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# Observation of discrete vortex solitons in optically-induced photonic lattices

## Abstract

We report on the first experimental observation of discrete vortex solitons in two-dimensional optically-induced photonic lattices. We demonstrate strong stabilization of an optical vortex by the lattice in a self-focusing nonlinear medium and study the generation of the discrete vortices from a broad class of singular beams.

Periodic photonic structures and photonic crystals recently attracted a lot of interest due to the unique ways they offer for controlling light propagation. Periodic modulation of the refractive index modifies the diffraction properties and strongly affects nonlinear propagation and localization of light book . Recently, many nonlinear effects including the formation of lattice solitons have been demonstrated experimentally in one- and two-dimensional optically-induced photonic lattices FleisPRL ; NeshOL ; FleisNature ; Martin . The concept of optically-induced lattices efrem  relies on the modulation of the refractive index of a nonlinear medium with periodic optical patterns, and the use of a weaker probe beam to study scattering of light from the resulting periodic photonic structure.

So far, only simple stationary structures have been described theoretically and generated experimentally in optically-induced lattices FleisPRL ; NeshOL ; FleisNature ; Martin ; efrem . One of the most important next steps is the study of nonlinear modes with a nontrivial phase such as vortices, the fundamental localized objects appearing in many branches of physics. In optics, vortices are associated with the screw phase dislocations carried by diffracting optical beams soskin . When such vortices propagate in a defocusing nonlinear Kerr-like medium, the vortex core becomes self-trapped, and the resulting structure is known as an optical vortex soliton book . Such vortex solitons are usually generated experimentally on a broad background beam swartz ; chen97 . They demonstrate many similarities with the vortices observed in superfluids and Bose-Einstein condensates.

In contrast, optical vortex solitons do not exist in a self-focusing nonlinear medium; a ring-like optical beam with a phase dislocation carrying a finite orbital angular momentum kruglov  decays into the fundamental solitons flying off the main ring Firth:1997-2450:PRL . This effect was first observed experimentally in saturable Kerr-like nonlinear medium tikh , and then in photorefractive chen97  and quadratic chi2  nonlinear media in the self-focusing regime.

Recent theoretical studies of the discrete vort\_discrete  and continuous models of nonlinear periodic lattices ziad ; Baizakov:2003-642:EPL  suggest that the vortex-like structures can be supported by the lattice even in the self-focusing regime. In this Letter, we report on the first experimental observation of discrete (lattice) vortex solitons and demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, that localized optical vortices can be generated in a self-focusing nonlinear medium, being stabilized by the two-dimensional periodic potential of a photonic lattice.

To lay a background for our experiment, first we study numerically the generation of discrete vortex solitons in a two-dimensional photonic lattice optically-induced in a photorefractive crystal. Since in a typical experiment the input beam is radially-symmetric and does not posses the shape and symmetry of a stationary lattice vortex ziad ; Baizakov:2003-642:EPL , it is crucially important to understand whether the generation of such a state is possible from a broad range of initial conditions.

A two-dimensional square lattice created by ordinary polarized beams can be described by the intensity pattern $`I_g(x,y)=I_0\mathrm{sin}^2(\pi x/d)\mathrm{sin}^2(\pi y/d)`$, where $`I_0`$ is the maximum lattice intensity, and $`d`$ is the period \[Fig. 1(d)\]. Within the approximation of isotropic photorefractive nonlinearity, the evolution of a extraordinary probe beam $`u`$ is governed by the nonlinear equation efrem

$$i\frac{u}{z}+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Delta }_{}u\frac{V_0u}{1+I_g(x,y)+|u|^2}=0,$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{}`$ is the two-dimensional Laplacian, the intensities are normalized to the dark irradiance $`I_d`$ of the crystal, $`V_0=\gamma _{nl}x_0^2/2`$ ($`V_0=1`$ corresponds to a bias field of $`74.6`$ V/cm), $`\gamma _{nl}k_0^2n_e^4r_{33}_0`$, and $`n_e`$ is the refractive index for extraordinary polarized beams. For our choice of polarity of the bias field, $`_0`$, nonlinearity exhibited by the probe beam is self-focusing. The transverse coordinates are measured in the units of $`x_0=d/2`$, and the propagation distance, in units of $`k_0n_ex_0^2`$. In our simulations we assume normalization corresponding to the experimental parameters. Consequently, $`x=1`$ corresponds to 14 $`\mu `$m and $`z=1`$ corresponds to propagation distance of 5.86 mm.

To answer the question of stable discrete-vortex generation from a radially-symmetric input beam carrying a screw phase dislocation of unit topological charge, we study numerically a wide range of initial beam widths and intensities. At narrow widths, the spectrum of the initial beam is wide and may couple strongly to the higher-order spectral bands, leading to rapid diffraction and break-up of the initial beam. Broad beams will instead populate many lattice sites, and so result in a beam structure far from any stable stationary configurations. Generation therefore requires a balance between the nonlinearity and beam diffraction properties for coupling to one of the stationary vortex states on the lattice.

Several different types of discrete vortices can be supported by the lattice. The lowest-order symmetric off-site \[Fig. 1(f)\] and on-site (not shown) vortex states were first suggested theoretically in Refs. ziad ; Baizakov:2003-642:EPL  for a vortex centered between four sites of the lattice or on a single lattice site, respectively. Asymmetric stationary vortex states can also be supported by the lattice. The off-site discrete vortex shown in Fig. 1(f), however, represents the state with the strongest coupling between its lobes. It can be generated from a broader class of initial conditions, which facilitates its experimental observation. For the given experimental conditions of a saturation corresponding to $`I_0=10`$ and an initial beam peak intensity of roughly $`I_0/5`$, we find the optimal generation conditions for an off-site vortex are given by an input beam of the form $`u(r,\theta )=ar\mathrm{exp}(wr^2+i\theta )`$, where $`(r,\theta )`$ are the polar coordinates, $`a=3.3`$, and $`w=1`$ \[Fig. 1(a)\].

First, we simulate the vortex propagation without the lattice. In the absence of nonlinearity, the input beam diffracts, as shown in Fig. 1(b) for $`z=2`$. In the nonlinear regime, the vortex decays into a diverging pair of out-of-phase solitons \[Fig. 1(c)\]. This type of azimuthal instability is generic for vortex-carrying beams, however the exact number of filaments depends on the input beam parameters Firth:1997-2450:PRL . The filaments diverge due to the angular momentum carried by the initial vortex beam chen97 ; tikh ; chi2 .

In the presence of a two-dimensional lattice and at low probe-beam intensities (or $`|u|^2`$ in Eq. 1 neglected), the input beam exhibits discrete diffraction, whereby its power tends to re-distribute between the neighboring lattice sites, as shown in Fig. 1(e) for relatively long propagation distance $`z=10`$. Remarkably, in the nonlinear regime, the input beam does not decay or diffract due to decoupling from the linear transmission spectrum, and instead transforms into a four-lobe structure \[Fig. 1(f)\]. It corresponds to a discrete vortex soliton vort\_discrete ; ziad , which propagates stably in the lattice even under strong nonlinear perturbations induced by the transient ‘breathing’ mode, seen as slight rotational oscillations in the numerical simulations \[Fig. 1(f)\]. This stable vortex state is generated by centering the initial vortex beam between four sites of the optical lattice, and therefore corresponds to an off-site discrete vortex.

Next, we study the localization of the off-site discrete vortex for different strengths of nonlinearity (bias field) \[Figs. 2(a-c)\]. At low bias field, the focusing effect of nonlinearity is not sufficient to form a discrete vortex soliton, and the beam diffracts on the lattice \[(a)\]. A discrete vortex state is generated for stronger bias fields \[(b,c)\], and its confinement by the lattice varies with nonlinearity. In order to verify that the structure generated by the input singular beam on the lattice is a discrete vortex, and not four uncoupled solitons, we analyzed the phase structure of the output state. In full agreement with earlier analysis vort\_discrete ; ziad , the generated discrete vortex soliton is composed of four phase-correlated lobes with a total phase ramp of $`2\pi `$ \[Figs. 2(d)\]. The observed phase structure closely resembles that of a soliton cluster Desyatnikov:2002-53901:PRL , with the main difference that the discrete vortices are robust and stationary structures.

Finally, we demonstrate the generation of the discrete vortices in experiment. Our experimental setup (Fig. 3) is similar to that reported earlier in Refs. chen02 ; Martin . An argon ion laser beam (at the wavelength $`\lambda =488`$ nm) is collimated and then split with a polarizing beam splitter. The ordinarily-polarized beam (o-beam) is focused onto a rotating diffuser, turning into a partially spatially incoherent source. A biased photorefractive crystal (SBN:$`60`$, $`5\times 5\times 8`$ mm3, with $`r_{33}=280`$ pm/V) is employed to provide a self-focusing non-instantaneous nonlinearity as in experiments with partially coherent solitons incoh .

To generate a two-dimensional photonic lattice, we use an amplitude mask and modulate spatially the otherwise uniform o-beam after the diffuser. The mask is then imaged onto the input face of the crystal, thus creating a partially coherent pixel-like input intensity pattern chen02 . The extraordinarily-polarized probe beam (e-beam) is sent through a transmission vortex mask with unit topological charge, and then focused onto the crystal input face, propagating collinear with the lattice. In addition, a uniform incoherent background o-beam (not shown) is used as “dark illumination” for fine-tuning the nonlinearity incoh . The input and output faces of the crystal are imaged onto a CCD camera and the beam separation was achieved by blocking one of the components and quickly recording the other one.

Our typical experimental results are summarized in Fig. 4. A two-dimensional square lattice is created first, with the principal axes oriented in the diagonal directions, as shown in Fig. 4(a-1). Since the lattice has a spatial period of only 28 $`\mu `$m, this orientation favors its stable formation Martin . In addition, the lattice beam is partially spatially incoherent (spatial coherence length $``$100 $`\mu `$m), which also entails stable lattice formation due to suppression of incoherent modulation instability MarinPRL00 . The resulting periodic intensity pattern acts as an photonic lattice, with the lattice sites (intensity maxima) corresponding to the minima of the periodic potential experienced by the probe beam.

