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# Black hole masses and the Fundamental Plane of BL Lac objects

## 1 Introduction

Imaging studies of the host galaxies of low redshift BL Lac objects (e.g. Falomo 1996; Wurtz, Stocke & Yee 1996; Falomo & Kotilainen 1999; Urry et al. 2000) have consistently shown that this kind of nuclear activity is exclusively hosted by luminous elliptical galaxies. Detailed studies of the nearest (z $`<`$ 0.2) objects have indicated that the structural properties of the hosts of these AGN are indistinguishable from those of normal unperturbed massive ellipticals (Falomo et al. 2000). Similar studies conducted on a large sample of nearby radio galaxies (Govoni et al. 2000) have shown them to have also photometrical and structural global properties close to those of inactive spheroids. These observations lend support to the unified model for radio-loud AGN (e.g. Urry & Padovani 1995) that interpret BL Lac objects as a subset of radio galaxies with the jet pointing close to our line-of-sight.

On the other hand, it is also well known that the global properties of early–type galaxies, such as the effective radius $`r_e`$, the average surface brightness $`<\mu _e>`$ and the central velocity dispersion $`\sigma _c`$ are linked fairly well through the so-called Fundamental Plane (hereafter FP; Djorgovski & Davis 1987, Dressler et al. 1987). This is in fact what is expected if galaxies are virialized systems, have constant M/L ratio and are homologous structures.

Indeed, real galaxies deviate from the FP defined by the virial equilibrium under the above hypotheses (e.g. Burstein et al. 1997; Jørgensen et al. 1996) and define a plane that is tilted with respect to the virial FP. The differences from the ’canonical’ FP are interpreted as due to changes in the M/L ratio (due to different stellar content or differences in the dark matter distribution; Pahre, Djorgovski & de Carvalho 1995; Mobasher et al. 1999), or to the breakdown of the homology assumption (e.g. kinematic anisotropy; Ciotti, Lanzoni & Renzini 1996; Busarello et al. 1997).

In the context of the link between galactic properties and the nuclear activity, it is important to understand if active galaxies define the same FP as normal (inactive) ellipticals. A recent study of a large sample of powerful radio galaxies (Bettoni et al 2001) has provided clear evidence that this is the case. The host galaxies of these radio sources define in fact an FP that is fully consistent with that of inactive ellipticals with the only difference of sampling the most luminous (and massive) objects of the luminosity function of early type galaxies.

In this paper we present new measurements of the stellar velocity dispersion ($`\sigma `$) in the host galaxies of four BL Lac objects that together with our earlier results on seven BL Lac objects (Falomo, Kotilainen & Treves 2002, hereafter FKT02), and with the previous determinations of the global photometrical and structural host properties, are used to construct the FP of BL Lacs and to compare it with that of radio galaxies and normal ellipticals.

In addition, we make use of the correlation relating the central black hole (BH) mass ($`M_{BH}`$) with $`\sigma `$ of the spheroidal component in nearby inactive galaxies (e.g. Gebhardt et al. 2000; Ferrarese & Merritt 2000) to infer the $`M_{BH}`$ of our sample of BL Lacs thus expanding our previous study (FKT02). Similar measurements of the velocity dispersion of BL Lacs (with many objects in common with our sample) have been reported recently by Barth, Ho & Sargent (2003; hereafter BHS03). Preliminary results of this work are given in Treves et al. (2003) and Falomo et al. (2003). Hubble constant H0 = 50 km s-1 Mpc-1 and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ = 0 are used throughout this paper.

## 2 Observations and data analysis

The spectra were obtained in June 2001 using the ESO 3.6m telescope equipped with EFOSC2. Two grisms were used covering the spectral ranges 4400 – 6300 Å (setup A) and 6300 – 8000 Å (setup B) at 0.54 Å pixel-1 and 1.3 Å pixel-1 dispersion, respectively. The absorption lines from the host galaxies which are considered in our analysis comprise of H$`\beta `$ (4861 Å), Mg I (5175 Å), Ca E-band (5269 Å), Na I (5892 Å) and the TiO + CaI (6178 Å) and TiO + FeI (6266 Å) blends.

The grisms and a 1″ slit yield a spectral resolution of $``$60 – 80 km s-1, which is adequate for the expected range of $`\sigma `$ in luminous ellipticals (e.g. Djorgovski & Davis 1987; Bender, Burstein & Faber 1992) such as the hosts of BL Lacs. In addition, spectra of bright KI-KIII stars that exhibit a low rotational velocity (V$`\times `$$`\mathrm{sin}(i)<`$20 km s-1) were taken to be used as templates of zero velocity dispersion. Furthermore, spectra of the nearby elliptical galaxies NGC 2986, NGC 5831 and NGC 7562 were secured to provide a test of the adopted procedure to derive $`\sigma `$.

During the observations, seeing ranged between 0.8″ and 1.3″ . The slit was positioned on the nucleus and the 1D spectrum was extracted from a 3″ - 5″ diameter aperture, which was always within the effective radius of the host galaxy in order to minimize aperture corrections.. The IRAF111IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. package was used for data reduction, including bias subtraction, flat-fielding, wavelength calibration and extraction of 1D spectra. For each source, two spectra were combined to remove cosmic ray hits and other occasional spurious signals in the detector. In Table 1 we give the observed sources, the instrumental setup, exposure times, and the S/N of final spectra that are reported in Fig. 1 (also for sources studied in FKT02).

The stellar velocity dispersion $`\sigma `$ was determined using the Fourier Quotient method (e.g. Sargent et al. 1977). The spectra were normalized by subtracting the continuum, converted to a logarithmic scale and multiplied by a cosine bell function that apodizes 10% of the pixels at each end of the spectrum. For all the new observed objects but for PKS 0548–32 the optical spectrum shows emission lines (mainly H$`\beta `$, H$`\alpha `$ and \[OIII\] 5007 Å). These features have been removed by a linear interpolation of the adjacent continuum. Finally, the Fourier Transforms of the galaxy spectra were divided by the Fourier Transforms of template stars and $`\sigma `$ was computed from a $`\chi ^2`$ fit with a Gaussian broadening function (see e.g. Bertola et al. 1984; Kuijken & Merrifield 1993). The scatter of the $`\sigma `$ measurements using different template stars was typically $``$10 km$`s^1`$ and can be considered as the minimum uncertainty. Since early-type galaxies exhibit gradients in velocity dispersion (Davies et al 1983, Fisher, Illingworth & Franx 1995), the measured values of $`\sigma `$ have been referred to a common aperture adopting the procedure described in Falomo et al. (2002). The observed values of $`\sigma `$ and their estimated errors are given in Table 1, and the results for the full sample (including those from FKT02 are given in Table 2. For the three nearby galaxies we find a good agreement with the previously published values of $`\sigma `$ (Prugniel et al 1998).

For three objects we have spectra in both spectral ranges. The resulting values of $`\sigma `$ are in all cases in good agreement, with average difference 12 km s-1, ensuring sufficient homogeneity of data taken with different grisms and/or resolution. For PKS 2201+04 the present results are very similar to those obtained by us at the NOT (FKT02). For the following discussion the average of the pair of measurements was thus used.

### 2.1 Comparison with Barth et al. (2003) results

BHS03 have recently reported measurements of $`\sigma `$ for 11 BL Lac objects. Nine of them are in common with our sample, and it is therefore enlightening to directly compare the results. For some common objects the $`\sigma `$ values of BHS03 are derived from the near-infrared CaII triplet lines, while our measurements refer to the visual-red spectral region, including the g-band, (4304 Å), Mg I (5175 Å), Ca E-band (5269 Å), Na I (5892 Å) and the TiO + CaI (6178 Å), TiO + FeI (6266 Å) at rest frame. Moreover, BHS03 use a different method (direct spectral fitting) from ours to derive $`\sigma `$. These differences, and the use of different templates, can explain modest ($``$ 20 km/s) differences in $`\sigma `$. Larger differences are more difficult to give reasons for. BHS03 assert that their measurements are more accurate because of higher S/N of their data and the possibility that our measurements are biased by interstellar absorption and metallicity effects. While it is certainly true that BHS03 acquired higher S/N, we believe that the Na I interstellar absorption in the host galaxies has little, even negligible, effect since all the elliptical host galaxies are likely to be gas-poor. In the cases where we have data in both spectral ranges (including and excluding the Na I line), we find no significant difference in the derived values of $`\sigma `$. Galactic Na I absorption occurs at different wavelength than in the (redshifted) BL Lac hosts and therefore does not contribute to the broadening of the intrinsic Na I line. Moreover, the elimination of emission lines by a linear continuum interpolation has no effect on the Fourier analysis since it introduces low spatial frequencies that are removed in the Gaussian fitting of the real part of the power spectrum. On the other hand, metallicity effects on the strength of the Mg I feature are more challenging to take into account. Note, however, that most of the $`\sigma `$ data used to derive the MBH$`\sigma `$ relation for ellipticals were obtained in the visible region (e.g. Davies et al. 1987), including the Mg I feature, and using a method very similar to ours. We believe that to derive BH masses it is paramount to have consistent measurements for the targets and the calibrators.

While a good agreement is found for most objects, some discrepancies remain. The largest differences of $`\sigma `$ between BHS03 and this work are for Mrk 501 and I Zw 187, up to 80 km/s and in opposite directions. For Mrk 501 (see also FKT02), our value of $`\sigma `$ is consistent with that expected for the luminosity of the host galaxy and gives consistent results for the BH mass (see Fig. 2). For I Zw 187, we obtained only a relatively poor S/N spectrum and therefore our determination of $`\sigma `$ remains more uncertain. The influence of these differences in $`\sigma `$ for estimating the BH masses is discussed in the next section.

