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# Fragmentation of multiply charged simple metal clusters in liquid-drop stabilized jellium model

## 1 Introduction

Study of the stability of charged metal clusters against fragmentation is important in nano-sized systems. In this work, we have studied the binary fragmentation of $`N`$-atom $`Z`$-ply charged $`_N^Z`$ clusters in the framework of the liquid-drop  model (LDM) with stabilized  jellium model (SJM) coefficients for the energies. Here, $`Z`$=1, 2, 3, 4; and $``$ covers the species Al, Ga, Li, Na, K, and Cs. Here, in the case of Al, when $`N`$ is a multiple of 3, it corresponds to real Alν cluster with $`\nu =N/3`$. The clusters are assumed to be spherical with sizes determined by $`R=N^{1/3}r_s^B`$ with $`N100`$. The quantity $`r_s^B`$ is the Wigner-Seitz radius of the electrons in the bulk metal. The possible decay channels of $`_N^Z`$ are

$$_N^Z_{Np}^{ZZ_1}+_p^{Z_1}$$
(1)
Here, $`p`$ is positive integer as $`N`$, and $`0Z_1[Z/2]`$. Different processes are defined by different values of $`Z_1`$. The process in which $`Z_1=0`$ (one of the fragments is neutral), is called evaporation. The processes in which $`0<Z_1=Z/2`$ are called charge-symmetric fission, and the charge-asymmetric fission is defined by $`0<Z_1<[Z/2]`$. For any given set of values $`N`$, $`Z`$, $`Z_1`$, different values of $`p`$ define different decay channels. In a particular decay channel of the evaporation processes, the negativity of the difference between total energies before and after the fragmentation,

$$D^Z(N,p)=E^Z(Np)+E^0(p)E^Z(N),$$
(2)
is sufficient for the decaying in that particular channel. In the above equation, $`E^Z(N)`$ and $`E^0(N)`$ are the total energies of $`Z`$-ply ionized and neutral $`N`$-atom clusters, respectively. However, in fission processes a negative value for the difference energy is not a sufficient condition for the decay of the parent cluster. This is because, the competition between the short-range surface tension and the long-range repulsive Coulomb force may give rise to a fission barrier. The heights of the fission barriers are calculated using the two-spheres approximation. In Fig. 1, the fission of a $`Z`$-ply charged $`N`$-atom cluster into two clusters of respective sizes $`N_1`$, $`N_2=NN_1`$ and respective charges $`Z_1`$, $`Z_2=ZZ_1`$ is schematically shown. $`Q_f`$ is the energy release, $`B_c`$ is the fusion barrier (or Coulomb barrier) which is the maximum energy of the Coulomb interaction of two positively-charged conducting spheres, taking their polarizabilities into account. $`B_f`$ is the fission barrier height which is defined as

$$B_f=Q_f+B_c.$$
(3)
The Coulomb interaction energy, $`E_c`$, as a function of their separations, $`d`$, for two charged metallic spheres can be numerically calculated using the classical method of image charges .

The most favored decay channel in evaporation processes is defined as the channel for which the dissociation energy assumes its minimum value

$$D^Z(N,p^{})=\underset{p}{\mathrm{min}}\left\{D^Z(N,p)\right\},$$
(4)
and the most favored decay channel in fission processes is defined as the channel for which the fission-barrier height assumes its minimum value,

$$B_f(N,p^{})=\underset{p}{\mathrm{min}}\left\{B_f(N,p)\right\}.$$
(5)
The energy of an $`N`$-atom $`Z`$-ply charged cluster in the LDM is given  by

$$E^Z(N)=E^0(N)+Z(W+\frac{c}{R})+\frac{Z^2e^2}{2(R+a)},$$
(6)
in which $`W`$, $`c`$, $`R`$, and $`e`$ are the work function of the bulk metal, the finite-size correction to the work function, the radius of the cluster, and the electron charge, respectively. For simplicity, the position of the centroid of excess charge, $`a`$, is neglected in our calculations. $`E^0(N)`$ is the energy of a neutral $`N`$-atom cluster in the LDM, which is given by

$$E^0(N)=\epsilon N+4\pi (r_s^B)^2\sigma N^{2/3}+2\pi r_s^B\gamma N^{1/3}.$$
(7)
In Eq. (7), the quantities $`\epsilon `$, $`\sigma `$, and $`\gamma `$ are total energy per electron of the bulk, surface energy, and curvature energy, respectively. We have calculated the quantities $`c`$, $`W`$, $`\sigma `$, and $`\gamma `$ by fitting to the self-consistent Kohn-Sham  results in the SJM for different $`r_s`$ values . However, $`\epsilon `$ is calculated using the SJM energy expression for the bulk system (Eq. (1) of Ref. \[References\]).

## 2 Results and discussion

Using the method of image charges, we have calculated the Coulomb interaction energy of two charged metallic spheres, taking their polarizabilities into account. The calculations show that the maximum of the interaction energy, $`B_c`$, is achieved for a separation $`d_0R_1+R_2`$. Fig. 2(a) shows the Coulomb interaction energy of an $`N_1`$-atom cluster with another $`N_2`$-atom of respective excess charges $`Z_1=3`$ and $`Z_2`$=1. The radii of the clusters are calculated from $`R=N^{1/3}r_s^B`$, as in the SJM. In this figure, we have taken $`r_s^B`$=2.07 which correspond to bulk Al. When both $`N_1`$ and $`N_2`$ are multiples of 3, the results correspond to real Al clusters. The value at the maximum specifies the quantity $`B_c`$, and the position of the maximum, $`d_0`$, is the separation between the centers of the two spheres. As is seen, for fixed values of charges, $`B_c`$ is the highest when the sizes are equal. In Fig. 2(b), the situation is shown for equal charges $`Z_1=Z_2=2`$. In this case, when the sizes are equal, $`B_c`$ is maximum as before but here, $`d_0=R_1+R_2`$. An other feature shown in Fig. 2(c) is that, when both charges and sizes are asymmetric, $`B_c`$ is higher if the smaller charge corresponds to the smaller cluster. In Fig. 2(d), we have compared the Coulomb interaction energies of two Al metallic spheres with respective sizes $`N_1=2`$ and $`N_2=18`$ for different charges. It is seen that keeping the sizes fixed but increasing the charge on any one of them, without changing the charge on the other one, increases the height of the maximum.

In our calculations we need the values of the Coulomb interaction energy at the maxima points, i.e., the $`B_c`$s. In Fig. 3(a), we have compared the $`B_c`$ values for equally charged $`Z_1=Z_2=1`$, Al metallic particles but with different radii $`R_1=2.07N_1^{1/3}`$ and $`R_2=2.07N_2^{1/3}`$. This figure shows that when both of the sizes are small, the barrier is higher than the case when at least one of them is larger. In Fig. 3(b), we have compared the $`B_c`$s for singly ionized pairs Al, Na, and Cs with different values of $`N_1`$ and $`N_2`$. In the aluminum case, since the radii of the spheres are smaller than those of Na and so on, their polarizabilities are thereby smaller and thus the Al values lie above that of Na, and so on. Now, if the charge on one of the clusters is increased without changing that of the other one, the arrangement of the curves would not change but they shift upward according to Fig. 2(d).

In the energy calculations of Eq. (6) we use the results obtained for $`c`$ and $`W`$ in Ref. \[References\]. The values of $`\epsilon `$ are calculated using Eq. (1) of Ref. \[References\] for unpolarized case. $`\sigma `$ and $`\gamma `$ in Eq. (7) are obtained by fitting the results of the self-consistent solutions of the Kohn-Sham equations in the SJM for neutral clusters of sizes $`N100`$, and different $`r_s`$ values. The values of $`r_s^B`$ for Al, Ga, Li, Na, K, and Cs are 2.07, 2.19, 3.28, 3.99, 4.96, and 5.63, respectively. In Figs. 4(a)-(c) we have plotted the SJM values of $`\epsilon `$, $`\sigma `$, and $`\gamma `$, as functions of $`r_s`$, respectively.

To show the variations of the dissociation energy, $`D^Z(N,p)`$, for different charging and different evaporation channels, we have plotted, in Figs. 5(a)-(b), the quantities $`D^{1+}(N,p)`$ and $`D^{4+}(N,p)`$, respectively, as functions of the neutral fragment size, $`p`$, for Li. As is seen in Fig. 5(a), for small $`p`$ values $`D^{1+}(N,p)`$ has an increasing behavior, then after passing a maximum, it changes to a decreasing behavior, and finally, for large $`p`$ values it increases again. This behavior has its roots in the trade off between the surface energy (the volume energy term does not change in the fragmentation process) and the last term of Eq. (6). For small $`p`$, the surface area difference

$$\mathrm{\Delta }S(R_1,R)=4\pi \left[R_1^2+(R^3R_1^3)^{2/3}R^2\right],$$
(8)
increases, and then for intermediate $`p`$ values, it assumes a maximum, and finally decreases. The increasing behavior at the tail is because, with increasing $`p`$, the size of the singly ionized fragment decreases and hence, beyond a certain $`p`$ value, the last term in Eq. (6) dominates the surface energy term. However, beyond a $`Z`$ value for the parent cluster, the last term of the Eq. (6) dominates the surface energy term for smaller $`p`$ values before $`D^Z(N,p)`$ reaches its maximum as in the case of Fig. 5(b). In fact, we have found that for Li$`{}_{}{}^{Z}{}_{70}{}^{}`$ this transition takes place at a point $`1.6<Z_t<1.7`$. The value of $`Z_t`$ depends on $`N`$. This dependence is clearly shown in Fig. 5(a) by the fact that $`D^{1+}(20,p)`$ and $`D^{1+}(10,p)`$ are increasing functions of p in the whole range.

The dissociation energy $`D^Z(N,p)`$ for small $`p/N`$ takes the form

$$D^Z(N,p)2\pi \gamma r_sp^{1/3}+4\pi \sigma r_s^2p^{2/3},$$
(9)
which specifies the most favored channel in an evaporation process with $`p^{}=1`$. This means that, in evaporation processes, the parent charged cluster prefers to evaporate single atoms than larger neutral clusters. This fact is also numerically shown in Figs. 5(a)-(b). On the other hand, the positivity of $`D^Z(N,p)`$ in the whole range implies that the parent charged cluster is stable against any spontaneous evaporation.

In Fig. 6, we have plotted the most favored dissociation energies, $`D^Z(N,p^{})`$, of Na clusters as functions of the parent size, $`N`$, for different $`Z`$ values. The results show that for large enough clusters, the dissociation energy is independent of $`Z`$, which is consistent with Eq. (9). However, for small clusters, the dissociation energy increases with charge.

Figures 7(a)-(b) compares the most favored dissociation energies of different species for $`Z=1`$ and $`Z=4`$, respectively. It is seen that detachment of a single atom from a lower electron density cluster is easier, i.e., it needs less energy. Comparing these two figures also shows that, although the hierarchy is the same, the dissociation energies are shifted to higher energies as we go from $`Z=1`$ to $`Z=4`$.

