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# Dynamics of topological defects in a spiral: a scenario for the spin-glass phase of cuprates

## Abstract

We propose that the dissipative dynamics of topological defects in a spiral state is responsible for the transport properties in the spin-glass phase of cuprates. Using the collective-coordinate method, we show that topological defects are coupled to a bath of magnetic excitations. By integrating out the bath degrees of freedom, we find that the dynamical properties of the topological defects are dissipative. The calculated damping matrix is related to the in-plane resistivity, which exhibits an anisotropy and linear temperature dependence in agreement with experimental data.

The discovery of four static incommensurate (IC) charge and spin peaks by neutron scattering experiments in Nd-doped La2-xSrxCuO4 (LSCO) tran  confirmed the proposal that in these materials the holes form vertical/horizontal charge stripes zaanen , breaking the paradigm of homogeneous charge distribution. Moreover, the observation of IC dynamical spin correlations in superconducting LSCO $`(x>0.05)`$ at the same wave vectors as observed in the Nd-doped compounds yama  placed the stripe picture on a more solid footing and raised further questions concerning the coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity. Later, two IC elastic magnetic peaks have been observed within the spin-glass (SG) phase of LSCO $`(0.02<x<0.05)`$ NSSG , and their interpretation in terms of diagonal stripe formation appeared to be rather natural, given that the value of the magnetic IC follows the same linear dependence on doping as observed within the superconducting regime NSSG . However, no charge order has ever been measured in the SG regime, and the picture of well-ordered stripes, very far apart from each other due to the very low doping concentration, seems quite improbable because disorder and frustration effects, which act to destabilize the stripes, are expected to dominate in this phase.

A different explanation of the two IC peaks in the SG phase is that these may arise from the formation of a spiral magnetic order which breaks the translational symmetry in the spin but not in the charge sector nils . In this model, the randomly distributed holes act as frustration centers for the underlying anti-ferromagnetic (AF) background, generating a dipole moment. A fraction of these dipoles may order ferromagnetically, while the others may remain disordered. If the number of ordered dipoles increases linearly with the doping concentration, which would appear plausible, this model can describe the linear variation of the IC magnetic wave vector with doping NSSG , without invoking charge ordering nils .

Recently, transport properties along both diagonal-directions in the Cu lattice have been investigated in high-quality, detwinned LSCO samples, and a rather strong anisotropy was detected ando . However, this experiment provides no definitive evidence in favor of the stripe picture, because, as we will show, a similar anisotropic behavior is expected for transport parallel or perpendicular to the spiral axis.

In this Letter we investigate the formation of topological defects in the spiral state that couple to excitations of the magnetic environment and diffuse across the system. We assume that the charge carriers are attached to these defects and therefore the description of defect dynamics corresponds ultimately to the electrical transport properties of cuprates in the SG phase. We evaluate the damping matrix, which is related to the mobility of the topological defect, and show that its behavior at high temperatures follows the experimentally observed temperature ($`T`$) dependence of the in-plane resistivity. In addition, we account for the anisotropy in the spin-wave velocity in the directions parallel and perpendicular to the spiral axis, and find that, in agreement with experiments, it leads to an anisotropy in the resistivity.

The magnetic properties of charge transfer insulators, such as undoped La2CuO4, are usually studied within the quantum non-linear sigma model (NL$`\sigma `$M), which can correctly represent the long wavelength modes of the Heisenberg model. This continuum model describes slow fluctuations of the locally well defined staggered magnetization $`𝐧`$ (with $`𝐧^2=1`$). When holes are added to the system, the magnetism becomes more complex because those act simultaneously as a source of disorder and dipolarlike frustration. The dipolar frustration can be described via a coupling of the dipoles to the gradient of the order parameter $`𝐧`$ of the NL$`\sigma `$M. By accounting for the random distribution of dipolar centers, the resulting Hamiltonian favors the formation of a spiral phase, with a non-zero average twist $`_\mu 𝐧`$ of the AF order parameter and a concomitant alignment of some of the dipoles nils .

The spiral ground-state breaks the O(3) spin symmetry completely. Its order parameter, which belongs to the SO(3) group, is given in terms of an orthonormal basis $`𝐧_k`$, with $`k=1,2,3`$ and $`n_k^an_q^a=\delta _{kq}`$ apel . The latter can be related to an element $`g`$ of SU(2) through $`n_k^a=(1/2)\text{tr}\left(\sigma ^ag\sigma ^kg^1\right)`$, where $`\sigma ^a`$ are Pauli matrices. It is also convenient to introduce the fields $`A_\mu ^a=(1/2i)\text{tr}\left(\sigma ^ag^1_\mu g\right)`$, which are related to the first derivatives of $`𝐧_k`$ through $`_\mu n_k^a=2ϵ_{ijk}A_\mu ^in_j^a`$ polyakov . Here $`\mu `$ stands for one-time and two-spatial coordinates. The Lagrangian describing the spiral state is given by

$$L=𝒩𝑑x_{}𝑑x_{}\left(𝐀_0^2c_{}^2𝐀_{}^2c_{}^2𝐀_{}^2\right),$$
(1)
where $`𝒩=2JS^2/c_{}c_{}`$, $`J`$ is the AF exchange and $`c_{}`$, $`c_{}`$ are the spin wave velocities perpendicular and parallel to the spiral axis, with $`(c_{}/c_{})^2=\mathrm{cos}(Qa)`$ nils . Here $`a`$ is the lattice constant and $`Q`$ is the IC magnetic wave vector observed by neutron scattering. Lagrangian (1) may be mapped to an isotropic form by introducing the coordinates $`𝐫=(x,y)`$ with $`x=\sqrt{c_{}/c_{}}x_{}`$, $`y=\sqrt{c_{}/c_{}}x_{}`$. We then find $`L=𝒩d^2r\left(𝐀_0^2c^2𝐀_\alpha ^2\right)`$, where $`\alpha =x,y`$ and $`c=\sqrt{c_{}c_{}}`$ is the isotropic spin-wave velocity. This rescaling leads to an anisotropic elementary cell, which will be neglected in what follows. Further comments on the anisotropy effects are included in the conclusions.

An appropriate treatment of the spiral state has to take into account the existence of topological defects. In principle, in $`(2+1)`$ space-time dimensions two types of static topological defects can exist: vortices and skyrmions. Skyrmionlike excitations are classified according to the second homotopy group of the order parameter space, which in our case is trivial, $`\pi _2(SO(3))=0`$. Thus, there are no skyrmions in the spiral state and the only possible defects are $`Z_2`$-vortices, given by the first homotopy group $`\pi _1(SO(3))=Z_2`$ dombre . These defects originate from the chiral degeneracy of the spiral, which can rotate clock- or counter-clock-wise kawamura . Their description is provided by the elements $`g=g_s(\mathrm{\Psi })g_\epsilon (\stackrel{}{\epsilon })`$ of the SU(2) group, with $`g_s=\mathrm{exp}(im^a\sigma ^a\mathrm{\Psi }/2)`$ and $`g_\epsilon =\mathrm{exp}(i\sigma ^a\epsilon ^a/2)`$. The parameters $`𝐦\mathrm{\Psi }`$ are related to the local spin, where $`𝐦`$ is a constant unit vector and $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is a scalar field wintel . Our aim is to determine the topological defect solutions $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{2v}`$ of the saddle point equations of the spiral, as well as the vectorial field $`\stackrel{}{\epsilon }`$ describing fluctuations around this solution. In terms of these fields, the Lagrangian becomes

