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# A quantum gate array can be programmed to evaluate the expectation value of any operator

## Abstract

A programmable gate array is a circuit whose action is controlled by input data. In this letter we describe a special–purpose quantum circuit that can be programmed to evaluate the expectation value of any operator $`O`$ acting on a space of states of $`N`$ dimensions. The circuit has a program register whose state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }(O)_P`$ encodes the operator $`O`$ whose expectation value is to be evaluated. The method requires knowledge of the expansion of $`O`$ in a basis of the space of operators. We discuss some applications of this circuit and its relation to known instances of quantum state tomography.

An important feature of classical computers is that they can be programmed. That is to say, a fixed universal device can perform different tasks depending on the state of some input registers. These registers define the program the device is executing. Quantum computers NielsenChuang  have a rather different property: Thus, Nielsen and Chuang established in NielsenChuangPRL  that a general purpose programmable quantum computer does not exist. Such a device would have to have the following features: It should consist of a fixed gate array with a data register and a program register. The array should work in such a way that the state of the program register encodes the unitary operator $`𝒰`$ that is applied to the state of the data register. As shown in NielsenChuangPRL , such devices cannot be universal since different unitary operators require orthogonal states of the program register. However, some interesting examples of programmable devices could still be constructed. For example, non-deterministic programmable gate arrays were first considered in NielsenChuangPRL  and analyzed later in a variety of examples ProgramableArrays . More recently, quantum “multimeters” were introduced and discussed in DusekBuzek . Such devices are fixed gate arrays acting on a data register and a program register, together with a final fixed projective measurement on the composite system. They are programmable quantum measurement devices DusekBuzek  that act either non–deterministically or in an approximate way (see FiurasekDusekFilip ).

In this letter we will describe a different kind of programmable quantum gate array that is useful to solve the following problem: Suppose that we are given an operator $`O`$ acting on an $`N`$ dimensional Hilbert space and a quantum state $`\rho `$. By this we mean that someone supplies us with many copies of a quantum system prepared in the same state $`\rho `$ and defines for us the operator $`O`$ by specifying its expansion in a basis of the space of operators. Our task is to compute the expectation value of $`O`$ in the state $`\rho `$. We will show that it is possible to construct a programmable circuit that evaluates such expectation value by measuring the polarization of a single qubit. The inputs of such circuit are a data register, a program register and an auxiliary qubit. The circuit evaluates the expectation value of an operator $`O`$ (specified by the program register) in the quantum state $`\rho `$ of the data register. The expectation value $`\mathrm{Tr}(\rho O)`$ is obtained by performing a measurement of the polarization of the auxiliary qubit. We will describe how to construct these circuits and exhibit an interesting example: a programmable array to efficiently solve a class of quantum decision problems concerning properties of quantum phase space distributions.

The quantum gate arrays discussed in this letter are designed using the “scattering circuit” shown in Figure 1 as a simple primitive. In such circuit a system, initially in the state $`\rho `$, is brought in contact with an ancillary qubit prepared in the state $`|0`$. This ancilla acts as a probe particle in a scattering experiment. The algorithm consist of the following steps: i) Apply a Hadamard transform $`H`$ to the ancillary qubit. Since $`H|0=(|0+|1)/\sqrt{2}`$, $`H|1=(|0|1)/\sqrt{2}`$, the new state of the qubit is $`(|0+|1)/\sqrt{2}`$. ii) Apply a “controlled–$`A`$” operator, which does nothing if the state of the ancilla is $`|0`$ and applies the unitary operator $`A`$ to the system if the ancilla is in state $`|1`$, iii) Apply another Hadamard gate to the ancilla and perform measurements of its spin polarizations along the $`z`$\- and $`y`$-axes. Given sufficiently many independent instances of the experiment, the measurements yield the expectation values $`\sigma _z`$ and $`\sigma _y`$ of the Pauli spin operators $`\sigma _z`$ and $`\sigma _y`$. This algorithm has the following remarkable property:

$$\sigma _z=\text{Re}[\text{Tr}(A\rho )],\sigma _y=\text{Im}[\text{Tr}(A\rho )].$$
(1)
Different versions of this circuit play an important role in many quantum algorithms kitaev:qc1997a ; cleve:qc1997b ; Lloyd99 ; Knill98 . In particular, the scattering circuit was recently used as a basic tool to interpret tomography and spectroscopy as two dual forms of the same quantum computation NatureUS .

For our purpose it is useful to review how to use this scattering circuit as a primitive to design a tomographer (i.e., a device that after a number of experiments determines the quantum state of the system). As a consequence of equations (1) we see that every time we run the algorithm for a known operator $`A`$, we extract information about the state $`\rho `$. Doing so for a complete basis of operators $`\{A(\alpha )\}`$ one gets complete information and determines the full density matrix. Different tomographic schemes are characterized by the basis of operators $`A(\alpha )`$ they use. Of course, completely determining the quantum state requires an exponential amount of resources. In fact, if the dimensionality of the Hilbert space of the system is $`N`$ then the complete determination of the quantum state involves running the scattering circuit for a complete basis of $`N^2`$ operators $`A(\alpha )`$. However, evaluating any coefficient of the decomposition of $`\rho `$ in a given basis can be done efficiently provided that the operators $`A(\alpha )`$ can be implemented by efficient networks. A convenient basis set is defined as (see, for example, NatureUS ; MPS02 ):

$$A(\alpha )=A(q,p)=U^qRV^p\mathrm{exp}(i\pi pq/N).$$
(2)
Here, both $`q`$ and $`p`$ are integers between $`0`$ and $`N1`$, $`U`$ is a cyclic shift operator in the computational basis ($`U|n=|n+1`$), $`V`$ is the cyclic shift operator in the basis related to the computational one via the discrete Fourier transform, and $`R`$ is the reflection operator ($`R|n=|Nn`$). It is straightforward to show that the operators $`A(q,p)`$ are hermitian, unitary and form a complete orthonormal basis of the space of operators satisfying

$$\text{Tr}[A(\alpha )A(\alpha ^{})]=N\delta _N(q^{}q)\delta _N(p^{}p),$$
(3)
where $`\delta _N(x)`$ is the periodic Kronecker delta function that is equal to one if $`x=0`$ (modulo $`N`$) and vanishes otherwise (the above operators form a ”quorum”, as defined in Dariano1 ). With this choice for $`A(q,p)`$ the scattering circuit directly evaluates the discrete Wigner function NatureUS ; Wooters ; Leonhardt ; MPS02 .

We will now show how to design a programmable gate array to evaluate the expectation value of any operator $`O`$. We will assume that we know how to expand $`O`$ in a basis such as the one used above: $`O=_{q,p}o(q,p)A(q,p)`$. As the operators $`A(q,p)`$ are not only unitary but also hermitian, the real and imaginary parts of the complex coefficients $`o(q,p)`$ define the expansion of the hermitian and anti-hermitian pieces of $`O`$ in the basis $`A(q,p)`$. The expectation value of these two pieces can be evaluated separately using the procedure described below (the results can then be combined to get the expectation of $`O`$). So, in what follows we will assume that the operator at hand is hermitian and that the coefficients of its expansion in the basis $`A(q,p)`$ are real numbers. To introduce our method, it is convenient to notice first that the evaluation of the expectation value of the operators $`A(q,p)`$ can be done using a programmable circuit that is independent of $`q`$ and $`p`$. Such circuit is illustrated in Figure 2. This is an application of the scattering circuit shown in Figure 1 with two program registers used to encode the value of $`q`$ and $`p`$. When the quantum state of the program is $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_P=|q|p`$ the circuit evaluates the expectation value of $`A(q,p)`$. This is accomplished by letting the program registers to act as controls of the operators $`U`$ and $`V`$ (which, as mentioned, generate cyclic shifts either in the computational or in the conjugated basis). Thus, the action of the circuit is such that when the auxiliary qubit is in state $`|\sigma `$ ($`\sigma =0,1`$) and the state of the program is $`|q|p`$, the operator $`A^\sigma (q,p)`$ is applied to the system register. The network in Figure 2 is efficient since it can be built using a number of elementary gates which scales polynomially with $`\mathrm{log}(N)`$ MPS02 .

