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# Identification of 13 Cepheids and 333 Other Variables in M31

## 1 Introduction

In recent years, the Andromeda galaxy (M31) has been a target of search for gravitational microlensing events (Crotts & Tomaney 1996, Ansari et al. 1997). To detect lensing events, continuous observations are needed for a long duration though for a short period of time each night. Such observations are, therefore, very useful to search for variable stars (e.g. Cepheids, Miras) also. The catalogues of variable stars compiled from such a monitoring programme are generally complete within the flux limitation, because of the continuous observation of the same field over a long period. Various groups (e.g. MACHO, EROS, OGLE) dedicated to search for microlensing events in the Galactic Bulge and Magellanic Clouds have already identified a large number of variable stars as a bi-product (Welch et al. 1997, Udalski et al. 1999a) and the catalogues of Cepheid variables brought out by these projects (Beaulieu et al., 1995, Udalski et al. 1999b) have given insight into the pulsation properties of Cepheids.

In collaboration with the AGAPE (Andromeda Gravitational Amplification Pixel Experiment) group, we started Cousins $`R`$ and $`I`$ photometric observations of M31 in 1998 with an aim to search for microlensing events. Based on the observations of first 2 years, Joshi et al. (2001, hereafter referred as paper I) reported 8 variables, 7 of them were suspected as Cepheids and one Mira-like variable. In this paper, we extended our analysis to detect the variable stars using four years of observations. Details of our observations are given in next section while Sect. 3 outlines the detailed photometry of our data. The detection of variable stars is described in Sect. 4 which leads to discovery of some new Cepheids. The catalogue of Cepheids, their period-luminosity relation, colour-magnitude diagram along with a brief discussion of some of the Cepheids are presented in Sect. 5. Other type of variables along with discussion and conclusion are given in the remaining part of the paper.

## 2 Observation and image processing

The Cousins $`R`$ and $`I`$ broad band photometric observations were carried out at the f/13 Cassegrain 104-cm Sampurnanand Telescope of the State Observatory, Naini Tal. The CCD observations of the M31 were started in November 1998 using a $`1024\times 1024`$ pixel2 CCD covering $`6^{}\times 6^{}`$ field. A large size CCD containing $`2048\times 2048`$ pixel2 covering an area of $`13^{}\times 13^{}`$ was used for the observations in later years. The target field ($`\alpha _{2000}`$ = $`0^h43^m38^s`$ and $`\delta _{2000}`$ = $`+41^{}09^{}.1`$) is centered at a distance of about 15 arcmin away from the center of M31. The detailed overview of telescope and instruments are given in paper I. A brief summary of the characteristic parameters of the two CCDs used for observations are given in Table 1. To minimize air mass effects, most of the observations were taken when zenith distance was $``$ 3 hour. We have accumulated 468 and 383 data points in $`R`$ and $`I`$ filters respectively during 141 observational nights spanning over $``$1200 days. Table 2, available electronically either from authors or at the CDS, lists the date of observation, corresponding Julian date and total exposure time. The average seeing during the entire observing runs was $``$2 arcsec.

Data reduction have been performed using the MIDAS and IRAF softwares. Preliminary steps of the image processing include bias and flat fielding corrections. As the dark current during the maximum exposure time of a frame is negligible, it has not been corrected. The cosmic rays contaminations were removed independently from each frame.

The observations were performed in unbinned (0.37$`\times `$0.37 arcsec2) as well as in 2$`\times `$2 binned (0.74$`\times `$0.74 arcsec2) mode during different runs of observations. As the main aim of our observations is to search microlensing events in a combined data of Naini Tal (NTL) and AGAPE (observed with 1.3m MDM telescope at Kitt peak, Arizona, a detailed discussions is given in Calchi Novati et al. 2002), we aligned all the NTL images with respect to a MDM reference image. The NTL images were scaled down or up to MDM pixel size (0.5$`\times `$0.5 arcsec2). These aligned images, in combination with AGAPE observations, will be used to search for microlensing events using the pixel method described in detail by Ansari et al. (1997).

## 3 Photometry

To check whether profile fitting photometry could be carried out on the modified NTL images, we compared the photometries carried out on original image and on modified images and the results of a particular night are displayed in Fig. 1. The comparison shows good agreement between the magnitude derived from original and modified images. Therefore we carried out photometry on the modified images. In order to increase signal to noise ratio, all the images of a night were stacked together resulting one frame per filter per night. This then provides us 133 $`R`$ and 166 $`I`$ data points which were used in further analysis.

Using DAOPHOT ‘FIND’ routine, we identified $``$4400 resolved stars in the reference frame at $`4\sigma `$ detection level. Stellar photometry for all the images in both filters has been carried out for these resolved stars in ‘fixed-position mode’ using DAOPHOT photometry as described by Stetson (1987). PSF was obtained for each frame using 25-30 uncontaminated stars. DAOPHOT/ALLSTAR (Stetson 1987) routine was used to calculate the instrumental magnitude of the detected stars for each individual frame. The internal errors estimated from the S/N ratio of the stars as output of the ALLSTAR are given in Table 3 as a function of brightness. The error become large ($`>0.1`$ mag) for stars fainter than $`R`$20.0 mag.

### 3.1 Photometric Calibration

The absolute calibration has been done using Landolt’s (1992) standard field SA98 observed on a good photometric night of 25/26 October, 2000. The airmass ranges from 1.3 to 2.1 during the observations. Atmospheric extinction coefficients determined from these observations are 0.11$`\pm `$0.01 and 0.08$`\pm `$0.01 mag/airmass in $`R`$ and $`I`$ filters and they have been used in further analysis. Thirteen standard stars having range in brightness $`(11.95<V<15.84)`$ and colour $`(0.09<(RI)<1.00)`$ were used to derive following transformation equations.

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(RI)=(0.96\pm 0.01)\times \mathrm{\Delta }(ri)$$
(1)
$$\mathrm{\Delta }(Rr)=(0.03\pm 0.03)\times (RI)$$
(2)
where $`R`$ and $`I`$ are the Landolt standard magnitudes while $`r`$ and $`i`$ are the corresponding instrumental magnitudes. The zero point errors are about 0.02 mag in $`R`$ and 0.01 mag in $`(RI)`$. Equations (1) and (2) were used to generate 50 secondary standards in the target field observed on the same night by accounting the differences in exposure times and air-masses. To standardize the remaining stars, differential photometry has been performed with these secondary stars rejecting those which were showing more than $`3\sigma `$ deviation. This process yields an accuracy of 0.03 mag in zero points. A variation of $`\pm 0.1`$ mag was found around the mean value in the secondary stars itself during the whole observing runs which can be treated as an accuracy in NTL photometry.

### 3.2 Comparison with the previous photometries

A comparison of the present $`I`$ band data with those available in the literature (Magnier et al. 1992, Mochejska et al. 2001 for the DIRECT collaboration) has been shown in Fig. 2 as it is the only common filter. An offset of 0.13 mag is observed between our and Mochejska et al. (2001) $`I`$ band photometry while a difference with Magnier et al. (1992) data indicates a magnitude dependence with a slope of 0.02. A similar slope is seen between Mochejska (2001) and Magnier et al. (1992) data. These results suggest that Magnier et al. (1992) data is colour dependent while Mochejska et al. (2001) data has zero point offset.

## 4 Detection of variable stars

### 4.1 Selection Criteria

We do not have all the observations in good photometric sky conditions. Therefore we have rejected all those data points showing photometric error of $`>`$ 0.2 mag. Further, for each star, the average DAOPHOT error and its standard deviation was calculated using its observations on different nights. Measurements with errors exceeding to average error by more than 3$`\sigma `$ were flagged as ‘bad’ and removed from further analysis. The whole procedure was iterated thrice. Normally 1 to 10 points were removed in this process. Because two different CCDs with different quantum efficiencies (see Table 1) and different exposure times (see Table 2) were used, limiting magnitudes were different in different years. Consequently some stars could not be identified in one or other years of observations. All the stars were not present in every frame due to different observing conditions and CCD orientations on various nights. In order to derive useful results, we consider only those stars in our further analysis which have more than 40 $`R`$ data points. Stars which were showing more than $`5\sigma `$ variation in 3 consecutive data points are searched for variability. Only $`R`$ band photometric data is used for this as the data sample in $`R`$ filter (133) is larger than that in $`I`$ filter (116). Also photometric errors at a given brightness are generally less in $`R`$ filter (see Table 3). Finally we analysed the variability in these stars explicitly by visual monitoring and also using $`I`$ filter data. In this way, we detected 359 variable stars in our field.

### 4.2 Period determination

To find periods from unequally spaced data, we used a modified version of the period-searching program by Press and Rybici (1989) based on the method of Horne & Baliunas (1986). The data were initially phased for all periods between 5 and 600 days searched in an increment step of 0.6 day. To further refine the period, an increment of 0.1 day was used around thus derived period. In this way, we could determine period of 141 variables. The remaining stars are either non-periodic or long-period variables.

### 4.3 Mean magnitude

We calculated phase weighted apparent mean magnitude for all the Cepheid variables as suggested by Saha et al. (1994)

$$\overline{m}=2.5\mathrm{log}_{10}\underset{\mathrm{i}=1}{\overset{\mathrm{n}}{}}0.5(\varphi _{i+1}\varphi _{i1})10^{0.4m_i}$$

where n is the total number of observations, $`\varphi _i`$ is the phase of $`i^{th}`$ observation in order of increasing phase after folding the period. The equation requires non-existent entities $`\varphi _0`$ and $`\varphi _{n+1}`$ which is set identical to $`\varphi _n`$ and $`\varphi _1`$ respectively. The estimation of mean magnitude by the phase-weighted method is superior to an ordinary mean, which minimizes the systematic biases from loss of faint measurements in the mean magnitude (Saha & Hoessel 1990). For other variables, mean magnitude is estimated simply by intensity averaging of all the data points.

### 4.4 Astrometry

Transformation equations were derived to convert pixel coordinates (X,Y) into celestial coordinates ($`\alpha _{2000}`$, $`\delta _{2000}`$) using 324 reference star positions from the USNO111United State Naval Observatory catalogue. These coordinates agree within $``$0.1 arcsec with those given in Magnier catalogue (Magnier et al. 1992).

## 5 Cepheid Variables

Cepheid variables are post-main sequence stars occupying the instability strip in H-R diagram. Their light curves display the characteristic ‘sawtooth’ pattern, with periods ranging from a few days to more than 100 days. We have identified 26 Cepheid variables in the disk of M31 (Fig. 3). The Cepheids were identified by looking for the stars with light curves similar in appearances to known Cepheids of M31. The period of the Cepheids was determined as described in Sect. 4.2. The periods estimated independently in two filters agree very well for most of the Cepheids; however difference in the period exists for a few short period variables due to their low amplitude as well as comparatively larger photometric error in $`I`$-band. Therefore, the period calculated using $`R`$ filter data was considered as the period of the star and phase in both $`R`$ and $`I`$ filters have been evaluated using this period.

Since most of the Cepheids are believed to be in their second crossing of the instability strip, their period of pulsation is directly related to the stellar mass, and hence, to the main sequence life time of the star. Hence a rough estimate of the age of the star can be obtained from the observed pulsation period of the Cepheids. We have used the following relation given by Magnier et al. (1997b) to estimate the age of Cepheids:

$$\text{logA}=8.40.6\text{logP}$$
(3)
where $`A`$ is the age of the Cepheid in years and $`P`$ is the pulsation period in days. As Cepheids detected in our study have period ranging from $``$7.5 to 56 days, the age of the Cepheids varies from $``$22 to 75 Myrs with a peak of 48 Myrs. Though there is an uncertainty of $`\pm `$ 0.15 in log$`A`$ (Magnier et al. 1997b), this relation provides an indicative age of the Cepheids in M31, and hence some idea of the recent star formation history in the field of our observations.

