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# Dust in the High Redshift Universe

## 1. Introduction

Here I review some of the things we know about dust in the high redshift ($`z>2`$) universe. This review is meant to be an introduction to the literature. While by necessity incomplete, it is my hope that the reader will get an appreciation for some of the activity of the field and the researchers involved.

To many extraglactic astronomers and cosmologists dust is at best a nuisance. However, it is fairly ubiquitous and perilous to ignore. For example, Blakeslee et al. (2003), following on from Aguirre (1999) and Goobar et al. (2002), show that the distinctive signature of cosmological acceleration in the differential Hubble diagram can also be mimicked with a model containing gray dust having fixed spatial density in the intergalactic medium (IGM). While there are a variety of reasons to believe that the effects are not significant (e.g. Aguirre & Haimann 2000; Paerels et al. 2002; also cf. §2.4 below), it is too early to totally rule out the gray dust model.

As in the local universe, dust is highly correlated with star formation. Since all studies show that the co-moving star formation rate density (SFRD) monotonically increases with $`z`$ out to a redshift of at least 1 (e.g. Madau et al. 1996) we expect that dust may be increasingly important at higher redshift (Calzetti & Heckman 1999). Dust is especially important in interpreting the cosmic star formation history as shown in so called “Madau Plots” of SFRD$`(z)`$. In some early studies dust was ignored leading to a view that SFRD$`(z)`$ peaked around $`z1`$ and declined towards higher redshift (e.g. Madau et al. 1996). It is now recognized that most of the UV emission from high-$`z`$ star formation is at least somewhat obscured by dust (e.g. Madau, Pozzetti, & Dickinson 1998; Pettini et al. 1998) leading to SFRD$`(z)`$ plots that flatten for $`z>1`$ (e.g. Calzetti 1999).

Since observations of high-$`z`$ star forming galaxies are somewhat easier in the rest-frame UV than in the rest-frame far-infrared (FIR), it is of interest to know if star formation rates can be recovered from rest-frame UV observations through suitable application of reddening laws. More importantly we must ask whether the numerous high-redshift galaxies detected in the rest frame UV are really significant in terms of the total star formation happening in the early universe.

This review is broken into two main sections. § 2 reviews dust content of the species in the “high-$`z`$ zoo”. § 3 reviews the evidence for galaxy scale reddening laws working at $`z>2`$ and considers the debate as to whether the majority of star formation is totally hidden from the rest-frame UV and optical at high redshift. § 4 briefly summarizes breaking news and the expected progress in the field.

## 2. Evidence for High Redshift Dust

High-redshift objects can be selected by many ways at a variety of wavelengths. While there is some overlap in the properties of the galaxies selected by the different techniques they typically go by different names in the literature. Table 1 summarizes the beasts in the high-$`z`$ zoo.

2.1. High-$`z`$ quasars. Due to their high-luminosities, quasars are relatively easy to detect out to the highest known redshifts (e.g. Irwin & McMahon, 1991; Fan et al. 2001; 2003). The current record holder has $`z=6.43`$ (Fan et al.2003). One of the most early and direct measurements of high-$`z`$ dust came from Omont et al. (1996) who observed the $`z=4.7`$ radio quiet quasar BR1202-0725 with the IRAM array. They simultaneously detected both mm wavelength dust continuum emission as well as molecular CO (5-4) and (7-6) lines in emission. The mm observations show two sources: the quasar and a companion galaxy. The dust emission of the latter is certainly powered by star-formation. So in this system we see star-formation and it’s key ingredients, dust and molecular gas.

2.2. Lyman Break Galaxies. Lyman Break Galaxies are selected using broad band filters in the optical and/or NIR. The strong spectral break at $`\lambda =912`$Å, due to the ionization of hydrogen, is readily seen in broad-band SEDs. For example, galaxies with $`z2.8`$ will have no flux in the HST/WFPC2 F300W ($`U`$) band but can be detected at longer wavelengths, hence the term $`U`$-dropout (or $`B`$-dropout, $`V`$-dropout, etc.). LBGs are typically selected for having a very red color (or color limit) using filters that straddle the break, but relatively blue color using filters that are longwards of the Lyman break (e.g. Madau et al. 1996; Steidel et al. 2003). This ensures the selection of star forming galaxies, and selects against very old or very dust reddened galaxies. The ability to obtain optical photometry to the 25th magnitude and beyond with current technology means that LBGs are the most abundant species in the High-$`z`$ zoo (Adelberger & Steidel 2000, hereafter AS00).

LBGs display a remarkable similarity to nearby UV bright starburst galaxies as defined by the IUE atlas of Kinney et al. (1993). Both types have rest-frame SEDs that are at the blue end of those found for normal galaxies (Papovich et al. 2001); strong emission lines in the rest-frame optical (Pettini et al. 1998); rest-frame UV spectra dominated by high ionization wind lines as well as strong narrow interstellar absorption lines (Tremonti et al. 2001; Shapley et al. 2003); and a net blue shift of the interstellar absorption lines with respect to photospheric stellar lines, indicative of strong outflows in the ISM (Pettini et al. 2000; Shapley et al. 2003). The main difference is that LBGs are much more luminous (e.g. AS00), typically by an order of magnitude or more even without any dust corrections. Since the two types have similar high effective surface brightnesses (Meurer et al. 1997), LBGs are also much larger, typically having effective radii of a few kpc (Giavalisco et al. 1996). In short, LBGs look like local UV bright starbursts but scaled up in size and hence luminosity.

While we know a lot about the dust content of the local UV bright starburst population (e.g. Calzetti et al. 1994; 2000; Calzetti 2001; Meurer et al. 1995; Gordon, Calzetti & Witt 1997; Meurer et al. 1999, hereafter MHC99), much less is known directly about the dust content of LBGs. Most individual LBGs are not detected in the sub-mm with the Submillimeter Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA), although there are a few rare exceptions (AS00, Baker et al. 2001). Stacked SCUBA studies also have had mixed success in detecting LBGs (AS00; Chapman et al. 2000; Peacock et al. 2000). Nevertheless, we can infer the presence of dust in LBGs via reddening: we know that they have a strong ionizing population from their emission line spectrum, yet their colors are not as blue as expected from un-reddened stellar populations. Using broad-band SEDs Papovich et al. (2001) estimate the reddening distribution of LBGs which peaks at $`E(BV)0.15`$. A variety of studies starting with Meurer et al. (1997) have estimated typical UV attenuations in LBG samples using just rest-frame UV colors. Most recent studies estimate UV attenuation factors around 5 using this method. One of the most recent works in this vein is Vijh, Witt & Gordon (2003) who also present a nice compilation of attenuation estimates for LBGs. This subject is addressed in more detail in §3.