The circuit has an obvious property: Different states $`|q|p`$ are used to program the evaluation of the expectation value of orthogonal operators $`A(q,p)`$. It is clear that by restricting to such program states one has no real advantage with respect to the case in which $`q`$ and $`p`$ are stored as classical information. However, we can use more general program states: If the program register is in the state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_P=_{q,p}c(q,p)|q|p`$ then the same circuit evaluates the expectation value of a linear combination of the operators $`A(q,p)`$ since the final polarization is:

$$\sigma _z=\mathrm{Tr}\left(\rho \underset{q,p}{}|c(q,p)|^2A(q,p)\right)$$
(4)
Equation (4) shows that this algorithm can be used to evaluate the expectation value of any operator that can be written as a convex sum of the basis set $`A(q,p)`$. This is not general enough since the expansion of a hermitian operator can include negative coefficients. For this purpose the method can be extended as follows: The most general hermitian operator can be expressed in the basis $`A(q,p)`$ as $`O=_{q,p}c^2(q,p)\mathrm{exp}(i\pi \varphi (q,p))A(q,p)`$, where $`c(q,p)`$ is a real number and $`\varphi (q,p)`$ is either $`0`$ or $`1`$ ($`\varphi (q,p)`$ simply stores the information about the sign of each coefficient). We will assume that $`_{q,p}c^2(q,p)=1`$ (if this is not the case we can always renormalize the coefficients). For operators with some negative coefficients we can use a third register consisting of a single qubit to store $`\varphi (q,p)`$. The circuit evaluating the expectation value of $`O`$ is shown in Figure 3. The first two program registers store $`q`$ and $`p`$ and are used exactly in the same way as above. The third one, storing $`\varphi (q,p)`$, is acted upon with a $`\sigma _z`$ operator, introducing the required phase $`\mathrm{exp}(i\pi \varphi (q,p))`$. Then, if the state of the program register is $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_P=_{q,p}c(q,p)|q|p|\varphi (q,p)`$. the final polarization measurement turns out to be

$$\sigma _z=\mathrm{Tr}\left(\rho \underset{q,p}{}c^2(q,p)\mathrm{e}^{i\pi \varphi (q,p)}A(q,p)\right)=\mathrm{Tr}\left(\rho O\right).$$
(5)
Summarizing, we showed that the measurement of the expectation value of any operator $`O`$ can be done using a programmable gate array. The hardware architecture is associated with the particular choice of basis $`A(q,p)`$, which is just a matter of convenience, and is independent of $`O`$. The software used to program the array is obviously determined by the choice of hardware. The expectation values of the hermitian and anti–hermitian parts of the operator $`O`$ are computed separately using a method that requires knowledge of the expansion of these operators in the basis $`A(q,p)`$. If the coefficients in the expansion are written as $`o(q,p)=\mathrm{Tr}(OA(q,p))/N=c^2(q,p)\mathrm{exp}(i\pi \varphi (q,p))`$, the program state that needs to be prepared is $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_P=_{q,p}c(q,p)|q|p|\varphi (q,p)`$ (where $`\varphi (q,p)=0`$ or $`1`$). Thus, the coefficients of the expansion of $`O`$ in the basis $`A(q,p)`$ define the program state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_P`$ required to measure its expectation value. It is clear that in most cases the method will not be efficient. For example, both the task of defining the operator by specifying the coefficients $`o(q,p)`$ as well as the preparation of the program state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_P`$ are likely to be inefficient. The existence of efficient networks to implement “controlled–$`A(q,p)`$” operations is a less stringent conditions that is fulfilled by the basis defined in (2) MPS02 . Having said this, it is worth noticing that there are sets of problems that can be efficiently solved using this method. We will now describe one such example.

We will show that the circuit of Figure 2 can be easily adapted to evaluate the sum of values of the Wigner function over various phase space domains. The program register is used to define the domain over which the Wigner function is averaged. If the domain is a line, the algorithm just evaluates the probability for the occurrences of the results of the measurement of a family of observables (see below). However, for more general domains (such as line segments, parallelograms, etc) the circuit evaluates properties that characterize a quantum state that cannot be simply casted in terms of probabilities. In this sense the circuit is as a programmable tomographer measuring various features of phase space distributions. Before going into more details let us briefly review some properties of Wigner functions. Discrete Wigner functions can be used to represent the quantum state of a system in phase space NatureUS ; Wooters ; Leonhardt ; MPS02 . For a system with an $`N`$ dimensional space of states such function is defined on a lattice of $`2N\times 2N`$ points $`(q,p)`$ where both $`q`$ and $`p`$ take values between $`0`$ and $`2N1`$ (only $`N\times N`$ of these values are independent). At each phase space point the Wigner function is defined in terms of the operators $`A(q,p)`$ given in (2) as

$$W(q,p)=\frac{1}{2N}\mathrm{Tr}(A(q,p)\rho ).$$
(6)
As mentioned above, the measurement of this function can be done by using the scattering circuit NatureUS  or the programmable gate array of Figure 2. The program register encodes the value of $`q`$ and $`p`$. In general, if the program state is $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_P=_{q,p}c(q,p)|q|p`$, the final polarization measurement is $`\sigma _z=2N_{qp}|c(q,p)|^2W(q,p)`$. Thus, the program defines the region over which we average the value of the Wigner function. In general, preparing the program state associated with a general phase space region can be complicated. However, there are simple procedures to prepare the program states corresponding to general lines, segments and parallelograms. Let us begin with the simplest case: For the program state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_P=_q|q|p_0/\sqrt{2N}`$, it is clear that the final polarization measurement reveals the sum of values of the Wigner function along the horizontal line defined as $`p=p_0`$: i.e., $`\sigma _z=_qW(q,p_0)`$. To consider more general lines one can notice that the horizontal line $`p=c`$ can be mapped into one satisfying the equation $`pbq=c`$ (mod $`2N`$, with $`b`$ and $`c`$ integers between $`0`$ and $`2N`$) by applying a linear area preserving map. Unitary operators corresponding to quantizations of such maps (known as ”quantum cat maps”) act classically in phase space. Thus, Wigner function flows from one point to another according to the classical transformation. Using this feature, one can compute the sum of the Wigner function along any tilted line as follows: One first transforms the state with the appropriate cat map and later evaluates the sum of the Wigner function along a vertical or horizontal line. Moreover, the method can be made fully programmable by adding extra registers to store the integers $`b`$ and $`c`$ parametrizing any cat map. Evaluating sums of Wigner functions over phase space lines is particularly interesting because of a crucial property of such functions: Thus, adding $`W(q,p)`$ along the line $`apbq=c`$ one obtains the probability to detect the eigenstate of the translation operator $`T(b,a)=U^aV^b\mathrm{exp}(i\pi ab/N)`$ with eigenvalue $`\mathrm{exp}(i\pi c/N)`$. As a consequence, in this case the programmable gate array evaluates probabilities for the possible results of a set of measurements. Lines are a special case since more general phase space domains cannot be associated with projection operators. However, it is clear that the method described above can be applied to efficiently prepare program states for other phase space domains such as general (tilted) parallelograms: One first trivially prepare the program state for a parallelogram limited by vertical and horizontal segments and later tilt it applying the strategy based on the use of cat maps. Other simple phase space regions can also be programmed using variations of this method. It is also interesting to notice that using variations of the circuit shown in Figure 3 we can also subtract values of the Wigner function in different phase space regions (which could be useful if one is interested in comparing their values).

In this letter we established the existence of a gate array that can be programmed to evaluate the expectation value of any operator acting on an $`N`$ dimensional Hilbert space. The expectation value is obtained by measuring the polarization of a single auxiliary qubit. As an example, we showed how to program the evaluation of sums of values of the discrete Wigner function over various simple phase space domains. It is important to mention that our method is only efficient to determine if the sum of the Wigner function in a phase space domain (with up to $`o(N)`$ points) is greater than a fixed, $`N`$–independent, threshold (since this does not require exponential precision). This is a “quantum decision problem” whose input data (encoded in the system’s state $`\rho `$) is inherently quantum. Due to the nature of the input data, this problem cannot even be formulated on a classical computer. Interest on problems with quantum input data have recently increased, partly due to their significance in connection with the potential detection of entanglement Horodecki ; Ekert ; Horodecki2  as well as their relation with tomographic problems like the one described here. The extension of some of the above results to continuous variables is still under investigation Horodecki2 . After completing this work we became aware of the related approach to the construction of quantum universal detectors presented in Dariano2 .

We acknowledge useful discussion with Marcos Saraceno. This work was partially supported with grants from Ubacyt, Anpcyt, Conicet and Fundación Antorchas.


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# Behavior of the contacts of Quantum Hall Effect devices at high currents : an electronic thermometer

## I Introduction

The Hall resistance $`R_H`$ of a two dimensional electron gas is quantized at low temperature when the filling factor $`\nu `$ of the Landau levels is near an integer klit80 ; qhe87 ; tsui82 . Also, when the magnetic field is fixed at a value corresponding to the center of the Hall plateaus, the longitudinal resistance $`R_{xx}`$ of Hall-bar conductors vanishes as long as the current does not exceed a critical value klit80 ; qhe87 ; tsui82 ; robe89 . The plateau $`i=2`$ is used in the metrological applications of the quantum Hall effect (QHE) to provide a very reproducible resistance standard. Typically, $`R_H(i=2)`$ does not deviate from $`\frac{R_K}{2}`$ by more than one part in $`10^9`$ (relative value) if the Hall sample used fulfills certain conditions. The von Klitzing constant $`R_K`$ is expected to correspond to the ratio $`\frac{h}{e^2}`$. The recommanded value of $`R_K`$ for metrology use is $`25812,807\mathrm{\Omega }`$ with a relative uncertainty of one part in $`10^7`$ X . The amplitude of the current which circulates across the sample must be limited to guarantee the accuracy of the measurement. Indeed, the onset of the longitudinal resistance $`R_{xx}`$ while increasing the current which is known as the breakdown of the Quantum Hall Effect nachtwei ; jeck ; BNM , destroys the total quantization of the system and prevents the measurement from being feasible. But in reality, far before the breakdown, another phenomenon affects the accuracy of the measurement of $`R_K`$. It is due to a linear relationship between $`R_H`$ and $`R_{xx}`$ Cage84 ; BNM . Then, even a very small increase of the longitudinal resistance $`R_{xx}`$ can cause a deviation of $`R_H`$ from its expected value $`\frac{R_K}{2}`$. Typically, the deviation does not exceed one part in $`10^9`$ in relative value, only if the longitudinal resistance stays below $`100\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$. This is the reason why the metrological measurements are performed using currents intensity which are always smaller than the breakdown current (see jeck  and BNM ).

