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# The quark-gluon plasma at RHICThis work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-FG02-01ER41190.

## 1 THE LITTLE BANG: QGP AT RHIC

A quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is a thermalized system of deconfined quarks, antiquarks, and gluons. As such it has thermodynamic pressure $`P=c_s^2\epsilon `$ where $`\epsilon `$ is the energy density and $`c_s`$ is the sound velocity. Perturbative QCD gives $`c_s^2=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}/3`$ at leading order, and lattice QCD confirms  that for $`T\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}T_c`$ (where $`T_c\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}170}`$ MeV is the critical temperature for color deconfinement in QCD ) about 80-85% of this value is reached. In heavy ion collisions the reaction zone is surrounded by vacuum with zero pressure; thus, if the collision fireball contains a QGP, the pressure gradient near the surface will lead to collective expansion (“flow”), in particular transverse to the beam in which direction the nuclear matter was initially at rest. Therefore, collective transverse flow is an unavoidable consequence of QGP formation, and the data must show it if a QGP has been created.

The converse is not necessarily true unless the observed flow is so strong that only a QGP could have generated sufficient pressure over a sufficiently long time to create it. In order to assess whether the latter is the case one exploits three facts:

(i) Due to incomplete stopping of the two nuclei at high collision energies, the reaction zone expands quickly in the beam direction, thereby rapidly cooling and diluting the matter inside; hence the pressure has only a limited time interval available to generate flow in the transverse directions. This time is the shorter the lower the initial energy density; one can therefore establish an upper limit for the amount of “radial” transverse flow that can be generated if the initial energy density (at the time of approximate thermalization) was never significantly above the critical value for color deconfinement (about 1 GeV/fm3).

(ii) By energy conservation, the initial energy density is related to the final transversally emitted energy per unit rapidity, $`dE_T/dy`$, via geometric factors and the time of thermalization : the shorter the thermalization time, the higher the initial energy density at fixed (measured) final $`dE_T/dy`$. The Bjorken formula  $`\epsilon (\tau _{\mathrm{therm}})=\frac{1}{\tau _{\mathrm{therm}}}\frac{1}{\pi R^2}\frac{dE_T}{dy}`$ is actually an underestimate of the initial energy density since it neglects longitudinal work done by the pressure during the expansion . The measured values for $`dE_T/dy`$ at RHIC  are consistent with subcritical initial energy densities only if one assumes that thermalization takes at least $`\tau _{\mathrm{therm}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}5}`$ fm/$`c`$.

(iii) On the other hand, this thermalization time scale can be constrained by the measured elliptic flow in noncentral collisions . In such collisions, the nuclear reaction zone is initially deformed in coordinate space: a cut transverse to the beam direction looks like an almond whose longer side points perpendicular to the reaction plane. For a given collision centrality, extracted e.g. from the measured total multiplicity $`dN/dy`$, this deformation can be calculated from the overlap geometry . Thermalization then leads to pressure gradients which are anisotropic and larger in the short direction of the almond, causing a faster growth of the transverse flow into the reaction plane than perpendicular to it. This mechanism leads to an anisotropy in the final transverse momentum distribution, making it flatter in the direction of the impact parameter vector than perpendicular to it . The elliptic flow coefficient $`v_2`$, defined as the second harmonic coefficient in an azimuthal Fourier decomposition of the measured transverse momentum spectrum, quantifies this anisotropy. Without reinteractions among the produced particles, no such momentum anisotropy would arise; rescattering in the hot fireball matter is required to transfer the initial spatial anisotropy into momentum space. Microscopic calculations  show that, for a given initial spatial deformation, the generated amount of $`v_2`$ is a monotonic function of the mean free path (or the product of density and scattering cross section) in the fireball; the maximal value is reached in the hydrodynamic limit of zero mean free path . If thermalization is delayed, the initial spatial deformation disappears spontaneously by transverse free-streaming , thereby reducing the maximal possible momentum anisotropy. Thus, the measured elliptic flow at given collision centrality provides immediately an upper limit for the thermalization time scale, with larger $`v_2`$ values corresponding to smaller values for $`\tau _{\mathrm{therm}}`$. In the hydrodynamic limit the extracted $`\tau _{\mathrm{therm}}`$ depends parametrically on the stiffness of the equation of state (velocity of sound $`c_s^2`$), with smaller sound velocities resulting in shorter thermalization times at fixed $`v_2`$ . The weakest upper limit for $`\tau _{\mathrm{therm}}`$ is thus extracted from the $`v_2`$ data by taking the largest reasonable value for the speed of sound, $`c_s^2=\frac{1}{3}`$, corresponding to an ideal gas of massles quarks and gluons.

Experimentally, the strength of the radial flow can be extracted from the transverse mass ($`m_{}=\sqrt{m^2+p_{}^2}`$) spectra of a variety of different mass hadrons by fitting them to a common flow spectrum . At high $`m_{}m`$, the transverse flow flattens the thermal spectra by a simple common blueshift factor, and all spectra approach the same asymptotic slope from which the decoupling temperature and flow velocity cannot be separated. At low $`m_{}<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}m`$, however, the flow induces an even stronger flattening which increases with the rest mass of the particles. Heavier hadrons thus develop a visible shoulder at small $`m_{}`$, and this feature can be used to determine the average transverse flow velocity uniquely. An excellent systematic study of the shapes of the $`m_{}`$ spectra of $`\pi ^\pm ,K^\pm ,\varphi ,p,\overline{p},\mathrm{\Lambda },\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }},\mathrm{\Xi },\overline{\mathrm{\Xi }},\mathrm{\Omega },\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$, and $`d`$ from Pb+Pb collisions at beam energies of 40, 80 and 160 $`A`$ GeV at the SPS was recently presented by M. van Leeuwen at the Quark Matter 2002 conference , showing perfect consistency of all these spectra with a two-parameter flow fit  with kinetic freeze-out temperature $`T_\mathrm{f}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}120}130`$ MeV and average transverse flow velocity $`\beta _{}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.4}0.5`$ ($`T_\mathrm{f}`$ and $`\beta _{}`$ are anticorrelated in these fits). Even the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ show a clear flow shoulder and are consistent with these low freeze-out temperature and large flow values. This contradicts earlier conclusions drawn from simple exponential fits to $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ spectra measured at higher $`m_{}`$ values by the WA97 Collaboration  which did not show clear evidence for the flow shoulder and which led to the suggestion  that $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ are too heavy and too weakly coupled to the expanding pion fluid to pick up much of the transverse flow created during the late hadronic stages of the collision, allowing them to decouple earlier, i.e. at higher temperature and smaller flow. The new data  show that the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ fully participate in the flow and essentially decouple together with the rest of the hadron fluid. They also demonstrate the fallacies connected with characterising the spectra by a single slope parameter instead of comparing their entire non-exponential shape with a proper flow parametrization.

The hadron data at RHIC are already almost as rich as at the SPS, but not yet all published in final form. Available flow analyses of pion, kaon and (anti)proton spectra  give a similar range of freeze-out temperatures and average flow velocities as at the SPS, but in a different combination (either $`T_\mathrm{f}`$ or $`\beta _{}`$ is about 5-10% higher than at the SPS). This results in about 5% flatter pion spectra while the effect on the proton slope at small $`p_{}`$ is much larger and at least 25%. Again the flow fits describe all available spectra very well up to transverse momenta of about 2-3 GeV (which covers more than 99% of all hadrons), and only at higher $`p_{}`$ one begins to see evidence for the power-law tails expected from hard QCD processes. Also at RHIC, preliminary $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ spectra  are consistent with the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ fully participating in the hadronic flow. A comparison with hydrodynamic predictions published in  works well if the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is assumed to decouple at $`T_\mathrm{f}135140`$ MeV, i.e. only slightly before the pions freeze out at $`T_\mathrm{f}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}125}130`$ MeV , but not if one assumes decoupling already at hadronization, $`T_\mathrm{f}=T_c=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}170}`$ MeV, where the hydrodynamic model has not yet developed enough transverse flow.

The extracted flow velocities at or above half the speed of light demonstrate that the collision fireball indeed undergoes a violent explosion – the “Little Bang”. It appears to be impossible to obtain such large flow velocities without assuming initial energy densities and pressures well above the critical value for deconfinement. This is already true at the SPS  but, as I show next, much more convincingly so at RHIC.

A decisive measurement is the observation at RHIC, first made by STAR  and then confirmed by PHENIX  and PHOBOS , that the elliptic flow $`v_2`$ in non-central collisions is large and, for transverse momenta below $`p_{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}`$ GeV, almost exhausts the upper limit provided by earlier hydrodynamic predictions  (see Fig. 1). The agreement between theory and data requires that the hydrodynamic evolution starts no later than about 1 fm/$`c`$ after nuclear impact  (the successful predictions in  use $`\tau _{\mathrm{therm}}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.6}`$ fm/$`c`$). Since the spatial deformation responsible for the creation of flow anisotropies quickly decreases, $`v_2`$ develops and saturates early in the collision , long before hadrons decouple. Hence, the conclusion that the measured large $`v_2`$ implies early thermalization is not changed  if the somewhat unrealistic sharp “Cooper-Frye freeze-out” used in the hydrodynamic approach is replaced by a proper kinetic treatment of the freeze-out stage . The agreement of $`v_2(p_{})`$ out to transverse momenta of about 2 GeV, including the predicted  splitting of $`v_2`$ with the hadron rest mass (see Fig. 1), shows that the bulk of the matter (i.e. $`>\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}99}\%`$ of the emitted hadrons) behaves hydrodynamically. (One should note, however, that the measured rapidity dependence of

$`v_2`$  cannot be reproduced by existing hydrodynamic models .) Microscopic models share this success only if they approach the hydrodynamic limit by invoking unusually strong rescattering among the fireball constituents , far above the level conventionally expected from perturbative QCD. It is important to realize that, given the observed final multiplicity and transverse energy per unit rapidity, the maximum energy density in the fireball at $`\tau _{\mathrm{therm}}0.6`$ fm/$`c`$ is about 25 GeV/fm3 in central collisions. Even after averaging over the transverse plane this is still more than an order of magnitude above the critical value for deconfinement and corresponds to about twice the critical temperature! Unless a completely different mechanism for creating the elliptic flow can be found, the conclusion seems unavoidable that a thermalized QGP at $`\epsilon >\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}\epsilon _c`$ and $`T\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}T_c`$ is created at RHIC which lives for about 5-7 fm/$`c`$ before becoming sufficiently dilute to form hadrons. Perturbative mechanisms  seem unable to explain the phenomenologically required very short thermalization time scale, pointing to strong non-perturbative dynamics in the QGP even at or above $`2T_c`$.

