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# The optical system of the H.E.S.S. imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes Part II: mirror alignment and point spread function

## 1 Introduction

H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System)  is a system of large imaging Cherenkov telescopes currently under construction in the Khomas Highland of Namibia at 1800 m a.s.l., $`23^{}16^{}`$ S, $`16^{}30^{}`$ E. The first telescope commenced observations in the summer of 2002. Three additional telescopes are well advanced in their construction, and should be completed in 2004. Apart from a large mirror area – over 100 m2 per telescope – the design of the system emphasizes the stereoscopic observation of air showers over a large field of view of $`5^{}`$ diameter, as required both for the study of extended TeV gamma-ray sources and for survey tasks.

The purpose of this paper and a companion paper is to describe and document the optical system of the H.E.S.S. telescopes and its performance. This optical system is used to image the Cherenkov light generated by air showers onto the photomultipliers (PMTs) of the camera. The optics should provide high throughput and an imaging quality matched to the resolution of the PMT camera with its 960 pixels of $`0.16^{}`$ size. The point spread function of the optics influences the image shape and hence both the angular resolution of the telescope system and the gamma/hadron separation on the basis of image morphology. It is therefore of prime importance that the imaging properties of the telescopes are well understood, and that they are stable in time and over a range of operating parameters. The companion paper  – in the following referred to as Part I – covers the layout and the components of the telescope optical systems, including the segmented mirror with its support structure, the mirror facets – 380 for each telescope – and the Winston cone light concentrators in front of the PMT camera. In this Part II we concentrate on the technique used to automatically align the facets using the motorized facet actuators, and present the resulting point spread function. We also illustrate how the data gained in the alignment process can be used to study the stability of the dish structure.

## 2 Mirror alignment

For optimum imaging quality the alignment of the 380 mirror facets is crucial. The alignment uses the image of an appropriate star on the closed lid of the PMT camera, viewed with a CCD camera at the center of the dish (Fig. 1). To serve as a screen, the 1.6 m wide camera lid is painted white and provides on the optical axis a flat area of 60 cm by 60 cm free of bracings etc.. The individual facets are adjusted with the goal of combining the star images of all facets into a single spot at the center of the PMT camera.

The basic algorithm is as follows : a CCD image of the camera lid is taken. Before alignment, and with all facet actuators positioned roughly at the center of their range, this image might appear as shown in Fig. 2. A facet which is to be aligned is moved in both axes. The effects on the image are recorded and provide all information required to move the corresponding spot to the center of the main focus. This procedure is repeated for all facets in sequence. The alignment accuracy is constrained by the CCD resolution, the actuator step size, and the mechanics of the facet supports, as well as by the design of the alignment algorithm.

### 2.1 The monitoring CCD cameras

Given the large number of mirror facets on each H.E.S.S. telescope, a reliable and automatic scheme for mirror alignment is required. Such a scheme is implemented using the CCD camera to record the star images and to provide feedback for the actuator movements. The camera (“Lid CCD”) is located at the center of the dish and is used to view images of stars on the closed lid of the PMT camera. In addition, each H.E.S.S. telescope is equipped with a a second CCD camera (“Sky CCD”) which is mounted off-axis viewing the sky, and which serves as a guide telescope. The main parameters of these cameras and their optics are summarized in Table 1. The field of view of the lid CCD should be adjusted such that the central region of the PMT camera is covered and in addition at least three of eight positioning LEDs mounted at the corners of the PMT array are viewed 111In the measurements with the first telescope - CT03 - only the central region of the lid was covered; the CCD camera was readjusted later.. These LEDs serve to monitor deformations of the camera masts. The two CCD cameras are optimized differently. The lid CCD emphasizes a large dynamic range. During the alignment process, images generated by individual facets as well as the central spot with contributions from up to 380 facets must be resolved; the required frame rate is modest. The sky CCD, on the other hand, has a lower intensity resolution, but high frame rate in order to monitor telescope tracking continuously (during part of the measurements described here, the fast Ap1E was not yet available, and a slower ST7 camera was substituted). Both cameras are controlled using a PC running Linux, and the images produced may be directed into the main data stream (during normal operation), and/or to a specialized mirror alignment process. For the mirror alignment procedure only the lid CCD is used.

### 2.2 CCD image analysis

For the mirror alignment stars between -1.5 and 2.0mag were used, with typical exposure times in the 0.2 to 16 s range; the measurement of the point spread function was performed in the -1.5 to 4.1mag range, with exposures from 0.7 to 100 s. After alignment the image of a star typically contains a few $`10^6`$ electron charges, spread over O(100) CCD pixels. Signals are therefore very large compared to typical noise levels of 11 electrons (rms) per pixel. During the alignment, isolated images generated by individual mirror facets contain 2000 or more electrons.

CCD image processing relies on the *eclipse* library 222The ‘ESO C Library for an Image Processing Software Environment’ provides services related to image handling, filtering, dead pixel recognition, flatfielding, object detection, feature extraction etc..  from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), supplemented by additional methods. Details of the image processing differ between the mirror alignment procedure – where the emphasis is to define spot locations in a relatively short time – and the measurement of the point spread function – where the signal regions must be defined without discarding the tails of the intensity distribution.

In the mirror alignment procedure, light spots generated by individual mirror facets need to be identified. The detection of these spots is based on the difference of two CCD images taken in sequence for different positions of one of the alignment actuators of a certain mirror facet. The subtraction of the two images eliminates spots generated by other mirror facets, images of secondary stars, and inhomogeneous background illumination (such as moon light partially shadowed by the steel structure). Only the images generated by the mirror facet which was moved remain, and are usually easy to identify. Various consistency checks are applied during the analysis of the two CCD images. These include checks for intermediate tracking problems, changing weather conditions, and accidental identification of image artefacts. The difference method is very robust concerning image quality and therefore the preparation of the raw images can be rather simple. In a first step the (assumed constant) background level in the image (i.e., electronics offset, dark current, background light) is estimated by calculating the median of the pixel intensities, and is subtracted. The background subtracted images are cleaned by a 3x3 median filter in order to eliminate single hot pixels. A 3x3 Gaussian filter smoothes the images and simplifies the detection of image objects.

For the determination of the point spread function, the correct removal of the background and the identification of pixels belonging to the light spots are of prime concern. Faint tails of the intensity distribution need to be included without the introduction of a pedestal due to an underestimated background level. In a first step, the spot location is estimated using the image object detection algorithm of the eclipse library. The background level is then determined by applying a Gaussian fit to the distribution of pixel intensities using a relatively small area around the spot location. Because of the good homogeneity of the CCD chip, a flat-fielding correction can be omitted. To determine the pixels belonging to the star image, a special spot extraction algorithm has been developed. The area surrounding the spot is divided into segments for which the total intensities are calculated. Segments with negative total intensities are discarded. This is repeated for increasing segmentations of the remaining area. After the isolation of the signal region the center of gravity of all associated pixels is calculated. In case the newly determined spot location differs by more than a quarter of an image pixel from the previous location, the spot extraction is reiterated.

Extensive tests were performed to ensure that the procedures to define signal pixels do not introduce a bias in the determination of the point spread function and image shape. In addition, the results were verified using an independent analysis based on an alternative segmentation algorithm .

### 2.3 Location of focus

For optimal imaging, a Cherenkov telescope should be focused at the height of the shower maximum or somewhat higher . For a typical distance to the shower maximum of $`D8`$ km, this implies that the focal plane should be positioned at $`df/(1f/D)f+28\text{ mm}`$, where $`f`$ is the nominal focal length. In case of the H.E.S.S. telescopes, the mirror alignment was carried out using the images of stars on the camera lid, positioned at $`f=15.00`$ m. The corresponding focus for shower images is then located about 30 mm behind the lid, and concident with the entrance of the array of Winston cones mounted in front of the PMTs. The Winston cones then act as non-imaging light concentrators, funnelling light onto the photocathodes. Therefore, after focusing star images on the camera lid, the PMT camera is at the optimal focus for shower images.

### 2.4 Alignment algorithm

The position of an individual light spot in the focal plane, $`𝐱(x_1,x_2)`$, is given by a function

$$𝐱=f(q_1,\mathrm{},q_6,𝐚),$$
(1)
which depends on the position and orientation of the corresponding facet support, $`q_i`$, and on the position of both actuators, $`𝐚(a_1,a_2)`$. Actuator positions are measured in units of counts of the Hall sensors, which monitor turns of the alignment motors (see Part I for a detailed description of the facet support units, and of the facet actuators and the associated control electronics). As the explicit expression for $`f`$ is rather complex and the exact values of the $`q_i`$ are hard to determine, a linear approximation is used to relate $`𝚫𝐱`$ and $`𝚫𝐚`$:

$$𝚫𝐱=𝐓𝚫𝐚,𝚫𝐚=𝐓^\mathrm{𝟏}𝚫𝐱$$
(2)
The transformation matrix

$$𝐓=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\delta x_1/\delta a_1& \delta x_1/\delta a_2\\ \delta x_2/\delta a_1& \delta x_2/\delta a_2\end{array}\right)$$
(3)
is determined by driving both actuators individually for a fixed number of counts while imaging the change in $`𝐱`$ with the lid CCD camera. The components of $`𝐓`$ are correlated due to the geometry of the facet support triangles, which are mounted on the dish with a fixed orientation:

$$\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\delta x_1/\delta a_2}{\delta x_2/\delta a_2}\right)𝐑_{\mathrm{𝟏𝟐𝟎}}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\delta x_1/\delta a_1}{\delta x_2/\delta a_1}\right),𝐑_{\mathrm{𝟏𝟐𝟎}}\left(\begin{array}{cc}1/2& \sqrt{3}/2\\ \sqrt{3}/2& 1/2\end{array}\right)$$
(4)
Here, $`𝐑_{\mathrm{𝟏𝟐𝟎}}`$ accounts for the angle of $`120^{}`$ between the two directions of movement. The function $`f`$ is not strictly linear in $`𝐚`$ so the transformation matrix itself is a function of $`𝐚`$ and its components vary by some $`\pm 10`$ % for the whole range of the actuators. The validity of a certain matrix $`𝐓`$ is thus confined to a small range. To move a facet spot over a larger distance, an iterative procedure has to be used, with a compromise between precision and number of the iterations required (and hence the time required for alignment). Various procedures (“alignment algorithms”) have been studied. They differ, for example, in the effort made to determine $`𝐓`$ or in the step sizes.