In fact all metrological samples do not have the same limitation for the current. The four types of samples that have been studied for the aim of this work present marked differences. We have compared three PL sample series (PL173, PL174, PL175) to the LEP514 which is known for its optimal metrological qualities dela . All samples were grown and processed at the Philips Laboratory (PL formerly LEP) in Limeil Brévannes. The differences in the quality of the samples at high current denote a problem in the injection phenomenon of the electrons in the two dimensional electron gas. We then have to clarify the rôle of contacts in measuring the resistivity parameters in the QHE regime. We have also given great importance in our experiments, to the configuration of measure.

Of course the limitation of the current occurs before the breakdown of the QHE and we will focus our attention on the current dependent properties in the pre-breakdown regime, well before the abrupt onset of dissipation. Some particularities of this regime are already known. First of all, it has been observed by many authors that the longitudinal resistance $`R_{xx}`$ exhibits an exponential increase as a function of the current eber83 ; komi85 ; bois94 ; jeck ; fulr97 .

Another remarkable property of this regime has been reported in a recent publication by Kawano et al. Kawano ; Hisanaga  : it consists in an additional Cyclotron Emission (CE) signal observed in the vicinity of the source contact when the current is increased. The authors observed that at low-level current for which the two terminal resistance is still quantized, the cyclotron emission is observed at the electron entry and exit corners formed between the metallic current contacts and the two-dimensional electron gas. But when the current is increased, an additional CE signal is observed in the vicinity of the source contact. This is interpreted as the signature of a heating process that creates a non-equilibrium population of electrons near the contact.

Our paper reports on a third phenomenon : the abrupt increase of the contact resistance at a current value which is lower or much lower than the breakdown current. This phenomenon limits the current intensity that can be injected in the Hall bars when doing metrological measurements. Our experimental work is based only on transport measurements. We attribute the increase of the contact resistance to the existence of a non equilibrium electronic population created by a region of very high electric field near the contact which injects the electrons in the sample. We discuss the correlation of this abrupt increase of $`V_c`$ with the additional CE signal observed by Kawano et al in part IV.

This paper is organized as follows. We present the GaAlAs/GaAs samples in part II and we detail our experimental protocol used to measure the sample voltage drop across the contact and the longitudinal voltage. Indeed it was important to identify the configuration that allows a general understanding of the injection mechanisms for any class of samples. The third part is devoted to the presentation of the experimental data which confirms that the configuration of the measurement is of prior importance. In the fourth part the results are discussed in the framework of the current understanding of the Quantum Hall Effect breakdown, and compared to other results.

## II Samples, experimental set up and protocol

### II.1 Samples

The four types of samples investigated in this paper are GaAs/GaAlAs heterojunctions grown on 3 inches wafers by Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) technique. This technique allows to obtain a good homogeneity of the electronic density over a large scale. Starting from the substrate, a 600-nm-thick undoped GaAs buffer layer is firstly deposited. It is followed by an undoped Al0.28Ga0.72As spacer layer whose thickness is respectively 22 nm and 14.5 nm for PL175 and PL173 heterostructures. Then a 40-nm-thick $`10^{18}cm^3`$ Si-doped AlxGa1-xAs layer is realized, with a gradual decrease of $`x`$ from 0.28 to 0 for PL175 and homogeneous $`x`$=0.28 value for PL173. The two other types of samples, PL174 and LEP514, have similar layers poirierjap ; BNM ; piquemal . Finally, an n-type 12 nm GaAs cap layer covers the heterostructure to improve the quality of ohmic contacts. After the realization of the 300-nm-thick delimiting mesa, the AuGeNi ohmic contacts are evaporated and then annealed at 450 C.

All samples were processed into a Hall bar. They have six independent lateral contacts in addition to the source and drain contacts, as described in figure 1. LEP514 sample has only one pattern (see table I). It was previously studied in an European Project piquemal . We use it as a reference because of its recognized metrological qualities. The other samples were patterned with different sizes. The Hall bar width $`W`$ of PL175 sample (respectively PL173) ranges from 200 to 800 (respectively 1600) $`\mu `$m. These two series allowed us the study of the influence of the channel width on the injection of electrons. The channel width $`d`$ of the lateral contact for samples PL174 ranges from 5 to 150 $`\mu `$m. This series has been studied using the lateral contacts located in the middle of the sample as a source and drain for electrons.

The samples were connected on TO-8 ceramic holders having 12 contacts and featuring leakage resistances between pins higher than 10$`{}_{}{}^{13}\mathrm{\Omega }`$ at room temperature. These ceramics have been mounted on a sample holder whose wires are $`0.2mm`$ diameter constantan and placed inside a Variable Temperature Insert, in a 16 teslas superconducting magnet. All experiments were performed at 1.5K and 4.2K.

### II.2 Voltage drops near the contacts in the QHE regime

In this part we detail the experimental protocol to measure the contact resistance of the samples. All the measurements below have been carried out only at the $`i=2`$ plateau. In the QHE regime, the magnetic field $`B`$ strongly bends the potential profile. As a consequence, if a constant current $`I`$ is applied between the source and drain contacts, all electrons enter the Hall bar by one corner on the source side and leave by the opposite corner on the drain side klas ; vanson ; vanson2  (see figure 2) . The existence of electron entry and exit corners has been observed for the first time by Klass et al klas  and later by Kawano et al Kawano . These corners are high electric field spots created by a concentration of the Hall potential over a very narrow region of characteristic length $`10\mu m`$. This is illustrated in figure 2, where the entry and exit corners are clearly labeled. The Hall voltage VH can be measured across those “hot spots” as shown in figure 2. One can measure the resistance of the current contact through the other corners of the sample (corner labeled 1 and corner labeled 2 on same figure) .

The voltage drop at the vicinity of the current contact is obtained using a four-wires measurement. Two wires are used to inject the current in the Hall bar and two other wires enable the measure of the voltage drop between one current contact and one adjacent lateral contact. The Hall voltage $`V_H=R_H\times I`$ may be measured between the two contacts surrounding either the entry or the exit corner (see inset of figure 3). More surprising are the behaviors of both other corners labeled 1 and 2 which differ one from another (Fig. 2). This is obvious in figure 3 where we reported the curves $`V_{c1}(I)`$ and $`V_{c2}(I)`$ for sample PL175. The curve $`V_{c1}(I)`$ exhibits a steep increase at $`I=50\mu `$m, while $`V_{c2}(I)`$ remains stuck to zero. $`V_{c2}`$ becomes finite only for higher current values corresponding to the so-called breakdown regime. Since we are only interested in the onset of dissipation, we will only focus on the contact whose resistance increases the first. Then, $`V_{c1}`$ will be denoted $`V_c`$, $`V_{c2}`$ being meaningless. A current polarity dependence in the measurement of longitudinal voltages has already been reported by Komiyama et al. komi96 . However the geometry of their samples was completely different and particularly their samples were narrower ($`W=3\mu m`$). Hence, a direct comparison is not possible here.

The abrupt increase of the contact resistance $`V_c/I`$ is the signature of a heating process near the contact which injects the electrons in the 2DEG. We stress that the observation of Kawano et al. Kawano  using Far Infra Red (FIR) experiments, is another signature of the same heating phenomenon. As hot spots already exist in the sample, Kawano et al. called this new heating zone, the “additional heated region”. We will come again to the discussion in part IV.

### II.3 Configurations of measure

After passing through the “heated region”, the hot electrons are injected in the sample because of their drift velocity $`V_d=\frac{E_H}{B}`$ ($`E_H`$ is the Hall electric field). As explained in the bootstrap electron heating model (BSEH) komi96 ; komi85 ; kawa95 ; komi01 ; boel94 ; sagol , the electrons propagate their hot temperature. It is then appropriate to measure the longitudinal voltage drops along the electrons paths. The distance between the current contact and the first voltage probe is $`600\mu m`$ (see figure 1) which is much larger than the minimum length which is necessary to equilibrate the electronic temperature according to the BSEH model. Komiyama et al. komi96  have measured a minimum length of $`130\mu m`$ in the $`i=2`$ plateau to observe a steady state behavior of the longitudinal voltages. In our case, the geometry of our samples prevents us from observing such effects, so we will not be concerned by this length scale effect.