## 2 STATISTICAL HADRONIZATION: MEASURING $`T_c`$

The quark-hadron phase transition is arguably the most strongly coupled regime of QCD. Soft hadronization happens through a multitude of different channels and is therefore most efficiently described in a statistical approach, as realized by Hagedorn more than 35 years ago . The microscopic processes are only constrained by local conservation laws (valid inside causally connected volume regions $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$) for energy, baryon number and strangeness. Maximizing the entropy subject to these constraints results in local thermal and chemical “equilibrium” distributions for the hadrons  whose local temperature $`T_{\mathrm{chem}}`$ and chemical potentials $`\mu _B,\mu _S`$ arise from Lagrange multipliers and reflect the local energy, baryon and strangeness densities at hadronization. This “equilibrium” is not achieved kinetically (by hadronic rescattering), but statistically (by interference of many channels). It does not require the prehadronic state to be thermalized, although very strong deviations from thermal equilibrium (e.g. at high $`p_{}`$) may survive the hadronization process. The statistical approach is only expected to work for soft hadron production.

We know from lattice QCD that a hadronic equilibrium distribution at $`\epsilon >\epsilon _c`$ is unstable against deconfinement, so statistical hadronization can only proceed once the energy density has dropped to $`\epsilon _{\mathrm{had}}=\epsilon _c\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$ GeV/fm3 . The resulting equilibrium distribution will thus be characterized by $`T_{\mathrm{chem}}=T_c`$. Hadronic cascade models have shown  that, at small net baryon density, the total particle density below $`T_c`$ is too small and the expansion of the collision fireball is too rapid to maintain chemical equilibrium by inelastic hadronic collisions. Hence, the hadron abundances decouple directly at hadronization, and the chemical freeze-out temperature extracted from a statistical model fit to the measured abundances reflects directly the (de)confinement temperature, $`T_{\mathrm{chem}}=T_c`$ .

Figure 2  shows that the RHIC data confirm this expectation, just as it was previously confirmed at the SPS : the chemical decoupling temperature extracted from the particle ratios is consistent with the critical temperature for deconfinement, $`T_c\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}170}`$ MeV, extracted from lattice QCD simulations . Fitting the maximum entropy parameters to some of the more abundant particle yields one is able to reproduce all measured particle ratios, including those involving the rare multistrange (anti)baryons; this is quite impressive. Thermal freeze-out of the momentum distributions is delayed by strong quasi-elastic scattering via hadron resonances, such as $`\pi +N\mathrm{\Delta }\pi +N`$, $`\pi +N\mathrm{\Delta }\pi +N`$, $`\pi +KK^{}\pi +K`$, etc., which do not modify the total measured yields of pions, kaons, and nucleons but continue to adjust their momentum distributions to the falling temperature and growing collective transverse flow until also resonance scattering ceases. The momentum spectra thus reflect a lower freeze-out temperature $`T_\mathrm{f}<T_{\mathrm{chem}}`$, as seen in section 1. Note that only the total abundances (after all decays of unstable resonances are taken into account, e.g. $`N_\pi ^{\mathrm{tot}}=N_\pi +2N_\rho +N_\mathrm{\Delta }+N_K^{}+\mathrm{}`$) freeze out at $`T_{\mathrm{chem}}`$ while the fraction of pions stored in resonances still changes: due to their strong coupling to the cooling pion fluid, the resonance abundances keep readjusting to the decreasing temperature, and the larger their pionic decay width the later they decouple. This implies that the measured $`K^{}/K`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }/N`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ etc. ratios should generally be smaller than their chemical equilibrium values at $`T_{\mathrm{chem}}=T_c`$ and, when themselves translated into a decoupling temperature, reflect more closely the spectral temperature $`T_\mathrm{f}`$ than $`T_c`$ . First results on resonance/ground-state ratios were reported at Quark Matter 2002 , and this prediction will be checked soon.

## 3 JET QUENCHING: STRONG PARTON ENERGY LOSS IN THE QGP

In 1982 Bjorken  suggested that fast partons travelling through a QGP might lose large amounts of energy by elastic scattering with the plasma constituents, resulting in the suppression of jets from the interior of the collision fireball in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Although the energy loss mechanism envisaged by him turned out to be ineffective, his qualitative prediction appears to be impressively confirmed by recent RHIC data. A good review of the theory of parton energy loss was recently given by Baier , and I refer to his talk for references. In a series of papers in the early 1990’s, Gyulassy, Plümer and X.N. Wang identified radiative energy loss as the dominant jet suppression mechanism, and in 1995-1997 Baier, Dokshitzer, Mueller, Peigné and Schiff (BDMPS) realized that an important effect on the energy loss rate results from multiple color interactions of the radiated gluon with the colored plasma constituents . In the limit of an optically thick quark-gluon plasma they found  that the energy loss $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ of the fast parton increases quadratically with the distance $`L`$ travelled before escaping and hadronizing,

$`\mathrm{\Delta }E{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{\lambda }}L^2,\mathrm{with}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{\lambda }}=\rho {\displaystyle 𝑑q_{}^2q_{}^2\frac{d\sigma }{dq_{}^2}},`$ (1)
where $`\alpha _s`$ is the strong coupling constant, $`\rho `$ is the plasma density, $`\mu ^2`$ is the Debye screening mass for color electric fields in the plasma and $`\lambda `$ is the gluon mean free path. This was subsequently improved upon for plasmas with finite opacity by Gyulassy, Levai, and Vitev  and by Wiedemann , using an opacity expansion. For optically thin plasmas this leads to an important dependence of the energy loss $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ on the energy $`E`$ of the fast parton  and to deviations from the quadratic path length dependence for small values of $`L`$. Both corrections reduce the predicted energy loss relative to the BDPMS result (1), in particular at “low” (SPS and RHIC) energies, but it remains still significantly larger in a QGP than in subcritical normal hadronic matter . With these improved results one may nurture the hope that parton energy loss and jet quenching, if observed, can be used as a quantitative probe of the density and its early time evolution in quark-gluon plasmas created in heavy-ion collisions.

Two important observations at RHIC have moved this hope to the brink of reality. The first is the discovery of a suppression of high-$`p_{}`$ particle production in central Au+Au collisions at RHIC. When studied as a function of collision centrality, the production rates of charged hadrons at high $`p_{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}`$ GeV were found  not to follow the expected scaling with the number of binary collisions which characterizes hard QCD processes, but instead to continue to scale with $`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$ (the number of wounded nucleons), just as in the soft low-$`p_{}`$ regime where phase cherence and the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect are known to suppress particle production. (There seems to be an intermediate $`p_{}`$ region, 1.5 GeV$`<p_{}<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3.5}`$ GeV, where particle production grows a bit faster than $`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$ but more slowly than the number of binary collisions.) From the Glauber model the number of binary $`NN`$ collisions is known to scale with $`N_{\mathrm{part}}^{4/3}`$ while $`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$ is proportional to the volume of nuclear matter participating in the collision. The observed suppression or “quenching” of hard particle production by a factor $`N_{\mathrm{part}}^{1/3}`$ is thus proportional to the linear size (“radius”) of the nuclear overlap volume. It is qualitatively consistent with expectations from pQCD-based jet quenching calculations  and inconsistent with pQCD calculations without jet quenching. It is seen for charged and neutral pions  but apparently not for high-$`p_{}`$ protons  (at least not in the presently accessible $`p_{}`$ range for proton PID); to what extent this “lack of hard proton suppression” is simply a reflection of the observed increase of the $`p/\pi `$ ratio with increasing $`p_{}`$  which, at least up to $`p_{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}`$ GeV, is naturally explained by the stronger transverse flow effects on protons than on pions, is still unclear.

The second important observation, made by STAR  and (not yet as convincingly) by PHENIX , is that high-$`p_{}`$ particle production is indeed due to jets, and that the observed overall suppression of high-$`p_{}`$ particle production in central Au+Au collisions goes hand-in-hand with the complete suppression of the far-side partners of the observed jets. Perturbatively, hadron jets result from hard parton collisions leading to parton pairs with large, approximately balancing transverse momenta which fragment into pairs of back-to-back jets. In an angular distribution around the beam axis, jets appear in the two-particle correlation function as two peaks separated by 180. By triggering on a high-$`p_{}`$ particle and correlating it with other particles of $`p_{}>\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}`$ GeV (in order to suppress the uncorrelated soft background), these pairs of peaks were indeed identified in $`pp`$ and peripheral Au+Au collisions at 200 $`A`$ GeV at RHIC , but in central Au+Au collisions only the correlation peak at small relative angles is found. Already in peripheral Au+Au collisions the far-side peak at 180 is much smaller than expected from a superposition of $`pp`$ collisions , and in central collisions it completely disappears after accounting for the collective azimuthal correlations generated by elliptic flow  (see Fig. 3).

