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# Electron rescattering and the fragmentation dynamics of molecules in strong optical fields

## I Introduction

Ready availability of intense, pulsed infrared radiation from ultrafast lasers has opened new vistas for probing the nonlinear dynamics of atomic and molecular interactions in strong optical fields. Field-induced ionization of atoms and molecules is a foregone conclusion in such interactions. A special feature of strong-field ionization dynamics is that ionized electrons continue to “feel” the effect of the optical field. The wavepacket that describes the ejected electron initially moves away from the vicinity of the parent. In the case of optical fields that are linearly polarized, the electronic wavepacket is pulled back towards the parent half a cycle after it was initially formed. The probability of recollision between the electron and the parent depends on the laser phase, and also the initial velocity and initial position of the electronic wave packet. Such rescattering allows the nuclear wavepacket to be probed with time resolutions that are lower than the pulse duration afforded by the laser that is used. The correlation between the electronic and nuclear wavepackets that are created in the ionization event has, recently, been utilized to probe the motion of the vibrational wavepacket of D$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ over several femtoseconds with unprecedented temporal accuracy of 200 attoseconds and spatial accuracy of 0.05 Å . Rescattering also affords other tangible benefits in that, in the case of atomic ionization, it gives rise to high harmonic emission , generation of energetic electrons , multiple ionization  and attosecond pulse generation . The effect of rescattering on diatomics like H2 and D2 has been probed  but its effect on the ionization dynamics is more difficult to discern because double ionization of such molecules occurs more readily through another strong-field process, enhanced ionization . Recently, an intense-field, many-body S-matrix theory has been developed  that explicitly takes cognizance of electron wavepacket dynamics in determining ionization yields in polyatomic molecules. However, to the best of our knowledge, the effect of rescattering on ionization and fragmentation dynamics in molecules other than H2 and D2 has, hitherto, not been experimentally probed in systematic fashion. We report here results of experiments on the fragmentation dynamics of some polyatomic molecules using linearly and circularly polarized, femtosecond-duration, infrared, intensity-selected laser pulses of intensities that are large enough to generate electric fields of magnitudes that are comparable with the interatomic Coulombic fields. In the present study, we specifically explore the fragmentation dynamics in three types of molecules by utilizing the polarization properties of intense laser light over a range of peak intensities from 8$`\times `$1014 to 1016 W cm-2. We have selected the molecular targets to typify a bent equilibrium geometry (water), a non-planar polyatomic (methanol) and a planar ring-structured polyatomic (benzene).

In going from linear to elliptically polarized light, it might be expected that the dynamics of the field-molecule interaction are influenced by one or more of the following factors: a) The trajectory of the electron (or electrons) ejected upon field-induced ionization (or multiple ionization); b) At the same laser intensity, the electric field amplitude is different for circular and linear polarization; and c) Angular momentum selection rules depend upon the polarization state of light. These factors manifest themselves, in the case of atoms, in changes in the ionization rate, changes in the energies of the ejected electrons, and on their angular distributions. In case of molecules, however, additional facets of the field-molecule interaction need to be considered, such as: (i) The polarization tensors in the molecule that might lead to alignment, specifically in the case of linear polarization; (ii) The dependence of the ionization rate on the angle between the induced dipole in the molecule and the electric field of the incident light; (iii) The rovibrational couplings in the electronic states that influence interatomic distances; (iv) The effect of enhanced ionization; and (v) Differences in the quantal descriptions of the electronic states that are excited, owing to the different angular momentum selection rules. All these parameters make for the difficulty of, and interest in the problem of understanding polarization-dependent molecular dynamics in intense light fields.

While controversies persist in theoretical formulations as to whether, and to what extent, the polarization state of the incident laser radiation might influence atomic ionization , experimental data with picosecond pulses appear to indicate that in both the intense (1013 W cm-2) and super-intense ($`>`$1015 W cm-2) regimes, atomic ionization rates decrease with the ellipticity of the incident light. For instance, experiments on above-threshold-ionization have clearly shown that the ionization rate decreases with increase in ellipticity, and this has been rationalized by simple semi-classical formulations . In the tunnel ionization regime, multielectron dissociative ionization of N2 has been studied by 100-fs-long laser pulses of intensity in the 1015 W cm-2 range, using linearly and circularly polarized infra-red light . Substantial suppression of ionization channels has been observed in the case of circularly polarized light, even when laser intensities were appropriately adjusted to ensure that the laser field experienced by N2 was identical in the two cases. Interestingly, the enhanced ionization mechanism was shown to be valid for multiple ionization of N2 with circularly polarized light . Circularly polarized laser light, of intensity in the range 1013-1015 W cm-2, has also been recently shown to lead to a reduced propensity for ionization of a chiral molecule  in the picosecond regime. On the other hand, it has also been reported that the fragmentation pattern of molecules is not largely influenced by the laser polarization: Talebpour et al.  have recently shown that for intensities up to 1015 W cm-2 using femtosecond duration pulses, the fragmentation pattern in benzene, and relative ratios of fragment ion yields, are essentially similar for linear and circular polarization.

The dynamics of fragmentation of a molecule in intense fields can be perceived to occur in two steps. Firstly, the intense laser field ionizes the molecule. The ionization mechanism could be multiphoton ionization, tunnel ionization or over-the-barrier ionization, depending on the intensity of the interacting laser field. Secondly, the molecular ion, either singly- or multiply-charged, dissociates on the repulsive molecular ion potential energy surface, giving rise to energetic fragment ions. Before the molecular ion rolls down the excited potential surface, rescattering of electrons that are ionized but undergo oscillation under the influence of the intense laser field significantly affects the fragmentation of the molecules. Is this rescattering process more significant for larger polyatomics, like benzene?

Quantitative, theoretical analysis of each of these steps, and prediction of their relative importance with change of laser intensity and molecular properties such as size, is not possible. In our study of fragment ion yields obtained upon irradiation of water, methanol, and benzene by intensity-selected laser fields, we find that at intensities larger than 1$`\times `$1015 W cm-2, the ionization yields of all the atomic fragment ions, and of the single and multiply charged molecular ions, are smaller with circularly polarized light than with linearly polarized light. We have chosen to concentrate only on atomic fragment ions that are produced in the interaction for the following reason. In the intensity regime that we probe, reliable comparison of molecular ion yields is very difficult as ionization occurs well in the saturation regime. Atomic fragment ions are more convenient probes in this respect as, for example, C3+ from benzene is observed only for intensities greater that 1$`\times `$1015 W cm-2, and saturation occurs at intensities that are much higher. In comparison, molecular analogs like C6H$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{6}{}^{}`$ and C3H$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{3}{}^{}`$ would be well into the saturation regime even at 1014 W cm-2. The results of our measurements also show that while fragment ion yields are more or less independent of the polarization state of the laser at lower intensities, the situation alters for intensities in excess of 1015 W cm-2. Here, the fragment ion yields are significantly lower for circularly polarized light. We rationalize these observations in terms of a simple electron rescattering model and suggest a propensity rule that gives some insight into the importance of electron rescattering in the fragmentation dynamics of molecular systems.

## II Experimental method

Our experimental apparatus and methodology have been described recently  and only those features that are most pertinent to the present study are mentioned in the following. Light pulses (of wavelength 806 nm) were obtained from a high-intensity, chirped pulse amplification, titanium-sapphire laser system operating at 10 Hz repetition rate. The laser light was focused using a biconvex lens, of 15 cm focal length, in an ultra-high vacuum chamber capable of being pumped down to a base pressure of 2$`\times `$10-10 Torr. Our vacuum chamber was flooded with H2O, CH3OH, or C6H6 vapor (after degassing by means of several freeze-pump-thaw cycles in a clean, greaseless vacuum line) such that typical operating pressures were in the range of 6$`\times `$10-8 Torr. Ions formed in the laser-molecule interaction were electrostatically extracted into a two-field, linear, time-of-flight (TOF) spectrometer. The polarization state of the light was varied by use of a half-wave (or quarter-wave) plate. The extent of elliptical polarization is defined by the ellipticity parameter, $`ϵ`$=(Ex/Ey); in our experiments circular polarization implies an $`ϵ`$-value of 0.9-1.0.

Focal volume effects play a very important role in determining the ionization pattern observed using time-of-flight (TOF) spectrometers. By using an aperture in the extracting plate of the TOF one can choose the extent of focal volume to be sampled, rather than sample the entire Rayleigh range. For example, recently it has been shown with molecules like N2 and CS2  that intensity-selective and intensity-averaged TOF spectra differ from each other, since different intensity regions are “seen” by the TOF spectrometer due to the spatial variation in intensity over the focal volume. Intensity-selected measurements are very important for the intensity regimes that we are probing so that the large ion counts from the low intensity region that could swamp the detector are avoided. We have conducted the present experiments in intensity-selective mode by placing an aperture of 5 mm in front of our TOF spectrometer. However to ensure that the collection efficiencies are not compromised, we applied very high extraction voltages such that the extraction fields were $``$250 V cm-1; measurements of the fragment ion yield as a function of the extraction voltage were made to ensure unit collection efficiency, even for energetic atomic fragments like C3+.

## III Results and discussion

From an extensive set of mass spectrometric data on the interaction of intense light with water, methanol and benzene molecules, we present in the following that subset of data that pertains to the question: How does the polarization state of the intense laser radiation affect the fragmentation pattern when femtosecond pulses are used?

Figs. 1 and 2 show fragment ion yields obtained upon irradiation of H2O and CH3OH at an intensity of 1016 W cm-2. We note that in both molecules, circular polarization results in a distinct suppression of fragment ion yields. Fig. 3 shows corresponding data for Cq+, $`q`$=1-3, fragment ions obtained from C6H6, and similar suppression with circular polarization is observed. Earlier studies on benzene, carried out using nanosecond and picosecond pulses, yielded overall fragmentation patterns that are similar to those observed in the present femtosecond measurements, although there are some differences in relative intensities (see , and references therein). The “ladder switching” mechanism, together with its modifications , accounted for the fragmentation pattern in earlier long-pulse experiments. However, in the present experiments, since the laser pulses are of only 100 fs duration, it might be expected that the ladder switching mechanism is not likely to be applicable. Here, the fragmentation is likely to be induced by population of an electronic excited state of the molecular ion that possesses a repulsive potential energy surface, at least in the Franck-Condon region. The potential energy surface and its energy will, of course, be distorted, in some indeterminate fashion by the intense laser field. The fragment ions that are formed will depend on the nature of the field- distorted state and on the minimum energy path in the multidimensional potential energy surface.

