text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The study of color superconductivity goes back to the first days of QCD , but only recently this phenomenon has received a lot of attention (for recent reviews see refs. ). Naively one would expects that, due to asymptotic freedom, quarks at very high density would form a Fermi sphere of almost free fermions. However, Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer  proved that the Fermi surface of free fermions is unstable in presence of an attractive, arbitrary small, interaction. Since in QCD the gluon exchange in the $`\overline{3}`$ channel is attractive one expects the formation of a coherent state of particle/hole pairs (Cooper pairs). An easy way to understand the origin of this instability is to remember that, for free fermions, the Fermi energy distribution at zero temperature is given by $`f(E)=\theta (\mu E)`$ and therefore the maximum value of the energy (Fermi energy) is $`E_F=\mu `$. Then consider the corresponding grand-potential, $`\mathrm{\Omega }=E\mu N`$, with $`\mu =E_F`$. Adding or subtracting a particle (or adding a hole) to the Fermi surface does not change $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, since $`\mathrm{\Omega }(E\pm E_F)\mu (N\pm 1)=\mathrm{\Omega }`$. We see that the Fermi sphere of free fermions is highly degenerate. This is the origin of the instability, because if we compare the grand-potential for adding two free particles or two particles bounded with a binding energy $`E_B`$, we find that the difference is given by $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B\mathrm{\Omega }=E_B<0`$. Since a bound state at the Fermi surface can be formed by an arbitrary small attractive interaction , it is energetically more favorable for fermions to pair and form condensates.

From the previous considerations it is easy to understand why to realize superconductivity in ordinary matter is a difficult job. In fact, one needs an attractive interaction to overcome the repulsive Coulomb interaction among electrons, as for instance the one originating from phonon exchange for electrons in metals. On the other hand the interaction among two quarks in the channel $`\overline{3}`$ is attractive, making color superconductivity a very robust phenomenon. Notice also that once taken into account the condensation effects, at very high density one can use asymptotic freedom to get exact results. For instance, it is possible to get an analytical expression for the gap . In the asymptotic regime it is also possible to understand the structure of the condensates. In fact, consider the matrix element

$$0|\psi _{ia}^\alpha \psi _{jb}^\beta |0$$
(1)
where $`\alpha ,\beta =1,2,3`$ are color indices, $`a,b=1,2`$ are spin indices and $`i,j=1,\mathrm{},N`$ are flavor indices. Its color, spin and flavor structure is completely fixed by the following considerations:

* antisymmetry in color indices $`(\alpha ,\beta )`$ in order to have attraction;
* antisymmetry in spin indices $`(a,b)`$ in order to get a spin zero condensate. The isotropic structure of the condensate is favored since it allows a better use of the Fermi surface;
* given the structure in color and spin, Pauli principles requires antisymmetry in flavor indices.

Since the momenta in a Cooper pair are opposite, as the spins of the quarks (the condensate has spin 0), it follows that the left(right)-handed quarks can pair only with left(right)-handed quarks. In the case of 3 flavors the favored condensate is

$$0|\psi _{iL}^\alpha \psi _{jL}^\beta |0=0|\psi _{iR}^\alpha \psi _{jR}^\beta |0=\mathrm{\Delta }\underset{C=1}{\overset{3}{}}ϵ^{\alpha \beta C}ϵ_{ijC}$$
(2)
This gives rise to the so-called color–flavor–locked (CFL) phase . The reason for the name is that simultaneous transformations in color and in flavor leave the condensate invariant. In fact, the symmetry breaking pattern turns out to be

$$SU(3)_cSU(3)_LSU(3)_RU(1)_BSU(3)_{c+L+R}$$

where $`SU(3)_{c+L+R}`$ is the diagonal subgroup of the three $`SU(3)`$ groups. This is the typical situation when the chemical potential is much bigger than the quark masses $`m_u`$, $`m_d`$ and $`m_s`$ (here the masses to be considered are in principle density depending). However we may ask what happens decreasing the chemical potential. At intermediate densities we have no more the support of asymptotic freedom, but all the model calculations show that one still has a sizeable color condensation. In particular if the chemical potential $`\mu `$ is much less than the strange quark mass one expects that the strange quark decouples, and the corresponding condensate should be

$$0|\psi _{iL}^\alpha \psi _{jL}^\beta |0=\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ^{\alpha \beta 3}ϵ_{ij}$$
(3)
In fact, due to the antisymmetry in color the condensate must necessarily choose a direction in color space. Notice that now the symmetry breaking pattern is completely different from the three-flavor case. In fact, we have

$$SU(3)_cSU(2)_LSU(2)_RU(1)_BSU(2)_cSU(2)_LSU(2)_RU(1)_B$$

It is natural to ask what happens in the intermediate region of $`\mu `$. It turns out that the interesting case is for $`\mu M_s^2/\mathrm{\Delta }`$. To understand this point let us consider the case of two fermions: one massive, $`m_1=M_s`$ and the other one massless, $`m_2=0`$, at the same chemical potential $`\mu `$. The Fermi momenta are of course different

$$p_{F_1}=\sqrt{\mu ^2M_s^2},p_{F_2}=\mu $$
(4)
The grand potential for the two unpaired fermions is (factor 2 from the spin degrees of freedom)

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{unpair}.}=2_0^{p_{F_1}}\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\left(\sqrt{\stackrel{}{p}^2+M_s^2}\mu \right)+2_0^{p_{F_2}}\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\left(|\stackrel{}{p}|\mu \right)$$
(5)
In order to pair the two fermions must reach some common momentum $`p_{\mathrm{comm}}^F`$, and the corresponding grand potential is

$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{pair}.}`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle _0^{p_{\mathrm{comm}}^F}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}}\left(\sqrt{\stackrel{}{p}^2+M_s^2}\mu \right)+2{\displaystyle _0^{p_{\mathrm{comm}}^F}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}}\left(|\stackrel{}{p}|\mu \right)`$ (6)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2\mathrm{\Delta }^2}{4\pi ^2}}`$
where the last term is the energy necessary for the condensation of a fermion pair . The common momentum $`p_{\mathrm{comm}}^F`$ can be determined by minimizing $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{pair}.}`$ with respect to $`p_{\mathrm{comm}}^F`$, with the result

$$p_{\mathrm{comm}}^F=\mu \frac{M_s^2}{4\mu }$$
(7)
It is now easy to evaluate the difference $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{unpair}.}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{pair}.}`$ at the order $`M_s^4`$, with the result

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{unpair}.}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{pair}.}\frac{1}{16\pi ^2}\left(M_s^44\mathrm{\Delta }^2\mu ^2\right)$$
(8)
We see that in order to have condensation the condition

$$\mu >\frac{M_s^2}{2\mathrm{\Delta }}$$
(9)
must be realized. The problem of one massless and one massive flavor has been studied in ref. . However, one can simulate this situation by taking two massless quarks with different chemical potentials, which is equivalent to have two different Fermi spheres. The big advantage here is that one can use a study made by Larkin and Ovchinnikov  and Fulde and Ferrel . These authors studied the case of a ferromagnetic alloy with paramagnetic impurities. The impurities produce a magnetic field which, acting upon the electron spins, gives rise to a different chemical potential for the two populations of electrons. It turns out that it might be energetically favorable to pair fermions which are close to their respective Fermi surface (LOFF phase). However, since the Fermi momenta are different, the Cooper pair cannot have zero momentum and there is a breaking of translational and rotational invariance. Therefore, a crystalline phase can be formed. The previous situation is very difficult to be realized experimentally, but there have been claims of observation of this phase in heavy-fermion superconductors  and in quasi-two dimensional layered organic superconductors . The authors of ref.  have extended the calculation of ref.  to the case of two-flavor QCD and we will review here their results. Also, since the LOFF phase can give rise to crystalline structures, phonons are expected. We will also discuss the effective lagrangians for the phonons in different crystalline phases and show how to evaluate the parameters characterizing them, as the velocity of propagation. Finally we will consider an astrophysical application.

## 2 The LOFF phase

According to the authors of ref.  when fermions belong to two different Fermi spheres, they may prefer to pair staying as much as possible close to their own Fermi surface. When they are sitting exactly at the surface, the pairing is as shown in Fig. 1.

We see that the total momentum of the pair is $`\stackrel{}{p}_1+\stackrel{}{p}_2=2\stackrel{}{q}`$ and, as we shall see, $`|\stackrel{}{q}|`$ is fixed variationally whereas the direction of $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ is chosen spontaneously. Since the total momentum of the pair is not zero the condensate breaks rotational and translational invariance. The simplest form of the condensate compatible with this breaking is just a simple plane wave (more complicated functions will be considered later)

$$\psi (x)\psi (x)\mathrm{\Delta }e^{2i\stackrel{}{q}\stackrel{}{x}}$$
(10)
It should also be noticed that the pairs use much less of the Fermi surface than they do in the BCS case. In fact, in the case considered in Fig. 1 the fermions can pair only if they belong to the circles depicted there. More generally there is a quite large region in momentum space (the so called blocking region) which is excluded from the pairing. This leads to a condensate smaller than the BCS one.