While attempts to quantitatively understand these observations have only just begun , they suggest a very simple and intriguing picture similar to the one already proposed in 1982 by Bjorken : fast partons formed inside the hot and dense collision zone suffer severe energy loss and become part of the approximately thermalized, collectively expanding “soup” which emits particles at low $`p_{}<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}`$ GeV. Only if the primary hard collision happens near the surface of the reaction zone, the “outward moving” parton fragments to become a jet, very much like in $`pp`$ collisions (upper set of symbols in Fig. 3), whereas the “inward moving” parton is more and more efficiently absorbed by the medium as the nuclei collide more centrally and the reaction fireball volume increases (lower set of symbols in Fig. 3). For central Au+Au collisions and $`p_{}<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}8}10`$ GeV , the “inward moving” parton doesn’t make it to the other side with sufficient energy left to fragment into a recognizable jet. Jets are therefore only emitted from a relatively thin surface layer while the bulk of the fireball volume is opaque to jets.

This very qualitative picture may appear naive but it nicely explains as a surface/volume effect the missing factor $`N_{\mathrm{part}}^{1/3}`$ in the observed scaling of high-$`p_{}`$ particle production. It also allows for a simple geometric estimate of the elliptic flow $`v_2`$ at high $`p_{}`$, resulting from the anisotropic emission of surface jets from the spatially deformed overlap region . As pointed out by Voloshin , this simple geometric estimate  appears to be consistent with the STAR data for $`v_2`$ at high $`p_{}`$. Of course, at very high $`p_{}`$ one eventually expects the “inward moving” parton to emerge on the other side with sufficient energy left to form a jet. When this happens, its energy loss can be studied as a function of its path length through the medium, in order to check the energy loss formula (1) and its various published variants. Selecting events of fixed centrality (impact parameter), the path length can be controlled geometrically by the azimuthal angle between the jet and the reaction plane, and a new era of “jet tomography”  will begin.

## 4 THE RHIC HBT PUZZLE

Unfortunately, space-time limitations do not allow for a detailed discussion of one piece of the puzzle which so far fails to seamlessly fit into the picture painted above: the two-particle Hanbury Brown – Twiss (HBT) correlation measurements. Since I reviewed these elsewhere (see  and references therein), let me be brief here. HBT correlations can be used to probe the size, shape and dynamical state of the source at hadronic decoupling. STAR and PHENIX have produced mutually consistent results showing that the HBT radii in the sideward and outward directions (i.e. perpendicular and parallel to the transverse emission vector) depend strongly on the transverse pair momentum and are almost equal to each other. Otherwise successful dynamical models such as those discussed in Sec. 1 fail to reproduce this strong transverse momentum dependence and consistently give smaller sideward than outward radii, in contradiction with the data. They also overpredict the longitudinal radius. The longitudinal and outward radii can be decreased by reducing the total lifetime of the fireball, but this would require even faster thermalization to accomodate the observed transverse flow, and the sideward radius remains too small. Equal outward and sideward radii not only require a very opaque source (such as the hydrodynamic ones with unrealistic sharp Cooper-Frye freeze-out), but also a short lifetime and a breaking of longitudinal boost invariance, at least in the decoupling process. While these problems are generally believed to reflect insufficiencies in the description of the late decoupling stage which will not affect our understanding of the early collision (QGP) stage, we can’t be sure of this until a model is found that works.

## 5 OUTLOOK

The first two years of RHIC running have brought a rich harvest of hadron production data and, as I discussed, abundantly fulfilled our hopes and expectations of finding more and stronger evidence for the making of quark-gluon plasma in heavy-ion collisions. The observation of large elliptic flow, with its compelling interpretation in terms of fast thermalization, and the discovery of jet quenching are two important milestones which go significantly beyond what was earlier achieved at the lower SPS energy  and which bring us closer to a generally accepted “proof” of QGP creation. But much more is to come: only now, with RHIC finally running at full energy and luminosity (and, hopefully, for the full promised time per year) it is possible to address such hallmark measurements as thermal dilepton and direct photon emission and heavy quarkonium production, all of which play crucial roles in the early diagnostics of the QGP which we are apparently mass-producing at RHIC. While trying to solve the HBT puzzle and to quantitatively understand jet quenching, we are looking forward to these high-luminosity measurements and any surprises they may bring.


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# Space-Time Variation of Physical Constants and the Equivalence Principle

## Abstract

> Location-dependence of physical parameters such as the electromagnetic fine structure constant and Newton’s $`G`$ produce body accelerations which violate universality of free fall rates testable with laboratory and space experiments. Theoretically related cosmological time variation of these same parameters are also constrained by experiments such as lunar laser ranging, and these time variations produce accelerations of bodies relative to a preferred cosmological inertial frame.

Experiments which confirm universality of gravitational free fall rates (UFF) also make impressive statements about the constancy of physical law’s key parameters, such as the electromagnetic fine structure ’constant’ and Newton’s $`G`$. If the mass-energy of a body depends on some parameter $`\alpha `$ which varies in space, for example, there is a force on that body

$$\stackrel{}{F}=\frac{M(\alpha )}{ln\alpha }c^2\stackrel{}{}ln\alpha $$
(1)
and a corresponding body-dependent acceleration $`\delta \stackrel{}{a}=\stackrel{}{F}/M`$ which will produce violations of UFF. Objects $`i`$ and $`j`$ composed of different materials will fall at the differing rates

$$\frac{|\stackrel{}{a}_i\stackrel{}{a}_j|}{|\stackrel{}{g}|}=\frac{ln(M_i/M_j)}{ln\alpha }c^2\frac{|\stackrel{}{}ln\alpha |}{g}$$
(2)
Based on UFF, Einstein made his generalizing hypothesis — the Equivalence Principle — that all physical phenomena in local gravity should be identical as that in an accelerating laboratory. His prediction followed that two identically constructed clocks located at different altitudes in local gravity must tick at rates $`d\tau `$ which differ relative to each other as

$$\frac{d\tau _1}{d\tau _2}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}\frac{\stackrel{}{g}\left(\stackrel{}{r}_1\stackrel{}{r}_2\right)}{c^2}$$
(3)
which relationship integrates in a more global Newtonian gravitational potential to be

$$\frac{d\tau _1}{d\tau _2}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}\frac{U(\stackrel{}{r}_1)U(\stackrel{}{r}_2)}{c^2}$$
(4)
For oscillator atomic clocks whose frequencies are determined by the difference of two quantum energy levels of a system, $`\omega _{kl}=(e_ke_l)/\mathrm{}`$, a location-dependence of a physical parameter $`\alpha `$ which participates in the determination of the energy levels will then affect the Equivalence Principle’s prediction of clock rate changes. The clock rate relationship given in Equation (4) is altered to now include an additional clock-dependent factor

$$\left(\frac{d\tau _1}{d\tau _2}\right)_{kl}=\left(\frac{d\tau _1}{d\tau _2}\right)_{EP}\left(1\frac{ln(e_{kl})}{ln\alpha }\frac{ln\alpha }{U}\right)$$
(5)
The factor $`ln\alpha /U`$ in Equation (5) and the factor $`|\stackrel{}{}ln\alpha |/g`$ in Equation (2) are essentially identical, so these two equations can be used to compare the ability of clock experiments and UFF experiments to test for variation of the parameter $`\alpha `$. UFF experiments have been superior performers. Atomic clocks based on different hyperfine transitions will typically have factors $`ln(e_{kl})/ln\alpha `$ differing of order one, while different elements used in UFF experiments will have nuclear electrostatic energy contributions which render the factor $`ln(M_i/M_j)/ln\alpha `$ of order $`10^3`$. Clock experiments must therefore be able to measure fractional frequency shifts between clocks to precision of a part in $`10^{10}`$ of the actual gravitational shift in order to compete with UFF experiments now performed to the part in $`10^{13}`$ precision. But the best clock experiment has reached only the part in $`10^4`$ precision in testing the EP prediction . Sending atomic clocks on a spacecraft which travels to within a few solar radii of the Sun where the gravitational potential grows to $`10^6c^2`$ could be a competitive experiment if the relative frequencies of different on-board clocks could be measured to a part in $`10^{16}`$ precision. There is no present mission for such an experiment; but some are considering it for the future.

Laboratory experiments which compare the gravitational and inertial forces on differently composed material samples, and the ongoing 30 years of lunar laser ranging which compares the free fall rate of Earth (1/3 iron-rich core and 2/3 silicate mantle) and differently composed Moon toward the Sun  are today both confirming that gravitational free fall rates are universal to one or two parts in $`10^{13}`$ precision. A satellite test of UFF (the STEP experiment) is under design and development in the United States and Europe to reach a part in $`10^{18}`$ precision, while a quicker, but lower precision, version of such a space mission is being pursued by France (MICROSCOPE). UFF experiments are being pushed to these incredible levels of precision because no other types of experiments presently compete in their ability to detect location-dependence of fundamental physical parameters, or more generally, the presence of any new long range and extremely weak force fields in physical law which by coupling to novel attributes of matter produces violations of UFF.

Lunar laser ranging also places the best present limits on space-time variations of Newton’s gravitational parameter. If $`G`$ varies cosmologically in time, the Moon’s orbit will show a change in its radius which grows linear in time, and phase changes in its various oscillatory motions which grow quadratic in time. Searching for the former effect best constrained $`\dot{G}`$ in the earlier years of LLR, while now the latter effects dominate. $`\dot{G}/G\mathrm{\hspace{0.25em}10}^{12}y^1`$ is LLR’s present constraint.

Theories which predict a non-zero $`\dot{G}`$ also generally show that $`G`$ will be (spatially) dependent on proximity to local matter (which produces Newtonian potential $`U(\stackrel{}{r})`$)

$$G(\stackrel{}{r})G_{\mathrm{}}\left(1+\eta \frac{U(\stackrel{}{r})}{c^2}\right)$$
(6)
The coefficient $`\eta `$ vanishes in general relativity but generally is non-zero in alternative metric theories of gravity. A body such as Earth with significant internal gravitational binding energy $`U_{self}`$ then experiences an anomalous acceleration

$$\delta \stackrel{}{a}=\frac{lnM(G)}{lnG}c^2\stackrel{}{}lnG\left(1+\eta \frac{U_{self}}{c^2}\right)\stackrel{}{g}$$
(7)
LLR constrains $`\eta `$ to be less than $`\mathrm{3\hspace{0.25em}10}^4`$ which reflects the fractional precision with which general relativity’s post-Newtonian structure is confirmed.