Conventional ladder switching mechanisms demand a large increase of unimolecular dissociation rates with internal energy. Consequently, in the multiphoton ionization scenario, the precursor ion dissociates before there is time for additional photons to be absorbed. This is the rationale for the nonobservation of metastable multiply charged precursor molecular ions in long pulse experiments. The ion pairs observed by Bhardwaj et al.  in picosecond experiments invariably had atomic ions, C+ or C2+, as one of the constituents. In contrast, the present experiments yielded strong signals corresponding to long-lived molecular ions C6H$`{}_{}{}^{2+}{}_{6}{}^{}`$ and C6H$`{}_{}{}^{3+}{}_{6}{}^{}`$ in addition to atomic ions like C+ and C2+. We found that the propensity for producing multiply charged molecular ions was also distinctly lower with circularly polarized light as compared to that with linearly polarized light for intensities in excess of 1015 W cm-2.

Our results on benzene apparently differ from those of Talebpour et al. , who measured identical ion yields for both linear and circular polarization, also in the femtosecond regime. But, we note that the two sets of measurements were conducted at different laser intensities. Moreover, it is not clear whether Talebpour et al. employed an intensity-selective technique in their experiments. Absence of this would imply that their TOF spectrometer would access a wide intensity range covering 1012-1014 W cm-2, with an enhanced propensity of ion collection from the lowest intensity regions within the focal volume. To probe the apparent differences further, we have made ion yield measurement for different laser intensities. Table 1 shows the relative ion yields for Cq+ fragments at different intensities: the yields are nearly same for intensities $`<`$1015 W cm-2, a value that corresponds to the maximum intensity used by Talebpour et al.. At this, and lower, intensities we find that there is virtually no polarization dependence in the fragmentation pattern, in accord with the findings of Talebpour et al.. However, at even a slightly enhanced intensity (such as a peak intensity value of 2$`\times `$1015 W cm-2), the fragmentation is found to become marginally lower in the case of circularly polarized light. The degree of suppression becomes much more pronounced as the laser intensity is increased.

So, how does one account for the hitherto-unsuspected effect of laser intensity on the polarization dependence of molecular fragmentation. As noted earlier, for the very short pulses used in these experiments, ladder switching is not applicable as one can safely assume that the nuclear motion in all three molecules would be negligibly small over time periods of the order of 100 fs. We invoke electron rescattering in order to qualitatively explain the observed suppression in the fragment ion yield at higher laser intensities. As in the case of multiple ionization in atoms, we assume fragmentation of the molecular ion to be dominantly due to the rescattering of the ionized electrons in the presence of the laser field. We invoke the following chronology of events. Upon irradiation, the target molecule initially undergoes tunnel ionization when the field intensity is large enough. The ionized electron does not totally “leave” the molecule, but interacts with it under the influence of both the Coulomb force and the laser field. At low values of laser field (corresponding to I = 1014 W cm-2) the Coulomb field has a large influence in determining the motion of the wavepacket that describes the ejected electron. On the other hand, at large fields (corresponding to I = 1016 W cm-2), the electric field of the interacting laser becomes comparable in magnitude to the Coulomb field and, therefore, exerts a much larger influence on the electron trajectories. To determine the influence of the interacting field on the motion of the ejected electron wavepacket, we made a model calculation for a hydrogen atom. We compute the electron trajectory by numerically solving the classical equation of motions.

The equation of motion along the x-axis is

$$m\frac{^2x}{t^2}\stackrel{}{𝐱}=\frac{eq}{r^2}\stackrel{}{𝐱}+e\stackrel{}{𝐄}\stackrel{}{𝐱},$$
(1)
where $`e`$, $`m`$ are the charge and mass of the electron, $`q`$ is the charge on the molecular ion, $`r`$ denotes the distance of the electron from the ion and $`\stackrel{}{E}`$ is the laser field. We numerically solve the differential equations of motion along all the $`\stackrel{}{𝐱}`$ $`\stackrel{}{𝐲}`$ $`\stackrel{}{𝐳}`$ directions iteratively, with a time grid of 0.01 a.u.. Fig. 4 depicts classical electron trajectories that we have computed for linear and circular polarization at two different laser intensities. At an intensity of 1014 W cm-2, the large Coulomb interaction ensures that electron trajectories for both polarization states are very similar. This is depicted in the lower panel of Fig. 4. So, in the lower intensity regime, if the fragmentation is due to the dissociation of the molecular ion due to impact of rescattered electrons, the fragmentation yield would be expected to be more or less independent of the ellipticity of the laser field. At higher laser intensities, like 1016 W cm-2, the optical field becomes dominant, and the electron trajectories are very different for the two polarization states. While rescattering of the ejected electron is possible with linearly polarized light, it is absent in the case of circularly polarized light. So, one would expect the fragmentation channels that are due to rescattering to be switched off in the latter case.

We note that at large intensity, the electron trajectories for linear polarized light depend on exactly when the electron wavepacket is created. If the initial position of the ejected electron lies on the $`y`$ = 0 line (when $`\stackrel{}{𝐄}`$ is parallel to the $`x`$-axis), then the electron would be expected to take part in rescattering. As the initial value of $`y`$ deviates from zero, the electron rescattering probability becomes small.

So, for high laser intensities, the absence of rescattering in the case of circular polarization reduces the extent of molecular fragmentation. It appears reasonable to attribute the differences in fragmentation that are experimentally observed to be directly attributable to the change in electron rescattering probability. Our model calculations are simple but demonstrative. However, they pertain to an atomic target. This simplicity begs the question: does molecular structure play a role in determining the overall strong field fragmentation dynamics?

In order to probe this, and to lay the groundwork for proper theoretical treatment, we consider in Fig. 5 how the suppression of fragmentation depends the appearance energy of fragment ions from specific parent molecules. The ion appearance energy is a measure of the ionization energy of the given fragment, say C2+, plus the bond dissociation energy. The latter accounts for molecular structure effects and, hence, results in different values of appearance energy for C2+ from benzene and methanol precursors. The appearance energy is, therefore, a measure of the amount of energy transfer from the optical field to the molecule that is necessary in order to produce a given fragment ion. Data in Fig. 5 demonstrate that circular polarization (the switching “off” of electron rescattering) results in distinctly more marked suppression of fragmentation channels that require the largest energy transfer.

## IV Summary and concluding remarks

We have conducted experiments on intense-field dissociative ionization of water, methanol, and benzene vapor with linearly and circularly polarized laser light. We observe a distinct lowering of the propensity to produce multiply charged fragment ions from all these molecules when circularly polarized light is used at laser intensities in excess of 1015 W cm-2. At peak laser intensities lower than this, light-induced fragmentation appears to be more or less independent of the polarization state of the incident intense light. The lowering of multiply charged fragment ion yields with circularly polarized light is attributed to the lowered probability of the rescattered electrons inducing dissociative ionization.

Our data also indicates that molecular structure effects are important in determining the degree of suppression that can be achieved by changing the polarization state of the incident laser radiation from linear to circular. Those fragmentation channels that require the largest transfer of energy from the optical field to the molecule are suppressed most markedly by using circularly polarized light; the suppression is less marked for those channels that require smaller amounts of energy transfer.

The present set of experiments have probed electron rescattering from molecules more complex than diatomic species and have revealed new facets of strong-field phenomena that have hitherto not been considered. Both the intensity dependence of the suppression that has been observed as well as dependence on energy transfer will have to be accounted for in development of theoretical insights into molecular fragmentation dynamics in strong optical fields.

Within the context of atomic ionization, Lambropoulos  pointed out, thirty years ago, that the effect of light polarization on the multiphoton ionization of atoms is related, in a general sense, to the effect of field correlations  of multiphoton processes. Both effects arise from the fact that the vectors of the radiation field affect, in nonlinear fashion, the transition amplitudes for multiphoton processes. The nonlinearity in the amplitude of the radiation field leads to ionization rates that depend on the correlation functions of the field, and not just on the absolute value of the field amplitude. When the circular polarization vector $`ϵ_x\pm iϵ_y`$ is inserted in the expression for the transition amplitude, cross products of matrix elements involving the orthogonal components $`ϵ_x`$ and $`ϵ_y`$ occur, and these lead to the dependence of the ionization rate on the polarization state of the incident light field. However, the dependence of polarization effects upon the intensity of the applied light field that has been observed in our experiments on water, methanol, and benzene remains unexplained within the framework of the prevailing wisdom that has been articulated above in simple terms.

Within the framework of tunnel ionization, the ADK formalism  sheds some light on how atomic ionization rates depend on the polarization state of the incident light. The ADK theory predicts that the ratio of ionization rate for circular polarization ($`w_{circ}`$) to that for linear polarization ($`w_{lin}`$) is

$$w_{circ}/w_{lin}=(\pi q^3/En^3)^{1/2},$$
(2)
where, as before, $`q`$ represents the ionic charge state, $`E`$ is the electric field amplitude, and $`n^{}`$ is the effective principle quantum number that is stipulated in the ADK formalism. This expression predicts a suppression of ionization probabilities in the case when linearly polarized light is replaced by circularly polarized light of the same field strength. Moreover, such suppression is expected to have a $`I^{1/4}`$ dependence on laser intensity. While our results do not replicate the exact functional dependence on $`I`$, the suppression that is observed by us is, at first sight, accounted for within the ADK picture. Where the ADK picture fails is in accounting for the apparent threshold of 1015 W cm-2 that we observe for such suppression. The ADK picture cannot, of course, be expected to account for specifically molecular effects that we have discovered here, such as the dependence of suppression on fragment ion appearance energy.

## V Acknowledgment

Some of the preliminary measurements on H2O were made by Gautam V Soni, and we thank him for the diligence and care with which these initial experiments were conducted. Our T4 (TIFR Table-top Terawatt) laser system was partially financed by the Department of Science and Technology for which we are also grateful. We benefitted from the stimulating discussions of the benzene results with Haruo Shiromaru.