Now, we consider the fission processes. We first consider the following two cases:

$$\mathrm{Ga}_N^{4+}\mathrm{Ga}_{Np}^{2+}+\mathrm{Ga}_p^{2+},$$
(10)
$$\mathrm{Ga}_N^{4+}\mathrm{Ga}_{Np}^{3+}+\mathrm{Ga}_p^{1+}.$$
(11)
Processes (10) and (11) describe charge-symmetric and charge-asymmetric fissions, respectively. In Figs. 8(a) and 8(b) we have plotted their respective fission barriers, $`B_f^{Z,Z_1}(N,p)`$, for $`Z_1=2,1`$ as functions of $`p`$, for different sizes of the parent. As is seen in both of these figures, there exists a minimum size for the parent, $`N_{min}^{Z,Z_1}`$, beyond which the fission barrier height is positive in all possible channels of that particular process. That is, the parent cluster $`_N^Z`$ with $`NN_{min}^{Z,Z_1}`$ is stable against any spontaneous fission via that particular process.

One of the significant differences in the charge-symmetric and charge-asymmetric fission is that \[as seen in Figs. 8(a) and 8(b)\], in the most favored channel, the products have more or less the same sizes in the former case; whereas, in the latter case the less charged fragment assumes quite smaller sizes. That is, the charge-symmetric fission proceeds mostly via mass-symmetric channel, and the charge-asymmetric fission does it via mass-asymmetric channel. In Fig. 8(c), we compare the most favored sizes, $`p^{}`$, for the charge-symmetric and charge-asymmetric fission of Na$`{}_{N}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{4+}`$. It is seen that in the charge-symmetric case, $`p^{}`$ increases with $`N`$ whereas, in the charge-asymmetric case it remains more or less constant.

To decide whether a cluster with a given size and charge, $`_N^Z`$, is stable against any spontaneous decay, one should compare $`N`$ with the quantity

$$N_{min}^Z=\underset{Z_1}{\mathrm{max}}\left\{N_{min}^{Z,Z_1}\right\}.$$
(12)
If $`NN_{min}^Z`$, then the cluster $`_N^Z`$ is stable against any spontaneous decay. To show the values of $`N_{min}^{Z,Z_1}`$ schematically, we plot the most favored fission barriers, $`B_f^{Z,Z_1}(N,p^{})`$ for all possible $`Z_1`$ values. The evaporation processes need not be considered because, as was shown before, in the LDM there is no spontaneous decay via evaporation. However, in order to determine at what size which process is dominant, we include the most favored evaporation process as well. It should be mentioned that, in the self-consistent Kohn-Sham results , because of the shell effects, the spontaneous evaporation is also possible.

In Fig. 9, we have compared the most favored fission barriers, $`B_f^{4,Z_1}(N,p^{})`$, of Ga$`{}_{N}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{4+}`$ for $`N150`$ and $`Z_1=1,2`$ with the most favored dissociation energy, $`D^4(N,p^{})`$. We have labeled the intersection points of the curves with each other and with the horizontal $`N`$ axis by A, B, C, D, and E. At point A, the charge-symmetric and charge-asymmetric fission start their competition; thus we name the corresponding size as $`N_{sa}`$. For clusters $`_N^{4+}`$ with $`N<N_{sa}`$, the charge-symmetric fission is dominant whereas for larger sizes charge-asymmetric one dominates. We name the size corresponding to the point B as $`N_{min}^{4,2}`$ because for sizes greater than this there is no charge-symmetric spontaneous fission. However, spontaneous fission via charge-asymmetric process still persists for $`N_{min}^{4,2}<N<N_{min}^{4,1}`$. Beyond the size $`N_{min}^{4,1}`$ which corresponds to the point C, the spontaneous charge-asymmetric fission also stops. Our results show that, for small $`r_s`$ values, $`N_{min}^{4,2}N_{min}^{4,1}`$ whereas, for $`r_s>4.5`$, the reverse inequality is at work (as in the cases of K and Cs).

According to Eq. (12), if $`N>N_{min}^Z`$, then any spontaneous fission stops and the cluster $`_N^{4+}`$ would be stable against any spontaneous decay. At sizes $`N_{eva}^{4,2}`$ and $`N_{eva}^{4,1}`$ which correspond, respectively, to the points D and E, competition of the evaporation with charge-symmetric and charge-asymmetric fission starts, respectively. Beyond the size

$$N_{eva}^Z=\underset{Z_1}{\mathrm{max}}\left\{N_{eva}^{Z,Z_1}\right\},$$
(13)
the dominant decay process is evaporation. Our results show that, at least for $`r_s7`$, the inequality $`N_{eva}^{4,2}<N_{eva}^{4,1}`$ is satisfied. When $`Z=3`$, the decay processes consist of evaporation and charge-asymmetric fission whereas, for $`Z=2`$, the fission is a charge-symmetric one.

In Figs. 10(a) and (b), we compare the most favored fission barrier heights $`B_f^{3,1}(N,p^{})`$ and $`B_f^{2,1}(N,p^{})`$ for different species, respectively. The figures indicate that, for large enough clusters, the fission barriers are higher for higher electron density metals.

In Fig. 11(a), we compare the smallest stable sizes, $`N_{min}^Z`$ for different species. Looking at the figure, one concludes that, for fixed $`N`$, the higher electron density metal clusters (say Al) has less capacity for charging than the lower density metal clusters (say Cs). This behavior is observed for all $`1<Z4`$.

To show the size beyond which evaporation dominates all decay processes, we plot $`N_{eva}^Z`$ with $`Z=2,3,4`$ for all species in Fig. 11(b). It is seen that, for fixed charge, $`Z`$, the evaporation process dominates at smaller $`N`$ values for lower electron density metal clusters. The trends in Figs. 11(a) and 11(b) are seen to be the same.

Finally, in Fig. 11(c), we compare the $`N_{sa}`$, the size at which the competition between the charge-symmetric and charge-asymmetric fission starts. This size decreases from Al to Li, and then increases from Li to K, and finally decreases from K to Cs. In the plot, we have taken into account the decimals for the intersection points which can be rounded to the next nearest integer.

## 3 Summary and conclusion

In this work, we have studied the stability of $`Z`$-ply charged ($`Z=1,2,3,4`$) metal clusters of species Al, Ga, Li, Na, K, and Cs using the liquid-drop model with stabilized jellium model energies. Fragmentation of clusters into smaller ones can proceed via evaporation or fission. Our results show that, in the LDM, any charged cluster is stable against spontaneous evaporation, and the most favored channel of induced fragmentation depends on the size and the charge of the parent cluster. Sufficiently small multiply charged clusters, however, may undergo spontaneous fragmentation via different fission processes. We have obtained, for each species, the smallest size that a $`Z`$-ply charged cluster is stable against any spontaneous fragmentation. We have also shown that, for sufficiently large clusters the most favored decay channel is atomic evaporation. Comparing the results for different species show that, for fixed $`N`$, the lower electron density clusters have higher capacity for charging. Results also show that, for fixed amount of charge, atomic evaporation dominates at lower $`N`$s for lower electron density metal clusters.


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# Magnitude distribution of earthquakes: Two fractal contact area distribution

## I Introduction

Enormous efforts have been made by geologists and physicists to understand the earthquake phenomena since several decades. Its dynamics is still a challenging problem. Though model studies of earthquake have been going on several decades now, there is no consensus regarding one single model. ‘Plate-tectonics’ is an important observation in this context by the geologists and the Gutenberg-Richter power law is an unique characterisation of this dynamics. The earth’s solid outer crust (about 20 km thick) rests on a tectonic shell. This tectonic shell is divided into a number (about 12) of mobile plates, having relative velocities of the order of few centimeters per year. This motion of the plates arises due to the powerful convective flow of the earth’s mantle, at the inner core of earth. Due to the surface roughness of both the earth’s crust and the plates, solid-solid frictional forces arise and this helps sticking the earth’s crust to the plates. This sticking develops elastic strains and the strain energy gradually increases because of the uniform motion of the tectonic plates. There is a competition between the sticking frictional force and the restoring elastic force (stress). When the accumulated stress exceeds the frictional force, a slip (earth quake) occurs and it releases the stored additional elastic energy. Gutenberg and Richter (1954) GR54 (1), by analysing the records, observed a power-law distribution of the elastic energy released during earthquakes given as $`N(ϵ)ϵ^\alpha `$, where $`N(ϵ)`$ is the number of earthquakes releasing energy greater than or equal to $`ϵ`$ and $`\alpha `$ is the power exponent. The observed value of $`\alpha `$ ranges between 0.7 and 1.0. Several hypothesis and model systems have been proposed to investigate the nature of the earthquake phenomena CB97 (2). The main intention of the model studies is to capture the above Gutenberg-Richter type power law for the frequency distribution of failures (quakes) in the failure dynamics of the models. Among these, most of the models BK67 (3, 5) incorporate the stick-slip process and the roughness Hansen03 (4) of the surfaces involved as important features. Recently some models V96 (6, 7) have included the fractal nature of both the earth’s crust and the plate involved in stick-slip process and initiated new modellings of earthquake dynamics. As the elastic energy can be stored at the contact area of the surfaces only, the contact area distribution should have much importance. Also, in fractal physics the statistics of two fractal overlap is still missing although this may be useful to study the interface properties in many physical situations.

In this report we have studied the contact area distributions and their scaling properties for different sets of fractal surfaces, using computer simulation techniques.

## II Simulation studies of two fractal contact area distribution

### II.1 Model

Extensive studies have already established different types of fractals and their properties BS95 (8, 9, 10). The statistics of overlaps between two such fractals is however not studied much yet, though their knowledge is often required in various physical contexts. For example, it has been claimed that since the fractured surfaces have got well-characterized self-affine properties, the distribution of the elastic energies released during the slips between two fractal surfaces (earthquake events) may follow the overlap distribution of two self-similar fractal surfaces V96 (6, 7, 14). Also, using renormalisation group technique Chakrabarti and Stinchcombe BS99 (7) have analytically shown that for regular fractal overlap (Cantor sets and carpets) the contact area distribution follows power law.

Here, we study the distribution $`P(m)`$ of contact area $`m`$ between two well-characterized fractals having the same fractal dimension. We have chosen different types of fractals: regular or non-random Cantor sets, random Cantor sets (in one dimension), regular and random gaskets on square lattice and percolating clusters Stauffer 92 (12, 13) embedded in two dimensions. We find a universal scaling behavior of the distribution:

$$P^{}(m^{})=L^\alpha P(m,L);m^{}=mL^\alpha ,$$
(1)
where $`L`$ denotes the finite size of the fractal and the exponent $`\alpha =2(d_fd)`$; $`d_f`$ being the mass dimension of the fractal and $`d`$ is the embedding dimension. Also the overlap distribution $`P(m)`$, and hence the scaled distribution $`P^{}(m^{})`$, seen to decay with $`m`$ or $`m^{}`$ following a power law (with exponent value equal to the embedding dimension of the fractals) for both regular and random Cantor sets and gaskets:

$$P(m)m^\beta ;\beta =d.$$
(2)
For the percolating clusters, however, the overlap distribution takes a Gaussian form. It may be noted that the normalisation (to unity) restriction on both $`P`$ and $`m`$ ensures the same scaling exponent $`\alpha `$ for both.

