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# Cosmic star formation history associated with QSO activity: an approach using the black hole to bulge mass correlation

## 1 Introduction

Recent observations reveal a tight correlation between the masses of central black holes and their host spheroids in nearby galaxies and AGNs (Kormendy & Richstone, 1995; Faber et al., 1997; Magorrian et al., 1998; Laor, 1998; Ho, 1999; Wandel 1999a, ). A mean value of the black hole to bulge mass ratio, $`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{bh}}/\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{bulge}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^3`$ and the local black hole mass density, $`\rho _{\mathrm{bh}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}5}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^5\mathrm{M}_{}/\mathrm{Mpc}^3`$ are now fairly agreed upon by observations using different techniques (Salucci et al., 1999; Kormendy & Gebhardt, 2001; Merritt & Ferrarese, 2001; McLure & Dunlop, 2002). This correlation implies a possible scenario where the black hole accretion history in the inner few parsecs and the $`\mathrm{kpc}`$ scale star formation during spheroid formation are closely connected. Simply speaking, the amount of gas accreted to grow the central black hole is proportional to the amount of gas driving the star formation to populate the spheroid within a similar time scale of the two activities (Wang & Biermann, 1998; Wang et al., 2000; Haehnelt & Kauffmann, 2000; Monaco et al., 2000; Burkert & Silk, 2001; Page et al., 2001).

This relation also opens an important avenue to the understanding of the cosmic star formation history (CSFH) associated with the black hole growth by accretion, complementary to the previous optical/near-infrared (NIR) or far-infrared deep surveys.

The study of the CSFH from the optical/NIR deep surveys describes only the unobscured star formation in galaxies, and may be blind to activities during the massive spheroid formation because of the significant dust extinction or the small field of view (Madau et al., 1996; Steidel et al., 1996; Connolly et al., 1997; Steidel et al., 1999). In fact, our knowledge of the cosmic star formation history, especially at high redshift, has dramatically changed in the last few years due to the results of the far-infrared and submillimeter deep surveys. The compelling lines of evidence show that the absorption and re-radiation of light by dust in the early epoch of galaxy formation and evolution is significant (Puget et al., 1996; Guiderdoni et al., 1997; Schlegel et al., 1998; Fixsen et al., 1998; Hauser et al., 1998; Sanders, 1999; Barger et al., 1999).

Although the observations at far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths may help to unveil the early dusty star formation epoch, it is still a very difficult job to obtain an unbiased view of the early star formation history from these luminous infrared systems due to the rather poor angular resolution of SCUBA and to the faintness of the optical counterparts (Blain et al. 1999a, ; De Zotti et al., 2001).

The main purpose of this paper is to fairly reconstruct the global star formation history associated with AGN accretion and give a proper estimation of the star formation activity during spheroid formation. We assume the X-ray luminosity $`\mathrm{L}_\mathrm{x}`$ of the AGN is powered by accretion onto a central massive black hole, especially during the luminous phase. Deep X-ray surveys provide a direct probe of the AGN accretion history, and the history of the black hole growth as well as the joint star formation, based on the assumption that the luminous AGNs reflect the stage of major black hole growth and spheroid formation (Boyle et al., 2000; Miyaji et al., 2000). In this paper, we trace the AGN evolution with the soft X-ray $`0.5\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\mathrm{keV}`$ local luminosity function and the evolution rate by Miyaji et al. (2000), which gives an excellent fit to the ROSAT surveys of various depth, including the number counts and the soft X-ray background.

The X-ray view of the CSFH is recently discussed by several authors for normal spiral galaxies where the X-ray emission is dominated by a population of X-ray binaries, hot interstellar gas, or even low luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs) with fluxes about $`10^{17}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{18}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ at $`0.5\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\mathrm{keV}`$ energy band (Cavaliere et al., 2000; Ptak et al., 2001; Hornschemeier et al., 2002; Miyaji et al., 2002). It is not the purpose of this paper to give any constraints on the star formation in galaxies or LLAGNs. Instead, we study the intensive star formation associated with black hole growth in massive spheroids using the X-ray surveys. We adopt in the calculation: 1) a simple connection between the X-ray emission from AGNs and the black hole mass by assuming an Eddington ratio $`ϵ`$; 2) the black hole to bulge mass correlation; 3) a similar time scale for the black hole growth and the intensive star formation populating finally the spheroids based on our previous work. The present day black hole density and the SCUBA number counts are used as two important model constraints in the calculation, with the set of cosmological parameters $`(\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m},\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda })=(0.3,0.7)`$ and $`\mathrm{H}_0=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}50}\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{Mpc}`$.

