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# Radion Induced Spontaneous Baryogenesis

## 1 Introduction

One of the most peculiar features of our Universe is the observed baryonic asymmetry. This can be conveniently characterized by the dimensionless number

$`{\displaystyle \frac{n_B}{s}}\eta 10^{10},`$ (1.1)
where $`n_Bn_bn_{\overline{b}}`$ is the difference between the baryon and anti-baryon densities and $`s`$ is the density of entropy. The consistency of primordial nucleosynthesis, which yields some of the most precise results in the standard model of cosmology, requires that $`\eta `$ took the above value at the time when the light elements (i.e.3He, 4He, and 7Li) were produced, and it is believed to have then remained the same up to the present epoch.

The necessary conditions for generating the baryonic asymmetry in quantum field theory were formulated by Sacharov in 1967  (see also Ref. ) and can be summarized as follows:

1. Different interactions for particles and antiparticles, or, in other words, a violation of the C and CP symmetries;
2. Non-conservation of the baryonic charge;
3. Departure from thermal equilibrium.

The last condition results from an application of the CPT theorem . In fact, CPT invariance of quantum field theory in a static Minkowski space-time ensures that the energy spectra for baryons and anti-baryons are identical, leading consequently to identical distributions at thermal equilibrium. This explains why the baryon number asymmetry was required to be generated out of thermal equilibrium.

The so called mechanism of spontaneous baryogenesis  uses the natural (strong) CPT non-invariance of the Universe during its early history to bypass this third condition. We know that an expanding Universe at finite temperature violates both Lorentz invariance and time reversal, and this can lead to effective CPT violating interactions . Thus the cosmological expansion of the early Universe leads us naturally to examine the possibility of generating the baryon asymmetry in thermal equilibrium. The main ingredient for implementing this mechanism is a scalar field $`\varphi `$ with a derivative coupling to the baryonic current. If the current is not conserved and the time derivative of the scalar field has a non-vanishing expectation value, an effective chemical potential with opposite signs for baryons and anti-baryons is generated leading to an asymmetry even in thermal equilibrium.

The brane-world model with two branes proposed by Randall and Sundrum (RS) in Ref.  contains a metric degree of freedom called the radion which determines the distance between the two branes and appears as a scalar field $`\varphi `$ on the branes. Cosmological solutions have also been examined rather extensively in this context. In particular, it has been shown that, when matter is added on one (or both) of the two branes, the standard Friedmann equation for the scale factor of the Universe is recovered (with possible corrections) provided the radion is suitably stabilized (see for example Refs. - and References therein). In this brane-world model, we therefore have both a scalar field (the radion) and the cosmological evolution as required by spontaneous baryogenesis, and we shall show that the radion field does in fact couple differently with baryons and anti-baryons. This scenario might therefore naturally reproduce the observed baryonic asymmetry 111Other mechanisms for baryogenesis in the context of brane-world models have been recently analyzed, e.g. in Refs. -..

In Section 2, we review in some details the mechanism of spontaneous baryogenesis. The cosmological solutions in the RS framework are discussed in Section 3 where the process of spontaneous baryogenesis driven by the radion is presented in general. Some more specific examples are also reported in Section 4. We then conclude and comment on our results.

We shall use units with $`c=\mathrm{}=k_\mathrm{B}=1`$, where $`k_\mathrm{B}`$ is the Boltzmann constant.

## 2 Spontaneous Baryogenesis

To illustrate the mechanism of spontaneous baryogenesis (see, e.g., Refs.  and -) let us consider a theory in which a neutral scalar field $`\varphi `$ is coupled to the baryonic current $`J_B^\mu `$ according to the Lagrangian density

$`L_{\mathrm{int}}={\displaystyle \frac{\lambda ^{}}{M_\mathrm{c}}}J_B^\mu _\mu \varphi ,`$ (2.1)
where $`\lambda ^{}`$ is a coupling constant and $`M_c`$ is a cut-off mass scale in the theory (presumably smaller than the Planck mass $`M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$). Let us assume that $`\varphi `$ is homogeneous, so that only the time derivative term contributes,

$`L_{\mathrm{int}}={\displaystyle \frac{\lambda ^{}}{M_\mathrm{c}}}\dot{\varphi }n_B\mu (t)n_B,`$ (2.2)
where $`n_B=J_B^0`$ is the baryon number density and $`\mu (t)`$ is to be regarded as an effective time-dependent chemical potential. This interpretation (see Ref. ) is valid if the current $`J_B^\mu `$ is not conserved (otherwise one could integrate the interaction term away) and if $`\varphi `$ behaves as an external field which develops a slowly varying time derivative $`\dot{\varphi }0`$ as the Universe expands. Since the chemical potential $`\mu `$ enters with opposite signs for baryons and anti-baryons, we have a net baryonic charge density in thermal equilibrium at the temperature $`T`$,

$`n_B(T;\xi )={\displaystyle \frac{\text{d}^3k}{(2\pi )^3}\left[f(k,\mu )f(k,\mu )\right]},`$ (2.3)
where $`\xi \mu /T`$ is regarded as a parameter, and

$`f(k,\mu )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{exp}\left[\left(\sqrt{k^2+m^2}\mu \right)/T\right]\pm 1}}`$ (2.4)
is the phase-space thermal distribution 222Of course, the plus sign is for fermions and the minus sign for bosons. for particles with rest mass $`m`$ and momentum $`k`$. For $`|\xi |1`$ we may expand Eq. (2.4) in powers of $`\xi `$ to obtain

$`n_B(T;\mu )={\displaystyle \frac{gT^3}{6}}\xi +O\left(\xi ^2\right),`$ (2.5)
where $`g`$ is the number of degrees of freedom of the field corresponding to $`n_B`$. Upon substituting in for the expression of $`\mu `$, one therefore finds

$`n_B(T;\mu ){\displaystyle \frac{\lambda ^{}g}{6M_\mathrm{c}}}T^2\dot{\varphi }.`$ (2.6)
Regardless of the specific mechanisms which break baryon number conservation, we assume that there is a temperature $`T_\mathrm{F}`$ at which the baryon number violating processes become sufficiently rare so that $`n_B`$ freezes out ($`T_\mathrm{F}`$ will in fact be called the freezing temperature). Once this temperature is reached as the universe cools down, one is left with a baryonic asymmetry whose value is given by Eq. (2.6) evaluated at $`T=T_\mathrm{F}`$. The value of the parameter $`\eta `$ remains unchanged in the subsequent evolution.

## 3 Radion Induced Spontaneous Baryogenesis

We have discussed how the mechanism of spontaneous baryogenesis may explain the observed baryonic asymmetry. We shall now argue that it might occur naturally in brane-world models. In particular, we shall consider the five-dimensional RS model of Ref.  perturbed by matter on one or both branes -. The reader is referred to Ref.  for more details on the framework and notation used hereafter.

In this model the metric can be written in the form

$`\text{d}s^2`$ $`=`$ $`n^2(y,t)\text{d}t^2a^2(y,t)\left[\left(\text{d}x^1\right)^2+\left(\text{d}x^2\right)^2+\left(\text{d}x^3\right)^2\right]b^2(y,t)\text{d}y^2`$ (3.1)
$``$ $`\stackrel{~}{g}_{AB}(x,y)\text{d}x^A\text{d}x^B,`$
where $`t`$ is the time, $`x^i`$ are the spatial coordinates along the branes and $`y`$ is the extra-dimensional coordinate. In this formalism, the Planck brane is conventionally located at $`y=0`$ and the TeV brane at $`y=1/2`$. The Einstein equations are given by $`G_{AB}=\kappa ^2T_{AB}`$, where $`\kappa ^2=1/(2M^3)`$ and $`M`$ is the five-dimensional Planck mass. The energy-momentum tensor $`T_{AB}`$ contains a contribution from the bulk cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ of the form $`T_{AB}^{\mathrm{bulk}}=\mathrm{\Lambda }\stackrel{~}{g}_{AB}`$ and a contribution from the matter on the two branes,

$`T_A^{B\mathrm{branes}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{b}}\delta (y)\mathrm{diag}[V_{}+\rho _{},V_{}p_{},V_{}p_{},V_{}p_{},0]`$ (3.2)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{b}}\delta (y1/2)\mathrm{diag}[V+\rho ,Vp,Vp,Vp,0],`$
where $`V_{}`$ is the (positive) tension of the Planck brane and $`V`$ the (negative) tension on the TeV brane. We have correspondingly denoted by $`\rho _{}`$ and $`p_{}`$ the density and pressure of the matter localized on the positive tension (Planck) brane (assuming an equation of state of the form $`p_{}=w_{}\rho _{}`$) and by $`\rho `$ and $`p`$ the density and pressure of the matter on the negative tension (TeV) brane. Once a stabilizing potential for the radion is included, the stress-energy tensor picks up an additional term and the solution of the Einstein equations may be written as a perturbation of the usual RS solution,

$`n(y)=a(y)=e^{m_0b_0|y|},`$ (3.3)
with $`V_{}=6m_0/\kappa ^2=V`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=6m_0^2/\kappa `$. We also recall that the constants $`b_0`$ and $`m_0`$ determine the effective four-dimensional Planck mass as $`(8\pi G_N)^1=M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2=(1\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2)/\kappa ^2m_0`$, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0e^{m_0b_0/2}`$.

In order to obtain an effective action for the four-dimensional theory, one perturbs the metric about the RS solution in the form

$`a(t,y)`$ $`=`$ $`a(t)e^{m_0b(t)|y|}[1+\delta a(y,t)]`$
$`n(t,y)`$ $`=`$ $`e^{m_0b(t)|y|}[1+\delta n(y,t)]`$ (3.4)
$`b(t,y)`$ $`=`$ $`b(t)[1+\delta b(y,t)],`$
and drops the metric perturbations which contribute only to second order in $`\delta a`$, $`\delta n`$ and $`\delta b`$ (see Refs. - for the effects of the latter). It is then useful to introduce the notation $`\mathrm{\Omega }(y,b(t))=e^{m_0b(t)|y|}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b\mathrm{\Omega }(1/2,b(t))`$ ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ evaluated at $`b=b_0`$ is then given by $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$). By integrating over the fifth dimension, one obtains an effective action for the radion field. Further, upon examining the equations of motion for $`b(t)`$, one notes that, since $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ depends on $`b`$, the presence of matter on the two branes generates an effective potential for $`b(t)`$ given by

$`V_{\mathrm{eff}}(b)=V_r(b)+{\displaystyle \frac{f^4(b)}{4}}\left[\rho _{}3p_{}+\left(\rho 3p\right)\mathrm{\Omega }_b^4\right],`$ (3.5)
with

$`f(b)=\left({\displaystyle \frac{1\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2}{1\mathrm{\Omega }_b^2}}\right)^{1/2}.`$ (3.6)
The function $`V_r=V_r(b(t))`$ is the potential which would stabilize the radion at the value $`b=b_0`$ in the absence of matter. It can therefore be expanded near its minimum as 333This expression follows from Eq. (4.12) of Ref.  by defining $`\sqrt{3/2}\varphi /\mathrm{\Lambda }_W=m_0b`$ (where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_W=\mathrm{\Omega }_0M_{\mathrm{Pl}}1`$TeV).

$`V_r(b)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}m_r^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_0b_0}{1\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2}}\right)^2\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{bb_0}{b_0}}\right)^2,`$ (3.7)
where

$`m_r^2={\displaystyle \frac{2\left(f^4V_r\right)^{\prime \prime }(b_0)}{3m_0^2M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2}}\left(1\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2\right)^2,`$ (3.8)
and $`m_r`$ is the effective radion mass. Thus the radion, in the presence of matter on the two branes, is stabilized to a shifted value $`b_0+\mathrm{\Delta }b`$ determined by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }b}{b_0}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2}{m_0b_0}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\rho 3p+\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2\left(\rho _{}3p_{}\right)}{m_r^2\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2}},`$ (3.9)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }b`$ is the distance between the minima of $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ with and without matter.