## 3 Results and discussion

### 3.1 Black hole masses of BL Lacs

Unlike most AGN, BL Lac objects are characterized by the weakness or absence of emission lines. This prevents us from deriving an estimate of the central BH mass from the kinematics of regions that are gravitationally bound to the BH, as in Seyfert galaxies and quasars (e.g. McLure & Dunlop 2001). A powerful (even if indirect) way to obtain BH masses is thus to use the relationship between $`M_{BH}`$ and $`\sigma `$ for nearby early-type galaxies. Since all sources considered here are at $`z`$ 0.1 we assume that possible cosmological evolution of the $`M_{BH}`$$`\sigma `$ relation is negligible. We have adopted the updated relationship (derived only from ellipticals) by Bettoni et al. (2003) who assume the same cosmology used here and the same calibrations for the velocity dispersion and the magnitudes. The relation between $`M_{BH}`$ and $`\sigma `$ is:

$$\mathrm{log}(M_{BH}/M_{})=4.55\mathrm{log}\sigma 2.27.$$
(1)
We assume that this relationship is valid also for AGN (e.g. Merritt & Ferrarese 2001) and in particular for BL Lacs which have elliptical hosts (e.g. Falomo & Kotilainen 1999; Falomo et al. 2000; Urry et al. 2000). The derived values of $`M_{BH}`$ are given in Table 2, They are in the range of $`6\times 10^7`$ to $`9\times 10^8M_{}`$. The typical error (median value) on these estimated BH masses, taking into account the uncertainties in $`\sigma `$ and in the MBH$`\sigma `$ relationship given by Bettoni et al (2003) is $``$ 0.15dex (see Table 2).

The $`M_{BH}`$ is also correlated with the luminosity of the bulge of the host galaxy (e.g. Kormendy & Gebhardt 2001). The absolute magnitudes MR of the BL Lac hosts are given in Table 2. $`M_{BH}`$ was thus calculated following the updated relationship for ellipticals (Bettoni et al. 2003):

$$\mathrm{log}(M_{BH}/M_{})=0.50M_R3.00.$$
(2)
The resulting values of $`M_{BH}`$ are given in Table 2. For most sources, the difference of $`M_{BH}`$ derived from the two methods is within the estimated uncertainty but for two objects ( PKS 2201+04 and EXO 0706.1+5913) the difference is $``$ 0.5dex.

The average values of $`M_{BH}`$ for the BL Lacs from the two methods are: $`<\mathrm{log}M_{BH}>_\sigma `$ = 8.57 $`\pm `$ 0.12 and $`<\mathrm{log}M_{BH}>_{bulge}`$ = 8.63 $`\pm `$ 0.08 with an average difference of $`<\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}M_{BH}>`$ -0.07 $`\pm `$ 0.09. On the other hand, if we use the $`\sigma `$ values from BHS03 we find: $`<\mathrm{log}M_{BH}>_\sigma `$ = 8.48 $`\pm `$ 0.14 and $`<\mathrm{log}M_{BH}>_{bulge}`$ = 8.68 $`\pm `$ 0.08 with an average difference of $`<\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}M_{BH}>`$ -0.21 $`\pm `$ 0.10.

In Fig. 2 we compare the BH masses derived from the MBH \- M(bulge) relation with those obtained from our adopted MBH \- $`\sigma `$ relation, using both ours and BHS03 values of $`\sigma `$. There is a generally good agreement between the two methods, although the data from BHS03 tend to systematically deviate to lower BH masses. This suggests that some systematic effect may be present in the $`\sigma `$ values obtained by BHS03.

According to the shape of their spectral energy distribution, BL Lacs are distinguished into two types: low frequency peaked (LBL) and high frequency peaked (HBL; see Giommi & Padovani 1995). Based on BH masses derived from the peak luminosity and its frequency, Wang, Xue & Wang (2001) proposed that LBLs have significantly (by $``$ 2dex) smaller BH masses than HBLs. In our sample, there are nine HBLs and only 3 LBLs (marked as H or L in Table 2). With the caveat of small number statistics, we find no significant difference of $`M_{BH}`$ in the two types of BL Lacs. This result is confirmed by the analysis of $`M_{BH}`$, derived from host luminosity, for a larger sample of BL Lacs (Falomo, Carangelo & Treves 2003).

The measurements of $`\sigma `$ and the effective radii of the host galaxies can be used to estimate the mass of the hosts through the relationship (Bender et al 1992) :

$`M_{host}`$ = 5$`\sigma ^2r_e`$/G. (3)

The two quantities $`M_{BH}`$ and $`M_{host}`$ are consistent with a linear relation and their average ratio is $`<M_{BH}`$/$`M_{host}>`$ = 1.0 $`\times `$ 10-3. This is very similar to values found for other types of active and inactive galaxies (e.g. McLure & Dunlop 2002; Bettoni et al. 2003) and indicates that the mass of the spheroid is fundamentally linked to the mass of the central BH.

### 3.2 The fundamental plane of BL Lacs

The kinematical measurement of the velocity dispersion of the host galaxies of BL Lacs allows us to construct the FP of these active galaxies and to compare it with that obtained for other active and inactive ellipticals. We use the full sample of 12 BL Lacs for which $`\sigma `$ has been measured (this work; FKT02; BHS03). Since our spectrum of I Zw 187 has rather low S/N, we prefer to adopt for it the value of $`\sigma `$ reported by BHS03.

For all these BL Lacs, HST/WFPC2 and/or ground-based images are available to derive the global properties (luminosity and scale-length) of the host galaxies. In Table 2 we report the data for the 12 BL Lacs used to construct the FP. Note that while the apparent magnitude of the host galaxies derived from ground-based and HST images agree reasonably well, the effective radius may be different by more than a factor of two. As pointed out also by BHS03, the effective radius estimated from HST images tends to be smaller than that obtained from ground-based data. This is likely due to the small field of view of WFPC2 ($``$35 arcsec) with respect to the full size ($``$30″ — 40″ ) of the most nearby objects. In fact, this trend disappears when more distant objects are considered (e.g. Falomo & Kotilainen 1999). For the purpose of this work we have collected all published data reporting both total apparent magnitude (in the R band) and the effective radius. The adopted quantities for each object are derived from the median value of all available data. In Table 2 we report these values together with the r.m.s. scatter for the effective radius for all objects with at least two usable measurements. From the apparent magnitudes and the effective radii Re of the host galaxies we have obtained the average surface brightness $`<\mu _e>`$ within Re. All magnitude values have then been corrected for Galactic extinction (Schlegel, Finkbeiner & Davis 1998), k-correction (Poggianti 1997) and cosmological (1+z)4 dimming of the surface brightness.

In Fig. 3 we show the FP of the BL Lacs compared with that of low redshift radio galaxies (Bettoni et al. 2001) and normal ellipticals (Jörgensen, Franx & Kjaergaard 1996). This is a homogeneous comparison because all data sets were analyzed identically. We find a remarkable agreement between the FP defined by normal (inactive) galaxies, radio galaxies and BL Lac host galaxies. A similar result was also obtained by BHS03 who presented velocity dispersion measurements for most of the objects discussed here. The hosts of BL Lacs tend to occupy the intermediate region of the FP, in agreement with the fact that the hosts of BL Lacs are luminous ellipticals but rarely at the bright end of the LF of massive ellipticals (Falomo Carangelo & Treves 2003). The comparison of the kinematical, photometrical and structural properties of BL Lac hosts with those of radio galaxies and inactive ellipticals over the FP shows that their global properties are indistinguishable. This result strengthens the idea that a massive elliptical galaxy may undergo a phase of nuclear activity with little (or negligible) effect on its global structure. Moreover, it gives support to the hypothesis that the relations connecting the mass of the central BH with the velocity dispersion and luminosity of nearby inactive ellipticals, can be extended to ellipticals with nuclear activity. The similarity of the BH masses obtained with the two techniques for BL Lac objects (previous section), shows that this picture is becoming self-consistent.

For more powerful active galaxies (e.g. radio-loud quasars), there are no kinematical data available, so it is not possible to compare the global properties of their host galaxies in the FP. We note, however, that at least at low redshift, the morphology and the photometrical properties of quasar hosts agree well with those of luminous inactive ellipticals (e.g. Dunlop et al. 2003).

## 4 Conclusions

We have presented kinematical data for a small sample of the host galaxies of nearby BL Lacs objects that were previously investigated through images. The combined photometric and spectroscopic data allow us to construct the fundamental plane for this class of active galaxies and to compare it with that of other elliptical galaxies.

The main result of this work, together with that by BHS03, show that the host galaxies of BL Lacs define a FP that is indistinguishable from that of low $`z`$ radio galaxies and normal (inactive) ellipticals. This further strengthens the idea that the nuclear activity may occur in all massive spheroids without producing significant changes in the global structural and kinematical properties of the galaxies.

In addition, and consistently with the above result, we have also shown that the BH mass derived either from the MBH$`\sigma `$ or $`M_{BH}`$ \- MR (bulge) relations yield consistent results. The BH mass of the majority of BL Lacs being contained in the range 108 to 109 M with no difference between HBL and LBL.

This work has received partial support under contracts COFIN 2001/028773, COFIN 2002/ 027145 and ASI-IR-35. JKK acknowledges the support of Academy of Finland during part of this work.


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# Semiclassical Theory of Matter-Wave Detection

## References


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# Untitled Document

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The simultaneous appearance in May 2003 of four books on the Riemann hypothesis (RH) provoked these reflections. We briefly discuss whether the RH should be added as a new axiom, or whether a proof of the RH might involve the notion of randomness.

## New pragmatically-justified mathematical axioms that are not at all self-evident

A pragmatically-justified principle is one that is justified by its many important consequences—which is precisely the opposite of normal mathematical practice.111However new mathematical concepts such as $`\sqrt{1}`$ and Turing’s definition of computability certainly are judged by their fruitfulness*—Françoise Chaitin-Chatelin, private communication.* However this is standard operating procedure in physics.

Are there mathematical propositions for which there is a considerable amount of computational evidence, evidence that is so persuasive that a physicist would regard them as experimentally verified? And are these propositions fruitful? Do they yield many other signficant results?

Yes, I think so. Currently, the two best candidates222Yet another class of pragmatically-justified axioms are the large cardinal axioms or the axiom of determinacy used in set theory, as discussed in Mary Tiles, *The Philosophy of Set Theory,* Chapters 8 and 9. For the latest developments, see Hugh Woodin, “The continuum hypothesis,” *AMS Notices* 48 (2001), pp. 567–576, 681–690. for useful new axioms of the kind that Gödel and I propose  that are justified pragmatically as in physics are:

* the $`𝐏\mathrm{𝐍𝐏}`$ hypothesis in theoretical computer science that conjectures that many problems require an exponential amount of work to resolve, and
* the Riemann hypothesis concerning the location of the complex zeroes of the Riemann zeta-function

$$\zeta (s)=\underset{n}{}\frac{1}{n^s}=\underset{p}{}\frac{1}{1\frac{1}{p^s}}.$$

(Here $`n`$ ranges over positive integers and $`p`$ ranges over the primes.)333You start with this formula and then you get the full zeta function by analytic continuation.

