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# Dynamics of Two Granules

## I Introduction

Signal propagation in granular materials is a long-standing subject of interest jaeger ; sen-book ; nesterenko ; sinkovits ; senpreprint , and has recently attracted considerable attention in a number of novel contexts. One is the observation that the attenuation characteristics of signals (impacts) in such materials might make them good candidates for shock absorption sen-pasi . Another is the use of the backscattered signal for the nondestructive identification of buried objects sen98 ; senpreprint ; rogers ; naughton ; coste .

Interactions in granular materials are notoriously complex, but a number of relatively simple models have been implemented in the context of signal propagation, models that it is hoped capture the principal ingredients of the true interactions at least in some regimes. A model potential used for a monodisperse chain of particles that repel upon overlap according to the Hertz law is given by hertz

$$\begin{array}{ccc}V(\delta _{i,i+1})\hfill & =a\delta _{i,i+1}^n,\hfill & \delta 0,\hfill \\ & & \\ V(\delta _{i,i+1})\hfill & =0,\hfill & \delta >0.\hfill \end{array}$$
(1)
Here

$$\delta _{i,i+1}2R\left[(z_{i+1}+x_{i+1})(z_i+x_i)\right],$$
(2)
$$a=\frac{2}{5D(Y,\sigma )}\left(\frac{R}{2}\right)^{1/2},D(Y,\sigma )=\frac{3}{2}\left(\frac{(1\sigma ^2)}{Y}\right),$$
(3)
$`Y`$ and $`\sigma `$ denote Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio, $`z_i`$ denotes the initial equilibrium position of grain $`i`$ in the chain, and $`x_i`$ is the displacement of grain $`i`$ from this equilibrium position. The geometric parameter $`R`$ is the radius if the particles are elastic spheres. More generally, $`R`$ is determined by the principal radii of curvature of the surfaces at the point of contact landau . The exponent $`n`$ is $`5/2`$ for spheres, it is $`2`$ for cylinders, and in general depends on geometry.

Two features of the potential are decisive for the resulting propagation properties of the chain: one is the exponent $`n`$, and the other is the absence of an attractive portion in the potential. It is in this latter respect that the granular chain differs profoundly from the many models of nonlinearly interacting oscillators (such as the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chain) extensively studied in recent years breatherF ; ourchaos .

Two decades ago Nesterenko nesterenko  showed that under appropriate assumptions, among them the slow spatial variation of the displacements $`x_i`$, the equations of motion for the granular particles could be approximated by a continuous nonlinear partial differential equation that admits a soliton solution for a propagating perturbation in the chain. More recently it was shown that strictly speaking these solutions are solitary waves rather than solitons mackay ; sen01 . It is also understood that a potential exponent $`n>2`$ is required to accommodate solitary waves, i.e. that a “hard nonlinearity” is required sen-pasi . Nesterenko coined the words “sonic vacuum” to stress the importance of the absence of “harmonic terms” ($`n=2`$) in this analysis because such terms (and only such terms) are associated with ordinary sound propagation. Indeed, as $`n2`$ the width of the solitary wave diverges. More recently, numerical simulations of *discrete* chains have provided a great deal of additional information about the important role of discreteness as well as nonlinearity in the signal propagation properties.

Thus, while the continuum solitary wave solutions provide enormously helpful analytic insights, the importance of discreteness in the propagation properties of such chains should not be underestimated. Neither should the fact that even with a “harmonic” exponent $`n=2`$, the chain is decidedly different from a harmonic system *because there is no attractive restoring force*. The resulting nonanalyticity of the potential leads to profoundly different properties than those observed in an ordinary harmonic chain. Indeed, although solitary waves are no longer exact solutions (and there is no longer a perfect sonic vacuum), there are extremely long lived quasi-solitary waves that broaden slowly (whereas a harmonic chain would exhibit rapid dispersion of energy) ourchaos .

We offer the above observations in support of the usefulness of a study of a chain with only repulsive forces even with the choice $`n=2`$. A number of helpful insights can be achieved from such a study if one is able to obtain analytic results, and this is at all possible only with $`n=2`$. In this paper we carry out such an analysis for the simplest (and yet extremely interesting) such system, namely, one consisting of only two masses. Surprisingly, this simple scenario seems not to have been analyzed in detail in the literature, although the dynamics of pairwise collisions is an important input (and phenomenological assumptions are made about it) in the study of longer chains senpreprint . A two-mass system, being explicitly integrable, can yield valuable information. In view of some of the current applications of energy propagation in granular materials, we are particularly interested in *backscattering* and *energy dissipation* in the presence of friction, and on the effects of frictional disorder on these quantities. The results of our analysis promise to provide helpful phenomenological input into the propagation of excitation pulses in longer chains as long as the pulses remain narrow. For example, recent experiments on impulse dispersion in tapered chains indicate the significant role of friction in the propagation and dispersion process nakagawa . We find that a two-mass system leads to some unanticipated nonmonotonic (albeit, in hindsight understandable) behaviors as one varies system parameters. To support the relevance of our results to the spherical granular problem, we also present some numerical results for the Hertz potential with $`n=5/2`$ and show the similarity in the behavior of this system and that of the $`n=2`$ case.

We consider two finite-sized particles (“granules”) of equal mass $`m`$. The specific value of the mass does not matter since it can be scaled out by redefining variables; the only important point is that the masses are equal. When the granules “do not touch”, each moves independently of the other (i.e., their potential of interaction is zero beyond a certain distance between their centers). When they do “push one into the other”, there is a repulsive linear force between their centers with force constant $`k`$; the force vanishes once the particles separate again. One or both of the granules are subject to friction, which may be kinetic (i.e. constant, see Sec. II) or hydrodynamic (i.e. proportional to velocity, see Sec. III). In order to initiate energy transfer between the granules, one can, for example, introduce some precompression in the system, or one can impart one of the granules an initial velocity toward the other. We do the latter: initially the granules are assumed to be just touching, the first granule has initial velocity $`v_0`$ toward the second, and the second is at rest. We are interested in the velocity of the two granules and the total energy in the system *immediately after the collision*. Note that in the absence of friction the collision is elastic so that the energy and momentum are conserved. In this case the first granule simply ends up at rest and the second with velocity $`v_0`$, i.e., there is no backscattering. Of course there is backscattering, even in the absence of friction, in a longer chain.

Even these simple systems present a broad range of outcomes, some more interesting than others, and not all of which will be covered in detail. For example, one or the other or both granules may stop moving altogether before the collision is over. However, we are particularly interested in situations where the second granule is still moving forward after the collision (propagation) and the first granule is moving backward (backscattering). Our analysis will focus on these outcomes and the conditions that lead to them.

In Sec. II we present and solve the two-particle model with kinetic friction. Section III presents a similar calculation for the model with hydrodynamic friction. A summary of results, and a brief outlook of future work, are gathered in Sec. IV.

## II Two Particles with Kinetic Friction

In this section we examine granule collision when one or both of the granules are subject to kinetic friction with friction coefficient $`\mu `$. Kinetic friction arises from contact forces when a solid body moves along a solid surface, and depends on the velocity only in that its direction is always opposed to the velocity. Two cases are presented analytically (at least in part). They turn out to exhibit rather different behaviors, which we anticipate here as a point of reference. In one, only the second granule is subject to friction. We find that for a certain range of friction coefficient values there is both propagation and backscattering, that the velocities of the forward moving second granule and the backward moving first granule are monotonic functions of the friction, but that the total energy dissipation during the collision is nonmonotonic. In the second model only the first granule is subject to friction. Here we again find a range of values of the friction coefficient for which there is both propagation and backscattering. Now, however, the granule velocities are nonmonotonic functions of the friction while the energy loss is a monotonic function. Results for the more general case of both granules subject to (possibly different) friction are presented numerically. In this way we cover the entire range of “frictional disorder”, as might occur if the granules are made of different materials. While most of our discussion revolves around the case $`n=2`$, some results for $`n=5/2`$ are presented. Also, as a backdrop we keep in mind the most extreme case of a hard interaction, a hard sphere ($`n\mathrm{}`$). The interaction is instantanous in this case and leads to elastic collisions in which energy and momentum are conserved. The first granule stops and the second granule moves forward. This comment emphasizes the observation that only collisions of finite duration can lead to a combination of backscattering and propagation in two granules.

We rescale variables (see Appendix A) so that we can set the coefficient $`a1`$ in Eq. (1) regardless of the value of $`n`$. This rescaling allows presentation of results in terms of a single parameter, the scaled friction.

### II.1 Frictionless First Granule

Consider first the case of a frictionless first granule. The movement of the second granule will then only start if the elastic compression exceeds the frictional force, $`x_1^{n1}>\eta `$, and so at first only the first granule moves and its motion is governed by the equation of motion

$$\ddot{x}_1(t)=[x_1(t)]^{n1}.$$
(4)
The initial condition for this problem is $`x_1(0)=0`$ and $`\dot{x}_1(0)=1`$. The solution for $`n=2`$ is easily found to be

$$x_1(t)=\mathrm{sin}(t),$$
(5)
and is valid until the time $`t_0`$ at which $`x_1(t_0)=\eta `$, that is, until $`t_0=\mathrm{arcsin}(\eta )`$.

At time $`t_0`$ the second granule starts moving as well, and the system is now governed by the two coupled equations of motion

$`\ddot{x}_1(t^{})`$ $`=`$ $`\left[x_1(t^{})x_2(t^{})\right]`$ (6a)
$`\ddot{x}_2(t^{})`$ $`=`$ $`\eta \left[x_2(t^{})x_1(t^{})\right]`$ (6b)
with the initial conditions: $`x_1(t^{}=0)=\eta `$, $`\dot{x}_1(t^{}=0)=\sqrt{1\eta ^2}`$, and $`x_2(t^{}=0)=\dot{x}_2(t^{}=0)=0`$. Here we have defined $`t^{}=tt_0`$. The solution is found to be:

$`x_1(t^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\left[\eta (3+t_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2})+2(1\eta ^2)^{1/2}t^{}+\eta \mathrm{cos}(\sqrt{2}t^{})+\sqrt{2}(1\eta ^2)^{1/2}\mathrm{sin}(\sqrt{2}t^{})\right]`$ (7a)
$`x_2(t^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\left[\eta (1+t_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2})2(1\eta ^2)^{1/2}t^{}+\eta \mathrm{cos}(\sqrt{2}t^{})+\sqrt{2}(1\eta ^2)^{1/2}\mathrm{sin}(\sqrt{2}t^{})\right].`$ (7b)
If $`\eta `$ is too large, the second granule will stop before the two granules lose contact. For sufficiently small $`\eta `$ this does not happen and the above solutions then remain valid until contact is lost. The time $`t^{}=t_1`$ when this occurs is the time at which $`\mathrm{\Delta }x(t_1)=x_1(t_1)x_2(t_1)`$ vanishes, that is, when $`t_1=\pi /\sqrt{2}`$. The velocities of the granules at the moment of separation $`t=t_0+t_1`$ are

$`v_1^{(s)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\eta \pi }{2\sqrt{2}}}`$ (8a)
$`v_2^{(s)}`$ $`=`$ $`\left((1\eta ^2)^{1/2}{\displaystyle \frac{\eta \pi }{2\sqrt{2}}}\right).`$ (8b)
The values of $`\eta `$ for which this description is valid are those for which $`v_2^{(s)}>0`$, that is, for $`0<\eta <(1+\pi ^2/8)^{1/2}=0.669\mathrm{}`$ Beyond time $`t=t_0+t_1`$ each granule continues on its course, the first forever and the second until friction brings it to rest. Backscattering and propagation thus occur when $`\eta <0.669\mathrm{}`$ As a function of $`\eta `$ in this range, the magnitude of the backward velocity increases monotonically while that of the forward velocity decreases monotonically. The backscattering is shown in Fig. 1, which we exhibit in order to stress the similarity in the behavior of the $`n=2`$ potential and that of the Hertz potential for spheres. As $`n`$ increases the range of $`\eta `$ for which both $`v_1^{(s)}`$ and $`v_2^{(s)}`$ are nonzero shrinks, until it shrinks away completely for a hard sphere potential.