### II.2 Overlaps between regular fractals

Here we construct three types of regular fractals: regular Cantor sets of dimension $`\mathrm{ln}2/\mathrm{ln}3`$, regular Cantor sets of dimension $`\mathrm{ln}4/\mathrm{ln}5`$ and regular gaskets of dimension $`\mathrm{ln}3/\mathrm{ln}2`$ on a square lattice. These regular fractals are constructed following a repetitive procedure in successive generations ($`n`$) such that the self-similarity is strictly maintained at every stage. For example, a regular Cantor set of dimension $`\mathrm{ln}2/\mathrm{ln}3`$ is formed in the $`n\mathrm{}`$ limit of the set obtained by removing the middle one-third portion of each occupied set at every generation, starting from a compact set of size $`L=3^n`$ at $`n=1`$ (see Fig. 1). For the set with dimension $`\mathrm{ln}4/\mathrm{ln}5`$, one similarly removes the middle one-fifth portion at each generation (here $`L=5^n`$ for finite $`n`$-th generation).

Fig 1: (a) A regular Cantor set of dimension $`\mathrm{ln}2/\mathrm{ln}3`$; only three finite generations are shown. (b) The overlap of two identical (regular) Cantor sets, at $`n=3`$, when one slips over other; the overlap sets are indicated within the vertical lines, where periodic boundary condition has been used. (c) A regular gasket of dimension $`\mathrm{ln}3/\mathrm{ln}2`$ at the $`7`$th generation. (d) The overlap of two identical regular gaskets at same generations ($`n=7`$) is shown as one is translated over the other; periodic boundary condition has been used for the translated gasket.

To study the overlap between two such identical fractals, the boundary effects are avoided using periodic boundary condition for one and we consider the other set to slip over the first. At each step of such slip or translation, we count the overlapping filled sites (black parts or dots) present in both the fractals and the total number of such sites gives the size of overlap $`m`$. Thus, if one sequentially translates one fractal over another, various overlap values ($`m`$) are obtained which in turn give the distribution $`P(m)`$. Since no randomness is involved here, we do not need any configurational averaging. These results are shown in Fig. 2, where the Cantor sets and gaskets are generated for finite generations $`n`$: $`L=3^n`$ for Cantor sets with $`d_f=\mathrm{ln}2/\mathrm{ln}3`$, $`L=5^n`$ for Cantor sets with $`d_f=\mathrm{ln}4/\mathrm{ln}5`$ and $`L=2^n`$ for gaskets with $`d_f=\mathrm{ln}3/\mathrm{ln}2`$. The overlap distributions $`P(m,L)`$ are fitted to the scaling forms (1) and (2). The results indicate their validity in the large $`n`$ (or $`L`$) limit.

Fig 2: The scaled distribution plot of $`P^{}(m^{})=P(m,L)L^\alpha `$ against the scaled overlap $`m^{}=mL^\alpha `$ for two identical regular fractals: (a) Cantor sets with $`d_f=\mathrm{ln}2/\mathrm{ln}3`$ at various finite generations: $`n=10`$ (square), $`n=11`$ (plus), $`n=12`$ (cross) and $`n=13`$ (star); (b) Cantor sets with $`d_f=\mathrm{ln}4/\mathrm{ln}5`$ for finite generations: $`n=6`$ (square), $`n=7`$ (plus), $`n=8`$ (cross) and $`n=9`$ (star); (c) gaskets with $`d_f=\mathrm{ln}3/\mathrm{ln}2`$ for finite generations: $`n=7`$ (plus), $`n=8`$ (cross), $`n=9`$ (star) and $`n=10`$ (square). Note that in all the three cases $`\alpha =2(d_fd)`$ and the dotted lines indicate the best fit curves of the form $`a(xb)^d`$; where $`d`$ is the embedding dimension \[$`d=1`$ for (a) and (b) and $`d=2`$ for (c)\]. Insets show the unscaled distributions $`P(m)`$ for overlap $`m`$ in different cases.

### II.3 Overlaps between random fractals

Here we construct three types of random fractals: random Cantor sets of dimension $`\mathrm{ln}2/\mathrm{ln}3`$, random Cantor sets of dimension $`\mathrm{ln}4/\mathrm{ln}5`$ and random gaskets of dimension $`\mathrm{ln}3/\mathrm{ln}2`$ on square lattice. We can construct a random Cantor set of dimension $`\mathrm{ln}2/\mathrm{ln}3`$ by removing randomly any of the one-third portion at every stage or generation (see Fig 3).

Fig 3: (a) A random Cantor set of dimension $`\mathrm{ln}2/\mathrm{ln}3`$; only three finite generations are shown. (b) Overlap of two random Cantor sets (at $`n=3`$; having the same fractal dimension) in two different realisations. The overlap sets are indicated within the vertical bars. (c) A random realisation of a gasket of dimension $`\mathrm{ln}3/\mathrm{ln}2`$ at $`7`$th generation. (d) The overlap of two random gaskets of same dimension and of same generation but generated in different realisations.

Here the structure of the sets change with configurations as randomness is involved. We therefore take the overlap between any two such sets at finite generation $`n`$ having same dimension but of different configurations. We count the portions present in both the sets, and this gives the total size of overlap $`m`$. Clearly the overlap sizes ($`m`$) change from one pair of configurations to other and we determine their average distribution $`P(m)`$. The finite size $`L`$ of the fractals is similarly related to generation number $`n`$ as discussed in the previous section. The average distributions $`P(m,L)`$ for finite size $`L`$ of the fractals are determined using $`500`$ such configurations for each of the three types of random fractals.

Fig 4: The scaled distribution plot of $`P^{}(m^{})=P(m,L)L^\alpha `$ against the scaled overlap $`m^{}=mL^\alpha `$ for random fractals: (a) Cantor sets with dimension $`d_f=\mathrm{ln}2/\mathrm{ln}3`$ for finite generations: $`n=14`$ (square), $`n=13`$ (star), $`n=12`$ (cross) and $`n=11`$ (plus); (b) Cantor sets with $`d_f=\mathrm{ln}4/\mathrm{ln}5`$ for some finite generations: $`n=10`$ (plus), $`n=9`$ (cross), $`n=8`$ (star) and $`n=7`$ (square); (c) gaskets with $`d_f=\mathrm{ln}3/\mathrm{ln}2`$ for finite generations: $`n=11`$ (square), $`n=10`$ (star), $`n=9`$ (cross) and $`n=8`$ (plus). For all the three cases $`\alpha =2(d_fd)`$ and the dotted lines indicate the best fit curves of the form $`a(xb)^d`$; where $`d`$ is the embedding dimension of the fractals \[$`d=1`$ for (a) and (b) and $`d=2`$ for (c)\]. Insets show the unscaled distributions $`P(m)`$ for overlap $`m`$.

### II.4 Overlaps of percolating clusters on square lattice

Here we study the overlap distribution of two well-characterised random fractals; namely the percolating fractals Stauffer 92 (12). Efficient algorithms are available to generate such fractals. It seems, although many detailed features of the clusters will change with the changes in (parent) fractals, the subtle features of the overlap distribution function remains unchanged.

We generate numerically several site percolating clusters at the percolation threshold ($`p_c=0.5927`$ Stauffer 92 (12)) on square lattices of linear size $`L`$ using Hoshen-Kopelman algorithm Stauffer 92 (12, 13). For the overlap of any two clusters, we count the number of sites $`M`$ which are occupied in both the clusters (see Fig 5). This gives the overlap size $`m=M/L^d`$ between the fractals. As the realisations change (keeping the fractal dimension $`d_f`$ of the percolating cluster same) $`m`$ varies and we find out its distribution $`P(m,L)`$. We find that the distribution shifts continuously as $`L`$ increases and has a finite width which diminishes but very slowly with $`L`$. This shows, the emerging length scale associated with $`m`$ is no longer a constant, rather it depends on $`L`$. This arises due to the fractal nature of the original clusters, where the occupation of the sites are no longer random events, but are correlated Stauffer 92 (12). Hence, for a system of size $`L`$, the probability of occupation grows as $`L^{d_f}`$ for any of the fractals and as $`[L^{d_f}/L^d]^2=L^{2(d_fd)}`$ for the overlap set. If this is the origin of the $`L`$ dependence in $`P(m,L)`$, then the distributions for different $`L`$ should follow a scaling behavior as indicated by eqn. (1).

Fig 5: The overlap between two percolating clusters; (a) and (b) are two typical realisations of the same percolating fractal on square lattice ($`d_f1.89`$) and (c) their overlap set. Note, the overlap set need not be a connected one.

From the overlap between all the pairs of cluster configurations (typically around 500 for $`L=400`$), we determine the distribution $`P(m,L)`$. The data are binned to facilitate storage and to make the distribution smooth (Fig 6 (a)). We have also studied the nature of the distribution $`P(m)`$ for percolation clusters generated with lattice occupation probability $`p`$ above $`p_c`$ of the square lattice. Here the distributions become delta functions and the height of the delta function increases with system size $`L`$ (Fig 6 (b)).

Fig 6: (a) The scaled distribution plot of $`P^{}(m^{})=P(m,L)L^\alpha `$ against the scaled overlap $`m^{}=mL^\alpha `$ for percolating clusters grown with probability $`p=p_c=0.5927`$ on square lattice ($`d_f1.89`$) for finite sizes: $`L=100`$ (cross), $`200`$ (star) and $`400`$ (square). Here $`\alpha =2(d_fd)`$. The dotted line indicates the best fit curve of the form $`a\mathrm{exp}((xb)^{2.0}/c)`$; where $`a`$ ($`=4.5`$) , $`b`$ ($`=0.38`$) and $`c`$ ($`=0.018`$) are constants. Inset shows the unscaled distribution $`P(m)`$ against overlap size $`m`$. (b) The distribution $`P(m)`$ against overlap size $`m`$ for percolation clusters generated with occupation probability $`p`$ above $`p_c`$ ($`p=0.7`$ and $`p=0.9`$) on square lattice \[for finite sizes: $`L=100`$ (cross), $`200`$ (star) and $`400`$ (square)\]. Clearly the distributions $`P(m)`$ are delta functions and the height of the delta function increases with the system size $`L`$.

## III Conclusion

In the context of studying the earthquake magnitude distribution, we have studied here a model where the earthquake fault and the moving tectonic plates are assumed to be self-similar fractals. Essentially, we study the contact area distribution of two nominally identical fractals. Our study on different sets of fractal surface overlap shows that the contact area distributions are not always power laws. Although for Cantor sets and gaskets having different fractal dimensions (both for regular and random cases), the contact area distributions have got power laws, for percolating clusters (at percolation threshold) it takes a robust Gaussian form which we can’t explain even qualitatively. In particular, we find that in all the cases the distributions $`P(m,L)`$ show an universal finite size ($`L`$) scaling behavior $`P^{}(m^{})=L^\alpha P(m,L)`$; $`m^{}=mL^\alpha `$, where $`\alpha =2(d_fd)`$. The $`P(m)`$, and consequently the scaled distribution $`P^{}(m^{})`$, have got a power law (2) decay with $`m`$ (with decay exponent equal to $`d`$) for both regular and random Cantor sets and also for gaskets. For percolation clusters, $`P(m)`$ (and hence $`P^{}(m^{})`$) have a Gaussian variation with $`m`$ (Fig. 6a). It may be mentioned that, since in many cases the bulk thermodynamics may be mapped to some reduced dimensional interface problems and since their overlaps corresponds to physical quantities (e.g. , the replica overlap in the physics of glasses Young 99 (11)), such fractal overlap distributions are of quite general interest.

