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# The Kondo effect in C60 single-molecule transistors

## Abstract

We have used an electromigration technique to fabricate C60-based single-molecule transistors. We detail the process statistics and the protocols used to infer the successful formation of a single-molecule transistor. At low temperatures each transistor acts as a single-electron device in the Coulomb blockade regime. Resonances in the differential conductance indicate vibrational excitations consistent with a known mode of C60. In several devices we observe conductance features characteristic of the Kondo effect, a coherent many-body state comprising an unpaired spin on the molecule coupled by exchange to the conduction electrons of the leads. The inferred Kondo temperature typically exceeds 50 K, and signatures of the vibrational modes persist into the Kondo regime.

A transistor with an active region consisting of a single small molecule is the ultimate limit of the miniaturization of three-terminal electronic devices. Such single-molecule transistors (SMTs) have been demonstrated using molecules of C60ParketAl00Nature , C140ParketAl03TSF , cobalt coordination complexesParketAl02Nature , and divanadium complexesLiangetAl02Nature . These SMTs function as single-electron transistorsGrabertetAl92book ; SohnetAl97 , with conduction dominated by Coulomb blockade effects. Because of the small size of the molecules, charging energies and single-particle level spacings in these devices are of the same order ($``$ 1 eV), and are much larger than those in semiconductor or metal single-electron devices.

Devices incorporating the latter two moleculesParketAl02Nature ; LiangetAl02Nature  exhibit signatures of the Kondo effectKondo64PTP  in their conduction properties. In a single-electron device with a localized unpaired spin, it is possible to observe Kondo physics, the growth of a correlated many-body state comprising the localized spin interacting by antiferromagetic exchange with the spins of the conduction electrons of the leads. This results in a Kondo resonance, an enhanced density of states of the leads. For dilute magnetic impurities in bulk metals the result is enhanced scattering and therefore a low temperature rise in the resistivity as the Kondo state develops. Conversely in single-electron devicesNgetAl88PRL ; GlazmanetAl88JETPL ; MeiretAl93PRL ; WingreenetAl94PRB  the result is enhanced transmission, manifested as a zero bias peak in the conductance present when $`T<T_\mathrm{K}`$, the Kondo temperature. The Kondo energy scale $`T_\mathrm{K}`$ depends exponentially on the spin-lead coupling, and on the energy of the localized level relative to the Fermi level of the lead conduction electrons. In single-electron devices, Kondo physics has been observed in semiconductor quantum dotsGGetAl98Nature ; CronenwettetAl98Science , carbon nanotubesNygardetAl00Nature ; LiangetAl02PRL , and the single-molecule transistors incorporating metal ions mentioned above. Kondo temperatures in these latter experiments range from 10 K to 25 K.

In this letter, we report measurements on SMTs incorporating individual C60 molecules coupled to gold source and drain electrodes. We describe the fabrication procedure in detail, including the statistics of the conduction properties of the resulting devices and the protocols used to infer the successful formation of a SMT. We confirm the presence of C60 vibrational resonances in devices in the Coulomb blockade regime. In several devices we report observations consistent with Kondo physics. The Kondo temperatures inferred from the transport data typically exceed 50 K, significantly higher than previously reported values in single-electron devices. The data also suggest that signatures of inelastic vibrational processes can persist well into the Kondo regime, evidence of coupling between a vibrational excitation and the coherent many-body state.

The fabrication process is based on the electromigration techniqueParketAl99APL  employed in previous SMT investigationsParketAl00Nature ; ParketAl02Nature ; LiangetAl02Nature ; ParketAl03TSF . E-beam lithography (EBL) and lift-off processing are used to define 15-60 metal constrictions connected to contact pads on degenerately doped $`p+`$ silicon substrates topped by 200 nm of thermal SiO2. An example of such a constriction is shown in Fig. 1(a). The metal, 1 nm of Ti (0.1 nm/s) and 15 nm of Au (0.2 nm/s), is deposited in an e-beam evaporator with base pressure of $`10^7`$ mB. After liftoff the surface is cleaned by UV ozone for 5 minutes and O2 plasma for 1 minute. Then 80 $`\mu `$L of C60 in toluene solution (1 mg C60 / 1 mL toluene) are spin cast (spin speed $``$ 900 RPM) onto the array of junctions. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images of C60 deposited in this manner on an evaporated Ti/Au film show approximately monolayer coverage of the metal by the adsorbed molecules. An indium contact to the $`p+`$ silicon substrate, which serves as our back gate, is then made. The C60-decorated junctions are place in a variable temperature vacuum probe station (Desert Cryogenics) for the electromigration procedure and subsequent electrical characterization. The probe station is evacuated by turbomolecular pump (base pressure of probe station at 300 K is $`5\times 10^5`$ mB) and cryopumped by a carbon felt ’sorption pump thermally anchored to the incoming cryogen line.

A two-step variation of the electromigration technique is employed to separate the constrictions into distinct source and drain electrodes. Using an HP 4145B semiconductor parameter analyzer, at 300 K the voltage across each junction is ramped from 0 to 400 mV while monitoring the resulting current. When electromigration-induced junction breaking begins, indicated by decreased junction conductance, the maximum voltage across the junction is reduced in steps of 40 mV until the junction resistance is increased to 400-1000 $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Once each junction is “partially broken,” the sample is cooled to liquid helium temperatures. At 4.2 K the electromigration process is continued, with the maximum voltage ramps across the junction increased in steps of 200 mV as the junction conductance decreases. This process is halted when the resistance of the resulting electrodes is $`>`$ 100 k$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. This two-step electromigration technique allows us to make relatively high conductance electrodes consistently, which we infer corresponds to a very small interelectrode gap. Accurate scanning electron microscopy (SEM) assessment of the interelectrode gap is difficult because the newly exposed metal surfaces reconstruct when the electrodes are warmed back to room temperature. From SEM images of these resulting electrodes (Fig. 1(b)), we can see that the separation is less than 2 nm, the resolution of the SEM. Since the diameter of a C60 molecule is only 0.7 nm, closely spaced electrodes are essential for C60 SMTs.

Due to the stochastic nature of the electromigration process, every electrode pair differs at the atomic scale. Even if the closest interelectrode separation is the right size, the presence of a C60 molecule at that location is probabilistic, and depends strongly on the initial surface coverage of C60. If a molecule is present, its couplings to the source, drain, and gate electrodes are determined by the microscopic arrangement of the junction region, which is different in every device. We know of no atomic-scale imaging technique at present that is capable of directly assessing in-situ the presence of an individual molecule between source and drain electrodes and the morphology of the gold electrodes adjacent to the molecule. Furthermore, the local charge environment of the SMT is unknown a priori due to the existence of surface trap states at the oxide surface. However, by analyzing many samples statistically we can estimate the percentage of the starting junctions that will become SMT given our fabrication procedure.

From a sample size of 1094 electrode pairs created using the above electromigration procedure, including control samples (no molecules; different solvent exposures; different cleaning procedures), 70% show measurable source-drain currents after electromigration at 4.2 K. We have examined 475 junctions decorated with C60 and electromigrated as described above. There are four classes of conductance characteristics in the resulting electrode pairs. (1) No detectable source-drain current at $`|V_{\mathrm{SD}}|=0.1V`$ (34%). The simplest explanation of these devices is that the breaking procedure resulted in significantly too large a source-drain separation to permit conduction. (2) Linear or slightly superlinear $`I_\mathrm{D}V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$ curves, consistent with simple tunneling behavior with thermionic or field emission contributions at high bias (40%). The most likely explanation for these devices is that no molecule is present near the region of the source-drain gap that dominates conduction. (3) Nontrivial $`I_\mathrm{D}V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$ curves with steps and abrupt changes in slope, but no detectable dependence on gate voltage, $`V_\mathrm{G}`$ (15.3%). These devices likely have a molecule or metal nanoparticle at the critical region of the interelectrode gap, but local geometry screens the object from the effects of the gate potential. (4) Nontrivial $`I_\mathrm{D}V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$ curves that may be tuned significantly by varying $`V_\mathrm{G}`$ (10.7%). Conduction in these devices may be examined as a function of $`V_\mathrm{G}`$, $`V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$, and $`T`$, and compared with expectations for Coulomb blockade dominated single-molecule transistors. Occasionally some electrode pairs that initially have linear or nongateable $`I_\mathrm{D}V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$ characteristics can change to exhibit interesting conductance features upon thermal cycling to 300 K and back to 4.2 K. Presumably this is results from a combination of molecular rearrangement and metal reconstruction at 300 K.

In a single-molecule transistor in the Coulomb blockade regime, the energetic cost of adding (removing) an electron to (from) the molecule, given by the Coulomb charging energy of the molecule and the energy difference between molecular levels, is sufficiently large, and the coupling between molecules and leads is sufficiently poor, that at most gate voltages the average charge on the molecule is fixed. The result of this charge quantization is a conductance gap, a region of $`V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$ near zero bias where the conductance is suppressed. The energetic alignment of the molecular orbitals with respect to the Fermi levels of the source and drain electrodes is determined by: the work function of the metal; the electron affinity of the molecule; the presence of any nearby charged defects or traps; and the capacitive coupling to the gate electrode. Because of this gate coupling, the size of the conductance gap varies linearly and reversibly with $`V_\mathrm{G}`$, since a more positive value of gate voltage makes it energetically favorable to add an electron to the molecule. At biases larger than the conductance gap, conduction is permitted because the source-drain potential difference is sufficient to overcome the electron addition (subtraction) energy. At certain values of gate voltage (charge degeneracy points), it becomes energetically degenerate for the charge of the molecule to change by one electron. The result is that the conductance gap vanishes at zero bias, and as $`V_\mathrm{G}`$ is increased through such a charge degeneracy point, the average number of electrons on the molecule is increased by one. Because of the extremely small size of the molecule, the Coulomb charging energy of the molecule and the single-particle level spacing are both large ($`>>`$ 100 meV).

