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# 1 Lamb Mossbauer factor v/s temperature (a) equation 3, (b) equation 9 and (c)equation 10.

Lamb Mossbauer factor using non-extensive Statistics

Ashok Razdan

Nuclear Research Laboratory

Bhaba Atomic Research Centre

Trombay, Mumbai- 400085

Abstract :

Lamb Mossbauer Factor is derived using Tsallis Statistics. Recoil free factor so obtained, has weak temperature dependence which is similar to the temperature dependence observed for Lamb Mossbauer factor of a fractal.

Introduction:

Anomalous behavior observed in properties of various physical system have been explained by using non-extensive Tsallis statistics. These physical systems /phenomena include turbulence in plasma , Cosmic ray background radiation , self gravitating systems , econo-physics, electron - positron annihilation ,classical and quantum chaos , linear response theory , Levy type anomalous super diffusion , thermalization of electron - phonon systems , low dimensional dissipative systems , etc.

It has been shown that non-extensive features get manifested in those systems which have long range forces, long memory effects or in those systems which evolve in (non Euclidean like space-time) fractal space time \[11 and reference therein\]. Non - extensive statistics is based on two postulates \[11 and reference therein\]. First is the definition of non- extensive entropy

$$S_q=\frac{1P_i^q}{q1}$$
(1)
where q is the non-extensive entropic index, k is a positive Constant and $`P_i`$ are the probabilities of the microscopic states with $`P_i`$ = 1.

The second postulate is the definition of energy $`U_q`$ = $`P_i^qE_i,`$ where $`E_i`$ is the energy spectrum. As q $``$1, $`S_q`$ = - $`p_ilnP_i`$, which is the Boltzman Gibbs Shanon entropy.

Apart from other applications it has been suggested  that non-extensive statistics can be applied to complex systems like glassy materials and fractal / multi-fractal or unconventional structures also. Anomalous Lamb Mossbauer factor behavior observed in glasses and biological system have motivated us to use non-extensive statistics. We will also compare Lamb Mossbauer factor using Tsallis statistics with Lamb Mossbauer factor of a fractal.

Anomalous f - factor:

Lamb Mossbauer factor or recoil free factor f is given by

$$logf=\frac{4\pi ^2<x_m^2>}{\lambda ^2}$$
(2)
Where $`x_m^2`$ is mean square displacement of Mossbauer atom of mass m, averaged over the nuclear life time. For Debye model of lattice vibrations, the Lamb Mossbauer factor can be written as

$$f=exp[\frac{6R}{k\theta _D}(\frac{1}{4}+(\frac{T}{\theta _D})^2_0^{\frac{\theta _D}{T}}\frac{xdx}{exp(x)1})]$$
(3)
Where $`x`$ = $`\frac{\mathrm{}\omega }{kT}`$, R is recoil energy and $`\theta _D`$ is the Debye temperature defined by $`\mathrm{}\omega _{max}`$= k $`\theta _D`$.

Equation (3) has been obtained using Boltzman Gibbs statistical mechanics. f-factor is a very important parameter to study temperature dependence of dynamics of Mossbauer atom. In most of the cases equation (3) explains the f-factor experimental data very effectively. However, there are various system like superconductors, glasses, biological system etc. where f - factor experimental data can not accounted by equation (3). Anomalous behavior of experimental f - factor data in various types of superconductors have been explained by incorporating anharmonicity in the dynamics of Mossbauer atom . For many biological systems e.g. in deoxy -myoglogin above 265 K, f - factor experimental data can not explained by equation (3). Again in various types of glassy materials f-factor experimental data  shows temperature dependence similar to biological systems.

Theory :

To derive non-extensive form of Lamb Mossbauer factor we have to use non-extensive quantum distribution function of bosons. It is very difficult to derive exact analytical expression for non-extensive distribution function. However, there are many studies which provide the approximate form of non-extensive distribution functions . In the present paper we use dilute gas approximation (DGA) for boson distribution function. For DGA case, the average occupation number is given as

$$<n_q>=\frac{1}{(1+(q1)\beta (E_i\mu )^{\frac{1}{q1}}1)}$$
(4)
When dealing with system in contact with the heat bath at the temperature $`\beta `$, we have

$$<n_q>=\frac{\mathrm{}\omega _i}{(1+(q1)\frac{\mathrm{}\omega _i}{kT})^{\frac{1}{q1}}1}$$
(5)
If $`x_m^2`$ is the mean square displacement of Mossbauer atom of mass m, and for the case of harmonic motion, we have

$$3Nmx_{m}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\omega _i^2=(n_q+\frac{1}{2})\mathrm{}\omega _i$$
(6)
The harmonic approximation in (6) means that each of 3N as oscillators modes have $`\delta `$ function distribution. Let $`f(\omega _i)`$ be the spectral distribution of the lattice Vibration frequencies of the lattice. Let us find average of $`4\pi ^2x_m^2`$ over the entire vibration spectrum.

$$\frac{4\pi ^2<x_m^2>}{\lambda ^2}=_0^{\omega _{max}}\frac{\mathrm{}\omega _i}{m\omega _i^2}(\frac{1}{2}+n_q)\frac{4\pi ^2f(\omega _i)d\omega _i}{3N\lambda ^2}$$
(7)
For the case of Debye approximation

$$f(\omega _i)=9N\frac{\omega _i^2}{\theta _D^2}\frac{\mathrm{}^3}{k^3}$$
(8)
where $`\mathrm{}w_{max}`$= k $`\theta _D`$.

Using equations (3) and (7) and (8), we have

$$f=exp\left\{\frac{E_\gamma ^2}{3mc^2}_0^{\omega _{max}}\left(\frac{1}{2}+n_q\right)9\left\{\frac{\mathrm{}}{k}\right\}^3\frac{\omega _i^2}{\theta _D^3}\frac{d\omega _i}{\mathrm{}\omega _i}\right\}$$
(9)
Equation (9) represents Lamb Mossbauer factor using Tsallis statistics where $`n_q`$ is given by equation (5)

Results and Discussion :

We have numerically solved equation (9) for q = 2 shown as ( + ) corresponding to curve ’b’ of figure 1. The curve ’c’ of figure 1 corresponds to Lamb Mossbauer factor of a fractal. It has been shown that f factor for a fractal is given by

$$logfT^{(0.74+\frac{4}{3})}exp(cx^{0.74}T^{0.74})$$
(10)
We have plotted proportional temperature dependence of equation (10) (Lamb Mossbaur factor of a fractal) in curve ’c’. curve ’a’ in this figure has been obtained using equation (3), corresponding to Lamb Mossbaur factor using Boltzman Gibbs statistical mechanics. It is clear from figure 1 that Curve ’b’ and ’c’ have similar or overlapping behavior. Comparison of Curve ’a’ on one hand, to Curves ’b’ and ’c’ on the other hand makes it clear that the Lamb Mossbauer fraction in non-Euclidean case is smaller than in the case of Euclidean solid. It is also clear that both fractal and non- Euclidean Lamb Mossbauer fraction is less temperature dependent than fraction for Euclidean solids. The similarity between Curve ’b’ and ’c’ is expected because non-extensive statistics corresponds to non-Euclidean space time which is fractal in nature.