Perhaps the most dramatic outcome of this calculation is the fact that *the friction on the second granule causes the first granule to move backward* (recall that if both granules are frictionless the first one simply stops). In other words, the friction on the second granule is responsible for backscattering. This behavior, strange at first glance, occurs because the first granule “stops too soon”, that is, it stops before the spring has had time to decompress completely. Indeed, if the friction on the second granule is so strong that it does not move at all, the first will move backward with velocity $`v_1=1`$. Our model lies between the limiting cases of zero and very large $`\eta `$ ($`1v_1^{(s)}0`$).

In Fig. 2 we show the ratio of the total kinetic energy of the system at the end of the collision to the initial energy,

$$\frac{E^{(s)}}{E_0}=1\frac{\eta \left(1\eta ^2\right)^{1/2}\pi }{\sqrt{2}}+\left(\frac{\pi ^2}{4}1\right)\eta ^2.$$
(9)
In the rescaled variables, $`E_0=1/2`$. Curiously, there is a region where this ratio *increases* with increasing friction coefficient. The reason for this behavior is that when friction increases beyond a certain point (beyond the minimum in the curve), relatively more energy is transfered to the first granule (as opposed to being simply dissipated) by the end of the collision. Again we also show the numerical results obtained for the Hertz potential with $`n=5/2`$ (solid curve) and comment on the similarity with the $`n=2`$ curve.

### II.2 Frictionless Second Granule

Next we consider the case of a frictionless second granule. The first granule now moves forward, eventually stops, and *perhaps* moves backward, while the second granule moves forward.

As before, the granules are initially just touching, the first granule having an initial velocity $`v_01`$. While the first granule is moving forward the system is governed by the equations

$`\ddot{x}_1(t)`$ $`=`$ $`\eta \left[x_1(t)x_2(t)\right]`$ (10a)
$`\ddot{x}_2(t)`$ $`=`$ $`\left[x_2(t)x_1(t)\right].`$ (10b)
Explicit integration yields

$`x_1(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\left[\eta +2t\eta t^2+\eta \mathrm{cos}(\sqrt{2}t)+\sqrt{2}\mathrm{sin}(\sqrt{2}t)\right]`$ (11a)
$`x_2(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\left[\eta +2t\eta t^2\eta \mathrm{cos}(\sqrt{2}t)\sqrt{2}\mathrm{sin}(\sqrt{2}t)\right].`$ (11b)
These equations hold as long as the velocity $`v_1(t)=\dot{x}_1(t)>0`$. This velocity is given by

$$v_1(t)=\frac{1}{4}\left[22\eta t+2\mathrm{cos}(\sqrt{2}t)\sqrt{2}\eta \mathrm{sin}(\sqrt{2}t)\right].$$
(12)
The time $`t_0`$ at which $`v_1(t_0)=0`$ cannot be found explicitly in general, but the problem may still be treated analytically for small or for large $`\eta `$, or numerically for arbitrary $`\eta `$.

If $`\eta 1`$, we can expand $`v_1(t)`$ around $`t=\pi /\sqrt{2}`$ (the solution for $`\eta =0`$). We find that

$$t_0=\frac{\pi }{\sqrt{2}}\left(\frac{\pi \eta }{\sqrt{2}}\right)^{1/2}+𝒪(\eta ^{3/2}).$$
(13)
In Fig. 3 we compare this analytical approximation with the numerical solution. The small-$`\eta `$ approximation is clearly very good for a rather large range of $`\eta `$. Therefore, we proceed using this approximation. In the figure we also show the time that it would take the collision to be over if the solutions (11a) and (11b) would remain valid, i.e., the solution $`t_0^{}`$ of the equation $`x_1(t_0^{})=x_2(t_0^{})`$. This time, shown as a dashed line, is always above the time at which the first granule stops, indicating that the first granule necessarily stops before the collision is over. This persists even for large $`\eta `$: as $`\eta \mathrm{}`$ the stopping time of the first granule goes to zero as $`1/\eta `$, while the time for the collision to be over if the above solutions would remain valid goes to zero as $`2/\eta `$.

When the first granule stops, the equations of motion are no longer Eqs. (10a) and (10b). The initial conditions for the new set of equations are the velocities and positions found above at time $`t=t_0`$. Within the small-$`\eta `$ approximation we use

$`x_1(t_0)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}\left[2\sqrt{2}\pi (\pi ^2+4)\eta \right]`$ (14a)
$`x_2(t_0)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}\left[2\sqrt{2}\pi 4(2^{3/4})\sqrt{\pi \eta }(\pi ^24)\eta \right]`$ (14b)
$`v_1(t_0)`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (14c)
$`v_2(t_0)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[2\sqrt{2}\pi \eta \right]`$ (14d)
as the initial conditions.

The equations of motion at this point depend on whether the first granule simply remains stationary or starts moving backward. The latter occurs if the elastic force is greater than the friction, that is, if

$$[x_1(t_0)x_2(t_0)]=\frac{1}{2}\left[\eta \eta \mathrm{cos}(2^{1/4}\sqrt{\eta \pi })+\sqrt{2}\mathrm{sin}(2^{1/4}\sqrt{\eta \pi })\right]>\eta .$$
(15)
Therefore, for $`\eta `$ smaller than a critical value ($`\eta =0.439\mathrm{}`$) the first granule will start moving backward, and we confine our analysis to this case. The equations of motion then are (note that since the first granule is moving backward, the friction is also reversed):

$`\ddot{x}_1(t^{})`$ $`=`$ $`\eta \left[x_1(t^{})x_2(t^{})\right]`$ (16a)
$`\ddot{x}_2(t^{})`$ $`=`$ $`\left[x_2(t^{})x_1(t^{})\right]`$ (16b)
where $`t^{}=tt_0`$. The initial conditions are those given in Eqs. (14a)-(14d).

The solutions of this set as a series in $`\eta `$ can easily be exhibited explicitly but are not very instructive. Two cases must be distinguished: 1) The first granule is still moving backward when the collision ends; and 2) The first granule stops before the collision ends, at which point the equation of motion (16a) no longer holds. In either case, from the series solutions one can calculate the time $`t^{}=t_1`$ at which the collision ends as the solution of the equation $`x_1(t^{})=x_2(t^{})`$. If we assume that the first granule is still moving we find

$$t_1=\left(\frac{\pi \eta }{\sqrt{2}}\right)^{1/2}\eta +𝒪(\eta ^{3/2}).$$
(17)
This solution is shown as the dotted curve in Fig. 4, as is the numerically obtained exact solution (solid line). The approximation (17) begins to seriously deviate from the exact solution at around $`\eta 0.1`$. The dashed curve indicates the time at which the first granule stops before the end of the collision if Eq. (16a) remains valid until it does. This analysis is therefore appropriate and leads to backscattering (and propagation) if $`\eta 0.22`$.

In Fig. 5 we see that as $`\eta `$ increases the final backward velocity of the first granule is nonmonotonic, that it, is increases from zero to approximately $`3\%`$ of the initial velocity, and then decreases again. In this model, we thus observe that there is backscattering for small $`\eta `$. For $`\eta =0`$ and for $`\eta `$ greater than a certain value ($`0.22`$), the first granule is at rest when the collision ends and there is no backscattering. Therefore, the backscattering in this model happens because the *first* granule (as opposed to the second granule in the previous example) “stops too soon” (i.e. before the collision is over), but not “too late” (i.e. when the compression is still strong enough to overcome friction). The required balance leads to the nonmonotonic behavior seen in Fig. 5. Even though the backscattering is small (e.g. compared to that in the first model), it is conceptually striking. However, the total energy of the system at the end of the collision is a monotonically decreasing function of $`\eta `$, in contrast to the behavior in the previous case shown in Fig. 2.

### II.3 Granules with Arbitrary Friction

While the results presented above deal with the extremes of frictional disorder, it is helpful to present a broad brush of graphical results for arbitrary combinations of $`\eta _1`$ and $`\eta _2`$, the friction parameters for the two granules. This is also an opportunity for re-assertion that these broad brush results are essentially the same for the $`n=2`$ and the $`n=5/2`$ Hertz potentials for two granules. Since the graphical results are necessarily numerical, we present them for the $`n=5/2`$ potential. They are qualitatively indistinguishable from those for $`n=2`$.

In Fig. 6 we show in gray scale the magnitudes of $`v_1^{(s)}`$ (first panel), $`v_2^{(s)}`$ (second panel) and energy ratio $`E^{(s)}/E_0`$ at the end of the collision in the $`(\eta _1,\eta _2)`$ regime where there is simultaneous backscattering and propagation. Darker shading represents a higher speed (first and second panels) and a higher energy (third panel). Figure 1 is associated with an upward trajectory in the first panel at $`\eta _1=0`$. The monotonically increasing backscattering seen in Fig. 1 corresponds to the upward darkening. Figure 2 is associated with the same upward trajectory, now in the rightmost panel. The nonmonotonicity is seen in the lightening followed by darkening. The nonmonotonicity of Fig. 5 is associated with the shading in the first panel associated with the horizontal trajectory along $`\eta _2=0`$, captured in the curvature of the iso-velocity lines. The monotonicty of $`v_2^{(s)}`$ discussed in the $`(\eta _1,0)`$ and $`(0,\eta _2)`$ cases is evident in the middle panel.

This rather complex behavior arises from the interplay of energy dissipation and energy transfer during a collision. Thus, for example, increasing friction on the first granule causes it to stop sooner. If it stops too soon (“high $`\eta _1`$”), the spring is not sufficiently compressed to overcome friction and it may happen that the whole process simply stops then and either one or the other or both granules do not move. On the other hand, if it stops too late (“low $`\eta _1`$”) then the energy transfer to the second granule may cause it to move forward, but there may not be sufficient energy to cause backscattering. Or backscattering may occur but not forward motion. Between these situations (“intermediate $`\eta _1`$”), both granules may be in motion at the end of the collision.

