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# Modeling The Nucleosynthesis Of Massive Stars

## 1 Introduction

Nowadays it is commonly accepted that stars with masses $`M>8M_{}`$ complete all possible phases of hydrostatic burning up to Si burning and end their life in a collapse of the Fe core, followed by an explosive ejection of matter. The most common type of core collapse supernovae are type II supernovae, showing H lines in their spectrum and resulting from the explosion of a progenitor with $`M>10M_{}`$. The details of hydrostatic stellar evolution depend on hydrodynamical effects like convection as well as on nuclear physics. Regarding the latter, the most famous example is the one of the 12C($`\alpha `$,$`\gamma `$)16O reaction which sensitively determines energy generation during and the 12C/16O ratio after He burning. Therefore, also the subsequent burning phases depend sensitively on this reaction and thus the evolution of the star (see, e.g., Heger et al., 2002). Due to the still large uncertainty in the cross section, this reaction contributes the largest uncertainty in hydrostatic stellar evolution and its nucleosynthesis. More recently, it has been shown that two other reactions are also of major importance, namely the ones of the branching between 22Ne($`\alpha `$,n)25Mg and 22Ne($`\alpha `$,$`\gamma `$)26Mg. The neutrons released by the former reaction alter abundances by neutron capture reactions and are responsible for the weak s-process component produced in massive stars. At sufficiently high temperatures the neutron release can be so effective that nuclei several units away from stability can be created in a so-called n-process (Rauscher et al., 2002). On the other hand, prevailing uncertainties in the treatment of convection and semi-convection will influence the reaction of the star to altered nuclear physics. While nuclear reactions dominate the error in calculating hydrostatic abundances, the proper hydrodynamic treatment of the core collapse currently seems to be the source of most problems connected with the explosion mechanism. Nevertheless, nuclear properties like neutrino cross sections and the nuclear equation of state have to be known accurately, too.

Observing the abundances of radioactive species in supernova remnants help us gain a deeper understanding concerning the production of those nuclei and also on the underlying physical processes. Looking at nuclei produced in different phases of evolution and explosion will probe different aspects. Therefore it is important to distinguish the relevant nucleosynthetic processes.

## 2 How to model nucleosynthesis

In principle, multi-dimensional (multi-D) hydrodynamical calculations are necessary to follow convection, mixing and especially the explosion. However, due to limitations in both computer power and numerical approaches, it is not yet possible to couple full reaction networks, including all nuclei ever produced in such stars, to multi-D hydrodynamical solvers. Moreover, even multi-D models have problems describing the explosion mechanism because they currently do not show explosions at all (see, e.g., Buras et al., 2003). Focussing on nucleosynthesis, one traditionally resorts to a number of approximations: Instead of multi-D, the simulation is reduced to one spatial dimension; two reaction networks are used, a smaller one which provides the nuclear energy generation and is directly coupled to the hydro solver, and a larger one without feed-back to hydro but carrying all the nucleosynthesis; multi-D effects such as convection and mixing are treated in approximations, like mixing length theory, and by invoking convection criteria (Schwarzschild, Ledoux); the explosion itself is parameterized. Even which such approximations it became only recently possible to consistently follow synthesis of all nuclei up to Bi in a single, large network (Rauscher et al., 2002). Despite the limitation, one expects mostly reliable results for nucleosynthesis of nuclei independent of the explosion mechanism, with the exceptions mentioned in the Introduction. This has been nicely proven by comparison with observational data, both regarding yields and velocity distributions of the ejecta.

There are mainly two ways to parameterize the explosion. The first is to artificially increase the entropy in the core of an evolved progenitor. This is done by a sudden temperature enhancement in the Fe core, resulting in an increase in pressure, a shock wave, and finally ejection of the outer layers. The mass cut, i.e. the mass coordinate separating material which will fall back from the one really ejected, is another free parameter in this type of simulation. The induced thermal energy is adjusted as to reproduce observed explosion energies whereas the mass cut can be chosen to be in accordance with abundances of nuclei produced in the explosion in the inner-most layers, such as 56Ni. This approach is applied by, e.g., Thielemann, Nomoto and Hashimoto (1996) and co-workers.

Another way to create an artificial explosion is to input kinetic energy by a one-dimensional moving piston. The piston first moves inward with a fraction of the local gravitational acceleration as the core collapses and then outward in another ballistic trajectory to induce a shock. The outward acceleration is usually considered the only open parameter in this model. The mass cut is implicitly obtained by the mass settled on the piston after a sufficiently large time. The free parameter thus can either be determined by reproducing the observed kinetic energy in the ejecta or by the ejected amount of inner material, such as 56Ni. The latter is usually used for stars with $`M>20M_{}`$ because those usually have higher Ni yields. It should be noted, however, that there are two further implicit parameters, the inward piston acceleration and the initial position of the piston, which are usually treated as fixed. The fall back, and thus the 44Ti and 56Ni yield, is not only dependent on the piston energy but also on the latter. This approach was introduced by Woosley and Weaver (1995) and subsequently used by that group (for recent examples, see Hoffman, Woosley, and Weaver, 2001; Rauscher et al., 2002). Very recently, also Limongi and Chieffi (2003) adopted it.

Obviously, both approaches do not account for the detailed collapse process and therefore cannot provide a consistent description of the expected neutrino pulse. In order to study neutrino-induced nucleosynthesis, usually parameterized neutrino burst profiles are applied, mostly influencing light element nucleosynthesis of Li, B, F, and partially also of 138La and 180Ta in the $`\nu `$-process (Heger et al., 2003). Both approaches also cannot follow the innermost high-entropy convective zones thought to be a possible site of the r-process. R-process abundances cannot be obtained although the thermal approach yields a slightly better description of the entropy in the lowest shells. It should be noted, however, that also more self-consistent multi-D simulations are not able to obtain the entropies required for the r-process. Whether this is an indication that supernovae are not the site of the r-process or whether this reflects deficiencies in the modeling, perhaps related to the failing explosions, remains an open question. For further considerations concerning problems with the r-process in type II supernovae, see Freiburghaus et al. (1999).

For completeness, a third approach has to be mentioned which is, to my knowledge, only rarely used: the radiation dominated shock approximation (Weaver and Woosley, 1980; Arnett, 1996). It is a simpler description of the outgoing shockwave than the above approaches. Until recently, it was used by Chieffi, Limongi and Straniero (1998); Limongi, Straniero and Chieffi (2000) and co-workers. See Limongi and Chieffi (2003) for a comparison to the piston approach.

## 3 Nuclide classes

Different nuclides probe different aspects of stellar evolution and explosion. One can define three coarse classes. In the following, examples for nuclei in each class are provided but that is by no means meant to be a complete list. The yields of species in the first class are determined by stellar evolution only, they are mainly produced in hydrostatic burning but their abundances can also be altered by explosive burning in the supernova shock front. They are sensitive to uncertainties in the reaction rates and to mixing effects as given by the stellar structure. Their yields vary with the mass of the progenitor star. Such elements are He, C, O, Ne, Mg. Among the radioactive species are 26Al, 59Co, 60Fe. It is interesting to note that there is no experimental determination of the rate of the reaction 59Fe(n,$`\gamma `$)60Fe, producing 60Fe. Therefore, its yield also has a considerable nuclear uncertainty.