Before discussing the LOFF case let us review the gap equation for the BCS condensate. We have said that the condensation phenomenon is the key feature of a degenerate Fermi gas with attractive interactions. Once one takes into account the condensation the physics can be described using the Landau’s idea of quasi-particles. In this context quasi-particles are nothing but fermionic excitations around the Fermi surface described by the following dispersion relation

$$ϵ(\stackrel{}{p},\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS})=\sqrt{\xi ^2+\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS}^2}$$
(11)
with

$$\xi =E(\stackrel{}{p})\mu \frac{E(\stackrel{}{p})}{\stackrel{}{p}}|_{\stackrel{}{p}=\stackrel{}{p}_F}(\stackrel{}{p}\stackrel{}{p}_F)=\stackrel{}{v}_F(\stackrel{}{p}\stackrel{}{p}_F)$$
(12)
The quantities $`\stackrel{}{v}_F`$ and $`(\stackrel{}{p}\stackrel{}{p}_F)`$ are called the Fermi velocity and the residual momentum respectively. A easy way to understand how the concept of quasi-particles comes about in this context is to study the gap equation at finite temperature. For simplicity let us consider the case of a four-fermi interaction. The euclidean gap equation is given by

$$1=ig\frac{d^4p}{(2\pi )^4}\frac{1}{(p_4i\mu )^2+|\stackrel{}{p}|^2+\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS}^2}$$
(13)
From this expression is easy to get the gap equation at finite temperature. We need only to convert the integral over $`p_4`$ into a sum over the Matsubara frequencies

$$1=gT\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\underset{n=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{1}{((2n+1)\pi T)^2+ϵ^2(\stackrel{}{p},\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS})}$$
(14)
Performing the sum we get

$$1=\frac{g}{2}\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{1n_un_d}{ϵ(\stackrel{}{p},\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS})}$$
(15)
Here $`n_u`$ and $`n_d`$ are the finite-temperature distribution functions for the excitations (quasi-particles) corresponding to the original pairing fermions

$$n_u=n_d=\frac{1}{e^{ϵ(\stackrel{}{p},\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS})/T}+1}$$
(16)
At zero temperature ($`n_u=n_d0`$) we find (restricting the integration to a shell around the Fermi surface)

$$1=\frac{g}{2}\frac{d\mathrm{\Omega }_pp_F^2d\xi }{(2\pi )^3}\frac{1}{\sqrt{\xi ^2(\stackrel{}{p})+\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS}^2}}$$
(17)
In the limit of weak coupling we get

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS}2\overline{\xi }e^{2/(g\rho )}$$
(18)
where $`\overline{\xi }`$ is a cutoff and

$$\rho =\frac{p_F^2}{\pi ^2v_F}$$
(19)
is the density of states at the Fermi surface. This shows that decreasing the density of the states the condensate decreases exponentially.

Let us now consider the LOFF case. For two fermions at different densities we have an extra term in the hamiltonian which can be written as

$$H_I=\delta \mu \sigma _3$$
(20)
where, in the original LOFF papers  $`\delta \mu `$ is proportional to the magnetic field due to the impurities, whereas in the actual case $`\delta \mu =(\mu _1\mu _2)/2`$ and $`\sigma _3`$ is a Pauli matrix acting on the space of the two fermions. According to ref.  this favors the formation of pairs with momenta

$$\stackrel{}{p}_1=\stackrel{}{k}+\stackrel{}{q},\stackrel{}{p}_2=\stackrel{}{k}+\stackrel{}{q}$$
(21)
We will discuss in detail the case of a single plane wave (see eq. (10)). The interaction term of eq. (20) gives rise to a shift in $`\xi `$ (see eq. (12)) due both to the non-zero momentum of the pair and to the different chemical potential

$$\xi =E(\stackrel{}{p})\mu E(\pm \stackrel{}{k}+\stackrel{}{q})\mu \delta \mu \xi \overline{\mu }$$
(22)
with

$$\overline{\mu }=\delta \mu \stackrel{}{v}_F\stackrel{}{q}$$
(23)
Here we have assumed $`\delta \mu \mu `$ (with $`\mu =(\mu _1+\mu _2)/2`$) allowing us to expand $`E`$ at the first order in $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ (see Fig. 1). The gap equation has the same formal expression as in eq. (15) for the BCS case

$$1=\frac{g}{2}\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{1n_un_d}{ϵ(\stackrel{}{p},\mathrm{\Delta })}$$
(24)
but now $`n_un_d`$

$$n_{u,d}=\frac{1}{e^{(ϵ(\stackrel{}{p},\mathrm{\Delta })\pm \overline{\mu })/T}+1}$$
(25)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the LOFF gap. In the limit of zero temperature we obtain

$$1=\frac{g}{2}\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{1}{ϵ(\stackrel{}{p},\mathrm{\Delta })}\left(1\theta (ϵ\overline{\mu })\theta (ϵ+\overline{\mu })\right)$$
(26)
The two step functions can be interpreted saying that at zero temperature there is no pairing when $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{p},\mathrm{\Delta })<|\overline{\mu }|`$. This inequality defines the so called blocking region. The effect is to inhibit part of the Fermi surface to the pairing giving rise a to a smaller condensate with respect to the BCS case where all the surface is used.

We are now in the position to show that increasing $`\delta \mu `$ from zero we have first the BCS phase. Then at $`\delta \mu =\delta \mu _1`$ there is a first order transition to the LOFF phase , and at $`\delta \mu =\delta \mu _2>\delta \mu _1`$ there is a second order phase transition to the normal phase (with zero gap) . We start comparing the grand potential in the BCS phase to the one in the normal phase. Their difference is given by

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{BCS}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{normal}}=\frac{p_F^2}{4\pi ^2v_F}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS}^22\delta \mu ^2\right)$$
(27)
where the first term comes from the energy necessary to the BCS condensation (compare with eq. (6)), whereas the last term arises from the grand potential of two free fermions with different chemical potential. We recall also that for massless fermions $`p_F=\mu `$ and $`v_F=1`$. We have again assumed $`\delta \mu \mu `$. This implies that there should be a first order phase transition from the BCS to the normal phase at $`\delta \mu =\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS}/\sqrt{2}`$, since the BCS gap does not depend on $`\delta \mu `$. The situation is depicted in Fig. 2.

In order to compare with the LOFF phase we will now expand the gap equation around the point $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$ (Ginzburg-Landau expansion) in order to explore the possibility of a second order phase transition. Using the gap equation for the BCS phase in the first term on the right-hand side of eq. (26) and integrating the other two terms in $`\xi `$ we get

$$\frac{gp_F^2}{2\pi ^2v_F}\mathrm{log}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS}}{\mathrm{\Delta }}=\frac{gp_F^2}{2\pi ^2v_F}\frac{d\mathrm{\Omega }}{4\pi }\mathrm{arcsinh}\frac{C(\theta )}{\mathrm{\Delta }}$$
(28)
where

$$C(\theta )=\sqrt{(\delta \mu qv_F\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2\mathrm{\Delta }^2}$$
(29)
For $`\mathrm{\Delta }0`$ we get easily

$$\mathrm{log}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS}}{2\delta \mu }=\frac{1}{2}_1^{+1}\mathrm{log}\left(1\frac{u}{z}\right),z=\frac{\delta \mu }{qv_F}$$
(30)
This expression is valid for $`\delta \mu `$ smaller than the value $`\delta \mu _2`$ at which $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$, therefore the right-hand side must reach a minimum at $`\delta \mu =\delta \mu _2`$. The minimum is fixed by the condition

$$\frac{1}{z}\mathrm{tanh}\frac{1}{z}=1$$
(31)
implying

$$qv_F1.2\delta \mu $$
(32)
Putting this value back in eq. (30) we obtain

$$\delta \mu _20.754\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS}$$
(33)
From the expansion of the gap equation around $`\delta \mu _2`$ it is easy to obtain

$$\mathrm{\Delta }^21.76\delta \mu _2(\delta \mu _2\delta \mu )$$
(34)
According to ref.  the difference between the grand potential in the superconducting state and in the normal state is given by

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{LOFF}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{normal}}=_0^g\frac{dg}{g^2}\mathrm{\Delta }^2$$
(35)
Using eq. (18) and eq.(33) we can write

$$\frac{dg}{g^2}=\frac{\rho }{2}\frac{d\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS}}{\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS}}=\frac{\rho }{2}\frac{d\delta \mu _2}{\delta \mu _2}$$
(36)
Noticing that $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is zero for $`\delta \mu _2=\delta \mu `$ we are now able to perform the integral (35) obtaining

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{LOFF}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{normal}}0.44\rho (\delta \mu \delta \mu _2)^2$$
(37)
We see that in the window between the intersection of the BCS curve and the LOFF curve in Fig. 2 and $`\delta \mu _2`$ the LOFF phase is favored. Furthermore at the intersection there is a first order transition between the LOFF and the BCS phase. Notice that since $`\delta \mu _2`$ is very close to $`\delta \mu _1`$ the intersection point is practically given by $`\delta \mu _1`$. In Fig. 2 we show also the behaviour of the condensates. Altough the window $`(\delta \mu _1,\delta \mu _2)(0.707,0.754)\mathrm{\Delta }_{BCS}`$ is rather narrow, there are indications that considering the realistic case of QCD  the windows may open up. Also, for different structures than the single plane wave there is the possibility that the windows opens up .