$`L`$ $`=`$ $`𝒩{\displaystyle d^2r\left(L_0+L_1\right)},L_0={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(_\mu \mathrm{\Psi })^2`$ (2)
$`L_1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\left(_\mu \stackrel{}{\epsilon }\right)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left\{𝐦\left[_\mu \stackrel{}{\epsilon }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(_\mu \stackrel{}{\epsilon }\times \stackrel{}{\epsilon }\right)\right]\right\}_\mu \mathrm{\Psi },`$
with $`_\mu A_\mu B=_tA_tBc^2AB`$. This Lagrangian can be treated perturbatively because $`|\stackrel{}{\epsilon }|`$ is small. We begin by considering the static limit of $`L_0`$, where the corresponding equation of motion becomes the Laplace equation $`^2\mathrm{\Psi }(𝐫)=0.`$ A nontrivial solution $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{1v}(𝐫,𝐑)=\mathrm{arctan}(yY)/(xX)`$ has the form of a vortex centered at $`𝐑=(X,Y)`$, and its energy $`E\mathrm{ln}L/a`$ diverges with the system size $`L`$. Unbound, free topological defects cannot, therefore, exist at low temperatures. However, the two-vortices solution $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{2v}=\mathrm{\Psi }_{1v}(𝐫,𝐑_1)\mathrm{\Psi }_{1v}(𝐫,𝐑_2)`$, which describes a bound pair of topological defects (vortex and antivortex), centered respectively at $`𝐑_1`$ and $`𝐑_2`$, has a finite energy $`E(\mathrm{\Psi }_{2v})\mathrm{ln}(d/a)`$, where $`d=|𝐑_1𝐑_2|`$ is the modulus of the pair relative coordinate, which we take as a constant. Up to an irrelevant constant, the two-vortices solution can be expressed in terms of the center of mass $`𝐑=(𝐑_1+𝐑_2)/2`$ and relative coordinate $`𝐝`$, yielding $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{2v}(𝐫)=\mathrm{arctan}\{[(𝐫𝐑)\times 𝐝]_z/[(𝐫𝐑)^2d^2/4]\}`$.

We will apply the collective coordinate method amir  to study the dynamics of a bound pair of topological defects in a spiral. The first task is to determine the dynamics of the fluctuations around the defect. By evaluating $`L_1(\mathrm{\Psi }_{2v})`$ and expressing the vectorial field in terms of polar coordinates, $`\stackrel{}{\epsilon }=(\overline{\epsilon }\mathrm{cos}\theta ,\overline{\epsilon }\mathrm{sin}\theta ,\epsilon ^z)`$, we find that the $`\epsilon ^z`$ component is free and that $`\theta =\mathrm{\Psi }_{2v}/2`$. The remaining equation of motion then reads $`\left\{_t^2c^2[^2+V(𝐫)]\right\}\overline{\epsilon }=0`$, with $`V(𝐫)=(\mathrm{\Psi }_{2v})^2/4`$. Its solution has the form $`\overline{\epsilon }(𝐫,t)=_{nm}q_{nm}(t)\eta _{nm}(𝐫)`$, where $`\eta _{nm}`$ are the eigenfunctions of the operator

$$c^2[^2+V(𝐫)]\eta _{nm}=\omega _{nm}^2\eta _{nm}.$$
(3)
The solutions of Eq. (3) have the form $`\eta _{nm}=\sqrt{k_{nm}/8L}[H_n^{(1)}(k_{nm}r)+e^{2i\delta _n}H_n^{(2)}(k_{nm}r)]e^{in\vartheta },`$ where $`H_n^{(1,2)}`$ are Hankel functions of the first and second kinds, $`\delta _n`$ represents a phase shift for the mode $`n`$, and $`\vartheta `$ is a polar angle. The excitation with frequency $`\omega _{nm}`$ has the dispersion $`\omega _{nm}=c|𝐤_{nm}|`$. Equation (3) admits zero-frequency modes associated with the continuous translational symmetry of the model. A consistent treatment of them requires the use of collective coordinates. Thus, the center of the pair $`𝐑`$ is promoted to a dynamical variable $`𝐑(t)`$, namely $`\mathrm{\Psi }(𝐫)\mathrm{\Psi }(𝐫𝐑(t))`$ and $`\overline{\epsilon }(𝐫,t)\overline{\epsilon }(𝐫𝐑(t),t)=_{nm}q_{nm}(t)\eta _{nm}(𝐫𝐑(t))`$.

A lengthy but straightforward procedure vlad  leads to the effective Hamiltonian (in units of $`2JS^2/c^2`$) describing the pair of topological defects interacting with the bath of magnons,

$$H=\frac{1}{2M}\left(𝐏𝐏_E\right)^2+\frac{1}{2}\underset{nm}{}\left(p_{nm}^2+\omega _{nm}^2q_{nm}^2\right),$$
(4)
where $`M=d^2r(\mathrm{\Psi }_{2v})^2`$ is the mass of the topological defect, $`𝐏`$ and $`p_{nm}`$ are respectively the momentum conjugate to $`𝐑`$ and to the coordinate $`q_{nm}`$ of the excitation with frequency $`\omega _{nm}`$, and $`𝐏_E=_{nm,kl}p_{nm}𝐆_{nm,kl}q_{kl}`$. The constants $`𝐆_{nm,kl}`$ are related to the eigenfunctions $`\eta `$ by $`𝐆_{nm,kl}=d^2r\eta _{kl}\eta _{nm}`$. The classical Hamiltonian (4) is quantized by introducing the usual creation and annihilation operators $`a_{nm}^{}`$ and $`a_{nm}`$. Restricting the analysis to the case of elastic scattering and retaining only the terms at quadratic order in $`a_{nm}^{}`$, $`a_{nm}`$ we obtain

$$\widehat{H}=\frac{\widehat{𝐏^2}}{2M}\frac{\mathrm{}\widehat{𝐏}}{M}\underset{nm,kl}{}𝐃_{nm,kl}a_{nm}a_{kl}^{}+\widehat{H}_b,$$
(5)
where $`\widehat{H}_b=_{nm}\mathrm{}\omega _{nm}a_{nm}^{}a_{nm}`$ and $`𝐃_{nm,kl}=𝐆_{nm,kl}(\omega _{nm}+\omega _{kl})/2i\sqrt{\omega _{nm}\omega _{kl}}`$.

Our aim is to investigate, in the low-energy sector, the effective dynamics of the vortex-pair in the presence of the excitation bath. We compute the reduced density matrix of the pair by integrating out the degrees of freedom of the bath of magnons, for which we employ the Feynman-Vernon path-integral formalism. The evolution of the density matrix for the full system is described by $`\widehat{\rho }(t)=\mathrm{exp}(i\widehat{H}t/\mathrm{})\widehat{\rho }(0)\mathrm{exp}(i\widehat{H}t/\mathrm{})`$. For the sake of simplicity, we use the factorisable initial condition $`\widehat{\rho }(0)=\widehat{\rho }_v(0)\widehat{\rho }_b(0)`$, where $`\rho _v`$ and $`\widehat{\rho }_b`$ represent, respectively, the initial vortex-pair and bath density matrices. This condition implies that the pair of topological defects and the excitations do not interact at $`t=0`$. The bath degrees of freedom are supposed to be initially in thermal equilibrium, $`\widehat{\rho }_b(0)=e^{\beta \widehat{H}_b}/\mathrm{tr}[e^{\beta \widehat{H}_b}]`$, where $`\beta \mathrm{}/k_BT`$. After evaluating the trace over these, we obtain the reduced density-matrix operator for the vortex-pair

$$\widehat{\stackrel{~}{\rho }}(𝐱,𝐲,t)=𝑑𝐱^{}𝑑𝐲^{}J(𝐱,𝐲,t;𝐱^{},𝐲^{},0)\widehat{\rho }_v(𝐱^{},𝐲^{},0),$$

where the super-propagator $`J`$ has the form

$$J=_𝐱^{}^𝐱𝒟𝐱_𝐲^{}^𝐲𝒟𝐲e^{\frac{i}{\mathrm{}}[S_0[𝐱]S_0[𝐲]]}[𝐱,𝐲].$$
(6)
$`S_0[𝐱]=_0^t𝑑t^{}(M/2)\dot{𝐱}^2`$ is the action associated with the free motion of the vortices and $`[𝐱,𝐲]`$ is the influence functional, which describes the effect of the excitations on the dynamics of the topological defect pair.

