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# Analysing the database for stars in open clusters I. General methods and description of the data

## 1 Introduction

The study of open clusters is very important in several respects. It allow one to estimate different important astrophysical parameters within individual clusters as well as the study of the wider solar neighbourhood concerning its structure.

For this purpose it is essential to have a homogeneous set of photometric and additional (e.g. membership probability, proper motion) data for a statisticaly significant number of open clusters.

One of the most compelling databases in this respect is the WEBDA interface which has been developed at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. It offers astrometric data in the form of coordinates, rectangular positions, and some proper motions, photometric data in the major systems in which star clusters have been observed (e.g. Johnson-Cousins $`UBVRI`$, Strömgren $`uvby\beta `$ and Geneva 7-color), spectroscopic data, like spectral classification, radial velocities, rotational velocities. It also contains miscellaneous types of data like membership probabilities, orbital elements of spectroscopic binaries and periods of variability for different kinds of variable stars. Finally a whole set of bibliographic references allows the community to locate the relevant publications for each individual cluster easily.

In this first paper we present the compilation of 573 open clusters for which photometric measurements are available within WEBDA. The statistical methods used to derived weighted means are described. Lists with objects showing deviating photometric measurements within one system and/or different observing techniques (photographic, photoelectric and CCD) were generated. We discuss the internal and external measurement accuracies based on a statistically significant sample of independent sources from the literature.

Our final goal of paper II will be the determination of the ages, distances and reddening for the presented open clusters using the newest isochrones. This analysis will include the Johnson-Cousins $`UBVRI`$ and Strömgren $`uvby\beta `$ photometric systems and should supersede the work of Janes & Adler (1982) who presented a compilation of 434 open cluster of our Milky Way for which they summarized the reddening, ages and distances from 610 references in order to analyse the galactic structure. Their compilation was highly nonuniform since they made no attempt to redetermine the appropriate astrophysical parameters.

## 2 Description of the database

WEBDA (accessible via http://obswww.unige.ch/webda/) and its predecessor BDA has been developed since 1987 at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Lausanne, Switzerland by JCM. The progress of its development was described by Mermilliod (1988, 1992, 1995). We will give here a brief overview of its current status and content.

The database tries to collect all published data for stars in open clusters that may be useful either to determine the star membership, or to study the stellar content and properties of the clusters.

It is divided into three levels: 1) database; 2) cluster and 3) star level.

The database contents includes measurements in most photometric systems in which cluster stars have been observed, spectroscopic observations, astrometric data, various kinds of useful information, and extensive bibliography. It is possible to perform selection of clusters based on the amount of available data. The data are usually recorded in their original form, with an indication of the source, but also as averaged values or selected data when relevant.

The greatest effort has been spent in solving the identification problems raised by the definition of so many different numbering systems and a special interface has been developed to query the cross-reference tables.

Maps for more than 200 clusters have been scanned and included in the database. They are active maps and permit to retrieve basic data (e.g. positions, cross identifications and Johnson $`UBV`$ values) simply by clicking on the star images.

The database structure uses the directory hierarchy supported by the Unix system. The main directory is the database itself. It contains several sub-directories: description of the database, help information, references, bibliography, programs and perl scripts. Each cluster defines an independent directory identified by its name and containing the available data in distinct files, one for each data type. This structure allows easy inclusion of any new cluster and any additional data type.

Whenever possible, the records of the various data files have the same structure: star identification, source, data. The files are organised sequentially and, within the files, the entries are sorted by star number and source reference.

The star identification is the main key to access the data, but it is also possible to use filters based on the bibliographic references or astrophysical parameters.

The database engine WEBDA is a relational database built upon the package “/rdb” developed by Manis et al. (1988) which is a high performance relational database management and application development system designed for Unix environments.

Samples of clusters can be obtained by performing a selection on the clusters parameters, i.e. coordinates, distances, ages, diameters. The form prepared permits to do the selection on all parameters simultaneously. Clusters may also be selected on active plots, drawing the clusters in right ascension versus declination plane, galactic longitude versus latitude, distance from the Sun or above the galactic plane.

The database is in a dynamic growing process as new data are published and included. Table 1 lists an excerpt of the content of WEBDA based on the status from the 8th April 2003. This date is also used as a “deadline” for our final analysis.

## 3 Analysis and compilation of the data

The final goal of this extensive statistical analysis is not only to investigate the consistency of the published data but more importantly to derive ages, reddening values and distances for a large number of open clusters. It is therefore necessary to select photometric systems for which enough data and appropriate isochrones are available. Table 1 lists the numbers for the most common photometric systems included in WEBDA. From a close inspection we have chosen the following photometric systems for our analysis:

* Johnson $`UBV`$; photographic, photoelectric and CCD measurements
* Cousins $`VI`$; CCD
* Cousins $`VRI`$; photoelectric and CCD
* Strömgren $`uvby\beta `$; photoelectric and CCD
* $`RGU`$; photographic, for comparison

We have not included the Johnson $`VI`$ systems because there are usually only a few measurements for the brightest objects within one cluster making an isochrone fitting impossible. The Geneva 7-color system is outstanding compared to the other photometric systems. For most of the open clusters, only the brightest members are investigated whereas for a few ones also the faintest members were observed. Furthermore, WEBDA already includes the mean values for all these objects, so no improvement can be done within our analysis. We have used the data of the Geneva 7-color system for several open clusters in order to check the results from the other photometric systems.

The list with available photometric data in the mentioned above systems contains 573 open clusters (listed in Table 2) with a total of 469820 objects.

The data analysis of the relevant photometric systems includes several different steps in order to perform a careful check of the homogeneity of the individual sources. Much effort was already spent to improve the homogeneity of WEBDA by investigating the published data, finding charts and listed coordinates (Mermilliod 1988, 1992, 1995). This process is very time consuming and not straightforward. During the first stages of our new analysis we have already found some wrongly identified objects and misprints in the literature. These errors have already been fixed in WEBDA. But we have to emphasize that these are only the “eye hitting” divergences, still there are many unsolved cases (see the lists mentioned above) which have to be investigated in the future.

As the first step of our analysis we have checked the intrinsic consistency of different sources for one photometric system (e.g. photographic Johnson $`UBV`$ data) of all individual open clusters. In general, we have used the following (very conventional) limits for a measurement being “oustanding” if the difference of the data are larger than:

* 0.5 mag: $`UBV`$ photographic; $`RGU`$
* 0.2 mag: $`UBV`$, $`VRIc`$, photoelectric and CCD; $`uvby`$, photoelectric
* 0.1 mag: $`uvby`$, CCD; $`\beta `$ photoelectric and CCD

The compiled list includes 4467 entries (2914 from photographic measurements). Excluding these objects, we have searched for intrinsic correlations for data sets which have more than five objects in common using a simple linear correlation algorithm. We only find twelve statistically significant deviating cases for ten open clusters. These deviating cases are listed in Table 3. Paunzen & Maitzen (2002) reported one deviating case for NGC 6451 for which they were able to show that the photometry by Piatti et al. (1998) has an unidentified error and was therefore excluded from our analysis.

As a next step we have used the averaged mean values of different photometric systems (e.g. $`UBV`$ photographic and photoelectric) to search for “external” discrepancies between measurements for the individual clusters. Again, a list of outstanding objects was created with the limits given as:

$$limit(ext)=\sqrt{limit(system_1)^2+limit(system_2)^2}$$
(1)
This list has 7061 entries. Table 4 shows the deviating data sets from this external check. Figure 1 shows three examples for the Johnson $`UBV`$ system graphically.

Since it is well known that photographic measurements have in general larger errors we have used averages of photoelectric and CCD data only. If such data are not available, photographic ones were used. The final averaged weighted values were calculated following the approach described in Mermilliod & Mermilliod (1994) which is a two step iterative procedure. The first step consists of a weighted mean, the weight being the number of measurements to the 2/3 power. The next step uses the differences between the weighted mean and the individual values to compute new weighted mean values. This procedure gives a lower weight to discrepant values.

We also find a few cases (e.g. for NGC 6705) for which data sets show a trend within different photometric systems, e.g. $`(UB)_{Set1}(UB)_{Set2}`$ versus $`(BV)_{Set1}`$. There is no straightforward solution for these data sets. However, we have excluded those data from our final analysis.

The complete tables with the available weighted mean values will be available at WEBDA only or upon request from the authors.

## 4 Discussion

For the analysis of the overall accuracies of the available data sets, we have used Gaussian distributions (Christensen 1996) to fit the histograms of all mean values for the different data. The calculated histograms were normalized to the overall percentage of the sum. The results for the Johnson $`UBV`$ and Strömgren $`uvby\beta `$ photometric systems are summarized in Figs 2 to 4. These figures include the most important fit parameters such as the mean value, width, $`R^2`$, $`\chi ^2`$ as well as the the number of data sets and objects. The corresponding histograms in the other photometric systems are not plotted since there are too few data points to compare which makes a statistically sound analysis impossible.

The way of calibrating observed magnitudes is either to simultaneously measure “well established” standard stars or to use already known standard transformations for the individual telescope and filter set. Both approaches are certainly not straightforward. Sung & Bessell (2000) summarize and discuss the problems concerning the variations of atmospheric extinction coefficients, transformation equations, different filter systems, CCDs as well as the difference between two sets of standard stars (SAAO and Landolt). They also include a compelling list of references concerning this special topic.

It is out of the scope of this statistical analysis to reproduce the used transformation technique of the individual references. We have to rely on the published data. The only possible check is to search for misidentified objects or typos. Otherwise undetected variability of any kind could also lead to several divergent observations, again a fact which we are not able to prove.

We will now discuss the internal and the external accuracy separately.