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# Electron correlation and two dimensionality in the spin-density-wave phase of (TMTTF)2Br under pressure

Present address: \]Venture Business Laboratory, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan

(Submitted April 28, 2003)

## Abstract

The incommensurate spin-density-wave (SDW) phase in (TMTTF)2Br was investigated through transport measurements under pressure and magnetic fields parallel to the $`c^{}`$ axis. For the incommensurate SDW phase of (TMTTF)2Br stabilized above 0.5 GPa, the SDW transition temperature $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ increases with the applied magnetic field. The field dependence of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ is described by a quadratic behavior and the coefficient of the quadratic term increases with increasing pressure. These results are consistent with the prediction of the mean-field theory based on the suppression of the SDW transition by two-dimensionality. From the relation between the coefficient of the quadratic term and $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ at zero magnetic field, we determined the role of electron correlation and two dimensionality in the SDW phase of (TMTTF)2Br under pressure and found that the SDW transition in (TMTTF)2Br can be well explained within the mean field theory by taking into account the reduction of the coupling constant $`N(0)I`$ by pressure.

The family of organic salts (TMT$`C`$F)$`{}_{2}{}^{}X`$ ($`C`$ = Se or S and $`X`$ = PF6, AsF6, ClO4, Br, etc.) show quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) electric properties and have rich ground states, spin-Peierls, antiferromagnetism (AF), spin density wave (SDW), superconductivity, etc. The ground state in these salts is influenced by the different donors and anions that constitute the compounds. A universal phase diagram for the TMT$`C`$F salts as a function of pressure has been proposed by Jérome. jerome  The differences of the donors and the anions change the distance between molecules, transfer integral, etc. and this means that these act as a chemical pressure in the universal phase diagram. With increasing pressure, the electron transfer along the interchain direction increases, and the two dimensionality of the system increases. In addition to the role of the two dimensionality, it is also well known that the electron correlation must be strong to cause such a rich phase diagram in the Q1D compounds.

The ground state of the sulfur-based salt $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ is antiferromagnetism (AF) at ambient pressure. barthel  In the temperature range above this AF phase, the system shows a broad minimum of resistivity $`\rho _{\mathrm{min}}`$ at about $`T_\rho `$ = 100 K. Between this temperature and the AF transition temperature, the system has a charge-localized (CL) state, in which the resistance increases with decreasing temperature. On applying the pressure, the ground state changes from the AF state to the incommensurate SDW state above about 0.5 GPa and $`\rho _{\mathrm{min}}`$ vanishes. It is known that this incommensurate SDW state in (TMTTF)2Br is essentially the same as that in (TMTSF)$`{}_{2}{}^{}X`$, which is stabilized by the nesting of the Fermi surface in the Q1D electron band.

When the magnetic field is applied to the SDW state suppressed by the imperfect nesting of Fermi surface, it has been predicted that $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ increases nearly quadratically with the field in low magnetic fields and shows a saturation behavior to the transition temperature for the perfect nesting case $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ in high magnetic fields. montambaux  In fact, the quadratic magnetic field dependence and the saturation behavior have been confirmed by the experiments for (TMTSF)2PF6 (Refs.Mat-PF6, ; Mat-PF6-2, ) and quenched (TMTSF)2ClO4 (Refs.Mat-ClO4, ; Mat-ClO4-2, ; Qualls, ). In a previous paper, however, we have estimated $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ = 16 K for $`(\mathrm{TMTSF})_2\mathrm{PF}_6`$ under low pressure. Mat-PF6  This value of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ is slightly small to explain the universal phase diagram using the simplest model of the mean-field (MF) theory.

In this paper, we present the results of resistivity measurements for the incommensurate SDW phase in (TMTTF)2Br under pressure and magnetic field, and discuss the validity of the universal phase diagram for the TMT$`C`$F salts through the role of electron correlation and two dimensionality in the SDW phase of (TMTTF)2Br under pressure.

Single crystals of $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ were synthesized by the electrochemical method. The resistance measurements were performed by a dc four-wire method along the highly conducting $`a`$ axis. Electric leads of 10 $`\mu `$m gold wire were attached with silver paint onto gold evaporated contacts. The current contacts covered the whole areas of both ends of the sample for a uniform current. The typical sample size was 0.4 $`\times `$ 0.2 $`\times `$ 0.02 mm3, where the length along the $`a`$-axis direction is that between voltage contacts. The temperature was measured using a Cernox CX-1050-SD resistance thermometer calibrated by a capacitance sensor in magnetic fields. The pressure was applied using the beryllium-copper clamp cell up to 2.1 GPa. We used Daphne 7373 oil as a pressure medium. It is known that the pressure decreases at low temperature by about 0.15 GPa from any initial pressure at room temperature due to the solidification of this medium. Murata  The magnetic field was applied along the $`c^{}`$ axis up to 24 T in a hybrid magnet at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory, IMR, Tohoku University.

Figure 1 shows the temperature dependence of the resistance along the $`a`$ axis in $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ for various pressures. At ambient pressure, the resistance shows the broad minimum at about 100 K, corresponds to the crossover from the metallic to the CL state. Then, the resistance increases with decreasing temperature and shows a kink at 18 K. From the NMR measurements barthel , it is well known that $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ exhibits an AF transition at 14 K. However, the kink temperature is 4 K higher than this and $`d(\mathrm{ln}R)/d(1/T)`$ below 18 K is almost flat. The resistance shows no characteristic structure at 14 K. This indicates that the AF ordering does not change the behavior of conductivity. The kink structure at 18 K in the resistance at ambient pressure may be caused by charge disproportionation. Ishikawa  The temperature for the resistance minimum $`T_{\mathrm{min}}`$ rapidly decreases with increasing pressure up to 0.3 GPa and vanishes at about 0.4 GPa. These results are consistent with a previous report. klemme1  As shown in Fig. 1, the kink at 18 K in the resistance at ambient pressure changes to the broad peak structure in the derivative of the logarithm of the resistance with $`1/T`$. The temperature of this peak in $`d(\mathrm{ln}R)/d(1/T)`$ increases with increasing pressure and shows a maximum of 23 K at 0.3 GPa. Above 0.3 GPa, the peak temperature decreases from 23 K at 0.3 GPa to 19.5 K at 0.5 GPa. A detailed discussion of this phase diagram below 0.5 GPa is contained in a previous paper. Ishikawa

Above 0.5 GPa the peak temperature still decreases with pressure, but the rate of decrease becomes smaller. It has been confirmed by the NMR measurements hisano  that the SDW with the incommensurate wave vector is stabilized above 0.5 GPa. With decreasing temperature, the resistance shows a steep increase associated with the SDW transition and thermally activated behavior at low temperature as shown in Fig. 1. The SDW transition temperatures in zero field $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) determined from the peak of the derivative of the logarithm of the resistance with $`1/T`$ $`d(\mathrm{ln}R)/d(1/T)`$ are plotted against field in Fig. 2. With increasing pressure, $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) decreases from 19.5 K at 0.5 GPa to 12.5 K at 2.1 GPa. This pressure dependence of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) above 0.5 GPa is qualitatively consistent with the prediction of the MF theory based on the imperfect nesting of the Fermi surface.

Figure 3 shows the temperature dependence of the resistance of $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ along the $`a`$-axis under various magnetic fields at 2.1 GPa. In each field, the resistance shows the increase with decreasing temperature associated with the SDW gap. The SDW transition temperature $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ in a magnetic field, determined from $`d(\mathrm{ln}R)/d(1/T)`$ (the bottom of Fig. 3), is shown in Fig. 4. We find that, with increasing magnetic field along the $`c^{}`$ axis, $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ increases at various pressures. The magnetic-field dependence of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ is described by the quadratic function: $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}(B)=T_{\mathrm{SDW}}(0)+CB^2`$, where $`C`$ is constant, for each pressure. The coefficient of the quadratic term $`C`$ increases with increasing pressure. All the results between 0.75 GPa and 2.1 GPa, are well fitted by the quadratic function without any saturation behavior even at 24 T. Such a behavior is also found in TMTSF salts Mat-PF6 ; Mat-ClO4  and is consistent with the prediction of the MF theory. montambaux  As a result, we conclude that the SDW transition in $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ is an ordinary SDW transition based on the nesting of the Fermi surface as for (TMTSF)$`{}_{2}{}^{}X`$.

Figure 5 shows the relation between the coefficient of the quadratic term $`C`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ at zero magnetic field $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) for $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$. The coefficient $`C`$ is mainly determined by the two dimensionality of the electron band in the MF theory, however, $`C`$ also depends on other parameters, e.g., Fermi velocity $`v_\mathrm{F}`$. In the figure, the result for (TMTSF)2PF6 is also shown for comparison. Mat-PF6  The results of $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ under high pressure seem to smoothly connected to those of $`(\mathrm{TMTSF})_2\mathrm{PF}_6`$, and the SDW-superconductivity phase diagram in $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ above 2.1 GPaCreuzet ; Balicas  is quite similar to that in $`(\mathrm{TMTSF})_2\mathrm{PF}_6`$ under pressure. Jerome  Therefore, we expect that the parameters in $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ at 2.1 GPa to be close to those in $`(\mathrm{TMTSF})_2\mathrm{PF}_6`$ at ambient pressure. From the observed curvature of the line for the relation between $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) and $`C`$ for (TMTSF)2PF6, we had determined several parameters for the SDW transition in the MF theory, maki  assuming that the SDW transition temperature for the perfect nesting case $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ is independent of pressure as in a previous paper. Mat-PF6  The dashed line in Fig. 5 is the fit by this theory to the experimental data of $`(\mathrm{TMTSF})_2\mathrm{PF}_6`$ and the agreement is good. The fit gives $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ = 16 K and $`v_\mathrm{F}`$ = 1.03 $`\times `$ 105 m/s for $`(\mathrm{TMTSF})_2\mathrm{PF}_6`$, with a lattice parameter along the $`b^{}`$ axis of 7.7 $`\times `$ 10-10 m. However, the data for $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ in the region where $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) is higher than 13 K, corresponding to 1.7 GPa, are slightly above the calculated dashed curve. This fact indicates that all the data for $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ and $`(\mathrm{TMTSF})_2\mathrm{PF}_6`$ cannot be described by the constant value of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ with the pressure. Even if we consider only the results for $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$, the almost linear relation between $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) and $`C`$ in a log-log scale, shown in Fig. 5, is also hardly explained by the MF theory with constant $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$. In such a simple model, it is expected that $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) is almost constant for the imperfect nesting parameter $`ϵ_0`$/$`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ in the region where $`ϵ_0`$/$`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ is small and $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) is close to $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$, in contrast to the observed behavior. As a result, the observed slightly steep and straight dependence of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ suggests that $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ varies with the pressure.