In order to relate location-dependence and cosmic time dependence of a physical parameter, it is considered as a function of an underlying dynamical scalar field, $`\alpha \alpha (\varphi )`$, with this field having a lagrangian-based field equation

$$g^{\mu \nu }\varphi _{\mu |\nu }=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}4}\pi G\frac{L}{\varphi }=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}4}\pi G\sigma (\varphi ,\stackrel{}{r},t)$$
(8)
For application to experiments looking for violation of UFF on one hand, and to effects related to a cosmological time variation of the physical parameter on the other hand, the scalar field equation takes the respective forms

$`^2\varphi `$ $`=`$ $`4\pi G\sigma (\varphi ,\stackrel{}{r})/c^2`$ (9)
$`\ddot{\varphi }+3H\dot{\varphi }`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}4}\pi G\sigma (\varphi ,t)`$ (10)
with $`H=\dot{R}/R`$ being the Hubble expansion rate of the universe, $`R(t)`$ being the size parameter of the universe. A quantitative relationship can then be sought between violations of UFF and time evolution of the physical parameter. For two materials $`i`$ and $`j`$ the anomalous forces given by Equation (2) lead to acceleration differences

$$\frac{|\stackrel{}{a}_i\stackrel{}{a}_j|}{|\stackrel{}{g}_s|}=\frac{ln\alpha }{\varphi }\frac{ln(M_i/M_j)}{ln\alpha }\sigma _s𝑑V/\rho _s𝑑V$$
(11)
with $`\rho _s`$ and $`\sigma _s`$ being the mass density and scalar density, respectively, of the source(s) which accelerates bodies $`i`$ and $`j`$ of respective mass-enrgies $`M_i`$ and $`M_j`$. On the other hand, a first integration of Equation (17) yields an expression for the cosmological time evolution of $`\alpha `$

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{H}}{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\alpha }}{\alpha }}`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{H}}{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\alpha }}{\alpha }}\right)_{p_o}\left({\displaystyle \frac{R^3H}{ln\alpha /\varphi }}\right)_{p_o}{\displaystyle \frac{ln\alpha /\varphi }{R^3H}}`$ (12)
$`+`$ $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1.5}{\displaystyle \frac{ln\alpha }{\varphi }}{\displaystyle _{p_o}^p}{\displaystyle \frac{R^3(p^{})H(p^{})}{R^3H}}{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma (p^{})_c}{\rho (p^{})_c+(\mathrm{\Lambda }+\dot{\varphi }^2)/3\pi G}}𝑑p^{}`$
with subscript $`c`$ indicating averaged cosmological densities of the scalar and mass-energy sources, and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ being the cosmological constant. A convenient variable $`dp=dR/R=Hdt`$ has been used to parameterize cosmological time evolution, $`p_o`$ is a useful historic epoch and $`p`$ is the present (unlabeled quantities are their present values).

As example, consider the fine structure parameter $`\alpha =e^2/\mathrm{}c`$. As previously discussed, UFF has been confirmed to about a part in $`10^{13}`$ among elements whose nuclear electrostatic energy contributions to mass energies typically vary by parts in $`10^3`$ of the whole

$$\frac{ln(M_i/M_j)}{ln\alpha }\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}10}^3$$
(13)
Equation (11) can then be used to eliminate the numerically unknown factor $`ln\alpha /\varphi `$ from the cosmological time evolution Equation (12) to produce the constraint

$$\frac{1}{H}\frac{\dot{\alpha }}{\alpha }\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}10}^{10}_{p_o}^p\left(\frac{R^3(p^{})H(p^{})}{R^3(p)H(p)}\right)\left(\frac{\rho (p)_s}{\sigma (p)_s}\frac{\sigma (p^{})_c}{\rho (p^{})_c}\right)\frac{dp^{}}{1+(\mathrm{\Lambda }+\dot{\varphi }^2)/8\pi G\rho (p^{})}$$
(14)
in which $`p_o`$ is here chosen to be a past epoch when $`\dot{\alpha }`$ was zero. No other direct observations have constrained $`\dot{\alpha }/\alpha `$ to near the level of $`10^{10}H`$. This raises the question of whether circumstances exist for which the cosmological time evolution observations produce interesting constraints on physical theory? The first factor in the integrand is less than one in our expanding universe. If the scalar density is an attribute of ordinary matter and concentrates in bodies along with ordinary matter, the second factor should also be of order one unless there is something very unusual about the present epoch. In the “attractor” scenario for scalar theories , it is found that the dynamical, cosmological background scalar field will evolve toward a value where it’s coupling function to its source, $`f(\varphi )`$, has a minimum (and hence zero derivative) — if such locations exist in $`f(\varphi )`$. If at the present epoch this field is very close to this site, then $`\sigma (p^{})/\sigma (p)`$ could be a huge factor which compensates for some or much of the $`10^{10}`$ factor in Equation (14). Another way in which the integral in this equation could have a very large value is if the cosmological scalar source has little or nothing to do with ordinary matter and does not concentrate in ordinary matter sources such as stars or planets to the degree that the ordinary matter does .

Cosmological time variation of a physical parameter also establishes a cosmic preferred frame and body-dependent Aristotelian-like accelerations . If one performs a Lorentz transformation to the rest frame of a body which moves at velocity $`\stackrel{}{v}`$ relative to the locality’s special frame in which a parameter has pure time dependence, a spatial gradient is acquired in the new frame, $`\alpha (t)\alpha (t^{}+\stackrel{}{v}\stackrel{}{r}^{}/c^2)`$. From equation (2), a force then accelerates the body in proportion to its velocity in the cosmos

$$\frac{d\stackrel{}{v}}{dt}\frac{\dot{\alpha }}{\alpha }\frac{lnM}{ln\alpha }\stackrel{}{v}$$
(15)
Another way to understand the origin of this acceleration rests on the time variation of the body’s mass and conservation of momentum

$$0=\frac{d}{dt}\left(M(t)\stackrel{}{v}\right)=M\dot{\stackrel{}{v}}+\dot{M}\stackrel{}{v}=M\dot{\stackrel{}{v}}+\frac{\dot{\alpha }}{\alpha }\frac{M}{ln\alpha }\stackrel{}{v}$$
(16)
which reproduces Equation (15).

This bi-product of a cosmically time-varying physical parameter alters the response of a binary pulsar system’s orbit to a changing gravitational coupling strength $`G(t)`$. A near-circular binary system has period $`P=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}\pi L^3/(GM)^2`$ plus relativistic corrections, $`L`$ is the angular motion quantity $`|\stackrel{}{r}\times \stackrel{}{v}|`$, and $`M`$ is the mass of the system. Under changing $`G`$ both $`L`$ and $`M`$ change as well, so

$$\frac{\dot{P}}{P}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}3}\frac{\dot{L}}{L}2\frac{\dot{G}}{G}2\frac{\dot{M}}{M}$$
(17)
For gravitationally compact bodies (those having large $`lnM/lnG`$) such as neutron stars the fractional time rate of change of both $`l`$ and $`m`$ can be a few tenths of that for $`G`$ and have signs working in opposition to $`\dot{G}`$. The $`\dot{P}`$/$`\dot{G}`$ ratio is therefore generally significantly reduced for such systems.

If the two bodies in the binary system have different gravitational compactnesses, then the system will also experience a polarizing force in the direction of the system’s velocity relative to the cosmic preferred frame, and the resulting orbital perturbation can also be sought as a measure of time variation of $`G`$.

This work was supported in part by National Aeronautics and Space Administration Contract NASW - 00011.


text:
# Cycles structure and local ordering in complex networks

## Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank M. E. J. Newman for making available his data sets on scientific collaborations. This work has been partially supported by the European Commission - Fet Open project COSIN IST-2001-33555. R.P.-S. acknowledges financial support from the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (Spain).


text: # 1 Figure1 𝑓⁺_{𝐵𝜋}(𝑞²) with 𝑠₀=33𝐺𝑒𝑉²,𝑚_𝑏=4.7𝐺𝑒𝑉


text:
# 1 Abstract

## 1 Abstract

The SELEX experiment (E781) at Fermilab has observed two statistically compelling high mass states near 3.6 GeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$, decaying to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+`$. These final states are Cabibbo-allowed decay modes of doubly charmed baryons $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$, respectively. The masses are in the range expected from theoretical considerations, but the spectroscopy is surprising. SELEX also has weaker preliminary evidence for a state near 3.8 GeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$, a high mass state decaying to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+`$, possibly an excited $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ (ccu\*). Data are presented and discussed.

## 2 Introduction

The quantum chromodynamics hadron spectrum includes doubly charmed baryons (DCBs): $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^+`$ (ccd), $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}(ccu),`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{cc}^+`$ (ccs), as well as the triply charmed $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{ccc}^{++}`$ (ccc). A 1996 DCB review  collected information on masses, lifetimes, internal structure, production cross sections, decay modes, branching ratios, yields, and experimental requirements for optimizing the signal and minimizing the backgrounds. DCB works published since then are given in Refs. . The doubly and triply charmed baryons provide a new window for understanding the structure of all baryons. As pointed out by Bjorken , one should strive to study the triply charmed (ccc) baryon. Its excitation spectrum, including several narrow levels above the ground state, should be closer to the perturbative regime than is the case for the DCBs. The (ccq) studies are a valuable prelude to such (ccc) efforts.

Hadron structures with size scales much less than 1/$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{qcd}`$ should be well described by perturbative QCD. The tightly bound color antitriplet (cc)$`_{\overline{3}}`$ diquark in (ccq) may satisfy this condition. But the DCB radius may be large, if it is dominated by the low mass q orbiting the tightly bound (cc) pair. The study of such configurations and their weak decays can help to set constraints on models of quark-quark forces . Stong  emphasized how the QQq excitation spectra can be used to phenomenologically determine the QQ potential, to complement the approach taken for $`Q\overline{Q}`$ quarkonium interactions.