Acknowledgement: We are grateful to Prof. D. Stauffer for his useful comments and for a critical reading of the manuscript. We are also thankful to A. Hansen and J. Kertez for their comments.


text:
# Dispersing the Gaseous Protoplanetary Disc and Halting Type II Migration

## 1 Introduction

Planets whose ’Roche Radii’ are comparable to the disk scale height form a gap in the disc. This was first suggested by Lin & Papaloizou (1986) as the mechanism to limit the growth of Jupiter. It was thought that the gap acted like semi- permeable membrane preventing gas from flowing inwards. Because the close-in extra-solar planets had migrated inwards, and then stopped, they must have had an outer disc and then lost it. Previously, we suggested (Lecar & Sasselov 1999) that gas from the outer disc would stream across the gap, when the gap width was less than the distance gas could travel in an orbital period. We thought that the gas would sneak across the gap when the planet was on the other side of the star, and join the inner disc. We speculated that 3-D disc simulations would confirm this. Bate et al. (2003) recently performed just the simulation we wished for. Gas did, indeed, stream across the gap, almost as if the gap wasn’t there, but contrary to our speculation, did not reach the inner disc. Almost all of the gas was accreted onto the planet. However, this also halts migration. The accretion of the outer disc by the planet solves two problems: stopping the migration and removing the outer disc. A recent study of removal of the disc by photoevaporation showed that that process is only effective exterior to 2.4 AU (Matsuyama et al. 2003). In the minimum mass solar nebula (Hayashi 1981) there are about four Jupiter masses of gas interior to 2.4 AU. In any case, we have to account for the more than 50 extra-solar planets interior to 1 AU. Since the ’snow line’ starts at 1 AU, there is a possibility that planets outside of 1 AU formed in place, or did not migrate much.

An argument in favor of the planet accreting its outer disc is that it provides a natural upper limit to the masses of planets of 10 Jupiter masses. Zucker & Mazeh (2002) found that to be the upper limit to planetary masses and the lower limit to the masses of brown dwarfs. The formation of gas giants by gravitational instability (Boss 2000) provides no natural upper limit to the masses.

We now discuss in more detail the migration process, following Lin & Papaloizou (1986). We wish to illustrate when migration switches from Type I (no gap) to Type II (gap) (Ward 1997). A planet with semi-major axis $`a`$ migrates at a rate

$$\dot{a}=a\mathrm{\Omega }\mu _{\mathrm{pl}}\mu _{\mathrm{disk}}I$$
(1)
where

$$\mathrm{\Omega }^2a^3=GM_{};\mu _{\mathrm{pl}}=\frac{M_{\mathrm{pl}}}{M_{}};\mu _{\mathrm{disk}}=\frac{2\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }a^2}{M_{}}.$$
(2)
For a minimum mass solar nebula (Hayashi 1981), the surface mass density of the disk is $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=1700gcm^2`$ at 1 AU, and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }x^{3/2}`$, where $`x=a/AU`$. The dimensionless integral, $`I`$, is given by

$$_{\mathrm{\Delta }_{out}}𝑑x\frac{(1+x)^{5/2}}{x^4}_{\mathrm{\Delta }_{in}}𝑑x\frac{(1x)^{5/2}}{x^4}\frac{1}{3}(\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Delta }_{out}^3}\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Delta }_{in}^3})+\frac{5}{2}(\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Delta }_{out}^2}+\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Delta }_{in}^2})$$
(3)
where for $`\mathrm{\Delta }1`$, $`I`$ is insensitive to the upper limits. If there is no gap, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{in}=\mathrm{\Delta }_{out}`$ and $`I=\frac{5}{2}\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Delta }^2}`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\frac{h}{a}=\frac{c_s}{V}`$, $`V`$ is the circular orbital velocity, $`c_s`$ is the sound speed, and $`h`$ is the scale height. Typically, $`c_s/V0.06x^{1/4}`$.

If there is a gap, the planet moves within the gap to equalize the torques from the inner and outer discs. This is accomplished by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_{out}=\mathrm{\Delta }(1+\frac{5}{4}\mathrm{\Delta }),\mathrm{\Delta }_{in}=\mathrm{\Delta }(1\frac{5}{4}\mathrm{\Delta })$$
(4)
Henceforth, the planet responds to the inward migration of the outer disc, which is driven by viscosity. Once a gap is opened, the further evolution is controlled by viscous accretion and is referred to as type II migration (Ward 1997).

The mass accretion rate is

$$\dot{M}_{acc}=2\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }a\dot{a}2\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }a^2\frac{\dot{a}}{a}2\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }a^2\frac{1}{t_{acc}},$$
(5)
which by continuity is independent of $`x`$. If $`\mathrm{\Sigma }x^{3/2}`$, then $`t_{acc}x^{1/2}`$. The time to accrete a Jupiter mass is

$$t_{M_\mathrm{J}}=\frac{M_\mathrm{J}}{\dot{M}_{acc}}=\frac{M_\mathrm{J}}{2\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }a^2}t_{acc}.$$
(6)
If the outer disc has, say, a Jupiter mass, in order for a planet to accrete the outer disc before being swept into the star, we require that

$$t_{M_\mathrm{J}}<t_{acc}$$
(7)
or

$$\frac{M_\mathrm{J}}{2\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }a^2}=\frac{M_\mathrm{J}}{2\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }_0a_0^2x^{1/2}}<1$$
(8)
The migration halts when

$$x^{1/2}>\frac{M_\mathrm{J}}{2\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }_0a_0^2}.$$
(9)
For the minimum mass solar nebula, migration would halt at $`x=0.63`$ or the orbital period $`P=183`$ days. For denser discs our estimates (with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{min}=1700gcm^2`$ at 1 AU) are given in Table 1. For surface densities larger than $`4\mathrm{\Sigma }_{min}`$, the planet is accreted by the star.

More quantitatively, if the planet is at $`a_0`$, the ratio $`\frac{M_\mathrm{J}}{2\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }_0a_0^2}`$ can be written:

$$_1^x𝑑x(x)^{1n}=\frac{(x)^{2n}}{2n},$$
(10)
if $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(x)=\mathrm{\Sigma }(1)x^n`$ and $`x=\frac{a}{a_0}`$. For the planet to accrete its outer disc before the star accretes the planet, that quantity has to be less than 1.0, or $`xx_m`$. This is illustrated in Table 2. For comparisom, if $`a_0=5.203AU`$ (Jupiter), Saturn is at $`x=1.83`$. If $`a_0=1AU`$, photoevaporation is effective at $`x>2.4`$.

So far, we have avoided a discussion of the physical source of the viscosity and the value of $`\alpha `$ (Shakura & Sunyaev 1973), because our result is independent of this physics. But, to make contact with the literature, we note that with our prescription (also used by Bate et al. , op cit), $`\alpha \alpha _0x^{1/2}`$, we require $`\alpha _03\times 10^4`$ in order that the mass accretion be less than $`10^8M_{}yr^1`$. This is to limit the accretion luminosity to yield the so called ’passive disc’ (Chiang & Goldreich 1997; Sasselov & Lecar 2000). With this value of $`\alpha `$, we have $`t_{acc}10^5x^{1/2}`$ years, which is short, suggesting that $`\alpha _0`$ is smaller.

We conclude with some speculations about our Jupiter. In the minimum mass solar nebula, with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }x^{3/2}`$, there is about 2.7 Jupiter masses of gas between Jupiter and Saturn. Clearly, Jupiter (and Saturn) did not accrete it all. However the investigation of photoevaporation of the outer disc was motivated by the fact that Saturn has only $`\frac{1}{3}`$rd the mass of Jupiter, and in any case, $`x^{3/2}`$ yields a divergent mass ($`x^{1/2}`$). The surface density profile must steepen. If we keep the minimum mass surface density at Jupiter (143 g/cm2), but allow the surface density to decrease outwards at a steeper rate, say $`x^{7/2}`$, then there is less than a Jupiter mass between Jupiter and Saturn. If we allow Jupiter to start accreting when its mass was $`0.1M_\mathrm{J}`$, as suggested by Bate et al. (2003), then the outer disc is in Jupiter.


text:
# The Geometrization of Matter Proposal in the Barrett-Crane Model and Resolution of Cosmological Problems

## I Introduction

The Barrett-Crane model   is a constrained topological state sum model for quantum gravity. Recently  it was proposed that this model might incorporate matter and gauge interactions if the condition on triangulations to be manifolds were relaxed. That is, conical singularities would act as seeds of matter in the quantum geometry of the state sum. The purpose of this paper is to examine the consequences of this proposal, and of spin foam models in general, for early universe phenomenology. We feel that although the BC model, and the conical matter proposal in particular, are not yet sufficiently well understood, the connections are provocative. Conversely, one would like to use cosmology as a guiding principle for developing experimental techniques in spin foam models that could be used to explain and predict real observations.

The point of this paper is that natural approximations motivated by the conical matter proposal (CMP) seem to shed light on the full range of puzzles of the early universe. Although each argument is in need of further substantiation, the overall picture seems striking in itself.

To clarify this point, and since the communities of researchers in spin foam models and early universe phenomenology are not generally aware of each other’s work, this paper begins with a self contained introduction to the range of early universe phenomenological issues. We then give a nontechnical introduction to the categorical state sum program and the BC model in particular, together with the conical matter proposal. We conclude with a discussion of a range of phenomenological problems which have plausible solutions in the state sum picture.

Although we have tried to make the paper accessible to cosmologists by giving physical explanations for the state sum models as far as possible, they do make use of branches of mathematics not generally familiar to physicists, so interested readers are strongly recommended to consult the references.

We believe that the current form of the model is likely to be less important than the fact that it leads to calculations that probe poorly understood phenomena.

## II Current Issues in Early Universe Cosmology

### A The Flatness Problem

The Standard Big Bang predicts that in an expanding space-time $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$ is an unstable fixed point. However, present observations confirm that our universe is flat, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$ to within 10 percent. This means that $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ had to be very close to one in the past. For example, at the era of nucleosynthesis, we are constrained to have $`|\mathrm{\Omega }1|<O(10^{16})`$. This is an extreme fine tuning of initial conditions. Unless initial conditions are chosen very accurately, the universe soon collapses, or expands quickly before structure can be formed. The suggestion discussed below of a topological phase may shed some light on the flatness problem.

### B The Horizon Problem

If we look back at the surface of last scattering we see homogeneity in the cosmic microwave radiation across distances subtending $`10^{28}cm`$. However the size of correlations described by causality at the surface of last scattering is predicted by SBB to be $`d_{cor}10^{23}cm`$, a large discrepancy between observations and theory. Therefore, the SBB provides no causal way to produce correlations to establish homogeneity on such large scales that are observed in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Inflation was designed partially to solve this problem. We suggest a solution to the horizon problem where the initial conditions of the universe may already have established correlations that were homogeneous.

### C Baryon Asymmetry

Current observations tell us that most of the universe is made up of non-baryonic degrees of freedom such as dark energy (2/3), dark matter (1/3) and only 5% baryonic matter. An even more striking observation of the smallness of baryon density is given by the ratio of baryons to photons in the CMB. Big Bang nucleosynthesis as well as anisotropies in the CMB yield the ratio

$$\frac{n_b}{n_\gamma }=6.1\times 10^{10}$$
(1)
Why is this number so small, yet nonzero? If equal numbers of particles and antiparticles had been created in the early universe, they would have annihilated in pairs. It is well known that the Standard Model at the level of renormalizable terms possesses no interactions that can violate either baron number or lepton number violation. In 1967 Sakharov  studied how the baryon asymmetry could arise. He summarized the three conditions required of any process that would lead to baryon asymmetry:

* Baryon number violation must occur in the fundamental interactions
* CP violation
* Local violation of thermal equilibrium, including an Arrow of Time.

