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# Predicting QSO Continua in the Ly𝛼 Forest

## 1 INTRODUCTION

We would like to have an accurate and objective way to find the continuum level in QSO spectra, because these levels are required to measure the amount of absorption. The uncertainty in the continuum level is often one of the largest uncertainties in the studies of intergalactic medium (IGM, e.g. Croft et al., 2002), and the precise continuum shape is required for precision measurement of absorption lines, such as the measurement of D/H (Kirkman et al., 2003; Suzuki et al., 2003).

Standard methods of estimating the continua in the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest region of QSO spectra are frequently unsatisfactory. For redshifts $`2<z<4`$, the standard way to find a continuum level is to fit a smooth curve over the peaks of the flux in the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest. This method works well, giving $`<2`$% errors in the continuum level in high resolution spectra (e.g. 8 km s-1 FWHM) with high S/N (e.g. 100 per 2 km s-1, Kirkman et al., 2003). However, the method fails when there are few pixels that we can clearly identify as unabsorbed continuum, and this lack of continuum information is common in low S/N spectra, in low resolution spectra where lines blend together, and at higher redshifts where the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest absorbs more than a few percent at all wavelengths. In fact, by redshifts $`z>6`$ the complete Gunn-Peterson trough (Becker et al., 2001; Djorgovski et al., 2001; Fan et al., 2001) makes it impossible to directly measure the continuum. Instead, at high redshifts, especially $`z>4`$, it is common to approximate the continuum in the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest with a power-law extrapolation from wavelengths larger than Ly$`\alpha `$ (Telfer et al., 2002; White et al., 2003). But the continuum in the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest is not a power law, because the wings of the Ly-$`\beta `$-O VI emission line and especially the Ly$`\alpha `$ line, extend far into the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest and there exist weak emission lines especially near 1073 and 1123 Å (Zheng et al., 1997; Vanden Berk et al., 2001; Bernardi et al., 2003).

We might be able to predict the unabsorbed flux in the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest if it is correlated with the unabsorbed flux at other wavelengths. Here, the unabsorbed flux includes both continuum and emission lines, but not the random intervening absorption. We measure correlations in a set of QSO spectra (hereafter the training set), that cover both 1020 Å $`\lambda `$ 1215 Å (hereafter the blue side) and 1216 Å $`\lambda `$ 1600 Å (hereafter the red side). We will use the red side spectra of individual QSOs to make predictions of their blue sides.

We use Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to summarize the information in the QSO spectra. PCA seeks to reduce the dimensionality of large data sets and is widely used in astronomy. (Whitney, 1983; Kanbur et al., 2002; Efstathiou, 2002). Francis et al. (1992) applied PCA to the LBQS (Hewett et al., 1995, 2001) optical spectra of QSOs to give an objective classification scheme, and they showed that any normalized QSO spectrum, $`q_i(\lambda )`$, is well represented by a reconstructed spectrum, $`r_{i,m}(\lambda )`$, that is a weighted sum of m principal components,

$$q_i(\lambda )r_{i,m}(\lambda )=\mu (\lambda )+\underset{j=1}{\overset{m}{}}c_{ij}\xi _j(\lambda ),$$
(1)
where i refers to a QSO, $`\mu (\lambda )`$ is the mean of many QSO spectra, $`\xi _j(\lambda )`$ is the j th principal component, and $`c_{ij}`$ is its weight. Instead of classifying QSO spectra, we use PCA to make predictions.

In §2 we describe HST spectra that we use for the training set. We show the correlations in the QSO spectra and results of the PCA in §3. In §4 we show how we make predictions and we discuss their accuracy.

## 2 QSO SPECTRA AND THEIR CORRECTION

For the training set we use UV spectra of low redshift ($`z<1`$) QSOs because they have little absorption and we can clearly see their continua levels. Here we describe these spectra, the criteria that we use to select them, and the corrections that we make.

We use a subset of the 334 high resolution Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) spectra collected and calibrated by Bechtold et al. (2002). This sample includes all of the high resolution QSO spectra from the HST QSO Absorption Line Key Project (Bahcall et al., 1993, 1996; Jannuzi et al., 1998). The gratings chosen are G130H, G190H, and G270H, and their spectral resolution is R $``$ 1300. Bechtold et al. (2002) identified both IGM and ISM lines in a uniform manner and they applied Galactic extinction corrections using the Galactic reddening map of Burstein & Heiles (1982) and the Milky Way reddening curve of Cardelli, Clayton, & Mathis (1989).

We select QSO spectra by wavelength coverage and S/N, and we remove a few QSOs with peculiar spectra. We reject QSOs that do not have complete coverage from 1020 Å to 1600 Å. This range covers from the Ly$`\beta `$ \+ O VI emission line blend to the C IV emission line. A larger range would help reveal the shapes of the QSO continua, but we would then have fewer QSOs in the sample.

We reject QSOs that did not have an average S/N $`>10`$ per binned pixel (0.5 Å in the rest frame) from 1050 Å to 1170 Å. We are interested in the intrinsic variation of the QSO spectra against the mean spectrum. Photon noise adds variation, masks the intrinsic variations, and alters the primary principal components. Before we removed the low S/N spectra, we found that some principal components were largely reproducing the photon noise of the spectra with unusually low S/N.

We remove QSOs with Broad Absorption Lines and Damped Ly$`\alpha `$ system because we are unsure where to place their continua. We also remove Q0219+4248 and Q0906+4305 whose emission line features are extremely weak. These removals make our sample not representative of all QSO spectra.

We end up using the spectra of 50 QSOs that we list in Table 1. The mean redshift is 0.58, with a standard deviation of 0.27 and a range from 0.14 to 1.04. The average S/N is 19.5.

We will represent the spectra of all 50 QSO by fitted smooth curves that reduce the effects of photon noise and interpolate over the absorption lines. To find the smooth curves, we mask the absorption lines which Bechtold et al. (2002) identified in both the blue and red sides. Then, for every 50 Å interval, with 20 Å overlaps, we fit Chebyshev polynomials and we choose the order of the polynomials so that the reduced $`\chi ^2`$ becomes close to unity. The order is about 4 $``$ 6 if no strong emission line lies in that interval. In intervals which include strong emission lines such as Ly$`\alpha `$ and C IV, the order becomes 30 $``$ 40. For a few QSOs we made further adjustments by hand.

In Table 1 we give emission redshifts that we measure from the peaks of the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission lines. In the rest frame the emission line peaks align, and the asymmetric profiles become a part of variance in the set of spectra. If we do not use the peak of the Ly$`\alpha `$ line, but instead we cross-correlate with a template of known redshift, we find that we need extra principal components to reconstruct the emission lines. Once we obtain the redshifts, we shift the spectra to the rest frame, and we rebin them into 0.5 Å pixels. We then have 1161 pixels of flux data values per QSO in the range 1020 Å – 1600 Å.

Since we are interested in the relative spectrum shape, we throw away absolute flux information. We find the average flux in 21 pixels around 1280 Å, and we normalize all spectra to unit flux at these wavelengths, far from any strong emission lines.

## 3 PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF QSO SPECTRA

We calculate the correlation of the fluxes at different wavelengths to see how different parts of the typical QSO spectrum are related. In Figure 1, we see the $`1161\times 1161`$ correlation matrix $`𝑹`$ with elements

$$𝑹(\lambda _m,\lambda _n)=\frac{1}{N1}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{\left(q_i(\lambda _m)\mu (\lambda _m)\right)\left(q_i(\lambda _n)\mu (\lambda _n)\right)}{\sigma (\lambda _m)\sigma (\lambda _n)},$$
(2)
where $`q_i(\lambda )`$ is the continuum fitted and normalized spectrum for the i th QSO, $`N`$ is the total number of QSO spectra, $`\sigma _m`$ and $`\sigma _n`$ are the standard deviations of the flux in the mth and nth wavelength bins, $`\lambda _m`$ and $`\lambda _n`$ respectively.

We find moderate correlation, about 0.2 $``$ 0.6, between the red and blue continua. The correlation between the emission lines, 0.8, is much stronger, and hence we expect that the emission lines in the red side will give good predictions for those in the blue side.

We can calculate the covariance matrix $`𝑽`$ for the 50 QSOs as:

$$𝑽(\lambda _m,\lambda _n)=\frac{1}{N1}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\left(q_i(\lambda _m)\mu (\lambda _m)\right)\left(q_i(\lambda _n)\mu (\lambda _n)\right).$$
(3)
In Figure 2 we see the covariance is relatively small in the continuum but large in the emission lines, meaning that the emission lines vary a lot from QSO to QSO. The peaks near 1073 and 1123 Å probably correspond to the weak emission lines in the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest that Bernardi et al. (2003) discuss.

We can find the principal components by decomposing the covariance matrix $`𝑽`$ into the product of the orthonormal matrix $`𝑷`$ which is composed of eigenvectors, and the diagonal matrix $`𝚲`$ containing the eigenvalues:

$$𝑽=𝑷^1𝚲𝑷.$$
(4)
We call the eigenvectors, the columns of the matrix $`𝑷`$, the principal components. The principal components are ordered according to the amount of the variance in the training set that they can accommodate, such that the first principal component is the eigenvector which has the largest eigenvalue.

