text:
# Frictional coupling between sliding and spinning motion

(September 27, 2002)

## Abstract

We show that the friction force and torque, acting at a dry contact of two objects moving and rotating relative to each other, are inherently coupled. As a simple test system, a sliding and spinning disk on a horizontal flat surface is considered. We calculate, and also measure, how the disk is slowing down, and find that it always stops its sliding and spinning motion at the same moment. We discuss the impact of this coupling between friction force and torque on the physics of granular materials.

friction; tribology; granular materials

Sliding friction and incomplete normal restitution are normally the main dissipation mechanisms at the contact between two solid grains. They are largely responsible for the fact that the flow properties of granular media differ from those for liquids and solids. Their microscopic origins are currently under intense investigation (see e.g. Persson00 ). On large scales compared to the grain diameter they sometimes transform into unexpected phenomenological friction laws, which have recently been discussed Wolf98 ; Dippel99 ; RadjaiRoux95 ; Rajchenbach02 ; Ertas\_et\_al.01 . As the influence of rolling and torsion friction is commonly regarded as negligible, they have been much less investigated so far. However, it turns out that in certain situations they may become crucial, for instance for the stabilization of pores in cohesive powders Kadau\_et\_al.02 ; Kadau\_et\_al.03 . Another striking phenomenon will be discussed below.

In fact, rolling and torsion friction are indispensable for a unified view of the dissipation mechanisms at the contact of two viscoelastic spheres, because on the one hand incomplete restitution and rolling friction, and on the other hand sliding and torsion friction are coupled, which will be the main point of this letter. These four dissipation mechanisms correspond to the six degrees of freedom of the relative motion at the contact between two solid spheres. The relative motion of two solid spheres has three translational degrees of freedom, characterized by a velocity vector with one normal component $`v_\mathrm{n}`$ (deformation mode) and two tangential components $`v_\mathrm{t}`$ (sliding mode), and three rotational ones, characterized by an angular velocity vector, again with two tangential components $`\omega _\mathrm{t}`$ (rolling mode) and one normal component $`\omega _\mathrm{n}`$ (spinning mode). While the viscoelastic dissipation mechanism of normal restitution and rolling friction couples $`v_\mathrm{n}`$ and $`\omega _\mathrm{t}`$ BrilliantovPoeschel98 ; Poeschel\_et\_al.99 , the dissipation due to sliding and torsion friction couples $`v_\mathrm{t}`$ and $`\omega _\mathrm{n}`$.

In this Letter we focus on the coupling between $`v_\mathrm{t}`$ and $`\omega _\mathrm{n}`$. For viscoelastic spheres these are the dominant dissipation channels in the quasistatic limit, where $`(1\mathrm{restitution}\mathrm{coefficient})`$ KuwabaraKono87 ; Ramirez\_et\_al.99 , as well as the coefficient of rolling friction vanish BrilliantovPoeschel98 . The reason, why torsion friction, i.e., the torque leading to a decrease of $`\omega _\mathrm{n}`$, is often neglected, is that it involves the radius of the contact area between the two spheres and hence is small. Therefore, in order to make our point more clear, instead of the contact between two spheres we consider a flat disk on a horizontal flat surface with nonzero initial translational and angular velocity. The disk is lying on one of its sides, and we assume that this side is in full contact with the table during the motion \[see Fig. 1(a)\]. The friction force and torque acting on the disk will slow down the sliding and spinning motion until the disk stops moving. We address two questions: (i) how are the friction force and torque related to each other, (ii) what does this imply for the coupling of sliding and spinning motion?

First we calculate the friction force and torque acting on the disk as a function of its instantaneous velocity and angular velocity. We apply the Coulomb friction law, which says that the magnitude of the friction force is proportional to the normal force, while its direction is the opposite of the direction of the surfaces’ relative velocity. Assuming that the mass distribution of the disk is homogeneous, the friction force is

$$𝐅=\frac{\mu F_\mathrm{n}}{R^2\pi }\underset{𝐫A}{}\frac{𝐯+𝝎\times 𝐫}{|𝐯+𝝎\times 𝐫|}d^2r,$$

where $`R`$ is the radius, $`𝐯`$ is the velocity, and $`𝝎`$ is the angular velocity of the disk, $`\mu `$ is the friction coefficient, and the integration extends over the area of the disk with $`𝐫`$ vectors starting at the center. $`F_\mathrm{n}`$ is the normal component of the force pressing the objects together at the contact, in our case $`F_\mathrm{n}=mg`$, where $`m`$ is the mass of the disk and $`g`$ is the gravitational acceleration. We found it useful to introduce the dimensionless quantity $`\epsilon =v/R\omega `$ with $`v=|𝐯|`$ and $`\omega =|𝝎|`$, because the friction force depends on $`v`$ and $`\omega `$ only through this combination:

$$𝐅=\frac{\mu F_\mathrm{n}}{\pi }\underset{\stackrel{~}{𝐫}A_1}{}\frac{\epsilon 𝐞_v+𝐞_\omega \times \stackrel{~}{𝐫}}{|\epsilon 𝐞_v+𝐞_\omega \times \stackrel{~}{𝐫}|}d^2\stackrel{~}{r},$$
(1)
where $`𝐞_v=𝐯/v`$, $`𝐞_\omega =𝝎/\omega `$, $`\stackrel{~}{𝐫}=𝐫/R`$, and $`A_1`$ is the area of the unit disk. Figure 1(b)–(d) show local relative velocities on the surface of the disk for various values of $`\epsilon `$. Note that the local friction force does not depend on the absolute value of the relative velocity, only on its direction. After evaluating the integral in Eq. (1) one gets $`𝐅=\mu F_\mathrm{n}(\epsilon )𝐞_v`$, where

$$(\epsilon )=\{\begin{array}{cc}\frac{4}{3}\frac{(\epsilon ^2+1)E(\epsilon )+(\epsilon ^21)K(\epsilon )}{\epsilon \pi },\hfill & \epsilon 1\hfill \\ & \\ \frac{4}{3}\frac{(\epsilon ^2+1)E(\frac{1}{\epsilon })(\epsilon ^21)K(\frac{1}{\epsilon })}{\pi },\hfill & \epsilon 1.\hfill \end{array}$$

Here $`K(\epsilon )`$ and $`E(\epsilon )`$ are the complete elliptic integral functions of the first and the second kind, respectively abramowitz . This calculation and the others below were performed using the mathematics software Maple maple . The two parts of $`(\epsilon )`$ are smoothly connected at $`\epsilon =1`$, since $`lim_{\epsilon 1}(\epsilon )=8/3\pi `$ and $`lim_{\epsilon 1}^{}(\epsilon )=4/3\pi `$ from both the left and the right hand side. Here prime denotes differentiation w.r.t. $`\epsilon `$. The limiting values are $`(0)=0`$ and $`lim_\epsilon \mathrm{}(\epsilon )=1`$.

The friction torque is

$$𝐓=\frac{\mu F_\mathrm{n}}{R^2\pi }\underset{𝐫A}{}𝐫\times \frac{𝐯+𝝎\times 𝐫}{|𝐯+𝝎\times 𝐫|}d^2r,$$

and after calculating the integral we get $`𝐓=\mu F_\mathrm{n}R𝒯(\epsilon )𝐞_\omega `$, where

$$𝒯(\epsilon )=\{\begin{array}{cc}\frac{4}{9}\frac{(42\epsilon ^2)E(\epsilon )+(\epsilon ^21)K(\epsilon )}{\pi },\hfill & \epsilon 1\hfill \\ & \\ \frac{4}{9}\frac{(42\epsilon ^2)E(\frac{1}{\epsilon })+(2\epsilon ^25+\frac{3}{\epsilon ^2})K(\frac{1}{\epsilon })}{\epsilon \pi },\hfill & \epsilon 1.\hfill \end{array}$$

The two parts of this function are also smoothly connected, as $`lim_{\epsilon 1}𝒯(\epsilon )=8/9\pi `$ and $`lim_{\epsilon 1}𝒯^{}(\epsilon )=4/3\pi `$ from both the left and the right hand side. The limiting values are $`𝒯(0)=2/3`$ and $`lim_\epsilon \mathrm{}𝒯(\epsilon )=0`$. Figure 2 shows $`(\epsilon )`$ and $`𝒯(\epsilon )`$, and also the $`𝒯()`$ function. This latter exists and is invertable because both $`(\epsilon )`$ and $`𝒯(\epsilon )`$ are strictly monotonic functions.

Now let us calculate how a sliding and spinning disk is slowing down. Assuming that only gravity and friction forces are acting, the scalar equations of motion are

$`m{\displaystyle \frac{dv}{dt}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mu mg(\epsilon ),`$ (2)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}mR^2{\displaystyle \frac{d\omega }{dt}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mu mgR𝒯(\epsilon ).`$ (3)
By introducing dimensionless velocities and time as $`v^{}=v/\sqrt{Rg}\mu `$, $`\omega ^{}=\omega \sqrt{R/g}/\mu `$, and $`t^{}=t\sqrt{g/R}`$, Eqs. (2) and (3) reduce to

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dv^{}}{dt^{}}}`$ $`=`$ $`(\epsilon ),`$ (4)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\omega ^{}}{dt^{}}}`$ $`=`$ $`2𝒯(\epsilon )`$ (5)
with $`\epsilon =v^{}/\omega ^{}`$. As $`(\epsilon )`$ and $`𝒯(\epsilon )`$ are positive for $`\epsilon >0`$, the translational and angular velocities are strictly monotonically decreasing in time, as expected. Now the question arises: Is it possible that any of them reaches zero before the other, i.e., may it happen that an initially sliding and spinning disk after some time is only sliding or spinning? We solved Eqs. (4) and (5) numerically with many different initial conditions. The results indicate, as can be seen in Fig. 3(a), that $`v^{}`$ and $`\omega ^{}`$ always reach zero together, meaning that the disk always stops its sliding and spinning motion at the same moment.