From the above expression, we see that, since the trace of the stress-energy tensor vanishes for radiation, even if the Universe on the TeV brane is in a radiation dominated era ($`\rho 3p`$), the radion evolution is determined by the behavior of massive matter on the TeV and Planck branes. This is the essential ingredient which allows for the possibility of inducing spontaneous baryogenesis. We note that the factor $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2`$ in front of $`\rho _{}`$ would make this term negligible for comparable energy densities on the TeV and Planck branes, but the fact that the natural energy scale on the Planck brane is of the order of $`M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$ may nonetheless allow for a relevant contribution to baryogenesis from the Planck brane.

Let us now assume that the high energy Lagrangian for matter on the TeV brane contains an interaction term of the form given in Eq. (2.2),

$`L_{\mathrm{int}}=\lambda ^{}m_0\dot{b}n_B,`$ (3.10)
where $`\dot{b}`$ now plays the role of $`\dot{\varphi }`$. Such a term is the same as that in Eq. (4.30) of Ref. . On using Eq. (3.9) to estimate $`\dot{b}\dot{\mathrm{\Delta }b}`$, we finally obtain

$`\eta ={\displaystyle \frac{m_0\dot{b}}{T}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{m_r^2\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{T}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\text{d}}{\text{d}t}}\left[\left(\rho 3p\right)+\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2\left(\rho _{}3p_{}\right)\right].`$ (3.11)
Due to the expansion of the Universe, the time derivative on the right hand side of this equation will in general acquire a non vanishing (expectation) value and the baryonic symmetry is therefore dynamically broken in the model. We also note that the radion field is likely very massive 444For example, if the radion is stabilized by the Goldberger-Wise mechanism , one has $`m_r1`$TeV., and one can then assume that the radion follows instantaneously any changes of the matter density.

## 4 Examples

In order to complete our analysis, we shall now estimate the baryonic asymmetry (3.11) at the freezing temperature $`T_\mathrm{F}`$ in three specific scenarios:

1. If the effect of matter on the Planck brane is negligible in Eq. (3.11), the condition to generate the observed baryonic asymmetry (1.1) can be estimated as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{T}}{\displaystyle \frac{\text{d}}{\text{d}t}}\left(\rho 3p\right)|_{T_\mathrm{F}}10^{10}\mathrm{TeV}^4.`$ (4.1)
Let $`\rho _m`$ be the energy density of any non-traceless component of the energy momentum tensor. By using the continuity equation and the Friedmann equation for a radiation dominated Universe up to an energy density of the order of $`1`$TeV4, which is roughly the limit of validity for the RS model, one obtains the requirement

$`\rho _m10^6\mathrm{TeV}^4`$ (4.2)
for this mechanism to produce sufficient baryonic asymmetry.
2. Since the Planck brane remains hidden, one can allow for a very large term proportional to $`\dot{\rho }_{}`$ in Eq. (3.11) (we recall that matter energy on the Planck brane is allowed up to the Planck scale). The radion velocity would hence be larger than in the previous case, and the freezing temperature correspondingly lower. The bound in this case is

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{T}}{\displaystyle \frac{\text{d}}{\text{d}t}}\left(\rho _{}3p_{}\right)|_{T_\mathrm{F}}10^{42}M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^4.`$ (4.3)
3. Another possibility is to consider the stage when the radion is still stabilizing towards the equilibrium value $`b_0`$ and the effect of matter on the branes is negligible. A typical radion velocity would be larger than in both previous cases, $`m_0\dot{b}H(T)M_{\mathrm{Pl}}/\mathrm{\Lambda }_W`$, and

$`T10^2\mathrm{eV},`$ (4.4)
which allows the widest range of temperature among the three possibilities outlined.

Of course, the above list is not exhaustive and one could consider many other situations. For example, one could include more bulk fields or different couplings between the radion and brane fields. A complete analysis of all possible cases however goes beyond the scope of the present work and will not be given here.

## 5 Conclusions

We have shown that the perturbations induced by the addition of matter on one (or both) of the two branes of a cosmological RS model with a stabilizing potential for the radion naturally lead to a non-vanishing expectation value for the velocity of the radion field. Since the latter couples with the baryonic current on the branes, this naturally induces the onset of spontaneous baryongenesis, as described by the general formula (3.11).

Having outlined the main ideas in the present paper, the next step would be to analyze all possible scenarios. For specific cases, it may in fact be possible to reproduce the observed baryonic asymmetry $`\eta `$ in Eq. (1.1). Conversely, the required value of $`\eta `$ can be viewed as a constraint that brane-world models must satisfy.

## Acknowledgments

R.C. would like to thank G. Lambiase for comments.


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# ϕ meson production in near threshold proton-nucleus collisions

## I Introduction

Particle production in near threshold $`p+A`$ reactions is a sensitive probe of the in-medium modification of the particle properties. A change of the particle spectral function which is mainly characterized by the particle mass may result in a drastic change of the available phase space and hence the production cross section. Decay widths of the produced particles may be influenced in a similar way.

Kaonic atom experiments Katom  and the enhanced $`K^{}`$ production observed in heavy-ion collisions by the FOPI fopi1 ; fopi2  and the KaoS kaos1 ; kaos3  collaborations point to a strong attractive $`K^{}`$ potential. These results seemed to support the predictions of early theoretical approaches based on effective chiral Lagrangians Nelson-Kaplan . However, more sophisticated theoretical calculations Kolomeitsev ; SibCas ; Schaffner ; Cieply ; Lutz  lead to weaker or strongly momentum dependent $`K^{}`$ potentials, which can even become repulsive for large momenta and densities. On the contrary $`K^+`$ and $`\varphi `$ potentials (repulsive for $`K^+`$ and attractive for the $`\varphi `$ meson) are believed to depend only weakly on the density of nuclear matter.

The study of $`\varphi `$ meson production in $`p+A`$ collisions provides an independent test of the in-medium kaon and $`\varphi `$ potentials. In case of a strong attractive $`K^{}`$ potential and moderate $`K^+`$ and $`\varphi `$ potentials the mean proper lifetime of $`\varphi `$ mesons decreases from the vacuum value of about 50 fm/$`c`$ to an order of magnitude smaller value in normal nuclear matter. Therefore, $`\varphi `$ mesons created in a $`p+A`$ collision have a large probability to decay into kaon pairs inside the nucleus. These kaons may rescatter before they leave the nucleus, and consequently the kinematic information needed to reconstruct the $`\varphi `$ meson might be lost. This effect is expected to be bigger for a larger nucleus, therefore studying the mass dependence of the number of $`\varphi `$ mesons reconstructed from the $`K^+K^{}`$ channel is a suitable probe for studying the in-medium broadening of the $`\varphi `$ meson.

$`\varphi `$ meson production in $`p+A`$ collisions can also be studied via the dilepton-decay channel $`\varphi e^+e^{}`$. Electrons practically do not interact with the nuclear matter, and the $`\varphi `$ mesons can be reconstructed using the dilepton invariant mass. The dilepton decay width of the $`\varphi `$ meson is expected to be weakly affected by the medium. However, the dramatic increase of the dominant kaonic decay width causes a similar decrease of the dilepton branching-ratio, therefore, also the $`\varphi `$ multiplicity observed via the dilepton channel is affected.

In this paper we present a theoretical study of $`\varphi `$ meson production in $`p+A`$ collisions based on calculations carried out using a BUU type transport model. We study the effect of in-medium $`\varphi `$ meson broadening and kaon rescattering. We give predictions for $`\varphi `$ production cross sections obtained from both the $`K^+K^{}`$ and the $`e^+e^{}`$ channels.

## II The model

### II.1 Elementary reactions

In addition to $`\varphi `$ meson production in a primary collision of two nucleons, $`NNNN\varphi `$, our model also incorporates the production of $`\varphi `$ mesons in collisions of secondary particles with nucleons, namely the channels $`\mathrm{\Delta }NNN\varphi `$, $`\pi NN\varphi `$ and $`\rho NN\varphi `$. These channels have already been considered for $`\varphi `$ meson production in heavy-ion collisions in Ref. phiAA , and we utilize the respective cross sections from this work.

The total width of the $`\varphi `$ meson is given by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{tot}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{K^+K^{}}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{K^0\overline{K}^0}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{e^+e^{}}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{rest}},$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{rest}}`$ means the sum of the widths of the remaining decay channels. The in-medium values of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{K^+K^{}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{K^0\overline{K}^0}`$ depend on the $`\varphi `$ mass and the kaon three-momentum $`p_K`$ via

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\varphi K\overline{K}}^{\mathrm{med}}=\left(\frac{m_\varphi ^{\mathrm{vac}}}{m_\varphi ^{\mathrm{med}}}\right)^2\left(\frac{p_K^{\mathrm{med}}}{p_K^{\mathrm{vac}}}\right)^3\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\varphi K\overline{K}}^{\mathrm{vac}}$$
(2)
for neutral and charged kaon pairs. The superscripts ‘med’ and ‘vac’ refer to the in-medium and vacuum values, respectively. In vacuum the width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{rest}}`$ amounts to 15 % (0.7 MeV) of the total width and originates mainly from three-pion decay or the $`\pi \rho `$ decay. These channels play a minor role for the change of the total width in nuclear matter. E.g., if one assumes that 50 % goes through the $`\pi \rho `$ channel and the $`\rho `$ mass is reduced in matter by 200 MeV the corresponding partial width increases to two MeV which is still small compared to the expected change of the total width. Thus, the variations of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{rest}}`$ would not essentially change our results and are therefore neglected in our calculations. We assume furthermore that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{e^+e^{}}`$ is not affected by the medium.

We remark that Eq. (2) is a simplification compared to a rigorous treatment of the $`\varphi `$ meson spectrum in matter. This relation would be justified if the spectral function of kaons could be approximated with a $`\delta `$ function. This is justified for $`K^+`$ but hardly for the $`K^{}`$ mesons Kolomeitsev ; SibCas ; Schaffner ; Cieply ; Lutz ; Kaiser ; Oset ; Ramos ; klingl . However, for an attractive $`K^{}`$ potential of 150 MeV Eq. (2) provides a width of 45 MeV which is quite similar to the value obtained in Ref. klingl .

The rescattering of the kaons proceeds either via elastic ($`K^\pm NK^\pm N`$) or inelastic ($`K^+N`$ $`K^+N\pi `$, $`K^{}N\pi \mathrm{\Lambda }`$ or $`K^{}N\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }`$) channels. In our calculations we used a fit to the available experimental data of the cross sections of these processes Landolt-Bornstein . We also included the rescattering of the $`\varphi `$ mesons and their absorption via the reaction $`\varphi N`$ $`K\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

### II.2 In-medium potentials

The kaonic atom experiments Katom  indicated that the $`K^{}`$ mass might decrease by about 200 MeV even at normal nuclear matter density. Theoretical models that are able to reconstruct the antikaon enhancement observed in $`Ni+Ni`$ reactions favor a density dependent potential that gives a smaller mass drop of about 70-120 MeV at normal nuclear matter density fopi2 ; kaos3 . The $`K^+`$ potential has been found to be weakly repulsive and we use a linear dependence on the baryonic number density $`n`$

$$U_{K^+}(n)=25\mathrm{MeV}\frac{n}{n_0},$$
(3)
where $`n_0`$ is the normal nuclear matter density. At present there is no experimental information about the $`\varphi `$ meson potential in the nuclear medium. It is commonly assumed that the mass weakly depends on the nuclear density.

$$m_\varphi ^{\mathrm{med}}=m_\varphi ^{\mathrm{vac}}\left(1\alpha \frac{n}{n_0}\right).$$
(4)
The parameter $`\alpha `$ depends crucially on the strangeness content of the nucleons. Hatsuda et al. Hatsuda  estimated $`\alpha `$ = 0.025 while in refs. klingl ; cabrera  a shift of the $`\varphi `$ mass of about 10 MeV and an increase of the width up to 30 MeV was predicted. The authors of refs. kaempfer ; zschocke  showed using the sum rule approach that the mass shift is connected with the value of the four-quark condensate in the QCD vacuum. Reasonable estimates give values up to $`\alpha `$ = 0.033. To cover the possible range of the parameter $`\alpha `$ we compare calculations using $`\alpha `$ = 0 and $`\alpha `$ = 0.033, respectively.

