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# Kondo Scaling in the Optical Response of YbIn1-xAgxCu4

## Abstract

Theoretical work on Kondo systems predicts universality in the scaling of observable quantities with the Kondo temperature, $`T_K`$. Here we report infrared-frequency optical response measurements of the correlated system YbIn1-xAgxCu4. We observe that $`x`$-dependent variations in the frequency and strength of a low energy excitation are related to the $`x`$-dependent Kondo temperature. Comparison of the inferred trends with existing theory and a model calculation provides a framework in which to view these experimental results as scaling phenomena arising from local-moment/conduction electron hybridization.

The study of the Kondo problem has contributed much in the way of theoretical technology (e.g. renormalization group) as well as insight into the possible manifestations and phenomenologies of interacting systems with many degrees of freedom. One unifying effect born from the years of investigation is the Kondo resonance–a many-body collective excitation responsible for much of the interesting low energy behavior displayed by rare-earth and transition metal systems.

YbAgCu4 provides an example of a moderately heavy fermion system. At low temperatures, the $`j=\frac{7}{2}`$ Yb moment is screened by conduction electrons giving an enhanced Pauli paramagnetic susceptibilityCornelius et al. (1997); Sarrao et al. (1996). Enhancement is also found in the Sommerfeld coefficient $`\gamma 250mJ/molK^2`$, indicating a large effective carrier massSarrao et al. (1996), or equivalently, a large density of states near the chemical potential. At high temperature, the Yb moment acts independently of the carriers, which show unenhanced mass behavior. The crossover between the high and low temperature regimes occurs around a characteristic scale $`T_K`$, which is intimately related to the degree to which the low temperature properties are enhanced.

Substituting In for Ag gives very different behavior. YbInCu4 displays a first-order isostructural electronic phase transition at $`T_\nu 42K`$ from a free-moment semimetal to a low-temperature metallic mixed-valent phaseKindler et al. (1994); Lawrence et al. (1996). This phase transition begins a phase boundary in the $`xT`$ plane of YbIn1-xAgxCu4 which increases in temperature as $`x`$ is increased and ends in a critical point around $`x0.3`$. This phase boundary is of considerable interestLawrence et al. (1996); Kindler et al. (1994); Cornelius et al. (1997); Sarrao et al. (1996); Garner et al. (2000); Demsar et al. (2003); Freericks and Zlatic (1998) because it involves mainly electronic degrees of freedom and because there is as yet no real understanding of or agreement regarding its fundamental origin. When approaching an understanding, one must address the periodic Anderson model (PAM), which provides a powerful basis for interpreting the phenomenology of heavy fermion and mixed-valent systems, where crossover behavior is the norm. While much of the phenomenology of YbIn1-xAgxCu4 is consistent with the PAM, the occurrence of an unexpected phase transition at low $`x`$ could indicate the need for an additional interaction term in its minimal model Hamiltonian. It is natural in this context to consider whether adding conduction electron interactions (c.f. Giamarchi et al.Giamarchi et al. (1993) and Freericks et al.Freericks and Zlatic (1998)) which are not generally included in the PAM, could provide competing influences necessary to understand the origin of this phase transition. Further exploration in this area may help establish a connection between the domain of Mott-Hubbard physics, where strong conduction electron interactions lead to a phase transition, and the moment-compensation physics of the Anderson and Kondo models.

In low-temperature YbInCu4, where the Kondo scale is large, there appears a distinct feature in the mid-infrared conductivity that is not present in the high temperature phaseGarner et al. (2000). It has been suggested that similar mid-infrared features found in other heavy fermion materialsGarner et al. (2000); Dordevic et al. (2001); Degiorgi et al. (2001) are a manifestation of local moment (Kondo lattice/periodic Anderson model) phenomenaColeman (1987); cox ; Millis and Lee (1987); Millis et al. (1987). Here, by studying the Ag concentration dependence of the dynamical conductivity in YbIn1-xAgxCu4, we effectively vary $`T_K`$ within the low temperature phase and observe systematic changes in characteristics of the mid-infrared excitation. We then explore the scaling behavior of this excitation in the context of a simple local-moment hybridization picture, and establish both the identification and phenomenology of the optical signature of the Kondo resonance.

We have measured the reflectivity of single crystals of a sequence of samples of YbIn1-xAgxCu4 with $`x=0`$, 0.3, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0. Our measurements cover the frequency range from $`5meV`$ to $`6.2eV`$ with detailed temperature dependent data taken between $`5meV`$ and $`2.8eV`$. A Kramers-Kronig transform is applied to the measured reflectivity to determine the real and imaginary parts of the dynamical conductivity. For the purposes of the transform, Hagen-Rubens terminations are used below $`5meV`$. At high frequency (above $`6eV`$) each reflectivity spectrum is extrapolated to a common value of 0.08 at $`\omega =15eV`$ and then continued as a constant to $`25eV`$. Between $`25eV`$ and $`50eV`$ an $`\omega ^2`$ form is used for $`R(\omega )`$ and above $`50eV`$ the free-electron form $`\omega ^4`$ is assumed. In order to assure that our essential results below $`1eV`$ do not depend on the high-frequency extrapolations, we have experimented with a number of termination protocols including other common values and coalescence frequencies as well as constant extrapolations above $`6.2eV`$. These show convincingly that our results regarding trends in the $`x`$ and $`T_K`$ dependence of $`\sigma _1(\omega )`$ below $`1eV`$ are not significantly influenced by any of the extrapolations above $`6.2eV`$.