Knowing the zeroes of the zeta function, i.e., the values of $`s`$ for which $`\zeta (s)=0`$, tells us a lot about the smoothness of the distribution of prime numbers, as is explained in these four books:

* Marcus du Sautoy, *The Music of the Primes,* Harper Collins, 2003.
* John Derbyshire, *Prime Obsession,* Joseph Henry Press, 2003.
* Karl Sabbagh, *The Riemann Hypothesis,* Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2003.
* Julian Havil, *Gamma,* Princeton University Press, 2003.444Supposedly Havil’s book is on Euler’s constant $`\gamma `$, not the RH, but ignore that. Sections 15.6, 16.8 and 16.13 of his book are particularly relevant to this paper.

The Riemann zeta function is like my $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ number: it captures a lot of information about the primes in one tidy package. $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is a single real number that contains a lot of information about the halting problem.555$`\mathrm{\Omega }=_{p\text{ halts}}2^{|p|}`$ is the halting probability of a suitably chosen universal Turing machine. $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is “incompressible” or “algorithmically random.” Given the first $`N`$ bits of the base-two expansion of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, one can determine whether each binary program $`p`$ of size $`|p|N`$ halts. This information cannot be packaged more concisely. See , Sections 2.5 through 2.11. And the RH is useful because it contains a lot of number-theoretic information: many number-theoretic results follow from it.

Of the authors of the above four books on the RH, the one who takes Gödel most seriously is du Sautoy, who has an entire chapter on Gödel and Turing in his book. In that chapter on p. 181, du Sautoy raises the issue of whether the RH might require new axioms. On p. 182 he quotes Gödel,666Unfortunately du Sautoy does not identify the source of his Gödel quote. I have been unable to find it in Gödel’s *Collected Works.* who specifically mentions that this might be the case for the RH. And on p. 202 of that chapter du Sautoy points out that if the RH is undecidable this implies that it’s true, because if the RH were false it would be easy to confirm that a particular zero of the zeta function is in the wrong place.

Later in his book, on pp. 256–257, du Sautoy again touches upon the issue of whether the RH might require a new axiom. He relates how Hugh Montgomery sought reassurance from Gödel that a famous number-theoretic conjecture—it was the twin prime conjecture, which asserts that there are infinitely many pairs $`p`$, $`p+2`$ that are both prime—does not require new axioms. Gödel, however, was not sure. In du Sautoy’s words, sometimes one needs “a new foundation stone to extend the base of the edifice” of mathematics, and this might conceivably be the case both for the twin prime conjecture and for the RH.

On the other hand, on pp. 128–131 du Sautoy tells the story of the Skewes number, an enormous number

$$10^{10^{10^{34}}}$$

that turned up in a proof that an important conjecture must fail for extremely large cases. The conjecture in question was Gauss’s conjecture that the logarithmic integral

$$\text{Li}(x)=_2^x\frac{du}{\mathrm{ln}u}$$

is always greater than the number $`\pi (x)`$ of primes less than or equal to $`x`$. This was verified by direct computation for all $`x`$ up to very large values. It was then refuted by Littlewood without exhibiting a counter-example, and finally by Skewes with his enormous upper bound on a counter-example. This raised the horrendous possibility that even though Gauss’s conjecture is wrong, we might never ever see a specific counter-example. In other words, we might never ever know a specific value of $`x`$ for which Li($`x`$) is less than $`\pi (x)`$. This would seem to pull the rug out from under all mathematical experimentation and computational evidence! However, I don’t believe that it actually does.

The traditional view held by most mathematicians is that these two assertions, $`𝐏\mathrm{𝐍𝐏}`$ and the RH, cannot be taken as new axioms, and cannot require new axioms, we simply must work much harder to prove them. According to the received view, we’re not clever enough, we haven’t come up with the right approach yet. This is very much the current consensus. However this majority view completely ignores777As du Sautoy puts it, p. 181, “mathematicians consoled themselves with the belief that anything that is really important should be provable, that it is only tortuous statements with no valuable mathematical content that will end up being one of Gödel’s unprovable statements.” the incompleteness phenomenon discovered by Gödel, by Turing, and extended by my own work  on information-theoretic incompleteness. What if there is no proof?

In fact, new axioms can never be proved; if they can, they’re theorems, not axioms. So they must either be justified by direct, primordial mathematical intuition, or pragmatically, because of their rich and important consequences, as is done in physics. And in line with du Sautoy’s observation on p. 202, one cannot demand a proof that the RH is undecidable before being willing to add it as a new axiom, because such a proof would in fact yield the immediate corollary that the RH is true. So proving that the RH is undecidable is no easier than proving the RH, and the need to add the RH as a new axiom must remain a matter of faith. The mathematical community will never be convinced!888The situation with respect to $`𝐏\mathrm{𝐍𝐏}`$ may be different. In a paper “Consequences of an exotic definition for $`𝐏=\mathrm{𝐍𝐏}`$,” *Applied Mathematics and Computation* 145 (2003), pp. 655–665, N. C. A. da Costa and F. A. Doria show that if ZFC (Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory + the axiom of choice) is consistent, then a version of $`𝐏=\mathrm{𝐍𝐏}`$ is consistent with ZFC, so a version of $`𝐏\mathrm{𝐍𝐏}`$ cannot be demonstrated within ZFC. See also T. Okamoto, R. Kashima, “Resource bounded unprovability of computational lower bounds,” http://eprint.iacr.org/2003/187/.

Someone recently asked me, “What’s wrong with calling the RH a hypothesis? Why does it have to be called an axiom? What do you gain by doing that?” Yes, but that’s beside the point, that’s not the real issue. The real question is, Where does new mathematical knowledge come from?

By “new knowledge” I mean something that cannot be deduced from our previous knowledge, from what we already know.

As I have been insinuating, I believe that the answer to this fundamental question is that new mathematical knowledge comes from these three sources:

* mathematical intuition and imagination ($`\sqrt{1}`$!),
* conjectures based on computational evidence (explains calculations), and
* principles with pragmatic justification, i.e., rich in consequences (explains other theorems).999A possible fourth source of mathematical knowledge is: d) probabilistic or statistical evidence, i.e., a mathematical assertion that is deemed to be true because the probability that it’s false is immensely small, say $`<10^{99999}`$. Here is a practical example of this: The fast primality testing algorithm currently used in Mathematica does not necessarily give the correct answer, but mistakes are highly unlikely. Algorithms of this sort are called Monte Carlo algorithms.

And items (b) and (c) are much like physics, if you replace “computational evidence” by “experimental evidence.” In other words, our computations are our experiments; the empirical basis of science is in the lab, the empirical basis of math is in the computer.

Yes, I agree, mathematics and physics are different, but perhaps they are not as different as most people think, perhaps it’s a continuum of possibilities. At one end, rigorous proofs, at the other end, heuristic plausibility arguments, with absolute certainty as an unattainable limit point.

I’ve been publishing papers defending this thesis for more than a quarter of a century,101010See, for example, the introductory remarks in my 1974 *J. ACM* paper . but few are convinced by my arguments. So in a recent paper  I’ve tried a new tactic. I use quotes from Leibniz, Einstein and Gödel to make my case, like a lawyer citing precedents in court…

In spite of the fact that I regard the Riemann hypothesis as an excellent new-axiom candidate—whether Gödel agrees or merely thinks that a new axiom might be needed to prove the RH, I’m not sure—let me briefly wax enthusiastic over a possible approach to a proof of the RH that involves randomness. *Disclaimer*: I’m not an expert on the RH. What I’m about to relate is definitely an outsider’s first impression, not an expert opinion.

## A possible attack on the Riemann hypothesis?

Here is a concrete approach to the RH, one that uses no complex numbers. It’s a probabilistic approach, and it involves the notion of randomness. It’s originally due to Stieltjes, who erroneously claimed to have proved the RH with a variant of this approach.

The Möbius $`\mu `$ function is about as likely to be $`+1`$ or $`1`$ (see Derbyshire, *Prime Obsession,* pp. 322–323).

$$\mu (n)=\{\begin{array}{cc}0\hfill & \text{if }k^2\text{ divides }n\text{}k>1\text{,}\hfill \\ (1)^{\text{number of different prime divisors of }n}\hfill & \text{if }n\text{ is square-free.}\hfill \end{array}$$

The RH is equivalent to assertion that as $`k`$ goes from 1 to $`n`$, $`\mu (k)`$ is positive as often as negative. More precisely, the RH is closely related to the assertion that the difference between

* the number of $`k`$ from 1 to $`n`$ for which $`\mu (k)=1`$, and
* the number of $`k`$ from 1 to $`n`$ for which $`\mu (k)=+1`$

is $`O(\sqrt{n})`$, of the order of square root of $`n`$, i.e., is bounded by a constant times the square root of $`n`$. This is roughly the kind of behavior that one would expect if the sign of the $`\mu `$ function were chosen at random using independent tosses of a fair coin.111111For a more precise idea of what to expect if the sign of the $`\mu `$ function were chosen at random, see the chapter on the law of the iterated logarithm in Feller, *An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications,* vol. 1, VIII.5 through VIII.7.

This is usually formulated in terms of the Mertens function $`M(n)`$:121212See .

$$M(n)=\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}\mu (k).$$

According to Derbyshire, pp. 249–251,

$$M(n)=O(\sqrt{n})$$

implies the RH, but is actually stronger than the RH. The RH is equivalent to the assertion that for any $`ϵ>0`$,

$$M(n)=O(n^{\frac{1}{2}+ϵ}).$$

Could this formula be the door to the RH?!

This probabilistic approach caught my eye while I was reading this May’s crop of RH books.

I have always had an interest in probabilistic methods in elementary number theory. This was one of the things that inspired me to come up with my definition of *algorithmic* randomness and to find algorithmic randomness in arithmetic  in connection with diophantine equations. However, I doubt that this work on algorithmic randomness is directly applicable to the RH.

In particular, these two publications greatly interested me as a child:

* Mark Kac, *Statistical Independence in Probability, Analysis and Number Theory,* Carus Mathematical Monographs, vol. 12, Mathematical Association of America, 1959.
* George Pólya, “Heuristic reasoning in the theory of numbers,” 1959, reprinted in Gerald W. Alexanderson, *The Random Walks of George Pólya,* Mathematical Association of America, 2000.