## 3 Crystalline structures

The ground state in the LOFF phase is a superposition of states with different occupation numbers ($`N`$ even)

$$|0_{LOFF}=\underset{N}{}c_N|N$$
(38)
Therefore the general structure of the condensate in the LOFF ground state will be

$$\psi (x)\psi (x)=\underset{N}{}c_N^{}c_{N+2}e^{2i\stackrel{}{q}_N\stackrel{}{x}}N|\psi (x)\psi (x)|N+2=\underset{N}{}\mathrm{\Delta }_Ne^{2i\stackrel{}{q}_N\stackrel{}{x}}$$
(39)
The case considered previously corresponds to all the Cooper pairs having the same total momentum $`2\stackrel{}{q}`$. A more general situation, although not the most general, is when the vectors $`\stackrel{}{q}_N`$ reduce to a set $`\stackrel{}{q}_i`$ defining a regular crystalline structure. The corresponding coefficients $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\stackrel{}{q}_i}`$ (linear combinations of subsets of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_N`$’s) do not depend on the vectors $`\stackrel{}{q}_i`$ since all the vectors belong to the same orbit of the group. Furthermore all the vectors $`\stackrel{}{q}_i`$ have the same lenght  given by eq. (32). In this case

$$0|\psi (x)\psi (x)|0=\mathrm{\Delta }_q\underset{i}{}e^{2i\stackrel{}{q}_i\stackrel{}{x}}$$
(40)
This more general case has been considered in  by evaluating the grand-potential of various crystalline structures through a Ginzburg-Landau expansion, up to sixth order in the gap

$$\mathrm{\Omega }=\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }^2+\frac{\beta }{2}\mathrm{\Delta }^4+\frac{\gamma }{3}\mathrm{\Delta }^6$$
(41)
These coefficients can be evaluated microscopically for each given crystalline structure. The procedure that the authors of ref.  have followed is to start from the gap equation represented graphically in Fig. 3.

Then, they expand the exact propagator in a series of the gap insertions as given in Fig. 4.

Inserting this expression back into the gap equation one gets the expansion illustrated in Fig. 5.

On the other hand the gap equation is obtained minimizing the grand-potential (41), i.e.

$$\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }+\beta \mathrm{\Delta }^3+\gamma \mathrm{\Delta }^5+\mathrm{}=0$$
(42)
Comparing this expression with the result of Fig. 5 one is able to derive the coefficients $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$.

In ref.  more than 20 crystalline structures have been considered, evaluating for each of them the coefficients of Eq. (41). The result of this analysis is that the face-centered cube appears to be the favored structure among the ones considered (for more details see ref. ).

## 4 Phonons

Since in the LOFF phase translational and rotational symmetries are broken, we expect the corresponding Nambu-Goldstone bosons (phonons) to appear in the theory. The number and the features of the phonons depend on the particular crystalline structure. We will consider here the case of the single plane-wave  and of the face-centered cube . We will introduce the phonons as it is usual for NG bosons , that is as the phases of the condensate. Considering the case of a single plane-wave we introduce a scalar field $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$ through the replacement

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(\stackrel{}{x})=\mathrm{exp}^{2i\stackrel{}{q}\stackrel{}{x}}\mathrm{\Delta }e^{i\mathrm{\Phi }(x)}\mathrm{\Delta }$$
(43)
We require that the scalar field $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$ acquires the following expectation value in the ground state

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(x)=2\stackrel{}{q}\stackrel{}{x}$$
(44)
The phonon field is defined as

$$\frac{1}{f}\varphi (x)=\mathrm{\Phi }(x)2\stackrel{}{q}\stackrel{}{x}$$
(45)
Notice that the phonon field transforms nontrivially under rotations and translations. From this it follows that non derivative terms for $`\varphi (x)`$ are not allowed. One starts with the most general invariant lagrangian for the field $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$ in the low-energy limit. This cuts the expansion of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ to the second order in the time derivative. However one may have an arbitrary number of space derivative, since from eq. (44) it follows that the space derivatives do not need to be small. Therefore

$$L_{\mathrm{phonon}}=\frac{f^2}{2}\left(\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}^2+\underset{k}{}c_k\mathrm{\Phi }(\stackrel{}{}^2)^k\mathrm{\Phi }\right)$$
(46)
Using the definition (45) and keeping the space derivative up to the second order (we can make this assumption for the phonon field) we find

$$L_{\mathrm{phonon}}=\frac{1}{2}\left(\dot{\varphi }^2v_{}^2\stackrel{}{}_{}\varphi \stackrel{}{}_{}\varphi v_{}^2\stackrel{}{}_{}\varphi \stackrel{}{}_{}\varphi \right)$$
(47)
where

$$\stackrel{}{}_{}=\stackrel{}{n}(\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{}),\stackrel{}{}_{}=\stackrel{}{}\stackrel{}{}_{},\stackrel{}{n}=\frac{\stackrel{}{q}}{|\stackrel{}{q}|}$$
(48)
We see that the propagation of the phonon in the crystalline medium is anisotropic.

The same kind of considerations can be made in the case of the cube. The cube is defined by 6 vectors $`\stackrel{}{q}_i`$ pointing from the origin of the coordinates to the vertices of the cube parameterized as in Fig. 6.

The condensate is given by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(x)=\mathrm{\Delta }\underset{k=1}{\overset{8}{}}e^{2i\stackrel{}{q}_k\stackrel{}{x}}=\mathrm{\Delta }\underset{i=1,(ϵ_i=\pm )}{\overset{3}{}}e^{2i|\stackrel{}{q}|ϵ_ix_i}$$
(49)
We introduce now three scalar fields such that

$$\mathrm{\Phi }^{(i)}(x)=2|\stackrel{}{q}|x_i$$
(50)
through the substitution

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(x)\mathrm{\Delta }\underset{i=1,(ϵ_i=\pm )}{\overset{3}{}}e^{iϵ_i\mathrm{\Phi }^{(i)}(x)}$$
(51)
and the phonon fields

$$\frac{1}{f}\varphi ^{(i)}(x)=\mathrm{\Phi }^{(i)}(x)2|\stackrel{}{q}|x_i$$
(52)
Notice that the expression (51) is invariant under the symmetry group of the cube acting upon the scalar fields $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{(i)}(x)`$. This group has three invariants for the vector representation

$$I_2(\stackrel{}{X})=|\stackrel{}{X}|^2,I_4(\stackrel{}{X})=X_1^2X_2^2+X_2^2X_3^3+X_3^2X_1^2,I_6(\stackrel{}{X})=X_1^2X_2^2X_3^2$$
(53)
Therefore the most general invariant lagrangian invariant under rotations, translations and the symmetry group of the cube, at the lowest order in the time derivative, is

$$L_{\mathrm{phonon}}=\frac{f^2}{2}\underset{i=1,2,3}{}(\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}^{(i)})^2+L_\mathrm{s}(I_2(\stackrel{}{}\mathrm{\Phi }^{(i)}),I_4(\stackrel{}{}\mathrm{\Phi }^{(i)}),I_6(\stackrel{}{}\mathrm{\Phi }^{(i)}))$$
(54)
Expanding this expression at the lowest order in the space derivatives of the phonon fields one finds

$`L_{\mathrm{phonos}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1,2,3}{}}(\dot{\varphi }^{(i)})^2{\displaystyle \frac{a}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1,2,3}{}}|\stackrel{}{}\varphi ^{(i)}|^2{\displaystyle \frac{b}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1,2,3}{}}(_i\varphi ^{(i)})^2`$ (55)
$``$ $`c{\displaystyle \underset{i<j=1,2,3}{}}_i\varphi ^{(i)}_j\varphi ^{(j)}`$
The parameters appearing in the phonon lagrangian can be evaluated following the strategy outlined in . One starts from the QCD lagrangian and derives an effective lagrangian describing fermions close to the Fermi surface, that is at momenta such that $`pp_F`$ but $`pp_F\mathrm{\Delta }`$. The relevant degrees of freedom are the fermions dressed by the interaction, the so-called quasi-particles . Going closer to the Fermi surface the gapped quasi-particles decouple and one is left with the light modes as NG bosons, phonons and un-gapped fermions. It is possible to derive the parameters of the last description by the one in terms of quasi-particles evaluating the self-energy of the phonons (or the NG bosons) through one-loop diagrams due to fermion pairs. The couplings of the phonons to the fermions are obtained noticing that the gap acts as a Majorana mass for the quasi-particles. Therefore the couplings originate from the substitutions (43) and (51). In this way one finds the following results: for the single plane-wave

$$v_{}^2=\frac{1}{2}\left(1\left(\frac{\delta \mu }{|\stackrel{}{q}|}\right)^2\right),v_{}^2=\left(\frac{\delta \mu }{|\stackrel{}{q}|}\right)^2$$
(56)
and for the cube

$$a=\frac{1}{12},b=0,c=\frac{1}{12}\left(3\left(\frac{\delta \mu }{|\stackrel{}{q}|}\right)^21\right)$$
(57)
## 5 Astrophysical consequences