In Figure 1, the low temperature conductivity is shown for the five $`x`$ values studied. A prominent feature centered around $`\frac{1}{4}eV`$ for $`x`$=0 (YbInCu4) changes only slightly as $`x`$ is increased to 0.3, however further doping to $`x`$=0.5 and 0.75 causes both a red shift and strengthening of this feature. The triangles mark the frequency of the peak of $`\sigma _1(\omega )`$ and the vertical bars mark the location of a threshold frequency obtained from a model calculation described below.

In Figure 2a these two characteristic frequencies, corresponding respectively to the peak and threshold of this excitation, are plotted both as a function of $`x`$ and as a function of $`T_K`$. Values of $`T_K`$ as a function of $`x`$ are obtained from measurements of magnetic susceptibilityCornelius et al. (1997). The complex dependence on $`x`$ becomes monotonic when plotted vs $`T_K`$. The dotted curves in Figure 2a refer to a theoretical scaling described below.

In Figure 2b an integral of $`\sigma _1(\omega )`$ in the vicinity of this excitation is shown as a function of $`x`$ and $`T_K`$. This spectral weight, or strength, is defined by the integral,

$$n(\omega )=\frac{2m}{\pi e^2}_{0^+}^\omega \sigma _1(\omega ^{})d\omega ^{}.$$
(1)
where the limits of integration, $`6meV`$ and $`0.5eV`$, encompass the $`\frac{1}{4}eV`$ excitation and exclude a very small Drude peak at very low frequency. Neither integration limit is critical; in fact a lower limit of 0 and upper limits between anywhere between $`0.4eV`$ and $`1eV`$ produce the same $`x`$ dependence which makes one confident that the $`n`$ versus $`x`$ dependence shown here is an essential characteristic of the data, and independent of any of the details of the choices we have made in the analysis.

Our discussion of the data centers on the PAM dispersion relations illustrated in the inset of Fig. 3a which address the essential physics of hybridization of conduction electrons with local moments and the appearance of the Kondo resonance at $`E_F`$. At energies far from the chemical potential, the upper and lower bands, $`ϵ^+`$ and $`ϵ^{}`$, follow closely the unrenormalized free carrier dispersion. Near $`E_F`$, the Fermi surface opens (and the bands flatten) to accommodate the $`f`$-electron weight projected up to the Fermi level as a result of hybridization. This reorganization of the bands in the vicinity of the Fermi level is due to many-body interactions, the strength of which is characterized by the parameter $`\stackrel{~}{V}`$. The resultant narrow peak in the density of states, called the Kondo, or Abrikosov-Suhl, resonance is central to the understanding of heavy fermion and mixed-valent phenomenologyDegiorgi (1999); Hewson (1993); Jarrell (1995).

The hybridization-induced splitting creates the possibility of vertical transitions from filled states below $`E_F`$ to unoccupied levels above $`E_F`$, as illustrated by the arrows of Figure 3a. The threshold for these transitions occurs at a frequency $`\omega =2\stackrel{~}{V}`$, where $`\stackrel{~}{V}`$ is the hybridization strength renormalized by the on-site $`f`$-electron repulsion. This energy scales with the Kondo temperature asColeman (1987); cox ; Millis and Lee (1987); Millis et al. (1987); Grewe (1984)

$$\stackrel{~}{V}=\sqrt{T_KB}$$
(2)
where $`B`$ is related to the conduction electron bandwidthMillis and Lee (1987). At threshold, the nesting of the coherent(lower) and incoherent(upper) bands leads to a very high joint density of states for vertical transitions and hence a strong peak in the conductivity, which we show below can be related with the width of the Kondo resonance, $`T_K`$.

To proceed with the analysis, we use the Kubo-Greenwood formulaDressel and Gruner (2002):

$$\sigma _1(\omega )=\frac{\pi e^2}{m^2\omega }\underset{\mathrm{},\mathrm{}^{}}{}JDOS_\mathrm{},\mathrm{}^{}(\omega )|\text{p}_\mathrm{},\mathrm{}^{}|^2$$
(3)
where $`|\text{p}_\mathrm{},\mathrm{}^{}|`$ denotes the dipole matrix element connecting electronic bands $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{}^{}`$, and $`JDOS_\mathrm{},\mathrm{}^{}(\omega )`$ is the corresponding joint density of states. Applying this formula to hybridizing quasiparticles as though they were electrons allows an exploration of the phenomena of the mid-infrared conductivity in the context of the PAM. In that case there are two relevant bands, $`ϵ^+`$ and $`ϵ^{}`$ and our model approach leads to:

$$\sigma _{pam}(\omega )=\frac{e^2}{4\pi ^2m^2\omega }_{\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ=\omega }\frac{dS}{|_\text{k}(ϵ^+ϵ^{})|}|\text{p}_{+,}|^2$$
(4)
where $`|\text{p}_{+,}|`$ is the matrix element for the one remaining term in the $`JDOS_\mathrm{},\mathrm{}^{}`$ sum of Eq. (3).

For each value of $`\omega >2\stackrel{~}{V}`$, there are two contributions to the integral: one originating from levels inside the unrenormalized Fermi surface ($`k_<`$); the other from the states occupied as a result of renormalization, i.e., outside the unrenormalized Fermi surface ($`k_>`$). An example of two such transitions with the same $`\omega `$ are indicated by vertical arrows in the inset of Figure 3.