In Table 4, we present characteristics of these 26 Cepheid variables detected in our study. The identification number of the star, celestial coordinate for J2000, phase weighted mean magnitude in both $`R`$ and $`I`$ filters, amplitude of variability in $`R`$ filter, period, age of the Cepheid (estimated using Eq. 3) and total number of points in $`R`$ filter used for the light curve study are given. The Cepheids are sorted in the increasing order of their periods. The reference to variability reported in the literature and corresponding period, if known, are listed in the last two columns. Out of the catalogued 26 Cepheids, the variability is being reported for the first time for stars V22 and V24; moreover 13 of the variables are identified as Cepheids for the first time.

The remaining 13 Cepheids have been known from earlier studies. The present data confirms their variability and our periods are generally in good agreement with the reported value.

In Fig. 4, we show the phase-magnitude diagram for all the 26 Cepheids in both $`R`$ and $`I`$ filters. The $`I`$-band light curves show more scattering particularly for short period and low amplitude Cepheids. This could arise due to the following reason: the amplitude of Cepheids decreases with increasing wavelength (e.g. Freedman et al. 1985) and Freedman (1988) found a ratio of 1.00:0.67:0.44:0.34 in amplitudes of $`B`$:$`V`$:$`R`$:$`I`$ filters. As most of these Cepheids have pulsation of $``$0.1-0.2 magnitude in $`R`$ filter, the amplitude of pulsation in $`I`$ filter is even less and becomes comparable to the photometric errors.

### 5.1 Comparison with earlier studies

Our target field in M31 has been observed only in a few earlier surveys. The $`V`$ band photometric observations have been obtained by Magnier et al. (1997a, hereafter referred to as MAG97) for about 25 days. They have observed 9 fields of M31 and each field covered a region of $``$11 $`\times `$ 11 arcmin2 on the sky. They found 130 Cepheids in the survey. As we have observed smaller field, only 3 of them are located in our field and we have identified all of them. In Table 4, we have compared period of these stars with those found in our data set. One can easily notice a large discrepancy between the periods obtained in two surveys which we attribute to insufficient observations by MAG97.

$`BVI`$ photometry has been carried out by Kaluzny et al. (1999, hereafter referred to as KAL99) under the DIRECT project. Out of 35 Cepheids detected in DIRECT project in the field M31D, 11 are located in our field of observations. We have identified 10 of them and notice that except in the case of V19, the periods determined in the two surveys are in excellent agreement. The discrepancy in the period of V19 appears to be due to inadequate data in the present study (see Table 4). One of the Cepheid (K V952) reported in KAL99 could not be detected in our data due to blending effect as this star is highly blended by a neighbouring bright red star.

For Cepheids V7, V9, V14, V15, V17, V23 and V26, the parameters given in Table 4 supersedes our earlier results given in paper I, as these are derived using data with much longer temporal coverage.

### 5.2 The Period-Luminosity (P-L) Diagram

The Cepheid variables exhibit a stable periodic variability and there is an excellent correlation between their mean intrinsic brightness and pulsation period. Consequently, the Cepheid Period – Luminosity relation provide an important standard candles to measure distances to galaxies up to the Virgo Cluster, by comparison of their absolute magnitudes inferred from P-L relation with their observed apparent magnitudes. Based on the study of Cepheids located in LMC, SMC and IC 1613 galaxies, Udalski et al. (2001) found that the zero points of the P-L relations have no significant dependence on metallicity. In fact, they are constant to within $``$0.03 mag. However, the values could be affected due to other effects, e.g. blending, which can cause up to 10% uncertainty in the distance determination of M31 (Mochejska et al. 2000). We have therefore used metallicity independent P-L relation in the present analysis.

Using a set of 32 LMC Cepheid variables, Madore & Freedman (1991) have obtained an equation of the ridge line in P-L diagram for Cousin $`R`$ filter as:

$$M_R=2.94(\pm 0.09)(log\text{P}1)4.52(\pm 0.04)$$
(4)
while using a large sample of 658 Cepheids, Udalski et al. (1999c) derived a PL relation for Cousin $`I`$ filter as:

$$M_I=2.96(\pm 0.02)(log\text{P}1)4.90(\pm 0.01)$$
(5)
where we adopt a true distance modulus of 18.5 mag for the LMC (Freedman et al. 2001) instead of 18.2 mag used by Udalski et al. (1999c).

The apparent mean magnitudes of 26 Cepheids are plotted as a function of logP in Fig. 5. The slope of the straight line is fixed as $`2.94`$ and $`2.96`$ for $`R`$ and $`I`$ filters respectively. The Cepheids V24 and V26 are located by about 1.0-1.5 mag below the ridge line in the P-L diagram which makes them a possible Population II Cepheid variables. Therefore, we did not consider these two Cepheids for the zero points evaluation. Using remaining 24 Cepheids, we found a zero points of 23.54$`\pm `$0.09 and 23.02$`\pm `$0.07 mag in $`R`$ and $`I`$ filters respectively. The dashed envelope lines are drawn 0.5 magnitude from the fitted line, representing the expected intrinsic scatter of P-L relation due to the finite width of the instability strip in the H-R diagram (Sandage 1958, Sandage & Tammann 1968), blending of Cepheids as well as the range of interstellar extinction.

The above zero points give us a mean apparent distance modulus of 25.12$`\pm `$0.09 and 24.96$`\pm `$0.07 mag in $`R`$ and $`I`$ filters respectively. This yields a mean colour excess of

$$E(RI)=(mM)_R(mM)_I=0.16\text{mag}$$
(6)
Using this and the standard extinction law given by Cardelli et al. (1989), we found a total extinction of 0.63 and 0.47 mag in $`R`$ and $`I`$ filters respectively. Correcting the apparent distance modulus for the total extinction, we obtain a distance modulus of 24.49$`\pm `$0.11 mag for the M31 which corresponds to a distance of 790$`\pm `$45 Kpc. Stanek & Garnovich (1998) based on red clump method and Holland (1998) based on globular cluster CMDs estimated a distance of M31 as 780 Kpc while a recent determination of Freedman et al. (2001) based on Cepheid P-L relation suggest a distance of 750 Kpc for M31. Present estimate of M31 distance is thus agrees well with them.

### 5.3 The Colour-Magnitude Diagram

In the MR, $`(RI)_0`$ diagram, locations of the Cepheids under discussion are shown (Fig. 6). The isochrones by Bertelli et al. (1994) for solar metallicity drawn for logA as 7.4 and 7.9 are also plotted which supports the age estimated from equation (5). As most of the detected Cepheids ranges in magnitude from 19 to 21 in $`R`$ filter and 18 to 20 in $`I`$ filter, there can be an error of $``$0.2 mag in the colour determination.

### 5.4 Location of the Cepheids

The locations of the Cepheids (see Fig. 3) indicate that most of them are towards the inner side of M31 (bulge direction), where, possibly, the star formation was active a few million years ago. This inference is further supported by the fact that, the early type supergiants detected in our field ($`R`$ $``$ 16 to 19 mag) also occupy the same strip where the Cepheids are found. So it is tempting to suggest that we are possibly tracing one of the spiral arms of M31.

### 5.5 Brief description of the Cepheids

We detect 26 Cepheids in which V22 and V24 are newly discovered while V2, V3, V6, V7, V9, V10, V14, V15, V17, V20 and V23, as reported variables in earlier studies, are identified Cepheids for the first time. Out of the 26 Cepheids, only 12 are monitored for a period of four years while remaining are observed only for last three years. The period of 4 Cepheids were cross-examined using INT data (obtained with 2.5m telescope at La Palma, Canarie Islands) using Lafler-Kinman (1965) periodogram which agree quite well with our estimated period except V8 which have a low amplitude, highly scattered light curve and needs further investigation. One of the Cepheid, V4, could not be ascribed as a Cepheid variable purely on the basis of our data. However, $`V`$ band light curve of the same star in KAL99 clearly indicates its Cepheid nature. Other interesting Cepheids are briefly described below:

V19— KAL99 obtained a period of 16.999 days for this Cepheid while we obtained a period of 17.83$`\pm `$0.03 days using 18 data points. The light curve for this Cepheid is extremely under-sampled and poorly distributed in phase in our data which could be the reason for discrepancy between two periods.

V22— It is discovered in the present study with a period of 26.96$`\pm `$0.04 days. A small bump in the falling branch can be seen in both filters.

V24— This is another Cepheid discovered by us. It has a period of 35.12$`\pm `$0.05 days and an exceptionally large value of $`(RI)`$ colour of 0.98 mag. In the P-L diagram, this Cepheid deviates maximum towards the fainter side in both filters and could be a possible Population II Cepheid.

V26— This is the longest period Cepheid in our sample. We obtained its period as 56.02$`\pm `$0.08 days in agreement with a period of 56.116 days derived by KAL99. In the P-L diagram, this Cepheid is also located downwards in both filters and it could also be a Population II type Cepheid.

## 6 Other variables

In addition to the Cepheid variables reported in our field, 333 other variable stars are also found in the present study. Most of them appear to be irregular variables. Only 115 stars are found periodic for which we could determine approximate period and magnitude. In Table 5, available in the electronic form either from authors or at the CDS, we have given the identification number, celestial coordinates, mean magnitude in $`R`$ and $`I`$ filters, amplitude variation and nature of these 333 stars in $`R`$ filter. Out of these 333 stars, 32 were already categorized (see Table 5). V176 and V284 are suspected as a binary and light curve for one of them is shown in Fig 7(a). We have given the light curve of a periodic star V154 with period $``$236 days in Fig. 7(b) while the light curve of an irregular variable V252 is shown in Fig 7(c).

## 7 Conclusion

We have been imaged $`13\times 13`$ arcmin2 region of the M31 disk for about 4 years during 1998 to 2001 in $`R`$ and $`I`$ passbands. Using 141 nights of observation spanning a period of $``$1200 days, we have detected 26 Cepheids among which variability in 2 stars has been found for the first time. We have established the Cepheid nature of 11 variables in the sample, while we confirm the period and nature of variability in the other 13 stars. The long duration data enabled us to obtain accurate period and mean magnitude of the Cepheids. The period obtained for these Cepheids ranges from $``$7.5 to 56 days. They range in age from 22 Myrs to 75 Myrs and occupy a strip where the early type supergiants too are located. Using the period-luminosity relation of the Cepheids, we derive a distance of 790$`\pm `$45 Kpc for M31. There could be additional uncertainty in the distance determination due to blending effect in Cepheids as well as variable extinction within the observed region.

In addition to Cepheids, we also detect 333 variable stars. Out of them, 115 are periodic variables, 2 suspected eclipsing binaries and remaining 216 stars appear to be irregular variables.

We have thus demonstrated once more that a meter class telescopes like ours can play important role in the study of variable stars provided large amount of telescope observing time is made available. These data are also valuable for the search of gravitational microlensing events towards M31. We are in the process of identifying lensing candidates in our target field and their detailed study shall be presented in the forthcoming publication.