The second class comprises nuclei whose yields depend on stellar evolution as well as the explosion energy. They are only weakly dependent on the progenitor mass. Examples are isotopes of Si, S, Ar, Ca.

The yields of the nuclear species in the final class probe the explosion mechanism. They depend on the size of the pre-supernova Fe core, the assumed mass cut, the explosion energy, and on the electron abundance $`Y_e`$ which provides a measure of the neutronization of the matter. The nuclei in this class are those from 44Ti to mostly Fe-group nuclei (including 56,57Ni). Also r-process nuclei would fall in this category but they cannot be treated in the parameterized models introduced above. This nuclide class can be used to fix the model explosion parameters. However, $`Y_e`$ in the inner zones can be altered by neutrino-induced weak interactions. As mentioned before, this effect is not included and therefore the obtained parameters are rather effective parameters than actual measures of physical quantities. In this context it is arguable whether a higher number of free parameters is a lack of consistency or a merit, providing more flexibility.

## 4 Prospects

Future improvements in parameterized models will concern the size of the reaction networks (specifically also the one used for energy generation, Woosley et al., 2003) and the treatment of convection. Better constrained nuclear reaction rates would also provide a major improvement. Improved parameterizations of the explosion and the neutrino pulse within the discussed limitations can be obtained from comparisons with observation and multi-D models. First steps have been taken (e.g. Kifonidis et al., 2000, and Travaglio et al., this volume) to couple nucleosynthesis networks to 2-D simulations. As in early 1-D simulations one has to resort to very limited networks yet, and it is not clear whether one has to go to higher dimensions to properly model the convective flows. Similar to the 1-D approaches, an artificial explosion has to be invoked since self-consistent calculations still offer little guidance as to the exact placement of the mass cut, the entropy and $`Y_e`$ of the innermost ejecta, or even if a given model will explode (Herant et al., 1994; Janka and Müller, 1996; Fryer and Heger, 2000). Nevertheless, multi-D effects such as mixing and asphericity can be studied in such models. These can have two consequences. If the explosive nuclear burning zones (i.e. the shock wave) become non-spherical, explosive nucleosynthesis would be altered, leading to different explosive yields. However, recent calculations still show a mainly spherical shock propagation (Kifonidis et al., 2000). The second consequence concerns the mixing behind the burning front. It will not directly affect nucleosynthesis but the burning products will be mixed into different layers behind the shock front, affecting the observational signature (see Travaglio et al., this volume).

It should be kept in mind that any exhaustive investigation of the origin of the elements has to consider, among others, a variety of progenitor stars with different initial masses and metallicities. Despite of the progresses in multi-D simulations, nucleosynthesis studies with full reaction networks on an extensive grid of masses and metallicities are only feasible with parameterized 1-D models, yet. Therefore, such models will stay with us for a while.

Acknowledgement: TR is supported by the Swiss NSF with a PROFIL professorship (grant 2024-067428.01) and through a research grant (2000-061031.02).


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# Absorption resonance and large negative delay in Rb vapor with buffer gas.

## Abstract

We observe a narrow, isolated, two-photon absorption resonance in 87Rb for large one-photon detuning in the presence of a buffer gas. In the absence of buffer gas, a standard $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ configuration of two laser frequencies gives rise to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) for all values of one-photon detuning throughout the inhomogeneously (Doppler) broadened line. However, when a buffer gas is added and the one-photon detuning is comparable to or greater than the Doppler width, an absorption resonance appears instead of the usual EIT resonance. We also observe large negative group delay ($`300\mu \mathrm{s}`$ for a Gaussian pulse propagating through the media with respect to a reference pulse not affected by the media), corresponding to a superluminal group velocity $`v_g=c/(3.6\times 10^6)=84\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}`$.

Quantum coherence effects have attracted great attention the last few years. Phenomena such as ultra-low optical group velocity Hau et al. (1999); Kash et al. (1999); Budker et al. (1999); Godone et al. (2002), super-luminal group velocity Godone et al. (2002); Wang et al. (2000); Akulshin et al. (2003), enhanced nonlinear optical effects Harris and Hau (1999), and quantum information storage Phillips et al. (2001); Liu et al. (2001); Zibrov et al. (2002) have all been studied under the condition of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) Harris (1997). More recently, complementary coherence effects such as electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) have been predicted and studied Akulshin et al. (2003, 1998); Taichenachev et al. (2000); Ye et al. (2002). In the Letter, we present the experimental observation of a new narrow absorption resonance appearing at large optical density and large detuning in Doppler broadened media with buffer gas.

In typical experiments, the narrow transmission linewidth in EIT is limited by the relaxation rate of the ground-state coherence, which is usually determined by the interaction time of an atom with the applied laser radiation. Two common methods for increasing the interaction time are by use of wall coatings Budker et al. (1998) that allow an atom to maintain its coherence while it travels into and out of the interaction region many times, and by use of a buffer gas that allows the atom to diffuse out of the interaction region slowly by velocity changing collisions that still preserve the ground-state coherence Brandt et al. (1997); Erhard and Helm (2001).

For a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-type EIT system, the dependence of the EIT resonance on one-photon laser detuning has been studied experimentally Knappe et al. (2003) and theoretically Taichenachev et al. (2002). They show that in the limit of high buffer gas pressure, when the decay rate of the upper level is comparable with the Doppler broadening, the EIT resonance shape can be described by a Lorentzian plus a dispersion-like curve:

$$f(\delta )=\gamma \frac{A\gamma +B(\delta \delta _0)}{\gamma ^2+(\delta \delta _0)^2}+C$$
(1)
where $`\gamma `$ is the width of the resonance, $`\delta `$ is the two photon detuning, $`\delta _0`$ is one-photon dependent resonance shift with respect to resonance position for zero one-photon detuning, $`A`$ is the amplitude of the Lorentzian part, $`B`$ is the amplitude of the dispersion-like part, and $`C`$ is an offset. However previous experimental studies Knappe et al. (2003) have only seen the resonance shape become somewhat assymetric while still maintaining an EIT resonance-like shape, in other words $`A>0`$ and $`|B/A|<2`$.

In our experiment we achieve an absorption-like resonance ($`A<0`$) by detuning the drive laser into the wings of the Doppler distribution in a cell with buffer gas. For our conditions, no absorption is found without buffer gas. The absorption resonance is accompanied by large anomalous dispersion so that negative group delay is observed for a pulse propagating through the medium. It is important to stress that the previous observation of EIA in Refs. Akulshin et al. (2003, 1998); Taichenachev et al. (2000); Ye et al. (2002) and the enhanced absorption seen in the Hanle effect Dancheva et al. (2000) have a different nature than what we observe here, since those previous observations require that the degeneracy of the ground state be lower than that of the excited state Taichenachev et al. (2000), (i.e. $`F<F^{}`$) for a drive field transition, which is not necessary in our experiments.

We use a weak probe and a strong drive (or coupling) field in a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ configuration of the two ground-state levels $`5S_{1/2}F=1,2`$ an the excited $`5P_{1/2}F=2`$ state of 87Rb as shown in Fig. 1. We operate in the power-broadened regime where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_d>\sqrt{\gamma \gamma _{bc}}`$ where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_d`$ is the drive laser Rabi frequency, $`\gamma `$ is the radiative decay rate as defined above, and $`\gamma _{bc}`$ is the decay rate of ground-state coherence. The resulting ground-state coherence gives rise to a narrow EIT resonance of the probe field in the vicinity of two-photon resonance ($`\delta =0`$). This coherence still exists even for one-photon detunings ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$) comparable to or somewhat greater than the inhomogeneous Doppler width of the medium.