Let us quantitatively assess how well we can reconstruct the QSO spectra using a certain number of the components. We find the weight $`c_{ij}`$ of the jth principal component for QSO spectrum $`q_i(\lambda )`$ from:

$$c_{ij}=_{1020\mathrm{\AA }}^{1600\mathrm{\AA }}(q_i(\lambda )\mu (\lambda ))\xi _j(\lambda )𝑑\lambda .$$
(5)
When we use the first $`m`$ components, we get the reconstructed spectrum $`r_{i,m}`$. The $`\xi _j(\lambda )`$ look similar to QSO spectra, but with more structure at the wavelengths of the emission lines. Examples of principal components and reconstructions, which are very similar to ours, are given by Francis et al. (1992).

We now introduce the accumulated residual variance fraction $`\delta E_{i,m}`$:

$$\delta E_{i,m}=_{1020\mathrm{\AA }}^{1600\mathrm{\AA }}(r_{i,m}(\lambda )q_i(\lambda ))^2𝑑\lambda /_{1020\mathrm{\AA }}^{1600\mathrm{\AA }}(q_i(\lambda )\mu (\lambda ))^2𝑑\lambda .$$
(6)
This quantity measures the square of the difference of a reconstructed spectrum from the continuum fitted QSO spectrum, in units of the square of the difference between that QSO and the mean. Hence $`\delta E_{i,m}`$ decreases from 1 to near zero as we add components to the reconstruction. The $`m`$ in $`\delta E_{i,m}`$ tells us that we have used the first $`m`$ components in the reconstruction $`r_{i,m}(\lambda )`$. In Table 2, we list the mean $`<\delta E_m>=(1/N)_{i=1}^N\delta E_{i,m}`$, averaged over all 50 QSOs. The first three component takes 77% of the residual, and the first 10 components absorb about 96%. Francis et al. (1992, their Fig. 4) analyzed the LBQS set of QSO spectra (Hewett, Foltz, & Chaffee, 1995, 2001). Using a different statistic that accounts for photon noise, different wavelengths, and including BAL QSOs and all absorption lines, they found that the first three components accounted for 75% of the variance, and the first 10 components 95%. We also analyzed the LBQS spectra, kindly provided by Paul Francis and Paul Hewett, to confirm that our implementation of the PCA matched theirs given our wavelength range and selection criteria. The residual variance decreases in a different way for each QSO because the contributions of the components differ. However, on average, the rate of reduction slows after third component and saturates around the 10th component. The components greater than about 10th look noisy and carry little information. In the following discussion, we use up to the first 10 principal components.

## 4 PREDICTING SPECTRA

Our goal is to predict the continuum of a QSO in the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest, the blue side, using a spectrum of wavelengths larger than Ly$`\alpha `$ emission, the red side. In §4.1 we describe how we relate the blue and red side continua, and in §4.2 we give a general recipe to make predictions.

### 4.1 METHODS

Unfortunately, we do not have enough QSO spectra for both a training set and a separate set of spectra that we can use to test our predictions. Hence, we also use the training set for the tests. When we make a prediction for a QSO, we use a set of principal components which we generated without using any spectra of that QSO. We will call this the bootstrap method, and we will use it in most of the remainder of this paper. When we omit different QSOs, the first five principal components change by a few percent, most noticeably at the wavelengths of the emission lines. If we do not omit the QSO of interest, the complete set of principal components contains all the information on each QSO, including the continuum fitting and photon noise. We found the noise features could identify a QSO, giving weights with unrealistically high precision.

We chose three steps to quantify the relationship between the red and blue sides of the spectra in the training set.

* Step 1: Find the first $`m`$ principal components $`\xi _j(\lambda )`$ and their weights, $`c_{ij}`$. We use all the blue and red side wavelengths, 1020 Å to 1600 Å, and we use the bootstrap method to give a slightly different set of $`\xi _j(\lambda )`$ for each QSO $`i`$.
* Step 2: Repeat step one, using only the red wavelengths 1216 Å to 1600 Å. We again keep the first $`m`$ principal components, $`\zeta _j(\lambda )`$ and their weights, $`d_{ij}`$, which are similar to those from step one.
* Step 3: Solve linear equations to find a projection matrix which relates $`c_{ij}`$ and $`d_{ij}`$.

We can write the weights in the $`N\times m`$ matrix form $`𝑪`$ $`=c_{ij}`$ and similarly for $`𝑫`$. We would like to find the $`m\times m`$ projection matrix $`𝑿`$ $`=x_{ij}`$ which translates weights found on the red side to the weights for the whole spectrum:

$$𝑪=𝑫𝑿.$$
(7)
We have $`N=50`$ QSOs, and we keep $`m=10`$ components. We then have more equations (N) than unknowns (m) and we wish to find the least-squares solution to this over-determined set of linear equations. The solution matrix $`𝑿`$ can be found via the Singular Value Decomposition technique (Press et al., 1992).

### 4.2 MAKING A PREDICTION

We are now ready to make a prediction of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest continuum of any QSO spectrum, that need not be in the training set, provided we have the red side of its spectrum. We obtain predictions in three steps, that are similar to those presented above to find $`𝑿`$.

* Step A: Find the weights for the red spectrum,

$$b_{ij}=_{1216\mathrm{\AA }}^{1600\mathrm{\AA }}(q_i(\lambda )\mu (\lambda ))\zeta _j(\lambda )𝑑\lambda .$$
(8)
The $`b_{ij}`$ will be like the $`d_{ij}`$ in step 2 above, except that the principal components could be different. If the QSO is not part of the training set, then the $`\zeta _j(\lambda )`$ can be derived using the entire training set.
* Step B: Translate the weights from the red side $`b_{ij}`$, to weights for whole spectrum, using

$$a_{ij}=\underset{k=1}{\overset{m}{}}b_{ik}x_{kj}.$$
(9)
This resembles Equation (7), except that we now know $`𝑿`$ and we are deriving the $`a_{ij}`$ that play the roles of the $`c_{ij}`$ of step 1.
* Step C: Make a predicted spectrum,

$$p_{i,m}(\lambda )=\mu (\lambda )+\underset{j=1}{\overset{m}{}}a_{ij}\xi _j(\lambda ).$$
(10)

The predicted spectrum $`p_{i,m}(\lambda )`$ differs from the reconstruction $`r_{i,m}(\lambda )`$ because the reconstruction uses weights derived from the blue and red sides of the spectrum, using Equation (1), where as the predictions use weights derived from the red part of the spectrum alone, using Equations (8) and (9).

We provide the two sets of principal components, $`\xi _j(\lambda )`$ and $`\zeta _j(\lambda )`$, and the projection matrix $`𝑿`$, so the readers can make their own predictions.

### 4.3 PREDICTION ACCURACY

In Figure 3, we show two relatively successful and two unsuccessful predictions, $`p_{i,10}(\lambda )`$, together with the corresponding continuum fitted QSO spectra, $`q_i(\lambda )`$. When the prediction fails, the predicted spectrum is systematically either too low or too high, but with no preference.

We assess the errors on our predictions using the absolute fractional flux error:

$$\left|\delta F_{i,m}\right|=_{\lambda _1}^{\lambda _2}\left|\frac{p_{i,m}(\lambda )q_i(\lambda )}{q_i(\lambda )}\right|𝑑\lambda /_{\lambda _1}^{\lambda _2}𝑑\lambda .$$
(11)
For the blue side, $`\lambda _1=1050`$ Å and $`\lambda _2=1170`$ Å, avoiding the Ly$`\beta `$ and Ly$`\alpha `$ emission lines, and for the red side, $`\lambda _1=1216`$ Å and $`\lambda _2=1600`$ Å. In Table 1, we list the absolute fractional flux errors for each QSO, when we use $`m=10`$ components. In Table 2, row (c) and (e), we list $`<\left|\delta F_m\right|>=(1/N)_{i=1}^N\left|\delta F_{i,m}\right|`$, the mean of the absolute fractional flux error from all 50 QSOs, and we show how this mean changes with $`m`$. For comparison, in rows (b) and (d), we also list $`<\left|\delta F_m\right|>`$ obtained by reconstruction when we replace $`p_{i,m}(\lambda )`$ in Equation (11) by $`r_{i,m}(\lambda )`$ from Equation (1). These $`r_{i,m}(\lambda )`$ use principal components derived from the blue plus red sides. We find similar values if we use principal components from the red side alone.

The advantage of using more components is different for the reconstruction, the red side prediction, and the blue side prediction. For the reconstruction and the red side prediction, more components always improve the fit (Table 2, row (b), (c), (d)), although the reduction of the error is small after about the 10th component, and we think the remaining 3% absolute fractional flux error is similar in size to the error of the continuum fitting (§2).

On the other hand, for the blue side prediction, adding more components does not reduce the mean error. We think the reason is related to the properties of the first few principal components. Only the third, fourth and fifth principal components have a significant slope. If we choose appropriate weights for these components, we are likely to make accurate predictions, and adding more components can reduce the residuals (Figure 3, panel (a), (b)). But if we choose inappropriate weights, there is no way to correct the slope (Figure 3, panel (c), (d)). Hence the main error in our predictions is a systematic slope error which makes the blue side prediction too high or too low.