Simplifying equation (4) by making an isotropic approximation and the approximation of a constant $`|\text{p}_{+,}|`$ (discussed further below), one obtains

$$\sigma _{pam}(\omega )=\frac{e^2|\text{p}_{+,}|^2}{4\pi ^2m^2\omega }\underset{k^{}=k_<,k_>}{}\frac{4\pi k^2}{|_k(ϵ^+ϵ^{})|}|_{k=k^{}}$$
(5)
Model spectra can then be calculated using the explicit PAM dispersion relationGrewe (1984); Hewson (1993),

$$ϵ^\pm =\frac{E_F+\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}+ϵ_\text{k}\pm \sqrt{(E_F+\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}ϵ_\text{k})^2+4\stackrel{~}{V}^2}}{2},$$
(6)
where $`E_F`$ is the Fermi level, $`\stackrel{~}{V}`$ is the renormalized hybridization strength, introduced above, and $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}`$ is the $`f`$-level position renormalized by on-site $`f`$-electron repulsion which defines the scale of the low-energy physics and is commonly identified with the impurity Kondo temperature, $`T_K`$.

An example of such a calculation for $`\stackrel{~}{V}=41meV`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}=2.5meV`$, is shown in Figure 3a. The onset for optical transitions appears as a cusp at $`2\stackrel{~}{V}`$111A second feature of the theoretical $`\sigma _{pam}(\omega )`$ occurs at a higher frequency $`\omega =(\stackrel{~}{V}^2+\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}^2)/\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}`$, and results from the initial state energy exceeding $`E_F`$, where no occupied levels are available. This high energy scale is of order the bandwidth and is used as the upper limit of integration for determining the strength.. While the strength of this cusp is an important feature associated with nesting, the extreme sharpness is an artifact of assuming infinite lifetimes for the quasiparticle states. We rectify this by convoluting this model result with a Lorentzian of constant width to post hoc emulate the finite-lifetime effects. The magnitude of the broadening parameter, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, gives an estimate of the quasiparticle lifetime. The values used here of around $`0.12eV`$, correspond to a lifetime of order $`\tau =\mathrm{}/\mathrm{\Delta }6ps`$, consistent with pump-probe lifetime measurements of YbAgCu4Demsar et al. (2003).

In Fig. 3b we present this calculated $`\sigma _{pam}(\omega )`$ together with our measured $`\sigma _1(\omega )`$ for $`x`$=0.75. Based on the quality of this fit, the PAM parameters $`\stackrel{~}{V}=41meV`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}=2.5meV`$ can be associated with this composition. With $`\stackrel{~}{V}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}`$ as adjustable parameters, we have similarly modeled the mid-infrared conductivity $`\sigma _1(\omega )`$ for each $`x`$ value as shown by the dashed curves in Figure 1. The vertical bars mark the threshold frequencies $`\omega _{th}=2\stackrel{~}{V}`$. These threshold frequencies are plotted versus $`x`$ and $`T_K`$ in Figure 2a. The dotted curve through those data shows the consistency between our experimental result and the theoretically based scaling of Eq. 2.

With regard to the total strength, one can obtain an analytic result in our approach by setting the two sphere areas in (5) equal to $`4\pi k_F^2`$. This approximation avoids the effects of bare band structure details while including the influence of the strong cusp at $`2\stackrel{~}{V}`$. Solving for the wavevectors $`k_>`$ and $`k_<`$ using the condition $`ϵ^+ϵ^{}=\omega `$, one can obtain a model strength, which is essentially the shaded area of Fig. 3a, of:

$`n_{pam}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2m}{\pi e^2}}{\displaystyle _{2\stackrel{~}{V}}^{\frac{\stackrel{~}{V}^2+\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}^2}{\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}}}}\sigma _{pam}(\omega )𝑑\omega `$ (7)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4|\text{p}_{+,}|^2k_F}{\pi ^2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{V}}{\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}}}\right)`$ (8)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4|\text{p}_{+,}|^2k_F}{\pi ^2}}\mathrm{ln}\left(c\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{B}{T_K}}}\right),`$ (9)
where $`c`$ is defined by $`T_K=c\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}`$. This logarithmic scaling behavior is compared to the data in Figure 2b.

It is important to realize that the simple arguments leading up to equation (9) are not strictly rigorous and in fact careful analysis reveals that a k-independent hybridization leads to a $`|\text{p}_{+,}|`$ which depends on k, and therefore $`\omega `$, in a manner that will reduce the conductivity at high frequencycox . One expects that in a real system, transitions between Cu-In-Ag $`d`$ orbital bands and Yb $`f`$-band states are likely to be allowed due to their relative spatial displacement. Incorporation of this possibility into theory can be done by allowing a dispersive $`\stackrel{~}{V}_\text{k}`$, which would tend to restore some of the high frequency conductivity that is underestimated in our simplified approach. A more sophisticated approach to $`n(T_K)`$ would be valuable in the ongoing effort toward a quantitative understanding of strongly correlated electrodynamics.