A typical phenomenon of the pulsars are the glitches (for a review see ), that is sudden jumps in the period of the star. If pulsars are neutron stars with a dense metallic crust, the effect is explained assuming that some angular momentum is stored in the vortices present in the inner neutron superfluid. When the period of the star slows down due to the gravitational radiation, the vortices, which are pinned to the crystalline crust, do not participate in the slowing-down until they become unstable releasing suddenly the angular momentum. Since the density in the inner of a star is a function of the radius, it results that one has a sort of laboratory to study the phase diagram of QCD at zero temperature, at least in the corresponding range of densities. A possibility is that one has a CFL state as a core of the star, then a shell in the LOFF state and eventually the exterior part made up of neutrons. Since in the CFL state the baryionic number is broken there is superfluidity. Therefore the same mechanism explained above might work with vortices in the CFL state pinned to the LOFF crystal. This could reinforce the ideas about the existence of strange stars (made of up, down and strange quarks).

## Acknowledgments

I am grateful to R. Gatto, M. Mannarelli and G. Nardulli for the very pleasant scientific collaboration on the subjects discussed in this talk.


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# 1 The scheme of CNO reactions.

A Lithium Experiment as the Stringent Test of the Theory of Stellar Evolution.

Anatoly Kopylov and Valery Petukhov

Institute of Nuclear Research of Russian Academy of Sciences

117312 Moscow, Prospect of 60th Anniversary of October Revolution 7A

## Abstract

We show that a lithium experiment has a potential to confirm or reject the value 1.5% of the solar luminosity attributed to a CNO-cycle by the standard solar model and to prove that the difference between total energy release of the Sun and what is produced in a hydrogen sequence is really produced in CNO cycle. This will be the stringent test of the theory of stellar evolution and the termination of the long-standing goal – the neutrino spectroscopy of the interior of the Sun. At the present time one can see no other way to solve this task, it can be accomplished only with a lithium detector utilizing its high sensitivity to CNO-neutrinos and very high accuracy in the theoretical evaluation of the cross-section of neutrino capture by 7Li. The analyses shows that although a lithium detector is a radiochemical one, principally it is possible to find separately the fluxes of 13N- and 15O-neutrinos.

The primary goal of the solar neutrino experiment since the early phase of the research pioneered by Raymond Davis was first - to prove the thermonuclear nature of the energy generation in the interior of the Sun and second - to find the experimental evidence that the Sun shines by the pp-chain and not by the CNO cycle. Soon the goal was formulated  as a “Neutrino Spectroscopy of the Interior of the Sun” (NSIS). Since that time the copious experimental material was accumulated . The field turned out to be very productive, the experiments not only provided the first direct evidence of the thermonuclear nature of the energy of the Sun, they discovered basically new properties of neutrinos – neutrino oscillations and measured its parameters: $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2 and mixing angle . The progress in this field is really very impressive. In a few years when a lithium project will be ready for the realization as a full-scale experiment, a lot more will be accomplished: basically all neutrino fluxes of hydrogen-sequence reactions and also the neutrino oscillation parameters will be measured with good accuracy. The only thing left will be presumably the neutrinos of CNO-cycle (at least now one can see no way how they could be detected apart from a lithium experiment). Figure 1 shows CNO reactions in schematic form .

At the present time only an upper limit of 7.3% was set  to the fraction of energy that the Sun produces via the CNO fusion cycle while according to the Standard Solar Model this fraction constitutes 1.5% . This limit was set just as a difference between the total energy release in the Sun found from the luminosity and the one generated in a hydrogen sequence alone, found from the fluxes of solar neutrinos measured in solar neutrino experiments  hence it is more like the limit of the non-hydrogen sequence source of energy. Here it is taken into account the effect from neutrino oscillations with the oscillation parameters of the MSW LMA region found in solar neutrino experiments and KamLAND ,.

In a next few years even in the optimistic scenario of the progress with the solar neutrino experiments it will be hardly possible to decrease this limit lower than 5%  utilizing only the data on a hydrogen sequence neutrinos because it will be hardly possible to reach the accuracy in the measurements of these neutrinos less than 5%. Lithium experiment has a potential to confirm or reject the value 1.5% predicted by the standard solar model. For a certain energy release in CNO cycle there should be a corresponding surplus from 13N- and 15O-neutrinos to the total rate expected from the fluxes of neutrinos generated in a hydrogen sequence alone. The data presented in Table 1 show the rates calculated by the Standard Solar Model  for different neutrino sources.

One can see from these data that 1$`\sigma `$ errors vary from 17% to 25% for 13N- and 15O-neutrinos close to 1$`\sigma `$ errors for boron neutrinos. However one should take into account that there’s a correlation of the fluxes of boron and CNO-neutrinos as it was discussed in . The substantial issue is that while the contribution of CNO-cycle to the solar energy is only 1.5%, the weight of neutrinos from CNO-cycle in the production rate of 7Be on 7Li is about 30%, see below. By the time a lithium experiment can start measurements basically all fluxes but CNO-neutrinos will be measured with relatively good accuracy and the question about sterile neutrinos will be cleared to a very small limit, if so. There can be some delay with the detection of pep-neutrinos, but the ratio of pep-neutrino flux to pp-neutrino flux is fixed to high accuracy  so it will not present a problem for the evaluation of the rate from neutrinos of a hydrogen sequence in a lithium experiment. The effect from solar neutrinos can be measured with very good accuracy this being a characteristic feature of a lithium target because the production rate is high and the cross-section is well known, see Table 1. This is a very rare and very useful combination for a solar neutrino experiment.

Figure 2 shows the sensitivity plot for a lithium detector , one can see that the contribution of the spectra of CNO neutrinos are quite substantial. The present discovery that MSW LMA region is responsible for the neutrino oscillations in the Sun means that approximately 1/2 of the neutrinos with the energy of about 1 MeV and 1/3 of boron neutrinos coming to the underground detector are of electron type. Then the total rate expected for a lithium target from solar neutrinos should be about 23 SNU including the predicted contribution from CNO-neutrinos about 7 SNU if to take that CNO cycle produces 1.5% of the total luminosity of the Sun. Here it is worth to note that for the present limit 7.3% the contribution to the rate of lithium detector from neutrinos of CNO-cycle will be 35 SNU, more than it is expected from neutrinos of a hydrogen sequence. This would be soon identified in the running experiment. Because lithium is a low atomic mass target (very high number of atoms in 1 g) and the abundance of 7Li in natural lithium is 93% even relatively small mass of lithium (10 tons) can provide high accuracy in the rate measurements. The statistics of a lithium experiment shows that for the effect of 20 SNU and 4 Runs per year having the total efficiency of the extraction 80% and the efficiency of counting 90% the statistical accuracy for 4 years of measurements should be about 3-4%. This is a very good number quite adequate to determine with good accuracy the contribution of CNO-neutrinos to the total rate. This will be the stringent test of the theory of stellar evolution and the termination of the long-standing goal – the neutrino spectroscopy of the interior of the Sun . There’s also a potential to increase the accuracy increasing the total mass of the target four- eight-fold by using several modules 10 tons each.

