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# Quantum White Noises and The Master Equation for Gaussian Reference States

## 1 Quantum White Noises

It is possible to develop a formal theory of quantum white noises which nevertheless provides a powerful insight into quantum stochastic processes. We present the “bare bones” of the theory: the hope is that the structure will be more apparent without the mathematical gore and viscera.

Essentially, we need a Hilbert space $`_0`$ to describe a system of interest. We postulate a family of pseudo-operators $`\{a_t^+:t0\}`$ called creation noises; a formally adjoint family $`\{a_t^{}:t0\}`$ called annihilation noises and a vector $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ called the vacuum vector. The noises describe the environment and are assumed to act trivially on the observables of $`_0`$.

The first structural relations we need is

(QWN1)
which implies that the annihilator noises annihilate the vacuum. The second relations are given by the commutation relations

(QWN2)
Otherwise the creation noises all commute amongst themselves, as do the annihilation noises. Here $`\kappa =\frac{1}{2}\gamma +i\sigma `$ is a complex number with $`\gamma >0`$. We have introduced the functional kernels $`\delta _\pm `$ having the action

$$_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}f\left(s\right)\delta _\pm \left(ts\right):=f\left(t^\pm \right)$$
(1)
for any Riemann integrable function $`f`$.

If the right-hand side of (QWN2) was just $`\gamma \delta \left(ts\right),`$ then we would have sufficient instructions to deal with integrals of the noises wrt. Schwartz functions; however introducing the $`\delta _\pm `$-functions we can formally consider integrals wrt. piecewise Schwartz functions as we now have a rule for what to do at discontinuities. In particular, we can consider integrals over simplices $`\left\{t>t_1>\mathrm{}>t_n>0\right\}.`$ The objective is to use the commutation rule (QWN2) to convert integral expressions involving the postulated noises $`a_t^\pm `$ to equivalent normal ordered expressions, so that we only encounter the integrals of the $`\delta _\pm `$-functions against Riemann integrable functions.

We remark that the commutation relations (QWN2) arose from considerations of Markovian limits of field operators $`a_t^\pm \left(\lambda \right)`$ in the Heisenberg picture satisfying relations of the type $`[a_t^{}\left(\lambda \right),a_s^+\left(\lambda \right)]=K_{ts}\left(\lambda \right)\theta \left(ts\right)+K_{ts}\left(\lambda \right)^{}\theta \left(st\right)`$ where $`\theta `$ is the Heaviside function and the right-hand side is a Feynman propagator.

### 1.1 Quantum Stochastic Calculus

#### 1.1.1 Fundamental Stochastic Processes

For real square-integrable functions $`f=f\left(t\right)`$, we define the following four fields

$$A^{ij}\left(f\right):=_0^{\mathrm{}}\left[a_s^+\right]^i\left[a_s^{}\right]^jf\left(s\right)𝑑s,i,j\{0,1\}$$
(2)
where on the right-hand side the superscript denotes a power, that is $`\left[a\right]^0=1`$, $`\left[a\right]^1=a`$.

With $`1_{[0,t]}`$ denoting the characteristic function of the time interval $`[0,t]`$, we define the four fundamental processes

$$A_t^{ij}:=A^{ij}\left(1_{[0,t]}\right)=_0^t\left[a_s^+\right]^i\left[a_s^{}\right]^j𝑑s,i,j\{0,1\};$$
(3)
#### 1.1.2 Testing Vectors

The Hilbert space spanned by the symmterized vectors $`f_1\widehat{}\mathrm{}\widehat{}f_n:=`$ $`A^{10}\left(f_1\right)\mathrm{}A^{10}\left(f_n\right)\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is denoted as $`^{\left(n\right)}`$. The Hilbert spaces $`^{\left(n\right)}`$ are then naturally orthogonal for different $`n`$ and their direct sum is the (Bose) Fock space $`=_{n=0}^{\mathrm{}}^{\left(n\right)}`$. The exponential vector with test function $`fL^2\left(^+\right)`$ is defined to be

$$\epsilon \left(f\right):=\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{1}{n!}\widehat{}^nf.$$
(4)
Note that $`\epsilon \left(f\right)|\epsilon \left(g\right)=\mathrm{exp}\gamma f|g`$ and that $`\mathrm{\Psi }\epsilon \left(0\right)`$.

For a subset $`𝒯`$ of $`L^2\left(^+\right),`$ the subset of Fock space generated by the elements of $`𝒯`$ is $`𝔈\left(𝒯\right)=\{\epsilon \left(f\right):f𝒯\}`$. In general, we shall denote the Fock space over a one-particle Hilbert space $`𝔥`$ by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(𝔥\right)=_{n=0}^{\mathrm{}}\left(\widehat{}^n𝔥\right);`$ thus $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(L^2\left(^+\right)\right)`$.

#### 1.1.3 Quantum Stochastic Processes

Let $``$ be a fixed Hilbert space, we wish to consider operators on the tensor product $``$. A family of operators $`\left(X_t\right)_{t0}`$ defined on a common domain $`D𝔈\left(𝒯\right)`$ can be understood as a mapping from $`:D\times D\times 𝒯\times 𝒯\times ^+`$ :$`(\varphi ,\psi ,f,g,t)\varphi \epsilon \left(f\right)|X_t\psi \epsilon \left(g\right)`$.

#### 1.1.4 Quantum Stochastic Integrals

Let $`\left(X_t^{ij}\right)_{t0}`$ be four adapted processes. The quantum stochastic integral having these processes as integrands is

$$X_t=_0^t𝑑s\left[a_s^+\right]^iX_s^{ij}\left[a_s^{}\right]^j$$
(5)
where we use the Einstein convention that repeated indices are summed (over 0,1). We shall use the differential notation $`dX_t=\left[a_t^+\right]^iX_t^{ij}\left[a_t^{}\right]^jdt`$ or even $`\frac{dX_t}{dt}=\left[a_t^+\right]^iX_t^{ij}\left[a_t^{}\right]^j`$.

The key feature is that the noises appear in normal ordered form in the differentials. Suppose that the $`\left(X_t^{ij}\right)_{t0}`$ are defined on domain $`D𝔈\left(\right)`$, then it follows that

$$\varphi \epsilon \left(f\right)|\frac{dX_t}{dt}\psi \epsilon \left(g\right)\left[f^{}\left(t\right)\right]^i\varphi \epsilon \left(f\right)|X_t^{ij}\psi \epsilon \left(g\right)\left[g\left(t\right)\right]^j$$

for all $`\varphi ,\psi D`$ and $`f,g`$. (The equivalence can be understood here as being almost everywhere.)

#### 1.1.5 Quantum Itô’s Formula

Let $`X_t`$ and $`Y_t`$ be quantum stochastic integrals, then the product $`X_tY_t`$ may be brought to normal order using (QWN2). In differential terms we may write this as

$`d\left(X_tY_t\right)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(dX_t\right)Y_t+X_t\left(dY_t\right)`$ (6)
$`=`$ $`\left(\widehat{d}X_t\right)Y_t+X_t\left(\widehat{d}Y_t\right)+\left(\widehat{d}X_t\right)\left(\widehat{d}Y_t\right)`$
where the Itô differentials are defined as $`\left(\widehat{d}X_t\right)Y_t:=\left[a_t^+\right]^iX_t^{ij}\left(Y_t\right)\left[a_t^{}\right]^jdt;`$ $`X_t\left(\widehat{d}Y_t\right):=\left[a_t^+\right]^k\left(X_t\right)Y_t^{kl}\left[a_t^{}\right]^ldt;`$ $`\left(\widehat{d}X_t\right)\left(\widehat{d}Y_t\right):=\left[a_t^+\right]^iX_t^{i1}Y_t^{1l}\left[a_t^{}\right]^ldt`$.

The quantum Itô “table” corresponds to following relation for the fundamental processes:

$$\left(\widehat{d}A_t^{i1}\right)\left(\widehat{d}A_t^{1j}\right)=\gamma \left(\widehat{d}A_t^{ij}\right).$$
(7)
#### 1.1.6 Quantum Stochastic Differential Equations

The differential equation $`\frac{dX_t}{dt}=\left[a_t^+\right]^iX_t^{ij}\left[a_t^{}\right]^j`$ with initial condition $`X_0=x_0`$ (a bounded operator in $`_0`$) corresponds to the differential equation system

$$\varphi \epsilon \left(f\right)|\frac{dX_t}{dt}\psi \epsilon \left(g\right)\left[f^{}\left(t\right)\right]^i\varphi \epsilon \left(f\right)|X_t^{ij}\psi \epsilon \left(g\right)\left[g\left(t\right)\right]^j$$

and in general one can show the existence and uniqueness of solution as a family of operators on $`_0`$. The solution can be written as $`X_t=x_0+_0^t𝑑s\left[a_s^+\right]^iX_s^{ij}\left[a_s^{}\right]^j`$. In Hudson-Parthasarathy notation this is written as $`X_t=x_0+_0^tX_s^{ij}\widehat{d}A_t^{ij}`$, where the tensor product sign indicates the continuous tensor product decomposition $`=\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(L^2(0,t]\right)\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(L^2(t,\mathrm{})\right)`$.

### 1.2 Quantum Stochastic Evolutions

A quantum stochastic evolution is a family $`\left(J_t\right)_{t0}`$ mapping from the bounded observables on $`_0`$ to the bounded observables on $`_0`$. We are particularly interested in those taking the form

$$J_t\left(X\right)U_t^{}XU_t$$

where $`U_t`$ is a unitary, adapted process satisfying some linear qsde (a stochastic Schrödinger equation). In the rest of this section we establish a Wick’s theorem for working with such processes.