In Fig. 2 we are plotting experimental data corresponding to Fec$`l_2`$ dissolved in glycerol-water mixture in super cooled liquid state. The experimental data has been taken from reference \[17 \]. The three curves corresponding to non-extensive Lamb Mossbauer factor for different values of parameter q. It is clear that temperature dependence of glassy materials above some characteristic temperature is very strong whereas non-extensive Lamb Mossbauer factor has continuous weak temperature dependence. Thus non- extensive f-factor cannot account for anomalous f - factor data of glasses and bio systems. It is interesting to mention here for the sake of completeness that Lamb Mossbauer factor using generalized algebra (of deformation concepts ) has been derived earlier and deformation parameter q has been identified as anharmonic coefficient when applied to experimental Mossbauer data . Now with the advent of generalized statistics, Lamb Mossbauer factor seems to behave more like an f-factor of a fractal. It will be interesting exercise to use both generalized algebra and generalized statistics to derive Lamb Mossbauer factor. Combination of generalized statistics and generalized algebra has been successfully applied to the study of COBE results.

Conclusion :

In this paper we have derived Lamb Mossbauer factor for generalized statistics and found it very similar to f-factor of a fractal.

References:

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14. Ashok Razdan, Hyperfine Interactions ,122(1999)309
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# A Sample of Field Ellipticals

## 1 Introduction

From the many observations of the two-point correlation function, both in its angular (e.g. Lidman and Peterson 1996, Maddox et al. 1990) and spatial (e.g. Ratcliffe et al. 1998, Giuricin et al. 2001) form, it is now well established that galaxies are clustered out to distances of at least 10 Mpc. In addition, numerous studies of the distribution of bright galaxies (e.g. Dressler 1980) show that elliptical galaxies preferentially occur in regions of high galactic density whilst spiral galaxies dominate in the field. These basic observations have led to a multitude of theoretical simulations to explain the observed clustering properties and morphological segregation (e.g. Baugh et al. 1996). A major implication of the majority of these models is that elliptical galaxies are formed from the merger of many sub-clumps during the early stages of the evolution of the Universe. Although not ruling out the presence of elliptical galaxies in low density environments, the hierarchical models suggest that on average they are very different from the cluster ellipticals, with likely evidence of recent star-formation and/or merger events. There have been many studies of elliptical galaxies in low-density environments with somewhat inconclusive results, with some studies suggesting only minor star formation at low redshifts (e.g. Silva and Bothun 1998, Bernardi et al. 1998) whilst other studies have shown strong evidence for recent merger/star formation activity (e.g. Treu et al., 1999, 2001, Kuntschner et al. 2002).

A major problem with the current comparisons between theory and observation is the lack of a consistent definition of a field galaxy. Several of the studies (e.g. Treu et al. 1999, 2001, 2002, Aars et al. 2001) use redshift surveys of the brighter galaxies to derive a sample of isolated ellipticals. However, the incompleteness of the redshift catalogues may lead to the inclusion of several ellipticals that have close neighbours. This has led many to a final visual inspection to confirm their isolated nature, destroying the objectiveness of the selection criteria. Only using an extensive redshift survey can an objective sample be constructed (e.g. Kuntschner et al. 2002) but even then incompleteness in the catalogue can lead to erroneous selection of non-field galaxies. The studies have also concentrated on the properties of the galaxies themselves, with little, if any, analysis of the local environment of the elliptical which, from the morphology-density relationship, is likely to also have a very significant effect on the properties of the elliptical galaxy.

In this paper, we use an objective definition of a field galaxy applied to an all-sky galaxy catalogue that can also be applied to the theoretical simulations. We also investigate the variation of the number of field ellipticals with selection criteria. Using all-sky photographic surveys we have made a preliminary study of the environment of these galaxies in a search for a surrounding faint dwarf galaxy population.

## 2 Determination of the Field

The presence of satellite galaxies around much brighter galaxies and the possible presence of large numbers of dwarf galaxies in the field greatly complicates the selection of a field sample. At present, our knowledge of the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function (LF) is very uncertain. Studies of clusters have produced widely varying results, although evidence is increasing of a relationship between the local galaxy density and the gradient of the function at the faint end (e.g. Driver et al. 1998). The investigations suggest that in low density regions on the outskirts of clusters there should be a large population of dwarf galaxies. This may imply that in the field a large dwarf population also exists. Results from the recent major redshift surveys (e.g. 2dF, Norberg et al. 2002) suggest that the field LF is relatively flat. However, incompleteness and a selection bias against low surface brightness galaxies may lead to a flatter slope. Using the sample of galaxies selected by Zaritsky et al. (1993, 1997; hereafter ZSFW) Morgan et al. (1998) found evidence that, on average, the faint end slope of the LF in the fields of isolated spirals is steep, with $`\alpha 1.8`$. Although this is consistent with that found in the outer regions of clusters, there is a major discrepancy between this result and our knowledge of the LF in the field and the Local Group, the latter having a flat faint-end of the LF (Mateo 1998). Roberts et al. (2003) have also found evidence that the slope of the field LF is flat. With the uncertainty in the field LF beyond $`M_B17`$ (for $`H_0=70`$ km s-1 Mpc-1 as adopted thoughout) and the general consistency of the LF shape at the bright end (e.g. Driver and de Propris 2003), we concentrate here on defining a field galaxy as that which does not have nearby bright ($`M_B17`$) neighbours such that it has not been seriously disturbed by its current local environment.

ZSFW, in their study of isolated spiral galaxies, used two criteria to select their sample. To be isolated, the magnitude difference between a neighbour and the ‘parent’ must be greater than 0.7 mag for galaxies within a projected distance of 1 Mpc or greater than 2.2 mag within 500 kpc. With an average separation of galaxies of about 1.5 Mpc (e.g. Nolthenius and White 1987), then the first of these criteria should ensure that the haloes do not interfere whilst the second is the true isolation criteria, ensuring that the galaxy does not lie in a cluster or a rich group. The application of these criteria is shown as a schematic in Fig. 1. Using these criteria the Magellanic Clouds would count as satellites but the Local Group would fail the criteria due to the close spacing of M31 and the Milky Way. Even the rather isolated elliptical galaxy NGC 720 (Dressler et al. 1986) would not be considered a field galaxy under our demanding criterion. ZSFW results, with a lack of any neighbouring satellites beyond a galactocentric distance of about 500 kpc, lent strong support to this classification of isolated galaxies.

## 3 The Sample

The availability of catalogues of large numbers of galaxies now makes it possible to investigate the dependency of galaxy morphology on environmental properties. Primary sources of information on galaxies are the Lyon Extragalactic Database (LEDA) and the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED). In this study we use the LEDA catalogue. This database, constructed from a collection of sub-catalogues and other sources, currently contains data for over one million galaxies. More recent catalogues, such as that from the APM and the SDSS, concentrate primarily on the fainter galaxies and therefore are not complete at the bright end and cannot be reliably used for the selection of bright, isolated, galaxies over the whole sky. Using the LEDA catalogue we have derived samples of elliptical galaxies satisfying several criteria. Firstly, the redshift of the primary galaxy must be less than $`10,000`$ km s-1 to ensure that the sample is approximately complete. To ensure that a reasonably accurate value for the distance could be derived assuming a uniform Hubble flow, an inner redshift limit of $`1500`$ km s-1 was also applied. Secondly, the absolute magnitude of the galaxy must be less than $`M_B19`$. This criterion was applied for several reasons. Galaxies brighter than this can be taken to be ‘normal’ and applying the 2.2 magnitudes fainter criteria later ensures that the faint end of the LF, with all its uncertainties, is not reached for the neighbours. Again it also ensures, with the redshift data, that the catalogue is approximately complete. Other criteria applied are that the selected galaxies lie above a galactic latitude of $`|25^{}|`$ to minimise the effects of Galactic absorption and to ensure that only elliptical galaxies are selected we applied a $`t<4`$ type criterion to the LEDA database. Misclassification of galaxies is always a problem, particularly for elliptical galaxies where the presence of a disk or dust may lead to an erroneous morphological assignment, and it is possible that some S0’s may be included in this sample but the percentage should be very small. A visual inspection of the galaxies, together with a literature search, was undertaken to verify the morphological classification of the galaxies as ellipticals and also minimise the contamination. As the morphology of some of the galaxies was uncertain they have been retained in the catalogue and await a more detailed imaging study for an accurate classification. The heterogeneous nature of the construction of the LEDA catalogue almost certainly leads to an uncertain incompleteness limit. As the limiting apparent magnitude of our sample at the selected redshift cutoff is 16.8, it is highly likely that some galaxies will be missed due to a lack of redshift information. Although precluding a detailed statistical study of the population this does not, however, detract from our original desire to obtain a sample of elliptical galaxies in low density regions.