Acknowledgments We would like to thank the referee Dr. B.J.Mochejska for useful remarks on the manuscript. We are also thankful to Dr. Vijay Mohan for his helpful advice during observations and Drs. Jean Kaplan, Alan Bouque and Vincenzo Cardone for useful discussions during the course of the work. This study is a part of the project 2404-3 supported by Indo-French center for the Promotion of Advance Research, New Delhi.


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# Testing gravity in Large Extra Dimensions using Bose-Einstein Condensates *footnote **footnote *This essay received an ”honorable mention” in the Annual Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation for the year 2002.

## I

Recent conjectures have postulated that the hierarchy problem in physics may be resolved if two (or more) of the extra dimensions postulated by extensions of the standard model of particle theory, are compactified on mesoscopic scales - with effective radii much larger than the Planck scale . A particularly interesting possibility is in the case of $`n=2`$ mesoscopic compactification, in which case the implied scale, $`R_c`$, for the extra dimensions is of the order of 0.1 mm. In the simplest theory, the standard model gauge fields are restricted to (or near) the 3–dimensional brane on which we live, and only gravity propagates into the bulk of the large extra dimensions (LEDs). The resulting theory has a number of interesting physical implications including possible resolution of the “hierarchy problem” and anomalous cross-sections for particle productions at moderately high energies ($`>10TeV`$) . There may also be astrophysical implications .

An immediate implication of LEDs is that Newton’s law fails on small scales, and is replaced by an effective potential gradient

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(r)=(n+1)\frac{m_1m_2}{M_{pln}^{n+2}}\frac{1}{r^{n+2}}rR_c$$
(1)
where $`n`$ is the number of large extra dimensions, and $`M_{pln}`$ is the higher dimensional Planck mass, implying an effective 4-D Planck mass $`M_{pl}M_{pln}^{1+n/2}R_c^{n/2}`$ . The laboratory experimental constraints on deviations from Newton’s law on scales less than 1 cm  are very weak, so the conjecture is not directly excluded by direct experiments, although experiments in progress will either detect the predicted deviation, or constrain $`R_c`$ (or equivalently $`M_{pln}`$). If correct, LEDs have many implications for physics on different scales, some of which will be tested in the near future. Experiments to directly measure deviations from Newtonian gravity on sub-millimetre scales are underway (see ).

It is now possible to routinely generate, in the laboratory, Bose-Einstein condensates with de Broglie wavelengths of order a micron and total sizes of order $`10\mu m`$, and to manipulate and transport coherent ensembles of $`>10^6`$ ultra-cold atoms . Atom interferometry can be used to obtain both high precision measurements of absolute gravitational acceleration and gravitational gradients . Also, clearly, the dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate are affected by gravitational forces .

A linear cylindrical mass, with length $`l(R_c)`$, produces a transverse gravitational acceleration $`g_T=2G\mu /r`$ for $`r>R_c`$, where $`\mu =\pi \rho a^2`$ is the mass per unit length of a cylinder density $`\rho `$ and radius $`a`$. As a simple example, consider a thin walled hollow glass cylinder, with a segment length $`l`$ filled with a high density substance (such as mercury, lead or gold), and another comparable length segment empty. If we conjecture that $`R_c<0.1`$mm, but $`R_c>0.01`$ mm, then for $`a=10\mu m`$ the gravitational field close to the cylinder is non-Newtonian with $`g_T2G\mu /r^3`$. So the transverse acceleration close to the filled cylinder may be two orders of magnitude larger than in the Newtonian case. Using a cylinder with a filled core and a contiguous empty core segment would allow “blind tests” of anomalous transverse acceleration by sliding the cylinder so that either the empty or the dense core were in the path of the BEC pair. The homogenous structure would hopefully lead to consistent systematic offsets due to surface effects and other non-gravitational perturbations.

A Bose-Einstein condensate falling past such a cylinder will experience a transverse impulse. Falling under gravity, the BEC will have vertical speeds of order cm/sec, and traverse the conjectured non-Newtonian regime in a few milliseconds. The resultant transverse impulse $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_T=\mathrm{\Phi }dt4\times 10^{10}`$ cm/sec. The resultant Doppler shift would be of the order of $`\mu `$Hz for reasonable atomic transitions, which is not practical for direct detection. If a pair of BEC condensates is sent past the cylinder on either side the resultant transverse shift will be a order 10 femtometres. Launching the BEC pair vertically upwards will roughly double the shift and eliminate some sources of systematic error. With a de Broglie wavelength of a micrometer, measuring the phase shift due to the presence of cylinder with dense core, as opposed to an empty cylinder would require measuring the phase accuracy to $`O(1/n)`$, where $`n`$ is the number of atoms in the BEC, which can be done in principle .

Additional precision may be obtained by doing multiple vertical traverses of the system. However, the limiting factor above is the high vertical speed of the BEC as it falls under gravity. If the speed of the BEC crossing the putative non-Newtonian regime is smaller, the transverse impulse is proportionately larger and the transverse phase shift is also proportionately large as the BEC can undergo transverse coasting due to the anomalous transverse impulse for longer (up to the intrinsic lifetime set by the ballistic expansion of the BEC). Conducting such an experiment in orbit, for example on the International Space Station, might produce phase shifts four orders of magnitude larger, and correspondingly easier to measure. The resultant transverse velocity would also be correspondingly larger, and might conceivably be detectable, particularly if the BEC is allowed to traverse past a an array of multiple dense cylinders.

Interferometry of coherent mesoscopic atomic ensembles may be used to detect anomalous acceleration due to non-Newtonian gravity on sub-millimetre scales. A simple experimental setup of a thin cylinder with dense core, and a contiguous control segment with empty core should produce anomalous transverse velocity shifts in pairs of Bose-Einstein condensates leading to fringe shifts upon the subsequent interference by the pairs, that are measurable in principle. The experiment is best done in free fall, since the gravitational acceleration on Earth’s surface limits the coasting time in the setup postulated here.


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# A multiwavelength vision of star forming regions: What does 𝜆₁ know about 𝜆₂?

## 1. Introduction: Intrinsic limits of synthesis models

Since the work of Tinsley & Gunn (1976), evolutionary synthesis models have been extensively used to obtain the integrated properties of systems where stars are formed. Models are based on the convolution of isochrones with the Initial Mass Function (IMF) and the Star Formation History. For the case of an instantaneous burst of star formation (simple stellar population, SSP), the mean luminosity in a given band and a given age, $`\mu _L(t)`$, results from the weighted sum of the number of stars with initial mass $`m_i`$, $`w_i`$, (given by the IMF), and the individual luminosities $`l_i(m_i,t)`$ (given by the isochrone). If the sum of the $`w_i`$ values is normalized to 1 M transformed into stars from the onset of the burst (as usual), the resulting luminosity will also be normalized. The total luminosity of a cluster is then, directly proportional to the initial mass transformed into stars, $``$: $`L^{clus}(t)=\times \mu _L(t)`$.

Such a modeling has some intrinsic constraints:

* The total luminosity of the cluster modeled, $`L^{clus}(t)`$, must be larger than the individual contribution of any of the stars included in the model, and, in particular, larger than the most luminous star, $`l_i^{max}(m_i,t)`$. This statement defines a natural theoretical limit, that is not always considered when the models are applied to real observations. The modeling of clusters with masses below this limit can only be performed by codes that include sampling effects, either analytically or via Monte Carlo simulations (see, e.g. Cerviño et al. 2002).
* There is also an uncertainty coming from the very nature of the IMF. Most theoretical models assume that the IMF is completely populated, but Nature does not follow such rule. In other words, any modeling that assumes a completely populated IMF will be correct only under the asymptotic assumption of an infinite number of stars. Otherwise, the modeling only yields a mean value of the observed quantities. In fact, Monte Carlo simulations for clusters at different ages show that the mean values of the synthesized quantities depend on the amount of stars used for the simulations (see Santos & Frogel 1997, Cerviño, Luridiana & Castander 2000 or Bruzual 2002 as examples). The main difference between Monte Carlo and standard simulations is that Monte Carlo simulations always use an integer number of stars. On the other hand, by construction, standard (analytical) simulations always assume that most of the mass values are represented by a fractional number of stars.

Note that such uncertainty is relevant to any modeling that makes use of the IMF. An example of its influence in galactic chemical evolution models can be found in Cerviño & Mollá (2002).

Then, before using a synthesis model, it is necessary to know the $``$ value for which a variation of $`\pm 1`$ star is relevant to the results. This value can be estimated imposing that $`L_{bol}^{clus}`$ is larger than $`10\times l_{bol}^{max}(m_i,t)`$. The resulting values for $``$ for a Salpeter IMF in the mass range 0.08 – 120 M are shown in Fig. 1 using the results from Girardi et al. (2000)111Available at http://pleiadi.pd.astro.it/. It yields a value of $`>10^5`$ M, that assure that there are, at least, 10 Post-main sequence stars ($`t<10^8`$ yr) or that $`L_{bol}^{clus}>10\times l_{bol}^{max}(m_i,t)`$ ($`t>10^8`$).

## 2. Statistical synthesis models

The only way to deal with small systems is to include statistical effects in the synthesis models. This can be performed computing the variance of the observable, $`\sigma _L^2(t)`$, together with the mean value. It can be done easily assuming that the $`w_i`$ values follow a Poissonian distribution (they must always be positive and integer numbers, see Cerviño et al. 2002 for details). However, it is more useful to show the variance in terms of an effective number of stars, $`𝒩_L(t)=\mu _L^2(t)/\sigma _L^2(t)`$ which was defined by Buzzoni (1989). Both, variance and $`𝒩`$, scale linearly with $``$: the smaller the system, the smaller $`𝒩`$ (and the larger the relative error). This formulation has the additional advantage of enabling us to obtain the correlation coefficient between two observables, $`\rho (L_1,L_2)`$. This coefficient is independent of $``$ and it only depends on the IMF slope, so it can also be used for the analysis of large samples (see the contribution from R. Terlevich on the subject of mega datasets). Finally, the use of $`𝒩`$ also enables us to know when multi- or bi-modal distributions may be observed and when the results of synthesis models are biased in comparison with the observations (see Cerviño & Valls-Gabaud 2002 for details).

In the following I am going to apply our synthesis models results to different astrophysical scenarii. Model outputs222Not all the model output are presented in the www server, please, ask us for any special request. can be found in the www server

http://www.laeff.esa.es/users/mcs/SED

### 2.1. Multiwavelength emission

In Fig.2 I show the multiwavelength spectrum of a 5.5 Myr old burst of star formation including the 90% confidence interval that arise from sampling fluctuations in the stellar population for clusters with a given $``$ and a Salpeter IMF slope with mass limits 2 – 120 M. It is interesting to note that the lower dispersion corresponds to the UV continuum, which turns out to be the most reliable age indicator (in absence of extinction effects).

Additionally, the correlation coefficients obtained theoretically can allow to establish which are the better observables to determine physical properties. Let me give you an example: The presence of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars imply the presence of ionizing flux, hence, some degree of correlation is expected in the age-diagnostic diagrams of EW(H$`\beta `$) vs. EW(WR). The age-dependent correlation coefficient defines the geometry and the way how the observational data must be interpreted in such a plot, in the sense that variations in one of the observables also determine how the other observable varies. Such variations are only dependent on the age and the IMF slope since the correlation coefficient is sampling independent.