### 4.1 The internal accuracy

The most important check for the reliability of published data is the comparison with other independent measurements within the same photometric system and the same technique. Figure 2 shows the histograms (bin size is 0.02 mag) for the Johnson $`UBV`$ system. We have separated the photographic, photoelectric and CCD measurements.

The histograms are based on a statistically significant number of individual data sets and objects. The only exception is CCD measurements for $`UB`$. This is probably caused by the insensitivity of the modern CCD detectors in the ultraviolet region which makes the observations in the standard $`U`$ band almost impossible. From Fig. 2 we are able to conclude:

* The bandwidth of the Gaussian distributions for the photographic measurements is twice ($``$0.09 mag) as large as the corresponding ones from the other two sources
* The only exception is the CCD $`V`$ data which might be due to the relative faintness and thus the larger observational error reach with this technique
* All mean values of the fitted distributions are close to zero

The corresponding histograms for the Strömgren $`uvby\beta `$ photometric system have a bin size of 0.01 mag and are shown in Fig 3. The widths of the fitted distributions are all between 0.01 and 0.03 mag which shows the high quality of the published data.

In total, 4467 deviating measurements were found (Sect. 3) within 4056 different data sets and 266779 objects. This corresponds to 1.7 % which is an extremely low percentage. If we exclude the outlyers from photographic measurements, this percentage even lowers to 0.6 %.

### 4.2 The external accuracy

After having shown that the accuracies within the individual photometric systems are very good. We then investigated the errors for different measurement techniques and thus mainly different quantum efficiencies characteristics of detectors.

Figure 4 shows the result for the Johnson $`UBV`$ photometric system (bin size is 0.02 mag). The results for the other systems are similar. We have summarized the data for $`V`$, $`BV`$ and $`UB`$, otherwise we would run into poor number statistics. However, it shows that the distributions for the three different indices with the same detector technique are essentially the same.

The bandwidth of the Gaussian distributions for comparison of the photoelectric data sets (upper and lower panel) is about 0.05 mag whereas the comparison of the CCD versus photographic measurements results in an almost three times higher value (0.12 mag). This reflects the most different quantum efficiency characteristics of these detectors whereas the photoelectric one is in between. In addition, the larger scatter may be due to the faintness of the photographically observed objects. Usually, the photoelectric data magnitude limit is brighter than that of the photographic one. We conclude that the photoelectric measurements are still the most valuable to connect the photographic to the CCD ones.

This analysis is based on 1960 data sets with 292770 measurements. Again, the number of deviating data points is surprisingly low (7061 or 2.4 %). This shows the high capability of WEBDA to analyse the astrophysical properties of open clusters in the Milky Way.

## 5 Conclusions and outlook

The enormous amount of photometric data within WEBDA was analysed in order to check for the internal and external accuracies of published data for open clusters. This analysis is based on photographic, photoelectric and CCD measurements for five different photometric systems which includes 573 open clusters and 469820 objects. The way of weighting and averaging the data is described.

We have investigated 4056 data sets which have more than five objects in common and concluded that the internal accuracies are very good. The accuracy is best for the Strömgren $`uvby\beta `$ system and drops significantly towards photographic Johnson $`UBV`$ data. Less than 2 % of deviating measurements were found and tabulated.

A surprisingly good agreement between photoelectric and photographic as well as CCD data was found. The higher error for CCD versus photographic data reflects the differences of the individual quantum efficiency curves of these systems. Nevertheless, the amount and homogenity of data will allow us to derive astrophysical parameters such as the ages, distances and reddenings for the 573 open clusters investigated. This will be done in a second paper which includes isochrone fitting and the discussion of different statistical issues concerning the structure of our Milky Way.

###### Acknowledgements.

EP acknowledges partial support by the Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, project P14984.


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# The pion electromagnetic form factor

## 1 MOTIVATION

The pion form factor is a convenient way to study the transition from perturbative to nonperturbative QCD. This transition is typically expected to occur at a smaller $`Q^2`$ than for the nucleon, and should thus be more easily attainable in experiments and in lattice studies. Also, the asymptotic normalization of the pion form factor is known in terms of $`f_\pi `$. In addition, lattice simulations of the pion form factor benefit from the complete absence of “disconnected” quark diagrams.

Some experimental data already exist, another experiment is in progress right now at Jefferson Lab, and measurements at higher $`Q^2`$ are planned for the future..

Pioneering lattice QCD studies were carried out in the 1980’s, and only recently has the pion form factor been revisited using lattice methods. In light of the substantial experimental effort, it is important to produce lattice QCD results with significantly smaller quark masses than have yet been employed, and eventually to attain larger values of $`Q^2`$. Unquenched simulations will also be important. Here, after a general discussion of correlation functions, the issue of smaller quark masses will be addressed using quenched Wilson data.

## 2 CORRELATION FUNCTIONS

The electromagnetic form factor is obtained in lattice QCD simulations by placing a charged pion creation operator at Euclidean time $`t_i`$,

a charged pion annihilation operator at $`t_f`$, and a vector current insertion at $`t`$ as shown in Fig. 1. A standard determination of 12 columns in the inverse of the quark matrix provides the two propagators that originate from $`t_i`$. The remaining propagator is obtained for any particular annihilation operator, having definite momentum $`\stackrel{}{p}_f`$, by a two step procedure: the propagator from $`t_i`$ to $`t_f`$ is multiplied by the annihilation operator and that product is used as the input for a second 12-column linear algebra step. This determines the entire thick quark line of Fig. 1. The momenta at the source ($`\stackrel{}{p}_i`$) and at the insertion ($`\stackrel{}{q}`$) can then be varied freely without computing new propagators. Since the largest $`Q^2`$ is attained in the Breit frame ($`\stackrel{}{p}_f=\stackrel{}{p}_i`$), the simple choice of $`\stackrel{}{p}_f=\stackrel{}{0}`$ is not always desirable.

The form factor, $`F(Q^2)`$, is defined by

$`\pi (\stackrel{}{p}_f)\left|V_\mu (0)\right|\pi (\stackrel{}{p}_i)_{\mathrm{continuum}}`$ (1)
$`=Z_V\pi (\stackrel{}{p}_f)\left|V_\mu (0)\right|\pi (\stackrel{}{p}_i)=F(Q^2)(p_i+p_f)_\mu `$
where $`V_\mu (x)`$ is the chosen vector current. $`F(Q^2)`$ can be extracted from ratios of lattice correlation functions. The three-point correlator is

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\pi \mu \pi }^{AB}(t_i,t,t_f,\stackrel{}{p}_i,\stackrel{}{p}_f)=a^9{\displaystyle \underset{\stackrel{}{x}_i,\stackrel{}{x}_f}{}}e^{i(\stackrel{}{x}_f\stackrel{}{x})\stackrel{}{p}_f}`$
$`\times e^{i(\stackrel{}{x}\stackrel{}{x}_i)\stackrel{}{p}_i}0\left|\varphi _B(x_f)V_\mu (x)\varphi _A^{}(x_i)\right|0`$ (2)
where $`A(L,S)`$ and $`B(L,S)`$ denote either “local” or “smeared”. Inserting complete sets of hadron states and requiring $`t_itt_f`$, gives

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\pi \mu \pi }^{AB}(t_i,t,t_f,\stackrel{}{p}_i,\stackrel{}{p}_f)0\left|\varphi _B(x)\right|\pi (\stackrel{}{p}_f)`$
$`\times \pi (\stackrel{}{p}_f)\left|V_\mu (x)\right|\pi (\stackrel{}{p}_i)\pi (\stackrel{}{p}_i)\left|\varphi _A^{}(x)\right|0`$
$`\times {\displaystyle \frac{a^3}{4E_fE_i}}e^{(t_ft)E_f}e^{(tt_i)E_i}.`$ (3)
Similarly for the two-point correlator,

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\pi \pi }^{AB}(t_i,t_f,\stackrel{}{p})0\left|\varphi _B(x_i)\right|\pi (\stackrel{}{p})`$
$`\times \pi (\stackrel{}{p})\left|\varphi _A^{}(x_i)\right|0{\displaystyle \frac{a^3}{2E}}e^{(t_ft_i)E}.`$ (4)
Finally, consider operators that are temporally local, but spatially smeared democratically among the three spatial axes:

$`a^20\left|\varphi _L(x)\right|\pi (\stackrel{}{p})`$ $`=`$ $`Z_Le^{ixp},`$ (5)
$`a^20\left|\varphi _S(x)\right|\pi (\stackrel{}{p})`$ $`=`$ $`Z_S(|\stackrel{}{p}|)e^{ixp}.`$ (6)
From this discussion, it is found that the following expression for the form factor is independent of $`Z_L`$, $`Z_S(|\stackrel{}{p}|)`$, and all time exponentials:

$`F(Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\pi 4\pi }^{AB}(t_i,t,t_f,\stackrel{}{p}_i,\stackrel{}{p}_f)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\pi \pi }^{CL}(t_i,t,\stackrel{}{p}_f)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\pi \pi }^{AL}(t_i,t,\stackrel{}{p}_i)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\pi \pi }^{CB}(t_i,t_f,\stackrel{}{p}_f)}}`$ (7)
$`\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{2Z_VE_f}{E_i+E_f}}\right),`$
where the indices $`A`$, $`B`$ and $`C`$ can be either $`L`$ (local) or $`S`$ (smeared). For a conserved current, $`Z_V1`$.