Before we show its proof, let us try to explain qualitatively what is happening. If the velocity is much higher than the angular velocity ($`vR\omega `$, i.e., $`\epsilon 1`$), then the friction torque is negligible compared to the force, see Fig. 2(a). Therefore, the velocity decreases with a higher rate than the angular velocity, and $`\epsilon `$ decreases. On the other hand, if the angular velocity is much higher than the velocity ($`\epsilon 1`$), then the friction torque is higher than the force, and $`\epsilon `$ increases. Thus a negative feedback effectively equilibrates the sliding and spinning motion. Indeed, the numerical results show this behavior, as $`\epsilon `$ always tends to the same value, $`\epsilon _00.653`$, when the motion stops \[Fig. 3(b)\]. This means that $`\omega ^{}`$ and $`v^{}`$ not only reach zero simultaneously, but also that their ratio approaches a universal value, irrespective of the initial conditions.

In order to prove that $`\epsilon `$ always has this value at the end of the motion, we derive an autonomous differential equation for $`\epsilon `$ from equations (4) and (5) using the variable transformation $`x=\mathrm{ln}\omega ^{}`$:

$$\frac{d\epsilon }{dx}=\epsilon \frac{(\epsilon )}{2𝒯(\epsilon )}f(\epsilon ).$$
(6)
Note that $`\omega ^{}0`$, the condition of stopping, now corresponds to $`x\mathrm{}`$ (with the exception of pure sliding motion). For small $`\epsilon `$ the right hand side of Eq. (6) vanishes like $`f(\epsilon )\epsilon /4`$, while it behaves asymptotically for $`\epsilon \mathrm{}`$ like $`f(\epsilon )\epsilon `$. In between, at $`\epsilon _0`$, it changes sign (Fig. 4).

Therefore Eq. (6) has three fixed points: Two of them, $`\epsilon =0`$ and $`\epsilon =\mathrm{}`$, are trivial and correspond to pure spinning or pure sliding motion, respectively. For all other initial conditions ($`0<\epsilon <\mathrm{}`$), corresponding to initial sliding and spinning, $`\epsilon _0`$ is the attractive fixed point, meaning that $`\epsilon `$ has this value just before the disk stops its motion, which is what we wanted to prove.

We also performed a simple experiment to measure the friction force and torque acting on a sliding and spinning disk. We set a standard writable CD disk ($`R=6\text{cm}`$), with its data carrying side down, into motion manually on a horizontal polyamid fabric surface several times, and recorded its motion with a Sony DCR-VX2000E PAL digital video camera (25 images/second). Then we processed the images to obtain the position and the orientation of the disk as a function of time. We fitted the position and angular data with second degree polynomials to get the instantaneous translational and angular velocity and acceleration. Then, assuming that only gravitational and frictional forces were acting on the disk, using Eqs. (2) and (3), and having only the friction coefficient as a fit parameter, we were able to plot functions $`(\epsilon )`$ and $`𝒯(\epsilon )`$, see Fig. 5. We had, however, a minor complication: We observed that the friction coefficient slightly increased linearly with the number of throws, $`n`$. We found that $`\mu =0.202+0.00053n`$ was a good fit, and the data presented in Fig. 5 was obtained using this “time-dependent” friction coefficient in the data processing. Investigating the disk we concluded that the reason for the increase of $`\mu `$ was probably that the film on the CD was gradually removed. The disk also had a $`1.5\text{cm}`$ diameter hole at its center, but a numerical calculation of $`(\epsilon )`$ and $`𝒯(\epsilon )`$ for this geometry showed that deviation from the full disk case is not significant, it is much smaller than the accuracy of the measured data. Our experimental data also showed that the disk always stopped its sliding and spinning motion at the same moment (within error).

We used the sliding and spinning disk as a simple, illustrative example to show how friction force and torque are coupled. In this case we were able to derive all results analytically, because the local pressure is everywhere the same in the contact area. However, in general the pressure distribution over the contact area will be non-uniform. As an example, if we replace the flat disk by a cylinder standing on one of its flat faces, then the friction force leads to a torque with respect to the center of mass. Provided that the cylinder does not topple, this torque must be compensated by a pressure increase at the front and a pressure decrease at the rear part of the contact area. Therefore the spinning motion induces a friction component perpendicular to the translational motion, in the direction of $`𝐯\times 𝝎`$. Hence, in contrast to the straight sliding of a flat spinning disk, the path of the cylinder will be curved in this direction. This resembles the Magnus effect, although the physical origin is completely different.

The pressure distribution can also depend on the shape and elastic properties of the sliding body. For instance, if it is a sphere, linear elasticity theory predicts a $`\sqrt{1r^2/R^2}`$ shaped radial pressure function Landau . We calculated the $`(\epsilon )`$ and $`𝒯(\epsilon )`$ curves numerically for this case and found that their qualitative behavior remains the same footnote:rolling . Therefore coupling between the friction force and torque is still present: For large $`\epsilon `$ torsion friction is suppressed by sliding, for small $`\epsilon `$ sliding friction gets reduced by spinning. This may explain, why the translational motion of a fast spinning top is hardly decelerated.

Now let us consider what impact the coupling between sliding and spinning motion may have on the physics of granular media. In one limiting case, when the particles are spherical and very hard, torsion friction typically can be neglected, as the contact area is very small, hence $`\epsilon 1`$. However, on the one hand, real particles are usually non-spherical, or they may be very soft, so that the size of the contact area can be comparable to that of the particle. On the other hand, even in the case of hard spherical particles with contact radius $`r`$ much smaller than the particle radius $`R`$, the coupling between sliding and spinning motion can have subtle consequences. As the torsion friction is very small in this case, one can expect that the spinning degree of freedom can be easily excited. Typical sliding velocities will be comparable to $`\omega _\mathrm{n}R`$, so that $`\epsilon R/r1`$. In this case, the sliding friction is basically $`\mu F_\mathrm{n}`$. However, when a granular packing relaxes into a static configuration, the coupling between sliding and spinning becomes important. For example, if the initial sliding velocity is zero, but the spinning degree of freedom is excited (i.e., $`\epsilon =0`$), an arbitrarily small force can induce sliding.

An important extension of this work will be to investigate the coupling between the static friction force and torque. As static friction is different from sliding friction, and its theory is somewhat more difficult, we cannot expect that the maximum static friction forces and torques will lie on the friction-torque curve in Fig. 2(b). However, we have preliminary evidence that such coupling is present also in the static case. We expect that the threshold torques and forces needed to turn a sticking contact into a sliding and/or spinning one form a curve which lies above the one in Fig. 2(b). In particular, this implies that the application of a torque at a sticking contact makes it easier to excite the sliding degree of freedom. For hard spherical spheres a very small torque will already have this effect.

Finally, the fact that $`(\epsilon )`$ and $`𝒯(\epsilon )`$ depend on the pressure distribution in the contact area raises the question, whether the “inverse problem” has a unique solution, i.e., are the experimentally accessible functions $`(\epsilon )`$ and $`𝒯(\epsilon )`$ a fingerprint of the pressure distribution in the contact area? This would also be an interesting question to study in the future.

We would like to thank János Kertész, Péter Gnädig, Dirk Kadau, and Lothar Brendel for useful discussions, and Detlef Wildenberg (Audio-Visual Media Center, Gerhard-Mercator University) for his help to video record the experiment. We acknowledge funding from DFG Graduate College 277 (G.B.), DFG Grant Wo577/3-1 (Z.F.), and DAAD (T.U.).


format: text

text:
# Self-consistent scattering theory of the pair distribution function in charged Bose fluids

## Abstract

We use a density functional theoretical approach to calculate the pair distribution function and the effective interactions in homogeneous fluids of spinless charged bosons. The scheme involves the self-consistent solution of a two-particle scattering problem with an effective scattering potential which embodies many-body effects and is adjusted to the compressibility sum rule. Numerical results are presented over an extensive range of density in both three and two dimensions.

Exchange and correlations in fluids of charged particles have been a focus of interest in many-body physics for many decades. An important manifestation of these effects is the equilibrium distribution $`g(r)`$ of pairs of particles in the ground state of the homogeneous fluid, which describes its state of short-range order. Knowledge of $`g(r)`$ as a function of the fluid density determines its energy and is essential in the construction of energy functionals for applications of density functional theory (DFT) beyond the local density approximation . Main attention has been given to electron fluids because of their relevance in the physics of metals and semiconductors, but there also is an interest for plasmas of charged bosons in quantum statistical mechanics, for instance in regard to condensates of point-like Cooper pairs as models for superfluid states  or to the equation of state and nuclear reactions in astrophysical plasmas .

There has recently been a renewed interest in the study of $`g(r)`$ for electron gas models within a two-body scattering approach stemming from work by Overhauser . In brief, $`g(r)`$ is obtained from the solution of a Schr dinger equation for particle-pair wave functions with effective scattering potentials which, starting from a simple electrostatic model , have been developed into a self-consistent Hartree model  and into spin-dependent effective pair interactions . In the present work we derive a DFT basis for such an approach and, using an earlier modelling of the effective interactions to incorporate the thermodynamic sum rules , we develop a fully self-contained and self-consistent determination of $`g(r)`$ and of the effective scattering potential. Our focus here is on plasmas of spinless Bose particles, leaving aside the further complications that arise in the presence of the spin degree of freedom as already briefly discussed elsewhere .

We consider, therefore, a quantum fluid of point-like bosons having charge $`e`$ and mass $`m`$, which are free to move in dimensionality $`D=2`$ or $`3`$ at zero temperature and are neutralized by a uniformly charged background of density $`n`$. This model will be referred to as a charged Bose fluid (CBF). Our aim is to use DFT for building a self-consistent theory that gives the pair distribution function $`g(r)`$ as output. From the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem  the ground state energy of the fluid in the presence of an external potential $`V_{\mathrm{ext}}(𝐫)`$ can be written as a functional of the density profile $`n(𝐫)`$ in the form

$$E_{\mathrm{gs}}[n(𝐫)]=T_s[n(𝐫)]+E_\mathrm{H}[n(𝐫)]+d^D𝐫V_{\mathrm{ext}}(𝐫)\mathrm{\Delta }n(𝐫)+E_\mathrm{c}[n(𝐫)]$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }n(𝐫)=n(𝐫)n`$ and $`T_s`$ is the ideal kinetic energy functional. The Hartree term $`E_\mathrm{H}`$ is given by

$$E_\mathrm{H}[n(𝐫)]=\frac{1}{2}d^D𝐫d^D𝐫^{}v(|𝐫𝐫^{}|)\mathrm{\Delta }n(𝐫)\mathrm{\Delta }n(𝐫^{})$$
(2)
where $`v(|𝐫𝐫^{}|)=e^2/|𝐫𝐫^{}|`$. The last term in Eq. (1) is the correlation energy functional, which contains all the quantum many-body (QMB) effects. In Eqs. (1) and (2) the presence of a neutralizing background has been taken into account.

