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# Glassy Ratchets For Collectively Interacting Particles

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## Abstract

We show that ratchet effects can occur in a glassy media of interacting particles where there is no quenched substrate. We consider simulations of a disordered binary assembly of colloids in which only one species responds to a drive. We apply an asymmetric ac drive that would produce no net dc drift of an isolated overdamped particle. When interacting particles are present, the asymmetric ac drive produces a ratchet effect. A simple model captures many of the results from simulations, including flux reversals as a function of density and temperature.

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In ratcheting systems, a dc current or flux arises upon application of a periodic drive, such as when the underlying potential substrate is flashed, or, for a fixed substrate, when alternating forces are applied . Ratchet effects, which can be deterministic or stochastic in nature, have been studied in a wide variety of systems, including biological motors , flux motion in superconductors , granular transport , and colloidal transport. In many of these systems, an underlying asymmetric potential acts to break the left-right spatial symmetry. Alternative ratchet systems that have recently been investigated  have symmetric substrates, and rely on ac drives to provide symmetry breaking. In each of these cases, the particles move through some form of fixed substrate.

In this work we study a ratchet effect that arises due to the collective interactions between driven and non-driven particles in a system that does not contain a fixed substrate. The particular system we consider is a binary mixture of interacting repulsive particles which form a disordered or glassy media. These particles, referred to as the passive species, interact only with other particles, and do not respond to an applied ac drive. We introduce a small number of a separate species of particles, termed the active species, which respond both to the other particles and to the ac drive. Using numerical simulations we demonstrate that a ratchet effect can be achieved for the active particles in this system when the coupling between the active and passive particles is strong enough and a symmetry breaking is introduced by means of the ac drive. This is in contrast to a recent theoretical proposal of an asymmetric drive ratchet which transports undriven superconducting vortices . In addition, for specific ac drives, we find current reversals as a function of density and temperature. We also show that the magnitude of the ratchet effect goes through a maximum as a function of the number of active particles, due to the collective string-like motions of the particles.

We explicitly demonstrate a ratchet effect for mixtures of colloids. Our system is similar to recent studies of binary colloidal models driven with ac fields where one species of the colloids moves in the direction of the applied drive while the other species moves in the opposite direction . These studies have found interesting collective effects in which the moving particles organize into lanes. In extensive studies of driven diffusive models , where the two species of oppositely moving particles are placed on a lattice, a rich variety of nonequilibrium phases were observed. Continuum models, with different portions of particles moving in opposite directions, have also been studied in the context of pedestrian flows . A remarkable phenomena termed “freezing by heating,” where the system can jam at higher temperatures, has recently been observed in these types of systems . Since individual colloids or groups of colloids can be manipulated easily with optical traps , colloidal systems are ideal for experimentally realizing a system in which only a fraction of the particles respond to the applied drive. The active species could be created using charged or magnetic colloids, while the passive particles would be charge-neutral or non-magnetic. For example, in recent experiments, magnetic colloids were driven with ac  and dc drives  through a glassy assembly of other non-magnetic colloids. It should also be possible to drive a fraction of the colloids using optical or magnetic traps.

We consider a binary two-dimensional (2D) assembly of colloids using the same simulation method as in our previous works . The overdamped equation of motion for colloid $`i`$ is

$$\frac{d𝐫_i}{dt}=𝐟_{ij}+𝐟_{AC}+𝐟_T,$$
(1)
where $`𝐟_{ij}=_{ji}^N_iV(r_{ij})`$ is the interaction force from the other colloids, $`𝐟_{AC}`$ is the force due to an applied driving field, and $`𝐟_T`$ is a thermal force from Langevin kicks. The colloids interact via a Yukawa or screened Coulomb interaction potential, $`V(r_{ij})=(q_iq_j/|𝐫_i𝐫_j|)\mathrm{exp}(\kappa |𝐫_i𝐫_j|)`$. Here $`q_i`$ is the charge on colloid $`i`$, $`1/\kappa `$ is the screening length, and $`𝐫_{i(j)}`$ is the position of particle $`i(j)`$. The system size is measured in units of the lattice constant $`a`$, which is set to $`a=a_0`$ for most of this work, giving a particle density $`\rho =1/a_0^2`$. We take the screening length $`\kappa =3/a_0`$. Our system is periodic in both the $`x`$ and $`y`$ directions. The total number of particles is $`N=N_A+N_B+N_D`$, with $`N_A`$ colloids of passive species A and charge $`q_A`$, and $`N_B`$ colloids of passive species B and charge $`q_B`$. We add $`N_D`$ active colloids

with charge $`q_D`$ that respond to an applied ac drive. For the results presented here, we fix $`q_A/q_B=1/2`$. We have also considered other ratios, including the crystalline case when $`q_A/q_B=1`$. To initialize the system, we start at a high temperature and anneal either to $`T=0`$ or to a fixed $`T>0`$. The binary particles of species A and B form a disordered assembly, with the active colloids scattered randomly throughout. After annealing, we apply a two-step ac drive during a single cycle of period $`\tau `$. The first stage is a fast drive where a constant force of $`f_1`$ is applied for a time $`\tau _1`$ in the positive $`x`$-direction. The second stage is a slow drive where a force $`f_2<f_1`$ is applied for a time $`\tau _2>\tau _1`$ in the negative $`x`$-direction. The ac drive has the properties $`f_1\tau _1=f_2\tau _2`$, with $`\tau =\tau _1+\tau _2`$, so that the particle experiences zero average force during a single cycle. The average drift velocity $`v_d`$ can be obtained after many cycles. We conduct a series of simulations for different particle densities, system sizes, temperatures, $`q_D`$, ac amplitudes, frequencies, and $`N_D`$.

We first consider a simple model that predicts that a ratchet effect can arise in such a system. Recently it was shown theoretically and in simulations that, for a single colloid driven with a dc drive through a glassy assembly of other colloids , the colloid velocity follows a power law $`Vf^\alpha `$ with $`\alpha =1.5`$ for certain parameters. The power law appears in regimes where the driven colloid produces collective disturbances of the surrounding colloids on length scales of the order of $`a`$, the lattice constant. When the density of the surrounding colloids is low, these collective distortions are lost and the velocity of the driven colloid is linear with the drive. Linear behavior also occurs when the charge $`q_D`$ of the driven particle is much smaller than that of the surrounding particles. Recent experiments on driven magnetic colloids have also found power law velocity-force relations for the driven colloid with exponents $`\alpha =1.5`$ or higher in systems with high density . In low density systems, the velocity is linear with drive.

We find that for a group of driven particles in a glassy media, the velocity-force curve is also of a power law

form. In a system with a power law velocity-force relationship, ratcheting can occur under the application of an asymmetric ac drive. During a single cycle the colloids move a distance $`\delta x=f_1^\beta \tau _1f_2^\beta \tau _2`$. The net drift velocity is then $`v_d=\delta x/(\tau _1+\tau _2)`$. Using the condition $`f_1\tau _1=f_2\tau _2`$ the drift velocity can be expressed as

$$v_d=\frac{f_1^\beta f_2f_2^\beta f_1}{f_2+f_1}$$
(2)
If $`\beta =1`$, as in the case of a single overdamped particle, then $`v_d=0`$, as expected. For any value of $`\beta >1`$, however, the drift velocity will be positive, $`v_d>0`$. Ratcheting can still occur if $`f_1`$ is close to $`f_2`$ as long as $`\beta >1`$. This model predicts that the ratchet effect becomes more efficient for larger values of $`\beta `$. In Fig. 1(a) we plot $`v_d`$ vs $`\beta `$ from Eq. (2), with $`f_1=1`$ and ratios of $`f_2/f_1=0.5`$ to $`1`$. For $`f_2/f_1=1`$, $`v_d=0`$ for all $`\beta `$, as expected. For $`f_2<f_1`$ and $`\beta >1`$, ratcheting in the positive direction ($`v_d>0`$) occurs. $`v_d`$ increases with larger $`\beta `$ and larger $`f_2/f_1`$. The velocity reverses for $`\beta <1`$. This is an unphysical limit for the colloid system, where the lowest possible value is $`\beta =1`$. However, some physical systems such as non-Newtonian fluids could have $`\beta <1`$.