## 3 ACTION AND PARAMETERS

Our initial explorations have used the (quenched) Wilson action with $`\beta =6`$, so $`a0.10`$ fm. Periodic boundary conditions are used except for the quark temporal boundaries, which are Dirichlet. Hopping parameters and lattice sizes are shown in Table 1; the resulting pseudoscalar and vector meson masses are also listed. Notice that the smallest pion mass is less than 300 MeV, and therefore significantly below those used in previous studies of the pion form factor. The pion operators are fixed at $`t_i=7`$ and $`t_f=21`$ except for the $`32^3\times 48`$ lattices, where $`t_f=28`$. The standard point-split conserved vector current is used. A gauge-covariant Gaussian smearing is employed at the source,

$$b(x)\left(1+\frac{\omega \stackrel{}{}U}{N}\right)^Nb(x).$$
(8)
The various results shown here are based on the analysis of between 80 and 155 configurations.

## 4 PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Representative plots of the data are shown in Fig. 2. For each of the smaller hopping parameters, there is a reasonable plateau at timesteps sufficiently far from the pion operators (timesteps 0 and 14). For $`\kappa =0.1563`$ and 0.1566, the possible plateau spans only a few timesteps.

Correlated fits to the data have produced Fig. 3 which shows the form factor as a function of $`Q^2`$ for each available $`\kappa `$. For comparison, the monopole curve $`1/(1+Q^2/m_\rho ^2)`$ is also shown where $`m_\rho `$ denotes the physical $`\rho `$ meson mass. Notice that the experimental measurements from Ref.  lie on the monopole curve. For each $`\kappa `$ the lattice results also display a monopole form, and $`F(Q^2)`$ is found to decrease with decreasing quark mass as expected since the effective vector meson mass of the monopole form also shrinks with decreasing quark mass.

In conclusion, Eq. (7) is found to be a useful method for extracting the pion form factor. Simulations with domain-wall fermions are underway.

This work was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-84ER40150. Computations were performed on the 128-node Pentium IV cluster at JLab.


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# Unconventional superconductivity and normal state properties of 𝜀-iron at high pressure

## 1 Introduction

Since the discovery of superconductivity in the $`\epsilon `$ phase of iron under pressure , several observations have hinted that the electron pairing has an unconventional origin. Firstly, the restricted pressure range of the superconducting (SC) state is hard to explain by BCS theory . The partial resistive transitions observed implied an unusual sensitivity to disorder, a characteristic property of certain unconventional superconductors. Proximity to the ferromagnetic phase suggests that spin fluctuations could be involved in the relevant electronic interactions.

Subsequent experiments confirmed the unusual properties of $`\epsilon `$-Fe. An attempt to observe superconductivity in a high purity commercial sample failed *\[sample #0, Goodfellow 4N+, with impurities (ppm): Ag $`<`$ 1; Al $`<`$ 1;Cu $`<`$ 1; Si 1\]*. However, to achieve the dimensions necessary for a pressure experiment, the sample had been rolled down to a thickness of around 3$`\mu `$m, introducing disorder which significantly raised its residual resistivity.

Further experiments succeeded in obtaining complete superconducting resistive transitions  when special care was taken over the choice of samples and their preparation, to avoid not only chemical impurities but structural disorder due to mechanical work.

Other indications about the nature of the superconductivity come from the normal state resistivity of the $`\epsilon `$ phase at low temperature. This appeared, at a pressure $`P=22.2`$GPa, to follow a $`T^{5/3}`$ power law with a strongly enhanced prefactor over a broad range of temperature, a $`T`$-dependence expected of a nearly ferromagnetic Fermi-liquid (NFFL). The presence of ferromagnetic fluctuations could imply $`p`$-wave triplet superconductivity, a scenario suggested in the case of ZrZn2 , which has many features in common with iron (partial resistive transitions, non-Fermi liquid power law, sensitivity to disorder). This stands in contrast with band structure calculations  where antiferromagnetic fluctuations are expected to dominate the ground state, and $`p`$-wave superconductivity is not favoured.

The nature of the pressure-driven bcc-hcp $`\alpha `$-$`\epsilon `$ transition complicates the situation. The transition is martensitic , and its pressure width (but not its hysteretic behaviour) is highly dependent on the pressure conditions . In the quasi-hydrostatic conditions of the steatite medium used in our experiments, where pressure gradients are up to 5%, this should lead to a transition spread over at least 10 GPa, very similar to the SC pressure range. The superconductivity may therefore be somehow linked with the structural transition itself, rather than being an intrinsic property of the $`\epsilon `$ phase. In this series of experiments we have not addressed this question, though it may turn out to be a crucial one. Future studies using different pressure media should help to clarify the issue.

## 2 Experimental methods and sample preparation

The high pressure experiments were carried out using the same Bridgman anvil technique used for Ref. . The aim of these follow-up measurements was to explore further the role of structural disorder in the appearance or otherwise of superconductivity, and to confirm the non-Fermi liquid $`T^{5/3}`$ behaviour of the normal state resistivity in the $`\epsilon `$ phase.

We wished to investigate whether superconductivity could be destroyed, and/or recovered or induced by mechanical work and annealing, respectively. There were four samples in this study, three came from the superconducting batches reported in , one from Dresden (#6) and two from Osaka (#3,4). The remaining sample (#5) *\[Goodfellow 99.998% Fe, impurities (ppm): Ag $`<`$ 1; Al $`<`$ 1; Cu $`<`$ 1; Mg 1; Mn 1; Ni $`<`$ 1\]* was obtained from the same commercial metallurgical supplier as #0. No trace of superconductivity had been found in a previous investigation of sample #0, where the residual resistivity ratio (RRR) was 15. (The RRR is defined by $`\rho (298\mathrm{K})/\rho (4.2\mathrm{K})`$ and used as a measure of sample quality.)

The four samples were prepared as follows:
They were rolled down to a thickness appropriate for the pressure experiment($`15\mu \mathrm{m}`$). Initial RRR values of up to 300 were reduced to $``$50 by this operation. Three of the samples (#4–6) were subsequently annealed in an induction furnace for 24 hours at 1000$`{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}`$ in a high vacuum ($`<10^7\mathrm{mbar}`$). After annealing, RRRs in the range 245–310 were recovered in samples from all sources, and grain sizes comparable to the eventual sample length were observed. Sample (#3) was left unannealed.

The samples were then cut using a razor blade to the appropriate width and length. They were arranged in the pressure cell, along with a lead manometer, so that current passed through in series. Four-point resistance measurements could be carried out separately on each sample. A knowledge of the each sample’s dimensions enabled the absolute resistivity to be calculated with an error of less than 15% over the whole pressure range, neglecting the compressibility.

## 3 Experimental Results and Discussion

The effect of disorder on the superconducting state can be seen in Fig. 1, where the resistivity of three representative samples #0 #1 and #3 are shown at pressures close to the maximum $`T_\mathrm{c}(P)`$; their residual resistivities were 2.13, 0.77, and 1.19 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{cm}`$ respectively. With increasing disorder, measured by $`\rho _0`$, the resistive transition becomes only partially complete, then disappears entirely. The remaining samples had resistance drops somewhere between #1 and #3. A transition in #3, the unannealed sample, was only detectable once the pressure had reached 22 GPa, while the annealed samples started to show signs of superconductivity almost as soon as the structural transition had initiated (as identified in the room-temperature resistivity). Rolling and annealing thus have opposite effects, tending to suppress or restore the superconductivity, with associated $`\rho _0`$ variation. The metallurgical state, rather than the chemical impurity level appears to be the dominant factor. Sample #1, however, exhibited the highest $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ ($`2.5`$K). It was not annealed or rolled, but cut to shape with a diamond saw, implying that the annealing process may introduce some contamination which can affect $`T_\mathrm{c}`$. These results suggest that if $`\rho _0`$ can be lowered further, $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ values larger than 2.5 K could be obtained.

Figure 2 shows the relation $`\rho =\rho _0+AT^{5/3}`$ in sample #6 at several pressures, extending up to nearly 35$`K`$, with the upward deviation at higher temperature ascribed to electron-phonon scattering. Similar temperature dependence was seen in the other samples. If the exponent was allowed to vary, a fit of $`\rho =\rho _0+\stackrel{~}{A}T^n`$ gave $`n`$ between 1.66 and 1.75 over the entire superconducting pressure range. There is an evident change with pressure of the residual resistivity $`\rho _0`$, along with the temperature coefficient $`A`$.

The inset of Fig. 2 shows that the $`T^{5/3}`$ law remains valid down to very low temperature when the superconductivity is suppressed by a magnetic field of 1 T. The normal-state resistance varied with magnetic field $`B`$ as $`(\rho \rho _0)B^{3/2}`$ up to 8 T at 4.2 K and 700 mK.

Figure 3 shows the resistivity at room temperature and 4.2 K in a superconducting (#6) and a non-superconducting sample (#0) as the pressure is increased. The $`\alpha `$-$`\epsilon `$ transition is clearly visible at both temperatures, with a substantial increase in $`\rho `$. However, the martensitic $`\alpha `$-$`\epsilon `$ transition should start at $`p<10`$GPa in a steatite medium according to Mössbauer effect experiments . The kink observed in $`\rho `$ at higher pressures, around 12 GPa, with no precursor signs is therefore unexpected. It could nevertheless be attributed to the disconnection of the conducting $`\alpha `$ region by the growing amount of $`\epsilon `$ phase.

After a rounded maximum, the resistance at both temperatures drops quickly and more or less linearly with pressure, and in both cases can be extrapolated to the $`\alpha `$-Fe values at pressures close to the disappearance of superconductivity.

The origin of the pressure-induced change in resistivity at room temperature might be due to a change in the electron-phonon coupling, or more likely to the large increase in spin disorder when passing from the magnetically ordered $`\alpha `$-state to the $`\epsilon `$ phase. The effect of magnetic ordering on the resistivity has been explored in metastable non-magnetic $`\gamma `$-Fe at ambient pressure , where a large difference is found in the room-temperature resistivity between the magnetically ordered and non-magnetic states. We might therefore expect $`\epsilon `$-Fe to be analogous.