Following the works by Komiyama et al. komi85  and by van Son et al. vanson , the configuration for the measurement of the longitudinal resistance is of great importance. In our case, it was indeed of prior necessity to measure the longitudinal voltage $`V_{xx}`$ which increases the first. We have then compared the longitudinal voltage $`V_{xx1}`$ and $`V_{xx2}`$ measured simultaneously on lower and upper side of the sample (see Fig. 4). The voltage drop measured on the same side of the “heated region” ($`V_{xx2}`$ in the inset) increases before the one measured on the other side ($`V_{xx1}`$ in the inset). This observation has been made on all the series of samples but was more obvious on the wide samples. On the intermediate width samples ($`W=400\mu m`$) the discrepancy in the behaviors of $`V_{xx1}`$ and $`V_{xx2}`$ was reduced but the longitudinal voltage located in the continuity of the heated region always broke first while increasing the current intensity. In the case of the narrower sample ($`200\mu m`$) the discrepancy was very small but still observable. This observation highlights the rôle of the injection of electrons in the breakdown of the QHE and justifies the care to be taken in the choice of the measurement configuration.

Reversing the current polarity and the magnetic field, one obtains four different configurations which are shown in figure 5. Indeed if the current is reversed, then the electrons enter the opposite side of the Hall bar and the direction of the magnetic field determines where the hot spots appear. For all samples we studied the four configurations systematically.

### II.4 Experimental procedure

For each configuration 1, 2, 3 and 4 of figure 5, our experimental procedure is as follows. The $`V_c(I)`$ and $`V_{xx}(I)`$ characteristics are measured for a whole range of magnetic field around the filling factor $`\nu =2`$. As an example, Fig. 6 shows $`V_c(I)`$ and $`V_{xx}(I)`$ at different filling factors. We define the current threshold of one of these curves as the current for which the voltage reaches the value of $`50\mu V`$. It can be seen from figure 6 that the current threshold reaches a maximum value at a well defined value of the filling factor $`\nu `$. Therefore, we can define $`I_c`$ and $`I_b`$ respectively as being the maximum value for the $`V_c(I)`$ and $`V_{xx}(I)`$ current thresholds.

Finally, for a given configuration, one gets the value of $`I_b`$ and $`I_c`$. While determining these currents, $`V_{xx}`$ was kept below the onset of dissipation. Indeed, the reproducibility of the $`V_c(I)`$ and $`V_{xx}(I)`$ curves is not satisfied anymore if the current is increased up to the breakdown boel94 ; ahle90 . Therefore we have focussed only on the pre-breakdown regime in our study. Figure 6 shows the modifications induced by the magnetic field. We have noticed by sweeping the magnetic field up and down, that the curves were reproducible. Several magnetic field values were investigated, allowing a precise and reproducible measurement of the critical currents $`I_c`$ and $`I_b`$ for each configuration.

## III Experimental results

### III.1 Variation of the critical currents with the channel width of the Hall bar.

In this part, we present the results obtained for the PL173 and PL175 series. We have measured the critical currents for each sample in all configurations following the experimental procedure described above. Before discussing and comparing the results for both series of samples, we present as an example the results obtained for the four configurations of PL173-400 sample. Figure 7 shows the $`V_c(I)`$ and $`V_{xx}(I)`$ characteristics allowing the determination of $`I_c`$ and $`I_b`$ for this sample. Each quadrant of Fig. 7 corresponds to one of the four configurations given in Fig. 5.

We must first notice that $`I_c`$ is systematically lower than $`I_b`$. The second noticeable point is the strong similarity between the configurations 1 and 3 and the configurations 2 and 4. This is because in the configuration 1 and 3 electrons are injected by the same current contact. In the configurations 2 and 4 electrons are injected by the other one. We found that every contact of each sample had its own signature. As a consequence, we took the mean value of the critical currents obtained in configuration 1 and 3 (respectively 2 and 4) to characterize one contact (respectively the other contact). We proceeded differently for the threshold current $`I_b`$ because the measurement of $`V_{xx}`$ involves different pairs of lateral contacts in the sample. We charaterize $`I_b`$ with four different values corresponding to the four configurations.

By these means, we could dress the graphs of the dependence of the critical currents with the channel width for the PL173 and PL175 samples. Figure 8 is devoted to the critical current $`I_c`$ as a function of the width of the Hall bar. We observe that the critical current increases with the width of the samples. This behavior is clearly observed for both PL173 and PL175 samples and besides we observe a linear increase. In such a way, the mean current density which is deduced from the data gives a mean value of $`J_{cr}=0.33A/m`$ which can be compared to other results yet published. Measuring the breakdown of the QHE, many different values for $`J_{cr}`$ have been reported. We do not consider here the experiments which were done on laterally constricted samples because the values obtained in such cases are at least one order of magnitude above the usual ones. In the literature, for standard Hall bars, we found values ranging from $`J_{cr}=0.5A/m`$ to $`J_{cr}=1.6A/m`$ eber83 ; cage83 ; komi85 ; kawa94 ; nachtwei ; jeck ; okun95 .

We focus now on the general increase of $`I_b`$ with the width $`W`$. In figure 9 the values of $`I_b`$ have been plotted as a function of the width $`W`$. There are four points for one sample. In this graph we clearly remark an important dispersion of the different points which characterize one sample. Again, this is an argument to stress that the configuration of measure is of prior importance when studying the heating effect in large Hall bars. The monotonic increase of $`I_b`$ is not obviously linear like the one of $`I_c`$. Indeed we could fit the results for $`I_b`$ with the law $`I_{cr}=I_0Log(W/W_0)`$ stated by Balaban et al bala93 . As shown in figure 9, the data for PL175 correspond to the curve $`I=500Log(W/150)`$ while the data for PL173 are fitted with $`I=260Log(W/25)`$. A sublinear increase for $`I_b`$ is not in contradiction with other works because the mobilities for the PL173 and 175 samples are quite high (see table I), and the possibility exists that the behavior should be not linear. In most samples studied in the literature the general tendancy for the breakdown current is a linear dependence $`I_b(W)`$ . Kawaji et al. kawa94 ; okun95  have already observed that the critical current of the breakdown $`I_b`$ increases linearly as a function of the Hall bar width. Also Boisen et al. bois94  observed a linear increase of $`I_b`$. This law has only one exception which was reported by Balaban et al. who observed a sublinear increase of the critical current in very clean samples bala93  whose mobility is $`\mu =90`$ $`\mathrm{m}^2/\mathrm{V}.\mathrm{s}`$. In another paper Balaban et al. bala94  remarked that an intermediate mobility sample ($`\mu =12`$ $`\mathrm{m}^2/\mathrm{V}.\mathrm{s}`$) could exhibit both a linear increase in the dark and a sublinear increase under illumination. Concerning our data, we can notice that the region of the contacts is undoubtly less perfect than the inner sample because of the inhomogeneities of the density caused by the presence of the ohmic contact. This can explain why $`I_c(W)`$ exhibits a linear increase, while $`I_b(W)`$ seems to fit with a sublinear increase.

Another clear tendancy is that the critical currents for PL173 samples are always lower than those for PL175 samples. We attribute this difference to the magnetic field at which the experiments are performed ($`B=9`$ T for PL175, instead of $`B=6.8`$ T for PL173). Indeed, it was shown by Kawaji et al. kawa94  and also by Jeckelmann et al. jeck01  that the critical current of the longitudinal voltage scales with the magnetic field as $`I_bB^{\frac{3}{2}}`$. This dependence is generally understood in terms of Inter Landau levels transitions hein84 ; guim85 ; blie86 ; kirt86 ; blie88 ; eave86 ; kawa94 .

In both graphs on figure 8 and 9, the insets report the same measurements at the liquid helium temperature (T=4.2K). First these measurements confirm the measurements at 1.5K because the graphs are similar at first sight. Then, the modifications induced by a cooling of the system are clearly observable : most critical currents measured at 4.2K are lower than those measured at 1.5K. This increase of the critical current while lowering the temperature has been precisely studied by L.B. Rigal et al. rigal , although this was not for the critical current of the voltage drop across the contact.

### III.2 Comparison of the PL samples with the sample LEP 514

In this part we compare the results obtained for the critical currents of PL173, PL174 and PL175 samples to the critical currents of the sample LEP514. In the previous part we have studied those critical currents as a function of the width of the channel. But in order to compare the results with those of the LEP514 whose channel width is $`400`$ $`\mu `$m, we will only consider the PL173-400 and the PL175-400. Besides we can also make a comparison between the LEP514 and the PL174(W=400 $`\mu `$m, d=50 $`\mu `$m) which have both exactly the same geometry (see table I). Using the current contact as a source, we measured the values of the critical currents $`I_c`$ and $`I_b`$ for the LEP514 and the PL174-50. We reported in Table II, the mean value for the critical currents obtained for both contacts of each sample.

The differences between the LEP514 and the other three PL samples are remarkable. First, the series PL exhibit always a much lower value for $`I_c`$ than for $`I_b`$. This is not the case for the LEP514. Second for LEP514, the high values of these critical currents (around 500 $`\mu `$A) are much higher than the values for the PL series (see Table II). LEP514 is known for allowing very accurate metrological measurements of the Hall resistance in the Quantum Hall Effect regime piquemal . In figure 10, we present the curves $`V_c(I)`$ and $`V_{xx}(I)`$ for one configuration of the LEP514 which allows one to observe that the critical current of $`V_c`$ is equivalent to the critical current of $`V_{xx}`$. This figure must be compared to Fig 7. The particularities of this sample are certainly the cause of its reliability in allowing very accurate metrological measurements.