Finally, there remains the problem of how to apply synthesis models to individual small systems. In this case, the situation is more complicated. Taking again the example of WR stars, whereas the presence of such stars enable us to quote an age range where the star formation began, their absence cannot be used to quote any plausible age range. However, if synthesis models have a physical reality, different observables must be related to each other. Hence, the real solution will lie in the joint distribution of the probability distributions of the different observables. Unfortunately, this kind of study has not yet been performed.

### 2.2. Starburts-AGN connection

In the preceding items I have shown that synthesis models must be applied with cautions to small systems. However, the definition of small depends on the statistics of the observable. In Cerviño, Mas-Hesse & Kunth (2002) we have computed the soft X-ray emission from starburst galaxies. This emission is produced from the reprocessing of the kinetic energy produced by the star forming regions and from the Supernova Remnants. In this case, the dispersion arises mainly from the occurrence of Supernova (SN) events, that is intrinsically a poor statistical observable: the SN rate is around 10-9 SN yr-1 M$`{}_{}{}^{1}{}_{}{}^{}`$ (following a Salpeter IMF in the mass range 2 – 120 M, Cerviño & Mas-Hesse 1994), and the X-ray life time of an event is around 104 yr, which implies $``$ larger than 105 in order to have a mean value of 1 SN active in X-rays. In that work the X-ray emission of individual SN events was averaged over the SN life time (see Aretxaga et al. in this proceedings for the statistics and evolution of SN fluxes), hence the quoted values are an average estimation with an additional dispersion that has not been considered. This additional dispersion may be relevant in the interpretation of the optical emission line spectrum in star forming galaxies (see also Rodríguez-Gaspar & Tenorio-Tagle 1998, Silich et al 2001, and Stasińska & Izotov 2002)

Besides the limitations, the approach is enough to test the relevance of circumnuclear star forming regions in the energy budget of Active Galactic nuclei (AGN). In Fig. 3, left panel, I show the soft-X ray/UV ratio predicted by the synthesis models and their comparison with the observational data of Star forming galaxies. In all the cases, some amount of kinetic energy must be reprocessed in X-ray in order to explain the observations. The comparison with Seyfert galaxies is shown in the right panel of the figure. Star forming regions are able to explain the X-ray emission of some Seyfert 2 galaxies, but their emission is not enough to explain the X-ray emission in Seyfert 1. In this approach, the putative black hole in some Seyfert 2 galaxies will only be relevant in the hard X-ray domain.

#### Acknowledgments.

I am gratefully for useful discussions with V. Luridiana, J.M. Mas-Hesse, E. Pérez, D. Valls-Gabaud, J.M. Vílchez, G. Stasińska and D. Kunth at different stages of this project. This project has been partially supported by the AYA 3939-C03-01 program. I also thank the LOC for financial support.

## References

Bresolin, F., & Kennicutt, R. C. Jr. 2002, ApJ, 572, 838

Bruzual, G. 2002, in IAU Symp. 207, Extragalactic star clusters, eds. D. Geisler and E. Grebel (San Francisco: Astr. Soc. Pacific), in press (astro-ph/0110245)

Buzzoni, A. 1989, ApJS, 71, 871

Cerviño, M., Luridiana, V., & Castander, F. 2000, A&A, 360, L5

Cerviño, M., Valls-Gabaud, D., Luridiana, V., & Mas-Hesse, J.M. 2002, A&A, 381, 51

Cerviño, M., Mas-Hesse, J.M. & Kunth D. 2002, A&A, 392, 19

Cerviño, M., & Mollá 2002, A&A(accepted, astro-ph/0209147)

Cerviño, M., & Valls-Gabaud, D. 2002, MNRAS, (accepted, astro-ph/0209307)

Girardi, L., Bressan, A., Bertelli, G., & Chiosi, C. 2000, A&ASS, 141, 317

Rodríguez-Gaspar, J.A. & Tenorio-Tagle, G. 1998, A&A, 331, 347

Santos, J. F. C. Jr., & Frogel, J.A. 1997, ApJ, 479, 764

Stasińska G. & Izotov, Y.I. 2002, A&A (accepted, astro-ph/0209050)

Silich, S. A., Tenorio-Tagle, G., Terlevich, R., Terlevich, E. & Netzer, H. 2001, MNRAS, 324, 191

Tinsley, B. M., & Gunn, J. E. 1976, ApJ, 203, 52

## Discussion

Dottori: How circumnuclear are the circumnuclear star forming regions you are talking about?

Cerviño: The data I have presented are based on IUE observations, so they are in a region of $`10\times 20`$ arc sec around the center.

Cid Fernandes: You have rightfully warned us that evolutionary synthesis predictions come with a statistical uncertainty. Have you compared your predictions for the variances with the observed dispersion in properties of star-forming regions?

Cerviño: Not personally. At this moment I am still working on the statistical implications. However, other authors (Bresolin & Kennicutt 2002) have applied the models results available on the Web server to high-metallicity star-forming regions and the theoretical dispersion looks to be consistent with the observed data.

García Vargas: It is true that taking into account all the probabilistic effects on cluster modeling is important to understand the dispersion, or degree of correlation when plotting observed data of GEHRs. However I think that this approach should be systematically applied to large GEHR where there is evidence of several small clusters ($`<10^5`$ M) from the region (as revealed from HST)

Cerviño: Yes, indeed the effect of sampling is more dramatic for low mass clusters ($`<10^5`$ M), but it will be also present in more massive systems.


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# Family of analytic entanglement monotones

## Abstract

We derive a family of entanglement monotones, one member of which turns out to be the negativity. Two others are shown to be lower bounds on the I-concurrence, and on the I-tangle, respectively \[P. Rungta and C. M. Caves, to appear in Phys. Rev. A\]. We compare these bounds with the I-concurrence and I-tangle on the isotropic states, and on rank-two density operators resulting from a Tavis-Cummings interaction. Our results provide a global structure relating several different entanglement measures. Additionally, they possess analytic forms which are easily evaluated in the most general cases.

Entanglement has proven to be a useful resource in the implementation of quantum information processing protocols Nielsen3 . This observation, coupled with the important role played by entanglement in the foundations of quantum theory, has led to the search for a quantitative theory of entanglement. In this context, a deep connection between the concepts of separability and of positive maps has been established Peres ; Horodecki , and several different measures of entanglement have been proposed MHorodecki .

The concurrence and the tangle are two related entanglement measures yielding analytic forms in the case of two qubit quantum systems Hill-Wootters . Due to their intimate connection with the entanglement of formation, and with the phenomenon of entanglement-sharing Coffman , they have proven to be particularly useful tools for studying fundamental issues in quantum mechanics. Recently, analytic forms for these entanglement measures have been found for bipartite quantum systems of arbitrary dimensions in an overall pure state Rungta1 . However, the generalizations of these quantities, known respectively as the I-concurrence and the I-tangle Rungta2 , to mixed states of a bipartite system of arbitrary dimensions, involves a difficult minimization over ensemble decompositions. So far, it has been possible to calculate analytically the I-concurrence and the I-tangle only for the isotropic states Rungta2 , and in the special case that the density matrix of an arbitrary bipartite quantum system has a rank no greater than two Osborne .

Except for the cases mentioned above, analytic forms for the I-concurrence and the I-tangle are lacking. In this work we present a new family of entanglement monotones, certain members of which constitute easily computable lower bounds for the I-concurrence and for the I-tangle. In order to construct these functions we make use of the fact that the I-concurrence and the I-tangle are convex-roof extensions of the generalized concurrence for pure states of arbitrary dimensions, and of the square of this quantity, respectively. Therefore, the I-concurrence (I-tangle) can be bounded from below by any convex function which agrees with the I-concurrence (I-tangle) on the set of bipartite pure states. This requirement is seen to be satisfied by specific members of the set of entanglement measures introduced herein. Each is a simple function of the negative eigenvalues generated via the partial transposition operation, and may be easily calculated with any standard linear algebra package.

In order to estimate the quality of these functions as lower bounds, we compare their values with the values of the I-concurrence and the I-tangle on the family of isotropic states. The I-tangle, and the corresponding lower bound, are also compared numerically for rank-two density matrices arising in the context of the Tavis-Cummings model Tavis .

The construction that follows is based on the theory of majorization. This formalism has become a very useful tool in characterizing the relationships among density matrices, ensemble decompositions, and measurement processes Schroedinger , and has led to new insights in the structure of quantum algorithms Latorre , and in the problem of Hamiltonian simulation Vidal1 .

The following is a brief review of the main tenets of majorization theory. The reader is referred to Bhatia  for extensive background on the subject. Given two vectors $`x`$ and $`y`$ in $`^n`$, we say that the vector $`x`$ is majorized by the vector $`y`$, denoted by the expression $`xy`$, when the following two conditions hold:

$`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}}x_i^{}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}}y_i^{},k=1,\mathrm{},n`$ (1)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}x_i^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}y_i^{}.`$ (2)
Here, the symbol $``$ indicates that the vector coefficients are arranged in decreasing order.

Majorization is naturally connected with the idea of comparative disorder Bhatia . In fact, $`xy`$ if and only if there exists a doubly stochastic matrix $`A`$ such that $`x=Ay`$. A matrix $`A`$ is doubly stochastic if its coefficients $`a_{ij}`$ are non-negative and $`_ia_{ik}=_ja_{kj}=1,k`$. If we consider $`x`$ and $`y`$ to be probability distributions, then the fact that $`x`$ is majorized by $`y`$ expresses the idea that $`x`$ is more disordered, in a quantifiable sense, than $`y`$.

In the case that only condition (1) holds, we say that $`x`$ is weakly submajorized by $`y`$. This is denoted by the expression $`x_wy`$. We will make use of the following two results concerning majorization Bhatia :

$`x_wy^n`$ $``$ $`x^+_wy^+`$ (3)
$`x_wy_+^n`$ $``$ $`x^p_wy^p,p1,`$ (4)
where the operations $`x^p`$ and $`x^+`$ act on each component of $`x`$ individually. The $`x^+`$ operation simply converts each of the negative entries in $`x`$ into a zero.