At low temperature, where the phonon contribution is negligible, the increase in $`\rho `$ is associated with additional disorder, but the very similar pressure dependence of $`\rho `$ at these two temperatures suggests that the scattering is at least in part of the same magnetic origin.

The two samples shown in Fig. 3 behave similarly at room temperature, apart from a shift ascribed to the residual term. At 4.2 K, interestingly, the increase in resistivity associated with the $`\alpha \epsilon `$ transition is smaller for a lower $`\rho _0`$. Single crystalline iron whiskers, which can be prepared with RRRs around 1000 , therefore offer a good path to obtaining a higher $`T_\mathrm{c}`$.

Figure 4 shows $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ as a function of pressure, compared with the $`A`$ coefficient of a fit to the resistivity using a $`T^2`$ power law in the $`\alpha `$ phase and a $`T^{5/3}`$ law in the $`\epsilon `$ phase. The $`T_\mathrm{c}(P)`$ phase diagram in Ref.  is confirmed by our measurements. The superconductivity started to emerge exactly at the kink in $`\rho (P)`$.

As the resistive transitions were highly current dependent and partial in most cases, the onset was used as a criteria for $`T_\mathrm{c}`$, i.e. $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ was defined where the resistivity curve started to deviate visibly from the normal state temperature dependence. Surprisingly, the onset of superconductivity was found to be much less sensitive to current than other criteria, such as a 50%, or even 1% drop in resistance from the normal state. The resistivity drop became larger in every sample as the pressure increased, even beyond the maximum in $`T_\mathrm{c}`$.

The very large value of $`A`$ in the SC domain \[Fig. 4(b)\] is evidence of a strongly correlated electronic phase. The value of $`A`$ reflects the strength of interaction between the electrons and spin fluctuations, thus the correlation seen between $`A(P)`$ and $`T_\mathrm{c}(P)`$ is strong evidence for a magnetically mediated pairing scenario. Moreover, there appears to be a positive correlation between $`A`$ and $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ in different samples (including those not shown). It is somewhat surprising that the value of $`A`$ would vary between samples, but as they were all measured in the same cell, and their resistivities normalised at ambient pressure, we can have some confidence that this is a genuine observation.

Spin-fluctuation mediated superconductivity is usually associated with a well defined quantum critical point at a particular critical pressure $`P_c`$, where non-Fermi liquid behavior of the resistivity is expected . In contrast, a $`T^2`$ dependence was never recovered in the entire SC domain in our measurements.

Figure 5 shows the upper critical field $`B_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ for sample #6 determined using an onset criterion for $`T_\mathrm{c}`$. The extrapolated value of $`B_{\mathrm{c2}}(T=0)`$ (0.73 T at 18.6 GPa and $`0.35`$T at 22.5 GPa) is much larger(by a factor of up to 70) than that of the lead manometer, which has a nearly identical $`T_\mathrm{c}`$. $`B_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ is also linear, without the usual curvature, at least down to $`T_\mathrm{c}/5`$. Interpretation of this is difficult, because the internal magnetic field in the sample itself may be higher still. Hints that this is the case come from the current dependence of the resistance within the transition. This could be fitted very well to a flux-flow type linear current-voltage relation, accompanied by a small quadratic term, i.e. $`V=a(II_0)+bI^2`$ where $`ab`$, and $`I_0`$ was very small (an equivalent current density of 0.17 $`\mathrm{Acm}^2`$), indicating an extremely low pinning density. This flux-flow like behaviour was present even with no externally applied magnetic field.

Taking a value of 0.73 T for $`B_{\mathrm{c2}}(T=0)`$, the coherence length $`\xi `$ is around 20 nm, which is comparable to the mean free path $`l`$, derived from band structure calculations . A requirement for the clean limit, i.e. $`\xi ł`$, is another feature of unconventional superconductivity.

The initial slope $`B_{\mathrm{c2}}^{}=B_{\mathrm{c2}}/T_\mathrm{c}`$, which is proportional to the electronic effective mass in a clean limit scenario, appears to be larger for a $`p`$ below the $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ maximum, suggesting a critical region close to the emergence of superconductivity. In any case, $`B_{\mathrm{c2}}^{}`$ reaches values larger than that observed in any other SC element in the periodic table.

## 4 Conclusions

In a narrow pressure window, both the superconductivity and normal phase of iron show features which point to a key role for spin fluctuations. The closest similar example seems to be ZrZn2 ($`T_\mathrm{c}0.3`$K) . The higher $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ of iron may result from stronger magnetic interactions, reflected for example in the large Curie temperature of iron’s ferromagnetic phase. Experimentally, it is not clear whether superconductivity is an intrinsic property of $`\epsilon `$-Fe or is related to the martensitic transition.

Iron is the first simple element to be observed exhibiting non-Fermi liquid behaviour in its resistivity, and to be a candidate for spin-mediated superconductivity.

## 5 References


text:
# Conductance of nanosystems with interaction

## I introduction

In the last decade technological advances enabled controlled fabrication of small regions connected to leads and *the conductance*, *relating* the current through such a system to the voltage applied between the leads, proved to be the most important property of such systems. There is a number of such examples, e.g. metallic islands prepared by e-beam lithography or small metallic grains,Delft01  semiconductor quantum dots,Kouwenhoven97  or a single large molecule such as a carbon nanotube or DNA. It is possible to break a metallic contact and measure the transport properties of an atomic-size bridge that forms in the break,Agrait02  or even measure the conductance of a single hydrogen molecule. Smit02  Recent measurements of conductance through single molecules proved that strong electron correlations can play an important role in such systems. nature

The transport in noninteracting mesoscopic systems is theoretically well described in the framework of the Landauer-Büttiker formalism. The conductance $`G`$ is at zero temperature determined with the Landauer-Büttiker formula Landauer57

$`G=G_0\left|t\left(ϵ_F\right)\right|^2,G_0={\displaystyle \frac{2e^2}{h}}.`$ (1)
The key quantity here is the single particle transmission amplitude $`t(ϵ_F)`$ for electrons at the Fermi energy. The formula proved to be very useful and reliable, as long as electron-electron interaction in a sample is negligible. However, the Landauer-Büttiker formalism cannot be directly applied to systems where the interaction between electrons plays an important role. Several approaches have been developed to allow one to treat such systems. The Kubo formalism provides us with a conductance formula which is applicable in the linear response regime and was intensively studied by Oguri.Oguri97a ; Oguri01  A more general approach applicable also to non-equilibrium cases was developed by Meir and Wingreen. Meir92  Recently, ab initio methods to study the transport through small molecular junctions were also applied.abinitio

## II Conductance formulas for Fermi liquid systems

The relevant system is schematically presented in Fig. 1(a). A mesoscopic interacting region, which could be a molecule, a quantum dot, a quantum dot array or a similar ’artificial molecule’ system, is attached to noninteracting leads. As shown in Ref. RR,  (hereafter referred to as RR), the conductance of such a system can be determined solely from the ground-state energy of an auxiliary system, formed by connecting the leads of the original system into a ring and threaded by a magnetic flux, Fig. 1(b). The main advantage of this method is the fact that it is often much easier to calculate the ground-state energy (for example, using variational or quantum Monte Carlo methods) than the Green’s function, which is needed in the Kubo and Keldysh approaches. The method is applicable only to a certain class of systems, namely to those exhibiting Fermi liquid properties, at zero temperature and in the linear response regime. However, in this quite restrictive domain of validity, the method promises to be easier to use than the methods mentioned above.

The basic property that characterizes Fermi liquid systems is that the states of a noninteracting system of electrons are continuously transformed into states of the interacting system as the interaction strength increases from zero to its actual value.Nozieres64  One can then study the properties of such a system by means of the perturbation theory, regarding the interaction strength as the perturbation parameter. Dynamics of Fermi liquid systems at low temperature and in the linear response regime is governed by quasiparticles. However, the question how quasiparticles propagate in a correlated system is a non-trivial one. The answer can be extracted from the Green’s function for a particular problem if it is known. An alternative way, which we advocate in this paper, is to analyze the excitation spectrum of a system directly. If $`E_M`$ and $`E_{M+1}`$ are the ground-state energies of an interacting ring system containing $`M`$ and $`M+1`$ electrons, respectively, the energy difference can be attributed to the first quasiparticle energy level $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}`$ above the Fermi energy,

$$\stackrel{~}{ϵ}=E_{M+1}E_M.$$
(2)
The variation of the quasiparticle energy with flux threading the ring allows us to determine the conductance of the system. The complete proof of the formalism is given in RR and a brief overview is presented in the next Section. Here we show how the method can be implemented in practice.

The key property of ring systems presented in Fig. 1(b) is the universality expressed in the variation of the ground-state energy with auxiliary magnetic flux through the ring. Here we assume a system obeys the time reversal symmetry. The more general case is presented in the last Section. For an even number of electrons in the system and a large number of sites in the ring $`N\mathrm{}`$ the ground-state energy takes a universal form

$$E\left(\varphi \right)E\left(\frac{\pi }{2}\right)=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{\pi ^2}\left(\mathrm{arccos}^2\left(\sqrt{g}\mathrm{cos}\varphi \right)\frac{\pi ^2}{4}\right),$$
(3)
where the average level spacing at the Fermi energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }=[N\rho \left(ϵ_F\right)]^1`$ is determined by the density of states at the Fermi energy in an infinite noninteracting lead $`\rho \left(ϵ_F\right)`$ and $`g=G/G_0`$ is the dimensionless conductance. For systems with an odd number of electrons, the ground-state energy is given with

$$E\left(\varphi \right)E\left(\frac{\pi }{2}\right)=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{\pi ^2}\mathrm{arcsin}^2\left(\sqrt{g}\mathrm{cos}\varphi \right).$$
(4)
It should be mentioned that the ground-state energy of an interacting ring system exactly corresponds to the expression for persistent currents in noninteracting rings, as derived by Gogolin. Gogolin94  The only parameter determining the ground-state energy is the conductance $`g`$ of the original system, Fig. 1(a). In Fig. 2 the ground-state energy as a function of the flux $`\varphi `$ for even and odd numbers of electrons is presented. It should be pointed out that as successive quasiparticle levels are being occupied, the points $`\varphi =0`$ and $`\varphi =\pi `$ interchange their roles (as is also the case for noninteracting systems), and that the periodicity in even and odd cases are $`\pi `$ and $`\pi /2`$, respectively.