The input vortex beam, shown in Fig. 4(a-3), is then launched straight between four lattice sites, as indicated by a bright ring in the lattice pattern (a-1). The vortex beam has an intensity about 5 times weaker than that of the lattice. In this optical medium, the o-polarized lattice exhibits only a weak nonlinearity as compared to that experienced by the e-polarized vortex beam efrem  and, therefore, it remains nearly invariant as the bias field increases, with only a slight increase of its intensity contrast. In agreement with our numerical modeling, the vortex beam exhibits discrete diffraction when the nonlinearity is low, whereas it forms a discrete vortex soliton at a higher nonlinearity. In Fig. 4(b-1,2), discrete diffraction of the vortex beam is shown at a low bias field of 600 V/cm. The symmetry of the observed diffraction pattern is distorted due to slight asymmetry of the input vortex profile and inherent defects inside the crystal. When the bias field is increased to 1200 V/cm \[Fig. 4(c-1,2)\], partial focusing of the vortex beam is observed. In this case, more energy of the vortex beam goes to the central four cites, but the side lobes still share a significant amount of the energy. Importantly, for a higher nonlinearity, i.e. at a bias field of 3000 V/cm, a discrete vortex soliton is clearly observed \[Fig. 4(d-1,2)\], with most of the energy concentrated at the central four sites along the principal axes of the lattice, indicating that a balance has been reached between the discrete diffraction and self-focusing experienced by the vortex.

As predicted by the theory, the observed discrete diffraction and self-trapping of the vortex beam in the photonic lattice is remarkably different from that in a homogeneous medium. In Fig. 4 (row 3), we show the output intensity patterns of the vortex beam without the lattice, but for the same bias field (nonlinearity). At a low bias of 600 V/cm, the vortex beam is slightly modulated, but it maintains a doughnut-like diffraction pattern \[Fig. 4(b)\]. At a higher bias of 1200 V/cm, the vortex beam breaks up into several filaments due to the azimuthal instability in the self-focusing crystal \[Fig. 4(c)\]. After the break-up, the filaments tend to form solitons and move away from their original locations \[Fig. 4(d)\] towards the direction of crystalline $`c`$-axis due to the diffusion-induced self-bending enhanced by the high bias field singh . In contrast, the vortex beam is well trapped by the optical lattice, which suppresses the rich instability-induced dynamics (rotating, diverging, and self-bending) of the filaments in a homogeneous nonlinear medium.

The observed discrete vortex soliton is a robust structure, which can be reproduced with different experimental parameters such as lattice spacing. In Fig. 5(a) we show another example of the discrete vortex soliton formed on a lattice with a period of 20 $`\mu `$m. The four-lobe output intensity pattern was stable against ambient perturbations such as air vibration. To verify the nontrivial phase structure of the discrete vortex, we set up a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with a piezo-transducer (PZT) mirror in the reference-beam path. A weak quasi-plane wave beam was introduced for interference with the vortex after it exited the crystal. We then actively varied the relative phase between the plane wave and the vortex beam by the PZT mirror, and obtained a series of interferograms for testing of the phase distribution of the vortex. In this way, we avoid errors coming from the inherent noise in the reference beam phase front. Three of such interferograms taken as the mirror was driven gradually towards one direction are presented in Fig. 5(b-d), which show clearly (see colour plots) that one of the four lobes increases its intensity whereas the intensity of the corresponding diagonal lobe decreases. Furthermore, the lobe with the strongest intensity is alternating among the four lobes. From these interferograms, we confirmed that the four lobes resulting from a discrete vortex soliton maintain a nontrivial phase relation. Since a vortex with a unit topological charge has a total phase ramp of $`2\pi `$, the relative phase between the four lobes changes in steps of $`\pi /2`$.

To confirm that the vortex trapping in the lattice is a result of the nonlinear self-action rather than simply due to the increased depth of the lattice potential, we perform additional experiments, where we significantly lower the intensity of the input beam while keeping the bias field unchanged. In this case we observe that the vortex experiences discrete diffraction similar to Fig. 4(b-1,2), as more energy of the vortex beam transfers further away from its center.

In conclusion, we have studied numerically the propagation of an optical beam with a phase dislocation in a two-dimensional periodic photonic structure, and predicted the stabilizing effect of the lattice on the vortex. We have observed experimentally the formation of a robust discrete optical vortex in two-dimensional optically-induced photonic lattices. The vortex has been generated in a self-focusing nonlinear medium for a variety of input conditions and lattice parameters. The experiments confirmed that the lattice stabilizes the vortex beam in the form of a non-diffracting four-lobe stationary structure with a screw phase dislocation. Our results can be useful for other branches of physics such us the nonlinear dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices, where similar structures can be predicted theoretically and observed in experiment.

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council, U.S. AFOSR, and Research Corp. We thank A. A. Sukhorukov for valuable discussions.


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# 1 The load exponent as a function of the mean number of edges ⟨𝑚⟩ emanating from a new vertex for various degree exponents 𝛾 in the BA model and different system sizes, 𝑁=10⁴ (○) and 𝑁=10⁵ (■).

Goh et al. Reply: We introduced in a recent Letter goh  the load distribution following a power law on scale-free (SF) networks. In addition, it was conjectured that the load exponent $`\delta `$ is universal as long as the degree exponent $`\gamma `$ is in $`2<\gamma 3`$, based on real-world networks and in silico models. In the preceding Comment barth , Barthélemy argues that $`\delta `$ is not universal, sensitive to the details of SF networks. In this reply, we notice that the discrepancy is mainly caused by different usages of definition of load in goh  and barth . Following the definition used in barth , we agree with the result of barth , however, we find that the question of the universality of the load exponent is not settled yet.

In goh , the load $`\mathrm{}_k`$ of a vertex $`k`$ includes $`N1`$ packets leaving and another $`N1`$ packets arriving at the vertex, where $`N`$ is the total number of vertices. However, those $`2(N1)`$ packets are not included in barth . While the difference of $`2(N1)`$ can be neglected for vertices with large load $`\mathrm{}`$ in the limit of $`N\mathrm{}`$, however, in finite-size systems particularly those compatible with most real-world networks comprising $`N=10^310^4`$ vertices, this difference could produce a different value of $`\delta `$. We perform extensive numerical simulations on a larger scale $`N=5\times 10^5`$ than the size $`N=10^4`$ previously used in  for the static model with $`\gamma 2.5`$, following the definition in goh , and find that indeed $`\delta `$ turns out to be lower than $`\delta 2.2`$ beyond error bar as argued in barth . This behavior also occurs in the model introduced by Barabási and Albert (BA) when the number of edges emanating from a newly added vertex is $`m2`$ in finite-size systems. However, we will show that the universal behavior of the load exponent is still likely as far as SF networks are sparse.

The load exponent for SF tree has been obtained analytically to be $`\delta =2.0`$, independent of the degree exponent $`\gamma `$ pnas ; szabo . We investigate how the exponent value $`\delta =2.0`$ changes as the number of loops increases. We modify the BA model in such a way that a new vertex attaches one or two edges to existing network with probability $`1p`$ or $`p`$, respectively. The mean number of edges emanating from a new vertex is then $`m=1+p`$. We investigate how the load distribution changes as $`m`$ varies. When $`p=0`$, the network is tree, and the load exponent is confirmed to be $`\delta 2.0`$. We find that $`\delta `$ increases to $`\delta 2.2`$ by increasing $`m`$ to $`m1.1`$ at which the edges connecting different branches of the tree structure form sparse loops in a nontrivial manner. The value $`\delta 2.2`$ turns out to be robust, independent of the degree exponent $`\gamma `$ for $`2<\gamma <3`$. Such behavior persists as long as $`m`$ is smaller than a $`\gamma `$-dependent critical value, $`m_c`$, beyond which $`\delta `$ depends on $`\gamma `$ as observed in barth . Moreover, we find that the plateau region of $`\delta 2.2`$ is extended as the system size $`N`$ increases as shown in Fig. 1. These data suggest that the universal behavior of $`\delta `$ may hold in some finite region of parameter space in the thermodynamic limit, at least for the sparse BA model. Thus the possibility of the universal behavior of the load exponent is still an open question. Further details will be published elsewhere dkim .

This work is supported by the ABRL program of the KOSEF.

K.-I. Goh, C.-M. Ghim, B. Kahng, and D. Kim
School of Physics and Center for Theoretical Physics,
Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, Korea.
Received September 2003
PACS numbers: 89.75.Hc, 05.10..a, 89.70.+c, 89.75.Da


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# Precise polynomial heuristic for an NP-complete problem

## Abstract

We introduce a simple, efficient and precise polynomial heuristic for a key NP complete problem, minimum vertex cover. Our method is iterative and operates in probability space. Once a stable probability solution is found we find the true combinatorial solution from the probabilities. For system sizes which are amenable to exact solution by conventional means, we find a correct minimum vertex cover for all cases which we have tested, which include random graphs and diluted triangular lattices of up to 100 sites. We present precise data for minimum vertex cover on graphs of up to 50,000 sites. Extensions of the method to hard core lattices gases and other NP problems are discussed.

There is intense interest in the relationships between statistical physics and computational complexity, from both the computer science and physics communities. This activity has resulted in the application of physics methods to computer science Monasson et al. (1999); Weigt and Hartmann (2000) and clever extensions of computer science methods to glassy problemsMezard et al. (2002). The NP-complete class of problems lie at the nexus of these dicussions. Exact solvers for NP-complete problems are usually restricted to at most a few hundred nodes which severely limits their practical applications. The computational complexity of this class of problem has also motivated a great deal of the interest in quantum computing, in the hope that this new paradigm will significantly improve the efficiency with which we can solve NP-complete problems.