The total number of elliptical galaxies in the LEDA database that satisfy the selection criteria described above is 940. For each of these galaxies we have searched the LEDA database for galaxies that satisfy the ZSFW selection criteria. The first of these is that any galaxy within 1 Mpc should be at least 8 times (=2.2 mag) fainter than the primary. Secondly, the LEDA database was searched for any galaxy within a specified projected distance that was less than twice as faint as the primary candidate. Unlike previous studies, no redshift information was included in the selection process and thus these distances are projected. This is a much stricter criterion than many other studies, but ensures that any galaxies that satisfy the constraints are truly isolated. The 32 elliptical galaxies that we determine to be isolated are listed in Table 1, together with notes on the individual galaxies, taken from the NED database. A visual inspection of the Digitized Sky Survey scans was also undertaken to ensure that there were no bright galaxies in the field that had been missed in the LEDA catalogue.

## 4 Changing the Parameters

How does the percentage of isolated galaxies vary as a function of magnitude limit of primary? or radial limits? To estimate the dependency of the field galaxy sample size with selection criteria we have applied an identical technique to that described above but have varied the inner radius cut-off from the fixed 500 kpc limit of ZSFW. The variation of the percentage of the morphological sample that are classified as ‘field’ with the inner radius cut-off is plotted in Fig. 2. Although closely related to the two-point correlation function, the addition of magnitude and redshift information in the production of this plot precludes a direct comparison. It is clear that there are elliptical galaxies that do not have companions within 2.2 magnitudes out to at least 1 Mpc.

To investigate the effect of incompleteness in the LEDA catalogue at fainter magnitudes, we have also used the same isolation and selection criteria except using an absolute magnitude of $`M_B<20.5`$, corresponding to an apparent magnitude limit of $`B=15.3`$ at a redshift of $`10000`$ km s-1. The variation in the percentage of galaxies classified as isolated is shown in Fig. 2 as the dotted line. Although the number of ellipticals in this brighter sample is much smaller, 423 compared to 940, the percentage of galaxies that satisfy the isolation criteria is significantly higher at all radii than the fainter sample. There are several possible reasons for this. Firstly, by going to brighter magnitudes for the parent then, applying a magnitude limit to the companions, we sample only the brighter part of the galaxy number counts. Thus, a brighter sample will have many fewer companions than a fainter one, thus increasing the likelihood of the galaxy to be classified as isolated. Secondly, it is possible this is due to a selection effect in the catalogue construction. Finally, it may be an inherent luminosity segregation in the formation process of elliptical galaxies, similar to the creation of an anomalously bright galaxy in the core of some clusters, as seen in cD-dominated or Bautz-Morgan Type I clusters. At present we cannot distinguish between these three possibilities. However, a similar investigation for spiral galaxies shows that by going to the brighter magnitude the percentage classified as field increases by a similar amount as for the elliptical sample. It is not, therefore, an effect that is due to an inherent property of the morphology of the galaxy.

## 5 The Environment of Field Ellipticals

Although the galaxies in Table 1 are isolated from other bright galaxies it is possible that they are surrounded by a halo of fainter, dwarf, galaxies. As a preliminary investigation of the environment of these galaxies we have used the technique first employed by Holmberg (1969) and extended by Phillipps and Shanks (1987) and Lorrimer et al. (1994). Due to their clustering properties, any excess in the number of galaxies seen in the field of the parent should be due primarily to objects of a similar redshift. This technique has been used extensively to determine the slope of the faint end of the LF in rich clusters (e.g. Driver et al. 1998) although inherent variations in the background may lead to an erroneous steepening of the slope (Valotto et al. 2001). However, this effect should not be important for individual galaxies although in this case the expected low numbers of companions will lead to large statistical errors. By stacking a number of galaxies, as used by ZSFW and Morgan et al. (1998), the statistical errors can be reduced and a ‘mean’ profile obtained.

Using the data publicly available from the APM plate-scanning machine we have detected all galaxies within a projected distance of 500 kpc of the parent. An absolute magnitude limit of $`M_{Bj}=14.6`$ for the surrounding galaxy population (assuming they are all at the redshift of the parent) and a redshift limit of $`6500`$ km s-1 for the primary was applied to ensure that the APM scans were reasonably complete for high surface-brightness objects. It is well-known that at low surface-brightnesses the catalogue is incomplete. At magnitudes brighter than $`M_B=16.8`$ the criteria used to select the parent sample will lead to an imcompleteness in the sample of dwarfs. A total of 10 galaxies in the sample of 32 had APM data suitable for this study. The resultant ‘mean’ radial density profile of the dwarfs surrounding the sample of 10 parents is shown in Fig. 3. It is clear that there is a significant excess of dwarf galaxies out to at least 500 kpc. To obtain an estimate of the dwarf population requires accurate subtraction of the contaminating background population. Incorrect subtraction can lead to widely varying values of the LF slope. With ZFSW finding very few satellites beyond 500 kpc we use the outer values of the radial profile as an estimate of the background. Fitting a power law to the resulting background-subtracted galaxy counts gives a power-law slope of $`0.6\pm 0.2`$. This is similar to the slope found for late-type galaxy satellites by Lorrimer et al. (1994) but less steep than that found by them for early-type galaxies. However, they found a weak dependence of the slope on the satellite luminosity, with fainter galaxies having a flatter slope. Extrapolating their results to the magnitude limits reached in this study, there is good agreement with the value presented here. They did not find such a luminosity dependence of the slope for late-type galaxies.

There are, in total, an average of $`45\pm 15`$ dwarfs within 500 kpc of each primary down to the limiting magnitude of 14.6 and $`19\pm 6`$ with $`16<M_B<15`$. Brighter than $`16`$ the number of satellites agrees with the values of Lorrimer et al (1994). Comparing the number of faint dwarfs to the values for brighter satellites implies a steep luminosity function ($`\alpha 1.8`$), in approximate agreement with that found for poor clusters (e.g. Driver et al. 1998) and also the value derived by Morgan et al. (1998) for isolated spirals. This lends some support to the CDM model of hierarchical structure formation (e.g. White and Frenk 1991), where there should be an abundance of small dark matter halos. However, the field luminosity function has a slope of $`1.2`$ (e.g. Norberg et al. 2002, Davies et al. 2003) suggesting the dominance of dwarf galaxies varies considerably between environments. The errors in Fig. 3 are much larger than Poissonian, suggesting that there are intrinsic variations in the dwarf population surrounding the parent ellipticals. However, the sample size of dwarfs around individual ellipticals is too small for any significant conclusions to be drawn. If the slope of the LF is steep around field ellipticals, a deeper and higher resolution imaging study should enable the unambiguous detection of this dwarf population and possibly investigate the galaxy-to-galaxy variation of the dwarf density. A dynamical study, as undertaken by ZSFW, is also required to determine which of the brighter neighbours are truly satellites of the central elliptical and hence obtain an estimate of the size (and mass) of its halo.