I think that anyone contemplating a probabilistic attack on the RH via the $`\mu `$ function should read these two publications. There is also some interesting work on random sieves, which are probabilistic versions of the sieve of Eratosthenes:

* D. Hawkins, “Mathematical sieves,” *Scientific American,* December 1958, pp. 105–112.

As Pólya shows in the above paper—originally *American Mathematical Monthly* 66, pp. 375–384—probabilistic heuristic reasoning can do rather well with the distribution of twin primes. By the way, this involves Euler’s $`\gamma `$ constant. Can a refinement of Pólya’s technique shed new light on $`\mu `$ and on the RH? I don’t know, but I think that this is an interesting possibility.

By the way, $`𝐏\mathrm{𝐍𝐏}`$ also involves randomness, for as Charles Bennett and John Gill showed in 1981—*SIAM Journal on Computing* 10, pp. 96–113—with respect (relative) to a random oracle $`A`$, $`𝐏^A\mathrm{𝐍𝐏}^A`$ with probability one .

## Further reading—Four “subversive” books

* On experimental mathematics:
Borwein, Bailey and Girgensohn, *Mathematics by Experiment,* *Experimentation in Mathematics,* A. K. Peters, in press.
(See . There is a chapter on zeta functions in volume two.)
* On a quasi-empirical view of mathematics:
Tymoczko, *New Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics,* Princeton University Press, 1998.
* On pragmatically-justified new axioms and information-theoretic incompleteness:
Chaitin, *From Philosophy to Program Size,* Tallinn Cybernetics Institute, 2003.
(There is also an electronic version of this book .)

And regarding the adverse reaction of the mathematics community to the ideas in the above four books, I think that it is interesting to recall Gödel’s difficulties at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, as recounted in:

* John L. Casti, *The One True Platonic Heaven,* John Henry Press, 2003.

According to Casti, one of the reasons that it took so long for Gödel’s appointment at the IAS to be converted from temporary to permanent is that some of Gödel’s colleagues dismissed his incompleteness theorem. Now of course Gödel has become a cultural icon131313In this connection, I should mention *Incompleteness, a play and a theorem* by Apostolos Doxiadis, which is a play about Gödel. For more information, see . and mathematicians take incompleteness more seriously—but perhaps not seriously enough.

Mathematicians shouldn’t be cautious lawyers—I much prefer the bold Eulerian way of doing mathematics. Instead of endlessing polishing, how about some adventurous pioneer spirit? Truth can be reached through successive approximations; insistence on instant absolute rigor is sterile—that’s what I’ve learned from incompleteness.141414In this connection, see da Costa, French, *Science and Partial Truth.*

## Web References

* Two philosophical applications of algorithmic information theory.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/CDMTCS/chaitin/dijon.html
* From philosophy to program size.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/CDMTCS/chaitin/ewscs.html
* Information-theoretic limitations of formal systems.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/CDMTCS/chaitin/acm74.pdf
* Mertens function.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MertensFunction.html
* Mertens conjecture.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MertensConjecture.html
* Randomness in arithmetic.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/CDMTCS/chaitin/sciamer2.html
* Relative to a random oracle $`A`$, $`𝐏^A\mathrm{𝐍𝐏}^A\text{co-}\mathrm{𝐍𝐏}^A`$ with probability 1.
http://www.research.ibm.com/people/b/bennetc/bennettc1981497f3f4a.pdf
* Experimental mathematics website.
http://www.expmath.info
* Apostolos Doxiadis home page.
http://www.apostolosdoxiadis.com


text:
# Chapter 1 Mass Composition of the Primary Cosmic Rays in the Energy Region 10¹⁴÷10²⁰ eV in Anomalous Diffusion Model

## Chapter 1 Mass Composition of the Primary Cosmic Rays in the Energy Region $`10^{14}÷10^{20}`$ eV in Anomalous Diffusion Model

### Abstract

We discuss the problem of cosmic ray mass composition variation in wide energy region $`10^{14}÷10^{20}`$ eV. The mass composition predicted in the framework of recently developed anomalous diffusion model is tested using the results of CORSIKA calculations and experimental data on the depth of maximum of extensive air showers. We show that the model predictions for the mass composition are consistent with observations of different experiments.

### 1. Introduction

The measurement of the mass composition of the primary cosmic rays (PCR), especially with energies $`10^{19}`$ eV, is known to be one of the most actual problems of modern astrophysics. The reliable data about composition of the PCR are necessary for solving the problems of the origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic ray and also mechanisms of their acceleration and propagation through the interstellar medium.

In recent works \[1-5\] the new interpretation of experimental data in the framework of galactic approach were offered under assumption that cosmic-ray particles propagate through the fractal interstellar medium (the anomalous diffusion model). It was shown that the ”knee” ($`E_03\times 10^{15}`$ eV) and the ”ankle” ($`E_08\times 10^{18}`$ eV) in PCR energy spectrum and also phenomenon of absence of Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff  could be explaned in natural way in the anomalous diffusion model (see, figure 1).

At present stage, analysis and comparison of the experimental data on extensive air showers (EAS) with results of EAS simulations is the only single effective method for the estimation of a PCR energy spectrum, composition and also for the test of hadronic interaction models at ultrahigh energies. One of the basic EAS characteristics, which can be used to determine the cosmic ray mass composition, is the depth of shower maximum $`t_{max}`$.

In this paper the results of calculations of $`t_{max}`$ of EAS, simulated by CORSIKA(v.6.0)  in wide energy region for different primaries are presented. The mass composition in energy region $`10^{14}÷10^{20}`$ eV, predicted in the framework of anomalous diffusion model, is compared with experimental data of different arrays, which use various detection techniques: Casa-Blanca , Space-Vulcan , Hegra-Airobicc , Fly’s Eye , HiRes-MIA  and Yakutsk .

### 2. Calculation and results

We used the quark-gluon string model with jets (QGSjet) which provides the best overall description of the experimental data about EAS . The calculations have been made for five groups of nuclei (p, He, CNO, Ne-Si, Fe), in the standard atmosphere. For each primary particle from 500 ($`E_0=10^{14}`$ eV) to 50 ($`E_0=10^{20}`$ eV) events were simulated with thinning level $`10^6`$.

In figure 2 we show cascade curves of electrons for vertical showers induced by proton and iron of $`10^{19}`$ eV. The depths of EAS maximum were approximated by quadratic expression of the form

$$t_{max}=a+blgE+c(lgE)^2.$$
(1)
In table 1 we show the approximation coefficients $`a,b,c`$ for different groups of nuclei.

For the mass composition, predicted in the framework of anomalous diffusion model (table 2), the weighted depths of shower maximum $`t_{max}^{AD}(E)=\underset{i}{}p_it_{max}^i`$, where $`i`$ denotes the group of nuclei, were obtained according to CORSIKA calculations for five types of nuclei. In figure 3 we present our results for the depth of maximum in proton- and iron-induced showers and also $`t_{max}^{AD}(E)`$ in comparision with experimental data in the energy range $`10^{14}÷10^{20}`$ eV.

It must be emphasized that experimental data, which consistently demonstrate the remarkable lightening of the primary composition around the main features in energy spectrum ($`E_03\times 10^{15}`$ eV and $`E_08\times 10^{18}`$ eV), and our results obtained in the framwork of anomalous diffusion model are in satisfactory agreement in the whole considered energy range.

### 3. Conclusions

We have considered the mass composition variation of primary cosmic rays at energy $`10^{14}÷10^{20}`$ eV. CORSIKA/QGSjet simulations of extensive air showers for primary p, He, CNO, Ne-Si, Fe in a wide energy range were performed. The depth of shower maximum were estimated for mass composition predicted in the framework of anomalous diffusion model. It was shown that the experimentally observed lightening of primary composition in the ”knee” and the ”ankle” regions, is the consequence of anomalous diffusion of cosmic rays in fractal interstellar medium.

This work was supported UR grant 02.01.014.

### 4. References

1. Lagutin A.A., Nikulin Yu.A., Uchaikin V.V. 2001, Nucl. Phys.B (Proc. Suppl.), v.97, 267.

2. Lagutin A.A. 2001, Problems of atomic science and technology, N6(2), 214.

3. Lagutin A.A., Strelnikov D.V., and Tyumentsev A.G. 2001, Proc.of the 27th ICRC, v.5, 1896.

4. Lagutin A.A., Uchaikin V.V. 2003, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res., v. B201, 212.

5. Lagutin A.A., Tyumentsev A.G. 2003, Izv. RAN, ser Fiz., v.67, N4.

6. Greisen K. 1966, Phys. Rev. Letters, v.16, 748.

7. Zatsepin G.T., Kuzmin V.A. 1966, JETP Letters, v.4, 78.

8. Heck D., Knapp J. Extensive Air Shower Simulation with CORSIKA: A User’s Guide (Version 6.00 from December 13, 2000) \- Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH. 2000.

9. Fowler J.W., Fortson L.F., Jui C.C.H. et al. 2000, Preprint astro-ph/0003190 v2, 25.

10. Dickinson J.E., Gill J.R., Hart S.P. et al. 1999, Proc.of the 26th ICRC, 3, 136.

11. Arqueros F., Barrio J.A., Bernlohr et al. arXiv: astro - ph/9908202.

12. Bird D. et al. 1993, Phys. Rev. Lett., v.71, 3401.

13. Abu-Zayyad T., Belov K., Bird D.J. et al. 2000, Phys. Rev. Lett., v.84, N19, 4276.

14. Knurenko S., Kolosov V., Petrov Z., et al. 2001, Proc.of the 27th ICRC, v.1, 177.

15. Kalmukov N.N., Ostapchenko S.S. 1993, Yad. Fiz, v.56, N3, 105.


text:
# Additional 𝐽/Ψ Suppression from High Density Effects

## I Introduction

High energy heavy-ion collisions offer the opportunity to study the properties of the predicted QCD phase transition to a locally deconfined quark-gluon plasma (QGP) . A dense parton system is expected to be formed in the early stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) energies and above, due to the onset of hard and semihard parton scatterings. The search for experimental evidence of this transition during the very early stage of $`AA`$ reactions requires to extract unambiguous characteristic signals that survive the complex evolution through the later stages of the collision. One of the proposed signatures of the QCD phase transition is the suppression of quarkonium production, particularly of the $`J/\psi `$ . The idea of suppression of $`c\overline{c}`$ mesons $`J/\psi `$, $`\psi ^,`$, etc., is based on the notion that $`c\overline{c}`$ are produced mainly via primary hard collisions of energetic gluons during the preequilibrium stage up to shortly after the plasma formation (before the initial temperature drops below the production threshold), and the mesons formed from these pairs may subsequently experience deconfinement when traversing the region of the plasma. In a QGP, the suppression occurs due to the shielding of the $`c\overline{c}`$ binding potential by color screening, leading to the breakup of the resonance. The $`c\overline{c}`$ ($`J/\psi ,\psi ^{},\mathrm{}`$) and $`b\overline{b}`$ ($`\mathrm{{\rm Y}},\mathrm{{\rm Y}}^{},\mathrm{}`$) resonances have smaller radii than light-quark hadrons and therefore higher temperatures are needed to dissociate these quarkonium states.

