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# References

Truly Minimal Left-Right Model of
Quark and Lepton Masses
Biswajoy Brahmachari1,2, Ernest Ma3, and Utpal Sarkar4

1 Theoretical Physics Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics,
AF/1 Bidhannagar, Kolkata - 700 064, India

2 Physics Department, Vidyasagar Evening College,
39, Sankar Ghosh Lane, Kolkata 700 006, India
3 Physics Department, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA
4 Theory Group, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380 009, India

## Abstract

We propose a left-right model of quarks and leptons based on the gauge group $`SU(3)_C\times SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R\times U(1)_{BL}`$, where the scalar sector consists of only two doublets: (1,2,1,1) and (1,1,2,1). As a result, any fermion mass, whether it be Majorana or Dirac, must come from dimension-five operators. This allows us to have a common view of quark and lepton masses, including the smallness of Majorana neutrino masses as the consequence of a double seesaw mechanism.

In the standard model of electroweak interactions, neutrinos are massless. On the other hand, recent experimental data on atmospheric  and solar  neutrinos indicate strongly that they are massive and mix with one another . To allow neutrinos to be massive theoretically, the starting point is the observation of Weinberg  over 20 years ago that a unique dimension-five operator exists in the standard model, i.e.

$$_\mathrm{\Lambda }=\frac{f_{ij}}{2\mathrm{\Lambda }}(\nu _i\varphi ^0e_i\varphi ^+)(\nu _j\varphi ^0e_j\varphi ^+)+H.c.$$
(1)
which generates a Majorana neutrino mass matrix given by

$$(_\nu )_{ij}=\frac{f_{ij}v^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }},$$
(2)
where $`v`$ is the vacuum expectation value of $`\varphi ^0`$. This also shows that whatever the underlying mechanism for the Majorana neutrino mass, it has to be “seesaw” in character, i.e. $`v^2`$ divided by a large mass .

If the particle content of the standard model is extended to include left-right symmetry , then the gauge group becomes $`𝒢_{LR}SU(3)_C\times SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R\times U(1)_{BL}`$, whose diagonal generators satisfy the charge relationship

$$Q=T_{3L}+T_{3R}+\frac{(BL)}{2}=T_{3L}+\frac{Y}{2}.$$
(3)
Quarks and leptons transform as

$`q_L=(u,d)_L`$ $``$ $`(3,2,1,1/3),`$ (4)
$`q_R=(u,d)_R`$ $``$ $`(3,1,2,1/3),`$ (5)
$`l_L=(\nu ,e)_L`$ $``$ $`(1,2,1,1),`$ (6)
$`l_R=(N,e)_R`$ $``$ $`(1,1,2,1),`$ (7)
where a new fermion, i.e. $`N_R`$, has been added in order that the left-right symmetry be maintained.

In all previous left-right models, a scalar bidoublet transforming as $`(1,2,2,0)`$ is then included for the obvious reason that we want masses for the quarks and leptons. Suppose however that we are only interested in the spontaneous breaking of $`SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R\times U(1)_{BL}`$ to $`U(1)_{em}`$ with $`v_R>>v_L`$, then the simplest way is to introduce two Higgs doublets transforming as

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_L=(\varphi _L^+,\varphi _L^0)`$ $``$ $`(1,2,1,1),`$ (8)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }_R=(\varphi _R^+,\varphi _R^0)`$ $``$ $`(1,1,2,1).`$ (9)
Suppose we now do not admit any other scalar multiplet. This is analogous to the situation in the standard model, where $`SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y`$ is spontaneously broken down to $`U(1)_{em}`$ by a Higgs doublet and we do not admit any other scalar multiplet. In that case, we find that quark and charged-lepton masses are automatically generated by the existing Higgs doublet, but neutrinos obtain Majorana masses only through the dimension-five operator of Eq. (1). In our case, in the absence of the bidoublet, all fermion masses, be they Majorana or Dirac, must now have their origin in dimension-five operators, as shown below.

Using Eqs. (4) to (9), it is clear that

$$(l_L\mathrm{\Phi }_L)=\nu _L\varphi _L^0e_L\varphi _L^+$$
(10)
and

$$(l_R\mathrm{\Phi }_R)=N_R\varphi _R^0e_R\varphi _R^+$$
(11)
are invariants under $`𝒢_{LR}`$. Hence we have the dimension-five operators given by

$$_M=\frac{f_{ij}^L}{2\mathrm{\Lambda }_M}(l_{iL}\mathrm{\Phi }_L)(l_{jL}\mathrm{\Phi }_L)+\frac{f_{ij}^R}{2\mathrm{\Lambda }_M}(l_{iR}\mathrm{\Phi }_R)(l_{jR}\mathrm{\Phi }_R)+H.c.,$$
(12)
which will generate Majorana neutrino masses proportional to $`v_L^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }_M`$ for $`\nu _L`$ and $`v_R^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }_M`$ for $`N_R`$. (The different possible origins of this operator are explained fully in Ref..) In addition, we have

$$_D=\frac{f_{ij}^D}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_D}(\overline{l}_{iL}\mathrm{\Phi }_L^{})(l_{jR}\mathrm{\Phi }_R)+H.c.$$
(13)
and the corresponding dimension-five operators which will generate Dirac masses for all the quarks and charged leptons.

From Eq. (13), it is clear that

$$(m_D)_{ij}=\frac{f_{ij}^Dv_Lv_R}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_D},$$
(14)
hence $`\nu _L`$ gets a double seesaw  mass of order

$$\frac{m_D^2}{m_N}\frac{v_L^2v_R^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_D^2}\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }_M}{v_R^2}=\frac{v_L^2\mathrm{\Lambda }_M}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_D^2},$$
(15)
which is much larger than $`v_L^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }_M`$ if $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_D<<\mathrm{\Lambda }_M`$. Take for example $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_M`$ to be the Planck scale of $`10^{19}`$ GeV and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_D`$ to be the grand-unification scale of $`10^{16}`$ GeV, then the neutrino mass scale is 1 eV (for $`v_L`$ of order 100 GeV). The difference between $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_M`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_D`$ may be due to the fact that if we assign a global fermion number $`F`$ to $`l_L`$ and $`l_R`$, then $`_M`$ has $`F=\pm 2`$ but $`_D`$ has $`F=0`$.

Since the Dirac masses of quarks and charged leptons are also given by Eq. (14), $`v_R`$ cannot be much below $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_D`$. This means that $`SU(2)_R\times U(1)_{BL}`$ is broken at a very high scale to $`U(1)_Y`$, and our model at low energy is just the standard model. We do however have the extra singlet neutrinos $`N_R`$ with masses of order $`v_R^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }_M`$, i.e. below $`10^{13}`$ GeV, which are useful for leptogenesis, as is well-known .

For $`m_t=174.3\pm 5.1`$ GeV, we need $`v_R/\mathrm{\Lambda }_D`$ to be of order unity in Eq. (14). One may wonder in that case whether we can still write Eq. (13) as an effective operator. The answer is yes, as can be seen with the following specific example . Consider the singlets

$$U_L,U_R(3,1,1,4/3),$$
(16)
with invariant mass $`M_U`$ of order $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_D`$, then the $`2\times 2`$ mass matrix linking $`(\overline{t}_L,\overline{U}_L)`$ to $`(t_R,U_R)`$ is given by

$$_{tU}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& f_t^Lv_L\\ f_t^Rv_R& M_U\end{array}\right).$$
(17)
For $`v_L<<v_R,M_U`$, we then have

$$m_t=\frac{f_t^Lf_t^Rv_Lv_R}{M_U}\left[1+\frac{(f_t^Rv_R)^2}{M_U^2}\right]^{\frac{1}{2}},$$
(18)
which is in the form of Eq. (14) even if $`v_R/M_U1`$.

Since we already have dimension-five operators, we should also consider dimension-six operators. In that case, we can invoke the Bardeen-Hill-Lindner (BHL) dynamical mechanism  with a cutoff scale equal to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_D`$. We may assume that the effective dynamical BHL Higgs doublet \[call it $`\mathrm{\Phi }_1=(\varphi _1^+,\varphi _1^0)`$\] couples only to the top quark, whereas our fundamental $`\mathrm{\Phi }_L`$ \[call it $`\mathrm{\Phi }_2`$\] couples to all quarks and leptons. We thus have a specific two-Higgs-doublet model  with experimentally verifiable phenomenology, as described below.

Since the BHL model predicts $`m_t=226`$ GeV for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_D=10^{16}`$ GeV, the effective Yukawa coupling of $`\overline{t}_Lt_R`$ to $`\overline{\varphi }_1^0`$ is

$$f_t^{(1)}=(226\mathrm{GeV})(2\sqrt{2}G_F)^{\frac{1}{2}}=226/174=1.3,$$
(19)
and for $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =v_2/v_1`$, we have

$$m_t=(1.3\mathrm{cos}\beta +f_t^{(2)}\mathrm{sin}\beta )(174\mathrm{GeV}).$$
(20)
This shows that, with a second Higgs doublet, the correct value of $`m_t`$ may be obtained. Furthermore, $`f_t^{(2)}`$ may be assumed to be small, say of order $`10^2`$. This allows $`v_R/\mathrm{\Lambda }_D10^2`$ in Eq. (14) and thus $`v_R10^{14}`$ GeV, so that $`m_Nv_R^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }_M`$ is of order $`10^9`$ GeV, which may be more effective for leptogenesis, even with the reheating of the Universe after inflation. At the same time, using Eq. (20), this fixes

$$\mathrm{tan}\beta 0.83$$
(21)
for the phenomenology of the two-doublet Higgs sector.

Since the $`d,s,b`$ quarks receive masses only from $`v_2`$, there is no tree-level flavor-changing neutral currents in this sector. This explains the suppression of $`K_LK_S`$ mixing and $`B\overline{B}`$ mixing. On the other hand, both $`v_1`$ and $`v_2`$ contribute to the $`u,c,t`$ quarks, so our model does predict tree-level flavor-changing neutral curents in this sector. Suppose the Yukawa interaction $`f_t^{(1)}\overline{\varphi }_1^0\overline{t}_Lt_R`$ is replaced by $`f_t^{(1)}(v_1/v_2)\overline{\varphi }_2^0\overline{t}_Lt_R`$, then the resulting mass matrix would be exactly proportional to the Yukawa matrix. This means that there would not be any flavor-nondiagonal interactions. Hence the term which contains all the flavor-changing interactions is given by

$$f_t^{(1)}\left(\overline{\varphi }_1^0\frac{v_1}{v_2}\overline{\varphi }_2^0\right)\overline{t}_L^{}t_R^{}+H.c.,$$
(22)
where $`t_{L,R}^{}`$ are the original entries in the $`u,c,t`$ mass matrix before diagonalization to obtain the mass eigenstates. We thus expect contributions to, say $`D\overline{D}`$ mixing, beyond that of the standard model. Let

$$t_{L,R}^{}t_{L,R}+ϵ_{tc}^{L,R}c_{L,R}+ϵ_{tu}^{L,R}u_{L,R},$$
(23)
where the $`ϵ`$ parameters are at most of order $`f_t^{(2)}/f_t^{(1)}10^2`$, then

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }m_{D^0}}{m_{D^0}}\frac{B_Df_D^2[f_t^{(1)}]^2}{3m_{eff}^2\mathrm{sin}^2\beta }|ϵ_{tc}^Lϵ_{tu}^Lϵ_{tc}^Rϵ_{tu}^R|,$$
(24)
where $`m_{eff}^2`$ is the effective normalized contribution from $`\varphi _1^0(v_1/v_2)\varphi _2^0`$. Using $`f_D=150`$ MeV, $`B_D=0.8`$, and the present experimental upper bound  of $`2.5\times 10^{14}`$ on this fraction, we then obtain

$$\frac{|ϵ_{tc}^Lϵ_{tu}^Lϵ_{tc}^Rϵ_{tu}^R|}{10^8}\left(\frac{100\mathrm{GeV}}{m_{eff}}\right)^2<1.$$
(25)
This shows that $`D\overline{D}`$ mixing may be observable in this model, in contrast to the negligible expectation of the standard model.