Defining the center of mass and relative coordinates $`𝐯=(𝐱+𝐲)/2,𝐮=𝐱𝐲`$ and using the Born approximation, one finds, after a lengthy calculation vlad , that

$$[𝐱,𝐲]=\mathrm{exp}[i\mathrm{\Phi }]\mathrm{exp}[\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}],$$
(7)
where

$`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle \underset{\mu ,\nu =1}{\overset{2}{}}}{\displaystyle _0^t}𝑑t^{}{\displaystyle _0^t^{}}𝑑t^{\prime \prime }ϵ^{\mu \nu }(t^{}t^{\prime \prime })\dot{u}^\mu (t^{})\dot{v}^\nu (t^{\prime \prime }),\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}={\displaystyle \underset{\mu ,\nu =1}{\overset{2}{}}}{\displaystyle _0^t}𝑑t^{}{\displaystyle _0^t^{}}𝑑t^{\prime \prime }\stackrel{~}{ϵ}^{\mu \nu }(t^{}t^{\prime \prime })\dot{u}^\mu (t^{})\dot{u}^\nu (t^{\prime \prime }),`$
$`ϵ^{\mu \nu }(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{nm,kl0}{}}N_{nm}D_{nm,kl}^\mu D_{nm,kl}^\nu \mathrm{sin}(\omega _{nm}\omega _{kl})t,\stackrel{~}{ϵ}^{\mu \nu }(t)={\displaystyle \underset{nm,kl0}{}}N_{nm}D_{nm,kl}^\mu D_{nm,kl}^\nu \mathrm{cos}(\omega _{nm}\omega _{kl})t.`$
The boson occupation number is $`N_{nm}=(e^{\beta \omega _{nm}}1)^1`$. The effective action that describes the motion of the vortex pair in the presence of excitations may then be obtained by inserting Eq. (7) into the superpropagator (6). We find that $`S_{eff}=S_0[𝐱]S_0[𝐲]+\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and the corresponding equations of motion indicate that the dynamics of the defects is damped,

$`\ddot{v}^\mu (\tau )+{\displaystyle \underset{\nu }{}}{\displaystyle _0^\tau }𝑑t^{}\gamma ^{\mu \nu }(\tau t^{})\dot{v}^\nu (t^{})=0,`$
$`\ddot{u}^\mu (\tau ){\displaystyle \underset{\nu }{}}{\displaystyle _\tau ^t}𝑑t^{}\gamma ^{\mu \nu }(t^{}\tau )\dot{u}^\nu (t^{})=0,`$ (8)
where the matrix $`\gamma ^{\mu \nu }(t)=(2\mathrm{}/M)\dot{ϵ}^{\mu \nu }(t)`$ is a generalization of the damping coefficient. The decaying part $`\mathrm{exp}[\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}]`$ of the influence functional is related to the diffusive properties of the defect, with the diffusion matrix $`𝒟^{\mu \nu }(t)=\mathrm{}\ddot{\stackrel{~}{ϵ}}^{\mu \nu }(t)`$. The evaluation of the diffusion is analogous to that of the damping matrix, and at low $`T`$ the two parameters are related by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Here we will concentrate on $`\gamma `$ only. We first introduce the scattering function $`S^{\mu \nu }(\omega ,\omega ^{})=G_{nm,kl}^\mu G_{nm,kl}^\nu \delta (\omega \omega _{nm})\delta (\omega ^{}\omega _{kl})`$, which allows the description of the problem in terms of continuous frequencies. Because the model we study is isotropic, the damping matrix is diagonal $`\gamma ^{\mu \nu }(t)=\gamma (t)\delta ^{\mu \nu }`$, and $`\gamma (t)`$ is obtained directly from the first derivative $`\dot{ϵ}(t)`$. After introducing the substitution $`\xi =(\omega +\omega ^{})/2,\zeta =\omega \omega ^{}`$, and considering only processes for which $`\zeta <<1`$, we find that $`\gamma (t)=\overline{\gamma }(T)\delta (t)`$ with

$`\overline{\gamma }(T)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2\pi \mathrm{}}{M}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\xi \phi (\xi ){\displaystyle \frac{N(\xi )}{\xi }},`$ (9)
$`\phi (\xi )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\xi ^2}{2c^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\mathrm{sin}^2(\delta _{n+1}\delta _n).`$
The phase shifts $`\delta _n`$ of the eigenfunctions $`\eta _{nm}`$ can be calculated using the Fredholm method amir ; vlad . Their evaluation requires the computation of the matrix elements $`𝒜_n=n|V|n`$, because $`\delta _n=\mathrm{arctan}[\pi 𝒜_n/(1+𝒜_n)]`$. Here $`|n`$ are the eigenstates of the unperturbed operator in Eq. (3). In the limit of a small vortex-antivortex separation, $`dr`$, the potential reads $`V(r)=d^2/[4(r^2+d^2/4)^2]`$. One then obtains

$$𝒜_n(\xi )=\pi \xi _\xi \left[I_n(\xi d/2c)K_n(\xi d/2c)\right],$$

where $`I_n,K_n`$ are the modified Bessel functions of the first and the second kinds, respectively. Using the Drude model and assuming that the charge carriers are attached to the defects, we can relate $`\overline{\gamma }`$ to the inverse of the mobility, $`\mu ^1=M\overline{\gamma }/e`$. We then find

$`\mu ^1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi \mathrm{}\beta }{ec^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\xi {\displaystyle \frac{\xi ^2e^{\beta \xi }}{(e^{\beta \xi }1)^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{_n^2(\xi )}{[1+_n^2(\xi )]}},`$ (10)
$`_n`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi (𝒜_{n+1}𝒜_n)}{1+𝒜_n+𝒜_{n+1}+(1+\pi ^2)𝒜_n𝒜_{n+1}}}.`$
This expression leads to a vanishing $`\mu ^1`$ as $`T0`$ because in this limit there are no magnons to scatter the topological defects and the latter behave as free particles. However, this limit will never be reached in systems like LSCO because at $`T_f30`$K the dipoles freeze and the charge becomes localized, leading to an upturn of the resistivity. At high $`T`$ we obtain

$$\mu ^1(T)=\frac{\pi k_BT}{ec^2}\underset{n}{}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\xi \frac{_n^2(\xi )}{1+_n^2(\xi )},$$
(11)
which indicates that the resistivity $`\rho =(\mu n_he)^1`$ varies linearly with $`T`$, as observed experimentally ando ; takagi . Here $`n_h`$ denotes the charge carriers concentration. This behavior is expected to hold for $`T<T_{KT}`$, where $`T_{KT}`$ is the Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature, at which the vortex anti-vortex pairs will eventually unbind. An attempt to roughly estimate $`T_{KT}`$ has provided $`T_{KT}JS^2`$ nils . Using that $`J0.1`$eV and $`S=1/2`$, we find $`T_{KT}300`$K. Despite of the crudeness of the estimates, this result compares quite well with the experimental data takagi , which shows deviations from linearity at $`T400`$K. Given that $`T_{KT}`$ represents the temperature at which few pairs start to unbind, it is not surprising that the linear behavior can hold up to higher T.