Savage and Wise  discussed the (ccq) excitation spectrum for the q degree of freedom (with the (cc) in its ground state) via the analogy to the spectrum of $`\overline{Q}q`$ mesons, where the (cc) pair plays the role of the heavy $`\overline{Q}`$ antiquark. Fleck and Richard  calculated excitation spectra and other properties of (ccq) baryons for a variety of potential and bag models, which describe successfully known hadrons. In contrast to heavy mesons, the descriptions of light quark (qqq) and singly charmed (cqq) baryons are less successful. We need to better understand how the proton and other baryons are built from quarks. The investigation of the (ccq) system should help put constraints on baryon models, including light quark (qqq) and singly charmed (cqq) baryons, since the (ccq) has a quark structure intermediate between (qqq) proton and $`\overline{Q}q`$ meson structures.

In the double-charm system, there have been many predictions for the masses of the J=1/2 states and the J=3/2 hyperfine excitations . Most results are consistent with expectations of a ground state mean mass around 3.6 GeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$. The (cc) color antitriplet diquark has spin S=1. The spin of the third quark is either parallel (J=3/2) or anti-parallel (J=1/2) to the diquark. For (ccq), the J=1/2 states are expected to be lower than the J=3/2 states by around 80 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ .

Bjorken  and also Fleck and Richard  suggest that internal W exchange diagrams in the $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^+`$ decay could reduce its lifetime to around $`100fs`$, roughly half the lifetime of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$. Considering possible constructive interference between the W-exchange and two c-quark decay amplitudes, it is possible that this state should have an even shorter lifetime.

We describe qualitatively the perturbative production mechanism for DCBs. One must produce two c quarks (and associated antiquarks), and they must join to a tightly bound, small size anti-triplet pair. The pair then joins a light quark to produce the final (ccq). The two c-quarks may be produced (initial state) with a range of separations and relative momenta (up to say tens of GeV/c). In the final state, if they are tightly bound in a small size (cc) pair, they should have relative momentum lower than roughly 1 GeV/c. The overlap integral between initial and final states determines the probability for the (cc)-q fusion process. Such cross sections may be smaller by as much as 10-2-10-3 compared to single-charm production. Aoki et al.  reported a low statistics measurement at $`\sqrt{s}`$ =26 GeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ for the ratio of double to single open charm pair production, of $`10^2`$. This $`D\overline{D}D\overline{D}`$ to $`D\overline{D}`$ cross section ratio was for all central and diffractive events. This high ratio is encouraging for (ccq) searches. Cross section guestimates are given in Ref. .

Brodsky and Vogt  suggested that there may be significant intrinsic charm (IC) $`c\overline{c}`$ components in hadron wave functions, and therefore also $`cc\overline{c}\overline{c}`$ components. The double intrinsic charm component can lead to (ccq) production, as the (cc) pairs pre-exist in the incident hadron. Intrinsic charm (ccq) production, with its expected high Xf distribution, would therefore be especially attractive. When a double charm IC state is freed in a soft collision, the charm quarks should also have approximately the same velocity as the valence quark. Thus, coalescence into a (ccq) state is likely. Cross section guestimates are given in Ref. .

The semileptonic and nonleptonic branching ratios of (ccq) baryons were estimated by Bjorken  in 1986. He uses a statistical approach to assign probabilities to different decay modes. He first considers the most significant particles in a decay, those that carry baryon or strangeness number. Pions are then added according to a Poisson distribution. The Bjorken method and other approaches for charm baryon decay modes are described by Klein . For the $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$, Bjorken  estimated the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\pi ^+K^{}\pi ^+`$ final state to have 5% branching ratio; while for the $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^+`$, he estimated the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\pi ^+K^{}`$ final state to have 3% branching ratio. One expects  that roughly 80% of the (ccq) decays are hadronic, with as many as one-third of these leading to final states with all charged hadrons.

## 3 Observation of DCBs at Fermilab SELEX

The SELEX experiment (E781) at Fermilab  carries out DCB data analysis based on the sample of 1630 $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$ and 10210 D-meson events from lifetime studies of these particles. SELEX used 600 GeV/c beams of $`\pi ^{}`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$, and protons to produce charm particles in Carbon and Copper targets, detecting them with a magnetic spectrometer with high mass resolution ($`5MeV/c^2`$) and high proper lifetime resolution ($``$ 20 fs.), and Cerenkov particle identification of particles above 25 GeV/c.

SELEX has two statistically-compelling new high-mass states near 3.5 GeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ decaying to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+`$ (3460 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$) and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+`$ (3520 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$) decay channels of DCBs $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^+`$ (ccd) and $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ (ccu) . They appear to be members of the DCB family of new particles: (ccd) DCBs composed of two charm quarks and one down quark; and (ccu) DCBs composed of two charm quarks and one up quark. SELEX also has evidence  for a $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ (ccu) baryon near 3780 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$, a high mass state decaying to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+`$, which may be a decay mode of an excited DCB $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ (ccu\*). The 3520 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ state satisfies all expectations for being a $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^+`$ state. Its mass is compatible with most model calculations for the DCB ground state. Its lifetime is shorter than 30 fs at 90% confidence. The 3460 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ state has the decay characteristics of a $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ state, and a comparable lifetime. However, it is difficult to understand the 60 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ mass difference between the Q=1 and Q=2 states if they are members of the ground state isodoublet. It is not yet confirmed that $`\mathrm{J}`$ = 1/2 for both states.

SELEX analysis and simulations continue for the charmed Lambda ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$) decay-mode DCB data. SELEX also searches for the states observed to date in decay channels where the final state has a charmed D-meson rather than a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$-baryon. Continuing SELEX data analysis aims to achieve a more complete understanding of the double charm sector, production with different beam particles, decay modes, cross sections and their A-dependence, XF and pt distributions.

### 3.1 Features of the Selex spectrometer

SELEX is a 3-stage magnetic spectrometer . The negative 600 GeV/c Fermilab Hyperon Beam had about equal fluxes of $`\pi ^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$. The positive beam was 92% protons. For charm momenta in a range of 100-500 Gev/c, mass resolution is constant and primary (secondary) vertex resolution is typically 270 (560) $`\mu `$m. A RICH detector labelled all particles above 25 GeV/c, greatly reducing background in charm analyses. . The details of single-charm analyses involving $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+pK^{}\pi ^+`$ reconstructions can be found in .

### 3.2 Double-charm Analysis for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$ Decay Modes

The double-charm search began with the sample of 1630 $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$ events (cud) used in the lifetime analysis. We ask for a weak-decay vertex lying between the primary vertex and the observed $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$ decay vertex. A Cabibbo-allowed ccd decay can give a final-state $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$, a $`\mathrm{K}^{}`$, and a $`\pi ^+`$. The c decays weakly, for example by $`ccdcsu+u\overline{u}+d\overline{d}`$; corresponding for example to a $`ccd\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+`$ final state. The event topology contains two secondary vertices. In the first, a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$ and a $`K^{}\pi ^+`$ meson pair are produced. This vertex may be distinguished from the primary vertex, if the (ccd) lifetime is sufficiently long. The $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$ now propagates some distance, and decays at the next vertex. The experiment must identify the two secondary vertices. The idea is shown schematically in Fig. 1.

We reconstruct total electric charge states Q=1 and Q=2 in separate reconstructions. The Q=1 sample consists of two oppositely-charged tracks along with a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$. The Q=2 sample consists of a positively-charged triplet along with the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$. Because the meson-pair tracks from the intermediate vertex may have energies below the RICH detection threshold (25 GeV/c for pions), or since they miss the RICH when they are emitted at wide angles, few achieve particle identification in the RICH. To be consistent with a $`ccd\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+`$ final state, the negative track should be a Kaon. We build ”right-sign” and ”wrong-sign” samples, based on calling the negative track a Kaon or a pion, respectively.

Event selection cuts used here were taken without change from previous single-charm studies. For short-lived states, $`\mathrm{L}_1/\sigma _11`$ and the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$ momentum vector must point back to the primary vertex within a $`\chi ^2`$ cut. We have varied the cuts and observe that no signal significance depends critically on any cut value. The signals seen here are stable.

#### 3.2.1 Q = 1 reconstruction, 3520 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$

Fig. 2. shows the $`\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+\mathrm{\Lambda }_\mathrm{c}^+`$ mass distribution for single-charged baryons. Fig. 2(a) shows a $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^+`$ candidate at 3520 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$, consistent with most model calculations. The peak is 3 $`\pm `$ 1 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ wide, narrower than but consistent with simulation (5 $`\pm `$ .5 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$). The final state meets the double-charm Cabibbo-favored criteria: final state single charm, final state baryon, final state $`\mathrm{K}^{}`$. The general agreement between right-sign (negative track is Kaon) and wrong-sign (negative track is pion) average levels and fluctuations in Fig. 2 confirms that most events are combinatoric background. The signal channel shows a 22-event excess over a background of 6.1 $`\pm `$ 0.51 events, for a single-bin significance of 6.3 $`\sigma `$. Treating this with gaussian statistics, the probability of such an excess is less than $`10^8`$ for a single bin. We searched for a peak in the interval 3.2-4.3 GeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$, or 110 bins. In each bin there is a Poisson-distributed number of events along with a Gaussian fluctuation on the background. Summing these effects gives the overall probability that our search would find such a fluctuation anywhere in the search interval of less than $`10^4`$.

We calculated the lifetime likelihood for signal and sideband regions in reduced proper time $`t^{}=M(LL_{min})/pc`$ for several different lifetime values. In this analysis $`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{min}}=\sigma _1`$, the error on the vertex separation $`\mathrm{L}_1`$ in the schematic from Fig. 1. From SELEX single-charm lifetime studies, we know the lifetime resolution is about 20 fs. Here, the sidebands show a lifetime of $`30_{12}^{+18}`$ fs. The signal region result is shorter, with lifetime less than 30 fs at 90% confidence. These two results are, of course, statistically consistent with a common short lifetime for signal and sideband regions.