Rare top decays such as $`tc`$ (or $`u`$) + neutral Higgs boson are now possible if kinematically allowed. Their branching fractions are of order $`|ϵ|^210^4`$. Once a neutral Higgs boson is produced at a future collider, its decay will also be a test of this model. Its dominant decay is still $`b\overline{b}`$, but its subdominant decays will not just be $`c\overline{c}`$ and $`\tau ^{}\tau ^+`$, but also $`c\overline{u}`$ and $`u\overline{c}`$. There should be observable $`D^\pm \pi ^{}`$ final states, for example.

Since we want $`v_R>>v_L`$ in our model, it is advantageous to extend it to include supersymmetry to solve the hierarchy problem. The quark and lepton multiplets of Eqs. (4) to (7) are now superfields, and the scalar multiplets of Eqs. (8) and (9) will have partners

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_L^c(1,2,1,1),\mathrm{\Phi }_R^c(1,1,2,1),$$
(26)
and all four are superfields as well. All fermion masses must again be given by dimension-five operators, coming from the $`(l_{iL}\mathrm{\Phi }_L)(l_{jL}\mathrm{\Phi }_L)`$ terms in the superpotential, etc. However, we need to impose an exactly conserved discrete symmetry: odd for all quark and lepton superfields, but even for the Higgs superfields to forbid the bilinear $`(l_{iL}\mathrm{\Phi }_L)`$ terms, etc. \[This is equivalent to the usual $`R`$ parity of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) even though we do not have trilinear terms at all in the superpotential of this model.\] With $`SU(2)_R`$ breaking at the $`10^{16}`$ GeV scale, the particle content of this model at low energy is identical to that of the MSSM with the requisite two light Higgs doublets. This solves the hierarchy problem and is a well-known case of gauge coupling unification.

In conclusion, we have proposed a truly minimal $`SU(3)_C\times SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R\times U(1)_{BL}`$ gauge model, with the simplest possible Higgs sector. All fermion masses, be they Majorana or Dirac, have a common origin, i.e. dimension-five operators. Whereas Dirac fermions have masses at the electroweak scale, the observed neutrinos have naturally small Majorana masses from a double seesaw mechanism. The existence of singlet right-handed neutrinos with masses in the range $`10^9`$ to $`10^{13}`$ GeV are required, and their decays establish a lepton asymmetry which is converted at the electroweak phase transition to the present observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe.

In the standard model, Yukawa couplings of quarks and leptons to Higgs doublets are renormalizable. This means that the fermion mass matrices are arbitrary at any scale. In our case, the effective dimension-five operators have their origin at some high-energy scale. The new physics there fixes the coefficients of those operators (perhaps according to some symmetry valid above that scale) in analogy to the seesaw mechanism which fixes the Majorana neutrino mass operator at that scale. Below it, we have the standard model, so the evolution of the Yukawa couplings determine the charged fermion mass matrices at the electroweak scale. This is a natural framework for a possible theoretical understanding of fermion masses and mixing in the future.

Since our proposed model is identical to the standard model below $`10^{16}`$ GeV (except for the $`N_R`$’s), or to the MSSM in the supersymmetric version, the usual predictions of the latter also apply, including the expected occurrence of proton decay and neutron-antineutron oscillations from higher-dimensional operators due to new physics at or above $`10^{16}`$ GeV.

In the presence of dimension-six operators, we may invoke the Bardeen-Hill-Lindner mechanism to generate a dynamical Higgs doublet which renders the $`top`$ quark massive. Since we also have a fundamental Higgs doublet, this allows us to have a realistic $`m_t`$ (which is not possible in the minimal BHL model) and an effective two-doublet Higgs sector at the electroweak scale with distinctive and experimentally verifiable flavor-changing phenomena.

The work of EM was supported in part by the U. S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG03-94ER40837. BB would like to thank the organisers of the flavour@cern series of talks, where some aspects of the double seesaw mechanism were discussed.


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# Local disorder and optical properties in V-shaped quantum wires : towards one-dimensional exciton systems

## I Introduction

The local disorder in semiconductor heterostructures is crucial for the understanding of their physical properties. It leads on a macroscopic point of view to two well-known features in optical spectra : the inhomogeneous broadening of the transitions due to the size and/or composition fluctuations, and the Stokes-shift between photoluminescence and absorption spectra which is a signature of localization. The major role of monolayer fluctuations of the hetero-interfaces has first been identified in quantum wells (QW) Bastard-PRB84 ; Yang-PRL93  and is even more important in quantum wires (QWRs) due to the increased number of interfaces involved in the electronic confinement. The study of the local optical properties by high spatial resolution spectroscopy, in far-field Bellessa-APL97  or in near-field Intonti-PRB01 ; Crottini-PRB01 , allowed a better insight into the understanding of localization in these structures.

In the best QWR structures grown up to now it has been shown that the random potential felt by the excitons and induced by the structural disorder Zimmermann-PSSA97  completely localizes the excitons : the localization length is small and each minimum of the potential behaves as a “natural” quantum box Wu-PRB00 , so that the optical properties of the QWR can be interpreted as those of a zero-dimensionnal (0D) system Bellessa-PRB98 ; Guillet-PhE01 . The specific characteristics of a one-dimensionnal (1D) system, especially its singular density of states, are therefore blurred out by the disorder. Until now delocalized excitons could only be observed at some given positions of QWR samples as their structural properties were improved Crottini-PRB01 , opening the way to the achievement of actual 1D systems.

In this paper we investigate the localization properties of the recent generation of QWRs and compare them to previous samples. The disorder is first studied by our new scanning optical imaging spectroscopy technique. In particular the localization length is measured (Part II). Its mean value is shown to be ten times larger than in the previous samples, and is much larger than the thermal de Broglie wavelength of the excitons (Part III). These new QWRs can therefore be considered as actual 1D systems even on a microscopic point of view. This interpretation is supported by the study of the radiative lifetime as a function of temperature, which is highly dependent on the dimensionnality of the local density of states in the structure (Part IV). Finally the delocalized excitons are shown to be more sensitive to the presence of a residual disorder in the structure (Part V).

The nanostructures studied experimentally are undoped $`5`$ nm thick GaAs/Ga0.57Al0.43As V-shaped QWRs. They are grown on a $`4`$ $`\mu `$m pitched V-grooves formed on $`(001)\pm 0.1^{}`$ GaAs substrates by flow rate modulation epitaxy which is a modified metal organic vapor phase epitaxy technique Wang-JCrystG00A ; Wang-JCrystG00B . Their main features are a very strong lateral confinement leading to energy separation between subbands up to 60 meV, and a large optical anisotropy, characteristic of the valence band mixing in 1D structures Wang-APL95 .

## II Imaging the disorder in a quantum wire

In order to understand exciton localization and its influence on the spectroscopy and the dynamics of QWs or QWRs, we have to model and somehow measure the localization potential felt by the excitons. It is characterized by two main quantities : its amplitude $`V_{loc}`$ and its typical correlation length $`L_{loc}`$. $`V_{loc}`$ can be related to macroscopic properties like the Stokes shift or the half width of the photoluminescence spectrum, under some assumptions on the shape of the potential Yang-PRL93 . Its value of $`710meV`$ is quite independent of the sample since it simply reflects the change of the confinement energy associated to monolayer fluctuations on the hetero-interfaces. On the contrary the correlation length $`L_{loc}`$ is closely related to the roughness of the interfaces and depends much more on the growth conditions. This parameter can only be evaluated through microscopic studies which give access to the spatial extension of the excitonic states.

We recently developped a new imaging technique in order to study the localization effects in quantum wires. This is an evolution of the microphotoluminescence ($`\mu `$-PL) experiment, that we called scanning optical imaging spectroscopy. It is the equivalent in far-field to the scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM). The sample is fixed on the cold finger of a Helium cryostat and cooled at $`10K`$. The laser beam is focused on the sample by a microscope objective with a large numerical aperture ($`0.6`$) and the laser spot diameter of $`1\mu m`$ is diffraction-limited. The luminescence is analyzed through an imaging spectrometer coupled to a liquid nitrogen cooled CCD detector, and the spectral resolution is $`50\mu eV`$. The excitation at $`1.77eV`$ creates carriers in the higher order bands of the wire and not in the barriers. As the wires are separated by $`4\mu m`$, only one single wire is excited over $`1\mu m`$ in our experiment. The excitation spot can be translated with respect to the sample by moving the microscope objective with piezoelectric actuators with a precision better than $`200nm`$. At each position the $`\mu `$-PL spectrum is recorded. We obtain in this way a high resolution image along the wire axis as well as a high resolution spectrum of a single QWR.

Figure 1 presents two such scanning images obtained on two different generations of quantum wires —denoted previous and new generations hereafter—, and two corresponding $`\mu `$-PL spectra extracted from the images. The sample of the previous generation studied in this work has already been the subject of $`\mu `$-PL studies Bellessa-PRB98 , whereas the new generation is much more recent Liu-APL01 . As it is well known for a few years Bellessa-APL97 , the emission spectrum isn’t uniform as the excitation spot scans the wire, which means that the excitons aren’t delocalized over the whole wire. Each bright spot corresponds to a local potential minimum along the wire axis where excitons are trapped. Each peak has been attributed to the emission of the lowest lying level in such a minimum. Two main differences can be distinguished between the two generations of QWRs : (i) The spectra associated to each localization sites are different : the peaks are very sharp for the previous generation, and their linewidth couldn’t be resolved within our experimental resolution, whereas they are $`1meV`$ broad in the case of the new generation. (ii) The linear density of sites, estimated by counting the spots on the images, is of the order of $`10\mu m^1`$ for the previous generation of QWRs, and $`1\mu m^1`$ for the new one. We can therefore roughly estimate the extension of the sites to $`100nm`$ for the previous generation, which is compatible with the value obtained from $`\mu `$-PLE studies Bellessa-PRB98 , and to $`1\mu m`$ for the new generation. Moreover, some emitting sites are extended over distances larger than the spatial resolution of the microscope in the new samples, the spot at $`x=15\mu m`$ being for example $`3\mu m`$ long on Fig. 1.c. Most of the emitting sites could however not be resolved spatially because their extension is close to or smaller than the resolution.

These properties have been studied and compared more quantitatively through a statistical analysis of the images, which is described in details in the appendix. It allows us to define two mean properties of the localization sites in a given sample : the mean spectrum and the mean spatial distribution of its luminescence. They are presented on figure 2. In the spatial dimension (Fig. 2.a), the mean distribution of the luminescence emitted by one site has a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of $`0.8\mu m`$ for the previous generation, corresponding to the spatial resolution of the microscope, since the emitting sites are much smaller than the resolution and can be considered as point-sources. The larger FWHM ($`1.2\mu m`$) obtained for the new generation is due to the extension of the sites, which becomes comparable to the resolution of the microscope and can be estimated to $`1.2\mu m0.8\mu m=0.4\mu m`$. In the spectral domain (Fig. 2.b), the mean spectrum of the emitting sites for QWRs of the previous generation is very sharp as seen on individual spectra, whereas the one for the new generation of QWRs is perfectly fit by a $`1meV`$ broad lorentzian line, which is even more clearly evidenced by the perfect triangular shape of its Fourier transform on a logaritmic scale over 4 decades, shown in the figure 8.c of the appendix. This broadening will be discussed in more details in part V.

The samples of the new generation are therefore of very high quality. For comparison, the longest reported localization length in V-groove QWRs as well as in any other kind of GaAs quantum wires is of the order of $`600nm`$ and has been measured by SNOM only at one position of a given sample Crottini-PRB01 ; the typical extensions of the localization sites in the sample studied in this work were of 10 to $`50nm`$, and are comparable to those observed by our technique in the samples of the previous generation. In the new generation of QWRs, the large localization length of $`400nm`$ is a mean property of the whole sample and obtained after a statistical analysis, the largest observed emitting sites being 2 to $`3\mu m`$ long. The consequences of this improvement on the optical properties of the excitons are discussed in the next part.