The quantity $`n[g(r)1]`$ in the homogeneous fluid can be viewed as the distortion in the density profile that instantaneously surrounds a particle of the fluid located at position $`𝐫=0`$ . As usual $`g(r)`$ is defined by setting $`ng(r)\mathrm{\Omega }_Dr^{D1}dr`$, with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_2=2\pi `$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_3=4\pi `$, equal to the average number of particles inside a shell of radius $`r`$ and thickness $`dr`$ centered on the particle at the origin. The appropriate ground-state energy functional for the surrounding fluid is obtained from Eq. (1) with the formal replacements $`V_{\mathrm{ext}}(𝐫)v(r)`$ and

$$\mathrm{\Delta }n(𝐫)=n[g(r)1].$$
(3)
Following the treatment given for inhomogeneous fluids in the book of Dreizler and Gross , a formal expression for the QMB energy functional can be obtained via an adiabatic connection formula ,

$$E_\mathrm{c}[n(𝐫)]=\frac{1}{2}\frac{1}{e^2}_0^{e^2}𝑑\lambda d^D𝐫d^D𝐫^{}v(|𝐫𝐫^{}|)n(𝐫)n(𝐫^{})\left[g_\lambda ^{(3)}(𝐫,𝐫^{})1\right]$$
(4)
where the integration over the coupling strength $`\lambda `$ accounts for the shift in kinetic energy that accompanies the switching on of the interactions. In Eq. (4) we have $`n(𝐫)=ng(r)`$ and $`g_\lambda ^{(3)}(𝐫,𝐫^{})`$ measures the probability of finding two particles at $`𝐫`$ and $`𝐫^{}`$ when a third particle is at the origin, the interaction potential being $`v_\lambda (|𝐫𝐫^{}|)=\lambda e^2/|𝐫𝐫^{}|`$. Of course, $`g_\lambda ^{(3)}(𝐫,𝐫^{})`$ depends functionally on $`n(𝐫)`$.

An Euler-Lagrange equation for $`g(r)`$ in the boson fluid can now be obtained from the variational principle, using the ideal kinetic energy functional which for bosons is given by the von Weizsäcker expression . This is

$$T_s[g(r)]=\frac{\mathrm{}^2n}{8m_r}d^D𝐫\frac{|g(r)|^2}{g(r)}$$
(5)
where $`m_r=m/2`$ is the reduced mass of a particle pair. Taking the zero of energy at the chemical potential, the equation for $`g(r)`$ reads

$$\left[\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m_r}_𝐫^2+V_{\mathrm{KS}}(r)\right]\sqrt{g(r)}=0$$
(6)
where $`V_{\mathrm{KS}}(r)`$ is the Kohn-Sham scattering potential,

$$V_{\mathrm{KS}}(r)=v(r)+d^D𝐫^{}v(|𝐫𝐫^{}|)\mathrm{\Delta }n(𝐫^{})+\frac{\delta E_\mathrm{c}[n(𝐫)]}{\delta n(𝐫)}.$$
(7)
In fact, Eq. (6) can also be obtained from the Kohn-Sham mapping in DFT  by building $`\mathrm{\Delta }n(𝐫)`$ from Kohn-Sham scattering orbitals $`\mathrm{\Phi }_𝐤(𝐫)`$. Since at zero temperature all bosons in the reference Kohn-Sham ideal gas are in the zero momentum state, we have $`g(r)|\mathrm{\Phi }_{𝐤=0}(𝐫)|^2`$ and Eq. (6) is just the Kohn-Sham Schrödinger equation for the pair wave function $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{𝐤=0}(𝐫)`$ at zero relative momentum. We conclude, therefore, that for a Bose fluid the scattering-theory approach to the pair distribution function admits a rigorous DFT derivation, which yields Eqs. (6) and (7).

Of course, the functional dependence of the QMB energy on density is not known and at this point we have to resort to some approximations. Their goodness can only be gauged a posteriori. Firstly, the three-body correlation function $`g_\lambda ^{(3)}(𝐫,𝐫^{})`$ in Eq. (4) would lead us into a hierarchy of higher-order correlation functions. The simplest way of truncating this hierarchy is to replace $`g_\lambda ^{(3)}(𝐫,𝐫^{})`$ by $`g_\lambda (|𝐫𝐫^{}|)`$, in analogy with what has been done in treating the equation of motion for the Wigner distribution function in the electron gas subject to external potentials . This approximation can be expected to work well at strong coupling where the probability of simultaneously finding three particles inside a radius $`r_sa_B`$ is small, such a ”strong coupling” situation being reached at lower values of $`r_s`$ in 2D than in 3D. As a second approximation we expand the QMB energy in a functional Taylor series in powers of $`\mathrm{\Delta }n(𝐫)`$ up to second order terms. With the definition

$$\mathrm{f}(|𝐫𝐫^{}|)\frac{\delta ^2E_\mathrm{c}[n(r)]}{\delta n(r)\delta n(r^{})}|_{\mathrm{\Delta }n(r)=0}$$
(8)
we find in Fourier transform

$$V_{\mathrm{KS}}(q)=v(q)+v(q)[1G(q)]\mathrm{\Delta }n(q).$$
(9)
Here, $`G(q)f(q)/v(q)`$ is the so-called local field factor, defined in terms of the Fourier transform $`f(q)`$ of the QMB kernel in Eq (8), and $`v(q)`$ is the Fourier transform of the Coulomb potential (i.e. $`v(q)=4\pi e^2/q^2`$ in $`D=3`$, $`v(q)=2\pi e^2/q`$ in $`D=2`$). Finally, $`\mathrm{\Delta }n(q)`$ in Eq. (9), is given by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }n(q)=S(q)1$$
(10)
where $`S(q)`$ is the structure factor, related to the pair function by

$$S(q)=1+nd^D𝐫[g(r)1]\mathrm{exp}(i𝐪𝐫).$$
(11)
The solution of Eqs. (6) and (9) can therefore be carried out self-consistently, given knowledge of the local-field factor $`G(q)`$. The results of such a self-consistent scheme (SCS) for the 3D- CBF, using the data on $`G(q)`$ from the Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) study of Moroni et al. , will be reported in Figures 1 and 2 below.

In fact, the present approach can be extended into a fully self-contained theory in which the local field factor is self-consistently determined over the relevant $`q`$-range during the calculation rather than taken as input from QMC data. In such a fully self-consistent scheme (FSCS) we adopt a closure relation between $`G(q)`$ and $`S(q)`$, which satisfies the compressibility sum rule . That is, we set

$$G(q)=D_n𝒢(q)$$
(12)
where the differential operator $`D_n`$ is defined by

$$D_n1+2n\frac{}{n}+\frac{1}{2}n^2\frac{^2}{n^2}$$
(13)
while $`𝒢(q)`$ is given by

$$𝒢(q)\frac{1}{nv(q)}\frac{1}{e^2}_0^{e^2}𝑑\lambda \frac{d^D𝐪^{}}{(2\pi )^D}v(q^{})\left[S_\lambda (|𝐪+𝐪^{}|)1\right],$$
(14)
with $`S_\lambda (q)`$ being the partial structure factor at coupling constant $`\lambda `$. Although these expressions are strictly correct only in the long-wavelength limit, they yield a good account of QMC data on local field factors over the relevant range of $`q`$ (see Ref. 8 and Figure 4 below). The explicit proof that Eqs. (12)-(14) satisfy the compressibility sum rule at long wavelengths requires two simple steps: (i) the dependence of the integral in Eq. (14) on wave number $`q`$ can be neglected in the limit $`q0`$, yielding $`𝒢(q)2\epsilon _\mathrm{c}(n)/[nv(q)]`$ in this limit where $`\epsilon _\mathrm{c}(n)`$ is the correlation energy of the CBF; and hence (ii) $`D_n𝒢(q)1/[n^2\kappa v(q)]`$ with $`\kappa `$ being the compressibility of the CBF.

We turn at this point to a presentation of our numerical result. We have solved the FSCS based on Eqs. (6), (9)-(11) and (12)-(14) for a 3D-CBF with coupling strength up to $`r_s=20`$ (with $`r_sa_B=(4\pi n/3)^{1/3}`$) and for a 2D-CBF with coupling strength up to $`r_s=10`$ (with $`r_sa_B=(\pi n)^{1/2}`$ ). The main results of our work are shown in Figures 1-4.

In Figure 1 we show that our FSCS results for $`g(r)`$ in the 3D-CBF at $`r_s=10`$ and $`r_s=20`$ are in excellent agreement with the QMC data of Moroni et al. . We also compare our results with those that we have obtained in the Hartree approximation (HA, setting $`G(q)=0`$) and with those that we have recalculated by the hypernetted-chain Euler-Lagrange approach (HNC/EL) of Apaja et al. , the latter being still based on Eq. (6) but with a different choice for the dependence of the scattering potential on $`S(q)`$. The HA is unable to reproduce the emergence of a first-neighbor shell with increasing coupling strength, as already noted in its use for the study of pair correlations in the electron gas . The two self-consistent approaches to the dependence of the scattering potential on the structure factor, on the other hand, are in very good agreement with each other.

The inset in Figure 1 shows that our SCS results at $`r_s=20`$ are in very good agreement with those obtained in the FSCS, stressing that our self-consistent determination of $`G(q)`$ from the compressibility sum rule also accounts with sufficient accuracy for this function over the relevant range of wave number. We have made use of this observation to test the accuracy of the present theory for $`g(r)`$ at very strong coupling, as is shown in Figure 2 by reporting SCS results for the 3D-CBF at $`r_s=100`$ in comparison again with the QMC data of Moroni et al.  on $`g(r)`$ and with the results of the HA and of the HNC/EL .