## 2 Black hole mass distribution and the accretion history from ROSAT surveys

The mass accretion onto the central black hole is an efficient source of X-ray radiation, especially for the luminous AGNs. Although X-ray binaries can contribute as much as $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}5}\%\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}\%`$ of the X-ray background (XRB) flux in the $`0.5\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\mathrm{keV}`$ band, the bulk of the energy density of the XRB is certainly explained by AGNs (Mushotzky et al., 2000; Barger et al. 2001a, ; Giacconi et al., 2001). Thus, the deep X-ray surveys could present good opportunities for the study of accretion history of AGNs. We estimate the black hole mass from the X-ray luminosity by assuming an Eddington ratio $`ϵ`$, which is defined as the fraction of Eddington luminosity at which AGN radiate ($`ϵ=\frac{\eta \dot{m}c^2}{\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{Edd}}}`$). With the bolometric correction $`\beta `$ ($`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{bol}}=\beta \mathrm{L}_\mathrm{x}`$), we find the black hole mass $`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{bh}}=\frac{\beta \mathrm{L}_\mathrm{x}}{0.013ϵ}`$. $`\mathrm{L}_\mathrm{x}`$ is the AGN $`0.5\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\mathrm{keV}`$ luminosity in units of $`10^{40}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{bh}}`$ in units of $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$. The black hole (BH) mass function at different redshifts is converted from the X-ray luminosity function $`\mathrm{\Phi }(L_\mathrm{x},z)`$ by assuming reasonable values for the Eddington ratio $`ϵ`$ and the “duty cycle $`\mathrm{f}_{\mathrm{on}}`$” of the AGN active phase. Following the findings of various AGN observations, $`ϵ`$ depends weakly on the luminosity, where most luminous QSOs radiate at about the Eddington limit and low luminosity AGNs ($`\mathrm{L}<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{44}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{s}`$) show $`ϵ\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.1}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.05}`$. We thus approximate $`ϵ=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{\gamma (log\mathrm{L}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}49})}`$; $`\gamma \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.2}`$ is a scaling factor (Padovani, 1989; Salucci et al., 1999; Wandel, 1999). The “duty cycle $`\mathrm{f}_{\mathrm{on}}`$”, i.e. the fraction of black holes which are active at a given time of redshift $`\mathrm{z}`$, may be a function of several parameters, such as the redshift and the quasar light curves. In this work, we simply assume that each AGN shines for a constant time $`\mathrm{t}_\mathrm{Q}`$, $`\mathrm{f}_{\mathrm{on}}=\mathrm{t}_\mathrm{Q}/\mathrm{t}_{\mathrm{Hub}}(\mathrm{z})`$, where $`\mathrm{t}_{\mathrm{Hub}}(\mathrm{z})`$ is the redshift dependent Hubble time. This means that we simplify the QSO activity as a single significant burst with shining ratio $`ϵ`$ and duration $`\mathrm{t}_\mathrm{Q}`$ (Haiman & Menou, 2000). The QSO life time $`\mathrm{t}_\mathrm{Q}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}5}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{yrs}`$ is adopted in this calculation, which is close to the e-folding time $`\mathrm{t}_\mathrm{e}=\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{BH}}/\dot{\mathrm{M}}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\eta /ϵ`$ shown in theoretical models with the radiation efficiency $`\eta \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.1}`$, and consistent with the new results of Chandra for the QSO accretion duration (Wang & Biermann, 1998; Burkert & Silk, 2001; Barger et al., 2001).

Although there are a variety of AGN spectra in the current sample of ROSAT X-ray regime by Miyaji et al. (2000), non type 1 AGNs are only a small fraction of the total sample and excluding them does not change the main results significantly. In this case, we consider all AGNs in the sample of ROSAT soft X-ray regime by Miyaji et al. (2000) as unobscured type 1, and include a bolometric correction $`\beta `$ to convert X-ray luminosity $`\mathrm{L}_\mathrm{x}`$ to black hole mass $`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{bh}}`$. $`\beta =\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}20}`$ is adopted in our calculation based on the mean type 1 AGN spectral energy distribution from Elvis et al. (1994). The black hole mass function $`\frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Phi }(z,M_{\mathrm{bh}})}{\mathrm{d}M_{\mathrm{bh}}}`$ can be derived from the observed X-ray luminosity function $`\frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Phi }(z,L_\mathrm{x})}{\mathrm{d}L_\mathrm{x}}`$ by:

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Phi }(z,M_{\mathrm{bh}})}{\mathrm{d}M_{\mathrm{bh}}}=\frac{0.013ϵ}{\beta f_{\mathrm{on}}}\frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Phi }(z,L_\mathrm{x})}{\mathrm{d}L_\mathrm{x}}$$
(1)
A Luminosity Dependent Density Evolution(LDDE) model is suggested by Miyaji et al.(2000), where the evolution rate drops with decreasing AGN luminosity, and provides a good representation of the available X-ray observational constraints. We follow the LDDE cosmological evolution for the ROSAT soft X-ray luminosity function $`\frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Phi }(z,L_\mathrm{x})}{\mathrm{d}L_\mathrm{x}}`$, and trace the black hole mass density accreted during the active phase with lookback time.

However, there are several lines of arguments which suggest that the optical and soft X-ray surveys may miss a large number of type 2 AGNs, especially the high luminosity type 2 QSOs at high redshift ($`\mathrm{L}_\mathrm{x}>\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{44}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$). Synthesis models of the X-ray background in particular require a large number of luminous obscured objects to reproduce the $`210\mathrm{keV}`$ source counts at relatively bright fluxes ($`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{13}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$). The ratio of type 2 to unobscured type 1 Seyferts ($`L_\mathrm{x}<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{44}ergs^1`$) and the luminous type 2 to type 1 QSOs are usually in the range of $`4\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}`$, in order to get a best fit of the available X-ray observations (Maiolino & Rieke, 1995; Fabian & Iwasawa, 1999; Gilli et al., 2001; Maiolino et al., 2001). Although the Chandra and XMM-Newton deep surveys have recently detected several examples of the type 2 QSOs, Alexander et al.(2001) suggests that their abundance is definitely much lower than what is expected by the XRB population synthesis models, and probably in a ratio of about $`1\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}`$ (Norman et al., 2002; Stern et al., 2002; Hasinger et al., 2001; Akiyama et al., 2002).

Since the Miyaji et al. (2000) sample may represent only the population and evolution of the type 1 AGNs (i.e. type 1 Seyferts and type 1 QSOs), we adopt a reasonable fraction of obscured type 2 sources in our calculation to include the amount of star formation in the host galaxies of the obscured objects. Maiolino & Rieke (1995) derived an estimate for the ratio of the local absorbed to unabsorbed low luminosity AGNs around a value of 4. Unlike the absorption distribution of local Seyferts, the existence and abundance of the luminous type 2 QSOs is very uncertain. The difficulties are that: 1)some type 2 QSOs could be hidden in the Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIGs) (Kim & Sanders, 1998); 2)although it is still to be verified, some type 2 QSOs appear as normal blue, broad-lined QSOs in the optical (Halpern et al., 1999).