Now we are going to investigate the effects of different in-medium potentials for the $`K^{}`$ meson. We carried out four sets of calculations: (a) without an in-medium $`K^{}`$ potential, (b) with a moderate potential derived in Ref. Cieply , (c) with the momentum dependent $`K^{}`$ potential of Ref. SibCas , and (d) with a strong, momentum independent $`K^{}`$ potential. These potentials can be summarized in the form SibCas

$$U_K^{}(n,p_K)=\left[a+b\mathrm{exp}(cp_K)\right]\frac{n}{n_0}.$$
(5)
The parameters $`a`$, $`b`$ and $`c`$ of Eq. (5) corresponding to these four cases are

| (a) | $`a`$=0, | $`b`$=0, | $`c`$=0; |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| (b) | $`a`$=$``$70 MeV, | $`b`$=0, | $`c`$=0; |
| (c) | $`a`$=$``$55 MeV, | $`b`$=$``$130 MeV, | $`c`$=0.0025 MeV<sup>-1</sup>; |
| (d) | $`a`$=$``$150 MeV, | $`b`$=0, | $`c`$=0. |

The potential (d) corresponds to early estimates to fit the energy levels in $`K^{}`$ atoms, but it was shown recently Cieply  that the moderate potential (b) also satisfies this constraint.

### II.3 The BUU model

The starting point of our calculations is the BUU code used in phiAA . The model has been extended by including the decay of the $`\varphi `$ meson into a charged kaon pair. We have implemented the propagation of the kaon pair which rescatters in the nuclear medium as described in section II.1.

To increase statistics we use the perturbative method for $`\varphi `$ production, i.e. if in a two-particle collision the threshold is overcome, the $`\varphi `$ meson is created and weighted with its production probability. In the case of the $`\varphi `$ $`K^+K^{}`$ decay, however, we made a Monte-Carlo decision in order to avoid producing too large a number of kaons with very small weights.

We perform calculations for four different systems, $`p+C`$, $`p+Cu`$, $`p+Te`$ and $`p+Au`$, in order to study the dependence on the target mass $`A`$. The $`\varphi `$ production cross section was obtained integrating over the impact parameter. We choose a beam energy of 2.5 GeV, which is below the $`\varphi `$ production threshold in a free nucleon-nucleon collision. Fermi motion of the nucleons and many-step processes in the target nucleus will contribute to gain sufficient energy needed for $`\varphi `$ production.

In the calculation we keep track of the scattering and absorption processes of the $`\varphi `$ mesons and the history of the kaon pairs if the $`\varphi `$ mesons decay. The invariant mass of the $`K^+K^{}`$ pairs can deviate from the vacuum $`\varphi `$ mass after the kaons have left the nuclear matter. In a static potential the kaons would transform their potential energy into kinetic energy if they could escape the nucleus potential, and their invariant mass would take the value of the originally $`\varphi `$ mass. A $`K^{}`$ meson resulting from the decay of a very slow and light $`\varphi `$ meson could not leave the attractive potential and will finally get absorbed. However, in reality the excited target nucleus will expand, therefore the potentials depend on time and weakens during the emission process. Therefore, the loss (or gain) of the kinetic energy of a kaon does not generally correspond to the potential at the creation point. Thus, the invariant mass of the emitted kaon pairs are widely spread. Since the strong attractive $`K^{}`$ potential has the dominant influence, the invariant mass will in most cases exceed the vacuum $`\varphi `$ mass. We apply the criterion

$$\left|m_{K^+K^{}}m_\varphi ^{\mathrm{vac}}\right|<0.05\mathrm{GeV}$$
(6)
to select only those kaon pairs from which the $`\varphi `$ meson can be reconstructed. Thus the $`\varphi `$ multiplicity which is experimentally observable via the $`K^+K^{}`$ channel is obtained as

$$N_\varphi ^{\mathrm{obs}}=N_\varphi ^{\mathrm{surv}}+N_{K^+K^{}}^{\mathrm{surv}}/B_{\varphi K^+K^{}},$$
(7)
where $`N_\varphi ^{\mathrm{surv}}`$ is the number of the $`\varphi `$ mesons per event that survived, $`N_{K^+K^{}}^{\mathrm{surv}}`$ is the number of kaon pairs which fulfill the selection criterion (6) and $`B_{\varphi K^+K^{}}`$ is the vacuum value of the branching ratio of the $`\varphi `$ decay. The fact that the cross section depends on the selection criterion Eq. (6) due to the spread of the invariant $`K^+K^{}`$ mass was also discussed in Ref. muhlich  for photoproduction of $`\varphi `$ mesons.

We also consider the decay of the $`\varphi `$ mesons into electron pairs. The invariant masses of the electron pairs are recorded, and Eqs. (6,7) are applied accordingly. We mention that the long range Coulomb force leads to an additional spread around the vacuum $`\varphi `$ mass of less than 10 MeV for a heavily charged target like Au, a value which is small compared with the expected nuclear effects.

## III Results

The main results of our calculations are shown on Fig. 1. There we display the $`\varphi `$ meson production cross sections reconstructed from the $`K^+K^{}`$ and the $`e^+e^{}`$ decay channels for the four sets of in-medium potentials. The cross sections are rescaled by $`A^{2/3}`$ to remove the effect of the geometrical cross section of the nucleus.

The comparison of the left and the right hand part of Fig. 1 shows the effect of the change of the mass of the $`\varphi `$ meson. The main effect is that the cross section increases if the mass is diminished in nuclear matter. That is seen especially for larger nuclei while the size of a nucleus like carbon is not large enough to allow sufficient secondary collision inside dense matter.

Without a $`K^{}`$ potential the $`\varphi `$ production cross section increases with A faster than the geometrical cross section. For target masses below the copper mass the cross section is roughly proportional to the mass number. This is because the $`\varphi `$ mesons are predominantly created in two-step processes by secondary $`\pi `$ and $`\rho `$ mesons. For larger nuclei the increase is moderate because $`\varphi `$ mesons get absorbed in large nuclei. This is obvious if the decay is hindered inside the nucleus because of a reduction of the mass (see right hand side of Fig. 1). We observe an enhancement of the dilepton channel relative to the $`K^+K^{}`$ channel. This enhancement is largest if the $`K^{}`$ potential vanishes and is explained by the fact that the dilepton branching-ratio increases with dropping $`\varphi `$ meson mass and increasing $`K^+`$ mass.

A strong attractive $`K^{}`$ potential causes a rapid decay of the $`\varphi `$ mesons inside the nucleus. This effect increases with the size of the target nucleus and is seen in both the numbers of observed $`K^+K^{}`$ and the $`e^+e^{}`$ pairs. In the case of the $`K^+K^{}`$ channel the reduction of the $`\varphi `$ cross section is caused by the rescattering of the kaons while in the case of the $`e^+e^{}`$ channel a similar reduction occurs because of the decrease of the dilepton branching-ratio in nuclear matter.

## IV Conclusions

The results show that the target mass dependence of the observed $`\varphi `$ production cross section is strongly altered if strong changes of the kaon masses in nuclear matter occur. If such effects exist they should be measurable by detecting kaon or electron pairs in subthreshold proton-nucleus reactions with energies available at the COSY or SIS accelerators at FZ Jülich and at GSI Darmstadt, respectively.

## V Acknowledgement

M.Z. acknowledges the warm hospitality of the theory group of the FZ Rossendorf and the financial support of the Sächsische Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst. The work is supported by BMBF 06DR121 and the Bergen Computational Physics Laboratory.


text:
# Experimental Limit on the Cosmic Diffuse Ultra-high Energy Neutrino Flux

## Abstract

We report results from 120 hours of livetime with the Goldstone Lunar Ultra-high energy neutrino Experiment (GLUE). The experiment searches for $`10`$ ns microwave pulses from the lunar regolith, appearing in coincidence at two large radio telescopes separated by 22 km and linked by optical fiber. Such pulses would arise from subsurface electromagnetic cascades induced by interactions of $`100`$ EeV neutrinos in the lunar regolith. No candidates are yet seen, and the implied limits constrain several current models for ultra-high energy neutrino fluxes.

In 1962, G. Askaryan predicted that electromagnetic cascades in dense media should produce strong coherent pulses of microwave Cherenkov radiation Ask62 . Recent confirmation of this hypothesis at accelerators Sal01  strengthens the motivation to search for such emission from cascades induced by predicted high energy neutrino fluxes, closely related to the measured fluence of $`10^{20}`$ eV cosmic rays in many models.

Two such models, the Z-burst model Wei99 , and a generic class known as Topological Defect (TD) models Yos97 , predict ultra-high energy (UHE) neutrinos with either monoenergetic or very hard energy spectra. In the Z-burst model, UHE neutrinos annihilate with relic cosmic background neutrinos via the $`\nu \overline{\nu }Z_0`$ channel. The $`Z_0`$ then decays rapidly in a burst of hadronic secondaries which create the observed $`10^{20}`$ eV cosmic rays. The need to match the observed UHE cosmic ray fluxes and satisfy the current constraints on neutrino masses (which modify the annihilation resonance energy) then lead to a requirement on minimal neutrino fluxes at the resonance energy near $`10^{2223}`$ eV. The Z-burst model thus formally requires only neutrinos at a single energy, with no specification for how such a flux might be produced.

The Z-burst model is also significant in that it is a variation on an earlier idea Weiler82  in which the $`\nu \overline{\nu }`$ annihiliation process could be used as a probe of the cosmic background neutrinos, one of the few viable ways ever proposed for detection of these relic cosmological neutrinos–it requires only a sufficient flux of UHE neutrinos and a detector with the sensitivity to measure them. Constraints on these UHE $`\nu `$ fluxes thus can rule out this potential detection channel for the relics, in addition to excluding their role in UHE cosmic ray production.

TD models, in contrast, postulate a very massive relic particle from the early universe which is decaying in the current epoch and producing secondaries observed as UHE cosmic rays. The required masses approach the Grand-Unified Theory (GUT) scale at $`10^{24}`$ eV, and the decay products thus have a very hard spectrum extending up to the rest mass energy of the particles. Because of these very hard spectra, detectors optimized for lower-energy neutrinos, even up to PeV energies, do not yet constrain these models, and new approaches, such as the experiment we report on here, are required.

Neutrinos with energies above 100 EeV (1 EeV = $`10^{18}`$ eV) can produce cascades in the upper 10 m of the lunar regolith resulting in pulses that are detectable at Earth by large radio telescopes. Zhe88 ; Dag89  One prior experiment has been reported, using the Parkes 64 m telescope H96  with 10 hours of livetime. In the decimeter band, the signal should appear as highly linearly-polarized, band-limited electromagnetic impulses zhsa . However, since there are many anthropogenic sources of impulsive radio-frequency interference (RFI), the primary problem in detecting neutrinos is to reject such interference. Since 1999 we have conducted a series of experiments in search of such pulses, using the JPL/NASA Deep Space Network antennas at Goldstone, CA Gor99 . We have essentially eliminated RFI background by employing two antennas in coincidence.