Because of the way our probe field is generated (discussed below) a second $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ configuration consisting of a weak Stokes component and the drive field (see Fig. 1) also is present. However, this system is detuned far from resonance, and does not affect our system notably. (Nonetheless, the propagation properties of the Stokes component are rather interesting and will be discussed elsewhere.)

Our experimental setup is shown schematically in Fig. 2. We use an external cavity diode laser tuned to the vicinity of the $`5S_{1/2}5P_{1/2}`$ ($`D_1`$) transition of 87Rb . The laser is referred to as the driving field ($`E_d`$) in Fig. 1. Detuning of the drive laser($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$) changes from zero up to 2 GHz and is always positive (for any $`\mathrm{\Delta }>0`$ detuning from upper levels $`F^{}=1,2`$ is larger then for zero detuning as it shown in Fig. 1). Sidebands are generated on the drive laser by an electro-optic modulator (EOM) which is tunable in the vicinity of the 6.835 GHz ground state splitting. The drive laser is tuned to the $`F=2F^{}=2`$ transition so that the upper sideband serves as the probe field, and is tunable in the vicinity of the $`F=1F^{}=2`$ transition. The lower sideband (Stokes component) is far off resonance. After the EOM, all fields pass through a single-mode optical fiber to obtain a clean Gaussian spatial mode. The laser is collimated to a diameter of 7 mm, and circularly polarized with a $`\lambda /4`$ wave-plate right before the cell. The cell itself is surrounded by 3 layer magnetic shield which suppresses the laboratory magnetic field. The cell is heated to $`6070{}_{}{}^{o}C`$ to control the density of 87Rb vapor.

Before the EOM, part of the drive laser is split from the main beam, shifted in frequency by a small amount (60 MHz) with an acousto-optic modulator and deflected around the cell. This shifted beam is recombined with the light transmitted through the cell and all the fields are detected on a fast photodiode. This (heterodyne) procedure allows us to separately detect the transmitted probe and Stokes fields. Kash et al. (1999).

We measure the EIT spectrum (transmission as a function of two-photon detuning $`\delta `$ for various one photon detunings of the driving field ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$). We also measure the group delay of a pulse propagating through the cell. This is done with a programmable pulse synthesizer, which modulates the microwave generator for the EOM. We thus produce a Gaussian (temporal) pulse in the power of the drive field sidebands (the probe field). The delay time is extracted by data taking and analyzing software on a computer which collects the separate probe and reference signals.

We first measure various transmission spectra for a 87Rb cell with no buffer gas. Our measurements, shown in Fig. 3a show that the EIT resonance maintains its transmission-like shape as the drive and probe are detuned from one-photon resonance. When the lasers are far from resonance (bottom trace in Fig. 3a), the lasers interact with a very small number of atoms, and the width of the EIT resonance is determined by power broadening by the drive laser ($`\mathrm{width}\mathrm{\Omega }^2/\gamma `$ where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the drive Rabi frequency and $`\gamma `$ is the Doppler width). When the lasers are on resonance, the effective optical density is much higher, and the EIT width is much lower than the power-broadened width Lukin et al. (1997); Sautenkov et al. (1999); Javan et al. (2002).

Next we replace the vacuum cell by a cell with 30 Torr of Ne buffer gas. Results are shown in Fig. 3b. We find that the resonance spectra for large one-photon detuning ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$) are changed dramatically from the vacuum case just described. We see that as the one-photon detuning is increased, the EIT resonance passes through a dispersion-like shape and into an absorption-like shape.

Second, we find that this absorption-like resonance is accompanied by steep anomalous dispersion which results in a large negative propagation delay of the probe pulse with respect to a reference pulse that is not delayed by the medium. Sample pulses are shown in Fig. 4. These data show a $`300\mu \mathrm{s}`$ delay produced by a $`2.5\mathrm{cm}`$ long cell, implying a superluminal group velocity $`v_g=84\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}`$.

In order to gain physical insight into this new phenomenon we have made numerical simulations based on the density matrix equations coupled with a Maxwell equation description of propagation effects in steady state for low intensity of the probe field. For numerical simulation we use a 3-level atomic model coupled with probe and drive fields ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ scheme).

The density matrix equations are the following:

$`\dot{\rho }_{bb}`$ $`=`$ $`i\mathrm{\Omega }_p^{}\rho _{ab}i\mathrm{\Omega }_p\rho _{ba}+\gamma _r\rho _{aa}\gamma _{bc}\rho _{bb}+\gamma _{bc}\rho _{cc},`$ (2)
$`\dot{\rho }_{cc}`$ $`=`$ $`i\mathrm{\Omega }_d^{}\rho _{ac}i\mathrm{\Omega }_d\rho _{ca}+\gamma _r\rho _{aa}\gamma _{bc}\rho _{cc}+\gamma _{bc}\rho _{bb},`$ (3)
$`\dot{\rho }_{ab}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ab}\rho _{ab}+i\mathrm{\Omega }_p(\rho _{bb}\rho _{aa})+i\mathrm{\Omega }_d\rho _{cb},`$ (4)
$`\dot{\rho }_{ca}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ca}\rho _{ca}+i\mathrm{\Omega }_d^{}(\rho _{aa}\rho _{cc})i\mathrm{\Omega }_p^{}\rho _{cb},`$ (5)
$`\dot{\rho }_{cb}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cb}\rho _{cb}i\mathrm{\Omega }_p\rho _{ca}+i\mathrm{\Omega }_d^{}\rho _{ab},`$ (6)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_d=\mathrm{}_{ac}\mathrm{E}_\mathrm{p}/\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_p=\mathrm{}_{ab}\mathrm{E}_\mathrm{d}/\mathrm{}`$ are the Rabi frequencies of the drive and probe fields. The generalized decay rates are defined as:

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ab}`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma +i(\mathrm{\Delta }+\delta ),`$ (7)
$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ac}`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma +i\mathrm{\Delta },`$ (8)
$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cb}`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma _{bc}+i\delta .`$ (9)
Here $`\gamma =\gamma _r+\gamma _p`$ is the polarization decay rate, $`\gamma _r`$ is the radiative decay rate of the excited state, $`\gamma _p`$ is dephasing rate, and $`\gamma _{bc}`$ is the inverse lifetime of the coherence between ground states $`|b`$ and $`|c`$. Here we recall that the presence of the buffer gas affects values of both $`\gamma _{bc}`$ and $`\gamma `$. On one hand, as mentioned above, it allows preservation of the ground-state coherence longer, but on the other hand it broadens the optical transition, since $`\gamma _p`$ grows linearly with buffer gas pressure Vanier and Audoin (1989).