The order of magnitude of the resistivity can also be promptly evaluated from our calculations. Although the exact microscopic values of the parameters $`d`$ and $`c`$ are not available, we nevertheless provide an estimate of these. Taking $`\mathrm{}c/ak_BT_{KT}`$ and $`da`$, we find $`\mu ^10.1`$Vs/cm2 for $`T=200`$K, in good agreement with Fig. 2 of Ref. ando .

In order to provide also a comparison with the experimental data concerning the anisotropy in dc transport, we should include the spin-wave anisotropy in the spiral state. The analytical calculations which led to Eqs. (9) - (11) cannot be performed for an anisotropic magnon bath. Nevertheless, we provide a rough estimate of this effect by considering the dependence of the inverse mobility in Eq. (11) on the spin-wave velocity $`c`$. Recalling that $`_n`$ is a function of $`\xi d/2c`$, we find that $`\mu ^1c^1`$. One could then expect that in the original anisotropic system $`\mu _{}^1c_{}^1`$ and $`\mu _{}^1c_{}^1`$. This result can also be understood on physical grounds: since dissipation is provided by the excitations of the magnon bath, spin-waves with higher velocity are less effective in scattering the defects. As a consequence, the resistivity in the spiral direction is larger than that in the direction perpendicular to it, $`\gamma _{}/\gamma _{}=\rho _{}/\rho _{}=c_{}/c_{}=\sqrt{\mathrm{cos}(Qa)}`$. For $`x=0.04`$, we find $`\sqrt{\mathrm{cos}(Qa)}=0.98`$, in agreement with transport measurements by Ando et al. ando , which found that for $`100`$K$`<T<200`$K the resistivity along the $`a`$-axis in LSCO is slightly smaller than along the $`b`$-axis (in orthorhombic coordinates). We note that the IC peaks observed in neutron scattering correspond to the $`b`$-direction, which coincides with the spiral axis because the breaking of translational symmetry within the spiral picture has its origin in the spiral chirality (which can rotate clock- or counter-clockwise). Thus, $`\rho _{}\rho _a,\rho _{}\rho _b`$ and $`\rho _a<\rho _b`$, as experimentally observed. This result indicates that the anisotropy measured in the SG phase does not provide evidence for the existence of diagonal stripes, but instead, is also the result expected within a more realistic, albeit more complex, model which does not need to appeal to charge order at such small doping concentrations.

In conclusion, we propose a description of the transport properties in the SG phase of cuprates based on the dissipative dynamics of topological defects in a spiral state. Using the collective-coordinate method, we derive the effective action of the topological defects, which are coupled to a bath of magnons. The scattering of magnons by the potential provided by the topological defects leads to a dissipative motion for these defects. Under the assumption that the holes are attached to the defects, the corresponding damping matrix is calculated, and is related to the in-plane resistivity. Its $`T`$ dependence and anisotropic behavior are in agreement with the available experimental data, indicating that further investigations are required to distinguish between spiral spin states and diagonal stripes in the SG phase of cuprates.

We acknowledge fruitful discussions with N. Hasselmann, A. H. Castro Neto, V. Gritsev, and A. Villares Ferrer. One of us (AOC) wishes to thank Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa no Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for their financial aid. This work was mainly supported by the Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research under grant No. 620-62868.00.


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# Numerical Renormalization Group for Bosonic Systems and Application to the Subohmic Spin-Boson Model

(Sep 4, 2003)

## Abstract

We describe the generalization of Wilson’s Numerical Renormalization Group method to quantum impurity models with a bosonic bath, providing a general non-perturbative approach to bosonic impurity models which can access exponentially small energies and temperatures. As an application, we consider the spin-boson model, describing a two-level system coupled to a bosonic bath with power-law spectral density, $`J(\omega )\omega ^s`$. We find clear evidence for a line of continuous quantum phase transitions for subohmic bath exponents $`0<s<1`$; the line terminates in the well-known Kosterlitz-Thouless transition at $`s=1`$. Contact is made with results from perturbative renormalization group, and various other applications are outlined.

The Numerical Renormalization Group method (NRG) developed by Wilson Wil75  is a powerful tool for the investigation of the Kondo model and its generalizations Wil75 ; Kri80 ; Hewson ; RBAdvPhys . In these models, a (possibly complex) impurity, such as a localized spin, couples to a fermionic bath. In the case of a spin-$`\frac{1}{2}`$ impurity coupled antiferromagnetically to a metallic bath, the impurity spin is screened below a characteristic scale $`T_\mathrm{K}`$, the Kondo temperature Hewson . The strength of the NRG lies in its non-perturbative nature and the ability to resolve arbitrarily small energies Wil75 . A variety of thermodynamic and dynamic quantities can be calculated for a large number of impurity models in the whole parameter space RBAdvPhys ; Costi99a .

There is, however, a very important class of models for which the NRG method has not yet been developed: models with a coupling of the impurity to a bosonic bath footnote . The intensively studied spin-boson model Leggett ; Weiss  belongs to this class; its Hamiltonian is given by

$$H=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{2}\sigma _x+\frac{ϵ}{2}\sigma _z+\underset{i}{}\omega _ia_i^{}a_i+\frac{\sigma _z}{2}\underset{i}{}\lambda _i(a_i+a_i^{}).$$
(1)
Here the Pauli-matrices $`\sigma _j`$ describe a spin, i.e., a generic two-level system, which is linearly coupled to a bath of harmonic oscillators, with creation (annihilation) operators $`a_i^{}`$ ($`a_i`$). The bare tunneling amplitude between the two spin states $`|`$ and $`|`$ is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, and $`ϵ`$ is an additional bias. The $`\omega _i`$ are the oscillator frequencies and $`\lambda _i`$ the coupling strengths between the oscillators and the local spin. The coupling between spin and bosonic bath is completely specified by the bath spectral function

$$J\left(\omega \right)=\pi \underset{i}{}\lambda _i^2\delta \left(\omega \omega _i\right).$$
(2)
Of particular interest are power-law spectra

$$J(\omega )=2\pi \alpha \omega _c^{1s}\omega ^s,0<\omega <\omega _c,s>1$$
(3)
where the dimensionless parameter $`\alpha `$ characterizes the dissipation strength, and $`\omega _c`$ is a cutoff energy. The value $`s=1`$ corresponds to the case of ohmic dissipation.

The spin-boson model is a generic model describing quantum dissipation; it has been discussed in the context of a great variety of physical problems Leggett ; Weiss  ranging from the effect of friction on the electron transfer in biomolecules Garg  to the description of the quantum entanglement between a qubit and its environment Cos03 ; dima ; wilhelm .

Considering the wealth of applications, the question arises whether Wilson’s NRG method can be exploited for this class of models; and it is the purpose of this paper to show that this is indeed the case. What we have in mind here is the direct mapping of models like (1) to a semi-infinite chain form typical for the NRG Wil75 . As described below, bosonic operators constitute the sites of the chain, and the Hamiltonian is solved by iterative numerical diagonalization footalex . This approach is different from previous NRG calculations in Refs. Costi, ; Cos03, , where the mapping of the spin-boson model (1) to the anisotropic fermionic Kondo model was employed – such a mapping is restricted to the ohmic case $`J(\omega )\omega `$.