The enhancement of the localization length of excitons in the wires has been related to the structural properties of the samples. Indeed the localization of excitons is mainly due to the monolayer fluctuations of the interfaces of the wire, as schematically represented on figure 3.a. These interfaces have been identified on transmission electron micrographs (TEM) and are locally flat at the atomic level Wang-JCrystG00A , but they present monolayer steps which modify the confinement energy of the excitons in the wire. We calculated that the energy fluctuation associated to a monolayer step on the central facet (100) is about $`9meV`$, and the one for the lateral facets (311) and (111) is equal to $`3meV`$. These fluctuations can be directly identified on the images obtained on QWRs of the new generation (Fig. 1.c) : the $`3meV`$ ones are the most frequent (1 to 2 per $`\mu m`$) whereas the larger ones (about $`10meV`$, like at $`x=10\mu m`$) are fewer (1 every $`5\mu m`$). These values correspond to the linear density of monolayer steps on the lateral and central facets respectively, typically one step every $`500nm`$.

Three main changes in the fabrication of the samples have been developped in the past years. First of all, the chemical etching of the patterned sample allowed to get smoother hetero-interfaces between the well and the barrier materials, as shown by atomic force microscopy (AFM) images Wang-JCrystG00A . Second, the arsenic source for the epitaxy has been changed and tertiarybutylarsine ($`TBAs`$) is now used instead of the very toxic arsine ($`AsH_3`$). This leads to a strong diminution of the non-radiative recombination at room-temperature, which is interpreted as the reduction of the impurity concentration in the sample Wang-JCrystG00B ; Liu-APL01 . The last and most crucial parameter is the misalignment angle $`\theta _{Al}`$ between the V-groove drawn by lithography and the crystallographic direction $`[1\overline{1}0]`$ (Fig. 3.b). We performed scanning optical imaging spectroscopy on samples grown in the same conditions but presenting different misalignements. The statistical analysis revealed that the linear density of emitting sites decreases from $`4\mu m^1`$ to $`1\mu m^1`$ as the angle $`\theta _{Al}`$ is decreased from $`0.1^{}`$ to less than $`0.004^{}`$ by improving the alignment procedure. This confirms that the localization length is governed in good samples by the distance between monolayer steps on the lateral interfaces of the V-groove, i.e. by the alignment of the V on the crystallographic direction.

## III Localization, excitonic eigenstates and density of states

The enhancement of the localization length in the wires implies not only a quantitative, but also a qualitative change of their electronic properties. First of all, let us briefly consider the competition between the electrons and holes localization and the Coulomb interaction. In both generations of QWRs, the amplitude of about $`10meV`$ of the localization potential is smaller than the exciton binding energy, which is of the order of $`20meV`$, and the localization length scale is larger than the exciton Bohr radius $`a_X=7nm`$ Guillet-X1D . The localization hamiltonian can therefore be treated as a perturbation on the free rigid exciton model, and the localization potential felt by the excitons is simply the average over the wavefunction of the exciton relative motion (i.e. over $`a_X`$) of the potential felt by electrons and holes.

We should also compare the localization length $`L_{loc}`$ of the excitons to their thermal de Broglie wavelength $`\lambda _{Th}=\sqrt{\frac{2\pi \mathrm{}^2}{m_Xk_BT}}`$, where the exciton mass $`m_X0.18m_0`$ is the sum of the electron and hole masses masses . It is equal to about $`50nm`$ at $`T=10K`$ in the wires we have studied. If $`L_{loc}>>\lambda _{Th}`$, the energy difference between the eigenstates of the localization potential, typically $`\frac{\mathrm{}^2\pi ^2}{2m_XL_{loc}^2}`$, is much smaller than the thermal energy $`k_BT`$ and these eigenstates can be approximated by a 1D-continuum of excitons. In the opposite case, when $`\lambda _{Th}`$ is comparable to or larger than $`L_{loc}`$, only one or two localized states are populated at thermal equilibrium and the density of localized states is discrete. Since most of the microscopic properties of the excitons —relaxation, recombination— are determined by the local exciton density of states, the criterium $`\lambda _{Th}<<L_{loc}`$ determines the one-dimensional character of the system. In the quantum wires of the previous generation, it isn’t fulfilled and the optical properties are those of a collection of quantum boxes, as our previous studies of the exciton relaxation, recombination Bellessa-PRB98  (cf Part. IV) and fine structure Guillet-PhE01  have demonstrated; these wires are therefore said to be in the “0D regime”. On the contrary, in the new generation of QWRs $`\lambda _{Th}<<L_{loc}`$, so that each localizing site can be considered as a small portion of quantum wire with a continuum of 1D states; these sites are called “islands” in the following, in analogy with the situation in quantum wells, and the QWRs are told to be in the “1D regime”. The two regimes are schematically depicted in the figure 4.

This interpretation is valid on a local point of view, as far as microscopic properties of the wires are concerned. On a macroscopic scale, the electronic properties are in both regimes inhomogeneously broadened of about 5 to $`10meV`$ due to the variations of the confinement energy associated to monolayer fluctuations. This is different from the situation in quantum wells, where only one or two sharp peaks associated to two well thicknesses of $`N`$ and $`N+1`$ monolayers are observed in the best samples Deveaud-APL87 . In the case of QWRs, monolayer fluctuations on each of the hetero-interfaces of the V give rise to a large number of possible configurations for the confinement, and therefore to an inhomogeneous broadening of the photoluminescence spectra.

It is here interesting to compare the different techniques used to study localization in QWs and QWRs, and to understand how they are adapted to specific localization regimes. In this paper we present two methods : the scanning imaging of the sample allows to directly measure the localization length in 1D regime QWRs, when $`L_{loc}`$ is comparable to the resolution of the microscope. But in 0D regime QWRs $`L_{loc}`$ is too small and only the linear density $`n`$ of localizing sites can be obtained from the images, which gives an upper limit $`L_{loc}<1/n`$. In 0D regime QWRs, we have shown in previous works Bellessa-PRB98  that the PLE spectra of each quantum box allow to determine their extension from the energy separation between ground and excited states. But this is only valid if the quantum boxes are independent and if they contain two or more confined states, i.e. if $`V_{loc}>\mathrm{}^2\pi ^2/(2m_XL_{loc}^2)`$. For smaller amplitude or typical length of the potential, the localized excitonic states extend over a few potential minima if $`V_{loc}<\mathrm{}^2\pi ^2/(2m_XL_{loc}^2)`$, and the eigenenergies are strongly spatially correlated. This is known as the level repulsion. Recently Idrissi et al. reported evidences for a level repulsion in QWRs very similar to our 0D regime QWRs Idrissi-02 . In our statistical analysis, we were able to extract the same autocorrelation function ($`R_c(E)`$) as they do, but we didn’t see any signature of this effect in our results. This can be explained by two practical reasons : (i) the cusp in the $`R_c(E)`$ which is characteristic of the level repulsion may be too small to be distinguished from the statistical noise in our case, even if we averaged over a $`35\mu m`$ long image; (ii) our spatial resolution is four times larger than the one of the SNOM experiment used in this work and is therefore much larger than the localization length, so that the spatial filtering of the correlations is less efficient. But it could also reflect that our 0D regime QWRs fulfill the condition $`V_{loc}>\mathrm{}^2\pi ^2/(2m_XL_{loc}^2)`$, so that the quantum boxes can be considered as isolated and no level repulsion exists if only the ground states emit luminescence. This is supported by our full understanding of the dynamics and spectroscopy of the excitons in 0D regime QWRs Bellessa-PRB98  as those of isolated quantum boxes.

## IV Radiative recombination and localization regime

The optical property which depends at the most on the density of states is the radiative lifetime $`\tau _{rad}`$ Feldmann-PRL87 ; Citrin-PRL92 ; Akiyama-PRL94 . Its dependance on the temperature directly reflects the dimensionality of the exciton system : $`\tau _{rad}`$ scales as $`T`$ for quantum wells, $`\sqrt{T}`$ for perfect quantum wires, and is independent of temperature for quantum boxes as soon as $`k_BT`$ is smaller than the energy separation between the two first states of the quantum box.

In 0D regime QWRs, the radiative lifetime has already been studied in $`\mu `$-PL in previous works Bellessa-PRB98 . It is strongly dependent on the quantum box under study and is in fact inversely proportional to the length of the quantum box. It is independent of temperature below $`20K`$. These results were interpreted in the following way : the typical energy separation between the quantum box states, of 2 to $`5meV`$, is larger than $`k_BT`$, so that at $`T=10K`$, only the ground state of the quantum box is populated and $`\tau _{rad}`$ is independent of $`T`$. The oscillator strength of the ground state is proportional to the ratio of the coherence volume to the volume of the exciton relative motion wavefunction Rashba-SPSS62 ; Feldmann-PRL87 . The latter one is independent of the localisation length since $`L_{loc}>>a_X`$, and the coherence volume is proportional to the length $`L_{loc}`$ of the quantum box. So that the radiative lifetime at $`10K`$ is inversely proportional to the length of the quantum box, as it has been measured experimentally Bellessa-PRB98 .

In 1D regime quantum wires, the radiative lifetime has been measured on several different wires and several samples, and is at $`10K`$ independent of the island under consideration within $`10\%`$. The results obtained on one island as a function of temperature are presented on figure 5. The island chosen in the presented results is extended over $`2\mu m`$ according to the scanning optical images. The measurements are performed in the low density regime, and in average one exciton at the most is present in the excited island. The decay time of the PL is equal to the radiative lifetime since non-radiative recombination enters into play only above $`200K`$ in these samples Liu-APL01 . $`\tau _{rad}`$ follows a $`\sqrt{T}`$ scaling law below $`30K`$ and above $`50K`$, which is characteristic of a 1D system. We don’t observe any saturation of $`\tau _{rad}`$ at low temperature down to $`8K`$, which is the lowest temperature we can achieve in our $`\mu `$-PL cryostat.

The $`\sqrt{T}`$ dependence of $`\tau _{rad}`$ can be briefly explained in the following way : if we consider free excitons, only those with a wavevector smaller than the one of light $`k_\nu =2\pi /\lambda `$ can recombine radiatively, where $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength of light in the material. The radiative exciton states form a band which spectral width is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{rad}=\mathrm{}^2k_\nu ^2/2m_X`$, and are assumed to have all the same recombination time $`\tau _{rad}^0`$. At low density, the excitons in the band follow a Boltzman distribution and the effective radiative lifetime of the wire is given by the thermal equilibrium between radiative and non-radiative states : if $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{rad}<<k_BT`$ Feldmann-PRL87 ; Citrin-PRL92 ,

$$\tau _{rad}=\tau _{rad}^0\sqrt{\frac{\pi k_BT}{4\mathrm{\Delta }_{rad}}}.$$
(1)
The intrinsic recombination time deduced from the experimental results below $`30K`$ is $`\tau _{rad}^0=170\pm 20ps`$. It is comparable to the value of $`150ps`$ theoretically predicted by Citrin in such wires Citrin-PRL92 . We note that it is much larger than in QWs (a few $`10ps`$), as expected : for similar sizes, the 1D and 2D intrinsic lifetime should differ by a factor $`\lambda /a_X`$ Akiyama-PRL94 . Moreover, the $`\sqrt{T}`$ dependence of $`\tau _{rad}`$ shows that the excitons are locally at thermal equilibrium at the bottom of the band in each island, and their density of states averaged over $`k_BT`$ scales like $`1/\sqrt{EE_0}`$.

The transition around $`40K`$ isn’t fully understood at the moment, but two assumptions can be put forward : this temperature corresponds to the typical energy fluctuations along the wire axis ($`3meV`$), so that the exciton density of states could be increased above $`3meV`$ leading to a diminution of $`\tau _{rad}`$ above $`40K`$ with respect to the situation in a single isolated island; the second possible hypothesis is that the coupling between excitons and acoustic phonons becomes strong above $`50K`$ and could modify the exciton effective mass and/or their coherence time These .