Although the total livetime accumulated in our experiment is a relatively small fraction of what is possible with a dedicated system, the volume of material to which we are sensitive is enormous, exceeding 100,000 km3 at the highest energies. The resulting sensitivity is enough to begin constraining some models for diffuse neutrino fluxes at energies above $`10^{20}`$ eV. We report here on results from 120 hours of livetime.

The lunar regolith is an aggregate layer of fine particles and small rocks, consisting mostly of silicates and related minerals, with meteoritic iron and titanium compounds at an average level of several per cent, and traces of meteoritic carbon. Its depths are 10 to 20 m in the maria and valleys, but may be hundreds of meters in portions of the highlands Mor87 . It has a mean dielectric constant of $`ϵ=n^23`$ and a density of $`\rho 1.7`$ g cm-3, both increasing slowly with depth. Measured values for the loss tangent vary widely depending on iron and titanium content, but a mean value at high frequencies is $`\mathrm{tan}\delta 0.003`$, implying a field attenuation length $`L_\alpha 9`$ m at 2 GHz Olh75 .

Fig. 1 illustrates the signal emission geometry. At 100 EeV the interaction length of a neutrino is about 60 km Gan00 . Upon interaction, a cascade $`10`$ m long forms, and Compton scattering, positron annihilation, and other processes lead to a $`20\%`$ negative charge excess. This cascade radiates a cone of coherent Cherenkov emission at an angle from the shower axis of $`\theta _C=\mathrm{cos}^1(1/\beta \sqrt{ϵ})54^{}`$, with an angular spread of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta 1^{}`$ at 2 GHz. At an ideal smooth regolith surface, the refraction obeys Snell’s law, and the exit angle $`\theta ^{}`$ is magnified by the gradient $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta ^{}/\mathrm{\Delta }\theta =n\mathrm{cos}\theta /\sqrt{1n^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta }`$ which equals $`n`$ for normal incidence ($`\theta =0`$), but becomes much larger as $`\theta `$ approaches the total-internal reflectance angle $`\theta _{TIR}=\pi /2\theta _C`$. This magnification improves the acceptance for an earth-based detector, at the expense of an increase in energy threshold. Our ray tracing shows that similar effects obtain statistically for a more realistic surface as well.

For our search we used the shaped-Cassegrainian 70 m antenna DSS14, and the 34 m beam-waveguide antenna DSS13, separated by 22 km. The S-band (2.2 GHz) right-circular-polarization (RCP) signal from DSS13 is filtered to 150 MHz bandwidth and down-converted to an intermediate frequency (IF) near 300 MHz. The band is subdivided into high and low frequency halves with no overlap. The DSS14 dual polarization S-band signals are down-converted to the same 300 MHz IF, and a combination of bandwidths from 40-150 MHz are used for sub-band triggering on impulsive signals. At DSS14, an L-band (1.8 GHz) feed which is off-pointed by $`0.5^{}`$ produces a 40 MHz bandwith monitor of terrestrial interference signals.

Fig. 2 shows the layout of the trigger. The signals from the two antennas are converted to unipolar pulses using tunnel-diode detectors with a $`10`$ ns integration time. A comparator then test for pulses above threshold, and a local coincidence within 50 ns is formed among the channels at each antenna. The DSS14 coincidence between both circular polarizations ensures that the signals are highly linearly polarized, and the split-channel coincidences ensure that the signal is broadband.

A global trigger is formed between the local coincidences of the two antennas within a 150 $`\mu `$s window, which encompasses the possible geometric delay range for the Moon throughout the year. Although use of a smaller window is possible, a tighter coincidence is applied offline and the out-of-time events provide a large background sample. Upon the global coincidence, a 250 $`\mu `$s record, sampled at 1 Gsamples/s, is stored. The average trigger rate, due primarily to random coincidences of thermal noise fluctuations, is $`3\times 10^3`$ Hz. Terrestrial interference triggers are on average a few percent of the total, but we have averaged $`95`$% livetime during the runs to date.

The precise geometry of the experiment is a crucial discriminator for events from the Moon. The relative delay between the two antennas is $`\tau =c^1|\stackrel{}{B}|\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ where $`\theta `$ is the apparent angle of the Moon with respect to the baseline vector, $`\stackrel{}{B}`$. For our 22 km baseline, we have a maximum delay difference of $`\tau _{max}=\pm 73\mu `$s. Detectable events can occur anywhere on the Moon’s surface within the antenna beam. This produces a possible spread of 630 ns in the differential delay of the received pulses at the two antennas.

The 2.2 GHz antenna beamwidths between the measured first Airy nulls are $`0.27^{}`$ for the 70 m, and $`0.56^{}`$ for the 34 m. We took data in three configurations: pointing at the limb, the center, and halfway between. The measured source temperatures varied from 70K at the limb, to 160K at the Moon center, with system temperatures of 30-40K.

Timing and amplitude calibration are accomplished in several steps. We internally calibrate the back-end trigger system using a synthesized IF pulse signal, giving precision of order 1 ns. We use a pulse transmitter (single-cycle at 2.2GHz) aimed at the antennas to calibrate the cross-channel delays of each antenna to a precision of 1 ns. The cross-polarization timing at DSS 14 is also checked since the thermal radiation from the limb of the Moon is significantly linearly polarized (from differential Fresnel effects Soboleva\_63 ; Heiles\_63 ), introducing an easily detectable LCP-to-RCP correlation.

Dual antenna timing calibration is accomplished by cross-correlating a 250 $`\mu `$s thermal noise sample of a bright quasar, typically 3C273, recorded from both antennas at the same time and in the same polarization, using the identical data acquisition system used for the pulse detection. This procedure establishes the global $``$136 $`\mu `$s delay between the two antennas to better than 10 ns. Amplitude calibration is accomplished by referencing to a known thermal noise source. The system temperature during a run fixes the value of the noise level and therefore the energy threshold. We also check the system linearity using pulse generators to ensure that the entire system has the dynamic range to see large pulses.

Figure 3 shows a typical event which triggered the system. The top two panes contain the DSS14 LCP and RCP signals, and a narrow pulse is present in both polarizations, indicating a broadband spectral content, and a high degree of linear polarization. The pulse power is normalized to the local mean power over a 250 $`\mu `$s window. In the third and fourth panes, the two channels from DSS13 are shown. In the fifth pane from the top the L-band offset feed signal from DSS 14 is shown, and no RFI is present. The measured delay relative to the expected Moon time is $`1.1\mu `$s in this case, slightly larger than allowed. Systematic timing offsets from channel to channel are well under 10 ns.

Two largely independent analyses look for pulses corresponding to an electric field $`6\sigma `$ above thermal noise in all channels. Both analyses remove terrestrial RFI with either a visual or algorithmic method. Each enforces $`20`$ ns local coincidence timing at each antenna. The precise values of the cuts were determined and fixed before looking at more than half of the data. We have seen no candidates in 120 hours of livetime. The signal efficiency of the RFI and timing cuts is estimated to be $`>98`$%. To estimate background levels, we also search of order 100 different delay values that are inconsistent with the Moon’s sky position, and we have also found no candidates in this search. Hence we observe no events with a background of $`0.01`$ events.

The field strength (V/m/MHz) from a cascade of total energy $`W_T`$ in regolith material can be expressed zhsa :

$$E=\frac{1.45\times 10^7}{R}\frac{W_T}{1\mathrm{T}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}}\frac{\nu }{\nu _0}\frac{1}{(1+(\nu /\nu _0)^{1.44})}$$
(1)
where $`R`$ is the distance to the source in meters, $`\nu `$ is the radio frequency, and the decoherence frequency is $`\nu _02500`$ MHz for the regolith ($`\nu _0`$ scales mainly by radiation length). For typical parameters in our experiment, a $`10^{20}`$ eV cascade will result in a peak field strength at Earth of $`E1.3\mu `$V m-1 for a 70 MHz bandwidth. We have verified Equation 1 to within a factor of $`2`$ through accelerator tests Sal01  using silica sand targets and $`\gamma `$-ray-induced cascades with composite $`W_T10^{19}`$ eV.

Based on the effective antenna aperture $`\eta A`$ and the fact that the background events are due to fluctuations in the black-body power of the Moon, we estimate that the minimum detectable field strength for a linearly polarized pulse is

$$E_{min}=N_\sigma \sqrt{\frac{2kT_{sys}Z_0}{\eta A\mathrm{\Delta }\nu \sqrt{ϵ}}},$$
(2)
where $`Z_0=377\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and $`N_\sigma `$ the number of standard deviations required per channel relative to thermal fluctuations. For the lunar observations on the limb, which make up about 85% of the data reported here, $`T_{sys}110`$ K (including the source contribution), $`\nu =2.2`$ GHz, and the average $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu 70`$ MHz. For the 70 m antenna, with $`\eta 0.8`$, the minimum detectable field strength at $`N_\sigma =6`$ is $`E_{min}0.8\mu `$V m-1. The estimated cascade threshold energy for these parameters is $`W_{thr}=6\times 10^{19}`$ eV. Since the mean inelasticity is $`y=0.2`$, the threshold neutrino energy is $`3\times 10^{20}`$ eV.

Effective volume and acceptance vs. neutrino energy has been estimated via two independent Monte Carlo simulations, including the current estimates of both charged and neutral current cross sections Gan00 , and the $`y`$ distribution. The neutrino species are assumed to be fully mixed upon arrival. All neutrino flavors were included, and LPM effects in the shower formation were estimated zhsa . At each neutrino energy, a distribution of cascade angles and depths with respect to the local surface was obtained, and a refraction propagation of the predicted Cherenkov angular distribution was made through the regolith surface, including absorption, reflection, and roughness effects, and thermal noise fluctuations in the detector.

Via ray-tracing in our simulations (see Ref. Gor01 ), we find that, although the specific flux density of the events are lowered by a factor of order 2 from refraction and scattering, the effective volume and acceptance solid angle are increased by as much as an order of magnitude. The neutrino acceptance solid angle is thus about a factor of 20 larger than the apparent solid angle of the Moon itself. UHE cosmic rays could produce a background for lunar neutrino detection; however, there are several processes that suppress cosmic ray radio emission with respect to that of neutrinos, including total internal reflection, and formation zone effects Gor01 . The level of the potential UHE cosmic ray background is unknown, but as we have detected no events of any kind, our limits obtain in any case.

Figure 4 plots the predicted fluxes of ultra-high energy (UHE) neutrinos from AGN production Man96 ; Steck91 , a maximal flux from UHE cosmic-ray interactions Engel01 , two topological defect models Yos97 , and the Z-burst scenario Wei99 . Two other current limits in this energy regime are plotted, from the RICE experiment RICE03 , and the FORTE satellite FORTE03 . Our 90% confidence level, differential model-independent limit for 120 hours of livetime is shown plotted with large squares numbers , based on the observation of no events above an equivalent $`6\sigma `$ level amplitude (referenced to the 70 m antenna).

All of the differential limit curves in Fig. 4 (except for the $`E_{\nu _\mu }^2`$ power law AMANDA limit) correspond to the inverse of the energy-dependent exposure = (neutrino aperture $`\times `$ time) Mlimits  for each detector noted, scaled by the Poisson upper-limit factor (2.3 for 90% CL). Our plotted model-independent limit curves are very conservative, and become more restrictive when integrals over specific broad-spectrum models are considered. When converted to integral form, our limits constrain power-law neutrino models that parallel our curves for $`1`$ decade, even a factor of 3-5 below our plotted differential limits.