### III.3 Variation of the critical current with the channel width of the lateral contact.

In this part we discuss the influence of the width $`d`$ of the voltage probe arms when using the lateral contacts as an electron source. For the PL174 series the width of the Hall bar is fixed and equal to 400 $`\mu `$m. The channel width for the voltage probes are 5 $`\mu `$m, 50 $`\mu `$m and 150 $`\mu `$m. We took as a source the voltage contact located in the middle of the sample and the drain was choosen in three possibilities : the two current contacts and the symetrical voltage contact on the other side of the sample (see figure 11). For each PL174 sample we studied both middle contacts by reversing the current. The voltage drop $`V_c`$ was measured in the configurations shown in figure 11. This method gave us six values for the critical current $`I_c`$. These values are reported in figure 12. The disparity observed in figure 12 in the values of the critical current for a given width value is attributed to the contact itself and to the configurations which seem to be not equivalent. This is again an argument to clearly define the configuration of the measurements in such experiments. Nevertheless we observe an increase of the critical current when increasing the width of the source contact, and despite the dispersion, this behavior can be approximated by a linear fit like for the critical current of the current contacts. The resulting critical density is $`J_{cr}=0.8A/m`$ exactly in the same range than others results of the same type. More surprisingly, we observe that the absolute values of the critical currents are of the same order of magnitude than the ones for the current contacts. This is not expected because the width of the channels for the voltage probes are much narrower ($`150\mu m`$ at the most). We cannot conclude anything here because of lack of data, but we can nevertheless emphasize the problem of the influence of the voltage probes width in measuring the critical currents while using the current contacts as the source. Indeed, the similarity between the values obtained in completely different configurations is disturbing.

## IV Discussion

Throughout our experiments the PL samples exhibit a different behavior than the LEP514 : for PL samples of width $`400\mu m`$ the critical currents $`I_c`$ were much lower than $`I_b`$, while in the case of the LEP514 the critical current $`I_c`$ and $`I_b`$ were nearly the same. We attribute the difference of the behaviors to the difference in the quality of the ohmic contacts or in the sample characteristics. However, although the behaviors of the samples have marked differences, we stress that the underlying physical mechanisms responsible for our observations are the same for all samples. Indeed, even in the case of the LEP514, $`I_c`$ is lower than $`I_b`$. In the following, we interpret the totality of our results in the framework of the current understanding of the Quantum Hall Effect breakdown. We show that there is evidence for the occurence of a large region of high electric field near the source, which can have different shape and dimension according to the sample characteristics. Nevertheless, we explain that the new experimental protocol we have proposed, allows us to highlight the particularities of any sample. For instance in the case the LEP514, which is actually known for its optimal metrological qualities, the heating region is small. Then we demonstrate that the resistance across the contact can be used as an electronic thermometer for the Hall fluid, if measured in the appropriate configurations presented in section II.C. This protocol migth be very useful for all breakdown experiments or measurements of resistance standards.

### IV.1 High electric field domain near the source

Our experimental findings demonstrate that the heating process appears first in the vicinity of the source contact before being visible in the middle of the sample. They demonstrate as well, that the mechanism of heating is different in both regions. We recall that $`I_c`$ scales linearly with the width $`W`$ of the sample, while $`I_b`$ scales sublinearly. Another difference between these two regions was highlighted in the experiments by Kawano et al. Kawano  : the additional F.I.R. emission is visible only near the source, as previously described. All these remarks can be understood by the presence of an extended region of high electric field near the contact, as developed now.
Concerning first the onset of the contact resistance, it is obvious that this is the consequence of a QHE breakdown which occurs only near the contact. According to the present knowledge of this phenomenon, it is established that it has to develop in a sufficiently large domain of high electric field. In that case, the avalanche multiplication of electron hole pairs can occur along the drift of carriers, as well described by the BSEH model komi01 ; sagol . The abrupt jump of the voltage drop across the contact is then the consequence of the strong momentum exchanges between electronic states of the same Landau level. The interaction with the acoustical phonons is indeed enhanced by the presence of an intense electric field chau98 .
Concerning now the Landau emission, which is the radiative part of the inter-Landau levels recombinations allowed by a non equilibrium Landau level occupation, it has been observed two different regimes of the FIR emission. A signal is first detectable at low current well before the breakdown. Klass et al. klas  and Kawano et al. Kawano  observed this far infrared signal emitted only by the entry and exit corners that they called hot spots. In fact it is now well understood that the non equilibrium population begins to appear when the drain source voltage exceeds half of the cyclotron energy ($`eV_{SD}>\mathrm{}\omega _c/2`$). In this regime, electrons can be injected directly from the reservoir to bulk electronic states in the upper Landau levels, leading to non-equilibrium population. Both tunneling between reservoirs and Landau levels and also between Landau levels, are efficient in this process. However in this regime, no threshold of $`V_c`$ can be observed because the high field zone is of restricted area and it does not affect the equilibrium of the edge states Kawano . Then, a second regime of emission appears at higher current values, but still before the breakdown in the sample. In the pre-breakdown regime, the FIR emission extends to the whole side of the source contact. The mechanism is different in that case because it leads to the increase of the contact resistance, but again the existence of an extended domain of high electric field can explain the onset of emission. Indeed the inter-Landau levels transitions assisted by acoustical phonons are enhanced by the strength of the electric field, and can cause the onset of a non equilibrium population of electrons, as described in details in ref. chau95 . The occurence of both FIR emission and resistance onset in the vicinity of the contact, can be obtained for values of the electric field which are slightly over those required for the zener tunneling.

It is now clear that a high electric field domain of extended area is formed near the source, but we are still left with the question of the formation and the extension of this high field domain. Let us stress that the hot spot size increases drastically with the current amplitude in the pre-breakdown regime. First, the hot spot extends to the whole source side of the Hall bar. At even higher currents, it extends towards the drain side by following the electron flow. As a consequence, if the current is high enough, the contact used to measure $`V_c`$ is connected to a high electric field region. The extension has undoubtedly a different shape and dimension in different samples. For instance, in the case of the LEP514, the extension might be smaller than in the case of the PL samples, in which the high field domain reaches the edge of the sample where the measurement is done. The quality of the contacts certainly influences the formation of the high field domain, but the size of the sample is also an influent parameter. We recall that the currents $`I_b`$ and $`I_c`$ are approximately the same for the wide bars (see figures 8 and 9) and that the discrepancy observed in the measurement of $`V_{xx1}`$ and $`V_{xx2}`$ was much greater for wide bars. So in wide samples, the high field zone is certainly of restricted area compared to the total area of the sample. Contrarily, in narrow samples (when W is shorter than $`200\mu m`$), the high field zone contaminates the Hall sample in a rather homogeneous way shaskin  which explains why $`V_{xx1}`$ and $`V_{xx2}`$ are more similar. These remarks allow us to understand why Klass et al. klas  did not observe a “heated zone” at the opposite corner of the electron entry near the injection contact: their sample was very large ($`W=2mm`$) and the high field zone is certainly less visible than in our narrow samples or in those of Kawano.

Before concluding this section we add two comments. Firstly, concerning the opposite side of the sample (the drain side). The reason why we do not observe an extended zone of high electric field is obviously due to the direction of propagation of electrons. On the drain side, if electrons are accelerated by the presence of a high field zone, they will enter the reservoir more rapidly, so reducing the possibility of the high field zone extension. Secondly, concerning what will happen when the breakdown in the entire 2DEG is reached. We propose in fact that this high electric field zone will extend afterwards to the entire edge of the sample, and might even leave the region of the contact. This would correspond to the observation made by Shaskin et al. shaskin , who clearly showed evidence that domains of high electric field move along the sample while the current amplitude is varied. However, even if there is evidence that these high electric fields regions play a key role in the onset of the breakdown kaya , the detailed physical mechanism of their extension and propagation remains to be developed.

### IV.2 The contact resistance as an electronic thermometer

In consequence of the heating process near the source, the electronic temperature increases. Then, because of the drift velocity of the electrons, the electronic temperature is spread into the sample according to a mechanism which is well described by the BSEH model komi96 ; kawa95 . Kaya et al. kaya  showed evidence indeed of the slow relaxation of the hot electrons while they drift along Hall bars.