Our results are comparable to those obtained by Akiyama et al. Akiyama-PRL94 , but they are more precise in the low temperature range where localization effects influence the dependence of $`\tau _{rad}`$ on $`T`$. Moreover they extend over a wider range of temperature and are not limited above $`50K`$ by non-radiative recombination processes. The effect of localization in 0D regime QWRs has also been clearly evidenced by Oberli et al., who observed and modelled the saturation of $`\tau _{rad}`$ below $`20K`$ Oberli-PRB99 .

## V Residual disorder in 1D-regime quantum wires

The $`\mu `$-PL spectra of single islands present a broadening of about $`1meV`$ which has to be explained. The individual spectra and even more clearly the mean spectrum obtained by the statistical analysis (Fig. 2) exhibit a perfectly lorentzian lineshape which is typical of an homogeneous broadening of the transition. However, the measured linewidth corresponds to a dephasing time $`T_2`$ for the excitons of the order of a picosecond. This dephasing time is too short to be associated to intrinsic dephasing mechanisms : we measured a recombination time of the order of $`300ps`$ and we calculated that the interaction with acoustical phonons leads to a dephasing time of $`10ps`$ at $`T=10K`$ for the excitons at the bottom of the band These .

We therefore have to consider other processes to explain this broadening. A static disorder, such as the alloy disorder in the barrier material or the atomic roughness of the interfaces, would lead to a gaussian inhomogeneous broadening of the transition. But a dynamical disorder, like Coulomb collisions with impurities or charges could be involved and explain the fast dephasing of excitons. A signature of this disorder has been found in the $`\mu `$-PL spectra under very weak excitation. Figure 6 presents the spectrum of a single island extended over $`2\mu m`$ in a 1D regime QWR, as a function of the excitation power. We should underline that the excitation power $`P_0`$ necessary to create one exciton in the excitation spot every $`300ps`$ (the radiative lifetime at $`T=10K`$) is equal to $`400W.cm^2`$, as it has been measured in 0D and 1D regime QWRs by studying the formation of a biexciton These ; jumeau . It is 1000 times larger than the excitation power range presented on figure 6. We observe that the spectrum is composed of a main line, corresponding to the emission of the island, and 4 side peaks associated to neighboring islands present in the tails of the excitation spot. The main peak gets narrower as the excitation power is decreased, and it isn’t spectrally resolved at the lowest power — our resolution is $`100\mu eV`$ in this experiment. This narrowing is therefore occuring as one exciton is created every $`500ns`$ in the island, which is a crude estimation taking into account the power ratio between $`P_0`$ and the power range of the experiments presented in figure 6. The integrated intensity of the spectra is proportional to the excitation power, so that there is no new non-radiative recombination channel in this regime. Such line narrowing can only be explained if the electron and the hole are somehow spatially separated in the island since the recombination probability is proportional to the overlap of their wavefunctions.

This charge separation is attributed to the large piezo-electric field which exists along the axis of the wire as discussed in Ref. Liu-APL02 . The field is sufficient to separate electrons and holes only in 1D regime QWRs, in which the islands are large enough, whereas in 0D regime QWRs the exciton confined in a given quantum box is only deformed by the field. This is schematically depicted on figure 7.a. However the piezo-electric field isn’t large enough to break an exciton if it is already formed : the bound electron-hole state still exists. There are therefore two possible states : one bound exciton state centered on $`x_ex_h=0`$, and one separate electron-hole pair state for large electron-hole separations ($`x_ex_h>50nm`$), as shown on figure 7.b.

We can now explain the evolution of the spectrum with the excitation power : at the lowest power ($`0.01W.cm^2`$), only one electron-hole pair is present in the island in a separated state. It forms a bound exciton after a few hundreds of $`ns`$, which is roughly the transition rate between the separated electron-hole pair state and the bound exciton state. Then it recombines, leading to a sharp PL peak. As the excitation power is increased, and during the linear regime until $`P_0`$ is reached, a few separated pairs accumulate in the island before they can form excitons, creating a background of free carriers that scatter the excitons, and leading to the broadening of the PL exciton line.

The homogeneous broadening of $`1meV`$ of the $`\mu `$-PL peaks in the linear regime (below $`P_0`$) is herefore a signature of a residual disorder, i.e. the Coulomb collisions between the excitons and separated carriers. The delocalized character of excitons in 1D regime QWRs makes them more sensitive to the piezo-electric field. This explain why the broadening was not observed in the spectra of quantum boxes in 0D regime QWRs in the same range of excitation power.

## VI Conclusion

By performing scanning optical imaging spectroscopy on different generations of QWRs, we studied the disorder and especially the localization length of the excitons. In the best samples, excitons are delocalized over $`400nm`$ in average and up to $`23\mu m`$ in the most extended islands. For the first time, QWRs exhibit a localization length much larger than the thermal de Broglie wavelength of the excitons, which therefore form in each island a 1D quasi-continuum. On the opposite, in previous samples, the localization length is smaller than the de Broglie wavelength and the optical properties of the QWRs are those of a 0D system, i.e. a collection of quantum boxes. The 1D character of the local density of states in the best samples is evidenced by measuring the temperature dependence of the radiative lifetime : it follows a $`\sqrt{T}`$ scaling law down to the lowest achieved temperature ($`8K`$), whereas a saturation below $`20K`$ has been observed in previous works on 0D regime QWRs. Finally we show that the excitons are more sensitive to the residual disorder in the structure as they get delocalized, and the presence of photo-created charges separated by the in-built piezo-electric field leads to an homogeneous broadening of the transitions in $`\mu `$-PL spectra.

*

## Appendix A Statistical analysis of the images

The scanning images of QWRs provide us with an intuitive representation of the excitonic states along the wire, but they also contain more quantitative informations. It is for example very useful to obtain the spatial and spectral shape of the bright spots of the image, i.e. the spatial distribution and the spectrum of the localizing sites. However this can’t be done in a proper way by extracting the cross-sections of one given bright spot because they all slightly overlap, as it can be seen on Figure 1. Moreover such cross-sections are specific to the localizing site considered and aren’t representative of all of them. We therefore analyzed the images by auto-correlation techniques, and calculated the mean spatial distribution and the mean spectrum of the localizing sites.

In order to present the different calculated correlations, we will suppose for simplicity that an image is composed of $`N`$ spots with identical shapes but different amplitudes $`A_n`$, at an energy $`E_n`$ and a position $`x_n`$. The $`\mu `$-PL signal $`F(E,x)`$ at the position $`x`$ and the energy $`E`$ can be written :

$`F(E,x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}A_nu_E(EE_n)\times u_x(xx_n)`$ (2)
$`=`$ $`(u_E(E)\times u_x(x))D(E,x),`$
where $`u_E`$ and $`u_x`$ are the spectral and spatial shapes of the spots, and $`D(E,x)=_nA_n\delta (EE_n)\delta (xx_n)`$ is the distribution of the spectral and spatial positions of the spots. Their Fourier transforms are noted $`\stackrel{~}{u}_E(s)`$, $`\stackrel{~}{u}_x(k)`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{D}(s,k)`$ respectively. Those three functions can be obtained by calculating the auto-convolutions of the image $`F`$. We will here focus on the spectral analysis, and the same study can be done in the spatial dimension.

The spectral auto-convolution is defined as :

$$R(E)=F(E^{},x)F(EE^{},x)_E^{}_x,$$
(3)
where $`_\alpha `$ denotes the average over the parameter $`\alpha `$. It is the spatial average of the auto-convolution calculated at each position. It is represented on Figure 8.a with its Fourier transform $`\stackrel{~}{R}(s)=|\stackrel{~}{F}(s,k=0)|^2`$, for the image 1.c of a QWR of the new generation. It is the sum of two terms : a spatially uncorrelated part $`R_0(E)`$ and a correlated one $`R_c(E)`$.

The uncorrelated auto-convolution (Fig. 8.b) is equal to :

$$R_0(E)=F(E^{},x)_xF(EE^{},x)_x_E^{}.$$
(4)
Its Fourier transform writes $`\stackrel{~}{R}_0(s)=|\stackrel{~}{F}(s,k)|^2_k`$. For a sufficiently large image ($`N\mathrm{}`$), it tends to the auto-convolution of the macro-luminescence spectrum $`D(E,x)_x=\frac{1}{N}_nA_n\delta (EE_n).`$ Its linewidth of $`12meV`$ corresponds to the inhomogeneous broadening of the PL spectrum multiplied by $`\sqrt{2}`$, as expected for a gaussian shape.

The correlated part of $`R(E)`$, called the auto-correlation (Fig. 8.c), is obtained as :

$$R_c(E)=R(E)R_0(E).$$
(5)
In the limit of large images and if the energy $`E_n`$ of the spots are spatially uncorrelated, it tends to the auto-convolution of the spectral shape $`u_E(E)`$ of the spots. In the case of the image 1.c, the auto-correlation is mainly composed of a $`2.2meV`$ broad lorentzian line corresponding to the auto-convolution of $`u_E`$ and a few side peaks at $`\pm 9meV`$, $`\pm 12meV`$, …, which reflect the correlations between the energies of neighboring islands, i.e. the energy fluctuations associated to monolayer fluctuations.

In order to evaluate $`u_E(E)`$, we calculated the “mean” spectrum $`f_c(E)`$ of the islands, represented on figure 2, as the inverse Fourier transform of $`\stackrel{~}{f}_c(s)=\sqrt{|\stackrel{~}{R_c}(s)|}`$. It is correct if we suppose that $`u_E`$ is an even function of $`E`$, so that $`\stackrel{~}{f}_c(s)`$ is real. In the case considered in Fig. 8.c, the lorentzian character of the mean spectrum is even clearer on the Fourier transform $`\stackrel{~}{R_c}(s)`$, which is triangular over 4 decades in a logaritmic scale.

The same analysis can be reproduced in the spatial dimension and provides us with the mean spatial distribution of the luminescence emitted by the islands.


text:
# CHANDRA TEMPERATURE MAP OF ABELL 754 AND CONSTRAINTS ON THERMAL CONDUCTION

## 1. INTRODUCTION

Since the non-detection by XMM and Chandra of the expected quantities of cool gas in cluster central regions (Peterson et al. 2001 and later works), there has been a renewed interest in heat conduction as a possible mechanism to off-set radiative cooling (e.g., Narayan & Medvedev 2001; Gruzinov 2002; Fabian, Voigt, & Morris 2002). Detailed analyses of several cooling flow clusters (Voigt et al. 2002; Zakamska & Narayan 2003) show that heat inflow from the outer regions may indeed be sufficient over most of the cooling region, but only if the conductivity, $`\kappa `$, is not lower than $`\kappa _S/3`$, where $`\kappa _S`$ is the Spitzer (1962) value. Such high conduction would have other important effects, e.g., erasing the cluster-scale temperature gradients (e.g., David, Hughes, & Tucker 1992) and causing significant heat loss into the intercluster space (Loeb 2002).

The conductivity of the cluster plasma should be reduced by the magnetic fields; however, theoretical estimates for such a reduction have not yet converged (see §3.2 for details). On the observational side, David et al. (1992) derived a lower limit of $`\kappa >\kappa _S/10`$ for the Coma cluster. However, recent higher-resolution data revealed temperature variations in the cluster region that those authors assumed isothermal (e.g., Neumann et al. 2002), which may weaken their constraint. The only cluster-scale results derived so far using the high-resolution data were for the conduction across cold fronts. Ettori & Fabian (2000) pointed out that the temperature jumps across the fronts in A2142 observed by Chandra (Markevitch et al. 2000) imply $`\kappa <\kappa _S/250`$. Although one can argue that as the cold front moves, the temperature gradient may be continually sharpened because of stripping of the heated boundary layer, their conclusion should be correct. As shown by Vikhlinin, Markevitch & Murray (2001c) for A3667, there is no such boundary layer and the gas density discontinuity at the front is very sharp — much narrower than the electron mean free path, indicating that diffusion and conduction across the front are indeed suppressed. The likely reason is a layer of the magnetic field parallel to the front, which can form as the gas flows around the front and straightens the tangled field lines (Vikhlinin, Markevitch & Murray 2001b). Another place where conductivity was estimated is the boundary between the hot cluster gas and two cool, galaxy-size dense gas clouds in Coma (Vikhlinin et al. 2001a). For these clouds to survive, conduction across their boundaries should be reduced by a factor 30–100.