## 6 Conclusions

We have identified a sample of elliptical galaxies that lie in regions where the local density of bright ($`M_B<17`$) galaxies is very low, indicating that such objects are not exclusively associated with groups or clusters of galaxies. A study of the local environment around them shows an excess of faint galaxies, presumably satellites, out to a projected distance of at least 500 kpc and with a projected density varying as $`r^{0.6\pm 0.2}`$. The numbers of these dwarfs suggests a steep faint end of the luminosity function, in contradiction to that found for the field but in good agreement with that found for the outer regions of clusters. A considerable number of questions remain which can only be answered through a more detailed study of these objects and their environment.

We want to thank Prof. Carlos Frenk for embarking us in the analysis of field elliptical galaxies, their environments and their satellites. R. Smith wants to thank the Valencia University Astronomical Observatory for its hospitality during a visit in which part of the work was done. This work has been supported by the Spanish MCyT projects AYA2000-2045 and AYA2003-08739-C02-01 and by the Generalitat Valenciana ACyT project CTIDIB/2002/257. We have made use of the LEDA database (http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr)


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# Efficient input and output fiber coupling to a photonic crystal waveguide

## Abstract

The efficiency of evanescent coupling between a silica optical fiber taper and a silicon photonic crystal waveguide is studied. A high reflectivity mirror on the end of the photonic crystal waveguide is used to recollect, in the backwards propagating fiber mode, the optical power that is initially coupled into the photonic crystal waveguide. An outcoupled power in the backward propagating fiber mode of $`88\%`$ of the input power is measured, corresponding to a lower bound on the coupler efficiency of $`94\%`$.

Evanescent coupling between optical fiber tapersref:Knight  and photonic crystal waveguides (PCWG)ref:Barclay3 ; ref:OBrien2  allows highly efficient and mode selective interfacing between fiber optics and planar photonic crystal devices. Circumventing the intrinsic spatial and refractive index mismatch of fiber to PCWG end-fire couplingref:Notomi , this coupling scheme takes advantage of the strong dispersion and undercut geometry inherent to PC membrane structures to enable efficient power transfer between modes of a PCWG and a fiber taper. The coherent interaction over the length of the coupling region between phase matched modes of each waveguide manifests in nearly complete resonant power transfer between waveguides, and by varying the position of the fiber taper it is possible to tune the coupling strength and phase matching frequency, allowing the dispersive and spatial properties of PCWG modes to be efficiently probedref:Barclay4 .

In previous workref:Barclay3 ; ref:Barclay4 , the coupling efficiency of this technique was studied by analyzing the signal transmitted through the fiber taper as a function of wavelength and fiber taper position. Although transmission measurements are sufficient to infer the efficiency of this coupling scheme, a measurement of power coupled into and then back out of a PCWG is of interest since it allows the lower bound of the input-output coupling efficiency to be directly established. By studying light which is coupled into a PCWG, reflected by an end-mirror at the PCWG termination, and then coupled into the backward propagating fiber mode, we show in this letter that this coupling scheme has near unity efficiency.

Figure 1(a) shows an illustration of the fiber taper evanescent coupling scheme. A fiber taper, formed by simultaneously heating and stretching a standard single mode fiber until it has a minimum diameter of roughly a micron, is positioned above and parallel to an undercut planar PCWG. The small diameter of the fiber taper allows the evanescent tail of its fundamental mode to interact with the PCWG, while the undercut geometry of the PCWG prevents the fiber taper from radiating into the PC substrate. A schematic detailing the optical path within the fiber taper and the PCWG is shown in Figure 1(b). To spectrally characterize the taper-PCWG coupler, an external cavity swept wavelength source with wavelength range $`1565`$ nm \- $`1625`$ nm was connected to the fiber taper input. At the fiber taper output, a photodetector ($`\text{D}_\text{T}`$) was connected to measure the transmitted power past the taper-PCWG coupling region. An additional photodetector ($`\text{D}_\text{R}`$) was connected to the second 3dB coupler input to measure the light reflected by the PCWG.

The PCWGs used in this work were fabricated from a silicon-on-isulator (SOI) wafer. The air holes were patterned in the $`300`$ nm thick silicon (Si) layer using standard electron-beam lithography and dry etching techniques, after which the suspended membrane structure was created by selectively removing the $`2`$ $`\mu `$m thick underlying silicon dioxide layer using a hydorfluoric acid wet etch. The PCWGs were formed by introducing a grade in hole radius along the transverse direction of a compressed square lattice of air holesref:Barclay2 , as shown by Figure 2(a-b). Coupling in this case occurs between the fundamental linearly polarized fiber mode and the TE-1 PCWG mode, whose field profile is shown in Fig. 3(a). This PCWG mode has a negative group velocity, resulting in *contradirectional* coupling as depicted in Figure 1, and was designed to be integrated with recently demonstratedref:Srinivasan4  high-Q cavites formed using a similar grading in hole radius.

In previous studies of evanescent coupling to such PCWGsref:Barclay4 , the waveguide termination consisted of a $`2`$ $`\mu \text{m}`$ region of undercut Si, followed by an $`8`$ $`\mu \text{m}`$ length of non-undercut SOI and a final air interface. The interference from multiple reflections at the three interfaces within the waveguide termination resulted in a highly wavelength dependent reflection coefficient, making quantitative analysis of signals reflected by the PCWG difficult. Here, the waveguide terminations were engineered to have either high or low *broadband* reflectivities. On one end of the PCWG, shown in Figure 2(b), a photonic crystal mirror with high modal reflectivity ($`r_1`$) for the TE-1 PCWG mode was used. This high reflectivity end mirror was formed by removing the lattice compression of the waveguide while maintaining the transverse grade in hole radius. The change in lattice compression results in the TE-1 PCWG mode lying within the partial bandgapref:Barclay2  of the high reflectivity end mirror section (Figure 2(c)), while the transverse grade in hole radius reduces diffraction loss within the mirror. On the opposite end of the PCWG, a poor reflector with low reflectivity ($`r_2`$) was realized by removing (over several lattice constants) the transverse grade in hole radius while keeping the central waveguide hole radius fixed, resulting in a loss of transverse waveguiding within the end mirror section and allowing the TE-1 PCWG mode to diffract into the unguided bulk modes of the PC.

In the absence of reflections due to the PCWG termination (i.e. $`r_{1,2}=0`$), the fiber-PCWG junction can be characterized by

$$\left[\begin{array}{c}a_\text{F}^+(L)\\ a_{\text{PC}}^{}(0)\end{array}\right]=\left[\begin{array}{cc}t& \kappa ^{}\\ \kappa & t^{}\end{array}\right]\left[\begin{array}{c}a_\text{F}^+(0)\\ a_{\text{PC}}^{}(L)\end{array}\right],$$
(1)
where $`\kappa `$ and $`\kappa ^{}`$ are coupling coefficients, $`t`$ and $`t^{}`$ are transmission coefficients, and $`a_\text{F}^+(z)`$ and $`a_{\text{PC}}^{}(z)`$ are the amplitudes of the forward propagating fundamental fiber taper mode and the backward propagating TE-1 PCWG mode, respectively. The coupling region extends along the $`z`$-axis, with $`z=0`$ corresponding to the input and $`z=L`$ to the output of the coupler. As illustrated by Figure 1(b), non-zero $`r_{1,2}`$ introduce feedback into the system. This allows input light coupled from the forward propagating fundamental fiber taper mode into the TE-1 PCWG mode to be partially reflected by the PCWG termination, and subsequently coupled to the backward propagating fundamental fiber taper mode. In the presence of this feedback within the PCWG, the normalized reflected and transmitted powers in the fiber taper are given byref:Haus\_Book

$`T=\left|a_\text{F}^+(L)\right|^2`$ $`=\left|t+{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa \kappa ^{}t^{}r_1r_2}{1r_1t^{}r_2t^{}}}\right|^2,`$ (2)
$`R=\left|a_\text{F}^{}(0)\right|^2`$ $`=\left|{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa \kappa ^{}r_1}{1r_1t^{}r_2t^{}}}\right|^2,`$ (3)
for $`a_\text{F}^+(0)=1`$ and $`a_{\text{PC}}^{}(L)=0`$. By measuring $`T`$ and $`R`$, and considering Eqs. (2,3) we can determine the efficiency of the fiber-PCWG coupling as measured by $`|\kappa \kappa ^{}|`$.