To investigate the performance of different alignment algorithms, a simulation of the facet support mechanism and of the alignment process has been developed. (With the intention of concentrating on the inaccuracies caused by the finite step size of the actuators and by the uncertainty of the transformation matrix, the influence of the CCD imaging with its finite pixel size and noise was not simulated in detail.) For each algorithm investigated, $`10^5`$ mirror alignments have been simulated repeatedly for various distances of the mirror facet to the center of the dish. For reference, the alignment was first simulated using the exact representation of $`𝐱`$ (Eq. (1)) to determine the maximum achievable accuracy. In this case, the deviation from the nominal position is only due to the uncertainty of one count in each actuator position and represents the limits of the hardware. The simulation resulted in a distribution for individual light spots in the focal plane with a rms deviation of $`0.015`$ mrad and a worst case of $`0.051`$ mrad (see Fig. 3).

This is in good agreement with test measurements of the facet support mechanics ($`0.017`$ mrad rms, see Fig. 3 and also Part I). After simulating the alignment accuracy for various algorithms, the algorithm described in the following section was chosen; its rms deviation of $`0.023`$ mrad is only marginally worse than the optimal case.

### 2.5 Alignment procedure

In addition to achieving a high alignment accuracy, the algorithm should enable the fast and reliable realignment of the mirror facets, in case the point spread function is observed to deteriorate over time. This is accomplished by splitting the procedure into two parts. During the *initial alignment* certain parameters are determined and stored in a database for further usage. These parameters include the range and position of the actuators and the final matrix to transform between CCD and actuator coordinates, valid near the center of the camera. The *realignment* procedure does not redetermine these values but simply retrieves them from the database. Since this transformation matrix depends primarily on the orientation of the facets, it should not vary with time, and in fact no significant changes were observed over several months. Following this approach, the time-consuming determination of these parameters has to be performed only once. The time required to align mirrors is to a significant extent determined by the CCD readout time. Another criterion was therefore to minimize the number of CCD exposures and wherever possible, only preselected CCD regions are read out.

The initial alignment procedure for a facet consists of several steps. At first the correct connection to the corresponding node on the branch cable is checked (see Part I). Next the range of both actuators is determined (refered to as “referencing”). As the actuator motors are not equipped with encoders and only provide information about the direction and amount of their travel, the lower stop is used as an internal position reference. The upstrokes of both actuators are determined by driving them to the lower stop and measuring the range from there to the upper stop. The valid range for positioning the actuators is then slightly reduced at both ends (by 5%) to avoid driving the actuators into the springs at the stops, reducing the potential of mechanical failure. Finally both actuators are driven to the lower end of their range to move the facet image out of the field of view of the lid CCD camera. Electrical problems and most types of mechanical defects will show up in these steps; the referencing is therefore also used to test the modules. These first two steps of the initial alignment procedure may take place during daytime; no optical feedback is required.

The aim of the next step is to identify the individual image of a star (spot) corresponding to the mirror facet to be aligned, and to determine a coarse transformation matrix for positioning the spot near the nominal position (“coarse alignment”). The nominal position is defined by the center of gravity of the facets which have been already aligned (the “main spot”). Due to the lack of a main spot for the first few facets, the spot of a laser pointer is used instead. The facets are aligned in sequence, with only one unaligned spot in the CCD field of view at a given time; images from other unaligned facets remain outside the field of view. A good starting point for positioning the spot of a facet inside the field of view is to move both actuators of a facet to the center of their range (Fig. 2 shows the resulting spread for all facets). Facets which have their image still outside of the CCD field of view ($``$2%) must be pre-aligned with human intervention. Next, a CCD image is taken. One of the actuators is then driven a predefined number of counts and another CCD image is taken. Here a 2$`\times `$2 CCD pixel binning is used which is sufficient for deriving a coarse transformation matrix, while significantly reducing exposure and CCD image readout times. From the analysis of these images, two elements of the transformation matrix are determined. Given these two elements, the other two can be estimated with sufficient precision on the basis of Eq. (4), due to the fixed geometry of the facet supports. Based on the measured spot location and the estimated matrix, both actuators are then driven to move the facet spot to the location of the main spot.

The initial alignment ends with the determination of the transformation matrix with maximum accuracy followed by the positioning of the facet spot at the center of the main spot (“fine alignment”). The procedure is similar to the coarse alignment; however, the transformation matrix is derived for both actuators individually and a 1$`\times `$1 CCD pixel binning is used. To obtain an accurate transformation matrix for the area around the main spot, the facet spot is placed at positions symmetrically surrounding the main spot. With this approach, the resulting transformation matrix is essentially perfect for the vicinity of the main spot. This step is illustrated in Fig. 4. The image readout time is reduced by retrieving only the relevant small sub-frame of the CCD image containing the spots.

The realignment procedure is essentially a fine alignment of a single actuator without deriving a new transformation matrix. The spot of a given facet is moved out of the main spot, located, and driven back to the exact center of the main spot. This technique requires two CCD exposures to locate the facet spot, before and after the facet is moved. An even faster realignment was achieved by omitting the ‘before’ exposure and using the known transformation matrix to predict where to search for the spot generated by the facet, after it is moved out of the main spot. However, secondary stars accidentally overlapping the facet spot are then not corrected and may result in slight alignment errors.

We note here that mirrors are aligned relative to the main spot (or a laser spot for the first few mirrors). This procedure can be applied even if the telescope does not track the star perfectly. In any case, with a measured absolute pointing precision of about one arc-minute and relative tracking deviations with respect to the average orbit of a few arc-seconds, tracking of the H.E.S.S. telescopes is perfect for all practical purposes. This holds in particular for the measurements of the point spread function discussed later; using bright stars, stable tracking over a few seconds of exposure time is sufficient.

Table 2 summarizes the net duration for the different steps of the alignment procedure.

The steps requiring optical feedback can be performed during times where the moon is partially visible, and do not interfere with the schedule for taking very high energy gamma-ray data.

## 3 Point spread function

All mirror facets of the first H.E.S.S. telescope (for historical reasons labelled “CT03”) were successfully aligned in January/February 2002; the second telescope (“CT02”) was aligned in November/December 2002. In construction, all four H.E.S.S. telescopes are identical, and should therefore exhibit identical mechanical and optical characteristics 333However, the weights required to balance the telescopes were observed to differ by O(100 kg), most likely caused by tolerances in the wall thickness of the camera arms.. During the initial alignment of the telescopes, the PMT cameras were not yet available; instead, dummies of roughly the same weight and with front surfaces in the same location as the real camera lid were installed.

To study the point spread function after the alignment of the telescopes was completed, a variety of stars were used, covering a wide range of locations within the field of view (Fig. 5 left) and of elevation and azimuth angles for the telescope pointing (Fig. 5 right). Because of the limited field of view of the lid CCD camera of the first telescope, the entire field of view of the PMT camera – with $`5^{}`$ diameter – could not be covered in these measurements. For the second telescope, the camera was pointed slightly off-axis, to cover both the center of the field of view, and – in one direction – the edge.

The measured point spread functions of both telescopes are essentially identical.

Fig. 6 shows a typical result, namely the CCD image of the image of a star on the camera lid, in relation to the size of a hexagonal PMT pixel. The image spot is symmetrical, without pronounced substructure, and the width of the spot is well below the PMT pixel size. As mentioned earlier, the signal charges in the CCD pixels are very high, so that noise and statistical fluctuations in the signal are of no concern.

To quantify the width of the intensity distributions, different quantities are used. These include the rms width $`\sigma _{proj}`$ of the projected (1-dimensional) distributions, the rms width $`\sigma `$ of the two-dimensional distribution, and the radii $`r_{60}`$ or $`r_{80}`$ of circles around the center of gravity of the image, containing 60% or 80% of the total intensity, respectively. For a symmetrical Gaussian intensity distribution, the following relations hold:

$`\sigma `$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{2}\sigma _{proj}`$ (5)
$`r_{60}`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{2\mathrm{ln}(5/2)}\sigma _{proj}=\sqrt{\mathrm{ln}(5/2)}\sigma `$ (6)
$`r_{80}`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{2\mathrm{ln}5}\sigma _{proj}=\sqrt{\mathrm{ln}5}\sigma `$ (7)
On the optical axis, the point spread function is characterized by values $`\sigma =0.33`$ mrad (CT02) and 0.32 mrad (CT03) (compared to an initial specification of 0.71 mrad), $`\sigma _{proj}=0.23`$ mrad and 0.23 mrad (compared to 0.50 mrad), $`r_{60}=0.30`$ mrad and 0.28 mrad (compared to 0.68 mrad) and $`r_{80}=0.41`$ mrad and 0.40 mrad (compared to 0.90 mrad).

### 3.1 Variation across the field of view

Optical aberrations are significant in Cherenkov telescopes, due to their single-mirror design without corrective elements and their modest $`f/d`$ ratios. At some distance from the optical axis, one therefore expects the width $`\sigma `$ of the point spread function to grow linearly with the angle $`\theta `$ to the optical axis. On the axis, the width of images is determined by the intrinsic optical quality of the mirror facets, $`\sigma _o`$, by the aberrations caused by the fact that most facets are inclined relative to the optical axis, $`\sigma _a`$, and by the precision $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{align}`$ with which the individual mirror facets are aligned. To a good approximation, the width of the point spread function should hence be given by

$$\sigma =(\sigma _o^2+\sigma _a^2+4\mathrm{\Delta }_{align}^2+c\theta ^2)^{1/2}$$

where the factor 4 accounts for the doubling of facet alignment errors due to reflection. The constant $`c`$ describes the aberrations for off-axis rays and is proportional to the inverse square of the $`f/d`$ ratio of the telescope.

With increasing inclination to the optical axis the spot is indeed observed to widen (Fig. 7); it also develops an asymmetric tail away from the optical axis. A more quantitative description of the spot shape is provided by projections of the intensity distribution on the radial and tangential directions, shown in Fig. 8 for angles of $`0^{}`$, $`0.96^{}`$ and $`2.05^{}`$ relative to the optical axis.

For measurements near the elevation angle where the telescope was aligned, around $`65^{}`$, Fig. 9 summarizes the spot parameters as a function of the angle $`\theta `$ to the optical axis. In addition to $`r_{80}`$, the rms widths of the distributions projected on the radial ($`\sigma _{radial}`$) and tangential ($`\sigma _{tangential}`$) directions are given. The radial axis goes from camera center to the center of the spot, the tangential axis is the corresponding orthogonal direction. The measurements demonstrate that the spot width depends primarily on $`\theta `$; any other variation, depending on the exact location in the field of view, is small and no other systematic trend is found. With increasing angle to the optical axis, the spot width increases, following a shallow parabola at small angles. Later a transition to a linear dependence is observed, as expected on the basis of the modeling of the optical system (see Part I). The images become slightly elliptical, elongated in the radial direction, again as expected. The two telescopes show very similar point spread functions; the last three points for $`r_{80}`$ of CT03 in Fig. 9 are marginally above the corresponding values for CT02, but are still consistent given the typical scatter of the measurements, and taking into account the varying observing conditions, night sky brightness etc.