#### 3.2.2 Q=2 Reconstruction, 3460 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$

Fig. 3 shows a $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ candidate at 3460 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$. The peak is narrow, 6 $`\pm `$ 1 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$, matching our simulation width. The final state meets the double-charm Cabibbo-favored criteria: final state single charm, final state baryon, final state $`\mathrm{K}^{}`$. The Q=2 sample distribution is quite different from that for Q=1. The kinematic threshold for this channel opens near 3.0 GeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$, yet we have only 2 events below the 3460 mass peak. The background under the peak is clearly Poisson-distributed. Making a likelihood fit to a linear background function, we find 9 events in the peak, compared to an expected background of 1.6 events. The Poisson probability that there is an excess of 7.4 events or more is 5 x $`10^5`$. This search looked for an isospin partner to the $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^+`$(3520) and was limited to the range 3.3-3.6 GeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$, containing 13 bins of width 22.5 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$. The probability for a statistical fluctuation up to a 7.4-event excess in any of these 13 bins is less than 7 x $`10^4`$.

There are too few events to attempt a lifetime analysis, either for signal or background. We have compared the rest-frame angular decay variables to a phase-space simulation. The comparison is good for the signal region. The background tends to be more peaked along the flight direction of the candidate, as one might expect for accidental reconstructions.

One can ask why there are so few $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ candidates compared to $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^+`$(3520) candidates. Simulation shows that the acceptance is substantially lower for the Q=2 system at masses below 3500 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ than for a corresponding Q=1 system. The SELEX spectrometer cuts off the slow pion acceptance from the higher-multiplicity state. This can be seen in the data by the presence of low-mass background in Fig. 2 and its absence in Fig. 3.

#### 3.2.3 Q=2 Reconstruction, 3780 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$

We also searched at higher mass for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+`$ decay of $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ (ccu) . We have evidence  for a $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ ccu baryon near 3780 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$, a state which may be an excited DCB $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ (ccu\*). The data are shown in Fig. 4, with a linear fit to the background. Other fits are possible, with higher background levels, as in Fig. 5. The background curves are determined from the spectrum itself, from background simulation studies, and taking into account also the wrong-sign mass plot. The higher background in Fig. 5 is based on a simulation study, which shows that the excess near 3660 MeV may be due to combinatorial background of a real ccd with a $`\pi ^+`$ from the primary vertex. This leads us to fit from 3650 MeV, to account for this effect. The number of signal events drops, the background increases, and the signal significance drops from 5.6$`\sigma `$ to 4.0$`\sigma `$. The width of the peak is roughly three times wider than the low lying DCB peaks, which would be possible for a state which decays strongly. For this ccu\* however, the data do not have a plausible explanation, in that roughly 50% of the signal events above background decay weakly (to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+`$) and 50% decay strongly (to $`\pi ^+\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^+`$). This is not possible for a single state. We can not now draw unambiguous conclusions. We plan further study of these data and backgrounds.

### 3.3 Production

Production characteristics of the 22 signal plus background events at 3520 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ are indistinguishable from the single-charm $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$ sample . The mean $`p_t`$ is 1 GeV/c and mean $`x_F`$ 0.33. This value of $`x_F`$ is significantly higher than the value $`x_F0.10`$ that one expects  if the (ccd) is produced near threshold in a central collision.

We compared production of the $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ states by different beam hadrons. The DCBs we see are produced solely by the baryon beams in SELEX data. There are no signal candidates from the pion beam. We also checked if there is a dependence on the target nucleus. We found  that the diamond/copper ratio of the signal events is similar to the sideband events, which in turn behave like single-charm production.

Count rate estimates for DCBs at were given previously  based on ccq cross section of at most 25 nb per nucleon (25 nb/N). This value is based on a reduction factor of 1000 per produced charm quark, considering that the open charm production cross section (25$`\mu `$b/N) is 1000 times lower than the total inelastic cross section 25 mb/N. But SELEX DCB cross sections are several orders of magnitude higher, as approximately 60 DCBs are observed in a sample of 1630 $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$. Simulation studies suggest that the double-charm states may account for as much as 40% of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$ sample seen in this experiment, a surprisingly high fraction. Work is in progress to calibrate the SELEX trigger efficiency factor, in order to fix the absolute value of the DCB cross sections. The high DCB cross section is reminiscent of the discovery of the $`\mathrm{\Xi }_c^+`$ baryon in the WA62 experiment at CERN, using a 135 GeV/c hyperon beam . That cross section was also anomalously large and still has no good theoretical explanation. The FOCUS photoproduction experiment at Fermilab has looked for these states using their $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$ events. They see very few candidate events and no signal peaks .

### 3.4 Background Reduction Studies for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$ Decay Channels

The cleanest SELEX DCB data are for ccd and ccu lowest peaks, while for ccu\* the backgrounds are significant. Consider the ccu at 3460 MeV. Events outside the signal region show a strong preference for the center-of-mass (CM) angle of the negative track to be near 180 degrees, where the angle is with respect to the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$ direction. This suggests that these tracks represent accidental overlaps of a low energy primary track and a real secondary vertex. In the CM system, a low energy primary track is interpreted as a back-angle track from the secondary vertex.

Simulation indicates that a cut to remove such events should have little effect on the signal region for a phase-space distribution. That is indeed the case in the data. For the ccu at 3460 MeV, with a cut $`cos(\theta _K^{})>.6`$, we obtain 1 background and 8 signal events. The spectrum is shown in Fig. 6. This angle cut gives result cleaner than without the angle cut, where we had previously 1.6 background and 7.4 signal events. Without this cut, the Poisson probability that there is an excess of 7.4 events in any of the 13 bins between 3.3-3.6 GeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ is less than 7 x $`10^4`$, and the signal significance is 5.8 $`\sigma `$. With this cut, the Poisson probability that there is an excess of 8 events in any of these 13 bins is reduced to $`10^5`$, and the signal significance is 7.9 $`\sigma `$. We will make similar studies for the ccu\* data. The CM angle cut does affect the ccu\* region strongly, but not in a way that is simple to understand. For ccu, ccu\*, SELEX studies to what extent the decay angular distribution of the $`\mathrm{K}^{}`$ in the rest frame of the $`\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+\mathrm{\Lambda }_\mathrm{c}^+`$ system is compatible with a phase-space simulation, both for signal and for background. With further simulations, SELEX will try to better understand such experimental distributions, and will explore other methods of reducing the backgrounds.

### 3.5 Search for double-charm baryons in D-meson decay modes

SELEX started complementary DCB data analysis of these same states based on our independent data for D-meson decays. Some possible decay modes of interest are: $`(D^+K^{}p)`$, $`(D^0\overline{K}^0p)`$ for (ccd); $`(D^+\mathrm{\Lambda }\pi ^+)`$, $`(D^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\pi ^+\pi ^+)`$, $`(D^+\overline{K}^0p)`$, $`(D^+\mathrm{\Lambda }\pi ^+)`$, $`(D^+K^{}p\pi ^+)`$, for (ccu). This work is in progress.

## 4 Planning for the CERN COMPASS experiment

The SELEX efforts will help in the planning of a future state-of-the-art double charm measurement via the CERN COMPASS experiment, and elsewhere. The Sept. 2002 COMPASS-Future meeting at CERN included already a presentation of SELEX data, and initial COMPASS plans in response to consultations with SELEX on the SELEX DCB data . Based on the SELEX results, one could expect from COMPASS  up to 10,000 reconstructed DCBs for a 100 day run. The SELEX data have stimulated more detailed plans/prospects/efforts at COMPASS to study DCB and even triply charmed baryon spectroscopy.

## 5 Summary

We reviewed DCB theory. We presented SELEX data for two statistically-compelling new high-mass states that decay into a final state $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$, $`\mathrm{K}^{}`$ and one or two $`\pi ^+`$, as expected for double-charm baryon decays. The 3520 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ state satisfies all expectations for being a $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^+`$ state. Its mass is compatible with most model calculations for the double-charm baryon ground state. Its lifetime is shorter than 30 fs at 90% confidence. The 3460 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ state has the decay characteristics of a $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ state. However, it is difficult to understand the 60 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$ mass difference between the Q=1 and Q=2 states if they are members of the ground state isodoublet. We have not yet tried to confirm that $`\mathrm{J}`$ = 1/2 for both states. We also showed evidence  for a $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ (ccu) baryon near 3780 MeV/$`\mathrm{c}^2`$, a high mass state decaying to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{K}^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+`$, which may be a decay mode of an excited DCB $`\mathrm{\Xi }_{cc}^{++}`$ (ccu\*). The SELEX data have been used already in the planning of the CERN COMPASS DCB experiment. Internet links to SELEX and COMPASS DCB presentations are given in Ref. .

## 6 Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to the staff of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and for invaluable technical support from the staffs of collaborating institutions. This project was supported in part by Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Fondo de Apoyo a la Investigación (UASLP), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), the Israel Science Foundation founded by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the International Science Foundation (ISF), the National Science Foundation (Phy #9602178), NATO (grant CR6.941058-1360/94), the Russian Academy of Science, the Russian Ministry of Science and Technology, the Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Board (TÜBİTAK), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE grant DE-FG02-91ER40664 and DOE contract number DE-AC02-76CHO3000), and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF).


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# Precursor of Color Superconductivity

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Determining the phase structure of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is one of the central problems in hadron physics. In particular, at low temperature ($`T`$) and non-zero chemical potential ($`\mu `$), one may expect that quark matter has a Fermi surface, which gives rise to an interesting complication; if there is some attractive channel in the quark-quark interaction, the Fermi surface becomes unstable and quarks form Cooper pairs, leading to a color superconductivity (CS) with the color-gauge symmetry broken .