Solving these equations in the steady state regime and assuming $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_p||\mathrm{\Omega }_d|`$, we obtain the following expression for the linear susceptibility of the probe field:

$$\chi _{ab}(\mathrm{\Delta })=i\eta \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cb}(\rho _{aa}^{(0)}\rho _{bb}^{(0)})+{\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Omega }_d|^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ca}}}(\rho _{aa}^{(0)}\rho _{cc}^{(0)})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ab}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cb}+|\mathrm{\Omega }_d|^2},$$
(10)
where $`\eta =\frac{3}{8\pi }N\lambda ^2\gamma _r`$, $`N`$ is the 87Rb density, $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength of the probe field, and $`\rho _{aa}^{(0)}`$, $`\rho _{bb}^{(0)}`$, $`\rho _{cc}^{(0)}`$ are the solution of above equations in case when $`\mathrm{\Omega }_p=0`$. Then to take into account propagation and Doppler averaging, the Maxwell equation is given by

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_p}{z}=i\mathrm{\Omega }_p\chi _{ab}(\mathrm{\Delta }+kv)𝑑v$$
(11)
has been solved numerically, where $`k`$ is the wavenumber of either probe or drive field.

We model the effect of the buffer gas by adding an additional homogeneous broadening for the optical transitions $`\gamma _p`$ and decreasing of the time-of-flight limit for the for the hyperfine coherence decay rate $`\gamma _{bc}`$ based on the atomic diffusion in the buffer gas. In our simulation for EIT in the absence of buffer gas, we use $`\gamma _p=0`$ and $`\gamma _{bc}/2\pi =10`$ kHz. For our simulation of the effects of buffer gas, we use $`\gamma _p/2\pi =120`$ MHz and $`\gamma _{bc}/2\pi =1`$ kHz. The results of these simulations are shown in Fig. 5 agree well with the experimental results of Fig. 3. We model the effect of the buffer gas by adding an additional homogeneous broadening for the optical transitions $`\gamma _p`$ using the cross-sections for broadening from Happer (1972) and decreasing of the time-of-flight limit for the for the hyperfine coherence decay rate $`\gamma _{bc}`$ based on the atomic diffusion in the buffer gas Happer (1972). In our simulation for EIT in the absence of buffer gas, we use $`\gamma _p=0`$ and $`\gamma _{bc}/2\pi =10`$ kHz. For our simulation of the effects of buffer gas, we use $`\gamma _p/2\pi =120`$ MHz and $`\gamma _{bc}/2\pi =1`$ kHz Happer (1972). The results of these simulations are shown in Fig. 5 agree well with the experimental results of Fig. 3.

Previous measurements involving one-photon detuning in EIT Knappe et al. (2003) differ from ours in that low laser power was used on the $`D_2`$ line of Cesium, which includes a closed cycling transition, and also upper-state hyperfine structure that is covered by the Doppler width. Our numerical model shows the absence of the absorption resonance when additional homogeneous broadening parameter ($`\gamma _p`$) is small and at low probe and drive intensity. This may be part of the reason why the absorption resonance was not observed in that work. Due to limited sensitivity of our setup we are not able to check this experimentally. The lowest total power for which we have data is 50 $`\mu `$W, which is still in the power-broadened regime.

In summary, we have observed a new, isolated, narrow, two-photon absorption resonance that appears under EIT conditions when a buffer gas is used to narrow the two-photon resonance line and the one-photon detuning is comparable to or greater than the inhomogeneous Doppler linewidth. The effect occurs when homogeneous broadening (due to collisions with buffer gas) is of the order of inhomogeneous (Doppler) broadening, and the effect does not occur in the absence of buffer gas at room temperature. Although, let us note here that for cold atoms the Doppler broadening can also be of the order of or even much smaller than the homogeneous broadening, and, in this case, similar absorption resonances should be observable. This technique may provide a new tool to study BEC. Unlike previous observations of Electromagnetically Induced Absorption, this resonance does not require that the degeneracy of the ground state be lower than that of the excited state. The absorption resonance reported here is accompanied by steep anomalous dispersion giving rise to very large negative group delay.

We thank A. B. Matsko, Irina Novikova, A. M. Akulshin, and M. O. Scully for useful and stimulating discussions. This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research.


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# SFB/CPP-03-33HU-EP-03162 A precise determination of the decay constant of the Ds-meson in quenched QCD Talk presented by Andreas Jüttner at the International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, Ibaraki, Japan, July 15-19, 2003. Work supported by the DFG in the SFB/TR 09 and in the GK271. We thank the DESY and the HLRN [5] for allocating computer time to this project.

## 1 Introduction

The $`\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}`$ meson consists of a charm and a strange quark. Its direct simulation on the lattice is possible without having to use a chiral extrapolation for the light quark or an effective theory for the heavy quark (e.g. HQET, NRQCD). Therefore the $`\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}`$ is an ideal testing ground as its properties are expected to be similar to those of other heavy-light systems (e.g. $`\mathrm{B}_{(\mathrm{s})}`$).

The decay constant $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}`$ parameterizes the leptonic decay of the $`\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}`$ meson into a pair of leptons with a $`W`$ as the intermediate vector boson. It is defined through the QCD matrix element

$$0|A_\mu (0)|\mathrm{D}_s(p)=ip_\mu F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}},$$
(1)
where $`A_\mu =\overline{\mathrm{s}}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5\mathrm{c}`$ is the axial current.

$`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}`$ is an important input parameter to CKM-physics in phenomenology. Together with a precise computation of the decay constant in the static approximation , it can also be used to investigate down to which heavy quark mass HQET can be applied safely. With this at hand one can then eventually get a reliable estimate for $`F_\mathrm{B}`$ from an interpolation between the relativistic simulation and the static approximation .

Previous quenched results for $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}`$ have been summarized in , which gives a world average of $`230(14)`$MeV. Ref.  is a recent calculation of $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}`$ with an alternative approach which gives a value of $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}=239(10)`$MeV. The PDG quotes $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}=285\pm 19\pm 40`$MeV .

The aim of this project is to obtain a precise value for the decay constant $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}`$ with a combined statistical and systematic error of 3%, apart from the quenched approximation.

The systematic errors can be kept under control by using non-perturbative $`O(a)`$-improvement  and renormalization  together with a well controlled approach to the continuum. In particular, we simulated at four different values of the lattice spacing between $`a=0.1,\mathrm{},0.05`$fm. At the moment we simulate with an even finer lattice ($`0.03`$fm) and we plan to add the results to the analysis in the future. We also analyzed the systematic error due to the limited solver precision and the systematic error due to the contamination of the plateaus by excited states and glueballs. Finite volume effects have been shown to be negligible at our choice of the lattice size and at our choices of the quark masses .

## 2 Strategy and Simulation

Our simulation parameters are based on previous work of the ALPHA-collaboration. We use the Sommer scale  with $`r_0=0.5`$fm to fix the lattice spacing. As shown in , this choice of $`r_0`$ is equivalent to setting the scale with the decay constant of the K-meson, $`F_\mathrm{K}=160`$MeV. The hopping parameters of the strange quark and the charm quark have been taken from publications  on the corresponding renormalization group invariant masses for all values of the lattice spacing. In these works, $`\kappa _\mathrm{s}`$ and $`\kappa _\mathrm{c}`$ were determined using the masses $`r_0m_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}=4.99`$ and $`r_0m_\mathrm{K}=1.57`$ of the $`\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}`$\- and K-meson as phenomenological input, while neglecting isospin breaking and using $`M_\mathrm{s}/M_{\mathrm{light}}=24.4\pm 1.5`$ with $`M_{\mathrm{light}}=\frac{1}{2}(M_\mathrm{u}+M_\mathrm{d})`$ from chiral perturbation theory .