## III Two Particles with Hydrodynamic Friction

When dissipation is of hydrodynamic origin, the dissipative force is proportional to the particle velocity, $`\gamma \dot{x}`$. Hydrodynamic friction arises from the motion of a body against a lubricated surface or in a liquid or gaseous medium. We find that the cases of equal and slightly unequal friction coefficients can be solved analytically and cover essentially the whole spectrum of possible behaviors.

The scaled equations of motion (see Appendix A) for the potential with $`n=2`$ are

$`\ddot{x}_1(t)`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma _1\dot{x}_1\left[x_1(t)x_2(t)\right]`$ (18a)
$`\ddot{x}_2(t)`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma _2\dot{x}_2\left[x_2(t)x_1(t)\right]`$ (18b)
Even though these equations can be integrated exactly, the time required for the two granules to separate can, in general, only be calculated numerically. Here we consider the case $`\gamma _1\gamma _2`$, for which we can find an approximate analytic expression for this time. Thus, we set $`\gamma _i=\gamma (1+\delta _i)`$ with $`\delta _1=\delta _2\delta `$ and solve the problem for small $`|\delta |`$.

Defining $`x_\pm =x_1\pm x_2`$, we can obtain from Eqs. (18) the associated Laplace transforms $`X_\pm (s)`$:

$`\delta \gamma sX_{}(s)+\left(\gamma s+s^2\right)X_+(s)=1`$ (19a)
$`\left(2+\gamma s+s^2\right)X_{}(s)+\delta \gamma sX_+(s)=1.`$ (19b)
The solution of these equations to first order in $`\delta `$ is

$`X_+(s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{s(\gamma +s)}}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta \gamma }{s\left(\gamma +s\right)\left[2+s\left(\gamma +s\right)\right]}}`$ (20a)
$`X_{}(s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2+s\left(\gamma +s\right)}}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta \gamma }{\left(\gamma +s\right)\left[2+s\left(\gamma +s\right)\right]}}.`$ (20b)
The time functions $`x_\pm (t)`$ are the inverse Laplace transforms of $`X_\pm (s)`$. Furthermore, the time $`t_0`$ at which the granules separate can be calculated by solving the equation $`x_{}(t=t_0)=0`$. To zeroth order in $`\delta `$ (that is, for $`\delta =0`$), we have

$$x_{}(t_0)=e^{\gamma t_0/2}\frac{\mathrm{sin}(\omega t)}{\omega }=0,$$
(21)
where $`\omega =\sqrt{8\gamma ^2}/2`$. If $`\gamma ^28`$ the collision never ends. If $`\gamma ^2<8`$ then it ends at time $`t_0=\pi /\omega `$. To calculate the separation time to first order in $`\delta `$, we write $`t_1=t_0+ϵ/\omega `$, expand $`x_{}(t_1)=0`$ to first order in $`ϵ`$, and solve the resulting equation for $`ϵ`$, to obtain

$$ϵ=\frac{\delta \gamma \omega }{2}\left(1+e^{\gamma \pi /2\omega }\right).$$
(22)
The final velocities of the granules at the end of the collision to first order in $`\delta `$ are:

$`v_1^{(s)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(1e^{\gamma \pi /2\omega }\right)e^{\gamma \pi /\omega }+{\displaystyle \frac{\delta \gamma ^2}{4}}\left(1+2e^{\gamma \pi /2\omega }+e^{\gamma \pi /\omega }\right)e^{3\gamma \pi /2\omega }`$ (23a)
$`v_2^{(s)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(1+e^{\gamma \pi /2\omega }\right)e^{\gamma \pi /\omega }+{\displaystyle \frac{\delta \gamma ^2}{32\omega ^2}}\left[8\omega ^2+\left(12\omega ^2\gamma ^2+8\right)e^{\gamma \pi /2\omega }+\left(4\omega ^2\gamma ^2+8\right)e^{\gamma \pi /\omega }\right]e^{3\gamma \pi /2\omega }.`$ (23b)
We immediately see that the backscattering is greater if $`\gamma _2>\gamma _1`$ ($`\delta >0`$) than if $`\gamma _1`$ is the larger friction coefficient. This behavior is similar to that which occurs when we have kinetic friction. Thus, again a force in the second granule is more effective in producing the backscattering (as expected). In Fig. 7, we present the velocity of the first granule at the end of the collision as a function of $`\gamma `$ for different values of $`\delta `$. Once again we find (for each value of $`\delta `$) an optimal scaled dissipation constant for which the backscattering is greatest. We note that the total energy at the end of the collision is a monotonically decreasing function of the average dissipation parameter $`\gamma `$.

## IV Summary and Outlook

We have presented an overview of the dynamics of two granules subject to repulsive but not restoring forces (as in granular materials), and to kinetic or hydrodynamic friction. In particular, we explored parameter regimes that would give rise to backscattering *and* propagation at the end of a collision, with a view toward future studies of chains of granules subject to friction. We explored the consequences of “frictional disorder” in the two-granule system and found dramatically asymmetric behavior, that is, backscattering and propagation are affected differently by the friction on the first and second granules. For example, while friction that is “too high” on either granule will lead to situations where backscattering or propagation or both do not occur, the range of friction parameters that *do* lead to the occurrence of backscattering *and* propagation is considerably greater for the second granule than for the first. While this is perhaps not surprising, the nonmonotonicities in the final velocity and energy as a function of friction point to the interesting dynamical asymmetries in this problem. While most of our results have been calculated for a potential with $`n=2`$ \[cf. Eq. (1)\], we have argued and shown numerically that the two-granule results are qualitatively similar for other values of $`n`$ (albeit not quantitatively equal). They therefore provide some insights into the dynamics involving more realistic potentials.

Finally, we stress that a chain of many granules differs in important ways from the two-granule system. For example, with $`n>2`$ a frictionless chain may support solitons while the $`n=2`$ chain does not nesterenko . Also, due to the interactions with further granules, there may be backscattering in a chain even for parameters that do not lead to backscattering in the two-granule system. On the other hand, since pulses are known to remain very narrow in granular chains sen-book ; senpreprint ; sen-pasi , the analysis of the dynamics of two granules provides important insights into the behavior of longer chains and other larger arrays we .

## Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Engineering Research Program of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences at the U. S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG03-86ER13606.

## Appendix A Scaling

The equations of motion with kinetic friction are in general of the form

$$m\ddot{y}_i(\tau )=\pm \mu _iga[y_i(\tau )y_j(\tau )]^{n1}$$
(24)
where the $`y`$’s are displacements, $`\tau `$ is the time, $`n`$ is the exponent in Eq. (1), $`\mu _i`$ is the friction coefficient, $`g`$ is the gravitational constant, and $`i,j=1,2`$. If particle $`i`$ is frictionless, the first term on the right is absent. The initial conditions are $`y_i(0)=0`$ and $`\dot{y}_i(0)=0`$ or $`v_0`$. We define new variables $`x_i`$ and $`t`$ via the relations,

$$y_i=Ax_i,\tau =Bt,$$
(25)
in terms of which the equations of motion are

$$\frac{mA}{B^2}\ddot{x}_i(t)=\pm \eta _iaA^{n1}[x_i(t)x_j(t)]^{n1}.$$
(26)
The choices

$$A=\left(\frac{v_0^2m}{a}\right)^{1/n},B=\frac{1}{v_0}\left(\frac{v_0^2m}{a}\right)^{1/n},\eta \frac{\mu g}{mv_0^2}\left(\frac{v_0^2m}{a}\right)^{1/n}$$
(27)
lead to the scaled equations of motion used in the text, e.g.

$$\ddot{x}_i(t)=\pm \eta _i[x_i(t)x_j(t)]^{n1},$$
(28)
with the initial conditions $`x_i(0)=0`$ and $`\dot{x}_i(0)=0`$ or $`1`$.

With hydrodynamic friction the equations of motion are of the form

$$m\ddot{y}_i(\tau )=\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_i\dot{y}_i(\tau )a[y_i(\tau )y_j(\tau )]^{n1}$$
(29)
and, in terms of the new variables,

$$\frac{A}{B^2}\ddot{x}_i(t)=\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_i\frac{A}{B}\dot{x}_i(t)aA^{n1}[x_i(t)x_j(t)]^{n1}.$$
(30)
Again we choose $`A`$ and $`B`$ as above, and set

$$\gamma _i=\frac{\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_i}{mv_0}\left(\frac{v_0^2m}{a}\right)^{1/n}$$
(31)
to obtain

$$\ddot{x}_i(t)=\gamma _i\dot{x}_i[x_i(t)x_j(t)]^{n1}$$
(32)
with initial conditions as above.


format: text

text:
# Possibility of superconductivity in the repulsive Hubbard model on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice

## Abstract

Possibility of superconductivity from electron repulsion in the Shastry-Sutherland lattice, which has a spin gap at half filling, is explored with the repulsive Hubbard model in the fluctuation-exchange approximation. We find that, while superconductivity is not favored around the half-filling, superconductivity is favored around the quarter-filling. Our results suggest that the Fermi surface nesting is more important than the spin dimerization for superconductivity.

Shastry-Sutherland lattice, superconductivity, Hubbard model, fluctuation-exchange approximation

Superconductivity from electron repulsion has acquired a renewed momentum from the discovery of high-$`T_C`$ cuprates Bednorz , and the subsequent seminal proposal by Anderson Anderson  that the electron correlation should be at the heart of the superconductivity. An important, and still not fully understood, question dating back to the early stage along this line is the relation between the spin gap and the superconductivity. A gap in the spin excitation associated with a quantum spin liquid is, crudely speaking, favorable for a singlet-pairing formation. So one may naively expect that doping of carriers into a spin-gapped Mott insulator will show superconductivity. A clear-cut example is the $`t`$-$`J`$ or Hubbard model on the two-leg ladderladder , where the un-doped ladder is a spin-gapped Mott insulator and the system indeed becomes superconducting when doped.

On the other hand, the spin gap is obviously not a necessary condition for superconductivity. The Hubbard model on the 2D square lattice or the three-leg ladder three-leg  are examples, which are spin-gapless at half-fillingHeisenberg ; ladder , but superconduct when dopedthree-leg .