#### 1.2.1 Normal-Ordered QSDE

Let $`V_t`$ be the solution to the qsde

$$\frac{dV_t}{dt}=L_{ij}\left[a_t^+\right]^iV_t\left[a_t^{}\right]^j,V_0=1;$$
(8)
where the $`L_{ij}`$ are bounded operators in $`_0`$. The associated integral equation is $`V_t=1+_0^t𝑑t_1L_{ij}\left[a_{t_1}^+\right]^iV_{t_1}\left[a_{t_1}^{}\right]^j`$ which can be iterated to give the formal series

$`V_t`$ $`=`$ $`1+{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle _{t>t_1>\mathrm{}t_n>0}}𝑑t_1\mathrm{}𝑑t_nL_{i_1j_1}\mathrm{}L_{i_nj_n}`$ (9)
$`\times \left[a_{t_1}^+\right]^{i_1}\mathrm{}\left[a_{t_n}^+\right]^{i_n}\left[a_{t_n}^{}\right]^{j_n}\mathrm{}\left[a_{t_1}^{}\right]^{i_1}`$
$`=`$ $`\stackrel{}{𝐍}\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle _0^t}𝑑sL_{ij}\left[a_s^+\right]^i\left[a_s^{}\right]^j\right\},`$ (10)
where $`\stackrel{}{𝐍}`$ is the normal ordering operation for the noise symbols $`a_t^\pm `$.

Necessary and sufficient conditions for unitary of $`V_t`$ are that

$$L_{ij}+L_{ji}^{}+\gamma L_{1i}^{}L_{1j}=0.$$
(11)
(Necessity is immediate from the isometry condition $`d\left(U_t^{}U_t\right)=U_t^{}\widehat{d}\left(U_t\right)+\widehat{d}\left(U_t^{}\right)U_t+\widehat{d}\left(U_t^{}\right)\widehat{d}\left(U_t\right)=U_t^{}\left(L_{ij}+L_{ji}^{}+\gamma L_{1i}^{}L_{1j}\right)U_t\widehat{d}A_t^{ij}=0`$, but suffices to establish co-isometry $`d\left(U_tU_t^{}\right)=0`$.) Equivalently, we can require that

$`L_{11}=\frac{1}{\gamma }\left(W1\right),`$ $`L_{10}=L,`$  $`L_{01}=L^{}W,`$ $`L_{00}=\frac{1}{2}\gamma L^{}LiH;`$
where $`W`$ is unitary, $`H`$ is self-adjoint and $`L`$ is arbitrary.

#### 1.2.2 Time-Ordered QSDE

Let $`U_t`$ be the solution to the qsde

$$\frac{dU_t}{dt}=iE_{ij}\left[a_t^+\right]^i\left[a_t^{}\right]^jU_t,U_0=1;$$
(12)
where the $`E_{ij}`$ are bounded operators in $`_0`$. Here we naturally interpret $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_t=E_{ij}\left[a_t^+\right]^i\left[a_t^{}\right]^j`$ as a stochastic Hamiltonian. (For $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_t`$ to be Hermitian we would need $`E_{11}`$ and $`E_{00}`$ to be self-adjoint while $`E_{10}^{}=E_{01}`$.)

Iterating the associated integral equation leads to

$`U_t`$ $`=`$ $`1+{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\left(i\right)^n{\displaystyle _{t>t_1>\mathrm{}t_n>0}}𝑑t_1\mathrm{}𝑑t_nE_{i_1j_1}\mathrm{}E_{i_nj_n}`$ (13)
$`\times \left[a_{t_1}^+\right]^{i_1}\left[a_{t_1}^{}\right]^{i_1}\mathrm{}\left[a_{t_n}^+\right]^{i_n}\left[a_{t_n}^{}\right]^{j_n}`$
$`=`$ $`\stackrel{}{𝐓}\mathrm{exp}\left\{i{\displaystyle _0^t}𝑑sE_{ij}\left[a_s^+\right]^i\left[a_s^{}\right]^j\right\},`$ (14)
where $`\stackrel{}{𝐓}`$ is the time ordering operation for the noise symbols $`a_t^\pm `$.

#### 1.2.3 Conversion From Time-Ordered to Normal-Ordered Forms

Using the commutation relations (QWN2) we can put the time-ordered expressions in (12) to normal order. The most efficient way of doing this is as follows:

$`[a_t^{},U_t]`$ $`=`$ $`[a_t^{},1i{\displaystyle _0^t}𝑑sE_{ij}\left[a_s^+\right]^i\left[a_s^{}\right]^jU_s]`$
$`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle _0^t}𝑑sE_{1j}\left[a_t^{}a_s^+\right]\left[a_s^{}\right]^jU_s`$
$`=`$ $`i\kappa E_{1j}\left[a_t^{}\right]^jU_t`$
or $`a_t^{}U_tU_ta_t^{}=i\kappa E_{11}a_t^{}U_ti\kappa E_{10}U_t`$. This implies the rewriting rule

$$a_t^{}U_t=\left(1+i\kappa E_{11}\right)^1\left\{U_ta_t^{}i\kappa E_{10}U_t\right\}.$$
(15)
Thus $`iE_{ij}\left[a_t^+\right]^i\left[a_t^{}\right]^jU_t=iE_{i0}\left[a_t^+\right]^iU_t+iE_{i1}\left[a_t^+\right]^i\left(1+i\kappa E_{11}\right)^1\left\{U_ta_t^{}i\kappa E_{10}U_t\right\}`$. From this we deduce the following result:

###### Theorem 1

Time-ordered and normal-ordered forms are related as

$$\stackrel{}{𝐓}\mathrm{exp}\left\{i_0^t𝑑sE_{ij}\left[a_s^+\right]^i\left[a_s^{}\right]^j\right\}\stackrel{}{𝐍}\mathrm{exp}\left\{_0^t𝑑sL_{ij}\left[a_s^+\right]^i\left[a_s^{}\right]^j\right\}$$
(16)
where

| $`L_{11}=iE_{11}\left(1+i\kappa E_{11}\right)^1,`$ | $`L_{10}=i\left(1+i\kappa E_{11}\right)^1E_{10},`$ |
| --- | --- |
| $`L_{01}=iE_{01}\left(1+i\kappa E_{11}\right)^1,`$ | $`L_{00}=iE_{00}+\kappa E_{01}\left(1+i\kappa E_{11}\right)^1E_{10}.`$ |

(17)
## 2 Gaussian States

The above construction requires the existence of a vacuum state $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$; by application of creation fields we should be able to reconstruct a Hilbert-Fock space for which $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is cyclic. But what about non-vacuum states? We describe now the trick we shall use in order to consider more general states for the simple case of one bosonic degree of freedom.

Let $`a,a^{}`$ satisfy the commutation relations $`[a,a^{}]=1`$. A state $``$ is said to be Gaussian or quasi-free if we have

$$\mathrm{exp}\left\{iz^{}a+iza^{}\right\}=\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{1}{2}n\left(n+1\right)zz^{}+m^{}z^2+mz^2+iz^{}\alpha +iz\alpha ^{}\right\};$$
(18)
in particular, $`a=\alpha `$, $`aa^{}=n+1`$, $`aa=m`$. From the observation that $`\left(a+\lambda a^{}\right)^{}\left(a+\lambda a^{}\right)0`$ it follows that the restriction $`|m|^2n\left(n+1\right)`$ must apply.

Now suppose that $`a_1,a_1^{}`$ and $`a_2,a_2^{}`$ are commuting pairs of Bose variables and let

$$a=xa_1+ya_2^{}+za_2+\alpha $$
(19)
where $`x,y,z,\alpha `$ are complex numbers. The commutation relations are maintained if $`|x|^2C|y|^2+|z|^2=1`$. Taking the vacuum state for both variables $`a_i,a_i^{}`$ $`\left(i=1,2\right)`$ then we can reconstruct the state $``$ if $`|x|^2+|z|^2=n+1`$ and $`yz=m`$. That is

$$x=\sqrt{n+1\frac{|m|^2}{n}},y=\sqrt{n},z=\frac{m}{\sqrt{n}}.$$
(20)
### 2.1 Generalized Araki-Woods Construction

Let2 $`𝔥`$ be a fixed one-particle Hilbert space and let $`j`$ be a anti-linear conjugation on $`𝔥`$, that is $`j\varphi |j\psi _𝔥=\psi |\varphi _𝔥`$ for all $`\varphi ,\psi 𝔥`$. Denote by $`A\left(\varphi \right)`$ the annihilator on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(𝔥\right)`$ with test function $`\varphi `$ (that is, $`A\left(\varphi \right)\epsilon \left(\psi \right)=\varphi |\psi _𝔥\epsilon \left(\psi \right)`$ ). A state $``$ on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(𝔥\right)`$ is said to be (mean-zero) Gaussian / quasi-free if there is a positive operator $`N0`$; an operator $`M`$ with $`|M|^2N\left(N+1\right)`$ and $`[N,M]=0`$; and a fixed anti-linear conjugation $`j`$ such that

$$\mathrm{exp}\left\{iA\left(\varphi \right)+iA^{}\left(\varphi \right)\right\}=\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{1}{2}\varphi |\left(2N+1\right)\varphi _𝔥\frac{1}{2}M\varphi |j\varphi _𝔥\frac{1}{2}j\varphi |M\varphi _𝔥\right\}$$
(21)
for all $`\varphi 𝔥`$. In particular, we have the expectations

$`A\left(\varphi \right)A^{}\left(\psi \right)`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi |N\psi _𝔥`$
$`A\left(\varphi \right)A\left(\psi \right)`$ $`=`$ $`M\varphi |j\psi _𝔥`$
$`A^{}\left(\varphi \right)A^{}\left(\psi \right)`$ $`=`$ $`j\varphi |M\psi _𝔥`$
The state is said to be gauge-invariant when $`M=0`$. The case where $`N=\left(1e^{\beta H}\right)^1`$ and $`M=0`$ yields the familiar thermal state at inverse temperature $`\beta `$ for the non-interacting Bose gas with second quantization of $`H`$ as Hamiltonian. The vacuum state is, of course $`N=0,M=0`$.

The standard procedure for treating thermal states of the interacting Bose gas is to represent the canonical commutations (CCR) algebra on the tensor product $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(𝔥\right)\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(𝔥\right)`$ and realize state as a double Fock vacuum state. This approach generalizes to the problem at hand. For clarity we label the Fock spaces with subscripts 1 and 2 and consider the morphism from the CCR algebra over $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(𝔥\right)`$ to that over $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(𝔥\right)_1\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(𝔥\right)_2`$ induced by

$$A\left(\varphi \right)A_1\left(X\varphi \right)1_2+1_1A_2^{}\left(jY\varphi \right)+1_1A_2\left(Z\psi \right)$$
(22)
where

$$X=\sqrt{N+1\frac{|M|^2}{N}},Y=\sqrt{N},Z=\frac{M}{\sqrt{N}}.$$
(23)
Here we write $`A_i\left(\psi \right)`$ for annihilators on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(𝔥\right)_i`$ $`\left(i=1,2\right)`$.