If the ground state of the system in Fig. 1(b) is known, the conductance of the original open system can be extracted from Eq. (3) \[or Eq. (4)\]. There are several ways how to determine $`g`$ from Eq(3). The simplest seems to be the use of the relation

$$g=\mathrm{sin}^2\left(\frac{\pi }{2}\frac{E\left(\pi \right)E\left(0\right)}{\mathrm{\Delta }}\right),$$
(5)
where $`E(0)`$ and $`E(\pi )`$ are the ground-state energies of the ring system for $`\varphi =0`$ and $`\varphi =\pi `$, respectively. The first advantage of this formula is the fact that the energies can be calculated using periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions, respectively, and thus the wave functions of the system can be taken real. Additional advantage is fast convergence with $`N`$, as briefly discussed in the last Section. This formula was derived in the $`g0`$ limit as $`g=\left(\frac{\pi }{2\mathrm{\Delta }}[E\left(\pi \right)E\left(0\right)]\right)^2`$ by Favand and Mila for noninteracting systems and applied to interacting Hubbard chains.Favand98  More recently, a similar approach was performed in Ref. Molina02, . In Fig. 3(a) the use of formula Eq. (5) is schematically presented.

The derivative of the ground-state energy with respect to flux gives the persistent current in the ring $`j(\varphi )=\frac{e}{\mathrm{}}\frac{E}{\varphi }`$Bloch65  The second formula relates the conductance to the persistent current at $`\varphi =\frac{\pi }{2}`$,

$$g=\left(\frac{\pi }{\mathrm{\Delta }}\frac{\mathrm{}}{e}j\left(\frac{\pi }{2}\right)\right)^2.$$
(6)
This relation was recently derived for noninteracting systems Sushkov01  and successfully applied to systems with interaction.Sushkov01 ; Meden03

At $`T=0`$ the charge stiffness is an important quantity describing the charge transport in correlated systems.Prelovsek01  It is defined as the second derivative of the ground-state energy of the system with respect to the flux in the minimum of the energy vs. flux curve, $`D=\frac{N}{2}^2E/\varphi ^2|_{E=\mathrm{min}}`$.Kohn64  The sensitivity of the ground state energy to flux has been applied also in the context of electron localisation.edwards72  One can also define the corresponding quantity for the energy maximum as $`\stackrel{~}{D}=\frac{N}{2}^2E/\varphi ^2|_{E=\mathrm{max}}`$. From Eq(3) the conductance can be related to the charge stiffness with an implicit relation,

$$\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Delta }}\frac{^2E}{\varphi ^2}|_{E=\mathrm{min},\mathrm{max}}=\pm \frac{2}{\pi ^2}\sqrt{\frac{g}{1g}}\mathrm{arccos}\left(\pm \sqrt{g}\right).$$
(7)
Here the upper and the lower signs correspond to the second derivative at a minimum and at a maximum of the energy vs. flux curve, respectively. In general, this equation has to be solved numerically and the solutions are presented in Fig. 4. In the limit of a very small conductance and in the vicinity of the unitary limit, analytic formulas are available

$$g=\{\begin{array}{cc}\left[2\pi \rho \left(\epsilon _F\right)D\right]^2,\hfill & g0,\hfill \\ \left(\frac{1}{2}+\frac{3\pi }{4}\left[2\pi \rho \left(\epsilon _F\right)D\right]\right)^2,\hfill & g1.\hfill \end{array}$$
(8)
Note that there is a quadratic relation between the conductance and the charge stiffness in the low conductance limit. The corresponding formulas for the maximum of the energy vs. flux curve are

$$g=\{\begin{array}{cc}\left[2\pi \rho \left(\epsilon _F\right)\stackrel{~}{D}\right]^2,\hfill & g0,\hfill \\ \left(1\frac{2}{\left[2\pi \rho \left(\epsilon _F\right)\stackrel{~}{D}\right]^2}\right)^2,\hfill & g1.\hfill \end{array}$$
(9)
It should be stressed that the validity of all formulas presented in this Section is based on an assumption that the number of sites in the ring is sufficiently large according to the condition RR

$$N\frac{1}{\rho \left(\epsilon _F\right)}\frac{\sqrt{g\left(\epsilon _F\right)}}{\epsilon _F}.$$
(10)
This means that if $`g\left(\epsilon _F\right)`$ exhibits sharp resonances, as is the case, e.g., in chaotic systems,Jalabert92  the calculation has to be performed on a large auxiliary ring system and in such cases the method might be impractical compared to other methods. On the other hand, for systems with strong interaction the method promises to be extremely efficient already for ring systems of a moderate size. brr ; Molina02 ; Meden03

## III Proof of the formalism

The complete proof of the formalism is presented in RR, here we briefly describe the main steps. The proof strongly relies on an assumption that the ground state of the system under investigation is a Fermi liquid.Landau56

We start with the linear response conductance of a general interacting system of the type shown in Fig. 1(a). The conductance can be calculated from the Kubo formula Kubo57

$$g=\underset{\omega 0}{lim}\frac{i\pi }{\omega +i\delta }\mathrm{\Pi }_{II}\left(\omega +i\delta \right),$$
(11)
where $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{II}\left(\omega +i\delta \right)`$ is the retarded current-current correlation function. For Fermi liquid systems, the current-current correlation function can be calculated within the perturbation theory. At $`T=0`$, only the bubble diagram gives a non-vanishing contribution Oguri01  and the conductance can be expressed in terms of the Green’s function $`G_{n^{}n}\left(z\right)`$ of the system,

$$g=\left|\frac{1}{i\pi \rho \left(ϵ_F\right)}e^{ik_F\left(n^{}n\right)}G_{n^{}n}\left(ϵ_F+i\delta \right)\right|^2,$$
(12)
where $`n`$ and $`n^{}`$ are sites in the left and the right lead, respectively.

In Fermi liquid systems obeying the time-reversal symmetry,RRAB  the imaginary part of the retarded self-energy at $`T=0`$ vanishes at the Fermi energy and is quadratic for frequencies close to the Fermi energy.Yamada86  Using the Fermi energy as the origin of the energy scale, i.e. $`\omega ϵ_F\omega `$, we can express this as

$$\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{ij}\left(\omega +i\delta \right)\omega ^2.$$
(13)
Close to the Fermi energy, the self-energy can be expanded in powers of $`\omega `$ resulting in an approximation to the Green’s function,

$`𝐆^1\left(\omega +i\delta \right)=\omega \mathrm{𝟏}𝐇^{\left(0\right)}𝚺\left(0+i\delta \right)`$
$`\omega {\displaystyle \frac{𝚺\left(\omega +i\delta \right)}{\omega }}|_{\omega =0}+𝒪\left(\omega ^2\right).`$ (14)
Here $`𝐇^{\left(0\right)}`$ contains matrix elements of the noninteracting part of the Hamiltonian. The Green’s function for $`\omega `$ close to the Fermi energy can then be expressed as

$$𝐆^1\left(\omega +i\delta \right)=𝐙^{1/2}\stackrel{~}{𝐆}^1\left(\omega +i\delta \right)𝐙^{1/2}+𝒪(\omega ^2),$$
(15)
where we defined the quasiparticle Green’s function

$$\stackrel{~}{𝐆}^1\left(\omega +i\delta \right)=\omega \mathrm{𝟏}\stackrel{~}{𝐇}$$
(16)
as the Green’s function of a *noninteracting* *quasiparticle* Hamiltonian

$$\stackrel{~}{𝐇}=𝐙^{1/2}\left[𝐇^{\left(0\right)}+𝚺\left(0+i\delta \right)\right]𝐙^{1/2},$$
(17)
and introduced the renormalization factor matrix $`𝐙`$. Matrix elements of $`𝐙`$ differ from those of an identity matrix only if they correspond to sites of the central region.

The reason for introducing the quasiparticle Hamiltonian is to obtain an alternative expression for the conductance in terms of the quasiparticle Green’s function. Eq. (15) relates the values of the true and the quasiparticle Green’s function at the Fermi energy,

$$𝐆\left(0+i\delta \right)=𝐙^{1/2}\stackrel{~}{𝐆}\left(0+i\delta \right)𝐙^{1/2}.$$
(18)
Specifically, $`G_{n^{}n}\left(0+i\delta \right)=\stackrel{~}{G}_{n^{}n}\left(0+i\delta \right)`$ if both $`n`$ and $`n^{}`$ are sites in the leads, as a consequence of the properties of the renormalization factor matrix $`𝐙`$ discussed above. Eq. (12) then tells us that the zero-temperature conductance of a Fermi liquid system is identical to the zero-temperature conductance of a noninteracting system defined with the quasiparticle Hamiltonian for a given value of the Fermi energy.

These conclusions are valid if the central region is coupled to semi-infinite leads. Here we generalize the concept of quasiparticles to a finite ring system with $`N`$ sites and $`M`$ electrons, threaded by a magnetic flux $`\varphi `$. One can define the quasiparticle Hamiltonian for such a system,

$$\stackrel{~}{𝐇}(N,\varphi ;M)=𝐙^{1/2}\left[𝐇^{\left(0\right)}(N,\varphi )+𝚺\left(0+i\delta \right)\right]𝐙^{1/2}.$$
(19)
Here the self-energy and the renormalization factor matrix are determined in the thermodynamic limit where, as we prove in RR, they are independent of $`\varphi `$ and correspond to those of an infinite two-lead system.