For quasi-monoenergetic models such as the Z-burst scenarios, the limits are exact, and the combined GLUE and FORTE results constrain much of the available Z-burst parameter space. Models such as the highest TD curve shown Yos97  are largely excluded at higher energies by the GLUE and FORTE results, since the integral (flux$`\times `$aperture) would lead to $`3`$ and $`10`$ events in each detector, respectively, in conflict with the null results.

We thank M. Klein, T. Kuiper, R. Milincic, and the Goldstone staff for their enthusiastic support. We are especially grateful to George Resch (d.2001) whose encouragement and unflagging support made this work possible. The work was performed in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA, the Caltech President’s Fund, DOE contracts at Univ. of Hawaii and UCLA, the Sloan Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.


text:
# The Silicon Inversion Layer With A Ferromagnetic Gate: A Novel Spin Source

## Abstract

Novel spin transport behavior is theoretically shown to result from replacing the usual metal (or poly-silicon) gate in a silicon field-effect transistor with a ferromagnet, separated from the semiconductor by an ultra-thin oxide. The spin-dependent interplay between the drift current (due to a source-drain bias) and the diffusion current (due to carrier leakage into the ferromagnetic gate) results in a rich variety of spin dependence in the current that flows through such a device. We examine two cases of particular interest: (1) creating a $`100\%`$ spin-polarized electrical current and (2) creating a pure spin current without a net electrical current. A spin-valve consisting of two sequential ferromagnetic gates is shown to exhibit magnetoresistance dependent upon the relative orientations of the magnetization of the two ferromagnets. The magnetoresistance ratio grows to arbitrarily large values in the regime of low source-drain bias, and is limited only by the spin-flip time in the channel.

The creation, manipulation, and detection of spin-polarized carriers are the essential ingredients of semiconductor spintronics.review1 ; review2 ; review3  Although well established using optical methods,opt\_orientation ; kikkawa ; gupta  the ultimate goal is to achieve this level of control over the spin degree of freedom in all-electrical devices.datta  To this end, spin injection from ferromagnets into semiconductorsfiederling ; ohno ; zhu ; hanbicki  and spin control through the Rashba spin-orbit effectrashba ; nitta1 ; nitta2 ; marcus1 ; marcus2  have attracted much interest during the last few years. In addition, it has recently been proposedbhat  and experimentally verifiedstevens ; hubner  that a pure spin current, without an accompanying electrical current, can be created in direct-gap semiconductors using the interference of one- and two-photon absorption processes. Such pure spin currents will allow for new probes of spin-dependent phenomena in semiconductors and may lead to alternate spintronics device designs not present in existing charge-based technology.

In this paper we present a method of creating fully spin-polarized charge currents and pure spin currents using a ferromagnetically-gated inversion layer in the regime of low source-drain bias.apl ; prb  Our method is possible in any semiconductor, notably silicon, and not just those with well-defined optical transitions. It relies on a proximity effect in which semiconductor carriers acquire spin-dependent properties through coupling with a nearby ferromagnet.prl  Experiments have shown that optically-pumped unpolarized electrons in a semiconductor acquire a net spin-polarization in the presence of an interface with a ferrromagnet.kawakami ; epstein1 ; epstein2  The magnitude of the spin-dependent effects are optimized by confining the semiconductor carriers at the interface with the ferromagnet, with the ferromagnet acting as the electrically-biased gate responsible for the inversion. The crucial parameter is the thickness of the oxide barrier which separates the semiconductor from the ferromagnet; since the coupling of the two depends exponentially on their separation, our proposal will be most relevant for ultra-thin gate oxides at the forefront of current technology.momose  The balance of growing oxides thin enough to produce ample coupling while preserving the functionality of the inversion layer is delicate, although we point out that we are merely taking advantage of the aggressive scaling of field-effect transistors to the nanoscale. In addition, we will discuss the behavior of a recently-proposed spin-valve with two sequential ferromagnetic gates in the same regime of low source-drain bias, where the magnetoresistance ratio due to the relative orientation of the ferromagnet magnetizations can grow to arbitarily large values.

To demonstrate the operational principle of the device, consider the spin-dependent current in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). We will concentrate on the silicon inversion layer with an $`\text{SiO}_2`$ barrier and a ferromagnetic gate, and consider only a single occupied subband in the silicon. For simplicity, we will assume the two spin channels are completely decoupled, but we will return to address any coupling between the two spin channels later in the paper. The device is shown in Fig. 1(a); the growth axis is in the $`\widehat{z}`$-direction, the in-plane current flows in the $`\widehat{x}`$-direction, and we assume the device is translationally invariant in the $`\widehat{y}`$-direction. The in-plane electrical current $`J_\sigma (x)`$ in spin channel $`\sigma =\{,\}`$ contains both drift and diffusion terms,

$$J_\sigma (x)=g_\sigma (x)E_x+eD_\sigma (x)\frac{}{x}N_\sigma (x),$$
(1)
where $`e`$ is the electron charge, $`g_\sigma (x)`$ is the Drude conductivity, $`E_x`$ is the electric field that drives the in-plane current, $`D_\sigma (x)`$ is the diffusion constant, and $`N_\sigma (x)`$ is spatially-dependent 2DEG density. To achieve spin-dependent transport, either the transport coefficients or the 2DEG density must vary considerable between the two spin channels. We show below how the coupling between the 2DEG and a ferromagnetic gate achieves this splitting.

In Ref. apl,  the coupling was calculated from the wavefunction matching conditions, resulting in an equation which specified the spin-dependent complex energy of the confined inversion layer state coupled to the ferromagnet. In Ref. prb,  an effective tight-binding Hamiltonian was derived from the effective-mass Hamiltonian of the silicon/$`\text{SiO}_2`$/ferromagnet interface. The form of this Hamiltonian allowed for the calculation of the 2DEG self-energy due to the interaction with the ferromagnet, the approach we will adopt in this paper. The results of the derivation in Ref. prb,  are summarized below in order to clarify the method of calculation used throughout the rest of this paper. The effective Hamiltonian of the 2DEG coupled to the ferromagnetic gate is

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}a_\sigma ^{}ϵ^{\text{si}}a_\sigma +{\displaystyle \underset{k,\sigma }{}}c_{k,\sigma }^{}ϵ_{k,\sigma }^{\text{fm}}c_{k,\sigma }`$ (2)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{k,\sigma }{}}\left[a_\sigma ^{}V_{k,\sigma }^{\text{fm}}c_{k,\sigma }+c_{k,\sigma }^{}\left(V_{k,\sigma }^{\text{fm}}\right)^{}a_\sigma \right].`$
A one-dimensional calculation is possible for the coupling calculation because the conservation of the in-plane wavevector is relaxed.lo ; shih  The operator $`a_\sigma ^{}`$ creates the inversion layer state with spin $`\sigma `$, energy $`ϵ^{\text{si}}`$, and wavefunction $`\chi ^{\text{si}}(z)`$, which is the lowest bound state of the potential

$$V^{\text{si}}(z)=\left[\stackrel{~}{U}_\text{b}eE_z^{\text{si}}\left(zz_\text{b}\right)\right]\mathrm{\Theta }(zz_\text{b}),$$
(3)
where $`\stackrel{~}{U}_\text{b}`$ is the oxide barrier height from the bottom of the semiconductor potential, $`E_z^{\text{si}}`$ is the electric field in the semiconductor, and $`z_\text{b}`$ is the thickness of the oxide barrier. The ”0” of energy has been put at the top right side of the barrier to simplify the calculations. The operator $`c_{k,\sigma }^{}`$ creates a ferromagnet state with spin $`\sigma `$, wavevector $`k`$, energy $`ϵ_{k,\sigma }^{\text{fm}}`$, and wavefunction $`\varphi _{k,\sigma }^{\text{fm}}(z)`$, which are states of the potential

$`V_\sigma ^{\text{fm}}(z)`$ $`=`$ $`\left[U_{\text{fm}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{2}}\widehat{𝝈}\widehat{𝑴}\right]\mathrm{\Theta }(z)`$ (4)
$`eE_z^\text{b}(zz_\text{b})\mathrm{\Theta }(z)\mathrm{\Theta }(z_\text{b}z),`$
where $`U_{\text{fm}}+\mathrm{\Delta }/2`$ is the Fermi energy of the majority spin band in the ferromagnet, $`U_{\text{fm}}\mathrm{\Delta }/2`$ is the Fermi energy of the minority spin band in the ferromagnet, and $`E_z^\text{b}`$ is the electric field in the barrier. Note that for simplicity we treat the ferromagnet as exchange-split parabolic bands.slon  The coupling between the 2DEG and the ferromagnet is approximated by

$$V_{k,\sigma }^{\text{fm}}=𝑑z\left[\varphi _{k,\sigma }^{\text{fm}}(z)\right]^{}V_\sigma ^{\text{fm}}(z)\chi ^{\text{si}}(z),$$
(5)
which is basically an overlap integral with an exponentially decaying term. Eq. (2) is an approximation of the effective-mass Hamiltonian of the Si/$`\text{SiO}_2`$/ferromagnet interface in which only the most signifcant terms in the coupling have been retained.

From the simple tight-binding Hamiltonian, Eq. (2), the self-energy of the 2DEG electrons due to the interaction with the ferromagnetic gate is

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_\sigma (E)=\underset{k}{}\frac{|V_{k,\sigma }^{\text{fm}}|^2}{Eϵ_{k,\sigma }^{\text{fm}}+i\gamma _{k,\sigma }^{\text{fm}}}.$$
(6)
To account for strong scattering in the ferromagnet, a large imaginary part has been added to the ferromagnet states ($`\gamma _{k,\sigma }^{\text{fm}}`$). Calculating the complex energy $`\stackrel{~}{E}`$ which satisfies $`\stackrel{~}{E}ϵ^{\text{si}}+i0^+\mathrm{\Sigma }_\sigma (\stackrel{~}{E})=0`$, we can evaluate both the spin-dependent 2DEG level shift, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\sigma (\stackrel{~}{E})=\text{Re}\left[\mathrm{\Sigma }_\sigma (\stackrel{~}{E})\right]`$, and the spin-dependent 2DEG lifetime, $`\tau _\sigma (\stackrel{~}{E})=\mathrm{}/2\text{Im}\left[\mathrm{\Sigma }_\sigma (\stackrel{~}{E})\right]`$, due to the coupling with the ferromagnet. The spin-splitting due to the level shift, $`|\mathrm{\Delta }_{}\mathrm{\Delta }_{}|`$, is very small compared to the Fermi energy of the 2DEG for even the thinnest practical oxides, and will be neglected. On the other hand, the spin-dependent lifetime, which represents the time for an inversion layer electron to irreversibly ”fall” into the ferromagnet, is in the picosecond range for oxide thickness’ below $`10\text{Å}`$, which approaches the intrinsic scattering time of the silicon inversion layer, $`\tau _01`$ ps.ando  The ratio of the lifetimes for the two spin channels $`\tau _{}/\tau _{}`$ is roughly a factor of 2 for all oxide thicknesses; spin-dependent transport results, which can be harnassed for spintronics purposes. Using the following parameters for the Si/$`\text{SiO}_2`$/Fe interface, we calculate the scattering times to be $`\tau _{}=3`$ ps and $`\tau _{}=6`$ ps. For silicon, the longitudinal effective mass responsible for the confinement is $`m_{\text{si,l}}^{}=0.91m_0`$, the transverse effective mass responsible for 2DEG transport is $`m_{\text{si,t}}^{}=0.19m_0`$, the dielectric constant is $`ϵ_{\text{si}}=11.7`$, and the equilibrium density of the 2DEG is assumed to be $`N_0=10^{12}\text{cm}^2`$.ando  For silicon dioxide the effective mass is $`m_\text{b}^{}=0.3m_0`$, the dielectric constant is $`ϵ_\text{b}=3.9`$, and the barrier height (from the Fermi level) is $`U_\text{b}=3.2`$ eV. si02\_mass  For the ferromagnet, we use $`U_{\text{fm}}=2.65`$ eV, exchange splitting $`\mathrm{\Delta }=3.9`$ eV, effective mass $`m_{\text{fm}}^{}=m_0`$,slon  and, for simplicity, a wavevector-independent imaginary part of the ferromagnetic energy $`\gamma _{}^{\text{fm}}=1.1`$ eV and $`\gamma _{}^{\text{fm}}=0.8`$ eV.hong  The electric field in the barrier is assumed to be $`E_z^\text{b}=10`$ MeV/cm.