Previous investigations of single-molecule transistorsParketAl00Nature ; ParketAl02Nature ; LiangetAl02Nature ; ParketAl03TSF  and other molecular devicesZhitenevetAl02PRL  have reported additional resonances in the differential conductance at finite bias, corresponding to excitations of molecular vibrational modes during the transport process. For C60 devicesParketAl00Nature , excitations of both the molecule-surface binding oscillation ($``$5 meV) and a mode intrinsic to the C60 have been reported ($``$35 meV). To characterize the electronic conduction in a SMT at a fixed temperature, it is useful to plot the differential conductance, $`I_\mathrm{D}/V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$, as a function of $`V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$ and $`V_\mathrm{G}`$. The data shown here were acquired by measuring $`I_\mathrm{D}`$ as a function of $`V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$ for each value of $`V_\mathrm{G}`$ using the HP 4145B semiconductor parameter analyzer. The differential conductance is obtained by numerically differentiation of this data, using Savitzky-Golay smoothing to help reduce the noise in the resulting curves at the cost of $`V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$ resolution. For a given temperature the resulting differential conductance is plotted as a function of $`V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$ and $`V_\mathrm{G}`$ in a conductance contour map, where the color of the map represents different levels of conductance.

It is clear that not all gateable devices are C60 SMTs because about 5% of control samples (with no molecules) show some gateability. Approximately half the gateable control samples have clear Coulomb blockade style transport features, and the significant majority of these are consistent (charging energy $``$ 30 meV; many accessible charge states) with metal islands left behind following electromigration. The existence of these metal islands has been confirmed by SEM imaging. However, in two control devices on one substrate we observed Coulomb blockade features with charging energies as large as 400 meV, though no apparent vibrational excited levels. It is conceivable that some unintended adsorbed molecules contaminated this particular set of devices during the preparation process.

We have developed criteria for deciding if a particular device with nontrivial and gateable conductance is a SMT. The existence of Coulomb blockade is necessary but not sufficient. The charging energy of the Coulomb blockade feature must be relatively large, $`>`$ 100 meV (This is a challenging experimental requirement, because device stability can be poor at such large biases.). The number of accessible charge states should be reasonable, in light of solution-based electrochemical redox information about the molecule. Finally, the existence of one or more vibrational resonances characteristic of the molecule (e.g. 35 meV for C60) in the conductance map is the most indicative evidence that the device is a SMT. The conductance maps of two devices meeting these criteria are shown in Fig. 2. Note that the existence of surface trap states with charges that vary in time leads to instability in some devices. The random changes of the local charge environment near the tips of the electrodes contribute to some of the difficulties we have in observing the 35 meV vibrational state. In some of devices there appear to be multiple Coulomb blockade features overlapping each other, possibly due to the presence of multiple molecules between the electrodes.

Four of the devices successfully electromigrated at 4.2 K exhibit data like that shown in Fig. 3. When a transition is made from one charge state to another, a zero bias resonance appears in the differential conductance. Although a zero bias resonance is occasionally seen in control samples, the feature is always gate independent. The transitional behavior from Coulomb blockade to zero bias resonance is never observed in devices made without C60 molecules. This transition is consistent with the Kondo effect in single-electron devices, where the Kondo resonance can only exist when the active region of the device has an odd number of electrons.

When describing Kondo phenomena in single-electron devices, the width of the localized state, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, is defined as the sum of the level widths due to the couplings, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{S},\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{D}`$ of the localized state to the source and drain, respectively. The energy difference between the localized state (tunable by gate voltage) and the Fermi level of the leads is $`ϵ`$. When $`0<ϵ/\mathrm{\Gamma }<1`$, the system is said to be in the “mixed-valence” regime, while $`ϵ/\mathrm{\Gamma }>>1`$ corresponds to the Kondo regime. In this limit, the Kondo temperature is givenHaldane78PRL ; GGetAl98PRL  by $`T_\mathrm{K}=0.5(\mathrm{\Gamma }U)^{1/2}\mathrm{exp}(\pi ϵ/\mathrm{\Gamma })`$.

Note that $`T_\mathrm{K}`$ depends exponentially on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, and in a single-molecule transistor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ depends exponentially on the relative position of the molecule with respect to the leads. This steep dependence has made it extremely challenging to examine this physics over a large temperature range, due to temporal instability of the molecule-metal configuration. For example, in one device of the type shown in Fig. 3, while acquiring conductance data the device switched irreversibly from exhibiting a Kondo-like zero bias peak, as shown, to standard Coulomb blockade of the type shown in Fig. 2, without a change in the charge degeneracy point. Within the Kondo picture, this change corresponds to the molecule-lead coupling changing to lower $`T_\mathrm{K}`$ below $`T`$. We have been able to acquire data over a limited temperature range for two devices exhibiting the Kondo-like resonance.

To analyze the zero bias resonance data in the context of Kondo physics, we follow previous SMT Kondo investigationsParketAl02Nature ; LiangetAl02Nature . The Kondo temperature may be inferred in two different ways. First, assuming spin-1/2, at fixed gate voltage the zero bias conductance $`G`$ may be monitored as a function of temperature, and fit with the formula $`G(T)=G_0/(1+2^{1/s}T^2/T_\mathrm{K}^2)^s`$, where $`G_0`$ is a constant and $`s0.22`$ in the Kondo regimeGGetAl98PRL . In both devices mentioned above, $`G(T)`$ is nearly constant, decreasing only slightly from 4.2 K up to $``$ 30 K. This is consistent with large Kondo temperatures, $`T_\mathrm{K}>`$ 100 K, though the data do not put an upper bound on $`T_\mathrm{K}`$.

Further analysis is possible making use of the conductance maps. Consider the device shown in Fig. 4. The slopes of the Coulomb blockade gap edges approximately give $`\alpha `$, the conversion factor between gate voltage and the source-drain bias energy scale. For this sample, $`\alpha 2`$ meV/$`V_\mathrm{G}`$, not surprising given the 200 nm thickness of the gate oxide. As $`T0`$, the width of the zero bias Coulomb blockade conductance peak as a function of gate voltage saturates to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }32`$ meV. Using $`\alpha `$, and knowing that $`ϵ=0`$ at the charge degeneracy point, we can find $`ϵ(V_\mathrm{G})`$. In a Kondo device the full-width at half maximum of the zero bias conductance peak is expected to beGGetAl98Nature ; CronenwettetAl98Science ; vanderwieletAl00Science ; NygardetAl00Nature ; ParketAl02Nature ; LiangetAl02Nature  $`k_\mathrm{B}T_\mathrm{K}/e`$. Fig. 4 shows this FWHM as a function of $`ϵ/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ for that particular device. As with $`G(T)`$, this data is, within the noise, nearly temperature independent below 20 K, and an average of several low temperatures is plotted. This FWHM increase as $`ϵ0`$ is consistent with the Kondo behavior reported by Liang et al.LiangetAl02Nature . The high effective Kondo temperatures implied by this data are clear from the insets to Fig. 4, which demonstrate that the zero bias resonance is still visible up to at least 50 K.

Other studies of the Kondo effect in single-molecule devicesParketAl02Nature ; LiangetAl02Nature  were able to demonstrate the Zeeman splitting of the Kondo resonance in an applied magnetic field. Because of the large intrinsic width ($``$ 10-20 meV) of the zero bias resonance (consistent with high Kondo temperatures) that we observe, and the small size of the Zeeman splitting ($`115\mu `$eV per Tesla for a free electron), this would be extremely difficult to observe in our samples.

We also note that sidebands appear in these samples parallel to the zero bias peak. In the two samples shown in Fig. 3, the sidebands are located at $`V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$ 35 meV, and appear to evolve from the inelastic resonances ascribed to vibrational excitations during the tunneling process. Hints of this behavior were noted in Ref. LiangetAl02Nature , but here there is coincidence of the sideband voltage and the known molecular vibrational resonance. Conductance under these nonequilibrium conditions would involve some interplay between inelastic processes and the coherent many-body Kondo state.

We have successfully created C60-based single-molecule transistors using the electromigration techniqueParketAl99APL . Statistics on success are comparable to those reported by other investigators, and have been presented in detail, along with a discussion of controls and protocols. We find evidence of Kondo physics with large Kondo temperatures in some of these SMTs without having a metal ion present in the molecule. As mentioned above, sideband resonances indicate conduction processes that involve both many-body correlations and inelastic coupling to vibrational modes. Finally, we note that a high temperature Kondo resonance in C60 adsorbed on a noble metal electrodes would explain the surprisingly narrow local density of states observed in scanning tunneling microscopy experiments with C60 tipsKellyetAl96Science .

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the Research Corporation, and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. The authors also thank K. Kelly and A. Osgood for STM characterization, and P.L. McEuen, P. Nordlander, H. Park, D.C. Ralph, A. Rimberg, J.M. Tour, and R.L. Willett for useful conversations.


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# AGN Physics from QSO Clustering

## 1. Introduction

Analysis of the space distribution of QSOs provides an important test of models of AGN formation. Large surveys such at the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ; Croom et al. 2001) and SDSS (Schneider et al. 2002) provide the first opportunity to make accurate measurements of the clustering properties of AGN. Previous samples were too small and/or inhomogeneous to make anything other than a detection of the clustering signal (e.g. La Franca et al. 1998; Croom et al. 1996; Shanks et al. 1987; Osmer 1981). However, with homogeneous samples in excess of 20000 objects, the predictions of QSO formation models can be directly tested. Because of the high redshift and large volume that QSOs can sample, they are also a powerful probe of large-scale structure which can be used to answer cosmological questions, such as the values of fundamental cosmological parameters. However in this review we will concentrate on what we can learn about the physics of AGN from clustering measurements.

Under the standard paradigms of structure formation, the strength of QSO clustering is directly related to the mass of the dark matter halo in which the QSOs reside. At a given redshift, the most massive dark matter halos will be clustered more strongly than less massive halos. Thus QSO clustering measurements should enable us to determine in a statistical sense the mass of the dark matter halo containing QSOs and their host galaxies. For a given underlying matter power spectrum the expected number density of dark matter halos can be derived (Press & Schechter 1974), and then comparisons to the number density of QSOs (the QSO luminosity function) can be used to determine the fraction of active galaxies at any given time, and hence the typical lifetime of activity.