Over the years, several groups have measured the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ yield in heavy ion collisions with the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ suppression observed in the experimental data. In particular, the NA50 Collaboration at CERN observed a much stronger $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at SPS energies . Different mechanisms have been proposed to explain this phenomenon. It has been suggested that the suppression was due the QGP phase , percolation deconfinement  or absorption by comovers  (For a review see e.g. Ref. ). Shortly, the origin of the anomalous behavior of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production cross section is still debated and several competing interpretations have so far been proposed. In general, these models consider the final state interactions of the quarkonium state with the nuclear/QGP medium. A comprehensive analysis of the different mechanisms is presented in Ref. . Here, we address other search of $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ suppression in nuclear collisions at high energies: the modification in the nuclear wave functions of the incident nuclei associated to the high density (saturation) effects.

The probability of a thermalized QGP production and the resulting strength of its signatures strongly depends on the initial conditions associated to the distributions of partons in the nuclear wave functions. At very high energies, the growth of parton distributions should saturate. There is a possible formation of a Color Glass Condensate , characterized by a bulk momentum scale $`Q_s`$. Moreover, the limitation on the maximum phase-space parton density that can be reached in the hadron wave function (parton saturation) and very high values of the QCD field strength squared $`F_{\mu \nu }^21/\alpha _s`$  are expected in this regime. Furthermore, the number of gluons per unit phase space volume practically saturates and at large densities grows only very slowly (logarithmically) as a function of the energy . If the saturation scale is larger than the QCD scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$, then this system can be studied using weak coupling methods. The magnitude of $`Q_s`$ is associated to the behavior of the gluon distribution at high energies, and some estimates have been obtained. In general, the predictions are $`Q_s1`$ GeV at RHIC and $`Q_s23`$ GeV at LHC . From the experimental point of view, the recent results from HERA for $`ep`$ collisions  and from RHIC for heavy ion collisions  suggest that these processes at high energies probe QCD in the non-linear regime of high parton density. These results motivate our analysis of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production in nuclear processes.

In this work, we analyze in detail the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production in $`pA`$ and $`AA`$ processes. A detailed study of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production in $`pA`$ collisions is justified by the fact that a systematic study of $`pA`$ and $`AA`$ scatterings at the same energies is essential to gain insight into the structure of the dense medium effects. Such effects, as the energy loss and high density effects, are absent or small in $`pp`$ collisions, but become increasingly prominent in $`pA`$ collisions, and are of major importance in $`AA`$ reactions. By comparing $`pA`$ and $`AA`$ reactions involving very heavy nuclei, one may be able to distinguish basic hadronic effects that dominate the dynamics in $`pA`$ collisions, from a quark-gluon formation predicted to occur in heavy ion $`AA`$ collisions. Furthermore, our analysis is motivated by the fact that the quarkonium production at RHIC and LHC energies is dominated by initial state gluons. As the probability for making a heavy quark pair is proportional to the square of gluon distribution, any depletion in number of gluons will make a significant difference in the number of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ produced . Here we assume the presence of initial state effects in the nuclear wave functions and final state interactions of the $`c\overline{c}`$ pair with the nuclear medium. Our main goal is to estimate the magnitude of quarkonium suppression in hadronic matter associated to these effects. Our results demonstrate that the high density effects implies an additional $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ suppression when compared with the scenario where only final state interactions are estimated. As the formation of a QGP is not assumed, our predictions are a lower bound for the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ suppression in high energy nuclear collisions.

This paper is organized as follows. In the next section, we present the color evaporation model (CEM), which is used as a model for the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production in proton-nucleus ($`pA`$) and nucleus-nucleus ($`AA`$) collisions. In the section III we present a brief review of the AG parameterization , used to include the high density effects in the calculation. Moreover, we present our predictions for the energy dependence of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ cross section in section IV. In section V the generalization of the CEM to include the final state interactions proposed in Ref.  is discussed and our results for the medium length dependence of the cross sections are presented in section VI. Our main conclusions are also summarized.

## II $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production in the collinear factorization

Vector-meson production has proven to be a very interesting process in which to test the interplay between the perturbative and nonperturbative regimes of QCD (For a review, see for example ). One of the main uncertainties in quarkonium production is related to the transition from the colored state to a colorless meson. Initially, the $`q\overline{q}`$ pair will in general be in a color octet state. It subsequently neutralizes its color and binds into a physical resonance. Color neutralization occurs by interaction with the surrounding color field. An alternative view of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production process is to use the color evaporation model (CEM), which describes a large range of data in hadro- and photoproduction, as shown in Refs. . In CEM, quarkonium production is treated identically to open heavy quark production with exception that in the case of quarkonium, the invariant mass of the heavy quark pair is restricted to be below the open meson threshold, which is twice the mass of the lowest meson mass that can be formed with the heavy quark. For charmonium the upper limit on the $`c\overline{c}`$ mass is then $`2m_D`$. The hadronization of the charmonium states from the $`c\overline{c}`$ pairs is nonperturbative, usually involving the emission of one or more soft gluons. Depending on the quantum numbers of the initial $`c\overline{c}`$ pair and the final state charmonium, a different matrix element is needed for the production of the charmonium state. The average of these nonperturbative matrix elements are combined into the universal factor $`F[nJ^{PC}]`$, which is process- and kinematics-independent and describes the probability that the $`c\overline{c}`$ pair binds to form a quarkonium $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }(nJ^{PC})`$ of given spin $`J`$, parity $`P`$, and a charge conjugation $`C`$. Once $`F`$ has been fixed for each state ($`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ or $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}`$) the model successfully predicts the energy and momentum dependence .

Considering the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production and the collinear factorization approach, the CEM predicts that the cross section in the collision of hadrons $`A`$ and $`B`$ is given by

$`\sigma _{AB\mathrm{J}/\psi X}=K{\displaystyle \underset{a,b}{}}{\displaystyle 𝑑q^2\left(\frac{\widehat{\sigma }_{abc\overline{c}}(Q^2)}{Q^2}\right)𝑑x_F\varphi _{a/A}(x_a)\varphi _{b/B}(x_b)\frac{x_ax_b}{x_a+x_b}F_{c\overline{c}\mathrm{J}/\psi }(q^2)},`$ (1)
where $`_{a,b}`$ runs over all parton flavors, $`Q^2=q^2+4m_c^2`$, $`\varphi _{a/A}(x_a)`$ is the distribution function of parton $`a`$ in hadron $`A`$, $`x_F=x_ax_b`$ and $`x_ax_b=Q^2/s\tau `$. The expressions of the elementary partonic cross sections can be taken from Ref. , and to take into account the next-to-leading order corrections to the cross section we consider the phenomenological constant $`K`$-factor. The factor $`F_{c\overline{c}\mathrm{J}/\psi }(q^2)`$ describes the transition probability for the $`c\overline{c}`$ state of the relative square momentum $`q^2`$ to evolve into a physical $`J/\psi `$ meson. In general, it is parameterized by

$`F_{c\overline{c}\mathrm{J}/\psi }(q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`N_{\mathrm{J}/\psi }\theta (q^2)\theta (4m_{D}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}4m_c^2q^2),`$ (2)
where $`N_{J/\mathrm{\Psi }}`$ is a normalization factor which is obtained from a fit of the experimental data for $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production in proton-proton collisions. Here, we assume that $`KN_{J/\mathrm{\Psi }}=0.250`$, similarly to what is made in Refs. , where this model was successfully compared with the experimental results. For nuclear collisions, a number of experiments has measured a less than linear $`A`$ dependence for various processes of production , which indicates that the nuclear medium effects cannot be disregarded.

## III High Density Effects in $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ Production

One important point for the studies of $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production is that in the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ cross section calculation using the collinear factorization framework we integrate over the momentum fraction of the incoming partons. It implies that we must know the behavior of the nuclear parton distributions in the full $`x`$ range to obtain realistic predictions for these observable. The current estimates for the nuclear $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production (See e.g. Ref. ) consider as input the EKS parameterization for the nuclear parton distributions , which are solutions of the DGLAP evolution equations . Consequently, these analysis do not consider the possible presence of high density effects which should modify the dynamical evolution of the nuclear parton distributions in the RHIC and LHC kinematical regions.

As our focus is to analyze the influence of the high density effects in the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production, here we only consider the medium modifications in the nuclear parton distributions (nuclear shadowing effect), disregarding the contributions of energy loss and the intrinsic heavy-quark components for the non-linear $`A`$ dependence of the cross sections (For a discussion of these effects in charmonium production see Ref. ). The nuclear shadowing is the modification of the nuclear parton distributions so that $`\varphi _{a/A}(x,Q^2)\varphi _{a/p}(x,Q^2)`$, as expected from a superposition of $`pp`$ interactions. The current experimental data presenting nuclear shadowing can be described reasonably using the DGLAP evolution equations  with adjusted initial parton distributions . However, this parameterization does not include the dynamical saturation effects predicted to modify the evolution equation and, consequently, the behavior of the nuclear parton distributions at small $`x`$ and large $`A`$ . In this kinematical regime, the density of quarks and gluons becomes very high and the processes of interaction and recombination between partons, not present in the DGLAP evolution, should be considered. Therefore, in order to investigate the presence and magnitude of the high density effects in the nuclear $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production considering the collinear factorization of the cross section, it is necessary to include these effects, as well as the antishadowing, EMC and Fermi motion effects, in the nuclear parton distributions. Here we use as input in our calculations the AG parameterization proposed in Ref. , which improves the EKS one by the inclusion of the perturbative high density effects . This parameterization deals with these effects using the Glauber-Mueller formula which is the simplest one that reflects the main qualitative features of a more general approach based on non-linear evolution . For completeness, we now present a qualitative discussion of the main properties of the approach used by this parameterization.