To further pursue our investigation, we used our experimental results to highlight the correlation between the heating phenomenon near the contact and the transport properties of the sample far from the contact. In fact, we have measured simultaneously the voltage drop $`V_c`$ and the longitudinal voltage $`V_{xx}`$. We plotted the longitudinal voltage in a logarithmic scale to highlight the increase of this quantity which is very small in the pre-breakdown regime (see figure 13). We clearly observe the exponential increase of the longitudinal conductivity with the current amplitude, which was reported several times by different authors eber83 ; komi85 ; bois94  and refered to as the pre-breakdown regime. The point here is that it is apparent that this exponential increase of $`V_{xx}`$ begins with the onset of dissipation for $`V_c`$. This demonstrates that there exists a strong correlation between voltage drops at different places of the sample. It is also very interesting to notice that when $`V_{xx}`$ reaches the abrupt onset of dissipation (the breakdown), $`V_c`$ begins to decrease. The conclusion is that the heating process near the contact governs the transport mechanism along the electron flow.
Using specific Hall bars, Kaya et al. have shown that the hot electrons enter very far in the 2D system. Their experimental results are another manifestation of the same phenomenon, which is highlighted here. To prove this, we have also measured simultaneously (for one sample) the successive voltage drops along the Hall bar as in Kaya’s experiments. These measurements are shown in figure 14. As usual in narrow samples, the voltage drop across the contact increases first. But then, $`V_{xx1}`$ increases before $`V_{xx2}`$. Figure 14 demonstrates that the closer the investigated region is from the contact, the more influence the heating phenomenon has. Actually, Fig.14 demonstrates also that a second mechanism exists and is accountable for the increase of the longitudinal conductivity in the middle of the sample. If not, $`V_{xx1}`$ and $`V_{xx2}`$ would be the same. So, if it is clear that in the pre-breakdown regime the main effect is due to the increase of temperature near the source, it is also clear that a unique parameter is not enough to account for the increase of $`V_{xx1}`$ and $`V_{xx2}`$. Two explanations can be proposed to account for the observations. One explanation would be that the local electric field influences the transport phenomenon. A second explanation (proposed by Kaya et al.) would be to consider that a thermalization occurs while electrons are flowing away from the contact region, and that consequently the electron temperature reduces.
Nevertheless in both cases, there is evidence that the electronic temperature influences the transport through the entire structure, whatever the precise physical mechanisms involved here. As a consequence, we propose that the voltage drop $`V_c`$ can be used as an electronic thermometer for the Hall fluid in experiments on the breakdown of the QHE, and in metrological measurements as well.
Many additional experimental data and theoretical modeling would be necessary to calibrate this thermometer. We can nevertheless estimate roughly the value of this temperature in the different regimes. In the hot spots, well before the pre-breakdown regime, the electronic temperature has been estimated by Kawano et al. to be around $`10`$K. At higher current, in the heated region, the observation of the Landau emission is compatible with a temperature defined by Kawano  $`kT_e=\mathrm{}\omega _c/7`$ which leads in our case (for the PL173 at $`\nu =2`$, $`\mathrm{}\omega _c=19meV`$ ) to $`T_e=30`$ K. In the case of Balaban’s samples bala93 , C. Chaubet et al. chau98  have shown that this temperature increases exponentially from $`10`$K to $`50`$K at the threshold for longitudinal voltages. So it is clear that the electronic temperature is above $`10`$K in the pre-breakdown regime. However it is difficult to evaluate the maximum value which can be reached in the breakdown. By the way, let us remark that instabilities when reaching the breakdown can cause sudden high variation of the electric field and sudden increase of the electronic temperature. But a value of $`30`$K or even $`50`$K should not be very surprising at the onset of the breakdown because the Landau emission is observable and the energetic scales ($`\mathrm{}\omega _c`$ and $`kT_e`$) should be comparable. However, let us remark that it is not highly probable that this temperature holds while electrons are propagating in the sample, because a thermalization (whose efficiency is not discussed here) occurs during the drift. The precise measurement of the electronic temperature would be of greatest interest at the onset of the breakdown, to determine which mechanisms are involved. In particular, it would be very interesting to know if the occurence of any universal value of $`T_e`$ can be demonstrated experimentally, or not.

## V Conclusion

A new measurement protocol has been used to characterize the pre-breakdown regime of the QHE. We have characterized for the first time the voltage drop across the contact and dressed the graph of the variation for its critical current with the width of the channel. After showing evidence that the usual longitudinal voltages has a different behavior, we have proposed that the contact resistance should be used as a thermometer for characterizing the temperature of the Hall fluid. The influence of $`V_c`$ on the pre-breakdown regime where the longitudinal conductivity increases exponentially with the current remains to be studied. Also, the propagation of the electronic temperature remains to be further studied in the context of the Bootstrap electron heating model. This work was granted by the Bureau National de Métrologie.


text:
# Investigation of low spin states in 48Cr with the MINIBALL spectrometer

## Abstract

Low spin states in the self-conjugate even-even nucleus 48Cr were investigated using the Miniball $`\gamma `$-ray spectrometer. At the FN tandem accelerator in Cologne the 46Ti(3He,n) reaction was used for the measurement of $`\gamma \gamma `$ coincidences for an excitation function from 7 to 12 MeV beam energy. 17 excited states were observed, nine for the first time by means of $`\gamma `$-ray spectroscopy, and new spin assignments were made. No excited states apart from the ground band were observed below 3.4 MeV.

Much experimental and theoretical work has recently been devoted to the investigation of self-conjugate nuclei, which exhibit unique and interesting properties. For example, they are the only nuclei in which isospin zero states ($`T=0`$), nearly degenerate isospin doublets, and large isovector $`M1`$ transitions can be found. In particular the $`N=Z`$ nucleus 48Cr, placed amidst the doubly magic nuclei 40Ca and 56Ni, has been the subject of recent studies . The ground state rotational band of 48Cr has been successfully described both by the shell model  and the collective model . The latter approach shows 48Cr as a deformed rotor. On the other hand the shell model reproduces the states of the yrast structure impressively well and predicts many additional states above the pairing gap of about 3 MeV. So far these additional states had not been observed experimentally. The question of their existence puts the shell model to a crucial test. A recent 40Ca$`+\alpha `$+$`\alpha `$ cluster model approach  also describes level energies and $`B(E2)`$ values of the ground band very well and also predicts many so far unobserved states.

Early particle-spectroscopic works on the energy levels of 48Cr following the (p,t) reaction had shown that about nine excited states are to be found at level energies between 3.4 and 6.1 MeV . Recent measurements used heavy ion induced reactions to examine both yrast and non-yrast structures of 48Cr . The non-yrast states were assumed to belong to a $`K^\pi =(4^{})`$ band, but the spin and parity assignments had only been tentative . The aim of the present work was to extend the known level scheme and remove the spin ambiguity for the side band. Therefore we performed a complete $`\gamma `$ spectroscopy experiment using the new Miniball spectrometer , which has been designed as an extremely efficient array for the detection of low multiplicity $`\gamma `$ events.

The population of non-yrast states in 48Cr was carried out following the 46Ti(3He,n) reaction at the FN tandem accelerator of the University of Cologne. The Miniball spectrometer was used to measure $`\gamma \gamma `$ coincidence events. It was designed to have a high full-energy peak efficiency and effective granularity, needed for the Doppler correction of $`\gamma `$-rays emitted by fast recoiling nuclei. Miniball was equipped with 18 6-fold segmented encapsulated Ge detectors, clustered in six Triple-Cluster cryostats with three detectors each. For this experiment we used only the total energy signal, which is read out from the inner core contact. Neither the segment information of the detectors nor a pulse-shape analysis was needed, as no Doppler broadening of the $`\gamma `$ transitions was observed in the spectra. All of the detectors were positioned as close as possible to the reaction chamber, i.e. at a distance of about 10 cm to the target. A detailed description of the detectors and the spectrometer frame can be found in Ref. .

The target consisted of a self-supporting foil of 0.94 mg/cm2 46Ti , which was bombarded at 7, 8, 10, and 12 MeV beam energy for a total of about 56 hours measuring time. The sorting of the recorded $`\gamma \gamma `$ coincidences resulted in four matrices of 4k$`\times `$4k resolution, containing 1.9, 2.8, 4.5, and $`2.9\times 10^8`$ $`\gamma \gamma `$ coincidence events, respectively. The gated spectra in Fig. 1 illustrate the data quality for each of the different beam energies.

From the $`\gamma \gamma `$ coincidences the level scheme of 48Cr, shown in Fig. 2, was constructed. With respect to earlier $`\gamma `$-spectroscopic works  we observed nine new levels and ten new $`\gamma `$ transitions, exhibiting structures aside from the ground state band and known non-yrast band. Three levels had already been observed by particle spectroscopy , namely the levels at 3524 and 3632 keV and the doublet at 4063 and 4064 keV, which had not been recognized as such. Our coincidence relations gave clear placements for both levels of the doublet. No excited states except the $`2_1^+`$ and $`4_1^+`$ were observed below 3.4 MeV. This is a fairly notable result, since the performed $`\gamma `$-ray spectroscopy following the (3He,n) reaction can be regarded as complete in the spin range of $`3\mathrm{}`$ and $`4\mathrm{}`$ up to about 4 MeV excitation energy.

In order to determine spin values, the excitation function for each level was analyzed. We compared the intensities of transitions depopulating the levels of interest as functions of the beam energy. Those intensities were determined by gating from below and normalized to the corresponding intensities at 7 MeV beam energy. In a second step the results were normalized to the intensities of the decays from the $`4^+`$ to the $`2^+`$ state. The known spin values of the 1858 and 3445 keV levels, 4 and $`6\mathrm{}`$, respectively, served as references for the comparison of different intensity curves. The results for the states at 3533, 4063, and 4064 keV are depicted in Fig. 3. Our analysis is sensitive to different spins in the range from $`3\mathrm{}`$ to $`6\mathrm{}`$. The results are summarized in table I.