Since the velocity becomes linear with the drive at low densities or high drives, it should be possible to select ac drive parameters that reverse the ratchet effect and give current reversals for $`\beta >1`$. This can be achieved by setting $`\tau _1<\tau _2`$, where the inequality is not too large. In the highly nonlinear regime the particle will still ratchet in the positive direction; however, upon approaching the linear regime, the particle will ratchet in the negative direction. In Fig. 1(b) we show $`v`$ vs $`\beta `$ from Eqn. (2) for $`f_2/f_1=0.5`$ and increasing $`\tau _2/\tau _1`$, where a crossover from a positive to negative ratchet effect occurs at $`\beta _c`$. Here $`\beta _c`$ increases with increasing $`\tau _2/\tau _1`$.

We next consider simulation results. In Fig. 2 we show a real space image of the simulated system with $`N_D=11`$

active particles (black circles) and $`N_A+N_B=678`$ passive particles (open circles) after many cycles of the ac drive. The active particles, which were originally scattered throughout the system, have clustered into a lane, and they also drift over time in the positive $`x`$-direction.

In Fig. 3 we plot the velocity vs time of a single overdamped colloid in the absence of any other particles (dashed curve), showing short large positive pulses and long small negative pulses of velocity. Here we consider the case of $`f_2/f_1=0.25`$ with $`f_1=0.56`$. The average velocity of the isolated colloid is zero in a single period. The solid line shows the velocity of a driven colloid in the interacting particle system with $`N=370`$ and $`N_D=11`$, in a regime where the dc velocity-force curves have a power-law form. Here, the magnitude of the particle velocity $`v`$ during both the positive and the negative portions of the ac drive cycle is smaller than that of the single particle, and shows considerable fluctuations. The integrated velocity during the positive portion of the ac cycle is on average larger in magnitude than the integrated velocity during the negative portion of the cycle. To show this more clearly, in the inset of Fig. 3 we plot the time-averaged drift velocity $`v_d`$ for each system over many ac cycles. For the single particle case (lower dashed curve), $`v_d=0`$, while for the interacting particle system, $`v_d>0`$, with an long time average drift velocity of $`<v_d>0.03`$, indicating that a positive ratchet effect is occurring.

We next consider the dependence of the ratchet effect on various system parameters. In Fig. 4(a) we plot the drift velocity $`v_d`$ vs the fraction of driven particles, $`N_D/N`$, for fixed ac drive parameters $`f_1=0.56`$, $`f_2/f_1=0.25`$, and $`\tau _1/\tau _2=0.25`$, with $`a/a_0=1`$. $`v_d`$ goes through a

maximum near $`N_D/N=0.03`$, and then slowly falls off for higher $`N_D/N`$ before reaching $`v_d=0`$ just below $`N_D/N=1.0`$. We have also considered different system sizes by varying $`a/a_0`$. We obtain the same behaviors, indicating that the ratcheting is not a finite size effect. It is simple to understand why $`v_d0`$ in the limit of $`N_D/N1`$, since here all the particles move in unison with the ac drive, and the plasticity responsible for the nonlinear velocity-force response is lost. For a single driven particle $`N_D=1`$, we found a dc velocity-force scaling exponent of $`\beta =1.5`$. As the number of driven particles $`N_D`$ increases, $`\beta `$ increases to $`\beta =2`$ near $`N_D/N=0.03`$, and then decreases back toward $`\beta =1`$ as $`N_D/N`$ increases further. This result is consistent with the predictions of Eq. 2, where a larger ratcheting effect is expected for larger exponents $`\beta `$.

In Fig. 4(b) we consider a system with fixed $`N_D/N=0.03`$ and ac drive parameters, and plot $`v_d`$ vs the system density $`\rho `$ measured in units of $`1/a_0^2`$. For low densities $`\rho <0.5`$, the active particles interact only weakly with the passive particle background, and the dc velocity-force curves are close to linear ($`\beta 1`$) so little ratcheting occurs. For large densities $`\rho >1.3`$, the ratcheting drift velocity $`v_d`$ decreases since it becomes more difficult for the active particles to pass the passive particles. We have also fixed the system density and varied the charge $`q_D`$ of the active particles. The behavior is similar to Fig. 4(b): the ratchet effect is lost at small $`q_D`$ when the velocity-force curve becomes linear. In Fig. 4(c) we show the effect of a nonzero temperature on the ratchet effect. We plot $`v_d`$ vs $`T/T_m`$, where $`T_m`$ is defined as the temperature at which a completely ordered single-species colloid assembly with charge $`q_D`$ and density $`\rho =1/a_0^2`$ melts. For high $`T`$, the velocity increases linearly with force, so the ratchet effect is lost.

Equation 2 predicts that a reverse ratchet effect should occur for $`\beta <1`$, as shown in Fig. 1(a), or for $`f_1\tau _1f_2\tau _2`$. The reverse ratchet effect can occur in systems where the media responds easily to slow moving particles but becomes stiffer under faster perturbations. For example, in granular media the grains respond in a fluid manner to a slow moving object, while for a fast moving object the granular material jams and acts like a solid. Many polymer systems show a similar response. In order for a ratchet effect to occur in a substrate-free system, there must be a combination of the nonlinear behavior of the particle motion and the left-right symmetry breaking by the ac drive. In general the ratchet effect we observe should occur for any media that has a nonlinear viscosity-frequency response.

In Fig. 4(d,e) we consider two cases where flux reversals occur with $`f_1\tau _1/f_2\tau _2=0.9`$. For the parameters chosen here, the drift velocity of an isolated particle would be $`v_d=0.016`$. In Fig. 4(d) we plot $`v_d`$ vs density $`\rho `$ for $`N_D/N=0.03`$. For low density $`\rho <0.3`$, the velocity-force response curve is linear ($`\beta =1`$) and the particle moves in the negative direction as expected for this ac drive. As the density increases, the velocity-force response curve becomes nonlinear, and $`v_d`$ crosses over to a positive value $`v_d>0`$ as the ratcheting effect reaches a maximum near $`\rho =1/a_0^2`$. The drift velocity drops at high density just as in Fig. 4(b). In Fig. 4(e) we show $`V`$ vs $`T/T_m`$ for the same system with a fixed density of $`\rho =1.26/a_0^2`$. For low temperatures, the velocity-force response curve is nonlinear, and a ratchet effect with positive velocity occurs. As the temperature increases, the drift velocity $`v_d`$ drops and crosses back to a negative value as the system enters the linear response regime. $`v_d`$ saturates to $`v_d0.01`$, slightly smaller in magnitude than the value expected for a single isolated particle. We have also considered the effect of changing $`q_D`$ at fixed density and $`T=0`$, and observe behavior similar to that shown in Fig. 4(d).

In conclusion we have investigated a “glassy ratchet” effect, which occurs in a glassy system of interacting particles without a quenched substrate. We considered the specific case of a disordered assembly of colloids with overdamped dynamics where only one colloid species couples to an ac drive. The ac drive is asymmetric, with a large positive drive applied for a short time followed by a small negative drive applied for a longer time, and obeys the constraint that the net applied force on the driven colloids is zero in a single cycle. A ratchet effect occurs when the driven and the non-driven colloids are coupled, producing a nonlinear velocity-force response. We find that the dc drift velocity has a maximum value as a function of the fraction of driven particles, temperature, and particle density. A simple model for the ratchet effect agrees well with our simulation results, including the occurrence of ratchet reversal regimes. The system considered here can be realized experimentally for magnetic or charged colloids driven through non-magnetic or uncharged colloids. Our results may also have applications for new types of electrophoresis devices.

Acknowledgments: We thank E. Weeks, D.G. Grier, and H. Lowen for useful discussions. This work was supported by the US Department of Energy under Contract No. W-7405-ENG-36.


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# Effects of Meson Mass Reduction on the Properties of Neutron Star Matter

## Abstract

We investigate the effects of meson-mass reduction on the properties of the neutron star matter. We adopt the Brown-Rho scaling law to take into account density dependence of meson masses in the quantum hadrodynamics, quark-meson coupling and modified quark-meson coupling models. It is found that the equation of state becomes stiff when the mass of meson is reduced in dense medium. We discuss its implication on the properties of the neutron star.

Several theoretical studies  based on different approaches predicted the mass of hadrons in medium. Indeed, recent experimental results from CERES/NA45  and KEK-PS E325  suggested possible reduction of $`\rho `$ and $`\omega `$ meson masses in medium. In view of these previous theoretical and experimental studies, inclusion of the effects of the hadron mass reduction in dense nuclear matter is an interesting subject.