In this report we introduce a new class of heuristic NP-complete solvers, which operate in probability space rather than combinatorial space. We illustrate the potential of these methods by analysing the minimum vertex cover problemWeigt and Hartmann (2000, 2001), which is a classical hard problem in the NP-complete classGarey and Johnson (1979). The method we develop is surprisingly simple and effective and extends in an obvious way to a broad class of dense packing problems in hard core lattice gases, which are of significant physical interest. These packing problems are simply stated. Given a set of hard core constraints, what is the maximum density of particles that can be placed on a given lattice or graph. Minimum vertex cover maps to the simplest problem in this class, the hard core lattice gas where only nearest neighbor occupation is excluded. There is no energy parameter in the packing problems we consider, there is only the hard core constraints. Though these packing problems are simply stated they are proven to be in the NP class, and hence any significant advance in their analysis has broad implications in both science and technology.

The methods we introduce work by defining a local probability on each site of a graph. In the case of vertex cover we intoduce the probability that a site has a guard on it. These local probabilities are updated recursively using a relation which is locally exact for the probabilities. We call this procedure an Exact Local Probability Recursion (ELoPR) algorithm. In the case of hard core lattices gases, the ELoPR update rule is extremely simple (see below) and iteration of this procedure rapidly converges to a steady state occupancy probability on each site of a given graph. The method is carried out for a given graph configuration and applies to any graph class, including random graphs, diluted regular graphs and graphs with structure. This robustness makes ELoPR methods very attractive from a practical point of view.

First, we define the probability $`P_i`$ that a site, $`i`$, in a lattice gas is occupied by a particle. If a lattice gas particle is present $`P_i=1`$, while if the site is empty, $`P_i=0`$. The minimum vertex cover is the minimum number of “guards” which must be placed on the nodes of a graph so that every edge of the graph is covered by a guardWeigt and Hartmann (2000, 2001). We define a probability $`V_i`$, so that $`V_i=1`$ if a guard is present, while $`V_i=0`$ is a guard is absent. We work with continuous probability so we also allow the possibility that $`0<V_i<1`$, which corresponds to degenerate sites where in some ground states site $`i`$ is occupied while in others it is not. The lattice gas and vertex cover probabilities are related by $`V_i=1P_i`$. The minimum vertex cover corresponds to empty sites in a dense packing of a hardcore lattice gas with only nearest neighbor exclusionWeigt and Hartmann (2001).

The ELoPR algorithm for minimum vertex cover is based on a simple update rule. A guard is required at node $`i`$ if any of the nodes to which it is connected does not have a guard. That is, the only case where a guard is not required is if all of the connected neighbors are already guarded. This leads to the expression,

$$V_i=1.0\underset{j=1}{\overset{v(i)}{}}V_{n(j)}$$
(1)
where $`i`$ is the site which is being updated, $`v(i)`$ is the number of sites to which it is connected and $`n(i)`$ is the set of neighboring sites. The ELoPR algorithm is consists of simply iterative updating Eq. (1). The computational time required for the minimum vertex cover is then $`O(Nv_{max}n_{it})`$, where $`N`$ is the number of nodes in the graph, $`v_{max}`$ is the number of neighbors of the most highly connected node in the graph, and $`n_{it}`$ is the number of sweeps of the lattice required for convergence of the site probabilities $`V_i`$. We find that $`n_{it}`$ is at most a few thousand even for lattices of $`50,000`$ sites.

Our implementation of the ELoPR algorithm is as follows. We generate a graph and initialise the algorithm by assigning continuous random values of $`V_i`$ to each of the sites of the graph. We then sweep through all of the sites of graph, in a randomized order, updating $`V_i`$ at each site using Eq. (1). We find that after several hundred sweeps of the lattice, the ELoPR procedure leads to a steady state value for $`V_i`$ on each site, for almost all finite initial conditions. Remarkably, there appears to be little metastability so that ELoPR usually finds a correct cover. However for some initial conditions, and particularly near the so called “core percolation" thresholdBauer and Golinelli (2001) metastability is more likely. However by sampling a set of initial conditions, usually only one or two are required, we are able to find the correct minimum vertex cover for all cases which we have studied.

In the data presented below, we required that the average site probabilities, $`V_i`$ were converged to accuracy $`5\times 10^8`$. All of the calculations were carried out in double precision on 32-bit linux PC’s. We wrote two versions of the code, one in Fortran and the other in c++. These codes give identical results, for the same set of graphs, initial conditions and convergence criteria. We found that the steady state values for $`V_i`$ are either "1", "0", or an intermediate value. This is illustrated in the top panel of Fig. 1 for a 100 node triangular lattice.

The sites which have an intermediate value are the degenerate sites, while the sites which have values "1" or "0" are the frozen sites. We checked our algorithm against the exact algorithm of Aleksandar Hartmann for a large number of small random graphs and diluted triangular lattices. In all cases, we found that for the lattices sizes accessable to exact methods the ELoPR procedure gives results which are close to exact. The triangular lattice does yield some cases where ELoPR converges to a higher than optimal cover. The origin of this problem is clusters of small loops which are common on triangular lattices, but not on random graphs. The problem occurs in the calculation of an incorrect degeneracy on small loops and we have been able to resolve this degeneracy by generating a true cover from the ELoPR probabilities, as will be described below.

The ELoPR method for vertex cover is very efficient. Finding the minimum vertex cover for a random graph with $`N=50,000`$ nodes at $`c=3.0`$ takes about a minute on a desktop linux machine. A histogram of the degenerate and frozen probababilities for random graphs at $`c=2,3,4`$ is presented in Fig. 2.

The sites which are frozen covered correspond to the delta function at one, while the sites which are frozen uncovered correspond to the delta fucntion at zero. In addition there is a broad, almost uniform continuum spread on the interval . As the average co-ordination number of the graph increases the delta function at "1" increases, the degenerate continuum decreases and the delta function at "0" decreases. In Figure 3, we present results for the average cover and the fraction of frozen sites as a function of bond concentration on random graphs. These results are compared with data generated using survey propagation methodsZhou (2003), with the replica symmetric solution and with results found by extrapolation using exact data on small latticesWeigt and Hartmann (2000, 2001). The replica symmetric results are believed to be a lower bound to the true average cover, while the survey propagation resultsZhou (2003) are believed to be an improved lower bound. It is evident from the prior results that the ELoPR results are extremely encouraging as they correspond to a true cover and hence are an upper bound to the minimum vertex cover. If we accept that the survey propagation results are a lower bound, the true cover is tightly bounded by the combination of survey propagation and ELoPR. The ELoPR results of Fig. 3 are for one $`N=50,000`$ site random graph at each value of $`c`$, however at the resolution of this figure they are equivalent to the asymptotic limit ELoPR results which we have found by finite size scaling. We found that the vertex cover self-averages, so that the results for other realisations of lattices of this size are identical, to the resolution of this figure. The ELoPR results presented in this figure required about 30 minutes on a 500MHz linux machine and includes data at 100 values of $`c`$ on the interval . The number of frozen nodes found using ELoPR for a given set of initial conditions is higher than that found using exact methods, however if we search over a variety of initial conditions we find a different set of frozen nodes. Moreover the frozen nodes we find after sampling over initial conditions are the same as the frozen nodes found using exact methods.

The ELoPR update formula (1) can be also be used to develop analytic approaches. To illustrate this, we now reproduce the replica symmetric result in a simple manner. Consider the update procedure (1) on a bond-diluted Bethe lattice, with probability $`p`$ that a bond is present. We seek a steady state solution to $`V`$, where $`V`$ is the probability that a site far from the boundary of the Bethe lattice is occupied by a guard. The probability that this node is occupied by a lattice gas particle is $`P=1V`$. It is most straightforward to work in terms of the lattice gas occupancy $`P`$. We write down a recurrence relation for the probability that a node is occupied by a lattice gas particle. If the node is part of a Bethe lattice of co-ordination $`z`$, then there are $`\alpha =z1`$ nodes which are at a lower level in the tree. We then write down a recursion relation relating $`P`$ at the current node to the values of $`P`$ at the $`\alpha `$ nodes at the lower level in the tree. The recursion relation we use is Eq. (1), with $`P_i=1V_i`$ and with the restriction that the values of $`P_i`$ are the same on all nodes, ie. we make a uniform approximation. In order for a node to be occupied by a lattice gas particle, all of the nodes to which it is connected must NOT be occupied, we then have,

$$P=(1pP)^\alpha e^{cP}$$
(2)
where the expression on the RHS is the random graph limit found by using, $`p=c/N`$, $`\alpha =N`$, $`N\mathrm{}`$, where $`N`$ is the number of nodes in the graph. Eq. (2) is the branch probability.

In order to find the vertex cover from the branch probability $`P`$, we take account of degeneracy which occurs when we connect together the $`z`$ branch probabilities at the central node of the Bethe lattice. If just one of the nodes to which the central node is connected is occupied, we can change its assignment so that it is no longer occupied while the central node then becomes occupied. This can be done without decreasing the packing density of the lattice. This is the degenerate case and must be included in calculating the average cover predicted by the Bethe lattice theory. The probability of finding this degenerate state is,

$$D=\alpha pP(1pP)^{\alpha 1}\alpha pP^2cP^2$$
(3)
The last expression on the RHS of Eq. (3) was found using Eq. (2) and then taking the random graph limit. The minimum vertex cover is then given by,

$$V=1P\frac{D}{2}=1\frac{W(c)}{c}\frac{W(c)^2}{2c}.$$
(4)
where $`W(c)=cP`$ is the Lambert function. That is, the degenerate case leads to the central site being occupied only half of the time. Eq. (4) is the replica symmetric result for the average minimum cover as found by Weigt and HartmannWeigt and Hartmann (2000, 2001). It gives the dashed line in Fig. 3.