If we go back to the superconductivity from repulsive electron-electron interactions in a broader context, usual understanding is that the effective attraction between electrons are mediated by spin fluctuations.Scalapino ; SCR  An important difference from the superconductivity from attraction is that the effective attraction arises from pair-scattering processes across which the BCS gap function changes sign, so the effective attraction is wave-number dependent and the pairing is anisotropic (typically $`d`$-wave as in the cuprates). Numerically, a quantum Monte Carlo calculation that takes care of the relevant energy scaleKuroki&Aoki ; Aokireview  has shown an enhanced pairing correlation in the repulsive Hubbard model. Analytically, the fluctuation-exchange (FLEX) studies Bickers ; Grabowski ; Dahm , which is a kind of the renormalized random phase approximation based on the Fermi liquid picture, have shown $`d`$-wave superconductivity with a transition temperature $`T_CO(0.01t)`$ for the repulsive Hubbard model. Notably, $`T_C`$ is two orders of magnitude smaller than $`t`$, although $`T_C`$ amounts to $`100`$K as in the high-$`T_C`$ cuprates if we take $`t0.4`$ eV.

Recently, the multiband lattices having disconnected Fermi surfaces have been proposed as systems having much higher $`T_C`$’s ($`0.01t`$) KurokiArita ; NTT ; KTA ; Zeni ; Onari . While the motivation for considering disconnected Fermi surfaces is to raise the $`T_C`$, which is lowered down to $`0.01t`$ in ordinary lattices because the nodes in the BCS gap function intersect the Fermi surface: when the Fermi surface consists of pockets, the nodes can run in between the pockets. If we look at the proposed lattices in real space, on the other hand, we immediately notice that all of them happen to have dimerized structures in some way or other. From the spin-gap point of view one might consider this reasonable, since the dimerization can favor a spin gap when the dimerization is strong. However, we cannot identify which of the dimerization and the disconnected Fermi surface contributes to the higher $`T_C`$, since the dimerization and the disconnected Fermi surface are simultaneously satisfied in these lattices.

Now, there is an important and unresolved question of whether the spin gap associated with strong dimerization is a sufficient condition for superconductivity, i.e., whether the doped spin-gapped system can always become superconducting with an appreciable $`T_C`$. There are several lattices intensively studied from the viewpoint of the spin gap in the Mott-insulator phase. Among them is the Shastry-Sutherland (SS) lattice (Fig. 1), where we have a herringbone array of dimers. This lattice is first proposed by Shastry and Sutherland SS  about two decades ago. They found that the ground state in the Heisenberg model is spin-gapped when strongly dimerized, $`J_2/J_1<0.5`$, where $`J_1(J_2)`$ is the spin-spin interaction within (across) dimer. With the exact diagonalization method for finite clusters, Miyahara and Ueda MiyaharaUeda  have recently obtained a more accurate critical value, $`J_2/J_10.7`$, for the appearance of the spin gap. Analytic studies such as a series expansion Koga , rigorous bounds Low , and large-$`N`$ theories Chung  have indicated similar boundaries.

A recent impetus came from experiments on a copper compound, SrCu2(BO3)2,Kageyama1  where the Shastry-Sutherland lattice is realized. Experimental results for magnetic susceptibility Kageyama1 ; Kageyama2 , Cu NQR Kageyama1 , high-field magnetization Kageyama1 , ESR Nojiri , Raman scattering Lemments , inelastic neutron scattering Kageyama3  and specific heat Kageyama4  show that this compound has a dimerized ground state with a spin gap $`30`$K with no long-range magnetic order.plateau

So the SS lattice is an appropriate system for the above question of whether a spin-gapped system can superconduct when doped. A recent study ShastryKumar  for the $`t`$-$`J`$ model on the SS lattice has indeed discussed possible superconducting transition at low temperatures of $`O(0.01t)`$ based on RVB type mean field theory RVB . Usually the SS lattice is studied with the Heisenberg model, which corresponds to the half-filled Hubbard model. Here we have opted for the Hubbard model, since we can only study a finite Hubbard $`U`$, but also look at the SS lattice around quarter filling, which we propose here to be interesting. The band filling controls the shape of the Fermi surface after all, so that it should be an important parameter for studying the question at hand. Quarter-filled case is not unrealistic, since the herringbone structure of the SS lattice strongly reminds us of a class of dimerized organic crystals, where the band is often quarter filled rather than half-filled.

So here we take the SS lattice to study superconductivity in the Hubbard model. We adopt the FLEX approximation, which has to be extended to four-band systemsNTT ; KTA ; Zeni ; KurokiBEDT  to treat the SS lattice that has four atoms per unit cell. Superconducting transition has been examined with Eliashberg’s equation Eliashberg . We shall show that the Hubbard model, around half filling, does not exhibit superconductivity with significant $`T_C`$. So this provides an example in which a doped spin-gapped system does not guarantee an appreciable $`T_C`$. By contrast, the Hubbard model around the quarter-filling exhibits superconductivity with a $`d`$-wave pairing when the dimerization is strong $`t_2t_1`$. We shall discuss this in terms of the shape of the Fermi surface and the pair-scattering processes on it.

In the four-band version of the FLEX NTT ; KTA ; Zeni ; KurokiBEDT , Green’s function $`G`$, spin susceptibility $`\chi `$, self-energy $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ are $`4\times 4`$ matrices, e.g., $`G_{lm}(\stackrel{}{k},iϵ_p)`$ with $`ϵ_p`$ being the Matsubara frequency. Here $`l,m`$ refer to the four sites in a unit cell, which can be unitary-transformed to band indices. We obtain the eigenvalue and the superconducting gap function $`\varphi _{lm}`$ by solving the linearized Eliashberg’s equation Eliashberg . For the susceptibility $`\chi `$, we quote hereafter the value of the largest component when we diagonalize its matrix. In the present study, we take $`32\times 32`$ $`k`$points and up to 8196 Matsubara frequencies, or $`64\times 64`$ $`k`$points and up to 4096 Matsubara frequencies.

We start with the case of near half-filling. Here we take the band filling $`n`$(=number of electrons/number of sites)=0.85, along with the on-site repulsion $`U=7`$ and the transfer energy within (across) dimer $`t_1=\pm 1.25`$ ($`t_2=1.0`$). This value of $`t_1`$ has been adopted in Ref.ShastryKumar  as appropriate to SrCu2(BO3)2. Corresponding Heisenberg model at half filling has a spin gap because of $`J_2/J_1t_2^2/t_1^20.7`$.

The maximum eigenvalue of Eliashberg’s equation $`\lambda `$ has turned out to be much smaller than unity ($`\lambda 0.43`$) at low temperature ($`0.01T0.04`$). We have also calculated for $`t_1=1.8`$, which is a favorable value for the near-quarter-filled case as we shall see below, but $`\lambda `$ is again very small ($`\lambda =`$0.36, 0.37 at $`T=`$0.04, 0.01, respectively).

Figure 2 shows the spin susceptibility ($`\chi `$), Green’s function ($`G`$) and the gap function ($`\varphi `$) for the second band from the bottom (called $`B`$, which crosses the Fermi energy) for $`t_1=1.8`$ and $`t_2=1.0`$ at $`T=0.025`$. We see the susceptibility has no strong peaks, unlike in the square lattice which has a large antiferromagnetic peak in the susceptibility around $`\stackrel{}{k}=(\pi ,\pi )`$ that is relevant to the superconductivity. The weak spin structure in the SS lattice should be due to the spin gap and/or the spin frustration which strongly prevent(s) the long range spin correlation when the dimerization is strongNote .

If we weaken the dimerization by making $`t_1`$ sufficiently smaller than $`t_2`$, the system becomes superconductive. Figure 3 shows the spin susceptibility, Green’s function and the gap function for $`t_1=0.5`$ and $`t_2=1.0`$ at $`T=0.025`$, where we obtain a large $`\lambda =0.94`$ close to unity ($`\lambda `$ becomes unity at lower temperature $`T0.02`$). In the figure we see the Fermi-surface nesting across $`k_x=\pm k_y`$ is appreciable and the spin susceptibility has a strong peak around $`(0,0)`$, which corresponds to the peak around $`(\pi ,\pi )`$ on the square lattice ($`t_1=0`$) folded. The result indicates that the dimerization (or the spin gap) is by no means a sufficient condition for very high $`T_C`$. If we turn to the very high $`T_C`$ systems obtained in KurokiArita ; NTT ; KTA ; Zeni ; Onari , dimerization causes the disconnected Fermi surfaces accompanied by antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations. So the present result is an example in which a dimerization works unfavorably for superconductivity in a simply-connected Fermi surface. In this sense, the disconnected Fermi surfaces rather than the dimerization is essential for very high $`T_C`$ in KurokiArita ; NTT ; KTA ; Zeni ; Onari .

We have a drastically different situation when we change the band filling to quarter filling. Figure 4 shows the temperature dependence of $`\lambda `$ at $`n=0.55`$ with the same parameter as those at $`n=0.85`$. We see $`\lambda `$ is strongly enhanced at low temperatures.

Figure 5 shows $`\chi `$, $`G`$ and $`\varphi `$ for the lowest two bands (called A and B) that cross the Fermi energy for this filling. The peak in the spin susceptibility around $`(0,0)`$ is much stronger than for the half-filling. The spin fluctuation should mediate the pair-scattering across which the gap function has opposite signs, resulting in $`d`$-wave superconductivity. How can this happen when the nesting vector is close to $`(0,0)`$? Figure 5(d) depicts the answer: the gap function has a $`d`$-wave symmetry as in the square lattice near half-filling. This is physically natural because the SS lattice around quarter filling is effectively a square lattice around half filling in the strongly dimerized case $`|t_1||t_2|`$.

As mentioned above, it is interesting to compare the SS lattice with organic, $`d`$-wave superconductors such as $`\kappa `$-(BEDT-TTF)2X.BEDT  If we assume the dimerization is sufficiently strong, the original system around quarter filling can be represented by a two-bandSchmalian ; KurokiAokiBEDT  or a single-bandKinoKontani ; onebandBEDT  Hubbard model around half filling.KurokiBEDT  There, superconductivity is enhanced for $`1/4`$ filled band by strong dimerization as in the present study. Although organic materials that can be modeled by the SS lattice have not been known, it would be interesting to search for them.

In summary, we have studied superconductivity in the Hubbard model on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice with FLEX. Our analysis shows superconducting transition temperature, if any, is very small around half filling despite the presence of a spin gap due to the dimerization, while superconductivity is favored around quarter filling. Comparison with the RVB theory for the $`t`$-$`J`$ modelShastryKumar  is interesting because the RVB theory has shown $`T_C`$ of $`O(0.01t)`$. While this may naively seem inconsistent with our result, the $`T_C`$ of a conventional RVB theory on the SS lattice is much smaller than that ($`O(0.1t)`$) for the square latticetJ ; Ubbens . So the situation about the difference between $`T_C`$’s is similar to this case.