To verify that the measured intensity distribution is quantitatively understood, Monte Carlo simulations of the actual optical system were performed, including the exact locations of all facets, shadowing by camera masts, etc. As further input, the measured average spot size of the mirror facets and the precision of the alignment algorithm were used. The latter is govered primarily by the accuracy with which images of individual facets can be located in the CCD images, which enters both directly and indirectly via errors in the determination of the transformation matrix and which results in an overall alignment uncertainty of 0.10 mrad for the individual spots. The errors in the location of images were derived by moving some individual mirrors in steps along straight lines and comparing expected and measured positions, and by comparing the positions determined with different algorithms for image analysis.

The results are included in Fig. 9 as solid lines, and are in good agreement with the measurements. The simulations tend to slightly underestimate the point spread function on axis. A likely explanation is that the simulations use identical Gaussian point spread functions for the individual facets, whereas some of the actual measured spots are highly non-Gaussian, and in extreme cases even exhibit double sub-spots.

### 3.2 Variation with telescope pointing

Given the weight of the facets and the size of the dish, it would be non-trivial and quite costly to design a dish structure which does not deform under the influence of gravity when moved in elevation. The structure of the H.E.S.S. telescopes represents a compromise between stiffness versus weight and cost. Over the working range in elevation, about $`30^{}`$ to $`90^{}`$, the influence of gravity-induced deformations should be small compared to the intrinsic point spread function of the mirror facets, specified by the requirement that 80% of the light is contained in a circle of 1 mrad diameter.

To test for variations of the spot size with telescope pointing, the (most sensitive) on-axis point spread function was measured over a wide range of pointings, see Fig. 5. No significant dependence of the point spread function on telescope azimuth was detected at fixed elevation. This is non-trivial, since in the H.E.S.S. telescopes additional stiffness is provided by tensioning the dish between the two elevation towers. A deviation from perfect flatness of the azimuthal rail could introduce an azimuth-dependent modulation of the tension and hence of the shape of the dish.

What is both predicted (see Part I) and observed is a variation of the point spread function with elevation, presumably mainly due to deformations of the dish structure, but also with small contributions from the facet support units. Fig. 10 illustrates how the measured spot width changes with elevation. The width is at a minimum around $`65^{}`$ to $`70^{}`$, the angle at which the facets were aligned. For the range of elevation angles most relevant for Cherenkov observations (above $`45^{}`$) the spot size $`r_{80}`$ varies by less than 10%; at $`30^{}`$ it is about 40% larger than the minimum size. At the alignment elevation the on-axis spot is essentially circular; at lower and higher elevations the spot becomes elliptical and is narrower in the elevation direction as compared to the orthogonal direction, along the telescope azimuth. At low elevations, the deviation between the spot widths along its two main axes can reach 50%.

To provide a description for use in simulations etc., the spot size as a function of elevation $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ was parametrized by the function

$$r_{80}(\mathrm{\Theta })=(r_{eff}^2+d^2(\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Theta }\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Theta }_0)^2)^{1/2}$$

with $`r_{eff}=0.41`$ mrad, $`d=0.96`$ mrad and $`\mathrm{\Theta }_0=66^{}`$. The parameter $`d`$ refers to the deformation of the dish relative to the alignment position; the measured value agrees within 25% with the value expected on the basis of finite element simulations of the dish. A more detailed discussion of the dish deformations will be given in section 4.

### 3.3 Long-term stability of the point spread function

While a realignment of facets is possible within a relatively short time, the telescope structure was designed for good long-term stability, to minimize drifts in the imaging characteristics.

The point spread function of the first telescope (CT03) has been measured several times over the course of nearly a year, first in February 2002 after the initial alignment, then in Summer 2002 after the PMT camera was mounted, and again in December 2002 when the mirror of the second telescope (CT02) was aligned, and in July 2003. An increase in the width of the (on-axis) point spread functions of up to 15% was observed between the first and the second measurement, in particular in $`r_{80}`$ and in the horizontal direction of the image. This change is very likely caused by the difference of about 100 kg between the actual camera and the dummy load used during the initial alignment; the forces generated by the camera arms represent a significant contribution to the gravity-induced deformations of the dish. Since the point spread function after installation of the camera was still well below specifications, a realignment was not required. Between the second, third and forth measurement, the point spread function was stable.

## 4 Study of deformations of the dish structure

The remote control of individual facets offers additional options to study the mechanical characteristics of the dish. Once facets are aligned – i.e., the actuators are referenced relative to an absolute system and the transformation between actuator coordinates and image coordinates is determined – spots generated by individual facets can be arranged in arbitrary patterns. As an example, Fig. 11 shows the spots corresponding to individual mirror facets arranged in the form of a square matrix. Each element of the matrix is the image of the observed star generated by one facet. One notices significant differences between facets; some of the images are notably elongated, while others are approximately circular spots. Part of these differences are caused by variations in the quality of the mirror facets; the bulk of the effect, however, are optical aberrations for off-axis facets. Facets at the edge of the dish generate the majority of the elongated images, and the orientations of the images correlate with the position on the dish.

The matrix pattern enables one to study deformations of the dish structure in much greater detail, than is possible by observing only the effect on the overall point spread function. For this purpose, images of the matrix were taken for different elevations of the dish. By tracking the relative movement of individual spots with elevation, the deformation of the corresponding locations in the dish can be determined. Fig. 12 shows the deflection of facets between $`65^{}`$ and $`29^{}`$ elevation. Deformations are particularly strong in the regions where the dish is supported and where the camera arms are attached.

The data on facet deflection allows a direct comparison between the finite element (FEM) simulations and the actual performance of the dish. In the design of the dish, FEM simulations were carried out for elevations of $`20^{}`$, $`50^{}`$ and $`90^{}`$ (see Part I). In the simulations, the middle elevation was defined as the reference point were the facets are aligned 444For the actual alignment, a higher reference elevation around $`65^{}`$ is used in order to optimize the behaviour in the range between $`45^{}`$ and $`90^{}`$, where most observations are carried out.. To directly compare data and FEM simulations, facet deflections were determined relative to the facet pointing at $`50^{}`$ elevation. The rms deflection for all facets is shown in Fig. 13, as a function of elevation, separately for the horizontal and vertical deflections.

Data and simulation agree reasonably well; the dish actually deforms less than predicted. Given the differences between the actual dish and the simplified model assumed in the simulations, such differences are to be expected – for some beams, slightly modified wall thicknesses were used, weight was added due to material in the nodes of the structure, walkways etc. Also, the FEM model made very conservative assumptions concerning the stiffness of the nodes of the spaceframe backing the dish.

In summary, we conclude that the FEM simulations have proven a reliable (or even conservative) tool for the design of the H.E.S.S. instruments.

## 5 Absolute pointing of the telescope

The discussion was so far mainly concerned with the point spread function, i.e. the width of the image. A second important quality criterion of a Cherenkov telescope is the pointing precision. For strong gamma-ray sources, the location of the source on the sky can be determined with a statistical precision of a few arc-seconds. Systematic errors – resulting, for example, from deviations of the telescope pointing – should be reduced to a similar level. This is non-trivial, since image information obtained during normal operation – such as stars in the field of view – cannot be used to monitor telescope pointing with sufficient precision, given the coarse pixel size. Cherenkov telescopes therefore have to rely primarily on shaft-encoder data for pointing (in the case of the H.E.S.S. telescopes, this information is augmented by images from the optical guide telescope – the “sky CCD”), and one needs to apply corrections for effects such as the bending of the camera arms.

A detailed discussion of this issue is beyond the scope of this paper and will be addressed elsewhere. Here, we will only summarize the main conclusions obtained at this time:

* Deformations of the camera arms, which result in a shift of images relative to the PMT pixel matrix, are monitored by viewing the set of LEDs at the edge of the PMT camera using the lid CCD; the measured bending of the arms – expressed in terms of the image shift – is well described by $`b=82.7\mathrm{"}\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta }`$ .
* Using a parameterization to relate measured shaft encoder values to true pointing, a pointing precision of about 8” rms is obtained. The corrections account for the bending of the masts, but also for nonlinearities of the encoders, alignment errors of the telescopes azimuth and elevation axes, etc.
* Using in addition the information from the sky CCD camera when a star is in its field of view, pointing can be improved to less than 3” rms.

## 6 Summary

Using the first two telescopes of the H.E.S.S. system, an automatic alignment technique for the mirror facets has been developed and tested, and the optical properties of the telescopes were studied in detail.

The alignment of the 380 facets proceeded to a large extent automatically. Operator intervention was required only for a small fraction of facets where the actuator mechanics had problems and needed to be exchanged, or where the initial spot was not within the field of view of the CCD camera. In total, about 75 h are required in total to align all mirrors, about 2/3 of the work being possible during daytime. A realignment is possible within one or two nights.

The point spread function of a telescope depends on the optical design, on the quality of the individual mirror facets, on the precision of the alignment and on the mechanical stability of the dish and the facet supports. The quality of the mirror facets and the precision of the alignment system exceed specifications by a significant margin. At the time of the design, 0.5 mrad was specified for the rms width of the one-dimensional projection of the spot, evaluated on the optical axis where the spot size is minimal (see Part I). This value should be compared to the measured width of 0.23 mrad.

The point spread function is expected to broaden with increasing distance from the optical axis, and to vary slightly with elevation beause of gravity-induced deformations of the dish. The point spread function, measured around $`65^{}`$ elevation and characterized by the radius $`r_{80}`$ of a circle containing 80% of the light, and is well described by

$$r_{80}=(0.42^2+(0.71\theta )^2)^{1/2}\text{[mrad]}$$

where $`\theta `$ is the angle to the optical axis in degrees. The point spread functions are almost identical for the two telescopes. Individual fits show a difference of 0.01 between the telescopes for the first coefficient, and of 0.05 for the second. Monte Carlo simulations using the measured facet characteristics as input predict

$$r_{80}=(0.38^2+(0.72\theta )^2)^{1/2}\text{[mrad]}$$

indicating that the telescopes behave as expected. With elevation $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$, the on-axis spot size varies roughly as

$$r_{80}=(0.41^2+0.96^2(\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Theta }\mathrm{sin}66^{})^2)^{1/2}\text{[mrad]}$$

where $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is given in degrees. This spot size should be compared with the PMT pixel size of 2.8 mrad.