## 3 Gaussian Noise

Now let $`a_1^\pm \left(t\right)`$ and $`a_2^\pm \left(t\right)`$ be independent (commuting) copies of quantum white noises with respective vacua $`\mathrm{\Psi }_1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }_2`$. Let $`x,y,x`$ be as in (18) and let $`\alpha `$ be arbitrary complex. We consider the quantum white noise(s) defined by

$$a_t^{}:=xa_1^{}\left(t\right)+ya_2^+\left(t\right)+za_2^{}\left(t\right)+\alpha .$$
(24)
We consider the stochastic dynamics generated by the formal Hamiltonian

$$\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_t=Ca_t^++C^{}a_t^{}+F$$
(25)
where $`C`$ and self-adjoint $`F`$ are operators on $`_0`$. We are required to “normal order” the unitary process $`U_t=\stackrel{}{𝐓}\mathrm{exp}\left\{i_0^t𝑑s\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_s\right\}`$ for the given state and this means normal order the $`a_1^\pm \left(t\right)`$ and the $`a_2^\pm \left(t\right)`$. By using the same technique as in (13) we find that, for instance, $`[a_1^{}\left(t\right),U_t]=i_0^t𝑑s[a_1^{}\left(t\right),\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_s]U_s=i\kappa xCU_t`$. We can deduce the rewriting rules

$`a_1^{}\left(t\right)U_t`$ $`=`$ $`U_t\left(a_1^{}\left(t\right)i\kappa xC\right);`$
$`a_2^{}\left(t\right)U_t`$ $`=`$ $`U_t\left(a_2^{}\left(t\right)i\kappa z^{}Ci\kappa yC^{}\right).`$
The qsde $`\frac{dU_t}{dt}=i\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_tU_t`$ can be then be rewritten as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dU_t}{dt}}`$ $`=`$ $`i:\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_tU_t:iCyU_t\left(i\kappa z^{}Ci\kappa yC^{}\right)`$
$`iCxU_t\left(i\kappa xC\right)iC^{}zU_t\left(i\kappa z^{}Ci\kappa yC^{}\right)`$
where :$`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_tU_t:`$ is the reordering of $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_tU_t`$ placing all creators $`a_1^+\left(t\right)`$ and $`a_2^+\left(t\right)`$ to the left and all annihilators $`a_1^{}\left(t\right)`$ and $`a_2^{}\left(t\right)`$ to the right. Rearranging gives

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dU_t}{dt}}`$ $`=`$ $`iC\left(xa_1^+\left(t\right)U_t+yU_ta_2^{}\left(t\right)+z^{}a_2^+\left(t\right)U_t+\alpha ^{}U_t\right)`$ (26)
$`iC^{}\left(xU_ta_1^{}\left(t\right)+ya_2^+\left(t\right)U_t+zU_ta_2^{}\left(t\right)+\alpha U_t\right)`$
$`\left[iF+\kappa \left(\left(n+1\right)C^{}C+nCC^{}+m^{}CC+mC^{}C^{}\right)\right]U_t.`$
To obtain an equivalent Hudson-Parthasarathy qsde, we introduce quantum Brownian motions $`A_t=_0^t\left(xa_1^{}\left(s\right)+ya_2^+\left(s\right)+za_2^{}\left(s\right)\right)𝑑s`$ with the under standing that, for $`R_t`$ adapted, $`R_tdA_t=\left(xR_ta_1^{}\left(t\right)+ya_2^+\left(t\right)R_t+zR_ta_2^{}\left(t\right)\right)`$ and $`R_tdA_t^{}=\left(xa_1^+\left(t\right)R_t+yR_ta_2^{}\left(t\right)+z^{}a_2^+\left(t\right)R_t\right)`$. Then

$$dU_tiCU_tdA_t^{}iC^{}U_tdA_tGU_tdt$$
(27)
where $`G=i\left(F+\alpha ^{}C+\alpha C^{}\right)+\kappa \left(\left(n+1\right)C^{}C+nCC^{}+m^{}CC+mC^{}C^{}\right)`$. Note that the quantum Itô table will be

$`dA_tdA_t^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma \left(n+1\right)dt;dA_t^{}dA_t=\gamma ndt;`$
$`dA_t^{}dA_t^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma m^{}dt;dA_tdA_t=\gamma mdt.`$ (28)
It is readily shown, either by normal ordering or by means of the quantum stochastic calculus, that the stochastic Heisenberg equation is then

$$dJ_t\left(X\right)=iJ_t\left([X,C^{}]\right)dA_t^{}iJ_t\left([X,C]\right)dA_t+J_t\left(L\left(X\right)\right)dt$$
(29)
where

$$L\left(X\right)=\gamma \left\{\left(n+1\right)C^{}XC+nCXC^{}+mCXC+m^{}C^{}XC^{}\right\}XGG^{}X.$$
(30)
Finally the master equation is obtained by duality: $`\frac{d}{dt}\varrho =L^{}\left(\varrho \right)`$ where $`tr\left\{\varrho L\left(X\right)\right\}tr\left\{L^{}\left(\varrho \right)X\right\}`$.


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# High Field Specific Heat of 2D Quantum Spin System SrCu2(BO3)2

(January 19, 2004; date; date; date; date)

## Abstract

We report measurements of the specific heat of the quantum spin liquid system SrCu2(BO3)2 in continuous magnetic fields $`H`$ of up to 33 T. The specific heat data, when combined with a finite temperature Lanczos diagonalization of the Shastry-Sutherland Hamiltonian, indicates the presence of a nearest neighbor Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) interaction that violates the crystal symmetry for $`H=0`$. Moreover, the same DM interaction is required to explain the observed ESR lines for $`Hc`$. These results indicate that spin-lattice coupling needs to be included in any realistic description of this system.

High Magnetic Fields, 2D Quantum Spin System Specific Heat, Lanczos Method

year number number identifier

SrCu2(BO3)2 is a quasi-two dimensional spin system with a singlet dimer ground state smith91 . It is the only known realization of the Shastry-Sutherland model shastry81 , and exhibits a sequence of magnetization plateaux at high magnetic fields kageyama99 ; onizuka00 . The unique behavior of this quantum spin liquid results from the interplay between two different fascinating aspects of strongly correlated spin systems: namely geometrical frustration and strong quantum fluctuations. The spin $`s=`$ 1/2 Cu2+ ions that are responsible for the magnetism are grouped in dimers within planes of the tetragonal SrCu2(BO3)2 unit cell, with respective intra-dimer or nearest neighbor ($`nn`$) and inter-dimer or next nearest neighbor ($`nnn`$) separations of 2.9 Å and 5.1 Å. The coupling constants are estimated to be $`J`$ 80 K for $`nn`$ and $`J^{}`$ 50 K for $`nnn`$ miyahara99 . The geometrical frustration of the spin-lattice leads to very localized triplet excitations that have a tendency to crystallize at high magnetic fields. This occurs when the concentration of triplets reaches certain values that are commensurate with the underlying lattice, becoming incompressible upon formation of a gapped structure. The magnetization plateaux at $`H_{p1}=27`$ T, $`H_{p2}=35`$ T and $`H_{p3}=42`$ T are a direct consequence of spin superstructures forming at triplet concentrations 1/8, 1/4 and 1/3 respectively.

Recent ESR experiments cepas01 ; cepas02 ; nojiri03  revealed the spin triplet excitation energy to decrease linearly with increasing magnetic field, extrapolating to zero at a field value ($`H=22`$ T) very close to Hp1. However, on approaching Hp1, the experimental ESR data deviates from this linear extrapolation, indicating a level anti-crossing between the first triplet excitation and the ground state. The anti-crossing implies some mixing between two states with different magnetization $`M_z`$ along the tetragonal $`c`$-axis. This observation cannot be explained by the $`U(1)`$ invariant models (which are symmetric under rotations around the $`c`$-axis) proposed in previous works, for which $`M_z`$ is a good quantum number.

In this letter we argue that an intra-dimer Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) interaction, which violates the observed crystal symmetry at $`100KT395K`$ sparta01 , is required to explain the low temperature specific heat of SrCu2(BO3)2 in magnetic fields $`H>`$ 18 T. We also show that this interaction gives rise to the ESR transitions between the ground state and the single triplet excitations that are observed for $`Hc`$ cepas01 ; cepas02 ; nojiri03 . These results suggest that there is a structural phase transition at low temepratures that lowers the crystal symmetry. Such a transition could be driven by a strong spin-lattice interaction that would be a relevant ingredient to explain the magnetization plateaux which are observed in this system.

The single crystal sample of SrCu2(BO3)2 used in this study was grown by the floating zone technique. Stoichiometric amounts of CuO, SrCO3 and B2O3 were mixed, pre-annealed, and then annealed at 870 oC. Finally, the powder was regrinded, pelletized and annealed in O2 several times. Rods were formed by hydrostatic pressing and the growth was performed in a Crystal System Optical Furnace at a growth speed of 0.25mm/h in O2. No additional flux was applied dabkowska03 . The measurements of the specific heat $`C(T,H)`$ of SrCu2(BO3)2 in continuous magnetic fields up to 33 T were performed on two oriented single crystal pieces of 12.34 mg and 13.92 mg. Both were measured with $`H`$ applied along the tetragonal $`c`$-axis and within the $`ab`$ planes. A calorimeter made of plastic materials and silicon was used, employing a thermal relaxation time technique optimized for rapid data acquisition jaime00 ; jorge . The magnetization $`M_z`$ of a piece of sample of approximate dimensions 1.5 $`\times `$ 0.9 $`\times `$ 0.5 mm3 was measured as a function of field using a sample-extraction magnetometer in a 400 ms, 45 T pulsed magnet provided by the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Los Alamos jorge03 . The small size of the sample, placed in good thermal contact with liquid 3He or 4He below $`T=4`$ K, combined with the relatively slow field sweep of the magnet helped minimize magnetocaloric effects so as to achieve an isothermal experiment jaime02 . For characterization purposes, supplementary $`M_z`$ versus temperature $`T`$ measurements and specific heat measurements were made at lower fields using a commercial Quantum Design™ MPMS (SQUID magnetometer). Meanwhile, numerical simulations of the Shastry-Sutherland model, with which the experimental data are compared, were performed on a 20-site square lattice using the finite temperature Lanczos (FTL) method jacklic96 ; jprev ; bonca02 .