There are several models for describing nuclear matter, some of which include quantum hadrodynamics (QHD) , quark-meson coupling (QMC)  and modified quark-meson coupling (MQMC)  models. In these models, coupling constants and some other parameters are adjusted to reproduce the binding energy (= 16.0 MeV) at the saturation density ($`\rho _0=0.17`$ fm-3). As a means of incorporating the hadron mass change in medium, we may employ the scaling law advocated by Brown and Rho (BR)

$`{\displaystyle \frac{m_\sigma ^{}}{m_\sigma }}={\displaystyle \frac{m_\omega ^{}}{m_\omega }}={\displaystyle \frac{m_\rho ^{}}{m_\rho }}=\left(1+y{\displaystyle \frac{\rho }{\rho _0}}\right)^1.`$ (1)
In the present work we use different models for nuclear matter and study the effects of BR scaling on the equation of state (EOS) and particle fraction of the neutron star matter. The models we use and test against each other include QHD, QMC, MQMC, QHD with BR scaling (QHD-BR), QMC with BR scaling (QMC-BR) and MQMC with BR scaling (MQMC-BR).

Neutron star matter is characterized by the charge neutrality ($`\rho _p=\rho _e+\rho _\mu `$) and $`\beta `$equilibrium ($`\mu _n=\mu _p+\mu _e+\mu _\mu `$) where $`\mu _i`$ is the chemical potential of the particle $`i`$ (i = n, p, e, $`\mu `$). These two relations determine the number of neutrons, protons, electrons and muons. 111The number of muons are determined from the chemical equilibration condition with electrons, $`\mu _e=\mu _\mu `$.

Figure 1 shows the energy density and the pressure with respect to the matter density. The energy densities obtained by including the BR scaling increase faster than those without including the effects of meson mass reduction. A similar behavior is observed in the pressure. Fast increase of energy density and pressure leads to stiff EOS. Stiff EOS of BR-scaled models is due to a large repulsive contribution generated by the $`\omega `$-exchanges in the intermediate and high densities.

Matter composition is presented in Fig. 2. Matter composition profiles for QHD, QMC and MQMC without including BR scaling show similar behaviors. But when BR scaling is incorporated, the fraction of the proton is significantly enhanced. The enhancement of proton fraction originates from the relatively small effective mass of the nucleon in the BR-scaled model.

Maximum mass of the neutron star is sensitive to the EOS. The maximum mass of the neutron star in the QHD is $`1.98M_{}`$ . As the EOS gets stiffer, the maximum mass of the neutron star becomes larger. Thus, we may expect QHD-BR to give us a larger maximum mass. Similarly, QMC-BR and MQMC-BR may yield a larger neutron star mass than QMC and MQMC, respectively. However, more quantitative calculations require complete inclusion of the components of the baryon octet. When heavy baryons are taken into account, fast-growing chemical potential of the neutron will allow early onset of hyperon fractions, which will make the EOS very soft. Therefore the reduction of meson masses will result in very soft EOS which will, in turn, lower the maximum mass of the neutron star substantially.

Also, a large proton fraction at relatively low densities may allow the direct URCA process ($`np+e^{}+\overline{\nu }_e`$) to occur at low densities. Direct URCA process is known as the fastest cooling mechanism in the thermal evolution of the neutron star. In addition, existence of hyperons at low densities would cause similar fast cooling mechanism to occur efficiently at low densities.

In summary, we have investigated the effects of the meson-mass reduction on the properties of the neutron star matter. We have used the BR-scaling law as a way of incorporating the mass reduction. We find that the mass reduction makes the EOS stiff and causes the proton fraction to build up quickly at low densities, which can lead to substantially different properties and evolution of the neutron star.

This work was supported by KOSEF (2000-6111-01-2 and 2000-2-11100-004-4).


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# Chapter 1 Muon Energy Reconstruction in ANTARES and its Application to the Diffuse Neutrino Flux

## Chapter 1 Muon Energy Reconstruction in ANTARES and its Application to the Diffuse Neutrino Flux

### Abstract

The European collaboration ANTARES aims to operate a large neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea, 2400 m deep, 40 km from Toulon (France). Muon neutrinos are detected through the muon produced in charged current interactions in the medium surrounding the detector. The Cherenkov light emitted by the muon is registered by a 3D photomultiplier array. Muon energy can be inferred using 3 different methods based on the knowledge of the features of muon energy losses. They result in an energy resolution of a factor $`2`$ above 1 TeV. The ANTARES sensitivity to diffuse neutrino flux models is obtained from an energy cut, rejecting most of the atmospheric neutrino background which has a softer spectrum. Fake upgoing events from downgoing atmospheric muons are rejected using dedicated variables. After 1 year of data taking, the ANTARES sensitivity is $`E^2d\mathrm{\Phi }_\nu /dE_\nu 810^8GeVcm^2s^1sr^1`$ for a 10 string detector and an $`E^2`$ diffuse flux spectrum.

### 1. Introduction

The ANTARES detector will consist of 12 identical strings, each string supporting 30 storeys each of which are equipped with 3 downward looking optical modules . Each optical module is a pressure resistant glass sphere containing a 10 inch photomultiplier (PMT). The arrival times and amplitudes of the muon Cherenkov light hits on PMT allows the reconstruction of the track with a very good precision (angular resolution of 0.2o at high energy) and a reasonable estimation of the energy. In section 2, the three energy estimators developed in ANTARES are described. In section 3, the ANTARES sensitivity to cosmic diffuse neutrino fluxes are obtained after rejection of the atmospheric neutrino and muon background.

### 2. Muon energy estimators

The 3 energy estimators are based on the increase of emitted light due to muon catastrophic energy losses above 1 TeV. The first method is purely empirical. The second is based on muon energy loss. The third uses a neural network approach. Results are shown for a 10 string detector.

#### 2.1. Minimum ionising muon comparison method

This empirical method compares the recorded amplitude on each PMT, $`A_i`$, to the theoretical amplitude that a minimum ionising muon (MIM) would have given, $`A_i^{MIM}`$ . A hit classification is determined depending on the value of the $`\frac{A_i}{A_i^{MIM}}`$ ratio for each hit i: if $`0.1<\frac{A_i}{A_i^{MIM}}<100`$ ($`10<\frac{A_i}{A_i^{MIM}}<1000`$) the hit is classsified as a “low (high) energy”. A variable called $`x_s`$, where s stands for “low” or “high”, is defined for both classes:

$$x_s=N\left(\frac{_iA_i}{_iA_i^{MIM}}1\right)$$
(1)
where i runs over all the “low” (“high”) energy hits and N is the total number of hits in the event. The relation between $`x_s`$ and the true Monte Carlo muon energy, $`E_\mu `$, is parametrised by a parabola. If $`log_{10}(x_{low})<3.5`$ ($`log_{10}(x_{low})>3.5`$) then the $`x_{low}`$($`x_{high}`$) value is used. This method gives an energy resolution of a factor of 3 on the energy (see Fig. 1).

#### 2.2. Energy from an estimation of the muon dE/dx

The method  is based on the muon energy estimation from the dE/dx evolution with respect to its energy. A dE/dx estimator, $`\rho `$, is constructed using the total hit amplitude in the event, $`\mathrm{\Delta }A=_iA_i`$, the detector response R and the muon path length, $`L_\mu `$, in the detector sensitive volume:

$$\rho =\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }A}{RL_\mu }.$$
(2)
The sensitive volume is defined as the instrumented volume to which 2.5 $`\lambda _{eff.att.}`$ are added, $`\lambda _{eff.att.}`$ being the effective attenuation length in the water as measured at the ANTARES site.

The detector response R is defined as :

$$R=\frac{1}{N_{pm}}\underset{j=1}{\overset{N_{pm}}{}}\frac{\alpha (\theta )}{r_j}e^{\frac{r_j}{\lambda _{eff.att.}}}$$
(3)
where $`N_{pm}`$ is the number of PMTs in the detector; $`\alpha (\theta )`$ is the PMT angular efficiency; $`\frac{1}{r}e^{\frac{r}{\lambda _{eff.att.}}}`$ is the number of photons reaching the PMT after a distance r in water. The ratio $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }A}{R}`$ is a direct estimation of the total amount of energy which has been lost by the muon in this volume. The relation between $`\rho `$ and the true muon energy $`E_\mu `$ is fitted by a third order polynomial. This method is valid only when muons have a path length $`200m`$ in the sensitive volume and is relatively insensitive to the detector geometry. The achieved energy resolution is a factor 2 on the muon energy above 10 TeV (see Fig. 1).