Those measurements probe rather peculiar sites in clusters, i.e. boundaries between different gas phases which are expected to have disjoint magnetic fields and so be thermally isolated. As we will show below, an estimate that is more representative of the bulk of the gas can be obtained from the temperature maps of hot merging clusters, such as A754.

Previous optical and X-ray studies of A754 — a rich cluster at $`z=0.054`$ — showed that it is the prototype of a major merger. It has a complex galaxy distribution, X-ray morphology and gas temperature structure (Fabricant et al. 1986; Bird 1994; Slezak, Durret, & Gerbal 1994; Zabludoff & Zaritsky 1995; Henry & Briel 1995; Henriksen & Markevitch 1996, hereafter HM96). It also exhibits a radio halo (Kassim et al. 2001). In this paper, we use Chandra data to derive a detailed gas temperature map for A754. In §3.1, we discuss the merger details revealed by the new data. In §3.2, our temperature map is used for an estimate of thermal conductivity of the cluster gas. At this redshift, $`1^{\prime \prime }=1.13`$ kpc for our assumed $`H_0=65h_{65}`$ km s$`^1`$Mpc-1.

## 2. DATA ANALYSIS

A754 was observed by Chandra in October 1999 using ACIS-I111Chandra Observatory Guide http://asc.harvard.edu/udocs/docs/, “Observatory Guide,” “ACIS” for a clean exposure of 39 ks. Our analysis procedure, briefly outlined below, follows that in Markevitch et al. (2000) and Markevitch & Vikhlinin (2001) with a few updates. For background subtraction, we used the ACIS blank-sky dataset normalized by the ratio of the 10–12 keV rates in the data and the background files (see Markevitch et al. 2003); this normalization was within 1% of their exposure ratio. From the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (Snowden et al. 1997), there is no soft Galactic excess at the cluster position so no additional background modeling was necessary. The detector low energy response was corrected for the secular change of the ACIS quantum efficiency (Plucinsky et al. 2002). All point sources were masked out.

A single-temperature fit to the spectrum for the whole cluster (as far as we could reach, $`r=9^{}=0.6h_{65}^1`$ Mpc) gives $`T_e=10.0\pm 0.3`$ keV and a metal abundance of $`0.30\pm 0.05`$ (relative to Anders & Grevesse 1989) at the 90% confidence. This temperature is somewhat higher than the ASCA value of $`8.59.0`$ keV (HM96); however, ASCA covered more of this highly nonisothermal cluster. The absorption column, if fitted as a free parameter, is in good agreement with the Galactic value of $`N_H=4.36\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2, and therefore was fixed.

To derive a temperature map, we extracted cluster images in 7 energy bands between $`0.89.0`$ keV, excluding the intervals $`1.82.2`$ keV because of the poor calibration and $`7.47.6`$ keV containing a bright fluorescent background line. These images were adaptively smoothed (identically in all energy bands). In each image pixel, the 7 flux values were fitted by a thermal model with fixed $`N_H`$ and abundances. The result is shown in Fig. 1.

## 3. DISCUSSION

The large-scale temperature structure is in broad agreement with earlier ROSAT and ASCA results (Henry & Briel 1995; HM96). The new map offers a much more detailed look into this interesting cluster. Of note are a large hot area to the south and southwest (already seen in the earlier data), cool gas at the northeast tip of the elongated central bright body, and numerous small-scale temperature variations. Most of these variations are statistically significant; to illustrate this, we extracted and fitted the real spectra for several less-convincing features (right panel in Fig. 1). There is also a curious wavy structure in both the X-ray brightness and the temperature map (in the general area of regions 1–6 in Fig. 1), whose origin we find hard to explain.

### 3.1. Merger geometry

HM96 proposed that A754 is an off-center merger, and Roettiger, Stone, & Mushotzky (1998) succeeded in reproducing the general large-scale X-ray structure in hydrodynamic simulations. In Fig. 2, which overlays X-ray and optical images, one can discern two main galaxy concentrations, one around the western brightest galaxy, another just south of the X-ray brightness peak (e.g., Fabricant et al. 1986; Zabludoff & Zaritsky 1995). While the western X-ray extension (not completely covered by our data, but see, e.g., Henry & Briel 1995) is associated with the western galaxy concentration, the second galaxy subcluster is offset from its presumed X-ray counterpart, the bright elongated core (Zabludoff & Zaritsky 1995). In the Roettiger et al. simulations, this elongation and offset are caused by the ram pressure exerted from the southeast by the gas that used to belong to the western galaxy subcluster (which is now moving further to the northwest).

However, the Chandra data complicate this picture by revealing interesting structure within the elongated gas core. There is a steep X-ray brightness drop-off at the northern tip of the body (Figs. 1, 2) which, although not as sharp and regular-shaped as some cold fronts (e.g., Vikhlinin et al. 2001b), indicates a similar moving interface. The elongated cloud apparently moves to the north (in projection) from the big galaxy concentration, not being swept away by ram pressure from the south, but as if dragged along by another subcluster. The cold region at the nose of the elongated body appears to be the former core of that subcluster. However, it does not coincide with any large galaxy concentration (although there is a possible small group there, which alone would not be considered statistically significant). Alternatively, in the course of the merger, the elongated cloud may have completely decoupled from its former dark matter host and is now “sloshing” independently. Such a state would be very short-lived, because a moving gas cloud without the dark matter gravity support is quickly destroyed by gas-dynamic instabilities.

The coolest spot does not coincide with the gas density peak, so apparently it is not in pressure equilibrium with the rest of the elongated core. Such a transient state may arise, for example, if the cool core travels down the strong ambient pressure gradient faster than its internal sound speed. Its northern tip may then expand too fast for the internal pressure to equalize. It is also possible that projection effects are at play (e.g., the elongated core is a projection of two clouds).

We finally mention a brightness feature that looks like a bow shock leaving the merger site, first noted in the ROSAT image (Krivonos et al. 2003). It is located at the leftmost brightness contour in our figures (unfortunately, we cannot study it because of the limited coverage). It is consistent with the general merger picture proposed by Roettiger et al.

To conclude, simple scenarios cannot explain all the complex details in the new X-ray data on A754. However, the very complexity of the temperature map of this cluster can be used for an interesting physical estimate, as we show below.

### 3.2. Limit on thermal conduction

In a plasma with a temperature gradient $`T_e`$ such that the gradient’s linear scale $`l_TT_e/|T_e|\lambda _e`$ (where $`\lambda _e`$ is electron mean free path), heat flux is given by $`q=\kappa T_e`$. In the absence of magnetic fields and for typical cluster plasma parameters, the collisional conductivity is given by Spitzer (1962):

$`\kappa _S`$ $`=`$ $`1.31n_e\lambda _ek(kT_e/m_e)^{1/2}`$
$``$ $`7.1\times 10^{13}\left({\displaystyle \frac{kT_e}{10\mathrm{keV}}}\right)^{5/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Lambda }}{37.8}}\right)^1\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^1\mathrm{K}^1,`$
where $`\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the Coulomb logarithm. For magnetic fields expected in clusters ($`B>0.1\mu G`$, Carilli & Taylor 2002), the electron and proton gyro-radii are many orders of magnitude smaller than their Coulomb mean free paths. Therefore, conduction occurs predominantly along the magnetic field lines, and the effective conductivity is determined by the topology of the field. If the field is chaotic with a coherence scale $`l_B\lambda _e`$, the conductivity on scales $`l_Tl_B`$ is reduced by a factor of 3 (e.g., Sarazin 1988; Gruzinov 2002). If $`l_B\lambda _e`$ (which is likely the case — radio data suggest $`l_B530`$ kpc, e.g., Carilli & Taylor 2002, while $`\lambda _e1015`$ kpc in the central region of A754), the effective conductivity is reduced because electrons have to travel a longer path along the tangled field lines to diffuse over a given distance. The reduction is of order $`(l_T/l_B)^2`$ (e.g., Tribble 1989; note that $`\kappa `$ becomes scale-dependent), but probably not more than a factor of 100 if one considers the physical origin of the tangled field (Rosner & Tucker 1989; Tao 1995). In addition, the conductivity along the field lines may be reduced by a factor of $`10`$ (for $`l_B\lambda _e`$) by magnetic mirrors in the stochastic field (Malyshkin & Kulsrud 2001). On the other hand, for certain spectra of the field fluctuations, diffusion across the field lines and divergence of the lines may boost the effective conductivity to within a factor of only $`5`$ below $`\kappa _S`$ (Narayan & Medvedev 2001). This requires a field tangled on a range of scales down to $`l_B/100`$. We note that it is unclear whether such a field would be consistent with the observations of the $`10`$ kpc coherent “patches” of polarization of the background radio sources (Carilli & Taylor 2002; Govoni 2001), if those measurements indeed probe typical intracluster fields. To summarize, the collisional thermal conductivity on 100 kpc scales is expected to be reduced by a factor $`3100`$.

Our temperature map of A754 offers an interesting opportunity to put observational constraints on $`\kappa `$. All over the cluster, the temperature varies on linear scales starting from 100 kpc (the map resolution, limited by statistics) and up. This scale is so small that the temperature gradients should be erased very quickly if the conductivity is at the Spitzer value (3.2). An approximate expression for the conduction timescale $`t_{\mathrm{cond}}(d\mathrm{ln}T_e/dt)^1`$ can be found in, e.g., Sarazin (1988):

$`t_{\mathrm{cond}}`$ $``$ $`kn_el_T^2/\kappa _S\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1.2}\times 10^7\mathrm{yr}`$ (2)
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{n_e}{2\times 10^3\mathrm{cm}^3}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{l_T}{100\mathrm{kpc}}}\right)^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{kT_e}{10\mathrm{keV}}}\right)^{5/2},`$
where $`n_e`$ is from Jones & Forman (1999); $`t_{\mathrm{cond}}h_{65}^{3/2}`$. Note that $`l_T`$ as defined above and determined from the map in Fig. 1 would be greater than 100 kpc. However, we measure temperatures in projection, with a large column of gas at the mean cluster temperature on the line of sight, so the true temperature variations should be significantly stronger.222The average true distance between regions of different temperature in the map is also greater, but it is the size of each region, not the distance between them, that determines $`l_T`$. We therefore chose to use the apparent scale of the variations in the map as a realistic value of $`l_T`$ for this estimate; this, along with the strong dependence of $`\kappa _S`$ on $`T_e`$, are our greatest sources of uncertainty. We did not take into account mild saturation of the classical heat flux (for our $`\lambda _e`$ and $`l_T`$ one expects $`\kappa 0.7\kappa _S`$, cf. Cowie & McKee 1977 and Sarazin 1988), which in reality should not occur because of the tangled fields. In any case, it would not affect the conclusion.

At the same time, we do see these temperature variations everywhere in the cluster, so they should have lived for at least as long as it takes for a merger shock and/or a disturbing subcluster (that presumably have created them via compression and gas-dynamic instabilities) to travel across the central region of the cluster, $`L800`$ kpc (approximately the size of our map). The sound speed in this region is a safe estimate of that shock’s velocity regardless of its Mach number, since this region now contains the post-shock gas. This timescale is

$$t_{\mathrm{age}}\frac{L}{c_s}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}5}\times 10^8\frac{L}{800\mathrm{kpc}}\left(\frac{kT_e}{10\mathrm{keV}}\right)^{1/2}\mathrm{yr};$$
(3)
$`t_{\mathrm{age}}h_{65}^1`$. Comparison of eqs. (2) and (3) shows that the conductivity should be reduced by a factor

$$(\kappa /\kappa _S)^1t_{\mathrm{age}}/t_{\mathrm{cond}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}40}h_{65}^{1/2},$$
(4)
although we emphasize that, given all the uncertainties, this is only an order-of-magnitude estimate.