The ELoPR method solves a combinatorial problem in a statistical physics sense. However in many cases, we also want to find specific exact covers from these probabilities. As seen in Figs. 1 and 2, the ELoPR method finds a relatively high fraction of the nodes to be either covered or uncovered. The degenerate nodes have ELoPR probabilities which lie between zero and one and these values need to be converted into either zero or one in order to find a true cover. We have developed a simple procedure to do this. First we observed that the degenerate nodes in the ELoPR solutions are surrounded by covered nodes. We identify a degenerate cluster and randomly choose one its nodes to uncover, ie we set $`V_i=0`$ on this node. We then run ELoPR with this node fixed. This usually removes the degeneracy of the cluster. If it does not, we simply identify the next degenerate cluster and carry out the same procedure. Carrying out this procedure to completion gives a true cover. We call this procedure the discrete instance generator (DIG). Once we have a true cover, we again calculate its minimum vertex cover. A comparison of the minimum vertex cover before and after applying DIG to random graphs of size $`N=1000`$ is presented in Fig. 4. It is evident that the DIG cover and the ELoPR cover are very close for all values of $`c`$.

We also used ELoPR and DIG to find the minimum vertex cover on diluted triangular lattices, with similarly impressive results. Some metastability occurs, as in the random graph case, however this is resolved by a sampling of different initial conditions, with the probability of finding the ground state with a give initial condition being well above 50% for all cases we have studied. The presence of small loops in the triangular lattice causes some deviation of the ELoPR cover from the true cover. However the best ELoPR solution followed by the DIG procedure leads to an exact cover for all cases we have studied by conventional means, for example the $`n=100`$ node case of Fig. 1.

We are exploring many extensions and applications of the ELoPR method. Firstly, the update procedure (1) is not restricted to nearest neighbors and is valid for any graph structure. One interesting problem class is dense packing of topologically disordered graphs, such as voronoi tesselations of the plane. To extend the method beyond hard core packing problems however, we need to be able to include energy parameters in the analysis, so that for example competing interactions may be treated. We have developed an ELoPR procedure which includes energy terms and applies to other NP-complete problems, for example to the coloring problem. The update procedure is more complex, and includes a sum over all possible states of the neighboring sites. For a lattice gas problem, we then have to sum over $`2^{v(i)}`$ configurations, even in the simplest case. Nevertheless, this is still encouraging for problems having finite connectivity, as is the case for many problems of physical and technological interest. Even in cases, such as coloring and K-SAT, where there are more degrees of freedom, it is possible to reduce the problem to $`2^{v(i)}`$ by using exact symmetries of the probabilities in the problem. A presentation of these applications of the ELoPR concept will be presented elsewhere.

We acknowledge and thank Alexander Hartmann for providing his exact vertex cover algorithm. This work has been supported by the DOE under contract DE-FG02-90ER45418.


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# JEM-X background modelsBased on observations with INTEGRAL, an ESA project with instruments and science data centre funded by ESA member states (especially the PI countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain), Czech Republic and Poland, and with the participation of Russia and the USA.

## 1 Introduction

Background of X-ray and $`\gamma `$ -ray detectors for astronomy can generally be divided in two components, diffuse sky background and instrument background.

JEM-X consists of two mechanically identical telescope units (JEM-X 1 and 2), with a position sensitive xenon-filled Microstrip Gas Chamber, a collimator, and a coded mask as an optical element in each unit (see Lund et al. 2003 for more details). There are four internal radioactive sources for spectral calibration in the collimator of each unit.

The sky image is thus a result of mathematical processing of the mask shadow pattern on the position sensitive detectors (e.g. in’t Zand 1992; in’t Zand, Heise & Jager 1994).

Diffuse sky background enters the detectors via the aperture and is affected by the mask and the collimator, similarly to the distinguishable sources in the sky. Instrument background includes detector signal due to interactions between cosmic radiation and materials of the satellite and the detector itself. MeV-range or higher energy $`\gamma `$-ray detectors may also be sensitive to direct $`\gamma `$-rays from e.g. solar flares that penetrate the detector through the spacecraft and detector panels (e.g. Ferguson et al., 2003). Instrument background thus carries essentially no coding from the mask. It introduces additional noise and may bring up artificial sources, if not properly determined in the shadowgrams, and then accounted for in image reconstruction. Useful examples of early treatment and analysis of instrument background for coded aperture telescopes can be found from Covault et al. (1991) and Willmore et al. (1992).

Due to the expected difficulty of background determination, the JEM-X instrument specific software (ISSW) has been designed to permit accounting for various effects and dependencies of background, and background modelling is made using external background libraries (see Westergaard et al., 2003). Detailed description of the software can be found in the Architectural Design Document (ADD) of JEM-X (Oxborrow et al., 2002).

In this paper, we present results and analysis of a part of the first extensive background observations with INTEGRAL JEM-X.

## 2 Observations

Observations included in our analysis were made during cycle 41 of INTEGRAL, between February 13, 01:05:57 UTC, and February 16, 00:51:18 UTC, 2003. The pointings for these background observations were selected from the vicinity of the Crab Nebula, with pointing centres about $`9^{}`$ away from the position of Taurus XR-1 (see Table 1). The total observing time of JEM-X was 218068 s, of which 216502.12 s was included in our analysis. The background observing programme near Crab Nebula started already during cycle 40. The first observations were not included in our analysis, since we aimed at studying the background and the variations within one full orbit. JEM-X observations were made in full imaging mode. We used JEM-X events preprocessed with standard JEM-X ISSW, which is publically distributed by the ISDC. The spatial gain corrections and other preprocessing parameters date to May 20, 2003.

## 3 Analysis

The analysis included fitting of a two component background model to JEM-X spectra for 8 radial ranges of equal area beginning from the centre of each of the two detectors. The radial ranges were further divided in 6 azimuthal sectors each covering an angle of $`60^{}`$ (Fig. 3). The modelling was made using the publically available XSPEC X-ray spectrum fitting software (Arnaud 1996). The energy range used for the spectral fits was 4-33 keV.

The following assumptions were made for the fitting procedure: First, we assumed the following analytical formula for the diffuse sky background,

$$I=CE^1\mathrm{e}^{E/40\mathrm{keV}}\mathrm{photons}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{keV}^1$$
(1)
where $`E`$ is photon energy and C is a normalization constant. This is close to a $`40\mathrm{k}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{v}`$ thermal bremsstrahlung model well fitted for diffuse X-ray background from 3 to 45 keV (e.g. Marshall et al.1980). Second assumption was that, excluding the known line emission from the detector and surrounding material, instrument background should be flat (i.e. constant in energy). The lines were modeled as narrow (maximum width determined by instrumental energy resolution) Gaussian lines with fixed line centroid positions. Eleven lines were detected in the background spectra. Thus, the background spectral model has 24 free parameters, including widths and strengths of the eleven lines and normalization of the two continuum components.

The modelling was made in two steps. First, we fitted the spectra extracted from each subregion of both detectors with the full model described above to get an initial estimate for the diffuse background level. After this, the estimated diffuse background component was subtracted from each spectrum, and the residual spectrum was taken as the instrument background.

The resulting background images and sample spectra of a few subregions are shown in Figs. 1 and 2. For a summary of the results, see Tables 2 and 3. All parameters for the background components in Tables 2 and 3 are directly from the XSPEC spectral fitting, which applies instrument response and effective area similarly to all model components. The fitting procedure thus yields physically consistent values only for the diffuse background component, which is modified by the coded mask and collimator. As for the instrument background, however, full mask coding and effect of the collimator are not relevant assumptions. Thus, the flux values for the instrument background in Table 2 are not physically valid, but still usable for the modelling purpose. This should be kept in mind when using the values from Tables 2 and 3.

The diffuse background decreases towards the edges of the detector, as expected. The instrument background is stronger than expected, dominating the spectrum at all radii. The ten expected K-shell lines (from the 109Cd and 55Fe calibration sources, collimator (Mo), and detector gas (Xe)) were detected close to their nominal positions. This implies that the energy scale is correctly determined. The previously unknown weak line near 13 keV turned out to be the uranium L-shell line. It most likely originates in the detector beryllium window. Near the edges of the detector, the background is highly nonuniform. Additional nonuniformity in the outer parts was introduced by photon leak from calibration sources, which could not be completely eliminated.

We also searched for possible dependence of background on the orbital phase of the observations. The spectrum varied with a range of approximately 5% between three separate orbital sections well outside radiation belts. The variation is statistically significant but small. Also dependence on solar aspect angle and particle radiation level can be utilised in the JEM-X ISSW background modelling. Significant variations were not found. The variation in the solar aspect due to different pointings was $`20^{}`$, which is probably not sufficiently large for studies of an effect on instrument background. Also, there was no proper indicator of particle radiation level on INTEGRAL available during our observations to search for a correlation.

## 4 Conclusions

We have analyzed a part of the first INTEGRAL background observations with JEM-X. Estimates of the spatial and spectral distributions are obtained for diffuse sky background and instrument background.

The total background observed for JEM-X1 was 28 cps, for JEM-X2 23 cps, and 25 cps on the average. A part ($`1/5`$) of the excessively large background may be due to residual Crab Nebula emission in JEM-X data.

According to XSPEC fitting, the diffuse background was at maximum in the centre of the detector and it decreased radially towards the edge, which is due to vignetting. There is also slight asymmmetry in the spatial distribution of the diffuse background, which is caused by a small angular misalignment of the detector plane. The count rate for diffuse background was approximately 20 % of the total background.

The instrument background intensity and spectrum are highly position dependent, with a steep increase near the edges at all radial directions. Leakage of the radiative calibration sources causes residual line emission in the neighbourhood of the source positions. The count rate for the instrument background was approximately 80 % of the total background.

The total background level varied with a range of approximately 5 % between different orbital sections. the variation is significant, but small. Also, it is impossible to say, what fraction of this, if any, is caused by the simultaneous variation of the solar aspect angle of the satellite, and the unknown variations of particle radiation level. We plan to separate these effects by the support of future background observations.