Although our predictions give small errors for some QSOs, they give huge errors for others. With 10 components, the mode of the $`\left|\delta F_{10}\right|`$ distribution is 3%, the median is 8%, and the range is about 30%. We predict the blue continua of 28 QSOs out of 50 QSOs to $`\left|\delta F_i\right|10\%`$, but we do not know which QSOs will have these small errors. We find that many of the QSOs that give the largest errors have absorption or unusually low S/N on the red side of the Ly$`\alpha `$ line (1216 – 1240 Å, noted in Table 1) which makes the continuum level hard to estimate. This region is significant because it contains much of the variance and hence will have a large effect on the weights. However in others cases there is little or no absorption, and the slope of the spectrum appears to change as we cross the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission line. We do not in general see any correlation between the errors in the red and blue side predictions.

We introduce a third error statistic, the fractional flux error,

$$\delta F_{i,m}=_{\lambda _1}^{\lambda _2}\frac{p_{i,m}(\lambda )q_i(\lambda )}{q_i(\lambda )}𝑑\lambda /_{\lambda _1}^{\lambda _2}𝑑\lambda ,$$
(12)
to help us estimate the error in the integrated flux. This error is related to flux decrement statistic, $`D_a`$ (Oke & Korycansky, 1982; Bernardi et al., 2003), which has been used to calibrate numerical simulations of the IGM (Croft et al., 2002). In Table 1 we see that $`\delta F_{i,10}`$ has a similar magnitude to $`\left|\delta F_{i,10}\right|`$, also for the blue side, because the predictions tend to be too low or too high across the entire blue side. The mean of $`\delta F_{i,m}`$ for all 50 QSOs, $`<\delta F_m>`$ , is zero by definition, at each wavelength, when we use $`m=0`$, because $`p_{i,0}(\lambda )=\mu (\lambda )`$. When $`m>0`$, the statistic $`<\delta F_m>`$ represents the bias in the predictions, and in Table 2 we see that it remains within a few percent of zero for all $`m10`$.

In Figure 4 we show an example of the prediction of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest continuum of a higher redshift QSO from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (York et al., 2000; Stoughton et al., 2002) for which the continuum is unobservable because of the large amount of absorption. To make this prediction, which looks acceptable, we use the red side of its spectrum.

### 4.4 ERRORS AND DIFFERENT METHODS

Although the error in the levels of many of the predictions was unexpected, we can think of many possible explanations, including the intrinsic QSO spectra, calibration errors, and the method.

The intrinsic slope of the continuum may be changing at the UV wavelengths we consider (Zheng et al., 1997; Telfer et al., 2002). The UV flux from QSOs is black body radiation from the accretion disk around the central super massive black hole (Malkan, 1983; Sun & Malkan, 1989). If we pass over the peak of the black body continuum, the slope changes rapidly, and we will not have enough wavelength coverage to follow the change of the slope.

There are many possible errors in the calibration of the spectra, especially the Galactic extinction correction (Fitzpatrick, 1999). At our wavelengths, the extinction increases rapidly as the wavelength drops. If we underestimate color excess E(B-V) for a $`z=0`$ QSO by 0.01 magnitudes, we decrease the flux at 1600 Å by 7%, and at 1020 Å by 14% .

We have presented only one of many ways of predicting spectra. We attempted some other less successful schemes before we arrived at this method. For instance, we fitted the red side by minimizing the $`\chi ^2`$ of $`\xi _j(\lambda )`$ against $`q_i(\lambda )`$ to get $`a_{ij}`$, but we found the blue side prediction is then unstable. Different combinations of the principal components give similar $`\chi ^2`$ on the red side, but their blue sides can have a large variety.

We also experimented with different ways of normalizing the spectra, both near 1450 Å and using the entire red side, and we obtain similar results. We tried attempting to remove the slopes from spectra, by fitting a straight line to the red sides, but these lines were not adequately determined.

The predictions given here could be improved in several ways. We should first seek improved methods, which might not involve PCA. If we had spectra of many more QSOs we would be less subject to the distortions and noise in individual spectra, and we could test the predictions on spectra that were not in the training set. Higher resolution and higher S/N spectra would help to reveal the weak emission features, and reduce the errors in the initial continuum fit. Extending the wavelength range on the red side may help identify the slope of the continuum for some QSOs, but for others we found that a reduced wavelength range, from 1216 – 1400 Å gave better predictions, because this restricted range has a stronger correlation with the flux on the blue side. We have also made predictions with the red side restricted to 1280 – 1600 Å, to avoid the large flux errors that can occur when there are absorption lines in the Ly$`\alpha `$ and N V emission lines. We found that there was no significant change in $`<\left|\delta F_m\right|>`$.

This work was funded primarily by NASA grant NAG5-9224, and in part by NAG5-13113, and NSF grants AST-9900842 and AST-0098731. We are especially grateful to Paul Francis who provided the code and LBQS spectra that he had analyzed in his 1992 paper, and who answered many questions. Paul Hewett kindly sent the error arrays for those spectra. Wei Zheng and Buell Januzzi kindly provided copies of HST QSO spectra that we used before we located the invaluable collection of HST spectra posted to the web by Jill Bechtold. We thank Carl Melis and Angela Chapman for their careful reading of this manuscript.


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# Vacuum-field level shifts in a single trapped ion mediated by a single distant mirror

## Abstract

A distant mirror leads to a vacuum-induced level shift in a laser-excited atom. This effect has been measured with a single mirror 25 cm away from a single, trapped barium ion. This dispersive action is the counterpart to the mirror’s dissipative effect, which has been shown earlier to effect a change in the ion’s spontaneous decay \[J. Eschner et al., Nature 413, 495-498 (2001)\]. The experimental data are well described by 8-level optical Bloch equations which are amended to take into account the presence of the mirror according to the model in \[U. Dorner and P. Zoller, Phys. Rev. A 66, 023816 (2002)\]. Observed deviations from simple dispersive behaviour are attributed to multi-level effects.

Classically, it is well understood how the radiative damping of an oscillating charge leads to the Lorentzian lineshape of emitted radiation Heitler . Early quantum mechanical treatments of the spontaneous decay of an atom, however, accounted for natural linewidths by invoking the concept of a zero-point energy or vacuum field Dirac1927 ; Weisskopf1930 . The physical notion of a vacuum field with dynamics independent of the radiating atom was propounded by Welton Welton1948 , and that changes in this field could be observable was noted by Purcell Purcell1946 . Whilst the vacuum field is an intuitive and useful concept in explaining many phenomena in electrodynamics, including such fundamental effects as the Lamb shift and the Casimir force, it has been recognized that spontaneous decay can be interpreted as being induced by a combination of vacuum field fluctuations and the atom’s own radiation reaction, the magnitude of the two contributions depending on the chosen ordering of operators Milonni .

An excited-state atom near a mirror, which is the focus of this paper, was first treated explicitly by Morawitz Morawitz1969  who showed classically and quantum mechanically how the presence of the mirror leads to a modified damping rate and to a change in the resonance frequency of the atom. This treatment is formally equivalent to earlier work by Lyuboshitz who considered the scattering of radiation by two dipole centres Lyuboshitz19671968 . Arrays of dipoles are used, for example, in the design of directed antennas in the radio wave range, and similar ideas now form the basis of photonic bandgap materials. Extensive QED studies were performed by Barton Barton  who also considered ground state shifts which are, however, of a fundamentally different nature to the resonant radiative shifts of this paper NoteOnGroundstate . The modification of the spontaneous decay rate and the excited-state energy shift induced by a mirror can be attributed in equal amount to vacuum fields and radiation reaction Dalibard1982 ; Meschede1990 , which leads to a transparent interpretation and an intuitive reconciliation with the classical theory Hinds1991 ; Haroche1992 ; Hinds1994 .

Since the first experimental observation of modified spontaneous decay Drexhage1974 , the study of changes in the magnitude and spectral composition of atomic resonance fluorescence due to the presence of nearby dielectric boundaries has developed to a high level of technical control. Seminal experiments with atomic beams traversing optical resonators Heinzen1987  or Rydberg atoms in microwave cavities Brune1994  are now being continued into the domain where single atoms are transiently stored in high-finesse resonators Pinkse2000 ; Hood2000 , and cavity-induced cooling has been observed Chan2003 . Unlike these experiments with 2-mirror cavities and non-localized atoms, in this paper we report on the effect of only a single mirror, which is some 25 cm away, on a single trapped 138Ba+ ion which is localized much better than the optical wavelength.

Recently, single ions have been trapped inside optical cavities and shown to interact deterministically Guthoehrlein2001 ; Mundt2002  and coherently Mundt2002a  with the cavity field. The action of a single mirror has previously been shown to lead to position-dependent enhanced and inhibited spontaneous decay Eschner2001 . In addition to this dissipative effect, here we report the dispersive action of the mirror, an energy shift of the excited atomic level, which is found to be in accordance with a theoretical treatment of the experimental set-up Dorner2002 , and which furthermore shows some peculiar multi-level features.

The experimental setup and partial level scheme of 138Ba+ are shown in Fig. 1. A single 138Ba+ ion is confined in a miniature Paul trap with radial and axial secular frequencies of about 1 and 2 MHz, respectively. Narrowband tunable lasers at 493 nm (green) and 650 nm (red) drive the 2S1/2 to 2P1/2 and 2D3/2 to 2P1/2 transitions and Doppler-cool the ion. Laser frequencies are set close to resonance and laser intensities are around saturation. A macroscope lens L1 (f-number 2) collects part of the resonance fluorescence, the green photons of which are detected on PMT1 at count rates around $`15\times 10^3`$ cps. The resonance fluorescence emitted into the opposite direction is collimated by lens L2 (f-number 1.1, wavefront abberations $`<\lambda /5`$). The green part of this signal is retro-reflected by a piezo-adjustable plane mirror, while the red part is transmitted and detected on PMT2 at around $`25\times 10^3`$ cps.