To describe the present system, we consider the following Heisenberg Hamiltonian on a Shastry-Sutherland lattice shastry81 :

$`H_s`$ $`=J{\displaystyle \underset{𝐢,𝐣}{}}𝐒_𝐢𝐒_𝐣+J^{}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐢,𝐣^{}}{}}𝐒_𝐢𝐒_𝐣`$
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{𝐢𝐣}{}}𝐃(𝐒_𝐢\times 𝐒_𝐣)+{\displaystyle \underset{𝐢𝐣^{}}{}}𝐃^{}(𝐒_𝐢\times 𝐒_𝐣).`$ (1)
Here, $`i,j`$ and $`i,j^{}`$ indicate that $`𝐢`$ and $`𝐣`$ are $`nn`$ and $`nnn`$ respectively. The Hamiltonian includes $`nn`$ ($`𝐃`$) and $`nnn`$ ($`𝐃^{}`$) DM interactions. The arrows indicates that the corresponding bonds have a particular orientation. The quantization axis $`\widehat{𝐳}`$ is parallel to the $`c`$-axis. The $`nnn`$ DM interaction has already been considered in previous papers miyahara03  to explain the position of the single triplet excitations observed with ESR cepas01 ; nojiri03 , far infra-red room00  and inelastic neutron scattering measurements kageyama00 . From the splitting between the two single-triplet excitations at $`𝐪=\mathrm{𝟎}`$, the $`𝐃^{}=`$ is estimated to be: $`𝐃^{}=`$ 2.1 K$`\widehat{𝐳}`$. The orientation of the $`nnn`$ bonds is given in Ref. miyahara03 . According to the crystal symmetry sparta01 , the $`xy`$ component of $`𝐃`$ is perpendicular to the corresponding dimer. However, as is explained below, a non-zero $`z`$ component of $`𝐃`$, which is not allowed by the observed crystal symmetry at high temperatures ($`100KT395K`$), is required to explain the specific heat and the ESR data a a function of the applied field $`H`$.

Figure 1 shows the magnetization $`M_z(H)`$ measured as a function of magnetic field, in units of $`\mu _B`$/Cu determined upon cross-calibration with SQUID magnetometry data. In addition to the plateaux already mentioned, there is a small excess contribution to $`M_z`$ identified in our data over the entire field range. This additional source of magnetization has been observed before in SQUID magnetometry data kageyama99 , although for reasons which are unknown to us, it is absent in published pulsed magnetic field data. For our samples, both SQUID magnetometry data and low field pulsed magnetic field data evidence a finite excess susceptibility of approximately $`0.115\times 10^3`$ emu/mol Cu, probably due to crystalline defects. Good agreement with the expected magnetization values at the plateaux is obtained by subtracting this value. Better agreement is obtained by subtracting a scaled Brillouin function with an initial slope of $`0.14\times 10^3`$ emu/mol Cu and a characteristic temperature of 5 K (see Fig. 1). After either of these substractions, there remains a finite value of $`M_z`$ at very low temperatures and magnetic fields that increases linearly with $`H`$.

In the inset of Fig. 1 we compare the measured magnetic susceptibility $`\chi (T)`$ (after subtracting a small constant value of $`0.14\times 10^3`$ emu/mol Cu) and the curve obtained with the FTL method that is described below. We get an excellent agreement for: $`J=74`$ K, $`J^{}=0.62J`$, D=(2.2K,$`\pm `$ 2.2K,5.2K) (the sign is different for each dimer in the unit cell), D’=(0,0,2.2K). The values of the $`g`$-factors, $`g_{}=2.15`$ and $`g_{}=2.08`$, have been obtained from a comparison between our theoretical calculations janez04  (see Fig. 4) and the ESR spectra cepas01 ; nojiri03 .

In Fig. 2, we show the specific heat divided by temperature, $`C(T,H)/T`$, for different values of the magnetic field applied along the $`c`$-axis. The primary feature in the low temperature specific heat is a broad anomaly centered at $`T=8.5`$ K that is gradually depressed by increasing $`H`$. This anomaly has been attributed hofmann02  to $`S_z=0`$ dimer excitations. Here, however, we observe a small shift in temperature as function of $`H`$, indicating the involvement of states with $`S_z`$ 0. For $`H`$ 12 T, a second anomaly develops at lower temperatures, which we attribute to single-triplet excitations situated 3 meV above the ground state in zero field. The Zeeman interaction causes this triplet states to move to lower energies with increasing $`H`$. Figure 3 shows similar results for $`Hc`$.

In Figs. 2 and 3, we also compare the experimental results with the results of a numerical simulation of $`C(T,H)/T`$ made using the FTL method jacklic96 ; jprev . This method is based on the Lanczos procedure of exact diagonalization, and uses a random sampling over initial wave functions specially adapted for calculation of thermodynamic properties. All the results were computed on a tilted square lattice of $`N=20`$ sites. There are many advantages of this method over the conventional Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods, which are as follows: first, the minus-sign problem that usually appears in QMC calculations of frustrated spin systems is absent; second, the method connects the high- and low-temperature regimes in a continuous fashion, enabling the entropy density and specific heat (per unit cell) to be computed as expectation values (i.e. $`s=k_BlnZ/N+H/NT`$, where $`Z`$ is the statistical sum). The specific heat is then given by $`C_V=T(s/T)=k_B(H^2H^2)/NT^2`$. The main limitation to the validity of the results originates from finite-size effects which occur when $`T<T_{fs}`$. The actual value of $`T_{fs}`$ depends strongly on the particular physical properties of the system. For gapless systems, $`T_{fs}`$ can be defined by way of the thermodynamic sum $`\overline{Z}(T)=\mathrm{Tr}\mathrm{exp}((HE_0)/T)`$, on condition that $`\overline{Z}(T_{fs})=Z^{}1`$ jprev . In the present case, this condition can be relaxed ($`Z^{}>1`$) owing to the existence of a gap in the excitation spectrum when $`J^{}/J<0.7`$ and to the almost localized nature of the lowest excited states - triplet excitations. By comparing results obtained on two different systems with $`N=16`$ and $`N=20`$ sites, we estimate $`T_{fs}<1`$ K.

For $`H<18`$ T, the agreement between theory and experiment is very good, regardless of the inclusion of the $`nn`$ DM interaction. Finite size effects are also very small, for $`H<18`$ T, due to the localized nature of the single-triplet excitations kageyama00 . When $`H`$ approaches 22 T for $`Hc`$ (or 25 T for $`Hc`$), however, the inclusion of this interaction is required to explain the measured $`C(T,H)/T`$ at low temperatures. For $`Hc`$, this is explained by the fact that $`𝐃`$ is the only interaction that violates the conservation of $`M_z`$, by mixing the $`M_z=0`$ singlet ground state of $`H(𝐃=0)`$ with the single-triplet excited state with $`M_z=\pm 1`$. This mixing becomes effective only when the energy difference between both levels is comparable to $`|𝐃|`$. For $`Hc`$, the same type of mixing is produced by the $`z`$-component of $`𝐃`$. In other words, the level crossing that would occur in absence of the DM interactions is replaced by level anti-crossing. This can be seen in Figs. 2b and 3b where we also show the calculated $`C/T`$ for $`𝐃=0`$ and $`H=22T`$ ($`H=25.5T`$) for $`Hc`$ ($`Hc`$). In absence of the $`DM`$ interactions, the level crossing generates a peak of $`C/T`$ at $`T=0`$ which is not consistent with the experiment. In contrast, the level anti-crossing moves this peak to higher temperatures in agreement with the experimental data. The anti-crossing occurs for different values of $`H`$ in the different field orientations due to the anisotropy of the $`g`$-factor and the fact that $`𝐃`$ is parallel to the $`c`$ axis cepas01 ; nojiri03 . At high temperatures ($`T>20`$ K), the specific heat data deviates from the theoretical prediction owing to significant phonon contributions.

For $`T10`$ K and fields $`H>20`$ T, there are small deviations between the experimental curves and the calculations, which can be attributed to the inter planar antiferromagnetic interaction $`J^{\prime \prime }/J0.21`$ that becomes relevant when the concentration of triplet excitations increases.

The components of the $`nn`$ DM interaction are constrained by the crystal symmetry at low temperatures sparta01 . According to this symmetry, the $`z`$-component of $`𝐃`$ must be zero. Although a non-zero DM vector of the form $`(d,\pm d,0)`$ improves considerably the agreement between experiment and theory for $`Hc`$, it does not reproduce our experimental data in the proximity of $`H_{p1}`$= 27 T for $`Hc`$. Ultrasonic experiments zherlitsyn  indicate that in this region the lattice gets strongly distorted by the application of the magnetic field . We speculate that this lattice distortion increases the $`z`$-component of the DM vector to lower the magnetic energy (it increases the level anti-crossing).

This speculation is further supported by the measured ESR spectrum for $`Hc`$ cepas01 ; nojiri03 . We show the ESR spectrum as a function of $`H`$ for $`D_z=5.2`$ (Fig. 4a) and $`D_z=0`$K (Fig. 4b) calculated with the Lanczos method janez04 . More specifically, we are computing the dynamical susceptibility along the direction perpendicular to the applied field using the method introduced in Ref. gagliano . As it is pointed out in Ref. cepas02 , the observed ESR trasitions between the ground state and the single-triplet excitations are not allowed by the observed crystal symmetry at $`H=0`$ sparta01 . In Fig. 4a we show that these ESR transitions can be explained with a non-zero value of $`D_z`$, while the corresponding ESR lines are not present if $`D_z=0`$ (Fig. 4b). None of the other components of $`𝐃`$ or $`𝐃^{}`$ can reproduce these ESR lines. Based on these observations, we propose that the crystal symmetry is lowered at low temepratures due to a strong spin-lattice interaction. Since the lattice distortion depends on the applied field zherlitsyn , we expect $`D_z`$ to be an increasing function of $`H`$ (although we used a constant value $`D_z=5.2`$K for our calculation).