Although our modelling is simple, and does not provide accurate absolute estimates of physical background fluxes, it yields information which can be applied to the JEM-X analysis software to properly account for background contribution in spatially resolved spectral data. A thorough analysis of JEM-X background will be presented in a future paper.

###### Acknowledgements.

Authors from the Observatory, University of Helsinki acknowledge the Academy of Finland, TEKES, and the Finnish space research programme ANTARES for financial support in this research. J. Schultz is grateful for the financial support of the Wihuri Foundation. The Danish Space Research Institute acknowledges support given to the development of the JEM-X instrument from the PRODEX programme.


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# Universal spectral shape of AGN with high accretion rate

## 1 Introduction

Radio quiet quasars and Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies are the sources expected to accrete mass at a high rate (e.g. ref. ). The spectra of those objects show similarity in their shape (Fig. 1). The idea of the universal spectral shape of those galaxies appears in the literature since many years (e.g. ref. ). It is well known that the simplest standard Shakura-Sunyaev disk model, under assumption of the local black body emission, cannot account for the observed X-ray spectra of AGN. The model is also not quite satisfactory in the optical/UV band.

We propose two modifications to the standard model which directly result from our knowledge of the accretion disk physics and an AGN surrounding.

## 2 Irradiation by warm absorber

The warm absorber is a significantly ionized medium present in our line of sight towards sources. It produces narrow absorption lines and absorption continua in the soft X-ray band. The medium temperature is of order of $`10^5`$-$`10^6`$ K. The column density is frequently of order of $`10^{23}`$ cm<sup>-2</sup> or more. The warm absorber is extended but probably clumpy (e.g. ref. ). Most of the radiation from the nucleus of the considered objects is emitted in the frequency range $`10^{15}`$-$`10^{17}`$ Hz. In this range the electron scattering dominates the total crossection. The warm absorber actually predominatly scatters the incoming photons (Fig. 2) instead of absorbing them (ref. ).

We envision the geometry in Fig. 3. We neglect the clumpiness of the medium and assume that it is located predominantly along the symmetry axis, $`\mathrm{cos}i1`$. We parameterize the region by the total optical depth for electron scattering, $`\tau _{wa}`$, minimum $`z_{\mathrm{min}}`$ and maximum $`z_{\mathrm{max}}`$ distance of the warm absorber from the nucleus. We assume that the density profile of the warm absorber is $`\rho (z)z^\delta `$. For purpose of the rough estimate of modifying disk spectrum we do not introduce any specific dependence on the distance from the symmetry axis. The irradiation of the disk at a distance $`r`$ from the center can be approximately represented as

$$F_{irrad}=\frac{2L\tau _{wa}f_{wa}(\delta 1)}{z_{min}^{1\delta }z_{max}^{1\delta }}_{z_{min}}^{z_{max}}\frac{z^{\delta +1}}{(z^2+r^2)^{3/2}}𝑑z$$
(1)
where $`L`$ is the bolometric luminosity of an accretion disk and $`f_{wa}`$ is the fraction of emission from the nucleus passing through the warm absorber.

The warm absorber modifies the emerged spectrum (predominatly at longer wavelengths – optical and the IR band). The effect is only weakly influenced by $`z_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and the density distribution $`\rho (z)`$. More important is the exact location of the inner edge, $`z_{\mathrm{min}}`$. The exemplary spectrum is are shown by dashed line in Fig. 4.

## 3 Warm Comptonizing skin

Comptonization of a fraction of disk photons is clearly needed in order to reproduce the soft X-ray part of the spectrum. In the high luminosity objects the disk extends down to the marginally stable orbit and some warm skin covers the inner region. Similar interpretation holds both for galactic black holes in their High State or Very High State and for luminous AGN (ref. ). Here we propose a natural constraint for the properties of this warm skin based on stability analysis in the radiation pressure dominated region of the disk.

We assume that the accretion disk is azimuthaly divided into two layers: inner cold part and a warm Comptonizing skin (Fig. 3). We futher assume that fraction of the energy is transported from the disk interior towards the skin as a magnetic flux. In this way proceed the heating of the warm skin. Therefore, the energy balance of the disk interior reads:

$$Q^+=Q^{}+W,$$
(2)
where $`Q^+=\frac{3}{2}\alpha PH\mathrm{\Omega }_K`$ is the energy flux dissipated in the disk interior, $`Q^{}=\frac{4\sigma _BT^4}{3\mathrm{\Sigma }\kappa _{es}}`$ is the radiative cooling of the disk interior. $`W`$ is the magnetically transported flux and $`WB^2v_AHP^{3/2}H^{3/2}`$ ($`B^2`$ – the energy density of the magnetic field, $`v_A`$ – the Alfven velocity, $`H`$ – the disk thickness, $`P`$ – the pressure). The warm skin is heated by flux tubes which cover only a fraction of the boundary surface. We assume that this covering is proportional to the disk thicknes, $`H`$.

The disk is thermally stable if:

$$\delta Q^+<\delta Q^{}+\delta W.$$
(3)
Our calculations show that the presence of magnetic transport stabilizes the disk since its dependence on the temperature is steep enough (the same as in the case of advection). When $`wW/Q^+=0.5`$ the disk already becomes stable even if strongly dominated by the radiation pressure. We therefore consider it possible that the disk in a natural way develops this magnetically mediated transport in the radiation pressure dominated region. This region of the disk would be therefore covered with a warm skin and the transport efficiency saturates at the value $`w=0.5`$ .

The skin cools predominantly by Comptonization. The cooling efficiency is fixed by the parameter $`w`$, i.e. the Compton amplification factor, $`A`$, is given by

$$A=\frac{Q^{}+W}{Q^{}}=\frac{1}{1w}=2(\mathrm{for}w=0.5).$$
(4)
Therefore, the condition $`A=2`$ roughly determines the slope, $`\alpha _E`$, of the soft X-ray spectrum. It provides a constraint for the combination of the skin optical depth, $`\tau _{skin}`$, and its temperature, $`T_{skin}`$.

The role of the irradiation and the Comptonization by the warm absorber and disk skin is illustrated in Fig. 4. The model does not fit exactly the observed data points (Fig. 5) since our aim of our model is to reproduce in a possibly natural way the scaling of the spectra with mass and not fitting.

## 4 Conclusion

We develop a model which is appropriate for high luminosity objects like quasars and NLS1 galaxies.

We propose two mechanisms which together may be responible for the relatively uniform spectral shape of the AGN luminosities in term of $`L/L_{Edd}`$. First mechanism is back-scattering of the light emerged from disk by warm absorber. Second mechanism is the Comptonization in the marginally stable accretion disk warm skin.

Main conclusions of our investigation are following:

* Irradiation results in softer/UV spectra than predicted by classical disc models.
* The warm skin stabilizes the radiation pressure dominated disk.
* It Comptonizes the disk emission and the soft X-ray part of the spectrum is produced.
* The condition of stability leads to a specific value of the Compton amplification factor ($`A=2`$) which roughly determines the soft X-ray slope.
* Both effects lead to the radiation spectrum which shape does not strongly depend on the parameters.

Our results are in agreement with the conclusion of ref.  that there is no strong correlation between the Eddington ratio and the mass.

Lower luminosity AGN (in terms of $`L/L_{Edd}`$), like Seyfert galaxies, are not expected to be represented by the discussed model. In those sources the disk evaporation is most probably very effective, as expected from the models (e.g. ref. ), and the inner disk is replaced with a hot, possibly advection dominated flow (e.g. ref. ).

*Acknowledgements* Part of this work was supported by grants 2P03D00322 and PBZ-KBN-054/P03/2001 of the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research, and Jumelage/CNRS No. 16 “Astronomie France/Pologne”.


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# First IBIS results on the high energy emission of Cyg X-2 Based on observations with INTEGRAL, an ESA project with instruments and science data centre funded by ESA member states (especially the PI countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain), Czech Republic and Poland, and with the participation of Russia and the USA.

## 1 Introduction

Cyg X-2 is a well known, and one of the best studied binary systems. Being a bright persistent source, many X-ray spectral and timing properties have been established and the main binary parameters determined during recent years observations. Cyg X-2 is located at a distance of $`8`$ kpc and is identified as a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB), consisting of a weakly magnetized neutron star (NS) orbiting the late-type companion star V1341 Cyg with a 9.844 days orbital period (Cowley et al. (1979)). Evidence for the NS nature of the compact object comes from the detection of type I X-ray bursts (Smale (1998)) and from the optical measurement of the mass of the compact object, ($`1.78\pm 0.23`$$`M_{}`$ (Orosz & Kuulkers (1999)). The short time duration ($`5`$s) X-ray bursts detected from Cyg X-2 are a challenge to the current theories. Short bursts are recognized as typical of accretion rates lower than $`10^{10}`$ $`M_{}`$/yr (Kuulkers et al. (2002) and refs. therein) so they are not expected from sources accreting at near-Eddington levels, like Cyg X-2. Currently, short type I bursts have been observed in at least three high luminosity sources: Cyg X-2, GX 17+2 (Kuulkers et al. (2002)) and GX 3+1 (Den Hartog et al. (2003)).