Lens L2, situated inside the vacuum chamber, and the retro-reflecting mirror, situated about 25 cm away from the ion, are arranged such that they image the ion onto itself, i.e. the returning light is brought to a focus at the position of the ion. The ion and its mirror image can be observed visually through L1. Overlapping the mirror image with the real ion leads to high-contrast interference fringes at PMT1 upon scanning the ion-mirror distance with a piezo actuator Eschner2001 . Fine adjustment of the overlap is critical in obtaining high-contrast interference fringes. Disappearance of the interference pattern upon tilting the mirror indicates that the retro-reflected beam is focussed at the position of the ion to within 2 $`\mu `$m. The green fringe contrast can be as high as 72%, limited by the optical set-up (mirror and window flatness, quality of L2), by the thermal motion of the ion Eschner2003  and by acoustic noise between the trap and the external mirror.

Simultaneously with the green signal on PMT1 we record on PMT2 the red fluorescence transmitted through the mirror. Varying the mirror-ion distance, which gives rise to the 493 nm fringes, is also seen to modulate the red light with the same period Eschner2001 . Note that this modulation is not an interference at the red wavelength, as this would lead to a different modulation period. The reason for the red fringes is the back-action of the mirror on the atom, i.e. that the mirror modifies the vacuum field at the green wavelength and leads to enhancement and inhibition of spontaneous decay from the P1/2 state. As a consequence, the population of the P1/2 level is modulated. Since the mirror reflects only the radiation at 493 nm, only the decay constant on the 2S1/2 to 2P1/2 transition is modified, its variation being proportional to the green fringes. In contrast, the detected red light is a measure of the P-state population, thus revealing the back-action of the mirror on the atom. Then one could naively expect that enhancement of spontaneous decay at 493 nm leads to increased de-population of the upper state and a decrease in the rate of detected 650 nm photons, while inhibited decay at 493 nm increases the 650 nm count rate. However, instead of such anti-correlation, we observe a phase between the green and the red modulation which varies with the laser detuning and takes all values between correlation (phase close to 0 or $`2\pi `$) and anti-correlation (phase $`\pi `$).

A plot of this correlation phase as a function of the detuning of the red laser is shown in Fig. 2. For large negative or positive detunings, the green and red fringes are in phase, while with the red laser close to resonance, anti-correlation is observed. As we will show now, this dependence of the correlation phase is a direct consequence and an experimental verification of the energy shift of the P1/2 state which goes along with its modified decay rate.

We describe the dynamics of the laser-driven barium ion by optical Bloch equations. In the presence of a magnetic field the degeneracy of the S, P and D states is lifted so that a realistic model requires all eight Zeeman sublevels to be taken into account Schubert1995 . Without the action of the mirror, the 8-level Bloch equations are routinely used to determine the saturation parameters of each laser and the detuning of the 493 nm laser, from an excitation spectrum as the detuning of the 650 nm laser is scanned over resonance, see Ref. Raab1999 . Within this model the decay constants on the green and red transitions are given by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_g`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_r`$, and the detunings of the 493 and 650 nm lasers by $`\mathrm{\Delta }_g`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r`$, respectively. To account for the action of the mirror, the model is amended according to the results of Ref. Dorner2002 : the decay constant on the P1/2 to S1/2 transition is modified as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_g\mathrm{\Gamma }_g\left(1\epsilon \mathrm{cos}(2kl)\right),$$
(1)
and the detunings become

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_{g,r}\mathrm{\Delta }_{g,r}(\epsilon \mathrm{\Gamma }_g/2)\mathrm{sin}(2kl),$$
(2)
where $`\epsilon `$ is the effective fraction of 4$`\pi `$ solid angle subtended by L2 footnote\_on\_epsilon , $`k=2\pi /493`$ nm and $`l`$ is the ion-mirror distance. It is easily seen that Eq. (2) actually represents an energy shift of the P1/2 level. The shift is independent of the laser intensities, i.e. it remains even when the lasers are switched off. Thus it is not explained by a real AC stark shift due to the back-reflected 493 nm photons. Instead, its dependence on $`\epsilon `$ shows that it is caused by the mere presence of the mirror and the associated modification of the vacuum field and the radiation reaction of the atom. Our value of $`\epsilon 2\%`$ implies a level shift of approximately $`\pm 150`$ kHz.

The correlation phase calculated from the amended Bloch equations is plotted in Fig. 2. It describes well the experimental data. In particular, it must be noted that without the level shift correction of Eq. (2), the calculated dependence would have no other values than $`\pi `$ or 0. This can also be seen from an expansion of the excited state population $`𝒫_\mathrm{P}`$ for small $`\epsilon `$, which leads to an expression of the form

$$𝒫_\mathrm{P}=A_1+\epsilon \left(A_2\mathrm{cos}(2kl)+A_3\mathrm{sin}(2kl)\right),$$
(3)
where the quantities $`A_1,A_2,A_3`$ depend on the laser intensities and detunings Dorner2002 . Without a level shift, the factor $`A_3`$ would vanish and the signals would always be (anti-) correlated.

The data in Fig. 2 represent 7 hours of near-constant interrogation of a single barium ion. For each 650 nm laser detuning, up to 80 green and red interference periods were recorded simultaneously while the ion-mirror distance was varied. The correlation phase was then determined from the data afterwards. The 493 nm laser is stable to about 1 MHz over long periods whilst a red laser reference cavity drift rate of $`2`$ MHz/hr limited the accuracy to which the 650 nm laser detuning could be determined. The data in Fig. 2 have detunings accurate to within $`\pm `$1 MHz.

The red fringe contrast also varies with red laser detuning. It reaches values up to 2.5%, but for the laser parameters used in the data of Fig. 2, it goes to a minimum for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r+20`$ MHz. This, in conjunction with poor Doppler cooling at positive detunings, accounts for the large measurement errors in the correlation phase in this regime. The measured variation of red fringe contrast is shown in Fig. 3. From a comparison with the expected dependence, again calculated with the Bloch equations, we estimate that optimally the mirror subtended an effective solid angle of $`\epsilon `$=3.2% of $`4\pi `$, but the typical value is about 2%.

While all observations are well described by the model, thus verifying that the level energies and decay rates are indeed modified by the distant mirror, we also find peculiar features which are due to the multi-level structure of the atom and would not appear in a simple two-level system. The red fringe contrast can fall completely to zero for a specific positive detuning of the 650 nm laser and a particular ratio of the laser intensities. In other words, modification of the decay constant on the green transition may have no effect on the excited-state population. If from that particular set of parameters, the red laser intensity is increased further, the dispersive dependence of correlation phase vs. detuning shown in Fig. 2 changes shape. At large positive $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r`$ it is seen to return to zero instead of going up to $`2\pi `$. An example is displayed in Fig. 4. While it can be suspected that an interplay of modified decay and optical pumping is responsible for this behavior, the detailed underlying causes are the subject of future study.

In summary, we have experimentally verified that a distant mirror shifts the energy of the excited atomic levels by modifying the electromagnetic vacuum around an atom and the atom’s radiation reaction. While for non-localized atoms traversing resonators this effect has been observed earlier, in our case only a single mirror is used, and the spatial dependence of the energy shift is exploited by using a single trapped ion whose position is controlled on the sub-wavelength scale. Due to the multi-level structure of the ion, further effects arise which distinctly deviate from the behavior of simpler systems. While our experiment is designed to produce large level shifts, in the range of few 100 kHz, already much smaller values, which may accidentally appear due to nearby dielectric objects, would be relevant in precision measurements or optical clocks with single atoms.

Acknowledgements. This work was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, SFB15), by the European Commission (QUEST network, HPRNCT- 2000-00121, QUBITS network, IST-1999-13021), and by the Institut für Quanteninformation GmbH. P. B. acknowledges helpful discussions with P. Fedichev.


text:
# 1 Figure captions

## 1 Figure captions

Fig. 1. Normalized volatility averaged over 40 runs (generated by standard MG for $`N=101,`$ during $`t=10000`$ iterations after stationary regime has been attained $`t_0=10000`$) as a function of memory size and fraction of players using real history information.

Fig. 2. Normalized complexity as a function of memory size and fraction of players using real history information. Data were obtained under the same conditions as in Fig.1. The inset shows projection of complexity on the memory plane for real (below) and invented history (above) players.

Fig. 3. Normalized complexity of the binary string of outcomes of length 1000 bits, averaged over 40 runs. For each value of $`N`$, memory $`m`$ was varied in $`\alpha =2^m/N`$.