Equations (9) and (2) do, however, qualitatively explain the observed dependence of the frequency and strength on $`T_K`$. In addition these equations show a interesting relationship between the scaling of $`n(T_K)`$ and $`\omega _{th}(T_K)`$. Using the impurity model result for $`c`$222For $`N=2j+1=8`$, the Fermi liquid theory of the Anderson impurity model predictsHewson (1993) $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ_f}=k_BT_KN^22\mathrm{sin}(2\pi /N)/w_N\pi (N1)1.517T_K`$., and fitting the measured $`n(T_K)`$ to Eq. (9), one gets a value for the band parameter $`B=0.36eV`$. This value is determined solely by the extrapolation of the data to the $`T_K`$ axis, and so does not depend on $`k_F`$ or the matrix elements present in the coefficient of the logarithm. One can independently obtain a value for $`B`$ from fitting the $`T_K`$ dependence of the excitation frequency (Figure 2a), $`\omega _{th}=2\stackrel{~}{V}=2\sqrt{T_KB}`$, which leads to $`B=0.30eV`$. The observation that these independently obtained values of $`B`$ are comparable shows a non-trivial relationship between the scaling behavior of strength and characteristic frequency in our optical data. Overall our results indicate that $`T_K`$ scaling is present in the low temperature finite-frequency dynamics of YbIn1-xAgxCu4 and can be addressed in the context of local-moment models. Further work may be directed toward greater understanding of this low-$`T`$ scaling behavior as well as unexplained temperature dependent behavior of YbIn1-xAgxCu4.

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank D. L. Cox for helpful discussions regarding the theory of Kondo systems and have also benefitted from conversations with D. N. Basov, A. L. Cornelius, P. A. Lee, B. S. Shastry, and A. P. Young. We also gratefully acknowledge S. L. Hoobler and Y. W. Rodriguez for technical assistance. Work at UCSC supported by NSF Grant Number DMR-0071949. ZF acknowledges support of NSF Grant Number DMR-0203214.


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# Open Problems in Cosmology

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Many cosmologists today are fully occupied sorting out the implications of our new standard Friedmann-Lemaître $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmology. There is good reason: this cosmology has passed demanding tests. Cosmology still is an attempt to draw very large conclusions from exceedingly limited data, however, and it is proper that searches for departures from the standard cosmology continue. But the intensity of the debates is notably subdued compared to decades past, a result of the great observational advances and their general agreement with a remarkably simple model.

Many of the ideas in the standard model are notably durable. Einstein’s empirical guides to general relativity theory came from the length scales of the laboratory, in the Eötvös experiment and electromagnetism. Now his theory passes demanding tests on the length scales of cosmology. Lemaître introduced the idea that that the universe expanded from a Big Bang – his primeval atom – in 1931. Now we have convincing evidence this is what actually happened. Hubble’s book, The Realm of the Nebulae (1936), shows a cosmological test, a galaxy redshift-magnitude diagram ($`z`$-$`m`$ for short, where the cosmological redshift $`z`$ is defined by the ratio of observed to emitted wavelengths, $`1+z=\lambda _{\mathrm{obs}}/\lambda _{\mathrm{em}}`$, and the apparent magnitude is $`m=2.5\mathrm{log}_{10}f+\mathrm{constant}`$, where $`f`$ is the observed energy flux density). Now an enormous effort with vastly more capable technology applied to observations of supernovae has increased the limiting redshift of the $`z`$-$`m`$ test by a factor of ten. Tolman might be gratified to learn that his (1934) theory of the behavior of thermal electromagnetic radiation in an expanding homogeneous and isotropic universe is now applied to precision measurements. In the 1930s Dirac considered evolution of the strength of the gravitational interaction. Models and tests for variations of the strengths of the gravitational and electromagnetic interactions were much discussed in the 1960s, led largely by Jordan and Dicke, in attempts to give meaning to Mach’s principle and to serve as a foil to general relativity in the new generation of tests of gravity physics. Now the idea is driven by superstring scenarios. There are unexpected developments, to be sure. I have seen no evidence Tolman gave thought to the effect of the departures from a homogeneous mass distribution on the distribution of the thermal radiation. Now this is a key cosmological test. Many people have given thought to the cosmological constant, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, since its introduction in 1917, often with negative conclusions. Now we have significant evidence for its detection. I doubt Einstein or Lemaître or Dirac argued for weakly interacting dark matter. Now we have strong evidence for its existence, though we await substantiation by a laboratory detection and identification.

It is also worth bearing in mind that observational advances have ruled out elegant ideas; the steady state cosmology is an example. And for all we know other ideas have survived only because we have not yet found out what is wrong with them: longevity adds a patina of respectability. In short, we should respect the ideas behind the standard cosmology, because elegant ideas sometimes lead to aspects of reality, but we should use caution in adding ideas to the established cannon, because the universe is quite capable of surprising us. My comments on what might be done to improve the cannon are organized around a list of issues to be addressed.

## 2 CHALLENGES

The peremptory style of the headers in this list should not be misunderstood: people are working on these challenges and need no exhortations from me to carry on. But they might find it helpful to reflect on what people are doing about associated problems, and the rest of us may find the headers a useful overview of issues that stand in the way of a satisfactory completion of our understanding of the large-scale nature of the observable universe.

### 2.1 Systematize tests of gravity physics

Superstring theory has inspired thoughts of departures from Einstein’s general relativity theory (GR for short), and that has led to experimental tests. But the more general consideration is that it is an enormous extrapolation from the characteristic scales of the precision tests of GR, $`\stackrel{<}{}10^{13}`$ cm, to the application on the scales of cosmology, $`10^{28}`$ cm. Good science demands checks; this is a purpose of the cosmological tests.