Definite spin assignments were made for the states at 3533 and 4064 keV, which are attributed to the non-yrast band. The states at 3524, 3632, 4034, and 4063 keV level energy are assigned to have a spin of $`3\mathrm{}`$ or less, but due to the lack of known $`\gamma \gamma `$ excitation functions in this spin range, we are not able to give definite assignments. With the information from an additional $`\gamma \gamma `$ angular correlation experiment, performed with the Osiris-6 cube spectrometer in Cologne, a lower spin limit of $`3\mathrm{}`$ was determined. The experimental details are described in . This measurement gave multipole mixing ratios for three levels and branching ratios for the decays of the 4063 keV level, see table I.

The adopted spin information for the levels that had already been observed in  is in accordance with the previous results. The spin-parity assignment of $`J^\pi =3^{}`$ for one level at $`(4067\pm 5)`$ keV from particle spectroscopy has to be questioned, since it is a doublet, that had not been resolved in triton spectra. Nevertheless the spin assignment of $`3\mathrm{}`$ for the 4063 keV state is supported by our data. A negative parity assignment would be supported by shell model calculations performed with the code Antoine  using the KB3 interaction, which show no $`3^+`$ state decaying to the $`4_1^+`$.

The spin of the non-yrast band head was found to be $`4\mathrm{}`$ and the level directly above this state, connected the by 531 keV transition, has a spin of $`5\mathrm{}`$. The multipole mixing ratio for the 1675 keV transition to the ground state band vanishes, excluding an appreciable contribution of quadrupole radiation. This fact is strongly in favor of a negative parity assignment for this $`K=4`$ band. Since 48Cr is a well deformed nucleus with $`\beta 0.3`$ for the yrast and non-yrast bands , $`K`$ is regarded as a good quantum number. In the case of a positive parity band considerable $`E2`$ character and an $`E2`$ decay to the $`2_1^+`$ state would have been observed. The nanosecond lifetime and pure dipole character of the $`4^\pi 4_1^+`$ decay contradicts the estimated probability of a two-fold $`K`$-forbidden $`E2`$ transition at least by two orders of magnitude. On the other hand, the observations are in good agreement with the expected transition probabilities of a three-fold $`K`$-forbidden $`E1`$, which is isospin forbidden, and a two-fold $`K`$-forbidden $`M2`$ transition. Thus, we assign negative parity to this state and the band built upon it. Furthermore, no $`5^\pi 4_1^+`$ was observed. The upper limit for the ratio of $`B(E2)`$-values is $`B(E2;5^\pi 4_1^+)/B(E2;5^\pi 4^\pi )<210^4`$ and for the intensity ratio $`I_\gamma (5^\pi 4_1^+)/I_\gamma (5^\pi 4^\pi )<0.1`$, which excludes an appreciable mixing with the ground state band, supporting the negative parity assignment to the $`K=4`$ band.

In Refs.  recent shell model and cluster model calculations have been found to be in very good agreement with the experimental level energies and reduced transition probabilities of the 48Cr ground state band. For positive parity states aside from the ground band, our shell model calculations mentioned above reproduce the energy gap to the first non-yrast state and the experimental level density (see Fig. 4). A more sophisticated comparison is not possible yet, due to the fragmentary experimental information on level spins and parities. The calculations with the microscopic 40Ca$`+\alpha `$+$`\alpha `$ cluster model by Sakuda et al.  predict about five positive parity states aside from the ground band below 3.4 MeV excitation energy. In the present work those states were not observed in the given energy range. In particular the $`2^+`$ band head of a presumed $`\gamma `$-band must be above 3.4 MeV (instead of the calculated 2 MeV). On the other hand the cluster model predicts the negative parity states at rather high excitation energies, e.g. the lowest $`4^{}`$ state above 6 MeV, which also contradicts the experimental observations. The comparison of negative parity level energies is given in Fig. 5. In contrast to this the $`K^\pi =4^{}`$ band had been well described by Brandolini et al. In their shell model calculations the full $`pf`$-shell had been extended by hole excitations in the 1$`d_{3/2}`$ orbital .

As a future task the collection of more information on the level properties remains, as the comparison of experimental data with the shell model seems promising. Therefore, a further investigation of 48Cr is of high interest, in particular measurements of parities for the newly found low spin states.

Acknowledgment: The authors are grateful to the Miniball collaboration for the opportunity to use their powerful instrument. We thank A. F. Lisetskiy for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the BMBF project no. 06 OK 958 and the DFG under contract numbers Br 799/10-2 and Pi 393/1-2.


text:
# GriPhyN Report 2003-16 CMS CR 2003-015 physics/0306008 Virtual Data in CMS Analysis

## I INTRODUCTION

A look-up in the Webster dictionary gives:

vir tu al
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, possessed of certain physical virtues, from Medieval Latin virtualis, from Latin virtus strength, virtue.

In this contribution we explore the virtue of virtual data in the scientific analysis process, taking as an example the coming generation of high energy physics (HEP) experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), under construction at CERN close to Geneva.

Most data in contemporary science are the product of increasingly complex computations and procedures applied on the raw information coming from detectors (the “measurements”) or from numeric simulations - e.g. reconstruction, calibration, selection, noise reduction, filtering , estimation of parameters etc. High energy physics and many other sciences are increasingly CPU and data intensive. In fact, many new problems can only be addressed at the high data volume frontier. In this context, not only data analysis transformations, but also the detailed log of how those transformations were applied, become a vital intellectual resource of the scientific community. The collaborative processes of these ever-larger groups require new approaches and tools enabling the efficient sharing of knowledge and data across a geographically distributed and diverse environment.

The scientific analysis process demands the precise tracking of how data products are to be derived, in order to be able to create and/or recreate them on demand. In this context virtual data are data products with a well defined method of production or reproduction. The concept of “virtuality” with respect to existence means that we can define data products that may be produced in the future, as well as record the “history” of products that exist now or have existed at some point in the past. Recording and discovering the relationships can be important for many reasons - some of them, adapted from chimera  to high energy physics applications, are given below:

* “I have found some interesting data, but I need to know exactly what corrections were applied before I can trust it.”
* “I have detected a muon calibration error and want to know which derived data products need to be recomputed.”
* “I want to search a huge database for rare electron events. If a program that does this analysis exists, I will not have to reinvent the wheel.”
* “I want to apply a forward jet analysis to 100M events. If the results already exist, I will save weeks of computation.”

We need a “virtual data management” tool that can “re-materialize” data products that were deleted, generate data products that were defined but never created, regenerate data when data dependencies or algorithms change, and/or create replicas at remote locations when recreation is more efficient than data transfer.

The virtual data paradigm records data provenance by tracking how new data is derived from transformations on other data chimera . It focuses on two central concepts: transformations and derivations. A transformation is a computational procedure used to derive data. A derivation is an invocation of such a procedure, resulting in the instantiation of a potential data product. Data provenance is the exact history of any existing (or virtual) data product. Often the data products are large datasets, and the management of dataset transformations is critical to the scientific analysis process.

From the scientist’s point of view, data trackability and result auditability are crucial, as the reproducibility of results is fundamental to the nature of science. To support this need we require and envision something like a “virtual logbook” that provides the following capabilities:

* easy sharing of tools and data to facilitate collaboration - all data comes complete with a “recipe” on how to produce or reproduce it;
* individuals can discover in a fast and well defined way other scientists’ work and build from it;
* different teams can work in a modular, semi-autonomous fashion; they can reuse previous data/code/results or entire analysis chains;
* the often tedious procedures of repair and correction of data can be automated using a paradigm similar to that which ”make” implements for rebuilding application code;
* on a higher level, systems can be designed for workflow management and performance optimization, including the tedious processes of staging in data from a remote site or recreating it locally on demand (transparency with respect to location and existence of the data);

## II CHIMERA - THE GRIPHYN VIRTUAL DATA SYSTEM

To experiment with and explore the benefits of data derivation tracking and virtual data management, a virtual data system called Chimera chimera  is under active development in the GriPhyN project griphyn . A persistent virtual data catalog (VDC), based on a relational virtual data schema, provides a compact and expressive representation of the computational procedures used to derive data, as well as invocations of those procedures and the datasets produced by those invocations.

Applications access Chimera via a virtual data language (VDL), which supports both data definition statements, used for populating a Chimera database and for deleting and updating virtual data definitions, and query statements, used to retrieve information from the database. The VDL has two formats: a textual form that can be used for manual VDL composition, and an XML form for machine-to-machine component integration.

Chimera VDL processing commands implement requests for constructing and querying database entries in the VDC. These commands are implemented in JAVA and can be invoked from the JAVA API or from the command line.

The Chimera virtual data language describes data transformation using a function-call-like paradigm. It defines a set of relations to capture and formalize descriptions of how a program can be invoked, and to record its potential and/or actual invocations. The main entities of this language are described below:

* A transformation is an executable program. Associated with a transformation is an abstract description of how the program is invoked (e.g. executable name, location, arguments, environment). It is similar to a “function declaration” in C/C++. A transformation is identified by the tuple \[namespace\]::identifier:\[version #\].
* A derivation represents an execution of a transformation. It is an invocation of a transformation with specific arguments, so it is similar to a “function call” in C/C++. Associated with a derivation is the name of the corresponding transformation, the names of the data objects to which the transformation is applied and other derivation-specific information (e.g. values for parameters, execution time). The derivation can be a record of how data products came into existence or a recipe for creating them at some point in the future. A derivation is identified by the tuple \[namespace\]::identifier:\[version range\].
* A data object is a named entity that may be consumed or produced by a derivation. In the current version, a data object is a logical file, named by a logical file name (LFN). A separate replica catalog (RC) or replica location service (RLS) is used to map from logical file names to physical location(s) for replicas. Associated with a data object is simple metadata information about that object.