In the measurements presented here a fiber taper with $`2`$ $`\mu `$m diameter was used to probe the PCWG of Figure 2(b). Figures 3(a) and 3(b) show $`T`$ and $`R`$ as a function of wavelength when the taper is aligned with the PCWG at a height of $`g=0.20`$ $`\mu `$m, and indicate that the phase-matched wavelength is $`\lambda 1598\pm 5`$ nm. As described in Ref. ref:Barclay4 , coupling to the guided TE-1 mode of the PCWG was confirmed by studying the coupling dependence upon polarization, lateral taper displacement, and fiber taper diameter. Figure 3(c) shows $`T`$ and $`R`$ at the resonant wavelength of the PCWG nearest the phase-matching condition (the minima and maxima in $`T(\lambda )`$ and $`R(\lambda )`$), as a function of taper height $`g`$ above the PCWG. Included in Figure 3(c) is the off-resonant (away from phase-matching) transmission, $`T_{\text{off}}`$, through the fiber. A maximum normalized reflected power $`R_{\text{max}}0.88`$ was measured at a height of $`g0.25`$ $`\mu \text{m}`$, where the corresponding transmission was $`T<0.01`$. As can be seen in the wavelength scans of Figure 3(a), at this taper height the Fabry-Perot resonances due to multiple reflections from the end mirrors of the PCWG are suppressed for wavelengths within the coupler bandwidth due to strong coupling to the fiber taper. Ignoring for the moment the effects of multiple reflections in eq. 3, the maximum optical power coupling efficiency is then $`|\kappa \kappa ^{}|=\sqrt{R_{\text{max}}}/|r_1|`$, where the square root dependence upon $`R_{\text{max}}`$ is a result of the light passing through the coupler twice in returning to the backward propagating fiber mode. Assuming the high reflectivity mirror is perfect (unity reflection), for the measured $`R_{\text{max}}=0.88`$ this implies $`94\%`$ coupling of optical power from taper to PC waveguide (and vice-versa).

By further comparison of $`T(g)`$ and $`R(g)`$ with the model given above, this time including feedback within the PCWG, we find that the high reflectivity PCWG end-mirror is imperfect and that $`R_{\text{max}}`$ is in fact limited by mirror reflectivity, not the efficiency of the coupling junction. For this comparison we take the elements of the coupling matrix to satisfy the relations $`|t|^2+|\kappa |^2=1`$, $`\kappa ^{}=\kappa `$, and $`t^{}=t^{}`$ of an ideal (lossless) coupling junctionref:Haus\_Book . For the phase matched contradirectional coupling considered here, the dependence of $`\kappa `$ on $`g`$ can be approximated by $`|\kappa (g)|=\mathrm{tanh}\left[\kappa _{,0}\mathrm{exp}(g/g_0)L\right]`$ref:Yeh2 , where $`\kappa _{,0}`$ and $`g_0`$ are constants. Substituting these relations into eqs. (2) and (3), $`T`$ and $`R`$ can be fit to the experimental data with $`r_{1,2}`$, $`\kappa _{,0}`$ and $`g_0`$ as free parametersref:phase\_footnote . Note that waveguide loss can also be included in the model, however it is found to be small compared to the mirror loss and will be studied in detail elsewhere. Figure 3(c) shows the fits to the data for $`g0.20`$ $`\mu \text{m}`$; for $`g<0.20`$ $`\mu \text{m}`$ non-resonant scattering loss is no longer negligible and the ideal coupling junction model breaks down. Note that the off-resonant scattering loss is observed to effect the reflected signal at a smaller taper-PCWG gap than for the transmitted signal, indicating that within the coupler bandwidth $`1T_{\text{off}}`$ is an overestimate of the amount of power scattered into radiation modes. From the fits in Figure 3(c), the PCWG end-mirror reflectivies are estimated to be $`|r_1|^2=0.90`$ and $`|r_2|^2=0.52`$, and the optical power coupling efficiency ($`|\kappa |^2`$) occurring at $`R_{\text{max}}`$ ($`g=0.25`$ $`\mu `$m) is approximately $`97\%`$.

In conclusion, these results indicate that this coupling scheme allows highly efficient input and output coupling between photonic crystal devices and fiber tapers, and is promising for efficient probing of future integrated planar PC devices.

KS would like to thank the Hertz foundation and MB the Moore foundation for financial support.


text:
# 1 METHODOLOGY

## 1 METHODOLOGY

This paper, which covers some aspects of the astronomical background of the chronology proposed by Gasche et al. (1998), is offered here for two reasons. That brief volume was intended to present a new approach and was not regarded as a comprehensive treatment of chronological issues in the ancient Near East, and certainly not as the final word on the role astronomy can play in solving chronological problems. It was to be hoped that polemical debate could be avoided and the ensuing critical discussion would be based on the data and methodology presented. The drawbacks of the approach are now apparent, however. On the one hand, there appears to be a real need (e.g., Huber 1999/2000b) for some additional general explanation of the astronomical conclusions published in that volume. On the other hand, it is increasingly evident that the work of colleagues (particularly Huber) who have employed astronomical methods requires a more direct kind of attention. The little attention payed to Huber and the lack of astronomical detail in Gasche et al. (1998) can be attributed to the fact that the book’s origins lay in the study of the archaeological material and the Middle Chronology, and thus neither astronomy nor the High Chronology were at the center of the project. A discussion of the archaeology must be left to my colleagues, but papers by Huber (1999/2000a, 1999/2000b, and Huber, this volume) - and criticism because we did not discuss his work exhaustively - demand that the astronomical issues be raised again.

The archaeological material was abundant, but could not provide precise dates. Astronomical data are one of the few means of securing potentially relevant and precise dates; astronomical sources are rare in the ancient Near East. Huber (1999/2000a : 55) described the very Ur III omens we selected as being ”so detailed and unsystematic that they appear to contain actual records of observations.” This statement includes two separate judgments about the material. One is that the data are detailed and the other that the organization of the material implied that actual observations were recorded.

The primary evaluation of the information in the omens depends upon their reliability. This means that the more reliable sources must be selected, and that preference be given to the most important parameters. For me, ”reliable sources” include astronomical data that can be extracted and which are unambiguous in character; it does not mean that the sources are ”reliable informants.” An astronomer can recognize whether the data recorded reflect unique phenomena which can be isolated. An astronomer cannot judge the level of confidence which can be assigned to any given text: only colleagues from the relevant field are qualified to translate the texts, thus allowing others to make and debate judgments of this kind.

Some omens seem to meet these sets of standards. We exploited the above-mentioned methodology for the analysis of the records with astronomical content in the EAE series, essentially that discussed by Brinkman (2000), with the goal of securing information which may be limited in quantity, but of potentially high quality. Even if the conclusions are indecisive from the standpoint of the questions originally posed, they may still allow certain conclusions to be excluded by demonstrating discrepancies between the alleged records and the actual events.