Suppose now that we knew the exact values of the renormalized matrix elements in the quasiparticle Hamiltonian (19). As this is a noninteracting Hamiltonian, we could then apply the conductance formulas presented in the previous Section (the proof of validity of energy formulas for noninteracting systems is given in RR and the corresponding result for persistent currents in Ref. Gogolin94, ). Such a procedure would provide us with the exact conductance of the original interacting system. However, to obtain the values of the renormalized matrix elements, one needs to calculate the self-energy of the system, which is a difficult many-body problem. In RR we study the excitation spectrum of a finite ring system with interaction and threaded with a magnetic flux. We show that

$`E(N,\varphi ;M+1)E(N,\varphi ;M)=`$
$`=\stackrel{~}{ϵ}(N,\varphi ;M;1)+𝒪\left(N^{\frac{3}{2}}\right),`$ (20)
where $`E(N,\varphi ;M)`$ and $`E(N,\varphi ;M+1)`$ are the ground-state energies of the interacting Hamiltonian for a ring system with $`N`$ sites and flux $`\varphi `$, containing $`M`$ and $`M+1`$ electrons, respectively, and $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}(N,\varphi ;M;1)`$ is the energy of the first single-electron level above the Fermi energy of the finite ring quasiparticle Hamiltonian (19). The error in Eq. (20) is small enough that the proof of the ground-state energy formulas for noninteracting systems, which involves only the properties of a set of neighboring single-electron energy levels, remains valid also for interacting Fermi liquid systems, provided a system is a Fermi liquid for all values of the Fermi energy below its actual value.

## IV Examples

### IV.1 Noninteracting system

In this Section we discuss the convergence properties of the conductance formulas. As the first example we take a double-barrier potential scattering problem presented in Fig. 5. Results of various formulas for different number of sites in the ring are presented in Fig. 6. The exact zero-temperature conductance for this system exhibits a sharp resonance peak superimposed on a smooth background conductance. We notice immediately that as the number of sites in the ring increases, the convergence is generally faster in the region where the conductance is smooth than in the resonance region, which is consistent with the condition Eq. (10). Comparing the results obtained employing the two-point formula Eq. (5) and the persistent current formula Eq. (6) we observe that the convergence is better for the two-point formula expressing the conductance in terms of the difference of the energies at $`\varphi =0`$ and $`\varphi =\pi `$. From the computational point of view there is an additional advantage of the two-point formula. In this case, all the matrix elements can be made real if one chooses such a vector potential that only one hopping matrix element if modified by the flux as then the additional phase factor is $`e^{\pm i\pi }=1`$.

### IV.2 Anderson impurity model

As a nontrivial example of the use of the formalism we calculate the zero-temperature conductance of a single impurity Anderson model realized as a quantum dot attached to leads as shown in Fig. 7. In Fig. 8 the results are compared to exact conductance of the Bethe ansatz approach.Wiegman82a  To calculate the conductance, Eq. (5) was used, with the ground-state energies at $`\varphi =0`$ and $`\varphi =\pi `$ obtained using a variational method described in RR. For each position of the $`ϵ_d`$ level relative to the Fermi energy, we increased the number of sites in the ring until the conductance converged. The number of sites needed to achieve the convergence was the lowest in the empty orbital regime and the highest (about 1000 for the system shown in Fig. 8) in the Kondo regime. This is a consequence of Eq. (10) as a narrow resonance related to the Kondo resonance appears in the transmission probability of the quasiparticle Hamiltonian (17) in the Kondo regime.

### IV.3 Interacting Aharonov Bohm rings

One can generalize the conductance formulas to systems which exhibit time reversal asymmetry, such as is e.g. an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) type of system presented in Fig. 9(a).RRAB  If there is no AB flux threading the mesoscopic region, the time reversal symmetry is restored and the energy is an even function of $`\varphi `$. In the general case, the energy extremum is shifted to a non-trivial point $`\varphi _0\left(\epsilon _F\right)`$, as illustrated in Fig. 9(c). The ground-state energy is then generalized to $`E(\varphi )=\pi ^2\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{arccos}^2\left(\sqrt{g}\mathrm{cos}\left[\varphi \varphi _0\left(\epsilon _F\right)\right]\right)+\mathrm{const}.`$ for an even number of electrons in a system and to $`E(\varphi )=\pi ^2\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{arcsin}^2\left(\sqrt{g}\mathrm{cos}\left[\varphi \varphi _0\left(\epsilon _F\right)\right]\right)+\mathrm{const}.`$ for an odd number of electrons in a system. From the former expression, the transmission probability can be extracted, and the conductance is given by RRAB

$$g=\mathrm{sin}^2\left(\frac{\pi }{2}\frac{E\left(\varphi _0+\pi \right)E\left(\varphi _0\right)}{\mathrm{\Delta }}\right),$$
(21)
where $`\varphi _0\varphi _0\left(ϵ_F\right)`$ is determined by the position of the minimum (or maximum) in the energy vs. flux curve. The conductance can also be calculated from the more convenient four-point formula 3point

$$g=\mathrm{sin}^2(\frac{\pi }{2}\frac{E\left(\pi \right)E\left(0\right)}{\mathrm{\Delta }})+\mathrm{sin}^2(\frac{\pi }{2}\frac{E\left(\pi /2\right)E\left(\pi /2\right)}{\mathrm{\Delta }}),$$
(22)
and $`\varphi _0`$ is determined with the expression

$$\varphi _0=\mathrm{arctan}\frac{\mathrm{sin}\left(\frac{\pi }{2}\frac{E\left(\pi /2\right)E\left(\pi /2\right)}{\mathrm{\Delta }}\right)}{\mathrm{sin}\left(\frac{\pi }{2}\frac{E\left(\pi \right)E\left(0\right)}{\mathrm{\Delta }}\right)}.$$
(23)
If no AB flux is present in the mesoscopic region, we recover the two-point formula Eq. (5) since $`E\left(\pi /2\right)=E\left(\pi /2\right)`$ in this case.

If the time reversal symmetry is broken due to AB flux, Eq. (13) is not valid and the proof of the previous Section has to be reconsidered. Repeating the steps as presented in detail in RR, the proof is restored and basically unchanged if the self energy obeys the relation

$$\frac{1}{2i}\left[\mathrm{\Sigma }_{ij}\left(\omega +i\delta \right)\mathrm{\Sigma }_{ij}\left(\omega i\delta \right)\right]\omega ^2.$$
(24)
It follows that the linear response conductance of an interacting AB system at zero temperature is given by the four-point formula Eq. (22). The condition Eq. (24) is fulfilled if the system is a Fermi liquid.

In order to demonstrate the practical value of the method, we quantitatively analyze the conductance through an Aharonov-Bohm ring with a quantum dot placed in one of the armsBulka01 ; Hofstetter01  as presented in Fig. 9(d). In Fig. 10 a convergence test of the method is shown. The convergence with $`N`$ is fast in the empty orbital regime and becomes progressively slower as $`ϵ_d`$ shifts toward the Kondo regime, as was also the case for a quantum dot attached to leads. The converged conductance curve is in excellent agreement with the numerical renormalization group result of Ref. Hofstetter01, .

## V Summary

We have demonstrated how the zero-temperature conductance of a sample with electron-electron interaction, attached to noninteracting leads can be determined. The method is extremely simple and is based on several formulas relating the conductance to the ground-state energy of an auxiliary ring system. The conductance is determined from the ground-state energy of an interacting system, while in more traditional approaches, one needs to know the Green’s function of the system. The advantage of the present method comes from the fact that the ground-state energy is often relatively simple to obtain by various numerical approaches, including variational methods. Let us summarize the key points of the method:

(1) The “open” problem of the conductance through a sample coupled to semi-infinite leads is mapped on to a ”closed” problem, namely a ring threaded by a magnetic flux and containing the same correlated electron region.

(2) For the case of a Fermi liquid interacting system, even with broken time-reversal symmetry, it is shown that the zero-temperature conductance can be deduced from the variation of the ground state energy with the flux in a large, but finite ring system.

(3) In order to prove this, the concept of Fermi liquid quasiparticles is extended to finite, but large systems. The conductance formulas give the conductance of a system of noninteracting quasiparticles, which is equal to the conductance of the original interacting system.

(4) The results of our method are compared to results of other approaches for problems such as the transport through a quantum dot containing interacting electrons. The comparison shows an excellent quantitative agreement with exact Bethe ansatz results. We have demonstrated the usefulness of the formula also by applying it to a prototype system exhibiting Kondo-Fano behavior. Results based on the four-point formula confirm the results of the numerical renormalization group method.


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# Detection of OH and wide HI absorption toward B0218+357

## 1 Introduction

Gravitational lensing provides a new probe of the structure of high redshift galaxies through their absorption lines. A typical spiral galaxy at $`z0.5`$ is usually too faint for detailed direct observations. However, when such an system gravitationally lenses a distant quasar, forming multiple images of the background source, spectra toward these images allow one to trace the kinematics along several lines of sight through the galaxy. Decimetre wavelength observations of such systems (i.e. spectra in the redshifted HI 21cm and OH radio lines) are particularly well suited to such studies since background sources typically show extended structure at these wavelengths, which allows a better sampling of the velocity field of the intervening galaxy. For example, Chengalur, de Bruyn & Narasimha (1999) used Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope redshifted HI and OH spectra of the $`z0.885`$ lens toward PKS 1830-211 to estimate the rotation velocity of the absorbing galaxy. The relative strengths of the multiple OH radio lines (when detected) also allow one to trace the large scale distribution of molecular gas in the absorption system. However, the weakness of the OH transitions implies that they have only been detected in three absorbers at cosmological distance (Chengalur et al., 1999; Kanekar & Chengalur, 2002).