The limit in eq. (4) is inconsistent with the upper end of the theoretical range for $`\kappa `$. We note that the “local” conductivity considered by theorists can still be higher, if, for example, the ICM consists of thermally isolated domains with self-contained field structure. Such domains of gas that belonged to different subclusters may survive if mixing during the merger is not very efficient, as is indeed suggested by the existence of cold fronts (Vikhlinin et al. 2001b; Narayan & Medvedev 2001).

Our upper limit on conduction appears to exclude it as a mechanism to off-set cooling in the cluster cores (where one needs $`\kappa >\kappa _S/3`$, see refs. in §1). However, conduction in a denser, cooler core is likely to operate in a different regime; for example, there one expects $`\lambda _el_B`$ compared to $`\lambda _el_B`$ in the regions that we studied above. In addition, the central magnetic fields may have a different topology because of the competing effects of the radial cooling inflow (Bregman & David 1988; Soker & Sarazin 1990) and radial infall of the subcluster pieces vs. the widespread gas “sloshing” (Markevitch, Vikhlinin, & Forman 2002). This may result in a different reduction factor. Finally, we note that our limit in eq. (4), as well as the cooling flow conduction estimates, are relative to $`\kappa _S`$ which itself is much lower in the cool cores. Our absolute upper limit on conductivity is not necessarily lower than the absolute conductivity needed to compensate cooling. Thus, even if the reduction factor for the Spitzer conduction is the same everywhere in the cluster, we cannot exclude a sufficiently high heat influx into the cooling core that is due to a different physical process (and so has a different dependence on gas parameters), such as turbulence, for example.

## 4. SUMMARY

We have derived a detailed temperature map of the prototypical merging cluster A754. Simple merger scenarios cannot reproduce the complex details revealed by the new data; either A754 is a three-body merger, or the cool dense gas found in the cluster’s bright elongated core has decoupled from its former subcluster host and is sloshing independently. We use the small-scale structure in the temperature map to derive the first constraint on thermal conductivity in the bulk of the gas in a cluster. The conductivity on scales $`100`$ kpc appears reduced by at least an order of magnitude from the Spitzer value.

We are grateful to Prof. T. Ohashi for an insightful question at a conference which led to the above conductivity estimate. Support was provided by NASA contract NAS8-39073, Chandra grant GO2-3164X, and the Smithsonian Institution.


text:
# Preservation of perfectness and acyclicity: Berrick and Casacuberta’s universal acyclic space localized at a set of primes

## 1 Introduction

The question of whether or not perfect groups are preserved under arbitrary group localization functors goes back to Farjoun and was raised simultaneously in \[Li\] and \[Ca\]. The close link between perfect groups and ordinary homology provides the topological motivation. Indeed if $`X`$ is a space with perfect fundamental group $`H`$, then of course $`H_1(X;)=0`$ by the Hurewicz Theorem. One wonders next what happens with the localizations of $`X`$. Is it true that their first integral homology groups are still trivial? Likewise what can be said about the localizations of an acyclic space? A first step is to analyze the effect of localization functors in the category of groups, since any such functor yields a homotopical localization by applying the classifying space construction.

A positive result is Theorem 2.4 which claims that if $`G`$ is a perfect group and its localization is known to be finite then it is automatically perfect. Therefore any example of a non-perfect localization of a perfect group should be an infinite group. The reader which is not familiar with the general theory of localization should not worry since we will mostly deal with standard $`P`$-localization, where $`P`$ is a set of primes. The functor $`L_P`$ associates in a universal way to any group $`G`$ a morphism $`GL_PG`$ from $`G`$ to a uniquely $`p`$-divisible group for any prime number $`pP`$. We ask now:

Question: If $`G`$ is a perfect group, does it imply that so is $`L_PG`$?

We have seen that we should look for large groups if we want to answer negatively to this question. Berrick and Casacuberta have precisely constructed in \[BC\] a universal acyclic space $`B=K(,1)`$, whose associated nullification functor is equivalent to Quillen’s plus construction (cf. \[Dr, 1.A.4\] for a definition of nullification). The fundamental group $``$ is a free product of an uncountable set of locally free perfect groups and is a universal “generator” of all perfect groups in the sense that the evaluation map

$$\times \mathrm{Hom}(,G)\stackrel{\mathrm{ev}}{}G$$

given by $`\mathrm{ev}(x,\psi )=\psi (x)`$ is surjective for every perfect group $`G`$. In particular for any acyclic group $`G`$ the cofibre of the evaluation map $`_{[B,BG]}BBG`$ is simply connected and acyclic, thus contractible. By Chachólski’s result \[Ch, Theorem 20.9\] it means that the cellularization $`CW_BBG`$ is $`BG`$, i.e. $`BG`$ can be constructed as a pointed homotopy colimit of a diagram whose values are all copies of $`B`$. It is thus natural to start looking for localizations of this universal acyclic group $``$, or of $``$, the “simplest” of its free summands (the definitions of these groups are given in Section 4). The main result of this paper is the following (another example of a non-perfect localization of a perfect group, based on a quotient of the same group $``$, has been obtained independently by B. Badzioch and M. Feshbach in \[BF\]).

Theorem 4.5 Let $`p`$ be any prime and $`P`$ its complementary set of primes. The $`P`$-localization $`L_P`$ of the perfect group $``$ is not a perfect group. In particular, $`L_P`$ is not perfect either.

A straightforward consequence is that the topological $`P`$-localization of the acyclic space $`B`$ is not acyclic, as its fundamental group is precisely $`L_P`$.

Corollary 4.6 Let $`p`$ be any prime and $`P`$ its complementary set of primes. The $`P`$-localization $`L_PB`$ of the acyclic space $`B`$ is not acyclic. In particular, $`L_PB`$ is not acyclic either.

This result on the first homology group contrasts with the main theorem in \[CS\], which deals with the first homotopy group: Any homological localization of a simply connected space is again simply connected.

The present work fits into an already large series of recent papers aimed at the study of preservation of algebraic structures by localization functors, with applications to stable and unstable homotopy theory. Let us mention the nice survey \[Ca\], as well as \[Li\], \[GRS\], \[O’S\], \[RST\], \[RSV\], and \[CG\].

Acknowledgments: We warmly thank the referee for the tremendous improvement in the organization of the material of Section 3 and 4, and in particular for his proof of Proposition 4.4. We would also like to thank Warren Dicks for pointing out Example 2.2 and Carles Casacuberta for helpful comments.

## 2 Finite localizations of perfect groups

The main result of this section could be useful to determine all finite localizations of finite simple groups, a problem which was extensively studied in \[RST\]. It was shown indeed in \[RSV\] that the localization of a finite simple group may (un)fortunately not be simple. We prove nevertheless in this section, Theorem 2.5, that all finite localizations of a non-abelian finite simple group must be perfect groups.

Let $`(L,\eta )`$ be any localization functor in the category of groups, where $`\eta :GLG`$ denotes the natural coaugmentation. Recall briefly that a group $`G`$ is called $`L`$-local if $`\eta :GLG`$, and it is called $`L`$-acyclic if $`LG=1`$. Note that for every $`L`$-acyclic group $`H`$ and every $`L`$-local group $`G`$, we have $`\mathrm{Hom}(H,G)=0`$. We will say that a morphism $`\phi :HG`$ is a localization if there exists a localization functor $`L`$ such that $`\phi `$ coincides with the coaugmentation $`\eta :HLH`$. This actually happens exactly when $`\phi `$ induces a bijection $`\mathrm{Hom}(H,G)\mathrm{Hom}(G,G)`$, see \[Ca, Lemma 2.1\].

###### Definition 2.1

A group $`G`$ is called almost perfect if it has no non-trivial endomorphism which factors through an abelian group, or equivalently through $`G_{ab}`$.

We do not know if this property has a name in the literature, but it makes sense for any variety $`𝒱`$ of groups (for more about varieties, see for example \[Ro, Section 1.1\]). A group could be called almost $`𝒱`$-perfect, if it has no non-trivial endomorphism which factors through a group in $`𝒱`$. Of course any perfect group is almost perfect. On the other hand there are non-perfect groups which are almost perfect. Our main result Theorem 4.5 actually shows that the group $`L_P`$ is not perfect but almost perfect. Let us indicate now a more natural and elementary example of this type.

###### Example 2.2

In \[St\] Strebel considers the following central extensions of the triangle groups: $`G(l,m,n)=x,y|x^l=y^m=(xy)^n`$. They all occur as fundamental groups of certain 3-dimensional manifolds and are finite if and only if $`|l|^1+|m|^1+|n|^1>1`$. The infinite ones are Poincaré duality groups of dimension 3 (therefore torsion-free) and the abelianization can be easily computed. For example $`G=G(3,8,2)`$ is such a torsion-free group with $`G_{ab}/2`$. It is thus almost perfect, but not perfect.

###### Lemma 2.3

Let $`H`$ be a perfect group and $`HG`$ be a localization. Then $`G`$ is almost perfect.

Proof. Consider an endomorphism $`\psi :GG`$ which factors through an abelian group $`A`$. Since $`H`$ is perfect, the composite $`\psi \eta :HGAG`$ is trivial. On the other hand, there is a bijection of sets $`\eta ^{}:\mathrm{Hom}(G,G)\mathrm{Hom}(H,G)`$ by the universal property of the localization. As $`\eta ^{}(\psi )=0`$, we infer that $`\psi `$ is trivial. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Theorem 2.4

Let $`H`$ be a perfect group and $`HG`$ be any localization with $`G`$ finite. Then $`G`$ is perfect.

Proof. Assume $`G`$ is not perfect. Then there exists a prime $`p`$ such that $`/p`$ is a quotient of $`G_{ab}`$ because $`G`$ is finite. But then we would have a non-trivial endomorphism $`GG_{ab}/pG`$, which contradicts the assumption that $`G`$ is almost perfect. $`\mathrm{}`$

The following corollary tells us that the kind of constructions we made in the previous paper \[RSV\] will never yield an example of non-perfect localization of a perfect group. We have to deal with infinite groups.

###### Corollary 2.5

Let $`H`$ be a non-abelian finite simple group and $`HG`$ be any localization of finite groups. Then $`G`$ is perfect. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Remark 2.6

The work of R. Göbel and S. Shelah \[GS\] (see also \[GRS\]) shows that every finite simple group admits large localizations (as large as any given cardinal). We do not know if a similar result also holds for localizations of finite perfect groups.

## 3 Baumslag’s class $`𝒫`$

Given a set of primes $`P`$, a group $`G`$ is called $`P`$-local if the $`p`$-power map $`xx^p`$ is bijective for all $`pP`$. In the notation of \[Ba\], such a group belongs to the class $`D_\omega `$. Every group $`G`$ admits a functorial $`P`$-localization $`\eta _G:GL_PG`$, i.e. $`L_PG`$ is $`P`$-local and for every homomorphism $`\psi :GK`$ into a $`P`$-local group $`K`$ there exists a unique homomorphism $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }:L_PGK`$ such that $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }\eta _G=\psi `$. From now on we will invert a single prime $`p`$. Thus $`P`$ is the set of all primes different from $`p`$ and the localization $`GL_PG`$ is obtained by adding unique $`p`$-roots to elements without $`p`$-roots and identifying $`p`$-roots when they are not unique. In general $`L_PG`$ is a very large group, where the equation $`y=x^p`$ has a unique solution.