Having calculated the $`\widehat{z}`$-axis properties of the ferromagnetically-gated silicon field-effect transistor, we now examine the 2DEG transport in the $`\widehat{x}`$-direction. Due to the electrical bias on the ferromagnet, the 2DEG current is not constant under the gate and will leak at a rate of

$$\frac{d}{dx}J_\sigma =e\left[\frac{N_\sigma (x)}{\tau _\sigma }\right].$$
(7)
Note that because the flow of electrons is opposite to the current, electrons leaking out of the 2DEG into the ferromagnetic gate implies that a positive current flows into the 2DEG; the current will increase under the gate. Combined with Eq. (1) and the appropriate boundary conditions (the 2DEG has its equilibrium density at the source and drain, $`N_\sigma (x_\text{s})=N_\sigma (x_\text{d})=N_0/2`$), this results in a differential equation for the spatially-dependent, spin-dependent 2DEG density. The new scattering channel due to the interaction with the ferromagnet must also be included in the Drude conductivity,

$$g_\sigma (x)=\frac{N_\sigma (x)e^2}{m_{\text{si,t}}^{}}\left(\frac{1}{\tau _0}+\frac{1}{\tau _\sigma }\right)^1.$$
(8)
The diffusion constant in two dimensions calculated using the above conductivity is

$$D_\sigma (x)=\frac{ϵ_{\text{F},\sigma }^{\text{si}}(x)}{m_{\text{si,t}}^{}\left(\frac{1}{\tau _0}+\frac{1}{\tau _\sigma }\right)\left(1e^{ϵ_{F,\sigma }^{\text{si}}(x)/k_\text{B}T}\right)},$$
(9)
where the spin-dependent Fermi level is $`ϵ_{\text{F},\sigma }^{\text{si}}(x)=2\pi \mathrm{}^2N_\sigma (x)/m_{\text{si,t}}^{}`$. In the following we assume the gate length in the $`\widehat{x}`$-direction is approximately $`1000\text{Å}`$, so that the source is at $`x_\text{s}=0`$ and the drain is at $`x_\text{d}=1000\text{Å}`$, and we assume that the gate extends $`1\mu `$m in the $`\widehat{y}`$-direction. For concreteness, we will assume throughout this paper that the in-plane electric field is negative, $`E_x<0`$, such that, in the absence of leakage, a negative current would flow through the 2DEG ( electrons flow from the source to the drain). In addition, we assume the confinement is homogeneous along the channel, so that $`\tau _{}`$ and $`\tau _{}`$ are constant.

In a silicon field-effect transistor with a thick gate oxide there is no leakage of 2DEG electrons because the wavefunction cannot penetrate into the gate. Neglecting the spin dependence for the time being, we examine the behavior of a silicon field-effect transistor with an ultra-thin gate oxide. Finite penetration of the 2DEG wavefunction through the oxide and into the gate causes a tunnel current to flow. The Fermi level in the gate is lower than the Fermi level in the inversion layer due to the gate bias; electrons that tunnel into the gate will inelastically fall to the gate Fermi level and have no way to return to the 2DEG, decreasing the density in the 2DEG. The density will be near its equilibrium value $`N_0`$ at the source and drain contacts, where electrons are injected into the 2DEG. The density will be lowest near the center of the gate, furthest from the source and drain. With no source-drain bias the density profile will be symmetric about the center of the gate; electrons will flow into the 2DEG from both the source and the drain, such that the drain current is positive.momose  Application of a source drain bias will break this symmetry, causing a drift current to flow in addition to the diffusive current due the electron leakage. For negative in-plane field $`E_x<0`$, at some critical field the drift current will exactly cancel the diffusive backflow at the drain; the net drain current will be zero. As the in-plane field is made more negative the drain current becomes negative, such that in the high source-drain bias regime the diffusive current is negligible.

With a ferromagnetic gate, the above analysis still holds for each spin channel separately (provided that the spin-flip time is much longer than the transit time through the device). The lifetime for 2DEG electrons to fall into the gate is spin-dependent due to the spin-dependent coupling in the Hamiltonian, Eq. (2). Importantly, the diffusive currents for spin $``$ electrons and spin $``$ electrons must also be different at zero source-drain bias, and hence the in-plane field required to exactly cancel the diffusive backflow at the drain contact will be different in the two spin channels.

The spin-dependent drain currents $`J_{}(x_\text{d})`$ and $`J_{}(x_\text{d})`$ are plotted as functions of the in-plane field $`|E_x|`$ in the top panel of Fig. 2. The total current $`J_{}(x_\text{d})+J_{}(x_\text{d})`$ and the spin current $`J_{}(x_\text{d})J_{}(x_\text{d})`$ are plotted as functions of $`|E_x|`$ in the bottom panel of Fig. 2. At very low source-drain bias the drain currents are positive in both spin channels, but have different magnitudes due to the different leakage rates for the two spin channels; because $`\tau _{}<\tau _{}`$, more spin $``$ electrons leak than $``$ electrons. The larger gradient in the density in the spin $``$ channel results in $`J_{}(x_\text{d})>J_{}(x_\text{d})`$. At the in-plane field marked A, the drain current in the $``$ spin channel is $`J_{}(x_\text{d})=0`$; the diffusive current is exactly cancelled by the drift current. The larger diffusive current in the spin $``$ channel is still of higher magnitude than the drift current. Spin $``$ electrons will flow into the 2DEG at the drain contact, resulting in a $`100\%`$ spin-polarized current. At the in-plane field marked B in Fig. 2, the drain currents in the two spin channels are equal and opposite, $`J_{}(x_\text{d})=J_{}(x_\text{d})`$. No net charge current flows through the drain, but a pure spin current flows such that spin $``$ electrons are transferred into the 2DEG and spin $``$ electrons are transferred out of the 2DEG at the drain, i.e., the silicon inversion layer acts as a spin pump at the field marked B. At the field marked C the drain current in the spin $``$ channel is negative, while in the spin $``$ channel the drift and diffusive currents exactly cancel, $`J_{}(x_\text{d})=0`$. Spin $``$ electrons will flow out of the the 2DEG, resulting in a $`100\%`$ spin-polarized drain current. As the magnitude of the in-plane field is increased further the electrical currents in both spin channels are negative; the spin $``$ channel carries more current because its conductivity is higher than that of the spin $``$ channel. Electrons flow out of the 2DEG drain with some polarization. Note that the roles of the spin channels can be exchanged by reversing the gate magnetization, such that the drain contact of this ferromagnetically-gated silicon inversion layer can be used as a source for both fully spin-polarized charge currents and pure spin currents with either spin $``$ or $``$. For positive in-plane electric fields $`E_x>0`$, the same phenomena happen at the source contact.

The behavior of the spin-dependent currents throughout the 2DEG are plotted in Fig. 3 near the in-plane fields A (top panel), B (middle panel), and C (bottom panel). The leakage of electrons under the gate is evident, as the current is not constant and increases under the gate. The plots show that in this region of source-drain bias the drift current is just beginning to overtake the diffusion current at the drain contact (the drift and diffusion currents flow in the same direction at the source contact).

The spin effects present in the silicon inversion layer with a single ferromagnetic gate could be very attractive for spintronics applications. We will now describe a simple all-electrical measurement to take advantage of the spin-dependent 2DEG transport. Recently we proposed a planar semiconductor spin-valve which relies upon the coupling of the inversion layer electrons to sequential ferrromagnets.apl ; prb  The space between the ferromagnets is filled with a paramagnetic metal to ensure homogeneous 2DEG confinement throughout the device. A diagram of the device is shown in Fig. 1(b). The two ferromagnets are patterned with different aspect ratios, such that the magnetization of one ferromagnet can be reversed by an external field without affect the magnetization of the other ferromagnet.

Assuming the two spin channels are decoupled throughout the device, let us examine the total 2DEG current at the drain contact for parallel ferromagnet magnetizations, $`J_\text{p}(x_\text{d})`$. One spin channel will see the spin $``$ scattering time $`\tau _{}`$ under both ferromagnets, and the other spin channel will see the spin $``$ scattering time $`\tau _{}`$ under both ferromagnets; the total current $`J_\text{p}(x_\text{d})`$ will be the sum of the currents in the two spin channels. Switching the magnetization of the second ferromagnet, one spin channel will see the spin $``$ scattering time $`\tau _{}`$ under the first ferromagnet and the spin $``$ scattering time $`\tau _{}`$ under the second ferromagnet, while the other spin channel will see the reverse. Because the density and current must be continuous in both spin channels, the total drain current for antiparallel magnetizations $`J_{\text{ap}}(x_\text{d})`$ will in general be different from $`J_\text{p}(x_\text{d})`$. The net result is a magnetoresistance effect, in which the 2DEG current is dependent upon the relative orientation of the ferromagnet magnetizations. We define the magnetoresistance ratio as

$$MR=100|\frac{J_\text{p}(x_\text{d})J_{\text{ap}}(x_\text{d})}{J_\text{p}(x_\text{d})}|.$$
(10)
This quantity is plotted as the full line in Fig. 4 as a function of the in-plane electric field $`|E_x|`$, for an infinite spin-flip time (in which case the peak of the $`MR`$ is limited only by the number of data points in the plot). Both ferromagnets are assumed to be $`1000\text{Å}`$ long in the $`\widehat{x}`$-direction, with a $`200\text{Å}`$ gap between them. The magnetoresistance ratio grows to values greater than $`100\%`$ when $`J_\text{p}(x_\text{d})0`$, at which point a pure spin current would flow in the parallel configuration.

The spin-flip time $`\tau _{\text{sf}}`$ couples the two spin channels together, driving them to the same density. Short spin flip times ($`\tau _{\text{sf}}`$ comparable to the scattering times $`\tau _0`$ and $`\tau _\sigma `$) will wash out any spin-dependent transport effects. For coupled spin channels, Eq. (7) must be replaced with

$$\frac{d}{dx}J_\sigma =e\left[\frac{N_\sigma (x)}{\tau _\sigma }\frac{N_\sigma (x)N_{\overline{\sigma }}(x)}{\tau _{\text{sf}}}\right],$$
(11)
where $`\overline{\sigma }`$ is spin opposite to $`\sigma `$. The magnetoresistance ratio is plotted for two values of the spin-flip time near the intrisic scattering time, $`\tau _{\text{sf}}=1.0`$ ps (dashed line) and $`\tau _{\text{sf}}=0.1`$ ps (dotted line) in Fig. 4. Short spin-flip times drastically reduce the $`MR`$; the currents in the two spin channels are so strongly coupled that the total current through the 2DEG is only slightly altered when switching from parallel to antiparallel magnetizations. Although short spin relaxation times should not be a problem in silicon, portis ; feher  it could be an issue in other semiconductors.