Cross-correlation with other sources (e.g. ’normal’ galaxies) also allows us to discover something about the environments of QSOs. This could lead to a clearer understanding of the triggering mechanisms for activity (e.g. mergers).

In this short review we will look at the current status of QSO clustering measurements and QSO environmental studies. We will conclude with a discussion of some of the outstanding issues and potential ways forwards.

## 2. The current status of QSO clustering

To date the most detailed clustering analysis of QSOs has been carried out using the 2QZ sample which contains over 20000 QSOs. Compiled using the 2-degree Field (2dF) instrument on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (Lewis et al. 2002), this survey obtained redshifts for QSOs at $`z<3`$ with $`16<b_\mathrm{J}20.85`$ mag. The relatively faint magnitude limit of the 2QZ means that the surface density of QSOs found is $`35`$ deg<sup>-2</sup>, much higher than most other QSO surveys. This high density of QSOs makes the 2QZ a powerful probe of large-scale structure. The spatial distribution of QSOs in the 2QZ is shown in Fig. 1.

The most basic of clustering measurements is the two-point correlation function, $`\xi (s)`$ (or its Fourier transform the power spectrum, $`P(k)`$), where $`s`$ is the separation of QSOs in redshift-space. This is shown in Fig. 2 (left) for the 2QZ averaged over the redshift range $`0.3<z<2.9`$, assuming $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{M}=0.3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$ (which we will call the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ cosmology). The measured $`\xi (s)`$ is very similar to that found for low redshift galaxy samples, (e.g. the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, 2dFGRS; Hawkins et al. 2003) and the best fit power law is $`\xi (s)=(s/5.76_{0.27}^{+0.17})^{1.64_{0.03}^{+0.06}}`$. We can also fit more physically motivated models, such as those based on CDM. In Fig. 2 we plot a linear CDM correlation function normalized such that normal galaxies are virtually unbiased at the present day (see Hawkins et al. 2003) (lower dotted line). The best fit CDM models have a shape parameter $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.1`$, with slightly more large-scale structure than standard models (but not significantly so). We also derive the non-linear corrections to these linear models based on the formalism of Peacock & Dodds (1996). It is worth noting that at the high redshifts probed by QSOs ($`\overline{z}1.5`$) clustering remains linear even at relatively small scales, $`5`$$`h^1`$ Mpc. For a given cosmology, we can then derive the mean bias of the QSOs, $`b_{\mathrm{QSO}}2`$ at $`\overline{z}1.5`$.

In Fig. 2 (right) we show the best fit clustering scale length $`s_0`$ (assuming a power law fit) as a function of redshift. We find that there is no significant evolution of clustering with redshift. The clustering amplitude of the QSOs is also consistent with that found in $`z3`$ Lyman-break galaxies (Adelberger et al. 1998). The data are also clearly inconsistent with linear evolution (solid line), and thus $`b_{\mathrm{QSO}}`$ must be a function of redshift. A simple model would be to assume that QSOs were cosmologically long lived objects with ages of order a Hubble time. In this case their bias would evolve as $`b(z)=1+(b(0)1)G(\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{M},\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda },z)`$ where $`b(0)`$ is the bias at $`z=0`$ and $`G(\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{M},\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda },z)`$ is the linear growth rate of density perturbations. In this model the QSOs would be formed at some arbitrarily high redshift and move in the gravitational potential of the mass distribution. This model (dotted line) is ruled out at high ($`>99.99`$ %) significance, demonstrating that QSOs must be short lived compared to the age of the Universe. A number of authors (e.g. Martini & Weinberg 2001) have constructed more detailed models based on the Press-Schechter formalism to constrain the typical lifetime of QSOs via clustering measurements. Comparison to the current data suggest that QSO lifetimes, at least at $`z2`$ are $`10^6`$ years with typical halo masses of $`10^{12}M_{}`$. Models which include the effects of gas and stars (e.g. see Di Matteo et al., this volume) increase the typical time scale, but only to $`10^7`$ years.

Another prediction of QSO formation models (e.g. Kauffmann & Haehnelt 2000) is that QSO clustering depends on luminosity. Only very marginal evidence has so far been found to support this (e.g. Croom et al. 2002), to fully test this prediction samples which span a broad range in luminosity at a given redshift are required.

## 3. QSO environments

Complementary to the above analysis is the study of QSO environments via the cross-correlation of QSOs and galaxies. Until very recently, this has only been possible using 2D angular clustering measurements (e.g. Ellingson, Yee & Green 1991; Smith, Boyle & Maddox 1995; Croom & Shanks 1999). These generally showed that radio-quiet QSOs where clustered similarly to normal galaxies, while radio-loud QSOs appeared in richer environments.

With new large QSO surveys such as the 2QZ and SDSS it is now possible to carry out cross-correlations in 3D, making use of the fact that major galaxy surveys are being carried out in the same regions of the sky as the QSO surveys. The cross-correlations are limited to relatively low redshift, as these galaxy surveys typically probe $`z<0.3`$, however the high quality photometry of SDSS should allow this to be extended to higher redshift via photometric redshifts.

We have measured the cross-correlation of QSOs from the 2QZ and galaxies in the 2dFGRS (Colless et al. 2001). This was carried out at $`z<0.3`$ where galaxies are detected. This redshift also picks out the intrinsically faintest QSOs which will tend to lie at low $`z`$ in any flux limited sample. The results are shown in Fig. 3. The cross-correlation between QSOs and galaxies is found to be identical to the auto-correlation of galaxies (weighted to have the same redshift distribution at the QSOs). If we divide the two measurements (Fig. 3 right) we determine a mean bias $`b_{\mathrm{QG}}=0.97\pm 0.05`$. Thus it appears that the AGN are not clustered any differently to galaxies. Further work is clearly required to determine whether the bias between QSOs and galaxies is a function of QSO and/or galaxy luminosity, and this will likely require extending the analysis to higher redshift. It is worth noting that this result does not rule out the merger hypothesis for the triggering of QSOs as Percival et al. (2003) have shown that halo merger sites are clustered the same as non-merger halos in N-body simulations. It is also possible to use objects from the SDSS and 2dFGRS galaxy surveys that are shown from their spectra to be AGN, as demonstrated recently by Miller et al (2003).

## 4. Discussion and future directions

QSO clustering measurements are starting to place interesting constraints on models of QSO formation. In particular it appears that lifetimes must be short, $`10^610^7`$ years. It is worth noting that the clustering measurements are in fact being used as a surrogate for host galaxy mass. In high redshift QSOs it is very difficult to make good estimates of galaxy mass, simply because the QSO luminosity dwarfs the host galaxy. If the observed relation between galaxy mass (or more exactly galaxy velocity dispersion) and black hole mass ($`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$) at low redshift (e.g. Magorrian et al. 1998) is the same at high redshift then clustering can also be used to determine the mean $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ for a population. However, it is likely that the local galaxy-$`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ relation does evolve with redshift. Clustering gives one potential method to determine if this is the case. The SDSS spectra are of sufficient quality that they should yield reasonable estimates of $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$, thus allowing us to measure clustering as a function of $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$.

New surveys are also required to break the still apparent luminosity-redshift degeneracy in QSO samples. We have very little knowledge of QSOs more than $`1`$ mag fainter than $`M^{}`$, particularly at high redshift. A new survey based on SDSS imaging and 2dF spectroscopy is currently underway to address this issue and others, reaching a limiting magnitude of $`g^{}22`$ for $`10000`$ QSOs. This is being carried out in tandem with a search for luminous red galaxies at $`z<0.7`$, which will allow the investigation of QSO environments in 3D to much higher redshifts than currently possible. This, in combination with the high quality spectral information available from the SDSS should allow major progress in our understanding of QSO formation and evolution in the near future.

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# Time and length scales in spin glasses

## 1 Why do we study spin glass dynamics?

Spin glasses can be seen as one of the paradigms for the statistical mechanics of impure materials. Experimentally, however, the spin glass phase is always probed via nonequilibrium dynamic experiments, because the equilibration time of macroscopic samples is infinite. Simulations can probe equilibrium behaviour for very moderate sizes only, so that the thermodynamic nature of the spin glass phase is still a matter of debate. It is also as a model system that the glassy dynamics of spin glasses has been studied very extensively in experiments, simulations, and theoretically in the last two decades . Although many theories account for the simplest experimental results, such as the aging phenomenon, early experiments revealed several other spectacular phenomena (rejuvenation, memory, etc.) that are harder to explain, allowing one to discriminate between various approaches .

In recent years, several theoretical descriptions of the slow dynamics of spin glasses described the physics in terms of a distribution of length scales whose time, $`t`$, and temperature, $`T`$, evolution depends on the specific experimental protocol, as reviewed in Ref. . Aging is described as the slow growth of a coherence length, $`\mathrm{}_T(t)`$, reflecting quasi-equilibrium/nonequilibrium at shorter/larger length scales. Sensitivity to perturbations of quasi-equilibrated length scales accounts then for rejuvenation effects, while the strong temperature dependence of the growth law $`\mathrm{}_T(t)`$ explains memory effects . If early numerical studies revealed the existence of such a distribution of length scales , its physical relevance was critically discussed only relatively recently . A major problem, however, is that most studies focused on the Edwards-Anderson model of an Ising spin glass, defined by the Hamiltonian

$$H=\underset{<i,j>}{}J_{ij}S_iS_j,$$
(1)
where $`S_i=\pm 1`$, the sum is over pairs of nearest neighbours of the chosen lattice, and $`J_{ij}`$ is a quenched random interaction, drawn from a symmetric distribution. The interest of the model (1) is that it has been studied very extensively so that some—but only very few!—issues have been settled, most notably the existence, for space dimensions $`d3`$, of a second order phase transition to a spin glass phase . The nonequilibrium dynamics of the Ising spin glass has also been quite extensively studied. Unfortunately, for $`d=3`$, some of the key experimental observations are not reproduced , although simulations in $`d=4`$ have been more successful . This may not be too surprising, since real spin glasses are made not of Ising spins but vector spins. When the interaction between spins is isotropic, the system is therefore best described by the Heisenberg spin glass Hamiltonian

$$H=\underset{<i,j>}{}J_{ij}𝐒_i𝐒_j,$$
(2)
where the $`𝐒_i`$ are now three-component vectors of unit length. The Heisenberg spin glass has been far less studied than the Ising one, both statically and dynamically, presumably because it was hoped that the understanding of the apparently simpler Ising case would be sufficient to interpret experiments. Very recent experiments systematically comparing Ising (i.e. very anisotropic) and Heisenberg samples have shown substantial quantitative differences between the two types of samples, the nonequilibrium effects being indeed much clearer in Heisenberg samples .