It is worth to note that even if the difference of the observed luminosity of the Sun and the estimated for the hydrogen sequence is established with good accuracy it does not provide a proof that the difference is due to CNO-cycle. The proof may be obtained from another balance - of the measured rates in a lithium detector. The most interesting thing would be to compare two values: first value is the contribution of the non-hydrogen sequence to the solar luminosity found as a difference of the observed luminosity of the Sun and the one found from the hydrogen sequence alone using the measured neutrino fluxes of the hydrogen sequence, and second value is the contribution to the solar luminosity of CNO-cycle found from the contribution to the measured rate in a lithium experiment neutrinos of CNO-cycle as a surplus to the rate determined by a hydrogen sequence. If there would be a substantial difference of these two values - there is some other source of energy in the Sun. To make this comparison both values should be known with good accuracy. As it was shown up the statistics of the planned lithium experiment enables to get the second value with good accuracy. What about the first one, the situation here is probably more complicated. Because the expected contribution of CNO-cycle to the solar luminosity is only 1.5% the accuracy in the neutrino flux measurements from a hydrogen sequence should be on the level of better than 1%. Obviously this level will be reached not soon. So for the nearest future one can talk only about the contribution of CNO cycle to the total energy production in the Sun found from a lithium experiment. In fact the interpretation of the results depends upon how accurately are measured the parameters of neutrino oscillations. One can expect that $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m$`{}_{12}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}`$ will be found with very good accuracy by KamLAND in the nearest future. It is not clear yet how fast will be the progress with the determination of $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{12}`$. If it will be found with a good accuracy one can investigate the energy balance

$`L_H`$($`\mathrm{\Theta }_{12}`$)+$`L_{CNO}`$($`\mathrm{\Theta }_{12}`$)=$`L_{}`$

to look how accurate is this equality. If on the contrary the fluxes of the neutrinos of a hydrogen sequence and of CNO-cycle are measured with very good accuracy while $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{12}`$ is not one can find $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{12}`$ as the value for which this equality is fulfilled. Both alternatives look attractive. But apparently this task is for the future when the flux of pp-neutrinos will be measured with the accuracy better than 1%.

A peculiar thing is that although lithium detector is a radiochemical one i.e. it measures the total rate from all the neutrino sources on the Sun, there’s one possibility to find separately what is the contribution of 13N and 15O neutrinos. First of all one should note that for lithium detector the contribution of 13N neutrinos is 5 times smaller than that of 15O neutrinos, see Table 1. It helps in the interpretation of the results because the interference is small. But the spectra can be resolved! Let’s look more in the details. If the fluxes of neutrinos from a hydrogen sequence are measured with very good accuracy then the only unknown thing is the energy of CNO cycle. But the energy generation in this cycle proceeds by two half-cycles: from 12C to 14N (first one) and from 14N to 12C (second one). The rates depend upon the abundance of 12C and 14N in the interior of the Sun.

Figure 3 shows the distribution of the abundance of 12C and 14N along the profile of the Sun (in a mass ratio units) . One can see that the center of the Sun is depleted by 12C (it is burned out) while is enriched by 14N (it is accumulated). The question is: can this abundance distribution be confirmed by experiment? For the first half-cycle the energy release E1 = 12C + 2p –14N. For the second one E2 = 14N + 2p – 12C – $`\alpha `$. The total energy release will be as it is well know E1\+ E2 = 4p – $`\alpha `$. The energy released in the first half-cycle is a bit smaller than the one in the second half-cycle E2– E1 = 2(14N - 12C) - $`\alpha `$. It is about 3.3 MeV. And if to take into account that the energy of neutrino emitted in the first half-cycle is less than the energy of the neutrino in the second one, we obtain that in the first half-cycle the Sun gets less energy only by about 3.1 MeV than in the second half-cycle, this means that these energies are very close. What about the contribution to the rate of lithium detector, the situation here is very different. The contribution of the 15O-neutrino is 5 times bigger than the one of 13N-neutrino. Then a system of two equations can be written.

$$\{\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill L_H+L_{CN}+L_{NO}& =& L_{}\hfill \\ \hfill R_H+R_{CN}+R_{NO}& =& R_{Li}\hfill \end{array}$$

Here L – luminosity, RLi, RH the measured and estimated for the hydrogen sequence rates in lithium detector, RCN and RNO means the rates from neutrino born from 13N- and 15O-decays, R = yL/4$`\pi `$R$`{}_{SUN}{}^{2}\epsilon `$, where RSUN – the distance from Sun to Earth, $`\epsilon `$ is the energy contributed to the Sun per one neutrino emitted in each half-cycle of CNO-cycle and y – the capture rate per one neutrino of 13N- and 15O-spectra. One can see from these equations that principally it is possible to find separately the fluxes of 13N and 15O neutrinos. The only thing one should know are the fluxes of neutrinos from a hydrogen sequence and the parameters of neutrino oscillations. With good accuracy. And of course to measure the rate by lithium detector.

The technique of lithium experiment is now under development . The detector itself can be made quite compact. Figure 4 shows the possible configuration of the detector with one module of 10 tons of metallic lithium in an underground chamber. One can see that the scale of the lithium installation is quite modest in comparison with other solar neutrino detectors. The difficult point for a lithium project is the counting of 7Be. To have a good statistics the efficiency of the counting should be about 80-90%. But 7Be decays mainly to the ground state of 7Li through the electron capture and the energy of Auger electron is only 55 eV. It presents a big problem to measure such a small energy release when one should count single atoms during long time of measurements (100 days). The decay to the excited state of 7Li is accompanied with the gamma-ray of 478 keV which is a very convenient line for the detection, but the branching ratio of this mode is only 10%. The only technique which looks perspective for a full-scale lithium experiment is a cryogenic microcalorimetry. The principal possibility of using this technique for the counting of 7Be was shown in , ,  but for the real technology of beryllium extraction from lithium and for the low background environment the appropriate scheme of the detector should be found and tested.

To summarize we should note that a lithium experiment has a good discovering potential in the study of solar neutrinos and the more accurate are the data on the neutrino fluxes from a hydrogen sequence and on the neutrino oscillation parameters, the more information on CNO-cycle one can obtain from the results of a lithium experiment. For a given accuracy of the measurements these results can be interpreted also in terms of the parameters of neutrino oscillations, or in terms of the balance violation in the energies produces in a hydrogen sequence plus CNO-cycle and the total solar luminosity this being an indication on the other possible source of solar energy. This work was supported in part by the Russian Fund of Basic Research, contract N 01-02-16167-A and by the Leading Russian Scientific School grant N 00-15-96632.


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# Constant-time solution to the Global Optimization Problem using Brüschweiler’s ensemble search algorithm

## I The Global Optimization Problem

Optimization problems are ubiquitous and extremely consequential. Their theoretical and practical interest has continued to grow from the first recorded instance of Queen Dido’s problem S  to present day forays into complexity theory and large scale logistics applications (see Refs. TZ ; HT ; HHP ; FP ; DS  and references therein).

The formulation of the Global Optimization Problem (GOP) is deceptively simple: find the absolute minimum of a given function - called the objective function - over the allowed range of its variables. Sometimes, the function whose global minimum is to be found is not specified in analytic form and must be evaluated by a computer program. When we can only access the output of the computation, the program acts as a black-box tool, called an oracle.

Of course, the brute force approach of evaluating the function on its whole domain is either impossible if the variables are continuous, or prohibitively expensive if the variables are discrete, but take values in large domains and in high dimensional spaces. Since, in general, each oracle invocation (function evaluation) involves an expensive computational process, the number of function evaluations needs to be kept to a minimum. It is not surprising that, together with accuracy, this number probably provides the paramount criterion in comparing the efficiency of competing optimization algorithms.

The primary difficulty in solving GOPs stems from the fact that the condition for determining minima, namely annulment of the gradient of the objective function, is only necessary (the function may have another type of critical point) and local i.e. it does not distinguish between local and global minima. The generic strategy to find the global minimum involves two main operations, namely: (i) descent to a local minimum and (ii) search for a new descent region. However, this generic strategy is powerless for certain problems. The following one-dimensional example (the golf course problem) illustrates the difficulties. Define the function $`f:[0,1]`$ by

$`f(x)=\{\begin{array}{c}0\text{for}0xaϵ/2\text{and}a+ϵ/2x1\hfill \\ 1\text{for}aϵ/2xa+ϵ/2\hfill \end{array}`$ (3)
where $`0<ϵ1`$, and $`a`$ is a point in the interval $`(ϵ/2,1ϵ/2)`$, but is otherwise unknown. From this definition, it is clear that to find the absolute minimum of $`f`$, one should evaluate it within the $`ϵ`$ well-interval around the unknown point $`a`$. If this function is defined like an oracle, i.e. if one does not know its definition above and the value of the number $`a`$, the probability $`P_ϵ`$ of choosing the variable $`x`$ within the well-like interval where $`f(x)=1`$, is $`ϵ`$. In the $`n`$-dimensional version of this problem, the probability $`P_ϵ`$ becomes $`ϵ^n`$, so the complexity of the problem grows exponentially with $`n`$ (the dimensionality curse). Moreover, knowledge about the (partial) derivative(s) of $`f`$ would not help, since they are all zero whenever defined. In the light of this example, it seems that without additional information about the structure of the function there is no reasonable expectation of deciding upon an efficient optimization strategy and one is left with either strategies that have limited applicability or the exhaustive search option.

Thus, new approaches are needed, which take advantage of additional information to reduce the complexity of the problem to a manageable level. We emphasize that this information is actually available in some classes of GOP - for instance it happens to be available for the golf course problem above - but cannot be taken advantage of within conventional optimization algorithms.