2.3. Lyman-$`\alpha `$ galaxies. Initially Ly$`\alpha `$ emission was thought to be one of the best ways to detect the first epoch of galaxy formation (Partridge & Peebles 1967). However, after many disappointing surveys it was realized that there was something wrong with the original predictions (e.g. Pritchet 1994). Spectroscopic follow-up of LBGs showed that they have low rest-frame Ly$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths ($`<20`$Å) and fluxes lower than expected for their UV continuum strength (e.g. Steidel et al. 1996a,b; Lowenthal et al. 1997). This is due to the effects of resonant scattering of the Ly$`\alpha `$ photons through the ISM of the galaxies, which greatly increases the total path required for the photons to escape the system. Hence even a small amount of dust is enough to greatly attenuate Ly$`\alpha `$ emission compared to the neighboring continuum. In an expanding dusty ISM, such as a galactic wind, Ly$`\alpha `$ photons can escape by back scattering out the far-side of the outflow resulting in a distinctly asymmetric line profile characterized by a sharp blue side cutoff. Such Ly$`\alpha `$ profiles are indeed observed in both nearby starbursts (Kunth et al. 1998) as well as LBGs (Shapley et al. 2003).

Recent high-$`z`$ Ly$`\alpha `$ surveyors have learned their lessons and are going deeper and wider, and hence are becoming more successful (e.g. Rhoads et al. 2000). In fact the current most distant “normal” galaxies ($`z6.5`$) have been found using narrow band imaging targeting Ly$`\alpha `$ (Kodaira et al. 2003). Spectroscopic confirmation of these and other blank-field Ly$`\alpha `$ emitters inevitably shows the asymmetric profiles indicating the presence of a dusty expanding ISM (Kodaira et al. 2003; Rhoads et al. 2000; 2003).

2.4. Quasar Absorption Line Systems. The absorption lines in the spectra of quasars probe the gas phase of intervening systems, which need not necessarily be galaxies (self-gravitating conglomerations of stars, gas and dark matter). The most commonly observed feature seen is Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption. In the literature, Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption lines are referred to (in order of decreasing $`\mathrm{log}(N_{\mathrm{HI}})`$) as “damped Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption systems” (DLAS) with $`\mathrm{log}(N_{\mathrm{HI}}[\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2])>20`$, “Lyman limit systems” with $`17>\mathrm{log}(N_{\mathrm{HI}})>20`$, and “Lyman forest” clouds $`14>\mathrm{log}(N_{\mathrm{HI}})>17`$.

Metal absorption lines are also seen, albeit much less frequently. These include C, Si, Mg, S, Zn. Metals are also seen in the IGM out to $`z5`$, with little evolution in the cosmic density in C iv absorption for $`1.5<z<5.5`$ (Songaila 2001; Pettini et al. 2003). This lack of evolution is somewhat puzzling. It may indicate a massive pollution event to the IGM at $`z>5.5`$ (Songaila 2001), or alternatively may be due to IGM features being correlated with star formation which also evolves only weakly with redshift (Adelberger et al. 2003).

It is less clear that the IGM contains significant quantities of dust. We expect a bias against detecting dusty IGM clouds in optically selected quasar samples - the dust would diminish the flux of the background quasar (Fall & Pei, 1993). However, a study of a radio selected sample of quasars shows that the dust bias is at most a factor of two in absorption line systems having $`2<z<3`$ (Ellingson et al. 2001). Prochaska et al. (2003) provide some evidence suggestive of dust in a DLAS at $`z=2.6`$: the elemental abundance pattern of this system scales well to the solar abundance after correction for depletion onto dust grains. This on its own is not convincing proof of dust in DLASs, nor does it follow that lower column density sight lines of the IGM contain dust.

2.5. Extremely Red Objects. Elston et al. (1988) pointed out the existence of an interesting new population of galaxies having very red optical - NIR colors, $`RK>5`$. These “Extremely Red Objects” have cropped up in numerous other deep NIR surveys although the exact selection limits vary. Detailed studies of the multi-wavelength SEDs of EROs show that they are a mixed bag, with roughly half being dusty starbursts and the other half being passively evolving (presumably dust-free) ellipticals at $`z1`$ (e.g. Smail et al. 2002a). Likewise, Ivison et al. (2002) find that about half of the radio-confirmed bright SCUBA sources have ERO or very red counterparts showing the strong overlap between the SCUBA and ERO populations.

By selecting purely in the NIR it is possible to select the most extreme galaxies - the Hyper Extremely Red Objects or HEROs (Totani et al. 2001) with colors $`JK>3`$ so red that they can not be produced by pure passive evolution - some dust is required. Totani et al. find that the these are best modeled as very dusty starbursts at $`z3`$.

2.6. Sub-mm/mm Galaxies. The advent of SCUBA on the 15m James Clerk Maxwell Telescope made it possible to survey for dust emission from high-luminosity, high-$`z`$ galaxies. SCUBA has been particularly effective at 850$`\mu `$m, where “negative $`K`$-corrections” result in sources with fixed star formation rate having nearly constant flux as a function of $`z`$ in the range of $`0.5`$ to 5 (Guiderdoni et al. 1997). The 850$`\mu `$m confusion limit for SCUBA is $``$2 mJy (Hughes et al. 1998) corresponding to Bolometric luminosities of $`2\times 10^{12}L_{}`$, about that of Arp 220. Hence only ultra-luminous ($`L_{\mathrm{bol}}>10^{12}L_{}`$) and hyper-luminous galaxies ($`L_{\mathrm{bol}}>10^{13}L_{}`$) are detectable with SCUBA in blank fields. Similar star formation rate detection levels are also possible at 1.2mm, with using the MAMBO detector on the 30m IRAM telescope (Dannerbauer et al. 2002). Staring at strong lensing clusters allows the detection limit to be pushed down by a typical factor of $`3`$ (Smail et al. 2002b). The resulting lens amplification corrected number counts indicates that the 850$`\mu `$m background is nearly completely resolved at sub-mJy levels.

The large beam sizes of SCUBA (15′′) and MAMBO (11′′) make identification of optical counterparts difficult. The optical counterparts are usually faint, and often not the most obvious galaxy in the sub-mm beam; Frayer et al. (2003) show an example of such an identification. Radio synthesis follow-up studies allows the counterparts of sub-mm and mm galaxies to be pinpointed to sub-arcsec accuracy. Ivison et al. (2002) find that 60% of their 850$`\mu `$m “8 mJy sample” have robust radio identifications, and that 90% of those identified in the radio have near-infrared (NIR) and optical counterparts. Hence, over half of the brightest SCUBA sources have rest frame UV and optical counterparts. The success rate for finding optical and NIR counterparts for fainter highly magnified lensed SCUBA sources appears to be lower (Smail et al. 2002b), although the radio detection limits tend not to be that deep in those cases. The high dust luminosity and faint rest-frame UV and optical fluxes indicate that sub-mm/mm galaxies are similar to local Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs; e.g. Goldader et al. 2002), but scaled up in luminosity.

Details and further information on sub-mm galaxies can be found in the excellent and comprehensive review of Blain et al. (2002).

2.7. Micro-Jansky Radio Sources. The radio emission of local star forming galaxies correlates very well with the FIR emission, although the physics behind the correlation is less clear (Helou et al. 1985; de Jong et al. 1985; Lisenfeld et al. 1996). Hence, radio observations are an excellent means to peer through the dust in a galaxy and observe star formation. For sources with very low fluxes, $`f_\nu (3.5\mathrm{cm})<35\mu `$Jy, the frequency domain spectral slope $`\alpha `$ ($`f_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$‘) becomes more steep ($`\alpha 0.7`$) indicating that star forming galaxies are dominating over AGN (Fomalont et al. 2002). In contrast to the sub-mm, star forming galaxies dim considerably with redshift. Hence, spectroscopic, follow-up studies show that the majority of $`\mu `$Jy sources are at redshifts $`z<1.5`$. Simulations show that star forming galaxies should not be detectable for $`z>3`$ in the deepest radio images currently available without evolution to include sources much more luminous than Arp 220 (Chapman et al. 2002).