Hence, it can reasonably be hoped that dynamic studies of the Heisenberg spin glass in $`d=3`$ will reproduce the key experimental effects, so that deeper theoretical knowledge of the nature of the nonequilibrium dynamics of spin glasses can be gained. In this paper, we extract some preliminary results from the first large-scale numerical simulation of the nonequilibrium dynamics of the three-dimensional Heisenberg spin glass .

## 2 Simulation details

We simulate the Heisenberg spin glass (2) in $`d=3`$. The sum in (2) runs over nearest neighbours of a cubic lattice with periodic boundary conditions. We use a heat-bath algorithm  in which the updated spin has the correct Boltzmann distribution for the instantaneous local field. This method has the advantage that a change in the spin orientation is always made. We use a rather large simulation box of linear size $`L=60`$, and study several temperatures $`T=0.16`$, 0.15, 0.14, 0.12, 0.10, 0.08, 0.04 and 0.02. Although all the quantities we shall study are self-averaging, we use several realizations of the disorder, typically 15, to increase the statistics of our data.

Contrary to the Ising case, the phase transition of the Heisenberg spin glass is still an open problem. A decoupling between spin and chiral degrees of freedom was theoretically suggested , while early simulations even questioned the mere existence of a phase transition . Very recent simulations involving the most efficient tools used to study the Ising spin glass, conclude that the model is characterized by a phase transition, at $`T_c0.16`$, where both spins and chirality simultaneously freeze . This motivates our choice for the upper temperature studied in our dynamical approach and our use of spin variables as dynamical objects of study.

## 3 What has to be measured?

Before embarking in the complex phenomenology of spin glasses, it is worth discussing the simplest protocol one can think of to probe the spin glass phase. A ‘simple aging’ experiment consists of a sudden quench at initial time $`t_w=0`$ from a temperature well in the paramagnetic phase, $`TT_c`$, to a constant, low temperature below the spin glass transition, $`T<T_c`$. Aging means a very slow evolution with time $`t_w`$ (called ‘age’) of the physical properties of the system. To study this behaviour, we record two types of quantities. First, ‘one-time’ quantities can be studied, such as the energy density of the spin glass,

$$e(t_w)=\frac{1}{N}H.$$
(3)
The time evolution of $`e(t_w)`$ for various low temperatures is presented in Fig. 1, from which the slow decrease of the energy towards an asymptotic equilibrium value is indeed observed, the sign that the dynamics is non-stationary.

We also study ‘two-time’ dynamic quantities. While experiments usually record response functions, it is easier to measure the corresponding correlation functions in numerical work. Here, we record the spin-spin autocorrelation function defined as

$$C(t+t_w,t_w)=\frac{1}{N}\underset{i}{}𝐒_i(t+t_w)𝐒_i(t_w).$$
(4)
The qualitative behaviour of this function is well-known, and a prototypical example is shown in Fig. 2. As usual, the time decay of $`C(t+t_w,t_w)`$ can be decomposed into two parts. For short time separations, $`tt_w`$, the dynamics is almost independent of $`t_w`$, while the later decay, $`tt_w`$, becomes slower the larger $`t_w`$. Non-stationarity is reflected in the fact that $`C(t+t_w,t_w)C(t)`$. The physical interpretation is simple: since the relaxation time of the sample is infinite, the only relevant time scale is the age of the sample $`t_w`$ which imposes an age-dependent relaxation time: the older the sample, the slower its relaxation becomes. A careful analysis of short and large time behaviours of $`C(t+t_w,t_w)`$ and comparison to experimental data is described in Ref. .

## 4 Understanding aging in real space

The key problem is to understand the subtle slow changes that the system undergoes: what does ‘old’ or ‘young’ really mean for the sample? The answer necessarily connects to equilibrium, since the system eventually equilibrates for $`t_w\mathrm{}`$. Moreover, the decomposition of the decay $`C(t+t_w,t_w)`$ between a fast stationary process and a slow non-stationary one directly suggests the existence of some sort of local equilibrium within the sample: a spin appears locally equilibrated (short-time dynamics) although the sample as a whole is still far from equilibrium and evolves towards equilibrium (long-time dynamics).

It is possible to illustrate this last statement, as was done in the Ising case . Because of the disorder, the spin orientations in an equilibrium configuration are random, so that it is impossible to detect any domain growth by simply looking at the spin directions. However, two systems, $`(a,b)`$, evolving independently but with the same realization of the disorder will reach correlated equilibrium configurations , so that the orientation of the spins in the two copies will be similar, up to a global rotation. In Fig. 3, we present pictures where the ‘orientation’ variable

$$\mathrm{cos}\theta _i(t)=𝐒_i^a(t)𝐒_i^b(t)$$
(5)
is encoded on a grey scale. Comparing three successive times, it becomes clear that aging involves the growth with time of a local random ordering imposed by the disorder of the Hamiltonian.

It is of course possible to go beyond simple pictures of black and white domains and measure the growing coherence length $`\mathrm{}_T(t)`$ corresponding to the mean domain size in Fig. 3. For this purpose, the spatial decay of the following correlation function is recorded:

$$C_4(r,t)=\frac{1}{N}\underset{i}{}𝐒_i^a(t)𝐒_{i+r}^a(t)𝐒_i^b(t)𝐒_{i+r}^b(t).$$
(6)
This function is a straightforward generalization of the two-spin, two-replica correlation function studied in the Ising case which measures spatial correlations of the random relative orientation of two spins . In Fig. 4, we show this function for the same parameters as the correlators of Fig. 2. The spatial decay of $`C_4(r,t)`$ is clearly slower for larger $`t`$, in agreement with the pictures in Fig. 3. Physically, this means that a larger time $`t_w`$ implies a slower relaxation due to a larger coherence length, very much as in standard coarsening phenomena.

Note that due to periodic boundary conditions, the function (6) in Fig. 4 is symmetric about $`L/2=30`$. In Ref. , it was argued that spin and chirality degrees of freedom undergo different aging dynamics because they are statically decoupled. The numerical support for this statement was the observation, for a system of linear size $`L=15`$, that the autocorrelation (4) becomes stationary at large $`t_w`$. From Fig. 6, we immediately recognize that the data of Ref.  are plagued by severe finite size effects, so that the conclusions of previous aging studies of the Heisenberg spin glass  must be taken with some care and justifies our numerical effort of simulating a very large system, $`L=60`$. The scaling properties of $`C_4(r,t)`$ and the properties of the coherence length are further discussed in Ref. . We make here the important remark that much larger length scales can be reached in the same numerical time window for the Heisenberg spin glass than for the Ising case, which may indicate that richer behaviour can be seen in non-equilibrium simulations of the Heisenberg spin glass than the Ising one.

## 5 Conclusion

We have motivated the need for large-scale numerical simulations of the three dimensional Heisenberg spin glass in order to fill the gap between spatial theoretical descriptions of spin glass dynamics and experimental observations. The results presented here for the dynamics of the model (2) show that spin variables qualitatively follow the same type of aging behaviour as in the Ising case, which is due to the slow growth with time of a dynamic coherence length. In Ref. , we analyze in detail the scaling properties of the dynamic functions reported here. The observation that very large length scales can be reached in the numerical time window, see Fig. 4, gives us the hope, also confirmed by preliminary work, that the model will allow us to reproduce most of the experimental effects, with the advantage that simulations have direct access to the distributions of length scales involved in phenomenological theories, gaining further understanding of spin glass dynamics.

## References


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# Radio Emission Associated with Ultraluminous X-ray Sources in the Galaxy Merger NGC 3256

## 1 Introduction

NGC 3256 is a well-studied merging galaxy system and is the brightest IR source in the nearby universe, with a luminosity of $`3\times 10^{11}L_{}`$ in the 8–1000 $`\mu `$m range (Sargent, Sanders, & Phillips, 1989), after conversion to a distance of 37 Mpc (H0 = 75 km s-1 Mpc-1). It is also at the top end of the X-ray luminosity range for starburst galaxies (Lira et al., 2002). Tidal tails extending $``$ 200 kpc and other morphological and kinematical evidence (deVaucouleurs & deVaucouleurs, 1961; Toomre, 1977; Feast & Robertson, 1978; Schweizer, 1986) suggest that the system was composed of two gas-rich disks, which coalesced $``$1 galaxy crossing time ago (Keel & Wu, 1995). However, two “nuclei” are detected at radio and NIR wavelengths, suggesting that the progenitors may not have completed their merger (Norris & Forbes, 1995; Kotilainen et al., 1996). All observations to date suggest that the system properties are best explained by an ongoing very intense starburst and associated superwind (Lipari et al., 2000).