One of the most well-known (and well-observed !) gravitational lenses is the one at $`z0.6846`$ toward the source B0218+357 (Patnaik et al., 1993). The radio continuum consists of two images of a flat spectrum source (components A and B), separated by 0.34′′, and a radio ring with a radius of 0.18′′ (Biggs et al., 2001); this is the smallest known Einstein ring. The background source is at a redshift of $`z=0.96`$ (Lawrence, 1996); the high redshift of the lens and relatively low redshift of the source (with respect to the lens) imply that this system is an excellent candidate to determine the large scale geometry of the Universe and the value of the Hubble constant. In fact, VLA monitoring has yielded a time delay of $`10.5\pm 0.4`$ days between the two images, resulting in a Hubble constant $`H_0=69_{19}^{+13}`$ km s-1 Mpc-1 (Biggs et al., 1999). Unfortunately, however, Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations have so far not been able to accurately locate the centre of the lens galaxy and this positional uncertainty implies a far higher uncertainty in $`H_0`$ than that derived from the statistical errors quoted above (Leh$`\stackrel{´}{\mathrm{a}}`$r et al., 2000; Biggs et al., 2001).

The $`z=0.6846`$ system has been a rich source of absorption lines, with a number of molecular species such as CO, HCO+, HCN, H2CO and H2O, as well as HI, already detected here (Wiklind & Combes, 1995; Combes & Wiklind, 1997; Menten & Reid, 1996; Gerin et al., 1997; Carilli, Rupen & Yanny, 1993). Further, the difference between the rotation measures of components A and B has been measured to be $`900`$ rad m-2 and the optical spectrum of B0218+357 is highly reddened (O’Dea et al., 1992; Falco et al., 1999). All of these imply that the lens is an exceedingly gas-rich system; indeed, recent HST observations (Leh$`\stackrel{´}{\mathrm{a}}`$r et al., 2000) have shown that the system is a late-type spiral galaxy.

The original observations of the HI absorption profile (Carilli et al., 1993) were of low sensitivity and spectral resolution and hence could not resolve out the absorption feature. Further, the full width between nulls of the HI profile was measured to be 75 km s-1, somewhat small for a spiral galaxy at a moderate inclination, especially given the extended structure of the background continuum. We present here deep Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) OH and Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) HI observations of the $`z=0.6846`$ system; both the 1665 MHz and 1667 MHz OH lines were detected while strong limits were placed on the optical depth of the 1720 MHz OH transition. We also detect a wide component to the HI absorption, with a velocity spread of $`140`$ km s-1. The observations and data analysis are discussed in section 2 while the implications for the $`z=0.6846`$ absorber are discussed in section 3.

## 2 Observations and data analysis

### 2.1 WSRT HI observations

Observations of the redshifted HI line toward B0218+357 were carried out with the WSRT on 21 June 1998, with the new DZB correlator as the backend. A bandwidth of 2.5 MHz was used for the observations, centered at an observing frequency of 843.20 MHz and sub-divided into 256 channels. No taper was applied in the lag-to-frequency transform, yielding a velocity resolution of $`3.5`$ km s-1 (channel resolution $`9.8`$ kHz). 12 telescopes were used for the observations.

The standard calibrators 3C48 (30min, before) and 3C286 (72min, after), were used to calibrate the absolute flux scale and the system bandpass; their adopted flux densities are on the Baars et al. (1977) scale. The total on-source time was 11.7 hours.

### 2.2 GMRT OH observations

The GMRT OH observations of B0218+357 were initially carried out on the 17th and 27th of June, 2001, with the standard 30 station FX correlator as the backend. A total bandwidth of 4 MHz was used for these observations, to include both the main OH transitions (at rest frequencies of 1665.4018 MHz and 1667.3590 MHz). This was sub-divided into 128 channels, yielding a frequency resolution of $`31.25`$ kHz (i.e. $`9.4`$ km s-1) on each run. Twenty three and seventeen antennas were available for the observations on the 17th and the 27th respectively, due to various debugging and maintenance activities. The standard calibrator 3C48 was used to carry out absolute flux and bandpass calibration. Total on-source times were 3 and 5 hours on the first and second observing dates respectively.

While the 4 MHz bandwidth observations were important for the initial detection of the OH lines, it was apparent that their relatively poor velocity resolution would not allow the positions or widths of the absorption features to be determined as accurately as in the case of the HI line (note that the GMRT correlator allows a higher frequency resolution only at the cost of total bandwidth and the bandwidth of 4 MHz was necessary to include both OH features in the band). Further observations (each using a bandwidth of 1 MHz, i.e. a resolution of $`7.8`$ kHz or $`2.4`$ km s-1) were hence separately carried out of the 1665 MHz and 1667 MHz features, on the 11th of October and the 27th of November, 2001, respectively. 21 antennas were available for each of these observations; the total on-source times were $`6`$ hours and $`3`$ hours for the 1665 MHz and 1667 MHz observations respectively. Absolute flux and bandpass calibration were carried out using 3C48 and 3C147.

Finally, an attempt was also made with the GMRT to detect the 1720 MHz OH transition in the $`z0.6846`$ absorber. These observations were carried out on the 25th of November, 2001, using a bandwidth of 1 MHz (i.e. a resolution of $`7.8`$ kHz or $`2.3`$ km s-1). Flux and bandpass calibration were again carried out using 3C48 and 3C147. The total on-source time was $``$ 3 hours, with 28 antennas.

### 2.3 Data analysis and spectra

The data were converted from the telescope format to FITS in all cases and then analyzed in AIPS using standard procedures. A careful inspection was initially carried out for RFI and sections showing evidence of interference were flagged out. For the WSRT data, a simple average of the visibilities was made after bandpass calibration and the peak flux density read off from the image cube; this resulted in the spectrum shown in figure 1. We note that B0218+357 is largely unresolved on WSRT baselines; the spectrum represents the flux density averaged over 60 interferometers. A total of 6 baselines were not used in the averaging for various reasons. In the case of the GMRT observations, after phase and bandpass calibration, the continuum emission was subtracted by fitting a linear polynomial to the U-V visibilities, using the AIPS task UVLIN. The continuum-subtracted data were then mapped in all channels and spectra extracted at the quasar location from the resulting three-dimensional data cube. In the case of the multi-epoch 4 MHz GMRT observations, the spectra of the two epochs were corrected to the heliocentric frame outside AIPS and then averaged together.

The flux density of B0218+357 was measured to be 1.520 Jy (at 843 MHz) in the WSRT observations. In the case of the GMRT observations, the flux density was measured to be 1.64 Jy (17th and 27th of June), 1.54 Jy (11th of October) and 1.58 Jy (27th of November) at $`989`$ MHz and 1.66 Jy at $`1021`$ MHz (25th of November). Note that all spectra of the 1665 MHz and 1667 MHz lines have been scaled here to a common flux density of 1.64 Jy. Earlier experience with the GMRT indicates that the flux calibration is reliable to $`15`$%, in this observing mode.

The WSRT HI spectrum is shown in figure 1\[A\]; the spectrum has been Hanning smoothed and re-sampled and has a velocity resolution of $`7`$ km s-1 and an RMS noise of $`7`$ mJy. Two deep features can be immediately identified in the spectrum, besides a weak broad component. The peak optical depth is 0.05, occuring at a redshift of $`0.68467\pm 0.00001`$. The total velocity spread of the absorption is $`150`$ km s-1. The spectrum has a total velocity coverage of $`800`$ km s-1; only the central 400 km s-1 are shown here, for comparison with the high resolution OH spectra. We note that non-Gaussian behavior was observed at two locations in the spectrum, near the edges of the band (beyond the velocity range plotted in figure 1 \[A\]); these are likely to be due to low-level RFI.

The final GMRT 4 MHz OH spectrum toward B0218+357 is shown in figure 2. The RMS noise is 1.1 mJy, per 9.4 km s-1 channel; the spectrum has not been smoothed. Both OH transitions are clearly visible; the peak absorption occurs at heliocentric frequencies of 988.56 MHz and 989.72 MHz, both implying a redshift $`z=0.68468\pm 0.00003`$. A wide shoulder can be seen in both absorption features, on the high frequency side of the principal feature.

Figures 1\[B\] and 1\[C\] show the 1 MHz bandwidth GMRT spectra of the 1667 MHz and 1665 MHz OH lines. The RMS noise values are 1.5 mJy and 1.6 mJy respectively, per 2.4 km s-1 channel (the spectra have again not been smoothed). The high frequency shoulder of the 4 MHz spectrum is now resolved out in both spectra; besides this, a wide absorption component can also be seen (which is stronger in the 1667 MHz transition). The equivalent width of the 1667 MHz absorption line is $`\tau _{1667}dV=0.40\pm 0.01`$ km s-1, while the ratio of the 1667 MHz and 1665 MHz equivalent widths is $`R1.8`$, as expected in optically thin conditions in thermal equilibrium. Interestingly, this ratio is slightly larger at the low frequency edge of the two profiles (at $`20`$ km s-1). The total velocity spread of both the 1665 and 1667 MHz lines is $`100`$ km s-1.