With the exception of $`𝐃`$, all other physical parameters used in the model were determined from previous experiments. The values of $`g_{}`$ and $`g_{}`$ are obtained from the ESR spectracepas01 ; nojiri03 . By including $`𝐃`$, however, we are able to account simultaneously for the ESR spectra as a function of the applied field (see also Ref. janez04 ), the temperature dependence of the susceptibility, and the low temperature specific heat data for $`H18`$ T.

In summary, we have measured the specific heat as a function of temperature in continuous magnetic fields up to 33 T. An excellent fit to the $`C(T,H)/T`$ data for both field orientations is obtained for a $`nn`$ exchange constant $`J=74`$ K, a ratio $`J^{}/J=0.62`$, a $`nn`$ Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction constant $`|𝐃|=6.1`$ K, and a $`nnn`$ Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction constant $`|𝐃^{}|=2.2`$ K. A non-zero value of $`D_z`$, that is not allowed by the observed crystal symmetry at $`H=0`$, is required to explain both the specific heat data for $`H18`$ T and the observed ESR cepas01 ; nojiri03  spectrum for $`Hc`$. This suggests that a lattice distortion that lowers the crystal symmetry is induced at low temperatures. A more detailed comparison between the calculated ESR spectrum and the experiment will be presented elsewhere janez04 .

This work was sponsored by the US DOE under contract W-7405-ENG-36. R.S. was supported by the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Estonian Science Foundation grant No.4931. J.B. acknowledges the financial support of Slovene MESS. Work performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is supported by the National Science Foundation(DMR90-16241), the Department of Energy and the State of Florida.


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# First Planet Confirmation with a Dispersed Fixed-Delay Interferometer

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Of the more than one hundred extra-solar planets that have been found to date, the vast majority have been found using the radial velocity (RV) technique (e.g. Butler et al. (1996); Baranne et al. (1996)). Current approaches to making RV measurements rely on using very high resolution echelle spectrographs, employing cross-correlation or fits to line profiles in stellar spectra to determine Doppler shifts in the centroids of the lines. While the RV technique has been the most successful technique for locating extra-solar planets, traditional echelles have relatively low light throughput, large instrument volume, and tend to be very expensive. In addition, they cover only a single object in each observation. The low light throughput limits survey sensitivity to relatively bright stars and single object operation leads to slow survey speeds.

The Exoplanet Tracker (ET) is a prototype of a new type of fibre-fed RV instrument based on a dispersed fixed-delay interferometer, a combination of a Michelson interferometer followed by a low or medium resolution post-disperser. This combination has been suggested for spectroscopic applications as early as the 1890’s (Edser & Butler, 1898), and was proposed for precision Doppler planet searches by D. J. Erskine in 1997 (Erskine & Ge, 2000; Ge, Erskine, & Rushford, 2002); a similar approach is discussed in Mosser, Maillard, & Bouchy (2003). The effective resolution of the instrument is determined primarily by the interferometer, so the post-dispersing spectrograph can be of much lower resolution than in traditional techniques, and consequently can have much higher throughput (Ge, 2002; Ge et al., 2003a, b).

The cost of the instrument is comparitively low, and furthermore it operates in a single-order mode: a single spectrum only takes up one strip along the CCD detector. Spectra from multiple stars can be lined up at once on a single detector to increase survey speed (Ge, 2002). In combination with a wide field multi-fibre telescope, multi-object surveying should therefore be achievable (Mahadevan et al., 2003), with the potential to rapidly increase the number of known extra-solar planets.

The instrument works by producing a long-slit stellar spectrum ‘channeled’ with fringes, also known as Edser-Butler fringes (Edser & Butler, 1898; Lawson, 2000; Ge, 2002). Sinusoidal interference fringes are formed along the slit direction wherever there are spectral lines. Doppler shifts in the underlying spectrum result in directly proportionate phase shifts in these fringes. Hence, we measure shifts of the sinusoids in the slit direction, rather than shifts of the spectrum itself in the dispersion direction as in traditional techniques. By fitting sine functions to the CCD response along each wavelength channel on the detector and combining the results from all channels, we are able to accurately measure any changes in the Doppler shift of an object. The concept is described in more detail in Ge (2002); van Eyken et al. (2003).

In this paper, we report Doppler RV curves of the known planet-bearing star, 51 Peg (Mayor & Queloz, 1995), and a RV stable star, $`\eta `$ Cas with ET at the KPNO 2.1m telescope. This represents the first planet detection using this independent new technique.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS

The observations were conducted with a prototype of ET during an engineering run at the KPNO 2.1m telescope in August 2002, built largely from cheap off-the-shelf components. The observations and details of the instrument setup were reported in Ge et al. (2003a).

The spectrograph operating resolution was measured at $`R4540`$. Using a KPNO 1k$`\times `$3k back-illuminated CCD gave a wavelength coverage of $`270`$Å centred around 5445Å. The image was spread over $`300`$ pixels in the slit direction, giving a total of around 12 periods of fringing. An iodine vapour cell was inserted into the beam as a Doppler zero velocity reference, with its temperature stabilised to $`60\pm 0.1^{}\mathrm{C}.`$

During the run, we were able to obtain regular observations of a number of stars, including known planet bearing stars 51 Peg, $`\upsilon `$ And and HD209458; RV stable stars $`\eta `$ Cas, $`\tau `$ Ceti and and 31 Aql; and a bright star, $`\alpha `$ Boo, over a period of about seven days (Ge et al., 2003a). In this paper, only results from 51 Peg and $`\eta `$ Cas are reported.

## 3 DATA ANALYSIS

Raw spectra were first trimmed and dark subtracted using standard IRAF routines, with bias being subtracted along with the darks in one step. Pixel-pixel flatfielding was performed using non-fringing quartz-lamp continuum spectra as flatfields, where the fringes were eliminated by rapidly oscillating the interferometer PZT mirror during the exposure.

The rest of the data reduction was then performed using custom software written in the IDL data analysis language, by Research Systems Inc. Images were ‘self illumination corrected’ using an algorithm to extract the underlying continuum illumination function from each image, which is divided out. This avoids problems with changes in the illumination over time. The spectra were then corrected for slant so that the slit direction was exactly aligned with the CCD pixel axes. They were then low-pass Fourier filtered in order to remove the interferometer comb, the series of parallel fringes that would be present if pure white light were to be observed and which contains no Doppler information itself.

After these pre-processing steps, the phase and visibility were determined for each wavelength channel by fitting a sin wave to each column of the CCD image, each pixel being weighted according to the number of counts in the original non-flatfielded data on the assumption of photon noise dominated error. Since fringe spatial frequency varies only slowly as a function of wavelength, we fit a smooth function to the frequencies obtained from the sinusoid fits, and then performed a second pass with the frequencies fixed to match this function, helping to reduce random errors.

To a good approximation, the combined iodine/star data frames can be considered a linear summation of the complex visibilities of the individual iodine and stellar spectra (where complex visibility is defined as $`𝐕=Ve^{i\varphi }`$, with $`V`$ the fringe visibility and $`\varphi `$ the phase offset). Pure stellar and pure iodine template spectra were taken at the beginning of each observation, and these were used to mathematically extract the phase shifts of the star and the iodine individually, and hence calculate the intrinsic stellar velocity shift corrected for instrumental drifts.

Finally, the RV due to the motion of the Earth was subtracted to leave an intrinsic stellar relative velocity curve. Currently the exposure time is taken to be the centre of the exposure (although this is by no means necessarily ideal).

Error bars are based on the standard statistical curve-fitting errors determined during measurement of phase and visibility. The errors are translated to error bars through calculations appropriate to the algorithms used to extract the final intrinsic stellar RV. They are expected to give a reasonable guide to the random scatter expected in the data, although they may not catch all systematic errors.

On closer inspection, the data were found to show variation in the fringe phase and visibility along the length of the slit. We therefore cut the spectra into three slices along the dispersion direction and treated each slice separately, in order to obtain sinusoidal fits less affected by this systematic error. A weighted average of the three results was then obtained to give a final RV plot.

## 4 RESULTS

Part of the raw fringing spectrum for 51 Peg with the overlayed iodine spectrum is shown in figure 1, obtained in 25 minutes at visual magnitude 5.5 with S/N per pixel in the central strip of around 50. Typical exposure times for $`\eta `$ Cas (mag 3.5) were 30 min at an S/N of 80 (including iodine cell losses).

Figure 2 shows the radial velocity variation measured for 51 Peg after diurnal motion is subtracted. The zero point is chosen arbitrarily. Over-plotted is the expected curve extrapolated from the most recently determined orbital parameters (Naef et al., 2003). The same data are listed in table 1. S/N per pixel ratios obtained were in the range $``$40–60 for star+iodine spectra. The templates used for the processing are from the night of August 16 (August 17 UT), and S/N for the iodine and star templates were approximately 300 and 70 per pixel respectively (for the central strip). Averaging over the three detector strips gives an rms deviation from the predicted curve of $`11.5\mathrm{ms}^1`$. The value of the reduced $`\chi ^2`$ is 2.70.111These results represent a substantial improvement over our previously reported measurements (van Eyken et al., 2003), due in part to using all three detector strips and also to several improvements in the reduction software.

Residuals after diurnal correction for the star $`\eta `$ Cas are shown in figure 3 and table 2, using templates from the night of Aug 15 (Aug 16 UT). $`\eta `$ Cas is a known RV stable star (W. D. Cochran 2002, private communication) and is therefore expected to show zero shift at our current level of precision. The three image strips are averaged, weighted according to flux. The rms scatter is $`7.9\mathrm{ms}^1`$, with a reduced $`\chi ^2`$ of 2.03. Typical S/N per pixel in the central strip is around 70–90 for star+iodine spectra, 270 for the iodine template, and 100 for the star template.

Under 1.5 arc-sec seeing conditions, we obtained a total instrument throughput of $`4\%`$, from above the atmosphere to the detector, including sky, telescope transmission, fibre loss, instrument and iodine cell transmission, detector quantum efficiency, and using only one interferometer output. Excluding slit loss, the transmission of the instrument itself from fibre to detector was 19%.