EAE 20 and 21 describe eclipses which have been linked to the Ur III period. They have been regarded as being more reliable than the Venus Tablet. By their very nature records of eclipses differ significantly from the records of the visibility of the planet Venus. The omina that were interpreted as recording an eclipse are regarded as reliable precisely because the description should allow he eclipses to be identified, if the description preserved is correct. By contrast, it is a well-known fact that the Venus Tablet dataset contains numerous errors. Separating the parameters from the background noise must be accomplished by a statistical evaluation to secure the non-corrupted information. The problem is not new, since statistical methods inevitably face two fundamental obstacles:111For modern methods of the study of non-linear astrophysical problems, from planetary dynamics to data analysis, see e.g. Gurzadyan and Kocharyan 1994, and Gurzadyan and Ruffini 2000.

(a) the arbitrary character of the choice of the sample parameters to be statistically weighed;

(b) the arbitrary character of the normalization of probabilities.

Each of these factors is crucial and a slight variation of the arbitrary parameters can suffice to distort the data to such an extent that the conclusions are completely unreliable.

There are, however, also purely astronomical reasons which render the alleged records of eclipses more valuable than the Venus Tablet. Doubt can be cast upon the records of the Venus Tablet concerning issues ranging from their apparent regularity to local conditions influencing visibility. This means that even if the data preserved were completely uncorrupted, the interpretation of the Venus Tablet would still be far from straightforward.

## 2 UR III ECLIPSES

The informative data recorded for the two lunar eclipses of EAE 20 and 21 can be reduced to 4 parameters :

(a) the entering and

(b) exit positions of the darkening of the lunar disk;

(c) the watch-times of the beginning and

(d) the end of the eclipse.

Some data recorded, namely the day of the eclipses (EAE 20 is dated to 14 Simanu and EAE 21 to 14 Addaru) and the direction of the wind are not informative for our purpose.

In Gasche et al. (1998) we proposed the eclipse of 27 June 1954 BC as a candidate for the EAE 20 description. In his critical analysis of our conclusions, Koch (1998) concluded that ”the eclipse of June 27, 1954 BC would appear to fit the omen EAE 20 IIIB exactly.” He based this on the fact that the correlation fits the exit position (”lower west”). Since the eclipse began below or close to the horizon in the twilight, ”the beginning of the darkening was nothing more than the assumed position of the lunar disk and therefore not binding for the examination of the Ur III Simanu eclipse.” In contrast to the precise relationship between our candidate and interpretation, Koch concluded that the eclipse proposed by Huber (1987a; 25 July 2095 BC) contradicted the textual evidence referring to the ”lower west” although the exit of the actual eclipse must have been the ”upper west.”

The crucial role of the end of the darkening results from the simple fact that the end of a sequence is always more reliably recorded than its beginning. The observer must adjust his position or instruments (in later periods) and thus the description of the close of the sequence is always more accurate. Regardless of all other errors - including scribal errors - the exit information has to be considered more reliable for an eclipse identification that the entry information. Huber (1987a) overlooked this basic astronomical reality and assumed the contrary, with the unfortunate result that his proposed eclipse of 2095 BC fails to fulfil this significant criterion. The record of the beginning of the event will also be even more defective if the eclipse began below the horizon, so that the beginning was in fact never observed, but merely reconstructed.

In these cases, the duration and time may also be relevant. The crucial criterion of EAE 20 IIIA that ”the evening watch passes and the middle watch is touched” or of EAE 20 IIIB, that ”the evening watch is half over,” is more suitable for the eclipse of 1954 BC than the eclipse of 2095 BC (Koch 1998).

The eclipse of EAE 20 IIIB also meets an additional condition, namely that ”the lunar eclipse must end at the time when the weakly shining stars become visible” (Donbaz and Koch 1995, 71; Koch 1998), which is again suitable for the eclipse of 1954 BC, but not that of 2095 BC.

The situation with the EAE 21 XII eclipse is more or less identical, but with one critical difference, the possible presence of a scribal error or misinterpretation. The crucial parameter of the textual evidence concerning the exit position of the darkening (”north”) matches the eclipse of 17 March 1912 BC precisely, but not that of 13 April 2053 BC (Huber 1987a) (”west”). The only ambiguity in the eclipse of 1912 BC is the duration of the watch-times. The omen records an impossibly long eclipse far exceeding any possible eclipse, as Koch (1998) has pointed out.

In the final analysis, however, the eclipses of 1954 BC and 1912 BC (proposed in Gasche et al. 1998) fit the most significant information in EAE 20 and 21 while the eclipses of 2095 BC and 2053 BC (proposed by Huber et al. 1982, Huber 1987a, 1987b, 1999/2000b, and Huber, this volume) fail to meet the criteria, and actually contradict the conditions of the omina. On this basis, at least, they should be excluded, regardless of any statistical evaluations.

This illustrates one of the dangers of conclusions based on statistical evaluations. Neglecting the basic astronomical information, Huber (1987b) found that eclipses - which were ruled out for astronomical reasons - reflected a state where ”the probability of error is below 1 per cent”. Statistics cannot usefully be employed to determine the probability of something which is excluded in advance. Similar difficulties lie behind other statements such : ”even if the chronology is wrong, we will find a matching eclipse in a 20-year window” (1999/2000a : 56), if the proper input information is wrong.

Huber (1999/2000a : 61) remarked that he had excluded the pair of eclipses proposed by us because he assumed that one of them began ”too early.” As we saw above, this is not the case : the eclipses correspond to the crucial factor of the exit and are otherwise largely compatible with the givens (Koch 1998), Huber had subjectively reduced the size of his sample before commencing his statistical project, and thereby endangered any potential reliability his methods and conclusions could have had.

## 3 THE VENUS TABLET

As mentioned by Huber and others, the data from the Venus Tablet has been thrown into doubt due to the numerous errors which have corrupted the text. It is therefore useful to examine the reliability of the presence of the 56/64 year Venus cycle preserved in the text, and whether this can be used.

The Old Babylonian calendar was not continually modified, but was altered only when the discrepancy between the seasons and the calendar forced the issue (Neugebauer 1975). One cannot expect that if certain Venus visibility data fit one given 8-year-period, that they would therefore necessarily fit the period of 56 or 64 years before/after with the same (a) probability and (b) accuracy.

The probability implies that if a primary period is found to fit the data with a certain probability, then the 56/64 year earlier or later periods cannot have the same probability. The accuracy of any given record indicates the time separating the record from the last revision of the lunar calendar. This means that, for example, 6 or 9 Venus cycles, i.e. 48 or 72 years respectively, may happen to fit the primary period that would be required by the lunar calendar, since the scribe was obviously recording the official date recognized in the kingdom and not intent on making precise astronomical measurements.

Changes in the calendar appear inexplicable without specific information, and such changes are very remarkable when all other data appears to be absolutely constant. For example, a historian studying modern records based on a small data sample and only the knowledge of the Julian and Gregorian calendars, would be perplexed by the apparent mismatch of events in England in the 18th century or in Russia in the early 20th, unless a sudden 13-day shift might be recognized.

The meaning of such difficulties is overlapped with the intrinsic noise in the Venus Tablet, compounded by visibility aspects, e.g. when the first/last visibility records might actually be made later/earlier than it is required by the limiting stellar magnitude (Reiner and Pingree 1975), and potential scribal errors, quite aside from unconscious restorations in antiquity. Altogether, this means that the visibility records could actually be assigned completely different positions in the cycle. This demonstrates that the 20 chronologies proposed by Huber et al. (1982; Huber 1987a) cannot be used in astronomical historical arguments.

The reliability of the lunar calendar in the Venus Tablet is further undermined by the nature of certain errors. For example, the text of Omen 11 mentions the last visibility date III 11 and an interval of 9 months 4 days. For the same period, Omens 21 and 59 record XII 11 an interval of 4 days (Reiner and Pingree 1975), thus indicating the adjustment between the date and the interval made by the copyist. This reflected the tradition of inserting ”appropriate data” rather than actual data drawn from observations, in order to secure regularity (Neugebauer 1983; see also Fatoohi et al. 1999, 51).