#### 2.3. Neural network approach

This method essentially uses as input the amplitude of hit and time difference with respect to a pure minimum ionising muon. Catastrophic muon energy losses lead to greater amplitudes and broader time distributions. The only output variable is the muon estimated energy. Actually, the NN was trained only with events $``$ 1 TeV. Works is in progress for lower energies.

First results show that between 100 GeV and 1 TeV the accuracy is around a factor of 3. Above 10 TeV, the performances are comparable to those presented in 2.2 (around a factor 2 on $`E_\mu `$, see Fig. 1).

### 3. ANTARES sensitivity to a diffuse high energy cosmic neutrino flux

The ANTARES sensitivity to a diffuse cosmic neutrino flux superimposed on top of the atmospheric neutrino background can be evaluated using the 3 energy estimators. For brevity, only the results of the estimator described in Sec. 2.2 are presented. A typical cosmic differential neutrino spectrum with $`E^2`$ energy dependence has first been considered . The atmospheric neutrino spectrum ($`E^{3.6}`$) is softer and is rejected using an energy cut, which also rejects those atmospheric muon background events surviving dedicated muon rejection cuts. These cuts are essentially independent of the assumed spectral shape. The ANTARES sensitivity, with a 10 string detector, is found to be $`7.8\pm 0.9910^8GeVcm^2s^1sr^1`$ after 1 year of data taking ($`3.9\pm 0.710^8`$ $`GeVcm^2s^1sr^1`$ after 3 years) with an optimal muon energy threshold at 50 TeV (126 TeV). The uncertainties are determined from various predictions of the atmospheric prompt neutrino flux  (see Fig. 2). Using the same “experimental” conditions (10 string detector, 1 year of acquisition), the sensitivity to a model like SDSS91 (M95 loud A) is $``$20 times better ($``$67 times worse) than the model flux with an optimal energy threshold at 125 TeV (210 TeV) (see Fig. 2) .

### 4. Conclusion

Three different energy estimators have been developed in the ANTARES collaboration. They reach an energy resolution of a factor between 2 and 3 on $`E_\mu `$ and allows a limit of $`810^8GeVcm^2s^1sr^1`$ to be set for 1 year’s data with an $`E^2`$ spectrum and a 10 string detector.

1. E. Aslanides et al. 1999, ANTARES proposal astro-ph/9907432

2. C.G.S. Costa 2001, Astropart. Phys. 16(193)

3. A. Oppelt 2001, PhD thesis, Université de la Méditerranée

4. A. Romeyer 2003, PhD thesis, Université Paris VII

5. E. Waxman and J. Bahcall 1999, Phys. Rev. D 59(0203002)


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# The Spintronic Properties of Rare Earth Nitrides

## I Introduction

Rare earth (RE) materials have high magnetic moments and form a wide range of magnetic structures. It is the occupancy of the highly localised $`4f`$-states that determines the magnetic properties while the other electronic properties are determined principally by the itinerant $`sd`$ electrons.jens  The standard method of determining the electronic properties of magnetic materials is density functional theory with a local spin density approximation (LSD) for the exchange-correlation energy.Kohn+Vash  Traditionally this method has been applied to the $`sd`$ electrons in rare earths while the $`f`$-electrons have been treated in an atomic model. Attempts to include the $`4f`$-electrons within the LSD have had only very limited success because the LSD is insufficient to describe the strong correlations experienced by the rare earth $`f`$-electrons. In recent years more advanced methods of electronic structure determination such as LSD plus Self-Interaction Corrections (SIC)ZP ; brisbane  and LDA+Uanis97  methods have sought to remedy this problem and have met with considerable success.

Currently there is a great deal of interest in spintronics and spin-filtering from both the fundamental and applied point of view. There has been speculation in the literature that rare earth nitrides may form half-metallic ferromagnets.Birg71 ; Kald75 ; Hase77  This is surprising because, based on a simple ionic model, trivalent rare earth nitrides would be expected to be insulators with a similar electronic structure to the divalent rare earth chalcogenides. However if it is the case that they are half-metallic then they have potential applications in spintronic devices. To our knowledge, there has been no systematic study of the electronic structure of these materials at all. This is particularly surprising given that they all crystallise in the simple sodium chloride structure.Hull78

It is the purpose of this paper to discuss our calculations of the electronic structure of rare earth nitrides and thus to gain a deeper understanding of these materials and their potential applications. We have performed SIC-LSD calculations for all the rare earth nitrides, in the ferromagnetic state, in both the divalent and trivalent states. Thus, in this systematic study of rare earth nitrides we shall be concerned with the nominal valence of the rare earth ion as we progress through the series. Will these materials turn out to be all trivalent? What is the character of the rare earth $`f`$ and $`d`$ hybridization with the nitrogen $`p`$ states? Obviously, the position of the empty $`f`$-states will be an important factor in determining this. By performing this systematic study, we will be able to determine the trends.

The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. After a brief summary of our calculational method in section II, in section III we discuss the detailed electronic structure of these materials, and trends in behaviour as one proceeds across the Periodic Table. We conclude the paper in section IV, indicating what our results imply for device applications.

## II SIC-LSD

The SIC-LSD approximation ZP  is an ab-initio electronic structure scheme, that is capable of describing localization phenomena in solids.brisbane ; PRL1 ; Temmerman-NiO  In this scheme the spurious self-interaction of each occupied state, which is inherent in any local approximation to Density Functional Theory (DFT),hohen65 ; jones89  is subtracted from the conventional LSD approximation to the total energy functional

$`E^{SIC}=E^{LSD}{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}\delta _\alpha ^{SIC},`$ (1)
where $`\alpha `$ labels the occupied states and $`\delta _\alpha ^{SIC}`$ is the self-interaction correction for state $`\alpha `$. This leads to a greatly improved description of static Coulomb correlation effects over the LSD approximation. Demonstrations of the advantages of the SIC approach have been made in studies of the Hubbard model,Rapid ; vogl-hub  in applications to 3d oxides such as monoxides,PRL1 ; Temmerman-NiO  high temperature cuprates,wmt-YBCO ; PRL2 ; Temmerman-La2  and magnetite,fe3o4  to $`f`$-electron systems,nature ; selen ; science  and to solid hydrogen.SSC

In the SIC-LSD method it is necessary to minimise the total energy with respect to the number of localised electrons which also leads to a determination of the nominal valence defined as the integer number of electrons available for band formation

$$N_v=ZN_{core}N_{SIC}$$

where $`Z`$ is the atomic number of the rare earth and $`N_{core}`$ is the number of atomic core electrons. $`N_{SIC}`$ is the number of $`f`$-states for which the self-interaction correction has been removed and is determined so that $`N_v`$ equals 3 for trivalent, and 2 for divalent, systems.

Further details of the SIC-LSD method are discussed elsewhere.brisbane

## III Results and Discussion

### III.1 Energetic Properties

We have performed calculations for all the rare earth nitrides in ferromagnetic ordering and both the divalent $`f^{n+1}`$ and trivalent $`f^n`$ configurations (and for CeN the tetravalent $`f^{n1}`$ configuration), and hence have determined the ground state energy and valence from first principles. We have found that the ground state for Ce in CeN is tetravalent while all the other rare earths are trivalent in the nitrides. In Fig. 1, we show the difference in energy between the divalent and trivalent states of all the rare earth nitrides. This follows the expected trend of strongly trivalent state at the start of the series in both spin channels, and a decreasing energy difference between the trivalent and divalent state as the filling of the $`f`$-shell occurs. However, none of the nitrides attains the divalent state. Furthermore the number of occupied itinerant $`f`$-electron states stays well below the 0.7 required for the materials to become divalent, as observed by Strange et al.,nature  because of the strong hybridisation with the nitrogen $`p`$ states.