Bosonic NRG.  Let us now describe the generalization of the NRG method to a bosonic bath with a continuous spectrum. The strategy is similar to the one used for the Kondo or single-impurity Anderson model Wil75 ; Kri80 . There are, however, important differences which we outline here; a more detailed discussion will appear elsewhere. Here we present explicit equations for the spin-boson model (1); the generalization to other impurity models or multiple bosonic baths is straightforward.

We start from the following form of the model (1):

$$H=H_{\mathrm{loc}}+\underset{0}{\overset{1}{}}d\epsilon g(\epsilon )a_\epsilon ^{}a_\epsilon +\frac{\sigma _z}{2}\underset{0}{\overset{1}{}}d\epsilon h(\epsilon )(a_\epsilon +a_\epsilon ^{})$$
(4)
with $`H_{\mathrm{loc}}=\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _x/2+ϵ\sigma _z/2`$. In this model, $`g(\epsilon )`$ characterizes the dispersion of a bosonic bath in a one-dimensional representation, with upper cutoff 1 for $`\epsilon `$. The coupling between the spin and the bosonic bath is given by $`h(\epsilon )`$. These two energy-dependent functions are related to the spectral function $`J(\omega )`$ via

$$\frac{1}{\pi }J(x)=\frac{d\epsilon (x)}{dx}h^2\left[\epsilon (x)\right]\left(x[0,\omega _c]\right),$$
(5)
where $`\epsilon (x)`$ is the inverse function of $`g(x)`$, $`g[\epsilon (x)]=x`$. As discussed in Ref. BPH,  for the Anderson model, Eq. (5) does not uniquely determine $`g(x)`$ and $`h(x)`$, and a specific choice for $`h(x)`$ is used to simplify the calculations.

The NRG procedure starts by dividing the energy interval $`[0,1]`$ into intervals $`[\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(n+1)},\mathrm{\Lambda }^n]`$ ($`n=0,1,2,\mathrm{}`$). An orthonormal set of functions $`\psi _{np}(\epsilon )e^{i\omega _np\epsilon }`$ is introduced for each interval so that the operators $`a_\epsilon `$ can be represented in this basis. Choosing $`h(\epsilon )`$ as constant in each interval BPH  and dropping the $`(p0)`$-components as in Wil75 ; Kri80 , the Hamiltonian of the spin-boson model then takes the following form:

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`H_{\mathrm{loc}}+{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\xi _na_n^{}a_n+{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _z}{2\sqrt{\pi }}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\gamma _n\left(a_n+a_n^{}\right),`$
$`\xi _n`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma _n^2{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(n+1)}\omega _c}^{\mathrm{\Lambda }^n\omega _c}}dxJ(x)x,\gamma _n^2={\displaystyle _{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(n+1)}\omega _c}^{\mathrm{\Lambda }^n\omega _c}}dxJ(x).`$ (6)
The transformation to a semi-infinite chain form yields

$`H_{\mathrm{sem}}`$ $`=`$ $`H_{\mathrm{loc}}+\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\eta _0}{\pi }}}{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _z}{2}}\left(b_0+b_0^{}\right)`$ (7)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}}\left[ϵ_nb_n^{}b_n+t_n\left(b_n^{}b_{n+1}+b_{n+1}^{}b_n\right)\right]`$
with $`\eta _0=dxJ(x)`$. The spin now couples to the first site of the bosonic chain only, and the remaining part of the chain is characterized by on-site energies $`ϵ_n`$ and hopping parameters $`t_n`$. The parameters $`\eta _0`$, $`ϵ_n`$ and $`t_n`$ can be calculated numerically from a given spectral function $`J(\omega )`$ BPH . Note that here the spectrum is restricted to positive frequencies; this results in hopping matrix elements falling off as $`t_n\mathrm{\Lambda }^n`$ (which allows to work with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=2`$ keeping a relatively small number of states), in contrast to the fermionic case where the discretization is performed for both negative and positive energies, in this case $`t_n\mathrm{\Lambda }^{n/2}`$. The on-site energies also fall off as $`ϵ_n\mathrm{\Lambda }^n`$ so that a fixed but $`s`$-dependent ratio $`t_n/ϵ_n`$ emerges for large $`n`$, where $`s`$ is the bath exponent in (3).

The Hamiltonian (7) is solved by iterative numerical diagonalization Wil75 ; Kri80 . At each step, one bosonic site of the chain is added. The infinite bosonic Hilbert space has to be cut off, by restricting the basis of each new bosonic site to a finite number of states $`N_b`$. After diagonalizing the enhanced cluster, the $`N_s`$ lowest lying many-particle states are kept, and the procedure is repeated states . The calculation of static and dynamic observables can be done in analogy to the fermionic NRG. In general, and as known from the fermionic case, the accuracy of the cutoff procedure has to be tested for each application, and we will show results below.

Application to the spin-boson model.  To investigate the feasibility of the bosonic NRG, we performed extensive calculations for the spin-boson model with bath exponents $`0<s1`$, bias $`ϵ=0`$, and $`\omega _c=1`$. In the ohmic case $`s=1`$, it is known that a Kosterlitz-Thouless quantum transition separates a localized phase at $`\alpha \alpha _c`$ from a delocalized phase at $`\alpha <\alpha _c`$ Leggett ; Weiss . In the localized regime, the tunnel splitting between the two levels renormalizes to zero, whereas it is finite in the delocalized phase. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega _c`$ the transition occurs at $`\alpha _c=1`$.

The subohmic case dima ; KM  is less clear. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }/\omega _c0`$ the system is localized for any non-zero coupling, however, the behavior at finite $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ was not discussed in Refs. Leggett, ; Weiss, . For large $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ a delocalized phase was argued to exist spohn ; KM , and Ref. KM,  proposed a first-order transition scenario. In the following, we shall resolve this issue and show that a continuous transition with associated critical behavior occurs for all $`0<s<1`$.

Notably, the spin-boson model can be mapped onto a one-dimensional Ising model with long-range couplings falling off as $`r^{s1}`$; the localized phase of the spin-boson model then corresponds to the ordered phase of the Ising magnet Leggett . As shown by Dyson dyson , this Ising model features a transition for $`0<s1`$, but the results for $`s<1`$ have not been systematically carried over to the spin-boson model so far.

Our NRG calculations provide clear evidence for a phase transition in the spin-boson model for all $`0<s1`$, which is continuous for $`0<s<1`$ and of Kosterlitz-Thouless type for $`s=1`$. The numerical results are summarized in Fig. 1a, which shows the phase boundaries determined from the NRG flow for fixed NRG parameters $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=2`$, $`N_b=8`$, and $`N_s=100`$ states . (No transition occurs for $`s>1`$: the system is always delocalized.) As displayed in Fig. 1b, the critical coupling $`\alpha _c`$ closely follows a power law as function of the bare tunnel splitting, $`\alpha _c\mathrm{\Delta }^x`$ for small $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, with an $`s`$-dependent exponent $`x`$. Our data are consistent with $`x=1s`$, see below.