From the BCS relation in the MF theory, $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ is given as $`k_\mathrm{B}T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}=1.14D\mathrm{exp}(1/N(0)I)`$, where $`D`$, $`N(0)`$, and $`I`$ are the bandwidth, the density of state at Fermi level, and the on-site Coulomb energy, respectively. With increasing pressure, we can expect that (a) the on-site Coulomb energy $`I`$ decreases due to the increase of the screening of Coulomb potential, (b) the density of state $`N(0)`$ decreases due to the increase of the transfer energy, and (c) the bandwidth $`D`$ increases due to the increase of the transfer energy along the $`a`$ axis. The contribution of $`N(0)I`$ to $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ is expected to be larger than that of $`D`$ because the variation of $`N(0)I`$ affects $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ exponentially. After all, we can expect $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ to decrease due to the decrease of the coupling constant $`N(0)I`$ with increasing pressure. Indeed, the reduction of $`N(0)I`$ by applying pressure was suggested from the NMR measurements in the metallic phase of (TMT$`C`$F)$`{}_{2}{}^{}X`$ under the pressure. wzietek  It is natural to consider that $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ decreases as the applied pressure becomes larger, although a quantitative estimate is difficult at present. If such a situation is realized in the present system, the observed upward deviation of data and its fairly steep dependence in the region, where $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) is higher than 13 K, can be explained.

Assuming $`v_\mathrm{F}=1.03\times 10^5\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}`$ independent of the pressure, Comment1  $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ at each pressure can be estimated by fitting with the MF theory. Figure 2 also shows the pressure dependence of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ obtained in this way. The value of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ decreases with increasing pressure, from 20 K at 0.75 GPa to 16.8 K at 2.1 GPa, and the decrease of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ is approximately linear with the increase of pressure as denoted by the solid line in Fig. 2. Using this linear dependence for $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$, the magnetic-field dependence of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ in $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ is well explained by the solid line in Fig. 5. With increasing pressure, it is expected that $`v_\mathrm{F}`$ increases due to the increase of the transfer energy along the $`a`$ axis. In this analysis, we assume that $`v_\mathrm{F}`$ is constant against the pressure; it is expected that $`v_\mathrm{F}`$ does not show any large pressure dependence in the present conditions and a small pressure dependence of $`v_\mathrm{F}`$ does not change our conclusion. Comment2  As a result, the magnetic-field dependence of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ in $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ is consistent with the prediction of the MF theory by taking into account the decrease of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ due to the reduction of $`N(0)I`$ by pressure.

In the case of (TMTSF)2PF6, the pressure dependence of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) is mainly determined by the imperfect nesting parameter $`ϵ_0`$/$`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, because $`ϵ_0`$/$`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ is fairy large and $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) shows a rapid decrease with increasing $`ϵ_0`$/$`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$. In such a situation, the reduction of $`N(0)I`$ with pressure makes only a small contribution to $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0). As a result, the simplest model with constant $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}_0}`$ reproduces the observed relation between $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$(0) and $`C`$ well for (TMTSF)2PF6, as described in a previous paper. Mat-PF6  Accordingly, as shown in Fig. 5, the incommensurate SDW phase in both (TMTSF)2PF6 and (TMTTF)2Br is understood systematically and quantitatively in the common pressure axis, where its origin corresponding to ambient pressure is shifted for these two salts, with the MF theory based on the nesting of the Fermi surface taking into account the reduction of the coupling constant with pressure.

In summary, resistivity measurements have been performed under pressure and in magnetic fields in $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$. Above 0.5 GPa, $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ exhibits an incommensurate SDW state at low temperatures. With increasing pressure, the SDW transition temperature $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ decreases from 19.5 K at 0.5 GPa to 12.5 K at 2.1 GPa. When the magnetic field is applied to this SDW phase, substantially suppressed by the pressure, $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ increases quadratically with the field and the coefficient $`C`$ of the quadratic term increases with increasing pressure. These results are consistent with the prediction of the MF theory based on the nesting of the Fermi surface in the Q1D electronic band. From the analysis of the relation between the coefficient $`C`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ at zero magnetic field, the magnetic field and pressure dependence of $`T_{\mathrm{SDW}}`$ in $`(\mathrm{TMTTF})_2\mathrm{Br}`$ can be well explained by the MF theory by taking into account the reduction of the coupling constant $`N(0)I`$ with pressure. As a result, the incommensurate SDW phase in both (TMTSF)2PF6 and (TMTTF)2Br is well described by the MF theory taking into account electron correlation and two dimensionality of the system in the universal phase diagram.

We would like to thank Professor K. Murata for technical advice on the high-pressure measurement.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Hints of a time correlation between cosmic ray air showers have been observed using detectors placed over a $`100\times 100`$ km2 area carrel ; kitamura . Kitamura et al. kitamura  reported evidence for time-correlated events that were detected by two air shower arrays located 115 km apart; one at Kinki University, located in Osaka, and the other at the Mitsuishi Observatory of Osaka City University, located in Okayama. This report raised the question of the possible existence of high energy cosmic ray phenomena that extend over large distances. In the United States and Canada, a network of cosmic ray detector: the North American Large Area Time Coincidence Array (NALTA) has been built and is now being operated physics-today ; fermi-news . In Europe, before the large LEP detectors were closed, studies of cosmic ray muons had been done by the ALEPH and L3 detectors with an extended air shower array cern-courier ; aleph-nim . Our project was started with the similar motivation. The system consists of standardized detector stations. Each station has four scintillation counters and it can locally detect and reconstruct air showers. We call this station a “cosmic ray station (CRS)”. These stations are connected through the Internet. They exchange data in (quasi) real time. This makes the system suitable for displaying the arriving cosmic rays over a wide area at the museums and schools. The network can be extended by simply adding more stations.

Detecting time-correlated cosmic rays are usually done by observing the signs of the event rate enhancements or observing the chaotic behavior in the arrival time series. Both phenomena, however, could also happen accidentally. If the observation is done at one location, it is difficult to distinguish the real ones from fakes. To reject these fakes, simultaneous measurements at multiple locations are crucial.

## 2 Detector

One station consists of four scintillation counters, a data acquisition box (DA box) that has all the electronics for the station, a Windows PC with a network interface, and a Global Positioning System (GPS) antenna, as shown in Fig. 1. Each scintillation counter is comprised of a pyramid-shaped vessel containing $`70\times 70\times 4`$ cm3 plastic scintillator at the bottom and a Hamamatsu H6410 2” Photo-Multiplier Tube (PMT) at the top facing down to the scintillator. Each counter is equipped with a Light Emitting Diode (LED) for calibration by test pulses. The vessel is covered by a soft white polyvinyl chloride sheet for protecting the detector from rain. The DA box has 4 channels of ADCs and TDCs, each having 12-bit resolution, to measure the pulse height and timing of the signals from the four scintillation counters, as shown in Fig. 2. Triggers are made of coincidences of hits (100 ns width) in either two or three out of four counters. The selection is done by a switch on the front panel. The box has LED drivers, a GPS receiver, a precision clock IC and a 1 MHz oscillator with a counter that is synchronized to the GPS signals. The system can measure the trigger time with an accuracy of 1 $`\mu `$s. The box also has a high voltage power supply for the PMTs. The control circuit is made with an Altera Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and it is externally controlled by a PC via the IO registers.

The IO registers are used to communicate with the PC through a commercially available 16-bit IO board connected to the PCI bus. The assignments of the functions and data to the IO registers are shown in Fig. 3. In the READ mode, a trigger (T) sets the bit 8 in the “Time L” register. The trigger time is stored in the “RT” register (clock IC) and in the “Time L” and “Time H” registers (1 $`\mu `$s counter). Four 4-bit data in the “RT” register, starting from the LSB, show the first digit (100) of the seconds, the second digit (101) of the seconds, the first digit (100) of the minutes, and the second digit (101) of the minutes. The “Time L” register (L, M) and the low order byte (H) in the “Time H” register have the GPS time in $`\mu `$s, measured by the 1 MHz oscillator. In the WRITE mode, one can start or stop a run by setting or resetting bit 8 in the “Control 1” register. By setting the bit 1 in the same register, a test pulse is generated. Bit 0 in the same register is used to reset the system. The clock IC is forced to synchronize to the GPS by setting the bit 0 in the “Control 2” register.

The online software consists of three processes: a data acquisition process, an event display process, and a histogram display process, as shown in Fig. 4. They are written in Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 (VC++6.0) and intended to run on a Windows 2000 PC. The data acquisition process is a multi-thread system. It is controlled through a control panel made of a dialog box of VC++6.0 (Fig. 5). The histograms and event displays are multi-window type applications of the document-view scheme.

When the data acquisition process is evoked, it reads a site configuration file, which is specific to the station. It includes the site ID, group ID, the site location (latitude, longitude, altitude), scintillator positions in the local coordinate system, TDC gains, TDC T0s, ADC gains, ADC pedestals, and the HTTP\_center’s IP address to connect. The HTTP\_center is a server process to receive and distribute the data to and from each station.

Data are handled as C++ objects, which are common among the data acquisition program running in a Windows PC and the analysis program running in a Linux PC. The data format is listed in Table 1. At transferring data from one thread to another one in the program, the data objects are queued at each receiving thread with a specified depth (typically set to 10). This enables us to detect burst-type cosmic ray events. In the event display, the depth of the data queue is set to one since we do not have to display all the events.

Data exchange between the stations is done through the Internet via a server (the HTTP\_center) using HTTP as the protocol. The reason for using HTTP is to pass the firewall of the site. It can transfer the data through the HTTP proxies to and from the center. To send data from a station to the center, the POST command of the protocol is issued by the network IO thread in the DA process. In the center, the received data are stored in a queue. To receive the data from the center, a polling scheme is used. The station periodically issues a GET command (currently two seconds in the Windows PCs). To keep track of the last sent event number to the station, the center has a list of entries that have the last event positions in the queue for all stations. By receiving the GET command, the center looks at this number for the station. It then sends all the data stored in the queue after that number. By this scheme, we distribute the data to all stations in the “quasi-real” time. In addition, since the link between the station and the center is a one-time connection, each station can start or stop at any time without disturbing the entire observation network.

Analysis programs use the same protocol to receive the data from the center. It runs in a Linux PC and is written with gnu C++ (g++). We use an analysis program frame to store (or read) the data of all stations in the disk.

## 3 Operation and Performance

The system has been operated using the stations at the Osaka City University and Osaka Science Museum since 2000. At both sites, the scintillation counters were placed on the roof. They are positioned at the corners of an approximately 10 $`\times `$ 10 m2 square, as shown in Fig. 5.