The lattice constants for the $`f`$ configuration that yields the lowest total energy can be evaluated by looking for the minimum in total energy as a function of lattice size and these are shown in Fig. 2 along with the experimental values.Wyck  The jump in lattice constant between Ce and Pr is due to the valence change from tetravalent to trivalent. For Ce, Pr and the heavy rare earths, theory and experiment agree very well both for the absolute values and the trend. For the remaining light rare earths the absolute agreement is still very good but there is a trend apparent in the theory that is not clear in the experimental results. The most probable cause of this is experimental uncertainty which can arise in these materials very easily, particularly as many of these measurements were performed at a time when samples of rare earth materials were known to have very limited purity.Wyck

### III.2 Magnetic Properties

Now let us look at how the magnetism varies as we proceed along the rare earth series. The total and species-decomposed spin magnetic moments are displayed in Table 1. There we also present the rare earth’s orbital moments. It should be noted that there is some arbitrariness involved in the values of the spin magnetic moments due to the Atomic Sphere Approximation. However, we found this to be small and moreover to make comparisons between different systems consistent we kept the ratio of the rare earth/nitrogen sphere volumes constant.

With the exceptions of ErN, TmN and YbN, the spin magnetic moments of the rare earth nitrides take on an integer value. This indicates that these systems are either insulating (Tb-, Dy-, and Ho-nitrides) or half-metallic (Pr- to Gd-compounds). CeN is a non-magnetic metal, and the last three compounds of the series are metallic in both spin-channels. These results are as one would expect; the spin magnetic moment is dominated by the rare earth $`f`$-electrons, with some hybridisation yielding small contributions from the rare earth $`sd`$ electrons and the nitrogen $`p`$ states. This indicates that the nitrogen $`p`$ states occur in the same energy range as the valence rare earth states, allowing hybridization to occur. It is interesting to note that the contribution from the nitrogen atom changes sign half way through the series, in which it follows the RE’s orbital moment. It appears that the nitrogen moment wants to point antiparallel to the partially occupied $`f`$-spin channel. An explanation of this hybridisation phenomenon will be given in sections III D and E.

### III.3 Density of States

In Fig. 3 we show typical densities of states of RE nitrides to illustrate the main features. Around -1.5 Ryd are the rare earth 5p bands. Above these, just above -1.0 Ryd, are the nitrogen 2s bands. Just below the Fermi energy $`E_f`$, we reach bands which are predominantly nitrogen $`p`$-like, but with a substantial hybridisation with rare earth $`sd`$ and $`f`$-states. There is a small gap or mimimum around the Fermi energy. Above $`E_f`$ are the mainly rare earth $`sd`$ bands. Superimposed on this are the rare earth $`f`$-bands. The fully occupied majority spin $`f`$-bands fall below the nitrogen 2$`s`$ bands and push the rare earth 5$`p`$ bands lower in energy. The occupied minority spin $`f`$-bands sit just above the nitrogen 2$`s`$ bands and there is essentially a single peak above Ef which are the unoccupied $`f`$-states. Below half filling the occupied majority spin peak moves to just above the nitrogen 2$`s`$ bands, and just above $`E_f`$ there are two $`f`$-peaks, firstly the unoccupied majority spin bands and then the completely unoccupied minority spin $`f`$-bands.

Let us look more closely at the electronic properties of the rare earth nitrides. Table 2 shows the electronic properties of each material at the Fermi energy.

It is clear from the table that most of the light rare earth nitrides are found to be half-metallic. Only CeN is metallic because it exists in the tetravalent state (in fact the trivalent state is also just metallic). TbN, DyN and HoN are found to be narrow gap insulators and ErN, TmN and YbN are metallic in both spin-channels.

In Table 3 we show the key spin- and $`l`$decomposed densities of states at the Fermi energy. This table shows that the principal character of the electrons at $`E_f`$ is rare earth $`sd`$ and nitrogen $`p`$-like in PrN, NdN, and GdN, while it is dominated by the majority spin rare earth $`f`$-electrons in PmN, SmN, EuN, and the minority spin rare earth $`f`$-electrons in ErN, TmN and YbN. When the $`f`$ contribution is large we also note a relatively large N p component, reflecting the strong N $`p`$ \- rare earth $`f`$ hybridization. From the results above it is also clear that there is a wide range of electronic properties in the rare earth nitrides which we discuss in detail in the following section.

To discuss the properties of these materials more fully it is necessary to understand the details of the density of states around $`E_f`$. For this reason we show in Fig. 4 the spin-resolved densities of states on each site for SmN, DyN and TmN. These materials were chosen as typical examples of the half-metallic, insulating and metallic rare earth nitrides respectively.

### III.4 The Light Rare Earth Nitrides

We now explain how the rare earth nitrides can exhibit such a wide range of electronic properties in a series of materials that ostensibly have similar outer electronic structures. In previous papers,nature ; selen  we have calculated the electronic structure of rare earth chalcogenides. In agreement with observation and with the naive ionic model, we found that they are all divalent insulators. One might have expected the trivalent nitrides to be similarly insulating, but, as Table 2 shows, this is not the case. After the SIC-LSD has been applied to the rare earth nitrides the three valence electrons of the trivalent rare earth can fill the three holes of the N p band and create a full $`p`$ band. This would lead to insulating behaviour in a similar manner that the two electrons of the divalent rare earth in the rare earth chalcogenides fill the two holes in the chalcogenide $`p`$ band. In the nitrides there are three nitrogen $`p`$ electrons, in the chalcogenides there are four $`p`$ electrons. The difference in the number of $`p`$ electrons means that the $`p`$ bands sit closer to the Fermi energy in the nitrides than in the chalcogenides. In trivalent CeN the nitrogen $`p`$ bands are close enough to $`E_f`$ to hybridise slightly with the low energy tail of the rare earth $`s`$-$`d`$ bands, causing the materials to be metallic. As we proceed across the Periodic Table from CeN to GdN we fill the majority spin $`f`$-states and create an exchange field that is felt by the other electrons in the material. In the rare earth chalcogenides this has little effect because the filled bands are well down in the potential well. However, in the nitrides its effect is more pronounced and leads to a significant spin-splitting of the nitrogen $`p`$-bands.

The SIC splits the $`f`$ band manifold into two, localized and band-like $`f`$ electrons. The SIC $`f`$-bands are completely localised and are unable to hybridise significantly. The non-SIC $`f`$ states have a degree of itineracy that allows hybridisation. We find that N $`p`$-rare earth $`f`$ hybridised states play a role in the electronic bonding. This is clear in Fig. 4. In a(ii) panel for example, the N $`p`$-states, which lie within 0.2 Ry of $`E_f`$, lead to structure, in this energy range, in the Sm density of states. This is an energy window where $`f`$ states do not occur, a $`p`$-$`f`$ hybrised bonding state has been formed. This occurs to some extent in all the rare earth nitrides.

Of course, there is also a $`p`$-$`f`$ antibonding state and it is this that is key to understanding the trends in electronic properties in this series of materials. The upper tail of the majority spin p-bands rises to above the Fermi energy and hybridises with the empty majority spin bands just above $`E_f`$ to form the antibonding state. For SmN this can be seen clearly in $`a(i)`$ and $`a(ii)`$ in Fig. 4. Just above $`E_f`$ the majority spin nitrogen $`p`$ density of states in $`a(ii)`$ has a small peak that corresponds with the rare earth $`f`$-bands in $`a(i)`$.

The exchange field keeps the minority spin $`f`$-bands well above $`E_f`$ and hybridisation of them with the nitrogen $`p`$-bands is very small. In PrN and NdN the empty majority spin $`f`$-bands are well above $`E_f`$ and so the electronic properties are dominated by the majority spin rare earth $`s`$-$`d`$ bands. In PmN, SmN and EuN the empty majority spin $`f`$-bands have lowered and are very close to the Fermi energy. The density of states at $`E_f`$ is then dominated by $`p`$-$`f`$ bands.

In the minority spin channel there is no significant $`pf`$ hybridisation and so the predominantly $`p`$-bands are entirely filled and the $`s`$-$`d`$ bands are empty. There is an energy gap at the Fermi energy. The minority spin bands behave much more as expected in the naive ionic model.

A consequence of this behaviour is that the nitrogen majority spin bands are not fully occupied while the minority spin bands are. This means that the nitrogen moment is antiparallel to the rare earth moment.

### III.5 The Heavy Rare Earth Nitrides

In the heavy rare earth nitrides a repeat of the behaviour of the light rare earths might be expected with the minority spin bands replacing the majority spin ones. This does indeed occur. Inspection of Figs. 4b and 4c verifies that the comparable features can be seen in the minority spin densities of states. However, other effects also come into play in the heavy rare earth nitrides that modify the electronic properties significantly.