This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research and Special Coordination Funds from the Ministry of Education of Japan. Numerical calculations were performed at the Supercomputer Center, Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Tokyo.


text:
# Experience with the Open Source based implementation for ATLAS Conditions Data Management System

## I Introduction

The ATLAS Conditions Database Management System, ATLAS ConditionsDB for short, is the system responsible for storing data from conditions associated with ATLAS experiment. Conditions Data reflect the conditions in which the experiment was performed and the actual physics data was taken. This includes detector calibration and alignment, robustness data from Detector Control System (DCS) and detector description. Stating in another way, conditions data is the slowly evolving data associated with the experiment besides event data itself. This data is produced in many different subsystems and each provides data at different rate and store objects of different granularities. From the data consumer side the situation is similar, having consumers with many different demands concerning data rate and latency.

The Open Source based Implementation of the ATLAS ConditionsDB described in this paper is the result of a development effort of almost 2 years. The aim of this effort was to provide an alternative solution to those that have been presented by the CERN-IT, based in commercial solutions like Objectivity and Oracle. Several reasons leaded us to select an Open Source Solution. Namely:

* It’s free of charge.
* A growing community of programmers have a good understanding of open source technologies.
* Code availability allow fine tuning and specific optimizations when necessary.
* available for most common platforms.

Being free of charge, by itself, is not a big issue when one take into consideration the huge budgets involved in particle physics experiments, but it has been crucial to widespread these technologies amongst the communities of programmers. The three remaining items are key ingredients to decouple the applications from the hardware or software vendors, as required for long term projects. Furthermore it is the authors belief that is possible and preferable to achieve the desired performance by carefully taken design choices than by relying in the technological advanced features present in high-end commercial solutions.

This implementation uses a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) server as the underlying storage technology. The development was done using mostly MySQL, but any other RDBMS that understands standard SQL could be used. Yet the choice of MySQL was sensible. The MySQL is proven to be a reliable and very fast RDBMS, although it lacks some important features found in many common commercial RDBMS.

## II The ATLAS Conditions Data Model

In this section shall briefly explain what is the data model used in the ATLAS ConditionsDB. In this context, data model means what model is exposed to the user/client through the API specs-ref . This is something different from the model used to actually store the data. The later shall be designate *database schema* and will be explained bellow. The API ConditionsDB specification specs-ref  was the starting point for this work.

The present ATLAS ConditionsDB model shares many of the features found in the BaBar ConditionsDB model babar-ref . The data is organized in a filesystem like hierarchical structure, where each folder holds a particular type of data. A version and a time of validity (IOV) is also associated with the data. Figure 1 shows the three variation axis associated with the data. No matter which underlying technology is used, the exposed model is always the same. In this implementation, a relational model was used. The first problem was understanding how to map this data model that uses an hierarchical folder structure on the underlying relational model which uses tables and columns. The second problem was understanding the type of queries that were being used: which were the most common ones; how could one redesign the tables to make the life easier for the database server.

## III Design Aspects

In this section we will try to give an overview of the architecture and design of the Open Source ATLAS ConditionsDB Management System. The system was designed with three features in mind: backend independency; data volume scalability and extensibility. By backend independency we mean that it should be possible, and easy, to replace the underlying RDBMS, as long as it understands standard SQL. Note that we carefully stated backend independency, not technology independency, which has a more generic mean. Data volume scalability should allow us to reach, at a certain point, a $`O(1)`$ performance as function of data volume. It also means that should be easy to switch the data, in small chunks, back and forth from tertiary data storage. Extensibility means that the software system must be modular with well defined interfaces in order to improve maintainability and extension of functionality with new modules. Next we will show how we achieved each of these features.

### III.1 Data volume scalability

This issue is closed connected to the overall performance of the system, Nevertheless, it should be stressed that no post design optimizations can help to get rid of a O(n!) behavior. This is an obvious fact, although so often completely ignored. Yet our approach to this problem was not to devise a full O(1) compliant design from the beginning. We took what we can call a successive approximation with design/test/redesign approach. The drawback of this approach is that one takes a lot of effort in design, knowing from the beginning that it will be thrown away. Lets be honest with ourselves, we end up throwing away a lot of work even when we do not assume that fact from the beginning.

The task of making a Database management system that can scale well to the data volumes expected from an experiment like ATLAS pushes the limits of our imagination. Every thing that can be done to improve performance must be done. Not only the database schema must be optimum for the problem in hands, one must understand which data clustering model is best suited for the Conditions Data. Our implementation supports a data clustering model which should scale very smoothly over large data volumes. By design the clustering can naturally be made in a per folder basis. Moreover, our implementation supports data partitioning inside folders in a time or version basis. Thus, the data partitioning mechanism is highly configurable and flexible enough to adapt be adapted to several situations.

### III.2 Backend independency

Willing to use Open Source also means willing to get rid of supplier’s dependence. Using standards instead of proprietary or specific vendor features is a good thing, anyway. Unless there was a very good reason to stick with a specific backend technology e would always prefer to be able to switch to a different backend whenever we feel like. For the time being almost all the development has been done with the MySQL backend, but plans exist to test our implementation with other RDBMS backends and even two support different backends in the same implementation. A successful experiment have already been made that used the Postgress as a RDBMS backend.

### III.3 Extensibility

A modular design policy was implemented since the beginning. The software is composed of several layers and each accomplishes a particular task. This design has made possible, or at least easier to implement new features and to maintain the code in a cooperative development environment. Figure 2 depicts the modular software architecture as it is for the latest version.

The recent developments that will be described in this paper on section IV.

## IV New Features

### IV.1 New database schema

The new database schema was designed in order to allow extension of the API to support new features. Notably the Tiny Objects. A considerable redesign of the database schema was also needed in order to improve storage performance. The results from comparison tests before and after redesign are presented in section V. Figure 3 shows the table schema as it was at time or writing this paper.

### IV.2 Support for tiny objects

The *Tiny Objects* in the context of the ConditionsDB were proposed few time ago to the CERN ATLAS community in response to a requirements expressed from users whom wished to store objects with simple structures but with a huge granularity. The best example of objects of this kind are the data coming from the DCS part of the detector. To deal with this type of objects the API was extended in order to handle the PVSS interface.

What the people from DCS needed was a way to efficiently store and retrieve very small data objects, typically, integers or floats. The idea of *Tiny Objects* extension is to provide such way at the cost of dropping some general features. Features which, after all, are not need in this case.

The DCS objects are often simple scalar object representing the ddp or the temperature in certain detector elements. This are very small object that will get a huge storage overhead if stored with the primitive ConditionsDB approach. On the other hand, people from the DCS don’t foresee the absolute need for using versions for their objects, only the interval of validity.

Starting from version 0.3, the API features storage and retrieving of tiny objects. That feature actually match a user requirement. Remarkable is the fact that people from the DCS are already using this brand new *Tiny Objects* extension in the test beam at CERN.

### IV.3 TCL Test Framework

The first tests performed on this particular implementation of the ATLAS Conditions Database were based in the test suite from the Oracle based IT s implementation. The main purpose was then to evaluate in what extent the behavior of the API was the same regardless of the underlying implementation. Yet these tests were inappropriate for an optimization phase: they do not fully explore the eventual weaknesses and bottlenecks of the implementation and, on the other end, they do not reproduce the foreseen runtime operations. Thus, recently, a considerable effort was devoted to fully understand the system in terms of performance. Soon become clear that we needed a flexible, highly configurable, test framework. More like a scripting system. So, wrappers for the CondDB s C++ API classes were developed for TCL, giving rise to a complete CondDB scripting system.

To illustrate the idea we reproduce a simple test program, that opens a database and create a folder structure, both in C++ and in TCL. Immediately becomes clear that the TCL version is more concise, besides being less error prone and having the advantage of not requiring the usual compile/link cycle.

The exception handling code was removed from both, the C++ example and the TCL example for sake of clarity.

#### C++ example

```
// File: "basicSession.cxx"
//
// Created at Mon Aug 26 18:25:22 WEST 2002
// by Jorge Lima, portuguese TDAQ group,
// to the atlas collaborations.
//
// Based on the CERN IT Objectivity Implementation.
//

#include <ICondDBMgr.h>
#include <CondDBMySQLMgrFactory.h>

#include <string>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ( int argc, char* argv[] )
{
    ICondDBMgr* CondDBmgr =
         CondDBMySQLMgrFactory::createCondDBMgr();

    CondDBmgr->init();

    // Create a ConditionsDB

    CondDBmgr->startUpdate();
    CondDBmgr->createCondDB();
    CondDBmgr->commit();

    CondDBMySQLMgrFactory::destroyCondDBMgr( CondDBmgr );
    return 0;
}

```

#### TCL example

```
#!/bin/sh
#
# TCL Wrapper for ConditionsDB
# Lisbon ATLAS-DAQ Collaboration
# Ported from C++ to TCL by Jorge Lima 2003/04/15
#\
exec tclsh "$0" "$@"

package require conddb 1.0

set CondDBmgr \
     [CondDBMySQLMgrFactory::createCondDBMgr]

$CondDBmgr init

# Create a ConditionsDB

$CondDBmgr startUpdate
$CondDBmgr createCondDB
$CondDBmgr commit

CondDBMySQLMgrFactory::destroyCondDBMgr $CondDBmgr

```

### IV.4 Other uses for scripting

Although initialy developed as a test framework, the scripting bind to the ConditionsDB has a very broad scope. It is important to remark that no performance penalty is noticeable by using the scripting interface to the conditions DB instead of C++. Of course, the scripting environment is not intended to replace the C++ programming environment, and as more complex object manipulations are necessary the scripting environment might became rather limited. Yet as far as storing, retrieving and browsing is concerned a TCL program is as fast as a C++ program. For example the ConditionsDB TCL/TK browser, which used to interact with the ConditionsDB through a command line based tool written in C++, can now be completely rewritten in a very straight forward way. For very long that users made suggestions regarding this browser in order to make of it a more useful tool. Work is in progress in this area and it will hopefully possible to provide very soon a complete and fully functional browser using the TCL API. Figure 4

Moreover, the experience acquired while building this scripting environment will make the job easier if we happen to need to write bindings for other scripting language like, for instance, *python* or *php*.

The TCL API also includes tools for performance measurement, which make this API specialy suited for building performance tests.

## V Performance Test Results

From time to time we have presented performance comparisons between our implementation of the ATLAS ConditionsDB and the reference ORACLE based implementation supported by the CERN-IT. Soon it became clear that this was a development that was worth being investigated further. Even before any optimizations or use of indexes, our implementation with the MySQL backend, outperformed the ORACLE s one by a factor of 10 to 50 for most common operations, as shown in table 1.

There was still a problem to be solved: we identified a worst case for storage operations where the performance was unusualy poor. Moreover, storing an object took $`O(n)`$ time where n were the number of objects already stored in the table. Although it s clear that, in the ConditionsDB a storing is complex operation (involving far more SQL queries) than a fetch operation, there was no trivial explanation for such a different behavior between this case and the storage in other situations. This test was not performed in Oracle9i based implementation but, after investigating the problem, we believe this was a problem specific to our implementation.