For data taking, the operating voltages of the PMTs are set to approximately 1.6 kV and the discriminator levels are set to 25 mV. The trigger condition is selected as three-out-of-four. The trigger rates in both locations are approximately 3 per minute.

At the museum, only the event displays are shown to the visitors with the descriptions of the system as well as the general cosmic-ray information. The visitors can select the windows using the touch panel.

Two more stations were added in 2002 at the Izumiootsu High School and Kinki University Technical College. The geometric parameters for the four sites are listed in Table 2.

To adjust the operating voltage and to monitor the noise, the ADC data (Fig 6) of each scintillation counter at each site are monitored via the network at the Osaka City University. TDC data are used to obtain the arrival directions of the air showers assuming the shower fronts are flat. The sharp bump in the TDC distribution at 210 ns in Fig. 6 shows the events that the signal of this channel was the third in arrival time among the four channels; each corresponds to one scintillation counter. Since a trigger is generated by the signals in any three channels, the signal timing of this channel determined the trigger timing, thus giving the constant TDC count. The broad distribution is made of the signals arriving in the other time ordering (i.e. “non-third” in the arrival time). The front planes of the showers are obtained by the least squares method. From the residual of the fit, the angle resolution was obtained as 8. The measured zenith angles, $`\theta `$’s, are shown in Fig. 7. The distribution can be fit by $`\mathrm{cos}^n\theta `$ with $`n=10.1`$ for $`0.6\mathrm{cos}\theta 1.0`$. The zenith angles $`\mathrm{cos}\theta <0.6`$ has a flatter distribution. Therefore, we only accepted the events with $`\mathrm{cos}\theta 0.6`$ for the analysis. After this cut, the background are estimated to be less than a few percent.

The arrival time distribution is shown in Fig. 8 using the events observed at the Osaka City University. The exponential behavior shows that the events are randomly observed with a rate of 2.7 per minute. Figure 9 shows the arrival time interval of the events at the Osaka Science Museum with respect to the ones at the Osaka City University. The used data were collected at the Osaka City University via the Internet for a period of one month. The negative or positive time in the distribution show the cases when the events at the museum are earlier (negative) or later (positive) than the ones at the university. This indicates that the events at both locations were observed by the network data-taking with no biasing.

## 4 Summary

We have developed a cosmic ray detection system suitable for detecting air showers arriving over a wide area with correlated time. The system consists of detector stations connected by the Internet. Each station is comprised of four scintillation counters with an electronics box and a PC, which can reconstruct the local air showers. For data communication, HTTP is used as the protocol to pass the firewalls. Each station polls the HTTP server at the Osaka City University, which collects and distributes the data to each site.

The system is currently operating with four sites. It can be expanded by simply adding stations. A typical trigger rate at each station is 3 per minute. The measured arrival direction resolution is 8. The measured arrival time of cosmic rays are consistent with random, indicating that the system has no biasing. We plan to expand the system and cover a larger detection area in order to search for time-correlated events whose frequency is expected to be less than a few per year.

Acknowledgments.
We thank Prof. T. Kitamura and W. Unno of Kinki University for encouraging us to build this system. We also thank Prof. H. Fujii of the National Laboratory for High Energy Physics (KEK) for the useful discussions in developing the software. This project is partially funded by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).


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# Untitled Document

Comment on “Bell’s Theorem without Inequalities and without Probabilities for Two Observers”

In this Comment we show that Cabello’s argument $`[1]`$ which proves the nonlocal feature of any classical model of quantum mechanics based on Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) criterion of elements of reality, must involve at least four distant observers rather than the two employed by the author. Therefore we claim that Cabello’s proof is not only more complicated than Hardy’s argument $`[2]`$, but it is also less cheap (in terms of physical resources exploited) than the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) argument $`[3]`$, which needs only three particles and three observers to reach the same conclusions.

First of all, let us briefly review Cabello’s argument. Starting from a four-particle quantum state $`|\psi _{1234}`$, tensor product of two singlet states, he infers the existence of elements of reality, as defined in $`[4]`$, for a certain number of spin-observables of all the particles involved. The values of these elements of reality, denoted with $`v(A_i),v(a_i),v(B_j)`$ and $`v(b_j)`$, are binded to satisfy certain algebraic constraints which he proves cannot be all fulfilled simultaneously. The conclusion of $`[1]`$ is that the hypothesis of locality, i.e. the fact that elements of reality objectively possessed by a physical system cannot be altered instantaneously at a distance, must no longer hold true in any deterministic completion of quantum mechanics. It is worth noticing that Cabello is interested only in analyzing the particular case of possible deterministic completions of quantum mechanics, in which the values objectively possessed by the observables are deduced via an EPR criterion of reality and by counterfactual reasonings, rather than postulated from the very beginning.

Let us now show that its argument, as it stands, is not correct since two other observers, besides Alice and Bob, located in two spacelike separated spatial locations, are needed. Suppose that Bob has, already and in a separate way, ascertained the existence of the elements of reality $`v(B_2)`$ and $`v(B_4)`$ and suppose that Alice, given $`|\psi _{1234}`$, measures the observable $`A_1A_3`$ finding the result $`+1`$. The state after the measurement process collapses to $`|\stackrel{~}{\psi }_{1234}=1/\sqrt{2}[|0101+|1010]_{1234}`$. Now, even if elements of reality for observables $`B_2`$ and $`B_4`$ have already been deduced to exist (but are still unknown), there is no way to infer the validity of the relation $`v(B_2)=v(B_4)`$ without invoking hidden variables but to resort to an EPR reasoning involving a spacelike separation between the particles $`2`$ and $`4`$. In fact, given the state $`|\stackrel{~}{\psi }`$, we cannot reject the possibility that, for example, $`v(B_2)=+1`$ and $`v(B_4)=1`$ only on the ground that measurements of $`B_2`$ and $`B_4`$ always give equal outcomes for two reasons: i) state $`|\stackrel{~}{\psi }`$ does not contain the maximal specification of the properties of the system and ii) if the particles are not spacelike separated we cannot dismiss the possibility that those measurement outcomes are equal due to a spooky causal influence caused by the measurement processes performed on each particle. Being constrained to use EPR criterion of reality only, particles $`2`$ and $`4`$ must be in distant locations in order to deduce, in the usual way of reasoning, the fact that $`v(B_2)=v(B_4)`$. A similar remark can be developed for the couple of observables $`A_1`$ and $`a_3`$, involving particles $`1`$ and $`3`$, once the outcome $`B_2b_4=+1`$ has been already found.

Therefore Cabello’s proof needs a total number of four distant observers (one for each particle) in order to be definitely correct. A spacelike separation between all of them is required in order to prevent that instantaneous causal influences can be responsible for the validity of relations like $`v(B_2)=v(B_4)`$ or $`v(A_1)=v(a_3)`$.

So, Cabello’s proof of non-locality cannot be considered cheaper (in terms of the number of observers and particles involved) than GHZ argument: three spin one-half particles and three distant observers are (up to now) the minimum number of resources necessary to exhibit the “non-locality without inequalities” proof of any deterministic completion of quantum mechanics, working in $`100\%`$ of the runs.

Finally, we raise one last important remark on the necessity of performing a real experiment confirming Cabello’s argument. Validity of equations from (3) to (11) of the paper $`[1]`$ cannot be obviously simultaneously verified for i) they involve non-compatible measurements and ii) the mere act of ascertaining the joint outcomes of equation (11) of $`[1]`$ invalidate the predictions of the other equations as a consequence of the wave function collapse. Thus, (3) to (11) are counterfactual properties that cannot be tested in a single experiment but only separately, as clearly stated in the paper $`[1]`$. But these experiments are in principle quite superfluous since they merely mean to test one more time the validity of the predictions of quantum mechanics, which have been already confirmed beyond every reasonable doubt.
The author thanks D.Mauro for valuable comments.

Luca Marinatto (marinatto@ts.infn.it)
International Centre for Theoretical Physics
“Abdus Salam”, Trieste, Italy

$`[1]`$ A.Cabello, Phys.Rev.Lett., 86, 1911 (2001).
$`[2]`$ L.Hardy, Phys.Rev.Lett., 71, 1665 (1993).
$`[3]`$ D.M.Greenberger, M.A.Horne, and A.Zeilinger, in Bell’s Theorem, Quantum Theory and Conceptions of the Universe, ed. M.Kafatos (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1989).
$`[4]`$ A.Einstein, B.Podolsky, and N.Rosen, Phys.Rev., 47, 777 (1935).


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# Unruh quantization in presence of a condensate

## Abstract

We have shown that the Unruh quantization scheme can be realized in Minkowski spacetime in the presence of Bose-Einstein condensate containing infinite average number of particles in the zero boost mode and located basically inside the light cone. Unlike the case of an empty Minkowski spacetime the condensate provides the boundary conditions necessary for the Fulling quantization of the part of the field restricted only to the Rindler wedge of Minkowski spacetime.

The Unruh effect  consists of the statement that any detector uniformly accelerated in the empty Minkowski space (MS) reveals a universal response as if it were emersed into a thermal bath with the temperature $`T_{DU}=g/2\pi `$, where $`g`$ is the proper acceleration of the detector***We use natural units $`c=\mathrm{}=k_B=1`$. The universality of the detector response is based on interpretation of the Minkowski vacuum state in terms of Fulling-Unruh particles states which appear in the Unruh quantization scheme  alternative to the standard plane wave quantization (see also Ref.  and citations therein). However, we have shown in our earlier paper , see also Refs. , that the Unruh construction  was not a valid quantization scheme in the empty MS. This conclusion stems from the fact that the Unruh scheme neglects the contribution of the singular zero boost mode to the total field amplitude.

The purpose of this paper is to present a situation for which the Unruh quantization procedure could be realized. We argue that this is the case for MS which is not empty but filled with a background of special type. We hope that our consideration will clarify the drawbacks of the Unruh approach to the problem in empty MS. For the sake of simplicity we will restrict our consideration to two-dimensional case.

Let us consider a coherent state for a massive neutral scalar field

$$|coh=Z_{coh}^{1/2}\mathrm{exp}\left\{\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{dp}{\sqrt{2\pi ϵ_p}}f(p)a_p^{}\right\}|0_M,$$
(1)
where $`a_p^{}`$ is a conventional creation operator of a particle in the plane wave state with momentum $`p`$ and energy $`ϵ_p=\sqrt{p^2+m^2}`$, $`f(p)`$ is a complex weight function, $`Z_{coh}=e^{\overline{N}}`$ is the normalization constant and $`\overline{N}`$ is the expectation value of total number of particles.