What can, therefore, be extracted from the Venus Tablet with a high degree of confidence ? In Gasche et al. (1998), we advocated the use of the least noisy signature, namely, the use of the basic 8-year cycle to the exclusion of all others, i.e., any trace of the 584 day Venus synodic period (roughly 5 synodic Venus periods = 8 sidereal years minus 4 days). Only the relative sequence of the inferior and superior conjunctions is reflected in the tablet and not the absolute lunar calendar. In stating that the recorded observations were not visible for the proposed inferior conjunctions compatible for our proposed year for Ammisaduqa 1, Huber (1999/2000a : 53) shows that he has failed to appreciate the significance of our method. Since our system does not recognize the validity of Huber’s calendar for 20 chronologies, our 8-year Venus cycles are not anchored as Huber’s are. The result is that the 8-year Venus cycle data are compatible with the data drawn from the lunar eclipses, because they do not rely on Huber’s 20 chronologies, which are based on the rejected 56/64 year cycles. The background noise in the Venus Tablet makes this virtually the only logical approach : recognize the 8-year cycles.

Later, I became aware that Hunger (2000) has also recognized only the 8-year cycle.

The relative sequence of the inferior and superior conjunctions and not the lunar calendar lie at the base of our approach to the 8-year Venus cycles. This sequence was unique and its signature would have been the last to have been effaced and lost as a result of careless copying and inattentive observation. The date for Ammisaduqa 1 = 1550 BC is thus anchored by the lunar eclipses but not by the lunar calendar.

To illustrate the significance and value of the method, the Venus data for Ammisaduqa 1 are calculated for 1702, 1646, 1582 and 1550 BC, corresponding to the traditional High, Middle, Low Chronologies, and Ultra-Low Chronology (Gasche et al. 1998). In order to avoid the possible impact of local visibility conditions and other uncertainties, the elongation alone is presented. The data thus relies on the angular separation of Venus from the Sun, by means of which Venus becomes invisible from a specific critical angle $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{cr}`$. The glare critical angle for average vision is given by the formula (Schaefer 1991) :

$$\mathrm{log}\mathrm{\Theta }_{cr}=0.2(9.28+m_v),$$

where $`m_v`$ is the visual stellar magnitude. The Table 1 below includes the dates of Venus’s passage according to the angle $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{cr}=11^{}`$.

The relative magnitudes for each chronology are calculated and Universal Time is set at 00:41. The calculations were performed with the Ephemeris - Tool 4.1 Version 4.1003, 2000 software, elaborated by M. Dings based on Newcomb theories, which is quite sufficient for this purpose. The sequence of the conjunctions can be clearly followed for each chronology. The data in the Venus Tablet can only be linked to any given chronology if anchored by an alternative link. Without any reliable data (such as the Ur III eclipses), the signal cannot be anchored with confidence.

## 4 MONTH LENGTHS

The principal of the method is to fit the distribution of 29 and 30 day months to any given chronology. With this goal, Huber (1987b) relied upon assumptions which could possibly distort the conclusions, e.g.

(a) assuming that data from incompatible collections, e.g. Late and Neo-Babylonian, share the same month-length distribution and data quality, which is certainly not fulfilled;

(b) the distribution of month lengths for his datasets cannot be given binomial or Poissonian distribution, due to potential inhomogeneities in the frequencies;

(c) the use of sample-depended parameters.

Let us illustrate the situation with his analysis of Ur III month lengths where an explicit plot is available (Huber 1987b; Exhibit 4). The data have $`K_0`$ = 83 discrepancies from N = 228 month lengths. He concludes that the result favours the High Chronology while conceding ”that the statistical significance is not quite reached.” This does not quite compare with the confidence he has since expressed on the very same results in his later papers. The situation is, however, more complicated, as it revolves around the issue of the choice of the correctness of one of the two distributions. A proper evaluation of A (correct chronology) and B (best of wrong chronologies) must also include the null hypothesis. Then, at $`K>K_0`$, the area between the distribution curve of A and the abscissa (discrepancy) axis will correspond to the significance level of the hypothesis ”A is correct” but the criterion is excluding it. A $`K<K_0`$, the area below the distribution curve corresponding to the hypothesis B indicates the probability of the error of the second category, i.e., when hypothesis B is correct but the criterion accepts the hypothesis A. Since $`K_0`$ is sample dependent and non-homogeneous and is hence unstable, no conclusion can be drawn on the correctness of either of the hypotheses (e.g., Prokhorov and Statulevicuius 2000). As Schaefer (1999) noted, ”without a disproof of the null hypothesis, Occam’s Razor would imply that the claimed discovery is false.” The situation is similar or even worse for his other samples : 6-13 discrepancies in 21 month lengths (Ammisaduqa) and 20 discrepancies in 57 (Hammurabi-Samsuiluna) (Huber 1987b).

Besides this, there are also crucial astronomical-observational effects which were neglected by Huber. First, the lunar synodic period is not 29.53, but can vary from 29.27 to 29.83 days (see Schaefer 1992). Second, as is noted in Schaefer (1992), Huber had not taken into account the seasonal variations of the extinction coefficients, while there are numerous effects to be taken into account, i.e. the lunar albedo, the relative positions of the moon with respect to the sun and the horizon, the dependence of the extinction coefficient on the date, latitude, humidity, on the optical pathlength in the atmosphere, the atmospheric refraction, the brightness of the twilight sky, the detection probability of the human eye, etc.

Such statistical approaches cannot, therefore, be used for any far-reaching conclusions concerning any chronologies. The month-lengths, however, may serve as a useful complementary tool for more complete and reliable datasets.

## 5 CONCLUSION

We have, therefore, observed that Huber (1987a; 1987b) arrived at erroneous eclipse identifications while failing to consider others which were potentially valid. This was at least partially due to his neglect of important bits of astronomical information recorded in the omens. The same neglect also accounts for his claims for the potential eclipses proposed for the Akkadian period (Huber 1999/2000a).222There are many cases which demonstrate that the purely statistical-probability approach is insufficient and misleading. Nobel laureate Piotr Kapitza drew attention to the fact that ”numerous mistakes and false discoveries \[are\] obtained via statistical analysis, when the scientist aims to obtain the desirable result” (Kapitza 1981). Huber’s interpretation of the Venus Tablet is at least partially illusory since (a) the estimations of confidence levels are biased, (b) the 56/64 year cycles cannot be traced through and linked with a moving lunar calendar, and (c) his month-length assumptions are not statistically significant enough to match his chronological aims.

Without these supports, the High Chronology lacks any astronomical basis. Nor does any actual alternative support exist for the High Chronology (Hunger, personal communication). Huber (1999/2000b) himself concedes that the High Chronology is not supported by other alternative data. He nevertheless continues to claim that his astronomical arguments remain valid, even though - as we saw above - there are reasonable grounds for disputing them.

The analysis of astronomical records by distinguishing the reliability of their information as well as their possible chronological significance promises to produce results. Isolating the eclipse parameters of EAE 20 and 21 and extracting the limited data from the Venus Tablet allow a high degree of confidence in employing these as the astronomical anchor for the Ultra-Low Chronology proposed in Gasche et al. (1998).333Due to technical reasons I had no possibility to see the final galley proofs of Gasche et al. (1998), as well as the artwork in Gurzadyan (2000) prepared by the editors, and therefore here I tried to maximally clarify the points which might be misinterpreted from there.