We will observe that the conical matter proposal plausibly satisfies the Sakharov conditions.

### D Dark Matter

Our current understanding of structure formation necessitates the existence of pressureless non-baryonic dark matter. Observations on galactic and cosmological scales reveal that 22 percent of the matter in our universe consists of non-baryonic dark matter (NBDM). NBDM does not interact with radiation so it can not be detected by standard astronomical means. More importantly, there are a few candidates for NBDM, such as SUSY neutralinos, axions, shadow universes and Planck mass black hole remnants. These are plausible candidates because they are fields which are weakly interacting. However, they are all based on extensions of the Standard Model and will likewise suffer the same type of initial condition fine tuning as scalar fields coupled to gravity in a cosmological setting. Below, we suggest a plausible new candidate for DM in our model, namely higher genus conical matter, and also a relationship between these and Primordial Black Holes (PBH).

A very concrete challenge to theoretical physics is posed by the recent detailed observations of dwarf galaxies . The density of dark matter in dwarf galaxies as a function of radius can be computed very accurately because they are dominated by dark matter even near their cores. The observed distribution does not agree with the theoretical prediction for non-interacting dark matter in that it lacks a central cusp.

### E Inflation

The idea that the early universe underwent a phase of exponential growth has many attractions, such as its ability to reproduce the acoustic peaks in deviations to the CMB power spectrum. Unfortunately, current theoretical models require an unmotivated fine tuning of the potential of an as yet hypothetical scalar field. We will propose that the unusual thermodynamics of conical matter provides a plausible mechanism for inflation, and the decoupling of the higher genus particles could provide an exit scenario.

## III The Standard Big Bang

The Standard Big Bang Scenario is based on three observational pillars: primordial nucleosynthesis, isotropy and homogeneity seen in the cosmic microwave background and the Hubble redshift relation. SBB is the simplest general relativistic scenario which predicts these observations. Despite its success the SBB suffers from other observational and theoretical problems. By now these problems are well known . A key issue for model builders is to simultaneously resolve these problems while keeping the SBB in the regime where it predicts observations consistently. The main theoretical underpinning of SBB is the use of Einstein’s general theory of relativity minimally coupled to a gas of particles (a hot perfect fluid in thermal equilibrium). However, at high curvatures and hence early times, this approximation is no longer valid and the SBB needs to be modified. Some of the main problems of the SBB were partially solved by the inflationary paradigm. Without changing general relativity but by relaxing the assumption of the equation of state of matter to include a contribution from a quantum field, the inflaton, the inflationary paradigm was able to simultaneously resolve the problems of the SBB and even provide a causal mechanism of generating a scale invariant power spectrum. The conventional wisdom stemming from QFT is to minimally couple gravity to quantum fields, which realizes inflation, although it has been shown that this assumption breaks down in the early universe. Unfortunately, inflation does not shed much light on the dark energy and dark matter problems. In fact, inflation seems to be pointing to the roots of its own demise, namely the transplanckian problem. Briefly, the transplanckian problem of inflation is that structures on scales of cosmological interest today were generically generated deep within the Planckian regime where the assumption of a scalar field minimally coupled to gravity breaks down.

With these issues in mind, we consider a different approach. There are features, to be discussed below, of the categorical state sum (CSS) approach to quantum general relativity which are useful for proposing new solutions to some of the cosmological problems, which interestingly are not soluble by inflation or other modifications to the SBB.

The problems we will discuss are inflation, dark matter and the flatness, horizon and chirality problems, as these appear to have distinctive realizations in the BC model of quantum gravity and yield a new perspective as to how quantum gravity can resolve these problems in cosmology without resorting to the logic of fine tuning an effective field theory.

## IV State Sum Models, Quantum Gravity and Conical Matter

The basic idea of the state sum approach to quantum gravity  is that quantum geometry is a superposition of discrete quantum processes of the same form as Feynman diagrams. Geometries are quantized by using representation theory to obtain Hilbert spaces on which geometric quantities act as operators. Thus, a categorical state sum is a discretized version of a Feynman vacuum, where the fields and vertices correspond to Lorentzian geometry.

The diagrams are not considered to be embedded in a background classical spacetime. Rather, the combinatorial structure of the diagrams themselves yields spacetime, and the quantum fields on it represent a sum over metrics. The structure of spacetime in this picture is given by a simplicial complex, in which the individual Feynman diagrams are quantum geometries of four dimensional simplices in Minkowski space.

In other words, quantum geometry in this approach is represented by families of Hilbert spaces on which the sort of quantities typically measured in classical geometries act as operators. The most basic geometric quantities are bivectors, i.e. skew symmetric rank two tensors, which describe oriented area elements. Utilizing their expedient quantization, we define the other geometric quantities in terms of these bivectors, which are attached to the faces of a triangulation.

In the quantization procedure of the BC model , bivectors are represented by unitary representations of the Lorentz algebra. The bivectors on faces and tetrahedra are constrained to be simple, i.e. to correspond to oriented area elements. This has a natural quantization in the restriction to the balanced unitary representations. We construct the model by using harmonic analysis to describe these representations.

Specifically, the balanced representations are given by families of functions on the hyperboloid $`H^3`$. The projection onto the balanced representation with real parameter $`\rho `$ is given by

$$\frac{1}{2\pi ^2}_{H^3}K_\rho (x,y)h(y)𝑑y$$
(2)
where

$$K_\rho (x,y)=\frac{\mathrm{sin}\rho r(x,y)}{\rho \mathrm{sinh}r(x,y)}$$
(3)
for $`r(x,y)`$ the hyperbolic distance. The $`10j`$ symbol which corresponds to the quantum geometry of a Lorentzian $`4`$-simplex $`s`$ is represented by the integral

$`(10j)_s={\displaystyle 𝑑x_1𝑑x_2𝑑x_3𝑑x_4𝑑x_5K_{\rho _1}(x_1,x_5)}`$ (4)
$`K_{\rho _2}(x_1,x_4)K_{\rho _3}(x_1,x_3)K_{\rho _4}(x_1,x_2)`$ (5)
$`K_{\rho _5}(x_2,x_5)K_{\rho _6}(x_2,x_4)K_{\rho _7}(x_2,x_3)`$ (6)
$`K_{\rho _8}(x_3,x_5)K_{\rho _9}(x_3,x_4)K_{\rho _{10}}(x_4,x_5)`$ (7)
depending on the $`10`$ face labels. The complete state sum as a sum (and integral) over labellings $`c`$ of the triangulation takes the form

$$Z_{BC}=N\underset{c}{}\underset{t}{}A_t\underset{f}{}\rho _{f}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\underset{s}{}(10j)_s$$
(8)
where for the tetrahedron $`t`$

$$A_t=𝑑xK_{\rho _1}(x)K_{\rho _2}(x)K_{\rho _3}(x)K_{\rho _4}(x)$$
(9)
See  and  for details. Since we think of the individual triangulations themselves as Feynman diagrams for a more fundamental theory called Group Field Theory , we want to make a summation over triangulated complexes to produce the full theory.

The actual construction of the theory depends on the idea that general relativity can be described as a constrained version of BF theory  , which has the action

$$S=BF$$
(10)
where $`B`$ is a $`2`$-form and $`F`$ the curvature of a connection $`A`$. In fact, the state sum of the BC model is a constrained version of the topological CKY model of , which is a quantization of BF theory. The quantization in  also has bivectors as variables. The constraint which transforms the CKY model to the BC one is the restriction to bivectors that are simple, i.e. that correspond to oriented area elements rather than superpositions of them.

The steepest descent condition (the analog of the classical equation of motion) for the CKY model corresponds to the condition of flat geometry, while the constraint introduced in the BC model converts this to an analog of Ricci flatness, i.e. to a discretization of Einstein’s equation. In order to make the sum over triangulations finite, it is very tempting to consider the hypothesis of a ’phase transition’ in the early universe, in which the constraint of the BC model emerges as a result of a kind of collapse of the wave packet of the unmeasured universe. The form of the constraint mentioned above is suggestive of that, in that it suppresses superpositions of simple bivectors. We warn the reader that there is as yet no model of how this could come about, and that the work in quantum information theory  which suggests it is also lacking a mechanism. A plausible model for the transition is outlined below, and can be thought of as an attempt to make precise the ’topological phase’ suggestion of Witten .

At this point, we discover that the class of triangulated spaces which occur as Feynman graphs for GFT is broader than the class of triangulated four dimensional manifolds. As explained in , it is possible to have edges and vertices whose points are conical singularities. The edge points can appear as cones over closed surfaces, while the vertices can appear as cones over general three manifolds, which contain the conical singularities over all surfaces corresponding to edges incident on the vertex.

Let us restate this. Every Feynman diagram for the GFT approach to the BC model has the topology of a four manifold containing a web of conical singularities taking the form of a graph, the points of whose edges have neighborhoods which are cones over surfaces, while the vertices of the graph have neighborhoods which are cones over 3-manifolds with boundaries, the boundary components fitting to the boundary surfaces on the incident edges. This is a theorem of combinatorial topology; it just summarizes the ways that the 4-simplices in the model can be glued together.

Differently put, in passing from physical theories described by differential equations to discrete models, we find that the natural class of spacetimes to consider has broadened, from smooth manifolds to what mathematicians would call PL pseudomanifolds.

### A How to Get Matter

The conical matter proposal (CMP) is to consider a) the conical singularities on edges as generating particles which propagate through space, and b) the conical singularities on vertices as interaction vertices.

Perhaps it is useful to try to picture this. Feynman taught us to think of the vacuum as full of processes described by Feynman diagrams. Instead, we are proposing a picture where spacetime is full of edges, each point of which is a cone over a surface (fig 1), joined at vertices which are cones over three manifolds with boundary; in the simplest case, cones over link complements (fig 2). These would fit together into complexes with a combinatorial structure analogous to Feynman diagrams (fig 3).

It is interesting to note that this is a direct extension of the most popular technique for adding matter in 2+1 dimensional gravity to the 3+1 setting. In 2+1 dimensions, matter is added in the form of conical curvature singularities. In the quantum theory, this is expressed by adding punctures to the Riemann surfaces of the spatial slices. In 2+1 dimensions, a conical singularity is not a topological defect; that is a new feature in 3+1 dimensions.

In comparison to other fundamental physical theories involving matter, the CMP has one advantage: matter is naturally included in the theory of quantum gravity, rather than added by hand. There is no new element; neither a gauge group, nor extra dimensions, nor a topology on a compact manifold. The surfaces are not insertions into the space-time; they are only descriptions of part of its topological structure. It is therefore highly remarkable, as we will explain, that the most natural approximation scheme available suggests that the Standard Model may emerge from it.

In order to investigate the implications of the CMP for low energy physics, two approximation techniques had to be adopted. It was assumed that the low energy behavior, both at conical singularities along edges and at vertices, would be dominated by the flat metrics on the regions around the singularities. It was further assumed that the state propagating along an edge would correspond to the states of the topological quantum field theory of the Lorentz algebra on the boundary surface of the conical singularity.