The $`\mu `$Jy sources with optically faint counterparts ($`I>24`$) are most likely to have $`z>2`$ (Richards et al. 1999; Chapman et al. 2003a). The main evidence for dust in these is their high detectability rate with SCUBA at 850$`\mu `$m (e.g. Barger et al. 2000; Chapman et al. 2003a). In addition, the optical counterparts tend to be redder than other field galaxies with the same $`I`$ magnitudes and become progressively redder towards fainter magnitudes which also suggests the presence of dust in the host (Chapman et al. 2003a). Unlike the SCUBA galaxies, $`\mu `$Jy radio galaxies usually have optical counterparts when one looks hard enough (Richards et al. 1999). Since these are rather faint, redshifts are difficult to obtain in the optical. Redshifts can be crudely estimated using the ratio of SCUBA and radio fluxes (e.g. Carilli & Yun 1999), however there are nasty degeneracies with dust temperature to contend with (Blain 1999).

## 3. Starburst Reddening and the sub-mm background

Here I summarize the status of a recent debate within the field over the last four or five years: which population of galaxies contributes the most to the total star formation rate density at high redshift? The two top contenders are the optically selected LBG population and the “SCUBA” sub-mm and mm galaxies. Table 2 summarizes some properties of these contenders and their estimated contribution to the sub-mm background $`S_{850\mu \mathrm{m}}=44\mathrm{Jy}\mathrm{deg}^2`$ (Fixsen et al. 1998).

As noted above, LBGs strongly resemble UV bright starbursts. One of the strongest correlations seen in local UV bright starbursts is the so-called IRX-$`\beta `$ relationship, shown in Fig. 1 (Meurer et al. 1995; MHC99). This relationship shows that the ratio of dust emission in the FIR to (residual) UV emission (infra-red excess or IRX) correlates with the UV spectral slope $`\beta `$ (defined by the spectrum $`f_\lambda \lambda ^\beta `$). Since IRX is basically a measure of dust extinction this means that starburst redden as they become more extincted. The simplest explanation for this correlation is that the dust has a strong diffuse foreground contribution to its distribution, i.e. it behaves like a foreground screen (e.g. Witt & Gordon 2000; MHC99; Calzetti et al. 1994; Witt et al. 1992). Indeed, correcting survey data for dust absorption using simple reddening models greatly improves the consistency of multi-wavelength SFRD$`(z)`$ plots (Calzetti 1999).

It should be noted that not all local star forming galaxies obey this relationship. While it works well for the UV-bright calibrating sample whose members have $`L_{\mathrm{bol}}<10^{11.5}`$ it does not work well for ULIRGs which typically have $`\mathrm{log}(F_{\mathrm{FIR}}/F_{1600})>2`$ and fall well above the IRX-$`\beta `$ relationship (Goldader et al. 2002). A significant fraction ($`30`$%) of normal (i.e. non starburst) galaxies fall below the IRX-$`\beta `$ relationship, presumably due to strong contamination from intermediate age populations in the near UV (Seibert, 2003).

Be that as it may, the IRX-$`\beta `$ correlation seems to work well for strongly star forming galaxies with modest amounts of dust absorption. While there is some distaste for the foreground screen geometry in the literature (e.g. Charlot & Fall 2000), we need not fixate on the interpretation to use the correlation. We have seen the myriad ways that LBGs resemble local starbursts, so it seems reasonable to suppose that they obey the same IRX-$`\beta `$ correlation. If so, then we can estimate the total extinction correction UV flux (and integrated cosmic UV flux density), and hence star formation rate of LBGs from just their rest-frame UV-flux and colors. This was done by MHC99. An even better job, using similar and other methods, was done by AS00. Both papers find that only 12% – 20% of the UV flux emitted at rest $`\lambda 1600`$Å reaches the earth (cf. Vijh et al. 2003, and references therein).

It is hard to test whether the IRX-$`\beta `$ relation holds for LBGs, since the predicted sub-mm fluxes are below the SCUBA confusion limit (MHC99). AS00 show that there are a few individual LBGs that have been directly detected with SCUBA and these largely obey the IRX-$`\beta `$ relation. One lensed LBG, MS1512+36-cB58, falls somewhat below the IRX-$`\beta `$ relationship, albeit with large error bars (Baker et al. 2001). If a large fraction of LBGs have similar properties, then the IRX-$`\beta `$ relationship would over predict their contribution to the total SFRD at $`z3`$.

Fortunately, while LBGs in general are not individually visible at other dust-insensitive wavelengths, stacked measurements of fluxes in the radio and X-ray can be used to test whether LBGs have similar dust extinction properties as nearby UV-bright starbursts.

The radio result is given as a note in proof to MHC99 and repeated in Table 3. Radio fluxes of the the ten $`U`$-dropout galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field North (HDF-N) with the highest predicted 850$`\mu `$m SCUBA fluxes were computed by assuming that the galaxies obey the local FIR to radio correlation, have a radio spectral slope $`\alpha =0.7`$ ($`f_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$) and that the FIR flux is the reprocessed UV flux. The stacked radio fluxes, kindly provided by E. Richards, agree remarkably well with the predictions for these ten sources. AS00 also do an analysis of the stacked LBG fluxes at 20cm using the Richards et al. radio map. Their total observed and predicted fluxes are $`105\pm 81\mu `$Jy and $`114\pm 36\mu `$Jy respectively, similar to what is reported in MHC99 but with larger errors. The difference is in part due to AS00 stacking all their 46 HDF LBGs for the analysis. This includes many with very little predicted flux which contribute the majority of the error budget. In addition, AS00 derive a higher error per beam by integrating over the beam, which overestimates the error per source. Hence the stacked radio flux estimate is probably more significant than implied by AS00.

X-rays can also be used to probe high-$`z`$ star formation. The Chandra soft X-ray band corresponds to 2-8 Kev at $`z=3`$, “hard” enough to pass through the ISM of galaxies virtually unattenuated. Seibert, Heckman & Meurer (2002) compared the stacked soft X-ray flux of HDF-N AGN free $`U`$-dropouts given by Brandt et al. (2001) with predictions from dust reddening models. The results are consistent with a variety of plausible dust reddening laws including the IRX-$`\beta `$ correlation from MHC99, the Calzetti et al. (2000) starburst “obscuration curve”, and the homogeneous and clumpy foreground dust screen models from Witt & Gordon (2000). The results are not consistent with the rest-frame UV flux from LBGs being like that of ULIRGs which have IRX values on the order of 102 to 103.5 (Goldader et al. 2002). In fact, if LBGs had similar values they would be easily observable individually in X-rays, the sub-mm, and radio (and they are not). Similarly the scenario that LBGs are not extincted at all under-predicts the stacked X-ray flux by a factor of six. Nandra et al. (2002) do an independent analysis of stacked X-ray results in the HDF-N from Chandra and reach similar conclusions.