Fig. 4. Entropy $`H_\mu `$ for standard MG as a function of $`\alpha =P/N.`$ Probability $`p^\mu `$ was evaluated by series expansion of erfc function. For each fixed memory size parameter $`\alpha `$ was varied by changing the number of players. Following a maximum value of $`1,`$ $`H_\mu `$ starts decreasing at $`\alpha 0.34`$, the value at phase transition.


text:
# Operating LISA as a Sagnac interferometer

## I Introduction

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) LISA  is a joint NASA-ESA project to detect and study low frequency gravitational waves. LISA consists of three spacecraft separated by 5 million kilometers flying a total of six proof masses in heliocentric drag free orbits. The change in separation of each proof mass pair must be measured to a level of approximately 20 pm/$`\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}`$. One of the main challenges of the LISA interferometry is ensuring that the laser frequency noise ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu /\nu 10^{13}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}`$) does not obscure the gravitational wave induced length change ($`\mathrm{\Delta }L/L10^{20}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}`$). Time-delay interferometry (TDI) TintoPRD99 ; ArmstrongAPJ99  is a time domain post-processing technique that provides several interferometer outputs that are free from laser frequency noise. Two categories of TDI combinations have been examined: the Sagnac variables, and the Michelson variables. The Sagnac variables $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$, $`\gamma `$, and $`\zeta `$, are generators for the entire space of frequency noise-free interferometric combinations ArmstrongAPJ99 ; Dhurandhar . Much of the work to date has focused on time-delay reconstruction of the TDI variables from one-way measurements using six independently frequency-stabilized lasers. More recently, a configuration in which the lasers were phase-locked in a simple series to a stabilized master was analyzed TintoPRD03 . Although this analysis showed that time-delay interferometry is compatible with the phase-locking approach, it found no significant advantages of phase-locking compared to the one-way method.

This paper introduces a phase-locking configuration in which the phase of the light received from one interferometer arm is transferred to the phase of the light transmitted along an adjacent interferometer arm. This phase-locking arrangement allows two of the three LISA spacecraft to be considered as amplifying mirrors at a $`30^o`$ angle of incidence. This configuration is in contrast to the baseline LISA ; TintoPRD03  phase-locking arrangement in which certain spacecraft appear as amplifying retro-reflecting mirrors. This Sagnac phase-locking configuration is discussed in section III.

Non-rotating Sagnac interferometers are insensitive to laser frequency noise because the counter-propagating beams have exactly matched optical paths. In section IV we note that orbital motion of LISA will result in a 14 km optical path length difference between the clockwise- and counterclockwise-propagating beams. Under these circumstances the TDI Sagnac readouts $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$, $`\gamma `$ and $`\zeta `$ are no longer free from laser frequency noise. This arm length mismatch would lead to a significant degradation of the LISA sensitivity given expected levels of frequency stabilization. The implications for laser frequency stability are discussed, as is a post-processing algorithm that removes laser frequency noise. It is shown that unequal-arm post processing algorithms, similar to those used to obtain the Michelson variables $`X`$, $`Y`$, and $`Z`$ TintoPRD99 , can be applied to obtain frequency noise-free combinations of Sagnac-like variables.

## II Notation and phase measurements

This paper uses a modified notation for describing the LISA parameters. The notation attempts to combine the most useful aspects of the three commonly used notations TintoPRD99 ; Dhurandhar ; Hellings  in a consistent manner. Consider the diagram of the LISA interferometer in Fig. 1, showing three spacecraft, S/C 1, S/C 2, and S/C 3, each containing two optical benches, two lasers and two proof masses. The propagation distance from S/C $`i`$ to S/C $`j`$ is denoted by $`L_{ij}`$ (with the displacement vector denoted by $`\stackrel{}{L}_{ij}`$). Since the spacecraft can move significantly over the light’s propagation time, the apparent spacecraft separation depends on the propagation direction ($`L_{ij}L_{ji}`$). The LISA gravitational wave signal readouts are constructed from twelve phase measurements: six inter-spacecraft measurements taken at the front of the optical benches, denoted by $`s_{ij}`$, and six intra-spacecraft measurements taken at the back of the optical benches, denoted by $`\tau _{ij}`$. The first subscript of $`s_{ij}`$ is the distant S/C number from where the light originated and the second subscript is the local S/C number at which the measurement is made. The measurement $`\tau _{ij}`$ inherits the same subscript notation as the $`s_{ij}`$ measurement made on the same bench. We extend this subscript nomenclature to all other parameters on the bench including the laser phase, $`p_{ij}`$, the proof mass displacement, $`\delta _{ij}`$, the optical bench displacement, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}`$ and the designator of the bench itself. Note that $`\delta _{ij}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}`$ are scalar parameters representing the component of the displacement along the interferometer arm, defined to be positive for displacement in the direction of the distant spacecraft. Furthermore, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}`$ and $`\delta _{ij}`$ are normalized to have units of phase.

The phase accumulated in traversing the optical fiber linking two benches on S/C $`j`$ is denoted by $`\mu _j`$. We assume the optical path through the fiber is independent of the propagation direction. This independence will be a requirement, not only for TDI, but for the operation of LISA in general.

The gravitational wave signal will modify the phase of the light traversing the interferometer arms. This phase shift is denoted by $`h_{ij}`$ for the light travelling from S/C $`i`$ to S/C $`j`$ where positive $`h_{ij}`$ represents a compression of the arm. Finally, the noise in the measurement of $`s_{ij}`$ is denoted by $`n_{ij}`$. This noise source has the same units as $`s_{ij}`$ and is typically a combination of shot noise and fluctuations in the optical path. Traditionally this noise source is referred to simply as optical path noise.

Following Dhurandhar *et al.* Dhurandhar , we adopt a delay operator, $`D_{ij}`$, to represent a time-delayed variable or parameter. The delay operator is defined by,

$`D_{ij}a(t)`$ $``$ $`a(tL_{ij}/c).`$ (1)
where $`a(t)`$ is an arbitrary function of time. This delay operator represents either a physical delay (due to propagation along an arm) or a post-processing delay (when data is stored in memory). Delay operators commute with each other and can be readily factorized to simplify data combinations Dhurandhar .

The expressions for the six inter-spacecraft phase measurements can be obtained from examination of Fig. 1.

$`s_{21}`$ $`=`$ $`D_{21}p_{12}p_{21}+D_{21}\mathrm{\Delta }_{12}\mathrm{\Delta }_{21}+2\delta _{21}+h_{21}+n_{21}`$ (2)
$`s_{31}`$ $`=`$ $`D_{31}p_{13}p_{31}+D_{31}\mathrm{\Delta }_{13}\mathrm{\Delta }_{31}+2\delta _{31}+h_{31}+n_{31}`$ (3)
$`s_{12}`$ $`=`$ $`D_{12}p_{21}p_{12}+D_{12}\mathrm{\Delta }_{21}\mathrm{\Delta }_{12}+2\delta _{12}+h_{12}+n_{12}`$ (4)
$`s_{32}`$ $`=`$ $`D_{32}p_{23}p_{32}+D_{32}\mathrm{\Delta }_{23}\mathrm{\Delta }_{32}+2\delta _{32}+h_{32}+n_{32}`$ (5)
$`s_{23}`$ $`=`$ $`D_{23}p_{32}p_{23}+D_{23}\mathrm{\Delta }_{32}\mathrm{\Delta }_{23}+2\delta _{23}+h_{23}+n_{23}`$ (6)
$`s_{13}`$ $`=`$ $`D_{13}p_{31}p_{13}+D_{13}\mathrm{\Delta }_{31}\mathrm{\Delta }_{13}+2\delta _{13}+h_{13}+n_{13}`$ (7)
The measurements at the back of the proof masses are always taken as differences in order to cancel the otherwise overwhelming fiber noise.

$`\tau _{31}\tau _{21}`$ $`=`$ $`2(p_{21}p_{31}\delta _{21}+\delta _{31}+\mathrm{\Delta }_{21}\mathrm{\Delta }_{31})`$ (8)
$`\tau _{12}\tau _{32}`$ $`=`$ $`2(p_{32}p_{12}\delta _{32}+\delta _{12}+\mathrm{\Delta }_{32}\mathrm{\Delta }_{12})`$ (9)
$`\tau _{23}\tau _{13}`$ $`=`$ $`2(p_{13}p_{23}\delta _{13}+\delta _{23}+\mathrm{\Delta }_{13}\mathrm{\Delta }_{23})`$ (10)
Note that there is no optical path noise contribution to the $`\tau _{ij}`$ measurements. Shot noise can be neglected, as ample power is present in both beams, and phase changes due to motion of the elements on the optical bench can be included in the $`n_{ij}`$ noise terms in equations 2-7 without loss of generality. For simplicity, the expressions above do not include clock noise. Clock noise unavoidably enters during the phase measurement process by an amount proportional to the beat-note frequency TintoPRD02 .

## III Sagnac interferometer with phase-locked lasers

This section presents a phase-locking configuration that closely emulates a standard Sagnac interferometer. The phase-locking ensures that the phase of the light received at one bench is transferred to the phase of the light transmitted from the adjacent bench.

One of the lasers, laser 31 say, is chosen as the master laser and is frequency stabilized to an optical cavity (or other suitable frequency reference). The following phase-locking conditions are imposed by feeding back to the phases of the remaining five lasers.