Here we present an approach that uses this information to map the continuous GOP into a discrete search problem (DSP). Once this mapping is completed, we apply a variant of Brüschweiler’s search algorithm, as described in the following section, to obtain a value within the basin of attraction of the global minimum in a number of function evaluations that scales logarithmically with respect to the cardinality of the resulting discrete set. While the parallelism of ensemble computing indeed provides an “exponential speed-up”, it also demands an exponentially large number of processors. Thus, we use the phrase “constant-time”, to account for the relationship between speed and resources.

## II Mapping the continuous GOP to a discrete search problem

Consider a real function of $`d`$ variables, $`f(\text{x})`$, $`\text{x}=(x_1,x_2,\mathrm{},x_d)`$ that has a certain degree of smoothness. The precise definition is not critical for the argument below. Without restricting generality, we can assume that $`f`$ is defined on $`[0,1]^d[0,1]`$. Assume now that: (i) there is a unique global minimum and its value is zero; (ii) there are no local minima whose value is infinitesimally close to zero; in other words, the values of the other minima are larger than a constant $`\delta >0`$, and (iii) the size of the basin of attraction for the global minimum measured at height $`\delta `$ is known to be $`\text{r}_\delta `$. We note that these assumptions can be actually verified for the problem at hand, if additional information is available. Also, these assumptions may in general be relaxed to some extent, as outlined in the first part of the Discussion.

The implementation idea is the following. Instead of $`f(\text{x})`$, consider the function $`g(\text{x}):=(f(\text{x}))^{1/m}`$. For sufficiently large $`m`$, this function will take values very close to one, except in the vicinity of the global minimum, which will maintain its original value, namely zero. Of course, other transformations may be used to achieve essentially the same result. Now divide the hypercube $`[0,1]^d`$ in small $`d`$-dimensional hypercubes with sides $`\mathrm{\Delta }x=1/M`$, where $`M`$ is a positive integer. At the midpoint of each of these hypercubes, define the function $`h(\text{x}):=1INT[g(\text{x})+1/2]`$ ($`INT`$ denotes the integer part).

As a result of the transformations above, we reduced the GOP to a DSP for $`h:\{1,2,\mathrm{},N\}\{0,1\}`$, which is an integer-valued function defined on a discrete set of $`N:=2^{n+1}`$ points. The function $`h(i)`$ is known to be zero for all inputs $`i`$, except for one special input $`i=q`$, where $`h(q)=1`$. Here $`N=M^d`$ and the domain on which the function $`h`$ is zero depends on $`m`$ and on the size, $`\text{r}_\delta `$, of the basin of attraction of the global minimum at height $`\delta `$. Thus the problem becomes to find the value of the special input $`q`$ efficiently. Recently, we proposed an adaptation of Grover’s quantum search algorithm to solve the continuous GOP Protopopescu02 , which requires $`O(\sqrt{N})`$ function evaluations grover ; Nayak98 ; Beals98 .

In this paper, we propose to further improve the efficiency, by using an ensemble search algorithm, which is described in detail in the following section. The algorithm is adapted from Brüschweiler’s ensemble search algorithm Madi98 ; Bruschweiler00 , using a parallel technique to achieve exponential speedups for problems up to a certain size, dictated by the sensitivity of the measurement process. As mentioned before, efficiency is understood in relation to the query complexity of the algorithm. Indeed, when $`N`$ is large and the function evaluation (i.e. the oracle) is costly in terms of computational complexity, reducing the number of function evaluations is critical.

Application of the ensemble search algorithm to the function $`h`$ results in a point that returns the value zero. It is easy to see that, by construction, this point belongs to the basin of attraction of the global minimum. We return then to the original function $`f`$ and apply the descent technique of choice that will lead to the global minimum. If the basin of attraction of the global minimum is narrow, the gradients of the function $`f`$ may reach very large values which may cause overshots. Once that phase of the algorithm is reached, one can apply a scaling (dilation) transformation that maintains the descent mode but moderates the gradients. On the other hand, as one approaches the global minimum, the gradients become very small and certain acceleration techniques based on non-Lipschitzian dynamics may be required BP ; BPR . If the global minimum is attained at the boundary of the domain, the algorithm above will find it without additional complications.

## III Brüschweiler’s Ensemble Search Algorithm

Following Grover and Shor’s breakthrough algorithms for quantum computing grover ; shor ; QC , an alternative paradigm for computing has been suggested by Madi, Brüschweiler, and Ernst, which operates on ensembles i.e., mixed states of identical spin sytems, using a spin Liouville space formalism for density operators Madi98 . The Liouville space for a system of $`n`$ spins contains the $`n\times n`$ density matrices representing all the possible quantum states of the spins. Ensemble algorithms are not quantum algorithms, insofar as they do not involve entanglement of quantum states, so they only use a small subset of the Liouville space. Throughout this paper, “mixed states” describe a statistical ensemble of spins, rather than individual spins, so that each element of the ensemble performs part of the computation, in the same way as each processor in a classical parallel computer.

This new paradigm exploits the parallelism offered by simultaneously acting on many different input states in an ensemble of spins. In contrast, quantum computing with pure states relies on the parallelism of entangled states, to perform operations in a Hilbert space which is the tensor product of multiple qubits.

The advantage of ensemble algorithms is that they may be exponentially faster than the equivalent quantum algorithms, for adequate measurement sensitivities. Two realizations of ensemble algorithms are provided by Brüschweiler’s search algorithm Bruschweiler00  and the summing algorithm proposed by the authors Dhelon02 , which illustrate the trade-off between memory and speed capabilities.

Brüschweiler’s algorithm for searching an unsorted database, uses the ensemble computing paradigm in the context of NMR technology. The strategy employs binary partition of the $`N`$ elements in the database, to find the desired element after $`O(\mathrm{log}_2N)`$ oracle queries. We note that the lower bound derived by Nayak and Wu Nayak98  for the query complexity of quantum search algorithms, does not apply here, since the quantum lower bound Beals98  used in their derivation assumes that the initial state is a pure state.

Ensemble computing requires an exponentially larger set of physical resources to encode the same number of distinct input states compared to quantum computing with pure states. On the other hand, ensemble computing holds the important advantage that it is insensitive to the decoherence time of the spins, which is an outstanding limiting factor for quantum computations involving entangled states.

A “divide and conquer” scheme is used to test whether the special input $`q`$ belongs to exponentially finer and finer partitions of the set of input values. The algorithm is envisaged for a physically realizable system consisting of binary-valued spins, therefore the number of spins needed in the input register varies from $`n`$ to $`1`$, to accommodate the number of input values in partitions ranging in size from $`N/2`$ values down to $`2`$ values, respectively. It is also assumed that a 1-spin output register is available, to encode the value of $`h\{0,1\}`$.

The first step of the algorithm is to divide the input values into two equal partitions, $`\chi _1^{}=\{1,\mathrm{},N/2\}`$ and $`\chi _1^+=\{N/2+1,\mathrm{},N\}`$, and test whether the special input $`q`$ belongs to $`\chi _1^{}`$ or $`\chi _1^+`$. The numerical subscript, $`k=1`$, indicates the size of the partition as a fraction ($`1/2^k`$) of the entire set of input values, $`\chi =\{1,\mathrm{},N\}`$, and the superscript $`\pm `$ differentiates between the lower and upper partitions.

The $`n`$-spin input register is initialized as an ensemble, namely an equally-weighted mixed state,

$$\rho _{in}^{(n)}=\frac{1}{N/2}\underset{i\chi _1^{}}{}|i_ni|_n,$$
(4)
which accounts for half of the $`N=2^{n+1}`$ possible input configurations. The density operator $`\rho _{in}^{(n)}`$ can be represented in Liouville space by a density matrix that has non-zero elements only on its diagonal. The off-diagonal elements are all zero, indicating the absence of quantum coherence between any of the states $`|i_n`$. The ket states $`|i_n`$ correspond to the eigenstates of the Zeeman Hamiltonian created by a strong external magnetic field Ernst87 , and can also be written in terms of individual spins,

$$|i_n=|a_{i1}|a_{i2}\mathrm{}|a_{in}$$
(5)
where $`(a_{i1},a_{i2},\mathrm{},a_{in})\{0,1\}`$ are the digits of the number $`(i1)`$ in binary format, and $``$ denotes the tensor product between the states. The bra states, $`i|_n`$, are the adjoint of the ket states. For further convenience, the state $`|0`$ denotes a spin “up” and the state $`|1`$ denotes a spin “down”.

Each of the $`N/2`$ input configurations in the partition $`\chi _1^{}`$ is realized by a sub-ensemble which contains many identical molecules with $`n`$ spins. The number of molecules in each sub-ensemble may vary, but the higher it is the more robust the algorithm is going to be against random errors. Ideally, all of the molecules in each sub-ensemble are initially set to one of the input configurations $`|i_ni|_n`$, and the entire sub-ensemble responds to external controls as one “mega-spin”.