However, the present observational data suggests that the evolution of the obscured objects might be different from that of the unobscured ones, with the number ratio of type 2 to type 1 QSOs increasing with redshift (Gilli et al., 1999; Pompilio et al., 2000; Reeves & Turner, 2000; Gilli et al., 2001). In this case, we divide the soft X-ray Luminosity Function(XLF) into two luminosity regions according to the $`0.5\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\mathrm{keV}`$ e-folding luminosity $`\mathrm{L}_\mathrm{s}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{44.3}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The abundance ratio of type 2 to type 1 Seyferts ($`\mathrm{L}_\mathrm{x}<\mathrm{L}_\mathrm{s}`$) is set equal to 4 and the ratio of type 2 to type 1 QSOs is simplified as $`\alpha (1+z)^p`$. $`\alpha `$ and $`\mathrm{p}`$ are free parameters. We also explored the possibility that the abundance ratio of LLAGNs is much higher than 4, i.e. as high as 10. It seems that the current far-infrared and submillimeter deep surveys are not robust enough to contrain this value. Probably, it is because LLAGNs do not contribute much to the bright SCUBA number counts. In this case, the abundance ratio of the low luminosity Seyferts is not critical for this work. Thus, the abundance ratio of type 2 to type 1 AGNs including low luminosity Seyferts and QSOs can be described as the following:

$$R_{21}=4e^{\frac{L_\mathrm{x}}{L_\mathrm{s}}}+\alpha (1+z)^p(1e^{\frac{L_\mathrm{x}}{L_\mathrm{s}}})$$
(2)
Considering the present day black hole density $`\rho _{\mathrm{BH}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}5}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^5\mathrm{M}_{}/\mathrm{Mpc}^3`$ and the submillimeter deep surveys as the model constraints, we found the ratio of the obscured type 2 to unobscured type 1 QSOs has an upper limit of about 2 ($`\alpha `$ and $`\mathrm{p}`$ have the best fit values of $`0.1`$ and $`1.9`$). There is not much room left for a ratio far beyond this number. This is actually consistent with the results of recent Chandra deep surveys by Alexander et al. (2001) who suggests that this ratio is unlikely to be more than 8 and is probably considerably lower. Since X-ray emission directly measures the accretion of AGNs, we show in Fig. 1 the accretion history from the model calculation. The solid line illustrates the accretion history of the type 1 AGNs only; while the dashed line is for the case with type 2 AGNs included. The accretion rate density $`\dot{\rho _{\mathrm{bh}}}`$ in units of $`\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^3`$ from a multiwavelength study of 69 hard X-ray selected sources in the field of Abell 370 cluster (A370), Hawaii Survey Field (SSA13) and Chandra Deep Field-North (CDF-N) for four redshift bins are also ploted in Fig. 1, where the blue asterisks represent the accretion onto the AGNs calculated from their bolometric luminosities and the red crosses are from their X-ray luminosities as a low limit. Fig. 1 shows that the predicted accretion rate density of the type 1 AGNs is below the upper bound derived from the hard X-ray selected samples (Barger et al., 2001). Meanwhile, we see that the fraction of type 2 AGNs included in our model still agrees with the current results of deep hard X-ray surveys. It is worth mentioning that the treatment of the abundance of type 2 AGNs in this work is very rough. We need more data from the Chandra and XMM-Newton surveys at significant fainter fluxes to better constrain the abundances.

## 3 Star formation associated with black hole growth and the SCUBA counts

Recent observations seem to support an evolutionary scenario where the black hole growth and intensive star formation during the spheroid formation are co-evolving events. In this scheme, the accretion onto a seed black hole and the rapid star formation in a $`\mathrm{kpc}`$ region are significantly enhanced due to a merging process or tidal interactions. Accretion $`+`$ star formation compete for the gas supply and may self-regulate by the fundamental properties of the viscous accretion disk, leading to the formation of massive black holes scaling with their spheroids. In this case, the mass function of spheroids may have a similar form to the balck hole mass function, and the spheroidal mass distribution $`\frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Phi }(z,M_{\mathrm{sph}})}{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{sph}}}`$ could be derived by:

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Phi }(z,M_{\mathrm{sph}})}{\mathrm{d}M_{\mathrm{sph}}}=\frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Phi }(z,M_{\mathrm{bh}})}{\mathrm{d}M_{\mathrm{bh}}}\mathrm{R}(\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{bh}}/\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{sph}})$$
(3)
$`\mathrm{R}(\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{bh}}/\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{sph}})`$ is the black hole to bulge mass ratio. We adopt here a mean value $`\mathrm{R}(\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{bh}}/\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{sph}})\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.002}`$ as the first approximation (McLeod & Rieke, 1994; Kormendy & Richstone, 1995; Faber et al., 1997; Magorrian et al., 1998; Merritt & Ferrarese 2001a, ).

The aim of this section is mainly to estimate the star formation rate during spheroid formation in individual galaxies, and then discuss the co-moving star formation history related with such an epoch. The SCUBA number counts are used as a model constraint or consistency check for the amount of star formation, especially at $`z>\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$.

The basic assumption of this calculation is that the stellar population of the spheroids are mostly from an intensive star formation phase in the central $`\mathrm{kpc}`$ region which is associated with the mass accretion onto the central black holes. In the model calculation of Wang & Biermann (1998), star formation would dominate the energy output in the first $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}5}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{yrs}`$ for the stellar black hole growing to a mass of $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$, even with full-Eddington accretion. Because of the heavy dust extinction, the intensive star formation during this process would emit a large fraction of its energy at infrared wavelength. The Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIGs) may represent such a dust-enshrouded stage of both intensive starbursts and AGNs. Once the AGN activity becomes powerful enough, the nucleus sheds its obscuring dust, allowing the AGN to visually dominate, completing the evolutionary process from ULIGs to optically selected QSOs (Sanders et al., 1988; Yamada, 1994; Mihos & Hernquist, 1996; Silk & Rees, 1998; Taniguchi et al., 1999).

We adopt a characteristic star formation time scale $`\tau _{\mathrm{sf}}`$ for the starburst activities coupled with the black hole growth, which is approximately equal to the QSO life time $`\mathrm{t}_\mathrm{Q}`$ (i.e. $`\tau _{\mathrm{sf}}t_\mathrm{Q}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}5}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{yrs}`$). This is consistent with the predictions of the theoretical models and the recent Chandra results of the QSO accretion duration (Wang & Biermann, 1998; Burkert & Silk, 2001; Barger et al., 2001). The star formation rate during such a phase would be $`\mathrm{SFR}=\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{sph}}/\tau _{\mathrm{sf}}`$. Following the cosmological evolution inferred from X-ray deep surveys, we get the redshift dependent black hole mass distribution by eq. 1, and the mass function of spheroids with redshift by eq. 3. So far, we get to know the star formation rate in individual spheroid during the past active phase, the mass distribution and the cosmological evolution. The co-moving star formation rate vs. redshift from our calculation is shown in Fig. 2.