$`\tau _{31}\tau _{21}`$ $`=`$ $`0\text{by feedback to }p_{21}`$ (11)
$`s_{12}{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{12}\tau _{32}}{2}}`$ $`=`$ $`0\text{by feedback to }p_{32}`$ (12)
$`s_{23}{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{23}\tau _{13}}{2}}`$ $`=`$ $`0\text{by feedback to }p_{13}`$ (13)
$`s_{13}+{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{23}\tau _{13}}{2}}`$ $`=`$ $`0\text{by feedback to }p_{23}`$ (14)
$`s_{32}+{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{12}\tau _{32}}{2}}`$ $`=`$ $`0\text{by feedback to }p_{12}`$ (15)
The first locking condition (equation 11) phase-locks laser 21 to the master laser, ensuring their phases are related by,

$`p_{21}=p_{31}+\delta _{21}\delta _{31}\mathrm{\Delta }_{21}+\mathrm{\Delta }_{31}.`$ (16)
Following the clockwise propagating beam from S/C 1 to S/C 2, equation 12 implies the following condition for the phase of laser 32,

$`p_{32}`$ $`=`$ $`D_{12}p_{21}+D_{12}\mathrm{\Delta }_{21}\mathrm{\Delta }_{32}+\delta _{12}+\delta _{32}+h_{12}+n_{12}.`$ (17)
Equation 17 implies that the locking transfers the phase information of light received from S/C 1, $`D_{12}p_{21}+D_{12}\mathrm{\Delta }_{21}+h_{12}`$, to the light transmitted towards S/C 3, $`p_{32}+\mathrm{\Delta }_{32}`$, with an error equal to the measurement noise, $`ϵ`$.

$`ϵ`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _{12}+\delta _{32}+n_{12}`$ (18)
Forcing the phase difference between laser 12 and the received light to equal the phase difference between laser 12 and the transmitted light, automatically ensures the phases of the received and transmitted light are equal (to within the measurement noise). Note that this phase-locking is independent of the phase and frequency of laser 12.

Continuing to follow the clockwise propagating beam, the phase-locking condition of equation 13 is imposed at S/C 3. This condition transfers the phase of the light received from S/C 2 to the phase of the light transmitted to S/C 1 (again to within the measurement noise). The phase of the light arriving at S/C 1 relative to the phase of the local laser, $`s_{31}`$, is measured.

The remaining two locking conditions, equations 14 and 15, preserve the phase information for the counterclockwise propagating beam. With all locking conditions satisfied, S/C 2 and S/C 3 behave as amplifying mirrors at an angle of incidence of $`30^o`$. In this situation, the LISA constellation can be treated as a simple Sagnac interferometer and the phase difference between the clockwise and counterclockwise propagating beams, $`\alpha `$, is simply,

$`\alpha `$ $`=`$ $`s_{31}s_{21}`$ (19)
This expression is equivalent to the TDI Sagnac variable $`\alpha `$ formed from one-way measurements ArmstrongAPJ99  shown in equation 20. The five locking conditions ensure that the quantities inside the square brackets vanish.

$`\alpha `$ $`=`$ $`s_{31}+D_{31}\left[s_{23}{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{23}\tau _{13}}{2}}\right]+D_{23}D_{31}\left[s_{12}{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{12}\tau _{32}}{2}}\right]`$ (20)
$`s_{21}D_{21}\left[s_{32}+{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{12}\tau _{32}}{2}}\right]D_{32}D_{21}\left[s_{13}+{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{23}\tau _{13}}{2}}\right]`$
$`(1+D_{12}D_{23}D_{31})\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{31}\tau _{21}}{2}}\right]`$
If the interferometer arm lengths are independent of the propagation direction, i.e. $`L_{ij}=L_{ji}`$, then the laser frequency noise and bench noise are cancelled and only the proof mass noise, optical path noise and gravitational wave signals remain.

$`\alpha `$ $`=`$ $`(1D_{12}D_{31}D_{23})(\delta _{31}\delta _{21})+(D_{31}D_{12}D_{23})(\delta _{13}+\delta _{23})(D_{12}D_{31}D_{23})(\delta _{12}+\delta _{32})`$ (21)
$`+(1D_{12}D_{23})h_{31}(1D_{31}D_{23})h_{12}+(D_{31}D_{12})h_{23}`$
$`+D_{31}D_{23}n_{12}D_{12}D_{23}n_{13}n_{21}+D_{31}n_{23}+n_{31}D_{12}n_{32}`$
Using this phase-locking approach to obtain $`\alpha `$ has several clear advantages. The measurements are taken simultaneously, thus no time delays are required and there is no need for knowledge of the absolute lengths of the arms. Both measurements are taken at S/C 1 and so neither clock synchronization nor exchange of phase measurements between spacecraft is necessary. Although not included in the calculation above, it can be shown that $`\alpha `$ is also immune to clock noise. Clock noise enters into a phase measurement by an amount proportional to the beat-note frequency. If the LISA constellation has a constant angular velocity then the doppler shifts of the clockwise and counterclockwise beams are identical. Therefore the clock noise in $`s_{21}`$ and $`s_{31}`$ will be equal and will cancel when the signals are subtracted to give $`\alpha `$. The S/C 2 and S/C 3 clock noise also cancels because the phase-locking ensures the beat-note frequencies are the same on all four photodetectors.

The advantages mentioned above apply only to the Sagnac variable centered on the master laser’s spacecraft (e.g. $`\alpha `$ if the master is on S/C 1). The other TDI Sagnac readouts can still be reconstructed, however, with slightly simpler expressions than if the one-way method were used. For example, the expression for $`\beta `$ in terms of one-way measurements is,

$`\beta `$ $`=`$ $`s_{12}+D_{12}\left[s_{31}{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{31}\tau _{21}}{2}}\right]+D_{12}D_{31}\left[s_{23}{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{23}\tau _{13}}{2}}\right]`$ (22)
$`s_{32}D_{23}\left[s_{13}+{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{23}\tau _{13}}{2}}\right]D_{31}D_{23}\left[s_{21}+{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{31}\tau _{21}}{2}}\right]`$
$`(1+D_{12}D_{23}D_{31}){\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{12}\tau _{32}}{2}}`$
A similar expression is obtained for $`\gamma `$ by cyclic permutation of the subscripts $`1231`$ TintoPRD99 . With the phase-locking implemented equation 22 simplifies to,

$`\beta `$ $`=`$ $`D_{12}s_{31}D_{31}D_{23}s_{21}+(1D_{12}D_{23}D_{31})s_{12}.`$ (23)
Time shifting of data and knowledge of the arm length are now needed to reconstruct $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$. The variables also utilize measurements made at two different spacecraft and so synchronization of the clocks and some exchange of phase information between spacecraft is needed.

## IV Sagnac effect and the LISA constellation

Previous work on time-delay interferometry variables has ignored the rotation of the LISA constellation. This section discusses the implications for the Sagnac variables if the rotation of the LISA constellation is included.

Sagnac interferometers are commonly used as rotation sensors. The difference between the optical paths of the counter-propagating beams in a rotating Sagnac interferometer is,

$`\mathrm{\Delta }L`$ $`=`$ $`L_{12}+L_{23}+L_{31}(L_{13}+L_{32}+L_{21})`$ (24)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}\stackrel{}{A}}{c}}`$
where $`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ is the angular velocity, $`\stackrel{}{A}`$ is the area enclosed by the optical paths, and $`c`$ is speed of light. The dot product indicates that only the component of the angular velocity vector out of the plane contributes to the Sagnac effect. An angular velocity of 1 cycle/year is $`2\times 10^7`$ rad/s. The LISA constellation will precess in the plane of the interferometer with one cycle per year. The heliocentric orbital motion of the constellation must also be considered, as the plane of the interferometer is only $`60^o`$ from the ecliptic. The component of the angular velocity parallel to the area vector is therefore $`[1\mathrm{cos}(60^o)]|\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}|=0.5`$ cycles/year $`=10^7`$ rad/s.

An equilateral triangle with sides of length $`L`$ has an area given by,

$`|\stackrel{}{A}|={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{3}L^2}{4}}.`$ (25)
Modeling LISA as an equilateral triangle of arm length $`5\times 10^9`$ m, the interferometer encloses an area of $`1.1\times 10^{19}`$ m2. With these assumptions $`\mathrm{\Delta }L=14.4`$ km. An independent calculation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }L`$ can be made using the initial positions and velocities of the spacecraft. Based on the initial conditions published by Folkner FolknerCQG2001 , a difference between the round trip optical paths of the counter-propagating beams of 14.1 km is expected during the first round-trip ($``$50 seconds). This calculation assumed constant spacecraft velocities and that changes in the spacecrafts’ positions over 50 seconds were negligible compared to the spacecraft separation.

In previous calculations, the arm length difference introduced by the Sagnac effect was not considered and it was assumed that $`L_{ij}=L_{ji}`$. Given that the $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$ variables are simply time-delay reconstructed Sagnac interferometers it is reasonable to expect that they will be affected by this arm length difference. We will now re-examine these Sagnac variables for the general case, $`L_{ij}L_{ji}`$.