In GdN, the majority spin $`f`$-bands are all filled and the minority spin bands are well above Ef. The exchange field continues to split the nitrogen $`p`$-band. The majority spin $`p`$-band hybridises with the Gd $`sd`$ bands. There is a minimum in the density of states very close to $`E_f`$, but it does not quite reach zero. This is very similar to what happens in CeN

In TbN, the minority spin $`f`$-bands begin to fill up. This pushes the majority spin $`f`$-bands closer to the nucleus and so increases the efficiency of the screening of the outer states so they are less strongly bound to the nucleus. Because of this the rare earth $`sd`$ states are higher above the Fermi energy in the heavy rare earths than in the light rare earths. In TbN, DyN and HoN then, there are no bands at the Fermi energy and therefore they are small gap insulators. In ErN, TmN and YbN the minority spin $`f`$-peak has come down to close to $`E_f`$ and there is a bonding and an antibonding minority spin state as in the light rare earths. As the $`f`$-peak comes down the antibonding state gets very close to $`E_f`$. The Fermi energy enters the major minority spin $`f`$-peak. To compensate for this some hybridised majority spin $`pd`$ character has to rise above $`E_f`$ creating a non-zero density of states in both spin channels.

The $`pf`$ hybridisation pulls some minority spin character above the Fermi energy and so for the heavy rare earths the nitrogen moment is parallel to the rare earth moment.

For most rare earth nitrides very little experimental data appears to be available. However, for YbN several papers have appeared in the literature reporting experiments which can be compared with our work. Trivalency has been established from the magnetic moment.Hull79  Ott et al., Sakon et al. and Takeda et al.Ott  reported measurements consistent with heavy fermion behaviour in YbN. However it was shown later by Monnier et al.Monn  that these results were also consistent with a scenario in which there is interplay between the crystal field and the Kondo effect for an isolated magnetic impurity. The SIC-LDA method does not include the dynamical effects necessary to describe the Kondo effect or heavy fermion behaviour, so we are unable to comment on this point directly. However, we can point out that our results do exhibit the $`p`$-$`f`$ mixing necessary for the $`p`$-$`f`$ Kondo effect that explains the low temperature anomalies in the magnetic susceptibility and specific heat.Degi

The low temperature magnetic structure of YbN was established to be antiferromagnetic III by Dönni et al.Donni  Spectroscopic investigations of YbN include core level x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS)Greber  which revealed no evidence of valence mixing, and optical spectroscopyDegi  which was able to locate the empty $`f`$ state 0.2 eV above the Fermi energy. They also found the bare occupied $`f`$-states to be around 6.5 eV below the Fermi energy, which is not in good agreement with our results, although there are always considerable uncertainties in locating ground state bands using spectroscopic techniques.Pr  The XPS experiments also showed that samples exhibiting a small amount of non-stoichiometry can show strongly enhanced Kondo features. The experimental situation for YbN has been well summed up by WachterWach01  who shows that small amounts of doping could raise the Fermi energy to the empty $`f`$-state in YbN and yield intermediate valence or heavy fermion behaviour. In our calculations the position of the empty $`f`$-state is in close agreement with the optical spectroscopy results and so we are also able to suggest that. Furthermore the empty $`f`$-states in TmN are actually at the Fermi energy as indicated in Table III. Extrapolating from the results for YbN suggests that undoped TmN might exhibit heavy fermion or intermediate valent behaviour as well.

## IV Conclusions

We have seen that the rare earth nitrides display a wide range of electronic properties despite having the same crystal structure with only a small variation in lattice constant and superficially similar electronic structures. They show insulating (semiconducting), half-metallic and full metallic behaviours. This is a consequence of the N $`p`$ and the band-like rare earth $`f`$ states occuring in the same energy window, in the vicinity of the Fermi level. This leads, at Ef, to strong hybridization of these states. With the high magnetic moments and the high densities of states in one spin channel that these materials exhibit, it suggests that alloying may enable us to fabricate materials with a wide and continuous range of useful properties, particularly with regard to spintronic and spin filtering applications.


text:
# Lifetime of molecule-atom mixtures near a Feshbach resonance in 40K

thanks: Quantum Physics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology.

## Abstract

We report a dramatic magnetic field dependence in the lifetime of trapped, ultracold diatomic molecules created through an s-wave Feshbach resonance in 40K. The molecule lifetime increases from less than 1 ms away from the Feshbach resonance to greater than 100 ms near resonance. We also have measured the trapped atom lifetime as a function of magnetic field near the Feshbach resonance; we find that the atom loss is more pronounced on the side of the resonance containing the molecular bound state.

Scattering resonances known as Feshbach resonances occur when the collision energy of two free atoms coincides with that of a molecular state in a closed channel. By varying the strength of an external magnetic field experimenters can tune the relative atom-molecule energy through the Zeeman effect. This has enabled control over the strength of cold atom interactions, characterized by the s-wave scattering length $`a`$, for both Bose and Fermi gases Inouye1998a ; Cornish2000a ; Loftus2002a ; Dieckmann2002a ; O'Hara2002a ; Bourdel2003a . More recently these resonances have allowed efficient creation of ultracold, weakly bound molecules Donley2002a ; Regal2003c ; Herbig2003a ; Durr2003a ; Cubizolles2003a ; Jochim2003a ; Strecker2003a .

For Fermi gases the regime of strong atom coupling near an s-wave Feshbach resonance is particularly interesting. For a sufficiently quantum degenerate, two-component Fermi gas of atoms, it is predicted that the resonance can provide a continuous crossover between two superfluid regimes, that of a Bardeen-Cooper-Schreiffer (BCS) superfluid and Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of strongly bound pairs Holland2001a ; Timmermans2001a ; Milstein2002a ; Ohashi2003a . However, experimental realization will require that the molecular and atomic gases are sufficiently stable against inelastic decay. In particular, the lifetimes should be longer than both the collision time in the gas as well as the oscillator period of the external trapping potential. This requirement is nontrivial because inelastic collision rates typically increase by orders of magnitude near a Feshbach resonance.

In this Letter we present a systematic study of the lifetime of trapped molecules in the presence of atoms as well as the lifetime of exclusively atoms near a Feshbach resonance. The molecules, which are created using the Feshbach resonance, are highly vibrationally excited. Thus, one expects large trap loss rates due to collisional vibrational quenching of the molecules Balakrishnan1998a ; Yurovsky2000a ; Soldan2002a . Yet, very near a Feshbach resonance the size of the molecules become extremely large. In this regime the wavefunction of the molecules has much less overlap with that of tightly bound molecules. Thus, the theoretical expectations for the lifetime of these molecules are less clear. We show that the molecule lifetime increases dramatically in this exotic regime.

For the case of inelastic atomic collisions, experiments using bosons have seen dramatic enhancement of two and three-body loss rates at Feshbach resonances Stenger1999c ; Roberts2000a ; Weber2003a ; Volz2003a . However, in general a suppression of three-body decay is expected for s-wave interactions in a two-component Fermi gas due to Fermi statistics. The magnitude of this suppression near a Feshbach resonance is unknown, although theoretical progress has been made Esry2001a ; Petrov2003a ; Suno2003a . Experiments suggest that three-body processes are not completely suppressed because strong inelastic loss has been observed near fermionic Feshbach resonances where two-body inelastic processes are not expected Regal2003a ; Dieckmann2002a ; Bourdel2003a . Here we observe resonantly enhanced inelastic loss, but we find that the largest loss rate occurs at a magnetic field that is shifted with respect to the peak in elastic interactions.

The experiments reported here employ previously developed techniques for cooling and spin state manipulation of a gas of 40K atoms. Because of the quantum statistics of fermions a mixture of two components, for example atoms in different internal spin states, is required to have s-wave interactions in the ultracold gas. With a total atomic spin $`f=9/2`$ in its lowest hyperfine ground state, 40K has ten available Zeeman spin-states $`|f,m_f`$, where $`m_f`$ is the spin projection quantum number. Mixtures of atoms in two of these spin states are used in evaporative cooling of the gas, first in a magnetic trap and then in a far-off-resonance optical dipole trap. The final experiments are performed with an incoherent mixture of atoms with $`50\%`$ in each of two Zeeman levels.