The stacked radio and X-ray analyses are both consistent with the local starburst reddening relation applying to high-$`z`$ LBGs. If so, then they would dominate total SFR density at $`z3`$ (AS00). However, there may be a fly in the ointment. As earlier mentioned, in the MHC99 and AS00 picture we would expect the LBGs to have 850$`\mu `$m fluxes up to $`1`$ mJy. While such fluxes are at or below the confusion limit of blank field SCUBA observations it may be possible to detect such sources through gravitational lensing. Smail et al. (2002b) constrain the faint counts at 850 $`\mu `$m using SCUBA observations towards lensing clusters. A little over half of their sample are undetected in their HST $`I`$ images, with the non-detections preferentially being at the (sub-mm) faint end. These faint end sources have magnification corrected 850$`\mu `$m micron fluxes like the predictions for LBGs. The implication is that the LBGs are not showing up in SCUBA observations presumably because the local IRX-$`\beta `$ relationship overpredicts their 850$`\mu `$m flux as it does for MS1512+36-cB58. Instead the 850$`\mu `$m background is actually dominated by star forming galaxies like local ULIRGs (Goldader et al. 2002) - totally hidden by dust, as is also the case with the brightest SCUBA sources.

While this scenario may be correct, a careful examination of Smail et al. (2002b) suggests that it is built on a shaky foundation. Their claim to having resolved the 850$`\mu `$m background rests on four faint ($`S/N=3`$ to 5) 850$`\mu `$m detections. These have only have lower limits to their magnifications (presumably because their positions are uncertain, since they have no optical, NIR, or radio counterparts). Their Monte-Carlo simulations indicate that at least one of these sources should have a source plane 850$`\mu `$m flux in the 0.5 to 1 Jy range, the only sources in their survey that could be that faint (or fainter). However, using the lower limit magnifications shows that none of the source plane fluxes need actually be fainter than 1.6 Jy, while the brightest predicted 850$`\mu `$m flux for the LBGs in the HDF-N is 1.8 mJy (MHC99). Smail et al. are not convincingly dipping deep into the expected realm of LBGs with their SCUBA observations. The lack of optical counterparts at the faint end also does not thoroughly rule out the presence of LBGs. They state a detection limit of $`I26`$ in their HST images which corresponds to a typical brightness seen in LBGs. However, this is the detection limit at $`S/N=2`$ for a point source. To do this well the detection limit should be stated at a higher $`S/N`$ (at least 3) and be calculated for typical LBG sizes (corrected for lensing in their case). I expect this would lower the limiting mag to $`I25`$ or brighter. Figure 15 of AS00 implies that the optical counterparts of the $`12`$ Jy sources have magnitudes over a wide range $`I24`$ to 27 ABmag in the source plane. Smail et al. have not convincingly ruled this out yet.

I conclude that the nature of the sources dominating the sub-mm background is not yet well determined. It is clear that the leading contenders are galaxies at $`z>2`$ whose bolometric output is dominated by dust, and that these galaxies dominate the star formation rate density at these redshifts. It is not yet settled whether these galaxies are detectable in the rest-frame UV. Additional observations of lensing clusters in the mm and sub-mm would improve the statistics on the 850$`\mu `$m counts at and below 2 mJy, while deeper optical observations of the faintest SCUBA sources (e.g. with ACS on HST) are needed to make a fair and convincing test of the LBG scenario.

## 4. What the future holds

High redshift observational cosmology is one of the most active fields of astronomical research, as can be seen by sifting through the daily offerings on astro-ph. Progress is rapid and happening on many fronts.

The installation of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on HST in 2002 allows routine optical imagining to Hubble Deep Field depths in fields with twice the area and angular resolution of WFPC2 (Ford et al. 2002). The first ACS results from the GOODS project (Giavalisco et al. 2003) are soon to come out in a special ApJ Letters volume. The results include reported color evolution in the LBG population, suggesting less dust is present in the $`z4`$ population compared to the $`z3`$ population (Idzi et al. 2003; Papovich et al. 2003).

The recent successful launches of the GALEX111http://www.galex.caltech.edu/ and SIRTF222http://sirtf.caltech.edu/ satellites will allow excellent survey capabilities in the vacuum UV (0.13 – 0.3 $`\mu `$m) and infrared (3.5 – 160 $`\mu `$m) respectively. Together they will provide the definitive local calibration of the IRX-$`\beta `$ relationship. GALEX will extend the redshift range for LBG selection to $`z<2`$. The SIRTF observations of the GOODS project will directly detect normal galaxies and LBGs out to $`z5`$ LBGs at 3.5 – 8 $`\mu `$m(rest frame NIR) which allows probing of their evolved stellar populations. At 24 $`\mu `$m they should also be detect rest frame $``$ 7 $`\mu `$m reprocessed PAH emission from galaxies with $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}>10^{11}`$ out to $`z2`$.

Recent progress in sub-mm galaxy research includes an improved efficiency in obtaining redshifts. Chapman et al. (2003b) present optical redshifts for 10 sub-mm sources also detected in the radio. Soon that group will publish an expanded sample of about 70 optical spectroscopic redshifts of sources detected at both radio and sub-mm wavelengths. They find that sub-mm galaxies mostly do indeed have the high redshift ($`z2.5`$) that was expected. This work provides the first accurate redshift distribution and space density measurements of the sub-mm population. While more progress could be made in identifying the faintest SCUBA sources (as outlined in § 3), what is really needed is more and reliable detections of the $`<1`$ mJy population, i.e. somewhat below the confusion limit. It seems unlikely that there will be enough clusters not already looked at by the Smail, Blain, Ivison group and other SCUBA researchers to add substantial numbers of faint sources.

Unfortunately, at the longest wavelengths (160 $`\mu `$m), the SIRTF PSF has FWHM = 38′′ and hence the detections will also be confusion limited at around 7 to 19 mJy (Xu et al., 2001), and thus SIRTF is not likely to settle the debate on the source composition of the sub-mm/FIR background. SOFIA will provide higher resolution imaging ($`8^{\prime \prime }`$ at 200$`\mu `$m) but due to the high sky background will generally be limited to galaxies with $`z<1`$333http://sofia.arc.nasa.gov/Science/science/sci\_opport\_galaxies.html. Bolometer arrays larger than SCUBA, such as SCUBA-II444http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/JACpublic/JCMT/JCMT\_developments/SCUBA2/scuba2.html also will not address this issue since it is angular resolution, and hence telescope aperture that limits us from resolving the FIR - mm background. Existing or soon to be completed sub-mm to mm arrays such as the SMA555http://sma-www.harvard.edu/ will help to pin down the position of the brightest SCUBA sources. However, to truly resolve the sub-mm to mm background we must await significant completion of ALMA – the Atacama Large Millimeter Array666http://www.alma.nrao.edu/. When completed in 2012 it will be able to reach flux densities of $`0.1`$ mJy (well into the expected fluxes of LBGs) in about half an hour at 850 $`\mu `$m. With a resolution of 0.1′′ or better (depending on array configuration) the observations should be well out of the confusion limit. Combining ALMA data with (then ancient archival) data from HST and hopefully new data from JWST (the James Webb Space Telescope) will allow a direct estimate of the bolometric output, and hence star formation rate, of all types of high-$`z`$ galaxies. This will make the question of whether galaxies obey the IRX-$`\beta `$ relationship somewhat moot.