$`\alpha `$ $`=`$ $`(D_{12}D_{23}D_{31}D_{13}D_{21}D_{32})(p_{31}+\mathrm{\Delta }_{31})`$ (26)
$`(D_{21}D_{23}D_{31})(\delta _{12}+\delta _{32})+(D_{31}D_{21}D_{32})(\delta _{13}+\delta _{23})+(1D_{12}D_{23}D_{31})(\delta _{31}\delta _{21})`$
$`+(h_{31}+n_{31})+D_{31}(h_{23}+n_{23})+D_{23}D_{31}(h_{12}+n_{12})`$
$`(h_{21}+n_{21})D_{21}(h_{32}+n_{32})D_{21}D_{32}(h_{13}+n_{13})`$
The first line of equation 26 shows that the laser phase noise and optical bench noise EstabrookPRD00  no longer cancel, coupling into the Sagnac output proportionately to the difference in delays. In the frequency domain, these noises enter the Sagnac output with a magnitude of $`|\mathrm{sin}(2\pi f\mathrm{\Delta }L/c)|`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }L=1.4\times 10^4`$ m. This level of sensitivity to the bench noise is probably acceptable for frequencies below 1 Hz. For example, bench noise with a white spectral density of 10 nm/$`\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}`$ would contribute 3 pm/$`\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}`$ of displacement noise at 1 Hz and only 3 fm/$`\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}`$ at 1 mHz. However, the presence of laser frequency noise is of greater concern. Figure 2 shows a comparison of the current laser frequency noise requirement (upper line) and the frequency noise needed to equal the combined budget for proof mass and optical path noise (lower line). To produce the lower line it was assumed that each proof mass contributes 10 pm$`\times (3\mathrm{mHz}/f)^2/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}`$ and each of the six measurements is subject to an optical path noise of 20 pm/$`\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}`$. Note that this is the frequency stability required to equal the dominant noise sources. In practice, the frequency noise requirement will need to be more stringent to avoid degradation of the LISA sensitivity and the “upper limit” of Fig. 2 would be replaced by a requirement level lower by a factor of 2, approximately. Augmenting the laser frequency stabilization system with a second loop using the 5 million kilometer arms as a reference is a promising approach for achieving better stability.

An alternative solution to improving the frequency stability is to modify the TDI combinations to obtain frequency noise-free variables in the presence of rotation. Although time-delay interferometry was originally conceived to remove laser frequency noise from an unequal-arm Michelson interferometer TintoPRD99  the same procedure can be applied to an unequal-arm Sagnac interferometer. We define a new set of modified Sagnac variables, $`\alpha _1`$, $`\alpha _2`$, and $`\alpha _3`$, representing Sagnac-like TDI variables beginning and ending at S/C 1, 2, and 3 respectively. The variable $`\alpha _1`$ is obtained from $`\alpha `$ by delaying the clockwise measurements by the counterclockwise roundtrip time, and delaying the counterclockwise measurements by the clockwise roundtrip time, before combining them with the original $`\alpha `$ variable.

$`\alpha _1`$ $`=`$ $`(1D_{13}D_{21}D_{32})\left(s_{31}+D_{31}\left[s_{23}{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{23}\tau _{13}}{2}}\right]+D_{23}D_{31}\left[s_{12}{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{12}\tau _{32}}{2}}\right]\right)`$ (27)
$`(1D_{12}D_{23}D_{31})\left(s_{21}+D_{21}\left[s_{32}+{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{12}\tau _{32}}{2}}\right]+D_{21}D_{32}\left[s_{13}+{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{23}\tau _{13}}{2}}\right]\right)`$
$`(1D_{12}D_{13}D_{21}D_{23}D_{31}D_{32})\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{31}\tau _{21}}{2}}\right]`$
If the phase-locking of section III is implemented, the quantities inside the square brackets vanish and equation 27 simplifies to,

$`\alpha _1`$ $`=`$ $`(1D_{13}D_{21}D_{32})s_{31}(1D_{12}D_{23}D_{31})s_{21}`$ (28)
The symmetrized Sagnac, $`\zeta `$, has the same problem in that it is also sensitive to laser frequency noise and bench noise. This was first calculated by Hellings Hellings2003 . However, Tinto *et al.* TintoPRD03b  pointed out that $`\zeta `$ can be modified to produce three combinations in which the frequency noise and bench noise are cancelled. In contrast to the symmetric variable $`\zeta `$, these three combinations, denoted by $`\zeta _1`$, $`\zeta _2`$, and $`\zeta _3`$, combine the data from the three spacecraft asymmetrically. The expression for $`\zeta _1`$ is presented below with $`\zeta _2`$, and $`\zeta _3`$ obtained by cyclic permutation of the subscripts.

$`\zeta _1`$ $`=`$ $`(D_{13}D_{21}D_{23})(D_{31}s_{12}+D_{32}s_{31}D_{31}s_{32})(D_{12}D_{31}D_{32})(D_{21}s_{13}+D_{23}s_{21}D_{21}s_{23})`$ (29)
$`(D_{13}D_{21}D_{31}D_{23}D_{31}+D_{12}D_{21}D_{23}D_{31}D_{21}D_{23}D_{32}){\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{12}\tau _{32}}{2}}`$
$`(D_{12}D_{21}D_{31}D_{21}D_{32}+D_{13}D_{21}D_{31}D_{32}D_{23}D_{31}D_{32}){\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{23}\tau _{13}}{2}}`$
$`(D_{12}D_{13}D_{21}D_{31}D_{23}D_{32}){\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{12}\tau _{32}}{2}}`$
Given the extra complexity in constructing the frequency noise-free Sagnac variables in the presence of rotation, the Michelson variables now seem more appealing. The TDI Michelson parameters are immune to the Sagnac effect as the interferometers contain zero area. The expressions for $`X`$, $`Y`$ and $`Z`$ remain unchanged apart from allowing for different delays of the counter-propagating beams. These expressions, denoted by $`X_1`$, $`X_2`$, and $`X_3`$ for Michelson-type readouts centered on S/C 1, 2, and 3 respectively, have been independently derived by Hellings Hellings2003  and Tinto *et al.* TintoPRD03b . These TDI Michelson readouts have a slightly better gravitational wave sensitivity than the Sagnac outputs particularly around $`3`$ mHz. The reason for this sensitivity difference is that in a Sagnac interferometer both the gravitational wave signal and proof mass noise are suppressed below 20 mHz, whereas the optical path noise is not. In the TDI Michelson outputs the gravitational wave signal, proof mass noise and optical path noise are suppressed equally at low frequencies. One minor drawback of the TDI Michelson readouts is a slight increase in the noise due to currently envisaged clock noise correction schemes. The extra shot noise added by the clock noise correction algorithm was ignored in previous calculations and reduces the sensitivity to gravitational waves at frequencies around the 30 mHz and its harmonics Shaddock . Some amount of extra noise will also be added to $`\alpha _1`$, $`\alpha _2`$ and $`\alpha _3`$ if clock noise correction is used.

One of the most appealing aspects of the Sagnac approach is that the symmetrized Sagnac, $`\zeta `$, provided a measurement of the instrumental noise floor with a much reduced sensitivity to gravitational waves. This is potentially a valuable tool for differentiating the gravitational wave background from the instrumental noise. Another variable with significantly reduced sensitivity to the gravitational wave signal could be constructed by summing the three TDI Michelson outputs.

$`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ $`=`$ $`X_1+X_2+X_3`$ (30)
In the long wavelength limit, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is insensitive to gravitational waves and is the TDI Michelson analog of the Sagnac-like variable $`T`$ PrincePRD02 . The summation in equation 30 could be performed on Earth with relatively relaxed timing requirements as the laser frequency noise is not present in the TDI Michelson variables $`X_1`$, $`X_2`$, and $`X_3`$.

## V Summary

A phase-locking configuration has been identified that offers several potential advantages for the Sagnac mode of operation of LISA. For a static LISA constellation, this configuration provides one Sagnac output that is free from laser frequency noise, bench noise, and clock noise. Furthermore, no clock synchronization, arm length knowledge, time shifting of data or exchange of phase information between spacecraft is required. However, we have demonstrated that the orbital motion of the LISA spacecraft will break the optical path-length symmetry between counter-propagating beams. This places new constraints on the laser frequency noise for the baseline Sagnac configuration. Alternatively, new time-delayed combinations of the phase measurements can be introduced that provide laser frequency noise-free outputs for LISA.

## Acknowledgments

The author thanks Robert Spero, Andreas Kuhnert and Charles Harb for many useful discussions. The author has also benefited from discussions with Massimo Tinto, John Armstrong, and Frank Estabrook, who derived the expressions for $`\zeta _1`$, as well as discussions with Ron Hellings who first calculated that $`\zeta `$ is also sensitive to laser frequency noise if rotation is considered. This research was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.


text:
# 85Kr and 39Ar background in GENIUS

## 1 Introduction

GENIUS(GErmanium in liquid Nitrogen Underground Setup)  is a proposal for a large scale detector of rare events like double beta decay, cold dark matter and low-energy solar neutrinos in real time. The idea of GENIUS is to operate a large amount of “naked” Ge detectors in liquid nitrogen, which has been shown to work already in .
The proposed scale of the GENIUS experiment is a nitrogen tank of about 12 m diameter and 12 m height with 100 kg of natural Ge or 100 kg of enriched 76Ge, in the dark matter and double beta decay versions, respectively, suspended in its center. With this configuration, which removes most of the material in the vicinity of the detectors, the background can be strongly reduced with respect to conventionally operated detectors. Moreover, the liquid nitrogen acts at the same time as cooling medium and as a shield against external radioactivity.
It is clear that residual impurities in the liquid nitrogen, like 238U and 232Th contaminations, 222Rn, 40K and 60Co, can be a source of background for the GENIUS experiment and for this reason their contribution has to be deeply investigated. This has been done in , where we show, for example, that the contribution of the mentioned isotopes to the background of GENIUS, in the low-energy region, is of the order of $`310^4`$ counts/kg keV y for 222Rn and $`410^4`$ counts/kg keV y for the remaining isotopes. For these calculations, values of liquid nitrogen purity measured by the BOREXINO collaborations were used . For the BOREXINO  experiment the nitrogen purity is a very crucial point; they realized only recently  that they have to address the problem of argon and krypton background at low energies more seriously. This is true as well for the KAMLAND  experiment, as long as they aim to measure solar neutrinos, after the first successful reactor neutrino phase.
This motivated us to study in detail the effect of argon and krypton on the GENIUS background. In this note we investigate the background contribution coming from the two long-lived isotopes 85Kr (T1/2=10.76 y) and 39Ar (T1/2=269 y) and we show that the potential of GENIUS to look for Dark Matter at low energies is not affected, while, for solar neutrinos, a reduction of a factor 10 of the krypton contamination with respect to best-quality commercially available nitrogen is needed (from which a factor 8 has already been achieved, see below).