We access an s-wave Feshbach resonance between atoms in the $`|9/2,7/2`$ and $`|9/2,9/2`$ states located at a magnetic field $`B`$ of $`202`$ G Bohn2000a ; Loftus2002a ; Regal2003a ; pwave . To create molecules we adiabatically ramp the magnetic field across the Feshbach resonance. The magnetic field is then lowered from $`B=207`$ G at a rate between 0.5 G/ms and 1.5 G/ms to various final magnetic field values on the repulsive side of the resonance. The number of atoms remaining following the sweep is determined from an absorption image of the expanded atom cloud at a magnetic field below and away from the Feshbach resonance. Since the light for these images is resonant with an atomic transition, but not any molecular transitions, we selectively detect only atoms. Similar to Ref. Regal2003c , which used a different 40K Feshbach resonance, atoms disappear in a narrow magnetic field region near the Feshbach resonance (Fig. 1). We interpret the missing fraction of atoms as diatomic molecules as demonstrated in Regal2003c .

We can measure the number of molecules present in the sample by converting the molecules back to atoms with one of two techniques Regal2003c . We can apply radio frequency waves near the $`|9/2,7/2`$ $``$ $`|9/2,5/2`$ atomic transition during time-of-flight expansion to dissociate the molecules into free atoms in the $`|9/2,9/2`$ and $`|9/2,5/2`$ states rfpower . We can then detect only the molecules by selectively imaging the atom population in the initially unoccupied $`|9/2,5/2`$ state. Alternatively, we can ramp the magnetic field back across the Feshbach resonance to convert the molecules back into atoms. We then measure the resulting total number of atoms with absorption imaging. In this case, to determine the molecule lifetime we must subtract a measurement of the atom lifetime. Figure 2 shows a typical measurement of the atom and molecule decay. The molecule decay rate is determined by subtracting the two curves and extracting the initial decay rate.

The first set of lifetime measurements presented in this Letter was performed after evaporating the Fermi gas by lowering the optical trap to a relatively small depth. The final trap was characterized by a radial frequency $`\nu _r`$ between 220 Hz and 240 Hz and an aspect ratio $`\nu _r/\nu _z`$ fixed at 60. The temperature of the gas was determined from Thomas-Fermi surface fits to absorption images of expanded gases at magnetic fields away from the Feshbach resonance. The typical initial cloud temperature for these measurements was $`70`$ nK, with a corresponding quantum degeneracy $`T/T_F`$ = $`0.22`$, and a total peak density of $`n_{pk}=1.5\times 10^{13}`$ cm-3 density .

Figure 3 displays loss rate measurements as a function of the detuning from the Feshbach resonance, $`\mathrm{\Delta }B=BB_0`$. The rates are plotted as the decay rate of the number of molecules (atoms) $`\dot{N}`$ normalized to the initial molecule (atom) number $`N`$. Figure 3(a) shows the loss rate of the molecules for the $`|9/2,7/2`$, $`|9/2,9/2`$ Feshbach resonance (solid circles), where $`B_0=202.1`$ G (see Fig. 4). In this figure we also include two measurements of the decay rate of molecules created from the $`|9/2,5/2`$ and $`|9/2,9/2`$ Feshbach resonance (open circles), where $`B_0=224.21`$ G Regal2003b . The solid circles in Fig. 3(b) show the corresponding atom loss rate with molecules present.

We find that the lifetime of the molecules increases dramatically as the Feshbach resonance is approached. Away from the Feshbach resonance the molecule lifetime is $`1`$ ms as reported in Ref. Regal2003c . Near the resonance the lifetime is greater than 100 ms, similar to that of atoms. It is interesting to compare the size of the molecules to the interatomic spacing of the atoms, which in the peak density region of the initial atom cloud is $`7000`$ $`a_0`$. The molecule size as given by $`a/2`$ becomes $`7000`$ $`a_0`$ at $`\mathrm{\Delta }B0.1`$ G width . This suggests that very close to the Feshbach resonance the system exists in an exotic regime where atoms are likely to lie within the extent of a molecule.

We have also performed experiments in which we do not deliberately create molecules; in this way we can measure exclusively the atom lifetime. Instead of ramping the magnetic field to reach the Feshbach resonance, we access the Feshbach resonance by suddenly changing the Zeeman level of one of the two spins in the system. (This will result in a nonequilibrium sample.) The atom loss rate is then measured by watching the decay of the atom number in time to determine the initial atom loss rate. The results are shown as the squares in Fig. 3(b). In general, we find that the atom lifetime is similar whether or not there is a large molecule component in the gas.

Using the spin-changing technique described above we have also measured the loss rate in a trap whose depth is large compared to the atoms’ energy. In this case the loss rate is more accurately determined, since heating does not lead to evaporative loss. For these data the optical trapping potential was recompressed after evaporative cooling. The final trap had a depth of $`10`$ $`\mu `$K and a radial trapping frequency of $`\nu _r=725`$ Hz. The final gas was at $`T=670`$ nK and $`T/T_F=0.85`$, but had a similar peak density to data in Fig. 3, $`n_{pk}=1.4\times 10^{13}`$ cm-3. To determine the atom loss and heating rates we measure the total atom number as a function of time until $`20\%`$ of the atoms are lost. From the slope of these data in time we determine the heating and loss rates (Fig. 4(b),(c)).

Additionally, in Fig. 4 we plot hydrodynamic expansion data from which we determine the position of the Feshbach resonance. To measure the aspect ratio of the expanded cloud $`\sigma _z/\sigma _r`$ we started with a gas in a trap characterized by $`\nu _r=440`$ Hz at $`T/T_F=0.55`$ and $`n_{pk}=1.7\times 10^{13}`$ cm-3. We access the Feshbach resonance with the previously described spin changing technique. We then turn off the optical trapping light, and the gas expands for a total of 21.3 ms, where 7 ms of this expansion takes place at the magnetic field value near the Feshbach resonance. As shown in Refs. Regal2003b ; Bourdel2003a ; Gehm2003a ; Gupta2003a  anisotropic expansion of the gas in this regime is a signature of a large elastic collision rate. Thus, we interpret the magnetic field location of the maximal decrease in the aspect ratio of the expanded cloud as the position of the Feshbach resonance, $`B_0`$. We find that $`B_0=202.1\pm 0.1`$ G (Fig. 4(a)).

As shown in Fig. 4, we find large loss rates on primarily the repulsive side of the $`|9/2,7/2`$, $`|9/2,9/2`$ Feshbach resonance peak. Recognize that the $`|9/2,7/2`$ and $`|9/2,9/2`$ spin states are distinguished as being the two lowest energy states of the 40K atom at these magnetic fields; they are therefore immune to any two-body losses associated with the s-wave resonance Bohn2000a . Hence, we interpret the loss as three-body recombination associated with the Feshbach resonance. The strong heating can be explained by the density dependence of the three-body loss process as well as by the binding energy released in a recombination process to a weakly bound molecular state Weber2003a . We note that the observed peak in the inelastic processes for an s-wave Feshbach resonance in 6Li is also shifted to the repulsive side of the maximum of the elastic scattering Bourdel2003a ; Dieckmann2002a .

In conclusion, we have measured the magnetic-field dependence of the lifetime of both molecules and atoms near an s-wave 40K Feshbach resonance. Away from resonance the molecules have a short lifetime due to vibrational quenching, while the atoms have a long lifetime due to Fermi statistics. However, the situation is drastically changed very close to the Feshbach resonance as the molecule size begins to be comparable to the interatomic spacing. Here the molecule decay rate is suppressed by orders of magnitude, while the atoms exhibit strong three-body recombination rates. The atom loss occurs primarily on the repulsive side of the resonance where the weakly bound molecular state exists. We speculate that this state plays an important role in the asymmetry of the three-body recombination. Furthermore, our results suggest that near a Feshbach resonance the strong overlap of atom pair and molecule wavefunctions plays an important role in inelastic processes.

This study shows that the outlook is good for studying long-lived molecules and strongly interacting Fermi atoms. The molecule lifetime near the Feshbach resonance has been shown to be much longer than collision times and trap oscillator periods (Fig. 3). Further, the attractive (high magnetic field) side of the resonance, where fermionic superfluidity is predicted, displays strong elastic interactions with a relatively inconsequential inelastic rates (Fig. 4).

We thank C. E. Wieman, E. A. Cornell, and M. Holland for useful discussions and J. Smith for experimental assistance. This work was supported by NSF and NIST; C. A. R. acknowledges support from the Hertz Foundation.