## 5. Summary

The papers reviewed here have shown strong evidence that almost all types of high-$`z`$ sources contain dust. The only case where the evidence is not yet convincing is the quasar absorption line systems, particularly at the column densities of the Lyman forest. In that case, it is not even clear that we are dealing with galaxies. All other cases involve galaxies with at least some inferred star formation. Hence at high redshift, as in the local universe, star formation and dust are correlated. The dominant location of high redshift star formation remains debatable. While it remains plausible that the majority of star formation at $`z>2`$ remains completely invisible shortwards of the rest-frame FIR, there is a strong body of evidence that moderately dust obscured but rest-frame UV-bright galaxies should dominate the star formation in the early universe. It is likely that this issue will not be definitively settled until the sub-mm background is fully resolved.

### Acknowledgments.

I thank Adolf Witt for cajoling me to become Daniela Calzetti’s replacement at the conference. My talk and this review benefited from discussions and correspondence with John Blakeslee, Daniela Calzetti, Mark Dickinson, Tim Heckman, Jason Prochaska, and Chuck Steidel. I thank the anonymous referee and Andrew Blain for suggestions that have improved the paper, allowing me to go deeper into the issues than I did at Estes Park.

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# Electron-hole bilayer quantum dots: Phase diagram and exciton localization

## Abstract

We studied a vertical “quantum dot molecule”, where one of the dots is occupied with electrons and the other with holes. We find that different phases occur in the ground state, depending on the carrier density and the interdot distance. When the system is dominated by shell structure, orbital degeneracies can be removed either by Hund’s rule, or by Jahn-Teller deformation. Both mechanisms can lead to a maximum of the addition energy at mid-shell. At low densities and large interdot distances, bound electron-hole pairs are formed.

Semiconductor quantum dots share many qualities with natural atoms, and are thus often referred to as “artificial atoms” (for reviews see ). In single quantum dots, shell structure could be observed : large differences in the addition energies occurred at particular electron numbers ($`N=2,6,12`$) corresponding to closed shells, forming the “quantum dot noble gases”. Just like in real atoms, for half-filled shells spin alignment due to Hund’s rule leads to an increased stability of the system . Quantum dots are uniquely suited to explore regimes of many-electron systems that are not accessible in conventional atomic physics, and much fundamental new insight on correlated states in these low-dimensional many-body systems was gained in the past years.

Quantum dot artificial atoms can be coupled to form “artificial molecules”. Such systems have been studied much both experimentally  and theoretically , and were even discussed in connection with potential quantum computing devices . Most work focused on vertically or laterally coupled double quantum dots with electrons. More recently, Anisimovas and Peeters  examined the correlated few-particle states in a vertical bipolar quantum dot molecule, consisting of two vertically coupled quantum dots, one populated by electrons, the other by holes. They applied the exact diagonalization method in the limit of a strong, spin-polarizing magnetic field  and furthermore studied the dynamic response within a hydrodynamic model . The experimental realization of such electron-hole double quantum dots should for example be possible in bilayer-bipolar heterostructures with separated electron- and hole layers in equilibrium, as in biased GaAs/AlGaAs or InAs/GaSb . These bipolar systems have attracted much attention recently, last but not least due to the exciting possibility of making a Bose-Einstein condensate with indirect excitons . The phases of a symmetric electron-hole bilayer system were recently also investigated by Liu et al. , and by Paolo et al.  in the fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo approach  with periodic boundary conditions.

In this Communication, we demonstrate that small bipolar-bilayer systems consisting of only a few electrons and holes show a very rich phase diagram which in fact appears to be different from the “bulk” : depending on the electron- and hole-densities and the interdot distance, the ground state is either dominated by shell structure, leading to a competition between Jahn-Teller deformation  and spin alignment in the case of orbital degeneracies, or by the formation of localized, bound electron-hole pairs (“localized excitons”).

As schematically sketched in the inset to Fig. 1, a quantum dot with electrons in one (two-dimensional) layer is separated by a distance $`z_0`$ from a quantum dot confining holes in the other 2D layer. The charge carriers in both layers are confined by a harmonic potential, $`V=m_{e,h}^{}\omega _0^2r^2/2`$, with $`r^2=x^2+y^2`$ (a model which is frequently applied to describe single quantum dots ). The two layers are electrostatically coupled with no interdot tunneling, i.e., recombination is prohibited.

To obtain the ground state energies and densities, we apply the density functional method in the local spin density approximation . For the bipolar bilayer system, we have to solve four coupled equations for the electron- and hole spin densities, $`n_{}^e(𝐫),n_{}^e(𝐫)`$ and $`n_{}^h(𝐫),n_{}^h(𝐫)`$. For electrons and holes, respectively, the effective Kohn-Sham potential $`v_{\mathrm{eff}}^{e(h)\sigma }(𝐫)`$ consists of the external harmonic confinement, the electron-electron (hole-hole) repulsion, the electron-hole (hole-electron) attraction and the exchange-correlation potential $`v_{xc}^\sigma `$ which is approximated in the local spin-density approximation. We use the von Barth and Hedin  formulation of the local electron (hole) exchange-correlation energy $`\epsilon _{xc}(n^{e(h)},\zeta ^{e(h)})=\epsilon _{xc}(n^{e(h)},0)+f(\zeta ^{e(h)})[\epsilon _{xc}(n^{e(h)},1)\epsilon _{xc}(n^{e(h)},0)]`$, where $`\zeta ^{e(h)}`$ is the electron (hole) spin polarization and $`f(\zeta ^{e(h)})=((1+\zeta ^{e(h)})^{3/2}+(1\zeta ^{e(h)})^{3/2}2)/(2^{3/2}2)`$ is the polarization dependence. The function $`f(\zeta ^{e(h)})`$ interpolates between the paramagnetic ($`\zeta ^{e(h)}=0`$) and ferromagnetic ($`\zeta ^{e(h)}=1`$) cases given by Tanatar and Ceperley . The electron-hole correlation is neglected. This is a good approximation for large interdot separation (the correlation energy is then diminished) and for strong external confinement (the correlation energy is then small compared to the kinetic and exchange energies). Even in the equilibrium density of the electron hole plasma the correlation energy is much smaller than the exchange energy  (the equilibrium density minimizes the total energy of the two-dimensional plasma in an infinite system).

For example, the Kohn-Sham single particle wave functions for the electrons in one of the two dots, $`\psi _{i\sigma }^e(𝐫)`$, satisfy the Kohn-Sham equations with the effective potential for the electrons, given by

$`v_{\mathrm{eff}}^{e\sigma }(𝐫)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^{}\omega _0^2r^2+v_{xc}^\sigma (n^e(𝐫),\zeta ^e(𝐫))+{\displaystyle \frac{n^e(𝐫^{})}{|𝐫𝐫^{}|}𝑑𝐫^{}}`$ (1)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{n^h(𝐫^{})}{\sqrt{|𝐫𝐫^{}|^2+z_0^2}}𝑑𝐫^{}}.`$
The electron density $`n^e(𝐫)`$ in Eq. 1 is given by

$$n^e(𝐫)=\underset{i,\sigma }{}|\psi _{i\sigma }^e(𝐫)|^2,$$
(2)
where $`\sigma `$ corresponds to the two spins $`\sigma =(,)`$ and $`i`$ refers to the lowest occupied states. A corresponding relation holds for the hole density $`n^h(𝐫)`$ in the other dot. $`\zeta ^e(𝐫)`$ is the spin polarization for electrons, $`\zeta ^e(𝐫)=(n_{}^e(𝐫)n_{}^e(𝐫))/n^e(𝐫)`$. The Kohn-Sham equations for electrons and holes were solved self-consistently using a plane wave technique applied earlier to single dots . No symmetry restrictions for the charge or spin densities were applied.