At room temperature, the thermal equilibrium state of an $`n`$-spin ensemble in an NMR experiment is equal to the sum of $`\rho _{in}^{(n)}`$ and a traceless density matrix, with zero off-diagonal terms Gershenfeld97 . The diagonal elements of the traceless density matrix are given by permutations of Boltzmann factors, which have small magnitudes with respect to $`2/N`$, therefore the thermal equilibrium state closely approximates the desired initial mixed state $`\rho _{in}^{(n)}`$.

The original approach proposed in Brüschweiler’s search algorithm requires that the output register is initially set to zero. This requirement cannot be satisfied in an NMR implementation, as it is impossible to set all the spins in the output register to $`|0`$. However, Bruschweiler’s search algorithm is still applicable, by taking the initial state to be the natural state available in NMR: a thermal mixture of $`|0`$ and $`|1`$ spins. Thus the entire ensemble (input and output registers) is described by $`\rho _{in}^{(n)}\rho _{out}`$,

$$\rho _{in}^{(n)}\rho _{out}=\frac{1}{N/2}\underset{i\chi _1^{}}{}|i_ni|_n\frac{1}{2}\{|00|+|11|\}.$$
(6)
The effect of this modification is that measurements of the output register need to distinguish deviations from a thermal mixture, rather than from a uniform ensemble of $`|0`$ spins, following application of the search algorithm.

The function $`h`$, analogous to the oracle in Grover’s search algorithm, is evaluated by applying a reversible unitary transformation $`U_h`$ defined as:

$`U_h|i_n|0`$ $``$ $`|i_n|h(i)`$ (7)
$`U_h|i_n|1`$ $``$ $`|i_n|1.`$ (8)
The transformation has no effect on the eigenstates $`|i_n`$, but partitions the output register into two sub-ensembles: $`1/21/N`$ of the output spins have the value $`|0`$, and $`1/2+1/N`$ of the output spins have the value $`|1`$. The action of $`U_h`$ on the initial mixed state can be written as

$$U_h(\rho _{in}^{(n)}\rho _{out})U_h^{}=\frac{1}{N/2}\underset{i\chi _1^{}}{}|i_ni|_n\frac{1}{2}\{|h(i)h(i)|+|11|\}.$$

The transformation $`U_h`$ can be described Bruschweiler00  as a permutation of all states spanned by the input and output registers, which is applied to the system, to evaluate the function $`h`$ simultaneously on all of the input values $`i`$ given by the initial state in Eq.(6). This is equivalent to evaluating the function $`h`$ concurrently on $`N/2`$ processors in a classical parallel computer. In a physical implementation, $`U_h`$ is the product of a sequence of fundamental unitary transformations for each of the spins in the output register.

The effect of the transformation $`U_h`$ is to create a small imbalance in the initial thermal state of the output register. If we can detect this imbalance reliably, then the special input value we are searching for is contained in the partition $`\chi _1^{}`$.

In the physical implementation of the algorithm, the output register generates an output signal proportional to the number of spins in state $`|1`$. Hence the output signal will increase, if $`\chi _1^{}`$ does contain $`q`$, or it will remain the same, if $`\chi _1^{}`$ does not contain $`q`$. The latter case implies that $`\chi _1^+`$ must contain $`q`$. This ensemble measurement is an analog process, which performs a single concurrent evaluation, and serves as a definite test of whether $`q`$ belongs to $`\chi _1^{}`$ or $`\chi _1^+`$. Since only one out of $`N/2`$ input values may change the output register, under the transformation $`U_h`$, the corresponding increase in the output signal is rather small (proportional to $`2/N`$).

Based upon this measurement, the partition containing $`q`$ is selected and then subdivided into two equal partitions, $`\chi _2^{}`$ and $`\chi _2^+`$. The equally-weighted mixed state $`\rho _{in}^{(n1)}`$ corresponding to the input values in $`\chi _2^{}`$ is prepared in an $`(n1)`$-spin input register,

$$\rho _{in}^{(n1)}=\frac{1}{N/4}\underset{i\chi _2^{}}{}|i_ni|_n,$$
(9)
and the same approach outlined above is followed, to test if the special input $`q`$ belongs to $`\chi _2^{}`$ or $`\chi _2^+`$. We note that, from an experimental point of view, it could be more convenient to prepare the same equally-weighted mixed state in the input register, regardless of which partition actually contained $`q`$, and then to use this information to determine an equivalent transformation that realizes the oracle for the appropriate partition.

Each test to determine the partition that contains $`q`$, reduces the size of the set of input values that contains $`q`$ by a factor of 2, therefore the special input value will be determined by a series of $`n`$ tests, i.e. the query complexity of the algorithm is $`O(\mathrm{log}_2N)`$. The final test involves two equal partitions, $`\chi _n^{}`$ and $`\chi _n^+`$, each containing a single input value, one of which is $`q`$.

For the first partition test, it is necessary that the measurement be able to distinguish changes in the output signal with a precision equal to or better than $`1/N`$. This requirement may be gradually relaxed for subsequent tests. Indeed, at the $`k`$-th test, the precision of the measurement only needs to be equal to or better than $`1/2^k`$, and by the final test, which determines whether $`q`$ belongs to $`\chi _n^{}`$ or $`\chi _n^+`$, the precision has to be equal to or better than $`1/2`$. Of course, setting the precision to the minimum required level, $`1/2^k`$, for the $`k`$-th partition test, may provide some practical advantages in an experimental implementation, though it does not lower the query complexity.

An additional limitation on the measurement sensitivity for the output register is the inevitable noise present in measurements, especially due to thermal fluctuations in an NMR implementation. As the number of sample points $`N=2^{n+1}`$ increases, the difference between distinct normalized output signals in the first partition test will eventually become comparable to the noise level. In order to reliably measure the maximum normalized output signal $`1/2^n`$ in the first partition test, we require an error level $`\mathrm{\Delta }_11/2^{n+1}`$. If the error level for a single experimental trial is $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1>1/2^k`$ ($`kn`$), we cannot reliably measure the signal from the output register for any of the first $`k1`$ partition tests, because significant differences, which are smaller than $`1/2^k`$, cannot be detected reliably.

However the error can be reduced by repeating the algorithm a number of times. The error level scales inversely with the square-root of the number ($`N_e`$) of experimental trials, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{N_e}1/\sqrt{N_e}`$, because the variance in the measurement is inversely proportional to $`N_e`$. This implies that to successfully implement the first partition test, we have to repeat it at least $`N_e2^{2(n+1k)}=(N\mathrm{\Delta }_1)^2`$ times. Thus the single-run query complexity of the algorithm is $`O(\mathrm{log}_2N)`$, but the overall query complexity becomes $`O(N_e\mathrm{log}_2N)`$, due to the repeated trials. When $`kn`$, $`N_eO(1)`$, so the query complexity remains $`O(\mathrm{log}_2N)`$. However, in the worst case, $`kn`$, the query complexity increases to $`O(N^2\mathrm{log}_2N)`$.

## IV Discussion

The Optimization Problem. We have shown that a broad class of GOPs can be solved in a constant time, with a $`guarantee`$, by exploiting available additional information about the objective function. Our approach enables us to map the GOP into a discrete search, and guarantees to find a solution for the global minimum in a constant time, by efficiently eliminating all basins of attraction except for the basin of attraction that contains the global minimum.

The additional information obtained by satisfying the assumptions (i)-(iii) in Section II, is readily available for some notoriously hard GOPs, such as the golf course problem. In general, a certain amount of information is usually available in every application, but present algorithms either do not or cannot use it. Sometimes, this information may be difficult to obtain, but its benefits significantly outweigh its cost. Indeed, for high-dimensional, computationally intensive problems, the advantage of reducing the complexity of the problem from exponential to polynomial is extremely significant. On the other hand, if no information is available at all, then a solution for the most general type of continuous GOP cannot be guaranteed in finite time.

In principle, the conditions (i)-(iii) imposed on the functions $`f`$ in Section II are satisfied can be relaxed to some extent.

Assumption (i) is satisfied by a large class of important practical problems, namely parameter identification, pattern recognition, and other classes of inverse problems. In these problems, the absolute minimum, namely zero, is attained for the correct values of the parameters, matching of patterns, and fitting of output to input. Assumption (i) can be relaxed in the sense that the function may have multiple global minima, all equal to zero. Functions with multiple global minima will simply result in search problems with multiple “special” elements and can be treated accordingly.

Assumption (ii) can be replaced with the much weaker and altogether reasonable assumption that $`f`$ has a finite number of local minima. This would prevent the value of any local minimum to be infinitesimally close to the value of the global minimum.