## 5 DISCUSSION

It is possible to make an estimate of the photon limited error for this instrument using the following analysis. Following Ge (2002), the error $`\sigma _i`$ in velocity from a single wavelength channel $`i`$ due to photon noise alone can be calculated as a function of fringe visibility, $`\gamma _i`$, and total photon flux in the channel, $`F_i`$. Using a slightly more accurate derivation than given in Ge (2002) gives the relation:

$$\sigma _i=\frac{c\lambda }{\pi d\gamma _i\sqrt{2F_i}},$$
(1)
where $`c`$ is the speed of light, $`\lambda `$ is the operating wavelength, and $`d`$ is the path difference between the interferometer arms. The combined error over all channels is then given by:

$$\sigma =[\underset{i}{}1/\sigma _i^2]^{{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}}.$$
(2)
This gives us an estimate of the error due to the photon noise in one complete fringing spectrum. In order to estimate the photon error for the final iodine reference corrected RV measurement, we must combine the errors from the templates, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{I}_2,\mathrm{template}}`$ and $`\sigma _{\mathrm{star},\mathrm{template}}`$, and from the combined star+iodine data. We treat the combined data as consisting of two separate components, with errors $`\sigma _{\mathrm{I}_2,\mathrm{data}}`$ and $`\sigma _{\mathrm{star},\mathrm{data}}`$. The final relative velocity measured, $`V`$, is given by $`V=(V_{\mathrm{star},\mathrm{data}}V_{\mathrm{star},\mathrm{template}})(V_{\mathrm{I}_2,\mathrm{data}}V_{\mathrm{I}_2,\mathrm{template}})`$, and so the final error is obtained by quadrature addition:

$$\sigma _V^2=\sigma _{\mathrm{star},\mathrm{data}}^2+\sigma _{\mathrm{star},\mathrm{template}}^2+\sigma _{\mathrm{I}_2,\mathrm{data}}^2+\sigma _{\mathrm{I}_2,\mathrm{template}}^2.$$
(3)
We find the errors due to the templates using equations 1 and 2. To find the errors $`\sigma _{\mathrm{I}_2,\mathrm{data}}`$ and $`\sigma _{\mathrm{star},\mathrm{data}}`$, we take the errors calculated for the templates, and scale these to find the values that they should have at the S/N of the data, noting from equation 1 that the errors scale as the reciprocal of S/N (where S/N$`=\sqrt{F}`$).

The results of these calculations are shown in table 3. We find final photon limiting precisions (averaged over all data points) of $`11.0\mathrm{ms}^1`$ for 51 Peg and $`8.1\mathrm{ms}^1`$ for $`\eta `$ Cas. Within the uncertainty in the rms residual values obtained for the data due to the small number of data points ($`11.5\pm 2.1\mathrm{ms}^1`$ for 51Peg and $`7.9\pm 1.2\mathrm{ms}^1`$ for $`\eta `$ Cas), we find a good match with the data and conclude that we have reached the photon limit: the reduction software has successfully extracted the maximum possible information from the data. It is important to note, however, that these values for the photon limit are those expected given the fringe visibility that was obtained. Various instrument effects (for example defocus) can reduce the visibility from its optimum and hence reduce the precision. It is therefore possible that the intrinsic limit is somewhat lower for an ideally optimised instrument.

We note the large contribution to the errors due to the iodine reference. Though the iodine can be measured to very high accuracy for the template since a quartz lamp is used for illumination, the iodine in the combined star/iodine images has much lower S/N, and this becomes an important source of error. In both the 51 Peg and the $`\eta `$ Cas cases, the error due to the iodine is comparable to that of the star itself.

Given this photon limit, the error bars in the data appear to be underestimated (leading to the large values for the reduced $`\chi ^2`$). A possible cause of this is the low pass Fourier filtering that is done to remove the interferometer comb. In addition to removing the comb, filtering has the effect of smoothing the photon noise in the data, reducing the residuals in the sinusoid fits to the fringes and thereby reducing the resulting error estimates for each fringe. This may be an artificial effect, however, which in fact does not improve the precision of the fits. The extent to which this effect occurs is under investigation.

## 6 CONCLUSION

We have achieved $`11.5\mathrm{ms}^1`$ RV precision over five days of observations of 51 Peg, obtaining results in excellent agreement with previously measured orbital parameters due to its planetary companion. We have also obtained measurements of a RV stable star, $`\eta `$ Cas, showing that we can reach a precision of $`7.9\mathrm{ms}^1`$ over seven days, using a simple and inexpensive prototype. The rms residuals match the expected photon limited errors for the instrument, given the fringe visibilities obtained, and show that the precision we are able to obtain with ET is becoming comparable with current traditional echelle techniques. For comparison, rms scatters obtained previously for 51 Peg have been $`13\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$(Mayor & Queloz, 1995), $`5.2\mathrm{ms}^1`$ (Marcy et al., 1997), and $`11.8\mathrm{ms}^1`$ (Naef et al., 2003).

The authors are grateful to Richard Green, Skip Andree, Daryl Wilmarth and the KPNO staff for their generous support and advice, and to Dominique Naef for very helpful input. The authors are also grateful to Stuart Shaklan, Michael Shao and Chas Beichman for their encouragement and support, and Bill Cochran, Larry Ramsey and Eric Feigelson for many useful discussions. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation with grant AST-0243090, the Penn State Eberly College of Science and JPL. J. V. E. and S. M. acknowledge travel support from KPNO; S. M. acknowledges the JPL Michelson Fellowship funded by NASA.


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# DESY 03-150, SFB/CPP-03-41 hep-lat/0309169 September 2003 Exploring two non-perturbative definitions of 𝑐_𝐴presented by S. Dürr at Lattice 03, Tsukuba, Japan.We thank DFG for support in SFB/TR-9.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The improved axial current

$$A_0^I(x)A_0(x)+ac_A\frac{_0+_0^{}}{2}P(x)$$
(1)
with $`A_0(x)=\overline{\psi }_j\gamma _0\gamma _5\psi _i`$ and $`P(x)=\overline{\psi }_j\gamma _5\psi _i`$ is designed to modify the scaling behavior of on-shell quantities from $`O(a)`$ to $`O(a^2)`$, if $`c_A`$ and $`c_{\mathrm{SW}}`$ are chosen appropriately. Therefore, an accurate determination of the coefficient $`c_A`$ is an important ingredient in the improvement programme à la Symanzik. Here, we present results in the quenched theory, but the real motivation is to find a criterion which is practical in a dynamical setting, where large cut-off effects have been found .

Our data have been generated in the Schrödinger functional (SF) setup: we use a $`T\times L^3`$ box, applying some Dirichlet type boundary conditions in the time direction (i.e. at $`x_0=0,T`$) while keeping the gauge-field periodic in space and the fermions periodic up to a phase: $`U_\mu (x_0,𝐱+L𝐞_\mu )=U_\mu (x)`$, $`\psi _\mu (x_0,𝐱+L𝐞_\mu )=\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{i}\theta )\psi _\mu (x)`$. The initial pion with flavor content $`ij`$ is created at $`x_0=0`$ through the boundary operator

$$O_{ij}=\frac{a^6}{L^3}\underset{𝐮,𝐯}{}\overline{\zeta }_i(𝐮)\gamma _5\zeta _j(𝐯)\omega (𝐮𝐯)$$
(2)
introducing the wavefunction $`\omega `$ w.r.t. the relative position of the boundary fields $`\overline{\zeta }_i,\zeta _j`$, and absorbed by the local current $`A_0(x)`$ in the bulk or by the analogous operator $`O_{ij}^{}`$ at $`x_0=T`$. This means that we consider the SF correlators

$`f_X(x_0,T,L)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{L^3}{2}}X(x)O`$ (3)
$`f_1(T,L)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}O^{}O`$ (4)
with $`X`$ either $`A_0`$ or $`P`$ to get the PCAC mass $`m=r+ac_As`$ with

$`r(x_0)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\frac{1}{2}(_0+_0^{})f_A(x_0)}{2f_P(x_0)}}`$ (5)
$`s(x_0)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{_0_0^{}f_P(x_0)}{2f_P(x_0)}}.`$ (6)
Requiring $`m`$ constant at fixed $`\beta `$ leads to a definition of the improvement coefficient through $`c_A\mathrm{\Delta }r/\mathrm{\Delta }s`$, where the difference may be w.r.t.

* $`\theta `$ at fixed $`x_0=T/2`$ (ALPHA )
* $`x_0`$ at fixed $`\theta `$ (LANL , “slope criterion”)
* state in $`O[\omega ]`$ (UKQCD , “gap criterion”)

and depending on the choice, physical quantities differ by $`O(a^2)`$ effects. This means that there is an intrinsic $`O(a)`$ ambiguity in $`c_A`$ itself which, already for $`\beta 6`$, is not such a small effect .

Here we investigate (in a quenched setting) which one, out of (0)-(2), might be a promising criterion for $`N_\mathrm{f}=2`$, with a view on the following wishlist: ($`i`$) no high-energy state involved, i.e. no $`x_0<r_0`$ (say) used, ($`ii`$) large “sensitivity”, i.e. not too small value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }s`$, ($`iii`$) affordable numerical effort, i.e. not requiring large volume, ($`iv`$) “scalability”, i.e. allowing to move to another $`\beta `$ while keeping physics in units of $`r_0`$ constant. Both the ambiguity of improvement coefficients and how to deal with it have been discussed in .

We emphasize that the SF states generated by the boundary operator (2) are multiplicatively renormalizable. The associate $`Z`$-factor cancels in the ratios (5, 6), and everything is scalable.

## 2 THETA CRITERION

The old ALPHA criterion  resulted in rather small $`\mathrm{\Delta }s`$ values. Furthermore, for $`N_\mathrm{f}=2`$ several $`\theta `$-angles mean several simulations. Therefore, we didn’t investigate (0) further.

## 3 SLOPE CRITERION

The slope criterion (1) requires only one $`\theta `$-value, but for completeness we decided to test it for $`\theta =0,\pi /3,2\pi /3,\pi `$.