For simplicity, let us assume equal effective masses of electrons and holes, $`m_e^{}=m_h^{}=m^{}`$, and also restrict the numbers of electrons and holes confined in each of the wells to be equal, $`N_e=N_h=N`$. (Throughout the paper, we use effective atomic units with the energy measured in effective Hartree, $`\mathrm{Ha}^{}=m^{}e^4/\mathrm{}^2(4\pi ϵ_0ϵ)^2`$ and the distance in effective Bohr radii, $`a_B^{}=\mathrm{}^2(4\pi ϵ_0ϵ)/m^{}e^2`$. With the effective mass $`m^{}`$ and dielectric constant $`ϵ`$, the results then scale to the value of the semiconductor material in question.) The vertical double dot is then described by three parameters: the distance between the dots $`z_0`$, the strength of the confining potential $`\omega _0`$ (taken to be equal for both dots), and the number of electrons and holes. Due to the attractive interactions between the electrons and holes and since we assumed that $`N_e=N_h=N`$, the obtained ground state electron density necessarily equals that of the holes, $`n^e(𝐫)=n^h(𝐫)`$; in the $`z`$-direction the densities are of course separated by $`z_0`$. The spin density of the electrons and holes are also equal, but the relative direction of the electron and hole spins is not determined since there is no direct spin-spin interaction.

In the phase space determined by $`z_0`$ and $`\omega _0`$ three limiting cases are of particular interest:

(i) If both $`z_0`$ and $`\omega _0`$ are zero, the limit of the two-dimensional electron-hole plasma is reached. The average density for large $`N`$ will approach the equilibrium density of the plasma. In the case of small droplets, for non-closed shells the orbital degeneracies are removed by internal Jahn-Teller deformation of the density, resulting in intriguing geometries of the ground state densities. This regime was called earlier the “ultimate jellium” limit, and has also been studied in connection with the physics of simple metal clusters  both in the two-dimensional  and in the three-dimensional case .

(ii) When $`\omega _0`$ is still zero (or very small), but $`z_0`$ becomes larger, the average particle density in each dot decreases and eventually, the particles begin to localize in a lattice. In comparison to the formation of “Wigner-molecules” in quantum dots with electrons , here the localization is clearly seen also in the local density approximation due to the the attractive interaction between the electrons and the holes: they localize on top of each other forming a lattice of bound electron-hole pairs (“localized excitons”). Since the electrons and holes are confined in different layers, these electron-hole pairs have electric dipole moments and consequently repel each other. In each dot the localized electrons (or holes) show antiferromagnetic order (i.e., the so-called “spin density wave” ) in the ground state. The formation of bound electron-hole pairs is somewhat similar to the states discussed by Anisimovas and Peeters  for strong interdot coupling in a polarizing magnetic field.

(iii) When $`\omega _0`$ increases the strong confinement eventually hinders the internal deformation and the electron and hole densities are forced to be azimuthally symmetric. The degeneracy in an open-shell dot can then be reduced by magnetization according to Hund’s first rule .

Figure 1 shows the phase diagram of the $`N=4`$ system. This case is particularly interesting since for a single dot, the second shell is half-filled having two $`p`$-electrons and spin $`S=1`$ . In the limit of the “ultimate jellium” ($`z_0=0`$, $`\omega _0=0`$), on the other hand, the system is strongly deformed and non-magnetic. Figure 1 shows the regions of different magnetic and geometrical structures in the $`z_0`$-$`\omega _0`$-plane. It is interesting to note that for small interdot distances the deformed system is the ground state up to a large value of $`\omega _0`$ (for $`z_0=0`$ the circular $`S=1`$ state becomes the ground state when $`\mathrm{}\omega _0>1.3`$ Ha). For small values of $`\omega _0`$ we see a transition from the deformed state to the state with localized excitons when $`z_0`$ increases.

A single dot with $`N=6`$ has a filled electronic shell and naturally $`S=0`$. Nevertheless, for a very weak confinement the ground state shows a spin-density wave . A similar behavior is obtained for the electron-hole double dot at large values of the interdot distance $`z_0`$. In the limit of small external confinement, the ground state appears to be a hexagon of localized excitons. Classically, a more favorable geometry would be a pentagon with one exciton at the center. However, in this case the hexagon is favored due to the formation of a spin-density wave, i.e., antiferromagnetic order of the spins in each dot (a centered pentagon would lead to “frustration”). The ground state of the $`N=6`$ double dot in the limit of the “ultimate jellium” ($`\omega _0=0,z_0=0`$) does not have azimuthal symmetry, but is triangular, which seems to be the dominating geometry for closed-shell electron-hole clusters in two dimensions . The phase diagram (not printed here) shows a transition from a nonmagnetic triangular density to circular density when $`\omega _0`$ increases, and to localized electrons with a spin density wave when $`z_0`$ increases (for small $`\omega _0`$).

In the above phase diagram, the number of electrons and holes $`N`$ was fixed. When $`N`$ is varied, however, experimental data on single quantum dots suggest  to keep the average density in each dot constant. This can be achieved by the relation $`\omega _0^2(N)=e^2/(4\pi ϵϵ_0m^{}r_s^3\sqrt{N})`$ (see Ref. ). The parameter $`r_s=1/\sqrt{\pi n}`$ measures the in-layer coupling strength and is defined in terms of the in-layer areal density $`n^{e(h)}(𝐫)`$ for the electrons and holes, respectively. Here, we use the $`r_s`$-value corresponding to the equilibrium density of the two-dimensional electron gas ($`r_s=1.51a_B^{}`$). Neglecting the electron-hole correlation, this density is also the equilibrium density of the electron-hole plasma without external confinement.

In the double dot system a single dot corresponds to the limit of infinite $`z_0`$. When the interdot distance decreases, the electron-hole attraction increases the effective confinement and the density increases slightly. However, since the $`r_s`$-value has been chosen to be at the equilibrium density of the electron-hole plasma, $`r_s=1.5a_B^{}`$, this effect is small. Figure 2 shows the minimum local value of $`r_s`$ (determined from the maximum density) obtained in the dots for different values of $`N`$ and $`z_0`$, using the above relation for $`\omega _0(N)`$. For $`z_0=3a_B^{}`$ the minimum $`r_s`$ is already close to 1.5 $`a_B^{}`$ for all values of $`N`$. The variation as a function of $`N`$ is caused by the shell structure: The smallest value is obtained for the closed shell system, $`N=2`$, and the maximum value for the half-filled shell $`N=4`$. The lowest curve ($`z_0=0`$) corresponds to the situation where the deformation wins against Hund’s rule, leading to a different dependence of the minimum $`r_s`$ on $`N`$.