The momentum distribution of particles in the state (1) is described by

$$d\overline{N}_p=coh|a_p^{}a_p|cohdp=\frac{|f(p)|^2}{2\pi ϵ_p}dp,$$
(2)
while the expectation values $`\overline{N}`$ of the total number of particles and of the field energy $`\overline{E}`$ in the state (1) are given by Eqs. (3, 4) respectively

$$\overline{N}=\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑\overline{N}_p=\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}|f(p)|^2\frac{dp}{2\pi ϵ_p},$$
(3)
$$\overline{E}=\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}ϵ_p𝑑\overline{N}_p=\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}|f(p)|^2\frac{dp}{2\pi }.$$
(4)
Clearly, the total number of particles and the field total energy in the state (1) are infinite if the function $`|f(p)|^2`$ decreases too slowly at large momenta. In particular, the integrals in Eqs. (3, 4) diverge for the case $`f(p)=c=`$ const.

When dealing with the Unruh problem it is convenient to quantize the field in the basis of eigenfunctions $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\kappa (x),x=(t,z)`$, of the Lorentz boost operator rather than in the plane-wave basis . These functions have the following integral representation, see, e.g.,

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_\kappa (x)=\frac{1}{2^{3/2}\pi }\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑qe^{im(z\mathrm{sinh}qt\mathrm{cosh}q)i\kappa q},$$
(5)
and boost destruction operators $`b_\kappa `$ can be expressed in terms of plane wave operators $`a_p`$ as

$$b_\kappa =\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{dp}{\sqrt{2\pi ϵ_p}}\left(\frac{ϵ_p+p}{m}\right)^{i\kappa }a_p.$$
(6)
The two quantization schemes are unitary equivalent .

Let us introduce the notation $`|c`$ for the coherent state (1) with $`f(p)=c=`$ const. Using Eq. (6) it can be easily represented in terms of boost operators as

$$|c=Z_c^{1/2}e^{cb_0^{}}|0_M,$$
(7)
where $`b_0^{}`$ is the creation operator of a particle in the state corresponding to the singular zero boost mode $`\mathrm{\Psi }_0(x)`$,

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_0(x)=i\sqrt{2}\mathrm{\Delta }^{(+)}(x;m),$$
(8)
with $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{(+)}(x;m)`$ being the positive-frequency Whightman function, see Ref. . Thus, in the framework of the boost quantization scheme the state (1) with $`f(p)=`$ const contains an infinite number of particles concentrated in a single quantum state, namely in the state with zero value of the boost quantum number $`\kappa `$. Hence, in a sense, this state is equivalent to the Bose-Einstein condensate. It is well known that the Whightman function \[which determines the zero mode Eq. (8)\] vanishes exponentially fast for large spacelike distances away from the light cone. It is clear therefore that particles of the condensate are located basically inside the light cone. Moreover, the energy density in this state is infinite at the light cone. This is closely related to singular properties of the zero boost mode. Indeed, near the light cone $`x_+x_{}0`$ ($`x_\pm =t\pm z`$) the zero mode $`\mathrm{\Psi }_0(x)`$ behaves  as

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_0(x)\frac{1}{2\sqrt{2}\pi }\mathrm{ln}[m^2x_+x_{}+i\epsilon \mathrm{sgn}(t)],$$
(9)
where we assume that $`\epsilon +0`$ and $`\mathrm{sgn}(t)=0,`$ if $`t=0.`$ Therefore even in a one-particle state $`|B_0b_0^{}|0_M`$ the expectation value of energy density $`T^{00}`$ possesses nonintegrable singularities at the cone, $`B_0|T^{00}|B_0(1/8\pi ^2)(x_\pm )^2,x_\pm 0`$. The zero value of the normalization constant $`Z_c^{1/2}`$ in Eq. (7) reflects the well-known fact that the state of condensate belongs to representation of canonical commutation relations (CCR) unitary inequivalent to the conventional Fock representation (see, e.g., ).

It is worth noting that the state $`|c`$ essentially differs from the standard condensate commonly used in condensed matter physics. Since the boost generator does not commute with the Hamiltonian, there is no definite value of energy for any state of the field with a fixed value of $`\kappa `$ including $`\kappa =0`$. Therefore the state of the field with $`\kappa =0`$ is not the ground state of the system, and moreover, it is not stationary. Hence the only common feature of the state $`|c`$ and the standard condensate is the infinite number of particles concentrated in a single quantum state. It is clear that the boost condensate $`|c`$ could not come into existence for a system of free bosons like it happens in standard situation and should be considered as initially prepared.

It follows from the definition (7) that the state $`|c`$ satisfies the relation

$$b_\kappa |c=c\delta (\kappa )|c.$$
(10)
Let us introduce new operators $`\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa `$ by

$$b_\kappa =\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa +c\delta (\kappa ).$$
(11)
These operators satisfy the usual CCR:

$$[\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa ,\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa ^{}^{}]=\delta (\kappa \kappa ^{}),[\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa ,\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa ^{}]=[\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa ^{},\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa ^{}^{}]=0.$$
(12)
The transformation (11) is often called the boson shift . Let us call the quasiparticles associated with the shifted destruction and creation operators $`\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa `$, $`\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa ^{}`$ boostons. Since

$$\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa |c=0,$$
(13)
the zero mode condensate $`|c`$ can be considered a vacuum state with respect to boostons (of course, it is not vacuum with respect to conventional particles). Hence the boostons can be considered as excitations of the pure condensate state. Such situation is ordinary for condensed matter physics.

Now let us show that it is possible to perform Unruh quantization in the presence of the zero mode condensate. We start with decomposition of the field operator in terms of the boost modes

$$\varphi _M(x)=\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑\kappa \{b_\kappa \mathrm{\Psi }_\kappa (x)+\text{h.c.}\},$$
(14)
If we apply the boson shift (11) to Eq. (14), the free field $`\varphi _M(x)`$ acquires the form

$$\varphi _M(x)=\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_M(x)+\phi _c(x),$$
(15)
where $`\phi _c(x)=c\mathrm{\Psi }_0(x)+\text{h.c.}`$ is the classical part of the field (the condensate), and

$$\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_M(x)=\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑\kappa \{\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa \mathrm{\Psi }_\kappa (x)+\text{h.c.}\},$$
(16)
is the quantized booston field. $`c`$-number function $`\phi _c(x)`$ in Eq. (15) has the meaning of the condensate average of the field $`\varphi _M(x)`$

$$\phi _c(x)=c|\varphi _M(x)|c,$$

and according to terminology of Ref.  forms an ”extended macroscopical object”. So, in the presence of the condensate the field $`\varphi _M(x)`$ describes a system of non-interacting boostons and an extended macroscopical object, compare Ref. .

The presence of the extended macroscopical object $`\phi _c(x)`$ in Eq. (15) allows us to omit the contribution of the zero mode (8) in expansion (16). This means that the booston field can be represented in the form

$$\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_M(x)\text{P.v.}\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑\kappa \{\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa \mathrm{\Psi }_\kappa (x)+\text{h.c.}\}.$$
(17)
Physically this approximation means neglecting quantum fluctuations of the zero mode field against the background of the infinite number of particles in the condensate. This can be illustrated symbolically by the following argument. It follows from the commutation relations (12) that $`[\stackrel{~}{b}_0,\stackrel{~}{b}_0^{}]=\delta (\kappa )|_{\kappa =0}`$, so that if $`c0`$ then $`\stackrel{~}{b}_0\sqrt{\delta (\kappa )|_{\kappa =0}}c\delta (\kappa )|_{\kappa =0}`$. Formally, this estimate should be understood in a weak sense. This means that it is valid for all matrix elements of the operator $`\stackrel{~}{b}_0`$ between the states with finite number of boostons. The matrix elements are supposed to be smeared with respect to the spectral parameter $`\kappa `$.

Following Unruh , we can now split the interval of integration over $`\kappa `$ in the RHS of Eq.(17) into two for $`\kappa =\mu >0`$ and $`\kappa =\mu <0`$ and after simple transformation arrive to the following form for the field decomposition

$$\varphi _M(x)=\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑\mu \{\stackrel{~}{r}_\mu R_\mu (x)+\stackrel{~}{l}_\mu L_\mu ^{}(x)+\text{h.c.}\}+\phi _c(x).$$
(18)
Here $`R_\mu (x)`$ and $`L_\mu (x)`$ are the Unruh modes  and $`\stackrel{~}{r}_\mu `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{l}_\mu `$ are defined as

$`\stackrel{~}{r}_\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\mathrm{sinh}\pi \mu }}}\left\{e^{\pi \mu /2}\stackrel{~}{b}_\mu +e^{\pi \mu /2}\stackrel{~}{b}_\mu ^{}\right\},`$ (19)
$`\stackrel{~}{l}_\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\mathrm{sinh}\pi \mu }}}\left\{e^{\pi \mu /2}\stackrel{~}{b}_\mu +e^{\pi \mu /2}\stackrel{~}{b}_\mu ^{}\right\}.`$ (20)
The relations (20) are equivalent to the Bogolubov transformation. They define new operators $`\stackrel{~}{r}_\mu ,\stackrel{~}{l}_\mu `$ which act in the Fock space $`(\stackrel{~}{r}_\mu ,\stackrel{~}{l}_\mu )`$ unitary inequivalent to the Fock space $`(\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa )`$. In $`(\stackrel{~}{r}_\mu ,\stackrel{~}{l}_\mu )`$ the operators $`\stackrel{~}{r}_\mu ,\stackrel{~}{l}_\mu `$ and their Hermitian conjugates have the sense of destruction, creation operators for $`\stackrel{~}{r}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{l}`$ Unruh quasiparticles which we will call rightons and leftons respectively. The vacuum state from $`(\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa )`$ (booston vacuum, or condensate state $`|c`$) can be now represented as superposition of $`n`$-particle states of rightons and leftons

$$\begin{array}{c}|c=Z^{\frac{1}{2}}\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑\mu _1\mathrm{}\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑\mu _n\mathrm{exp}\left(\pi \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\mu _i\right)\hfill \\ \\ \hfill \times |\stackrel{~}{1}_{\mu _1},\mathrm{}\stackrel{~}{1}_{\mu _n}_L|\stackrel{~}{1}_{\mu _1},\mathrm{}\stackrel{~}{1}_{\mu _n}_R.\end{array}$$
(21)
The constant $`Z`$ in (21) is of course infinite but again this only reflects unitary inequivalence of two Fock spaces. We should emphasize that Eq. (21) is valid only if we are allowed to neglect the contribution of the zero mode to the booston field $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_M(x)`$. This can be done in MS only in the presence of the condensate and is absolutely inadmissible in empty MS. In the latter case the set of Unruh modes is incomplete, so that the decomposition (18) for the field in empty MS ($`\phi _c(x)=0`$) simply does not exist and the operators (20) have no sense of destruction operators for any particles in MS, see Ref. . Hence the Eq. (21) loses its sense if we change the state $`|c`$ by $`|0_M`$.