Recently, high-resolution Chandra observations of NGC 3256 detected 14 discrete hard X-ray sources with luminosities of 1039–1040.5 ergs s-1 at an assumed distance of 56 Mpc (Lira et al., 2002); 13 of these remain above $`10^{39}`$ ergs s-1 for a distance of 37 Mpc. Such sources are referred to as Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), since their isotropic luminosities are far above the Eddington limit of $`2\times 10^{38}`$ ergs s-1 for an accreting $`1.4M_{}`$ neutron star in an X-ray binary, but below the limit for classical active galactic nuclei (AGNs), $`10^{42}`$ ergs s-1. Possible explanations for ULXs include accreting intermediate-mass ($``$100–1000 M) black holes (IMBH; probably in binaries), beamed “normal” X-ray binaries, microquasars, transient super-Eddington accretors, young supernova remnants (SNRs) in extremely dense environments, hypernovae/GRB’s, or background BL Lac objects (Fabbiano, 1989; Marston et al., 1995; Colbert & Mushotzky, 1999; Makishima et al., 2000; King et al., 2001; King, 2002; Roberts et al., 2003). The first large samples of ULXs suggested that they are fairly rare in normal galaxies (Roberts & Warwick, 2000), but much more common, and brighter, in merging and starburst galaxies (Fabbiano, Zezas, & Murray, 2001; Kaaret et al., 2001). Efforts to identify ULX counterparts at other wavelengths have had limited success: a ULX in NGC 5204 may be associated with a young optical star cluster (Roberts et al., 2001; Goad et al., 2002), at least four ULXs are associated with X-ray ionized nebulae or SNR (Pakull & Mironi, 2002; Roberts et al., 2003), several ULXs in elliptical galaxies may be in globular clusters (Wu et al., 2002; Angelini et al., 2001), and a radio counterpart recently has been identified for a ULX in NGC 5408 (Kaaret et al., 2003).

Centimetric radio observations penetrate the dust causing the optical obscuration in starbursts. If radio emission is associated with a ULX, the radio luminosity and spectrum can be used to constrain possibilities for the ULX identity. Previous radio imaging of NGC 3256 identified two bright steep-spectrum nuclear sources (Norris & Forbes, 1995), but had insufficient resolution to probe the ULX environment. Here, we present new, high-resolution radio images of NGC 3256 that provide new clues to the nature of its ULXs.

## 2 Radio Images and Measurements

NGC 3256 was observed in 2001 February (BnA configuration) and 2002 April (A configuration) using the NRAO111The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. Very Large Array (VLA) at 6 cm (4860 MHz) and 3.6 cm (8460 MHz), for $``$ 7.5hrs each. A 12-minute 2 cm (14940 MHz) observation was obtained in 2002 April, and a 35-minute 2 cm observation at lower resolution (CnB configuration) from 1986 was retrieved from the VLA archive. The data were calibrated, self-calibrated, and imaged as described in Neff & Ulvestad (2000). Typical resolutions (FWHM) are 50-60 pc ($``$0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$35) by 140–180 pc (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$7–1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0).

We measured flux densities of compact radio sources associated with ULXs by fitting a parabola to the peak, and derived the amount of diffuse emission around the selected sources by integrating over a specified box and subtracting the flux of the related compact source (Table 1). Errors in radio positions are $``$0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1, negligible compared to the X-ray position uncertainties222see the Chandra Proposer’s Guide v 4.0, 2001, http://asc.harvard.edu/udocs/docs/POG/MPOG of $``$0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6; radio flux densities have typical ($`1\sigma `$) errors of 5% at 3.6 and 6 cm, and 10% at 2 cm.

At both 6 cm and 3.6 cm, two bright compact sources are embedded in diffuse extended emission (Figure 1). No radio emission is detected outside the central 40″ (7 kpc) of the galaxy, with respective $`3\sigma `$ limits of $``$36 and $``$30 $`\mu `$Jy beam-1 at 6 and 3.6 cm. At the highest resolution (Figure 2, A configuration only), 3.6 and 2 cm images resolve both of the bright nuclear sources into several discrete components. ULX positions from Lira et al. (2002) are indicated on each image (Figures 1 and 2), with the Lira et al. (2002) source numbers used in the remainder of this paper.

## 3 Identification of Radio Sources Associated with ULXs

ULXs 7 and 8 are coincident with compact radio sources, and ULX 13 is at the location of an extended, partly resolved radio source. Properties of these radio sources are given in Table 1. Radio emission is found at the edges of the 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$8 radius ($`3\sigma `$) Chandra error circles of several other ULXs in NGC 3256, but is neither compact nor precisely coincident with the X-ray position (see Fig. 1): for example, ULXs 9, 10, and 11 are clustered around the edges of a group of compact radio sources, ULX 2 is near the edge of another, as shown in Figure 1. Lira et al. (2002) note that these are sites of massive stars ionizing their surroundings, as evidenced by strong H$`\alpha `$ emission (Lipari et al., 2000). The nominal separations of $``$ 2″ between radio emission and ULXs correspond to $`360`$ pc in NGC 3256.

Figure 2 shows that ULXs 7 and 8 nominally coincide with the two most compact nuclear radio peaks. Lira et al. (2002) indicate that the northern X-ray source, ULX 7, is resolved, with a size of $``$1″–1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 ($``$180–270 pc); they suggest that this corresponds to “a compact grouping of individual sources $`\mathrm{}`$ at the heart of the nuclear starburst.” However, Mushotzsky (priv. comm) has determined that ULX 7 is a dominant point source (unresolved by Chandra) embedded in low-level extended emission, as can be seen in Fig 2c. Our 3.6 and 2 cm images (Fig. 2a,b) indicate that the radio emission at this position is partially resolved on a similar scale and is also embedded in extended emission.

## 4 Nature of the Ultraluminous X-ray Sources

The radio sources near ULXs 7 and 8 have respective spectral indices of $`\alpha =1.04`$ and $`\alpha =0.74`$ (for $`S_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$) between 3.6 and 2 cm, indicative of optically thin synchrotron emission. However, the source spectra flatten between 6 and 3.6 cm in matched-resolution images ($`\alpha =0.49`$ and $`\alpha =0.16`$), which may indicate that some of the subcomponents are free-free absorbed at longer wavelengths. For gas at 6000 K (Lipari et al., 2000), the required emission measure for significant free-free absorption at 5 GHz is about $`5\times 10^7`$ cm-6 pc. This implies (for example) a typical ionized density of $`7000`$ cm-3 for a path length of $`1`$ pc, or $`700`$ cm-3 for a path length of 100 pc. The density in the latter case is similar to that found by Lipari et al. (2000) on scales of a few hundred parsecs, but the relatively low filling factor of the gas seen on these large scales makes it likely that any free-free absorption would be caused by higher density gas on scales of a parsec or less.

We use the ratio of 6-cm radio emission to 2–10 keV X-ray emission, $`R_XL_R/L_X=\nu L_\nu (5\mathrm{GHz})/L_X(210\mathrm{keV})`$, defined by Terashima & Wilson (2003), to distinguish further among possible origins of ULXs 7 and 8. Table 2 gives values of this ratio for ULXs in NGC 3256 and for a number of comparison objects. First, consider flaring X-ray transients. ULXs 7 and 8 might be either beamed “normal” binaries or unbeamed binaries including intermediate-mass black holes ($`100`$$`1000M_{}`$). Using the peak values in both wavebands, Fender & Kuulkers (2001) compile values of the radio/X-ray ratio for galactic X-ray transients in outburst, and show that it always is less than $`10^4`$ mJy Crab-1, corresponding to $`R_X<2.3\times 10^5`$. This is consistent with the result of Kaaret et al. (2003), who interpret a ULX in NGC 5408 as a beamed X-ray transient (although they note it could also be an IMBH); the faint radio detection implies $`R_X<10^5`$. In contrast, ULXs 7 and 8 in NGC 3256 have $`R_X`$ well above $`10^3`$, much larger than the ratio for galactic X-ray transients; the radio flux densities are more than $`10^5`$ times stronger than expected from Cygnus X-1 beamed toward us from a distance of 37 Mpc (Georganopoulos, Aharonian, & Kirk, 2002).

The northern nucleus of NGC 3256 (ULX 7) is known to harbor an extreme starburst (Lipari et al., 2000), so it is worth considering whether the radio and X-ray emission can be produced by only young stars or associated high mass X-ray binaries (HMXB) Optical and UV emission lines suggest that the ensemble of stars in the northern nucleus has $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=35,000`$ K (Lipari et al., 2000), and the X-ray spectrum is consistent with a hot-gas component at $`2\times 10^7`$K (Lira et al., 2002). A strong upper limit to the number of stars present can be calculated by assuming that the entire 3 mJy flux density at 2 cm is due to thermal emission from ionized gas (unlikely due to the steep radio spectrum); this would require the equivalent of $`10^5`$ O7 stars (Vacca, 1994). These hot stars would generate X-ray emission primarily in stellar winds; the expected X-ray luminosity from $`10^5`$ O7 stars would be $`10^{37}`$ ergs s-1 (Long & White, 1980; Chlebowski, Harnden, & Sciortino, 1989), a factor of 1000 below the observed X-ray luminosity. It is likely that a cluster of O stars will contain a significant number of HMXB’s. If systems like Cyg X-1 (Georganopoulos, Aharonian, & Kirk, 2002) were to produce all of the ULX 7 X-ray emission, $``$600-1000 such systems would be required, 1 per 100 O stars. These HMXBs would produce $`<10^4`$ of the observed radio emission. Although it is possible that the radio and X-ray emission could come from a combination of O stars and many HMXBs, it seems unlikely that this many HMXB’s would have already formed while there are still $``$105 unevolved O stars.

Since the X-ray and radio sources in ULX 7 both contain multiple components (diffuse and discrete), it seems useful to compare $`R_X`$ for ULX 7 with better-resolved starburst region in a nearby galaxy. NGC 253, at a distance of $``$ 2.6 Mpc, has an X-ray flux of $`2.5\times 10^{12}`$ ergs s-1 (Weaver et al. 2002) in its central 5″ (60 pc); integrating over the same area in the 5 GHz VLA image from Antonucci & Ulvestad (1988) yields a flux density of $`600`$ mJy. For this compact nuclear starburst, therefore, $`R_X1\times 10^2`$, a factor of only a few higher than ULX 7. This suggests that ULX 7 may represent a region of extreme “nuclear” star formation.