The problem was successful identified and corrected. Now the store time is nearly constant with respect to the number of stored objects. Though, this implied, not just simple optimizations, like indexes or caching policies, but rather a schema redesign. The system is converging to a $`O(1)`$ performance. There are, however, some operations that still must be tuned. We can even expect complete table schema redesign in order to cope completely with the $`O(1)`$ goal.

Current performance comparisons between our ConditionsDB implementation, prior and after the schema redesign are shown in tables 1 and 2. It must be stressed that the new implementation also includes the extensions mentioned in section X. So, the new implementation is, both, more functional and is closer to the $`O(1)`$ goal.

In the table for different results are shown, two for store operations an two for read operations. The *Store A* test stores objects having the same interval of validity while the *Store B* test stores objects with overlapping intervals of validity, with monotonically increasing start times. This was identified as a worst case situation for the store operation using the old database schema. The *Read A* and *Read B* tests iterate over the objects stored with the *store A* and *store B* tests respectively.

## VI Future developments

The ConditionsDB is a rapidly evolving subject. In the last months, not only considerable human resources have been allocated to this development effort which resulted in many improvements in several areas, but also, the HEP community is getting acquired of the true dimension of the problem and has started to contribute with their feedback. Thus, it’s not an easy task to foresee what will be the future developments in this area. Nevertheless the next few modifications will most likely to happen.

### VI.1 New tagging mechanism

The redesign o the tagging mechanism will be the next milestone. As pointed out several times \[Malon\], the current tagging mechanism is, both, incomplete and unreliable. This is not a problem specific to our implementation. It is also present in the ORACLE’s implementation as it was in the Objectivity’s one. The problem lies in the original API specification \[CondDBSPec\] that is dated back to XX-XX-1999. Changing this situation would require that we rewrite the API specification.

It is incomplete because doesn’t allow tagging of other objects besides head. This is contrary to what is stated in the requirements collected so far \[Req\]. Several scenarios for tagging were presented by \[Malon\] that cannot simply be accomplished by the current implementation.

It is also unreliable, because it can effectively lead to data loss, as no other way to reference a particular version exists besides referencing it by head or by a tag. If after inserting some objects one user wishes to tag the head for later reference, he/she can end up tagging a completely different version, because some other user, in the meantime, inserted new object, completely replacing the head.

A proper resolution to this problem necessarily passes by rewriting the API specification with the involvement of all the community. Yet, although many times stressed the importance of this question, no significant advances have been seen from that side. A much ruder approach will be to develop a working solution, get the feedback from users, iterate a few times and finally, if we happen to converge to a viable solution, write the specification. The later approach will be taken for practical reasons.

### VI.2 Expandable Objects

The concept of *Expandable object* will be soon introduced. Briefly this are objects for which schema is known at the DBMS level. This means that any client can query the DBMS about the object structure and get as reply a platform independent representation.

The implementation for *Expandable Objects* will benefit from the work done for the *Tiny Object*

In the present situation two main frameworks for Memory Databases exist in the ATLAS context. Each use their own object schema. The Online Memory Database is based in the OKS, and the Offline Memory Database is based in the Athena Transient Store. Typically, the Memory Databases will interact with the ConditionsDB storing their objects as BLOBs. Anybody from outside a given framework will be completely unable to understand objects stored from within that framework.

The *Expandable Objects* concept will allow any client to browse through the object schema because the database management system will be schema aware.

### VI.3 Minor issues

Work has still to be done in many different areas. Now that most of the performance bottlenecks have been removed, more realistic tests involving many clients can be performed. Different multi-server configurations can be experimented in order to understand in which direction to go.

For a long time that an $`<XML>`$ integration in the API as been deferred due to other priorities. An embedded $`<XML>`$ parser can be an effective way of configuring the database in a way that is very extendible.

## VII Conclusions

The ATLAS effort to manage the Conditions Database is extremely demanding and complex. The system must cope with many different kinds of data that must be accessible and distributed both online and offline making it crucial to investigate carefully the performance implications of each architecture option.

For large high energy physics experiments that have to run for a large number of years it is mandatory to achieve decoupling from the applications to the specific external software that is used. The relational model with the recent object extensions provides the bases of such independence. In the case o MySQL some object features already present in other RDBMS, like the support for variable length arrays, had to be implemented in a thin software layer on top of the basis API.

The usage of Open Source relational DBMS has proven to be quite adequate since it not only allows the easy portability to the different platforms used online but also shows very good performance results. Furthermore:

* The proposed and implemented clustering model, which can use multiple databases and servers, should scale over data volume and time.
* Porting between different backend implementations doesn’t constitute a major effort as verified while porting the original implementation to Postgress.
* The MySQL implementation outperformed the Oracle’s one by a factor of 50 on most usual operations.

There is also a strong effort to make the system more robust and easy to use. The Open Source nature of the project and of all used components makes it possible, for a wide variety of users, to run it and provide valuable information to improve its robustness.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors wish to thank all the ATLAS-TDAQ community by their feedback and valuable suggestions. A special word of thanks for David Malon for the way he clearly pointed out some important design flaws. Thanks to those contributing actively to the T-DAQ ConditionsDB requirements webreq-ref  effort.


text:
# Experimental verification of energy correlations in entangled photon pairs

## I Introduction

Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) Hong\_PRA31  is a widespread method used for generation of entangled pairs of photons. These highly correlated particles are favourable for testing many interesting features of quantum mechanics PerinaHradil .

Transverse correlations in SPDC were theoretically analyzed in detail by Rubin Rubin\_PRA54 . Transfer of angular spectrum between SPDC beams was used for optical imaging by means of two-photon optics Pittman\_PRA52 ; Pittman\_PRA53 . The angular spectrum is also transferred from the pump beam to both down-converted beams, as examined, e.g., in Ref. Monken\_PRA57 . The coherence times of the down-converted photons were measured first in the 80’s by Hong, Ou and Mandel (HOM) Hong\_PRL59 . The HOM interferometer was used in many experiments testing interference from the indistinguishability point of view Pittman\_PRL77 ; Kwiat\_PRA45 . Placing linear polarizers into both HOM interferometer arms enables demonstration of violation of Bell’s inequalities, measuring correlations of mixed signal and idler photons from the pair as a function of the two polarizer settings Ou\_PRL61 .

Franson Franson\_PRL62  suggested another experiment. By use of two spatially separated interferometers, one can observe a violation of Bell’s inequalities for position and time. First high-visibility interference experiments of this type were performed using Michelson interferometer Brendel\_PRL66 , reaching a visibility of 87%. Later experiments utilized spatially separated Mach-Zehnder interferometers to measure nonlocal interference Rarity\_PRA45 ; Kwiat\_PRA47 . Interference was observed also in mixing of signal photons produced by SPDC in two nonlinear crystals Zou\_PRL69 . It was demonstrated that when the optical path difference through this interferometer exceeds the coherence length, interference appears as a spectrum modulation. Finally, complementarity between interference and a which-path measurement was studied for the case of down-converted light in Ref. Bjork .

The aim of this work is to study the correlations of energies of the two photons from the entangled pair directly. To achieve this goal, we place a Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometer in the idler beam and set the optical-path difference larger than the coherence length of the idler photons. Thus, no interference pattern is observed upon modulation of the optical-path difference on a scale of the wavelength. If a narrow frequency filter were placed in the idler beam in front of the MZ interferometer, the coherence length would be effectively prolonged and the interference pattern would be observed. Similarly, placing a scanning filter in front of one detector at the output of the MZ interferometer, one could observe an intensity modulation of particular frequency component, because individual frequency components of the field interfere independently and the filter selects just one quasi-monochromatic portion of them. However, there is no filter in the idler-beam path containing the MZ interferometer in the setup described in this paper. We place the narrow frequency filter in the signal beam and observe an effective prolongation of the coherence length in the MZ interferometer and a substantial increase of visibility in a coincidence-count measurement. This prolongation is the consequence of the correlation of energies of the two beams Kwiat\_PRL66 ; Dusek\_CJP46 ; Trojek\_CJP . Kwiat and Chiao used similar setup in their pioneering work in experiments testing Berry’s phase at the single-photon level Kwiat\_PRL66 . By filtering the signal photon by a ”remote” filter with a bandwidth of 0.86 nm, they observed in coincidence measurement the interference fringes visibility of 60 % behind a Michelson interferometer detuned by 220 $`\mu `$m. They interpreted these results in terms of a nonlocal collapse of the wave function. In this paper we extend these original results by utilizing a one-order-of-magnitude narrower frequency filter, the Fabry-Perot (FP) resonator. Moreover, the visibility dependence on the MZ interferometer detuning is derived and measured.

The paper is organized as follows. In section II, we describe the experimental setup. In section III, we give the basic formulas describing this experimental situation. In section IV, the energy correlations are measured experimentally and the agreement with the theory is verified. It is important to note that the increase of visibility described above could also be observed with optical fields exhibiting classical correlations Kwiat\_PRL66 ; Dusek\_CJP46 . To exclude this possibility we also test time correlations of the photon pairs generated by our source Kwiat\_PRA47 ; Franson\_PRL67 . This is shown and discussed in section V. Section VI concludes the paper.

## II Experiment

A scheme of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1. Type-I parametric down-conversion occurs in a LiIO3 nonlinear crystal (NLC) pumped by a krypton-ion cw laser at frequency $`\omega _p`$ (413.1 nm). Signal photons $`\omega _1`$ and idler photons $`\omega _2`$ ($`\omega _1+\omega _2=\omega _p`$) are selected by apertures A1 and A2, respectively, and coupled into fibers by lenses $`L_1`$ and $`L_2`$. A frequency filter F is placed in the signal-beam path. S is a shutter optionally closing the idler beam. AG is an air-gap that allows to set the length of one arm (called s) of the fiber-based MZ interferometer with a precision of 0.1 $`\mu `$m. Phase modulator PM is used to change the optical path of the other arm (called l) of the interferometer on a wavelength scale to observe the interference pattern. FCi and FCo denote input and output fiber couplers respectively. D1, D2A, D2B denote Perkin-Elmer SPCM photodetectors. Detection electronics record simultaneous detections (within a 4 ns time window) of detectors D1 and D2A, respectively of detectors D1 and D2B. These data are transferred to a PC as a function of the air-gap position ($`l_{AG}`$) and the phase set by the PM.

Because of thermal fluctuations, the difference of optical lengths of the fiber MZ interferometer arms drifts on the scale of several nanometers per second. Therefore it is necessary to actively stabilize the interferometer. We use attenuated pulsed laser-diode beam connected to the free input of the interferometer (Input 0 in Fig. 1) for the stabilization. The measurements run in cycles repeating two steps. First, the down-conversion idler beam is blocked by the shutter S, and the pulsed laser is switched on. A zero phase position of the phase modulator is found that corresponds to minimum counts on the detector D2A. Next, the pulsed laser is switched off and the shutter is opened. The phase in the MZ interferometer is then set against the last found zero phase position and the measurement is performed. A time duration of one measurement cycle is 10 seconds.