We shall suppose that the reader is somewhat familiar with Baumslag’s work \[Ba\] on groups with unique roots. Another valuable reference is Ribenboim’s article \[Ri\]. An important class of groups introduced by Baumslag in \[Ba, Section 27\] is the class $`𝒫`$ ($`𝒫_\omega `$ in Baumslag’s notation). For a group $`G`$ in this class he shows that

$$L_PG=\underset{\alpha <\lambda }{}G_\alpha $$

where $`\lambda `$ is a limit ordinal and $`\{G_\alpha \}_\alpha `$ is a chain of supergroups of $`G`$, all of them belonging to the class $`𝒫`$. Moreover, for every ordinal $`\alpha <\lambda `$, either $`G_{\alpha ^+}=G_\alpha `$ or $`G_{\alpha ^+}`$ is constructed as the push-out of a diagram

$$[1/p]\stackrel{x_\alpha }{}G_\alpha ,$$

i.e. by adding $`p`$-roots to an element $`x_\alpha `$ in $`G_\alpha `$. If $`\alpha `$ is a limit ordinal then $`G_\alpha =_{\beta <\alpha }G_\beta `$. This construction is explained by Baumslag in \[Ba, (33.3)\]. In particular groups in the class $`𝒫`$ are contained in their $`P`$-localization: $`GL_PG`$. The importance of the class $`𝒫`$ comes from \[Ba, Corollary 35.7\], which shows that free groups belong to this class. We proceed by proving a lemma, the proof of which resembles the argument of \[Ba, Theorem 33.4\].

###### Lemma 3.1

Let $`G`$ be a group in $`𝒫`$ which is not $`P`$-local. Then there exists an epimorphism $`L_PG_p^{\mathrm{}}`$.

Proof. Since $`G`$ is not $`P`$-local there is a minimal $`\alpha `$ such that $`G_\alpha G_{\alpha ^+}`$. Therefore $`G_{\alpha ^+}`$ is the colimit of a certain push-out diagram

$$[1/p]\stackrel{x_\alpha }{}G_\alpha .$$

Construct now an epimorphism $`G_{\alpha ^+}_p^{\mathrm{}}`$ by mapping $`G_\alpha `$ trivially to $`_p^{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`[1/p]`$ to $`_p^{\mathrm{}}`$ by the canonical projection.

The proof goes on by a transfinite induction. Assume the epimorphism $`G_\beta _p^{\mathrm{}}`$ has already been constructed for some ordinal $`\beta >\alpha `$. We need to check that it can be extended to the next step $`G_{\beta ^+}`$. If $`G_\beta =G_{\beta ^+}`$ there is nothing to do, so we may assume that

$$G_{\beta ^+}=colim([1/p]G_\beta ).$$

A morphism out of it is determined by a pair of compatible morphisms out of $`[1/p]`$ and $`G_\beta `$. Consider the composite $`G_\beta _p^{\mathrm{}}`$. The image of $`1`$ generates a cyclic subgroup of order $`p^k`$ in the Prüfer group $`_p^{\mathrm{}}`$, for some $`k0`$. We require now the morphism $`[1/p]_p^{\mathrm{}}`$ to be the projection $`[1/p][1/p]/p^k_p^{\mathrm{}}`$. This defines the desired epimorphism $`G_{\beta ^+}_p^{\mathrm{}}`$ and the inductive process yields then an epimorphism $`L_P(G)_p^{\mathrm{}}`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

## 4 A counterexample

Berrick and Casacuberta constructed in \[BC\] an acyclic two-dimensional space $`B=K(,1)`$ whose associated nullification functor is equivalent to Quillen’s plus construction. The ideas behind its construction have been used in other contexts, for instance to show the existence of a plus-construction in the category of differential graded algebras over an operad \[CRS\]. The key ingredient is the universal acyclic group $``$, which is a free product of an uncountable set of locally free perfect groups $`_𝐧`$ indexed by non-decreasing sequences $`𝐧=(n_1,n_2,\mathrm{})`$ of positive integers. We will make use of the group $`=_{(1,1,1,\mathrm{})}`$. The presentation of $``$ is by definition

$$x_1,x_2,x_3,\mathrm{}|x_1=[x_2,x_3],x_2=[x_4,x_5],x_3=[x_6,x_7],x_4=[x_8,x_9],\mathrm{},$$

so every generator is a simple commutator of two new generators. In other words, $``$ is the colimit of the diagram

$$F_1\stackrel{\phi _0}{}F_2\stackrel{\phi _1}{}F_4\stackrel{\phi _2}{}F_8\stackrel{\phi _3}{}\mathrm{}$$

where $`F_{2^n}`$ is a free group on generators $`x_{2^n},x_{2^n+1},\mathrm{},x_{2^{n+1}1}`$ and $`\phi _n(x_i)=[x_{2i},x_{2i+1}]`$ for any $`2^ni<2^{n+1}`$ (thus $`\phi _n`$ is actually a free product of $`2^n`$ copies of $`\phi _0`$). In general the group $`_{(n_1,n_2,\mathrm{})}`$ is defined similarly: the generators at the step $`k`$ are products of $`n_k`$ commutators of new generators; for more details see \[BC, Example 5.3\]. The rest of the section is devoted to proving that the $`P`$-localization of the group $``$ is not perfect.

We shall need the following terminology from \[MKS\]. Elements of the free group $`F_n`$ on $`n`$ generators $`x_1,\mathrm{},x_n`$ correspond to freely reduced words $`w`$ in the symbols $`x_1,\mathrm{},x_n`$: In $`w`$ the symbols $`x_i^ϵ`$ and $`x_i^ϵ`$ never appear adjacently, where $`ϵ=\pm 1`$. A word is called cyclically reduced if it is not of the form $`rur^1`$ for some words $`r`$ and $`u`$.

###### Lemma 4.1

Let $`F_n`$ be the free group on $`n`$ generators $`x_1,\mathrm{},x_n`$ and let $`w`$ be a freely reduced word. If $`w`$ belongs to $`F_nF_{n1}`$, then so does $`w^k`$ for any $`k0`$.

Proof. The proof of \[MKS, Corollary 1.2.2\] can be used nearly verbatim. We assume $`k>0`$ (the case $`k<0`$ will follow directly). If $`w`$ is cyclically reduced and contains the symbol $`x_n`$, then $`w^k`$ is freely reduced and contains thus the symbol $`x_n`$ as well for any $`k0`$. Moreover the freely reduced word representing $`w^k`$ starts with the same letter and ends with the same letter as $`w`$.

If $`w`$ is not cyclically reduced, it is of the form $`w=rur^1`$ for some cyclically reduced and non-trivial word $`u`$. Then $`w^k=ru^kr^1`$, which is freely reduced since $`u^k`$ is so and starts and ends with the same symbol as $`u`$. Therefore $`w^k`$ contains the letter $`x_n`$ as either $`u^k`$ or $`r`$ contains it. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Proposition 4.2

Let $`\phi :F_nF_{2n}`$ be the group homomorphism defined by $`\phi (x_i)=[x_{2i1},x_{2i}]`$ for any $`1in`$. Assume $`wF_n`$ is a word such that $`\phi (w)=u^k`$ for some $`k0`$ and some element $`uF_{2n}`$. There exists then an element $`vF_n`$ such that $`\phi (v)=u`$ and $`v^k=w`$. In particular, if $`w`$ has no $`p`$-root, then neither has $`\phi (w)`$.

Proof. In \[HW, Lemma 1.1\], Hurley and Ward give an explicit basis for the commutator subgroup of a free group. In particular $`[F_{2n},F_{2n}]`$ is a free group on a set of elements containing the commutators $`[x_{2i1},x_{2i}]`$. This shows first that $`\phi `$ is a monomorphism and second that $`[F_{2n},F_{2n}]`$ decomposes as $`\phi (F_n)E`$ for some free subgroup $`E`$ of $`F_{2n}`$.

Notice next that $`u`$ must belong to $`[F_{2n},F_{2n}]`$ since $`u^k`$ does so and $`F_{2n}/[F_{2n},F_{2n}]=(F_{2n})_{ab}`$ is torsion free. Thus $`u`$ actually belongs to the image of $`\phi `$ by Lemma 4.1. There exists therefore an element $`vF_n`$ such that $`\phi (v)=u`$. As $`\phi `$ is injective, $`v^k=w`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Proposition 4.3

The group $``$ is not $`P`$-local.

Proof. Consider the inclusion $`F_1`$. We prove that the image of $`x_1`$ in $``$ has no $`p`$-root. It suffices to do so for the image of $`x_1`$ in $`F_{2^n}`$ for all $`n1`$. The proof goes by induction. Clearly $`x_1`$ has no $`p`$-root in $`F_1`$. The induction step is provided by Proposition 4.2. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Proposition 4.4

The group $``$ is in the class $`𝒫`$.

Proof. We want to employ \[Ba, Lemma 31.1\] to the expression of $``$ as the colimit of

$$F_1\stackrel{\phi _0}{}F_2\stackrel{\phi _1}{}F_4\stackrel{\phi _2}{}F_8\stackrel{\phi _3}{}\mathrm{}$$

By \[Ba, Corollary 35.7\] each free group $`F_{2^n}`$ is in the class $`𝒫`$. It suffices thus to prove that at each stage in this telescope the image $`\phi _n(C_{F_{2^n}}(w))`$ of the centralizer of any element $`wF_{2^n}`$ is equal to the (infinite cyclic) centralizer $`C:=C_{F_{2^{n+1}}}(\phi _n(w))`$ of its image.

Let $`u`$ be a generator of $`C`$. Since $`\phi _n(w)`$ belongs to $`C`$ and $`\phi _n`$ is injective, there exists some $`k0`$ such that $`\phi _n(w)=u^k`$. Proposition 4.2 ensures now the existence of an element $`vF_{2^n}`$ with $`\phi _n(v)=u`$ and $`v^k=w`$. As $`\phi _n`$ is injective, the elements $`v`$ and $`w`$ already commute in $`F_{2^n}`$. It follows that $`vC_{F_{2^n}}(w)`$ and so

$$C_{F_{2^{n+1}}}(\phi _n(w))\phi _n(C_{F_{2^n}}(w)).$$

The opposite inclusion is obvious, and the result follows. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Theorem 4.5

Let $`p`$ be any prime and $`P`$ its complementary set of primes. The $`P`$-localization $`L_P`$ of the perfect group $``$ is not a perfect group. In particular, $`L_P`$ is not perfect either.

Proof. We have seen in Proposition 4.3 that the group $``$ is not $`P`$-local, but belongs to the class $`𝒫`$ (Proposition 4.4). We conclude then by Lemma 3.1 that there exists an epimorphism $`L_P_p^{\mathrm{}}`$. Thus $`L_P`$ is not a perfect group.

The group $``$ contains by definition $``$ as a free summand. Therefore $`L_P`$ is a retract of $`L_P`$, which cannot be perfect. $`\mathrm{}`$

Recall that in the homotopical context $`L_P`$ denotes localization with respect to the $`p`$-power map $`p:S^1S^1`$. The article \[CP\] contains valuable information about this $`P`$-localization.

###### Corollary 4.6

Let $`p`$ be any prime and $`P`$ its complementary set of primes. The $`P`$-localization $`L_PB`$ of the acyclic space $`B`$ is not acyclic. In particular, $`L_PB`$ is not acyclic either.

Proof. By \[CP, Theorem 8.7\] the topological $`P`$-localization of a wedge of circles is given by the group theoretical one. That is, for any free group $`F`$, we have $`L_PBFB(L_PF)`$. Since $`B`$ is constructed as a telescope of $`BF_{2^n}`$’s, Theorem 1.D.3 in \[Dr\] tells us that $`L_PBL_P(hocolimL_PBF_{2^n})`$. Therefore

$$L_PBL_P(hocolimBL_PF_{2^n})L_PB(colimL_PF_{2^n})L_PB(L_P).$$

The last weak equivalence is due to the fact that $`L_P`$ is isomorphic to $`colim_nL_PF_{2^n}`$, this colimit being a $`P`$-local group (uniquely $`p`$-divisible) by a standard finite object argument. We conclude now that $`L_PBB(L_P)`$ because the latter is a $`P`$-local space (clearly $`BG`$ is $`P`$-local for any $`P`$-local group $`G`$). $`\mathrm{}`$

It could be nice to completely determine the abelianization of the $`P`$-localization of $``$ (we just exhibited one morphism onto a Prüfer group), and also to compute explicitly the topological $`P`$-localization of Berrick and Casacuberta’s universal space $`B`$.