In the ohmic case, $`s=1`$, the critical $`\alpha _c`$ approaches a finite value as $`\mathrm{\Delta }0`$. For the quoted NRG parameters we find $`\alpha _c1.18`$, being slightly larger than the established value $`\alpha _c(s=1,\mathrm{\Delta }0)=1`$. This deviation is solely due to the NRG discretization; calculations with different $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ show that in the limit $`\mathrm{\Lambda }1`$ we recover $`\alpha _c=1`$. The general behavior is illustrated in Fig. 2, which shows $`\alpha _c`$ for fixed $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`s=0.9`$. Keeping $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ fixed, we observe a rapid convergence of $`\alpha _c`$ with increasing $`N_b`$ and $`N_s`$. As expected from the iterative diagonalization scheme, the values of $`N_b`$ and $`N_s`$ necessary for convergence increase with decreasing $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ states . The converged data for $`\alpha _c(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ show a linear $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ dependence in the range $`1.8<\mathrm{\Lambda }<3`$, with a deviation of about 15% at $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=2`$ from the extrapolated $`\mathrm{\Lambda }1`$ value. The same holds for the ohmic case (data not shown) and the extrapolation results in $`\alpha _c(s=1,\mathrm{\Delta }=10^4,\mathrm{\Lambda }1)=0.99\pm 0.02`$; our data are consistent with the RG result $`\alpha _c=1+𝒪(\mathrm{\Delta }/\omega _c)`$ Leggett .

The NRG flow of the many-particle levels of the Hamiltonian, displayed in Fig. 3, can be used to analyze the low-temperature behavior. For all values of $`0<s<1`$, we can identify two stable fixed points, corresponding to the localized and delocalized phases of the impurity spin, and a third NRG fixed point, which is infrared unstable and corresponds to a critical fixed point. In contrast, for $`s=1`$ we find (in addition to the delocalized fixed point) a line of fixed points for $`\alpha \alpha _c`$, and no critical fixed point, as expected for a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition.

The energy scale $`T^{}`$, describing the crossover from the critical to a stable fixed point, is shown in Fig. 4. For $`0<s<1`$, $`T^{}`$ is found to vary in a power-law fashion with the distance from criticality, $`T^{}|\alpha \alpha _c|^{\nu z}`$, where we have introduced the correlation length and dynamical exponents $`\nu `$ and $`z`$ – note that $`1/(\nu z)`$ is nothing but the scaling dimension of the leading relevant operator at the critical fixed point. Fig. 4a nicely shows that $`\nu z`$ is independent of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for fixed $`s`$, further supporting the existence of a continuous quantum phase transition with universal behavior. In the ohmic case $`s=1`$, $`T^{}`$ varies exponentially with the distance from the critical coupling, $`\mathrm{ln}T^{}1/(\alpha _c\alpha )`$, as expected (Fig. 4b).

In Fig. 5a we show the $`s`$-dependence of the exponent $`\nu z`$. We find a divergence for both $`s0`$ and $`s1`$, consistent with a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition at $`s=1`$, and the system being always localized at $`s=0`$. The $`s1`$ divergence is in good agreement with the perturbative result (9), see below.

The NRG algorithm can be used to compute a variety of static and dynamic observables. As an example, we show $`C(\omega )`$, being the Fourier transform of the symmetrized autocorrelation function $`C(t)=\frac{1}{2}[\sigma _z(t),\sigma _z]_+`$, in Fig. 5b for $`s=0.6`$ and parameters in the delocalized phase close to the transition. We observe a crossover from $`C(\omega )\omega ^s`$ at small frequencies, characteristic of the delocalized phase KM ; spzw , to a quantum critical behavior with a power-law divergence at higher frequencies – this gives rise to a characteristic peak at $`\omega T^{}`$.

Comparison to perturbative results.  The partition function of the spin-boson model can be approximately represented as that of a one-dimensional Ising model with couplings falling off as $`r^{s1}`$; in this picture, defects in the Ising system correspond to spin flips of the original spin along the imaginary time axis. A RG analysis of this Ising model has been performed by Kosterlitz koster . Carrying over these results to the spin-boson model, we arrive at the RG equations (see also Ref. dima, ):

$`\beta (\alpha )`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha (\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}^2+s1),`$
$`\beta (\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }})`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}(1\alpha ),`$ (8)
valid for small $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$, where $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}=\mathrm{\Delta }/\omega _c`$ is the dimensionless tunneling strength. The RG flow is sketched in Fig. 1 of Ref. koster, . For $`s=1`$, these equations are equivalent to the ones known from the anisotropic Kondo model, and describe a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, with a fixed line $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}=0`$, $`\alpha 1`$. For $`s<1`$ there is an unstable fixed point at $`\alpha =1`$, $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}^2=1s`$; clearly it is perturbatively accessible for small values of $`(1s)`$ only. The critical fixed point is characterized by

$$\nu z=1/\sqrt{2(1s)}+𝒪(1).$$
(9)
For small $`\alpha `$, $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$, Eq. (8) yields for the phase boundary

$$\alpha _c\mathrm{\Delta }^{1s}\text{for}\mathrm{\Delta }\omega _c$$
(10)
valid for all $`0<s<1`$. The results (9) and (10) are in good agreement with our numerical data in Figs. 5a and 1b, respectively.

Conclusions. We have presented a generalization of Wilson’s NRG to quantum impurity problems with bosonic baths. Applying this novel technique to the subohmic spin-boson model, we have found a line of continuous boundary quantum phase transitions for all $`0<s<1`$, with exponents varying as function of $`s`$. This line terminates in a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition point at $`s=1`$. Near $`s=1`$, our numerical results are in agreement with perturbative calculations. The existence of a transition for $`s<1`$ implies that weakly damped coherent dynamics is possible for qubits coupled to a subohmic bath, provided that the initial splitting $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is large.

In close analogy to the fermionic NRG, our method can be easily applied to the calculation of dynamical quantities. Furthermore, generalizations to impurities with multiple bosonic baths or both fermionic and bosonic baths are possible. This will allow the study of large classes of impurity models, e.g., so-called Bose-Kondo and Bose-Fermi-Kondo models.

We thank M. Garst, S. Kehrein, D. Meyer, A. Rosch, and W. Zwerger for discussions, and in particular W. Zwerger for pointing out Ref. koster, . This research was supported by the DFG through SFB 484 (RB) and the Center for Functional Nanostructures (MV), and by the Alexander von Humboldt foundation (NT).


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# Keck Adaptive Optics Imaging of Nearby Young Stars: Detection of Close Multiple Systems

## 1 Introduction

Nearby young stellar associations offer unique advantages for detailed studies of star and planet formation (Jayawardhana & Greene 2001). In particular, their proximity in combination with modern adaptive optics facilitates sensitive studies of individual star systems down to physical scales of $``$3 AU, closing the gap between spectroscopic and visual binaries and thereby offering the prospect of a complete census of multiplicity among young pre-main sequence (PMS) stars down to sub-stellar masses. Completeness in sampling the binary frequency is important to avoid bias in the understanding of formation and evolution of multiple star systems. Several studies have shown multiplicity frequencies to be significantly higher among PMS stars than their main sequence (MS) counterparts (Duchêne 1999). Suggested explanations for this discrepancy include observational sample/sensitivity bias, environmental or evolutionary effects, such as disruption of binaries by close approaches of other stars (Ghez, Neugebauer, & Matthews 1993), ejections of low-mass companions in multiple systems (e.g., Bate et al. 2002), or even stellar mergers.