In conclusion, we have shown how the unavoidable issue of 2DEG carrier leakage in silicon field-effect transistors with ultra-thin gate oxides can be put to good use for spintronics applications. By replacing the metal gate with a ferromagnet, the coupling between the silicon inversion layer and the gate becomes spin-dependent, resulting in spin-dependent 2DEG transport. In the low source-drain bias regime, the drift current (first term on right side of Eq. (1)) and the diffusion current (second term on right side of Eq. (1)) are of the same order; the spin-dependent interplay between the two results in a variety of spin currents that flow through the contacts to such a device. We have shown how the ferromagnetically-gated silicon inversion layer can produce both fully spin-polarized charge currents and pure spin currents, without any net charge transfer. In addition, we have shown that if the gate is made up of two sequential ferromagnets, a magnetoresistance effect occurs in the 2DEG current dependent upon the relative orientation of the two ferromagnet magnetizations. The magnetoresistance ratio can exceed $`100\%`$ in this low source-drain bias regime.


text:
# Center Dominance in SU(2) Gauge-Higgs Theory

## I Introduction

Lattice studies strongly support the vortex picture of confinement and the importance of the center degrees of freedom (see review Greensite (2003) and references therein). Until recently, these numerical investigations concerned pure gluonic QCD only. If dynamical fermions are included, it is well known that the long range part of the potential between static charges changes qualitatively: the string breaks and the potential levels off at a screening distance $`r_0`$. String breaking has been observed numerically not only for gauge fields with dynamical fermions, but also for gauge-Higgs theories Knechtli and Sommer (1998). In this work we investigate the influence of dynamical matter fields on the distribution of center vortices. Our model is lattice SU(2) gauge-Higgs theory with Higgs fields in the fundamental representation.

The SU(2) gauge-Higgs model is defined by the action

$`S`$ $`=S_W{\displaystyle \underset{x}{}}\left[\mathrm{\Phi }^{}(x)\mathrm{\Phi }(x)+\lambda \left(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}(x)\mathrm{\Phi }(x)1\right)^2\right]`$
$`\kappa {\displaystyle \underset{\mu ,x}{}}\left(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}(x)U_\mu (x)\mathrm{\Phi }(x+\widehat{\mu })+\text{cc}\right)`$ (1)
$`S_W`$ $`=\beta {\displaystyle \underset{\mu <\nu ,x}{}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\text{Re}\text{Tr}U_{\mu \nu }(x)\right),`$ (2)
where $`S_W`$ is the usual Wilson plaquette action, and $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\varphi _1}{\varphi _2}\right)`$, with $`\varphi _1,\varphi _2`$, is a massive scalar field in the fundamental representation.

A schematic phase diagram for the SU(2)-Higgs model is depicted in Fig. 1.

In the “confined” phase, the potential between fundamental charges rises linearly at intermediate distances. Due to color screening of fundamental charges, there is string breaking at some finite distance $`r_0`$, and the potential levels off. In the Higgs phase, the Higgs mechanism is at work, and the potential is Yukawa-like; the string tension vanishes at all separations. However, these are not thermodynamically distinct phases. The phase diagram is connected, in the sense that one can always find a path between any two points in the phase diagram which avoids any non-analyticity in thermodynamic quantities. The transition line which might have separated the Higgs and confinement phases ends at a critical point in the strong coupling region, and from there changes over to crossover behaviour. Thus if we speak of the “Higgs” or the “confinement” phases in this model, we are aware that we speak rather of regions belonging to a single phase of the system Fradkin and Shenker (1979).

At finite temperature and $`\kappa =0`$ there is an additional phase, namely, the deconfined phase. In this phase the quark-gluon plasma arises and fundamental charges are set free. For $`\kappa >0`$ there is no true phase transition between the “confined” and “deconfined” phases, but only crossover behavior indicated by the dashed line in Fig. 1 (lower figure). Hence we still have only one phase in the $`\beta \kappa `$ plane.

The vortex theory of confinement was put forward at the end of the 1970s (see references in review Greensite (2003)); early applications to SU(2) gauge-Higgs theory can be found in refs. Mack and Meyer-Ortmanns (1982); Meyer-Ortmanns (1984). According to the vortex picture, tube-like (D=3) or surface-like (D=4) objects, carrying quantized amounts of magnetic flux, play a crucial role. The standard procedure to identify these objects (the center vortices) on the lattice is to first gauge-fix the lattice configurations according to a gauge-fixing condition on link variables in the adjoint representation. Then the center degrees of freedom are singled out by projecting each SU(2) group-valued link variable to the closest $`\mathrm{Z}_2`$ center element. In this work we use the direct maximal center gauge (DMCG) Del Debbio et al. (1998) fixed by the over-relaxation method. Maximizing $`|\mathrm{Tr}[U_\mu (x)]|^2`$, DMCG shifts the link variables $`U_\mu (x)`$ as close as possible towards the center elements of SU(2). Center projection in DMCG has proven to be a useful tool for isolating the relevant degrees of freedom on the lattice, although other adjoint gauges, and more sophisticated gauge-fixing techniques, are also in use. Via center projection, the SU(2) lattice is mapped to a $`\mathrm{Z}_2`$ gauge field configuration. The excitations of $`\mathrm{Z}_2`$ lattice configurations are the P-vortices. P-vortices form closed surfaces (in four dimensions) or closed loops (in three dimensions) on the dual lattice, and are composed of P-plaquettes. A plaquette on the projected lattice is said to be pierced by a P-vortex, and is called a “P-plaquette”, if the product of the four projected links of the plaquette yields the nontrivial element of $`\mathrm{Z}_2`$, i.e. $`1`$. Center projection in an adjoint gauge can be viewed as a tool to locate the position of thick SU(2) vortices from the location of P-vortices on the projected lattice.

Here we are interested in the dependence of the center vortex distribution on couplings and temperature. The vortex model at finite temperature, and the behaviour of P-vortices at the transition to the high temperature phase, have been studied in recent years in refs. Del Debbio et al. (1997); Chernodub et al. (1999); Langfeld et al. (1999); Engelhardt et al. (2000); Bertle et al. (1999). In those articles it was shown that center dominance $``$ i.e. the correspondence of projected and unprojected observables sensitive to infrared physics $``$ holds also at finite temperatures. It was found Chernodub et al. (1999); Langfeld et al. (1999); Engelhardt et al. (2000); Bertle et al. (1999) that the vortex density $`p`$ — the fraction of plaquettes on the projected lattice which are P-plaquettes — drops substantially across the deconfinement transition and, more importantly, that vortices do not percolate in any space-slice, i.e. there is no percolation of vortex lines in a three-volume with either the $`x`$, $`y`$, or $`z`$ coordinate held fixed. The absence of vortex percolation in a space-slice implies that center projected Polyakov lines have non-zero expectation values in the deconfined phase Langfeld et al. (1999); Engelhardt et al. (2000).

Recent findings Langfeld (2002); Bertle and Faber (2002) indicate that the vortex density also decreases sharply in the gauge-Higgs model, at the transition from the “confined” phase to the Higgs phase. This sharp decrease in vortex density occurs even in the crossover region at small values of $`\beta `$, where the phase transition line has ended. It was suggested by Langfeld Langfeld (2002) that the cross-over line at small $`\beta `$, where there is a sudden drop in the vortex density, could be a “Kertész line” of the sort found in the Ising model Kertész (1989); Satz (2002). A Kertész line is a line of percolation transitions which is not associated with a thermodynamic transition, e.g. from an ordered to a disordered state. Our new calculations provide further support for the existence of a Kertész line in the gauge-Higgs system. Although there is no thermodynamic transition from a “confined” to a Higgs phase, and indeed (in contrast to pure gauge theory) there is no true confined phase in this system, we nonetheless find a line of center vortex depercolation.

## II Finite Temperature

It is most efficient to carry out Monte Carlo simulations of the gauge-Higgs system in unitary gauge, where $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\varphi }{0}\right),\varphi [0,\mathrm{}]`$, and only one degree of freedom has to be simulated for the Higgs field. In the unitary gauge we have

$`Z`$ $`={\displaystyle 𝒟[U]𝒟[\varphi ]\mathrm{exp}\left(S_WS_{\mathrm{Hu}}\right)}`$ (3)
$`\begin{array}{cc}\hfill S_{\mathrm{Hu}}& ={\displaystyle \underset{x}{}}\left[\varphi ^2(x)+\lambda \left(\varphi ^2(x)1\right)^2\right]\hfill \\ & \kappa {\displaystyle \underset{\mu ,x}{}}\left(\varphi (x)\varphi (x+\widehat{\mu })\mathrm{Tr}[U_\mu (x)]\right)\hfill \end{array}`$ (4)
with $`\varphi =\sqrt{\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ and integration measure

$`{\displaystyle 𝒟[\varphi ]}={\displaystyle \underset{x}{}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}d\varphi (x)\varphi ^3(x).`$ (5)
We used the Metropolis algorithm for the numerical simulation of the system on $`D=4`$ dimensional Euclidean lattices of dimensions $`N_tN_s^3`$. Data was taken on lattices separated by 50 Monte Carlo steps. For the measurement of center projected observables, we fixed to DMCG using the overrelaxation method and then carried out the projection.

At finite temperature, confinement and deconfinement can be studied using the Polyakov loop observable

$$|L|=\left|\frac{1}{N_s^3}\underset{\text{x}}{}L(\text{x})\right|=e^{F/T}\text{ for }N_s\mathrm{}$$
(6)
where

$$L(\text{x}):=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{Tr}\underset{x_4}{}U_4(\text{x},x_4)$$
(7)
and $`F`$ is the free energy of a single static quark relative to vacuum at temperature $`T`$. Without dynamical matter fields, we have

$$\underset{N_s\mathrm{}}{lim}|L|=0$$
(8)
in the confined low temperature phase. If matter is included, screening becomes possible. In that case $`|L|`$ is non-zero, and $`F`$ is finite, in the large volume limit.

Since the idea of the vortex model is to describe the confining properties of gauge fields by center degrees of freedom, the question arises whether this observed screening can also be seen after singling out these variables. We have carried out center projection in DMCG without ($`\kappa =0`$) and with ($`\kappa =0.25`$) scalar matter fields on lattices of size $`N_tN_s^3`$ with $`N_t=4`$ and $`N_s`$ varying from 8 to 28. The quartic coupling has been set to $`\lambda =0.5`$, and data has been taken on 1000 configurations for each parameter set. Some results are shown in Fig. 2 for $`\beta =2.1`$ and $`2.2`$, where the system is in the low temperature “confined” phase.

At the chosen $`\beta `$ values and $`\kappa =0`$, the expectation value of $`|L|`$ vs. $`1/\sqrt{N_s^3}`$ on unprojected lattices extrapolates linearly to zero in the $`N_s\mathrm{}`$ limit of infinite spatial volume. In contrast, at finite coupling $`\kappa =0.25`$, $`|L|`$ tends to a non-zero constant at infinite spatial volume. This well known feature, associated with the screening of static charges by dynamical matter fields, is also found on center projected lattices. Due to suppressed self energy contributions and ultraviolet fluctuations in the projected configurations, the expectation value of the Polyakov loop observable $`|L_P|`$ on projected lattices is larger than the corresponding expectation value $`|L|`$ on unprojected lattices, but the qualitative behaviour of the two observables, in the large-volume limit, is the same. In fact, the ratio of the projected and unprojected Polyakov expectation values is virtually constant, and nearly independent of both lattice extension $`N_s`$ and coupling $`\kappa `$ for all values of $`\beta =2.1`$, $`2.2`$ and $`2.25`$, as seen in Fig. 3.

At $`\kappa =0`$ the Polyakov expectation value $`|L|`$ is zero in the infinite volume limit at low temperature, and non-zero beyond the deconfinement transition. This transition can be understood in the framework of the vortex model Langfeld et al. (1999); Engelhardt et al. (2000); Chernodub et al. (1999); Bertle et al. (1999). The projected Polyakov line $`|L_P|`$ has the same transition from zero to non-zero values at the deconfinement temperature, as already reported in ref. Del Debbio et al. (1997).