In the nucleus rest frame we can consider the interaction between a virtual colorless hard probe and the nucleus via the gluon pair ($`gg`$) component of the virtual probe. The interaction of the dipole with the color field of the nucleus will clearly depend on the its size. If the separation of the $`gg`$ pair is very small (smaller than the mean separation of the partons), the color field of the dipole will be effectively screened and the nucleus will be essentially transparent to the dipole. At large dipole sizes, the color field of the dipole is large and it interacts strongly with the target and is sensitive both to its structure and size. More generally, when the parton density is such that the nucleus becomes black and the interaction probability is unity, the dipole cross section saturates and the gluon distribution becomes proportional to the virtuality of the probe $`Q^2`$. In the infinite momentum frame, this picture is equivalent to a situation in which the individual partons become so close that they have a significant probability of interacting with each other before interaction with the probe. Such interactions lead, for instance, to two $``$ one branchings and hence a reduction in the gluon distribution. These properties were considered in Ref. , where the rescatterings of the gluon pair inside the nucleus were estimated using the Glauber-Mueller approach, resulting that the nuclear gluon distribution is given by

$`xG_A(x,Q^2)={\displaystyle \frac{2R_A^2}{\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle _x^1}{\displaystyle \frac{dx^{}}{x^{}}}{\displaystyle _{\frac{1}{Q^2}}^{\frac{1}{Q_0^2}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^2r_t}{\pi r_t^4}}\{C+ln(\kappa _G(x^{},r_t^2))+E_1(\kappa _G(x^{},r_t^2))\}`$ (3)
where $`C`$ is the Euler constant, $`E_1`$ is the exponential function, the function $`\kappa _G(x,r_t^2)=(3\alpha _sA/2R_A^2)\pi r_t^2xG_N(x,\frac{1}{r_t^2})`$, $`A`$ is the number of nucleons in a nucleus and $`R_A^2`$ is the mean nuclear radius. The limit of low densities is characterized by $`\kappa _G1`$, while for high parton densities $`\kappa _G1`$. The transition line between these two regimes can be obtained assuming $`\kappa _G=1`$ , which allow us to estimate the saturation momentum scale $`Q_s^2`$. One of the shortcomings of this approach is that the Glauber-Mueller formula does not contemplate any nuclear effect in the nonperturbative initial condition for the gluon distribution. The antishadowing and EMC effects present at larger values of $`x`$ are also disregarded in this approach. In order to improve this approach, it was proposed in Ref. a modification in the expression (3) which includes the full DGLAP kernel in parton evolution. Basically, to calculate the nuclear gluon distribution the following procedure was proposed:

$`xG_A(x,Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`(1/A)xG_A(x,Q^2)[GM](1/A)xG_A(x,Q^2)[DLA]+xG_A(x,Q^2)[EKS],`$ (4)
where $`xG_A(x,Q^2)[GM]`$ represents the Glauber-Mueller nuclear gluon distribution given by the expression (3) and $`xG_A(x,Q^2)[DLA]`$ is the DGLAP (DLA) prediction for the nuclear gluon distribution, which corresponds to the first term of expression (3) when expanded in powers of $`\kappa _G`$. The last term in expression (4), $`xG_A(x,Q^2)[EKS]`$, is the gluon distribution solution of the DGLAP equation as proposed in Ref. , where the initial conditions of the parton evolution were chosen in such a way to describe the nuclear effects in DIS and Drell-Yan fixed nuclear target data. As it was discussed in detail in Ref., the parameterization of the nuclear effects in the gluon distribution, given by the ratio $`R_g(x,Q^2)=xG_A(x,Q^2)/xG_N(x,Q^2)`$ in the EKS procedure, does not include the perturbative high density effects at small values of $`x`$ associated to the QCD dynamics in this regime. Thus, the procedure presented in equation (4) includes the full DGLAP evolution equation in all kinematic region, taking into account the nuclear effects in the present fixed target data and high density effects in the parton evolution at small $`x`$ in the perturbative regime. A similar procedure can be implemented to obtain the nuclear quark distribution . In Fig. 1 we present the predictions for the $`x`$-dependence of nuclear ratios $`R_g`$ and $`R_q=xq_A/xq_N`$ considering the high density effects. The predictions of the EKS parameterization are also shown for comparison. Two points must be emphasized: (a) at small values of $`x`$ the difference between the AG and EKS predictions are very large and merits our consideration; (b) the effects for gluons are larger than for quarks. This last result has strong implications in the calculations of the ratio between the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and Drell-Yan cross sections, as will be demonstrated in that follows. A comment is in order here. Currently, there is a large uncertainty related to the behavior of the nuclear parton distributions at small values of $`x`$. As discussed in Ref. , the distinct models present in the literature agree within 15 $`\%`$ for $`x0.01`$, where experimental data exist, while they differ up to $`60\%`$ in its predictions for $`R_{F_2}=F_2^A/F_2^N`$ at $`x=10^5`$. Our prediction for this ratio using the AG parameterization is identical to the EKS results for large $`x`$ and very similar to the eikonal one obtained in Ref. . Therefore, we believe that the approach used here can be considered as a suitable phenomenological method for the inclusion of the high density effects in the nuclear cross sections at RHIC and LHC energies. Clearly, for higher values of parton density, a more general framework should be considered for the calculations of the cross sections (See e.g. Ref. ).

## IV Energy Dependence for $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ Production

In order to investigate the medium dependence of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production cross section due to high density effects, we will follow the usual procedure to describe the experimental data on nuclear effects in the hadronic quarkonium production , where the atomic mass number $`A`$ dependence is parameterized by $`\sigma _{pA}=\sigma _{pN}\times A^\alpha `$. Here, $`\sigma _{pA}`$ and $`\sigma _{pN}`$ are the particle production cross sections in proton-nucleus and proton-nucleon interactions, respectively. If the particle production is not modified by the presence of nuclear matter, then $`\alpha =1`$. In Fig. 2 we present the effective exponent $`\alpha `$ as a function of the c.m. energy $`s^{1/2}`$, where we have calculated the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ cross section using the EKS and AG parameterizations as input in our calculations. In both cases, we assume that the nucleon parton distributions are given by the GRV94(LO) set . The general behavior of the exponent can be understood as follows: when the integrations in Eq. (1) are taken, the nuclear gluon distribution are evaluated in the $`x_2`$ interval given by $`\tau <x_2<\sqrt{\tau }`$. Thus, when the energy grows, the $`x_2`$ interval goes to the small $`x`$ region. For $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production, for example, the antishadowing region dominates the integration for energies smaller than 80 GeV. For larger values of energy, the suppression is sizeable and the effective exponent is smaller than 1. In general grounds, we have that the exponent observed in the EKS prediction almost saturate and it is associated to the behavior of the ratio $`R_g`$ at small $`x`$, while the presence of the high density effects (nonsaturation of $`R_g`$) implies a large reduction of the $`pA`$ cross section when compared with DGLAP-EKS description of nuclear effects. Therefore, we believe that the analysis of the effective exponent in $`pA`$ processes can be useful to make clear the high density effects.

In general, the experimental analysis of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ suppression  consider as baseline the study of the ratio between $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and Drell-Yan (DY) cross sections. However, to make the suppression of this ratio an unambiguous test, we must consider all possible effects present in the production cross sections. In particular, we cannot disregard the high density effects in the nuclear quark distributions and the larger magnitude of these effects in the nuclear gluon distribution. In Fig. 3 we present our results for the energy dependence of the ratio $`\sigma _{J/\mathrm{\Psi }}/\sigma _{DY}`$ for $`pA`$ (top panel) and $`AA`$ processes (bottom panel). For the calculation of the Drell-Yan cross section we include the high density effects in the nuclear quark distributions . As these effects are larger in the gluon case, the ratio will be strongly modified when compared to the calculations without the inclusion of the high density effects. We verify that this modification is already present in $`pA`$ process at RHIC energy, and is almost $`40\%`$ for LHC energies, which implies that this process could be used to identify the presence and estimate the magnitude of the high density effects. Moreover, we predict a large suppression of the quarkonium production in $`AA`$ processes, associated with the presence of these effects, independently of the production of a quark-gluon plasma. As the additional suppression of the charmonium production rate predicted here is associated to the distinct dependence of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and Drell-Yan cross sections in the nuclear parton distributions, one alternative analysis is to use as baseline the ratio $`\sigma _{J/\mathrm{\Psi }}/\sigma _{Q\overline{Q}}`$ between the bound and open states cross section . Since both processes similarly depend on the nuclear gluon distribution this ratio is weakly dependent on the inclusion of the high density effects .

It is important to emphasize that the description of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production using collinear factorization at RHIC and LHC is still an open question. At large energies the replacement of the collinear factorization by the $`k_{}`$-factorization formalism is expected (For a recent review see, e.g., Ref. ). Moreover, coherence effects may lead to breakdown the collinear factorization , implying that dynamical effects, such as shadowing, may become process dependent. In this work, we choose a more conservative approach for treatment of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production. We assume as valid the collinear factorization and, in particular, the color evaporation model, and consider that the high density effects only modify the nuclear parton distributions. Moreover, we assume that initial and final state effects can be separated and consider different approaches for these distinct phases. The current experimental data for particle production at large transverse momentum in $`\sqrt{s}=200`$ GeV has demonstrated that this approach is valid at least for RHIC energies. We believe that our analysis can be considered as a lower bound for the magnitude of the high density effects in $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production, since the Glauber-Mueller approach considered here is one of the limits of the color glass condensate for intermediate values of the parton density. Clearly, for higher values of energy, a more general framework should be considered in the calculations of the quarkonium cross section.

## V Final State Interactions

In the later section we have demonstrated that the inclusion of the high density effects implies an additional suppression of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production rate. However, a complete description of nuclear $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production requires a proper treatment of both the initial state modifications of the parton distributions and the final state interactions of the produced $`c\overline{c}`$ pairs. Therefore, in order to obtain a more realistic prediction for the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ suppression in heavy ion collisions, we must include the final state interactions. Here, we will consider the model recently proposed in Ref.  (See also Ref. ), where the CEM is generalized to include the multiple scatterings between the $`c\overline{c}`$ and soft gluons as the pair cross the nuclear medium. In this model, the $`c\overline{c}`$ is produced with a separation smaller than the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ radius. Besides, the energy exchanges in the collisions are greater than the nonperturbative momentum scales in the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ wave function. Following this, the meson is unlikely to be formed at the collision point and the transformation from a pre-resonant $`c\overline{c}`$ into a physical $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ may occur over several Fermi . During this transformation, the produced $`c\overline{c}`$ pair interacts via multiple scatterings with the spectators of the collision . As a consequence of the multiple scattering, the square of the relative momentum $`q^2`$ between the $`c\overline{c}`$ pair is increased, and some of the $`c\overline{c}`$ pairs could gain enough $`q^2`$ to reach the threshold for open charm production. As a result, the cross sections for $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production is reduced in comparison with nucleon-nucleon collisions.