We should justify these assumptions by saying that any configuration around the singularity which required curvature would therefore be very massive, and that since the CSW TQFT  has flatness for an equation of motion, it is a quantization of the flat geometries. We regard this approach as preliminary, and hope that further progress in understanding the CSS models will provide a better underpinning for it.

Another way of thinking of this approximation is as a novel form of the holographic principle  . The conical regions are analogous to black holes with more complex topology. The spaces of states on them is described by the states of CSW on their boundaries.

The implications of these assumptions are interesting. The classification of flat Lorentzian metrics over a cone is equivalent to the classification of hyperbolic metrics on its boundary. This means that the space of flat geometries on the cone over a surface is described by its Teichmuller space. If we take this as confirmation that the effective low energy states of the theory are given by the CSW theory for the q-deformed Lorentz algebra on the once punctured torus, then this has the structure of the quantum group $`U_q(su(2))`$, which as an algebra has the structure

$$U_q(su(2))=\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}Mat_n(𝐂)$$
(11)
of a direct sum of one matrix algebra of each dimension. The unitary part of this reproduces the gauge group of the Standard Model in a manner analogous to the Connes-Lott model , if truncated after the first three terms. Since noncommutative geometries arise naturally in the description of singular spaces, in particular of spaces which admit descriptions as quotients of more regular spaces, as conical singularities do, it would be reasonable to try to connect our picture more directly with the noncommutative geometry approach.

The truncation can either be done by picking a third root of unity for q as in , or one can simply consider the possibility that particles with $`su(4)`$ or higher quantum numbers are extremely massive, a possibility which is at least open to study.

Consider the easiest nontrivial cobordism ($`3`$-manifold with boundary) linking three tori. The most obvious interaction between them corresponds to multiplication in the algebra $`U_q(su(2))`$, so that the states on the torus get a natural interpretation as gauge bosons for the Standard Model. The question of the orientation of the surface needs careful study. Thus, we have candidates for photons, gluons etc. in our model, with the right sort of interactions. In order to determine the masses, propagation and spins of these, we will need better approximations.

The problem of incorporating fermions is more difficult to understand. The space of states on the cone over a Klein bottle seems a natural candidate, but more developed approximations will be necessary to study this question. The one thing we can say is that one might look for chiral asymmetry in the interaction vertices represented by $`3`$-manifolds with boundary; in particular, link complements. Given the discovery of neutrino masses, this at least seems a plausible approach.

The case of flat metrics over a vertex is more complex. Hyperbolic three manifolds with complete metrics correspond to Kleinian groups and play an important role in the topology of three dimensional manifolds.

A number of important facts are known about hyperbolic $`3`$-manifolds with boundary. For instance, if any of the boundary components have genus greater than 1, then the complete hyperbolic metric has infinite volume, which in fact grows exponentially as we approach the end, while the genus 1 (tori and Klein bottle) have finite total volume. Another rather obvious fact is that $`3`$-manifolds with boundary give natural examples of topological objects which are not equivalent to their mirror images, such as the class of $`3`$-manifolds arising from taking the complement of an ordinary link in $`S^3`$.

A simple physical interpretation of these facts is that at low energy the states corresponding to singularities over higher genus surfaces decouple both from the genus 1 states and from one another. The states on tori and Klein bottles remain interacting, giving rise to a world of gauge bosons and fermions, as conjectured above. The higher genus states, therefore, were interacting with the genus 1 states in the early universe, but decoupled at some later stage.

The assumptions that we can take the TQFT Hilbert space on the boundary of a conic singularity as the physical Hilbert space of its states, and the CSW amplitude for the three dimensional boundary of a conical vertex as its amplitude, have the further interesting implication that the dimension of the Hilbert space goes up exponentially with the area of the boundary, while the amplitude of the vertex goes up exponentially with its volume.

The first observation is closely analogous to the observation that the dimension of the Hilbert space on a punctured sphere goes up exponentially with the number of punctures, which led Smolin  to conjecture a connection between TQFT and quantum gravity. Higher genus surfaces are very similar to surfaces with many punctures in TQFT. The second observation has interesting implications for a universe with higher genus conical dark matter.

## V Connections

The picture which thus arises from considering CSS models, including the suggestion of a TQFT-BC type phase transition and the CMP, makes contact with a range of puzzles in early universe phenomenology.

Let us summarize the picture of the history of the universe which our model seems to suggest (fig 4). There would be an early (or rather sub-Planckian) phase, in which the universe would be modelled by a topological quantum field theory, but with conic singularities included in the manifold. This phase would be a substitute for the initial singularity of the SBB model. It would be followed by a phase of quantum gravity, in which genus 1 and higher genus conic singularities would be interacting, while the universe expanded and cooled. Next would come a decoupling, in which further interactions involving higher genus singularities would be suppressed by topological obstructions, leaving an interacting world composed of genus 1 singularities.

We now discuss how features of this CSS program relate to the specific phenomenological issues outlined above.

### A The Cosmological Constant and Quantum Groups

Since it is very natural to pass from classical to quantum groups in constructing categorical state sums, and in particular since the q-BC model is well behaved , our discussion above easily accommodates a cosmological constant, and indeed may even require it. The representation theory of the quantum Lorentz algebra seems to give a quantum geometry of space with constant curvature very similar to the quantum geometry of flat space provided by the unitary representations of the usual Lorentz algebra. It also provides additional regularization, which may be useful for suitable normalizations; in particular, for the contribution of higher genus singularities.

### B The Flatness and Horizon Problems and the Topological Phase

The idea of a ’phase transition’ from the BF TQFT to a BC type model suggests an approach to the flatness problem, since the equations of motion for the BF theory are exactly flatness. Also, since a TQFT has no light cones, the distribution of conical matter would be random, transforming into a thermal distribution when the metric materialized. This also suggests an approach to the horizon problem: we regard the substitution of a topological phase for a point-like singularity as a positive feature of our model.

The phase transition might arise as a result of coarse graining of the topological universe, which at the origin of time fluctuated into a combination of quantum variables corresponding to a sufficiently large ’size’. Small black holes would cause a loss of phase information, which would mediate a transformation to a regime described by a sum over simple bivectors only, which, as we explained above, has GR as a classical limit. The GR equations of motion would then prevent the escape of information from the black holes. We believe this process could be modeled using techniques similar to those of .

Although this proposal is self-consistent, it has a disturbing chicken versus egg quality. The question of the phase transition is the point which most strongly suggests to us that still deeper theoretical constructions will ultimately be needed in this approach.

There is at least one toy candidate for investigating the phase transition within the timelike q-BC model. The constraint condition in terms of representations of the (quantum) Lorentz group is that a real spin label $`k\frac{1}{2}𝐙`$ should equal zero. One could consider a state sum cut off at any maximum $`k`$, the topological theory being recovered when $`k\mathrm{}`$. If a spacelike model is considered instead, this ’thermal’ parameter becomes continuous. This idea is strengthened by  and  in which a generalized action of the form

$$S(B,A,\varphi ,\mu )=B^{IJ}F_{IJ}\frac{1}{2}\varphi _{IJKL}B^{IJ}B^{KL}+\mu H$$
(12)
is discussed, where $`A`$ is an $`SO(3,1)`$ connection, $`\mu `$ and $`\varphi `$ Lagrange multipliers such that $`\varphi `$ satisfies $`\varphi _{IJKL}=\varphi _{JIKL}=\varphi _{IJLK}=\varphi _{KILJ}`$ and

$`H=a_1\varphi _{IJ}^{IJ}+a_2\varphi _{IJKL}ϵ^{IJKL}`$

The Immirzi parameter $`\gamma `$ is introduced by

$$\frac{a_2}{a_1}=\frac{1}{4}(\gamma \frac{1}{\gamma })$$
(13)
In the Lorentzian case the generalized action always corresponds to the $`q`$-deformed Barrett-Crane model. When $`\gamma =0`$ the topological theory is recovered.

### C Inflation

Let us now briefly recall our current understanding of the Bekenstein bound for the entropy of a black hole in terms of TQFTs. The hyperbolic area of a uniform Riemann surface, normalized to a constant curvature of $`1`$, depends only its genus. Such a surface may be cut up into cylindrical and trinion pieces, as shown in figure 5. These pieces are clearly homeomorphic to the punctured spheres that represent black hole horizons. In a TQFT that assigns a Hilbert space to each such puncture, the invariant $`Z`$ thus depends on the hyperbolic area and increases exponentially with the number of punctures. A simple corollary of this is that the entropy of the black hole scales with horizon area. For an overview of entropy bounds see  and references therein.

In an analogous simple analysis of the thermodynamics near vertices in the conical matter proposal, one considers the $`3`$-dimensional topological CSW invariant on the hyperbolic link complement. Now it so happens that there is a strongly supported mathematical conjecture due to Kashaev   which states that the closely related colored Jones invariant $`J_N`$ is asymptotically related to the normalized hyperbolic volume $`V(L)`$ of a link complement in $`S^3`$ by

$$2\pi \mathrm{log}|J_N(L)|NV(L)N\mathrm{}$$
(14)
where $`q=e^{2\pi i/N}`$ and $`N𝐙`$.

Assuming that it is reasonable to define thermodynamic quantities using our partition function, this conjecture seems to suggest that the contribution of the conical singularities to the pressure (normalized with respect to energy density) is given by

$$\frac{P}{\rho }=\frac{2\pi }{N}\frac{logJ}{V}1$$
(15)
A $`P/\rho 1/3`$ drives inflation, so this result is in accord with an inflation scenario. In this new scenario no inflaton field is introduced. Inflation arises naturally as a result of the negative pressure. Decoupling of higher genus modes at low temperature could end inflation. Observe that temperature scales as $`N`$.

Restating this argument more physically: the free energy of the vertex, as given by the partition function for the TQFT, is equal to the Jones polynomial. Since this equals the exponential of the volume, the system has a negative pressure equal to the energy density. This is analogous to the situation for conventional inflation, where the stress-energy of the inflaton field must be proportional to the Lorentz metric $`g_{\mu \nu }=diag(1,1,1,1)`$ by Lorentz invariance.

We are thus led to conjecture that the appropriate configuration for a vertex inserted into a nearly flat region (yet to be analysed) will not depend on the choice of a preferred frame. That is, it will be manifestly Lorentz invariant. If true, this would give an interesting physical interpretation to Kashaev’s deep mathematical conjecture.

The main assumption which goes into the above argument is that the behavior of the state sum in a region around a singular vertex can be well approximated by GR coupled to an effective stress-energy with pressure as above. Since the state sum reproduces Einstein’s equation as a classical limit, this is plausible, but needs to be more carefully studied. We have also assumed that the volume of a spatial slice is proportional to the boundary volume of a neighborhood of a conical vertex.

A definite weakness of this stage of development of the model is that we cannot really justify the above assignation of an energy to conical matter configurations. To investigate this question further, one might find the ’best’ metrics on the union of a conical singularity and a patch of surrounding nearly flat smooth spacetime, and compute the ADM energy. At this point we can only claim that we are making the most natural guesses in arriving at phenomenologically interesting conclusions.