Since the critical temperature ($`T_c`$) of CS is expected to be small, it would be difficult to create the color-superconducting quark matter by heavy-ion collisions. So it is natural that people have exclusively considered neutron stars as a physical system to which CS may have a relevance.

However, there is a possibility to obtain information on CS by heavy-ion collisions through possible fluctuations of the pair field. In fact, it is known that in the ordinary superconductivity in metals, there exist fluctuations of Cooper pairs even above the critical temperature where the pair condensate does not exist: Such fluctuations affect various transport coefficients, which are experimentally observed. In the usual superconductivity in metals, the pairing interaction due to the phonon exchange is so weak that the mean field approximation works well except in the immediate vicinity of the critical point. In other words, the fluctuations become important only near the critical temperature. However, in the case of CS at intermediate densities, large fluctuations may survive even well above $`T_c`$ owing to the strong coupling which may be described by a low-energy effective Lagrangian of QCD. If there are large fluctuations even well above $`T_c`$, heavy-ion collisions on Earth may have a possibility to be utilized to study the physics of CS through examining precursory phenomena of CS.

## 2 RESPONSE OF PAIR FIELD

We use the two-flavor Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model in the chiral limit,

$``$ $`=`$ $`\overline{\psi }i/\psi +G_S[(\overline{\psi }\psi )^2+(\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\stackrel{}{\tau }\psi )^2]+G_C(\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\tau _2\lambda _2\psi ^C)(\overline{\psi }^Ci\gamma _5\tau _2\lambda _2\psi ),`$ (1)
where $`\psi ^CC\overline{\psi }^T`$ with $`C=i\gamma ^2\gamma ^0`$ being the charge conjugation operator, and $`\tau _2`$ and $`\lambda _2`$ are the second component of the Pauli and Gell-Mann matrices representing the flavor SU(2) and color SU(3), respectively.

The phase structure of our model in the mean field approximation is shown in Fig. 1. The dashed line denotes the critical line of the second order phase transition and the solid line first order phase transition. The tricritical point where the order of the chiral transition changes from the second to first order is located at about $`(T,\mu )=(70,280)`$ MeV.

Now that the phase structure is determined, we investigate the $`T`$ dependence of the fluctuation of the diquark pair field in the Wigner phase above $`T_c`$; we calculate the response of the pair field to an external one in the linear response theory. When an external field $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ex}^{}`$ is added in the Wigner phase, the induced pair field $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ind}^{}`$ is given by

$`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ind}^{}(𝐤,\omega _n)={\displaystyle \frac{G_C𝒬(𝐤,\omega _n)}{1+G_C𝒬(𝐤,\omega _n)}}\mathrm{\Delta }_{ex}^{}𝒟(𝐤,i\omega _n)\mathrm{\Delta }_{ex}^{},`$ (2)
where $`𝒬(𝐤,\omega _n)`$ is a particle-particle correlation function corresponding diagrammatically to Fig. 2. The function $`𝒟(𝐤,i\omega _n)`$ is still a function of imaginary time. By carrying out the analytic continuation, we then obtain, what we call, the response function $`D^R(𝐤,\omega )`$. Here it should be noticed that the following equality holds

$`1+G_C𝒬(\mathrm{𝟎},0)|_{T=T_c}=0,`$ (3)
on account of the self-consistency condition for the second-order phase transition of the diquark condensate at $`T=T_c`$. This equality is the origin to lead to the various precritical phenomena for CSC. The nature of the fluctuation to be discussed below will not be altered even when the phase transition is weak first order owing to the fluctuations of the gluon fields.

The strength of the fluctuation is given by the spectral function

$`\rho (𝐤,\omega )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi G_C}}\mathrm{Im}D^R(𝐤,\omega ),`$ (4)
where $`\omega >0`$. The $`T`$ dependence of the spectral function at $`\mu =400`$ MeV and zero momentum transfer ($`𝐤=0`$) is shown in Fig. 3(a). One can see a prominent peak moving toward the origin grows as $`T`$ is lowered toward $`T_c`$ as indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1. In the experimental point of view, it is interesting that the peak survives at $`T`$ even well above $`T_c`$ with $`ϵ(TT_c)/T_c0.2`$. This means that the precritical region of CSC is one to two order larger in the unit of $`T_c`$ than that in the usual electric superconductors of metals. The result for $`\mu =500`$ MeV is shown in Fig. 3(b); one sees that although the growth of the peak becomes relatively moderate, the qualitative features do not change.

## 3 SOFT MODE AND PARACONDUCTIVITY

The existence of the peak with the narrow width suggests an existence of a well-defined collective mode as an elementary excitation in the Wigner phase. This can be examined by searching possible poles of the response function. The existence of a pole $`\omega =\omega (k)`$ with given $`k`$ means that the pair field $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ind}(k,\omega (k))`$ can be created even with an infinitesimal external field $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ex}^{}`$ as seen from Eq. (2);i.e., the system admits spontaneous excitation of a collective mode with the dispersion relation $`\omega =\omega (k)`$. (One should notice that the gap equation Eq. (3) implies that $`z=0`$ is a solution at $`T=T_c`$, i.e., there exists a zero mode at the critical point.) The singular behavior seen in the spectral function near the critical point in Fig. 3 is caused by the presence of the zero mode. A numerical calculation shows that there indeed exists a pole in the lower half plane at $`T>T_c`$. Fig. 4 shows how the pole moves as $`T`$ is lowered toward $`T_c`$ for $`\mu =400`$ and $`500`$ MeV at $`𝐤=0`$. One sees that the pole approaches the origin as $`T`$ is lowered toward $`T_c`$. Such a mode whose energy tends to vanish as the system approaches the critical point of a phase transition is called a soft mode. Another characteristic feature of the soft mode is that the absolute value of the imaginary part $`\omega _i`$ of the pole is larger than that of the real part $`\omega _r`$ for both $`\mu `$. This feature may have an important implication for an effective equation describing the dynamical phase transition for CSC: The dynamical behavior of the order parameter near $`T_c`$ is well described by a non-linear diffusion equation like the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation.

Such a soft mode gives rise to anomalous behaviors of several transport coefficients; for example, an anomalous excess of the electric conductivity above $`T_c`$ which is known as paraconductivity (PC). The diagrammatic contributions to PC are known as Aslamazov-Larkin and Maki-Tompson terms, which are shown in Fig. 5. It is worth emphasizing that these diagrams can be regarded as a modification of the self-energy of gauge fields, i.e., the gluons and the photons, which decay into dilepton pairs. This implies that photons and hence dileptons from the system can carry some information of the fluctuation of CS. We also notice that the pairing fluctuations can give rise to a pseudo-gap phenomena known in high-$`T_c`$ superconductivity of copper-oxides. It would be intriguing to pursue possible similarity of CSC and high-$`T_c`$ superconductivity. These are under investigations.


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# Prominent quasi-particle peak in the photoemission spectrum of the metallic phase of V2O3

(Received )

## Abstract

We present the first observation of a prominent quasi-particle peak in the photoemission spectrum of the metallic phase of V2O3 and report new spectral calculations that combine the local density approximation with the dynamical mean-field theory (using quantum Monte Carlo simulations) to show the development of such a distinct peak with decreasing temperature. The experimental peak width and weight are significantly larger than in the theory.

(V1-xCrx)2O3 displays a complex phase diagram with paramagnetic metal (PM), paramagnetic insulator (PI) and antiferromagnetic insulator (AFI) regions. The PM to PI transition serves as the paradigm of the Mott-Hubbard (MH) metal-insulator transition (MIT) Mott . The MH scenario for (V1-xCrx)2O3 was put forth originally in the context of the half-filled one-band Hubbard model in which the tendency of the on-site Coulomb repulsion ‘$`U`$’ to make a correlation gap insulator competes with the tendency of site to site hopping to make a broad band metal of bandwidth ‘$`B`$’. A coherent thermodynamically consistent description of the MIT became possible with the development of the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) DMFT . DMFT describes the strongly interacting metal in terms of Fermi liquid quasi-particles, i.e. single particle excitations near the Fermi energy $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ which remain well defined as in a non-interacting system but have a self energy correction that increases their effective mass and reduces their spectral weight. In application to the Hubbard model, DMFT is significant as the best description that can be made by using a local (i.e. independent of momentum k) self energy. It may be formulated as a mapping of the lattice problem onto an effective Anderson impurity model coupled self-consistently to an effective conduction band bath DMFTmapping . In the metallic phase, although the large $`U`$ value acts to separate much of the band’s spectral weight away from $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ into the so called upper and lower Hubbard bands, there remains at $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ a distinctive quasi-particle (QP) peak, not accidentally reminiscent of the Kondo/Suhl-Abrikosov resonance KSAtheory  of the Anderson impurity model. The weight of the QP-peak decreases with increasing $`U/B`$ and goes to zero at a critical value of $`U/B`$, which thus marks the MIT.

Such a distinctive peak could in principle be seen in photoemission spectroscopy (PES). However, in spite of continuing efforts for over twenty years, literature Sawatzky ; Smith88 ; Smith94 ; Shin ; Kim ; Ralph  V $`3d`$ PES spectra for the PM phase of (V1-xCrx)2O3 have shown at most a near $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ feature that is the smallest part of the spectrum. One could hypothesize that the distinctive central peak of the half-filled one-band model is obscured and washed out by the multi-band complexity of the actual electronic structure of (V1-xCrx)2O3 in which the two 3$`d`$-electrons of the V3+ ion must be distributed among singly degenerate $`a_{1g}`$ and doubly degenerate $`e_g^\pi `$ orbitals derived from a small trigonal crystal field splitting of the cubic $`t_{2g}`$ manifold of the V $`3d`$ states. Indeed, recent experiment Parkprb  and theory Ezhov  establishing an S=1 state for the V3+ ions show that such a multi-band description is essential. Further, a recent study that included these material specific aspects by combining the local density approximations with DMFT (using quantum Monte Carlo simulations) \[LDA+DMFT (QMC)\] Held  found for the PM phase a weak $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ peak in good agreement with that of a well resolved and high quality PM phase spectrum by Schramme et al.Schramme , taken at a photon energy ($`h\nu `$) of $`60`$ eV. However, it is important to note that numerical complexities constrained the calculation to be performed at a temperature $`T`$ of $`1160`$ K, whereas the photoemission spectrum was obtained at a much lower temperature of $`300`$ K, and that for the photon energy used, recent PES studies of other vanadium oxides have been found Maiti ; sekiyama2  to yield spectra not characteristic of the bulk, but rather of the surface atoms whose lower coordination number reduces $`B`$ proportionately and thus can render the surface layer much more strongly correlated or even insulating. Both circumstances go in the direction of a greatly reduced QP peak.