## Acknowledgements

A large number of persons have, at the technical level, contributed to the design, construction, and commissioning of the telescopes. We would like to express our thanks to the technicians and engineers from the participating institutes for their devoted engagement, both at home and in the field, initially frequently under adverse conditions. The team on site, T. Hanke, E. Tjingaete and M. Kandjii provided excellent support. S. Cranz, the owner of the farm Goellschau, has given valuable technical assistance. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of U. Dillmann, T. Keck, W. Schiel of SBP, of H. Poller of SCE and of R. Schmidt and F. van Gruenen of NEC, responsible for the design and the construction of the telescope structures. We thank J. Hinton for his comments on the manuscript. Telescope construction was supported by the German Ministry for Education and Research BMBF.


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# Electromotive force and internal resistance of an electron pump

## Abstract

We present a scattering theory of the electromotive force and internal resistance of an electron pump. The characterization of the device performance in terms of only two parameters requires the assumption of incoherent multiple scattering within the circuit and complete thermalization among electrons moving in a given direction. The electromotive force is shown to be of the order of the driving frequency in natural units. In an open setup, the electromotive force adds to the voltage difference between reservoirs to drive the current, both facing a contact resistance which is absent in the case of a closed circuit of uniform width.

Electrons pumps favor electron motion in a given direction by combining nonlinear ac driving and some asymmetry in the spatial structure or in the temporal signal. This rectification of electron motion generates current in the absence of a net dc voltage bias swit99 ; thou83 ; staf96 ; pede98 ; brou98 ; wagn99 ; kim02 ; lehm03 . Most theoretical calculations have dealt so far with the calculation of the pump current, which is the current flowing through the device when the electrons incident from both sides are characterized by the same chemical potential. In practice, however, one is likely to be interested in the performance of the pump as a circuit component, something which cannot be predicted from the mere knowledge of the pump current. This creates the need to characterize the electron pump as a battery with a certain electromotive force and internal resistance. Although the electromotive force can in principle be obtained from the dc bias that exactly cancels the pump current swit99 ; wagn99 , its derivation within a unified and general scheme seems desirable. On the other hand, there is no obvious ansatz for the calculation of the internal resistance. A potential application of this new class of devices is the generation of current in small closed circuits not attached to broad wires acting as electron reservoirs. Such a setup is schematically depicted in Fig. 1. One may also consider a pump in series with a resistor, both within a lead that couples to large reservoirs through ideal contacts, as indicated in Fig. 2. In this article, we derive formulae which express the battery parameters in terms of the transmission and reflection probabilities for electrons crossing the pump and the resistor. The scattering theory here presented attempts to play a role for the electromotive force and internal resistance of an electron pump similar to that which the Landauer-Büttiker theory has represented for the conductance of nanostructures land57 . An important difference, however, is that the scenario which we investigate requires a more coarse-grained description if we wish to uniquely characterize the circuit performance of the pump in terms of a small set of parameters. Such an effective self-averaging of the device performance requires the assumption of electron decoherence between the pump and the resistor in series. Unlike in Ref. butt86a , we assume that effective phase randomization can be achieved with negligible backscattering. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that a minor distortion of the environment suffices to induce electron dephasing, while a more continued interaction is needed to change the electron energy or direction appreciably ster90 . We find that reflectionless decoherence between the circuit elements is still insufficient to permit the characterization in terms of only two parameters, and not twice as many as available transverse channels. To achieve a simple and manageable description we must assume that, within the leads, electrons moving in each direction are characterized by a single chemical potential. The adequacy of this assumption, or its replacement by a weaker one within a model of comparable tractability, deserves further study. The total current through a two-lead multimode structure in the presence of local ac driving may be written

$$I=\frac{e}{h}𝑑E_i[f(E_i\mu _R^{\mathrm{in}})T_{LR}(E_i)f(E_i\mu _L^{\mathrm{in}})T_{RL}(E_i)]$$
(1)
$$T_{LR}(E_i)\underset{aL}{}\underset{bR}{}𝑑E_fT_{ab}^{LR}(E_f,E_i),$$
(2)
$`T_{ab}^{LR}(E_f,E_i)`$ being the probability distribution that an electron incident from the right lead in channel $`b`$ with energy $`E_i`$ is transmitted into channel $`a`$ of the left lead with energy $`E_f`$. For future convenience, we assume $`I>0`$ when current flows from right to left. The chemical potentials $`\mu _L^{\mathrm{in}},\mu _R^{\mathrm{in}}`$ characterize the population of incoming electrons. The pump effect is based on the existence of an asymmetry between the left-to-right and right-to-left transmissions. Thus it is convenient to define:

$`T(E_i)`$ $``$ $`[T_{LR}(E_i)+T_{RL}(E_i)]/2`$ (3)
$`\delta T(E_i)`$ $``$ $`T_{LR}(E_i)T_{RL}(E_i).`$ (4)
If we linearize $`f(E\mu _{L,R}^{\mathrm{in}})`$ around a common reference chemical potential $`\mu _0`$, we may write the total current as the sum of a bias and a pump contribution

$`I`$ $`=`$ $`I_B+I_P`$ (5)
$`I_B`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{e}{h}}\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{\mathrm{in}}{\displaystyle 𝑑E_i[f^{}(E_i\mu _0)]T(E_i)}`$ (6)
$`I_P`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{e}{h}}{\displaystyle f(E_i\mu _0)\delta T(E_i)},`$ (7)
with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{\mathrm{in}}\mu _R^{\mathrm{in}}\mu _L^{\mathrm{in}}`$. Hereafter, we take $`\mu _00`$, although we note that (unlike $`I_B`$) $`I_P`$ does depend on $`\mu _0`$.

Let us focus on the current flow in a given channel $`a`$ on e.g. lead $`L`$. For convenience, we define $`\stackrel{~}{I}_\alpha (h/e)I_\alpha `$ for all future current contributions. To achieve a better perspective, we momentarily abandon the assumption that the chemical potential is channel independent. The total current through channel $`aL`$ can then be written:

$$\stackrel{~}{I}_a=\mu _a^{\mathrm{in}}+\mu _a^{\mathrm{out}},$$
(8)
where $`\mu _a^{\mathrm{in}(\mathrm{out})}`$ characterizes the population of electrons in $`L`$ approaching (leaving) the pump. We note that, even if the “in” population is rigorously thermal, the “out” population is not. However, one can always find a suitably defined chemical chemical potential $`\mu _a^{\mathrm{out}}`$ that reproduces the same current flow (and, in one dimension, the same current density sols99 ). Like the total current, this outgoing chemical potential has a “bias” and a “pump” contribution,

$`\mu _a^{\mathrm{out}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _a^{\mathrm{out},\mathrm{B}}+\mu _a^{\mathrm{out},\mathrm{P}}`$ (9)
$`\mu _a^{\mathrm{out},\mathrm{B}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{b}{}}S_{ab}\mu _b^{\mathrm{in}}`$ (10)
$`\mu _a^{\mathrm{out},\mathrm{P}}`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{~}{I}_{P,a},`$ (11)
where $`\stackrel{~}{I}_{P,a}`$ is the pump current in channel $`a`$ ($`_a\stackrel{~}{I}_{P,a}=\stackrel{~}{I}_P`$). Since the bias contribution depends only on the symmetrized probability \[see Eq. (3)\], we have $`S_{ab}=S_{ba}`$. On the other hand, unitarity requires $`_bS_{ab}=1`$. The term $`\mu _a^{\mathrm{out},\mathrm{P}}`$ accounts for the excess (or defect) of electrons generated by the pump. It reflects the fact that an operating battery creates a population imbalance which ultimately drives the current through the circuit. Assume that, in series with the pump, we introduce a resistor which is also characterized in terms of its scattering probabilities. The resulting circuit is schematically depicted in Fig. 1. Being the resistor a passive element, its flow equations do not include a pump term. We write

$$\stackrel{~}{I}_a=m_a^{\mathrm{in}}\underset{b}{}\sigma _{ab}m_b^{\mathrm{in}}m_a^{\mathrm{in}}m_a^{\mathrm{out}},$$
(12)
where $`m_a^{\mathrm{in}(\mathrm{out})}`$ is the chemical potential for the electrons approaching (leaving) the resistor, and $`\{\sigma _{ab}\}`$ are the scattering probabilities by the resistor, which obey $`\sigma _{ab}=\sigma _{ba}`$ and $`_a\sigma _{ab}=1`$. The sign convention in Eq. (12) is different from that used in the pump equations because counterclockwise current is taken to be positive (see Fig. 1). Now we note that the “out” population of the pump is the “in” population of the resistor, and viceversa. We seal this equivalence by establishing a common notation. For $`aL`$ we write

$`\mu _a^{\mathrm{in}}=m_a^{\mathrm{out}}\mu _{L,a}^{}`$ (13)
$`\mu _a^{\mathrm{out}}=m_a^{\mathrm{in}}\mu _{L,a}^{},`$ (14)
and similarly for $`aR`$. The vertical arrows refer to the direction of movement within the convention of Fig. 1.

Although a solution of the flow equations that would permit us to predict the total current in terms of $`\{I_{P,a},S_{ab},\sigma _{ab}\}`$ is formally possible, our real goal is the characterization of the pump in terms of two parameters. To achieve this objective, we have to introduce the simplifying assumption that electrons flowing in a given direction within a lead are all characterized by the same chemical potential. We express it as

$$\mu _{L,a}^{}=\mu _L^{}\mu _{R,a}^{}=\mu _R^{}aL,R.$$
(15)
Hereafter we differentiate between reflection and transmission probabilities: $`S_{ab}R_{ab},T_{ab}`$ and $`\sigma _{ab}\rho _{ab},\tau _{ab}`$. We introduce the notation

$`R_a{\displaystyle \underset{b}{}}R_{ab}T_a{\displaystyle \underset{b}{}}T_{ab}(R_a+T_a=1),`$ (16)
$`R{\displaystyle \underset{a}{}}R_aT{\displaystyle \underset{a}{}}T_a(R+T=N),`$ (17)
$`N`$ being the number of transverse channels. The resistor parameters $`\rho _a,\tau _a,\rho ,\tau `$ are defined analogously. We introduce an average “pump chemical potential” $`\mu _P_a\mu _a^{\mathrm{out},\mathrm{P}}/N=\stackrel{~}{I}_P/N`$. The total current can now be written

$$\stackrel{~}{I}=N(\mu _L^{}\mu _L^{})=N(\mu _R^{}\mu _R^{}).$$
(18)
These four chemical potential are not independent but are rather related by the flow equations

$`N\mu _L^{}`$ $`=`$ $`R\mu _L^{}+T\mu _R^{}+N\mu _P`$ (19)
$`N\mu _L^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\rho \mu _L^{}+\tau \mu _R^{}`$ (20)
$`N\mu _R^{}`$ $`=`$ $`T\mu _L^{}+R\mu _R^{}N\mu _P`$ (21)
$`N\mu _R^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\tau \mu _L^{}+\rho \mu _R^{},`$ (22)
which are physically transparent. The different sign carried by the pump contribution $`N\mu _P`$ in Eqs. (19) and (21) expresses the fact that, when $`\mu _P>0`$, there is an excess of outgoing electrons on the left of the pump and a corresponding defect of outgoing electrons on the right. When Eqs. (19) – (22) are introduced into Eq. (18), we obtain for the total current