Cyg X-2 has a bright, highly variable X-ray emission. Its X-ray light curve has a clear pattern, showing two peaks repeating periodically with a cycle of $`82`$ days (Vrtilek et al. (2003), see also Wijnands et al. (1996) for a previous determination), as is also shown in Fig. 1. The X-ray luminosity changes regularly by a factor $`5`$ to 10 in time scales of hours to days (see e.g. Di Salvo et al. (2002), Piraino et al. (2002)). Associated to these luminosity changes are important spectral variations. When represented in terms of colour-colour diagrams (Hasinger & van der Klis (1989)) the spectral variations describe a Z-shaped track, with shape and morphology depending on the source intensity (Kuulkers et al. (1996)). Distinct timing features (QPOs in the power spectrum) are found to be associated to the three different limbs of the Z (for a review see van der Klis (2000)). This behaviour has also been seen in other five sources common to the bright LMXB class: GX 5-1, Sco X-1, GX 17+2, GX 340+0 and GX 349+2 (Sco X-2), forming the class of Z-sources. On short/medium time scales, ($``$ hours) the spectral softness if found to be positively correlated to the X-ray luminosity, consistently with the overall spectral behaviour of LMXBs in the X-rays. However, the correlation of spectral/timing properties with accretion rate on long-term periods is still unclear. For example, the source may exhibit the same spectral softness and/or the same characteristic QPO frequencies while changing a factor of a few in X-ray luminosity. According to a recent interpretation (van der Klis (2001)), this is compatible with a long-time scale averaged response to variations of the accretion rate. On the other hand, as far as the spectral modelling is concerned, the most recent studies have converged to a generally agreed scheme, in which the soft component is described by a Planckian type law, i.e. blackbody or disk blackbody (see Mitsuda et al. (1984)), whereas the hard component, luminous up to a few tens of keV is described by a thermal Comptonization spectrum (Titarchuck (1994)). This model, with the addition of an emission Fe K$`\alpha `$ line and, in some cases, other lines for E $`1`$ keV (Kuulkers et al. (1997)) is capable of providing a good description of the X-ray spectrum of Cyg X-2 (for a recent discussion, see Done et al. (2002) and refs. therein). In case of bright LMXBs, the Comptonization spectrum is generally characterized by a relatively low ($`10`$ keV) temperature of the electron plasma, whereas for atoll sources and most of the low luminosity LMXB X-ray bursters, $`kT_e`$ $`50`$ keV (Barret et al. (2000)). This is currently explained as an effect of cooling of the Comptonizing plasma, caused by a strong soft X-ray irradiation.

Despite these latest developments, however, the picture of the origin of hard X-ray emission from Cyg X-2, as well for the other Z sources, is not yet clear. Recent spectral measurements at high energies have detected a possible, further spectral component which is needed to explain an observed hard tail. Modelled by a power law, this hard tail has a photon spectral slope $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ as hard as $`2`$ (Di Salvo et al. (2002)), or being in the range $`2.53.2`$ (Piraino et al. (2002)). A similar hard tail has been also detected from other Z sources, namely GX 17+2 (Di Salvo et al. (2000)), GX 349+2 (Di Salvo et al. (2001)) and Sco X-1 (D’Amico et al. (2001)Strickman & Barret (2000)). Hard tails in these sources are found to be highly variable, with many cases of non-detection.

## 2 Observations and data analysis

The IBIS instrument on board INTEGRAL has been observing the Cygnus region extensively during the fall of 2002. In particular, in observations when Cyg X-1 was pointed off-axis, Cyg X-2 was in the partially coded field of view of the IBIS telescope. Within these observations we have selected IBIS/ISGRI data from 16 science windows, each corresponding to an exposure time of $`2150`$ s.

ISGRI is the soft $`\gamma `$-ray, CdTe detector of INTEGRAL/IBIS, operative in the energy range 15-1000 keV with an active area of 2600 cm2. Its on-axis sensitivity (5$`\sigma `$) in the range 15-50 keV is better than $`2`$ mCrab with an exposure time of $`10^5`$ s. Due to the large field-of-view, ISGRI is an excellent monitor instrument for sources in regions extensively observed by INTEGRAL, in particular for sources at low Galactic latitudes. For a detailed description of IBIS and ISGRI we refer to Ubertini et al. (2003) and Lebrun et al., (2003), respectively.

For the purpose of data selection, we required the source offset $`12`$ deg from the telescope axis, in order to reduce the sensitivity losses and the unknown systematic effects which could arise, in this early phase, by very large offset angles. The selected observations are reported in detail in Table 1. The total IBIS exposure time for these pointings is 32.8 ks and is splitted in two main exposures, separated by a time gap of 5.5 days, whereas the offset of the source was always in the range 11.2-11.8 deg. The very low spread of offset values is essentially due to the INTEGRAL observing strategy based on dithering around a given target (Winkler et al. (2003)), which was also adopted for part of the in-flight calibration observations.

Cyg X-2 was detected in all but the first two pointings. In Fig. 2 we show a mosaic image in the energy band 20-30 keV, built using the total available exposure time. Cyg X-2 is visible together with other bright, known sources: from right to left, Cyg X-1, Cyg X-3 and the transient SAX J2103.5+4545, respectively (for the latter, we refer the reader to Lutovinov et al. (2003)). The data were processed by means of the IBIS off-line analysis S/W (Goldwurm et al. (2003)), version 1.1. For each pointing we have extracted the count-rate flux measured after processing the related image. In Fig. 3, bottom panel, the light curve of the source in the energy band 20-40 keV is shown. The intensity values, referred as ISGRI counts/s, are uncorrected for systematic effects due to the source offset and hence, cannot be compared directly to other on-axis measurements or to observations with significantly different offsets. The reported intensity probably underestimates the ISGRI counts/s for an on-axis source by a factor $`1.5`$. On the other hand, values of fluxes reported hereafter have been derived by comparing the ISGRI intensities by the intensity measured from the Crab nebula during the calibration observations, at a close value of offset position ($`9.6\mathrm{deg}`$). So they are corrected, to a large extent, from this type of systematics. The light curve obtained from RXTE All Sky Monitor (ASM) data in the energy band 2-10 keV is also shown. The IBIS intensities are found to be correlated to the ASM data, eventhough the high energy flux shows less variation. The period spanned by the data corresponds to the X-ray flux increasing approximately from the minimum to the maximum of one of the two peaks in the long-term cycle. Since the low energy data shows more intensity change, there is straightforward evidence from Fig. 3, for the spectrum to become softer in the second series of pointings.

For this reason and also due to the significant separation of the two data sections, we consider two different exposures (see Table 2). In order to estimate hardness ratios we choose two contiguous energy bands, 20-30 keV and 30-45 keV. Reconstructed sky images were computed separately for the two exposures. From these images, and by cross-calibration with the Crab offset exposure we estimate average flux values, as reported in Table 2. In this preliminary phase of the calibration, we have allowed a 10% systematic error in these flux estimates (for details see Goldwurm et al. (2003)).

The ratios of the 20-30 keV to the 30-45 keV count rates are, after offset correction, ($`2.89\pm 0.56`$) and ($`3.33\pm 0.59`$) for the two observations. Therefore, the softening of the spectrum is evident only by comparison with the ASM data.

## 3 Conclusions

We have reported on the first results of a monitoring of Cyg X-2 performed during $`10`$ days in December 2002. Due to the large offset angle of the source and its steep spectrum, the observations were much limited in sensitivity. A joint analysis of the IBIS/ISGRI and RXTE/ASM light curves reveals a softening of the X-ray spectrum on a time scale of $`1`$ week, corresponding to the rising from one low intensity phase of the long term cycle of $`82`$ days. During the softening, the 20-40 keV luminosities changed only from $`3.5`$ to $`4.2\times 10^{36}`$ erg s-1 (assuming a distance of 8 kpc) against a change of luminosity of a factor of $`2`$ in the 2-10 keV band. During the second exposure, the 2-10 keV luminosity was $`10^{38}`$ erg s-1 or even more. The hard X-ray spectrum is found to be very steep. The luminosity hardness ratios for the energy bands 30-45 keV and 20-30 keV are $`0.30`$ or even less, indicating a spectral slope significantly greater than $`3.5`$ (when this is approximated by a power law). Such a steep spectral slope is consistent with the shape of the high energy tail of the thermal comptonization spectrum observed from Cyg X-2. There is no evidence, instead, of a hard tail extending beyond 40 keV, with a $`5\sigma `$ upper limit of $`1.3\times 10^3`$ ph cm-2 s-1.

We note that the lack of detection of a hard tail is not contradictory with other observations of such feature in the spectrum of Cyg X-2, as this component could be variable or sporadic. Further monitoring and spectral observations by INTEGRAL will help clarifying the nature of the high energy emission from this source.

###### Acknowledgements.

The IBIS project is partially granted by Italian Space Agency (ASI). LN is grateful to the IBIS engineering team at IASF/Rome, and in particular to M. Federici for efficient archive and software maintenance.


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# On vector potential of the Coulomb gauge

## I Introduction

The role of the gauge condition in classical electrodynamics was recently highlighted Jackson . This is because of probable asymmetry between different gauges. The distinct feature of the Coulomb gauge is that it implies an instantaneous action of the scalar potential Stewart ; Drury ; Chubykalo . The question of simultaneous co-existence of instantaneous and retarded interactions is mostly debated Jackson1 . The paper Stewart  concludes that ‘the vector decomposition theorem of Helmholtz leads to a form of the vector potential of the Coulomb gauge that, like the scalar potential, is instantaneous’. This conclusion was arrived at considering the retarded integrals for electrodynamic potentials. Constructing within the same theorem wave equations the author Drury  finds that ‘the scalar potential propagates at infinite speed while the vector potential propagates at speed $`c`$ in free space’. In order to resolve the discrepancy between Stewart  and Drury  the latter technique will be developed below in a more systematic way.

Recently the two-parameter generalization of the Lorenz gauge was considered Jackson ; Chubykalo :

$$\mathbf{}𝑨+\frac{c}{c_\mathrm{g}^2}\frac{\phi }{t}=0,$$
(1)
where $`c_\mathrm{g}`$ is a constant that may differ from $`c`$ . We will construct wave equations applying the vector decomposition theorem to Maxwell’s equations with (1). Thus simultaneous co-existence of instantaneous and retarded actions will be substantiated.

