower then BCS and Overhauser phases in the considered density range. Nevertheless one has to keep in mind that other approaches (instanton models) favours Overhauser effect over BCS pairing  thus one can not drew the final conclusion and more work is required. We can then conclude that the superconducting phase and the normal phase are separated by some kind of crystal state. Let us stress that the crystal structure (2) is dynamical in origin, not ”kinematical” in a sense of the LOFF state .

Our results are robust against the reasonable changes in the model parameters. What is more the same results one can derive not only in the NJL model but also in the linear sigma model. Thus also in that sense the results are model independent. The numerical details, like the location of the critical points, the values of the constituent mass, wave vector and superconducting gap, depends on the choice of the parameters. Although we perform our calculations for massless quarks the introduction of the small current quark mass does not change the main conclusions. It merely distorts the shape of the chiral wave as was shown in  for one dimensional system. One can also expect that the mixed phase exists for some range of temperatures (below $`T50`$ MeV where superconductor melts) and densities. However the detailed picture of the phase diagram remain to be done.

The real QCD consists of two light flavors and one heavier, strange quark. In this situation one has to consider the three flavors NJL model. However we expect that our main points remain the same. If one considers the superconducting phase inside the Neutron Stars then the question of the color and charge neutrality rises . It was shown by the explicit calculation  that at non-zero lepton chemical potential the 2SC phase borders with the normal quark phase at lower densities and only at higher densities it changes into the CFL phase. Thus even in the case of the three flavors QCD we can still have quark matter/2SC boundary in the Neutron Stars. This boundary is not just a line in the phase diagram but the mixed state region as we have shown. What kind of the crystal or non-uniformity is realized in the three flavors QCD has not been discoverd so far.

Acknowledgement This work was supported by a fellowship from the Foundation for Polish Science. It was also supported in part by Polish State Committee for Scientific Research, grant no. 2P 03B 094 19.