In the case of single quantum dots the addition energy spectrum gives information about the shell structure. Maxima in the addition energy differences were observed for closed shells, and at mid-shell spin alignment due to Hund’s rule leads to enhanced stability . For the bipolar bilayer system studied here, we find that intriguingly, the addition energy spectra also reveal the internal Jahn-Teller deformation of the system. The difference in the electrochemical potentials of a bipolar double dot confining $`(N+1)`$ and $`N`$ electrons and holes is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }(N)=E(N+1)2E(N)+E(N1)`$, i.e., the second differences of the corresponding total ground state energies $`E(N)`$.

Figure 3 shows the addition energy differences $`\mathrm{\Delta }(N)`$ for $`z_03a_B^{}`$. The addition energy maxima for the closed shells at $`N=2`$ and $`N=6`$ can be clearly seen. An additional maximum occurs at mid-shell, $`N=4`$. It is interesting to note that also the case $`z_0=0`$ shows a similar spectrum. In this case the maximum at $`N=4`$ is not caused by Hund’s rule, but by the Jahn-Teller deformation, which is strongest at half-filled shells.

In conclusion, we have studied symmetric vertical electron-hole double dots using the geometrically unrestricted spin-density functional method. In the limit of small distances between the dots, the effective confinement is governed by the electron-hole electrostatic attraction and the properties of the system are determined by the Jahn-Teller deformation of the particle densities. In the limit of weak external confinement, at increasing interdot distance electrons and holes form separate “excitons” which localize forming a lattice with antiferromagnetic spin-coupling in each dot. When the external confinement becomes large, Hund’s rule determines the spin in each dot. The addition energy spectrum shows a maximum at half-shell. At large interdot distances this maximum is caused by Hund’s rule while at small distances the maximum is a result of the Jahn-Teller deformation of the particle density.

This work has been supported by the Academy of Finland under the Finnish Centre of Excellence Programme 2000-2005 (Project No. 44875, Nuclear and Condensed Matter Programme at JYFL), NORDITA, the Swedish Research Foundation (VR) and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF).


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# Universal and wide shear zones in granular bulk flow

## Abstract

We present experiments on slow granular flows in a modified (split-bottomed) Couette geometry in which wide and tunable shear zones are created away from the sidewalls. For increasing layer heights, the zones grow wider (apparently without bound) and evolve towards the inner cylinder according to a simple, particle-independent scaling law. After rescaling, the velocity profiles across the zones fall onto a universal master curve given by an error function. We study the shear zones also inside the material as function of both their local height and the total layer height.

Slowly sheared granular matter does not flow homogeneously like a liquid. Instead, granulates form rigid, solid-like regions separated by narrow shear bands where the material yields and flows duran ; nedderman ; jaegerrmp ; jaegerscience ; hartley ; mueth . Shear localization is ubiquitous in granular flow — think of geological faults and soil fractures, avalanches, pipe flows and silo discharges scott ; oda ; bridgewater ; mulhaus ; daerr ; komatsu ; nedderman ; neddermanlaohakul ; pouliquen .

Despite their crucial importance, granular shear flows are still poorly understood, in part because shear localization itself remains enigmatic duran ; nedderman ; jaegerrmp ; jaegerscience . On the one hand, shear bands have a typical thickness of five to ten grain diameters and such steep gradients are difficult to capture by continuum theories duran ; nedderman ; jaegerrmp ; jaegerscience ; hartley ; mueth ; neddermanlaohakul ; pouliquen ; scott ; oda ; bridgewater ; mulhaus ; daerr ; komatsu . On the other hand, the experimental handles for probing shear localization are limited. For example, studies in Couette cells always show the formation of a narrow shear band near the inner cylinder, irrespective of dimensionality, driving rate or details of the geometry hartley ; mueth ; howell ; losert1 ; losert2 ; latzel : Shear banding is very robust.

In this Letter, we introduce a general experimental protocol that can yield very wide shear zones away from the side-walls. We modify a Couette cell by splitting its bottom at radius $`R_s`$. The resulting concentric rings are attached to the stationary inner and rotating outer cylinder, respectively, and the cell is filled with grains up to height $`H`$ (Fig. 1). When driving the system, a shear zone is found to propagate from the slip position $`R_s`$ towards the surface where we measure the average grain velocities. Note that our strategy differs from previous works, which were carried out for large filling heights and smooth bottoms so as to minimize the effect of the bottom boundary mueth ; losert1 ; losert2 . Here we take advantage of gravity and ”drive the system from the bottom”.

Our main finding are: (i) For large $`H`$, a regime of wall-localized shear band near the inner cylinder is recovered mueth ; losert1 ; losert2 , but for intermediate $`H`$, we observe shear zones of tunable width away from the boundaries. This paper focuses on describing these “bulk” shear zones. (ii) The angular velocity profiles $`\omega (r)`$ of bulk shear zones fall onto a universal master curve which is best fitted by an error function. These profiles are therefore fully characterized by two parameters only: their center position $`R_c`$ and width $`W`$. A concise presentation of these results has appeared in fenistein . (iii) $`R_c`$ and $`W`$ depend on $`H`$, $`R_s`$ and particle properties in specific manners. The center of the shear zone $`R_c`$ evolves to the inner cylinder with increasing $`H`$ in a particle independent manner. The shear zone width $`W`$ grows continuously with $`H`$ and depends on particle size and shape, but not on the slip radius $`R_s`$. (iv) For a given height inside the material, the width and position of the shear zones depend on the height of the free surface $`H`$.

Setup –  A sketch of our split-bottomed Couette cell is shown in Fig. 1a. When the inner cylinder of the “Couette” geometry is removed we obtain the ”disk” geometry (Fig. 1b). Different sets of bottom rings allow us to vary $`R_s`$ from 45 mm to 95 mm. Grains, similar to those used in the bulk, are glued to the side walls and bottom rings to obtain rough boundaries. We studied spherical glass beads of size distributions $`0.250.42`$ mm (I), $`0.560.8`$ mm (II), $`11.2`$ mm (III) and $`22.4`$ mm (IV), and irregularly shaped plastic flakes ($`1.01.6`$ mm) (V), aluminum oxide beads ($`1.52`$ mm) (VI) and coarse sand ($`1.22.4`$ mm) (VII). After filling the cell, an adjustable blade flattens the surface at the desired height. The outer cylinder and its co-moving ring are then rotated. A Pulnix TM-6710 8-bit CCD camera records 2000-frame movies of the resulting flow at the top surface at a rate of 120 frame/s with pixel resolution 100 $`\mu `$m.

The flow rapidly ($`1`$ s) reaches a stationary state where it is purely in the azimuthal direction, so that the surface velocities is a function of the radial coordinate only hartley ; mueth ; howell ; losert1 ; losert2 ; fenistein . We checked that these velocities are proportional to the driving rate $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ mueth ; losert1 ; latzel ; fenistein  for $`0.16<\mathrm{\Omega }<1.5`$ rad/s, and subsequently fix $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ at 0.16 rad/s. We thus focus on the velocity profile $`\omega (r)`$, the dimensionless ratio of the average angular velocity and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. We measure $`\omega (r)`$ with high radial resolution by particle image velocimetry, i.e., by determining the averaged angular correlation function as function of $`r`$ of two temporally separated frames. Unless noted otherwise, the time separation between frames is around $`0.3s`$.