Fig. 1 shows $`r(x_0)`$ and $`s(x_0)`$ in the SF. For $`\theta =\pi `$ there is a good sensitivity. Using $`\mathrm{\Delta }r(x_0)=r(x_0)r(x_{\mathrm{ref}})`$ with $`x_{\mathrm{ref}}`$ around the extremum (and ditto for $`\mathrm{\Delta }s`$) the recipe $`c_A=\mathrm{\Delta }r/\mathrm{\Delta }s`$ yields a local $`c_A(x_0)`$. The remnant dependence on $`x_{\mathrm{ref}}`$ was checked to be small. This and the dependence on $`\theta ,L,T,\kappa ,\omega `$ represent genuine $`O(a)`$ effects on $`c_A`$.

Fig. 2 displays $`c_A(x_0)`$ determined via this “slope criterion”. For $`\theta =\pi `$ and small enough $`L`$ there is an early plateau which is a sign that all states but the lowest two have disappeared. The corresponding value for $`c_A`$ seems consistent with the old ALPHA determination .

## 4 GAP CRITERION

From a transfer matrix analysis one gets

$`f_X`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{L^3}{2}}\rho \xi e^{M_\pi x_0}\{1+\eta _X^\pi e^{\mathrm{\Delta }x_0}+\eta _X^0e^{M_G(Tx_0)}\}`$
$`f_1`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\rho ^2e^{M_\pi T}`$ (7)
with the matrix element $`\xi 0,0|XX|\pi ,0`$ and known representations of $`\rho ,\eta _X^{\pi ,0}`$ in terms of states $`|Q,n`$ with a given set of quantum numbers and excitation level. In (7) $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ denotes the gap in the corresponding (here: pseudoscalar) channel and $`M_G`$ the mass of the lowest ($`0^{++}`$) glueball state. The important point is that the coefficients $`\rho ,\eta _X^\pi `$ depend on the initial state $`|i_\pi `$ and hence on the wave function $`\omega `$, while $`\xi ,\eta _X^0`$ do not. This creates the possibility to linearly combine the correlators (7) over several $`\omega `$ to build one which is clearly dominated by either the ground-state or the first excited state. After checking that the corresponding effective masses are indeed distinct (i.e. $`M_\pi <M_\pi ^{}`$), one may define $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$ as the difference of the expressions (5) w.r.t. these two linear combinations (at a given $`x_0,\theta `$) and ditto for $`\mathrm{\Delta }s`$. This amounts to an operational definition – time slice by time-slice – of $`c_A`$ according to the “gap criterion” (2).

Fig. 3 shows $`r`$ and $`s`$ at $`\theta =0`$ for the ground- and excited state, built (a posteriori) from the four hydrogen-type wave functions used in the simulation. It seems this method yields a rather good sensitivity $`\mathrm{\Delta }s`$. In the supposed ground-state both $`r(x_0)`$ and $`s(x_0)`$ happen to be almost flat from a rather early time on.

Fig. 4 shows $`c_A(x_0)`$ determined via this “gap criterion”. The plateau is reached at $`x_00.75\mathrm{fm}`$, and typical values are somewhat smaller than the original ALPHA value at $`\beta =6.0`$ . The absolute value $`|c_A|=c_A`$ that we get decreases with $`L`$, but for $`L>3r_0`$ this effect seems not particularly pronounced any more. We take this as a sign that there is good hope to determine $`c_A`$ in a $`(1.5\mathrm{fm})^4`$ box in the $`N_\mathrm{f}=2`$ theory.

## 5 SUMMARY

We have tested several improvement conditions that might be used to determine $`c_A`$ non-perturbatively in an unquenched setting. The $`O(a)`$ ambiguity of $`c_A`$ that has been pointed out previously  has been confirmed via, $`(a)`$ extension of (1) to several $`\theta `$ and, $`(b)`$ refinement of (2) with a wave function projection technique which achieves dominance by ground- or 1st excited state in the region 0.5 fm … 1.0 fm. We hope this proves sufficient to determine $`c_A`$ with $`N_\mathrm{f}=2`$.


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# Low-light-level nonlinear optics with slow light

(April 25, 2003)

## Abstract

Electromagnetically induced transparency in an optically thick, cold medium creates a unique system where pulse-propagation velocities may be orders of magnitude less than $`c`$ and optical nonlinearities become exceedingly large. As a result, nonlinear processes may be efficient at low-light levels. Using an atomic system with three, independent channels, we demonstrate a quantum interference switch where a laser pulse with an energy density of $`23`$ photons per $`\lambda ^2/(2\pi )`$ causes a 1/e absorption of a second pulse.

Low-light-level nonlinear optics, Electromagnetically Induced Transparency, Slow Light, Rubidium, Magneto-Optical Trap

Interacting single photons, perhaps in an entangled state, are ideal candidates for applications in quantum information processing Lukin;Nature2001 . Because the strength of the interaction of single light quanta is typically weak, conventional nonlinear optics requires powerful laser beams focused tightly in nonlinear materials. When electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) review  is established in an optically thick medium with narrow resonance linewidths Hau;Nature , a light pulse may experience exceedingly large nonlinearities, and nonlinear optical processes may become efficient at energy densities as low as a photon per atomic cross section Harris;PRL1999 . Low-light-level nonlinear optics has been of recent interest in the context of resonant four-wave mixing Fleischhauer;PRA2002 , teleportation of atomic ensembles Furusawa;Science1998 ; Duan;Nature2001 , production of correlated photon states Kimble , and quantum computation quantumcomp . Ultimately, one may envision a waveguide geometry of an area $`\lambda ^2/(2\pi )`$ where a photon interacts with another photon by shifting its phase, by causing it to be absorbed, or by generating a third photon. Because the peak power of an individual photon may be varied by changing its bandwidth, the figure of merit for low-light-level nonlinear optical processes, as used here, is energy per area rather than power per area.

This Letter focuses on an EIT-based, two-photon absorptive process suggested by Harris and Yamamoto HarrisYamamoto;PRL1998  and observed by Zhu and colleagues Zhu;PRA2001 . Conceptually, this effect is the absorptive analogue of the giant Kerr effect Schmidt;OPL1996 . We report the first demonstration of switching in an optically thick regime where a pulse with energy density of $`23`$ photons per $`\lambda ^2/(2\pi )`$ causes a 1/e absorption of a second pulse.

The lower portion of Fig. 1 shows both the prototype (lower left) and actual (lower right) atomic system used in the experiment. The coupling laser, tuned to the $`|2|3`$ transition with Rabi frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c\mu _{23}E/\mathrm{}`$, creates a quantum interference which cancels the absorption and dispersion of the probe laser. Consequently, a probe laser of angular frequency $`\omega _p`$ has a slow group velocity and no absorption in the EIT medium review . The magnitude of the coupling laser and the optical depth of the medium determine both the allowable, EIT bandwidth and the group velocity of the probe beam. When a switching laser of angular frequency $`\omega _s`$ is applied, a second path is opened and simultaneous absorption of a probe and switching photon occurs.

In the actual atomic system, the three $`m_F`$ states of the $`5S_{1/2}(F=1)`$ ground level are populated. With the polarizations as depicted in Fig. 1, there are three, parallel and independent channels, each of which contributes to the total susceptibility.

In the following paragraphs, we compare the experimental results with calculated quantities. The calculation includes dephasing and extends the results of Harris and Yamamoto HarrisYamamoto;PRL1998  to the three, parallel channels of Fig. 1. We take the magnitude of the probe laser Rabi frequency $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_p^{(i)}|`$ to be sufficiently small as compared to the coupling laser Rabi frequency $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_c^{(i)}|`$ so that the atomic population remains almost completely in the level $`|1`$. The susceptibility at the probe frequency of the multistate system is

$`\chi =`$ (1)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{i=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}}{\overset{3}{}}}`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{𝒩^{(i)}|\mu _{13}^{(i)}|^2}{\mathrm{}ϵ_0}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Omega }_s^{(i)}|^24\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{~}{\omega }_s\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{~}{\omega }_c}{4\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{~}{\omega }_p\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{~}{\omega }_c\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{~}{\omega }_s|\mathrm{\Omega }_c^{(i)}|^2\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{~}{\omega }_s|\mathrm{\Omega }_s^{(i)}|^2\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{~}{\omega }_p}}\right].`$
Here, $`\mu _{13}^{(i)}`$ and $`𝒩^{(i)}`$ are the matrix element and density for the $`i^{th}`$ channel where $`i=1,2,3`$ corresponds to the states $`m_F=1,0,1`$ of level $`5S_{1/2}(F=1)`$. The complex detunings are the same for each channel: $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{~}{\omega }_p=\omega _p(\omega _3\omega _1)+j\gamma _{13}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{~}{\omega }_c=(\omega _p\omega _c)(\omega _2\omega _1)+j\gamma _{12}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{~}{\omega }_s=(\omega _p\omega _c+\omega _s)(\omega _4\omega _1)+j\gamma _{24}`$ where $`\gamma _{jk}`$ are the respective dephasing rates. The imaginary and real parts of the propagation constant of the slowly moving probe beam give the E-field loss and phase shift per unit length of the envelope relative to vacuum: $`\alpha =\omega _p/(2c)\mathrm{Im}[\chi (\omega _\mathrm{p})]`$ and $`\beta =\omega _p/(2c)\mathrm{Re}[\chi (\omega _\mathrm{p})]`$. The inverse group velocity of the probe relative to the freely propagating switching laser is $`1/V_g=\beta (\omega _p)/\omega _p`$.