All calculations have been performed in quenched QCD using clover-improved Wilson-Fermions and Schrödinger Functional  boundary conditions. In the time directions all fields obey Dirichlet boundary conditions and in the space directions they obey periodic boundary conditions (up to a phase in the fermion fields, which we chose to be $`\theta =0.5`$). The fermionic boundary fields $`\zeta ,\overline{\zeta }`$ and $`\zeta ^{},\overline{\zeta }^{}`$ are used to construct the mesonic boundary sources

$$\begin{array}{cccc}𝒪\hfill & =& \frac{a^6}{L^3}\underset{\stackrel{}{y},\stackrel{}{z}}{}\overline{\zeta }_s(\stackrel{}{y})\gamma _5\zeta _c(\stackrel{}{z}),\hfill & \mathrm{at}x_0=0,\hfill \\ 𝒪^{}\hfill & =& \frac{a^6}{L^3}\underset{\stackrel{}{y},\stackrel{}{z}}{}\overline{\zeta }_s(\stackrel{}{y})\gamma _5\zeta _c(\stackrel{}{z}),\hfill & \mathrm{at}x_0=T.\hfill \end{array}$$
(2)
Starting from the correlation function

$$f_A^I(x_0)=\frac{L^3}{2}A_0^I(x)𝒪,$$
(3)
with the improved axial current $`A_\mu ^I`$, one derives the expression

$$\begin{array}{ccc}F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}(x_0)\hfill & & 2Z_A(1+b_Aam_q)(m_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}L^3)^{1/2}\hfill \\ & & \times \frac{f_A^I}{\sqrt{f_1}}e^{(x_0T/2)m_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}}\hfill \\ & & \times \left\{1\eta _A^{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}e^{x_0\mathrm{\Delta }}\eta _A^0e^{(Tx_0)m_G}\right\}\hfill \\ & & +O(a^2)\hfill \end{array}$$
(4)
for the decay constant. A detailed discussion can be found in .

Here, $`Z_A`$ renormalizes the axial current and the term linear in $`b_\mathrm{A}`$ subtracts $`O(a)`$-artefacts proportional to the bare subtracted quark mass $`m_q`$. Both coefficients were obtained non-perturbatively on the lattice . The pseudoscalar mass $`m_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}`$ is obtained as effective mass and $`(m_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}L^3)^{1/2}`$ normalizes one particle states. $`f_A^I`$ and $`f_1=\frac{1}{2}𝒪^{}𝒪`$, which cancels out the normalization on the boundary meson sources, have to be determined in the simulation. As $`f_A^I`$ decays exponentially with the pseudoscalar mass, one expects $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}(x_0)`$ to exhibit a plateau at intermediate times, where the contributions $`\eta _A^{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}e^{x_0\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ of the first excited state and the contribution $`\eta _A^0e^{(Tx_0)m_\mathrm{G}}`$ from the $`O^{++}`$ glueball both are small. A plateau average can then be performed to increase the signal.

Some simulation parameters are summarized in table 1. We set $`T=2L`$. All simulations were done at approximately constant physics, which is important for the scaling study. Fig. 1 shows the simulation result for the unrenoramlized $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}(x_0)`$.

## 3 Error analysis and results

The simulations for the first four values of $`\beta `$ were done in single precision arithmetics on the APE-machine at DESY Zeuthen. As we are dealing with heavy quark propagators, we have to check for rounding errors which may arise during the calculation. We also want to guarantee sufficient solver convergence for the propagators. The corresponding checks were done with an adapted version of the MILC code  on the IBM p690 computers at the HLRN . Starting from the same field configuration, we calculated the propagators in single and double precision arithmetics and with different solver residuals. It turned out that the impact of these changes on $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}`$ is below 1 per mil.

For the definition of plateau ranges of (4) where the relative contribution of excited states and glueballs is below a threshold of 5 per mil, one needs estimates of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`m_G`$. These were obtained self-consistently from linear fits to $`\mathrm{log}(F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}^{\mathrm{bare}}(x_0)F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}^{\mathrm{plateau}})`$, where $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}^{\mathrm{plateau}}`$ is the average of an a priori chosen plateau (cf. fig. (1) and  for details). We found that a suitable range for the plateau is $`x_0=4r_0,\mathrm{},5r_0`$ for all values of $`\beta `$.

Fig. (2) shows the corresponding plateau averages for all simulated values of $`\beta `$. We excluded the coarsest lattice in the continuum extrapolation which was done linear in $`(a/r_0)^2`$ because of $`O(a)`$-improvement. With $`b_\mathrm{A}`$ taken from  we finally quote $`r_0F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}=0.638(24)`$ as the main result. We also used 1-loop perturbation theory for $`b_\mathrm{A}`$ , since taking $`b_\mathrm{A}`$ from  involves an extrapolation of the data. One then gets $`r_0F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}=0.631(24)`$. Excluding the two coarsest lattices instead leads to $`r_0F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}=0.630(34)`$. Finally, using $`r_0=0.5`$fm, our main result in physical units is $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}=252(9)`$MeV.

When using the nucleon mass to set the scale, which corresponds to taking $`r_0=0.55`$fm, we found that $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}`$ decreases by $`20`$MeV .

## 4 Conclusion

We present a direct calculation of the heavy-light decay constant $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}`$ with the final result $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}=252(9)`$MeV. The error matches that of future experiments, e.g. CLEO-c. We aim at extending the scaling study in the future and these calculations are under way. We supplement this analysis with more data around the charm mass . We estimate that $`F_{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}}`$ decreases by by $`20`$MeV under a scale shift of 10%.


text:
# 1 The cross section for the scattering 𝜇𝑁→𝜏𝑁 in units of fb as a function of muon energy (GeV) in Lab frame. The solid (dashed) line represents the cross section assuming a scalar (vector) interaction.

## Abstract

The experimental discovery of large $`\nu _\mu \nu _\tau `$ mixing indicates that analogous mixing in the charged lepton sector could be substantial. We consider the possibility that if a high intensity muon beam, perhaps at the early stages of a muon or neutrino factory, strikes a nuclear target, then conversion of some of the muons into tau leptons could occur (similar to the conversion of muons to electrons at MECO). Using current experimental limits on rare tau decays to bound the size of the relevant operators, we find that a $`50`$ GeV muon beam, with $`10^{20}`$ muons on target per year, could yield as many as $`10^7`$ $`\mu +N\tau +N`$ events per year. Backgrounds could be substantial, and we comment on the possibility of detection of this process.

WM-03-107

$`\mu +N\tau +N`$ at a Muon or Neutrino Factory

Marc Sher and Ismail Turan 111Email: sher@physics.wm.edu
Nuclear and Particle Theory Group

Physics Department

College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187, USA

In the past decade, the biggest surprise in our understanding of flavor physics has been the discovery of large mixing  in the neutrino sector. This large mixing may come from diagonalization of the neutrino mass matrix, the charged lepton mass matrix, or both. It is quite possible that searches for charged lepton flavor violation will be critical in determining the physics of flavor violation.

The most promising such search is the MECO experiment , in which a high intensity, low energy muon beam strikes a nuclear target. The muons are captured, and decay essentially at rest. The conversion $`\mu +Ne+N`$ will then yield a distinctive $`105`$ MeV electron. The experiment promises to achieve the extraordinary sensitivity of a part in $`10^{17}`$, and in many models beyond the standard model, a positive signal would be expected.