In section 2, we have applied the local black hole density to constrain the black hole mass distribution and cosmological evolution in our calculation. Independently, submillimeter deep survey would be a good tracer and constraint of such an active star formation stage associated with the major phase of black hole growth and spheroid formation. To discuss the contribution of such an intensive star formation phase to the SCUBA number counts, we should convert the star formation rate to far-infrared emission for individual source. This relation is not straightforward even for the local ULIGs because of the high internal extinction. A number of authors have discussed how the star formation rate in a galaxy can be inferred from its optical, UV or far-infrared luminosity (Scoville & Young, 1983; Leitherer & Heckman, 1995; Rowan-Robinson et al., 1997). The transformation factor depending upon star formation parameters could vary by more than one order of magnitude. We adopt a mean value $`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{FIR}}/\mathrm{L}_{}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3.8}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^9\mathrm{SFR}(\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1)`$, and a mean color ratio $`\mathrm{R}_\mathrm{c}=\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{FIR}}/\mathrm{L}_{850}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}5}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^3`$ given by Chary & Elbaz (2001) from IRAS, ISO and SCUBA surveys.

Similar to eq. 1, we can derive the $`850\mu m`$ luminosity function at different redshift as follow:

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Phi }(z,L_{850})}{\mathrm{d}L_{850}}=f_{\widehat{\mathrm{on}}}\frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Phi }(z,M_{\mathrm{sph}})}{\mathrm{d}M_{\mathrm{sph}}}\frac{\mathrm{d}M_{\mathrm{sph}}}{\mathrm{d}L_{850}}$$
(4)
where $`\mathrm{f}_{\widehat{\mathrm{on}}}=\mathrm{t}_{\mathrm{sf}}/\mathrm{t}_{\mathrm{Hub}}`$ reflects the fraction of galaxies which are in the active stage with intensive star formation ongoing. $`\frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{sph}}}{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{L}_{850}}=\frac{\nu \mathrm{R}_\mathrm{c}\mathrm{t}_{\mathrm{sf}}}{3.8\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^9L_{}}`$, $`\mathrm{R}_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`\mathrm{t}_{\mathrm{sf}}`$ are the parameters adopted in our model and discussed above. $`\nu =\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3.5}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{11}`$ is the frequency of $`850\mu m`$. Since early star formation could be well constrained by the far-infrared and submillimeter deep surveys, we show the $`850\mu m`$ number count fitting in Fig. 3. We find that the amount of star formation related to the spheroid formation during the black hole growth heats the dust sufficiently to account for the far-infrared emission in most of the SCUBA counts.

Throughout the discussion above, we only focus on the star formation history in massive spheroids, i.e. elliptical galaxies or the disk galaxies with bulges. Although there are two kinds of bulges in the disk galaxies strengthened by especially Hubble Space Telescope (”mini-elliptical” vs. ”pseudobulge”) and their formation mechanism might be very different, both of them follow the same correlation of $`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{bh}}\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{B},\mathrm{bulge}}`$ or $`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{bh}}\sigma _\mathrm{e}`$, presumably consistent with a scenario that the bulge formation and the black hole growth are closely connected (Carollo et al., 1997; Carollo et al. 1998a, ; Carollo et al. 1998b, ; Peletier et al., 2000). The star formation during the massive spheroid formation would be drastic and dusty, very probably missing in the current UV/optical deep surveys. However, some disk galaxies harbor only small black holes with the black hole to bulge mass ratio much lower than that of the spheroidal systems. The typical example is M33, a bulgeless galaxy with the upper limit on a black hole mass $`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{bh}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1000}\mathrm{M}_{}`$ (three magnitude lower than what is expected from the mass correlation in massive systems). The star formation in these galaxies may be mild and the dust extinction is not so severe. Normally they are contained in the optical deep surveys, or other studies of the spiral galaxies (Cavaliere et al., 2000; Hornschemeier et al., 2002). The detailed discussion of the star formation history of these galaxies are beyond the scope of this paper.

## 4 Discussion and summary

We have begun to probe the cosmic star formation history associated with AGN accretion by X-ray deep surveys based on the tight correlation of $`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{bh}}\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{B},\mathrm{bulge}}`$ in early type galaxies and nearby AGNs. This approach is parallel and complementary to the current study from optical and infrared observations of the star formation activities at $`\mathrm{z}>\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$ (Madau et al., 1998; Pettini et al., 1998; Hughes et al., 1998; Barger et al., 1998; Ellis, 1998).

The cosmic star formation history associated with AGN accretion derived from our calculation is approximately comparable to that of the normal galaxies in Madau plot after a reasonable dust correction, although they are much rarer objects compared with optically selected galaxies (The co-moving number density of luminous AGNs is as small as $`10^7\mathrm{Mpc}^3`$, see Fig. 2). In this case, we might say that about half of the star formation (if not more) in our Universe is closely connected with AGN accretion, and we might severely overlook the intensive star formation during the epoch of the spheroidal formation by optical/NIR surveys due to the significant dust extinction and the small sample volume of these surveys.

We found from Fig. 2 that the peak of the intensive star formation representing the spheroid formation is at $`\mathrm{z}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}`$, not necessarily much beyond this epoch even if we take into account a reasonable fraction of type 2 QSOs at high redshift. According to various observation, we divide the soft X-ray luminosity function into two luminosity regions, where the abundance ratio of the type 2 to type 1 Seyferts is set equal to 4, and the ratio of the type 2 to type 1 QSOs is simplified as a power law function of $`\alpha (1+z)^p`$. Actually an upper limit of the abundance ratio of the type 2 to type 1 QSOs is about $`1\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}`$ from our calculation with the constraints of the local black hole mass density and the results of the submillimeter deep surveys. However, current model constraints are not sufficient to reject a much higher abundance ratio for low luminosity type 2 to type 1 AGNs ($`>4`$). The reason may be that the bright SCUBA counts are dominated by the luminous AGNs and the ratio of the low luminosity AGNs is not critical. Future results of the Chandra and XMM/Newton deep surveys would give more information on the abundance of the obscured objects.