The following relation allows us to construct a family of convex functions of the negative eigenvalues of an hermitian matrix. Given any two hermitian matrices $`A`$ and $`B`$,

$$\lambda (A+B)\lambda ^{}(A)+\lambda ^{}(B),$$
(5)
where $`\lambda (T)`$ denotes the vector whose coefficients are eigenvalues of $`T`$. Let us now define the vectors $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }(T)=\lambda (T)=\lambda (T)`$, such that the negative coefficients in $`\lambda (T)`$ become positive in $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }(T)`$. Clearly Eq. (5) also holds for the vectors $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }(T)`$, *i.e.,*

$$\stackrel{~}{\lambda }(A+B)\stackrel{~}{\lambda }^{}(A)+\stackrel{~}{\lambda }^{}(B).$$
(6)
Recognizing that the coefficients of $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }(T)`$ belong to $`^n`$, and applying property (3), Eq. (6) becomes

$$\left(\stackrel{~}{\lambda }(A+B)\right)^+_w\left(\stackrel{~}{\lambda }^{}(A)+\stackrel{~}{\lambda }^{}(B)\right)^+.$$
(7)
The coefficients of the vectors in Eq. (7) are, by definition, members of $`_+^n`$. Thus, using property (4) we obtain

$$\left[\left(\stackrel{~}{\lambda }(A+B)\right)^+\right]^p_w\left[\left(\stackrel{~}{\lambda }^{}(A)+\stackrel{~}{\lambda }^{}(B)\right)^+\right]^p.$$
(8)
According to condition (1) for $`k=n`$, we have

$$\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\left(\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i^+(A+B)\right)^p\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\left[\left(\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i^{}(A)+\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i^{}(B)\right)^+\right]^p,$$
(9)
where we have removed the ordering of the vector on the left hand side. The term inside square brackets on the right hand side of Eq. (9) can be bounded from above by $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i^+(A)+\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i^+(B)`$, yielding

$$\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\left(\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i^+(A+B)\right)^p\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\left(\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i^+(A)+\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i^+(B)\right)^p.$$
(10)
Taking the $`p`$-th root of Eq. (10), and using Minkowski’s inequality Bhatia , we obtain

$`\left[{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}\left(\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i^+(A+B)\right)^p\right]^{1/p}`$ $``$ $`\left[{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}\left(\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i^+(A)\right)^p\right]^{1/p}`$ (11)
$`+`$ $`\left[{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}\left(\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_i^+(B)\right)^p\right]^{1/p}.`$
The terms in square brackets on the right hand side of Eq. (11) are the sums of the positive coefficients of $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }(A)`$ $`(\stackrel{~}{\lambda }(B))`$ to the $`p`$-th power, or equivalently, to the sums of the absolute values of the negative coefficients of $`\lambda (A)`$ $`\left(\lambda (B)\right)`$ to the $`p`$-th power. Thus, we see that the quantity

$$M_p(A)=\left(\underset{\lambda (A)<0}{}|\lambda (A)|^p\right)^{1/p}$$
(12)
obeys the triangle inequality on the set of hermitian matrices for any $`p1`$. In particular, $`M_p(A)`$ is a convex function, *i.e.,*

$$M_p(\alpha A+\beta B)\alpha M_p(A)+\beta M_p(B)$$
(13)
for $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ in the interval $`[0,1]`$ such that $`\alpha +\beta =1`$. Similar results may also be shown to hold for the set of functions

$$N_p\left(A\right)M_p\left(A\right)^p,p1.$$
(14)
The I-concurrence $`C(\rho )`$ of a density matrix $`\rho `$ acting on a bipartite $`d`$-dimensional Hilbert space $``$ is defined by Rungta2

$$C(\rho )=\underset{\{p_i,\mathrm{\Psi }_i\}}{\mathrm{min}}\left\{\underset{i}{}p_iC(\mathrm{\Psi }_i)|\rho =\underset{i}{}p_i|\mathrm{\Psi }_i\mathrm{\Psi }_i|\right\},$$
(15)
with the concurrence $`C(\mathrm{\Psi })`$ of a bipartite pure state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ given by

$$C(\mathrm{\Psi })=2\left(\underset{i<j}{}c_i^2c_j^2\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}.$$
(16)
The $`c_i`$’s in Eq. (16) are the coefficients of the state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$, written in the Schmidt decomposition Nielsen3 . The I-concurrence is the convex-roof extension of $`C(\mathrm{\Psi })`$, and represents the average value of the pure state concurrences for an ensemble decomposition of $`\rho `$, minimized over all possible ensemble decompositions. The I-tangle has a similar construction, and is given by

$$\tau (\rho )=\underset{\{p_i,\mathrm{\Psi }_i\}}{\mathrm{min}}\left\{\underset{i}{}p_iC^2(\mathrm{\Psi }_i)|\rho =\underset{i}{}p_i|\mathrm{\Psi }_i\mathrm{\Psi }_i|\right\}.$$
(17)
Due to a result by Uhlmann Uhlmann , the I-concurrence and the I-tangle are known to be the largest convex functions defined on the set of density operators which agree with $`C(\mathrm{\Psi })`$ and $`C^2(\mathrm{\Psi })`$, respectively, over the set of bipartite pure states. Therefore, if we are able to find a convex function which agrees with $`C(\mathrm{\Psi })`$ $`\left(C^2(\mathrm{\Psi })\right)`$ over the set of bipartite pure states, then it will automatically constitute a lower bound for the I-concurrence (I-tangle). This can be accomplished by observing that the coefficients in Eq. (16) are the absolute values of the negative eigenvalues of the partial transpose of $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$. Since the partial transposition operation is linear, the function $`M_2^{pt}(\rho )`$ defined by

$$M_2^{pt}(\rho )=2M_2(\rho ^{pt})$$
(18)
is a convex function which agrees with the I-concurrence on the set of bipartite pure states. Consequently, $`M_2^{pt}(\rho )`$ is a lower bound for the I-concurrence, *i.e.,*

$$M_2^{pt}(\rho )C(\rho ).$$
(19)
In a similar way it can be shown that the function $`N_2^{pt}(\rho )[M_2^{pt}(\rho )]^2`$ is a lower bound for the I-tangle, *i.e.,*

$$N_2^{pt}(\rho )\tau (\rho ).$$
(20)
These results hold for arbitrary dimensional bipartite quantum systems.

A similar result was obtained in Verstraete  for the case of two qubits where $`d=4`$. Specifically, it was shown that the negativity $`𝒩(\rho )`$ is a lower bound on the concurrence Vidal2 . The negativity is defined to be the absolute value of the sum of the negative eigenvalues of the partial transpose of $`\rho `$. Thus, the negativity is seen to be one member of our family of entanglement monotones, *i.e.,* $`𝒩(\rho )M_1^{pt}(\rho )`$. Additionally, in the case $`d=4`$ the partial transpose of $`\rho `$ has at most one negative eigenvalue, implying that $`M_2^{pt}(\rho )`$ also reduces to the negativity in this situation.

The lower bounds given by Eqs. (19) and (20) are functions of the negative eigenvalues produced via the partial transposition operation. Hence, they are entanglement monotones in their own right. This follows directly from the monotonicity of $`𝒩(\rho )`$ Vidal2 . Specifically, it may be shown that monotonicity is preserved in Eqs. (12) and (14) for choices of $`p`$ other than one. Further, these quantities have the additional advantage that they may be evaluated in a straightforward manner with the help of a standard linear algebra package.

It has been shown that the positive partial transposition criterion is a necessary and sufficient condition for separability for $`d6`$ Horodecki . In higher dimensions, positivity under partial transposition is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for separability. However, this is not a serious drawback for the usefulness of these lower bounds. Indeed, it has been shown by numerical experiments and theoretical results that the volume of the set of density operators with positive partial transpose decreases exponentially with the dimension $`d`$ of the Hilbert space Zyczkowsky .

The exact values of the I-tangle for the isotropic states $`\rho _F`$ was analytically calculated in Rungta2 . Isotropic states describe a quantum system composed of two subsystems of equal dimension $`d`$. They are mixtures formed by the convex combination of a maximally mixed state and a maximally entangled pure state, *i.e.,*

$$\rho _F=(1\lambda )\frac{1}{d^2}II+\lambda |\mathrm{\Psi }^+\mathrm{\Psi }^+|.$$
(21)
Here, $`I`$ is the identity operator acting on a $`d`$-dimensional Hilbert space, and $`|\mathrm{\Psi }^+`$ is the state given by

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }^+=\underset{i=1}{\overset{d}{}}\frac{1}{\sqrt{d}}|i|i.$$
(22)
The parameter $`\lambda `$ in Eq. (21) can be related to the fidelity $`F`$ of $`\rho _F`$ with respect to the state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }^+`$, (where $`F\mathrm{\Psi }^+|\rho _F|\mathrm{\Psi }^+[0,1]`$), via the relation

$$\lambda =\frac{d^2F1}{d^21}.$$
(23)
It has been shown that the isotropic states are separable for $`F1/d`$ MPHorodecki .

The value of the lower bounds $`M_2^{pt}(\rho )`$ and $`N_2^{pt}(\rho )`$ on the isotropic states can be calculated easily. Since the partial transposition operation is linear, and since the identity operator is invariant under this operation, the eigenvalues of $`\rho _F^{pt}`$ are readily obtained. They are given by $`(1\lambda )/d^2\pm \lambda /d`$ with multiplicity $`d(d\pm 1)/2`$, respectively. The negative eigenvalues $`(1\lambda )/d^2\lambda /d`$ become positive when $`\lambda 1/(d+1)`$, or equivalently, when $`F1/d`$. Thus,

$$M_2^{pt}(\rho _F)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\frac{2}{d}\left(\frac{\lambda 1}{d}+\lambda \right)\sqrt{\frac{d(d1)}{2}}& \lambda >1/(d+1)\\ 0& \lambda 1/(d+1)\end{array}$$
(24)
and

$$N_2^{pt}(\rho _F)=\left[M_2^{pt}(\rho _F)\right]^2.$$
(25)
The behaviors of the I-tangle $`\tau (\rho _F)`$ and of $`N_2^{pt}(\rho _F)`$ for the isotropic states are depicted in Fig. 1. For $`d=2`$, the two functions assume the same values, while for larger dimensions and constant fidelity, the difference between the lower bound and the I-tangle increases. In the limit $`d\mathrm{}`$, $`\tau (\rho _F)`$ and $`N_2^{pt}(\rho _F)`$ behave as $`\sqrt{2}F`$ and $`2F^2`$, respectively. Similarly, the I-concurrence $`C(\rho _F)`$ and $`M_2^{pt}(\rho _F)`$ may be calculated analytically. Here we find that the two quantities agree over the isotropic states for any dimension $`d`$, demonstrating that this is a tight lower bound.

It has been shown Osborne  for the case of rank-two density matrices that an analytic formula for the I-tangle exists. This class of density matrices arises naturally in the context of the two-atom Tavis-Cummings model (TCM). The TCM describes the interaction of an ensemble of $`N`$ two-level atoms with one mode of the quantized electromagnetic field in the dipole and rotating wave approximations Tavis . In the case where $`N=2`$ and the initial state of the overall system is pure, tracing over one of the atoms results in a reduced density operator for the remaining atom and field subsystem of rank at most two. Consequently, the entanglement between the field and the atom can be quantified using Osborne’s formula for the I-tangle Osborne .

Fig. 2 shows the evolution of $`\tau \left(\rho _{af}\right)`$, and of $`N_2^{pt}(\rho _{af})`$, as functions of the effective time $`gt`$, where $`g`$ represents the coupling strength between the two-level atoms and the electromagnetic field, and $`\rho _{af}`$ is the reduced density operator for one of the atoms and the field. We have considered an ensemble of two atoms, both of which are initially in the excited state. The field is initially in a coherent state with an average photon number $`n=100`$. The I-tangle and its lower bound show clear differences in their magnitudes. However, the lower bound preserves the basic structure present in the evolution of the tangle. This agreement is a direct result of the monotonicity of $`N_2^{pt}(\rho ).`$

The entanglement measures analyzed above belong to larger classes of monotones defined by taking $`A=\rho ^{pt}`$ in Eqs. (12) and (14). The negativity defined for a system of two qubits is seen to be one member of this set. Other instances correspond to lower bounds on the quantities I-concurrence and I-tangle, which are useful tools for investigations of quantum information theoretic concepts, and of fundamental quantum mechanics. Apart from offering a larger structure from which to view these different entanglement measures, this new family of functions also possesses analytic forms which are easily computed even in the most general cases. It will be interesting to see if further connections between seemingly unrelated measures of entanglement can be found using this formalism.

The authors are grateful to I. Deutsch, A. Scott and P. Rungta for many helpful discussions and comments. This work was supported under the auspices of the Office of Naval Research, Grant No. N00014-00-1-0575.


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# The Spectroscopic Variability of GRB 021004Based on data from the MMTO 6.5m telescope, the FLWO 1.5m telescope, and the Magellan 6.5m Baade telescope.