In this Letter we report angle-integrated PES spectra for the metallic phase of V2O3 that are different from all previous spectra in showing an $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ peak whose amplitude exceeds that of the rest of the V $`3d`$ spectrum by a factor approaching two. These results were achieved by measuring at high photon energies in order to increase the bulk sensitivity but with much better resolution Sekiyama  than in previous Park ; Ralph  studies at these energies. Equally important is the use of a small photon spot ($`100\mu `$m diameter) that we have found smallspot  to be essential for minimizing the effects of steps and other roughness that can be seen in high resolution optical micrographs of typical cleaved single crystal surfaces of this material. So doing is very important because atoms with the edge and corner (i.e. acute) geometries of steps and general roughness have coordinations that are reduced from those of the planar surface atoms. Concomitantly, as is known from past theory Johansson  and experiment Kaindl  on correlated electron materials, they have even larger differences from the electronic structure of the bulk than occurs for the planar surface atoms. The large amplitude of the newly observed peak disagrees with the theory of Ref. Held . However, we also report new DMFT+LDA(QMC) calculations for the same electronic structure and $`U`$ value as previously Held , showing that with temperature decreasing to $`300`$ K such a prominent central peak develops. Nonetheless the quantitative comparison enabled by the new experiment and new theory reveals important differences.

PES using circularly polarized photons with $`h\nu `$ between $`310`$ eV and $`700`$ eV was performed at the twin-helical undulator beam line BL25SU BL25SU  of SPring-8 equipped with a SCIENTA SES200 analyzer and giving a photon spot size of diameter $`100\mu `$m. The Fermi level and overall energy resolution ($`90`$ meV to $`170`$ meV over the $`h\nu `$ range) were determined from the Fermi-edge spectrum of a Pd metal reference. Well annealed oriented single-crystalline samples of V2O3 were cleaved to expose a hexagonal (10$`\overline{1}`$2) plane in a vacuum of $`2\times 10^{10}`$ Torr. Using a closed-cycle He cryostat and an embedded resistive heater, the sample temperature was held at $`T=175`$ K, somewhat above the PM/AFI transition. Surface integrity was well maintained under the vacuum and photon exposure, as shown by the repeatability of the spectra for at least ten hours after cleaving, after which the PM/AFI transition could still be observed in the spectra at the temperature appropriate for stoichiometric V2O3. The inset to Fig. 1 shows a cross-section of the k-space Brillouin zone stacking normal to the cleavage plane and also the spherical surfaces inner  traversed as the detector angles are varied about the normal for various fixed $`h\nu `$ between $`310`$ eV and $`700`$ V. Radial lines show the k-range corresponding to the analyzer acceptance angle of about $`\pm 6`$ degrees. This range is $`\pm 1.2`$ Å-1 for a photoelectron with $`500`$ eV kinetic energy and covers more than one Brillouin zone for any $`h\nu `$ arc.

The $`h\nu `$ = $`700`$ eV spectrum of Fig. 1 shows the general character of the data. The V $`3d`$ emission is well separated from the O $`2p`$ emission, and the newly observed prominent $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ peak is very obvious. We are interested here in the $`h\nu `$ dependence of the spectral shape of the V $`3d`$ emission. Although there is a huge $`3d`$ enhancement over the range $`510`$ eV to $`560`$ eV, due to a $`3d`$ cross-section resonance at the V $`2p`$ edge Park ; Ralph , we have deliberately avoided the resonance region because we have found Auger  in this range incoherent Auger emission that distorts the spectral shape. Because we make comparisons to a k-summed theory, Fig. 1 also shows the result of k-averaging across a full Brillouin zone by using spectra taken in $`10`$ eV steps from $`380`$ eV to $`500`$ eV. The $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ peak in the k-averaged spectrum is somewhat smaller than that in the $`700`$ eV spectrum. This is however due to the reduced bulk sensitivity of the lower photon energies rather than the k-selectivity of the single photon energy, as discussed next.

Fig. 2 shows our V $`3d`$ spectra for $`h\nu `$ from $`310`$ eV to $`700`$ eV along with the $`h\nu `$ = $`60`$ eV spectrum Schramme  that was found to compare favorably to the $`1160`$ K theory spectrum in Ref. Held . A Shirley-type inelastic background has been removed in an identical way Shirley  for each spectrum. The spectra are normalized over the range below $`1`$ eV for ease of comparing their $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ peaks. Relative to the spectrum below $`1`$ eV, the $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ peaks in the spectra of Fig. 2 increase monotonically with increasing $`h\nu `$. Over the range for the k-averaged spectrum the peak is never larger than at $`500`$ eV. Although some non-monotonic variation over this range and also below $`300`$ eV (not shown) could signal k-dependence, we conclude that above $`300`$ eV the change of probe depth dominates k-dependent effects in the data. This conclusion is reinforced by the observation at $`500`$ eV that rotating the detection angle away from the normal in steps of $`15`$ degrees out to $`60`$ degrees, which monotonically decreases the effective probe depth, monotonically decreases the $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ peak to be comparable to the $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ feature that is seen in the $`60`$ eV data. Reliably estimating a bulk spectrum from the $`h\nu `$ and angle dependences using various phenomenological models is not simple. We will present such estimates in a more detailed paper. However, the results do not differ from the 700 eV spectrum itself in any way that is significant for the comparison to new theory that we make next.

On the theoretical side, new, very CPU-intensive LDA+DMFT (QMC) calculations have been made at considerably lower temperatures than previously Held , i.e. $`T=700`$ K and $`T=300`$ K, in exactly the same manner LDADMFT  as before. The LDA density of states of the three $`t_{2g}`$ bands at the Fermi energy was identified with a one-particle Hamiltonian which was supplemented by a local Coulomb interaction $`U=5`$eV (only $`U`$ values close to $`5`$eV generate the experimentally observed MIT upon Cr-doping Held ) and a Hund’s rule coupling $`J=0.93`$eV (according to constrained LDA calculations Solovyev96 ). This three-band many-body problem was solved by DMFT using QMC simulations.

Fig. 3 shows our theory spectra for three temperatures, compared to the experimental $`h\nu `$ = $`60`$ eV spectrum ($`300`$ K) and the $`700`$ eV spectrum ($`175`$ K) of Fig. 2, all scaled to have equal areas. The theory curves include the Fermi function for the appropriate temperature and Gaussian broadening of 90 meV to simulate experimental resolution. Qualitatively similar to the behavior of the impurity model’s Kondo resonance KSAtheory , at higher temperatures the QP peak is greatly broadened by thermal occupation of states bearing local magnetic moments. As the system settles with decreasing temperature toward its non-magnetic ground state, the peak sharpens, its amplitude increases strongly, and it becomes clearly separated from the lower Hubbard band at about $`1.25`$eV. These temperature-induced changes strongly enhance the differences between theory and experiment that were already present but small in Ref. Held , i.e., the amplitude of the QP peak is much larger in the theory than in the $`h\nu `$ = $`60`$ eV experimental spectrum. Qualitatively the comparison to the new bulk sensitive spectrum is much better, with the prominent QP peak and the lower Hubbard band of the theory being very similar, respectively, to the newly observed $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ peak and the broad hump centered at $`1.25`$ eV. Strikingly different, however, are that the experimental $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ peak is broader and also has more spectral weight. These differences will persist for theory at the slightly lower temperature of the data. The width difference could increase somewhat. The weight difference would decrease but probably not greatly. From $`1160`$ K to $`300`$ K the theory peak’s integrated spectral weight, taken as that above $`0.63`$ eV, increases by only 11$`\%`$.

Within the DMFT scheme the larger experimental width and weight implies weaker correlation that could be described by using a reduced $`U`$-value. However in the present theory Held  the MIT under Cr-doping would not occur for such a reduced $`U`$-value unless $`U`$ then increases with Cr doping or through the MIT transition. Either might be expected to occur through reduction in various effective screening processes, some of which are excluded from the present theory by its restriction to three bands. Another possible origin for the increased width of the experimental peak is the k-dependence of the single particle self energy. This is beyond our current calculations, but may partly be included by an improved DMFT calculation which uses a pair of V ions pairs  instead of a single site.

In summary we have discovered a prominent $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ peak in the PES spectrum of V2O3 in the PM phase, at a temperature somewhat above that of the AFI phase transition. New LDA+DMFT(QMC) theory for a comparable temperature also finds such a prominent QP peak, generic to the DMFT theory of the Hubbard model near the MIT transition. The quantitative comparison that is enabled by the two new results reveals significant differences that must be addressed in future work. Nonetheless, considering the various approximations of the present theory, the comparison is very encouraging as to the occurrence of the basic QP peak that is central to the DMFT description.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by the U.S. NSF at the University of Michigan (UM) (Grant No. DMR-99-71611), by the U.S. DoE at UM (Contract No. DE-FG-02-90ER45416) and at the ALS (Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098), by Grant-in-Aid for COE Research (10CE2004) of MEXT, Japan by JASRI (No. 2000B0335-NS-np), by KOSEF through eSSC at POSTECH, by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through SFB 484, by the Emmy-Noether program of the DFG, by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant RFFI-01-17063, by the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation, and by the Leibniz-Rechenzentrum, München.