The energy budget of the submillimeter sources has been discussed by several authors, which show that the AGN powered far-infrared emission in the obscured objects could account for only a certain fraction of the SCUBA number counts (Almaini et al., 1999; Risaliti et al., 2002). The SCUBA/X-ray anti-correlation of the Chandra deep surveys gives a clear detection of AGN activities in those samples only $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}\%`$ (Bautz et al., 2000; Fabian et al., 2000; Barger et al. 2001b, ; Hornschemeier et al., 2001). Nevertheless, Fig. 3 shows that the far-infrared emission from the dust heated by the intensive star formation during the black hole growth could sufficiently interpret the number counts of the submillimeter deep surveys, where the SCUBA number counts are dominated by the contribution from the star formation in the host galaxies of the luminous type 1 or type 2 QSOs, and the the faint parts ($`\mathrm{S}_{850}<1\mathrm{mJy}`$) may be from those low luminosity X-ray sources with small bulges. In this case, our calculation may indicate that the star formation activity might dominate the energy power (at least comparable to the AGNs) in the far-infrared emission in these SCUBA sources, consistent with the multiwavelength observations of the submillimeter selected galaxies. They suggest that even when an AGN is present in a SCUBA source, it rarely dominates the engergy budget of the galaxy (Frayer et al., 1998; Alexander et al., 2002; Ivison et al., 2002; Smail et al., 2002).

YPW acknowledges the COE Fellowship of Japan and the NSFC 10173025 of China. We would like to thank the anonymous referee for the helpful comments and suggestions. YPW also feels very grateful to Ms Jenny Greene for her kindness to correct the English of this paper.


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# Decay, interference, and chaos: How simple atoms mimic disorder

## 1 Introduction

Probability transport in disordered media is an equally exciting and active field at the very heart of statistical physics. Many particle dynamics in a gas, turbulent hydrodynamic flow, the traffic flow across canonically overcrowded european highways, and, last but not least, the flow of money across stock and option markets are described by statistical means. Also in the microscopic realm we are often confronted with similar situations where it is impossible to track each single detail of the system under study – either because we ignore the precise form of the potentials which generate the dynamics, or because the number of individual constituents of the system is simply too large, or a combination of both. Well-known examples thereof are the charge transmission through mesoscopic wires, the scattering of slow neutrons off heavy nuclei, or the ion transport across cellular membranes. On this microscopic level, however, when noise is sufficiently weak, quantum interference and tunneling can dramatically affect classical probability transport, and weak cord  and strong (vulgo Anderson) localization anderson , the Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator transition (see Zoller’s contribution to this issue), Ericson fluctuations ericson , chaos assisted tunneling ullmo , or (universal) conductance fluctuations lh94  are just the most prominent ones of the many surprising phenomena which are born out by coherent complex transport on the microscopic scale.

On a first glance, such signatures of complex dynamics (brought about by random potentials and/or many-particle interactions) appear precisely what we do not expect when dealing with well isolated atomic or quantum optical systems. In the quest for an almost perfect control of matter, we seek optimal control of the potentials which determine the dynamics (see Gerber’s contribution), in time and in space. Hence, how can such low-dimensional systems mimic the complex dynamics of disordered systems? The answer is – precisely – Hamiltonian chaos, induced by nonlinear and perfectly controlled coupling of the few (at least two are needed lichtenberg ) degrees of freedom available. Given a sufficiently high density of states (in a quantum system with a discrete or quasi-discrete spectrum), such coupling can destroy the symmetries, and this is the good quantum numbers of the unperturbed dynamics, giving rise to an extremely complex spectrum characterized by an abundance of anticrossings of strongly variable size (see also Saenz’ contribution) advances . If we now prepare a wave function of arbitrary shape at an arbitrary location in phase space, its time evolution will indeed reflect the complex spectral structure, and, consequently, feature the characteristic properties of complex/disordered systems. This is the essential consequence of the random matrix conjecture oriol , which states that the spectral properties of low dimensional quantum systems with underlying chaotic classical dynamics exhibit the same (universal) statistical features as complex quantum systems described by Random Matrix Theory (which took its origin in the attempt wigner  to give a robust description of compound nuclear reactions – despite the little knowledge about the detailed nature of the potentials which generate the experimentally observed cross sections).

Which are the good experimental observables to monitor those features? In the usual setting of, e.g., charge transmission across a disordered lattice, transport occurs in configuration space, and the experimentalist measures a transmission probability. Such scenario can nowadays be mimicked in quantum optical table top realizations of “ideal” lattices, where a suitable laser configuration establishes a periodic (1D or 2D or 3D) potential, with adjustable lattice constant and modulation depth. Cold atoms or ions initially prepared at one specific location can then be monitored as they move across the sample walther , and it is equally possible to enforce the transition from localized to delocalized (in configuration space) eigenstates on the lattice greiner . On the other hand, we may ask with equal right whether certain phenomena familiar from the theory of complex and/or disordered systems can be imported to electronic dynamics on the scale of a single, simple atom, with few degrees of freedom, and no a priori resemblence with familiar transport problems. In other words, do disorder induced phenomena have any general and robust bearing for the dynamics of simple atomic systems exposed to strong perturbations? The answer is positive, and can be elaborated for various of the above-mentioned coherent transport phenomena. For reasons of time and space, we shall specialize here to Anderson localization in driven atomic systems, and, more specifically, in atomic Rydberg states under microwave driving.