In the QVZ model , the transition probability $`F_{c\overline{c}J/\mathrm{\Psi }}(q^2)`$, present in Eq. (1), is parameterized by

$`F_{c\overline{c}\mathrm{J}/\psi }(q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`N_{\mathrm{J}/\psi }\theta (q^2)\theta (4m_{D}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}4m_c^2q^2)\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{q^2}{4m_{D}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}4m_c^2}}\right)^{\alpha _F},`$ (5)
where the gluon radiation effect is simulated by the parameter $`\alpha _F>0`$, which put larger weight to the smaller $`q^2`$. Furthermore, the QVZ model additionally assumes that the multiple scattering of the pair in the nuclear medium would increase the relative square momentum $`q^2`$ of the pair. The effect of coherent multiple scattering in the perturbative QCD calculation may be represented by shifting of the relative momentum in the transition probability as

$$F_{c\overline{c}\mathrm{J}/\psi }(\overline{q}^2)=F_{c\overline{c}\mathrm{J}/\psi }(q^2+\epsilon ^2L),$$
(6)
where $`L`$ is the effective length of the nuclear medium in the $`AB`$ collisions and $`ϵ^2`$ is the squared relative momentum gained by the produced $`c\overline{c}`$ pair per unit length. The above behavior implies that for a large enough $`L`$, such that for $`\overline{q}^2>4m_{D}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}4m_c^2`$, the transition probability essentially vanishes due to the existence of the open charm threshold. This gives rise to a much stronger suppression than the exponential one following from the Glauber model . In principle, the uniform shift of the relative momentum may be obtained in a perturbative QCD calculation by summing up all twist contributions at the leading order in the strong coupling constant $`\alpha _s`$ and the nuclear size . As shown in ref. , the model describes all observed $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ suppression data in hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions if the parameters $`\alpha _F`$ and $`ϵ`$ are fitted. Moreover, the model is weakly dependent of the value of $`\alpha _F`$, which is not true for $`ϵ^2`$. It is important to emphasize that the authors have disregarded the effects in the nuclear parton distributions in the calculations. Below, we demonstrate that the inclusion of these effects is important for the SPS energies and should be included in the future predictions for RHIC and LHC energies.

## VI Results and Conclusions

In the later sections we have presented the model to treat the medium effects in nuclear collisions. In Section III, we have discussed the initial state effects, and in the Section V, we have presented a model to treat the final state effects, and its implications for the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ suppression. In this section, we present our results for $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production, when these effects are considered. Since we are interested in the magnitude of the suppression due to high density effects, we present the results for total cross sections for charmonium productions, thought only the small $`x_F`$ region will be accessible at RHIC and LHC.

In Fig. 4 we show our results for the medium length dependence of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ cross section. The effective length $`L(A,B)`$, as well as the experimental data, are taken from the Ref. , with all data rescaled to $`P_{\text{beam}}=200`$ GeV. Following Ref. , we assume $`KN_{J/\mathrm{\Psi }}=0.458`$. The dashed line is our prediction obtained using the GRV94 parameterization and, as made in Refs. , we assume $`ϵ^2=0.225`$ GeV<sup>2</sup>/fm. In this case we are disregarding any nuclear effects present in the parton distributions. If these nuclear effects are considered, we obtain the dash-dotted curve, where we kept $`ϵ^2=0.225`$ GeV<sup>2</sup>/fm and used the EKS parameterization. It can be seen that if these effects are included the model fails to describe the $`PbPb`$ data. This behavior is associated to the antishadowing effect present in the EKS nuclear parton distribution, which implies an enhancement of the cross section and more scatterings between the $`c\overline{c}`$ pair and the medium are necessary to describe the data. This situation can be improved using the fact that $`ϵ^2`$, the gained momentum per unit length, is a free parameter of the model. In the solid line we show our prediction using $`ϵ^2=0.250`$ GeV<sup>2</sup>/fm, which improves the description. This modification in the parameter demonstrates that the inclusion of the medium effects are important for SPS energies. It is important to emphasize that our conclusions are unchanged if we use for comparison the latest NA50 data on $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production in $`pA`$ and $`AA`$ collisions . As in the kinematical region of the experimental data the EKS and AG predictions for the nuclear parton distributions are identical, our predictions including the high density effects are not shown in the figure.

As we have determined a new value for the parameter $`ϵ^2`$ when the initial state medium effects are considered, we can use it to predict the nuclear $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production at higher energies. We assume that a QGP is not formed in these collisions. Consequently, our predictions are a lower bound for the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ suppression, since if this new state of matter is formed, another mechanism of suppression (deconfinement) not considered here is also present. In Fig. 5 we plot the our predictions for total cross sections for RHIC and LHC energies, using the GRV, EKS and AG parameterizations as input in our calculations. We can see by the comparison between the GRV and EKS curve that for the RHIC and LHC energies the medium effects present in the initial state cannot be disregarded, with the inclusion of these effects implying an additional $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ suppression. Furthermore, for the kinematical region of RHIC the inclusion of the high density effects does not significantly modify the behavior of this observable. However, for LHC energies, we predict that these effects strongly reduces the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production rate. This effect is associated to the dominance of the small-$`x`$ behavior of the nuclear parton distributions at high energies.

A complete description of nuclear $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production requires a proper treatment of both the initial state modifications of the parton distributions and the final state interactions of the produced $`c\overline{c}`$ pairs. In this paper we have considered the inclusion of the high density effects in the parton distributions and estimated the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ cross section in $`pA`$ and $`AA`$ processes assuming that the collinear factorization is still valid. Our results have demonstrated that these effects cannot be disregarded in the kinematical regions of the future colliders. In particular, we have shown that an additional $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ suppression is expected if these effects are included in the calculations. As in $`AA`$ collisions this suppression can also be associated to other sources, as for instance, comover interactions, percolation deconfinement or quark-gluon plasma formation, an experimental analysis of the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production in $`pA`$ processes at high energies is fundamental to constraint the hadronic effects. In particular, our results demonstrate that the high density effects will significantly contribute in the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ production in these processes, which implies that a careful disentangling of initial and final state effects is required before the clear identification of a new state of matter.

## Acknowledgments

V.P.G. and L.F.M. are very grateful to A. Ayala Filho, M. A. Betemps and M. V. T. Machado for illuminating discussions on the subject. This work was partially financed by CNPq and FAPERGS, BRAZIL.


text:
# Method of extending hyperfine coherence times in 𝑷𝒓^limit-from𝟑+:𝒀_𝟐𝑺𝒊𝑶_𝟓

## Abstract

In this letter we present a method for increasing the coherence time of praseodymium hyperfine ground state transitions in $`Pr^{3+}`$:$`Y_2SiO_5`$ by the application of a specific external magnetic field. The magnitude and angle of the external field is applied such that the Zeeman splitting of a hyperfine transition is at a critical point in three dimensions, making the first order Zeeman shift vanishingly small for the transition. This reduces the influence of the magnetic interactions between the praseodymium ions and the spins in the host lattice on the transition frequency. Using this method a phase memory time of 82ms was observed, a value two orders of magnitude greater than previously reported. It is shown that the residual dephasing is amenable quantum error correction.

preprint: APS/123-QED

There is growing interest in the use of nuclear spin states associated with dopant ions in a solid state host to store and manipulate quantum informationIchimura (2001); Kane (1998); Ohlsson et al. (2002). These applications require the relevant spin transitions to have long coherence times. This can be challenging to achieve in a solid state system due to magnetic interactions between the dopant ion and spins within the host. A spin free host can be utilized to minimize these interactionsKane (1998), however not all dopant species of interest are chemically compatible with such hosts. An example of a class of dopants where no satisfactory spin free host has been identified, are the rare earth ions. Because of the potential to manipulate their spin states optically, the use of rare earth ions has been proposed in a number of quantum information applicationsIchimura (2001); Ohlsson et al. (2002). In this letter we investigate the decoherence in the ground state hyperfine transitions in $`Pr^{3+}`$:$`Y_2SiO_5`$ and demonstrate a new method for increasing their coherence times. This technique is expected to be applicable to a wide range of spin systems.

$`Pr^{3+}`$:$`Y_2SiO_5`$ was chosen to investigate since along with its use in a quantum computing architecture having been proposed by Ichimura et al.Ichimura (2001), it has already been used in slow and stopped light demonstrationsTurukin et al. (2002); Yamamoto et al. (1998). The longest coherence time ($`T_2`$) stated in the literature for a ground state hyperfine transition in $`Pr^{3+}`$:$`Y_2SiO_5`$ is $`500\mu `$sHam et al. (1998). This is likely to be insufficient for practical quantum computing applications given that the hyperfine transition frequency is $``$$`10MHz`$, limiting the Rabi frequencies of any driving field to less than a few MHz so as to be transition specific. This only allows of the order of $`1000`$ operations to be completed within $`T_2`$.