Observations of atmospheric neutrinos indicate that mixing between the muon and tau neutrinos is maximal. This gives strong motivation for considering transitions between the muon and the tau. Of course, the analogous process to MECO, $`\tau +N\mu +N`$, is impractical due to the short lifetime of the $`\tau `$. However, the inverse process, $`\mu +N\tau +N`$ might be possible. Unlike MECO, this can’t occur for muons at rest, but in a higher energy muon beam, one can look for such events. Such high energy and high intensity muon beams are expected  at neutrino factories (or early stages of muon factories), in which intensities of $`10^{20}`$ muons per year and beam energies up to $`50`$ GeV have been proposed. In this note, we examine whether the $`\mu +N\tau +N`$ process is feasible at such a neutrino factory.

The existence of the process $`\mu +N\tau +N`$ immediately implies that there will be muon and tau number violating rare $`\tau `$ decays, such as $`\tau \mu \pi ,\tau \mu \pi \pi ,\tau \mu \rho ,`$ etc. The non-observation (as yet) of these decays implies an upper bound on $`\mu +N\tau +N`$. We first examine the upper bound on the size of the various operators.

The relevant operators are of the form $`(\overline{\mu }\mathrm{\Gamma }\tau )(\overline{q}^\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }q^\beta )`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ contains various combinations of Dirac gamma matrices. A detailed analysis of all 48 possible operators, where the $`q`$’s are any combination of the six quarks and the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ consists of $`(1,\gamma _5,\gamma _\mu ,\gamma _\mu \gamma _5)`$ was carried out recently by Black, et al. . They determined the experimental lower bound on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ for each process, where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is defined by the considering the relevant operator to be

$`{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi }{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}}(\overline{\mu }\mathrm{\Gamma }\tau )(\overline{q}^\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }q^\beta ).`$ (1)
For simplicity, we will consider valence quarks only, and will assume that the operators are isospin invariant, so that the operators involving $`u`$-quarks and $`d`$-quarks are the same magnitude. Relaxing this assumption will only strengthen our results. Black, et al. find that the lower bound on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=(1,\gamma _5,\gamma _\mu ,\gamma _\mu \gamma _5)`$ is $`(2.6,12,12,11)`$ TeV, which come from $`\tau \mu \pi ^+\pi ^{},\tau \mu \pi ^o,\tau \mu \rho `$ and $`\tau \mu \pi ^o`$, respectively. Since the bound on the scalar operator is the weakest, we will assume that the operator is scalar, and is thus

$$\frac{4\pi }{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}(\overline{\mu }\tau )(\overline{q}q),$$
(2)
where $`q`$ is $`u`$ or $`d`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is greater than $`2.6`$ TeV. No experiment can currently exclude such a possibility. When our results are presented, we will briefly comment on the effects of choosing one of the other three operators.

With this operator, we can calculate the cross section for $`\mu +q\tau +q`$, and we find that

$$\sigma (\mu +q\tau +q)=\left(\frac{\pi s}{3\mathrm{\Lambda }^4}\right)\left(1\frac{m_\tau ^2}{s}\right)^2\left(1+\frac{m_\tau ^2}{2s}\right).$$
(3)
Folding in the parton distribution functions, we plot the cross section for $`\mu +N\tau +N`$, where $`N`$ is a nucleon, in Figure 1, assuming that the lower bound on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is saturated. For the expected beam energy of 50 GeV, the cross section is $`0.55\mathrm{fb}`$.

With this cross section, we can determine the mean free path. If $`\rho `$ is the density of the target (in g/cm3), the mean free path is

$$\lambda =\frac{1}{\rho }\left(\frac{1\mathrm{fb}}{\sigma }\right)(1.6\times 10^{13})\mathrm{meters}.$$
(4)
For a 50 GeV muon beam, there is little ionization loss over a meter of target, and thus there is a probability of approximately $`3\times 10^{14}\rho `$ of interacting in a meter of target. With $`10^{20}`$ muons on target is a year, this gives $`3\times 10^6\rho `$ events per year per meter of target.

We have assumed that the interaction is scalar. If it is vector, there is a factor of $`8`$ increase in the square of the matrix element (in the massless limit), however the lower bound on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is $`12`$ TeV instead of $`2.6`$ TeV, leading to a lower event rate. This is also plotted in Figure 1. Nonetheless, even here there could be well over $`100,000`$ events per year. Using pseudoscalar or axial vector operators will give similar results. But for the scalar case, and a fairly dense target, the event rate could exceed $`10^7`$ events per year.

Although this seems to be a huge event rate, the backgrounds could be severe. Note, however that the cross section for tau pair production through Bethe – Heitler production off iron nuclei  is much smaller than a femtobarn, and the $`p_T`$ distributions are much softer, so tau pair production will not be a problematic background. The major difficulty is identifying a clear signature. A typical $`\tau `$ energy, for a $`50`$ GeV incident beam energy, will be tens of GeV, and thus its decay distance would be a couple of millimeters. One can imagine alternating target and scintillator, but many $`\tau `$’s will be missed. The only places in which $`\tau `$’s have been detected are the clean environment of electron-positron colliders, the Tevatron, where the signature is large missing transverse energy, and DONUT . The latter used lead and emulsions as the target and detection media, and it isn’t clear whether the enormous intensity of the incident muon beam would blacken the emulsion (this would depend on the beam size and whether the emulsion is cycled in and out). This possibility should be investigated. What are the specific decay modes that might be observable? The leptonic decays will clearly be swamped by backgrounds. The $`\pi \nu `$ decay mode will lead to a monochromatic pion, but unless a $`\tau `$ track can be observed, the backgrounds for single pions in the intense muon beam will also be very large. One could look at rarer decays, such as the three charged pion (or even five charged pion) decays, coming at the end of a very short track. Clearly, detection of this process will not be easy, but the event rate is high enough that a clever scheme might be able to pick out a signal.

Are there specific models which predict such a large rate for $`\mu +N\tau +N`$? The Standard Model, with massive neutrinos, will have mixing between the $`\mu `$ and the $`\tau `$, but this mixing is of the order of $`m_\nu ^2/m_W^2`$, and is thus negligible. However, there are a wide variety of extensions of the Standard Model, including models with very heavy neutrinos, horizontal symmetries, left-right symmetry, supersymmetry, extended gauge and Higgs models, etc., and many of these do predict such mixing to occur at a substantially higher rate. The effects of $`\mu \tau `$ mixing can be parametrized by operators of the form of Eq. (1). As noted earlier, the biggest rates for $`\mu +N\tau +N`$ occur if the operator is scalar, as in Eq. (2) (since the experimental limits on the operator are weaker), and thus models with flavor-changing scalar exchanges are most promising. For example, in R-parity violating supersymmetry , the superpotential can be written in the form $`\lambda _{ijk}L_iL_jE_k+\lambda _{ijk}^{}L_iQ_jD_k`$. If the underlying theory giving rise to this superpotential gives a hierarchical structure for $`\lambda `$, so that $`\lambda _{i23}`$ is large, and a non-hierarchical structure for $`\lambda ^{}`$, then the operator of Eq. (2) can be generated via scalar neutrino exchange. If the couplings are of order unity, and the scalar neutrino mass is of the order of a TeV, then the operator will be as large as allowed by bounds on $`\tau \mu \pi \pi `$ and the rate for $`\mu +N\tau +N`$ will be as large as discussed in the previous paragraph. Alternatively, supersymmetric models at large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ can have very large flavor-changing Higgs couplings , and that can also lead to similarly large muon to tau conversion. Thus, we see that plausible extensions of the Standard Model exist in which $`\tau \mu \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ is near its current limit,

The early stages of a neutrino or muon factory will involve a high intensity muon beam with energies up to $`50`$ GeV. In this Brief Report, we have proposed that such a facility may be able to substantially improve bounds on $`\mu \tau `$ mixing, or discover such mixing, by looking for muon conversion in nuclei to tau leptons. The event rate could be high, although backgrounds will be challenging. In view of the large mixing in the neutrino sector, this may be a promising place to search for new flavor physics.