## 2 Anderson localization on the atomic scale

Anderson localization is a disorder induced effect, which was predicted anderson  by Anderson to occur in the transmission of a charge across a one dimensional, disordered lattice. As depicted in Fig. 1, the problem cooks down to the transmission of a particle across a one dimensional random potential, at a given injection energy. The number of paths which guide the particle from the left to the right of the sample is exponentially large, since at each hump of the potential the particle can be either reflected or transmitted (with randomly distributed transmission and reflection coefficients), thus multiplying the available paths by a factor of two at each hump. The transmission amplitudes associated with these different paths acquire randomly distributed phases as they migrate through the sample, and interfere destructively (if the phases get homogeneously distributed over the unit circle) on exit at the right edge of the sample. Hence, a disordered potential leads to the suppression of transmission by quantum interference, and a more quantitative analysis shows that the eigenfunctions of the particle are exponentially localized over the lattice, with a characteristic localization length $`\xi `$. The final figure of merit which determines the measured conductance across the sample is $`\xi /L`$, with $`L`$ the length of the sample. $`\xi /L`$ determines the population of the last site right at the edge of the sample, and hence the probability flux which can escape from the sample, via the coupling matrix element connecting the last site to the leads – attached to the sample to probe the conductance.

We now import this scenario to the atomic realm, more specifically to the excitation and ionization dynamics of atomic Rydberg states under microwave driving. As mentioned above, for features of complex/disordered transport to become manifest on the atomic scale, we need a high density of states actively involved in the dynamics. This is guaranteed in the Rydberg regime under microwave driving, since the typical Rydberg energy splitting lies in the microwave frequencies, and, consequently, many Rydberg states will be efficiently coupled by the drive (through subsequent, near-resonant one photon absorptions). The atomic transport process which we want to parallel with the Anderson scenario is the transport of electronic population initially prepared in a well defined atomic initial state $`|\varphi _0=|n_0,\mathrm{}_0,m_0`$ (where spherical quantum numbers are used, as will be done throughout the sequal of this paper) towards the atomic continuum – easily measured as the ionization yield $`P_{\mathrm{ion}}`$ for given field amplitude $`F`$, field frequency $`\omega `$, and interaction time $`t`$. To make the analogy complete, we have to remind ourselves of the slow variation of the level splitting with energy in the Rydberg domain. As a consequence of this unharmonicity of the spectrum, the subsequent one photon transition matrix elements which establish the “hopping matrix elements” between the different “sites” on the energy axis mimic a random series brenner96 , due to the imperfect matching (tantamount to quasi random detuning) of the driving frequency with the exact transition frequency (much as the simplest random number generators built on a modulo operation numrec ). Consequently, if we replace “transmission/reflection” in the above transmission problem à la Anderson by “absorption/emission” in the atomic excitation process, 1D configuration space by the energy axis, and the attached leads by the atomic continuum, we encounter precisely the same scenario: An exponentially large number of paths visiting different sites (near resonantly coupled Rydberg states in the atomic problem) accumulate quasi random phases on exit from the sample, i.e., at the ionization threshold. If one photon transitions from the last near resonantly coupled bound state to the continuum define the dominant ionization channel, the atomic ionization yield will be proportional to this state’s population – determined by the localization parameter $`\xi /L`$ already familiar from the Anderson scenario. Again, the sample length $`L`$ is given by the number of sites which span the lattice, equivalent to the ionization potential of the atomic initial state in multiples of the driving field photon energy. Provided $`\xi /L1`$, the Anderson model predicts exponential suppression of the ionization yield due to quantum interference. Despite the strong, near resonant driving, the atom will cease absorbing energy from the field!

In fact, there already are abundant experimental data galvez88 ; bayfield89 ; arndt91 ; noel2000  which indicate that the above mechanism is at work in driven Rydberg states of atomic hydrogen and of alkali atoms. The central experimental result is an increase of the “scaled ionization threshold amplitude” $`F_0^{(10\%)}=F^{(10\%)}n_0^4`$ with increasing principal quantum number $`n_0`$ of the initial atomic state. In other words, the field amplitude $`F_0^{(10\%)}`$ required to ionize $`10\%`$ of the atoms, at given field frequency $`\omega `$ and interaction time $`t`$, measured in units of the average Coulomb field $`n_0^4`$ experienced by the electron on its unperturbed initial Kepler orbit, increases as we decrease the ionization potential of the atomic initial state! This is in dramatic contradiction with the result of a classical treatment, which predicts systematically smaller ionization thresholds (due to classically chaotic phase space transport) than observed in the experiment. Consequently, there exists a range of field amplitudes which induce efficient classical ionization, whilst the experimentally observed yield is close to zero. This quantum suppression of classically chaotic ionization is interpreted as a signature of Anderson localization, and traditionally termed “dynamical localization”, such as to identify dynamical chaos as the cause of the quasi-randomization of the hopping matrix elements in the Anderson picture. However, this experimental finding is only consistent with the hypothesis of Anderson localization, it is not a clear proof – simply since one may imagine different mechanisms which inhibit the ionization process, such as semiclassical stabilization effects caused by (partial) barriers in phase space graham ; benson95 ; physrep . Furthermore, most experiments have been performed under slightly different experimental conditions: not only have different atomic species been used, but also different atomic initial states were exposed to microwave fields of different frequencies $`\omega `$ and of variable duration $`t`$. All available experimental data exhibit large quantitative differences between the ionization threshold of atomic hydrogen on the one hand and of nonhydrogenic initial states of alkali atoms on the other, with the alkali thresholds down by a factor five to ten as compared to the hydrogen thresholds benson95 . The original theory of dynamical localization in driven atomic systems fishman82 , based on a very crude model of the actual bound state atomic dynamics, is not suited to explain these quantitative differences nor to definitively exclude processes distinct from Anderson localization which might cause the observed increase of $`F_0^{(10\%)}`$.

What we therefore need is an accurate theoretical treatment of microwave driven one electron Rydberg states of atomic hydrogen and of alkali atoms. Such treatment is not only required to explain the experimental findings so far available in a consistent and unified way, but also to guide future experiments which seek to test quantitative predictions which follow from Anderson localization theory for the atomic ionization process.