Yttrium orthosilicate has symmetry given by the $`C_{2h}^6`$ space group Buerger (1969) with two formula units Y2SiO5 per translational unit. This gives four different sites at which the Pr can substitute for Y. The four sites can be divided into two pairs. The two pairs labelled ’site 1’ and ’site 2’ Equall et al. (1995) have different crystal field splittings and hence different optical and hyperfine frequencies. The members of each pair, labelled ’a’ and ’b’, are related to each other by the crystal’s $`C_2`$ axis and their optical and hyperfine frequencies are degenerate in zero field. The Pr sites in Y2SiO5 have electronic singlet ground states with hyperfine ground state interactions described by the following Hamiltonian:

$$H=𝑩\mathbf{}𝑴\mathbf{}𝑰\mathbf{+}𝑰\mathbf{}𝑸\mathbf{}𝑰$$
(1)
where $`𝑩`$ is the magnetic field vector, $`𝑰`$ is the vector of nuclear spin operators, $`𝑴`$ is the effective Zeeman tensor combining nuclear and electronic Zeeman interactions and $`𝑸`$ is the effective quadrupole tensor combining the quadrupole and second order magnetic hyperfine interaction, known as the pseudo-quadrupoleBaker and Bleaney (1958). The one naturally occurring isotope of Pr has a nuclear spin of 5/2. $`𝑴`$ and $`𝑸`$ for site 1 were recently determined for $`Pr^{3+}`$:$`Y_2SiO_5`$ to be:

$`𝑸`$ $`=`$ $`R(\alpha ,\beta ,\gamma )\left[\begin{array}{ccc}E& 0& 0\\ 0& E& 0\\ 0& 0& D\end{array}\right]R^T(\alpha ,\beta ,\gamma )`$
$`𝑴`$ $`=`$ $`R(\alpha ,\beta ,\gamma )\left[\begin{array}{ccc}g_x& 0& 0\\ 0& g_y& 0\\ 0& 0& g_z\end{array}\right]R^T(\alpha ,\beta ,\gamma )`$
where $`E=0.5624Mhz`$ and $`D=4.4450Mhz`$, $`(g_x,g_y,g_z)=(2.86,3.05,11.56)kHz/G`$, and the Euler angles are $`(\alpha ,\beta ,\gamma )=(99.7,55.7,40)`$ Longdell et al. (2002). These values are for the crystal aligned with the $`C_2`$ axis in the $`y`$ direction, and the $`z`$ axis is the direction of linear polarization of the praseodymium optical transitions. These tensors are highly anisotropic due to the low symmetry of the site.

The dominant dephasing mechanism for the Pr hyperfine ground states in Y2SiO5 is due to magnetic interactions with the Y nuclear spins in the host. Yttrium has a nuclear spin of 1/2 and a gyromagnetic ratio of $`g_n=200Hz/G`$. Nearest neighbor Y ions induce a magnetic field at the Pr site of the order of 0.1G. The direct magnetic dipole-dipole interaction between the Pr and a nearest neighbor Y ion is of the order of hundreds of Hertz. This interaction can induce decoherence via two mechanisms. The first mechanism is that the Y ions can exchange spin with each other, resulting in a fluctuating magnetic field at the Pr site. For resonant Y nuclei the rate of exchange between two nearest neighbor ions is of the order of tens of Hertz. The second mechanism involves the excitation of nearly degenerate transitions where one or more Y spin flips are induced along with the desired change in the Pr hyperfine state.

To suppress these dephasing mechanisms for a given Pr ground state hyperfine transition we propose applying a specific magnetic field such that transition’s linear Zeeman shift about this field value is zero. The main requirements for this technique are the existence of a zero field splitting in the spin states and the ability to apply a sufficiently strong magnetic field such that the Zeeman splitting is comparable to the zero field splittings. This method should be applicable to many $`I>1`$ spin systems.

Using equation Method of extending hyperfine coherence times in $`𝑷𝒓^{\mathrm{𝟑}\mathbf{+}}\mathbf{:}𝒀_\mathrm{𝟐}𝑺𝒊𝑶_\mathrm{𝟓}`$ and the parameters for the site 1 given above, all the magnetic field values resulting in a zero first Zeeman shift were identified. The case chosen to experimentally investigate was at a magnetic field of $`𝑩_{\text{CP}}=\{732,173,219\}G`$ on the $`m_I=+1/2+3/2`$ transition at $`8.63`$ MHz as it was found to have the smallest second order Zeeman shift. Around this magnetic field value the transition energy as a function of magnetic field has a turning point in the $`y`$ and $`z`$ axis while the $`x`$ axis has a slow inflection point. As the required magnetic field was not along the crystal’s $`C_2`$ axis the degeneracy between site 1a and site 1b was lifted with only the site 1a ions being at the critical point.

Raman heterodyne two and three pulse spin echoes were used to investigate the decoherence and spectral diffusion in the ground state hyperfine transitionsHam et al. (1998) (figure 1). The experiment was performed using a Coherent 699 frequency stabilized (1MHz FWHM) tunable dye laser tuned to the $`{}_{}{}^{3}H_{4}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}D_{2}^{}`$ transition at 605.977nm. The laser was gated using a 100MHz AOM such that there was no laser radiation applied to the sample during the RF pulse sequence (figure 1). The laser power incident on the crystal was 40mW, focused to $``$100$`\mu `$m and a RF Rabi frequency of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{RF}=300kHz`$. The $`Pr^{3+}`$:$`Y_2SiO_5`$ (0.05% concentration) crystal was held at $`1.2K`$ for the duration of the experiment. The laser prepared a population difference in the excited ions for 5s before the pulse sequence and was scanned over 1.2GHz of the optical transition to avoid hole burning effects. The laser is off during the RF pulse sequence to minimize coherence loss from optical pumping.

The magnetic fields were supplied by two superconducting magnets one along the $`z`$ axis the other in the horizontal plane. The sample was then rotated by $`13\pm 0.5^{}`$ to provide the correct ratio of fields along the $`x`$ and $`y`$ axes for the critical point in magnetic field space. Corse adjustment of the field was done by comparing the Raman heterodyne spectrum to theoretical simulations as shown in figure 2. Fine adjustment of the magnetic field utilized perturbing coils along each axis and associated lock-in amplifiers to perform field sensitivity measurements on the frequency of the $`m_I=+1/2+3/2`$ transition. The rotation of the sample and the current driving the magnets were iteratively adjusted to minimize the sensitivity of the desired transition. Final adjustments of the field values were made by minimizing the echo decay rate. The magnetic field values were accurate to within $`\pm `$$`0.1G`$ of the critical point.

The two pulse echo data (figure 3) shows three echo sequences at the critical point magnetic field configuration with the zero field echo sequence for reference. Since the field configuration is transition specific the $`m_I=+1/2+3/2`$ transition at site 1a is at a critical point while the two other transitions are not.

With the application of the field for all the transitions there was observed a significant increase in the coherence time. For the $`m_I=+3/23/2`$ transition $`T_2`$ was 5.86ms while for the $`m_I=+1/2+3/2`$ transition at site 1b it was 9.98ms (figure 3). Applying a field lifts the degeneracy of the Y spin states and inhibits Pr transition involving single Y spin flipsSellars (1995). This can be understood by considering the Y quantization axis. At zero field the Y quantization axis is locally defined by the Pr ion. Therefore a change in the spin state changes the quantization axis, mixing the Y spin states and resulting in a high spin flip probability. With an applied field, large compared to the Pr-Y coupling, changes in the Pr spin state only weakly perturb the quantization axis.

The echo decay for the $`m_I=+1/2+3/2`$ at site 1a is significantly slower than for the other two transitions and is clearly not described by a simple exponential. Fitted to this decay is an exponential with a quadratic time dependence, equation 3. This coherence decay is indicative of a spectral diffusion process described by a Lorentz kernel with a width increasing linearly with time at a rate of $`47.3Hz/s`$Mims (1968). The phase memory, $`T_M`$ is used to characterise the decoherence rate of the system. In the present case the $`T_M`$ was determined to be 82 ms.

$$I(2t)=I_0exp\left[\left(\frac{2t}{T_M}\right)^2\right]$$
(3)
To investigate the diffusion process over longer times scales a series of three pulse echo measurements were made. Within each of the series shown in Fig 4 the delay between the first two pulses ($`\tau _1`$) is held constant while the delay between the second and third pulses ($`\tau _2`$) is varied.

A comparison is made with the same transitions as used in the two pulse echo study. Comparing echo sequences with the same $`\tau _1`$ on the different transitions shows a clear difference between the critical point and the other two transitions (figure 4a). The $`m_I=3/2+3/2`$ and the site 1b $`m_I=+1/2+3/2`$ transitions have a clearly biexponential decay: a fast initial decay, reducing to a slow decay for $`\tau _2>200ms`$. With a $`\tau _1`$ of 2.5ms no spectral diffusion was observed on the critical point transition.

The biexponential decay is attributed to the existence of a “frozen core”Szabo (1983); Wald et al. (1992). A frozen core is formed by the Pr ion detuning nearby Y ions from the bulk Y, thereby inhibiting mutual Y spin flips within the frozen core. A strong frozen core is expected due to the Pr magnetic moment ratio being an order of magnitude larger than that of Y. Although a frozen core has not been reported in $`Pr^{3+}`$:$`Y_2SiO_5`$, it has been observed in directly analagous systemsWald et al. (1992). On short time scales the rapid spin flips of the bulk Y ions dominate the dephasing. Since the bulk Y are well removed from the Pr ion they only weakly perturb the transition frequency. On longer time scales the frozen core Y spin flips dominate the dephasing as they induce larger but less frequent frequency shifts. Given that the slow spectral diffusion has not plateaued for the longest $`\tau _2`$ used, the correlation time of the frozen core is comparable or longer than 0.5s.

Further investigation of the three pulse echos on the critical point transition (figure 4) shows that for all values of $`\tau _1`$ only a single, slow exponential decay was observed. Therefore dephasing of the critical point transition dominated, at all time scales by the frozen core Y spin flips. The fact that the bulk Y dephasing contribution is absent for the site 1a $`m_I=+1/2+3/2`$ transition and present for the other two transitions is consistent with the dephasing at the critical point being due to second order Zeeman interactions. This suggests that the applied field is accurate to the order of a Pr-Y interaction strength from the ideal critical point. Further optimisation of the applied field is therefore unlikely to produce a significant gain in coherence time.

Using the method described above a regime has reached where the correlation time of the dephasing interaction is extremely long compared to the duration of readily achievable RF pulses. This is exactly the regime required for effective implementation of quantum error correction schemesViola and Lloyd (1998); Vitali and Tombesi (1999); Byrd and Lidar (2002). The simplest implementation shown to be sufficient for error correction in solid state qbitsViola and Lloyd (1998) consists of a series of hard rephasing pulses ($`\pi `$) separated by the cycling time. In the present case the difference between a transition specific hard RF $`\pi `$ pulse ($`1\mu s`$) and the $`T_M`$ would allow an effective error correction scheme to be applied with a duty cycle $`<0.1\%`$.

We have shown that a phase memory time of 82ms can be achieved for $`Pr^{3+}`$:$`Y_2SiO_5`$ by using an external magnetic field to minimise the transition sensitivity to magnetic field fluctuations. Directions to further reduce the residual dephasing mechanism have been identified. We have shown that even in hosts containing nuclear spins it is possible to obtain spin based qbits that have coherence properties suitable for sophisticated quantum computing demonstrations.