## II Maxwell’s equations in the Kelvin-Helmholtz representation

Maxwell’s equations in terms of electromagnetic potentials $`𝐀`$ and $`\phi `$ read as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{c}}{\displaystyle \frac{𝑨}{t}}+𝑬+\mathbf{}\phi =0`$ (2)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{𝑬}{t}}c\mathbf{}\times (\mathbf{}\times 𝑨)+4\pi 𝒋=0`$ (3)
$`\mathbf{}𝑬=4\pi \rho .`$ (4)
The Helmholtz theorem says that a vector field $`𝒖`$ that vanishes at infinity can be expanded into a sum of its solenoidal $`𝒖_\mathrm{r}`$ and irrotational $`𝒖_\mathrm{g}`$ components. We have for the electric field:

$$𝑬=𝑬_\mathrm{r}+𝑬_\mathrm{g},$$
(5)
where

$`\mathbf{}𝑬_\mathrm{r}`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (6)
$`\mathbf{}\times 𝑬_\mathrm{g}`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (7)
The similar expansion for the vector potential can be written as

$$𝑨=𝑨_\mathrm{r}+\frac{c}{c_\mathrm{g}}𝑨_\mathrm{g},$$
(8)
where

$`\mathbf{}𝑨_\mathrm{r}`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (9)
$`\mathbf{}\times 𝑨_\mathrm{g}`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (10)
If we substitute Eqs. (5) and (8) into Eq. (2), we obtain

$$\frac{1}{c}\frac{𝑨_\mathrm{r}}{t}+𝑬_\mathrm{r}+\frac{1}{c_\mathrm{g}}\frac{𝑨_\mathrm{g}}{t}+𝑬_\mathrm{g}+\mathbf{}\phi =0.$$
(11)
By taking the curl of Eq. (11), we obtain using Eqs. (7) and (10)

$$\mathbf{}\times \left(\frac{1}{c}\frac{𝑨_\mathrm{r}}{t}+𝑬_\mathrm{r}\right)=0.$$
(12)
On the other hand, from Eqs. (6) and (9), we have

$$\mathbf{}\left(\frac{1}{c}\frac{𝑨_\mathrm{r}}{t}+𝑬_\mathrm{r}\right)=0.$$
(13)
If the divergence and curl of a field are zero everywhere, then that field must vanish. Hence, Eqs. (12) and (13) imply that

$$\frac{1}{c}\frac{𝑨_\mathrm{r}}{t}+𝑬_\mathrm{r}=0.$$
(14)
We subtract Eq. (14) from Eq. (11) and obtain

$$\frac{1}{c_\mathrm{g}}\frac{𝑨_\mathrm{g}}{t}+𝑬_\mathrm{g}+\mathbf{}\phi =0.$$
(15)
Similarly, if we express the current density as

$$𝒋=𝒋_\mathrm{r}+𝒋_\mathrm{g},$$
(16)
where

$`\mathbf{}𝒋_\mathrm{r}`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (17)
$`\mathbf{}\times 𝒋_\mathrm{g}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (18)
Eq. (3) can be written as two equations

$$\frac{𝑬_\mathrm{r}}{t}c\mathbf{}\times (\mathbf{}\times 𝑨_\mathrm{r})+4\pi 𝒋_\mathrm{r}=0$$
(19)
$$\frac{𝑬_\mathrm{g}}{t}+4\pi 𝒋_\mathrm{g}=0.$$
(20)
From Eqs. (5) and (6), Eq. (4) can be expressed as

$$\mathbf{}𝑬_\mathrm{g}=4\pi \rho .$$
(21)
## III Wave equations for the two-speed extension of electrodynamics

We will derive from Eqs. (14), (15), (19), (20), and (21) the wave equations for the solenoidal (transverse) and irrotational (longitudinal) components of the fields. In what follows we will use the general vector relation

$$\mathbf{}(\mathbf{}𝒖)=\mathbf{}^2𝒖+\mathbf{}\times (\mathbf{}\times 𝒖).$$
(22)
The wave equation for $`𝑨_\mathrm{r}`$ can now be found. We differentiate Eq. (14) with respect to time:

$$\frac{1}{c}\frac{^2𝑨_\mathrm{r}}{t^2}+\frac{𝑬_\mathrm{r}}{t}=0.$$
(23)
We next substitute Eq. (19) into Eq. (23) and use Eqs. (22) and (9) to obtain

$$\frac{^2𝑨_\mathrm{r}}{t^2}c^2\mathbf{}^2𝑨_\mathrm{r}=4\pi c𝒋_\mathrm{r}.$$
(24)
The wave equation for $`𝑬_\mathrm{r}`$ can be found as follows. We differentiate Eq. (19) with respect to time:

$$\frac{^2𝑬_\mathrm{r}}{t^2}c\mathbf{}\times (\mathbf{}\times \frac{𝑨_\mathrm{r}}{t})+4\pi \frac{𝒋_\mathrm{r}}{t}=0,$$
(25)
and substitute Eq. (14) into Eq. (25). By using Eqs. (22) and (6), we obtain

$$\frac{^2𝑬_\mathrm{r}}{t^2}c^2\mathbf{}^2𝑬_\mathrm{r}=4\pi \frac{𝒋_\mathrm{r}}{t}.$$
(26)
In the absence of the electric current, Eqs. (24) and (26) are wave equations for the solenoidal fields $`𝑨_\mathrm{r}`$ and $`𝑬_\mathrm{r}`$.

To find wave equations for the irrotational fields, we need a gauge relation. Substituting (8) into Eq. (1) we get the longitudinal gauge

$$\mathbf{}𝑨_\mathrm{g}+\frac{1}{c_\mathrm{g}}\frac{\phi }{t}=0.$$
(27)
The solenoidal part of the vector potential automatically satisfies the Coulomb gauge, Eq. (9). The wave equation for $`𝑨_\mathrm{g}`$ can be found as follows. We first differentiate Eq. (15) with respect to time:

$$\frac{1}{c_\mathrm{g}}\frac{^2𝑨_\mathrm{g}}{t^2}+\frac{𝑬_\mathrm{g}}{t}+\frac{\mathbf{}\phi }{t}=0.$$
(28)
We then take the gradient of Eq. (27),

$$\mathbf{}(\mathbf{}𝑨_\mathrm{g})+\frac{1}{c_\mathrm{g}}\mathbf{}\frac{\phi }{t}=0,$$
(29)
and combine Eqs. (28), (29) and (20). If we use Eqs. (22) and (10), we obtain

$$\frac{^2𝑨_\mathrm{g}}{t^2}c_\mathrm{g}^2\mathbf{}^2𝑨_\mathrm{g}=4\pi c_\mathrm{g}𝒋_\mathrm{g}.$$
(30)
Next, we will find the wave equation for $`\phi `$. We take the divergence of Eq. (15),

$$\frac{1}{c_\mathrm{g}}\frac{\mathbf{}𝑨_\mathrm{g}}{t}+\mathbf{}𝑬_\mathrm{g}+\mathbf{}^2\phi =0,$$
(31)
and combine Eqs. (31), (27), and (21):

$$\frac{^2\phi }{t^2}c_\mathrm{g}^2\mathbf{}^2\phi =4\pi c_\mathrm{g}^2\rho .$$
(32)
Equations (32) and (30) give wave equations for $`\phi `$ and $`𝑨_\mathrm{g}`$.

We may try to find a wave equation for $`𝑬_\mathrm{g}`$ using Eq. (15) in Eqs. (32) and (30). However, in the absence of the charge, we have from Eq. (21)

$$\mathbf{}𝑬_\mathrm{g}=0.$$
(33)
Hence, by Eqs. (33) and (7), we have

$$𝑬_\mathrm{g}=0.$$
(34)
We see that Maxwell’s equations (2)–(4) with the longitudinal gauge (27) imply that the solenoidal and irrotational components of the fields propagate with different velocities. The solenoidal components $`𝑨_\mathrm{r}`$ and $`𝑬_\mathrm{r}`$ propagate with the speed $`c`$ of light, and the irrotational component $`𝑨_\mathrm{g}`$ of the magnetic vector potential and the scalar potential $`\phi `$ propagate with the speed $`c_\mathrm{g}`$.

## IV Single-parameter electrodynamics

In reality, electrodynamics has only one parameter, the speed of light, $`c`$. Then, to construct from the above the classical theory, we have to choose among two variants: two waves with equal speeds or a single wave. If we let

$$c_\mathrm{g}=c,$$
(35)
the two-parameter form (1) becomes the familiar Lorenz gauge

$$\mathbf{}𝑨+\frac{1}{c}\frac{\phi }{t}=0.$$
(36)
Another possible choice is

$$c_\mathrm{g}c.$$
(37)
The condition (37) turns Eq. (1) into the Coulomb gauge

$$\mathbf{}𝑨=0.$$
(38)
Substituting

$$c_\mathrm{g}=\mathrm{}$$
(39)
into the dynamic equation (32), we get

$$\mathbf{}^2\phi =4\pi \rho .$$
(40)
Validity of Eq. (40) for the case when $`\phi `$ and $`\rho `$ may be functions of time $`t`$ means that the scalar potential $`\phi `$ acts instantaneously.

Substituting (39) into Eq. (27) we get for the irrotational part of the vector potential:

$$\mathbf{}𝑨_\mathrm{g}=0.$$
(41)
Insofar as the divergence (41) and the curl (10) of $`𝑨_\mathrm{g}`$ are vanishing, we have

$$𝑨_\mathrm{g}=0.$$
(42)
So, on the first sight by (39) irrotational component $`𝑨_\mathrm{g}`$ of the vector potential propagates instantaneously. However, according to relation (42), with (39) $`𝑨_\mathrm{g}`$ vanishes.

Putting (42) into (8) we get

$$𝑨=𝑨_\mathrm{r}.$$
(43)
Substituting (43) into Eq. (24) gives

$$\frac{^2𝑨}{t^2}c^2\mathbf{}^2𝑨=4\pi c𝒋_\mathrm{r}.$$
(44)
Eq. (44) indicates that in the Coulomb gauge (38) the vector potential $`𝑨`$ propagates at speed $`c`$.

## V Mechanical interpretation

Recently, we have shown Dmitr  that in the Coulomb gauge electrodynamics is isomorphic to the elastic medium that is stiff to compression yet liable to shear deformations. In this analogy the vector potential corresponds to the velocity and the scalar potential to the pressure of the medium. Clearly, in an incompressible medium there is no longitudinal waves, the pressure acts instantaneously, and the transverse wave spreads at finite velocity. This mechanical picture provides an intuitive support to the electrodynamic relations (38), (40) and (44) just obtained.