$`\stackrel{~}{I}`$ $`=`$ $`T\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{}+N\mu _P`$ (23)
$`=`$ $`\tau \mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{},`$ (24)
where the chemical potential differences $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{}\mu _L^{}\mu _R^{}`$ satisfy the relations

$`N\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{}`$ $`=`$ $`(RT)\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{}+2N\mu _P`$ (25)
$`N\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{}`$ $`=`$ $`(\rho \tau )\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{}..`$ (26)
We may solve for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{}`$ in Eqs. (25) and (26) and introduce the solutions in either (23) or (24) to obtain

$$\stackrel{~}{I}=\frac{(N/T)I_P}{\rho /\tau +R/T}.$$
(27)
Calculating the electromotive force $`𝒱_{\mathrm{emf}}`$ and the internal resistance $`_i`$ amounts to finding a relation

$$I=\frac{𝒱_{\mathrm{emf}}}{+_i},$$
(28)
where $``$ is a suitably defined resistance for the resistor. Comparison of Eqs. (27) and (28) uniquely leads to the result

$`𝒱_{\mathrm{emf}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{h}{e^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{I_P}{T}}`$ (29)
$`_i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{h}{Ne^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{R}{T}},`$ (30)
provided that

$$=\frac{h}{Ne^2}\frac{\rho }{\tau }.$$
(31)
The prefactors have been chosen to make $`𝒱_{\mathrm{emf}}`$ an intensive quantity while $`,_iN^1`$ as $`N\mathrm{}`$. We may apply our results for $`𝒱_{\mathrm{emf}}`$ and $`_i`$ to the analytically solvable pipeline model, which assumes that transmission takes place only within a single pair of channels wagn99 . It can be expressed as:

$$T_{ab}^{LR}(E_f,E_i)=J\delta _{ab}\delta (E_f^zE_2)\delta (E_i^zE_1).$$
(32)
Here $`E_\alpha ^z`$ ($`\alpha =i,f`$) is the energy in the direction perpendicular to the planar structure and $`(E_2E_1)/\mathrm{}=\omega >0`$ is the driving frequency. The other scattering probabilities are determined by time-reversal symmetry in the presence of coherent ac driving \[$`T_{ab}^{LR}(E,E^{})=T_{ba}^{RL}(E^{},E)`$\] and unitarity. For three dimensions, the single pipeline model yields

$$T=DJ$$
(33)
where $`D=Am/2\pi \mathrm{}^2`$ is the two-dimensional transverse density of states, $`A`$ being the interface area. Preservation of unitarity requires $`DJ<N`$. The total pump current is

$$I_P=eDJ\omega /2\pi ,$$
(34)
so we interpret $`eDJ`$ as the pumped charge per cycle. For the circuit parameters we obtain

$`𝒱_{\mathrm{emf}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{}\omega /e`$ (35)
$`_i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{h}{Ne^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{NDJ}{DJ}}`$ (36)
The result that the electromotive force is just $`\mathrm{}\omega /e`$, independently of the transmittivity $`J`$, is remarkable if one looks at the general structure of Eqs. (7), (16), (17), and (29), but could have been expected from the notion that the pipeline model allows only for an energy gain $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ as the electron is pumped from right to left, regardless of the total electron flow. We readily conclude that, in a more general pump structure, $`𝒱_{\mathrm{emf}}\mathrm{}\omega /e`$, in agreement with Refs. swit99 ; wagn99 . By contrast, the internal resistance is very sensitive to the transmittivity of the pump. In particular, we note that $`_i\mathrm{}`$ as $`J0`$. We now turn our attention to an open setup where the pump and resistor stay in series within a lead coupled through ideal contacts to broad electron reservoirs. As indicated in Fig. 2, the chemical potentials in the reservoirs characterize the population of the incoming electrons. Hence, we refer to them also as $`\mu _{L,R}^{\mathrm{in}}`$. One may perform an analysis similar to that described for the closed geometry of Fig. 1. After some algebra, one obtains

$$I=(e/h)T^{}(e𝒱_{\mathrm{emf}}+\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{\mathrm{in}}),$$
(37)
where $`𝒱_{\mathrm{emf}}`$ is given by Eq. (29), and $`T^{}(T\tau /N)/(1R\rho /N^2)`$ is the the average transmission through the compound structure formed by the pump plus the resistor. Interestingly, Eq. (37) can also be written as

$$I=\frac{𝒱_{\mathrm{emf}}+\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{\mathrm{in}}/e}{(h/Ne^2)++_i},$$
(38)
where the resistances $``$ and $`_i`$ are given by Eqs. (31) and (30) respectively. Thus we see that, within an open geometry, the pump electromotive force adds to the voltage bias generated by the potential difference between the two electron reservoirs. This confirms the intuitive expectation that $`𝒱_{\mathrm{emf}}`$ can be obtained from the the voltage difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu ^{\mathrm{in}}`$ needed to cancel the pump current swit99 ; wagn99 . A striking difference between Eqs. (28) and (38) is the role of the contact resistance $`h/Ne^2`$, which is absent in the case of a closed structure. Comparison of the underlying models suggests that the contact resistance disappears under the assumption that the flow of outgoing electrons on the left of the resistor-pump structure of Fig. 2 is identified with the the flow of incoming electrons from the right, and equivalently for electrons moving in the opposite direction. We conclude that, within a closed circuit of uniform width, there is no natural lower limit to the resistance that the electron current must face as it is generated by the electron pump. This result appears reasonable if one notes that contact resistances along the circuit are generated by narrow-wide contacts where the width of the wire (and thus the number of available electron channels) changes imry86 . The denominators of Eqs. (28) and (38) suggest that the resistances which we have introduced should be additive. Unfortunately, the ratios $`R/T`$ and $`\rho /\tau `$ cannot be guaranteed to be additive in general. That is possible only in one dimension, where the ration $`R/T`$ is known to be additive for barriers compounded incoherently datt95 , or, for multichannel wires, in the particular case where the scattering probabilities are independent of the channel index ($`R_{ab}=R/N^2`$, $`T_{ab}=T/N^2`$, and similarly for $`\rho _{ab},\tau _{ab}`$). In such a case, the assumption of a common chemical potential for all incoming electrons ($`\mu _a^{\mathrm{in}}=\mu _{L,R}^{\mathrm{in}}`$ for all $`aL,R`$) automatically guarantees an outgoing population with a common chemical for all outgoing electrons ($`\mu _b^{\mathrm{out}}=\mu _{L,R}^{\mathrm{out}}`$ for all $`bL,R`$). Within that scheme, the assumption of a common chemical potential for all electrons moving in a given direction \[see Eq. (15)\] is internally consistent in the sense that a scenario may be conceived where the outgoing population from a barrier or pump is guaranteed to be a suitable incoming population for the following obstacle. Interestingly, it is also in the channel-independent scattering limit where the resistance defined in Ref. butt85  becomes additive and equivalent to the resistance defined in Eq. (31). On closer inspection, one realizes that the assumption of channel-independent scattering is hard to justify within an independent electron picture, where no naturally additive resistance can be defined for multichannel wires without invoking impurity averaging. In particular, such a hypothesis is not satisfied by the pipeline model invoked above, since its transmission depends on the perpendicular energy. We conclude that the question of the definition of an electron pump internal resistance is directly connected to the discussion on the additivity of resistances in multichannel wires. As long as this fundamental issue is not satisfactorily resolved, the transport equations (28) and (38) \[as complemented by (29), (30), and (31)\] which we have derived will have to be viewed as approximations obtained from a reasonable and appealing scheme. This research has been supported by the MCyT (Spain) under Grant No. BFM2001-0172, the EU RTN Programme under Contract No. HPRN-CT-2000-00144, and the Ramón Areces Foundation.


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# Anisotropic spin fluctuations in heavy-fermion superconductor CeCoIn5: In-NQR and Co-NMR studies

## I Introduction

Heavy-Fermion (HF) superconductivity has been a matter of interest with respect to an intimate interplay between magnetism and superconductivity since the discovery of HF superconductivity in CeCu2Si2 steglich79 . From the extensive experimental and theoretical works on CeCu2Si2, it has been revealed that the unconventional superconducting (SC) phase takes place at the border of an antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase and even coexists with it when the superconductivity occurs very close to the AFM phase. CeCu2Si2 was the only cerium-based HF superconductor at ambient pressure, before a new family of HF compounds CeIrIn5 and CeCoIn5 forming in two-dimensional (2D) tetragonal structures was discovered to show superconductivity below $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ = 0.4 K and 2.3 K, respectively petrovic01 ; petrovic01a . Remarkably, the value of $`T_\mathrm{c}=2.3`$ K for the latter is a record of high $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ to date among previous examples.

Meanwhile, the HF antiferromagnet CeRhIn5, which crystallizes in the same crystal structure, was discovered to show superconductivity below $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ = 2.2 K at pressures exceeding a critical pressure of 1.63 GPa hegger00 . In CeMIn5 (M = Ir, Co, and Rh), the unconventional superconductivity with line-node gap is suggested from the power-law temperature ($`T`$) dependence of specific heat petrovic01 ; petrovic01a ; fisher02 , nuclear relaxation rate $`1/T_1`$ mito01 ; kohori01 ; curro01 ; zheng01 , penetration depth higemoto02 ; ormeno02 ; ozcan02 , thermal conductivity izawa01 , and so on. Systematic investigation of this new family of HF superconductors allows us to unravel a relationship between the occurrence of unconventional superconductivity and possible spin fluctuations in the normal state.

In fact, a number of experiments point to non-Fermi-liquid (NFL) behavior above $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ in these compounds. For instance, in CeCoIn5, the physical quantities such as the specific heat divided by temperature $`C/T`$, the Pauli susceptibility $`\chi `$ and $`1/T_1T`$ reveal a significant increase upon cooling without entering any conventional Fermi-liquid regime where these quantities stay constant petrovic01 ; kohori01 . The $`T`$ dependence of resistivity does not follow a conventional $`T^2`$ dependence but indicate approximately a $`T`$-linear dependence sidorov02 . In the magnetic-field ($`H`$) induced normal state, $`C/T`$ continues to increase upon cooling down to 50 mK. These NFL behaviors are considered to originate from magnetic fluctuations due to the proximity to an AFM quantum critical point (QCP). In CeCoIn5, therefore, the unconventional superconductivity arises from the NFL normal state.