An example of the virtual data language description for a simple pipeline with two steps is shown in Figure 1. We define two transformations, called PYTHIA and CMSIM, which correspond to the generation of high energy interactions with the Monte Carlo program PYTHIA pitia  and the modeling of the detector response in the CMS experiment cms ; cmssoft ; cmsweb . Then we define two invocations of these transformations where the formal parameters are replaced by actual parameters. The virtual data system detects the dependency between the output and input files of the different steps (here file2) and automatically produces the whole chain. This is a simple chain - the virtual data system (VDS) has been tested successfully on much more complex pipelines with hundreds of derivations sdss .

The Chimera system supports queries which return a representation of the tasks to be executed as a directed acyclic graph (DAG). When executed on a Data Grid it creates a specified data product. The steps of the virtual data request formulation, planning and execution process are shown schematically in Figure 2. Chimera is integrated with other grid services to enable the creation of new data by executing computational schedules from database queries and the distributed management of the resulting data.

## III DATA ANALYSIS IN HEP

After a high energy physics detector is triggered, the information from the different systems is read and ultimately recorded (possibly after cleaning, filtering and initial reconstruction) to mass storage. The high intensity of the LHC beams usually results in more than one interaction taking place simultaneously, so a trigger records the combined response to all particles traversing the detector in the time window when the system is open. The first stages in the data processing are well defined and usually tightly controlled by the teams responsible for reconstruction, calibration, alignment, “official” simulation etc. The application of virtual data concepts in this area is discussed e.g. in cmsprod .

In this contribution we are interested in the later stages of data processing and analysis, when various teams and individual scientists look at the data from many different angles - refining algorithms, updating calibrations or trying out new approaches, selecting and analyzing a particular data set, estimating parameters etc., and ultimately producing and publishing physics results. Even in today’s large collaborations this is a decentralized, ”chaotic” activity, and is expected to grow substantially in complexity and scale for the LHC experiments. Clearly flexible enough systems, able to accommodate a large user base and use cases not all of which can be foreseen in advance, are needed. Here we explore the benefits that a virtual data system can bring in this vast and dynamic field.

An important feature of analysis systems is the ability to build scripts and/or executables “on the fly”, including user supplied code and parameters. The user should be in position to modify the inputs on her/his desk(lap)top and request a derived data product, possibly linking with preinstalled libraries on the execution sites. A grid-type system can store large volumes of data at geographically remote locations and provide the necessary computing power for larger tasks. The results are returned to the user or stored and published from the remote site(s). An example of this vision is shown in Figure 3. The Chimera system can be used as a building block for a collaborative analysis environment, providing “virtual data logbook” capabilities and the ability to explore the metadata associated with different data products.

To explore the use of virtual data in HEP analysis, we take as a concrete (but greatly simplified) example an analysis searching for the Higgs boson at the LHC. The process begins with an analysis group that defines a virtual data space for future use by it’s members. At the start, this space is populated solely with virtual data definitions, and contains no materialized data products at all. A subgroup then decides to search for Higgs candidates with mass around 160 GeV. It selects candidates for Higgs decaying to $`W^+W^{}`$ and $`ZZ`$ bosons, $`\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$ leptons and $`b\overline{b}`$ quarks. Then it concentrates on the main decay channel $`HW^+W^{}`$. To suppress the background, only events where both Ws decay to leptons are selected for further processing. Then the channel $`WWe\nu \mu \nu `$ is picked up as having low background. At each stage in the analysis interesting events can be visualized and plots for all quantities of interest can be produced. Using the virtual data system all steps can be recorded and stored in the virtual data catalog. Let us assume that a new member joins the group. It is quite easy to discover exactly what has been done so far for a particular decay channel, to validate how it was done, and to refine the analysis. A scientist wanting to dig deeper can add a new derived data branch by, for example, applying a more sophisticated selection, and continuing to investigate down the new branch (see Figure 4). Of course, the results of the group can be shared easily with other teams and individuals in the collaboration, working on similar topics, providing or re-using better algorithms etc. The starting of new subjects will profit from the availability of the accumulated experience. At publication time it will be much easier to perform an accurate audit of the results, and to work with internal referees who may require details of the analysis or additional checks.

## IV PROTOTYPES

In this section we describe the process of incorporating Chimera in a prototype of real analysis system, and examine some of the issues that arise. In this study we use events generated with PYTHIA (or the CMS PYTHIA implementation in CMKIN), and analyze, histogram and visualize them with the object-oriented data analysis framework ROOT root . In the basic Chimera implementation, the transformation is a pre-existing program. Using the flexibility of the virtual data system, we design our prototype with “strong” data provenance by using additional steps in the pipeline. The Concurrent Version System (CVS) is well suited to provide version control for a rapid development by a large team and to store, by the mechanism of tagging releases, many versions so that they can be extracted in exactly the same form even if modified, added or deleted since that time. In our design we use wrappers (shell scripts) at all stages in order to make the system more dynamic. In a first step we provide a tag to the VDS and (using CVS) extract the FORTRAN source code and the library version number for the second, the data cards for the third and the C++ code for the last step. In the second step we compile and link PYTHIA “on the fly”, using the library version as specified above. In the third step we generate events with the executable and the datacards from the first two steps. In the next, rather technical, step, we convert the generated events, which are stored in column-wise ntuples using FORTRAN calls to HBOOK, to ROOT trees for analysis. In the final step we execute a ROOT wrapper which takes as input the C++ code to be run on the generated events and produces histograms or event displays. After we define the transformations and some derivations to produce a given data product, the Chimera system takes care of all dependencies, as shown in the DAG of Figure 5, which is “assembled” and run automatically.

The Chimera configuration files describing our installed transformations are presented below for reference.

```
Transformation catalog (expects pre-built executables)
#pool  ltransformation physical transformation      environment String
local  hw              /bin/echo                    null
local  pythcvs         /workdir/lhc-h-6-cvs         null
local  pythlin         /workdir/lhc-h-6-link        null
local  pythgen         /workdir/lhc-h-6-run         null
local  pythtree        /workdir/h2root.sh           null
local  pythview        /workdir/root.sh             null
local  GriphynRC       /vdshome/bin/replica-catalog JAVA_HOME=/vdt/jdk1.3;VDS_HOME=/vdshome
local  globus-url-copy /vdt/bin/globus-url-copy     GLOBUS_LOCATION=/vdt;LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/vdt/lib
ufl    hw              /bin/echo                    null
ufl    GriphynRC       /vdshome/bin/replica-catalog JAVA_HOME=/vdt/jdk1.3.1_04;VDS_HOME=/vdshome
ufl    globus-url-copy /vdt/bin/globus-url-copy     GLOBUS_LOCATION=/vdt;LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/vdt/lib

```

In our implementation we use MySQL as the persistent store for the virtual data catalog. The transformations are executed using a Chimera tool called the shell planner, which permits rapid prototyping by VDL processing through execution on a local machine rather than on a full-scale grid. Alternatively, the system can produce a DAG which can be submitted to a local Condor condor  pool or to a grid scheduler.

In the last step of the illustrated derivation graph we analyze the generated events using the rich set of tools available in ROOT. Besides selecting interesting events and plotting the variables describing them, we develop a light-weight visualization in C++ based on the ROOT classes. Using this tool the user can rotate the event in 3D, produce 2D projections etc. Examples are shown in Figures 6 and 7.

## V OUTLOOK

We have developed a light-weight Chimera/PYTHIA/ROOT prototype for building executables ”on the fly”, generating events with PYTHIA or CMKIN, analyzing, plotting and visualizing them with ROOT. Our experience shows that Chimera is a great integration tool. We are able to build a system from components using CVS, MySQL, FORTRAN code (PYTHIA) and C++ code (ROOT). The data provenance is fully recorded and can be accessed, discovered and reused at any time. The results reported here are a snapshot of work in progress which is continuing to evolve both in Chimera capabilities and their application to CMS analysis.

This work can be extended in several directions:

* collaborative workflow management
* automatic generation of derivation definitions from interactive ROOT sessions
* an interactively searchable metadata catalog of virtual data information
* a more powerful abstractions for datasets, beyond simple files
* control of all phases in the solving of multi-step CPU intensive scientific problems (e.g. the study of parton density function uncertainties Bourilkov:2003kk )
* integration with the CLARENS system clarens  for remote data access
* integration with the ROOT/PROOF system for parallel analysis of large data sets

Interested readers can try out the prototype demo, which at the time of this writing is available at the following URL:

```
grinhead.phys.ufl.edu/~bourilkov/pythdemo/pythchain.php .

```

###### Acknowledgements.

This work is supported in part by the United States National Science Foundation under grants NSF ITR-0086044 (GriPhyN) and NSF PHY-0122557 (iVDGL).