## 3 An accurate treatment of one electron Rydberg states under electromagnetic driving

Our specific problem is described by the $`2\pi /\omega `$-periodic Hamiltonian

$$H(t)=\frac{𝐩^2}{2}+V_{\mathrm{atom}}(r)+𝐅𝐫\mathrm{cos}\omega t,r>0,$$
(1)
where $`V_{\mathrm{atom}}(r)`$ denotes the atomic potential seen by the valence electron, which is taken care of by a R-matrix approach krug .111The R-matrix treatment requires input of the quantum defects of the non-hydrogenic angular momentum states of the unperturbed alkali atoms, known from high precision spectroscopy experiments lorenzen . The periodicity of $`H`$ suggests to explore Floquet theory floquet ; buchl95 , and we therefore end up solving the Floquet eigenvalue problem

$$|\epsilon _j=\epsilon _j|\epsilon _j,$$
(2)
with the Floquet Hamiltonian

$$=H\mathrm{i}_t,$$
(3)
the spectrum of which is invariant under translations by $`\omega `$. Knowledge of the $`|\epsilon _j`$ and $`\epsilon _j`$ within an energy range of width $`\omega `$ is therefore sufficient for a complete description of the dynamics.

After a further Fourier transform of the $`2\pi /\omega `$-periodic $`|\epsilon _j`$, amended by complex dilation of the Hamiltonian buchl95 ; combes , the eigenvalue problem is represented in a real Sturmian basis, what converts (3) into a block-tridiagonal, complex symmetric, sparse banded eigenvalue problem krug ; buchl95 ; wirwannwo . Note that the strong selection rules induced by the Sturmian basis are absolutely crucial for the numerical treatment of our problem, since they allow for a considerable reduction of the required memory. In the parameter range typically employed in the laboratory, typical dimensions are $`10^6\times 10^4`$, what nontheless requires a very large parallel supercomputer. Indeed, all the results presented hereafter were obtained on the CRAY T3E of the High Performance Computing Center RZG of the Max-Planck-Society at Garching and, once this machine became too small, on the Hitachi SR8000-F1 of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich. Though, the availability of such a large machine is not enough. In addition, an efficient parallel implementation of the Lanczos diagonalization routine is needed, which is by no means a trivial requirement, due to considerable communication between different (and not only adjacent) processors of the parallel machine.

Once the theoretical and numerical machinery briefly sketched above is assembled, we can start our “numerical experiment”, which closely mimics the reality in the laboratory. The “counts” which the numerical experimentalist has to collect much as his colleague in the real lab are the poles of the resolvent operator in the lower half of the complex plane akab02 , i.e. the complex eigenvalues $`\epsilon _j=E_ji\mathrm{\Gamma }_j/2`$ of the above eigenvalue problem. From these we can immediately extract the ionization yield buchl95

$$P_{\mathrm{ion}}=1\underset{\epsilon }{}|\varphi _0|\epsilon |^2\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Gamma }_\epsilon t),$$
(4)
for the specific choice of $`|\varphi _0`$, $`t`$, $`\omega `$, and $`F`$. Note that approx. $`4000\mathrm{}10000`$ poles are typically collected here. This is simply due to the fact that the decomposition of the atomic initial state $`|\varphi _0`$ in the dressed state basis is extremely broad in our present case swakab , what is a direct consequence of the efficient destruction of good quantum numbers by the driving microwave field, and, hence, of quantum chaos.

## 4 A unified view on Anderson localization in driven atoms

With the above, we can now perform a direct comparison of the ionization thresholds of atomic Rydberg states of hydrogen and of those of alkali Rydberg states, under precisely equivalent conditions. For the sake of comparison to the arguably largest experimental data set (produced in the Stony Brook group pmk ), we specifically choose $`\omega /2\pi =36\mathrm{GHz}`$, $`t=327\times 2\pi /\omega `$, and $`n_0=28\mathrm{}80`$, $`\mathrm{}_0=m_0=0`$, where $`m_0`$ is conserved under linearly polarized driving. Precisely as in the laboratory, we scan $`F`$ from low to high values, monitor the dependence of $`P_{\mathrm{ion}}`$ on $`F`$, and extract $`F_0^{(10\%)}`$, for increasing values of $`n_0`$. Fig. 2 shows a comparison of our numerical results for lithium $`\mathrm{}_0=0`$ states to laboratory results on atomic hydrogen. Surprisingly, and in perfect contradiction to all published experimental evidence, the nonhydrogenic (the $`\mathrm{}_0=0`$ state carries the largest quantum defect $`\delta _{\mathrm{}_0=0}=0.399468`$) lithium Rydberg states exhibit essentially the same ionization thresholds as atomic hydrogen in regime (I), i.e. for “scaled frequencies” $`\omega _0=\omega n_0^3>0.8`$. Only for decreasing values of $`n_0`$ leading to smaller values of $`\omega _0`$ do we observe an increasing discrepancy between the hydrogenic and alkali thresholds. It turns our that this can be traced back to the local density of states in the Rydberg series of the different atomic species wirwannwo : For $`\omega `$ larger than the local hydrogenic level spacing – which scales like $`n_0^3`$, hence $`\omega _01`$ – the atomic excitation process is essentially unaffected by the spectral substructure in the alkalis. The atomic system offers a ladder of near resonant one photon transitions connecting $`|\varphi _0`$ to the continuum (see Fig. 1), and it is irrelevant for the transport process whether this occurs under the participation or in the absence of non-hydrogenic states. However, once the driving frequency is smaller than the hydrogenic level spacing but still larger than the splitting between the non-hydrogenic alkali initial state and the hydrogenic manifold, the same sequence of near resonant one photon transitions can still be established in the alkali atom, whilst in hydrogen only sequences of higher order transitions are left to mediate the ionization process. Hence, the realm of the Anderson scenario outlined in the introduction extends over a wider range of principal quantum numbers in the alkali species than in atomic hydrogen, and this is indeed manifest in Fig. 2: In regime (II), with $`0.4\omega _00.8`$, the lithium data continue to exhibit decreasing thresholds with decreasing $`\omega _0`$, as an indicator of Anderson localization, whilst the hydrogenic thesholds rapidly increase as the binding potential is increased (and the local density of states is decreased, as compared to the photon energy). Finally, in regime (III), also the local energy splitting in the alkali atom is too large to be driven near resonantly by a single photon. The Anderson scenario breaks down, and the thresholds saturate in the plot of Fig. 2.