## 1 Introduction

The recent rapid progress in the study of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs; Klebesadel, Strong, & Olson 1973) has been heralded by the swift localization and follow-up of their afterglows at longer wavelengths (e.g., Piro et al. 1996; Groot et al. 1997; Frail et al. 1997). Optical spectroscopy of the afterglow of GRB 970508 (Bond 1997) led to the first redshift determination of a GRB, with $`z0.835`$ (Metzger et al. 1997), settling the controversy regarding the distance scale for these objects.

Over the last few years, optical spectroscopy of GRB afterglows has become relatively common, and the focus of study has shifted beyond simply constraining GRB redshifts. The afterglow spectra provide a means to study the local environment of GRBs and connections to their origins, for example, within massive star populations or star-forming regions (Vreeswijk et al. 2001; Castro et al. 2002; Mirabal et al. 2002b), as well as to study host-galaxy properties such as the extinction law (e.g., Jha et al. 2001) and intervening material along the line of sight. In addition, spectropolarimetry (Barth et al. 2002) has the potential to reveal much about the nature of GRBs and their environments.

Combined with afterglow photometry, optical spectroscopy at later times has provided tantalizing hints of a connection between GRBs and core-collapse supernovae (e.g., for GRB 011121/SN 2001ke; Garnavich et al. 2002). Furthermore, spectroscopy of GRB host galaxies (after the afterglow has faded) also yields valuable data bearing on the question of the origin of GRBs (e.g., Bloom, Djorgovski, & Kulkarni 2001). Nonetheless, early-time spectroscopic observations of GRB afterglows (when they are still bright and easier to study!) provide a unique back-lit view of the GRB environment and its host galaxy.

Here we report spectroscopic observations of GRB 021004. GRB 021004 was detected by the FREGATE, WXM, SXC instruments aboard HETE II at 12:06:13.57 UT on 2002 October 4 (Shirasaki et al. 2002). Fox et al. (2002a) reported their discovery of a bright, fading optical transient (OT) within the small SXC error circle located at $`\alpha `$ = $`00^\mathrm{h}26^\mathrm{m}54\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}69`$, $`\delta `$ = $`+18\mathrm{°}55\mathrm{}41\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}3`$ (J2000.0), and identified this as the GRB optical afterglow. Fox et al. (2002b) were the first to report on optical spectroscopy of the afterglow, constraining the GRB redshift to $`z1.60`$ based on the detection of two absorption-line systems. Additional reports of spectroscopy noted unidentified absorption lines (Eracleous et al. 2002; Sahu et al. 2002; Castander et al. 2002), with the puzzle solved by Chornock & Filippenko (2002) who identified absorption and emission lines at $`z=2.323`$ in their Keck Observatory spectroscopy of the afterglow. The coincidence of the redshifted wavelength of Ly$`\alpha `$ at $`z=2.33`$ and C IV $`\lambda \lambda `$1448, 1551 at $`z=1.60`$ as well as the relatively weak Ly$`\alpha `$ forest led to our initial mistaken claim that $`z1.7`$ (Castander et al. 2002). In addition, several of the strong absorption lines consist of multiple components (Salamanca et al. 2002; Mirabal et al. 2002a; Savaglio et al. 2002), some with a large velocity separation interpreted as evidence for a supernova (Salamanca et al. 2002) or high-velocity mass loss from a Wolf-Rayet star (Mirabal et al. 2002a).

## 2 Observations

Spectra of the optical transient (OT) associated with GRB 021004 were obtained over several nights with the 6.5m MMT telescope, the 1.5m Tillinghast telescope at the F. L. Whipple Observatory (FLWO), and the Magellan 6.5m Baade telescope. The spectrographs used were the Blue Channel (Schmidt et al. 1989) at the MMT, FAST (Fabricant et al. 1998) at FLWO, and LDSS2 (Mulchaey 2001) at Magellan (see Table 1 for observational details). The observations were reduced in the standard manner with IRAF111IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. and our own routines. Spectra were optimally extracted (Horne 1986). Wavelength calibration was accomplished with HeNeAr lamps taken immediately after each OT exposure. Small-scale adjustments derived from night-sky lines in the OT frames were also applied. Spectrophotometric standards are listed in Table 1. We attempted to remove telluric lines using the well-exposed continua of the spectrophotometric standards (Wade & Horne 1988; Matheson et al. 2001). The spectra were, in general, taken at or near the parallactic angle (Filippenko 1982). The relative fluxes are thus accurate to $``$ 5% over the entire wavelength range. Figure 1 shows a signal-to-noise ratio weighted average our spectra. The initial report on these data was presented by Castander et al. (2002).

## 3 Results

The spectrum of the OT of GRB 021004 (Figure 1) consists of a blue continuum typical for GRBs. There are several absorption features identifiable as two intervening metal-line systems at redshifts of $`z=1.380`$ and $`z=1.602`$ (first reported by Fox et al. 2002b) and one set of lines at a redshift of $`z=2.323`$, apparently intrinsic to the host galaxy of the GRB (first noted by Chornock & Filippenko 2002). The three systems are marked on the spectrum in Figure 1 and equivalent widths are reported in Table 2.

The two lower-redshift Mg II systems are fairly typical (e.g., Steidel & Sargent 1992). The system at $`z=2.323`$ has lines with large equivalent widths, as well as distinct absorption and *emission* from Ly$`\alpha `$, indicating that it most likely represents the host galaxy of the GRB. Our low spectral resolution precludes identification of all separate components of the lines noted above. There are strong blueshifted lines apparent for C IV $`\lambda \lambda `$1548, 1551 at a rest-frame velocity of $`2400`$ km s-1 and Ly$`\alpha `$ at a rest-frame velocity of $`1500`$ km s-1, although C IV $`\lambda \lambda `$1548, 1551 at $`z=1.60`$ most likely contaminates the Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption, which may explain the discrepancy between the two velocities.

The brightness of the OT and its relatively slow rate of decline (Winn et al. 2002; Bersier et al. 2002a; Stanek et al. 2002) allowed us to observe it over three days with the MMT, thus providing an opportunity to look for spectroscopic evolution. There was no clear change in absorption line structure or strength from Oct 5.12 UT to Oct 7.30 UT. There was, however, a change in continuum shape, illustrated in Figure 2. The comparison is made between the average of the last two spectra from the MMT on Oct 5 (Oct 5.24 and Oct 5.27) and the average of the two spectra from the MMT on Oct 7 (Oct 7.28 and Oct 7.30). The spectra were normalized to match continua between 5000 and 7000Å. There is a distinct change in the continuum, with the Oct 7 spectrum being fainter at the blue end. The bottom panel of Figure 2 shows the (heavily smoothed) difference between Oct 5.26 UT and Oct 7.29 UT in AB (monochromatic) magnitudes (Oke & Gunn 1983). Features that remain in this color curve are chiefly due to night-sky contamination of the spectrum; they imply a conservative estimate of the error of $``$ 0.1 mag. The color curve suggests that there should be little change in $`VR`$, but that $`BV`$ or $`BR`$ should increase. Our simultaneous photometry (Bersier et al. 2002b) indicates that a change in color of $`0.20.3`$ mag does occur over this time period. We also have spectra from Oct 6 UT, the intervening night. The average of the two spectra from that night, Oct 6.27 UT and Oct 6.34 UT, does fall in between the spectra from Oct 5 and Oct 7. We chose, however, not to include it on Figure 2 for the sake of clarity.

Color changes in an OT have been observed before (e.g., Galama et al. 1998) using broad-band photometry. While spectroscopic evidence is more difficult to obtain, the additional information about how the color is changing at every wavelength provides a stronger constraint for models of the afterglow.

The spectral index also indicates spectroscopic variation over the three-day period of observation. Assuming a Galactic color excess of $`E(BV)=0.06`$ (Schlegel, Finkbeiner, & Davis 1998), we dereddened the spectra using the extinction correction of Cardelli, Clayton, & Mathis (1989), with the O’Donnell (1994) modifications at blue wavelengths. Least-squares minimization for a power law ($`F_\nu \nu ^\beta `$) over the full wavelength range ($`31008850`$Å) yields an index of $`\beta =1.42\pm 0.02`$ (statistical error only) for Oct 5 UT, but there is clearly curvature present in the spectrum. Fitting only in the range $`55008850`$ gives an index of $`\beta =0.95\pm 0.03`$. By Oct 7 UT, the power-law index for the full range of the spectrum is $`\beta =1.67\pm 0.02`$, but only $`\beta =0.98\pm 0.03`$ for $`55008850`$, fully consistent with the value from the first night. This again shows that the spectroscopic variation is real, but confined to the blue wavelengths.

Slight differences at the blue end of an optical spectrum can easily be caused by atmospheric dispersion unless the spectrograph slit is oriented at the parallactic angle (Filippenko 1982). All of our observations with the MMT presented here were taken at or near the parallactic angle, as were the exposures of the standard stars used to calibrate the data. Moreover, the spectra used to calculate the color difference shown in Figure 2 were all taken at an airmass of less than 1.07, implying that the effects of atmospheric dispersion were negligible. As mentioned in Table 1, there is second-order light contaminating the red end of the MMT spectra. Given that both the spectra from FLWO (that are not affected by second-order light) and approximately simultaneous photometry (Bersier et al. 2002b) agree with the shape of the MMT spectra, we believe that we have minimized the effects of the second-order contamination.

The deviation from a simple power law evident in the first spectrum from Oct 5 UT may be intrinsic to the OT or possibly the result of extinction in the host galaxy. There are strong absorption features due to the host, so there is clearly a considerable amount of intervening material at the host redshift. The fact that the spectrum changes over the three days of our observations, though, shows that there is more than just extinction at work. If GRBs do destroy dust along the line of sight (Fruchter, Krolik, & Rhoads 2001; Draine & Hao 2002; Perna & Lazzati 2002), the decrease in blue flux we see would not be the signature. Several of the unidentified features in the spectrum, especially blueward of Ly$`\alpha `$, could be the result of the H2 absorption as described by Draine & Hao (2002), but they are more likely the result of absorption by Ly$`\alpha `$ clouds. One possible explanation for the reddening of the spectrum would be the formation of dust. Rhoads, Burud, & Fruchter (2002) reported that the OT decreased in brightness in the $`H`$ band (compared to the optical photometry of Stanek et al. 2002) over the same time period as our spectrum shows a decrease at blue optical wavelengths. This suggests that dust formation is unlikely.

The increase in $`(BV)`$ color seen in our data, along with the decrease in $`(RH)`$ color described by Rhoads et al. (2002), supports the suggestion of Rhoads et al. that this could be a cooling break affecting longer optical wavelengths. If this scenario is correct, our data would be most useful for constraining the shape of the spectral break in the afterglow (Granot & Sari 2002).

The nature of GRBs remains a powerful enigma. Optical spectroscopy has played a critical role in establishing that GRBs are at cosmological distances (e.g., Metzger et al. 1997), and it has begun to illuminate other characteristics. The color change that we see represents the first conclusive evidence for variability over time in spectroscopy.

The MMT spectra described in this paper are available for analysis by other researchers via anonymous ftp at ftp://cfa-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/kstanek/GRB021004\_spec/.

We would like to thank Adam Dobrzycki, Brian McLeod, and Rosalba Perna for useful discussions. We also thank the anonymous referee for valuable comments.