## 2 85Kr and 39Ar simulation

The two isotopes 85Kr and 39Ar decay both via $`\beta ^{}`$ decay with end point energy of 565.0 keV and 687.1 keV respectively; in addition 85Kr emits four gammas, with energies and intensities listed in Table 1.
Both the electrons coming from the $`\beta `$ decay and the photons from the $`\gamma `$-lines can be a source of background at low energies ($`<`$500 keV). Since the mean free path of the electrons is expected to be very small, only the electrons produced very close to the detectors111Remember that in the GENIUS experiment the detectors are in direct contact with liquid nitrogen. can reach them. In the case of photons, even if produced far from the detectors, we expect them to be slowed down and to produce a diffuse background at low energies.
We calculated the amount of this background by performing a simulation of the GENIUS setup with the GEANT4 simulation tool. The configuration of the detectors used for the simulation is shown in Fig. 1: we assume 10 Ge detectors, each one with a radius of 6.7 cm and 13.4 cm height, arranged in two layers. The total mass is 100.534 kg and reproduces the mass of natural germanium foreseen for the application of GENIUS to Dark Matter search. The detectors are suspended in the middle of a cylindrical tank of 12 m diameter and 12 m height. According to the measurements performed by the Heidelberg group of the BOREXINO collaboration , the purest nitrogen available on the market has a contamination of 0.03 - 0.2 ppm for argon and about 10 ppt for krypton. In the following we will assume a contamination of 0.2 ppm (2.4 $`\mu `$Bq/m3) from argon and about 10 ppt (10 $`\mu `$Bq/m3) from krypton. These values refer to gaseous nitrogen and have to be multiplied by a factor 650 when considering liquid nitrogen.

### 2.1 Background from 39Ar

As a first step we simulated the background coming from 39Ar. We started assuming that only a cylindrical region of 1 m diameter and 1 m height around the center of the tank is filled with liquid nitrogen, that means that each detector is surrounded by at least 35 cm of liquid nitrogen in each direction. The total number of simulated events is $`2.510^8`$. In Fig. 2 we see the output of this first simulation for two of the detectors (the central one and one of the external ones of the upper layer), Fig. 3 (left) shows the sum spectrum of all 10 detectors.
We can express the background in terms of the usual units (counts/kg keV y): the result is shown in Fig. 3 (right). Increasing the amount of liquid nitrogen around the detectors will not change the number of detected counts. This is because the electrons coming from 39Ar-decay have a very short range and so only those produced very close to the detectors can contribute to the background. To verify this, we performed another simulation, this time assuming that a cylindrical region of 2 m diameter and 2 m height around the center of the tank is filled with liquid nitrogen (a volume of liquid 8 times bigger than the previous case); the total number of simulated events was $`510^8`$. As we see again from Fig. 3, the resulting background does not change.

### 2.2 Background from 85Kr

In the case of 85Kr, a contribution to the background will come both from electrons and from the 514 keV photons; photons can travel in liquid nitrogen much longer than electrons and they can reach the detectors even if produced far from them.
We can have an idea of how far they can travel calculating the mean free path of photons, with the appropriate energy, in liquid nitrogen. The total mass attenuation coefficient in nitrogen for $`\gamma `$-rays with energy of 500 keV is :

$$\mu =8.7110^2\mathrm{cm}^2/\mathrm{g}.$$
(1)
Multiplying by the density of liquid nitrogen (0.808 g/cm3) we obtain:

$`\mu `$ $`=`$ $`7.0410^2\mathrm{cm}^1`$ (2)
$`\lambda `$ $`=`$ $`\mu ^1=14.2\mathrm{cm}`$
where $`\lambda `$ is the mean free path of a 500 keV-photon in liquid nitrogen.
From a previous simulation performed with a simpler geometry we obtained some results on the propagation of the photons coming from 85Kr. We considered only four detectors in a single layer, for a total mass of 13.4 kg, suspended in the middle of a cubic copper box, filled with liquid nitrogen. This simulation has been performed in five steps, the details of each step are described in Table 2. The number of simulated events was increased at each step in order to have approximately the same statistics in all five cases. In Fig. 4 we compare the result of the five simulations (after converting each sum spectrum to the usual units): as we can see, increasing the dimensions of the copper box the number of decaying atoms increases and, consequently, we get a higher count rate in the detectors. This behaviour goes on until we reach a situation were, even adding more liquid nitrogen to the setup (and therefore more impurities) we do not see an increase in the detected backround: this is due to the fact that the photons coming from the decay of 85Kr atoms are absorbed by the liquid nitrogen itself. According to Fig. 4, 100 cm of liquid nitrogen are enough to absorb the photons coming from the rest of the liquid.
We can use this information for a simulation with the more realistic geometry described before (see Fig. 1). We simulated 1.5 $`10^9`$ 85Kr decays in a cylindrical volume with a radius of 2 m and 2m height around the detectors, to be sure that they are surrounded by at least 150 cm of liquid nitrogen. We obtained the results shown in Fig. 5, which represents the total background expected in GENIUS from the decay of 85Kr.
We started also another simulation in a smaller volume (1.5 m radius and 3 m height) and we show in the same Fig. 5 that the resulting background (red histogram) is the same, apart from statistical fluctuations.
Finally, Fig. 6 shows the total background coming from the contribution of both krypton and argon in GENIUS. The results on the background indexes are summarized in Table 3.
The final goal of GENIUS is to obtain a level of background of the order of 10-3 counts/kg keV y in the low-energy region. This low background is requested for real-time detection of solar pp neutrinos . Already with a background 10 times higher, GENIUS would obtain the planned results in the field of Dark Matter searches. It would be able to test the WIMP-parameter space down to cross sections of the order of 10-9pb .
As shown in Table 3, the argon contribution to the background will remain well under the level of 10-3 counts/kg keV y, while the background coming from krypton is expected to be of the level of 10-2 counts/kg keV y, which is still acceptable for Dark Matter detection. A further reduction of the krypton contamination by a factor of 10 will allow GENIUS to fulfill its background requirement also for solar neutrino detection: it must be noted that a krypton purification of a factor 8 has already been reached from the Heidelberg group of the Borexino Collaboration .
The GENIUS experiment will also be equipped with a nitrogen recycling device (through condensation) , in order to avoid accumulation of argon and krypton inside the liquid: this would happen if the evaporated liquid would be replaced by fresh nitrogen.

## 3 Background considerations for GENIUS-TF

A test facility for the GENIUS experiment, GENIUS-TF , is under construction at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, with at present six natural Ge detectors (about 15 kg) operated in a 50 cm $`\times `$ 50 cm $`\times `$ 50 cm liquid nitrogen container.
The goal of GENIUS-TF is to reach a background of 2 - 4 counts/kg keV y in the low-energy region. The estimated contribution of argon and krypton contamination to the GENIUS-TF background at low energies, under the same assumptions as made for GENIUS, is less than 10-2 counts/kg keV y . Even a contamination 100 times higher would not affect the background in a noticeable way.
The problem of the accumulation of argon and krypton in the liquid nitrogen because of the periodic refilling procedure has been considered. Assuming that argon and krypton do not evaporate and that we fill the container when the liquid nitrogen is half of the total volume, we would have to refill 200 times in order to increase the contamination by a factor 100.

## 4 Conclusions

In the GENIUS detector, a big amount of liquid nitrogen will be used both as cooling medium and shielding material and it will be in direct contact with the detectors . For this reason the purity of the liquid nitrogen not only in terms of radon, but also of argon and krypton contamination, is a very crucial point. The same, and even much more seriously, will be true for the Borexino experiment, which foresees the use of gaseous nitrogen to purify the liquid scintillator, and for the KAMLAND experiment when coming to the solar neutrino detection. For the Borexino experiment, only a level of nitrogen contamination of 0.36 ppm for argon and 0.16 ppt is acceptable , while the best-quality nitrogen commercially available has typically 0.03 - 0.2 ppm of argon and about 10 ppt of krypton. A reduction on the krypton contamination by at least a factor 60 is then needed.
In this work we have shown that the above mentioned commercially available purity of 0.03 - 0.2 ppm of argon and 10 ppt of krypton would allow the GENIUS experiment to look for Dark Matter at low energies ($`<`$ 100 keV), with a background of the order of 10-2 counts/kg keV y, which corresponds to the planned sensitivity. A further reduction of a factor 10 (of which a factor of 8 has been already obtained, see ) will bring the background to the level of 10-3 counts/kg keV y, which is the requirement of GENIUS for its use as a solar neutrino detector.

## Acknowledgments

One of us (C.T.) thanks the Max Planck Institut für Kernphysik for the ospitality during her stay in Heidelberg and would like to thank Dr. G.Zuzel and B.Freudiger for useful discussions.