Though Fock spaces $`(\stackrel{~}{r}_\mu ,\stackrel{~}{l}_\mu )`$ and $`(\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa )`$ are unitary inequivalent, action of the operators $`\stackrel{~}{r}_\mu ,\stackrel{~}{l}_\mu `$ on the state vectors from $`(\stackrel{~}{b}_\kappa )`$ are well defined by Eqs. (20) and we can easily derive the Unruh formula

$$c|\stackrel{~}{r}_\mu ^{}\stackrel{~}{r}_\mu ^{}|c=(e^{2\pi \mu }1)^1\delta (\mu \mu ^{}).$$
(22)
Now, following Unruh  we will try to interpret this formula from the point of view of a Rindler observer.

It is highly important that owing to the absence of the zero mode in decomposition (17) the field $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_M(x)`$ automatically satisfies the condition

$$\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_M(0,0)=0,$$
(23)
which follows from the relation $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\kappa (0,0)=(1/\sqrt{2})\delta (\kappa )`$  and should be understood in weak sense. Note that in the presence of the condensate the field $`\varphi _M(x)`$, see Eq. (15), obeys the same condition at the origin $`\varphi _M(0,0)=\mathrm{}`$ as the classical field $`\phi _c(x)`$. We have asserted in Ref.  that, due to translation invariance, the relation of the type (23) for quantum field in empty MS would mean that all matrix elements of the operator $`\varphi _M(x)`$ between physically realizable states are identically equal to zero. Now this assertion does not work since translation invariance of MS is broken in presence of the nonuniform extended macroscopical object, the condensate.

Let us now consider the field $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_M(x)`$ Eq. (17) restricted to the Rindler wedge of MS, $`x=(\eta ,\rho ),t=\rho \mathrm{sinh}\eta ,z=\rho \mathrm{cosh}\eta ,\rho >\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},\mathrm{}<\eta <\mathrm{}.`$ This field as a function of Rindler coordinates satisfies the Klein-Fock-Gordon equation and obeys the boundary condition $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }_M(0,\eta )=0`$. Hence, as shown in Ref. , it can be quantized in accordance with the Fulling procedure  which leads to the concept of Fulling quasiparticles. We call here Fulling quanta quasiparticles rather than particles because the classical background $`\phi _c(\rho ,\eta )`$ is not equal to zero, so that the Fulling quanta are excitation over the condensate in the Rindler wedge. In view of boundary condition (23) it follows from Eqs. (5.16) of Ref.  that the destruction operator for the Fulling quasiparticle coincides with the destruction operator $`\stackrel{~}{r}_\mu `$ for righton. Therefore the factor in front of $`\delta `$-function in Eq. (22) can be interpreted as the average number of Fulling quasiparticles seen by an observer moving in the Rindler wedge. Moreover, since $`\mu =\omega /g`$ and $`\eta =g\tau `$ where $`\omega `$ is the energy of Fulling quantum and $`\tau `$ is the proper time of a uniformly accelerated observer in MS (world line of which lies entirely in Rindler wedge), we arrive to the following conclusion. Any detector moving with a constant proper acceleration in MS filled with zero-mode condensate $`|c`$ responds as if it had been immersed into a thermal bath of Fulling quasiparticles at the Davies - Unruh temperature $`T_{DU}=g/2\pi `$.

This statement dramatically differs from the conventional formulation of the Unruh effect  since the latter assumes acceleration of the detector in the empty MS. The main physical difference between these two situations is that the quantum dynamical degree of freedom associated with zero boost mode, which is an obstacle for validity of Unruh quantization in vacuum, can be naturally ignored in the background singular at the light cone, i.e. when particles occupying the zero mode quantum state form an extended macroscopical object. It is important that neglecting of zero mode contribution to the field amplitude automatically leads to zero boundary condition for the booston field restricted to the Rindler wedge, thus providing a possibility for Fulling quantization.

Certainly concentration of infinite number of particles in a single quantum state is an idealization. Physically, when talking about the zero mode condensate, we should understand not a particular mode but a narrow (with respect to $`\kappa `$) wave packet with the center at $`\kappa =0`$. It can be seen from the integral representation (5) that at $`t=0`$ such a wave packet will be narrow with respect to $`z`$ also. At $`t0`$ the wave packet remains narrow in the sense that it has sharp (but not infinite) maxima at the surface of the light cone, $`x_\pm =0`$. It is clear that expectation value of energy density in this quantum state is not singular any more, compare with the text after Eq. (9). One should keep in mind of course that the wave packet should remain narrow during the time of observation, i.e. the time $`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau `$ which one substitutes instead of $`\delta `$-function at $`\mu =\mu ^{}`$ in Eq. (22) according to the rule $`\delta (0)=\mathrm{\Delta }\tau /2\pi `$. The infinite number of particles in the wave packet state should be understood as macroscopically large. The Unruh construction in presence of such condensate is an approximation of course, but evidently the accuracy of this approximation looks very similar to the accuracy of the well known thermodynamic limit in the many body problems.

We are very grateful to our colleagues A.V. Berkov, S.R. Kelner, Yu.E. Lozovik, B.N. Narozhny and D.N. Voskresensky for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the Russian Fund for Basic Research and by Ministry of Education of Russian Federation.


text:
# A Geometric Determination of the Distance to the Galactic Center 1footnote 11footnote 1based on observations obtained at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory, Chile

## 1 Introduction

The distance between the Sun and the Galactic Center ($`R_o`$) is a fundamental parameter for determining the structure of the Milky Way. Through its impact on the calibration of the basic parameters of standard candles, such as RR Lyrae stars, Cepheids and giants the Galactic Center distance also holds an important role in establishing the extragalactic distance scale. Ten years ago Reid (1993) summarized the state of our knowledge on $`R_o`$. At that time the only primary (geometric) distance indicator to the Galactic Center came from the ’expanding cluster parallax’ method applied to the H2O masers in SgrB2, believed to lie within $``$0.3 kpc of the Galactic Center (Güsten & Downes 1980). Reid et al. (1988a, b) determined values of 7.1 and 6.5 kpc for the distances to the masers in SgrB2(N) and SgrB2(M), respectively, with a combined statistical and systematic (1$`\sigma `$) uncertainty of $`\pm `$1.5 kpc. In addition there existed a number of secondary (standard candle) determinations, based on RR-Lyrae stars, Cepheids, globular clusters and giants, as well as a number of tertiary indicators, derived from theoretical constraints (e.g. Eddington luminosity of X-ray sources, Galaxy structure models). From all these measurements Reid inferred a best overall estimate of 8.0 kpc, with a combined uncertainty of $`\pm `$0.5 kpc. In the time since 1993 Genzel et al. (2000) reported a primary (statistical parallax) distance, $`R_o`$=8.0$`\pm `$0.9 kpc (statistical error bar), based on a statistical comparison of proper motions and line-of-sight velocities of stars in the central 0.5 pc of the Galaxy. Carney et al. (1995) and McNamara et al. (2000) found secondary distances of 7.8 and 7.9 kpc ($`\pm `$0.7 kpc) from RR Lyrae and $`\delta `$-Scuti stars. Feast & Whitelock (1997) used Cepheids and a Galactic rotation model, updated for the new Hipparcos local distance scale, to obtain $`R_o`$=8.5$`\pm `$0.5 kpc. Paczynski & Stanek (1998) and Stanek & Garnavich (1998) combined measurements of red clump stars with the Hipparcos scale to obtain $`R_o`$=8.2 kpc, with a claimed combined statistical and systematic uncertainty of $`\pm `$0.21 kpc.

We report here the first primary distance measurement to the Galactic Center with an uncertainty of only 5%. This determination has become possible through the advent of precision measurements of proper motions and line-of-sight velocities of the star S2. This star is orbiting the massive black hole and compact radio source SgrA that is located precisely at the center of the Milky Way. As discussed by Salim & Gould (1999), the classical ’orbiting binary’ technique can then be applied to obtain an accurate determination of $`R_o`$ that is essentially free of systematic uncertainties in the astrophysical modeling. The essence of the method is that the star’s line-of-sight motion is measured via the Doppler shift of its spectral features in terms of an absolute velocity, whereas its proper motion is measured in terms of an angular velocity. The orbital solution ties the angular and absolute velocities, thereby yielding the distance to the binary. Schödel et al. (2002) found that S2 is on a highly elliptical Kepler orbit around SgrA, with an orbital period of about 15 years and a peri-center distance of about 17 light hours. Ghez et al. (2003) confirmed and improved the Schödel et al. (2002) results and reported the first spectroscopic identification and line-of-sight velocity measurement of S2. S2 appears to be a 15-20 $`M_{}`$ main sequence O8-B0 star whose line-of-sight velocity can be inferred in a straightforward manner from the HI Br$`\gamma `$ absorption in the star’s K-band (2.2$`\mu `$m) spectrum. With additional line-of-sight velocity and proper motion data it has now becomes feasible to make a precision estimate of all orbital parameters, including the distance to S2/SgrA.

## 2 Observations

### 2.1 NAOS/CONICA adaptive optics imaging

We observed the Galactic Center on Yepun (UT4 of the VLT) with the NAOS/CONICA (NACO, Lenzen et al. 1998, Rousset et al. 1998) near-infrared, adaptive optics imager on March 17/18 2003 (2003.21) and May 8/9 2003 (2003.35). We observed through the H-band (1.65$`\mu `$m) filter and used the infrared wavefront sensor to correct in K-band on the bright supergiant IRS7, located $``$5.6” north of S2/SgrA. In both runs the seeing was $``$0.5”, resulting in H-band Strehl ratios between 0.3 and 0.5. After producing final maps with the shift-and-add technique, we deconvolved the images with a linear Wiener filter and a Lucy-Richardson algorithm. We extracted stellar positions from the deconvolved images with the program STARFINDER (Diolaiti et al. 1995). We also applied this technique to all 2002 NACO Galactic Center imaging data described by Schödel et al. (2003), thereby improving slightly their results. All positions prior to 2002 are from the observations with the SHARP instrument on the ESO 3.5m NTT, as reported by Schödel et al. (2003). Our positional errors are a combination of fit errors and errors in placing S2 in a common infrared astrometric frame, resulting in overall errors for NACO of 1-3 mas (1$`\sigma `$) in 2003 and 3-7 mas in 2002 (when the performance of the then new NACO instrument was still not optimized), and 6-10 mas for the 1992-2001 SHARP/NTT measurements. In addition, there is a $`\pm `$10 mas absolute uncertainty between the infrared and radio astrometric frames (Reid et al. 2003a). Figure 1 is a plot of the positions of S2 between 1992 and 2003.