In Figure 3 we illustrate the quality of our results for the 2D-CBF at $`r_s=5`$ and $`r_s=10`$. No data are as yet available for the local-field factor in this model system, and we show in this Figure our FSCS results in comparison with QMC data on $`g(r)`$ kindly sent to us by Dr. Moroni prior to publication. Again we obtain excellent agreement with the QMC data and with the HNC/EL theory of Apaja et al. .

Finally, in Figure 4 we show our FSCS results for the local-field factor $`G(q)`$ in the 3D-CBF at $`r_s=10`$, in comparison with the QMC data of Moroni et al. , and for the 2D-CBF at $`r_s=5`$. Deviations from the QMC data are seen to emerge in $`3D`$ with increasing wave number, starting at $`qr_sa_B>1.5`$ and becoming very large at $`qr_sa_B>4`$. However, as already stressed in the discussion of the results for $`g(r)`$ in Figure 1, these discrepancies are scarcely of any relevance in the calculation of pair correlations once the compressibility sum rule is embodied into the theory.

In summary, we have shown that a scattering-theory approach to pair correlations in boson plasmas has a sound theoretical justification within the framework of DFT and leads to fully quantitative results when self-consistence between pair correlations and effective particle-particle interactions is incorporated into the theory. It may be worth exploring in the future alternative approximations to the truncated expansion of the QMB energy functional.

As a final remark we wish to point out that, having taken the Kohn-Sham viewpoint in our choice of an ideal Bose gas as the reference DFT fluid, our approach carries no information on momentum distributions and in particular on the depletion of the condensate which occurs with increasing coupling strength. An extended version of the DFT scheme, which adopts both the particle density and the order parameter of the condensate as basic variables of the inhomogeneous fluid and uses the Bogoliubov - de Gennes equations as reference, has been developed for such wider purposes .

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was partially funded by MIUR under the PRIN2001 Initiative and by INFM under the PRA2001 Program. We are indebted to Dr. S. Moroni for providing us with his unpublished QMC data reported in Figure 3.


text:
# The bends in the slopes of radial abundance gradients in the disks of spiral galaxies – do they exist?

## 1 Introduction

It has been known for a long time (Searle 1971, Smith 1975) that disks of spiral galaxies can show radial oxygen abundance gradients, in the sense that the oxygen abundance is higher at the central part of disk and decreases with galactocentric distance. By now, spectra have been obtained for hundreds of H ii regions in disks of spiral galaxies. The characteristic oxygen abundances (the oxygen abundance at a predetermined galactocentric distance) and radial oxygen abundance gradients were obtained for a large sample of spiral galaxies (Vila-Costas & Edmunds 1992, Zaritsky et al. 1994, van Zee et al. 1998, among others). It was obtained that nearly all the gradients are reasonably well fitted by a single exponential profile, although in several cases the gradient slope may not be constant across the disk but instead flattens (or steepens) in the outer disk.

Zaritsky (1992) has hypothesized that the oxygen abundance gradients in the disks of spiral galaxies flatten noticeably at the radius where the rotation curve changes from linearly rising to flat, and he has suggested a star-forming viscous disk model of galaxy evolution to argue in favour of his hypotheses. Friedli et al. (1994) and Friedli & Benz (1995) have predicted breaks in the slope of abundance gradients in spiral galaxies with young bars ($`<`$ 0.5$`÷`$1 Gyr). The break in the slope of abundance gradient in spiral galaxy then was considered as an indicator of a recently formed bar in that galaxy (Roy & Walsh 1997, Friedli 1999, Considére et al. 2000).

The signs of a break in the slope of abundance gradients were found on the basis of oxygen abundances derived with the abundance indicator R23 or/and R3 (R23 – method) (Vilchez et al. 1988, Zaritsky 1992, Vila-Costas & Edmunds 1992, Zaritsky et al. 1994, Roy & Walsh 1997). Zaritsky (1992) and Zaritsky et al. (1994) noted that the bend in the abundance indicator R23 (or R3) gradient may not reflect a corresponding bend in the abundance gradient. Recently it has been shown (Pilyugin 2000, 2001a,b) that the oxygen abundance derived with the R23 – method involves a systematic error depending on the excitation parameter P: the R23 – method provides more or less realistic oxygen abundances in high-excitation H ii regions and yields an overestimated oxygen abundances in low-excitation H ii regions. This is in agreement with the result of Kinkel & Rosa (1994), who showed the need to lower all H ii region abundances obtained on the basis of the R23 calibration after Edmunds and Pagel (1984) at intrinsic solar-like O/H values and above. Castellanos et al. (2002) also found that the R23 – method yields an overestimated oxygen abundance in low-excitation H ii regions. A new way of oxygen abundance determination in H ii regions (P – method) was suggested (Pilyugin 2001a). It was demonstrated that the oxygen abundances derived with the P – method are as credible as ones derived with the classic Te – method (Pilyugin 2001a,b). It should be noted, however, that the P – method is established on the basis of H ii regions with R23 larger than 2 and the validity of this method in the case of H ii regions with R23 less than 2 (most metal-rich H ii regions) may be disputed.

The radial distribution of oxygen abundances derived through the P – method in some galaxies with a reported bend in the slope of abundance will be considered here to examine the reality of the reported bends.

## 2 Galaxies with a reported bend in the slope of the abundance gradient

### 2.1 Preliminary remarks

The following relationship between oxygen abundance and strong line intensities was suggested in Pilyugin (2001a)

$$12+log(O/H)_P=\frac{R_{23}+54.2+59.45P+7.31P^2}{6.07+6.71P+0.37P^2+0.243R_{23}},$$
(1)
where $`R_{23}`$ =$`R_2`$ \+ $`R_3`$, $`R_2`$ = $`I_{[OII]\lambda 3727+\lambda 3729}/I_{H\beta }`$, $`R_3`$ = $`I_{[OIII]\lambda 4959+\lambda 5007}/I_{H\beta }`$, P = $`R_3`$/$`R_{23}`$. The oxygen abundance in the H ii region derived with Eq.(1) will be referred to as (O/H)P. The relationship between oxygen abundance and strong line intensities has two values with two distinctive parts named usually the lower and upper branches of the R23 – O/H diagram, and so one has to know in advance on which branch of the R23 – O/H diagram the H ii region lies. The above expression for the oxygen abundance determination in H ii regions, Eq.(1), is valid for H ii regions with 12+log(O/H) higher than around 8.2.

The O/H – R23 calibration after Edmunds & Pagel (1984) will be used here for the oxygen abundance determination with the R23 – method. For the sake of convenience, their calibration for the upper branch of the R23 – O/H diagram was approximated by the polynomial

$`12+log(O/H)_{R_{23}}=9.3020.403x0.675x^2`$
$`0.701x^3+0.666x^4`$ (2)
where $`x=\mathrm{log}R_{23}`$. The oxygen abundance in H ii region derived with Eq.(2) will be referred to as (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$.

### 2.2 False bends of the ”first type”

We will start from a consideretion of the well-observed galaxy M101. The break in the slope of the abundance gradient in M101 was reported by Zaritsky (1992) and by Vila-Costas & Edmunds (1992). It should be noted that this conclusion was not confirmed by Henry & Howard (1995), who determined oxygen abundance using a sequential photoionization model analysis procedure and found that the observed behavior of line ratios accross the disk of M101 is consistent with an abundance gradient that is exponential in form and has a constant slope. About ninety measurements of the strong oxygen lines intensities in H ii regions of the galaxy M101 were published (Garnett & Kennicutt 1994, Garnett et al. 1999, Kennicutt & Garnett 1996, Kinkel & Rosa 1994, McCall et al. 1985, Rayo et al. 1982, Searle 1971, Shields & Searle 1978, Smith 1975, Torres-Peimbert et al. 1989, van Zee et al. 1998).

Fig.1a shows the radial (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance distribution (the triangles) for the H ii regions in M101 derived with Eq.(2). The galactocentric distances are normalized to the isophotal radius R25 which was taken to be equal to 14.42 arcmin (de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991). Fig.1b shows the radial (O/H)P abundance distribution (the filled circles) for H ii regions in M101 derived with Eq.(1) using the same values of the strong oxygen lines intensities. As can be seen in Fig.1a,b there is break in the slope of (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance distribution as in the slope of (O/H)P abundance distribution, at the galactocentric distance R $``$ 0.6R25. Close examination of Fig.1a,b shows that both the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ and the (O/H)P distributions in the disk of M101 flatten at the radius R where the oxygen abundance decreases to around 12+log(O/H) = 8.2. The oxygen abundances in H ii regions with galactocentric distances larger than R are expected to be less than 12+logO/H=8.2, i.e they do not belong to the upper branch of the R23 – O/H diagram. But Eq.(1) and Eq.(2) can be used for oxygen abundance determination in H ii regions of the upper branch of the R23 – O/H diagram only. Then one can conclude that the use of these equations for the oxygen abundance determination in the H ii regions of M101 with galactocentric distances larger than R results in the wrong (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ and (O/H)P abundances in these H ii regions and, as cosequence, results in the false breaks in the slopes of (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ and (O/H)P abundance distributions. In the case of M101 this problem was clearly noted by Kennicutt & Garnett (1996). Since they did not use the R23 calibration for the outermost H ii regions, their abundance gradient does not show the break.

Around twenty individual measurements of the temperature-sensitive line ratios in H ii regions of M101 are available now, which makes it possible to determine the oxygen abundance in a number of H ii regions in M101 with classic Te – method ((O/H)$`_{T_e}`$ abundances). The (O/H)$`_{T_e}`$ data is sufficient in quantity and quality for an accurate determination of the value of the oxygen abundance gradient within M101 (Pilyugin 2001b). The radii interior and exterior to the R value are sampled. The (O/H)$`_{T_e}`$ distribution does not show the flattering at the outer zone of M101 (thick solid line in Fig.1a,b). This is decisive proof that the breaks in the slopes of (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ and (O/H)P abundance distributions within the disk of M101 is an artifact caused by the wrong oxygen abundances in H ii regions with galactocentric distances larger than R.