The inclusion of a massive scalar field does not lead to a qualitative change of the system in the high temperature phase. This is reflected by our results for $`|L|`$ and $`|L_P|`$ at $`\beta =2.3`$ and $`2.4`$, seen in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. Again the projected and the unprojected measurements are consistent. As in the “confined” phase, the projected values are higher than the unprojected ones, but their ratio is almost constant with respect to $`N_s`$. There is some $`\kappa `$ dependence in projected and unprojected Polyakov lines right above the high $`T`$ phase transition (which is just below $`\beta =2.3`$ at $`N_t=4`$), but the ratios of projected and unprojected lines are nevertheless almost constant, and the $`\kappa `$ dependence in $`|L|`$ and $`|L_P|`$ is rather small at still higher temperatures in the deconfined regime.

From these calculations we can conclude that we see center dominance for Polyakov loops also in the presence of scalar matter fields, both above and below the finite temperature phase transition. This means that $`|L|`$ and $`|L_P|`$ are in the infinite volume limit either both zero, or both non-zero, at any temperature with or without dynamical matter fields. Once again, the long range physics of the system seems to be encoded in the center degrees of freedom. In particular, the presence of a dynamical matter field must alter the spatial distribution of P-vortices, in such a way that P-vortex fluctuations no longer bring $`|L_P|`$ to zero in the large volume limit, even in the low temperature regime.

## III Zero Temperature

Our results for $`T=0`$ have been obtained on hypercubic $`10^4`$ lattices for $`\beta 1.9`$, on $`12^4`$ lattices for $`\beta =2.1`$, and on $`16^4`$ lattices at $`\beta =2.3`$. For $`\beta =0.25`$, we have performed a detailed scan over $`\kappa `$ on a $`16^4`$ lattice. Each measurement has been done at $`\lambda =1.0`$ using 800 configurations. Otherwise, we have used the same parameters and methods as for the simulations at finite temperature.

Due to the small overlap of flux-tube states with gluelump states, it is difficult to measure string breaking in the “confined” phase using only Wilson loops, since the breaking (and hence perimeter-law behavior) occurs only for rather large loops, where extremely high statistics are needed.111Nevertheless, we note that recently adjoint string breaking has been successfully measured using Wilson loops in ref. Kratochvila and de Forcrand (2003), using a powerful algorithm for noise reduction devised by Lüscher and Weisz Lüscher and Weisz (2001). This problem is reflected in the vortex model. Two of us (R.B. and M.F.) have carefully investigated the Wilson loop observable in a wide range of the phase diagram ($`1.0\beta 2.3,0.0\kappa 1.1`$) on lattices up to $`22^4`$ Bertle and Faber (2002). As in the unprojected, full system, the influence of the Higgs on the Wilson loop observable $`W(R,T)`$ can be effectively described — for our available small loops $`R,T4`$ — by some shift $`\beta \beta _{eff}`$. Center dominance holds again.

At the transition to the Higgs phase, the string tension measured by Wilson loops disappears even for small distances. We have found that the phase transition line in the gauge-Higgs model is closely correlated, even for small lattices, with a rapid drop in the vortex density $`p`$, as shown in Fig. 6.

In this figure we plot the density of P-vortex plaquettes in percent as contours in the $`\beta \kappa `$ plane. Data for the phase transition line are taken from Jersák et al. (1985). In the “confined” phase, the vortex density is almost independent of $`\kappa `$, whereas the vortex density decreases rapidly, with increasing $`\kappa `$, in the neighborhood of the phase transition line. This rather sudden decrease in vortex density with $`\kappa `$, at fixed $`\beta `$ was first observed by Langfeld Langfeld (2002), and by two of us (R.B. and M.F.) Bertle and Faber (2002). It is interesting that this region of rapid decrease in density, seen in Fig. 6, appears to extend beyond the actual thermodynamic transition line, all the way to the $`\beta =0`$ axis. We may ask whether this is simply crossover behavior, or an indication of some more interesting phenomenon.

### III.1 The Kertész Line

A “Kertész line”, originally discovered in Ising spin systems, is a line of percolation transitions which is free of any non-analyticity in the corresponding free energy. This is therefore *not* a line of thermodynamic phase transitions, as usually defined. It was originally suggested by Langfeld Langfeld (2002) that the rapid decrease of P-vortex density in the gauge-Higgs theory, in a region where there is no thermodynamic transition, might also be associated with a Kertész line of P-vortex percolation transitions. We will now report on some results which support that idea.

Our simulations are performed on $`16^4`$ lattices at $`\beta =0.25`$, which is far below the end of the thermodynamic phase transition line around $`\beta =1`$. In Fig. 7 we display the following observables:

* The one-link contribution to the gauge-Higgs energy density

$$\mathrm{O}_{\mathrm{GH}}:=\mathrm{Re}\left[\mathrm{\Phi }^{}(x)U_\mu (x)\mathrm{\Phi }(x+\widehat{\mu })\right].$$
(9)
This is a local, thermodynamic observable.
* The P-vortex density $`p`$.
* The weighted average vortex size $`s_w`$. This is the relative size $`c_{i(a)}/N_p`$ of the vortex $`c_{i(a)}`$ containing the P-plaquette $`P_a`$, averaged over all $`N_P`$ P-plaquettes in the projected gauge field configuration222This observable resembles the average cluster size $`S`$ of percolation theory. In our case the clusters are the vortices. $`S`$ differs from our $`s_w`$ in that i) it is not the average absolute size, but the average fraction with respect to all P-plaquettes; and ii) all clusters resp. vortices, including the percolating one, are included in the sum.:

$$s_w:=\frac{1}{N_P}\underset{a=1}{\overset{N_P}{}}\frac{c_{i(a)}}{N_P}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_v}{}}\frac{c_i^2}{N_P^2}.$$
(10)
Here $`c_i`$ is the number of plaquettes in vortex $`c_i`$, $`i(a)`$ the index of the vortex containing plaquette $`P_a`$, and $`N_v`$ is the number of vortices in the projected configuration. In the limit of infinite lattice volume and finite vortex density, $`s_w=1`$ if all P-plaquettes belong to a single percolating vortex, and $`s_w=0`$ for the depercolation case. This is a highly non-local observable, and it is the quantity which we use to detect a percolation transition.

At $`\beta =0.25`$, it can be seen from Fig. 7 that the one-link energy density $`\mathrm{O}_{\mathrm{GH}}`$ is a smooth function of $`\kappa `$, and displays no evidence of a transition. The vortex density, although dropping rapidly in the interval $`\kappa [0.6,0.9]`$, also shows no sign of any discontinuity.

The vortex observables in Fig. 7 have been computed in two ways. Open symbols denote measurements on center projected configurations. For filled symbols (labelled with “sm”), the first step of a vortex smoothing procedure, described in ref. Bertle et al. (1999), has been applied. This first step completely removes the smallest (one-cube) vortices consisting of six P-plaquettes. We have checked that down to $`\beta =1.0`$ this removal does not alter projected Creutz ratios $`\chi (R,R)`$, $`R2`$. The smoothing procedure decreases the vortex density $`p`$ depicted in Fig. 7 slightly, but does not qualitatively change the shape of the curve. Smoothed or not, the vortex density decreases continuously from just under 50% to zero as $`\kappa `$ increases, with no evidence of any sudden change in phase.

There is, however, a clear sign of a sudden transition, around $`\kappa =0.74`$, in the weighted average vortex size $`s_w`$. The plot of $`s_w`$ in Fig. 6 shows a sharp depercolation transition for this observable. For $`\kappa 0.7`$, the majority of P-plaquettes belong to one big, percolating vortex surface, but for $`\kappa 0.74`$, this surface is split into many small vortices. This is even more pronounced if we remove the smallest (one cube) vortices using the smoothing procedure. After smoothing, but below the transition, the average vortex contains over 90% of all P-plaquettes. Just after the transition, this number drops to under 1.5%. This is a fairly convincing sign of the existence of a percolation transition. We have also checked for percolation directly, by measuring the spatial extension of the largest vortex surface on the lattice. In the Higgs phase, the largest vortex always fits inside a hypercube which is smaller than the full lattice, while in the “confined” phase this is not possible; the largest connected vortex surface extends through the entire lattice, irrespective of lattice size. Thus we find center vortex percolation in the “confined” phase of the gauge-Higgs theory, and no percolation in the Higgs phase. There is a first-order phase transition line, which has an endpoint in the interior of the $`\beta \kappa `$ plane but then continues as a Kertész line, completely separating these two regions of the phase diagram.

It is quite natural that there should be no vortex percolation in the Higgs phase, since percolation is a necessary condition for achieving an area law for Wilson loops, which of course is absent in this phase. But an asymptotic string tension is *also* absent in the “confined” phase, due to color screening, yet in this case we do have vortex percolation. This is not a paradox, however. The vortex confinement mechanism requires that vortex piercings of the minimal area of a large Wilson loop are uncorrelated, and percolation alone is not enough to ensure this property. As an example, consider a percolating P-vortex surface having the form of a branched polymer (a form which often arises in numerical simulations of random surfaces). In this case each piercing of a plane surface will be accompanied by a second nearby piercing, with the pair contributing no net center flux, and therefore no net disordering, to the Wilson loop. In this example there is no confinement, even though the P-vortex percolates throughout the lattice. Percolation is therefore a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for confinement Gliozzi and Rago (2002).

## IV Conclusions

We have observed center dominance in SU(2) gauge-Higgs theory for the Polyakov line observable, both at low and high temperatures, throughout the $`\beta \kappa `$ coupling plane. Polyakov line expectation values $`|L|`$ and $`|L_P|`$, on the full and projected lattices respectively, are either both zero, or both non-zero, in the infinite volume limit.

There is no true confining phase in a gauge-Higgs theory at $`\kappa >0`$, or in any gauge theory with matter in the fundamental representation of the gauge group. Nevertheless, we have found a non-local observable, sensitive to vortex percolation, which distinguishes between the confinement-like and Higgs regions of the phase diagram. The confinement-like region is characterized by an area-law decay of Wilson loops up to a certain string-breaking scale, while in the Higgs-like region there is no area-law falloff at any scale. The two regions are separated by a line of thermodynamic first order transitions, which turns into a Kertész line at $`\beta <1`$. As in the Ising spin system, the Kertész line is a line of percolation transitions, with the free energy analytic across the transition. In the confinement-like region, center vortices percolate throughout the lattice. In the Higgs region, they do not.

The sharp transition between the Higgs and confinement-like regions has been seen in other ways. Langfeld Langfeld (2002) has noted that after fixing to Landau gauge, there is remnant unfixed global symmetry, and that this symmetry is unbroken in the confinement-like phase, and broken across the Kertész line in the Higgs phase. A similar observation, this time in Coulomb gauge, has been made very recently by two of us (J.G. and Š.O.) and Zwanziger in ref. Greensite and Olejník (2003); Greensite et al. (2003). It should be noted that the order parameter for remnant symmetry breaking, if expressed as a gauge-invariant observable, is highly non-local, as is the order parameter for percolation.

The fact that vortices percolate in the confinement-like region of the gauge-Higgs phase diagram, yet the asymptotic string tension is zero, demonstrates that while vortex percolation is a necessary condition for confinement, it is not also a sufficient condition. Vortex percolation without confinement implies that vortex piercings of a plane are not entirely random, but are paired in some way. An example of such a percolating but non-confining surface is a branched polymer, but the actual structure of percolating center vortices, in the confinement-like region of gauge-Higgs theory, is not yet known.

###### Acknowledgements.

Our research is supported in part by Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung P13997-TPH and P14435-TPH (R.B. and M.F.), the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG03-92ER40711 (J.G.), and the Slovak Grant Agency for Science, Grant No. 2/3106/2003 (Š.O.).