Although certain aspects of EIT (such as slow and stopped light Lukin ) have been demonstrated successfully in room-temperature atomic samples, nonlinear optical effects at very low energies require cold atoms. For example, if this experiment were performed with copropagating, collimated laser beams as required for Doppler-free EIT at room temperature, the necessary energy density for switching would be increased by the Doppler linewidth over the natural linewidth of the switching transition (a factor of $`100`$). Our experiment is performed in a gas of cold $`{}_{}{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}`$ atoms produced using a dark magneto-optical trap (MOT) Ketterle;PRL1993 . A Ti:Sapphire laser, which is locked 20 MHz below the $`5S_{1/2}(F=2)5P_{3/2}(F^{}=3)`$ transition, supplies three, perpendicular, retroreflected, trapping beams. These beams have a 1/e diameter of 2 cm and a power in each beam of $`65\mathrm{mW}`$. An extended-cavity, diode laser (ECDL) locked to the $`5S_{1/2}(F=1)5P_{3/2}(F^{}=2)`$ transition acts as a rempumping laser by recycling atoms from the $`5S_{1/2}(F=1)`$ level. Throughout the experiment, we maintain a Rb vapor pressure of $`10^9`$ torr in a 10-port, stainless-steel vacuum chamber. The atoms are loaded into the MOT with a quadrupole magnetic field gradient of 6 G/cm for 15 s. Three pairs of Helmholtz coils zero the background magnetic field. In order to compress the cloud, the magnetic field gradient is ramped to 20 G/cm, and the trapping laser is detuned 50 MHz below resonance for 30 ms. By reducing the repumping intensity for 700 $`\mu \mathrm{s}`$ after initial compression, the atoms are shelved into the dark, $`(F=1)`$, ground level. The resulting atom cloud is 0.8 mm in diameter with measured atom number of $`10^8`$ atoms Yu . The experiment is performed in a $`100\mu \mathrm{s}`$ window, which starts $`50\mu \mathrm{s}`$ after shutting off the trapping beams and quadrupole fields at $`t=0`$ in Fig. 1. This cooling, trapping, and data-collection process is cycled at 0.05 Hz.

The coupling ECDL, with linewidth less than 300 kHz, is phase and frequency locked Hansch;APB1995  on the D1 line to a reference ECDL (which is frequency stabilized to a saturated-absorption $`{}_{}{}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}`$ line). The probe laser is generated from the coupling laser by double passing through a 3.4 GHz acousto-optic modulator (AOM) which minimizes two-photon jitter. The switching laser is frequency stabilized in the same manner as the coupling laser on the D2 line of Rb. The shaping and timing of the probe, coupling, and switching lasers are controlled by separate AOMs. The probe and switching lasers are spatially filtered through the same single-mode, optical fiber. Their centers overlap within 10 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$, and each beam has a Gaussian profile with 1/e diameter of 212 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ in the atom cloud. The $`10\mathrm{nW}`$ probe laser is detected on a photomultiplier tube with a 1.5 nm wide bandpass filter. Probe transmission data are obtained using a 100 $`\mu \mathrm{s}`$ pulse with a calibrated, nearly-linear chirp of 0.6 $`\mathrm{MHz}/\mu \mathrm{s}`$ averaged over 10 atom clouds.

The experimental probe transmission in the absence of the coupling laser is shown by the boxed points in Fig. 2. A least-squares fit (dashed curve) taking into account all channels allows the determination of the total $`NL=(9.0\pm 0.2)\times 10^9\mathrm{atoms}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$. With the $`i^{th}`$ channel, state to state, atomic absorption cross section defined as $`\sigma _{13}^{(i)}\omega _{13}|\mu _{13}^{(i)}|^2/(cϵ_0\mathrm{}\gamma _{13})`$, the absorption of the probe beam is $`\mathrm{exp}(N\sigma _{13}L)`$ where $`\sigma _{13}1/3_{i=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}}^3\sigma _{13}^{(i)}`$ is the channel-averaged cross section and $`L`$ is the length of the atomic sample. The optical depth in Fig. 2 is $`N\sigma _{13}L=7.6\pm 0.2`$.

With the coupling laser applied, we obtain a probe transmission whose peak value is dependent on the intensity of the coupling laser. In the ideal case when there is no dephasing of the $`|1|2`$ transition, $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_c|`$ may be made arbitrarily small without loss of transmission. When there is a non-zero dephasing rate, $`\gamma _{12}0`$, the probe laser experiences some absorption. For reasonable transmission, the minimum $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_c|`$ must be much greater than $`\gamma _{12}`$. A least-squares fit of the EIT profile determines the coupling laser power per area and dephasing rate as $`P_c/A=(42.4\pm 1.7)\mathrm{mW}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`\gamma _{12}=(0.22\pm 0.02)\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$, respectively. The Rabi frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c^{(i)}`$ of each channel is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c^{(1)}=\mathrm{\Omega }_c^{(2)}=1.9\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c^{(3)}=1.5\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3=2\pi \times 5.7\mathrm{s}^1`$ is the Einstein A coefficient of the $`5P_{1/2}`$ level. The solid line in Fig. 2 shows probe transmission under the above conditions. By doubling the coupling laser Rabi frequency, we observe on resonance probe transmission greater than $`95\%`$ as shown in Fig. 4.

Associated with the narrow, EIT, transmission window is a steep, dispersive profile, and a correspondingly small group velocity. Figure 3 shows a probe pulse (filled boxes) with a group velocity of $`c/10^4`$ delayed by 30 ns from the reference pulse (circles) in our experiment. The theoretical curve (dashed line) is obtained by numerically solving the slowly varying envelope equations simultaneously with the density matrix equations for all relevant, hyperfine states. The numerical curve is absolute with no free parameters.

By adding a third laser with frequency $`\omega _s`$ tuned to the $`|2|4`$ transition of the cold-atom, $`{}_{}{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}`$ system, efficient two-photon absorption is observed. Figure 4 shows absorption, EIT, and switching as a function of the detuning of the probe laser while switching and coupling lasers are on resonance. The large coupling laser Rabi frequency dominates over the small dephasing rate allowing nearly $`100\%`$ transparency. The switching data (shown as triangles in Fig. 4) follow the characteristic shape predicted by Eq. (1). The solid lines represent a least-squares fit of absorption, EIT, and switching using the three-channel susceptibility.

We next examine two-photon absorption in a pulsed regime. Figure 5 shows probe transmission normalized to EIT transmission (raw data $``$) as a function of the energy per area of the switching laser pulse. Each data point is obtained by averaging a train of 50 pulses in one cloud event. These pulses have a temporal length of 350 ns, and they are repeated every 1 $`\mu \mathrm{s}`$. During this data collection period, there is no observable change in transparency. In order to eliminate the effect of atom number fluctuations in each atom cloud, the pulse trains are averaged over ten clouds. The data which are corrected for the spatial transverse Gaussian profile of the switching beam ($``$) are shown in the same figure. (This data could have been obtained by using a small pinhole, about $`10\mu \mathrm{m}`$ in diameter, to read the peak of the Gaussian beams.) From this plot we infer 1/e switching at $`23`$ photons per $`\lambda ^2/(2\pi )`$.

For the prototype system of Fig. 1 under the assumptions that $`N\sigma L1`$ for effective switching and $`\gamma _{12}|\mathrm{\Omega }_c|`$, the switching power per area $`(P_s/A)_{crit}`$ for 1/e switching from normalized probe transmission is

$$\frac{1}{\mathrm{}\omega _s}\left(\frac{P_s}{A}\right)_{crit}=\frac{1}{(N\sigma _{13}L)\sigma _{24}}\left(\frac{|\mathrm{\Omega }_c|^2}{2\gamma _{13}}+4\gamma _{12}\right).$$
(2)
In the parallel-channel system, differing matrix elements prevent Eq. (2) from becoming a simple sum over the three channels as in the susceptibility; however, Eq. (2) may be used to estimate the required switching power. Using the experimental parameters $`N\sigma _{13}L`$ and average $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_c|`$, $`(P_s/A)_{crit}=4.3\mathrm{mW}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ or 5.4 photons per $`\lambda ^2/(2\pi )`$. This estimate is in reasonable agreement with experimental results.

We have considered the case where the probe beam propagates very slowly and the switching laser propagates at the speed of light. Once the probe pulse is compressed inside the medium, a decrease of the coupling laser power both increases the nonlinearity and decreases the interaction length by further compressing the pulse. Here the energy density limit for 1/e absorption, independent of $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_c|^2`$, is about one photon per atomic cross section Harris;PRL1999 . In order to increase our switching efficiency to reach this energy density, $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_c|`$ must be decreased; however, the dephasing rate of the medium, $`\gamma _{12}`$, ultimately bounds the coupling laser Rabi frequency. Our non-negligible, effective dephasing may result from the finite temperature of the atomic sample as well as from state mixing and Zeeman shifts due to residual, transient, and inhomogeneous magnetic fields. The anomalous dephasing rate could be reduced in a dipole trap. Overcoming this dephasing rate will allow the implementation of ideas for simultaneous slowing of both probe and switching pulses Imamoglu;PRL2000 . In this case, the required number of photons per area for a nonlinear optical process may be well less than unity.

The dephasing rate imposes a limit not only on nonlinear optics, but also on EIT-associated phenomena such as slow group velocity and pulse compression. In ideal stopped-light experiments, which are of significant interest for quantum information storage and processing, the probe pulse compresses entirely in the medium. One can show that in the three-state, EIT system, the maximum number of Gaussian pulses that can be stacked in a medium is given by

$$_{\mathrm{max}}=\frac{N\sigma _{13}L}{2\sqrt{2}\mathrm{ln}2}\left(\frac{1}{2N\sigma _{13}L}\frac{2\gamma _{12}\gamma _{13}}{|\mathrm{\Omega }_c|^2}\right)^{1/2}.$$
(3)
Here we have assumed that $`\gamma _{12}\gamma _{13}|\mathrm{\Omega }_c|^2`$ and that the pulse bandwidth $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega _p`$ is limited by the EIT bandwidth where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega _p|\mathrm{\Omega }_c|`$. At large optical depths, the dephasing is the dominant limit for storable pulses. In the present experiment, we demonstrate less than one storable pulse.

The combination of EIT and cold atoms enables nonlinear optical processes which can be used to study interactions at very low energies. This Letter demonstrates two-photon switching in a three parallel channel system at an energy per area of $`23`$ photons per $`\lambda ^2/(2\pi )`$. The three-channel system described here may be immediately useful for controlled storage of photons in a (processible) three-component superposition state Duan;Nature2001 .

###### Acknowledgements.

We acknowledge helpful discussions with Vladan Vuletić, Jamie Kerman and Cheng Chin on atom cooling and trapping. This work was supported by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the U.S. Army Research Office, the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Multidisciplinary Research Initiative Program, and the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation (D.A.B.).