We perform four different measurements distinguished by the use of different filters. First, we use the setup described in Fig. 1 without any filter in the signal-photon path. The visibility of the coincidence-count interference pattern is peaked around the balanced MZ interferometer with a FWHM of 160 $`\mu `$m. Second, we insert a narrow band interference filter in the signal-photon path and the visibility peak broadens (350 $`\mu `$m). Third, we use a FP resonator to filter the signal photons. Then the high-visibility region is broadened considerably, but the measured dependence is modulated with a period corresponding to one roundtrip in the FP resonator. Finally, we insert both filters (the FP resonator and the narrow band interference filter) in the signal-photon path. In this case no oscillations appear in the measured visibility of the coincidence-count interference. The theory presented in the next section is intended to explain this behavior of the visibility pattern for the above specified cases.

## III Theory

In this section we briefly mention theoretical description of the behavior of photon pairs generated by SPDC in our experimental setup (Fig. 1) and define the used notation. The theoretical coincidence-count interference visibility is calculated for the Gaussian filter (section III.1) and for the Gaussian filter together with the FP resonator (section III.2).

SPDC is commonly studied in the first-order perturbation theory which gives for the cw pumping at the carrying frequency $`\omega _p`$ a two-photon state $`|\psi ^{(1)}`$ at the output plane of the nonlinear crystal Ou\_PRA40 ; Grice\_PRA56 ; Perina\_PRA59 ; Perina\_EPJD7 ; Atature\_PRA66 ; Nambu\_PRA66

$$|\psi ^{(1)}=C_\psi 𝑑\omega _1𝑑\omega _2\mathrm{\Phi }(\omega _1,\omega _2)\delta (\omega _1+\omega _2\omega _p)\widehat{a}_1^{}(\omega _1)\widehat{a}_2^{}(\omega _2)|\mathrm{vac}.$$
(1)
The symbol $`\widehat{a}_j^{}(\omega _j)`$, $`j=1,2,`$ stands for the creation operator of a photon with the frequency $`\omega _j`$ in the field $`j`$. The $`\delta `$ function in Eq. (1) expresses the energy conservation law. The phase-matching function $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\omega _1,\omega _2)`$ describes correlations between modes in the signal and idler fields and is found in the form

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(\omega _1,\omega _2)=\frac{1\mathrm{exp}[i(\omega _1+\omega _2\omega _p)L/v_g]}{i(\omega _1+\omega _2\omega _p)/v_g},$$
(2)
$`L`$ is the length of the nonlinear crystal, $`v_g`$ is the group velocity of the down-converted light (identical for signal and idler photons in degenerate type-I process).

Photons generated via SPDC are conveniently described with the use of a two-photon probability amplitude $`A`$ defined as

$$A(\tau _1,\tau _2)=\mathrm{vac}|\widehat{E}_1^{(+)}(\tau _1)\widehat{E}_2^{(+)}(\tau _2)|\psi ^{(1)},$$
(3)
which provides the two-photon amplitude behind the apertures. The symbol $`\widehat{E}_j^{(+)}`$ denotes the positive-frequency part of the electric field operator of the $`j`$-th down-converted field. The two-photon amplitude $`A_{MZI}`$ appropriate for the case when both photons are located just at the detectors D1 and D2A, or D1 and D2B (see Fig. 1) can be expressed in the form Trojek\_CJP

$$A_{MZI}(\tau _1,\tau _2)=T_sA(\tau _1,\tau _2)+T_lA(\tau _1,\tau _2+\mathrm{\Delta }t),$$
(4)
i.e., as a sum of two contributions, each representing one alternative path of the idler-photon propagation through the MZ interferometer. Here, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is the propagation time difference of the two interferometer arms, $`T_s`$ and $`T_l`$ are the overall amplitude transmittances of the two alternative paths.

The coincidence-count rate $`R_c`$ measured in this experiment can be represented in terms of the two-photon amplitude $`A_{MZI}`$ as follows

$$R_c(\mathrm{\Delta }t)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\tau _1_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\tau _2\left|A_{MZI}(\tau _1,\tau _2)\right|^2.$$
(5)
The normalized coincidence-count rate $`R_n`$ then reads

$$R_n(\mathrm{\Delta }t)=1+\rho (\mathrm{\Delta }t),$$
(6)
where $`\rho `$ is an interference term:

$$\rho (\mathrm{\Delta }t)=\frac{2\mathrm{R}\mathrm{e}\left\{T_sT_l^{}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\tau _1_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\tau _2A(\tau _1,\tau _2)A^{}(\tau _1,\tau _2+\mathrm{\Delta }t)\right\}}{(|T_s|^2+|T_l|^2)_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\tau _1_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\tau _2|A(\tau _1,\tau _2)|^2}.$$
(7)
The symbol $`\mathrm{Re}`$ denotes the real part of the argument. The detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is given as $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=l_{AG}/c`$, where $`l_{AG}`$ is the air-gap position ($`l_{AG}=0`$ corresponds to the balanced interferometer) and $`c`$ is the speed of light. The visibility $`V`$ of the coincidence-count interference pattern described by $`R_n(\mathrm{\Delta }t)`$ for a given detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ of the MZ interferometer is calculated according to

$$V=\frac{R_{n,\mathrm{max}}R_{n,\mathrm{min}}}{R_{n,\mathrm{max}}+R_{n,\mathrm{min}}}.$$
(8)
The quantities $`R_{n,\mathrm{max}}`$ and $`R_{n,\mathrm{min}}`$ are the maximum and minimum values obtained in one optical period of the interference pattern.

### III.1 Setup with a Gaussian filter

In real experiments, the idler and signal beams are usually filtered by interference filters before they are coupled to the fibers to minimize the noise counts arising from stray light in the laboratory. Even in the absence of interference filters (cut-off filters blocking the scattered UV pump and luminescence are sufficient), geometric frequency filtering occurs due to a limited aperture of the fiber-coupling optics. This is due to the fact that SPDC output directions of the phase-matched photons of a pair depend on a particular combination of their frequencies $`\omega _1,\omega _2`$.

The influence of the interference filters and the filtering due to the coupling apertures can be approximately modelled using Gaussian filters with the intensity transmittance given by the expression

$$T_{Gj}(\omega _j)=\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{(\omega _j\omega _j^0)^2}{\sigma _j^2}\right],j=1,2.$$
(9)
$`\omega _j^0`$ is the central frequency and the FWHM of the filter intensity profile obtainable experimentally is given by $`2\sqrt{\mathrm{ln}2}\sigma _j`$. In the case without additional filters, $`\sigma _1=\sigma _2`$.

The interference term $`\rho `$ is given by

$`\rho (\mathrm{\Delta }t)={\displaystyle \frac{2\mathrm{R}\mathrm{e}\left\{T_l^{}T_s\mathrm{exp}\left[i\omega _2^0\mathrm{\Delta }t\right]\right\}}{|T_l|^2+|T_s|^2}}\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }t^2}{4\beta _2}}\right],`$
$`\text{where}\beta _2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sigma _1^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sigma _2^2}}.`$ (10)
In the ideal case, when both paths in the MZ interferometer are equally probable ($`T_l=T_s`$), the interference term can be simplified to the form

$$\rho (\mathrm{\Delta }t)=\mathrm{cos}(\omega _2^0\mathrm{\Delta }t)\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }t^2}{4\beta _2}\right].$$
(11)
The first function (cosine) represents a rapidly oscillating function, while the other function (Gaussian) describes the envelope of the oscillations. The local visibility of the coincidence-count interference pattern $`R_n`$ around a certain value $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ of the interferometer detuning is then equal to the envelope function

$$V(\mathrm{\Delta }t)=\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }t^2}{4\beta _2}\right].$$
(12)
### III.2 Setup with a Fabry-Perot resonator

Next, we use a FP resonator as a tunable filter in the signal-photon path. This resonator can provide a two-orders-of-magnitude narrower frequency filter in comparison with the above used Gaussian filter. It should be stressed that the geometric filtering mentioned above also takes place in this case. The intensity transmittance of the FP resonator is given by the expression SalehTeich

$$T_{FP1}(\omega _1)=\frac{T_{\mathrm{max}}}{1+\left(\frac{2F}{\pi }\right)^2\mathrm{sin}^2\left(\frac{l_F}{c}\omega _1\right)},$$
(13)
which is a periodic function with narrow peaks of maximum transmittance $`T_{\mathrm{max}}`$ at a distance given by free spectral range $`\omega _{FSR}=\pi c/l_F`$. Parameter $`F`$ is the finesse of the resonator. The width of the transmittance peaks is inversely proportional to the finesse.

In this case the interference term is found to be

$$\rho (\mathrm{\Delta }t)=\frac{2\mathrm{R}\mathrm{e}\left\{T_l^{}T_s\mathrm{exp}\left[i\omega _2^0\mathrm{\Delta }t\right]\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑\nu _1\frac{\mathrm{exp}\left[\nu _1^2\beta _2i\nu _1\mathrm{\Delta }t\right]}{1+\left(\frac{2F}{\pi }\right)^2\mathrm{sin}^2\left(\frac{l_F}{c}(\omega _1^0+\nu _1)\right)}\right\}}{(|T_l|^2+|T_s|^2)\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑\nu _1\frac{\mathrm{exp}\left[\nu _1^2\beta _2\right]}{1+\left(\frac{2F}{\pi }\right)^2\mathrm{sin}^2\left(\frac{l_F}{c}(\omega _1^0+\nu _1)\right)}}.$$
(14)
Performing the integration we can introduce a new expression for the interference term

$$\rho (\mathrm{\Delta }t)=\frac{2}{C}\mathrm{Re}\left\{T_l^{}T_s\underset{n=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left(1+\frac{2}{\gamma }\frac{2}{\gamma }\sqrt{1+\gamma }\right)^{|n|}\mathrm{exp}\left[i(\omega _2^0\mathrm{\Delta }t+n\phi _0)\right]\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\left(\mathrm{\Delta }tnt_0\right)^2}{4\beta _2}\right]\right\}.$$
(15)
The new parameters $`C,t_0,\phi _0`$, and $`\gamma `$ are defined as follows

$`C`$ $`=`$ $`(|T_l|^2+|T_s|^2)\left(1+2{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\gamma }}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\gamma }}\sqrt{1+\gamma }\right)^n\mathrm{cos}(n\phi _0)\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{n^2t_0^2}{4\beta _2}}\right]\right),`$
$`t_0`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle \frac{l_F}{c}},\phi _0=2{\displaystyle \frac{l_F}{c}}\omega _1^0,\text{and}\gamma =\left({\displaystyle \frac{2F}{\pi }}\right)^2.`$ (16)
The symbol $`t_0`$ determines the time of one roundtrip in the FP resonator, $`\phi _0=\omega _1^0t_0`$ is a phase factor acquired in one roundtrip. The $`n`$-th term of the sum determining $`\rho `$ in Eq. (15) describes the case in which the signal photon propagates just $`|n|`$ times through the FP resonator and then leaves the resonator. Owing to entanglement of photons in a pair, the time structure of signal field introduced by the FP resonator Perina\_FP  is reflected in the idler-field interference pattern in the MZ interferometer. The $`n`$-th term contribution is peaked around the detuning value $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=nt_0`$. The maximal value reached for this detuning equals $`\left(1+2/\gamma 2\sqrt{1+\gamma }/\gamma \right)^{|n|}`$. The width of the peak is the same as in the case without the FP resonator, it is determined by the spectral width of the entangled photons. If the width of the peak is smaller than $`t_0`$, then the visibility resulting from (15) is a modulated function. We can get the following approximate expression for the upper envelope of this visibility dependence:

$$V^{\mathrm{upper}}(\mathrm{\Delta }t)=\left(1+\frac{2}{\gamma }\frac{2\sqrt{1+\gamma }}{\gamma }\right)^{\frac{|\mathrm{\Delta }t|}{t_0}}.$$
(17)
We note that the approximate expression for $`V^{\mathrm{upper}}`$ in Eq. (17) may be used even if the width of peaks is greater than $`t_0`$.