The break in the slope of the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance gradient in the disk of barred spiral galaxy NGC1365 was obtained by Roy & Walsh (1997). Does the break in the slope of the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance gradient in NGC1365 have the same nature as that in NGC5457? Around seventy measurements of the strong oxygen lines intensities in H ii regions in the disk of NGC1365 are available (Alloin et al. 1981, Pagel et al. 1979, Roy & Walsh 1997). Fig.2a shows the radial (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance distribution (the triangles) for H ii regions in the disk of NGC1365 derived with Eq.(2). The galactocentric distances are normalized to the isophotal radius R25 adopted to be equal to 5.61 arcmin (de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991). Fig.2b shows the radial (O/H)P abundance distribution (the filled circles) for H ii regions in the disk of NGC1365 derived with Eq.(1). As can be seen in Fig.2a,b there is break as in the slope of the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance distribution as in the slope of the (O/H)P abundance distribution at the galactocentric distance R $``$ 0.7R25 although the exact position of the point of break is not beyond question due to large scatter in oxygen abundance at any fixed radius.

Comparison of Fig.1a and Fig.2a shows a very important difference between radial abundance distributions in the disk of M101 and in the disk of NGC1365. The (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance at the point of bend in the disk of NGC1365 is 12+log(O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ $``$ 8.6 and is appreciable higher than the lower boundary (12+log(O/H) $``$ 8.2) of the upper branch in the O/H – RG diagram while in the case of M101 the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance at the point of bend is around 12+log(O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ $``$ 8.3 and is close to the lower boundary of the upper branch in the O/H – RG diagram. This high value of (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance at the point of bend in the disk of NGC1365 was a reason why the fact that those H ii regions belong to the upper branch in the O/H – RG diagram (and cosequently the validity of the R23 – method) was not doubted in previous studies. However a difference between values of the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundances at the point of bend in the disk of M101 and in the disk of NGC1365 can be easy explained. As it was mentioned above the oxygen abundance derived with the R23 – method involves a systematic error depending on the excitation parameter P: the less the value of the excitation parameter P the more overestimated the value of oxygen abundance is obtained with the R23 – method (Pilyugin 2001a,b). In the case of M101 the excitation of the H ii regions with galactocentric distances around R is moderate P $``$ 0.7 (Fig.1c) and, as a consequence, the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ values in those H ii regions are only slightly overestimated. On the contrary, in the case of NGC1365 the excitation of the H ii regions with galactocentric distances around R is low P $``$ 0.3 (Fig.2c) and hence the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ values in those H ii regions are significantly overestimated.

At the same time, Fig.2b shows that the (O/H)P distribution in the disk of NGC1365 flattens at the radius where oxygen abundance decreases to around 12+log(O/H) = 8.2. This suggests that the breaks in the slopes of (O/H)P and (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance distributions within the disk of NGC1365 is an artifact caused by the wrong oxygen abundances in H ii regions with galactocentric distances larger than R. Of course, this statement will be an undisputable fact when the low oxygen abundance in the outermost H ii regions in the disk of NGC1365 will be confirmed by the direct determination with the Te – method. This statement can be also strengthened by consideration of other galaxies.

We have compiled the published measurements (more than 900 individual measurements) of the strong oxygen lines intensities in H ii regions in disks of spiral galaxies and derived the radial (O/H)P abundance distributions. It was found that the oxygen abundances in the disks of a number of galaxies decreases to 12+logO/H=8.2 within the isophotal radius. In the disks of ten galaxies the H ii regions are observed at the radii exterior to the R (where R $``$ 0.8R25 in NGC300, R $``$ 0.5R25 in NGC925, R $``$ 0.7R25 in NGC1365, R $``$ 0.9R25 in NGC2805, R $``$ 0.8R25 in NGC3198, R $``$ 0.4R25 in NGC3319, R $``$ 0.8R25 in NGC4651, R $``$ 0.5R25 in NGC5033, R $``$ 0.6R25 in NGC5457, R $``$ 0.6R25 in NGC7793). It is remarkable that many galaxies with reported signs of a bend in the slope of the abundance gradient, NGC300, NGC5457, NGC7793 (Vila-Costas & Edmunds 1992), NGC3319, NGC5033 (Zaritsky et al. 1994), NGC1365 (Roy & Walsh 1997) are among the galaxies with the H ii regions observed at the radii exterior to the R. If the possibility of a real bend in the slope of the abundance gradient at the radius R in any given galaxy cannot be conclusively excluded, it is almost beyond belief that a real bend in the slope of abundance gradient takes place at the fixed value of oxygen abundance 12+log(O/H) = 8.2 in all galaxies. Thus, the fact that galaxies with signs of a bend in abundance gradient are contained in the list of galaxies with the H ii regions observed at the radii exterior to the R can be considered as evidence in favour that the reported bends are false and reasoned by unjustified use of the relationship between oxygen abundance and strong line intensities, which is valid for the H ii regions of the upper branch of the R23 – O/H diagram only, to the abundance determination in H ii regions at radii exterior to R, although those H ii regions do not belong to the upper branch of the R23 – O/H diagram.

Two galaxies NGC5194 and M81, in which a bend in the slope of the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance gradient was suspected, will be discussed in the next subsection. For the disk of galaxy M33, in which the bend in the slope of (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance gradient was reported by Vilchez et al. (1988), the compiled data (40 H ii regions) are reasonably well fitted by a single exponential profile.

### 2.3 False bends of the ”second type”

The gradient in the excitation parameter P within the disk of M101, Fig.1c, results in the false increase in the slope of the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance gradient, Fig.1a. Hence, if there is a bend in the excitation parameter gradient within the disk of a galaxy, one can expect that this results in a false bend in the slope of (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance gradient. This effect indeed takes place in the disks of some galaxies. A manifistation of this effect will be demonstrated with a galaxy NGC2403.

We compiled 47 published measurements of the strong oxygen line intensities in H ii regions of the galaxy NGC2403 (Fierro et al. 1986, Garnett et al. 1997, Garnett et al. 1999, McCall et al. 1985, Smith 1975, van Zee et al. 1998). Fig.3a shows the radial (O/H)P abundance distribution (the filled circles) for H ii regions in NGC2403 derived with Eq.(1). The galactocentric distances are normalized to the isophotal radius R25 which was taken to be equal to 11.45 arcmin (de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991). Fig.3b shows the radial (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance distribution (the open circles) for H ii regions in NGC2403 derived with Eq.(2).

Inspection of Fig.3a shows that the variation in the logarithm of (O/H)P abundance with radius can be fitted by a straight line. At the same time the variation in the logarithm of (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance with radius shows evidence of a bend in the slope of the abundance gradient, Fig.3b. The origin of this bend is clearly illustrated in Fig.3c and Fig.3d. Since (O/H)P abundances are as credible as (O/H)$`_{T_e}`$ abundances, the (O/H)P – RG relation reproduces a real abundance gradient. Then the deviations of (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundances from the (O/H)P – RG relation are errors in (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundances. Inspection of Fig.3c shows that the average value of errors in (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundances is minimum at galactocentric distance around 0.5R25 and inceases with distance from this point. This behaviour of the average value of errors in (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundances reflects the behaviour of the average value of the excitation parameter, Fig.3d; the lower the average value of the excitation parameter the higher the average value of errors in (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundances.

Thus, a false bend in the slope of the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance gradient can appear due to a bend in the excitation parameter gradient within the disk of a galaxy. The bend in the slope of (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance gradients in the disk of NGC5194 reported by Vila-Costas & Edmunds (1992) is a manifistation of this effect. This effect is also responsible for the weak break in the slope of the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ abundance gradient in the disk of M81 which was indicated by Zaritsky (1992).

In general, we did not find a meaningful bend in the radial (O/H)P abundance distributions derived in disks of around 50 spiral galaxies investigated. It should be noted however that the number of observed H ii regions in half of the considered galaxies is less than 14. Dutil & Roy (2001) showed that at least 16 H ii regions are needed for a meaningful and robust description of radial abundance gradient in a disk galaxy. If one is looking for a break in the gradient of the spatial distribution, the sample size required is several times larger. Then, the paucity of observational data inhibits the detection of a real bend in the radial (O/H)P abundance distribution even if this takes place in some galaxies. Thus, we cannot reject the existence of a real bend in the radial (O/H)P abundance distribution in galaxies at all, but we can conclude that at the present time there is no example of a galaxy with an undisputable established bend in the slope of the oxygen abundance gradient.

## 3 Conclusions

Spiral galaxies with a reported bend in the slope of gradient in the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ oxygen abundances (derived with traditionally used R23 – method) were examined. It was found that the false nature of the reported bends can be easily explained. Two reasons that result in a false bend in the slope of (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ gradient are indicated.

First, an unjustified use of the relationship between oxygen abundance and strong line intensities, constructed for the high-metallicity H ii regions of the upper branch of the R23 – O/H diagram, in the determination of oxygen abundance in low-metallicity H ii regions at the periphery of a galaxy, results in wrong (overestimated) oxygen abundances in those H ii regions, and, as a consequence, false bend in the slope of the abundance gradient appears. A manifistation of this effect has been demonstrated in a convincing way with the galaxy M101. Other galaxies where this effect is expected are listed.

Second, the bend in the excitation parameter gradient within the disk of a galaxy results in a false bend in the slope of the (O/H)$`_{R_{23}}`$ gradient since the oxygen abundance derived with the R23 – method involves a systematic error depending on the excitation parameter. A manifistation of this effect has been demonstrated with the galaxy NGC2403.

It is concluded that at the present time there is no example of a galaxy with an undisputable established bend in the slope of the oxygen abundance gradient.

###### Acknowledgements.

I thank the anonymous referee for discussion. This study was partly supported by the Joint Research Project between Eastern Europe and Switzerland (SCOPE) No. 7UKPJ62178, the NATO grant PST.CLG.976036, and the Italian national grant delivered by the MURST.


text:
# The conductance of interacting nano-wires

\[

## Abstract

The conductance of one-dimensional nano-wires of interacting electrons connected to non-interacting leads is calculated in the linear response regime. Two different approaches are used: a many-body Green function technique and a relation to the persistent current recently proposed based on results of the non-interacting case. The conductance is evaluated using the functional renormalization group method and the density matrix renormalization group algorithm. Our results give a strong indication that the idea of obtaining the conductance from the persistent current holds for interacting systems.