The AFM spin fluctuations in CeIrIn5 and CeRhIn5 have been investigated by inelastic neutron diffraction bao02  and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) experiments zheng01 ; mito01 . In both the compounds, anisotropic AFM spin fluctuations develop in the normal state. The $`T`$ variation of $`1/T_1`$ in CeIrIn5 pointed to the presence of anisotropic AFM spin fluctuations near the QCP zheng01 . Systematic study on the family of CeMIn5 is promising in unraveling possible role of spin fluctuations for the emergence of superconductivity.

In this paper, we report results of In-NQR at zero field ($`H`$ = 0) and Co-NMR under a magnetic field $`H=1.1`$ T on single crystals of CeCoIn5, focusing on the characteristics of spin fluctuations in the normal state. In the normal state at $`H=0`$, $`1/T_1`$ varies nearly as $`T^{1/4}`$ over a wide $`T`$ range. This unique behavior is consistent with the anisotropic AFM spin-fluctuation’s (SFs) model in case of the proximity to an AFM QCP. The terminology of the anisotropic AFM spin fluctuations means here that a magnetic correlation length $`\xi _{\mathrm{plane}}`$ within the tetragonal plane develops more dominantly than $`\xi _c`$ does along the $`c`$-axis. It is suggested that the value of $`T_\mathrm{c}=2.3`$ K for CeCoIn5 becomes larger than $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ = 0.4 K for CeIrIn5 because of approaching the AFM QCP. The AFM spin fluctuations in CeCoIn5 are suppressed by the magnetic field, reinforcing that CeCoIn5 is closely located to the QCP.

## II Experimental

High-quality single crystals of CeCoIn5 and LaCoIn5 were grown by In self-flux method as described elsewhere shishido02 . For the NMR measurement in CeCoIn5, we used several pieces of single crystals stacked with a shape of flat plate which undergo a SC transition at $`T_\mathrm{c}=`$ 2.3 K. CeCoIn5 has two inequivalent In sites per a unit cell. The 115In-NQR $`T_1`$ measurement at $`H=0`$ was performed at the In(1) site located on the top and the bottom faces of the tetragonal unit cell at the NQR frequency $`\nu _Q`$ 8.16 MHz curro01 ; kohori01 . The Co-NMR $`T_1`$ was measured under $`H`$ = 1.1 T. The quadrupole frequency of 59Co for CeCoIn5 is estimated as $`\nu _Q`$ 0.23 MHz from the Co-NMR spectra, so it is experimentally difficult to detect Co-NQR signals at $`H`$ = 0. Note that a principal axis of the electric field gradient is parallel to the tetragonal $`c`$-axis at the In(1) and Co sites. In order to deduce the $`4f`$-derived contribution of magnetic fluctuations, the In-NQR and Co-NMR $`T_1`$ measurements have been made on LaCoIn5 at $`H=0`$ and 0.9 T, respectively. These measurements were carried out by a conventional phase-coherent laboratory-built pulsed NQR/NMR spectrometer.

## III Results and Discussion

Figure 1 indicates the $`T`$ dependence of $`1/T_1`$ along with the data on LaCoIn5 at $`H=0`$ for the lowest quadrupole transition ($`\pm 1/2\pm 3/2`$). The $`T`$ dependence of $`1/T_1`$ is consistent with the result reported previously kohori01 . In the SC state, $`1/T_1`$ decreases rapidly without any coherence peak just below $`T_\mathrm{c}=2.3`$ K. In contrast to the suggestion by Kohori et al. kohori01 , we remark that a simple behavior of $`1/T_1T^3`$ is not valid, presumably affected by the close proximity to the AFM QCP. Actually, a possibility has raised that the anomalous power-law $`T`$ behavior in London penetration depth at low $`T`$ well below $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ is due to an extension of quantum criticality into the SC state ozcan02 . In this context, a deviation from $`1/T_1T^3`$ allows us to address what happens in system located very close to AFM QCP when it becomes superconducting. In order to clarify this, further experiments under pressure are now in progress.

Here, we focus on the characteristics of spin fluctuations in the normal state. $`1/T_1`$ in LaCoIn5 is proportional to $`T`$ as seen in Fig. 1. In CeCoIn5, however, $`1/T_1`$ is faster than that in LaCoIn5. It is remarkable that $`(1/T_1)_{4f}`$ varies nearly as $`T^{1/4}`$ in a wide $`T`$ range, where $`(1/T_1)_{4f}`$ corresponds to the $`4f`$ contribution of relaxation by subtracting a value of $`1/T_1`$ in LaCoIn5 at each temperature. This novel power-law behavior in $`(1/T_1)_{4f}`$ points to the presence of strong AFM spin fluctuations. Above $`T^{}`$ 150 K, $`1/T_1`$ is almost independent of temperature, exhibiting that the system is in a localized regime. It is known in HF systems that $`T^{}`$ is scaled to the quasielastic linewidth in neutron-scattering spectrum, leading to a tentative estimation of the bandwidth of HF state.

Kohori et al. claimed that $`1/T_1T^{1/4}`$-like dependence would arise from the spin fluctuations at the AFM QCP for isotropic three dimensional (3D) systems. The SFs theory for strongly correlated electron systems near an AFM instability revealed that $`1/T_1T\sqrt{\chi _Q(T)}`$ and $`1/T_1T\chi _Q(T)`$ for 3D and 2D systems, respectively by assuming an expansion of dynamical susceptibility as $`\chi (Q+q,\omega )^1=\chi _Q^1+a(q_x^2+q_y^2+q_z^2)i\omega /\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Here, the staggered susceptibility at the AFM propagation vector $`q=Q`$, $`\chi _Q(T)`$, follows the Curie-Weiss law above the Néel temperature, namely, $`\chi _Q(T)1/(T+\theta )`$. Note $`\theta =0`$ K at the AFM QCP. At the AFM QCP or $`\theta =0`$ K for 3D systems, $`1/T_1`$ is expected to be proportional to $`\sqrt{T}`$ at high $`T`$ and varies as $`T^{1/4}`$ for $`t`$ smaller than about $`10^2`$ ishigaki . Here, $`t`$ is the reduced temperature defined by $`t=T/T^{}`$. It is hence unexpected for isotopic 3D systems to vary nearly as $`1/T_1T^{1/4}`$ as observed in CeCoIn5 over such the wide $`T`$ range.

We argue, therefore, this novel future in terms of the anisotropic AFM-SFs model due to the layered structure. Let us now consider a case where a magnetic correlation length ($`\xi _c`$) along the $`c`$-axis for AFM spin fluctuations remains in a much shorter range than $`\xi _{\mathrm{plane}}`$ within the basal plane. This is then modeled by assuming $`\chi (Q+q)^1=\chi _Q^1+a_1(q_x^2+q_y^2)+a_2q_z^4`$ instead of $`\chi (Q+q)^1=\chi _Q^1+a(q_x^2+q_y^2+q_z^2)`$. In this model, $`1/T_1T\chi _Q(T)^{3/4}1/(T+\theta )^{3/4}`$ is derived lacroix96 . Recently, another calculation by assuming $`\chi (Q+q)^1=\chi _Q^1+a(q_x^2+q_y^2+r_zq_z^2)`$ with being $`r_z`$ an anisotropy parameter has shown that physical properties are interpolated smoothly between 2 and 3 dimensions kondo02 . This result may be consistent with the claim that the observed $`T`$ dependence of $`1/T_1T^{1/4}`$ in a wide $`T`$ range is due to anisotropic AFM SFs, since this $`T`$ variation is intermediate behavior between those for 2D and 3D systems.

The $`T`$ dependence of $`(T_1T)_{4f}`$ is shown in Fig. 2. The data are consistent with the anisotropic SFs model with $`\theta =0.6`$ K as indicated by the solid line in the figure. Neither the 3D nor 2D SFs models are applicable as indicated by the dotted or broken lines. The value of $`\theta =0.6`$ K close to zero demonstrates that CeCoIn5 is closely located to the AFM QCP. This anisotropic SFs model was already shown to interpret well the $`T_1`$ results of CeIrIn5 with $`\theta `$ = 8 K that is significantly larger than that for CeCoIn5 zheng01 . Also the recent inelastic neutron experiment revealed that $`\xi _{\mathrm{plane}}`$ is larger than $`\xi _c`$ when approaching $`T_\mathrm{N}=3.5`$ K in the HF antiferromagnet CeRhIn5 at ambient pressure bao02 . These magnetic correlations in CeMIn5 are thus commonly characterized by the anisotropic AFM spin fluctuations.

We now discuss the relation between the value of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ and what extent is closer to the AFM QCP in CeCoIn5 and CeIrIn5. This closeness to the AFM QCP is evaluated from the value of $`\theta `$. It is noteworthy that the value of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ becomes larger as approaching the AFM QCP, since $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ increases as 0.4 K and 2.3 K as $`\theta `$ decreases as 8 K and 0.6 K for CeIrIn5 and CeCoIn5. This suggests an intimate interrelation between the AFM spin fluctuations and the onset of $`d`$-wave superconductivity in these compounds. Pagliuso et al. reported that the value of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ goes up as the lattice parameter $`c/a`$ increases pagliuso . In this context, the increase in $`c/a`$ might enhance the 2D character of AFM spin fluctuations leading to the enhancement in $`T_\mathrm{c}`$.

Over a long decade, it is currently proposed that the value of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ could be enhanced as the dimensionality in electronic structure is reduced from 3D to 2D regime monthoux ; nakamura . Consistently with this suggestion, the pressure-induced SC transition temperature in CeIn3, that forms in the 3D cubic structure, is one order smaller than $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ 2.2 K in CeRhIn5 that forms in the layered structure. Note that, in CeIn3, a $`T_1T`$ = const behavior is observed over a wide $`T`$ range above $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ in a pressure range where the AFM order is suppressed and the superconductivity appears shinji02 ; kohori02 . It is, therefore, indicated that AFM spin fluctuations are absent in this pressure range in the normal state of CeIn3. By contrast, the AFM spin fluctuations in CeRhIn5 continue to develop down to $`T_\mathrm{c}`$, exhibiting a character close to the AFM QCP mito01 . The record high value of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ in CeCoIn5 at $`P`$ = 0 and in CeRhIn5 under pressure to date is likely due to the existence of strong AFM spin fluctuations that develop in the vicinity of QCP.

Next, we move on to the magnetic field effect on the AFM spin fluctuations at the close vicinity of QCP in CeCoIn5. Since an energy scale is anticipated to be very reduced around a QCP, it is expected that the criticality at the AFM QCP is intimately influenced by applying small magnetic field. As a matter of fact, YbRh2Si2 and CeRu2Si2, which are anticipated to be located near a QCP, show the strong field dependence of SFs ishida98 ; ishida02 ; rossat-mignod . A recent theory also predicts that a strong magnetic field dependence should be observed at the QCP si .