The present most convincing application of the cosmological tests follows from the measurements of the large-scale mean mass density. We have abundant cross checks – many of which are discussed in other contributions to these Proceedings – from gravitational dynamics in systems ranging in size from the Local Group to the Local Supercluster of galaxies; gravitational lensing; the cluster baryon mass fraction; the large-scale galaxy correlation function; the number density of rich clusters of galaxies as a function of time and mass; the SNeIa redshift-magnitude ($`z`$-$`m`$) relation; the intermediate Sachs-Wolfe effect; and the ratio $`H_ot_o`$ of stellar evolution and expansion time scales. The results consistently indicate the mean mass density is

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.25\pm 0.1,$$
(1)
expressed as a fraction of the mass density at critical escape velocity.

The error flag is large: this is not precision cosmology. But we have a good case that it is accurate cosmology, that is, a good approximation to physical reality. This is because the different methods depend on quite different aspects of the theory to convert the observations into constraints on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$, and a wrong theory is not likely to mislead us so systematically, from so many different directions. For example, the first entry in the list – the gravitational dynamics of relative motions of gas and stars and galaxies – depends on the assumption that starlight is a useful tracer of mass. That seems reasonable, because one gets consistent results from a considerable range of length scales, but it certainly may be questioned (and generally was a few years ago, when the Einstein-de Sitter model with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=1`$ was popular). The next entry, gravitational lensing, depends less heavily on starlight as a tracer of mass, and the consistent constraint on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ is a valuable check. Both assume the inverse square law for gravity, with the relativistic factor of two for lensing. We have checks, from the supernova $`z`$-$`m`$ relation, and the ratio $`H_ot_o`$ of stellar evolution and expansion time scales, both of which indicate the mass density is in the range in equation (1). Both depend on GR, but applied to the evolution of the spatially homogeneous cosmological model, quite a different aspect of the physics from gravitational dynamics and lensing. Other entries in the list depend on the cold dark matter (CDM) theory for structure formation, so the model must be added to the theory to be tested. We have tests, from the theory and observation of the anisotropy of the thermal 3 K background radiation, the abundance of rich clusters as a function of mass and redshift, and the large-scale galaxy correlation function. One could change the last constraint by tilting the spectrum of large-scale primeval mass density fluctuations away from the standard CDM model, but that would mess up the successful fit to the 3 K anisotropy measurements.

The measurements also depend on interpretations of the astronomy, which is chancy. Remember the astronomer’s Tantalus effect: you may look but never touch. Thus $`H_ot_o`$ depends on the extragalactic distance scale, which is very difficult to establish, and the supernova $`z`$-$`m`$ relation depends on inferences about the properties of stars that exploded when the world was young, not an easy task. But errors in interpreting the astronomy are not likely to so systematically mislead us.

I offer two conclusions.

1. The abundant cross checks offer compelling evidence that the parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ is meaningful and its value constrained to a factor of two or so. This goes along with the conclusion that GR and the CDM are useful approximations to this aspect of reality.

2. It is time to systematize the tests of GR, maybe following the example of the parametrized post-Newtonian formalism used in tests of gravity physics on the scales of stellar systems. The PPN formalism commences with Minkowskian spacetime, and uses parametrized representations of the effects on spacetime of its material content. In cosmology might start from the Robertson-Walker line element, which follows from the observed symmetry, and introduce parametrized relations between the material content of the universe and its expansion history and departures from the homogeneous line element. One would explore how closely the observations constrain the parameters, and whether the constraints contain the GR values.

### 2.2 Tighten the evidence for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$

As just discussed, a dense web of evidence establishes the case that the measure of the mean mass density in equation (1) is meaningful. The case for detection of Einstein’s cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ (or a term in the stress-energy tensor that acts like it) is significant too, but not as thoroughly checked. The wonderfully successful measurement and theoretical interpretation of the anisotropy of the 3 K thermal radiation, which Carlstrom discusses in these Proceedings, does not yet strongly constrain $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$, but it does require small space curvature. Since we have abundant evidence that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ is less than unity, GR requires a cosmological constant (or its equivalent) with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=1\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$. We have a check, from the supernova $`z`$-$`m`$ relation, which favors a low density cosmologically flat universe with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=1\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ over a low density open universe with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$.

It takes nothing away from the magnificent accomplishments of the supernova observers to say that their present measurements alone would not make a strong case for detection of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$: the astronomy is too dicey. The evidence from the 3 K anisotropy is strong but not compelling, in my opinion, because I don’t know how we can be sure there is no variant of the CDM theory – maybe with delayed recombination, maybe evolving coupling parameters – that fits the measurements in a low density open universe. The idea seems unlikely, but so does $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

The merits of the cosmological constant have been debated for a long time, and we can wait a few more years to see how the web of evidence develops, perhaps from extensions of the measurements of the supernova $`z`$-$`m`$ relation to higher redshift, perhaps from an examination of the difference between the intermediate Sachs-Wolfe effect in flat and open low density universes, perhaps from improvements in the measurement of $`H_ot_o`$. Meanwhile we owe our support – from funding to TACs – to colleagues who are working so hard on this key issue.