Next, we consider the possibility that ULXs 7 and 8 produce X-ray and radio emission in multiple SNRs. For the galactic SNR Cas A, $`L_R/L_X0.02`$, similar to the values for ULXs 7 and 8 (Cas-A X-ray flux from http://hea-www.harvard.edu/ChandraSNR /G111.7-02.1/; contemporaneous radio flux density derived from Baars et al. 1977). The total radio and X-ray fluxes are $`1000`$ times stronger than Cas A would be at 37 Mpc, implying that many similar SNRs would be required within a volume of $`10^5`$$`10^6`$ pc3. In the case of ULX 13, associated with a partially resolved steep-spectrum radio source well away from the galaxy nuclei, $`R_X0.01`$, also consistent with Cas A, with total emission $`200`$ times more powerful. Some young radio supernovae may have radio powers of tens to hundreds times that of Cas A (Weiler et al., 1986), but accounting for the relatively steady radio emission from the NGC 3256 nuclei still would require many supernovae over at least the last 15 yr. The same arguments apply to the case of hypernovae (Roberts et al., 2003), with the additional constraint that NGC 3256 has not been identified with any GRB’s.

A final possibility is that ULXs 7 and 8 are low-luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs), generated in or fueled by the galaxy merger. Lira et al. (2002) note that the X-ray properties and overall SED of ULX 8 are consistent with this possibility, but suggest that ULX 7 is to be too strong at 10$`\mu `$m to be an AGN. However, Ho (1999) shows that LLAGNs have a maximum in the SED at $``$10$`\mu `$m. Ho (1999) also finds, when different classes of AGN SEDs are normalized at 1 keV, that LLAGNs are considerably stronger at mid-IR wavelengths than other classes of AGN (Lira et al. (2002) made the SED comparison by normalizing various AGN SEDs at 3.5$`\mu `$m). Thus, Ho (1999)’s work stongly supports the idea that ULX 7 is also a LLAGN. Both ULXs 7 and 8 have values of $`R_X`$ well within the range for radio-loud AGNs, defined by Terashima & Wilson (2003). $`R_X`$ for ULXs 7 and 8 is a factor of a few larger than for several LLAGNs at comparable distances (Ulvestad & Ho, 2001) and for the nearby galaxy nucleus in M32 (Ho, Terashima, & Ulvestad, 2003), and is similar to the values for the two AGNs in the merger NGC 6240 (Komossa et al., 2003). Further evidence for the LLAGN possibility comes from examination of archival HST long-slit spectra of the northern nucleus, which show broadened H$`\alpha `$, H$`\beta `$, \[N II\], and \[S II\] emission lines with linewidths of $``$450 km sec-1, as shown in Figure 3. The emission line show a rotation-curve-like shear in their peak velocities of $``$300km sec-1 over a projected distance of $``$40pc. If we assume this shear indicates rotation of a nuclear disk, it implies that ULX 7(N) has a mass of at least 108M within $`40`$ pc.

LLAGNs are the most plausible explanation for ULXs 7 and 8 in NGC 3256, although large collections of supernova remnants are also consistent with their radio/X-ray ratios and powers. If ULXs 7 and 8 are LLAGN, the dual black holes are separated by only $`1`$ kpc, considerably closer than the $`6`$ kpc separation for the dual AGNs in NGC 6240.

For the remaining ULXs that are not associated with discrete radio sources, the radio/X-ray limits are consistent with expectations for high-mass X-ray binaries, either beamed or accreting at super-Eddington rates, and ULX 13 is also consistent with a collection of confined SNRs.

## 5 Summary

We have presented new, high resolution, sensitive radio images of the merging galaxy NGC 3256. We found that three compact radio sources appear to be identified with ULX’s. Two of the ULX’s are coincident with the two galaxy nuclei, and have properties indicative of being two LLAGN, separated by $`6`$ pc. Radio properties of a third ULX suggest that is is a large complex of supernova remnants, and the remaining ULX’s are likely associated with HMXRBs or IMBHs.

Part of this work was supported by NASA grant 344-01-21-77. We thank Vivek Dhawan, Phillip Kaaret, and Richard Mushotzky for useful discussions. SGN and JSU acknowledge the Aspen Center for Physics for hospitality during the preparation of this work. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services.


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# Reflection from black holes and space-time topology

## Abstract

The quantum corrections make the black hole capable of reflection: any particle that approaches the event horizon can bounce back in the outside world. The albedo of the black hole depends on its temperature. The reflection shares physical origins with the phenomenon of Hawking radiation; both effects are explained as consequences of the singular nature that the event horizon exhibits on the quantum level.

Intuitively black holes are defined as objects that do not emit anything and possess ideal absorption properties. A known limitation for this naive picture stems from thermodynamics of black holes. The first indication that gravitational fields could have entropy came when investigation of Christodoulou christodoulou\_1970  of the Penrose process for extracting energy from a Kerr black hole showed that there is a quantity which could not go down. Hawking found hawking\_1970  that it is proportional to the area of the horizon. Further research of Bardeen et al bardeen\_carter\_hawking\_1970  demonstrated that black holes obey laws similar to the laws of thermodynamics. The next step made by Bekenstein bekenstein\_1972  indicated that the area was actually the physical entropy. The discovery of the Hawking radiation hawking\_1974  and the Unruh process unruh\_1976  completed foundation of the thermodynamics of black holes; for a recent review see Ref.Wald\_2001 , see also books frolov\_novikov\_1998 ; chandrasekhar\_1993  for comprehensive discussion of black hole properties. The thermodynamics reveals that a black hole has the finite temperature and is capable of radiation through the Hawking mechanism.

Classically, the metric of a black hole and the equations of motion of a probing particle in this metric are described by regular functions on the horizon, if considered in appropriate coordinates, see e.g. misner\_thorne\_wheeler\_1973 . This fact allows the incoming particle to cross the horizon smoothly, making the black hole an ideal absorber. However, this work shows that black holes are capable to reflect particles from the event horizon. The effect arises due to quantum corrections, becoming apparent in the semiclassical approximation. One can describe it in terms of the classical action of the probing particle that possesses a singularity on the horizon. The singularity, that persists in any coordinate frame, triggers the singularity of the wave function that describes the incoming particle. As a result the wave function of the incoming particle acquires an unexpected admixture of the outgoing wave. It is this admixture that explains the reflective abilities of black holes. It is interesting that the Hawking radiation process can also be tracked down to the same origin. Having same basic roots, the two mentioned effects have different experimental manifestations because the flux and spectrum of reflected particles depend on the flux and spectrum of incoming particles, while the radiation depends entirely on properties of the black hole. A consistent quantum treatment of the incoming particle agrees with the semiclassical results, revealing also an alternative interesting way to account for the quantum corrections. It is based on a topological charge that can be associated with events that happen with the incoming particle on the event horizon. This charge can be considered as a particular topological characteristic of the Schwarzschild geometry that becomes important for quantum description of the probing particle, being irrelevant at the classical level. The topological properties of the space-time of black holes within the frames of the classical approximation were discussed by Einstein and Rosen einstein\_rosen\_1935 , Wheeler wheeler\_1955 , and Misner and Wheeler misner\_wheeler\_1957 .

Consider a black hole with the Schwarzschild geometry

$$ds^2=\left(1\frac{1}{r}\right)dt^2+\frac{dr^2}{11/r}+r^2(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\phi ^2).$$
(1)
Relativistic units $`\mathrm{}=c=1`$ supplemented by condition $`2Gm=1`$ imposed on the gravitational constant $`G`$ and the black hole mass $`m`$ are used. A sphere with the Schwarzschild radius $`r=r_g1`$ represents the event horizon. Let us assume that the probing particle is a scalar with the mass $`\mu `$ and describe its motion by the wave function $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ that satisfies the Klein-Gordon equation $`g^{\kappa \lambda }_\kappa _\lambda \mathrm{\Phi }=\mu ^2\mathrm{\Phi }`$, where $``$ is the covariant derivative for a given metric. Separating the angular variables for the Schwarzschild metric (1) one finds that the radial wave function $`\varphi (r)`$ that describes the motion with the energy $`\epsilon `$ and momentum $`L`$ satisfies

$`\varphi ^{\prime \prime }+\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{r}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{r1}}\right)\varphi ^{}`$ (2)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{11/r}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon ^2}{11/r}}\mu ^2{\displaystyle \frac{L(L+1)}{r^2}}\right)\varphi =0.`$
Consider the proper incoming and outgoing waves $`\varphi _{\mathrm{in}}^{(0)}(r),\varphi _{\mathrm{out}}^{(0)}(r)`$ that satisfy $`\varphi _{\mathrm{in}}^{(0)}(r)=[\varphi _{\mathrm{out}}^{(0)}(r)]^{}`$ and are distinguished by their asymptotic behavior at infinity $`\varphi _{\mathrm{in}}^{(0)}(r)B\mathrm{exp}[i(pr+\mathrm{})],r\mathrm{}`$, where $`p=(\epsilon ^2\mu ^2)^{1/2}`$ is the momentum, the dots refer to the $`𝒪(\mathrm{ln}r/r)`$ terms that appear due to long-range nature of the gravitational force, and $`B`$ is a normalization factor. Eq.(2 ) has a regular singularity at the horizon, $`\varphi (r)(r1)^\eta ,r1`$. Here the index $`\eta `$ found from Eq.(2) equals $`\eta =i\epsilon `$. For the incoming wave the sign minus here is to be chosen, which gives

$`\varphi _{\mathrm{in}}^{(0)}(r)=\mathrm{exp}[i\epsilon \mathrm{ln}(r1)],r1.`$ (3)
Let us describe the incoming particle in the outside region $`r>1`$ by the wave function

$`\varphi _{\mathrm{in}}(r)=\varphi _{\mathrm{in}}^{(0)}(r)+\varphi _{\mathrm{out}}^{(0)}(r).`$ (4)
The first term here, the proper incoming wave, is definitely present because we do consider the incoming particle. The second term, the proper outgoing wave, is introduced in order to allow for the possibility of reflection of the incoming particle off the black hole. The magnitude of this, hypothetical at the moment, reflection is measured by the coefficient $``$. The unitarity condition requires that $`||1`$. Intuitive arguments based on an experience with classical trajectories would indicate that the black hole is incapable of reflection, i.e. the reflection coefficient in (4) is zero. However, the quantum corrections do produce the phenomenon of reflection, making $`||>0`$, as verified below.