Basic phenomenology –  Figure 2 illustrates the main features of these velocity profiles. For shallow layers, a narrow shear zone develops above the split at $`R_s`$. When $`H`$ is increased, the shear zone broadens continuously and without any apparent bound. The broadest observed zones exceed 50 grain diameters in width. Additionally, with increasing $`H`$, the shear zone shifts away from $`R_s`$ towards the center of the shear cell 1overr . Indeed, for sufficiently large $`H`$, the shear zone reaches the inner wall, where it approaches the asymptotic regime of wall-localized shear bands reported earlier mueth ; losert1 ; losert2 . Before this wall localization occurs, however, there is a substantial range of layer heights where wide and symmetric bulk shear zones can be observed.

Universal velocity profiles –  Figure 3 illustrates our main result: After proper rescaling, all bulk profiles collapse on a universal curve which is extremely well fitted by an error function:

$$\omega (r)=1/2+1/2\text{ erf}((rR_c)/W).$$
(1)
A residue analysis comparing the fit to Eq. (1) to an alternative fit to an hyperbolic tangent shows that the fit to the error function is always better (Fig. 3b-c). By repeating this procedure for the other particle mixtures, we establish the general superiority of Eq. (1): particle shape does not influence the functional form of the velocity profiles. The robust form of $`\omega (r)`$ contrasts with the particle dependence found for wall localized shear bands mueth . For these, the vicinity of the wall causes layering, in particular for monodisperse mixtures. Apparently such layering effects play no role for our bulk shear zones. Accurate measurement of the tail of the velocity profile (Fig. 3d) further validate Eq. (1), and rule out an exponential tail of the velocity profile here. The strain rate is therefore Gaussian, and the shear zones are completely determined by their centers $`R_c`$ and widths $`W`$.

What limits the universal regime? Apart from wall-localization (see Fig. 2), we find that in the disk geometry $`\omega (r)`$ starts to deviate from Eq. (1) when $`H`$ exceeds $`R_s/2`$. The symmetry of the velocity profile, easily detectable by a simple $`\chi ^2`$ test, is then weakly broken symnote . In the following, we focus on the functional dependencies of $`R_c`$ and $`W`$ on the parameters $`R_s`$, $`H`$ and particle type for the universal profiles given by Eq. 1.

Shear zone position–  Remarkably, the shear zone center evolution with height, $`R_c(H)`$, turns out to be independent of the grain properties (Fig. 4a). Therefore, the only relevant length-scales for $`R_c`$ are the geometric scales $`H`$ and $`R_s`$. The dimensionless displacement of the shear zone, $`(R_sR_c)/R_s`$, should thus be a function of the dimensionless height ($`H/R_s`$) only. The simple relation

$$(R_sR_c)/R_s=(H/R_s)^{5/2}$$
(2)
fits the data well (Fig. 4a) parkeetnote . To check Eq. (2) we have varied $`R_s`$ over a substantial range. Only the presence of the inner cylinder limits the range of $`R_s`$. We find no differences between bulk velocity profiles measured with or without the inner cylinder — Bulk shear zones are insensitive to the presence of the side walls. So, we subsequently switched to the disk geometry (Fig. 1b), and obtained an excellent agreement between $`R_c`$ and Eq. (2) over the range $`45<R_s<95`$ mm ( Fig. 4b).

Shear zone width –  The width of the shear zones depends on the particle size and type (Fig. 5a-c), but not on $`R_s`$ (Fig. 5d). First of all, $`W`$ grows with $`H`$ and increases for larger particles (Fig. 5a-b). The data shown in Fig. 5a-b can be made to collapse when plotted as $`W/d`$ vs $`H/d`$ (not shown), where $`d`$ denotes the grain size. Grain shape and type also influences $`W(H)`$: irregular particles display narrower zones than spherical ones of similar diameter (Fig. 5c). Finally, for the universal velocity profiles, $`W`$ is independent of $`R_s`$ (Fig. 5d). We therefore conclude that the relevant length-scale for $`W`$ is given by the grain properties.

The evolution of the velocity profiles from a step function at the bottom to an error function at the surface, is reminiscent of a diffusive process along the vertical axis. However, $`W`$ grows faster than $`\sqrt{H}`$ as diffusion would suggest, but slower than $`H`$. Intriguingly, we obtain the best fit for $`WH^{2/3}`$ over the limited range where we have reliable data. We cannot, however, rule out other functional dependencies such as a crossover from square-root to linear behavior.

Below the surface — So far we have only discussed observations of the surface flow. To get some insight into the 3D bulk flow structure, we put patterns of lines of colored tracer particles at given $`H_b`$ (Fig. 6a). More material is carefully added so that the line-pattern is buried under a given amount of grains ($`H>H_b`$). We then rotate the system for a short period ($`sim8`$ s), and recover the deformed line-pattern by carefully removing the upper layers of grains (Fig. 6b). Comparing the snapshots of the deformed pattern to the initial one allows for the determination of the velocity profiles in the 3D bulk of the material (Fig. 6c). We have checked that transient effects are limited, that the measurements reproduce well and that there is no significant motion in the vertical direction.

The position of the shear zones in the 3D bulk are presented in Fig. 6d. Clearly, the evolution of $`R_c`$ with $`H_b`$ inside the material depends on the total amount of matter, as given by $`H`$: the more material is added, the more the shear zone shifts towards the center. This observation is confirmed by recent theory tamas , numerics stef  and MRI measurements paul . The widths of the 3D shear zones are more difficult to measure accurately, but a clear trend can be identified: shear zones become wider when more matter is added on top (Fig. 6e).

Outlook — In this work we have presented a simple experimental protocol in which wide and tunable shear zones can be generated in a variety of granular materials. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the robust and remarkably simple form of the velocity profiles — for granular systems, universality is rare. Our measurements of the tail of the profile indicate that even far away from the shear zone, the grains are not entirely at rest. These findings indicate that these features are amenable to a continuum description of granular matter duran ; nedderman ; jaegerrmp ; jaegerscience , in particular for very wide shear zones.

It is also noteworthy that the functions for the shear zone location $`R_c(H)`$ and width $`W(H)`$ depend on entirely distinct sets of parameters: the relevant length-scales for $`R_c`$ and $`W`$ appear to be well separated. The particle-dependence of the width provides a characteristic length-scale which may bridge microscopic and coarse-grained descriptions. The development of theories of granular flows can further be guided by the universal relation for the shear zone position, and should incorporate the strong influence of the boundary: Avoiding the proximity of the side wall can turn the shear zones from narrow to wide, and from particle dependent to universal.

The broad shear zones occuring in our geometry allow for further experiments that are more difficult to realize in narrowly localized shear bands. Important issues can thus be tackled, such as the velocity fluctuations and particle diffusion for various strain rates and locations within the shear zone. One can also probe whether “local clusters” of particles, possibly similar to those found in more rapid flows, would occur for these denser flows cluster . Finally, over the range studied, the velocity profiles are rate independent, but what happens for much larger and smaller rotation rates is an open question. The simple experimental protocol that we provide for creating generic (i.e., away from sidewalls) shear zones can be the starting point for many crucial experiments, thus addressing the basic question: “How does sand flow?”.

Acknowledgments We like to thank Floris Braakman for assistance with the bulk measurements. Financial support by the “Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)” and by “Stichting Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM)” is gratefully acknowledged.