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# The Rich-Club Phenomenon In The Internet Topology

## I Introduction

The analysis of the Internet topology at the Autonomous System (AS) level by Faloutsos et al  showed that the probability that a node has $`k`$ links has a power–law tail for large $`k`$, following $`P(k)k^y`$, $`y=2.22`$. Subramanian et al , using a heuristic argument based on the commercial relationship between ASes, found that the Internet has a tier structure. Tier 1 consists of a “core” of ASes which are well connected to each other. There have been some attempts to model the network using Transit–Stub and Tiers generators. Tangmunarunkit et al  showed that the degree distributions produced by these structure-based generators are not power–laws. Their results are based on qualitative metrics and they recognized that there is a need for further studies to characterize network topologies. There exist network models that produce power–law networks, e.g. the Barabási and Albert (BA) scale–free model  and the Inet–3.0 model  to mention just two of them.

We address in this letter the following questions: Can we characterize the core tier of the AS without making any heuristic assumptions? Does the power–law network generators produce a tier structure similar to the one measured in the Internet? To answer these questions we introduce the rich–club phenomenon as a quantitative way to characterize a core tier without making any heuristic assumption on the network elements interaction.

One of the main properties of power–law networks is that a small number of nodes have large numbers of links, we call these nodes, rich nodes. In this letter we show that the AS graph shows a rich–club, i.e. a core tier. The members of the club tend to be very well connected between each other, they create a tight group where if two members of the club do not share a link, it is very likely that they share a common node that can link them, that is the average hop distance is between one and two. Also, we have compared the rich–club measured in the AS graph with the one produced by the BA model, the Fitness BA model  and the Inet–3.0 model, where the synthetic networks are created to model the AS graph. Our results show that the BA and Fitness BA model do not create a rich–club. The Inet–3.0 model creates a rich–club but with a deficit in the number of core–links. Notice that in this letter, we are not trying to characterize all the existing power–law network generators, but to show that it is possible to distinguish between them by studying the properties of the rich–club.

## II The AS Graph And Its Models

### II-A AS Graph

A number of studies  on the AS-level Internet topology used the so-called original AS connectivity maps. The original maps are based on BGP routing tables collected by the University of Oregon Route Views Project . Chen et al  constructed the extended maps  using additional data sources, such as the Internet Routing Registry (IRR) data and the Looking Glass (LG) data. The extended maps have 20–50% more links than the original maps and provide a more complete picture of the AS graph. The AS connectivity data used in this letter is an extended map measured on May 26th 2001. Table I shows some properties of the data. For comparison, Table I also shows the synthetic graphs generated using the following network models.

### II-B Barabási-Albert Model

The model  generates networks with a power–law degree distribution by using two generic mechanisms: growth, where the network “grows” by attaching a new node with $`m`$ links to $`m`$ different nodes present in the network; and preferential attachment, where new nodes are attached preferentially to nodes that are already well connected. The probability that a new node will be connected to node $`i`$ with degree $`k_i`$ is

$$\mathrm{\Pi }(i)=\frac{k_i}{_jk_j}.$$
(1)
The BA model has generated great interest in various research areas and has been used as a starting-point in research into the error and attack tolerance of the Internet . The properties shown in Table I are of a network where each new node has three new links ($`m=3`$) which are preferentially connected to three already existing nodes. Notice that this model generates networks with a power–law link distribution of $`P(k)k^3`$ .

### II-C Fitness BA Model

The model  is a modification of the BA model. It uses generalized preferential attachment which assures that, even a relatively young node with a small number of links, can acquire new links at a high rate if it has a large fitness parameter. The reason we study this model is that, for the uniform fitness parameter distribution, the network generated by this model has a power–law exponent similar to that of the AS graph.

### II-D Inet–3.0 Model

The model  generates networks in three steps: 1) build a spanning tree with all nodes that have degrees greater than one, 2) connect all nodes with degree one to nodes in the spanning tree with a linear preference, and 3) connect the remaining free links in the spanning tree. The model was designed to match the measurements of the original maps of the AS graph. The number of links generated by the model depend on the number of nodes and the exponent of the power–law. Choosing these two parameters to match the AS graph of Table I, the model typically generates 26% less links than the AS graph.

## III The Rich–Club Phenomenon

The rich–club is characterized by the rich–club connectivity and the node–node link distribution, which measure the interconnection between rich nodes.

### III-A Rich–club connectivity

Nodes in the network are sorted by decreasing number of links that each node contains. There are instances where groups of nodes contain identical numbers of links. Where this occurs, they are arbitrarily assigned a position within that group. The node rank $`r`$ denotes the position of a node on this ordered list. $`r`$ is normalized by the total number of nodes $`N`$. The rich–club is defined, for the purposes of this study, as nodes with rank less than $`r_{max}`$ (e.g. 1%). The rich–club connectivity $`\varphi (r)`$ is defined as the ratio of the total actual number of links to the maximum possible number of links between members of the rich–club. The maximum possible number of links between $`n`$ nodes is $`n(n1)/2`$.

Figure 1 shows the rich–club coefficient $`\varphi (r)`$ against node rank $`r`$ on a log–log scale. It shows that the rich nodes of the AS graph are very well connected between each other. The top 1% rich nodes have 32% of the maximum possible number of links, compared with $`\varphi (1\%)=18\%`$ of the Inet-3.0 and only $`\varphi (1\%)=5\%`$ of the BA and the Fitness BA graphs.

### III-B Node-node link distribution

We define $`l(r_i,r_j)`$ as the number of links connecting nodes with rank $`r_i`$ to nodes with rank $`r_j`$, where $`r_ir_j`$. Figure 2 shows the node-node link distribution $`l(r_i,r_j)`$ against corresponding node rank $`r_i`$ and $`r_j`$. The node ranks are divided into 5% bins.

In the AS graph (Fig. 2a), rich nodes are connected preferentially to other rich nodes. The number of links between the top 5% rich nodes (far corner) is significantly larger than the numbers of links connecting the rich nodes to other nodes with smaller degrees (see the column with $`r_i=5`$%).

The node-node link distribution of the Inet-3.0 (Fig. 2b) is similar to that of the AS graph, however, the number of links between the top 5% rich nodes of the Inet–3.0 model (far corner, 3697 links) is significantly smaller than that of the AS graph (8919 links).

The link distributions of the BA and the Fitness BA graphs (Fig. 2c, d) are different from that of the AS graph. The top 5% rich nodes of the BA and the Fitness BA graphs are connected to all nodes with similar probabilities regardless of the node degree. The graphs generated by these two models do not contain a rich–club.

We end this section with the following observation: in the AS graph, if we take the rich–club to comprise the nodes ranking 1% or less, the probability distribution of node degrees between the members of the club is not a power–law, instead is more like the distribution obtained from a random network.

## IV Discussion and Conclusion

The AS graph has a core tier that we called the rich–club. Membership of the rich–club, as defined above, could be further limited by imposing the requirement of a relationship between the members of the club and their connectivity, for example that the average hop distance is less than $`1.5`$. This relationship can be made more explicit if we approximate the rich–club to a random network. In this case the average hop distance $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{ln}(n)/\mathrm{ln}(<k>)=\mathrm{ln}(n)/\mathrm{ln}(\varphi (r)(n1)/2)`$, where $`n`$ is the number of nodes contained in the rich–club and $`<k>`$ is their average node degree which is approximated by $`\varphi (r)(n1)/2`$.

We noticed that the BA and Fitness BA model do not have a rich–club due to the growth dynamics of the models. All new links connect with new nodes. Due to the preferential attachment, the probability for a new node to become a rich node decreases as the network grows. As a result, rich nodes are not well connected between each other. This suggests a simple modification to these models to generate a rich–club. As the network grows, new links appear which are preferentially attached between the existing nodes.

We believe that modeling the rich–club phenomenon is important because the connectivity between rich nodes can be crucial for network properties, such as network routing efficiency, redundancy and robustness. In the AS graph, there is a large number of alternative routing paths between the club members, their average path length is very small (1 to 2 hops). The rich–club acts as a super traffic hub and provides a large selection of shortcuts. Hence scale-free models without the rich–club phenomenon may under–estimate the efficiency and flexibility of the traffic routing in the AS graph. Also, networks without the rich–club may over–estimate the robustness of the network to a node attack, where the removal of a few of its richest club members can break down the network integrity.