Let us consider what happens with the incoming wave in Eq.(4) in the inside region $`r<1`$. The horizon is a classically forbidden area for the outside observer who needs to wait an infinite interval of time to see the incoming particle to cross the horizon. However, this fact does not prevent the incoming wave from penetrating into the inside region simply because this is a stationary wave that exists during the infinite interval of time. This claim is supported by the asymptotic behavior of the wave function on the horizon (3). Continuing this wave function analytically from the outside region $`r>1`$ into the inside region $`r<1`$ over the lower semiplane of the complex $`r`$-plane, see the counter $`C_1`$ in Fig.1, one finds that this wave exists in the region $`r<1`$, being suppressed compared with the outside region $`r>1`$ by the factor $`k=\mathrm{exp}(\pi \epsilon )`$. We will return to this point below.

Consider now the singularity of Eq.(2) at the origin $`r=0`$. There are two solutions here, the regular $`\varphi (r)1`$, and the singular $`\varphi (r)\mathrm{ln}r`$. Conventional quantum mechanical arguments favor the regular boundary condition $`\varphi (0)=const`$, which cannot be satisfied by the incoming wave by itself. One needs to introduce its complex conjugate, i.e. the proper outgoing wave, and take a linear combination of these two waves. These arguments show that the outgoing wave certainly exists in the inside region $`r<1`$ prompting one to consider what happens with this wave on the horizon. The problem is similar to the one discussed above for the incoming wave. The outgoing wave is stationary, hence it is able to penetrate into the outside region $`r>1`$. Its analytical continuation along the contour $`C_2`$ in Fig.1 gives the necessary suppression factor, which again proves be equal to $`k=\mathrm{exp}(\pi \epsilon )`$.

We find that the wave function for the incoming particle has the form of Eq.(4) that incorporates the expected proper incoming wave, represented by the first term, and the surprising admixture of the proper outgoing wave, the second term. The above discussion shows that the reflection arises after the horizon is traversed twice, along $`C_1`$ and $`C_2`$, each crossing introducing a suppression factor $`k=\mathrm{exp}(\pi \epsilon )`$. Hence the reflection coefficient in Eq.(4) satisfies

$`||=k^2=\mathrm{exp}(2\pi \epsilon ).`$ (5)
The admixture of the outgoing wave in Eq.(4) shows that black holes are capable of reflection, see Ref.kuchiev\_2003  that derives this fact from symmetry conditions. In the presented approach the effect can be tracked down to the singularity that exists in the wave equation (2) at the horizon. The above arguments can be cast into conventional mathematical terms. The singularity $`r=1`$ is associated with the $`2\times 2`$ monodromy matrix $``$. The eigenvalues $`\lambda _{1,2}`$ of this matrix are related to the indexes $`\eta =\pm i\epsilon `$, $`\lambda _{1,2}=\mathrm{exp}(2\pi i\eta )=\mathrm{exp}(2\pi \epsilon )`$. The absolute value for the reflection coefficient in Eq.(5) coincides with the smaller eigenvalue. This construction has a topological bearing. A closed contour on the complex $`r`$-plane around the singularity on the horizon $`r=1`$ can be associated with the topological charge $`n`$ that counts its winding around the point $`r=1`$ and gives the eigenvalues $`\mathrm{exp}(2\pi \epsilon n)`$ for the $`n`$-th power of the matrix $``$. An interesting part of this construction is that the reflective ability of black holes can be associated with those events that are distinguished by the topological number $`n=1`$. Continuing the incoming wave along the counter $`C^{}`$ with $`n=1`$ in Fig.1 one reproduces the reflection coefficient Eq.(5) as an eigenvalue of this transformation.

Alternatively, the effect of reflection can be described in the semiclassical approximation, with the help of the classical action $`S(𝐫,t)`$. For the metric (1) the variables are separated $`S(𝐫,t)=\epsilon t+L\phi +S(r)`$, where $`\phi `$ is the azimuthal angle. The radial part of the action $`S(r)`$ found from the Hamilton-Jacobi classical equations of motion $`g^{\kappa \lambda }_\kappa S_\lambda S=\mu ^2`$ reads $`S(r)=S_0(r)`$ (see e.g. misner\_thorne\_wheeler\_1973 ), where

$`S_0(r)={\displaystyle ^r}\left[\epsilon ^2\left(\mu ^2+L^2/r^2\right)\left(11/r\right)\right]^{1/2}{\displaystyle \frac{dr}{11/r}}.`$ (6)
On the horizon this action possesses the logarithmic singularity

$$S_0(r)\epsilon \mathrm{ln}(r1),r1.$$
(7)
Eqs.(3),(7) shows that the wave function on the horizon exhibits a semiclassical behavior $`\varphi _{\mathrm{in}}^{(0)}(r)=\mathrm{exp}[iS_0(r)]`$. Therefore the found above suppressing factor $`k=\mathrm{exp}(\pi \epsilon )`$ that describes the crossing of the horizon can be attributed to the semiclassical approximation. Moreover, all arguments regarding the behavior of the incoming and outgoing waves in Eq.(4) can be reproduced semiclassically. One takes the proper incoming wave for $`r>1`$, then continue it along the contour C in Fig. 1 (which can be transformed into a series of contours C1-C5) and end up with the proper outgoing wave. These purely semiclassical arguments supports validity of Eqs.(4),(5). The derivation given holds for arbitrary $`\mu ,\epsilon ,L`$. However, to allow the particle a classically allowed propagation from the horizon towards the infinity the classical momentum must be real for $`1r<\mathrm{}`$. To satisfy this condition it suffices to have either $`L/2\mu `$ for arbitrary energy $`\epsilon \mu `$, or $`L(3\sqrt{3}/2)\epsilon `$ for the ultraleativistic case $`\epsilon \mu `$.

Thus the reflection ability of black holes arises from the logarithmic singularity of the classical action (7). It is important that this singularity is an invariant property of the action that persists even in those coordinates that eliminate the singularity of the metric and classical equations of motion. Consider for example convenient Kruskal coordinates $`U,V`$ that are defined by equations

$`U/V=\mathrm{exp}(t),UV=(1r)\mathrm{exp}(r).`$ (8)
Fig. 2 shows that there are four regions of the space-time, see Ref.misner\_thorne\_wheeler\_1973  for detailed discussion. Areas I and III represent two identical copies of the outside region; II, IV show two inside regions. They all are divided by the horizon located at $`U=0`$, or $`V=0`$. The incoming particle follows the trajectory AB and, crossing the horizon, resides in II. There are also the outgoing trajectories; following the trajectory CD the particle escapes from the inside region IV into the outside world I. Areas II and IV are not connected, which ensures (classical) confinement of the incoming particle trapped in II.

In Kruskal coordinates the metric is regular on the horizon, also regular are the classical equations of motion that on the horizon read simply $`V=const`$ for $`|U||V|1`$ and $`U=const`$ for $`|V||U|1`$. However, the singularity of the action remains intact. It can be conveniently presented in terms of the action $`𝒮=\epsilon tS_0(r)`$, where the minus and plus signs are for the incoming and outgoing trajectories respectively,

$`𝒮\{\begin{array}{c}\hfill \epsilon \mathrm{ln}(V^2),|U||V|1,\\ \hfill \epsilon \mathrm{ln}(U^2),|V||U|1.\end{array}`$ (11)
The wave function (4) can be presented in a more general form

$`|\varphi _{\mathrm{in}}=|\mathrm{in}+|\mathrm{out}.`$ (12)
Here the variable $`t`$ is included in the wave function $`|\varphi _{\mathrm{in}}\mathrm{exp}(i\epsilon t)\varphi _{\mathrm{in}}(r)`$, permitting convenient presentation for the proper incoming $`|\mathrm{in}`$ and outgoing $`|\mathrm{out}`$ waves, which in the vicinity of the horizon read

$`|\mathrm{in}=\mathrm{exp}[i\epsilon \mathrm{ln}(V^2)],|\mathrm{out}=\mathrm{exp}[i\epsilon \mathrm{ln}(U^2)].`$ (13)
Since the semiclassical picture is valid on the horizon, one can associate the proper incoming wave, i.e. the first term in (12), with the incoming trajectories, see AB in Fig. 2. Correspondingly, the second term, the proper outgoing wave, is associated with the outgoing trajectories, see CD. Eq.(12) shows that effects associated with these different classical trajectories are mixed in the wave function of the incoming particle.

Notice that the effects that look completely isolated in the classical description interfere in the wave function (12). We proved this fact above for the outside region I, where $`U<0,V>0`$. However, it can be argued that this form of the wave function remains valid in a more general case because the wave functions in (12),(13) are symmetrical under the transformations $`UU,VV`$. These transformations convert an event in the outside region I into an event in one of the inside regions II, or IV. Following this line of arguments one concludes that quantum description of any event in any region, inside or outside, is based on the wave function (12) that includes two terms: the proper incoming and outgoing waves.

Consider implications of this fact for a particle that in the classical approximation is confined in the inside region. Describing its behavior with the help of the wave function (12) one concludes that there exists a probability $`𝒫_{\mathrm{esc}}||^2=\mathrm{exp}(\epsilon /T)`$ for this particle to populate the outgoing wave and escape into the outside world. We see that on the quantum level confinement cannot be absolute, the locked in particle can escape into the outside world. Thus the black hole creates a flux of outgoing particles escaping from its inside region. It is instructive to consider the black hole behavior inside the temperature bath with the temperature equal to the Hawking temperature $`T=1/(4\pi )`$. In this imaginary experiment the black hole absorbs the particles produced by the temperature bath and emits particles that escape from its inside region. Considering the ratio of the probability to escape to the probability to be absorbed $`𝒫_{\mathrm{abs}}`$, one finds 111There is a finite probability to cross the event horizon $`𝒫_{\mathrm{cr}}=1𝒫`$, where $`𝒫`$ accounts for the reflection (5), but since $`𝒫_{\mathrm{esc}}`$ and $`𝒫_{\mathrm{pen}}`$ are both proportional to this crossing probability it is canceled out in (14).