## VI Conclusion

By using a two-parameter Lorenz-like gauge, we extended electrodynamics to a two-speed theory. Turning the longitudinal speed parameter to infinity we come to electrodynamics in the Coulomb gauge. In this way we show that the scalar potential acts instantaneously while the vector potential propagates at speed of light.

###### Acknowledgements.

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. I. P. Makarchenko for valuable comments concerning the non-existence of longitudinal waves of the electric field and longitudinal waves in the Coulomb gauge.

## References


text:
# A practice problem for Schrödinger transmission

## Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Sudhir. R. Jain and Dr Abhas Mitra for critical reading of the manuscript.

## references

1. A. Messiah, Quantum Mechanics (North-Holland Publishing. Co., Amsterdam, 1962) vol. I, pp. 91-114.
2. E. Merzbacher, Quantum Mechanics (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1970) Ch. 6, pp. 80-114
3. S. Flügge, Practical Quantum Mechanics (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1971) vol. 1, Prob. No. 37 & 39.
4. D. Rapp, Quantum Mechanics (Holt,Rinhart & Wilson Inc., New York, 1970), Part III, Ch. 8, pp. 125-200; G. Barton, “Quantum mechanics of inverted harmonic oscillator potential”, Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 166, 322 (1986); Z. Ahmed, “Tunneling through asymmetric parabolic barriers”, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. (1997)) 3115-3116.
5. L.D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, Quantum Mechanics (Pergamon Press, London,1958).
6. P.M. Morse and H. Feshbach, Methods of Theoretical Physics (McGraw-Hill Book Company, Ltd., New York, 1953) pp.1650-1660.
7. J.N. Ginocchio, “A class of exactly solvable 1: one-dimensional Schrödinger equation”, Ann. Phys. 152, 203 (1984); B.Sahu, S.K. Agarwalla and C.S. Shastry, “Above-barrier resonances : Analytic expression for energy and width”, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 35, 4349-4358 (2002).
8. A. Khare and U. P. Sukhatme, “Scattering amplitudes for supersymmetric shape-invariant potential by operator method”, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 21 L501-L508 (1988).
9. Z.Ahmed,“Tunneling through the Morse barrier”, Phys. Lett. A 157, 1-5, (1991).
10. Z.Ahmed, “Tunneling through a one dimensional potential barrier”, Phys. Rev. A, 47 4761-4757 (1993).
11. G.B. Arfken and H.J. Weber, Mathematical Methods for Physicists, (academic Press Inc., San Diego,1995) pp. 627-664; M. Abramowitz and A. S. Stegun, Handbook of Mathematical Functions (Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1970) pp.358-365.
12. B.F. Buxton and M.V. Berry, “Bloch wave degeneracies in systematic high energy electron diffraction”, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London. Ser. A 282, 485-525 (1976) (see p.534); G. Barton, “Levinsion theorem in one dimension : Heuristics”, J. Phys. A 18 497 (1985); Y. Nogami and C.Y. Ross, “Sacattering from a non-symmetric potential in one dimension : as a coupled channel problem”, Am . J. Phys., 64, 923 (1996).
13. Z. Ahmed, “Schrödinger transmission through one-dimensional complex potentials”, Phys. Rev. A 64 042716-(1-4) (2001).
14. e.g., H. A. Enge,Introduction to Nuclear Physics (Addison Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, Mass., 1966), pp. 274-295.
15. e.g., A.S. Davydov, Quantum Mechanics (Pergamon Press, New York, 1965).


text:
# John Bell Across Space and Time

(July 7, 2003)

## Abstract

This is a review of the book Quantum \[Un\]speakables: From Bell to Quantum Information. Reinhold A. Bertlmann and Anton Zeilinger (editors). xxii + 483 pp. Springer-Verlag, 2002. $89.95.

Ten years after his death, one of the sharpest minds in quantum physics was celebrated in a memorial conference.

John Stewart Bell (1928-1990) was one of the leading physicists of the 20th century, a deep and serious thinker. He worked at CERN in Geneva on the physics of particle accelerators, made a number of impressive contributions to quantum field theory, and became famous for the discovery of a phenomenon he called nonlocality. However, the most remarkable thing about him was perhaps that he was a realist.

Realism is the philosophical view that the world out there actually exists, as opposed to the view that it is a mere hallucination. We are all born realists, but some of us change our minds as adults. Now it may seem to you that for physics to make any sense, a physicist would have to be, or at least pretend to be, a realist; after all, it would seem that physics is about finding out how the world out there works.

But, as a matter of fact, in the 1920s Niels Bohr, the leading quantum physicist of his time, began to advocate the idea that realism is childish and unscientific; he proposed instead what is now called the “Copenhagen interpretation” of quantum physics, a rather incoherent philosophical doctrine, which (according to Richard Feynman) “nobody really understands.” Part of this doctrine is the view that macroscopic objects, such as chairs and planets, do exist out there, but electrons and the other microscopic particles do not. Correspondingly, Copenhagen quantum theory refuses to provide any consistent story about what happens to microscopic objects, and instead prefers to make contradictory statements about them. According to the Copenhagen view, the world is divided into two realms, macro and micro, “classical” and “quantum,” logical and contradictory—or, as Bell put it in one of his essays, into “speakable” and “unspeakable.”

Although it is not clear where the border between the two realms should be, and how this duality could possibly be compatible with the fact that chairs consist of electrons and other particles, Bohr’s view became the orthodoxy. That is, it became not merely the majority view among physicists, but rather the dogma. Ever since, being a realist has been rather dangerous for a quantum physicist, because it has been widely regarded as a sign of being too stupid to understand orthodox quantum theory—which, as we’ve mentioned, nobody really understands.

Along with Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Louis de Broglie and David Bohm, Bell was one of the few people who felt compelled by his conscience to reject Bohr’s philosophy. Bell emphasized that the empirical facts of quantum physics do not at all force us to renounce realism: There is a realist theory that accounts for all of these facts in a most elegant way—Bohmian mechanics (also known as de Broglie–Bohm theory). It describes a world in which electrons, quarks and the like are point particles that move in a manner dictated by the wave function. It should be taught to students, Bell insisted, as a legitimate alternative to the orthodoxy. And in 1986, GianCarlo Ghirardi, Alberto Rimini, and Tullio Weber succeeded in developing a second kind of realist theory, encouraged by Bell and known as *spontaneous localization*. But overcoming prejudice and changing convictions takes more than one generation.

Quantum \[Un\]speakables is the proceedings volume of a conference held at the University of Vienna in November 2000 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Bell’s death. The 30 articles written for this volume by 35 authors deal foremost with nonlocality and, of course, the meaning of quantum theory. The contributions focus very much on personal recollections and mostly presuppose that the reader is familiar with the relevant physics and mathematics. The recollections make this book a valuable source both on John Bell the man and on the history of quantum physics between 1950 and 1990. Among other things, several authors complain about the dogmatic aversion among physicists in the 1960s to even take note of Bell’s nonlocality theorem.

Quantum \[Un\]speakables also reflects the prevailing situation in the year 2000 in that it collects personal, diverging views about the meaning of quantum physics from a cross-section of physicist. The cross-section is biased, though, because researchers working on Bohmian mechanics, of which Bell was the leading proponent during the decades before his death, were simply not invited to the conference, and the realists are in the minority among the authors. Thus we recommend that readers be very cautious in regard to the conclusions drawn in this book about the foundations of quantum physics.

This warning concerns in particular the conclusions drawn from Bell’s nonlocality theorem. Let us tell the story briefly here. Bohmian mechanics involves superluminal action-at-a-distance and thus violates the “locality principle” of relativity theory. This was considered, by the Copenhagen camp, an indication that Bohmian mechanics was on the wrong track. In 1964, Bell proved that any serious version of quantum theory (regardless of whether or not it is based on microscopic realism) must violate locality. This means that if nature is governed by the predictions of quantum theory, the “locality principle” is simply wrong, and our world is nonlocal. It also means that the nonlocality of Bohmian mechanics is not a sign of its being on the wrong track, but quite the contrary.

The Copenhagen view, in comparison, is indeed less local: It is nonlocal in cases that Bohmian mechanics can explain in a purely local way. (For example, for a particle in a quantum state that is a superposition of being in London and being in Tokyo, according to Copenhagenism there is no matter of fact about whether the particle actually is in London or in Tokyo prior to the first attempt at detection—which presupposes a temporal ordering.) But it is also contradictory, vague and confusing enough for its adherents to claim it is completely local, and thus that nonlocality is a consequence of an attachment to realism. Therefore, so the argument goes, it was Bell who finally proved realism wrong! Bell, of course, emphatically rejected this incorrect interpretation of his nonlocality theorem.

The crucial experiments violating Bell’s inequality and thus, according to Bell’s theoretical analysis, demonstrating nonlocality have been performed many times since 1980, and have also lead to significant improvements in experimental techniques. Some of these techniques have now become valuable for quantum cryptography and the first steps towards the construction of a quantum computer. These two fields are usually summarized under the key word ”quantum information,” and great hopes are expressed, also in Quantum \[Un\]speakables, that quantum information will provide new insights into the nature of the quantum world.

But we see no reason for such hopes. Quantum information theory is a straightforward application of the rules laid down in, for example, John von Neumann’s classic 1932 book on the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics. Any interpretation of quantum mechanics, to the extent that it succeeds in explaining these rules, also explains quantum computers and the like. And to the idea that quantum theory may after all be merely about information and nothing else, Bell responded with a crucial question: “Information? Whose information? Information about what?”

Reviewer information. Nino Zanghì is professor of theoretical physics at the Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy. Roderich Tumulka is a post-doctoral research fellow at the physics department of the Università degli Studi di Genova. The authors wish to thank Sheldon Goldstein for his critical reading of a draft for this article.