\]

The last few years brought fast progress in the experimental techniques to design and manipulate mesoscopic quasi-one-dimensional electron systems. Electron correlations play a crucial role in one spatial dimension leading to Luttinger liquid behavior in the infinite wire limit. Furthermore the interplay of electron correlations and impurities leads to a drastic effect. Even in the presence of a single impurity in the infinite wire limit and at low energy scales physical observables behave as if the system is split in two chains with open boundary conditions at the end points. A deeper theoretical understanding of the electron transport through interacting nano-wires is thus of great importance in connection with experiments and possible applications in nanotechnology. Additionally it will shed light on the question how electron correlations and the interplay of correlations and impurities influence the physical behavior of finite one-dimensional systems.

In a typical experimental setup the wire - or more general the nano-system - is connected to leads which act as reservoirs and the two-terminal conductance is measured. The leads are considered to be free of impurities and noninteracting. They have different chemical potentials $`\mu _l`$ and $`\mu _r`$ where $`\mu _l\mu _r`$ is given by the applied voltage. The wire might contain impurities and the electrons in the wire will later be assumed to be strongly correlated. For non-interacting electrons, at temperature $`T=0`$ and in linear response the two-terminal conductance is given by the Landauer formula $`G=2e^2|T(k_F)|^2/h`$ with the electron charge $`e`$ and the transmission probability $`|T(k_F)|^2`$ of the wire at the Fermi wave vector $`k_F`$. The factor $`2`$ is related to the two spin directions. In the following we consider spinless fermions and use the dimensionless conductance $`g=Gh/e^2`$. The above expression was derived using scattering theory. For an interacting wire at $`T=0`$ and in linear response $`g`$ can be expressed by the one-particle Green function of the wire taken at the chemical potential and calculated in the presence of the non-interacting semi-infinite leads.

Unfortunately even this Green function cannot be calculated exactly in most cases of physical interest. Thus appropriate approximations are required. We use a functional renormalization group (RG) method which we have applied successfully in the context of impurities in interacting one-dimensional systems. We neglect the flow of the two-particle vertex which provides a good approximation to the exact result for interactions which are not too large (see below). This establishes one way to approximately determine $`g`$.

Here we exclusively study the zero temperature and linear response regime. We focus on the case of an impurity free interacting wire. The generalization to the case including impurities is straightforward. The wire will be modeled by the lattice model of spinless fermions with nearest neighbor interaction $`U`$ and the leads by a spinless tight-binding Hamiltonian.

Within Luttinger liquid theory the conductance of an impurity free interacting wire has been determined using an effective field theory and bosonization. Even though these works were clearly a step forward in clarifying the issue that for “perfectly connected” leads the conductance is independent of the electron-electron interaction and the length of the wire, i.e. $`g=1`$, in connection with experimentally accessible wires the modeling has to be doubted. Within the effective field theory it is clear what “perfectly connected” means; a sharp jump of the Luttinger liquid parameter $`K=1`$ in the leads to $`K<1`$ in the interacting region. Assuming a spatially varying $`K`$ is an extension of standard Luttinger liquid theory and it is not clear how to describe such a situation starting from a microscopic model. As later discussed briefly we find $`g=1`$ for a lattice model in which the interaction is turned on infinitely slowly (in space).  For the generic case relevant for experiments $`g`$ depends on the interaction and the length of the wire even if no additional one-particle scattering terms are considered at the contacts and in the wire.

Very recently Sushkov suggested to calculate $`g`$ from the persistent current $`I(\varphi )`$ of a one-dimensional ring penetrated by a magnetic flux $`\varphi `$. The ring of $`N`$ lattice sites is build of two parts: the interacting wire with $`N_W`$ sites, and non-interacting “leads” with $`N_L`$ sites. The conductance for a fixed $`N_W`$ is then given by

$`g=\underset{N_L\mathrm{}}{lim}\left({\displaystyle \frac{I(\pi /2)}{I_0(\pi /2)}}\right)^2,`$ (1)
where $`I_0(\varphi )`$ denotes the persistent current of a completely non-interacting ring with $`N=N_W+N_L`$ lattice sites. The idea can only be motivated using the concepts of the non-interacting case. The leading $`1/N`$ behavior of the persistent current in a non-interacting model with $`N`$ lattice sites and a localized scattering potential with transmission probability $`|T(k_F)|^2`$ is given by

$`I(\varphi )={\displaystyle \frac{v_F}{\pi N}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{arccos}\left(|T(k_F)|\mathrm{cos}\left[\varphi \pi \right]\right)}{\sqrt{1|T(k_F)|^2\mathrm{cos}^2\varphi }}}|T(k_F)|\mathrm{sin}\varphi .`$ (2)
Evaluated at $`\varphi =\pi /2`$ this gives

$`I(\pi /2)={\displaystyle \frac{v_F}{2N}}|T(k_F)|.`$ (3)
Taking into account the Landauer formula for the non-interacting case Eq. (1) follows immediately. If one now considers the interacting wire as a localized impurity in the otherwise non-interacting ring and assumes that the persistent current as well as the conductance are given by the same effective transmission probability Eq. (1) is also plausible for the interacting case. Using non-perturbative methods we give a strong indication, that the method indeed works for interacting wires. The persistent current can be calculated from the groundstate energy $`E_0(\varphi )`$ taking the derivative with respect to the flux $`I(\varphi )=dE_0(\varphi )/d\varphi `$. In contrast to the Green function method following this suggestion the conductance $`g`$ is accessible using the high precision density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm. We have earlier calculated the persistent current in interacting rings using the RG and a complex-valued version of the DMRG. This gives a second approach to determine $`g`$, using either the essentially exact DMRG or the approximate RG.

We show that within the RG both approaches lead to the same $`g`$ and that for not too large interactions the indirect method (via the persistent current) leads to equal conductances using RG and DMRG. We thus reach a very high consistency using different approaches and methods. This gives us confidence that Sushkov’s suggestion can indeed be used for interacting wires and that the functional RG approach is applicable also to more complex nano-systems. A generalization to wires including impurities is straightforward and within the infinite leads approach the conductance in the presence of multichannel leads can be determined. In contrast to Ref. , where DMRG is only used for real Hamiltonian matrices and the phase sensitivity $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_0=(L/2)|E_0(0)E_0(\pi )|`$ is considered as a measure for the persistent current at $`\varphi =\pi /2`$ we are able to calculate $`I(\pi /2)`$.

We consider the Hamiltonian ($`N=N_W+N_L`$)

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{j=N_L/21}{\overset{N_W+N_L/2}{}}}\left(c_j^{}c_{j+1}e^{i\varphi /N}+c_{j+1}^{}c_je^{i\varphi /N}\right)`$ (5)
$`+U{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{N_W1}{}}}\left(n_j1/2\right)\left(n_{j+1}1/2\right),`$
in standard second-quantized notation. The hopping matrix element and the lattice constant are set to one and the flux $`\varphi `$ is measured in units of the flux quantum. When calculating the persistent current periodic boundary conditions are used. When using the infinite leads method $`\varphi `$ is set to zero. The interaction in the wire (lattice sites 1 to $`N_W`$) has to be compensated by an external potential. Otherwise the fermions would depopulate the interacting region. We here exclusively consider the case of a half-filled system. The connection between the leads and the wire is considered to be perfect in the sense that no local scattering terms, as e.g. a smaller hopping matrix element between the sites $`0`$ and $`1`$ (and $`N_W`$ and $`N_W+1`$) or site impurities on the sites $`0`$ and $`N_W+1`$, are included. Such terms can be added and the more complex Hamiltonian can still be treated by the methods applied in this work.

In the infinite leads limit and for the model discussed here $`g`$ is given by

$`g=4\left|G_{N_W,1}(0)\right|^2,`$ (6)
where $`G_{N_W,1}`$ is the interacting one-particle Green function in the Wannier basis. In Refs.  and  we describe how to determine Green functions using the functional RG method of a system with interaction on all sites. As in these investigations we neglect the flow of the two-particle vertex. In the above references it was demonstrated that this approximation is valid for interactions as large as $`U1`$. Later it will be shown that the same holds here. Crucially within the approximation physical observables still show typical Luttinger liquid behavior (for $`U2`$) in the infinite wire limit. Thus the relevant correlations are included. This has to be contrasted to simple perturbative methods  which do not include Luttinger liquid effects. In the present context the infinite non-interacting leads can be integrated out only leading to additional contributions on the lattice sites $`1`$ and $`N_W`$. The effective Hamiltonian can then be treated using the RG and $`G_{N_W,1}(\epsilon )`$ can be calculated numerically. The scattering properties can be understood in terms of an effective oscillating one-particle potential. This helps to obtain an intuitive understanding of the observed physics. Technical details about this method will be presented elsewhere.