### 2.2 SPIFFI integral field spectroscopy

On April 8/9 2003 (2003.27) we observed the Galactic Center on Kueyen (UT2 of the VLT) with the new MPE integral field spectrometer SPIFFI (Thatte et al. 1998, Eisenhauer et al. 2000). Briefly, SPIFFI uses a reflective image slicer and a grating spectrometer to simultaneously obtain spectra with 1024 spectral elements for a contiguous 32$`\times `$32 pixel, two dimensional field on the sky. In very good seeing conditions (0.4”-0.5” in the optical) we observed with a pixel scale of 0.1”, resulting in a 2$`\mu `$m FWHM of 0.25”-0.3”. The FWHM spectral resolution was 85 km/s, sampled at 34 km/s. We dithered about two dozen exposures of 1 minute integration time each to construct a mosaicked data cube of the central $``$8”. Data reduction used the new SPIFFI analysis pipeline, as well as IRAF tools. We determined the wavelength calibration from arc lamps and OH sky emission lines, resulting in an accuracy of $`\pm `$7 km/s. The effective integration time toward the central part of the mosaic near SgrA was about 15 minutes. We used both the flat spectrum star IRS16CC and the ATRAN atmospheric code to correct for atmospheric absorption. We then extracted spectra toward S2 and several ’off’ positions nearby in apertures of about 0.2” in diameter. We analyzed the direct as well as the off-subtracted spectra. Off-subtraction is important for removing the extended nebular Br$`\gamma `$ emission from the SgrA West mini-spiral. For our spring 2003 data, direct and off-subtracted spectra were identical near the star’s Br$`\gamma `$ absorption line at vLSR= -1545$`\pm `$25 km/s, far off the nebular contamination. The direct SPIFFI spectrum is shown in the left inset of Figure 2.

### 2.3 NACO long slit spectroscopy

We took K-band grism spectroscopy of S2 with NACO on Yepun on May 8/9 2003 (2003.35). As for the H-band imaging, the optical seeing was $``$0.4”-0.5” and we used the infrared wavefront sensor on IRS7. We chose the 86 mas slit, resulting in 210 km/s resolution sampled at 69 km/s per pixel. The spatial pixel scale was 27 mas and we placed the slit at position angle 78o through S2. We integrated for about 5 minutes per readout and nodded the slit by $`\pm `$5”. We accumulated 30 minutes of on-source integration. Data analysis employed standard IRAF longslit tools. We calibrated on arc lamps, resulting in a velocity accuracy of $`\pm `$10 km/s. We corrected for atmospheric absorption by dividing the Galactic Genter spectra by an early type star observed at the same airmass. The inferred LSR velocity of the Br$`\gamma `$ absorption of S2 was -1512$`\pm `$35 km/s. Again, no correction for nebular emission was necessary. The nodded NACO spectrum in a 0.086”$`\times `$0.1” aperture is shown in the right inset of Figure 2.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Geometric Distance Estimate to the star S2

For the analysis of our measurements we fitted the positional and line-of-sight velocity data to a Kepler orbit, including the Galactic Center distance as an additional fit parameter. In principle the dynamical problem of two masses orbiting each other requires the determination of 14 parameters: 6 phase space coordinates for each mass, plus the values of the two masses (see Salim & Gould 1999). At the present level of accuracy, four of these 14 parameters can be safely neglected: the mass of the star (since mS2/M$`_{SgrA^{}}`$ $``$5$`\times `$10-6) and the three velocity components of SgrA. Radio interferometry of SgrA with respect to background quasars has established that after subtraction of the motions of Earth and Sun around the Galactic Center the proper motion of SgrA is $``$ 20 km/s in the plane of the Galaxy and $``$8 km/s toward the Galactic Pole (Backer & Sramek 1999, Reid et al. 1999, Reid et al. 2003b). This implies v$`_{SgrA^{}}`$ $``$10-2 vS2. Likewise the uncertainty in the local standard of rest velocity ($``$10 km/s) can also be neglected at the present level of analysis (see Salim & Gould 1999). In the actual orbital fitting we solve for the geometric parameters of the orbit (Table 1), as well as the time of peri-center passage. The central mass is a dependent variable that is calculated from the semi-major axis and period, using Kepler’s 3rd law. Our measurement constraints consist of the 18 (x2) S2 positions between 1992 and 2003 and 4 line-of-sight velocities: 2 from Ghez et al. (2003), 1 from SPIFFI and 1 from NACO. This leaves us to fit 10 parameters with 40 data points, resulting in an over-constrained problem with 30 degrees of freedom. For fitting the orbit of S2, we expanded our existing IDL program codes for Keplerian orbits (see Schödel et al. 2003) to take into account the additional information provided by line-of-sight velocity measurements. The errors of the orbital parameters are based on an analysis of the covariance matrix. The uncertainty in $`R_o`$ is most strongly correlated with the semi-major axis $`a`$, the inclination $`i`$, and the time of peri-center approach $`T_{peri}`$, all of which are well determined in our model. Table 1 is a list of the fitted parameters of the S2 orbit, the mass and location of the central object and the distance to the Galactic Center. Figures 1 and 3 show the best-fit orbital and line-of-sight velocity curves derived from the fit parameters in Table 1, superposed on our data. The accuracy of the orbital parameters in Table 1 is 3 to 6 times better than those in Schödel et al. (2002), and 1.3 to 2 times better than those in Ghez et al. (2003).

### 3.2 Statistical Parallax to the Central Star Cluster

In addition to the $`R_o`$ value from the S2 orbit, we also report an update of the statistical parallax distance to the stars in the central 0.5 pc. We used the proper motion and line-of-sight velocity data base of Ott et al. (2003) and complemented these by additional $``$100 velocities of early type and late type stars in the central 10” extracted from the new SPIFFI data cube discussed above (Abuter et al. 2003). We now have 106 late type stars and 27 early type stars with all three velocities. For these two sets we can apply the anisotropy independent distance estimator introduced by Genzel et al. (2000),

$`\left(\frac{R_o}{8kpc}\right)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\frac{<pv_z^2>_8}{1/3<pv_R^2>_8+2/3<pv_T^2>_8}\right)^{0.5}`$ (1),

where $`p`$ is the sky projected distance of a star from SgrA, and $`v_z`$, $`v_R`$ and $`v_T`$ are the line- of-sight, sky projected radial, and sky projected tangential velocities (from proper motions). The symbol $`<>_8`$ denotes the ensemble average for an assumed distance of 8 kpc. Within the radius of influence of the black hole ($``$0.5 pc) this estimator gives an equal weight to stars at different distances from SgrA. Applying this estimator to the 106 late type stars ($`p`$10”) with three velocities yields $`R_o`$=7.1$`\pm `$0.7 kpc. For the 27 early type stars we find $`R_o`$=8.0$`\pm `$1.6 kpc, where the error bars are statistical in both cases. The early and late type stars have very different dynamical properties and thus need to be treated separately (Genzel et al. 2003). We estimate that both values have an additional systematic uncertainty (due to phase space clumping, possible streaming motions etc.) of $`\pm `$0.6 kpc. The statistical parallax method thus gives $`R_o`$=7.2 kpc (with a combined uncertainty of $`\pm `$0.9 kpc), in good agreement with the more accurate S2 orbit determination.

## 4 Discussion

The value of $`R_o`$ deduced from the orbit of S2 is 8.0$`\pm `$0.4 kpc. Our determination rests on the analysis of a simple dynamic system. The massive black hole candidate SgrA is located at the very center of the Milky Way. The distance value and its uncertainty come from a global fit to all data that includes all parameter interdependencies through the covariance matrix. Hence we are confident that the deduced errors contain all sources of uncertainty. The derived distance has no sizeable additional systematic uncertainties due to the astrophysical modeling. For instance, deviations of the gravitational potential from that of a point source are small. Schödel et al. (2002, 2003) and Genzel et al. (2003) conclude that any distributed mass with a density distribution similar to that of the central stellar cusp cannot contribute more than a few hundred solar masses within the peri-center distance of S2, or 10-4 of the mass of the central black hole. It is also unlikely that the central mass is a binary black hole of approximately equal masses, since such binary hole would have to have a separation less than 10 light hours (constrained by the data) and would coalesce by gravitational radiation in a few hundred years. The fractional uncertainty in the value of $`R_o`$ is under 5%, thus delivering the most accurate, primary Galactic Center distance measurement so far. It is gratifying to see how well our value agrees with all other, primary and secondary distance measurements. This gives confidence in the quality and robustness of the standard candles methods (RR Lyrae stars, Cepheids, red clump stars etc.) that are at the key of the second rung of the extragalactic distance ladder.

Future improvements in the accuracy of $`R_o`$ from the orbit of S2 alone will be relatively slow. This is because we have already sampled three quarters of the entire orbit, and have also observed the largest swing in the line-of-sight velocity curve. As discussed in Salim & Gould (1999), further significant improvements to the level of under a few percent can be expected from combinations of several orbits, since then the number of degrees of freedom is rapidly increasing (as four fit parameters are common to all orbiting stars).

Acknowledgements. We are grateful to N.Thatte, C.Iserlohe, J.Schreiber, M.Horrobin, C.Röhrle, S.Huber and S.Weisz whose work on SPIFFI was essential for the Galactic center data taken here. We also thank the Paranal staff and our colleagues from NAOS (D.Rouan, F.Lacombe) and CONICA (R.Lenzen, P.Hartung) for their support. We thank M.Reid for valuable comments on this paper, and B.Schutz for comments on the coalescence time for binary black holes. TA is supported by GIF grant 2044/01, Minerva grant 8484 and a New Faculty grant by Sir H. Djangoly, CBE, London, UK.