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# 1 The staggered susceptibility 𝜒₁(𝑇) in the thermodynamic limit determined by combining bosonization results at lower temperature and numerical simulations at higher temperature. The numerical results for 𝐿=10 and 𝐿=11 are also shown. Inset: the intercept 𝑐=lim_{𝑇→0}{𝑇𝜒₁(𝑇,𝐿)} as a function of 𝐿.

Eggert, Affleck, and Horton Reply to the “Comment on ’Neel order in doped quasi one-dimensional antiferromagnets’ ”
On leave from \]Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z1 In the Comment comment  it is pointed out correctly that the field theory treatment that was used in our recent Letter letter  to obtain some of the results for the Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain is indeed only valid in the limit of long length $`L`$, low temperature $`T`$, and small magnetization $`S^z`$. In particular, this treatment becomes only asymptotically correct in a region where the dispersion is linear and the spin-wave velocity $`v`$ can be approximated by a constant ourPRB , which according to our numerics is the case if both $`T0.2J`$ and $`L10`$ sites. There is no restriction on the product $`LT/v`$ as long as $`v`$ is approximately constant.

However, we must emphasize that we were indeed able to calculate the staggered susceptibility $`\chi _1`$ for arbitrary $`L`$ and $`T`$ as mentioned in the introduction by combining the field theory results with numerical calculations note . The numerical calculations are especially reliable for values of $`L`$ and $`T`$ where the field theory predictions become invalid and vice versa. We can therefore describe the entire crossover of $`\chi _1`$ to the limit of large $`T`$ and/or small $`L`$, which shows an interesting behavior by itself that was unfortunately not explicitly presented in the Letter letter . If we for example consider the staggered susceptibility $`\chi _1`$ without impurities as a function of $`T`$ we see that it crosses over from the bosonization formula to a high temperature expansion as shown in Fig. 1.

$$\chi _1(T)\{\begin{array}{ccc}\frac{b\sqrt{ln(a/T)}}{T}\hfill & & TJ\hfill \\ & & \\ \frac{1+J/2T}{4T}\hfill & & TJ\hfill \end{array}$$
(1)
where $`a23J`$ and $`b=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(1/4)}{4\sqrt{2\pi ^3}\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(3/4)}0.277904`$. In the case of shorter chain lengths $`L`$ we again find a significant drop from the thermodynamic limit as well as a split at $`T4J/L`$ for even and odd chains as depicted for $`L=10`$ and $`L=11`$ in Fig. 1. The crossover from finite size behavior to the thermodynamic limit is therefore very similar to Fig. 1 in our Letter letter  which shows the behavior predicted by bosonization in the limit $`L\mathrm{}`$, $`T0`$ as a function of $`LT`$, compared to numerical results for large $`L`$. Even for smaller $`L`$ we find again that $`\chi _1(T,L)L`$ for even chains as $`T0`$ and $`\chi _1(T,L)c/T`$ for odd chains, where the intercept $`c`$ can be approximated by a length independent constant even down to $`L=1`$ as shown in the inset of Fig. 1.

Now that we have displayed $`\chi _1`$ for arbitrary $`T`$ we may be tempted to again apply the chain mean field equation

$$zJ^{}\chi _1(T_N)=1$$
(2)
even in the case where $`J^{}`$ is of the order of $`J`$. Although we might not expect any one-dimensional physics to survive in that limit, we find for example that this would result in $`T_N1.386J`$ for a simple cubic lattice with $`J=J^{}`$, which is indeed higher than the accepted values pan , but still an improvement over the ordinary mean field result of $`T_N=1.5J`$. If $`J^{}`$ is of order $`J`$ only extreme doping levels will significantly affect the ordering temperature, since finite size effects are small at higher temperatures $`T4J/L`$. In conclusion we have calculated the staggered susceptibility for arbitrary $`L`$ and $`T`$ and outlined in more detail the behavior in the limit of large $`T`$ and small $`L`$.
Sebastian Eggert, Ian Affleck, and Matthew D.P. Horton


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# Comment on Deterministic Single-Photon Source for Distributed Quantum Networking by Kuhn, Hennrich, and Rempe

A recent article kuhn02  describes an experiment to generate single photons within the setting of cavity QED. The authors claim that “a sequence of single photons is emitted on demand” and that their results represent “the realization of an intrinsically reversible single-photon source.” Although their work is certainly an advance towards these goals, unfortunately the observational evidence reported in Ref. kuhn02  does not support the principal claims of the demonstration of a deterministic source for single photons, nor of emission that is intrinsically reversible as is required for the transfer of quantum states over a network. The underlying difficulties are (1) the random arrival of atoms into the interaction region means that photons are emitted at random and not “on demand,” (2) the corresponding fluctuations in atom number lead to a photon stream that is super-Poissonian, and (3) the stochastic character of atomic trajectories through the cavity mode produces unknown variations in the amplitude and phase of the emitted field, so that the source is not “intrinsically reversible.”

I begin by examining the data presented in Figure 4 of Ref. kuhn02 , which displays the second-order intensity correlation function $`g_{D_1,D_2}^{(2)}(\tau )`$ for the cross-correlation of photoelectric counting events from two detectors $`(D_1,D_2)`$ as a function of time separation $`\tau `$. Somewhat surprisingly, $`g_{D_1,D_2}^{(2)}(\tau )1`$, and in particular, $`g_{D_1,D_2}^{(2)}(0)1`$, so that the inferred photon statistics are super-Poissonian $`\mathrm{\Delta }n^2>n`$ m-w-95 . This is in marked contrast to the behavior required for an “on-demand” single-photon source, for which $`g^{(2)}(0)0`$ with sub-Poissonian photon statistics $`\mathrm{\Delta }n^2<n`$ m-w-95 . The authors attribute this disparity to detection events other than those arising from photons emitted from the cavity. However, I emphasize that $`g_{D_1,D_2}^{(2)}(\tau )`$ would maintain the same form as in Fig. 4 of Ref. kuhn02  even if the “relatively large noise contribution” from background light were eliminated altogether.

To illustrate this point, consider the well-studied system of resonance fluorescence from a single two-state atom for which the photon statistics are described by $`g_A^{(2)}(\tau )`$, with $`g_A^{(2)}(0)=0`$ m-w-95 . If observations are made not for a single atom but rather for an interaction volume with a stochastic variation in atom number $`N`$, the resulting intensity correlation function $`g_{D_1,D_2}^{(2)}(\tau )`$ is of a markedly different form, as illustrated in Figure 1. Significantly, Figure 1 reproduces the essential characteristics of Figure 4 in Ref. kuhn02 , including that the light is super-Poissonian small . The commonality of these two figures arises because of fluctuations in the number of “source” atoms about which there is no independent knowledge. In this setting, the observation of sub-Poissonian photon statistics requires sub-Poissonian atom statistics, with $`g_{D_1,D_2}^{(2)}(0)<1`$ in direct correspondence to the reduction $`Q_A\frac{\overline{(\mathrm{\Delta }N)^2}\overline{N}}{\overline{N}}<0`$ kimble78 . Strategies to achieve $`Q_A<0`$ include conditional detection as employed in the original experiment of Short and Mandel m-w-95 ; numbers  and atom trapping within the cavity.

In addition to fluctuations in arrival time and atom number, the experiment of Ref. kuhn02  suffers from a lack of atomic localization with respect to the spatially varying coupling coefficient $`g(\stackrel{}{r})`$ due to unknown atomic motion through the cavity mode. As as result, the output pulse shapes and phases for photon emissions vary in a random fashion and are not controllable duan02 . For the parameters of Ref. kuhn02 , the transverse velocity of a typical atom carries it across distances $`\pm \frac{\lambda }{4}`$ along the cavity axis, leading to (random) variations $`\pm \frac{\pi }{2}`$ in the phase of the emitted field. Hence, photon emissions are reversible only in the sense that the emitted field is returned to the very same atom that gave rise to the emission within a time short compared to the atomic transit time $`t_0\frac{2w_0}{v_z}35\mu `$s. Moreover, reversible transmission to a second atom-cavity system requires knowledge of the actual time of the initial emission, as well as an “event” ready atom at the remote location. Neither of these capabilities follows from the experiment reported in Ref. kuhn02 .


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# REFERENCES

Liquid-gas phase transition and its order in finite nuclei

Tapas Sil1, S. K. Samaddar1, J. N. De2 and S. Shlomo3

1Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF Bidhannagar, Kolkata 700064, India

2Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, 1/AF Bidhannagar, Kolkata 700064, India

3The Cyclotron Institute, Texas A$`\&`$M University, College Station,

Texas 77845,USA

## Abstract

The liquid-gas phase transition in finite nuclei is studied in a heated liquid-drop model where the drop is assumed to be in thermodynamic equilibrium with the vapour emanated from it. Changing pressure along the liquid-gas coexistence line of the systems, symmetric or asymmetric, suggests that the phase transition is a continuous one. This is further corroborated from the study of the thermal evolution of the entropy at constant pressure.

PACS Number(s): 25.70.-z, 21.65.+f, 24.10.Pa

The study of liquid-gas phase transition in finite nuclear systems is of considerable contemporary interest . Experimental analyses of the accumulated data on multifragmentation and caloric curves show compelling evidence of such a transition. Phase transitions are normally signalled by peaks in the specific heat at constant volume $`C_V`$ with rise in temperature. Theoretical models of different genres, such as the microcanonical  or the canonical  description of multifragmentation, the lattice-gas model  or even the microscopic treatment in a relativistic  or a nonrelativistic  Thomas-Fermi framework support such a structure in the heat capacity. A clear idea about the subtle details of the liquid-gas phase transition in finite nuclei, however, has not emerged yet. Confusion remains about whether the system has evolved dynamically through the critical point ; a coherent picture about the order of the phase transition is also missing. Analyses of the EOS group  and the ISiS group  in the scaling model give strong circumstantial evidence for a continuous (second order) phase transition. Calculations performed in a mean field model  also lead to a similar conclusion. Predictions from the lattice-gas models  are, however, compatible with a first order transition.

Symmetric infinite nuclear matter is effectively a one-component system; with heating, it undergoes a first order phase transition. On the other hand, in case of two-component asymmetric nuclear matter, as was shown in a comprehensive analysis by M$`\ddot{u}`$ller and Serot  in a relativistic mean-field framework, the separate conservation of the neutron and proton number densities leads the system to a continuous phase transition over a finite temperature interval. This is also supported in the nonrelativistic calculations by Kolomietz et al . Unlike symmetric nuclear matter, even a finite symmetric nucleus ($`N=Z`$) behaves like a two-component system as the Coulomb interaction lifts the isospin degeneracy. A finite nucleus is then expected to undergo a continuous liquid-gas phase transition, if at all. The conflicting predictions from the previous model analyses do not have realistic inputs of nuclear physics as relevant for a quantum system of interacting fermions with a short-range nuclear force as also with the long-range Coulomb interaction. In this communication, we focus on the nature of the phase transition once specific features concerning an atomic nucleus are properly taken into account.

For our study, we choose a representative system, namely, Rhenium with $`A`$= 186 and $`Z`$= 75. Such a nucleus is likely to be formed from the reaction $`{}_{}{}^{124}Sn+^{124}Sn`$ at energies around 50 MeV per nucleon  after some nucleons have left out from the reaction zone as preequilibrium particles. We also investigate $`{}_{}{}^{150}Re`$ to explore the isospin asymmetry effects in phase transition. The nucleus is viewed as a spherical liquid drop with asymmetry $`X_0`$ defined as $`(N_0Z_0)/A_0`$ where $`A_0=N_0+Z_0`$, is the mass number of the total system. At a finite temperature, we assume the depleted nucleus to be enveloped by its own vapour and the system to be in complete thermodynamic equilibrium conserving the total number of neutrons and protons. The nucleon distributions in the liquid and gas are assumed to be uniform in each phase. This definition allows to explore the liquid-gas coexistence region for a finite system in close analogy with bulk nuclear matter.