The above results hold, at least, a two-fold message: First, there is the prediction that comparable ionization thresholds for alkali and hydrogen Rydberg states will be observed once the driving frequency is larger than the spacing between adjacent hydrogenic manifolds. This quantitative prediciton can be checked immediately in state of the art laboratory experiments noel2000 . Second, when re-analyzing all available experimental data on the microwave ionization of non-hydrogenic alkali Rydberg states by scaling the driving field amplitude and frequency as done in Fig. 2, we find Diss  that all these data were obtained in regimes (II) and (III), what explains the apparently dramaticly enhanced ionization yields of non-hydrogenic alkali Rydberg states as compared to hydrogen wirwannwo ; Diss . Note that this discrepancy remained a puzzle over more than one decade pmk , since, so far, precisely identical experimental conditions for different atomic species were never established in the lab, and the appropriate scaling of $`F`$ and $`\omega `$ was controversial due to the badly defined classical analog of the alkali Rydberg dynamics arndt91 ; benson95 ; pmk . As a matter of fact, our comparison of hydrogen and lithium data in terms of scaled units in Fig. 2 do not imply any a priori assumptions, since they were obtained for the same laboratory values of all physical parameters, but the fact that alkali and hydrogen thresholds coincide in regime (I) proves that, for sufficiently high driving frequencies, the hydrogenic scaling holds even for alkalis! Even more, we do know by now Diss  that also non-hydrogenic initial states of sodium and rubidium exhibit the same, hydrogenic, threshold in regime (I), what strongly suggests that this is a universal threshold for one-electron Rydberg states. Only this universality makes the increase of $`F_0^{(10\%)}`$ with $`\omega _0`$ or $`n_0^3`$ a sufficient condition for the Anderson scenario to prevail, since only the universality shows that the only relevant ingredient is the local density of states compared to the photon energy.

There is another consequence of Anderson localization theory which can be imported to our atomic system: The localization length $`\xi `$ is really well-defined a quantity only in the limit of infinite sample length, and will fluctuate around this limiting value for finite $`L`$ pichard . The theoretical modelling of the conductance across an Anderson localized 1D wire of finite length $`L`$ predicts a normal distribution of the logarithm of the properly normalized conductance $`g`$, if sampled over different realizations of the random lattice potential (see Fig. 1), at fixed $`\xi /L`$ pichard . Since the (mesoscopic) conductance is given by nothing but a sum over transition matrix elements (from left to right of the sample) landauer , we can come up with an analogous definition of the “atomic conductance” in our ionization problem abigjz98 ,

$$g:=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Delta }}\underset{j}{}|\varphi _0|\epsilon _j|^2\mathrm{\Gamma }_j,$$
(5)
since the decay rates $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_j`$ can be understood as transition matrix elements of a suitably defined Floquet scattering problem sawda  (with $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ the average level spacing). Now, if Anderson is at work in the atomic problem, the atomic conductance has to exhibit the same statistical properties as required by the theory of disordered transport – and, indeed, it does! Fig. 3 shows the distribution of the atomic conductance of a 1D model atom abigjz98  (the electron is confined to the configuration space axis parallel to the polarization of the driving field), for fixed $`\xi /L=0.2`$ (which is given in terms of $`n_0,F,\omega `$, according to the original theory of dynamical localization fishman82 ), and for two different values $`n_0=40,100`$ of the principal quantum number.222For each plot approx. 500 complex-valued spectra have been sampled, making such statistics even for the 1D model atom a rather expensive enterprise. By now, however, we have first evidence from 3D calculations that the same result can be expected for the real atom swakab . The lognormal fit to the data is excellent for $`n_0=100`$, what represents another, independent and quantitative indicator of Anderson localization as the dominant mechanism which determines the energy exchange between the atom and the field. We also observe in Fig. 3 that the fit is significantly worse for $`n_0=40`$, what, however, does not contradict our preceding statement: At too low quantum numbers, the atomic sample size $`L`$, i.e. the number of near resonantly coupled Rydberg states between $`|\varphi _0`$ and the continuum threshold is too small ($`L10`$) to allow for a smooth exponential localization of the electronic wavefunction over the energy axis ($`\xi =0.2L=2`$). The figure therefore simply highlights a finite size effect.

Finally, Fig. 4 shows the physical imprint of the lognormal distribution of Fig. 3, the dependence of the ionization yield $`P_{\mathrm{ion}}`$ on the scaled frequency $`\omega _0`$, at $`\xi /L=0.2`$ (below threshold in Fig. 2): The yield is typically very small, close to zero, but exhibits strong, erratic enhancements at particular values of $`\omega _0`$. Correspondingly, the atomic conductance $`g`$ fluctuates on a logarithmic scale, in the right column of the figure. This is nothing but the immediate signature of the highly sensitive interference of the many paths defined by subsequent absorption and emission events mediating the transition from the initial state to the atomic continuum (see Fig. 1), and a specific signature of Anderson localization. The reader should contemplate this strongly fluctuating signal, since what fluctuates is a quantity obtained from a weighted average over the entire Floquet spectrum, and not just one single rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_j`$!

## 5 Conclusion

We provided two independent, quantitative proofs for Anderson localization as the dominant mechanism which governs the excitation and ionization process of strongly driven one electron Rydberg systems. Given the universal ionization threshold which we observed for atomic hydrogen and lithium Rydberg states in the high frequency parameter range, it appears legitimate to speculate that this disorder-induced quantum interference effect can be generalized for an even larger class of driven atomic or molecular system, if only the simple Anderson scenario can be etablished on the energy axis, as depicted in Fig. 1.

## 6 Acknowledgements

This paper is dedicated to Peter Lambropoulos, and might serve to illustrate a remark due to Bertrand Russell -

> The pursuit of quantitative precision is as arduous as it is important.

in his “ABC of relativity”, which could be due to Peter as well.

Support as a Grand Challenge project at the Leibniz-Rechenzentrum of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences is most gratefully acknowledged.