The peak optical depth in the 1 MHz bandwidth spectra occurs at heliocentric frequencies of 988.575 MHz (1665 MHz transition) and 989.717 MHz (1667 MHz transition), corresponding to redshifts $`0.68465\pm 0.000008`$ and $`0.68468\pm 0.000008`$ respectively. While the above redshifts are in marginal disagreement, figure 1\[C\] shows that the 1665 MHz line has two peaks of approximately the same depth, separated by $`7.2`$ km s-1. If the second (marginally weaker) feature is used to compute the redshift, one obtains $`z_{1665}=0.68468`$, in agreement with the 1667 MHz redshift; the same value is also obtained by a Gaussian fit to the 1665 MHz line. We will hence use this value for the redshift of the absorber, as it also agrees with that estimated from the 1667 MHz line. This is also in broad agreement with redshifts obtained from millimetre-wave transitions (e.g., $`z=0.684693`$, from the 13CO line; Wiklind & Combes 1997). Note that a measured difference between the redshifts of the four OH 18cm lines can, in principle, be used to simultaneously measure variations in the fine structure constant $`\alpha `$, the ratio of electron mass to proton mass $`m_e/m_p`$ and the proton g-factor $`g_p`$ (Chengalur & Kanekar, 2003).

Finally, the GMRT spectrum of the 1720 MHz OH transition (not shown here) did not show any absorption. The RMS noise was measured to be 1 mJy, after smoothing the spectrum to a resolution of $`10`$ km s-1; this yields a $`3\sigma `$ limit of 0.0018 on the optical depth in the 1720 MHz line, per 10 km s-1.

## 3 Discussion

The OH and HI profiles are broadly similar in that each absorption line consists of a primary component, a high frequency shoulder and a broad shallow trough; this indicates that the lines originate in the same diffuse or dark cloud. While the total width of the HI absorption is wider than that of the OH lines ($`150`$ km s-1 for the HI absorption against $`100`$ km s-1 for the OH), this is not too surprising since OH is believed to be more confined than HI in models of molecular clouds (see, for example, figure 6 in Liszt & Lucas 1996). It is tempting to identify the two main features of the lines as stemming from absorption against the two point images A and B; however, VLBI observations of the HI absorption (Carilli et al., 2000) have shown that it arises solely due to image A, while no absorption is seen against image B. Similarly, the mm-wavelength molecular absorption lines are also only seen against image A and not against B (Menten & Reid, 1996). The two main features of the lines hence probably arise from the two VLBI components of image A (Patnaik et al. 2003, in preparation) or possibly from multiple clouds along the line of sight to one of these components, while the broad but shallow trough is likely to stem from absorption against source components in the radio ring.

For an optically thin cloud in thermal equilibrium, the OH column density of the absorbing gas $`N_{\mathrm{OH}}`$ is related to the excitation temperature $`T_x`$ and the 1667 MHz optical depth $`\tau _{1667}`$ by the expression (e.g. Liszt & Lucas 1996)

$$N_{\mathrm{OH}}=2.24\times 10^{14}\left(\frac{T_x}{f}\right)\tau _{1667}dV,$$
(1)
where $`f`$ is the covering factor of the absorber. Here, $`N_{\mathrm{OH}}`$ is in cm-2, $`T_x`$ in K and $`\mathrm{d}V`$ in km s-1. The integrated optical depth in the 1667 MHz line is $`\tau _{1667}dV=0.659`$ km s-1; thus, $`N_{\mathrm{OH}}=1.1\times 10^{14}\times (T_x/f)`$ cm-2. VLBI observations (Carilli et al., 2000) have shown that no HI absorption is seen against component B; similarly, the CO and HCO+ absorption are only seen against component A (Wiklind & Combes, 1995); the covering factor $`f`$ is thus likely to be close to 0.4. Next, the OH excitation temperature $`T_x`$ cannot be directly estimated for cosmologically distant objects such as the $`z0.6846`$ absorber. In the Galaxy, OH emission studies have shown that this temperature may be as low as $`T_xT_{CMB}+1`$ K, with similar values for the HCO+ line ($`T_x(HCO^+)T_{CMB}`$; Lucas & Liszt 1996). However, the excitation temperatures of the redshifted HCO+ lines in the four known high redshift absorbers have been found to be higher than $`T_{CMB}(1+z)`$, the redshifted CMB temperature; it is thus quite likely that the OH excitation temperature too is higher in these systems. Given that the $`z=0.6846`$ absorption system is believed to originate in a late-type spiral disk (Leh$`\stackrel{´}{\mathrm{a}}`$r et al., 2000), we will, in the absence of additional information, assume $`T_x=10`$ K, a typical temperature in dark clouds in the Milky Way, to estimate the OH column density. This yields $`N_{\mathrm{OH}}=2.3\pm 0.06\times 10^{15}(T_x/10)(0.4/f)`$ cm-2; note that this is slightly different from the value $`N_{\mathrm{OH}}=2.65\times 10^{15}(T_x/10)(0.4/f)`$ cm-2, obtained by Kanekar & Chengalur (2002) from the lower resolution ($`9.4`$ km s-1) spectrum. The present value is obtained from the 1 MHz bandwidth, $`2.4`$ km s-1 resolution spectrum.

The OH column density of the absorber can be used to estimate the HCO+ and H2 column densities, by the relations $`N_{\mathrm{HCO}^+}0.03\times N_{\mathrm{OH}}`$ and $`N_{\mathrm{H}_2}1\times 10^7\times N_{\mathrm{OH}}`$ (Liszt & Lucas 1999; see also Kanekar & Chengalur 2002). This yields $`N_{\mathrm{HCO}^+}=6.8\times 10^{13}`$ cm-2, in good agreement with that measured from the HCO+ line ($`N_{\mathrm{HCO}^+}=7.4\times 10^{13}`$ cm-2; Wiklind & Combes 1995). We also obtain $`N_{\mathrm{H}_2}=2.3\times 10^{22}`$, which is, interestingly enough, in excellent agreement with the value of Gerin et al. (1997) ($`N_{\mathrm{H}_2}=2\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2), using the $`{}_{}{}^{17}\mathrm{CO}`$ line, but a factor of 20 smaller than the estimate of $`N_{\mathrm{H}_2}=5\times 10^{23}`$ cm-2, from the CO absorption (Wiklind & Combes, 1995).

We next attempt to decompose the HI absorption into its components by simultaneously fitting Gaussians to the three main absorption features; we do not fit to the OH profiles as the signal-to-noise ratio of the wide component in the high resolution OH spectra is too low to get a stable fit. While it is quite unlikely that the net result of absorption against the components of the ring is indeed a Gaussian, the decomposition will be used solely to quantify the velocity spread of the absorption profile, in order to estimate the rotation velocity of the absorbing galaxy. We note that the results do not change significantly if we assume that the broad feature has a “Top-hat”-like shape (while retaining a Gaussian shape for the two deep components).

Figure 1\[A\] shows the 3-Gaussian fit to the Hanning smoothed HI absorption profile; here, the Hanning smoothed (and re-sampled) 7 km s-1 resolution spectrum is plotted as solid squares while the 3-Gaussian fit is shown as a solid line. Attempts were also made to fit only two Gaussians to the profile. The dashed line in fig. 1\[A\] shows the best 2-Gaussian fit; this fails to reproduce the wide absorption trough on either side of the two main components. Two-component fits were thus found to leave clear residuals, indicating that a 3-component fit was indeed necessary. The parameters of the 3-Gaussian fit are listed in Table 1; it should be pointed out that the fit to the broad absorption has only a weak ($`2.4\sigma `$) significance. Deeper HI observations would be useful to test the reality of this feature, which would be very interesting if it were shown to indeed arise against the radio ring. Since the ring is only prominent at low frequencies (it is almost undetectable at at 22 GHz but has more flux than Image B in the 1.67 GHz EVN observations of Patnaik et al. 2003), deeper HI observations would provide the best sampling of the large scale kinematics of the lens galaxy. Finally, the FWHM of the broad absorption component is $`115\pm 30`$ km s-1; more relevant, the spread between points on the spectrum at which this component falls below the $`1\sigma `$ level is $`140`$ km s-1. This gives the total spread of the absorption against the radio ring.

The 5 GHz VLBI image of Patnaik et al. (1993) (see also Biggs et al. 2001) shows that image B lies roughly at the centre of the ring while the two components of image A lie outside the ring, at a distance of $`200`$ mas. The fact that the narrow absorption features due to the components of image A lie quite close to the centre of the broad absorption trough implies that these components lie close to the kinematic minor axis of the absorbing galaxy; it is thus difficult to draw strong conclusions about the rotation curve of the galaxy from these absorption lines. The observed lack of absorption against component B makes it likely there is a “hole” in the HI distribution near the centre of the $`z=0.6846`$ absorber, similar to the situation in the Milky Way and other local spirals. As mentioned above, the wide HI absorption is likely to stem from absorption toward source components in the Einstein ring. This implies that the line-of-sight rotation velocity at 0.18′′ from the lens centre (i.e. at the location of the source components in the ring) is approximately 70 km s-1. Since the lens is at an inclination of around 25 degrees, the rotation velocity is $`150`$ km s-1, fairly reasonable for an ordinary spiral galaxy.

In conclusion, we have detected both the 1665 MHz and 1667 MHz OH transitions in absorption in the $`z=0.68468`$ gravitational lens toward B0218+357 and have also found a wide absorption component in the HI profile (at low significance). The redshifts of peak OH absorption are in good agreement with that of the HI, as well as with those of molecular lines discovered earlier in the absorber. The HI absorption is spread over 140 km s-1 while both OH lines have a velocity spread of $`100`$ km s-1. The OH column density of the absorber is $`N_{\mathrm{OH}}=2.3\times 10^{15}(T_x/10)(0.4/f)`$ cm-2. Finally, we estimate that the rotation velocity of the galaxy is $`150`$ km s-1, at around 1.5 kpc from the centre.

Acknowledgments

We thank the staff of the GMRT that made these observations possible. GMRT is run by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. The Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope is operated by the ASTRON (Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy) with support from the Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research (NWO).