### 2.3 Find the physics of the vacuum energy

The challenge was known in the 1930s. Pauli is said to have remarked that the zero-point energy of the electromagnetic field integrated over laboratory wavelengths would, in the static Einstein model, require curvature that does “not even reach to the Moon.” Since then particle physics has given us a lot more contributions to the zero-point energy, along with the latent heats of all the first-order phase transitions.

I have heard suggestions that the problem may lie in the imperfect method of computation of energy in curved and dynamical spacetime, on the right hand side of Einstein’s field equation, or maybe even with the left hand side, which says how the stress-energy tensor drives the geometry. This certainly must be considered, but it looks like a long shot to me. I think of the quantum theory of electromagnetism as standard textbook quantum mechanics. We have firm experimental evidence that zero-point energies contribute to the active gravitational mass of matter, and I don’t see why the same would not be true of the zero-point energy of the electromagnetic field. And we know the large-scale distribution of ordinary matter and radiation affects the expansion history of the universe about as predicted by GR. But the implication from this reasoning is absurd.

I hear discussions of two remedies. Maybe some symmetry principle forces the vacuum energy density to the only natural and acceptable value, zero, and the astronomers’ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ has nothing to do with vacuum expectation values. Or maybe the net vacuum energy density, represented by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, is a slowly varying function of position, and we flourish where we can, near a place where the vacuum energy density passes through zero, just as we flourish on the one planet in the Solar System where complex life as we know it is possible. I hear complaints that this anthropic principle has been introduced ad hoc, to save the phenomenon. But the same is true of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. The cosmological constant is now seen to save quite a few phenomena. And a justification of the anthropic principle would be convincing evidence that the vacuum energy density actually is a function of position. Something may turn up.

### 2.4 Sort out the cosmic coincidences

We have to live with some curious coincidences in the standard cosmology. Most widely noted nowadays is that we flourish just as the universe is making the transition away from matter-dominated expansion – in order of magnitude. Under the anthropic principle this is not so curious, of course, because our presence does not require that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ vanish, only that its absolute value is small enough to allow galaxies to form and harbor the several generations of supernovae that produce the chemicals life needs. I am not inclined to count this as evidence for the anthropic principle. But have you heard a better idea?

Another coincidence of time scales is that we flourish just as the Milky Way is running out of gas for the formation of new stars and planetary systems. Maybe this is related to the observation that the global star formation rate has begun rapidly decreasing. Maybe both are related to the transition away from matter-dominated expansion, which suppresses the gravitational accretion of extragalactic matter to supply material for new generations of stars. But this does not seem promising in the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model, where the suppression effect is quite modest. I have not heard discussions of the stronger suppression in a low density universe with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$.

Yet another time coincidence is the agreement of the age of the expanding universe with the classical electron radius multiplied by the ratio of the electric to gravitational forces between an electron and proton. Dirac pointed this out in the 1930s. Still another, in the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model for structure formation, is that galaxies have just become useful tracers of mass, with the added curiosity that the low order galaxy n-point correlation functions seem to be better approximations to simple power laws than are the predicted correlation functions of the mass that is supposed to be controlling the dynamics.

It’s reasonable to expect that some of these curiosities are purely accidental, and that some will be seen not to be curious at all when we really understand the physics and its relation to the observations. But it’s sensible to be aware that some might be clues to improvements in the physics.

### 2.5 Test the physics of the dark sector

The physics of particles and fields in the visible sector is wonderfully simple, its expression spectacularly complex. In the standard cosmology the physics of the dark sector – which includes 96% of the mass – is so simple that its expression is simple: the dark matter is a collisionless gas that gathers into slightly lumpy dark halos, and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ or its equivalent is constant or close to it. Is this the way it is, or only an useful approximation for the purpose of our crude observational constraints?

The particle physicists’ assignment is to learn whether the dark matter is detectable. Its identification within an enlarged standard model for particle physics could settle the question. The astronomers’ assignment is to check whether the standard model for the dark sector gives a full and complete account of the observations of structure formation and evolution. The astronomers’ problem is that structure formation in the visible sector is complicated, so they have to interpose a model between the physics of the dark sector and its expression in the observations. This means they must discover whether anomalies in the theory and observation of structure formation are only apparent, from flaws in the model, and whether real anomalies might be hidden by the parameter adjustments allowed by the model. Dealing with this is a rich challenge, but it will be met by the rich fund of empirical evidence astronomers are accumulating on how the galaxies formed.

It is good strategy for astronomers to operate under the assumption that the dark sector is well described by simple physics unless or until anomalies point to deficiencies and, with luck, hints to remedies. But it is good strategy also to anticipate the possible need for remedies, by exploring adjustments to the physics of the dark sector that are viable within the observational constraints. You can find examples on arXiv; it makes sense to be aware of this line of work.

### 2.6 Find the physics of high redshift

What was the physics of the very early universe, before it could have been described by the relativistic Friedmann-Lemaître cosmology? Ideas about the answer inform assessments of the present structure of the universe.

The curious nature of initial conditions for the Friedmann-Lemaître model – the relativistic singularity and the disconnect between large-scale homogeneity and the small particle horizon at high redshift – was known well before inflation, but not widely advertised, in large part because we didn’t know what to do about it. It became famous with the introduction of a plausible resolution, the inflation concept, in the early 1980s, which you might have thought would have stimulated thinking along other lines, but it was not until the early 1990s that we started hearing about scenarios inspired by superstring theory. Will we be hearing about still more lines of thought? How might we decide which if any is a useful approximation to what really happened in the very early universe?