After this work was completed, we became aware of a very interesting paper by Gninenko, Kirsanov, Krasnikov and Matveev . They also considered the process $`\mu +N\tau +N`$ at a neutrino factory. Instead of considering the vertex involving valence quarks, as we did, they considered the four-fermi interaction $`(\overline{\mu }\tau )(\overline{u}c)`$, involving production of a charmed quark. This has a substantial advantage over our vertex, which is flavor diagonal, because there are no experimental constraints on the size of this interaction (since $`\tau `$’s can’t decay into a charmed meson plus a muon). As a result, they had a much higher event rate, and could consider the muonic decay of the $`\tau `$. They performed a simulation of the signature at the NOMAD detector. What is new in our work? We considered the flavor diagonal vertex, which is more tightly constrained by experimental bounds. Our belief is that it is very unlikely for the four-fermi interaction to be purely off-diagonal in the mass eigenstate basis, and thus the existence of the vertex considered by Gninenko et al. will generally imply the existence of the vertex that we have considered. In that sense, this work is complementary to theirs. Clearly, there is sufficient interest in the possibility of mu-tau conversion in nuclei that all experimental possibilities should be considered.

We are very grateful to Jon Urheim for numerous discussions, and we also appreciate discussions with Andy Sessler, David Armstrong, Stan Brodsky, Jack Kossler and Jeff Nelson. The work of MS was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant PHY-0243400, and the work of IT was supported by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) in the framework of NATO – B1 program.


text:
# Self-Induced Formaton of Metal-Rich Globulars in Bulges?

## 1. Formation of MRGCPs in sheroids and MSCPs in irregulars

Data on high redshift galaxies and QSOs, supermassive black holes, redshift evolution of QSO emissivity, elemental abundances, etc. assume that the more massive spheroid, the shorter timescale of its formation (e.g., Granato et al. 2001). The metallicity distribution functions (MDFs) for the disk stars of the LMC and for the old red giants in the halos of elliptical NGC 5128 and spiral M31 are virtually identical (Harris & Harris 2001). Surprisingly enough that the most probable metallicities of the MSCPs in the LMC and other irregulars preferably fall (as metallicities of MRGCPs and of metal-rich components of the MDFs do, too) between $`0.004<z<0.008`$, irrespective of presence or absence of signs of interaction (Billett et al. 2002; de Grijs et al. 2003, among others). In addition, for a sample of BCD galaxies Hopkins et al. (2002) find a positive correlation between galaxy metallicity (oxygen abundance) and SFR. The above-mentioned imply that the formation of both the MRGCPs in spheroids and MSCPs in irregulars may be preferably related to certain stage of the host’s (chemical?) evolution, at which the SFR in the hosts increases essentially.

### Acknowledgments.

Many thanks are due to the organizers and the IAU for travel grant without which my attendance at the GA would be impossible.

## References

Billett, O. H., Hunter, D. A., & Elmegreen, B. G. 2002, AJ, 123, 454

de Grijs, R. et al. 2003, MNRAS, 343, 1285

Granato, G. L. et al. 2001, MNRAS, 324, 757

Harris, W. E., & Harris, G. L. H. 2001, AJ, 122, 3065

Hopkins, A. M., Schulte-Ladbeck, R. E., & Drozdovsky, I. O. 2002, AJ, 124, 862


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# Mode-Field Radius of Photonic Crystal Fibers Expressed by the 𝑉–parameter

## Abstract

We numerically calculate the equivalent mode-field radius of the fundamental mode in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) and show that this is a function of the V-parameter only and not the relative hole size. This dependency is similar to what is found for graded-index standard fibers and we furthermore show that the relation for the PCF can be excellently approximated with the same general mathematical expression. This is to our knowledge the first semi-analytical description of the mode-field radius of a PCF.

Theoretical descriptions of Photonic Crystal Fibers (PCFs) have traditionally been based on numerical methods such as the plane-wave expansion method,ref1 ; ref2  methods employing localized functions,ref3 ; ref4  or the multipole method.ref5 ; ref6  A numerical approach is generally required due to the complex dielectric cross section of the PCF which makes analytical approaches very difficult and results in the fact that no close-form analytical descriptions of either propagation constants or mode fields are available. In this Letter we investigate the relation between the equivalent mode-field radius of the fundamental mode and a recently proposed formulation of the $`V`$–parameter for a PCF.ref7  We show that the mode-field radius is a function of the $`V`$–parameter only and provide an empirical expression describing this relation having the same mathematical form as known from the description of graded-index standard fibers.ref8

The PCF analyzed in this work is an all-silica fiber having a triangular arrangement of circular voids with diameter $`d`$ running along the full length of the fiber. The voids are placed symmetrically around a central defect which acts as the fiber core consisting of a solid silica region i.e. an omitted air hole. The air-hole matrix, which has a lattice constant, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, functions as a cladding region and the fiber structure is invariant in the longitudinal direction. Such a fiber was first proposed inref9  and it was shown that it posses unique properties such as endlessly single-mode operation.ref10  The endlessly single-mode operation is a consequence of the fact that the number of guided modes is finite regardless of wavelength and that the upper limit for this number decreases with the air-filling fraction of the structure i.e. with the value of $`d/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Sufficiently small air holes will cause the number of allowed modes to equal two, namely the two degenerate polarization states of the fundamental mode.ref10

In the case of graded-index standard fibers, of which the step-index fiber (SIF) can be considered a special case, the $`V`$–parameter plays a central role in the description of the number of guided modes, the cut-off criterion  as well as the mode-field radius.ref8  In attempt to obtain an expression for a $`V`$-parameter adequate for PCFs, approximations based on an equivalent SIF has generally been employed . Although this approximation contains the overall correct physics it fails to describe the cut-off properties and has difficulty when it comes to determining an appropriate equivalent core radius. Recently, we proposed a definition of the $`V`$–parameter for a PCF,ref7  $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$, rejecting the SIF approximation \[See Ref. ref7,  for a more detailed discussion on Eq. (1)\]:

$$V_{\mathrm{PCF}}(\lambda )=\frac{2\pi }{\lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda }\sqrt{n_{\mathrm{co}}^2(\lambda )n_{\mathrm{cl}}^2(\lambda )}$$
(1)
In Eq. (1), $`\lambda `$ is the free space wavelength and $`n_{\mathrm{co}}(\lambda )`$ and $`n_{\mathrm{cl}}(\lambda )`$ are the effective indices of the fundamental mode and the first eigenmode in the perfect infinite cladding structure, respectively. The latter is often denoted the fundamental space-filling mode and can be interpreted as the refractive index of the cladding material in the absence of the core.ref10  Using this definition it can be showen that the condition for the higher-order mode cut-off can be formulated as $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}=\pi `$.ref7  Both effective indices in Eq. (1) are strongly wavelength dependent and can not be approximated by constants as in the case of standard fibers. It is due to the strong dispersion of the effective indices that the PCF can be attributed many of its unique properties. In Fig. 1, $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$ calculated using the plane-wave expansion methodref13  is plotted as function of the normalized frequency, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }/\lambda `$, for values of $`d/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ ranging from 0.30 to 0.70 in steps of 0.05. The horizontal dashed line in the plot indicates $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}=\pi `$ and thereby the single-mode boundary. Since the variation of refractive index of silica, $`n_{\mathrm{silica}}`$, over the transparent wavelength region is in the order of a few %, the effect of material dispersion will only result in a small shift in the effective indices $`n_{\mathrm{co}}(\lambda )`$ and $`n_{\mathrm{cl}}(\lambda )`$. Furthermore, such a perturbation will shift both further reducing the effect on VPCF. In the calculations we therefore used a fixed value of $`n_{\mathrm{silica}}=1.444`$, thereby preserving the scale invariance of Maxwell’s equations.

$`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$ approaches a constant value, dependent on $`d/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ for increasing $`\mathrm{\Lambda }/\lambda `$ref10  and since the number of modes generally increases with the $`V`$–parameter, the asymptotic behavior of $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$ is consistent with the endlessly single-mode property. In the framework of standard fibers, the weak wavelength dependency of the $`V`$–parameter will lead to a mode-field radius which is also only weakly dependent on the wavelength.

For a graded-index standard fiber, the index profile can be described by a power law in which case the shape of the index profile is governed by an exponent, $`g`$. For $`g=1`$ the index profile is triangular, for $`g=2`$ the profile is parabolic, and in the limit of large values of $`g`$ the profile approaches that of a SIF. For this type of fiber, the mode field is generally very close to a Gaussian distribution provided that the field does not penetrate too deeply into the cladding region. The agreement between the actual mode and a Gaussian distribution has a weak dependency on $`g`$ and is a perfect match in the case of a parabolic index profile. The mode-field radius, $`w`$, is a function of the $`V`$–parameter and can be fitted using the expression:ref8

$$\frac{W}{a}=\frac{𝒜}{V^{2/(2+g)}}+\frac{}{V^{3/2}}+\frac{𝒞}{V^6}$$
(2)
$`𝒜`$, $``$, and $`𝒞`$, are fitting parameters which are dependent on the index profile while a denotes the core radius. In the case of a SIF the first term in Eq. (2) is constant and the values of $`𝒜`$, $``$, and $`𝒞`$ are 0.65, 1.619, and 2.879, respectively. The accuracy of the fits provided by Eq. (2) is better than 2% in the range $`1.5<V<7`$ and the relation is therefore extremely useful when designing and working with SIFs or graded index fibers in general.

In order to investigate a similar relation for the PCF, we first introduce an equivalent mode-field radius of the fundamental mode, $`w_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$, as the mode-field radius of the Gaussian distribution having the same effective area, $`A_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, as the fundamental mode itself, yielding the simple relation $`A_{\mathrm{eff}}=\pi w^2`$. The effective area is calculated as

$$A_{\mathrm{eff}}=\left[𝑑𝒓_{}I(𝒓_{})\right]^2\left[𝑑𝒓_{}I^2(𝒓_{})\right]^1,$$
(3)
In Eq. (3), $`I(𝒓_{})`$ is the transverse intensity distribution of the mode. Although the intensity distribution of the fundamental mode in a PCF is not rotational symmetric but rather has the 6-fold symmetry of the triangular cladding structure, a Gaussian approximation is in fact very good and has previously been employed in the description of various PCF properties.ref14 ; ref15 ; ref16  By numerical calculation of $`A_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ as function of the normalized wavelength, $`\lambda /\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, the normalized mode-field radius, $`w_{\mathrm{PCF}}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ can be plotted as function of $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$ as shown in Fig. 2. The normalization with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is chosen since $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the natural length scale of the problem in the same sense as the core radius, $`a`$, is for the graded-index fiber. The plot in Fig. 2 represents data for $`d/\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.30`$ and $`d/\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.70`$ indicated by open squares and circles, respectively. The data points for these two calculations overlap in the entire range where the value of $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$ overlap and data for calculations having $`d/\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.35`$, 0.40, 0.45, 0.50, 0.55, 0.60, and 0.65 (not shown) fall on the same curve indicating that $`w_{\mathrm{PCF}}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is in fact a function of the $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$ only. Also included in Fig. 2 is the corresponding curve for the SIF (dashed line) showing $`w_{\mathrm{SIF}}/a`$ as function of $`V_{\mathrm{SIF}}`$ calculated from Eq. (2).

The functional dependency of $`w_{\mathrm{PCF}}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ on $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$ is seen to follow the same overall behavior as $`w_{\mathrm{SIF}}/a`$ as function of $`V_{\mathrm{SIF}}`$. For increasing values of $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$, $`w_{\mathrm{PCF}}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ must saturate at a constant value corresponding to the minimum obtainable mode size whereas it grows dramatically for sufficiently small values of $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$ indicating that the mode is weakly confined to the core and begins to penetrate into the cladding region. This is in good agreement with the fact that small values of $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$ are realized either for small values of $`d/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ or if the optical wavelength is similar to the structural dimensions, $`\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

Due to the similar functional dependency of the mode-field radii on the respective $`V`$–parameters it is reasonable to use the same fitting function for the PCF as used for graded-index standard fibers. However, if assuming the simplest case of a SIF it is not possible to obtain a good fit and the more general expression, for which $`g`$ can assume any positive value, was therefore employed. This results in the parameters $`𝒜=0.7078`$, $`=0.2997`$, and $`𝒞=0.0037`$, respectively in the case for $`g=8`$. The fit based on these parameters are plotted in Fig. 2 (solid line) and is seen to be very good for small as well as for large values of $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$. The maximal deviation between values predicted by the fit and the data points is determined to be less than 1%.

An important difference between the PCF and the SIF can be learned from the curves in Fig. 2 on which the higher-order mode cut-off are indicated at $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}=\pi `$ and $`V_{\mathrm{SIF}}=2.405`$, respectively. Whereas the cut-off for the PCF is located at a point where the curve is relatively flat the SIF cut off is located where the curve is much steeper. Also, $`V_{\mathrm{SIF}}`$ depends on the wavelength as $`\lambda ^1`$ further increasing the wavelength dependency of the mode size in the single-mode region of the SIF. For the PCF, not only the mode-size dependence on $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$ close to cut off is week but also the dependence of $`V_{\mathrm{PCF}}`$ itself on $`\lambda `$ provided that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a few times larger than $`\lambda `$ or more (See Fig. 1). This results in a mode-field size which is essentially wavelength independent for the PCF compared to the SIF.

In conclusion, we have shown that the recently proposed expression for the $`V`$–parameter of a PCF uniquely determines the normalized mode-field radius. Furthermore, we have presented a simple analytical expression describing this relation based on the same general expression used for graded-index standard fibers and thereby further closed the gap between standard fibers and PCF in terms of available tools describing their properties.

M.D. Nielsen acknowledges financial support by the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences. M.D. Nielsen’s e-mail address is mdn@crystal-fibre.com.