Assumption (iii) is the most difficult to relax in practice, since this information is crucial in ensuring the high efficiency and guaranteed success of the algorithm. In fact, without additional information about the size of the basin of attraction, there is no algorithm that - applied on a general problem - can guarantee to find the global minimum in reasonable time. Indeed, if the discretization cell is much smaller than the size $`\text{r}_\delta `$ of the basin of attraction, many input values will return the output zero upon the application of the oracle $`U_h`$. In order to determine one of these input values with certainty, the ensemble search algorithm has to be applied for the same number of steps used to find a single special input value. Any of the determined values belong to the basin of attraction and will eventually lead to the global minimum. On the other hand, if the discretization cell is larger than $`\text{r}_\delta `$, there is a chance to miss the basin of attraction altogether. Moreover, if the basin of attraction is infinitesimally narrow, any algorithm would require an unbounded number of evaluations.

The Search Algorithm. The overall query complexity of the ensemble search algorithm used in this paper is always less than the overall query complexity for Grover’s search algorithm implemented using NMR pseudopure states Gershenfeld97 , which is $`O(N^2\sqrt{N})`$. However, the ensemble search algorithm is less efficient than the (theoretical) implementation of Grover’s search algorithm using pure states, for database sizes above a certain threshold value, which is determined by the error level. Brüschweiler Bruschweiler00  estimates that his algorithm is more efficient only for databases of size $`N`$ fulfilling the condition

$$N\sqrt{N}\mathrm{log}_2N<\mathrm{\Delta }_1^2.$$
(10)
We note that it is appropriate to make the above comparisons, since adding more quantum processors in an attempt to parallelize Grover’s search method, does not achieve any further reduction in complexity.

In addition, ensemble algorithms do not require quantum coherence, thus they are more robust and demand less additional resources than quantum algorithms. For example, in an NMR implementation, quantum algorithms need to finish within the $`T_2`$ decoherence time of the system. This requirement is much more stringent than that for NMR ensemble algorithms, which only need to finish within the thermal relaxation time $`T_150`$-$`1000`$ $`T_2`$ Gershenfeld97 ; Ernst87 .

To date, Brüschweiler’s search algorithm has been implemented experimentally by two separate groups Xiao02 ; Yang02 , both using a 3-qubit NMR ensemble system. While a database size up to $`N=8`$ is not very impressive, these experiments have demonstrated that the algorithm is based on sound principles. Both groups have improved on the original form of the algorithm, by either using measured spectra Xiao02  to read out the ensemble average of the output register, or by completely removing the need for the output register Yang02 , and using a modified oracle transformation, so that the algorithm becomes irreversible. These modifications make the algorithm more robust, and easier to realize, respectively, but they do not change the query complexity results we presented in Section III. Other searches in NMR ensemble computing have also been proposed and implemented Xiao02b ; Khitrin02 .

However, we note that a number of important experimental issues remain to be addressed, before the algorithm can be scaled up to very large numbers of spins. These issues include finding suitable molecules with $`n>3`$ nuclear spins, designing the sequence of pulses that implements the oracle transformation $`U_h`$ efficiently, given that the interaction of remote nuclear spins is very weak, and enhancing the measurement sensitivity for large ensemble systems. The point of this proposal is proof-of-principle, which may eventually lead to something practical once NMR technology develops significantly.

The SNR for a single measurement is currently $`10^410^7`$ depending on the type of nuclei used Chuang98 , and the strength of the applied magnetic field. Taking the best corresponding value for the error level, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_110^7`$, the ensemble search algorithm is more efficient than Grover’s search algorithm using pure states, for database sizes up to $`N10^8`$, which corresponds to an input register of $`n27`$ qubits. This threshold size is already of practical interest, and will increase in the future, as the error level decreases with advances in NMR technology. The enhancement of measurement sensitivity in NMR implementations is presently being investigated by a large number of research groups, which are aiming to decrease the error level by some constant factor. In the future, high-sensitivity methods from other fields such as optical sensing of ultra-weak signals Liu02  using injection-locked lasers may also be adapted to NMR experiments.

## V Conclusion

In this letter, we have shown that additional information about the objective function can be used to reduce the complexity of the GOP to manageable levels, thus guaranteeing that the correct solution will be found. Conventional classical algorithms cannot take advantage of this information and quantum algorithms yield only a polynomial reduction in complexity. In contrast, ensemble algorithms hold the prospect of solving the continuous GOP in a constant time. For a restricted number of function samples, where the database size satisfies Eq.(10), an ensemble search algorithm requires only $`O(\mathrm{log}_2N)`$ invocations of the objective function $`f`$. However, this result is not asymptotic with respect to the input size of the GOP, due to the limitation imposed by Eq.(10).

## Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by the Engineering Research Program of the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC.


text:
# Early Hard X-ray Afterglows of Short GRBs with Konus Experiments

## 1. Introduction

The gamma-ray burst (GRB) duration has a bimodal distribution (Mazets et al. (1981), Norris et al. (1984); Hurley (1992); Kouveliotou et al. (1993)). This indicates the existence of two distinct morphological classes of events, namely short-duration ($`<`$ 2 s) bursts and long-duration ($`>`$ 2 s) bursts. Approximately 20 per cent of the observed bursts are short. Their energy spectra are usually harder than the spectra of long bursts (Kouveliotou et al. 1993).

Searches for the optical and radio afterglow of short GRBs have been carried out in only a few cases. Four GRBs were localized with high accuracy by the Interplanetary Network (IPN) (Hurley et al. 2002). Nighther optical nor radio afterglow emission was detected for these four events. No X-ray counterparts have been detected so far for the short bursts localized by Beppo-SAX (Gandolfi et al. 2000) or by HETE-2 (Lamb et al. 2002). The rapid follow-up observations have resulted in only upper limits on the brightness of the afterglows from these GRBs.

At the same time early X-ray and gamma-ray afterglows of short bursts were detected in a bumber cases by the GRB detectors themselves, in time intervals from seconds to tens of seconds after the trigger. BATSE observations showed that such a weak afterglow exists for some of the short bursts, lasting several tens seconds (Burenin, 2000; Lazatti et al. 2001; Connaughton, 2002). The afterglows of short GRBs were also detected by the Konus-Wind experiment. Post–burst emission in the energy range below 1 MeV is seen for about 10 per cent of events. The statistical analysis of the whole Konus–Wind and Konus–A short burst sample reveals that the afterglow is a more common feature of short GRBs.

## 2. Individual Bursts

The early afterglows of short GRBs are observed for 11 short bursts, i.e. GRB 9511014a, 980605, 980706a, 981107, 990313, 990327, 990516, 990712a, 000218, 000701b, and 000727. These afterglows appear in time intervals from several seconds up to 100 seconds after the trigger.

A limited volume of this proceeding doesn’t allow us to present all illustrations. One can find lightcurves and spectra of these events as well as fluence, peak flux, and spectral parameters tables in the ”Konus Catalog of Short GRBs” (Mazets et al. 2002). The electronic version of the catalog is available at http://www.ioffe.ru/LEA/shortGRBs/Catalog/. Let us look now at a typical example.

Figure 1 presents on the left pannel light curves of GRB990712a (UT 27915.510 s) in three energy windows: 10-50, 50-200, and 200-750 keV. On the right pannel there is the light curve of postburst emission for combined 10-750 keV energy range. An emission is seen up to 150 seconds after the burst trigger on the level up to $`2\times 10^7`$ erg cm-2s-1 compared to $`5\times 10^5`$ erg cm-2s-1 for the main event.

Most of the considered events are typical short GRBs with hard spectrum. On the left pannel of Figure 2 an energetic spectrum of GRB990712a is shown. Solid line is a best fit by COMP model with $`\alpha =0.2`$ and $`E_0=610`$keV. The spectral composition of the post burst emission (right pannel) generally fits to power law with indicies in the 1.3–2.5 range.

## 3. Statistical Studies

While other events don’t exhibit such ”visual” evidences, very stable radiation background conditions of the Konus-Wind experiment allow us to perform search of post–burst emission on the summed up lightcurves of short GRBs not included in the discussed set.

For this analysis we used ”background mode” 50–750 keV data sampled with bins of 2.944 s. For the summed-up lightcurves of 100 events a post–burst emission at the level of 1.5$`\pm `$0.4 counts s-1burst-1 was found in 5–100 s interval after the GRB. Taking in consideration an effective area of Konus-Wind detector this magnitude is comparable with (Connaughton, 2002).

Another interesting characteristic is a ”normalized afterglow flux” Fa/Fb, i.e. a countrate divided by a ”GRB bin” countrate. In Figure 3 (left pannel) Fa/Fb is plotted versus time after the trigger for the sums of 20 and 60 strongest events. On the right pannel this characteristic is plotted versus peak burst count rate for 90 events gruped by 10. One can see that the magnitude of relative afterlow emission remains on the comparable level for groups of different intensity GRBs, being limited only by statistcs for weaker events. It leads us to a conclusion that an afterglow is a more common feature of short GRBs.

## 4. Concluding Remarks

This work was supported by Russian Aviation and Space Agency Contract, and RFBR grant N 01-02-17808.

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