In order to address possible $`H`$-induced change in AFM-SFs characteristics, we show the $`T`$ dependences of $`1/T_1T`$ in CeCoIn5 and LaCoIn5, in the inset of Fig. 1, that were measured at $`H`$ = 1.1 T parallel to the $`c`$-axis via the Co-NMR experiments. Figure 3 indicates the $`(T_1T)_{4f}`$ vs $`T`$ plot at $`H`$ = 1.1 T along with the $`(T_1T)_{4f}`$ vs $`T`$ plot at $`H`$ = 0 T. The respective data at $`H=`$ 0 T and 1.1 T are consistent with the anisotropic SFs model with $`\theta =`$ 0.6 and 2.5 K as indicated by the solid lines. Interestingly, the application of magnetic field makes the value of $`\theta `$ increase from 0.6 K to 2.5 K, making it away from the proximity to the AFM QCP. This result reinforces that the CeCoIn5 is closely located to the AFM QCP.

## IV Conclusion

In conclusion, the measurements of the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate $`1/T_1`$ by means of the 115In-NQR and 59Co-NMR have revealed that the magnetic nature in CeCoIn5 is characterized by the strong AFM spin fluctuations in the vicinity of QCP. At zero magnetic field, the anomalous $`T`$ dependence of $`(1/T_1)_{4f}`$ is well explained by the anisotropic spin-fluctuations model that predicts the relation $`T_1T(T+\theta )^{3/4}`$ with $`\theta =0.6`$ K. Noting that this model was applied to CeIrIn5 with $`\theta =8`$ K, we have suggested that $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ rises in CeCoIn5 because of approach to the AFM QCP where $`\theta =0`$ K. The application of magnetic field makes the value of $`\theta `$ increase from 0.6 K to 2.5 K, making it away from the QCP. This result also suggests that CeCoIn5 is closely located to the QCP.

## Acknowledgements

We would like to thank K. Ishida for valuable comments and discussion. This work was supported by the COE Research grant from MEXT of Japan (Grant No. 10CE2004). One of the authors (Y.K.) was supported by the JSPS.


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# Binding Energies and Scattering Observables in the 3He4He2 Atomic SystemThis work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the Academia Sinica, the NSC of Taiwan (ROC), and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research

## Abstract

The 3He4He2 three-atomic system is studied on the basis of a hard-core version of the Faddeev differential equations. The binding energy of the 3He4He2 trimer, scattering phase shifts, and the scattering length of a 3He atom off a 4He dimer are calculated using the LM2M2 and TTY He-He interatomic potentials.

The system of three He atoms is of great interest for various questions as, e.g., the formation of liquid helium drops, superfluidity or Bose-Einstein condensation. The literature on experimental and theoretical studies of the symmetric 4He three-atomic system is rather large (see, e. g., –  and references cited therein). In contrast, the asymmetric 3He4He2 system has found comparatively little attention. To the best of our knowledge the numerical studies of the 3He4He2 trimers were performed only in Refs. – . Except Ref. , there are no scattering calculations reported for this system.

In ,  the symmetric 4He three-atomic system was studied on the basis of a mathematically rigorous hard-core version of the Faddeev differential equations. Using this approach allows one to overcome technical complications due to the strong repulsive part in the atomic interaction. Along the same line we now study the asymmetric 3He4He2 system. We calculate its bound states, the scattering phase shifts of a 3He atom off a 4He dimer at ultra-low energies, and the corresponding scattering lengths.

In the present investigations we employ two realistic He-He atomic interactions, the LM2M2 potential by Aziz and Slaman  and the TTY potential by Tang, Toennies and Yiu . As in ,  we use the finite-difference approximation of the two-dimensional partial-wave Faddeev equations. We consider the case of zero total angular momentum and take $`\mathrm{}^2/m_{{}_{}{}^{4}\mathrm{He}}=12.12`$ K Å2 where $`m_{{}_{}{}^{4}\mathrm{He}}`$ stands for the mass of a $`{}_{}{}^{4}\mathrm{He}`$ atom. Notice that the 4He-dimer energy is 1.30348 mK for the LM2M2 potential and 1.30962 mK for the TTY potential .

Due to the smaller mass of the 3He atom ($`m_{{}_{}{}^{3}\mathrm{He}}/m_{{}_{}{}^{4}\mathrm{He}}`$=$`0.753517`$), the 3He – 4He system is unbound. None the less, the 3He4He2 trimer exists, though with a binding energy one order of magnitude smaller than the one of the 4He3 ground state (see, e.g.  and ). And, in contrast to the symmetric case, there is no excited (Efimov-type) state in the asymmetric 3He4He2 system.

The best dimensions of the grids employed in our investigation were $`N_\rho =600`$ and $`N_\theta =605`$ with a cut-off hyperradius $`\rho _{\mathrm{max}}=200`$ Å (see  for explanation of the notation). The maximal value of the angular momenta taken into account in the two-body subsystems was $`l_{\mathrm{max}}=4`$. Our results for the 3He4He2 binding energy as well as the results available in the literature, are presented in Table 1. One can see that at this point the different approaches agree fairly well. A small discrepancy in the results is possibly due to limitations of the computer facilities. We have found that most of the contribution to the 3He4He2 binding energy stems from the $`l=0`$ and $`l=1,2`$ partial waves, about 53% and 42%, respectively. The overall contribution from the $`l=3`$ and $`l=4`$ components is of the order of 5 %, that is, approximately the same as in the case of the symmetric 4He trimer . A certain (but rather small) deepening of the 3He4He2 binding energy may be expected when choosing a larger grid.

Our phase shift results obtained for a grid with $`N_\rho =502`$, $`N_\theta =500`$, and $`\rho _{\mathrm{max}}=460`$ Å are plotted in Fig. 1. Note that exactly the same grid was employed in the 4He–4He2 phase-shift calculations of . Incident energies below and above the breakup threshold, i. e. both for the elastic scattering $`(2+12+1)`$ and breakup $`(2+11+1+1)`$ processes, were considered. Table 2 contains our results for the 3He–4He2 scattering length.

Acknowledgements. We are grateful to Prof. V. B. Belyaev and Prof. H. Toki for providing us with the possibility to perform calculations at the supercomputer of the Research Center for Nuclear Physics of Osaka University, Japan.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Many nucleon resonances in the mass region above 1.6 GeV decay predominantly through $`\mathrm{\Delta }\pi `$ or $`N\rho `$ intermediate states into $`N\pi \pi `$ final states (see the Particle-Data Group review, ). This makes electromagnetic exclusive double-pion production an important tool in the investigation of $`N^{}`$ structure and reaction dynamics, as well as in the search for “missing” baryon states. Unpolarized cross-section measurements of double-pion electroproduction have recently been reported in . Further constraints are to be found in polarization observables.

Here, for the first time, a measurement of the $`\stackrel{}{\gamma }pp\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ reaction is being reported, where the photon beam is circularly polarized and no nuclear polarizations (target or recoil) are specified. The general form of the cross section can then be written as111See  for an overview of the more general case of exclusive-$`n`$ electron scattering, $`A(e,e^{}x_1\mathrm{}x_n)`$. The real-photon case, discussed here, results in a simpler formalism.

$$\sigma =\mathrm{\Sigma }+P_{}\mathrm{\Delta },$$
(1)
where $`P_{}`$ is the degree of circular polarization of the photon and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ are the unpolarized and polarized cross sections, respectively. For this kind of study, a three-body final state is crucial, since reactions with two-body final states are always coplanar and have identical cross sections for unpolarized or circularly polarized photons , so that $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$.

The cross-section asymmetry, obtained by flipping the beam polarization, is defined by:

$$A=\frac{1}{P_{}}\frac{\sigma ^+\sigma ^{}}{\sigma ^++\sigma ^{}}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}.$$
(2)
In this paper, we will discuss the double-charged-pion channel from a hydrogen target.

## 2 Data

The $`\stackrel{}{\gamma }pp\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ reaction was studied with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS)  at Jefferson Lab. Longitudinally polarized electrons with an energy of 2.4 GeV were incident on the thin radiator of the Hall-B Photon Tagger  and produced circularly-polarized tagged photons in the energy range between 0.6 GeV and 2.3 GeV. The collimated photon beam irradiated a liquid-hydrogen target. The circular polarization of the photon beam can be determined from the electron beam polarization and the ratio of photon and incident electron energy .

To identify the reaction channel, the missing-mass technique was used, requiring the detection of at least two out of three final-state particles ($`p`$, $`\pi ^+`$, and $`\pi ^{}`$) in the CLAS.

Owing to the large angular acceptance of the CLAS, complete angular distributions of the cross-section asymmetries were observable. Figure 1 defines the azimuthal angle $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}`$ between the scattering plane, containing the photon and the recoiling particle $`y`$, and the decay plane, containing the two particles $`x_1`$ and $`x_2`$. There are three different configurations relevant for the $`\stackrel{}{\gamma }pp\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ reaction channel: $`y[x_1,x_2]=p[\pi ^+,\pi ^{}],\pi ^+[p,\pi ^{}],`$ and $`\pi ^{}[p,\pi ^+]`$.

## 3 Results

Preliminary analysis of the double-charged-pion channels has revealed large asymmetries in the helicity-dependent cross section. Figure 2 shows preliminary $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}`$ angular distributions for different energy bins and for the $`p[\pi ^+,\pi ^{}]`$ and $`\pi ^{}[p,\pi ^+]`$ configurations. The asymmetry was fitted with a series of sine functions:

$$A(\mathrm{\Phi }^{})=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}a_i\mathrm{sin}(i\mathrm{\Phi }^{}).$$
(3)
No cosine terms were included in this series because the cosine is an even function. For example, when $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}=0`$ or $`180^{}`$, all the particles are in one plane, and for this case, there is no helicity dependence of the cross section, due to parity conservation. The fit of Eq. (3) to the data is shown in Fig. 2 as the dotted curves. Preliminary calculations for these cross-section asymmetries were done by Oed and Roberts  using a phenomenological Lagrangian approach and by Mokeev  in a phenomenological calculation using available information on $`N^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ states. It is important to note that the calculations performed to date have been integrated over $`4\pi `$, whereas the experimental data are integrated only over the CLAS acceptance. The results of the calculations are shown in Fig. 2 as solid curves. At about $`W=1.6`$ GeV, an excellent description of the data is achieved by both calculations, whereas for the other energy bins there is clearly room for improvement in the model parameters.