### D Dark Matter and Higher Genus Singularities

One potentially exciting use of the model is in describing dark matter. Currently there are a few dark matter candidates, most of which are modelled by weakly interacting scalar fields, like the axion or the neutralino. But these CDM candidates are problematic for explaining the lack of cuspiness of dwarf galaxies . Naively, one could imagine that the weak residual interactions of higher genus conical matter would cause the halo near the center of a galaxy to thermalize, thus eliminating the (empirically nonexistent) cusps. This should be susceptible to computational study, and the detail with which the halos can be observed provides a demanding test.

### E Baryon Asymmetry

The most difficult of Sakharov’s conditions is that concerning baryon and lepton number violating processes. In the early universe our model would allow baryons or leptons to couple into higher genus singularities, which would later freeze out. The necessary asymmetries could arise from the $`3`$-manifold topology of fermionic interactions.

### F Higher Genus Matter and PBH Remnants

Another interesting idea is to realize dark matter as black hole remnants  which survive after black holes evaporate.

Higher genus conical matter could easily emerge as PBH remnants. Their topology would be an obstruction to complete evaporation. Currently there is no first principle realization of PBH from quantum gravity, so it will be a major development to make this connection more concrete.

### G CP Violation and $`3`$-Manifolds

We observed above that couplings which arise from $`3`$-manifolds with boundary, and can therefore easily have chiral asymmetry, are also interesting as a possible mechanism for CP violation.

### H The Phase Transition and Variable Speed of Light Theories

It would be interesting to see whether or not the TQFT can be considered a mathematically more elegant version of the variable speed of light idea, which solves the horizon problem but still lacks a precise quantum gravitational description . Perhaps a more detailed model of the phase transition would interpolate between acausal and causal propagation.

## VI Conclusions

In summary, spin foam cosmology appears to satisfy the Sakharov conditions and has the potential to explain a whole host of major cosmological problems. The computations which go into this picture are very rudimentary. At the semiclassical level, the problem of connecting together flat metrics around vertices and edges into composites for whole spacetimes needs to be studied much more carefully. The claim that the considerations of phenomenology discussed here suggest interesting natural questions for research in the CSS picture, at least, is well grounded.

It seems very plausible to us that the picture we are outlining here could play a role analogous to the old quantum mechanics. It has the flavor of a model constructed out of well understood mathematical physical tools, which bears a reasonable resemblance to otherwise puzzling phenomenology. It may seem crazy to substitute discrete categorical diagrams for a continuum lagrangian, but it may turn out to be not crazy enough! Judging by historical experience, only a prolonged dialog with phenomenology will guide us to a theory which is sufficiently crazy.

It is therefore an attractive feature of this model that it suggests natural procedures for generating refined approximations. We could use classical GR techniques to study flat or low curvature metrics on combinations of conical singularities, on edges and on vertices, and patches of nearly flat smooth spacetime about these. Calculations based on such approximations could be combined into models for dark matter or inflationary cosmologies, among other possibilities, and compared to empirical data.

We have some speculative ideas about the emergence of a deeper theory. One esthetic drawback to the model we are proposing is that we begin with spacetime, and produce matter as a sort of pinch within it. One could wish, rather, for a theory in which spacetime and matter played dual roles. A hint that such a model might be possible is that the genus 1 states form the Hopf algebra object in the category  which is a geometric realization of the braided group of Majid . The representations of the braided group reproduce the category of representations of the quantum group; this is suggestive of a deeper model with matter-spacetime duality.

There is enormous scope for investigating early universe phenomenology in other categorical state sum models. For example, it appears worthwhile investigating the variation of the deformation parameter $`q`$. The relation of $`q`$ to both a Planck scale (as a UV cutoff) and a cosmological scale is very suggestive of a duality such as the aforementioned. One might also consider a $`4`$-dimensional model constructed from CSW $`S^3`$ slices of varying $`q`$. The discrete parameter $`N𝐙`$ labels a dimensionless ’time’ for the topological phase, and might heuristically enforce a real arrow of time.

Of course, it is much too soon to say anything stronger about the suggestion that this line of development could lead to a unified field theory than that it leads to a computational program which appears tractable and deserves further study.

Acknowledgements:
We wish to thank Lee Smolin, Hendryk Pfeiffer, Laurent Freidel, Hilary Carteret and others at the Perimeter Institute for helpful conversations, and are grateful to the Institute for its hospitality. We thank Robert Brandenberger for making many helpful suggestions from earlier drafts. The last author is partly supported by the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand.


text:
# Excitation and decay of projectile-like fragments formed in dissipative peripheral collisions at intermediate energies

\]Present address: Institute of Physics, UNAM, Mexico \]Present address: OakRidge National Laboratory, OakRidge, TN. \]Present address: Institute of Modern Physics, CAS, Lanzhou, China. \] Present address: Université Laval, Quebec, Canada. Present address: Université de Caen, Caen, France.

\] Present address: Forschungszentrum Rossendorf e.V., Dresden, Germany.

## Abstract

Projectile-like fragments (PLF:15$``$Z$``$46) formed in peripheral and mid-peripheral collisions of 114Cd projectiles with 92Mo nuclei at E/A=50 MeV have been detected at very forward angles, 2.1$``$$`\theta _{lab}`$$``$4.2. Calorimetric analysis of the charged particles observed in coincidence with the PLF reveals that the excitation of the primary PLF is strongly related to its velocity damping. Furthermore, for a given VPLF∗, its excitation is not related to its size, ZPLF∗. For the largest velocity damping, the excitation energy attained is large, approximately commensurate with a system at the limiting temperature.

The nuclear equation-of-state (EOS), and in particular its isospin dependence, is a topic of fundamental interest Li (2002). For finite nuclei, examination of the limiting temperature, the maximum temperature attainable Bonche (1985); Natowitz et al. (2002a, b), provides information on the interplay between the nuclear EOS and Coulomb instabilities. To date, a variety of means has been used to excite finite nuclear matter to the limits of stability. These approaches range from multi-GeV hadronic probes Lefort et al. (2001); Beaulieu et al. (2001) or projectile fragmentation at relativistic energies P.Scharenberg et al. (2001); Ogilvie et al. (1991), to central collisions of intermediate-energy heavy-ions Piasecki et al. (1991); Bowman et al. (1991); Marie et al. (1997). Recent advances in the availability of high-intensity radioactive beams in the intermediate energy domain raises the question of how the N/Z dependence of the EOS is best probed. While it is widely accepted that nuclear matter at high excitation can be formed by central collision of two heavy-ions, this approach has several drawbacks in probing the N/Z dependence of the EOS. Interaction of a projectile with extreme N/Z with a stable target results in a system with N/Z less exotic than the projectile. Furthermore, the fragmenting source in a central collision is poorly defined in size, density, and N/Z. In contrast to central collisions, peripheral collisions result, with large cross-section, in the survival of a projectile-like nucleus and a target-like nucleus both at near normal density. Previous studies have examined the decay of the excited projectile-like fragments produced in peripheral collisions Lott et al. (1992); Peter (1995); Doré et al. (2000).

In this manuscript, we focus on the correlation between the excitation of the projectile-like fragment (PLF) resulting from peripheral and mid-peripheral collisions, and its associated velocity damping. When selected on velocity dissipation, we determine that the size of the PLF has essentially no impact on its total excitation. Moreover, our results indicate that mid-peripheral collisions of two intermediate-energy heavy-ions can result in formation of a projectile-like fragment excited to the limits of stability.

The experiment was conducted at Michigan State University where a beam of 114Cd nuclei accelerated by the K1200 cyclotron to E/A=50 MeV impinged on a 92Mo foil 5.45 mg/cm2 thick. At very forward angles (2.1$``$$`\theta _{lab}`$$``$4.2) charged reaction products were detected by an annular ring Si/CsI(Tl) telescope (RD) Davin (2001). For Z$``$48, this telescope provided both good charge ($`\delta `$Z/Z$``$0.25) and angular ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$=0.125; $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$=22.5) resolution. Light charged particles (LCP: Z$``$2) and intermediate mass fragments (IMF: 3$``$Z$``$10) emitted at larger angles (7$``$$`\theta _{lab}`$$``$58) were isotopically identified in the Large Area Silicon Strip Array, LASSA Davin et al. (2001); Wagner et al. (2001). Charged-particle multiplicity was measured using the MSU Miniball de Souza et al. (1990) and Washington University Miniwall. A trigger condition of three charged particles in the Miniball/Miniwall was used during the experiment.

An overall qualitative description of the reaction is provided in Fig. 1. With increasing charged-particle multiplicity, Nc the most probable atomic number of the projectile-like fragment (PLF), ZPLF, detected in the RD decreases. While the relationship between these two quantities for Nc$``$15 is approximately linear, for larger multiplicities ZPLF depends more weakly on Nc. Moreover, while the correlation between the most probable values is clearly evident, it is noteworthy that the distribution is broad in both ZPLF and Nc. The relationship between the size of the PLF, as represented by ZPLF, and the velocity of the PLF, VPLF, is shown in Fig. 1b. As the atomic number of the PLF decreases from Z=48, one observes a gradual decrease from the projectile velocity, indicated by the arrow i.e. consistent with velocity damping of the PLF. For Z$``$38 the most probable velocity is relatively constant with a value of approximately 9.0 cm/ns, corresponding to 95$`\%`$ of Vbeam. In contrast to this constancy, the mimimum velocity attained decreases (maximum damping increases) with decreasing ZPLF. While these observations are consistent with previous experimental measurements, in this work we focus on the characteristics of the PLF: specifically, its size (ZPLF) and velocity damping.

To examine the excitation of the PLF formed in peripheral collisions, we required the detection of a single fragment in the RD with 15$``$Z$``$46 and a velocity larger than the center-of-mass velocity. The magnitude of the most probable velocity of this fragment (95$`\%`$ of Vbeam) suggests that it is a remnant of the projectile following the interaction stage of the collision and de-excitation. For clarity, we subsequently refer to the primary excited projectile-like fragment as the PLF and the detected nucleus following de-excitation as the PLF. The characteristics of the PLF, namely its Z, A, and velocity can be reconstructed by measuring the PLF residue and examining the multiplicities, kinetic-energy spectra, and angular distribution of coincident particles.

The energy-angle correlation for $`\alpha `$ particles detected in LASSA in the reference frame of the PLF is displayed in Fig. 2a. All quantities have been corrected for the geometric efficiency of LASSA, as well as recoil due to emission. A prominent feature evident is the horizontal ridge observed for $`\theta _{PLF}`$$`>`$40. This ridge can be understood as statistical emission of $`\alpha `$ particles from the PLF. Emission at small angles $`\theta _{PLF}`$$`<`$30 and large angles $`\theta _{PLF}`$$`>`$160 is not observed due to the finite experimental acceptance. At backward angles, $`\theta _{PLF}`$$`>`$120, one observes a second component in the two-dimensional spectrum. This component, which exhibits higher average energies, is a general feature of non-central intermediate energy heavy-ion collisions and has been associated with dynamical processes Toke et al. (1995); Bocage et al. (2000); Davin et al. (2002). It is evident from Fig. 2a, that for $`\theta _{PLF}`$ $`<`$ 90 the statistical emission process dominates, suggesting minimal dynamical contamination in this region.