Pre-inflation speculations about bouncing or oscillating universes sometimes assumed the bounce conserves baryons but maybe not entropy. Recent ideas take the opposite tack: physics outside the Friedmann-Lemaître model produced entropy and the entropy produced the baryons, with negligibly small neutrino chemical potential and a homogeneous ratio of the local baryon number to photon number densities. A demonstration from established particle physics that this is the correct version of baryogenesis would be beneficial in fixing ideas in cosmology. Detection of the scale-invariant spectrum of gravitational waves predicted by some inflation models – from the effect on the CBR polarization, and maybe by means of a gravitational wave detector in space – would be an influential argument for inflation. Periodic universes have been under discussion for a long time, and remain an active subject for research. Detection would be startling and deeply influential. Nowadays you don’t hear much about the idea that we stand to learn something about a Big Bang and Big Crunch from the physics and astronomy of the little crunches in stellar mass black holes and active galactic nuclei, but fashons may change again. Modern discussions of structure formation in cosmology usually accept as established the initial conditions of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmology. What about the cosmic strings and monopoles and textures that were so cried up a decade ago? These isocurvature departures from homogeneity are not likely to have been the primary initial conditions for structure formation, but they certainly could play a secondary role, and maybe lead us to a better cosmology.

The subtext is the hope that something may turn up to add to our meager store of empirical hints to the physics of the early universe. I see a parallel to the situation in the 1930s that is reflected in Hubble’s concluding statement in The Realm of the Nebulae: “The search will continue. Not until the empirical resources are exhausted, need we pass on to the dreamy realms of speculation.” We are much further down the road, but in the same situation. Like Hubble, we don’t know whether the empirical resources are close to being exhausted, but we can be confident the search will continue.


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# Quiescent Magnetar Emission: Resonant Compton Upscattering

## 1. Introduction

The quiescent, non-thermal X-ray emission of soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) is observed at levels that are very intense for neutron stars. It is quite possible that SGRs and AXPs emit in a broad-band, pulsar-like mode, even if the power is not of a rotational origin. A principal candidate for such emission is inverse Compton scattering, tapping abundant surface X-rays (inferred surface temperatures for AXPs and SGRs are somewhat greater than for canonical pulsars; see Perna et al. 2001) as targets for energetic electrons accelerated in either polar cap or outer gap potentials. Recently, Cheng & Zhang (2001) proposed a model for significant gamma-ray emission from such magnetars, in the context of the outer gap scenario.

Here, the possibility of magnetar gamma-ray emission from polar cap models is explored. In the strong fields of their magnetospheres, the scattering is enhanced by the cyclotron resonance, thereby rendering polar cap models even more promising for generating hard gamma-rays that are potentially detectable by the upcoming Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission. The present scenario is similar to previous pulsar (e.g. Sturner, Dermer & Michel 1995; Daugherty & Harding 1996) and old gamma-ray burst (Dermer 1990; Baring 1994) models. Primary electrons with Lorentz factors up to some maximum $`\gamma _{\text{max}}`$ cool in collisions with the X-ray photons, in the process generating a broad spectrum extending into the gamma-ray band.

This paper outlines expectations for such emission spectra, specifically incorporating relativistic cross sections at supercritical fields that are germane to resonant Compton scattering in the magnetar regime. This investigation will focus on a simple one-zone, uniformly-magnetized region as a preparation for real geometry down the line, where the complexity of pair cascading will be explored. It is found that a very flat soft gamma-ray continuum results, with spectral cutoffs that depend strongly on the observational perspective to the field. Spectra differ significantly from those produced in outer gap models. Estimates of the anticipated flux indicate that GLAST may well detect magnetars in the 100 MeV – 1 GeV band if they emit efficiently like gamma-ray pulsars.

## 2. Resonant Compton Upscattering

In strong fields the cross section for Compton scattering is resonant at the cyclotron energy and a series of higher harmonics (e.g. see Daugherty & Harding 1986), effectively increasing the magnitude of the process over the Thomson cross section $`\sigma _\text{T}`$ by of the order of $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}/\alpha _\text{f}B`$, where $`\alpha _\text{f}`$ is the fine structure constant. Here, as throughout the paper, magnetic fields are written in units of $`B_{\mathrm{cr}}=m_e^2c^3/(e\mathrm{})=4.413\times 10^{13}`$Gauss, the quantum critical field strength. In the non-relativistic, Thomson regime (e.g. see Herold 1979), only the fundamental resonance is retained.

The dominance by the resonance leads to an effective kinematic coupling between the energies $`\epsilon _\gamma m_ec^2`$ and $`\gamma m_ec^2`$ of colliding photons and electrons, respectively, and the angle of the initial photon $`\theta _\gamma `$ to the magnetic field lines: the cyclotron fundamental is sampled when $`\gamma \epsilon _\gamma (1\mathrm{cos}\theta _\gamma )=B`$. The simplicity of this coupling automatically implies that integration over an angular distribution of incoming photons results in a flat-topped emission spectrum for Compton upscattering in strong magnetic fields. This characteristic is well-documented in the literature (e.g. see Dermer 1990; Baring 1994; for old gamma-ray burst scenarios, and Sturner, Dermer & Michel 1995 for pulsar contexts), specifically for collisions between ultrarelativistic electrons and thermal X-rays emanating from a neutron star surface.