The energy dependence of the $`a_1`$ and $`a_2`$ Fourier coefficients of the observed preliminary angular distributions for the $`p[\pi ^+,\pi ^{}]`$ configuration is shown in Fig. 3. To demonstrate the strong dependence of the Fourier coefficients on the photon energy, reaction channel, and details of the kinematics, various cuts were applied to the data. Figure 3(a) shows the data where the invariant mass of the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ pair is less than 0.7 GeV (open triangles) and more than 0.7 GeV (filled triangles); Fig. 3(b) shows different angular cuts, namely, for data with $`\mathrm{cos}(\mathrm{\Theta }^{})0.30`$ (open circles) and for $`\mathrm{cos}(\mathrm{\Theta }^{})0.30`$ (filled circles).

It is desirable to examine the sensitivity of the asymmetry to various theoretical model parameters. In fact, current studies have indicated a strong sensitivity of the helicity asymmetries to relative contributions of various isobaric channels and interference among them. An example is shown in Fig. 4, where the preliminary $`\stackrel{}{\gamma }pp\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ asymmetry data at $`W=1.84`$ GeV for the configuration $`\pi ^{}[p,\pi ^+]`$ are compared with various calculations by Mokeev . These calculations differ only in the amplitude and phase of the diffractive rho-production term. The helicity asymmetry shows strong sensitivity to this model parameter, whereas the differential cross section does not. This confirms the importance of the polarization observables for differentiating between model predictions.

In summary, angular distributions of large helicity-dependent cross-section asymmetries in the $`\stackrel{}{\gamma }pp\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ reaction were observed for the first time, using the CLAS detector system. Our preliminary analysis has revealed the rich structure of these data, which are sensitive to details of the reaction dynamics. These data will prove to be an important tool in baryon spectroscopy, and similar data obtained using light nuclei (2H, 3He, and 4He) will help us to understand the modification of baryonic parameters in the nuclear medium .

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under grant DE–FG02–95ER40901. Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) operates the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility under U.S. Department of Energy contract DE–AC05–84ER40150.


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# Low-dimensional long-range topological structure in the QCD vacuum Talk presented by I. Horváth, at Lattice 2003 Symposium, Tsukuba, Japan.

## Abstract

Lattice topological charge associated with Ginsparg-Wilson fermions exhibits generic topological stability over quantum ensemble of configurations contributing to the QCD path integral. Moreover, the underlying chiral symmetry leads to the suppression of ultraviolet noise in the associated topological charge densities (“chiral smoothing”). This provides a solid foundation for the direct study of the role of topological charge fluctuations in the physics of QCD vacuum. Using these tools it was recently demonstrated that: (a) there is a well-defined space-time structure (order) in topological charge density (defined through overlap fermions) for typical configurations contributing to QCD path integral; (b) this fundamental structure is low-dimensional, exhibiting sign-coherent behavior on subsets of dimension less than four and not less than one; (c) the structure has a long-range global character (spreading over maximal space-time distances) and is built around the locally one-dimensional network of strong fields (skeleton). In this talk we elaborate on certain aspects and implications of these results.

The aim of this talk is to emphasize three messages (given in the abstract) from Ref. . To appreciate the relevance of these messages, it is useful to recall that while the topology of gauge fields is presumed to be associated with interesting non-perturbative physics in QCD, the progress in making a detailed connection has been quite slow. One possible path toward the breakthrough uses the lattice, where one has direct access to typical configurations contributing to the regularized QCD path integral. In principle then, one could study the space-time structure of topological charge density for typical configurations, and identify the characteristics of this structure that have direct bearing on the physical phenomena in question. However, there used to be several difficult obstacles as well as questions of principle preventing the realization of such a direct program.

(i) Thinking in terms of topology implies the availability of quantities that are stable under continuous deformations. The simplest topological field in the continuum is the topological charge density (TChD), whose associated global charge is stable under the local changes of the gauge field ($`\delta Q/\delta A_\mu (x)=0`$) for sufficiently smooth fields. The basic problem on the lattice is that it is non-trivial to define a local topological field. In particular, naive discretizations of $`F\stackrel{~}{F}(x)`$ are not stable at all (see however Ref. ).

(ii) Even if a lattice topological field, stable over some class of lattice gauge fields is available, there still might be a deep problem. The point is that we are interested in the quantum theory defined by the path integral. To study the relevance topology in this setting, one should thus ensure that topological stability is guaranteed for typical configurations (not necessarily smooth) from the quantum QCD ensemble.

(iii) Even with points (i) and (ii) fulfilled, we might not gain much since it is possible that there is no well-defined space-time structure in TChD. Indeed, the mere existence of the structure at the configuration level is a subject of debate. While the action favours infrared fluctuations, there are many more possibilities for ultraviolet ones. In fact, for the commonly used lattice gauge actions there is an extensive experience indicating that when naive TChD operators are used, the ultraviolet noise dominates, and there is no detectable space-time order at all. However, without the order, we can not learn anything about the vacuum, and the approach outlined above would fail. This is the problem of ultraviolet dominance or the “entropy” problem.

The point (i) is elegantly resolved by using the TChD associated with GW fermions (see also Ref. ). Indeed, for lattice Dirac operator satisfying $`\gamma _5D\gamma _5=D^{}`$ and $`\{D,\gamma _5\}=D\gamma _5D`$, the pseudoscalar operator $`q_x=\text{tr}\gamma _5(1\frac{1}{2}D_{x,x})`$ represents a well-defined local topological charge density , whose integral is stable under generic local changes of the gauge field . Morover, this $`q_x`$ is generically stable for all backgrounds for which $`D`$ itself is well-defined! The accumulated experience with the overlap Dirac operator  (used here) indicates that this includes typical configurations from currently used QCD ensembles, thus fulfilling (ii).

Conceptually the most important result of Ref.  is that the point (iii) is also fulfilled if $`q_x`$ associated with overlap fermions is used, i.e. the conclusion (a) of the abstract holds and the problem of ultraviolet dominance is solved. We emphasize that this is a qualitatively new result since, contrary to previous studies of structure which always involved some particular processing of gauge configurations, our approach is completely unbiased and gauge invariant: we just use the appropriate local operator to measure TChD. Also note that the structure uncovered this way is the fundamental structure in the sense that (while suppressing ultraviolet noise) it includes the fluctuations at all scales up to the lattice cutoff. It can thus have manifestations reflecting both short and long-distance physics.

An important clue in finding this structure is the old observation , that in the continuum $`q(x)q(0)0,|x|>0`$. As pointed out in Ref. , this suggests that the fundamental structure cannot involve topological charge concentrated mainly in sign-coherent 4-d lumps. (The results of  not only demonstrate this but also suggest that in QCD the 4-d sign-coherent structure does not occur at all.) Given that, the starting idea of Ref.  is that the ordered structure could manifest itself by the enhanced sign-coherence present on low-dimensional subsets of 4-d Euclidean space. Indeed, the negativity of the correlator could then be satisfied in an ordered manner by embedding structures with alternating sign in 4-d space. The existence of such order has in turn been demonstrated .

Using sign-coherence as a basic guide, it was found that about 80% of space-time is covered by two connected folded “sheets” (of opposite sign) built from 3-d elementary coherent cubes. The sheets thus essentially fill the space-time. To get the sense of how this looks, we plot above $`q_x`$ on a (generic) 2-d plane of a $`12^4`$ configuration with Wilson gauge action ($`\beta =5.91`$). The enhancement of the structure is obvious with linear “ridges” running across the whole system. Also, the low-dimensionality is nicely reflected in this generic picture. Indeed, if $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the base manifold and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1,\mathrm{\Omega }_2\mathrm{\Omega }`$, then $`dim(\mathrm{\Omega }_1\mathrm{\Omega }_2)=dim(\mathrm{\Omega }_1)+dim(\mathrm{\Omega }_2)dim(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ generically. Identifying $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ with the 4-d space-time torus, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_1`$ with the 2-d torus of the section plane, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_2`$ with the manifold of the structure, we get

$$dim(\mathrm{\Omega }_1\mathrm{\Omega }_2)=dim(\mathrm{\Omega }_2)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}$$
(1)
Consequently, if $`\mathrm{\Omega }_2`$ is a 3-d hypersurface, we should generically see extended 1-d regions of sign-coherence. This is indeed what is observed. Thus, at the lattice cutoff of about 2 GeV the sheets behave as 3-d hypersurfaces. While the precise local dimension of the maximal sign-coherent regions in the continuum limit remains unknown, the available data allow us to conclude part (b) of the abstract .

Apart from low-dimensional nature, the striking property of the TChD structure is its long-range and global character. Indeed, the sheet appears to behave as one whole and due to connectedness and the space-filling feature, one can reach maximal possible distances on the paths within the same sheet. Moreover, this remains true even if one considers only regions occupied by strong fields. In particular, there is a well-defined minimal fraction of space-time ($`18`$ %) containing the most intense TChD while still exhibiting this super-long-distance (SLD) property . We refer to the substructure defined this way as a skeleton since the rest of the sign-coherent sheet is built around it. An intriguing property of the skeleton is that it is locally 1-dimensional , and thus can be viewed as a network of world-lines for point-like objects.

The above properties of the fundamental structure suggest the following two propositions deserving further examination: (A) The propagation of light quarks and pions is facilitated by the long-range (SLD) skeleton. One should thus try to relate the microscopic understanding of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking (SChSB) to the properties of this locally 1-dimensional structure. An interesting clue in making this connection is the fact that the motion of quarks restricted to 1-dimensional manifold naturally leads to non-zero density of eigenmodes near zero, and hence SChSB (see e.g. some related discussion ). (B) Global topological stability in quantum QCD configurations cannot be understood in terms of stability of its subsets, i.e. the global charge will not result as a sum of contributions from well-defined separate pieces. The global stability can only be understood if one considers the structure (or its SLD subset such as skeleton) as a whole. This can be considered a generalization of the result demonstrated in Refs. , i.e. that topological charge does not appear in quantized lumps of unit topological charge (even at low energy).

Finally, we comment on the mechanism leading to the resolution of the entropy problem (iii). The new element brought in by the imposition of chiral symmetry is that the GW operators are non-ultralocal, i.e. there is nonzero coupling among variables at arbitrarily large space-time distances. This has been proved for fermionic degrees of freedom , but it is expected to hold also in terms of gauge variables. The implied presence of arbitrarily extended loops (albeit with small coupling) in the definition of $`q_x`$ leads to taming of ultraviolet noise at the scale of the cutoff to a certain degree (“chiral smoothing” ). Moreover, the availability of these loops can help to uncover the long-range coherence (masked by ultraviolet noise) on extended low-dimensional manifolds since the loops contained inside these manifolds will contribute coherently. The results of  imply that such coherence exists, and is indeed exposed by chiral smoothing.