In Fig. 2b, the $`\alpha `$ particle kinetic-energy spectra are shown for six discrete angles 45$``$$`\theta _{PLF}`$$``$70 with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta _{PLF}`$=1. To facilitate the comparison of the different spectra, the solid line depicts a single fit, performed for $`\theta _{PLF}`$ = 55, to a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution (as described below). Enhanced yield in the kinetic-energy spectra for E$``$40 MeV can be understood as prompt $`\alpha `$ emission prior to attainment of equilibrium by the PLF. As the exponential slopes of the kinetic-energy spectra reflect the excitation of the emitting source Benenson et al. (1994), the overlap of the different spectra with the single exponential in Fig. 2b indicates that in this angular range, both the $`\alpha `$ yield and emission temperature are relatively constant, consistent with decay of a single isotropically emitting source.

The correlation between the excitation of the PLF\*, evidenced by the kinetic character of emitted particles, and its velocity damping is examined in Fig. 3. In this figure, the kinetic-energy distributions of p and $`\alpha `$, emitted in the range 40$`<`$$`\theta _{PLF}`$$`<`$75, are shown selected on decreasing velocity of the PLF\*, VPLF∗. One qualitatively observes that all the distributions are approximately Maxwellian in shape with a notable flattening of the exponential slope with decreasing VPLF∗ i.e. increased velocity damping. For the uppermost spectra, which correspond to the lowest velocity damping, deviation from the single exponential behavior is evident. This deviation from the single exponential behavior, which does not contribute significantly to the total yield of detected particles can be attributed to pre-equilibrium emission. At low velocity damping, i.e. low excitation, suppression of the statistical component maximizes the separation of the pre-equilibrium and equilibrium components. Comparison of the measured yield with the single source fit suggests that these pre-equilibrium processes constitute $``$2$`\%`$ of the total PLF yield. To quantify the dependence of the exponential spectral tail on VPLF∗ for isotopically identified particles, we have fit the spectra selected on VPLF∗.

The fitting function used was Lestone et al. (1993):

$$N(ϵ)=0,\text{ if }ϵB^{},$$
(1)
$$N(ϵ)C^{}\left(ϵB^{}\right)^D\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{ϵ}{T}_s\right),\text{ if }B^{}<ϵ<B+T_s,$$
(2)
$$N(ϵ)\left(ϵB\right)\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{ϵ}{T}_s\right),\text{ if }ϵB+T_s,$$
(3)
where $`C^{}=T_s/\left(DT_s\right)^D`$ and $`B^{}=\left(1D\right)T_s+B`$.

The parameter $`ϵ`$ represents the kinetic energy, while B is a barrier parameter and D a barrier diffuseness and penetrability parameter. The parameter Ts which characterizes the exponential can be related within a statistical framework to the energy dependence of the density of states in the daughter nucleus following decay. The extracted slope parameter, Ts reflects the average excitation of the distribution of nuclei decaying via the specific particle decay selected. The resulting fits are shown as solid lines in Figs. 2 and 3. A qualitative feature readily apparent in Fig. 3 is that the p and $`\alpha `$ spectra exhibit exponential tails of similar magnitude for a given VPLF∗. Although similar in magnitude, the extracted slope parameters are not identical. While at the lowest excitation the slope parameters are approximately equal, at high excitation the proton slope parameters are lower than the $`\alpha `$ slope parameters by 1.2-1.3 MeV, probably due to differences in the de-excitation cascade.

To extract the multiplicities of particles emitted from the PLF, we assume isotropic emission from the PLF, consistent with the emission pattern shown in Fig 2. This assumption is supported by the angular distribution of particles forward of the PLF. For example, for $`\alpha `$ particles with E$``$25 MeV in the PLF frame, the yield is essentially constant, increasing by $``$15$`\%`$ as $`\theta _{PLF}`$ increases from 50 to 90. By assuming all particles emitted forward of the PLF (V$`>`$VPLF∗) can be attributed to the PLF and accounting for the geometric acceptance, we deduced the total multiplicity of charged particles evaporated from the PLF. The dependence of the average extracted multiplicities, $``$M$``$, and slope parameters, Ts, on VPLF∗ is displayed in Fig. 4a and 4b. With decreasing VPLF∗, the average multiplicity of emitted $`\alpha `$ particles, indicated by the filled symbols in Fig. 4a, increases from 0.5 to 2.75, a factor of approximately 5. The multiplicity of IMFs (3$``$Z$``$8) exhibits an increase from $``$0.03 to $``$0.7 over the same interval. Along with the increase in the charged-particle multiplicity, the slope parameter Ts for $`\alpha `$ particles increases from 3.4 to 8.0, i.e. by a factor of approximately 2 as shown by the filled circles in Fig. 4b. The dependence of Ts on VPLF∗ for 7Li fragments – representative of IMFs – is also shown in Fig. 4b by the open symbols. The monotonic increase with velocity damping observed for $`\alpha `$ particles is also manifested for 7Li fragments. In comparison to the $`\alpha `$ slopes, the Ts values for 7Li fragments are larger in magnitude, most likely reflecting an earlier emission time as compared to $`\alpha `$ particles. The monotonic increase in both Ts and $``$M$``$ with decreasing VPLF∗ can be understood as the increased excitation of the PLF with increasing velocity dissipation. From the measured multiplicities of emitted particles, we have calculated the average emitted charge, from the PLF $``$Zemitted$``$ = $``$$``$Mi$``$Zi. With increasing velocity dissipation, $``$Zemitted$``$ increases from $``$2 to $``$14 as shown in Fig. 4c by the open symbols. Coupled with this increase is a concurrent decrease of the detected $``$ZPLF$``$ from $``$34 to $``$22, indicated by the filled squares. As can be seen from the solid diamonds in Fig. 4c, $``$ZPLF∗$``$ = $``$ZPLF$``$ \+ $``$Zemitted$``$ has a near constant value of $``$36-38, $``$75-80$`\%`$ of Zprojectile, for all values of VPLF∗. The reason $``$ZPLF∗$``$ does not equal Zprojectile even for the lowest velocity dissipation is due to the experimental hardware trigger of Nc$``$3 in the Miniball/Miniwall, which suppresses the most peripheral collisions. The impact of charged-particle multiplicity selection in suppressing the most peripheral collisions has been established previously Baldwin et al. (1995); Kunde et al. (1996).

In order to determine the excitation of the PLF we have performed a calorimetric analysis Steckmeyer et al. (1989); Cussol (1993). Using the extracted average multiplicity and the measured average kinetic energy for each type of particle evaporated from the PLF, we deduce the average excitation energy of the PLF following pre-equilibrium emission. As the mass of the PLF was not measured, we assumed its mass based upon the EPAX systematics Summerer (2000). The average mass of the PLF was assumed to be given by $``$APLF∗$``$ = (A/Z)projectile$``$ZPLF∗$``$. The average neutron multiplicity was deduced by mass conservation and their average energy of was taken as $``$En$``$=$``$Ep$``$-(0.106\*ZPLF∗ \- 0.9) Parker (1991). In order to calculate the $``$Q$``$ we assumed: $``$Q$``$=$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m(APLF∗,ZPLF∗)- ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m(A$`_{PLF},`$ZPLF) +$``$Qemitted$``$) where $``$Qemitted$``$ = $``$$``$Mi$``$$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$mi with i ranging over all charged particles and neutrons emitted, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m is the mass defect. Within this framework, we deduce the relation between VPLF∗ and E/A shown in Fig. 4d.

The deduced relationship between E/A and velocity damping exhibits an essentially linear behavior over the entire range of velocity dissipation. This relationship is significant as it has been generally accepted that the excitation of the PLF depends on the overlap between projectile and target Peter (1995) and not on velocity dissipation. Furthermore, we observe that for the most damped collisions, which correspond to $``$75$`\%`$ of Vbeam i.e. considerable velocity damping, an excitation of approximately 6 MeV/A is attained.

It is important to place the maximum excitation observed for these mid-peripheral collisions in context. The excitation energy observed is comparable to the excitation for which one observes the onset of a plateau in the caloric curve for an A=90 nucleus Natowitz et al. (2002b). Moreover, the selection of the survival of a large residue (the PLF) favors lower excitation. From this analysis it is clear that an excitation comparable to that observed for central collision of two intermediate energy heavy-ions has been attained for mid-peripheral heavy-ion collisions at E/A=50 MeV.

To assess the sensitivity of the deduced E/A within the calorimetric approach to the spin of the emitting PLF, we utilized the statistical model code GEMINI Charity et al. (2001). The code GEMINI employs a Hauser-Feshbach formalism to describe the statistical emission of particles from a nucleus of (Z,A) characterized by an excitation energy E and a spin J. We varied the excitation of the source between 2 MeV/A and 5 MeV/A with an initial Z = 38 (deduced from the data) and A = 90. We explored the sensitivity of the deduced E/A to spin by calculations at J=0 and 40$`\mathrm{}`$. The results of these calculations are depicted by the different lines in Fig. 5. The calculated $`<`$Zemitted$`>`$ is quite insensitive to the assumed spin of the decaying nucleus for a constant total E while $``$Mα$``$ manifests a modest sensitivity. From the GEMINI calculations we conclude that $`<`$Zemitted$`>`$ is fairly insensitive to the spin of the decaying nucleus, supporting the excitation scale deduced for the data.

We have examined whether the correlation between excitation and velocity damping observed in Fig. 4d depends on the size of the observed PLF, ZPLF. The dependence of Zemitted, Ts , and deduced $``$E$``$ on VPLF∗ is displayed in Fig. 6 selected on ZPLF. Quite strikingly, one finds that the monotonic increase of Zemitted and Ts with decreasing VPLF∗, previously observed, is independent of ZPLF. Moreover, different ZPLF with the same velocity damping manifest the same average total excitation, $``$E$``$, resulting in different $``$E/A$``$. We have associated ZPLF∗ with b/bmax in a geometrical model of two overlapping nuclei. From this geometrical model and the results in Fig. 6, one concludes that for 0.4$``$b/bmax$``$1.0, velocity dissipation determines the excitation of the PLF\*. For the impact parameter range examined, the most probable velocity dissipation is low, and does not change significantly with decreasing ZPLF, (Fig. 1b) suggesting that the most probable excitation of the projectile (and target) spectator is moderate ($``$200 MeV) and approximately constant with impact parameter. Systems formed at high excitation represent a small fraction of the cross-section.

We have carefully examined all possible sources of bias in our measurement and analysis and find no systematic bias that is responsible for the observed results. We therefore turn to understanding the observed correlations. One possibility in explaining these results is that for each impact parameter a distribution of contact times exists. While the impact parameter determines the size of the PLF, it is the contact time that determines the velocity dissipation and the excitation of the PLF. Reaction models in the intermediate energy domain need to account for the underlying mechanism responsible for the distribution of velocity damping (contact time), as well as the fundamental association between velocity damping and the PLF excitation.

In summary, for peripheral collisions of a near symmetric system at E/A = 50 MeV, highly excited projectile-like fragments are formed and the excitation of the PLF is associated with its velocity dissipation. Moreover, when selected on velocity dissipation, the total excitation of the PLF does not depend on its size. Selection of PLF of different size but the same velocity dissipation corresponds to the same excitation energy. Remarkably, for the largest velocity dissipation an excitation energy approximately consistent with the limiting temperature is deduced presenting interesting opportunities for probing the N/Z dependence of the limiting temperature.

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to acknowledge the valuable assistance of the staff at MSU-NSCL for providing the high quality beams which made this experiment possible. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under DE-FG02-92ER40714 (IU), DE-FG02-87ER-40316 (WU) and the National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY-95-28844 (MSU).