For supercritical magnetar strength fields, the Thomson regime is no longer operable, with relativistic corrections to the Compton cross section becoming requisite. These have been explored by Gonthier et al. (2000) for cases appropriate to pulsars, namely when photons move parallel to field lines in the electron rest frame (abbreviated ERF hereafter). The cross section is suppressed roughly by a Klein-Nishina reduction when $`B\begin{array}{c}>\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}1`$ so that at $`B100`$ it becomes comparable to $`\sigma _\text{T}`$ in the cyclotron resonance, and much smaller for other energies. The analytic developments of Gonthier et al. (2000) for the resonant Compton cross section are employed in the computations of this paper.

The development of emission spectra requires the determination of equilbrium electron/pair distributions. The resonant upscattering of surface X-rays rapidly cools the electrons, resulting in the cessation of acceleration in the polar cap potential gap at $`\gamma \begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}\gamma _{\text{max}}3\times 10^5`$$`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^6`$ (e.g. Sturner, 1995; Daugherty & Harding 1996; Harding & Muslimov, 1998). As the primary electrons escape the gap, they continue to cool until the photon density is diluted at altitudes above one stellar radius from the surface, when the scattering kinematics also no longer sample the resonance. The simplest description of such cooling is explored here through standard kinetic equations for development of the electron distribution. The evolution with altitude yields a mean electron distribution (i.e. averaged over the electron path to higher altitudes) that is approximately proportional to the inverse of the cooling rate $`\dot{\gamma }_\text{C}`$. This amounts to a steep distribution (roughly $`\gamma ^4`$) for a range in $`\gamma `$ of generally at least two decades below $`\gamma _{\text{max}}`$, with a very flat distribution (almost independent of $`\gamma `$) at lower energies. There is also a “pile-up” of electrons at mildly-relativistic energies due to the concomitant inefficiency of cooling. Such shapes can be directly inferred from cooling profiles exhibited by Baring (1994) and Sturner (1995), who specialized to the magnetic Thomson limit, and extend at least in general nature to the relativistic domain, where the slopes of the primary electron distribution are modified only slightly.

This Compton-cooled distribution was then imported into standard integrations for the resonant inverse Compton scattering spectrum, which in the Thomson limit were detailed, for example, in Dermer (1990) and Baring (1994). The principal complication incurred by introducing the relativistic cross section is an extra integration as a consequence of the finite energy change of photons in the Klein-Nishina domain; this is handled routinely in the numerical integration routines. Output results of these integrations are exhibited in Fig. 1 for two different field strengths. The $`B=1`$ case is similar in nature to the Thomson regime results of Dermer (1990) and Baring (1994), corresponding to a flat $`\epsilon ^0`$ distribution. Klein-Nishina effects manifest themselves in the $`B=10`$ case, that most appropriate to magnetars, as a spectral steepening to around an $`\epsilon ^{2/3}`$ spectrum. Both cases extend out to photon energies around 1 GeV, which reflect the upscattered energy from copious cooling off surface X-rays by electrons with $`\gamma \gamma _{\text{max}}`$, These photons are highly collimated almost along the magnetic field. Some pair creation would be expected near this GeV cutoff (see the discussion of Gonthier et al 2000); its exploration is deferred to future work.

The normalizations for the spectra in Fig. 1 are established using an obvious observational benchmark. Since a pulsar mode for magnetar gamma-ray emission is considered here, the correlation between spin-down power $`\dot{E}_{\text{SD}}`$ and gamma-ray luminosity $`L_\gamma ^{\mathrm{obs}}`$ observed by the EGRET experiment on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO), namely

$$L_\gamma ^{\mathrm{obs}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1.7}\times 10^{16}\sqrt{\dot{E}_{\text{SD}}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}5.3}\times 10^{19}\frac{B_{\text{Gauss}}}{P_{\text{sec}}^2}\text{erg/sec},$$
(1)
can be extrapolated to the magnetar domain. This equates to roughly $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{32}`$$`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{33}`$ erg/sec for AXPs and SGRs, corresponding approximately to their $`\dot{E}_{\text{SD}}`$. Note that this luminosity is still two orders of magnitude smaller than the detected quiescent X-ray luminosities, whose power cannot be of rotational origin.

The spectra were normalized to this $`L_\gamma ^{\mathrm{obs}}`$ roughly around 1 GeV, for a source 10 kpc distant, resulting in predicted fluxes that would be detectable by GLAST, a principal conclusion of this paper. The flat spectra strongly contrast the outer gap predictions of Cheng & Zhang (2001), which are inherently steeper due to their use of non-magnetic inverse Compton scattering. The polar cap model therefore indicates that EGRET would not have been expected to detect AXPs unless the gamma-ray luminosity was comparable to the X-ray power.

Observe that potential GLAST detections would possess marked phase dependence. The kinematics of resonant scattering yields the strong correlation $`\epsilon _\gamma (1\mathrm{cos}\theta _\gamma )^1`$ between the gamma-ray energy $`\epsilon _\gamma `$ and its angle to the field $`\theta _\gamma `$, translating into much softer spectra at significant angles to the field, i.e. out of the main pulse. Another discriminating feature is the expectation of strong polarization in the gamma-ray signal, though this cannot be probed until future generation missions. It is anticipated that any GLAST detections of AXPs or SGRs in quiescence will have a profound impact on our understanding of these sources, with potential discrimination between outer gap and polar cap models.

## References

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