In Ref.  we have investigated the persistent current of a ring with interaction on all $`N`$ sites using RG and complex-valued DMRG. A generalization to the present situation is straightforward. Fig. 1 shows typical curves for $`NI(\varphi )`$ at even $`N_W`$ obtained from DMRG and RG. The parameters are $`N=64`$, $`N_W=12`$, and $`U=1`$. Both curves agree quantitatively. This holds for even larger interactions (see also Ref. ) and for all $`N`$ and even $`N_W`$ we have investigated. The current for this typical set of parameters is far from being sinusoidal. Thus the phase sensitivity $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_0`$ can obviously not be used directly to determine $`I(\pi /2)`$ and $`g`$. Only in the limit of a strong effective impurity $`I(\varphi )`$ becomes proportional to $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi `$. In the present context and for even $`N_W`$ this limit is reached for very large $`U`$ and $`N_W`$. Increasing $`N`$ for fixed $`N_W`$ (even) the curves of Fig. 1 only change slightly and the infinite leads limit can reliably be extrapolated from $`N100`$. The $`NI(\varphi )`$ extrapolated to the infinite lead limit decreases if $`N_W`$ (even) is increased. This is related to the Luttinger liquid scaling of $`I(\varphi )`$. For odd $`N_W`$ and all $`U`$ we have studied the persistent current is of almost saw tooth like shape. Increasing $`N`$ at fixed $`N_W`$ the data seem to converge to the non-interacting and impurity free curve $`NI_0(\varphi )=v_F(\varphi \pi )/\pi `$, with $`0\varphi <2\pi `$ and the Fermi velocity $`v_F`$, which implies $`g=1`$. To obtain the conductance following the suggestion of Sushkov we have determined $`E_0(\varphi )`$ (and the non-interacting groundstate energy $`E_0^0(\varphi )`$) for a few fluxes around $`\pi /2`$ using DMRG and RG. From this $`I(\pi /2)`$ and $`I_0(\pi /2)`$ were obtained by numerical differentiation. Since around $`\varphi =\pi /2`$, $`E_0(\varphi )`$ is a fairly smooth function (see also Fig. 1), this procedure leads to reliable results. For fixed $`N_W`$ and $`U`$ we have done this for $`N=16`$, $`32`$, $`64`$, and $`128`$. As an example in Fig. 2 we present DMRG data of $`NI(\pi /2)`$ for $`N_W=12`$ and $`N_W=13`$ and different $`U`$ as a function of $`\mathrm{ln}N`$. To extrapolate we have fitted the data to a quadratic polynomial in $`1/N`$. For even $`N_W`$ the $`N\mathrm{}`$ limit of $`NI(\pi /2)`$ can be obtained up to high precision. We have also tried different extrapolation schemes to ensure that the asymptotic current only very weakly depends on the details of the assumed scaling. For odd $`N_W`$ and $`U3`$ the finite $`N_W`$ data still change significantly even for $`N`$ as large as $`128`$ and the asymptotic limit obtained by extrapolation is clearly less reliable. The DMRG data strongly tend to $`NI(\pi /2)=1`$ which corresponds to $`g=1`$. The same behavior can be found for other odd $`N_W`$. This suggests $`g=1`$ for all odd $`N_W`$ but a definite statement would require larger $`N`$. The RG data for $`NI(\pi /2)`$ show a quite similar behavior, with the difference that using this technique for odd $`N_W`$ the large $`N`$ data are closer to 1 and clearly extrapolate to $`g=1`$. Additionally $`g`$ was determined within the RG using Eq. (6) which already implies infinite leads.

Fig. 3 summarizes our results for $`N_W=12`$ and $`N_W=13`$, which are typical also for other $`N_W`$. Several conclusions can be drawn from this figure. Within the RG the two approaches to determine $`g`$ lead to results which agree quite well. The small deviation between the two data sets has mainly two sources, both of them making the persistent current data \[Eq. (1)\] less precise than the infinite leads data \[Eq. (6)\]: (i) The numerical differentiation of $`E_0(\varphi )`$. (ii) The $`N_L\mathrm{}`$ extrapolation. The estimated total error is smaller than the symbol size. Fig. 3 shows that Sushkov’s suggestion Eq. (1) indeed works for an interacting wire. For odd $`N_W`$ in both approaches we find perfect conductance $`g=1`$ for all $`U`$. The infinite leads approach does not require an extrapolation and solving the flow equations within this approach is much faster compared to calculating the persistent current in a $`N`$ lattice site system. Thus within the RG and also in perturbation theory using Eq. (6) is clearly superior to the persistent current approach. The advantage of the persistent current method is that it enables us to determine $`g`$ using DMRG. For up to $`U1`$ the RG and DMRG data agree quantitatively. For larger $`U`$ the RG data still show the same qualitative behavior as the DMRG results. As discussed in connection with Fig. 2 the $`N\mathrm{}`$ extrapolation for odd $`N_W`$ and large $`U3`$ leads to results which are less reliable. The surprising even-odd effect, observable also at other $`N_W`$, has been discussed earlier within the Hubbard model using perturbation theory. Similar to perturbation theory within the RG the effect can be traced back to the combination of particle-hole and site inversion symmetry. Using the RG the interaction generates a modulation of the hopping matrix element between the sites of the interacting wire. This acts as an effective impurity which for odd $`N_W`$ has a perfect resonance at $`k_F`$. For even $`N_W`$ and small $`U`$ the conductance goes like $`g=1c(N_W)U^2`$ with a $`c(N_W)>0`$ which increases with increasing $`N_W`$.

For fixed $`U`$, $`g`$ is a decreasing function of $`N_W`$ (even). In the limit of very large $`N_W`$ we find a power-law suppression $`g(U,N_W)N_W^{2(11/K)}`$ known from the problem of a single impurity in a Luttinger liquid. Here the “switching on” of the interaction acts as an impurity. This behavior cannot be captured by simple perturbation theory since it requires Luttinger liquid effects to be included. In the artificial limit of an interaction turned on infinitely slowly (in space) this suppression can be avoided leading to $`g(U,N_W)=1`$ also for even $`N_W`$.

In this work, we determine the conductance of an interacting nano-system (i) by a Green function technique and (ii) using the mapping on a persistent current problem suggested by Sushkov, both at the level of a functional RG calculation. The resulting conductances are equal and show for interactions $`U1`$ (iii) excellent agreement with the conductance obtained following Sushkov’s idea and using essentially exact complex-valued DMRG calculations of the numerical key quantity, the persistent current $`I(\pi /2)`$. (i)-(iii) give a very strong indication that Sushkov’s suggestion, which analytically can only be justified for non-interacting nano-systems also holds for the interacting case. The conductance can be obtained for microscopic models avoiding the mapping to an effective field theory using bosonization. As an application we calculate the conductance of an interacting, impurity free nano-wire connected to infinite leads. The methods used can easily be generalized to (i) more complex nano-systems with different geometries, (ii) wires with interaction and impurities, (iii) more complex contacts, (iv) multi-channel leads, (v) models with spin, and (vi) other filling factors. We thus believe that combining the two approaches (infinite lead, persistent current) and the two methods (DMRG, RG) gives a very powerful tool to investigate transport properties of realistic models for complex interacting nano-systems.

We thank K. Schönhammer, W. Metzner, H. Schoeller, and W. Zwerger for very valuable discussions. U.S. is grateful to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for support from the Gerhard-Hess-Preis and V.M. acknowledges support from the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Juniorprofessor Programm).


text:
# Translational tilings of the integers with long periods

## 1 Introduction and results

Let us start by defining translational tiling in any abelian group.

###### Definition 1

Suppose $`G`$ is an abelian group, and $`A,BG`$. We say that $`A`$ tiles the set $`EG`$ with $`B`$, and write $`AB=E`$, if every element $`gE`$ admits a unique representation $`g=a+b`$, $`aA,bB`$.

It has long been known (see e.g. ) that, when $`G=`$ is the integer group, $`AB=`$ and $`A`$ is a finite set, then $`B`$ is necessarily periodic.

###### Definition 2

Suppose $`B`$ is a subset of an abelian group $`G`$. We call $`B`$ periodic if there exists $`tG\left\{0\right\}`$ such that $`B=B+t`$. If $`G=`$ we denote by $`𝒫(B)`$ the least such period $`t>0`$.

We are interested in the case when we know the diameter $`D`$ of $`A`$, which we assume to be able to tile $``$, and ask how large can the period of a tiling by $`A`$ be. The main quantity of interest is defined below.

###### Definition 3

If $`D`$ is a positive integer we write $`𝒯(D)`$ for the largest integer $`k`$ such that there exists $`A\{0,\mathrm{},D\}`$ and $`B`$ with $`𝒫(B)k`$ and $`AB=`$.

It was proved in  that whenever $`A`$ is finite and $`AB=`$ then $`𝒫(B)2^D`$, where $`D`$ is the diameter of the set $`A`$. It has also been noted by some authors (e.g. ) that no tilings $`AB=`$ are known with $`𝒫(B)>2D`$ and $`A\{0,\mathrm{},D\}`$. So apparently the state of knowledge regarding the function $`𝒯(D)`$ is

$$2D𝒯(D)2^D.$$
(1)
In this paper we improve these bounds somewhat.

###### Theorem 1

There are absolute constants $`c_1,c_2,c_3>0`$ such that, for $`D1`$,

$$c_1D^2𝒯(D)c_2\mathrm{exp}(c_3\sqrt{D}\mathrm{log}D\sqrt{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}D}).$$
(2)
Theorem 1 follows directly from Theorems 2 and 3 below.

###### Theorem 2

For $`D1`$ there are tilings $`XY=`$ with $`X\{0,\mathrm{},D\}`$ and

$$𝒫(Y)CD^2,$$

where $`C>0`$ is a constant.

###### Theorem 3

If $`AB=`$ is a tiling and $`A\{0,\mathrm{},D\}`$ then

$$𝒫(B)C\mathrm{exp}(C\sqrt{D}\mathrm{log}D\sqrt{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}D}),$$

where $`C`$ denotes absolute positive constants.

Remarks.

1. We have not been able to construct a set $`X`$ which tiles only with long periods. This would be very interesting as this could be a finitary and translational analog of aperiodic tiling, the ability that is of a set of tiles to tile space but only aperiodically .
2. There is a theorem of de Bruijn \[1, Theorem 1\] which can be used to prove Theorem 2. We think our proof is more intuitive (but a more general problem is studied in ).
3. The largest part of the proof of Theorem 3 appears also in an argument by Granville in .

Notation:  We write $`[n]=\{0,\mathrm{},n1\}`$. The same set considered as an additive group mod $`n`$ is denoted by $`_n`$.

Tiling the integers with a long period is equivalent to tiling a long finite cycle in a non-periodic way, as the following easy lemma claims.

###### Lemma 1

Suppose $`A[M]`$, $`M`$ a positive integer, and that $`B`$ is $`M`$-periodic: $`B=B^{}+M`$, where $`B^{}[M]`$. Then $`AB=`$ and $`M=𝒫(B)`$ if and only if $`AB^{}=_M`$ and $`B^{}=BmodM`$ is not periodic mod $`M`$.

Proof. Suppose that $`AB=`$. It follows that $`A(B^{}+M)=`$ hence $`AB^{}=/m=_M`$. If $`t_M\left\{0\right\}`$ and $`B^{}=B^{}+t`$ then $`B=(B^{}+t)+M=B+t`$ which contradicts the fact that $`M`$ is a minimal period for $`B`$. Conversely, suppose that $`AB^{}=_M`$ and that $`B^{}`$ is not periodic mod $`M`$. Then $`AB=AB^{}+M=[M]M=`$ is a tiling of period $`M`$. Furthermore, by the previous argument if $`B`$ has a smaller period $`t[M]`$ it follows that $`B^{}`$ has $`tmodM`$ as a period, a contradiction.
$`\mathrm{}`$

However, it is not possible to have non-repetitive tilings of intervals with tiles which are very short compared to the interval. Essentially, in any tiling of an interval by a tile of diameter $`D`$ the length of the interval is at most $`2D`$, otherwise there is a smaller sub-tiling. This fact is probably responsible for many researchers being unaware of complicated tilings (such as those claimed by Theorem 2), as one tends to think of tilings of the integers which are created by first tiling an interval and then repeating that interval.