As stated at the outset, the astronomical and historical sources were sought to buttress an argument which was primarily based on archaeological evidence. The typological and stratigraphical evidence originally presented has not been thrown into doubt. Scholars not associated with the development of this hypothesis studying seals (e.g., Gualandi 1998), Egyptian materials (Krauss 1998 and personal communication), and Anatolian dendrochronological evidence (Kuniholm et al. 1996) have all provided additional interpretations of evidence compatible with the Ultra-Low Chronology. Other contributors present at the Ghent Colloquium (e.g. the contributions of Gates, van Soldt and Warburton in this volume) likewise presented interpretations compatible with the Ultra-Low Chronology.

While no compelling arguments have been brought against any elements of the astronomical or archaeological evidence, Hunger (2000) has likewise come to share the opinion of the Venus data, suggesting that only the 8-year cycles can be taken as reliable markers.

The recent conclusion drawn by Spence on the shortening of the Egyptian chronology of the IIIrd millennium BC by means of her remarkable idea on the alignment of the pyramids at Giza (Spence 2000, Gingerich 2000) is also compatible (Warburton, in this volume) with the Ultra-Low Chronology.

Our work was built on that of previous generations of scholars and has been achieved through intensive co-operation between the representatives of each discipline. We believe that such collaboration can lead to a deeper insight into analogous multi-scale problems, and believe that it will become a common practice in the future.444The news that a record of another solar eclipse linked to the life of the Assyrian King Samsi-Adad has been discovered suggests such further co-operation. Particularly, the eclipses of 8 October -1763 and 28 July -1732 would have been visible at Mari, but only with a co-operation that the potential chronological significance of these and other eclipses can be established.

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# Satellite galaxies in cosmological dark matter halos

## 1. The Simulations

Four standard $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmological simulations with side length 64$`h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ were run at low mass resolution ($`128^3`$ particles), with 8 halos selected sampling a range of environments. In this contribution we present results for our oldest (8.3 Gyrs) and youngest (3.4 Gyrs) dark matter halos, halo # 1 and # 8 respectively. These halos were re-simulated at 64 times higher mass resolution giving an effective mass per particle of $`10^8`$ $`h^1\mathrm{M}_{}`$, and a force resolution of approximately 1 $`h^1\mathrm{kpc}`$. The $`N`$-body simulations were carried out using the publicly available adaptive mesh refinement code MLAPM (Knebe, Green & Binney 2001). The code solves Poisson’s equation on a hierarchy of nested grids: the whole computational volume is covered by one cubic domain grid whereas refined regions are of arbitrary shape and adjusted to the actual density field at each major step in order to follow the real distribution of particles at all times. An example of MLAPM in action is shown in the left panel of Figure 1. These two images show the density field of our youngest halo superimposed by the refinement grids. The top image shows the 5th refinement level with grid resolution $`4096^3`$, the bottom the 6th level of refinement. As the grids follow the over-densities in the simulations they by definition encompass the satellites. Hence, we can build a hierarchy of nested isolated MLAPM grids into a ”grid tree”, and then generate a list of potential satellite centers by treating the densest grid at the end of each branch as a ”potential” halo center. We further check the validity of the center by assigning physical properties to the adjacent radial density distribution. The details can be found elsewhere (Gill, Knebe & Gibson 2003).

## 2. Dark Matter Halo Environment

Following Lacey & Cole (1994) the formation time of the halo $`z_{\mathrm{form}}`$ is defined to be the time when the halo contains half of its present day mass. From $`z_{\mathrm{form}}`$ to z=0 we track all satellites in the vicinity of the host halo. The number of satellites within the virial radius of our 8 halos (of mass $`>2\times 10^{10}`$ $`h^1\mathrm{M}_{}`$) ranges from $`50250`$. The right panel of Figure 1 shows the orbits of the tracked satellites for two sample host halos highlighting the differing halo environments. The top image shows a halo developing in a rich region fed by three filaments, where as the figure directly below shows a host halo in a relatively isolated region that saw early rapid collapse.

## 3. Satellite Disruption

Figure 2 shows the number of satellites within a 2 $`h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ sphere (physical coordinates), as a function of redshift normalized by the number of satellites within the sphere at redshift $`z_{\mathrm{form}}`$. The thin line (always on top) shows the total number of satellites within that sphere, while the bottom (thick) line shows the number of ”disrupted” satellites subtracted from the number of satellites at $`z_{\mathrm{form}}`$. The rise in the thin lines from $`z_{\mathrm{form}}`$to z=0 reflects the richness of the immediate environment around the halo. Halo #1 is in a particularly rich ”filament fed region”. These filaments are a source of significant satellite infall (recall the right panel of Figure 1).

As the satellites orbit within the halo they experience dynamical friction causing them to sink towards the centre of the halo’s potential, undergo tidal stripping, and gradually lose mass. For each satellite, its particle distribution becomes increasingly diffuse. Our criterion for calling a satellite ”disrupted” is linked to its tidal radius; assuming that the average density of the satellite has to be at least a factor of three above the density of the host halo at the distance of the satellite we iteratively calculate the tidal radius and the mass $`m(<r_{\mathrm{tidal}})`$ enclosed by solving:

$$r_{\mathrm{tidal}}\left(\frac{m(<r_{\mathrm{tidal}})}{3M(<D)}\right)^{\frac{1}{3}}D=0,$$
(1)
The distance D of the satellite to the host and $`M(<D)`$, the mass of the host halo interior to D, are fixed. As soon as there are fewer than 15 particles within the tidal radius we classify the satellite as being disrupted. Note that we are unable to separate numerical resolution disruption and real physical disruption of a satellite. It is not clear if we had infinite mass resolution that the satellite would still actually survive.

In Figure 2, the right panel shows the difference of the satellite’s mass at $`z_{\mathrm{form}}`$and z=0 divided by its mass at $`z_{\mathrm{form}}`$and the number of orbits as a function of eccentricity of the satellite orbit. Thus as the satellite does get disrupted in general it losses at least 30 percent of its mass each orbit. Further, for seven of the eight halos, satellites on high eccentricity orbits are losing more mass (per orbit) than spherical ones, (such as halo # 8). However, this is not strictly true for all environments; e.g. in halo # 1, satellites on spherical orbits lose more mass - in this case the satellite orbits are on average closer to the halo core.

## 4. Properties of the Satellites in the Halos

Because of the high temporal resolution of the outputs of our simulations ($`\mathrm{\Delta }t0.2`$ Gyr) we are able to track accurately the orbital and other characteristics of the satellites. We present here a few preliminary results:

* For each of the 8 halos the mean eccentricity was consistently around 0.6, where eccentricity was measured as $`e=1\frac{\mathrm{pericentre}}{\mathrm{apocentre}}`$.
* For each of the 8 halos the mean pericentre distance was approximately 30 percent of the host virial radius.
* The apocentres of the satellite orbits are aligned with the principle axis of the host galaxy cluster.
* In general a satellite loses at least 30 percent of its mass each orbit. Further, for the majority of the eight halos, satellites on high eccentricity orbits are losing more mass (per orbit) because they penetrate deeper into the host’s potential.
* Satellite-Satellite interactions are not negligible.

A fuller and quantitative analysis is being prepared (Gill, Knebe & Gibson 2003). There, we address additional characteristics concerning satellite evolution: e.g. how does a satellite actually react to its tidal disruption?

## 5. Acknowledgments

SPDG would like to thank the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) and the conference organizers for assistance in attending the conference and the ongoing support of the Australian Research Council.

## References

Gill S., Knebe A., Gibson B.K., 2003, in preparation
Knebe A., Green A. & Binney J., 2001, MNRAS, 325, 845
Lacey C. & Cole S., 1994, MNRAS, 271, 676
MLAPM is available at http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/MLAPM/