One can also compare the results given in Eqs. (15) and (10) from another point of view. In the setup without the FP resonator, detection of the signal photon by detector D1 yields the time of the pair creation. Therefore, one can distinguish, at least in principle, the path of the idler photon through the unbalanced MZ interferometer from the detection time at the detector D2A. Hence no interference can be observed. If the MZ interferometer’s detuning is equal to $`n`$ roundtrips in the FP resonator which is placed in the signal-photon path, one can not distinguish between two possible events: a) either the idler photon takes the shorter arm of the MZ and the signal photon makes $`m`$ roundtrips in the FP, where $`m`$ is an integer; b) or the idler photon takes the longer arm of the MZ and the signal photon makes $`m+n`$ roundtrips. This option of two indistinguishable paths restores the interference Franson\_PRL62 ; Brendel\_PRL66 ; Rarity\_PRA45 ; Kwiat\_PRA47 . The longer detuning $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, the more unbalanced interfering probability amplitudes (corresponding to cases a) and b)) and consequently the lower visibility.

## IV Energy correlations

First we use the setup shown in Fig. 1 without the FP resonator. Figure 2 shows the visibility of interference pattern in the measured coincidence-count rate between detectors D2A and D1 as a function of the air-gap position. The visibility reaches significant values only in a region whose width is inversely proportional to the bandwidths of the signal and idler spectra (see Eq. (12)). Diamonds correspond to the measurement without any filter, thus showing the effect of the geometric filtering of the fiber-coupling optics. Plotted errors represent the standard deviations. The dotted curve is a Gaussian fit of these data with a FWHM of 160 $`\mu `$m, which corresponds to a spectrum of 5.3 nm FWHM. This spectrum of the signal photons, calculated according to Eq. (9), is plotted with the dotted curve in the inset of Fig. 2.

Squares in Fig. 2 correspond to the coincidence-count interference visibility measured in the setup modified by inserting the narrow band interference filter centered at 826.4 nm (Andover Corporation) in the signal-beam path. Dots in the inset show the measured normalized transmittance of the filter provided by the manufacturer, and the continuous curve is a Gaussian fit of these experimental data with a FWHM of 1.8 nm. The parameters of the filter yield theoretical visibility dependence of a 350 $`\mu `$m FWHM (continuous curve). This curve fits well the experimental data (squares) in the central part of the pattern. The deviations from the Gaussian shape in the low-visibility wings are caused by the difference of the real spectrum of the filters from the Gaussian shape, as can be shown by a more detailed analysis tractable only numerically. The narrowing of the spectrum of signal photons from 5.3 nm to 1.8 nm thus leads to the broadening of the coincidence-count interference pattern from 160 $`\mu `$m to 350 $`\mu `$m.

Figure 3 shows the coincidence-count interference visibility measured with the FP resonator. The length of the resonator $`l_F`$ can be tuned over a range of 1.5 $`\mu `$m. The high-visibility region is now considerably wider than the one obtained in the previous case, but we get a modulated curve described by Eq. (15) instead of a single-peak function. The period of the measured visibility oscillations is given by one roundtrip in the FP resonator 2$`l_F`$, yielding the resonator length $`l_F95\mu `$m. We note that similar oscillations in interference patterns were observed in Gisin , where properties of entangled photon pairs generated by a train of pump pulses were studied.

The free spectral range of the FP resonator expressed in units of wavelength is $`\lambda _{FSR}=\frac{1}{2}\lambda ^2/l_F3.6`$ nm. Compared to the 5.3 nm FWHM of the geometric spectrum of signal photons, it is obvious that more than one peak of the FP contributes to the signal at detector D1. If we change the FP length $`l_F`$ by one quarter of the wavelength, the modulation of visibility changes from one limiting case to another according to the changes of the spectrum of the transmitted signal photons. $`l_F=95.00\mu `$m corresponds to the first limiting case. The theoretical spectrum has one dominant peak at the center and two weak satellites; the visibility modulation is smallest (dotted curve in Fig. 3). For $`l_F=94.80\mu `$m, the visibility modulation is largest, corresponding to the second limiting case (dashed curve in Fig. 3). In this case the spectrum is composed of two dominant equivalently strong maxima. The other two small maxima prevent the visibility from reaching zero at its minima. Comparing the theory with the experimental data, we have found that the FP resonator length that provides the measured visibility modulation is $`l_F=94.86\mu `$m (solid line in Fig. 3). The spectrum corresponding to this FP length is shown in Fig. 4.

To avoid the effect of multiple frequency peaks transmitted through the FP resonator, we use a combination of both filters (the FP resonator and the narrow band interference filter) in the signal-photon path. Figure 5 shows both the measured coincidence-count interference visibility (squares) and the theoretical curve (continuous curve) according to Eq. (15). For comparison, the dependences obtained for the setup with no filter are plotted as well (diamonds and dotted curve, same as in Fig. 2). Using both filters in the signal-photon path we are able to select just one narrow transmittance peak of the FP resonator. This is possible because the narrow band filter’s FWHM is smaller than the FP’s free spectral range. Scanning the FP’s length we are able to position this narrow transmittance peak to the center of the interference filter, $`l_F`$=95.03 $`\mu `$m, see the continuous line in the inset in Fig. 5. With this setting there are no oscillations in the visibility pattern any more.

From Fig. 5 we can clearly see that while there is no interference in the MZ interferometer detuned from the balanced position by a few millimeters in the idler beam, a high visibility can be achieved in coincidence-count measurements by placing a narrow frequency filter in the path of signal photons. This is a direct consequence of the strong energy correlations between the two entangled beams. One can also see this experiment from another point of view: The FP resonator serves as a postselection device that selects a quasi-monochromatic component of the signal beam. This selection is done in the idler beam by means of the coincidence-count measurement, thus yielding a wide autocorrelation function of the postselected idler beam.

## V Time correlations

First we describe theoretical results obtained for the Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer. The coincidence-count rate $`R_n^{HOM}`$ as a function of relative delay $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ between the signal and idler photons is determined in terms of the two-photon amplitude $`A`$ given in Eq. (3) as follows Perina\_PRA59

$$R_n^{HOM}(\mathrm{\Delta }t)=1\rho ^{HOM}(\mathrm{\Delta }t),\text{where}$$

$$\rho ^{HOM}(\mathrm{\Delta }t)=\frac{_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑t_A_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑t_B\mathrm{Re}\left\{A(t_A\mathrm{\Delta }t,t_B)A^{}(t_B\mathrm{\Delta }t,t_A)\right\}}{_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑t_A_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑t_B\left|A(t_A,t_B)\right|^2}.$$
(18)
Assuming that the spectrum of signal and idler photons is determined by the geometric filtering according to Eq. (9) with parameters $`\sigma _1=\sigma _2=\sigma `$, the interference term $`\rho ^{HOM}`$ of Eq. (18) assumes the form

$$\rho ^{HOM}(\mathrm{\Delta }t)=\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\sigma ^2\mathrm{\Delta }t^2}{2}\right].$$
(19)
The width of the dip given by $`\rho ^{HOM}`$ is half the width of the visibility peak given by Eq. (12) in the case of geometric filtering without any additional filters.

It is necessary to emphasize that the experiment as performed in the previous section is not a proof of the strong quantum correlations produced by the entangled state of Eq. (1). For instance, if the source emitted two monochromatic photons with classically correlated frequencies $`\omega _1`$ and $`\omega _2`$ (in the sense of a statistical ensemble) with a proper classical probability density $`p(\omega _1,\omega _2)`$, the same increase of visibility in the coincidence-count measurement with a FP resonator and a MZ interferometer would be obtained Dusek\_CJP46 . However, such a source could never give the tight time correlations of detection instants observed in the HOM interferometric setup Hong\_PRL59 . In order to confirm the validity of the description based on the entangled two-photon state, we performed a time correlation measurement in the HOM interferometer with our source of photon pairs.

Figure. 6 shows a scheme of the HOM interferometric setup. The time difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is obtained by translating the fiber-coupling collimator in one of the HOM interferometer’s arms towards the nonlinear crystal. The width of the measured coincidence-count dip (see Fig. 7) is 72 $`\mu `$m which yields the coherence time of the down-converted photons of 240 fs and the spectral FWHM of 6.0 nm. This spectral width is slightly larger than the one obtained with the MZ interferometer (5.3 nm). The difference of these two results is due to a slight readjustment needed after changing the experimental setup (compare Figs. 6 and 1).

## VI Conclusions

Second- and fourth-order interference experiments testing the nature of entangled two-photon fields generated in spontaneous parametric down-conversion have been studied. Energy correlations were observed by frequency filtering of signal photons, while the idler photons propagated through a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. It has been demonstrated that even if the MZ interferometer is unbalanced to the extent that no interference can be observed, interference with a high visibility is restored in the coincidence-count detections provided that the signal photons are transmitted through a narrow frequency filter. Theoretical results obtained in the presented model for a Gaussian filter, Fabry-Perot resonator or both filters together are in good agreement with our experimental results. Tight time correlations have been observed in the Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer.

It should be stressed that both experiments inspecting energy correlations and time correlations provide complementary information about the generated photon state. The same results in each individual experiment can be obtained with classical fields, but there is no classical model that could explain both of them together. This shows that the two-photon state generated in the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion is properly described by the *entangled* two-photon state of Eq. (1), because it is this entangled two-photon state that can explain both energy and time correlations together.

## VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic under grants LN00A015, CEZ J14/98, RN19982003012, and by EU grant under QIPC project IST-1999-13071 (QUICOV). The authors would like to thank A. Lukš and V. Peřinová for help with mathematical derivations.