###### Theorem 4

If $`0AB`$, $`AB=[n]`$, $`n>1`$, and $`\mathrm{max}A>\mathrm{max}B`$ then $`A`$ is periodic mod $`n`$.

Remark. Under the assumptions of Theorem 4 $`\mathrm{max}A\mathrm{max}B`$, so one of them is larger.

###### Corollary 1

If $`A\{0,\mathrm{},D\}`$, $`AB=[n]`$ is a tiling and $`n>2D`$ there is $`t<n`$ such that $`A(B[t])`$ is already a tiling of an interval.

Proof of Corollary 1. Since $`n=\mathrm{max}A+\mathrm{max}B`$ it follows that $`\mathrm{max}B>\mathrm{max}A`$ and, by Theorem 4, $`B=B+tmodn`$, for some $`t\{1,\mathrm{},n1\}`$, $`tn`$. From this it follows easily that $`A(B[t])=[t]`$ is also a tiling.
$`\mathrm{}`$

## 2 Proofs

In what follows $`C`$ denotes an absolute positive constant, not necessarily the same in all its occurences.

Proof of Theorem 2. By Lemma 1 it suffices to construct a set $`A\{0,\mathrm{},D\}`$ and a non-periodic set $`B_M`$, such that $`AB=_M`$ is a tiling and $`MCD^2`$.

Assume that $`D`$ is large and pick $`p`$ and $`q`$ two primes in the range $`D/2p,q2D`$, for example. Let $`M=235pq`$, so that $`MD^2`$. The group $`_M`$ is isomorphic to $`_{3p}\times _{5q}\times _2`$, and we visualize it as a parallelogram $`Q`$ in three dimensions with $`_{3p}`$ along the $`x`$-axis, $`_{5q}`$ along the $`y`$-axis and $`_2`$ along the $`z`$-axis.

We define $`A`$ as being the $`3\times 5`$ rectangle on the $`xy`$-plane with corner at $`0`$, as is shown in Figure 1.

Now we observe that $`A`$ can tile the group $`Q`$ non-periodically, as shown in Figure 2.

To obtain the tiling shown in Figure 2, first tile $`Q`$ by $`A`$ in the usual way, i.e. with $`B`$ equal to the subgroup generated by the elements of $`Q`$: $`(3,0,0)`$, $`(0,5,0)`$ and $`(0,0,1)`$. Then, in the bottom level of the tiling shift one of the columns along the $`x`$ direction, say the second one as shown, by the vector $`(1,0,0)`$, and shift the second row in the upper level (one which is parallel to the $`y`$ direction) by the vector $`(0,1,0)`$.

The set $`B`$ is therefore given by $`B=LU`$ (lower and upper part) and $`L=\left\{(a,b,0)\right\}`$, where $`b`$ takes all values in $`<5>_{5q}`$ and $`a`$ takes all values in $`<3>_{3p}`$, except when $`b=5`$ in which case $`a`$ takes all values in $`<3>+1_{3p}`$. Similarly $`U=\left\{(a,b,1)\right\}`$, where $`a`$ takes all values in $`<3>_{3p}`$ and $`b`$ takes all values in $`<5>_{5q}`$, except when $`a=3`$, in which case $`b`$ takes all values in $`<5>+1_{5q}`$.

It is clear that $`B`$ is not periodic. Indeed, if $`t=(i,j,k)Q\left\{0\right\}`$ is a period then it must belong to $`B`$ as $`0B`$. If $`tL`$ then it must belong to the group $`<(3,0,0)>`$ but $`U`$ shifted by any of these non-zero elements does not go into $`U`$, because the second row shifted by such an element does not go into another row. If $`tU`$ then $`U+t`$ ought to be equal to $`L`$ but it is clearly not.

Fix now a group isomorphism $`\psi :Q_M`$ and define

$$X=\psi (A),Y=\psi (B).$$

Clearly $`XY=_M`$ is a tiling and $`Y`$ is not periodic, as both these properties are invariant under group isomorphisms. It remains to find the diameter of $`X`$, which of course depends on $`\psi `$. Choose then the isomorphism

$$\psi (i,j,k)=i(25q)+j(23p)+k(3p5q)modM,(i=0,\mathrm{},3p1,j=0,\mathrm{},5q1,k=0,1),$$

which maps $`A`$ into the set $`X=\{0,\mathrm{},25q+43p\}`$. This set $`X`$ has diameter $`CD`$ whereas $`MCD^2`$.
$`\mathrm{}`$

Remark. In our example the tile $`X`$ has constant size $`15`$.

Proof of Theorem 3. Suppose that $`A\{0,\mathrm{},D\}`$, $`D<M`$, and that $`AB=_M`$, for some $`B_M`$. We will show that if $`M`$ is large then $`B`$ is periodic.

For $`B`$ to be periodic we must show the existence of $`t_M\left\{0\right\}`$ such that $`B=B+t`$. Equivalently, writing for any finite set of integers $`E`$

$$E(x)=\underset{nE}{}x^n,$$

we must ensure that

$$B(x)=x^tB(x)modx^M1.$$

This is equivalent to

$$x^M1(x^t1)B(x).$$
(3)
On the other hand, the fact that $`AB`$ is a tiling of $`_M`$ is equivalent to

$$A(x)B(x)=1+x+x^2+\mathrm{}+x^{M1}modx^M1,$$

which is equivalent to

$$x^M1A(x)B(x)\frac{x^M1}{x1},$$
(4)
which implies that all $`M`$-th roots of unity except $`1`$ are roots of $`A(x)`$ or $`B(x)`$. Equivalently, we must have that for each $`dM`$, $`d>1`$, the cyclotomic polynomial $`\mathrm{\Phi }_d(x)`$ divides $`A(x)`$ or $`B(x)`$. And, similarly, (3) is equivalent to having all cyclotomic polynomials $`\mathrm{\Phi }_d(x)`$, for $`dM`$, $`d>1`$, divide $`x^t1`$ or $`B(x)`$.

Hence, for $`t`$ to be a period of $`B`$, it suffices that all cyclotomic $`\mathrm{\Phi }_d(x)`$, for $`dM`$, $`d>1`$, that divide $`A(x)`$ also divide $`x^t1`$. Let now $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{s_1}(x),\mathrm{},\mathrm{\Phi }_{s_k}(x)`$ be all cyclotomic polynomials $`\mathrm{\Phi }_s(x)`$ with $`s>1`$ that divide $`A(x)`$, written once each and numbered so that $`1<s_1<s_2<\mathrm{}<s_k`$. Since $`\mathrm{deg}\mathrm{\Phi }_s=\varphi (s)`$ (the Euler function) it follows that

$$\varphi (s_1)+\mathrm{}+\varphi (s_k)\mathrm{deg}A(x)D.$$
(5)
But \[4, p. 267\]

$$\varphi (n)C\frac{n}{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}n}$$

which implies $`\mathrm{log}nC\mathrm{log}\varphi (n)`$, hence

$$s_1+\mathrm{}+s_kCD\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s_kCD\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}\varphi (s_k)CD\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}D.$$
(6)
From the fact that the $`s_i`$ are different integers and (6) it follows that $`kC\sqrt{D\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}D}`$ hence

$$\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}s_i(D\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}D)^k\mathrm{exp}(C\sqrt{D}\mathrm{log}D\sqrt{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}D}).$$
(7)
Define now $`t=_{i=1}^ks_i`$, so that all cyclotomic polynomials that divide $`A(x)`$ are also divisors of $`x^t1`$. From (7), it follows that (3) holds, and therefore $`t`$ is a period of $`B`$, if only $`t<M`$. But $`B`$ is assumed to be non-periodic, so

$$MC\mathrm{exp}(C\sqrt{D}\mathrm{log}D\sqrt{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}D}),$$

as we had to prove.
$`\mathrm{}`$

Proof of Theorem 4. We use the following result by Long \[6, Lemma 1\].  Theorem A Suppose $`n>1`$ and $`AB=[n]`$. Then there is an integer $`m2`$, $`mn`$, and sets $`E,D[n/m]`$, such that $`ED=[n/m]`$, $`0ED`$, and

$$\{A,B\}=\{mE[m],mD\}.$$

Suppose now that $`n>1`$ is minimal such that Theorem 4 fails for $`n`$ and let $`A,B[n]`$, $`0AB`$, be such that $`\mathrm{max}A>\mathrm{max}B`$, $`AB=[n]`$ and $`A`$ is not periodic mod $`n`$. Now Theorem 2 applies and let $`m,E,D`$ be as in the conclusion of it. If $`m=n`$ it follows that $`A=[n],B=\left\{0\right\}`$, so that $`A`$ is periodic mod $`n`$. If $`m<n`$ then $`n>n/m>1`$ hence Theorem 4 holds for the integer $`n/m`$. There are now two cases: (i) $`\mathrm{max}E>\mathrm{max}D`$, (ii) $`\mathrm{max}D>\mathrm{max}E`$.

In case (i) $`\mathrm{max}(mE+[m])>\mathrm{max}(mD)`$ hence $`A=mE+[m]`$. Since Theorem 4 holds for the integer $`n/m`$ it follows that $`E`$ is periodic mod $`n/m`$ with some period $`t`$, which implies that $`A`$ is periodic mod $`n`$ with period $`mt`$.

In case (ii) $`\mathrm{max}(mD)>\mathrm{max}(mE+[m])`$ hence $`A=mD`$. By Theorem 4 again we get that $`D`$ is periodic mod $`n/m`$ with some period $`t`$, and $`A`$ is therefore periodic mod $`n`$ with period $`mt`$.

In both cases we conclude that our theorem applies for $`n`$, hence it’s true for all $`n`$.
$`\mathrm{}`$

Bibliography

Department of Mathematics, University of Crete, Knossos Ave., 714 09 Iraklio, Greece.
E-mail: mk@fourier.math.uoc.gr