$`𝒫_{\mathrm{esc}}/𝒫_{\mathrm{abs}}=\mathrm{exp}(\epsilon /T).`$ (14)
This shows that the black hole remains in equilibrium with the temperature bath and hence has the temperature $`T=1/(4\pi )`$, as was discovered in Ref.hawking\_1974 , see also discussion in Ref.hartle\_hawking\_1976 . The phenomenon of the Hawking radiation is usually explained by creation of pairs in the gravitational field. As we see, Eq.(12) proposes an alternative simple explanation: the radiation happens because the wave function of a particle that is confined inside the horizon incorporates an admixture of the outgoing wave that gives the particle a chance to escape into the outside world.

Quantum corrections alter the fundamental properties of the event horizon. In the classical approximation this is an area that the incoming particle penetrates through smoothly going inside, but which becomes impassable in the opposite direction. Quantum effects change both these properties. They make possible the reflection from the horizon that shows that the horizon presents some obstacle for the incoming particle. The reflection is the more prominent the lower is the energy, for $`\epsilon <T`$ the black hole behaves as a mirror, which is surprising. Quantum corrections also make possible the Hawking radiation that can be described as an escape of the particle from the inside region of a black hole, which shows that the horizon is transparent for the inside-out transition.

The discussed phenomena follow from the fact that the classical action is singular on the horizon 222 Different behavior of the action and classical equations of motion bears resemblance with the Aharonov-Bohm effect, in which the action depends on the magnetic flux, while classical trajectories do not., making singular the semiclassical wave function and ultimately resulting in Eq.(12). There is a topological aspect of the quantum problem. It arises because the singularity of the wave equation on the horizon can be associated with the particular topological charge $`n`$ that counts winding of the trajectory of the probing particle around the horizon on the complex $`r`$-plane. The reflective and radiative abilities of black holes are associated with topologically nontrivial trajectories with $`n=1`$. This result makes the topological charge an interesting characteristic of the Schwarzschild geometry of the space-time. Generalization of the discussed results for the Kerr-Neumann charged rotating black holes is given in Ref.kuchiev3\_2003 . It verifies validity of Eq.(12) for this case as well, deriving from it the phenomena of reflection and Hawking radiation.

Discussions with V.V.Flambaum are appreciated. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council.


text:
# 1 Single neutron separation energy as a function of Z for fixed N

New proton and neutron magic numbers in neutron rich nuclei

Afsar Abbas
Institute of Physics

Bhubaneshwar-751005, India

email: afsar@iopb.res.in

Abstract

It is now known that in neutron rich nuclei, old magic numbers disappear and new ones appear. Single nucleon and double nucleon separation energies are plotted here in all possible manner.Using this data it is shown here for the first time that nuclei with pair of proton number Z and neutron number N ( Z,N ) : (6,12), (8,16), (10,20), (11,22) and (12,24) exhibit exceptional stability or magicity. As such these magic numbers appear in pairs. This correlation is shown here to be indicative of predominance of tritons in the ground state of these neutron rich nuclei. Thus $`{}_{10}{}^{30}Ne_{20}`$ has the structure of 10 $`{}_{1}{}^{3}H_{2}^{}`$ in the ground state. This confirms the prediction of the author that triton clustering in neutron rich nuclei as a new phenomenon.

The study of neutron rich nuclei with the help of RI beams has been proving to be full of surprizes. First the halo structure cropped up and now the realization that in the neutron rich nuclei the standard magic numbers may disappear and new ones may arise in an unanticipated manner . In this letter the focus is the study of these new magicities in neutron rich nuclei. Single nucleon and double nucleon separation energies are analyzed in the standard manner and also in a slightly different manner as discussed below. Evidence for new magic numbers will be discussed. Interestingly proton and neutron numbers are found to be uniquely and consistently correlated in these new magiciies. It shall be pointed out that the only possible way to understand this correlation is through the effect of triton clustering in neutron rich nuclei. It will be emphasized that triton clustering - a new effect predicted by the author , is for real.

To discuss magicity one normally plots separation energies $`S_{1n}`$ and $`S_{2n}`$ as a function of neutron number $`N`$ for a particular proton number $`Z`$ or plot $`S_{1p}`$ and $`S_{2p}`$ as a function of $`Z`$ for a particular $`N`$. It is very common to plot $`S_{2n}`$ and look for kinks as evidence for magicity . In addition to plotting the separation energies in the above standard manner, we plot the separation energies a little differently. We plot $`S_{1n}`$ and $`S_{2n}`$ as a function of $`Z`$ for a particular $`N`$. The same with $`S_{1p}`$ and $`S_{2p}`$ as a function of N for a particular Z. We shall find here that these new plots give useful and distinguishable information regarding stabilty and magicity in these light nuclei.

We plot separation energies for neutron number N and for proton number Z fixed separately at 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 16, 20, 22 and 24. For example Fig 1 and Fig 2 are respectively plots of $`S_{1n}`$ and $`S_{2n}`$ for fixed N= 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 16, 20, 22 and 24 plotted as a function of Z. Figs 3 and 4 are respectively plots of $`S_{1n}`$ and $`S_{2n}`$ for fixed Z= 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 16, 20, 22 and 24 as a function of N. Figs 5 and 6 plot $`S_{1p}`$ and $`S_{2p}`$ respectively for N fixed at the above set as a function of Z and Figs. 7 and 8 are $`S_{1p}`$ and $`S_{2p}`$ plotted respectively for Z fixed at the above set for different N. So what we have plotted are N fixed ( isotones ) for $`S_{1n}`$, $`S_{2n}`$, $`S_{1p}`$ and $`S_{2p}`$ all as functions of Z and also for Z fixed ( isotopes ) $`S_{1n}`$, $`S_{2n}`$, $`S_{1p}`$ and $`S_{2p}`$ all as functions of Z.

In every case we notice the extra stabilty for all the cases wherein N=Z. This extra stability for even-even N=Z nuclei is attributed to the significance of $`\alpha `$ clusters. So for $`{}_{10}{}^{20}Ne_{10}`$ ground state it is the 5-$`\alpha `$ configuration which is believed to be important and thereby providing extra stabilty.

The reader’s attention is drawn to the extra-ordinary stabilty manifested by the plotted data for the proton and neutron pairs (Z,N): (6,12), (8,16), (10,20), (11,22) and (12,24). The stabilty at these pair of numbers is sometimes as prominent as that at the N=Z pair. In fact the Z,N pair (10,20) stands out as the best example of this. Hence it is clear that the separation energy data very clearly shows that there are new magicities present in the neutron rich sector for the pair (Z,N) where N=2Z.

What is the significance of this extraordianry stabilty or magicity for the nuclei $`{}_{Z}{}^{3Z}A_{2Z}^{}`$? We already know that for the even-even Z=N cases it is the significance of $`\alpha `$ clustering for the ground state of these nuclei which explains this extra stabilty. Quite clearly the only way we can explain the extra magicity for these N=2Z nuclei is by invoking the significance of triton clustering in the ground state of these netron rich nuclei. Thus $`{}_{10}{}^{30}Ne_{20}`$ has significant mixture of the configuration 10 $`{}_{1}{}^{3}H_{2}^{}`$ in the ground state. It is these tritonic clusters which give the extra stabilty to these nuclei thereby provoding us whith these unique new sets of magic numbers.

This tenedency of triton clustering in neutron rich nuclei was already predicted by the author a few years ago . The present paper shows that there is indeed strong empirical evidence in support of the author’s predicion . If fact this may be treated as ”smoking gun” kind of evidence in support of significane of triton clusters in the ground state of $`{}_{Z}{}^{3Z}A_{2Z}^{}`$ nuclei.

One may ask to why the stabilty for a particular set is not manifesting itself in all the plots. One reason is that due to the limitation of the span of individual isotones and individual isotopes over the corresponding (Z,N) sets may not be rich enough. So it seems that neither the very low mass nor the high mass nuclei would provide discriminatory evidence in this regard. Intermediate mass nuclei like $`{}_{10}{}^{30}Ne_{20}`$ tend to show up this effect most prominently for the isotonic data. However there may be other pairs like (4,8) where though somewhat weaker there does appear to be manifestation of possible magic pairs. In this regard significance of the presence of different clusters like $`\alpha `$ and/or tritons for the ground state of a particular nucleus and also whether it is proton/protons or neutron/neutrons being pulled out will manifest itself in the structure of the data. This point is at present under investigation by the author.

Once the triton clustering aspect of nucleus $`{}_{Z}{}^{3Z}A_{2Z}^{}`$ is understood then extra stabilities in the intermediate cases like N=20 stabilty in $`S_{2n}`$ data for Z=16 can be understood as tendency of triton clustering to bring it about. One should be able to understand theses extra stabilities as mixing in the shell model configuration of $`\alpha `$ \- clustering and t-clustering configurations. Similarly the helion (”h”) $`{}_{2}{}^{3}He_1`$ configuration may manifest itself especially in odd-odd N=Z nuclei. One alreday knows that h-t configuration mixes considerably with $`\alpha `$-n-p configuration to give a good understanding of the ground state of $`{}_{3}{}^{6}Li_3`$ . Similar must be the case for the Z=12 stabilty of N=22 case of $`S_{2n}`$ where all - $`\alpha `$-, t- and h- clustering may all be playing a role. Such cases have to be sorted and worked out in the future. Also there would be other explicit manifestations of triton clustering in data and which should be looked for. Here the purpose has been to bring out a few clear cut cases of the same so that there can be no doubt as to the correctness of the idea .

In short, here the aim is to understand as to which new magic numbers are arising in the neutron rich nuclei. With this aim single nucleon and double nucleon separation energies are plotted here in all possible manner. It is shown here that nuclei with pair of proton number Z and neutron number N (Z,N) : (6,12), (8,16), (10,20), (11,22) and (12,24) ( and possibly (4,8) ) exhibit exceptional stability or magicity. This correlation is shown to prove the significance of tritons in the ground state of these neutron rich nuclei. Thus $`{}_{10}{}^{30}Ne_{20}`$ has the structure of 10 $`{}_{1}{}^{3}H_{2}^{}`$ in the ground state. This confirms the prediction of the author on the tendency of triton clustering in neutron rich nuclei . Whole new questions shall arise from this new empirical fact.

Acknowledgement: I would like to thank Dr P Arumugam for the figures.

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