In absence of a well-defined way to write the energy density functional of a finite nucleus in terms of volume, surface, symmetry and Coulomb terms, we write the free energy of the nuclear system at temperature $`T`$ in the single phase as

$$F=A_0f_{nm}(\rho ,X_0)+F_C+F_{surf}$$
(1)
where $`f_{nm}(\rho ,X_0)`$ is the free energy per particle of infinite nuclear matter at density $`\rho `$ with asymmetry $`X_0`$ at the same temperature $`T`$, $`F_C`$ the Coulomb free energy and $`F_{surf}`$ the temperature and asymmetry dependent surface free energy. In the liquid-gas coexistence region, the free energy is given by

$$F_{co}=F^l+F^g,$$
(2)
where the liquid free energy is,

$$F^l=A^lf_{nm}(\rho ^l,X^l)+F_C^l+F_{surf}^l,$$
(3)
and the free energy of the emanated gas is

$$F^g=A^gf_{nm}(\rho ^g,X^g)+F_C^g.$$
(4)
Here $`A^l`$ and $`A^g`$ are the number of nucleons in the liquid and the gas phase, $`\rho ^l`$, $`\rho ^g`$ and $`X^l`$, $`X^g`$ are the corresponding density and asymmetry. The free energy of infinite nuclear matter is evaluated in the finite temperature Thomas-Fermi framework with a modified Seyler-Blanchard interaction . The Coulomb free energies for the liquid and the gas, $`F_C^l`$ and $`F_C^g`$ are calculated corresponding to a uniform charged sphere and a spherical-shell, respectively. For simplicity, their mutual interaction is neglected. The surface free energy of the liquid part $`F_{surf}^l`$ is taken as

$$F_{surf}^l=\sigma (X^l,T)(A^l)^{2/3},$$
(5)
where the surface energy coefficient is

$$\sigma (X,T)=[\sigma (X=0)a_sX^2][1+1.5T/T_c][1T/T_c]^{3/2}.$$
(6)
Here, $`\sigma (X=0)=18`$ MeV, $`a_s=28.66`$ MeV and $`T_c`$, the critical temperature of the symmetric nuclear matter is 15 MeV. The surface energy coefficient decreases with density; we neglect its density dependence for the liquid part. Since the gas density is very low, its surface energy is neglected. The total surface energy of the liquid is

$$E_{surf}^l=F_{surf}^l+TS_{surf}^l$$
(7)
where the total surface entropy is given by

$$S_{surf}^l=\left(\frac{F_{surf}^l}{T}\right)_V.$$
(8)
The total entropy $`S_0`$ of the system is then calculated as

$$S_0=A^ls_{nm}^l(\rho ^l,X^l)+A^gs_{nm}^g(\rho ^g,X^g)+S_{surf}^l.$$
(9)
The per particle entropy $`s_{nm}`$ of homogeneous nuclear matter is obtained from the standard mean-field prescription.

The chemical potentials $`\mu _n^l`$ and $`\mu _z^l`$ for neutron and proton in the liquid are given by

$`\mu _n^l`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{F^l}{N^l}},`$ (10)
$`\mu _z^l`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{F^l}{Z^l}}.`$ (11)
The liquid pressure is obtained from

$$P=\rho ^2\frac{(F/A)}{\rho }.$$
(12)
Similar equations follow for the gas phase. For thermodynamic equlibrium between the liquid and the gas, the two chemical potentials and the pressures in both phases must be the same, i.e, $`\mu _n^l=\mu _n^g,\mu _z^l=\mu _z^g`$ and $`P^l=P^g`$. Along the coexistence line, the mass of the liquid drop changes. For a chosen $`A^l`$, the quantities $`\rho ^l`$, $`\rho ^g`$, $`X^l`$, $`X^g`$ and $`A^g`$ are determined by exploiting the three thermodynamic equlibrium conditions and the constraints of baryon number and the total isospin conservation:

$`\rho _{n,z}`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda \rho _{n,z}^l+(1\lambda )\rho _{n,z}^g,`$ (13)
$`\rho X_0`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda \rho ^lX^l+(1\lambda )\rho ^gX^g.`$ (14)
Here $`\rho `$ is the average nucleon density and $`\lambda `$ is the liquid volume fraction.

The isotherms for the nucleus $`{}_{}{}^{186}Re`$ at $`T=7,8,9`$ and 10 MeV are displayed in Fig.1. For comparison, the isotherm for nuclear matter with asymmetry same as that of $`{}_{}{}^{186}Re`$ is also shown at $`T=10`$ MeV. The difference between the isotherms for the infinite and the finite system is not insignificant. Though the Coulomb and surface have opposing effects on the pressure, the former wins over the latter at this temperature. The liquid-gas coexistence lines for $`{}_{}{}^{186}Re`$ for the four temperatures mentioned are shown by the dotted lines. It is seen that the pressure changes along the coexistence line, as seen earlier in the case of asymmetric nuclear matter ; the slope of the coexistence lines also increases with temperature. It is further noted that at a given temperature and asymmetry, because of the Coulomb effect, the slope of the coexistence line of a finite nucleus is more compared to that of asymmetric nuclear matter. The variation of pressure along the coexistence line is a pointer to a continuous phase transition. Unlike nuclear matter, the coexistence lines do not extend from the pure gas phase to the pure liquid phase. At relatively lower temperatures, it is found that as the system expands, the size of the liquid drop depletes and reaches a minimum mass beyond which no thermodynamic equilibrium is possible; at higher temperatures, with compression the liquid drop attains a limiting mass which decreases with increasing temperature as is evident from the figure. As an example, the minimum liquid-drop mass at $`T=7`$ MeV is $`A^l=24`$ (marked as A in the figure); at $`T=10`$ MeV, the limiting liquid-drop mass is $`A^l=130`$ (marked as B). This implies that at lower temperatures, a gas of a finite number of nucleons when compressed start nucleating with a minimum mass for the seed in order to remain in thermodynamic equilibrium. Similarly, at higher temperatures, for the coexisting finite system, the evaporated gas should contain a minimum number of nucleons.

The isospin fractionation along the coexistence line for the nucleus $`{}_{}{}^{186}Re`$ at $`T=8`$ MeV is shown in Fig.2. The system has proton fraction $`Y_0=0.403`$ (defined as $`Y=Z/A`$). As the system prepared in the gaseous phase is compressed, the two-phase region is encountered at the point A with the emergence of a minimum liquid mass ($`A^l=20`$) at the point B with a proton fraction $`Y_B`$ larger than $`Y_0`$. With further compression, the gas phase depletes from A to C while the liquid phase grows from B to D attaining the total mass $`A_0`$ and proton fraction $`Y_0`$. During compression, the proton fractions in both phases decrease, but the total proton fraction $`Y_0`$ remains fixed, as dictated by the conservation of the total isospin given by Eq.(14). It is evident from the figure that the gas phase is more neutron-rich compared to the total system while the liquid phase is comparatively neutron-deficient as also observed experimentally . This feature becomes more prominent with increasing liquid mass. In order to explore the asymmetry effect on isospin fractionation in phase transition, the calculated results for the symmetric system $`{}_{}{}^{150}Re`$ are also displayed in the figure. Contrary to the relatively neutron-rich nucleus $`{}_{}{}^{186}Re`$ , here it is found that the gas phase is proton-rich. In symmetric nuclei, since $`\mu _z`$ is greater than $`\mu _n`$ because of Coulomb interaction, the separation of the gas phase behaves more like that of proton-rich nuclear matter. The occurrence of liquid-gas phase transition in symmetric medium-heavy nuclei should then lead to preponderance of proton-rich isotopes in energetic heavy-ion collisions and this can be tested in experiments.

The heat capacity per particle $`C_V`$ for $`{}_{}{}^{186}Re`$ at constant volume (defined as $`\left(\frac{d(E^{}/A_0)}{dT}\right)_V`$, where $`E^{}`$ is the total excitation energy of the system) is displayed in Fig.3 at a representative volume $`V=10V_0`$ which can be interpreted as a freeze-out volume. Here $`V_0`$ is the normal volume of the nucleus calculated with the radius parameter $`r_0=1.16`$ fm. A very broad bump in $`C_V`$ with a maximum at $`T10`$ MeV is seen. The system then corresponds to a liquid part with $`A^l`$ around 80, the rest of the nucleons being in the gas phase. This is contrary to the results in the microscopic mean-field calculations obtained earlier  at around the same freeze-out volume, where a much sharper peak was observed when the system just vaporises completely. At very high temperature, the heat capacity saturates at 1.5 corresponding to a pure classical gas.

The thermal evolution of the entropy per particle for the nucleus $`{}_{}{}^{186}Re`$ at a constant pressure $`P=0.06`$ MeV fm-3 is shown by the solid line in figure 4. In contrast to a first order phase transition where the entropy at constant pressure exhibits a discontinuity at a particular temperature (the phase transition temperature), here the entropy change is continuous. The noticeable rise in entropy in the temperature range 8.4 to 10.3 MeV is the manifestation of a liquid-gas phase transition in this temperature domain for the chosen pressure. The dashed line in the figure corresponds to the entropy evolution for the symmetric nucleus $`{}_{}{}^{150}Re`$. This is quite similar to that of the asymmetric nucleus considered, but markedly different from that of symmetric nuclear matter  which shows a sharp discontinuity at the transition temperature. The striking similarity between the two results shows that the finite size and Coulomb effects are the dominant factors in determining the nature of phase transition in finite nuclei. The continuous change of entropy at a constant pressure plead in favour of the characterisation of the liquid-gas phase transition in atomic nuclei, symmetric or asymmetric, as a continuous one.

The liquid-gas phase transition in finite nuclei with explicit conservation of the baryon number and the total isospin has been investigated in this communication in a heated liquid drop model. The peaked structure in the heat capacity, though broad, signals the occurrence of a liquid-gas phase transition. From the evolution of entropy at constant pressure, one sees that the transition occurs over a range of temperatures; this strongly suggests that the liquid-gas phase transition in a finite nuclear system is continuous. The simplified assumptions in the model may affect the results somewhat quantitatively, but the general qualitative features are expected to remain unaltered. The thermodynamic concepts may not be very meaningful when the number of particles in one of the phases is very small, still this model serves as a window to understand the basic features of liquid-gas phase transition in finite systems.

Figure Captions

* The isotherms for the system $`{}_{}{}^{186}Re`$ at different temperatures as labelled on each curve are shown as full lines. The liquid-gas coexistence lines are shown by the dotted lines. The long-dashed line refers to the isotherm at $`T=`$ 10 MeV for nuclear matter with asymmetry same as that of $`{}_{}{}^{186}Re`$. The corresponding coexistence line is shown by the filled circles.
* Evolution of proton fraction ($`Y`$) along the liquid-gas coexistence line at $`T=`$ 8 MeV for the systems as shown.
* The specific heat capacity $`C_V`$ as a function of temperature for $`{}_{}{}^{186}Re`$ in a freeze-out volume 10$`V_0`$.
* Entropy per particle as a function of temperature at a constant pressure for the systems $`{}_{}{}^{186}Re`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{150}Re`$.