Historically, the determination of MS binary orbits, and thus their dynamical masses, have been critical for the successful theory of stellar structure developed in the early 20th century. Unfortunately, the nearest known PMS stars, at a distance of $``$150 pc, had been until recently too far away to resolve companions with reasonably short orbital periods. Resolving companions spatially is important since spectroscopic observations by themselves only yield the relative masses of binaries. By resolving a spectroscopic binary spatially down to a physical scale of a few AU, it is not only possible to determine the dynamical masses of the components, but also to derive an independent distance to the system. Therefore, spatially resolved PMS binaries are essential tools for testing models of PMS stellar structure and evolution (Palla & Stahler 2001). An interesting recent example is the dynamical mass determination of the T Tauri binary NTT 045251+3016 by Steffen et al. (2001); using precise radial velocity and astrometric data, they show that it is now possible to derive the stellar masses without any astrophysical assumption and compare to PMS evolutionary tracks.

A third important reason to search for companions of PMS stars is to clear up the ambiguity when placing them on evolutionary luminosity-color diagrams. An unresolved PMS binary will show a luminosity (and possibly color) different from the individual components, thereby biasing any conclusions drawn from evolutionary diagrams (for an extensive review, see Mathieu 1994).

Due to their proximity, the nearby young associations MBM 12 (Luhman 2001) and TW Hydrae (Kastner et al. 1997) are prime targets for detailed studies of circumstellar disks and close companions. Jayawardhana et al. (1999b) conducted a census of disks among TW Hydrae association (TWA) members and Jayawardhana et al. (1999a) showed that most of the mid-infrared emitting dust in the 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$4 binary Hen 3-600 is associated with the primary. A similar study of MBM 12 members was reported by Jayawardhana et al. (2001), who found that six of the eight stars observed harbored significant mid-infrared excess; four of these disks have now also been detected in the (sub-)millimeter (Itoh et al. 2003; Hogerheijde et al. 2003). Using adaptive optics (AO) on Gemini North, Jayawardhana et al. (2002) resolved LkH$`\alpha `$ 263 (MBM 12-3) into a 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$415 binary and imaged a companion edge-on disk 4$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$115 away. Chauvin et al. (2002) reported several additional binaries in MBM 12, and Macintosh et al. (2001) reported a 55 mas binary in TWA. In this work, we report the results of an AO survey of the inner (sub-arcsecond) regions of UY Aur and member stars of MBM 12 and TWA, in search of close companions. Among the 24 stars we observed, we found six close binaries and a triple not known at the time, and confirmed four known binaries.

## 2 Observations

We surveyed 24 young stars on 2000 February 22–23 with the 10-m Keck II telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, using adaptive optics (Wizinowich et al. 2000) and the near-infrared (NIR) camera KCam. KCam is based on a 256$`\times `$256 pixel NICMOS-3 HgCdTe array, and was provided by the University of California as an early interim engineering grade camera. The pixel scale was measured on 2000 February 21 by Macintosh et al. (2001) to be $`17.47\pm 0.06`$ mas pixel-1. Since one 128$`\times `$128 quadrant of KCam is non-functional, the field of view was L-shaped with 2$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$24 per quadrant. We observed the targets by co-adding 1 to 20 exposures of integration time 0.62 s to 60 s each, and then moving the target to another quadrant of the array so that the target was located in each of the three working quadrants at least once. The science target itself was used as a wave front sensor for the AO system, except in the case of TWA 9 B, where we used TWA 9 A. We observed through three different filters, $`J`$ (1.26 µm), $`H`$ (1.648 µm) and $`K^{}`$ (2.127 µm), located in a cold filter wheel. The Strehl ratio during the two nights was 0.20–0.25 in $`H`$.

## 3 Data reduction and analysis

The data reduction was done in a standard way by subtracting sky frames from source frames and then dividing by a flat obtained on-sky during dusk. We also corrected for the substantial number of bad pixels. Cosmic ray hits were less of a problem because the exposures were short. For a frame with the target in a given quadrant of the array, the sky frame was obtained by averaging the frames with the target in one of the other two quadrants. For binaries with separations greater than $``$2″, the secondary was only visible on one frame out of three, and only one frame was free from sources in the right quadrants to be used as a sky.

Due to the small field of view and the variability of the AO point spread function (PSF), it is not possible to obtain accurate absolute photometry. Relative photometry and astrometry of binary systems were measured on multiple frames, and then combined to get an estimate of the errors. We did aperture photometry with a diameter of 4 pixels, except for the close binaries in the TWA 5 A and S 18 B systems where we used apertures with a diameter of only 2 pixels. The contamination from the companion into the aperture was estimated by placing an aperture also on the opposite side of the companion. To obtain accurate astrometry of these tight binaries we used the myopic deconvolution algorithm IDAC (Christou et al. 1999). IDAC estimates the PSF simultaneously with the deconvolved image, but needs a series of exposures with varying PSFs and/or accurate estimates of the PSF. For TWA 5 A we used 7 frames in $`H`$, but for S 18 B we had only 3 $`H`$-frames. Since S 18 is a triple, however, we could make use of the primary S 18 A as an accurate simultaneous PSF estimate. Based on comparisons with Jayawardhana et al. (2002) and Chauvin et al. (2002), the systematic errors in our astrometry due to array orientation uncertainties are likely to be $``$ $`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$

In order to estimate our sensitivity to finding close faint companions, we measured the speckle noise from observed PSFs of single stars. Our approximate 5$`\sigma `$ detection limit as a function of separation is shown in Fig. 1.

## 4 Results and discussion

Among the 9 proposed members in the MBM 12 association we observed, we found 5 to be binaries, all previously reported by Chauvin et al. (2002), and one to be a new triple (Table 1). To calculate the multiplicity frequency of the 12 proposed members of MBM 12 (Luhman 2001), we assume that LkH$`\alpha `$ 262 and LkH$`\alpha `$ 263 are part of the same quadruple system (Jayawardhana et al. 2002), and count LkH$`\alpha `$ 264 and MBM 12-10 as binaries (Chauvin et al. 2002) 111HD 17332, RXJ 0255.3+1915 and RXJ 0306.1+1921 are not counted because they are not likely to be PMS members of MBM 12; see Jayawardhana et al. (2001) and Luhman (2001).. The multiplicity frequency, defined as $`mf=\frac{b+t+q}{s+b+t+q}`$ where $`s`$, $`b`$, $`t`$ and $`q`$ are the number of single, double, triple and quadruple systems respectively, is found to be $`\frac{5+1+1}{4+5+1+1}=0.64\pm 0.16`$, where the quoted error is statistical. Similarly, the average number of companions per star system, defined as $`csf=\frac{b+2t+3q}{s+b+t+q}`$ (Duchêne 1999), equals $`\frac{5+2\times 1+3\times 1}{4+5+1+1}=0.91\pm 0.30`$.

In TWA we found no new companion candidates apart from the TWA 5 A 54 mas binary, which was also found independently by Macintosh et al. (2001). The corresponding multiplicity numbers for TWA are $`mf=0.58\pm 0.12`$ and $`csf=0.84\pm 0.22`$, where we have counted the companions in the systems TWA 1–19, as reported by Webb et al. (1999) and Zuckerman et al. (2001). TWA 5 was assumed to be a quadruple system, including the brown dwarf TWA 5 B and a spectroscopic binary in TWA 5 A (see 4.2). This only affects $`csf`$, as $`mf`$ is insensitive to multiple companions. Both TWA and MBM 12 have multiplicity numbers that are on the high side compared to those reported for other young associations (Duchêne 1999), though the significance of this result is low due to the small number statistics.

In Table 2 we give the coordinates and absolute NIR fluxes for the components as inferred from 2MASS. We plainly divided the unresolved 2MASS flux to the stars according to our measured flux ratios. Note that the epoch of the 2MASS observations differ by $``$2 years from ours, so variations in flux may introduce errors in addition to the propagated errors quoted in the table. In Table 3 we present stars that did not reveal close companions in our survey.