José L. Rodríguez

Área de Geometría y Topología, CITE III, Universidad de Almería, E–04120 Almería, Spain, e-mail: jlrodri@ual.es

Jérôme Scherer

Departament de Matemàtiques, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E–08193 Bellaterra, Spain, e-mail: jscherer@mat.uab.es

Antonio Viruel

Departamento de Algebra, Geometría y Topología, Universidad de Málaga, Apartado de Correos 59, E–29080 Málaga, Spain, e-mail: viruel@agt.cie.uma.es


text:
# Probing the high-density behavior of nuclear symmetry energy with high-energy radioactive beams

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Nuclear reactions using rare isotopes has opened up several new frontiers in nuclear sciences. In particular, high energy heavy rare isotopes to be available at the future Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) and the new GSI accelerator facility provide a unique opportunity to explore novel properties of dense neutron-rich matter that was not in reach in terrestrial laboratories before. This exploration will reveal crucial information about the $`\mathrm{EOS}`$ of neutron-rich matter. To understand the latter and its astrophysical implications, such as, the origin of elements, structure of rare isotopes and properties of neutron stars are presently among the most important goals of nuclear sciences. The $`\mathrm{EOS}`$ of neutron-rich matter of isospin asymmetry $`\delta (\rho _n\rho _p)/(\rho _n+\rho _p)`$ can be written as

$$e(\rho ,\delta )=e(\rho ,0)+E_{sym}(\rho )\delta ^2$$
(1)
within the parabolic approximation (see e.g., ), where $`e(\rho ,0)`$ is the energy per nucleon in isospin symmetric nuclear matter and $`E_{sym}(\rho )`$ is the symmetry energy at density $`\rho `$. To study the $`E_{sym}(\rho )`$ has been a longstanding goal of extensive research with various microscopic and/or phenomenological models over the last few decades. The predicted results on the density dependence, especially at high densities, are extremely diverse and often contradictory. Theoretical results can be roughly classified into two groups, i.e., a group where the $`E_{sym}(\rho )`$ rises monotonously and one in which it falls with the increasing density above about twice the normal nuclear matter density. Above $`3\rho _0`$, even the sign of the symmetry energy is unclear. The fundamental cause of the extremely uncertain HD behaviour of $`E_{sym}(\rho )`$ is the complete lack of terrestrial laboratory data to constrain directly the model predictions. Recently, several promising observables were proposed to extract the HD behavior of the symmetry energy using high energy radioactive beams.

## 2 CORRELATION BETWEEN DENSITY AND ISOSPIN ASYMMETRY IN NEUTRON STARS AND HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS

In a neutron star, several of its main properties are affected significantly by the correlation between the density and the proton fraction $`x_\beta `$ at $`\beta `$ equilibrium. The latter is determined by

$$\mathrm{}c(3\pi ^2\rho x_\beta )^{1/3}=4E_{\mathrm{sym}}(\rho )(12x_\beta ).$$
(2)
The equilibrium proton fraction is therefore entirely determined by the $`E_{sym}(\rho )`$. We use the following two representatives of the symmetry energy

$$E_{sym}^a(\rho )E_{sym}(\rho _0)u\mathrm{and}E_{sym}^b(\rho )E_{sym}(\rho _0)u\frac{3u}{2},$$
(3)
where $`u\rho /\rho _0`$. The values of $`\delta _\beta =12x_\beta `$ corresponding to these two forms of symmetry energy are shown in the insert of Fig. 1. With the $`E_{sym}^b(\rho )`$, the $`\delta _\beta `$ is $`1`$ for $`\rho /\rho _03`$, indicating that the neutron star has become a pure neutron matter at these high densities. On the contrary, with the $`E_{sym}^a(\rho )`$, the neutron star becomes more proton-rich as the density increases. To see the connection between the physics governing properties of both neutron stars and heavy-ion collisions, we show in Fig. 1 the correlation between density $`\rho `$ and the isospin asymmetry $`\delta _{like}`$ (effective isospin asymmetry taking into account different charge states of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1232)`$ resonances) over the entire reaction volume at the time of about the maximum compression in the central $`{}_{}{}^{132}Sn+^{124}Sn`$ reactions with E/A=400 (upper window) and 2000 (bottom window) MeV/nucleon, respectively. These results were obtained using an isospin-dependent hadronic transport model. The overall rise of $`\delta `$ at low densities is mainly due to the neutron skins of the colliding nuclei and the distillated neutrons. Effects due to the different symmetry energies are more clearly revealed especially at high densities. An astonishing similarity is seen in the resultant $`\delta \rho `$ correlations for the neutron star and the heavy-ion collision. In both cases, the symmetry energy $`E_{sym}^b(\rho )`$ makes the HD nuclear matter more neutron-rich than the $`E_{sym}^a(\rho )`$ and the effect grows with the increasing density. Of course, this is no surprise since the same underlying nuclear $`\mathrm{EOS}`$ is at work in both cases. The decreasing $`E_{sym}^b(\rho )`$ above $`\frac{1}{2}u_c=1.5\rho _0`$ makes it more energetically favorable to have the denser region more neutron-rich in both neutron stars and heavy-ion collisions.

## 3 $`\pi ^{}/\pi ^+`$ PROBE OF THE $`E_{sym}(\rho )`$

It is well known that the $`\pi ^{}/\pi ^+`$ ratio in heavy-ion collisions depends strongly on the isospin asymmetry of the reaction system. It is also qualitatively easy to understand why this dependence can be used to extract crucial information about the EOS of neutron-rich matter. On one hand, within the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonance model for pion production from first-chance independent nucleon-nucleon collisions, the primordial $`\pi ^{}/\pi ^+`$ ratio is $`(5N^2+NZ)/(5Z^2+NZ)(N/Z)^2`$. It is thus a direct measure of the isospin asymmetry $`(N/Z)_{dense}`$ of the dense matter in the participant region of heavy-ion collisions. It was shown that the $`(N/Z)_{dense}`$ is uniquely determined by the high density behaviour of the nuclear symmetry energy. Therefore, the $`\pi ^{}/\pi ^+`$ ratio can be used to probe sensitively the EOS of neutron-rich matter. On the other hand, within the statistical model for pion production, the $`\pi ^{}/\pi ^+`$ ratio is proportional to $`\mathrm{exp}\left[(\mu _n\mu _p)/T\right]`$, where T is the temperature, $`\mu _n`$ and $`\mu _p`$ are the chemical potentials of neutrons and protons, respectively. At modestly high temperatures ($`T4`$ MeV), the difference in the neutron and proton chemical potentials can be written as

$$\mu _n\mu _p=V_{asy}^nV_{asy}^pV_{Coulomb}+T\left[\mathrm{ln}\frac{\rho _n}{\rho _p}+\underset{m}{}\frac{m+1}{m}b_m(\frac{\lambda _T^3}{2})^m(\rho _n^m\rho _p^m)\right],$$
(4)
where $`V_{Coulomb}`$ is the Coulomb potential for protons, $`\lambda _T`$ is the thermal wavelength of a nucleon and $`b_m^{}`$s are the inversion coefficients of the Fermi distribution function. The difference in neutron and proton symmetry potentials $`V_{asy}^nV_{asy}^p=2v_{asy}(\rho )\delta `$, where the function $`v_{asy}(\rho )`$ is completely determined by the density-dependence of the symmetry energy. It is seen that the kinetic part of the difference $`\mu _n\mu _p`$ relates directly to the isospin asymmetry $`\rho _n/\rho _p`$ or $`\rho _n\rho _p`$. Thus within the statistical model too, the $`\pi ^{}/\pi ^+`$ ratio is sensitive to the $`(N/Z)_{dense}`$. Moreover, the value of $`\pi ^{}/\pi ^+`$ ratio is affected by the competition of the symmetry and Coulomb potentials which all depend on the isospin asymmetry of the reaction system. At relatively low temperatures there is a good chance to extract crucial information about the symmetry potential.

Shown in Fig. 2 are the isospin asymmetry of the high density region $`(n/p)_{\rho \rho _0}`$ (left) and the $`(\pi ^{}/\pi ^+)_{like}`$ ratio (right)

$$(\pi ^{}/\pi ^+)_{like}\frac{\pi ^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }^{}+\frac{1}{3}\mathrm{\Delta }^0}{\pi ^++\mathrm{\Delta }^{++}+\frac{1}{3}\mathrm{\Delta }^+}$$
(5)
as a function of time for the central $`{}_{}{}^{132}Sn+^{124}Sn`$ reaction at beam energies from 200 to 1000 MeV/nucleon. This ratio naturally becomes the final $`\pi ^{}/\pi ^+`$ ratio at the freeze-out when the reaction time $`t`$ is much longer than the lifetime of the delta resonance $`\tau _\mathrm{\Delta }`$. The $`(\pi ^{}/\pi ^+)_{like}`$ ratio is rather high in the early stage of the reaction because of the large numbers of neutron-neutron scatterings near the surfaces where the neutron skins of the colliding nuclei overlap. It is seen that a variation of about 30% in the $`(n/p)_{\rho /\rho _0}`$ due to the different $`E_{sym}(\rho )`$ results in about 15% change in the final $`\pi ^{}/\pi ^+`$ ratio. It has thus an appreciable response factor of about 0.5 to the variation of HD n/p ratio and is approximately beam energy independent. Therfore, the $`(\pi ^{}/\pi ^+)_{like}`$ ratio is a sensitive probe of the HD behaviour of nuclear symmetry energy.

## 4 NEUTRON-PROTON DIFFERENTIAL FLOW PROBE OF THE $`E_{sym}(\rho )`$

The neutron-proton differential collective flow is measured by

$$F_{np}(y)\frac{1}{N(y)}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N(y)}{}}p_{x_i}\tau _i,$$
(6)
where $`N(y)`$ is the total number of free nucleons at the rapidity $`y`$, $`p_{x_i}`$ is the transverse momentum of particle $`i`$ in the reaction plane, and $`\tau _i`$ is $`+1`$ and $`1`$ for neutrons and protons, respectively. The free nucleons are identified as those having local nucleon densities less than $`1/8\rho _0`$. The $`F_{np}(y)`$ combines constructively the in-plane transverse momenta generated by the isovector potentials while reducing significantly influences of the isoscalar potentials of both neutrons and protons. Thus, it can reveal more directly the HD behaviour of $`E_{sym}(\rho )`$ in high energy heavy-ion collisions. A typical analysis for mid-central $`{}_{}{}^{132}Sn+^{124}Sn`$ reactions at 400 MeV/nucleon is made in the upper window of Fig. 3. A clear signature of the HD behaviour of $`E_{sym}(\rho )`$ appears at both forward and backward rapidities. The slope $`dF_{np}/d(y_{cm}/y_{beam})`$ at mid-rapidity is different by about a factor of 2 in reactions at $`E_{beam}200`$ MeV/nucleon as shown in the lower window of Fig. 3. This large effect can be easily observed by using available detectors at several heavy-ion facilities in the world.

## 5 SUMMARY

In summary, the HD behaviour of nuclear symmetry energy has been puzzling physicists for decades. In this work, central collisions induced by high energy radioactive beams are proposed as a novel means to solve this longstanding problem. Within an isospin dependent hadronic transport model using two representative density dependent symmetry energy functions predicted by many body theories, several experimental probes for the HD symmetry energy are studied. Among them, the $`\pi ^{}/\pi ^+`$ ratio, neutron-proton differential collective flow and its excitation function are found most promising. Future comparisons between the experimental data and model calculations will constrain stringently the HD behaviour of nuclear symmetry energy.

This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant No. PHY-0088934.