### 4.1 S 18

S 18 in MBM 12 was reported to be a 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$753 binary by Chauvin et al. (2002). In our $`H`$-band observations, we resolve the secondary B into a tight Ba/Bb 63 mas binary in itself (Fig. 2). Note the close similarity in configuration and scale with the triple stars VW Chamaeleontis (Brandeker et al. 2001) and T Tauri (Duchêne, Ghez & McCabe 2002). In $`J`$ and $`K`$ we were unable to resolve B sufficiently to measure the flux ratio accurately. If we assume the distance to MBM 12 to be $``$275 pc (Luhman 2001), then the projected distance between the stars is $``$17 AU. Using Kepler’s third law and assuming a circular orbit, we get the orbital period $`P=71(M_B\alpha ^3)^{1/2}\mathrm{yr}`$, where $`\alpha `$ is the projection factor $`\alpha `$ = observed (projected) separation / real separation, and $`M_B`$ is the system mass of S 18 Ba/Bb in units of $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$. This corresponds to an average motion in position angle of $`5.0(M_B\alpha ^3)^{1/2}\mathrm{deg}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, and should be readily detected within a year. Similarly, the relative radial velocity amplitude is $`7.3(M_B\alpha )^{1/2}\mathrm{sin}i\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, which may also be measurable over the period of a few decades unless the inclination $`i`$, the angle between the orbital plane and the plane of sky, is very small.

### 4.2 TWA 5 A & B

We found TWA 5 A to be a tight 54 mas binary, as also reported by Macintosh et al. (2001). At the distance of TWA, ($``$55 pc, Perryman et al. 1997), this corresponds to a projected separation of only 3 AU. The orbital period is thus $`P=5.2(M_A\alpha ^3)^{1/2}\mathrm{yr}`$, corresponding to an average position angle motion of $`69(M_A\alpha ^3)^{1/2}\mathrm{deg}\mathrm{yr}^1`$. The radial relative velocity amplitude is $`17.3(M_A\alpha )^{1/2}\mathrm{sin}i\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Follow-up studies of this system have the potential to obtain an accurate dynamical mass estimate within a few years. One possible complication may be the presence of an additional spectroscopic binary in the TWA 5 A system, as suggested by Webb et al. (1999) and Torres et al. (2003).

Our observations also reveal the brown dwarf companion TWA 5 B discovered by Lowrance et al. (1999). With a flux ratio of $``$100 (5 mag) and a separation of 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$954, the companion was not always ideally placed in our L-shaped array. In our $`K^{}`$-band observations the star was close to the edge, which accounts for large estimated errors in the photometry. The astrometry, however, is excellent, and we can use this to increase the significance of the companion hypothesis, as previously argued by Neuhäuser et al. (2000). Weintraub et al. (2000) used the Hubble Space Telescope to measure accurate relative astrometry on 1998 July 12. By combining their astrometry with our measurements we conclude that the relative positions between TWA 5 A and TWA 5 B has changed by $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha =9.5\pm 27\mathrm{mas}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta =6\pm 10\mathrm{mas}`$ during the 1.61 yr between the epochs. The proper motion of TWA 5 A, as found in the Tycho-2 catalog (Høg et al. 2000), is $`\mu _\alpha =81.6\pm 2.5\mathrm{mas}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, $`\mu _\delta =29.4\pm 2.4\mathrm{mas}\mathrm{yr}^1`$. The expected position of a background object is thus excluded at $`9\sigma `$, somewhat higher than the $`5\sigma `$ obtained by Neuhäuser et al. (2000), and consistent with their estimated orbital motion $`13.4\pm 4.2\mathrm{mas}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ of a bound system.

### 4.3 UY Aur

In addition to the young stars in the nearby associations MBM 12 and TWA, we also observed the classical T Tauri binary system UY Aur in the Taurus star-forming region. UY Aur is unique in that it was first discovered as an optical binary in 1944 by Joy & van Biesbroeck (1944) with a flux ratio 0.4–0.5 mag in $`V`$. By 1992, the companion was no longer visible in optical wavelengths and at least 5 mag fainter than the primary in $`R`$ (0.71 µm) (Herbst, Koresko, & Leinert 1995). The system is obviously variable, with $`K`$-band flux ratios having varied from $`\mathrm{\Delta }K=0.76\pm 0.06`$ mag (White & Ghez 2001) to $`\mathrm{\Delta }K=1.38\pm 0.08`$ mag (Leinert et al. 1993). The system was also the second detected to show a circumbinary disk (Dutrey et al. 1996; Duvert et al. 1998; Close et al. 1998). Our $`H`$-band observation of UY Aur has a too small a field of view and is not sensitive enough to detect the circumbinary disk. We find, however, that the flux ratio in $`H`$ is significantly smaller, $`1.47\pm 0.01`$, than previous measurements, $`4.33\pm 0.36`$ (Close et al. 1998). Unfortunately we can not assess whether it is the primary that has dimmed or the secondary that has brightened (or both). Close et al. (1998) derived an extinction of $`A_V=1.0`$ mag and $`A_V=9.2`$ mag for the primary and secondary respectively, explaining the very red color of the secondary. If the observed change in flux ratio in $`H`$ is due to a variable extinction, then the implied change in extinction is $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_H=1.2`$ mag, corresponding to $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_V=5.8`$ mag (assuming the extinction law $`R_V=5.0`$ in Table 1 of Mathis 1990). A crude estimate, using the spectral classes K7 and M0 for the primary and secondary respectively (Herbst, Koresko & Leinert 1995), suggests that the flux ratio in $`R`$ has evolved from $`\mathrm{\Delta }R=6.6`$ in 1996 October 24 (Close et al. 1995) to $`\mathrm{\Delta }R=2.0`$ in 2000 February 22 (this work). The system may thus once again have become detectable as an optical binary, just as it was at the time of its discovery in 1944.

## 5 Conclusions

We have conducted a survey of the inner regions of nearby young star systems and measured accurate astrometry of epoch 2000 February 22–23 for 8 binaries and 2 triples, as well as flux ratios. Our main conclusions are:

* The multiplicity frequency and average companion number of the young associations MBM 12 and TWA are very high, though the significance of this result is low because of small number statistics.
* The T Tauri star S 18 is actually a triple system, with a tight binary (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$063 $``$17 AU). Its hierarchical configuration is very similar to VW Cha and T Tau. Follow-up astrometric observations may constrain the mass within a few decades.
* The T Tauri star TWA 5 A is resolved into a very tight binary in itself (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$054 $``$3 AU). Follow-up astrometric and spectroscopic observations within a few years have the potential to accurately measure the dynamical mass of individual components as well as an independent distance, thus providing an ideal system to test evolutionary models of PMS stars.
* The brown dwarf TWA 5 B is shown to be bound to TWA 5 A with 9$`\sigma `$ confidence.
* The classical T Tauri binary star UY Aur has changed its flux ratio dramatically by more than a magnitude in $`H`$. The secondary may have once again turned into an optically detectable companion, as it was when first discovered in 1944.

We thank an anonymous referee for helpful comments. We would like to acknowledge the great cultural significance of Mauna Kea for native Hawaiians, and express our gratitude for permission to observe from its summit. We also thank the Keck Observatory staff for their outstanding assistance over the past several years. We have made use of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive, NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services, the SIMBAD database, and data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey in our research. This work was supported in part by NASA Origins grant NAG5-11905 to R.J.